-- Aster 9 Days Ago --

Slipping inside the compound, I was shocked that it looked exactly like it did online. There was no reason for it not to be the same, but I couldn't believe it wasn't some kind of trick. 'Ok, if this is the same as the website's map, then the ax should be just around the corner.'

I moved as fast and as quietly as I could, I didn't have much time before the guard realizes I left. Turning the corner, I saw the ax hanging exactly where the website had said it should be, hanging there on the wall all by itself, no glass or anything protecting it.

'Keeper's I hope this is real.' I reached up and grabbed the artifact starting to run to my next target waiting for the alarm to sound.

Running away, my stomach turned as I realized there was no alarm going off. I looked down at the ax with a frown, before moving it into my dimensional pocket. Couldn't have it get in the way, real or not.

I didn't quite rule out a silent alarm, so I sped up moving almost carelessly through the place. I could see lots of interesting items on the walls as I passed, but I didn't know what any of them did. 'I really should have taken the time to see what else was here.'

I turned the corner to the place where the gun was displayed, and almost fell over myself jumping back around the corner. A guard was patrolling down that hall, and I could hear the radio chatter.

"That star guy's gone." The voice of the guard from the front door came through.

The gruff voice from earlier responded ."Did he leave?"

"I think so. I went to check something out and when I got back they were gone."

"You sure they didn't get in?" The gruff-voiced asked accusingly

"Yeah, they would have tripped one of the wires if they opened the door, and it was closed."

'Wires? There weren't wires and the door was unlocked. Did I get insanely lucky?'

The gruff voice began to give orders. "They might be on the lawn or maze. Mary and Louis go check the hedges, Jim and Donny sweep the house. I'll check the cams. Most likely they left but we need to check." The voice received a few confirmations before asking "Who's on cam duty?"

"Phillip is, but he went to lunch."

"Seriously, why didn't anyone take his place?" The gruff-voiced asked angrily.

"..."

"Whatever just go check the cams."

'Fuck! I forgot about the cameras.' It was a miracle they didn't spot me yet. 'These are either the most incompetent guards ever, or someone is helping me. I am not this lucky.'

I looked around the hall for the cameras seeing nothing. 'I should be seeing cameras everywhere, how come I can't see anything.' Then I looked over to one of the lights above me. I was in one of the halls without windows, and when I looked up I noticed they were off.

'It shouldn't be this bright.' Struck with a realization I restricted the flow through my eyes, and quickly the mansion dimmed and darkened. It was at a level people could see, but seeing how dark it was, I was hoping my eyes were compensating. Releasing the power, and letting it move again, the room brightened, and I paid close attention to the growing light. Thanks to that, I finally saw the overlapping lights of cameras.

'How many cameras do you have to have to light up a room?' It had to be a lot. There was no way they wouldn't see me. 'I need to move now."

I ran around the corner not even trying to hide from the guard, who was already moving away down the hall. I wish I could have waited for him to go around the corner but it was too much of a risk. As he passed the ray gun's display, this time the artifact was behind glass, I gathered my will and pushed my storage pocket right next to the weapon. "POCKET" a portal opened up sucking the weapon inside.

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The entire place exploded into sound before I even hit the ground. The guard began to turn confused, and I pushed stretching myself as far as I could as I spoke my next words "FALL Away".

Thanks to my previous experience I had learned to push everything father and how to dance the razor edge of possibilities. Hundreds of different versions of myself exploded through the mansion, I felt the ones farthest away and made them real, jumping room to room until I ultimately made my way out of the building, never stopping as I ran toward the gate.

Everything happened in an eye blink. My speed was much faster than I was expecting, and I was too panicked to even think to slow down afraid of being caught. Even using some of my most powerful abilities I found almost no drain, in fact, I felt like I could go on forever, where before I would have no doubt collapsed by now.

"No time to examine this. Keep running." I chided myself.

