What the hell....?
The thought was the first one to cross Hikaru's mind as she wondered if it was indeed Hell she was now in, or at least an illusion of it.. But if it was only an illusion, then why did things seem so ... off..? While Hikaru had never been completely ingrounded, she did have all of the memories that her counterpart had of being in such state as she had been in it herself. That feeling of being existent but not existent, boundless yet bound. This felt similar...from what she could tell, but had one huge glaring difference...
In the ingrounded state, she had absolute power. Here, wherever 'here' was, seemed to be the complete opposite... and that couldn't help but put her slightly on edge.. Just what was going on? Was this part of that so called 'judgement'? By now Hikaru had pulled herself up, and now stood glancing about the area she found herself in as she pondered such things. If it was part of it, Insanity seemed to have found a few new tricks...
She held out her hand to catch some of the ash as it fell, looking to it to observe it closer. This seemed a little too real to be an illusion. While she couldn't say for sure, she had the strange feeling that this wasn't part of what was supposed to happen next. She couldn't place why she had such feeling, just that she felt things seemed ...off. After all...
She dropped the ash. Since when could illusions completely deaden the magical senses? Even in an AM field or an area of no magic whatsoever, a mage still had the ability to sense magic somewhere. Even as a mortal of no soul, if trained to sense magic and your 'sight' opened to it, you didn't simply lose such ability, though it may go dull. Just like you didn't lose the ability to cast it. You just couldn't create it. Same with Spirit Energy. But this...
This felt different... This felt wrong.
Just what the hell was going on? Hikaru walked forward towards the only place she saw to go to, intent on find out for herself that answer.