Darkness touched every fiber of James' being as his consciousness stirred. The sensation was unlike anything he had ever experienced; it was as if he had been stripped of his body and was floating in a space where time and physical laws no longer applied.

There was no up or down, simply because his mind couldn't find reference points. His senses, always true and faithful, couldn't help him now, as there was nothing to there for him to grasp.

For what could have been a moment or a day- there was no way to tell time, and counting the seconds felt like an exercise in futility- James existed in this primordial emptiness. Thoughts didn't form coherently, as his mind was still too scattered by whatever had happened to lead him here, and he didn't force the issue, simply enjoying the lack of sensation.

It wasn't something he had often considered, but James had been constantly bombarded with information since his Awakening. Finding himself without anything to observe, for once, was jarring but also refreshing in a way he couldn't have anticipated.

Yet, this moment of tranquility was not to last. From the depths of the void, a malevolent energy began to stir, taking the form of red wisps that sought to invade and overwhelm him. Their presence sent a jumble of emotions and instinct through him, a raw and chaotic force that clashed with the serene emptiness he had momentarily enjoyed.

James' first instinct - before he could even form coherent thoughts now that he had something to give him a frame of reference - was to push back, to shield his mind from the intrusion. The task proved daunting; the red energy was pervasive, wrapping around his consciousness like a suffocating shroud. It was a battle fought on unfamiliar ground, where James felt outmatched and vulnerable as he couldn't find purchase to begin a counterassault. The pain that accompanied the wisps’ assault was unlike any physical wound—it was a searing, all-consuming agony that threatened to tear his very essence apart.

But as the initial wave of panic subsided, James began to piece together his scattered thoughts. This led him to realize that there was a mind behind the invasive energy. It was so alien and incomprehensible that it brought a moment of vertigo to observe, a sense of disorientation so profound it almost sent him spiraling back into the abyss.

Still, he managed to stay present and conscious thanks to his willpower. In doing so, he sparked up his mana, which flickered like a flame in the wind before catching and burning through the corrupting energy, momentarily saving him. However, the enemy would not be denied and began encroaching again, pushing and prodding for weaknesses.

The alien intelligence brushed against his psyche again, its thoughts and desires utterly foreign. The contact was like touching a live wire, sending jolts of shock through James's mind, each one more disorienting than the last.

He found himself confined within a small part of his being after another overwhelming wave of power. Just his mind was left untainted by the energy, and it was all he could do to prevent that from being taken over, too. Yet, it was there that James found his battleground.

He marshaled his mental abilities by drawing upon every ounce of his psychic training and the resilience that had seen him through countless battles. He focused them into a spearhead aimed at the heart of the invading presence, a beacon of his will amidst the darkness. With his weapon crafted, James fought back, engaging the energy in direct contests for every inch of his being, slowly beginning to reverse the fight.

Thakinesis might not have been his Talent anymore, but it had left its mark on how he used his powers. The ability to focus intensely on something was more valuable now than ever. The clash was silent but titanic, a battle that raged only within the confines of James's mind. He countered every push from the alien presence, leveraging his psychic abilities to shift away from its main prongs of attack, protecting the core of his being from the energy's corrosive touch.

With each exchange, James adapted, his tactics evolving in real time. The pain and confusion that had once clouded his thoughts began to recede, replaced by a cold, burning determination. His thoughts coalesced more and more, forced back into coherence by the situation's urgency.

James now remembered what had led him to floating in the void. Somehow, he wasn't surprised that the dungeon had one last trick up its sleeve, and while he would have much preferred not having to deal with a bodiless entity trying to take over his body, he wouldn't give up without a fight.

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As the battle wore on, James gained back more ground. The alien mind's assaults grew less coordinated, its presence in his mind waning under the relentless pressure of his counterattacks. The realization hit him suddenly, a flash of memory from the spider dungeon where something similar had been contained within a gem. The Sin of Pride had explicitly come to retrieve it, marking the energy as immensely valuable or dangerous, or likely both.

This connection sparked a new level of wariness in James. If an S-rank Awakener like the Sin of Pride had moved through AA territory to get his hands on it, the stakes were higher than he had imagined. The energy he was fighting against wasn't just a random malevolent force; it was something that had drawn the attention of one of the most powerful beings in the world.

The realization, however, didn't change much in his material conditions. He could not, would not allow this energy to overpower him. Now that he wasn't so much on the defensive, he shifted his tactics, focusing his willpower more intensely.

