Marvel Cybernetic Girl

[As you walk through the infinite expanse of space...]

[Suddenly, you encounter an insurmountable barrier.]

[A barrier invisible to the eye, impossible to break.]

[It stretches endlessly in every direction—up, down, left, right—extending forever into eternity.]

[What is this barrier?]

[This barrier... is death itself.]

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— Infinite Mindscape: Void

Who knew how much time had passed when Kagura slowly opened her eyes.

"Where... am I?"

What greeted her gaze was an endless, boundless expanse of space.

A silvery white light shone parallel from the distant horizon, yet there was no sun, no star, no source for this illumination.

In every direction—up, down, far away—there was nothing.

No planets, no celestial bodies, not even a wall or boundary to hint that this was the inside of some unimaginably vast room.

Only space.

Pure, unbroken space that stretched forever into infinity.

Bewildered, Kagura lowered her eyes to the ground beneath her feet.

She was standing on a massive white ring-shaped band.

The surface beneath her looked like rock—or perhaps metal—but gleamed like polished white jade, tough as high-grade polymer plastic.

On closer inspection, she realized the white band had no thickness at all, yet spanned hundreds of meters in width.

It extended endlessly to both sides, looping into a giant circle that stretched beyond sight—forming a colossal Möbius strip in the distance.

A Möbius strip—an extraordinary geometric structure with only one surface, defying ordinary topology.

Right now, Kagura stood on this impossible ring, as tiny as a single speck of dust, staring wide-eyed into the endless silver-white void.

"My, you seem surprisingly lively for a mere mortal."

A voice—familiar, yet strange suddenly echoed in her ears.

Familiar because... it sounded exactly like her own voice.

Strange because—Kagura rarely heard her own voice from someone else's lips.

The dissonance was unsettling.

"Who's there?" she called out, glancing around.

Floating in midair was a breathtaking figure.

Long silver hair flowing to her waist, golden eyes gleaming coldly, and a flawless face sculpted like a divine creation.

Her form was identical to Kagura's in every detail... yet her aura was completely different.

She wore a flowing blue evening gown, the sheer fabric shimmering like starlight scattered across a lake.

It was far more dazzling than any dress Kagura had ever worn—elegant beyond imagination, as if stitched by the heavens themselves.

"What's this? You dare try to wield my power... and yet you don't even know who I am?"

The figure lifted her chin slightly, looking down at Kagura with a gaze full of cold disdain—the gaze of a queen whose authority was absolute, untouchable.

"How laughable. Your ignorance truly knows no bounds."

"Wait... don't tell me you're that so-called queen who throws weird spatial spears but has the IQ of a paramecium?" Kagura instinctively blurted, comparing the figure to the character from her fragmented memories.

"Are you even have the swimsuit version skin too?"

The woman sneered.

"Foolish mortal."

Her heels clicked softly as she stepped closer—white, hexagonal 'tiles' materializing under her feet with each stride, forming an invisible staircase in the air.

"The Infinite Concept Skill System scans your memories but doesn't perfectly recreate elements from other worlds. Even your beam cannon isn't called 'Excalibur,' is it?" she said coldly.

'Tap... tap... tap...'

As she descended upon her impossible stairway, the pressure in the air thickened—vast, overwhelming, like an ocean pressing down from above.

"But never mind. Since you've stumbled here first, your ignorance is somewhat excusable."

She tilted her head slightly, golden eyes reflecting an endless coldness—a deep, ocean-like pride—and something else: the loneliness of being utterly apart from the world.

"I am you," she said softly. "I am the you manifested by the Space Stone. I am its embodiment... the overseer of this Trial of the Void."

"As for my name? It hardly matters. But if you insist, you may call me—'Nihility'."

"...Nihility... Miss Void?" Kagura repeated, puzzled. "So... you're like a copy of me?"

"You can think of it that way if it helps your tiny mind." Nihility gave her a bored glance. "Enough pointless chatter. The trial begins now."

The moment she spoke, a ripple—barely perceptible—spread out from her body.

A wave of suffocating power surged like a tidal wave, crashing down upon Kagura, making her feel as if the entire ocean was pressing on her chest.

"T-Trial? What trial?" Kagura gasped, clutching her chest. "Miss Nihility, what must I do to earn the Space Stone's recognition?"

Nihility smiled faintly—a cold, distant smile.

"It's simple," she said. "Defeat me."

Ah.

So that's the trial.

Brutally clear. Unforgivingly simple.

To earn the recognition of the Space Stone, there was only one requirement: defeat its manifested form—this so-called Miss Nihility.

"Hmph, sounds simple enough" Kagura gritted her teeth. "Very well. Come! I'll show you my resolve... and my strength!"

The figure before her—Nihility—looked exactly like her.

According to what she'd just said, Nihility was the Space Stone's manifestation based on Kagura herself.

Which meant... theoretically, Nihility should possess the same power as her?

As this thought crossed her mind, Kagura slowly lowered her stance.

Her "White Moon" combat suit automatically materialized, forming into a sleek, lightweight battle dress.

Energy circuits from her core reactor lit up across her body, subtle ripples of power flowing outward as her long silver hair began to gently float, lifted by the rising force.

'Shing!'

With a metallic shimmer, her vibranium longsword extended instantly in her hand, its blade gleaming a sharp, silvery white.

"Here I come!"

[Charged 3D Maneuvering System: Activated]

'Vwooom—!'

A flash of blue light burst forth.

Dust and energy scattered as the silver-haired girl shot forward like a meteor, her speed breaking all reason—unstoppable, overwhelming.

She lunged toward the queen of the void, radiating power and confidence.

Crack!

But in the very next instant—Kagura's golden eyes widened in shock.

A sharp jolt of searing pain flared at her neck, and her vision spun wildly, flipping uncontrollably.

What... what just happened...?

Everything around her went black.

In the fading edge of consciousness, she barely glimpsed the silhouette of a slender figure... collapsing softly to the ground.

"Ah—!!"

With a gasp, like one waking from a nightmare, Kagura bolted upright.

Panting, she instinctively reached for her neck. "Still... there... good..."

The endless silver-white space remained unchanged around her.

Beneath her feet, the impossibly thin Möbius strip of unknown material stretched out toward infinity.

Miss Nihility floated calmly before her, her star-speckled blue gown swaying gently in the void. She looked down at the bewildered, dazed Kagura with cool disdain.

"Hmph. Is that the best you can do?"

"What... what just happened?" Kagura murmured, though in her heart she already feared the answer.

Nihility let out a scornful snort. "What happened? I killed you."

"But don't worry—you'll have virtually unlimited tries."

"In this mindscape, the trial time for each Infinity Stone is equivalent to exactly one second in the real world."

"And that single second is broken down into the smallest measurable unit—Planck time."

"In other words... for every single second in reality, you can attempt this trial ten to the forty-third power times."

"So struggle as much as you like."

"Because if you can't clear this trial, even with such absurdly infinite chances... that very infinity will be enough to completely corrupt your soul—"

"Until nothing of you remains but dust and void."