The barren throne room had slightly changed from my last visit. Gone were the dust and cobwebs, replaced with smooth shining stone. It was still very drab but that could be fixed later.
A look a the golden throne showed a perfect copy of me sitting there and waving at me. It was dressed in an attire similar to the one worn by the City Lord. This greeting was steps above the one I had received the previous time I had been here.
From my own experience and what Sarvad had said, this throne room represented the gateway between the mind scape and the body. Whoever controlled it, controlled the body.
Last time a version of the parasite had sat on it, gaining control of the body for a while. Luckily, I, or rather Sarvad, had been able to wrest it back. Somehow I doubted that this would happen again.
The building shook. I needed to get out there and do whatever it took to bring back order to the mind scape.
I waved at my copy on the throne before walking out the door. Flanking the exit were two more copies of me, both wearing plate armour and holding spears. A metal crest-shaped shield was strapped to their clawed arms. They saluted me when I left the room by banging their claws against their chests. Suddenly, a voice rang out around me.
“Mindscape experiencing drastic turmoil. Integrity of construct at risk. Activating containment measures. … . Error. … .Measures require affirmation. Requesting affirmation.”
Confused, I looked around but couldn't find the source of the voice. It hadn’t sounded like a real person. The voice lacked any sort of emotions and sounded artificial.
“Eh, hello? Who are you and what are you doing inside here?”
“This entity has been named Automated Defence Assistant of the Mind (ADAM). Its function is to support the User and to keep order in the mind scape.”
I didn’t know how to react. Discovering another being inside the mind scape came as a shock. First, there was the parasite, then Sarvad, and now this Adam. How many others were in here? And most importantly, could I trust this new addition? I had thought that I could trust Sarvad and that had turned out badly.
Another tremor reminded me of how little time I had. This was a crisis, which meant that I had little in terms of choices.
Still hesitant, I asked, "So, you are here to help me, right?"
"Affirmative."
If that were true, then this would hopefully make my work easier. “How can you help me?" I inquired.
“ADAM is equipped with several predetermined Protocols that can be used to neutralise threats.”
The chances of me winning this conflict steadily grew. Before entering the mind scape I had no idea how to defeat Sarvad and the parasite but now there was a light at the end of the tunnel. I took a deep breath and prepared. “Then please help me gain back control of the mindscape.”
“Affirmation from Probational User granted. Processing. Authority not high enough. Requesting affirmation from Former User/Creator. Processing. Denied.”
My growing sense of optimism crashed back down to the ground. "What do you mean denied? Didn’t you say that you wanted to stop this chaos?”
"The status of Probational User does not grant access to all Protocols. A Probational User needs the affirmation of another entity with high status. The status of User is required to gain complete control of all Protocols.”
That was the end of my dream of ending this conflict quickly. From what Adam said, the Former User/Creator denied my appeal. I doubted that the parasite held that position, so the only likely suspect was Sarvad.
Just to be safe I asked Adam for a quick breakdown of all the statuses that were currently held by beings in the mindscape. I was well aware of the fact that I didn’t have much time, but this was important.
“Probational User: Allowed access to some of the Protocols. Status can only be held if there is no active User or the status is contested.
Former User: Not allowed access to any Protocols. Can veto some decisions made by the Probational User. If no User or Probational User is found, gains the ability to become User.
Enemy: Hostile force that destabilises the mind scape. Protocols to remove this entity must be activated by the User or a collaboration between several high-ranked statuses.”
Despite the bleakness of the situation, this explanation gave me an idea. Not a solution but an idea for a possible solution. “Adam, how do I get to become a User?”
"To acquire the role of User, permission needs to be granted by the Former User or their absence needs to be registered.”
This offered me some solutions. Not easy ones, but solutions nonetheless. Sarvad either needed to disappear or he needed to entrust the position onto me. If that happened, Adam would hopefully take care of the parasite. I still held out hope that I would be able to resolve things peacefully with him. However, I needed to be prepared for the eventuality that I would have to fight him.
I was about to run off when I remembered something. "Hey Adam, you said that as a Probational User, I have access to some Protocols. Which ones can I use?"
