Chapter Text
Aria carefully turned the corner, hoping not to come across anymore ethereals. She was testing out her holographic projection again, as the local mechanic shop had done repairs on it. Aria looked at herself in one of the mirrors in the Ballet Tower, noting her rendered pink hair reacting to touch, even if physical sensations were null and void. Her skirt’s ruffles were all in perfect order, and her artificial skin didn’t hit that uncanny valley, acting as a perfect projection. She looked, well, like Aria.
“Well, this little pop star still has the looks.” Aria mumbled to herself. She was glad she found her own world, to be an Angel of Delusion, and entertain the world.
Right, she was in a Hollow. It was probably best to leave now, before she had to worry about Ether corruption. The radiation of a Hollow could deteriorate her circuitry rapidly once it set in. Double checking her Carrot data, Aria noted she had plenty of time still to leave before any adverse effects kicked in.
Based on her navigation data, a fissure was close by. Aria took to a light jog, her metal stumps for feet hidden beneath her projected white and teal boots. Each footfall thumped along the marble and carpetted floor as she approached her destination.
It was an elevator. Well, Aria assumed the fissure was in the elevator. She tried the button, but the elevator doors shuddered in error.
“I… uh, that’s… that’s not an issue.” She muttered, summoning her ether projected bow. The weapon itself was merely a pair of handles with crescent handguards on them, but Aria could manipulate her grip to adjust what the handles converted into. The ether in the air condensed into a semi-translucent bow with slightly thicker blades for bow arms, the weapon glowing a faint blue to purple as Aria wedged one end into the elevator door and pried at the whole mechanism. The metal groaned in protest, before snapping open.
The sudden motion made Aria stumble forward, and with a yelp fall as she plunged down the elevator shaft.
Hollows were strange anomalies. Regions with an event horizon similar to a black hole, reality does not conform to physics with a Hollow. Areas can be distorted, non-euclidian, and wormhole within themselves to a near infinite degree if left unchecked.
So, Aria wasn’t necessarily confused as the initial panic subsided, after she was falling for a full minute. Well, the walls turning from black to red confused her a little bit, but if she kept her wits about her-
CRASH
[System Rebooting]
New software installation initiated.
…
…
…
Software incompatibility detected with current hardware. Missing primary modules including: REDACTED REDACTED REDACTED
…
Injecting operating system.
Restarting system.
BOOT UP SEQUENCE READY
POWER: ???? ERROR: INCOMPATIBLE WITH NEW SOFTWARE
COGNITION: OK
VISUAL: OK
AUDIO: OK
PROJECTION: OFF
STATUS UPDATE
MACHINE ID: A-H0L0 Combat Unit, MIRAGE ARCHER “ARIA”
LOCATION: APPROACHING HELL
CURRENT OBJECTIVE: ESCAPE
PERFORMANCE IS A GIFT
ETHER IS FLOWING
HELL IS AWAITING
Aria woke up slumped over on the floor, her motors whirring to life as she adjusted herself. She noticed her projection wasn’t on, immediately reactivating it, hiding her white and pink chassis. She felt downright mortified, and thankful seemingly no one was around. Her pain processing had ceased in her legs, but they still protested as Aria stood up. It took a second to adjust, and another to realize her hip’s jet arrays had broken from the crash. It was… very inconvenient.
The room she was in… it was a red box of metal, like a shipping container but wider. The boxy room had one offshoot hallway descending slightly to a red mechanical door, and the large elevator shaft in the ceiling above her.
Before the offshoot was a computer terminal, a yellow one that seemed to be ancient compared to what Aria normally used. She walked over to the terminal, and immediately stopped when the computer automatically whirred to life.
Tip of the Day: Unable to provide assistance due to lack of usage from current user…
“Huh?” It was all Aria could mutter to herself. She looked over the user interface, noting how… blank everything was. The only label present beyond the “tip of the day” was the brand on the top left, with “SMILEOS 2.0” in bold red font and a little red smiley face next to it.
Aria walked over to the door, the mechanical door hissing before opening itself for her. Aria had to step back from what she was looking at.
The new entrance funneled into a thin hallway of pipes, long and ever twisting. Aria couldn’t help but stare for a moment, pondering to herself what was going on. This… didn’t feel right, even for Hollow standards.
“Oh right, the Carrot data.” Aria mumbled, pulling out her small navigator device. It activated, whirred to life, and…
Nothing.
She stared at the screen of the device for a moment. It… was acting like she wasn’t in a Hollow.
Then how was…
Aria laughed to herself, trying to save face from, well, herself. She walked into the thin hallway, shifting to sideways as she firmly shuffled along. She wasn’t in a Hollow, but… where was she then?
The hallway shifted and bent in a weird zigzag, forcing Aria to keep her chassis from touching the steaming hot pipes. It wouldn’t really hurt her, but any damages would cost her when she had to get repairs done.
Her shuffling wasn’t for naught, journeying to a tall square room of rusty gray metal. It felt like she was inside a large industrial factory. For what construction, she couldn’t make out, but everything was sickeningly mechanical and brutal. Even the small kiosk in the center of the room, the only source of light, had a dark gray frame. The SmileOS 2.0 interface on it was as unnerving as the last one. It was like the system was expecting her.
Can you fight, performer?
[YES] [NO]
Aria reached out for a moment and hesitated. Should she lie? She could fight, yes, but by God Aria didn’t want to. She had spent her whole new life trying to avoid it. She had to ponder on it, squatting down in front of the kiosk.
Sudden clicking indicated a change of text.
Are you weak?
[YES] [NO]
Aria stared at the text. She looked around, not finding an obvious camera that was watching her.
“What’s the deal with you and combat?” Aria asked the kiosk. She barely whispered, both from caution and uncertainty.
Answer.
[YES] [NO]
Aria pushed the [NO] option. “I don’t fight anymore. I’m an Angel of Delusion, I perform with my friends to bring dreams to reality.” She muttered firmly. Sure, it sounded absurd to herself to have to claim this, but she had worked hard enough to bring this idol dream to reality.
…
…
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
LIKE YOU HAD A CHOICE.
The orange floodlights in the ceiling beamed to life, the speakers boomed with waiting sirens, and the walls rattles as sparkling dust converges into three orbs within the room. Each orb whined a cry of agony before assimilating into something Aria could only describe as horrifying. It made her want to throw up, even without a human stomach.
The things that formed, they were barely human, partially formed corpses of flesh rotted grey and green. Eyeless and armless, the masses of flesh writhed and choked on their own blood. They all sniffed the air and growled at Aria, sensing her presence with violent intent.
“this is hell…” Aria barely gasped out as she stumbled back.
“it’s all hell…”