“Hey. Hey, Alex,” a voice faintly called out. “We’re going to be late,” the woman continued, louder this time. “Wake up!” And so he did, as if the exasperation alone was enough to pull him from his slumber. “Geez, you were pretty deep there. You sure you still want to go?”
“Go where?” Alex asked, as his eyes adjusted to the light. “And why are you wearing that? It's like 90 degrees out here.”
“The movies, dumbass. You know how cold it gets in there. How tired do you have to be to fall asleep in public and forget why you’re outside. Seriously though, you alright? We can go another day if you’re not up to it.”
“The movies, right.” Alex agreed with more enthusiasm than he felt. “Sorry Aimes, I must have stayed up too late last night, didn’t even feel myself falling asleep.”
“Yea, tell me something new. So we going?”
“Sure, let me just…” Alex muttered, his words morphing into an incomprehensible groan as he stretched. “I feel like I had the weirdest dream,” he recovered as the pair began moving.
“Oh yea, what about?” Amy asked idly.
“Not entirely sure. I remember it being crazy, but the specifics are hard to pick out. I don’t know, just one of those I guess,” he finished lamely. “Did you get home safe?”
“When?”
“Last night?” Alex questioned hesitantly. “We did do something last night. Right?”
“No, I don’t think we- Oh, we went drinking. Yep, safe as a larva in its egg.” the woman confirmed.
It was Alex’s turn to check if his friend was okay. Amy hadn't been that drunk the last time he’d seen her.
“I’m fine Alex. Just a minor lapse in memory.”
It didn’t seem so minor to him, but he agreed anyway, not willing to argue the point. “What happened with Keith? Things seemed to be going well when I left.”
“Who’s Keith?” Amy asked, hair falling across her face as she turned her head in a show of confusion.
“What do you mean, ‘Who’s Keith?’ The guy you haven't shut up about for the last month.”
“Why would I need some guy named Keith when I have you?”
“Oof, that bad.” Alex put a consolatory hand on his friend’s shoulder. “At least we can suffer through the loneliness together.”
“What do you mean?” she questioned; her tone serious.
“Are you fucking with me? I get that I fell asleep but-”
“Ohh, we’re here,” Amy announced giddily, and Alex looked up to find it was true. He’d barely even registered the walk, but couldn’t deny they’d reached their destination.
“Wait,” Alex called, remembering he’d been talking about something, but his friend was already at the doors, and he could only follow.
Entering the building, he was hit with a minor mountain of sensory overload. It was loud, obnoxiously so, and people were packed in the place like sardines, all moving about with seemingly no goal in mind. Immediately, Alex began to look for the woman he’d entered with, but she was nowhere to be seen. After a few seconds of being bumped and jostled, he was ready to turn and head back out. He would try to call Amy in a minute, but he could feel a headache forming and didn’t feel like making a scene in the middle of a crowded theater.
Just as Alex was about to pull on the handle to leave, a new voice that halted his movements cut through the cacophony. If it was just anyone, he might have ignored it, but this was someone he thought of as a brother, someone who could help.
“Hey man,” Travis said, as he cut through the crowd to appear in front of Alex.
“Hey,” Alex greeted cautiously, his fist extending to bump the other man’s more out of habit than anything else. “Have you seen Amy? I came in with her, but we got separated.”
“Nope.” Travis admitted, his voice absent of concern. “Want to watch a movie with me?”
“I mean, we can all watch together.” Alex agreed, a hand going to his head as the pounding increased. “Just let me text her to let her know. You mind if we step outside real quick, I think the noise is getting to me.”
“Forget about her,” Travis said, unfazed by the prospect of abandoning one of his closest friends.
“Huh. What’s up with you? Both of you. Is this like some weird prank?”
Suddenly there was silence across the entire theater, and for a moment Alex thought he might have guessed correct. Then something exploded. At least that’s what he assumed happened. First came the earsplitting sound, making the lobby he’d once considered to be loud seem like a well maintained library. The building began to shake soon after, the sound of tinkling glass ringing out as the windows shattered, and like everyone else in the theater, Alex started freaking out.
“What the fuck!” he screamed, but his voice was drowned out by similar cries from the others. Sprinting over to a wooden table, he ducked under it, just as the second explosion hit.
“Holy shit.” Alex muttered as cracks began to creep their way up the walls. The building looking ready to crumble from the overwhelming force. “This is it,” he realized, “This is how I die.” Except he didn’t die. In fact, as the third explosion rang out and the building collapsed, Alex felt more alive than he had since waking up. Then a new problem hit him; the only thing he could feel was himself.