"Two passive Protocols have been activated. Protocol 3: Royal Guards, and Protocol 6: Aura of Suppression. Function:
- Creation of guards that follow the orders of the Probational User
- Partial suppression of entity’s abilities to manipulate mental essence (Probational User excluded)”
I looked at the two well-equipped guards that were guarding the throne room and smiled. An impossible task just turned into a very difficult task. Suddenly Adam chimed back in.
“Attempted breach ongoing. It is advised that the Probational User head towards the exit.”
Cursing, I quickly ran down the hallway towards where I knew the exit to be. I opened the door before me and arrived in the entrance hall of the building. 'Wait, wasn't that way faster than last time? Did the building change because I'm in control?'
Shaking off that thought, I tried to comprehend the battle currently happening in front of me. The double door that used to block the exit hung on its hinges. Instead of it, three lines of soldiers faced the outside. All of them were exact copies of the throne room guards and were holding off the advances of a much larger force that was trying to storm the building.
This larger force consisted of identical humans, skilfully wielding an array of different weapons. Everything from swords, spears, daggers, bows, and a couple of other weapons I had never even seen before.
Despite their obvious skill in their chosen weapons, it was plain to see that the attacking force wasn’t coordinated. For every soldier they killed, three of them would die. Despite that, they were slowly starting to overwhelm my forces.
If this fighting happened in the physical world, the ground would have been covered in blood and gore. However, this was the mindscape. Instead of blood, every fighter leaked some sort of purple energy. When they ‘died’ their body would simply disappear instead of falling to the ground.
For a second I stood there not knowing what to do. The attackers were exact copies of Sarvad. Up until now, I had doubts about whether or not Sarvad had betrayed me. Sure, he wasn’t exactly the nicest and he planned to have me kill someone. But that didn’t mean that he directly betrayed me. Mislead me? Yes. But not betrayal.
Seeing his copies attack me made everything sink in.
Anger wasn't an emotion I had experienced often. Yes, the mage trying to kill me and Pecta had made me angry. The blatant discrimination because of what god people thought I worshipped had made me angry. But this was different.
It felt like my blood was boiling and a haze of red settled over my vision. My fist was clenched so tightly that it would have been painful back in the physical world. Here I only felt a cool chill spread across my palm. My body took a step forward. The urge to mindlessly attack the copies was immense.
It took a moment until I managed to calm myself down and drop my anger to a manageable level. It didn’t disappear, instead simmering under the surface and waiting for the right moment.
I looked toward the ceiling and asked, "Hey Adam, do you have any tips on how to fight inside the mindscape? Is there something special I need to know?”
"That does not fall under ADAM’s duties”
I took a deep breath and was about to lash out at them when I remembered something Sarvad had said:
‘This world is the mindscape and you have to use your intent to change it. Simply think of something and it will happen.'
“My intent, huh,” I muttered. The nausea I had gotten the last time I tried to change something slightly dampened my excitement. “Hopefully, this time it won’t hurt that much."
Firstly, I needed a weapon and armour. Without much hesitation, I decided on a dagger and leather armour. It was what I had in the physical world and the only equipment I was comfortable with.
Closing my eyes, I started imagining it. I thought of the feeling of the armour on my body and the roughness of my dagger. Slowly but surely, something started to happen.
I felt something drain from me and a brief instant of lightheadedness before a familiar weight settled on me. The conjured leather armour looked identical to the one I wore in the physical world, just cleaner and not covered in blood. It also felt much better, with none of the itching and scraping of the real one. Even the dagger felt identical in my hand.
A rush of power flowed through me from the successful conjuration. Creating something from nothing felt awesome. Getting an idea, I pointed my hand at one of the enemies and imagined it disappearing.
I felt another force push against my will. My efforts increased, which caused it to suddenly lash out. The loss of energy left me stumbling a couple of steps backward. That had been intense. Frowning, I noticed that this little clash made me feel… empty. Like when I had summoned my equipment, just more.
“What is this energy I’m using to do this?” I questioned, directing it at Adam.
“Probational User expended mental essence.”
‘Huh, interesting’. If I remembered correctly then Sarvad had also mentioned this essence. To change something in the mindscape one had to use mental essence. This realisation made me appreciate the suppression protocol of Adam even more.
Looking inside, I could feel my storage of mental essence. It was around 80% full and slowly ticking up. Hopefully more than enough to take care of everything.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Closing my eyes again I willed two other objects to materialise. Taking a quick breath I opened them again and rushed toward the just conjured ramp. Now wasn’t the time for thinking but for action.