I ran hard toward the fence when I felt a jolt through my entire system. It felt like a part of me died. My eyes immediately locked onto where I felt the pain, that's when I noticed every possibility was hitting the fence and disappearing from something. I felt every death as a little electric jolt, that slowly drained my reserves.

"I knew this was gonna be a problem." I still kept up the skill despite the pain, knowing it would most likely be my end if I didn't. I tried to find some type of weakness with the fence for I dared not jump as even the copies going over the fence were dying. "Shit." I was nearly at the gate when I decided to find another route, only to see the guards closing fast on my position.

I turned back to the gate trying to come up with some sort of plan when my eyes caught the shimmer in between the posts and surrounding the fence. I couldn't sense what was happening to the shadows, only that something was causing them to die when they touched whatever it was. If it's up high it's probably down below too, although there was no way to dig a hole so...Fuck.

I needed to figure this out and for that, I needed to buy time, so I pushed the starlight copies as far as I possibly could to the point where they were almost atop the guards.

I turned away and spoke. "BLOOM." The stars went supernova exploding into a blinding light, consuming any and all power remaining in the skill. I heard screaming and groans from behind, I turned to see the guards had fallen to the ground grabbing their faces in pain. I had surprised them by buying myself a few seconds, and shoved as much power into my eyes as I could in an attempt to see whatever was surrounding these gates.

"What the blight is that?" With the incredible amount of energy flowing through me, the invisible lit up revealing itself as a deadly web of ultra thin wire swaying in the wind. "Yup that would probably kill me."

The strings reached up to 30 feet high near the fence I was at, and only increased in height around the gated themselves. 'How are there not just a pile of dead birds and squirrels around this place?' I wondered. 'Oh, It's not normally active. It must go off when the alarms do.'

I scanned all around looking for something, only finding more wires, like an ocean waving all around the property. It had a crest and a trough, like a normal wave, all the high points ran along the 4 cardinal points, and the lows around the corners.

I couldn't help but admire how beautiful a trap this was. Instinctively, I knew someone trying to escape would head to one of those high areas and jump, then immediately jump into it being diced to pieces. And if they were somehow tough enough to survive they would be caught like a fly in a web.

"Get him." One of the Guards yelled behind me.

"Welp that's enough time to think." I ran as hard as I could toward the northeast corner, where it looked to only be about twenty feet high.

I moved fast, too fast, almost as fast as when I jumped between possibilities, I was fighting not to trip over my own feet as I glided over the grass, I didn't dare look back afraid the guards were right on my ass. I Looked back, I couldn't help it, I had put a lot of distance in between us, but looking distracted me causing me to trip.

I flew 30 feet across the ground before I hit the dirt rolling across the earth, as a series of knives and arrows flew above me. Even though I fell, I never stopped moving serpentining my way towards the corners. That seemed to work until I felt an arrow hit me in the back, knocking me to the ground again this time sliding across the dirt.

I looked back to see my pursuers still far behind, but 2 of them were hot on my trail. "Shit."

I scrambled to my feet, nearly falling again in my haste to stand. I was almost to the fence, so I pushed as much power into my legs as I could handle and jumped. I soared through the air, and immediately knew I had jumped too soon. The trajectory would have me land right at the top of the web, and now I had no way to avoid them.

"Believe, believe, believe." I put every remaining ounce of power I had, into my next words, the starlight beginning to fade. "I AM A LIE." I was willing myself to become as mold-able and ethereal as a lie.

My body shifted, becoming lighter, immaterial, I began to fall apart. But I still held the skill in my mind as I went through the deadly string. As I floated through I learned they weren't just extremely thin razor wires that were going to cut me to pieces. They also had something flowing through them, as I felt electricity shoot through me solidifying parts of my body. I ended up leaving chunks of my insides behind, somehow I held the skill making it through. The skill had worked, but only enough that I didn't die. Although that might change if I can't get out of here. I looked back to see the guards had stopped and were flabbergasted I escaped. They would have to take the long way round.

I made my way through the streets trying to find a place to hide and heal.