Self and Others

Chapter 75

Though the skeletons were more concerned with me, a party did go forward to meet the heroes. My vision swam as it seemed to change angle randomly. Sometimes I was looking at Henry, others I was in the cavern watching the fight.

Despite their initial moment of horror and surprise, the hero's party still fell into combat formation. The skeletons enchanted by the mirror looked like their desiccated twins except for Reiners. A proper bowman had gone forward instead of a swordsman. I knew his name, but I couldn't think of it and couldn't remember why I should have ever bothered giving a skeleton a name.

The cleric should have been an asset against the undead. Or at least the part of me that had once likely been obsessed with tabletop RPGs assumed that. This one didn't seem to be much use, however. She looked like she was panicking.

"Get your shit together!" the fighter girl shouted, fending off a blow that would have ended the cleric.

"R-right!" the cleric said. Skeletons were weak, but the party wasn't a match for my creatures. The only upside of letting them play their ridiculous games was excellent combat proficiency.

"Mistress sent us out to check the pair that stayed behind. They were both wearing enslavement items. The seer girl had a more insidious type. She might not have known she was being controlled," I could hear Arron explaining though I couldn't see him. The spell that Elim had described came back to me. The party was being controlled. The strange drawing I'd made suddenly clarified in my mind. The magic originated from the boy's sword and connected to something on each of them.

It didn't matter. They were my prey, and I would have the points they provided to grow stronger from. An image of a grand palace to grow mad in assailed me. Of course, it fucking mattered. Someone had put those wretched control items on a bunch of kids. FUCK THEM.

I looked up at Henry, uncertain of why. Vertigo or something like it robbing me of any sense of direction. He might have still been cradling me on the ground, or we might have been on the ceiling for all I knew. He wasn't looking at me just now, eyes riveted with disgust on the fight.

The party couldn't cope with the onslaught of a group fighting to their own strengths instead of following an imposed pattern. As their cohesion broke, Reiner used Andrea as a shield to keep from being slaughtered.

Archers were supposed to fight from behind cover. Preferably at a distance rather than directly in the fray. He should have been acting as a sniper, not a melee combatant.

"I'm okay, go," I said, reaching up to touch the side of Henry’s skull to get his attention. He looked at me with confused reluctance.

"Go," I repeated. This time Henry nodded, getting to his feet and heading for the mirror. Every part of me screamed that what I'd done was wrong. That I didn't owe the sheep who came willingly to the slaughter.

I didn't know if I was standing or hanging, but I forced my body into a vertical position. Unable to hover but still managing something approaching decent posture. Around me, the skeletons backed up, observing me curiously.

I knew Chris was somewhere in their numbers. I wanted to see him but couldn't focus well enough to pick him out of the crowd.

Beyond the mirror, Reiner panicked. He shoved Andrea into the path of a blow from her counterpart. She was stabbed brutally in his place.

The party, seeing what happened, froze. In that moment of weakness, Lilian, the cleric, was struck dead. A dull thud from a mace was the only sound in the cave for a long moment.

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"Retreat!" Reiner shouted. He tried to strike at Andrea's counterpart through her. A fundamental mistake, Skeletons weren't easy to injure, and his blow would lose too much force to be helpful.

Miriam, who'd stepped out as Andrea's counterpart, was a chevalier just like the girl. A proud creature who prided herself on her ability as a duelist and adhered to a concept of honor. She cast the girl aside to safety, allowing herself to be knocked off balance.

It was a fatal decision. Reiner wasn't a good swordsman, but he followed up properly. His blow struck Miriam's skull and shattered it. I didn't doubt she'd feel proud of the choice when she respawned.

Andrea spun as she fell, grasping her side and unable to even think to break her landing. She never touched the ground, Henry appearing in a crackling halo of blue energy to catch her. With care, he laid her down gently on the floor.

Reiner stumbled back, a look of horror on his face. I wasn't sure if it was for what he'd done or the appearance of a new foe. It honestly didn't matter to me anyway.

Henry ignored Reiner, taking hold of a silver chain around Andrea's neck, and snapped it. The control item, I assumed. I watched in fascination as Henry stood up fluidly, discarding the necklace with a careless flick.

Now Henry regarded Reiner with open disgust. He'd seen what the boy had done as well as everyone else in the necropolis's bleachers. Yet, despite that, he still executed a proper bow with a flourish of his sword.

Unlike the boy, Henry had style as well as skill and manners. I wanted to laugh. From a technical perspective, a chevalier would be a bad match-up against a heavy swordsman. Despite that, I felt like it would never be wise to bet against Henry.

Reiner went pale then and slashed wildly. The ill-suited sword passed through empty air as Henry quick-stepped out of the way. All that was left was a trail of blue energy just to the left of where Reiner had expected him to be.

"Reiner!" Mina, the remaining uninjured girl, screamed. The boy tried desperately to land a blow, but it was useless. As he fumbled past, Henry slashed the exposed back of his leg. The incomplete armor betrayed him.

Distracted, Mina was taken by surprise by an arrow from Reiner's skeletal counterpart. Andrea ran over to her side, tearing the necklace from her friend's neck before attempting first aid. Henry held up a hand to forestall another attack from the skeletons. When he glanced toward the mirror, I nodded though I knew he couldn't see me.

I didn't owe anyone who decided to come and risk their lives for treasure. However, that didn't mean I would casually accept when someone sent others to die against their will.

Really though, what could it possibly matter how they came to my dungeon? Points were points, after all. So why not savor the gift instead of questioning it?

I felt sick, worse than when I'd coughed up the boon. The thought didn't feel like my own, but I couldn't explain why. As I tried to refuse it, ten arguments for it sprang to life from the pool of knowledge that made up my memories.

I'd mostly cobbled together my views based on what I happened to think of first when considering a subject. As a result, there wasn't any real sense of connection to an idea. Not until after I'd thought about it and made a decision.

A shiver ran through my body. I didn't have an express reason for anything I did or refused to do. Was that something anyone would call a personality? Did I have one before I became a core? Or was the idea that I’d been human just something I'd made up to explain things to myself?

Was this what it felt like to exist as I was without the system's suppression function to stop me from panicking?

Despite the fact I didn't need to breathe, I felt like I did and couldn't. Chest hitching in mock motion, my vision blurred and darkened.

My last clear thought was that I was falling. An interesting thing to know after spending so much time uncertain of up and down. I didn't care much about the return of my sense of direction.

Someone other than Henry was catching me. Someone with violet jewels who was shouting. I couldn't recognize them, and that broke my heart a little for some reason.

Around me, the world shattered. Fissures ran from the floor up the walls to the ceiling. Then, breaking away in shards, it fell into a starry void. Every part of me was in pain, worse than a raid migraine or even when I'd coughed up the boon.

My form was hard to see in the darkness, but I thought I could just make out an outline. One that suggested I was seeing double. The trouble was that every time I saw it, the pain intensified.

Finally, with a sensation like skin peeling from a sunburn, something sloughed off from my pseudo flesh. I couldn't see what it was clearly in the dark. All that stood out was a pair of burning red orbs.