Ignoring all of my common sense I jumped and landed in the middle of the group of attackers. With the sound of breaking glass, a chill mist spread from the orb in my hand. For my second conjured object I had materialised one of the orbs that had saved my life in the desert. Lacking a name, I appropriately dubbed them mist bombs.
Not seeing anything, the enemy ranks were thrown into disarray, allowing my guards to strike. But they weren’t the only ones to fight. Somehow I was able to sense the enemies in my immediate surroundings. Not questioning why, I started my grisly work.
I lacked any sort of style, but still, they stood no chance. My dagger or claw destroyed at least one of them with every swing. The few attacks that hit me bounced off the leather armour, which caused a slight drop in my mental essence reserves.
Even though these fighters were my enemies and assisting someone in taking control of my body, I was glad to know that they were simple constructs of mind essence. The lack of blood or bodies made all of this destruction seem… not real.
‘If they are just constructs of mental essence, shouldn't I be able to create them?' This thought distracted me from the fight, which let a knife go through my defence, opening up a gash across my cheek. This didn't cause me pain but made me not able to feel my cheek. It wasn't comfortable and I cursed before redoubling my effort.
I don't know how long the battle lasted, but afterward, I was winded. Not physically, my stamina seemed to be endless in the mind scape, but mentally. I estimated that roughly 25% of my essence reserves had been used up in that one fight.
A look across the battlefield showed only copies of me remaining, though far fewer in number than before. 16 to be exact. Those copies were currently looking at me seeming to await their next task. The wounds that they had endured were already healing. Even the numbness on my cheek started to recede.
Now that the battle was over I had finally time to check the theory that had distracted me during the fight. After around 20 seconds of concentration, a new copy materialised in front of me. It didn't look as polished or professional as the other ones but could definitely fight. Another benefit was that it wasn’t actively draining my reserves.
Despite that, I had to gasp when I saw the cost. It had taken almost 20%, leaving me with less than 40%, to conjure it. It was good to know that it was possible to do this but not very useful right now.
In a perfect world, I would have had enough time to wait for my essence reserves to fill but that sadly wasn’t the case. Not wanting to waste any more time, I ordered my remaining forces to form a square formation, with me in the middle, and march outside. A couple of steps and deep breaths and I was finally able to see the state of the mind scape.
The structure remained the same as before. A courtyard surrounded by tall, stone walls and interrupted by miniature towers. Everywhere I looked I saw Sarvad’s copies, running around and manning different kinds of weapons. This would have posed a problem, considering my comparably small force, if the whole castle hadn't been under attack.
Giant figures stood outside the walls, using their four black-scaled arms to try and breach the castle’s defence. Humanoid beings with black wings flew right over them and swooped down on the defenders.
Stones and other objects flew over the walls in both directions. Some were launched by strange contraptions manned by Sarvad’s troops and others hurled by the hulking giants outside. These stones created craters throughout the castle, squashing both buildings and people alike. If it hadn't been for the fact that this was the mindscape, I was sure I would be faced with a blood bath. To summarise, it was chaos. Almost like the previous time I had visited the mind scape, only ten times worse.
In all this chaos, few enemies turned to engage my force. A very lucky outcome since I had two massive problems in the form of a traitor and an uncontrollable parasite to deal with. It was pretty obvious whose troops were currently attacking the fortress.
Trying to ignore all of this I focused on my plan. Well, calling it a plan was generous. My priority was to somehow find Sarvad and gain the status of User to defeat the parasite. Granted, that wasn’t the only reason I wanted to find him. Even now I could feel my anger simmering somewhere within.
'Now, where is he?' I thought while looking around. All of the chaos was making my problem exponentially worse. The first way to find him that I came up with involved simply asking Adam. That failed, as they told me that my status wasn’t high enough for this information. After that failure, I closed my eyes and tried to ignore the explosions and clashing of metal to think.
'Where would I, as the commander, be in such a battle? It needs to be a place from where I could oversee the entire battlefield, so maybe on the walls?
No, it's too unprotected there, but I like the idea of somewhere high up. Maybe he can go incorporeal but that's unlikely. The bars in the dungeon seemed to have done a good job of holding him captive.
I also need to consider the fact that I would need it to be somewhere hidden since I'm taking part in a three-way war.'