Rather than simply regaining ground or deflecting its attacks, he began assaulting the alien mind directly with his psychic abilities, a technique he had only needed to use a few times before and never with this intensity. His usual hangups, however, were entirely absent. This was no human being, after all, and even monsters had evoked some pity in him.

Here and now, James had no compunction about unleashing the full horrors his mind could inflict.

Where before he hadn’t expected to be attacked psychically - and indeed, it was the first time he found himself on the receiving end of such a thing - now James was the one on the offensive.

Vertigo intensified as James made contact with the alien mind, the sensation of touching something so utterly different from any life form he had encountered before proving challenging to overcome. This mind operated on principles alien to human thought, a swirling vortex of instincts, cold calculation, and impulses that defied understanding.

As he pushed against it, James felt the alien presence begin to falter. He renewed his assault now that he could feel victory approaching, and for the first time since the fight had begun, he was the one eroding the entity's defenses. For a moment, as he touched upon the thing's core, he perceived a glimpse of something, the primary driving need that pushed its every action.

A dark, lush field of grass that softly swayed under an invisible wind, a being wearing a cape, hands lifted in supplication to an empty altar, as no God looked back. Blood, so much blood, covering the nearby hills, from tens of thousands of corpses. Long lines being drawn in the sand. An untiring creature shuffling for eternity, its makers long gone, as it set about achieving their vision. Finally, the completion of a task and the world being swallowed by darkness.

James struggled to understand the sights that flashed through his mind, the images jumbled and their meaning obscured by layers of alien thought. The ritual depicted was beyond his comprehension. Though it was tied to a civilization long dead, as far as he could tell, their intentions were lost to time. He had no idea what the symbols might represent, and speculating on what the sacrifices powered would have been useless. The presence of a lone, gigantic golem, a servant to a forgotten purpose, hinted at a tragedy of monumental scale. Yet, for all its depth and complexity, the vision offered no clarity on what had been sought or what had ultimately led to the civilization's demise.

Refocusing on the battle, James realized the alien mind had used the momentary distraction to gather its strength and try to push back. But he was undeterred. The vision, while confusing, had done little to weaken his resolve. Instead, it made him want to fight back even more. Whether the entity was the last remnant of an ancient civilization, the scourge that killed them, or something entirely different, the fact that it had shown him such a desolate fate made him want to do anything in his power to avoid it.

With renewed focus, James launched his psychic assault with greater ferocity. The alien intelligence, for all its power and malice, was unprepared for the sheer tenacity of the human spirit. James' mind, honed through countless battles and the unique trials of his journey, was a weapon forged in adversity. His enemy, so domineering at the outset, now seemed to shrink before his onslaught.

The clash reached a crescendo, James' psyche pressing against the invader with overwhelming force. With one last push, the spear of crystalized willpower he used finally pierced through its last defenses. The entity's resistance crumbled, its essence fraying at the edges. It fought back with desperation one last time, lashing out with fading strength, but James was relentless and didn't allow the attack to land. He could sense the moment the entity's will broke, its energy finally scattering into the void like a balloon popped now that there was nothing to hold them together.

For a moment, James was back to being the only being in the void. He observed the red taint float around, listless now that nothing was directing it. He still couldn't begin to speculate what might have been that manipulated it, but even a casual observation told him that he didn't want that to get inside his body.

But the victory was short-lived. As the red energy dispersed, James felt the void react, turning and twisting upon itself in ways that didn't make sense as it tried to accommodate something.

He prepared himself as best as he could, afraid that another entity might attack him, but ready to stand his ground.

That was not needed. A new presence, vast beyond comprehension, emerged from the darkness and brushed against the fringes of the battle. Its attention was fleeting, lasting a handful of seconds, but in that brief moment, James felt his mind strain under the weight of its gaze. The presence was so significant that James feared his sanity might unravel under its scrutiny. It saw everything: past, present, and future. Every secret James had, every intimate thought, every fleeting desire were bared for its perusal. Something about it was familiar and reassuring, but with the way he was about to fall apart at the seams, James didn't have the wherewithal to consider why that might be.

Then, as quickly as it had appeared, the presence vanished, taking the remnants of the red energy with it. James sagged, his brain already trying its best to compartmentalize what he had just gone through in an effort to save his sanity. It took him several moments to gather himself, but when he did, he noticed something.

In its wake, a single glowing mote drifted through the void. James reached out, intent on repelling it, but the mote was inexorable. Trying to float back did nothing, and using his mental strength to push back against it had no effect either. It touched him, and a sensation like fire and ice being pumped into his veins overcame him.

The world went black once more.