It was the opposite of the sensory overload he’d just experienced. Around him was only darkness, and the absolute quiet of the space made his ears hurt. His movements weren’t being restricted, Alex was sure of that, but no matter which way he turned there was nothing to touch, and nowhere to go. Then he was suddenly back in the theater, the walls of the place flipping between their restored state and ruin.
It took a moment for the environment to get a hold of itself and new people began to appear seemingly at random. He talked with his sister, Mike and Jayla, parents, then even Hazel, the conversations more random combinations of words than anything concrete, until finally reappearing in the darkness with his worst migraine yet. Along with the pain came memories, some of which he doubted the validity of, though others he was certain to be true. One in particular, however, Alex knew he needed to trust immediately.
‘Sixth Sense,’ he thought, and the ability activated without resistance. The wealth of information he got in return only added to his already tenuous mental state, but it told Alex enough to confirm he had bigger problems than a headache.
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He’d been running, no charging in and out of reality as he pierced the layers of stone between him and his target. Just as he’d entered the final wall separating him, something had happened, and the next thing he knew, he’d woken up on that bench. Just he’d never actually been on a bench, nor had he spoken to anyone, Alex was still in the wall, unmoving as Planar Phase kept him incorporeal.
‘Oh fuck.’ Alex thought as he registered that he was on a timer. An ever present sense of his channels told him the skill hadn’t begun pulling on his mana yet, but circumstances what they were, he didn’t feel much comfort from the fact. Continuing forward was a risk, but Alex found it preferable to suffocating, or accidentally atomizing, or whatever other horror occurred when a person suddenly rejoined reality under a literal mountain of stone.
Letting Sixth Sense tell him what to expect when he exited, Alex felt a hint of relief as he spotted the mentalist that had entranced him. The general was still in its seated position, though green blood now leaked from its orifices. As the creature rose to unsteady feet Alex saw what he hoped to be fear in its movement. His certainty of the beast’s tumult only grew clearer as it practically rushed from the room and into an adjoining section of tunnel. Instead of running toward its summoned hoard as Alex had been scared of, the ant had opted to head further into its quarters, a decision he’d been confused about, until he met the first of the generals “pets.”
Before he could follow, Alex realized he hadn’t exited the stone with everything he’d entered, his sticks were gone. They weren’t in his inventory either, meaning he’d most likely released them in the wall during his trance. A quick scan of the stone suggested his earlier theory of atomizing might not have been that far off the mark. With a sad shrug, Alex returned his focus to his fleeing target. None of the charging creatures had yet to enter the thirty meters around him Sixth Sense covered, but at the rate the quaking was increasing, he knew it wouldn’t be long.
Even if he’d turned off his sensory skill entirely, Alex would have had no trouble keeping up with the mentalist leader. The blood the creature leaked left an obvious trail, and its shuffling could be heard easily throughout the otherwise silent space. Dim bioluminescence from an overgrown moss illuminated his path, and Alex found himself occasionally glancing at the uncanny furniture scattered about the area. Oddly shaped couches, chairs, tables and more caught his attention, and Alex wondered if he’d have time to grab one on his way out. He got an answer a short while later as what he’d assumed to be a recliner of some kind came to life.
Having only a brief moment between him registering the attack and the claw being inches from his face, Alex barely managed to dodge. Rather than a chair, the still shifting mass of flesh morphed into some type of large cat, though one much smaller than it had the potential to be. While clearly still strong enough to disembowel him, the feline was only skin and bones, its current environment obviously not providing it with enough to sustain its size. As he moved so that the creature’s next strike connected with his mana infused cloak, Alex decided he was glad the beast was starving, else this would have been a much more difficult battle.
Withdrawing his staff, Alex turned the force of the creature’s attack into his own momentum, ready to crack the beast’s brittle bones. Unfortunately, it seemed starving didn’t mean slow, and the cat backed off in a burst of speed, Alex unable to follow as small darts of flame shot towards him. Unwilling to neither get burned nor back off, he bent, so his torso was parallel with the ground as he continued forward. The room rattled with the sound of metal on stone as his staff dragged, and a heat much hotter than such small flames should have demanded washed over him as they passed. Using the ground as a fulcrum, he threw every ounce of strength he could into meeting the creature’s third strike with his weapon.