A quick look around showed no obvious places fitting such a description. If my thought process was correct, then it needed to be something like a tower. Somewhere in the middle of the castle. I turned around and looked at the building I had just left, that just so happened to be twice the size of the castle walls. 'I think I've found it'.
Now the only question left to answer was how I would get up there. Of course, I could go back inside and look for a staircase but considering the massive proportions of the building, it would take a very long time.
On a whim, I tried whether or not I could magically will a staircase to appear. At first, it seemed to work and a translucent set of stairs made out of mental essence started to replace the entrance. Suddenly, I felt another presence crashing into mine. My concentration shattered under the surprise counterattack and the ghostlike staircase immediately disappeared.
With a cry of pain, I fell onto my knees as the whiplash of what I could only call my imagination hit me. The pain only lasted for a couple of seconds but by the time it was done, I was sporting several wounds that were leaking purple essence.
It looked like I wouldn't be getting up there so easily, but at least Sarvad had just confirmed my suspicions about his whereabouts. Steeling myself, I prepared for the only solution.
With a long look up at the towering building, followed by a loud sigh, I started climbing up the steep stone wall. I already had some experience in climbing, back when I had first awoken, which slightly helped.
I also had a dagger in my offhand which, despite many stabs into the rock, didn't dull in the slightest and continued cutting into the stone. Like a knife cutting through... something soft? Maybe a fruit? Anyway, it wasn't important what that metaphorical knife stabbed, since the real one was doing such a good job.
There were downsides to my method, one of them being that my heavily armoured troops couldn't follow me up here. With a bit of tinkering, I could have probably managed to come up with a solution, like replacing their metal armour with leather, but I simply didn't have the time or essence for that. Instead, I had ordered them to protect the entrance of the fortress.
Come to think of it, could I change the copies? Technically, they weren’t mine but Adam’s. Was his mental essence different from mine? A question for another time.
Another time that might never come considering that the second downside of using this method was barrelling toward me at an alarming rate.
The rush of air was my only warning and it gave me just enough time to dodge the worst of it. Still, I wasn't fast enough to avoid the entirety of the strike. A cold blade racked across my back, leaving a line of numbness behind. Another attack came and I barely managed to dodge it by taking a risky leap to the side.
My feet only hit the air, but I managed to dig my claw into the stone and not let go of my dagger. A quick look over my shoulder showed that the creature hadn't given up on its prey and was instead still circling above me. It took the form of a humanoid being duo wielding swords, clearly one of the parasite’s fighters.
I tried to conjure something, but my mind couldn't properly focus on what I wanted to create. Just when I thought I had something the creature decided that it had waited enough and went in for another attack. This time I tried to block its strike with my dagger, but it simply changed the trajectory of its blade and slashed below my ribs.
A gasp from the coldness escaped my mouth which also made me hesitate with counterattacking,letting the creature fly to a safe distance. An ominous feeling swelled up inside me, showing that my mind essence had dropped below 30%. If things continued this way then I wouldn’t last long.
With a quick look upwards I confirmed that I was barely more than halfway up, making it clear that I had no chance of reaching the top in time. My desperate gaze landed on a row of windows that were located a couple of stories above me. Too high to reach, but they gave me an idea. An idea that needed a distraction to succeed.
I closed my eyes, trying to conjure a small object. This didn't require a lot of concentration and after a second or two, a mist bomb was clenched between my teeth. The size of the object betrayed the complexity probably required to create it in the real world. Here it only took a thought.
With bated breath, I waited until the creature went in for another dive before breaking the orb and releasing its cool contents. A cloud of mist formed around me, obscuring both of our visions.
Of course, I could still use the ability to ‘feel’ my immediate surroundings, which the creature didn't possess, considering its confused pause. A pause that allowed me to score a hit with a quickly drawn dagger. The dagger raked its leg, making it fly away and stop a good distance from the mist, presumably waiting for it to clear. A smart move, showing that the creature had more intelligence than I liked it to have.
Hopefully, I would be long gone before the mist cleared.
With a deep breath, I focus on the stone wall in front of me. Making it disappear was too big of a change for me to handle. But changing it to a different material could be doable. An easily breakable layer of glass, like with the windows above me, should do the trick.
