"They've been gone for a month because they died a month ago."

Those words lingered in Alex's mind for a decent while as he tried to make sense of the whole thing.

"What? Died a month ago? Are you serious?" He asked.

"I have no reason to lie to you kid. I stumbled upon her body myself. When I saw that she laid motionless in her bed, I called the cops. They determined that there was no foul play, however at the young age that she was at I doubt it was natural causes. Either way her family came and retrieved her body, leaving everything in that room behind." Explained the landlord.

"If the police were involved then why hasn't this case been updated?"

"That's something you'll have to take up with law enforcement. Anyways, go ahead and feel free to poke around in there. It'll all be thrown away in a few days anyways."

With that, the landlord walked off as Alex tried to assess the current situation.

'This Jane Doe died a month ago suddenly with no apparent link to a murder. The police were contacted as well as her own family. They all knew that she died, yet her status remained as missing? Either they didn't care for her all that much or something else is going on here?' He thought.

Alex figured that he'd best go into the room again to take a second loom around in case he missed anything.

Mustering up the courage, he walked in again and tried his best to search the room without paying attention to the puppet on the floor.

Despite his efforts, he always found himself taking a peek at out from the corner of his eyes.

It felt like its mere presence alone was pratically calling out to him.

After having looked over every single thing possible in that room, Alex sighed as he approached and kneeled by the puppet, inspecting it once more.

As he had this second look, Alex noticed something in one of its hands as he grabbed and looked at it.

It was a simple show ticket akin to those used at theater plays as on the ticket it seemingly had the name of said play in question.

"Theater of Domination? That's................certainly a name for a play....."

As Alex stood back up, the stinging pain in his head again returned as he immediately dropped the ticket and placed his hand there.

The overall vibe of this room was just getting worse and worse for Alex as he quickly exited once more and just like last time, the pain immediately went away.

'Just what the hell is wrong with that room? Ugh.......I need to leave. No point in an investigation if they're already dead.'

The boy hastily left the apartment and quickly made his way back to Serpent Quarters.

Unknowingly, when he had dropped the ticket in the room, it landed back side up as on it was a message.

"The link has now been established. Welcome to our theater."

[A While Later]

Alex had returned to the base however mentally he was completely drained from what he had just gone through.

Sure he felt a ton of fear and dread when he had come face to face with Void back at Schicksal air HQ, but this was different.

Never had he felt so off putted and nauseous before like he was in that room.

Even though they said there wasn't a murder, Alex couldn't help but feel that there was concerning the mysterious circumstances surrounding her death.

Regardless, there wasn't much he could do anymore as there were zero clues in that room and he had no idea on where to begin looking.

As Alex began making his way to his room, he ran into Mei in the hallway as the two greeted one another.

"I see Raven gave you another outfit. I like it a lot." Said Mei.

"Yeah...........I do too....." Said Alex as Mei immediately picked up on his shaky tone and was immediately worried.

"Hey are you okay? Did something happen?" She asked.

"Hm? Don't worry about it I'm fine. Just had a long day today. I'll be fine tommorow." He said.

This didn't convince her all that much but Mei knew that was all she was gonna get out of him as she sighed.

"Try to take it easy okay? I'm here in case you need anything."

Mei would continue to walk along as Alex looked at her until she was out of sight.

"That was close. I don't need to get her wrapped up in all this. I'm just overthinking things." He said.

The boy would soon make it back to his room as he closed the door and immediately crashed down onto his bed, completely exhausted.

'Well that sucked. For once I hope Jackal gives me enough errands to run so it can get my mind off of today. Just what was up with that damn puppet anyways? Felt extremely out of place.'

Deciding not to dwell on it any further, Alex would close his eyes and drift off to sleep.

After a while, he felt different.

He didn't feel the bed underneath him but rather cold, hard pavement.

Alex tried his best to ignore this and remain asleep, however he just couldn't as he opened his eyes and noticed that the roof was noticeably further and looked extremely different.

"What the........."

He'd sit up and saw that he was no longer on his bed and he had been laying down on the floor.

Upon standing up, he looked around and quickly pieced together that not only was he not in his room, he wasn't even in the Serpent's Base anymore as he stood in what appeared like a cathedral styled hallway floating in an endless, purple-ish void as he saw a large landmass in the distance that resembled that of a stage.

"Where the hell am I?"

This whole ordeal was far too much for him to even make sense of.

Before he could spend any time thinking on his current whereabouts any longer, he heard a commotion going on down the hall as he turned his head in that direction.

'Someone else is here?' He thought as he immediately began running down the hall to where the noise was coming from.

Eventually, he came across a group of Honkai Zombies seemingly surrounding someone however Alex noticed something odd.

The zombies' movements seemed extremely stiff and rigid, almost like they were being controlled.

Alex didn't have time to think this over however as he jumped into action, quickly scorching all the zombies away and striking them down with ease.

After making sure they were dealt with, the boy hooked the sword back onto his back as he heard a voice from behind him, that of a girl.

"A-Are you, Alex Mustang?" They asked.

The boy nodded before turning around to face them.

Standing there was a girl with black and blue shaded hair in a neck length, bell shaped bobcut and blue eyes as she wore a white short gown that had flower patterns from the edge of her skirt and flower sleeves on the middle of her upper arms, along with a white flower on the right side of her head, a broken chain in her neck, white stockings, and black and white boots.

"Yeah I am. Are you okay? That was quite the predicament you were in." He said as the girl nodded.

"Thank you for helping." She said as she bowed.

"Don't mention it. I honestly didn't think anyone else would be here."

"Same here."

"How'd you know my name anyways?"

"Bronya told me."

When the girl said that, Alex immediately was silent for a decent minute.

"W-Wait you know Bronya? Who are you anyways?"

"I'm Seele Vollerei."

"You're Seele!?"

Alex had recalled how Bronya told him prior that she had managed to retrieve a girl from Cocolia's Orphanage named Seele after she had been lost for many years.

Though he didn't doubt Bronya, he had never met nor seen a picture of Seele once so he had zero clue as to what she looked like.

Needless to say, this definitely caught him by surprise.

"Wow. Uh, It's nice to finally meet you." Said Alex as the two shook one another's hand. "I'm sure Bronya's probably told you everything about me. I was also a part of Cocolia's Orphanage though I wasn't really allowed to spend time with you all."

"Bronya's said a lot of good things about you. Apparently you've helped her a lot so I thank you."

"It's no big deal. More importantly, how'd you end up here?"

"Well, I was with Bronya and we were about to enter a workshop until I ended up here."

"Wait, Bronya was with you? Damn. She must somewhere in this weird space."

"How did you get here Alex?"

"Call me crazy but, I was sent here in my sleep. Have zero clue on how. Anyways, we should be on the look out for any clues on how to get outta here. Can you keep going?" He asked as Seele nodded.

The two would then begin to make their way down the hallway.

"Hmm. So that's the Alex that Bronya spoke so highly off." Said an echoey like voice in Seele's head. "He doesn't seem all that remarkable. A little plain to be honest."

"Come on be nice other me." Said Seele which Alex heard as he turned around.

"Hm? You talkin' to me?"

"Huh? O-Oh no it's nothing. Let's keep going." Hastily said Seele who was a little embarrassed.

Alex simply nodded, not dwelling on it much longer as the two resumed walking.

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Chapter 20: Complete