After searching the perimeters some more, Reginn finally entered the corridor which displayed a crude map of the mindscape. Since the flower consciously manipulated the world, it must have some knowledge of where everything was relative to each other. From the diagram, it seemed that the prisoner was locked inside a cell at the edge of the world. Unfortunately for Reginn, while this could’ve been the decisive blow to take over control of the mindscape, due to his limited range, he would need to stick close to the flower, which may be a fatal plan.
Reginn swiftly ended the spell and returned to the true realm of the shadow.
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When he exited Kyriekaos’s mind, Reginn noticed a change in the atmospheric pressure. Within the void brewed a storm, and dark clouds loomed over him. Celestial bodies — the constellation, planets and the moon — began to form in the sky, each artistic rendition of a mad brush. Quaking, shaking, tearing The world began to collapse under insanity as Kyriekaos began to shift and change herself.
It seemed that Reginn had awoken something or someone.
“...I see now. No one else in this world can see what I can. I should’ve known from the very beginning, but I was blind — no, I ran from the truth. That I was different, meant for something greater.” said the flower — Kyriekaos. However, Reginn knew that the person speaking was Alevensteinn. “Then so be it. This must be why I have been resurrected — in order to continue my project, and I shan’t let anyone stand in humanity’s way!”
“...Heh, if fate wanted you to continue, you wouldn’t have met me.”
The flower began to moult, like shedding skin. Like a caterpillar released into nature, or perhaps unleashed upon the world. From within revealed a new figure, completely encapsulated in a marble prism. After the second skin of stone shattered away, the woman’s appearance was clear. Short black hair, delicate figure, sickly hands. It was Alevensteinn’s wife — or his recreation of her.
“I have been working countless years from within to salvage this copy. In theory, it can recreate any soul — I was just missing the memories. But that matters not. I’ll simply use my memories then to approach perfection.” said Kyriekaos, “No archaic god will stand in the way of progress. Let the old gods be forgotten, and new ones arise.”
“...Hmph. Are you done now?”
The battle began as Kyriekaos summoned her cross from the infinite void. The crimson casket was a construct, meaning that she was able to manipulate it however she liked within the realm. The first turn was used to summon a myriad of copies of the cross, raining from the skies. Reginn responded by dashing toward his opponent and then attempting to land a kick. However, his kick was blocked by one of the falling crosses — accelerating to the speed of sound. Kyriekaos immediately smashed through the cross and cast her talent.
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“⌈Dichtomung⌋!”
The shockwave was immense as every cross within the vicinity suddenly split in half. However, Reginn was just fast enough to cast a layer of iron over his skin, the armour taking the technique instead of him.
“Shit…”
Now both knew that she could not carelessly spend her abilities. As a technique, ⌈Dichtomung⌋ was immensely powerful, sourced from the Abstract, simply dividing variables by two. However, it required icho to cast. Unlike mana, which one can find everywhere around them — the water, the food, the air — icho was exclusively sourced by one’s connection to the respective subspaces. Kyriekaos herself did not have a particularly powerful connection with the Abstract, meaning that her casting count was limited before passively recharging.
Now, she had three more chances. If Reginn was hit even one time, he would surely perish, even as a deity.
The crosses continued to rain, and Kyriekaos began manipulating the mindscape to her advantage. First, she began conjuring infinite wooden doors, which all opened consecutively as an orchestra. From each door oozed tons upon tons of honey, limiting Reginn’s movement. However, for Kyriekaos, by reducing her mass to basically naught, she was able to stand atop the thick liquid.
Before Kyriekaos could capitalize on this new opportunity, Reginn had already melted the honey around him to extreme degrees, evaporating and burning the calories. The hero knew that most of the area would still be a hassle to fight in, so he instead jumped into one of the doors and realized that one led to another nearby — an infinite chain of portals.
Kyriekaos knew this best — she was the one who had created them after all. She began to orchestrate the doors into moving in a deadly fashion, each entering and colliding with the other. Even still, atop and within the door frames were still the best locations for combat, so Reginn began casting lightning spells in order to snipe Kyriekaos from afar. Enraged, the monster began lifting the cubes from beneath her feet once more and launched them at Reginn. The hero simply punched through one, but the cube then split into a hundred ones and continued on its path to attack Reginn. After most had begun digging into his skin, he manifested a shockwave around his body, but the cubes simply became even smaller.
As the final solution, Reginn cast a massive sphere of ⌈A Glimpse of the Absolute⌋, then jumped into it, destroying all cubes, large and small, that followed him inside. After disintegrating all the annoying obstacles, he knew now was the best time to distract Kyriekaos and locate the prisoner. Reginn first cast another sphere of ⌈A Glimpse of the Absolute⌋, which Kyriekaos easily dodged. However, looking back, she was unable to locate Reginn anywhere. Realizing that he may be within the sphere, Kyriekaos began chasing the sphere. Unbeknownst to the monster, Reginn was actually within one of the doorframes, utilizing the split-second distraction and the magnitude of the attack to trick her.
Now, Reginn began sending what little mana he had left to the various doors, and soon enough, he found one that led him directly to the prisoner. The hero quickly lept from door to door, and finally reached the girl, weeping all by herself.
It seemed that here, the rain of crosses had stopped.