The image of the stone in my head slowly changed to a layer of glass, but nothing seemed to happen. Still, I felt that I was on the right track. This building was created by Sarvad so it would take more effort for me to change it. To do that I needed to go deeper.
The stone in front of me was made out of rock, but what was the rock made out of? Smaller rocks? No, but close. More like small particles. Everything could be pulled apart into small particles, but what told those particles to be rock and not something like glass? There was something inside of them, telling them to be a certain material. Like a set of instructions or... a set of runes! I felt that this line of thinking was getting me somewhere.
So in essence, no pun intended, I needed to rewrite these runes and make them say that the particle was glass. The image of the windows on this building returned and I focused on the particles that made up the glass. They were the same as the ones that made up the rock, but the runes inside them were slightly different.
I noted that there were a bunch of other runes inside the particles, besides the one telling them what to be, but that wasn't currently important. With a quick thought, I went back to the stone and started altering the runes inside of it. I felt a resistance push against me, but the more of them I changed the easier it became. I wondered if this would also be possible in the physical world.
Soon they all resembled the ones found in glass and when I opened my eyes I was looking into the dark interior of the building. It was disorienting, because it felt like the transformation had taken a long time, when in fact it had only taken a couple of seconds.
Enough time for my attacker to become impatient and barrel through the mist toward me. This time it wouldn't be satisfied by a glancing blow and was going straight for the kill.
My disorientation stopped me from reacting in time, which let the creature crash into me and through the window. We both tumbled into the empty room. A couple of glass shards graced me, but the effect of the mind scape - not being able to feel pain - let me scramble up pretty quickly. My opponent also got up but in a more jerky fashion.
Earlier I hadn't gotten a good look, but now I could see that my earlier assessment of it being a blade-wielding humanoid had been only partially right. The thin, sickly-looking figure in front of me was humanoid and had the appearance of what Iimagined a starving human would look like.
The layer of skin covering its ribs was almost see-through, with dark, pulsing veins snaking across it. They reminded me of my veins, disturbingly enough.
It also possessed two pairs of black feathered wings that were missing whole clumps of feathers. Those patches leaking a thick purple goo only made it more horrific. But it wasn't wielding two swords, no. That would have made it look too normal. No, the two sickle-like blades were protruding from its upper arms and looked to have been welded into place.
Its glazed-over eyes that were leaking more of that purple goo stared in my direction as it took a jerky step forward - a far cry from its elegant movement in the air. I took a measured step backward.
This creature reminded me of the two guardian angel statues I had seen outside Seran, just a lot more disturbing. My first thought was to immediately attack but I shoved that urge down. Fighting wasn’t something I wanted to do and it wasn’t optimal in this situation. This being vaguely resembled a creature that humans looked up to, so I tried something unprecedented: Reasoning with the enemy.
"So, is there any chance that we could go our separate ways?” The creature stopped and it looked like an expression of surprise crossed its face, so I continued talking.
"It isn't that I don't enjoy your company, but I need to do something really important, and you are kind of in the way. How about you leave me alone for now and later we can do whatever you want to do. Sound good?"
The not-angel took another jerky step forward and opened its mouth filled with broken teeth. A garbled mess of sounds filled the quiet room. It sounded like multiple voices talking at once, but distorted and sliced together, making it barely intelligible. A couple words that were repeated over and over again, were demon, ninth, hero, child, and gods.
A chilling sense of unnatural dread came over me and I took a step backward, ready to fight. It would be difficult, considering my almost empty essence reserve but I wouldn’t give up.
The not-angel lifted its blade arms and tensed its atrophied muscles, seemingly getting ready to pounce.
Suddenly, the voices stopped and silence settled again. The creature straightened up, all the jerkiness gone from its movements. Its appearance hadn’t changed, but something in its eyes was different.
Before they had been emotionless and simply gazing into nothingness. But now they were filled with something intelligent. Something that was studying me with a glimmer in its eyes and I wasn't sure if I liked it.
Something like a smile spread across its mouth. The not-angel lifted its blade and waved at me. Then it disappeared, leaving behind an empty room and a confused Vindict. Behind me was a staircase that led upwards. On one hand, it was good that I hadn't had to fight, but on the other hand, what I had seen had left me very disturbed and uneasy. Before I had thought of the parasite as an almost mindless monster but now…
I shuddered and climbed the first step.