His appreciation of the beast’s weakened state renewed as much of its attack force dispersed throughout his body. Alex held firm however, new boots leaving inch thick impressions in the stone as they fought for control. In the end, it was the feline that got the short end of the staff, its extended leg cracking in an obvious break. Wincing as the noise sent a shiver up his spine, he attempted to take advantage of the beast’s pain, only to be once more rebuffed by its fire.
It took him nearly a minute to finally kill the beast, its flames proving a direct deterrent to Alex’s normal close quarters tactics. The general had gotten a short distance away in the time. Trapping itself in a dead end near a few pieces of “furniture,” though Alex couldn’t know what actually lived until they attacked. He was ambushed twice more on his path to confront the mentalist, and in that time the first of the trailing beasts entered his sensory skills range. Their inability to subvert the winding tunnels suggested Alex still had a bit of time, but he wasn’t about to waste any of it.
The boss’s condition had grown worse as Alex approached, every beast he’d killed seemingly weakening it further. He didn’t know if killing a few more of the puppets or attacking the general itself would have been faster, but he was willing to do either at that point. Only one more creature stopped him before he could enter the room the general occupied, a clearly controlled warrior rebos Alex killed in seconds.
Alex entered to find a mirror of what Sixth Sense had shown him, the general was once more on the ground, though its current position was closer to prone than seated. Blood leaked from its face and other unseen gashes, leaving Alex with little to do but put it out of its misery. The insect didn’t plan to go willingly, however, and Alex actually felt the dissonance this time as it tried to mess with his mind.
As Mental Fortress got to work doing its job, Alex focused on his own, cutting the problem off at the source. Relying more on his sensory skill than his swimming vision, he darted in, staff once more growing hot in his grasp as he brought it down towards the creature’s skull. Instead of a direct connection, metal met rock as a new beast launched from the ground to deflect his blow. Alex had been entirely unable to sense the burrower due to the earth that clung to its body, but he didn’t allow surprise to stop him from attacking.
Infusing mana into a metal weapon like a staff or sword had proved to be more expensive than it was for his sticks, but with how little his initial strike had done, Alex didn’t mind the extra cost. It took two swipes and a stab to finish the burrower, the creature easily the weakest of the puppets he’d killed thus far. Alex flinched as another mental attack emanated from the general, but they both knew it was over. The ant had already played its best cards, and backup wasn’t going to arrive in time. Out of tricks, the beast lunged at Alex, resisting its fate till the end, which came in the form of a bat like hit to the head.
Taking a moment to store the body, Alex noticed that the movement in the nearby tunnels had continued to increase. He’d hope the general’s death would relieve some of their haste, like that of the drone general, but that didn’t seem to be the case. Looking around quickly for his options, Alex opened Planar Phase to see how much free usage he had left.
Time in the general’s illusion had been enigmatic at best. He’d have guessed to have spent nearly a quarter of an hour just based on his conversations, but in the real world less than half a minute had passed. Now Alex only had nineteen seconds to swim, run, or otherwise phase himself somewhere safe. Alternatively, he could stand and fight. The likelihood of all his soon-to-be attackers possessing psychic abilities was miniscule, especially at the speed many of them moved. Still, his recent experience with a single mentalist of a sufficient level had helped Alex realized he hadn’t been treating the beasts with enough caution. Being picked apart while stuck in some mental prison seemed like one of the most depressing ways to die, and he’d been encountering quite a few of those lately.
Mind settling on a tactical retreat, he mulled over his best path out of this hellhole. If everything went perfect, he might reach a tunnel in the higher layers, but seeing as he couldn’t spot any through a maxed out Sixth Sense, he wasn’t feeling optimistic. He was also quite far from his original landing spot and wouldn’t be getting back to it through the tunnels anytime soon, turning a trip back to the drone layer into one at least double its original length. Alex even considered trying to sneak past the groups, both with Stealth and Planar Phase, before catching sight of something that gave him a very bad idea. One that just might work.
It wasn’t a tunnel exactly, not like the ant ones Alex had become accustomed to traversing. The space was more a path of disrupted earth, one nothing smaller than a normal-sized ant could fit in. That explained why Alex hadn’t noticed the rock covered creature earlier, the beast had been hiding its tracks. But now that he knew what to look for, Alex could follow it back to the source. He just needed to hope where ever he turned up was more spacious. Even if he ended up in a den full of the beasts, it had seemed weak enough, and Alex preferred his chances against it over the hoard not twenty meters away.
If the cost of Planar Phase’s first minute wasn’t something exorbitant, all of this might not matter, but without being sure, Alex could only prepare to explore even deeper depths. He just hoped the next general would be something a bit less traumatizing.