Chapter 114 - Falling apart

"Zero," he whispered, propelling himself from the ledge with a determined kick. As he twisted the amulet's knob, he spread his arms wide.

Spirits surged towards him into the air, their jaws and limbs closing in on Vern, mere inches away.

Suddenly, a brilliant sun burst from his hands, its light eclipsing the lone white ring glowing in his eyes amidst the darkness.

Within that ring, energy thrummed, culminating in a forceful shockwave—

BAMMM!

Glass panels shattered into a hailstorm of shards, blasting backward with a symphony of destruction and chaos.

Chunks and fragmented crystals rained everywhere as the emporium became brighter than even a burning forge.

Spirits caught in the maelstrom howled, their voices lost in the cacophony of ruin as the sharp splinters sheared through their pale skin—bursting out the other end.

In this spectacular yet terrifying blend, Vern fell through the air—harmless. A profoundly soothing sense of balance rippled through his thought space, a massive contrast from mere seconds ago.

Uncanny pale faces marred by terrifying, inhumane expressions overlapped on the noisy darkness in his perception.

Seven pale faces in all the tiny reflections and seven in front of him—all of them utterly rooted in position, except the ones falling with him.

Vern pre-emptively ground all fragments of glass beneath him into powder. It was one thing to break a bone while pulling off this stunt but completely another to land on a bed of sharp fragments.

This was all he could do to minimize the injuries from this…jump. It was a calculated risk—a jump. Not a fall.

He might break a couple bones and ribs, but that was fine given the healing methods available in Vigil. They could treat this much.

Hah…

The way he'd orchestrated the glassy explosions, he still had a few mirrors underneath that'd let him 'see' the reflection of the other seven from his landing spot.

EAHhhhhHHHhh!! Raw, guttural cries of pain echoed through the emporium, a sound of pure anguish as the purifying light seared their forms.

SCriiiiiiichhhh!! A high-pitched, ear-splitting screech reverberated as the spirits writhed and convulsed, their dark forms blistering and burning away under the relentless assault of purity.

However, right before he hit the floor—

Zzeeeeeeeeeiiiinnn the screams suddenly turned shrill and thin, piercing through his very thoughts.

Splash!

Confusion flooded Vern as he landed in…something cold? Liquid enveloped his body in an instant, and the fall he braced for never came.

"Wout bwis…" Words failed him, turning into a confused yelp underwater as the liquid rushed into his lungs.

The equilibrium that just took shape in his thought space flipped on its head and reversed its course entirely.

He thrashed violently, the sudden shift of environment disorienting him to no end. Yet, soon, his back met what must be the sea floor.

The water wasn't too deep.

This gave him a purchase to reorient himself and not feel like being in some fever dream. Pushing against the ground, he sat up and took deep breaths, HAhhh Hahhh, that quickly turned into violent coughing.

"What the hell is going on?" he groaned, getting back on his feet. "Where—"

Yet, words left him the moment his eyes processed the harrowing scenery in front of him. Cyan murky water rose and fell around him, sitting beneath a fog so heavy, he couldn't see a few meters ahead of him.

Except for one thing—the bloody hue that pierced through the dense mist. A giant red moon hung high in the sky, blocked only by the occasional gnarled foliage in its wake.

Vern's eyes widened as he took in the sight. That's not how the moon's supposed to look like.

Simply peering at the cosmic body led to new insights blossoming in his head. His almost empty representation began to recharge as new thoughts sparked in his mind.

However, moon was the least of his worries. A shiver raced down his spine as he fought to control his nerves.

How did I get here!?

JUST HOW?

"It doesn't make any sense!" he yelled, his voice drowned out by the churning water. He didn't need someone to lay it out for him. He realized what this place was.

It was the world 'behind the mirror.'

But how in the Lady's name had he landed himself here? Didn't he just turn the tables on the spirits—finding stability in an utterly unstable situation? Then, how did they force him in here?

He'd won, hadn't he?

What went wrong?

His damp hair stuck to his face as his soaked coat became a few shades deeper and heavier because of all that water.

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"New…play. Come! with me!"

Vern snapped his head in the direction of this sudden child-like voice, but the fog was so thick, he didn't even see a shadow. Who is this!?

Yet, his breath caught in his throat when his eyes shifted down into the water. Something was moving under the surface!

Scriiichhhh!!! came garbled yells from all around him.

This is bad! He eyed the amulet in his hand, and for some dastardly reason, the thing was completely out of energy.

What? How?! It should still have two-thirds of the total energy I charged before being forced here. What happened!?

He involuntarily raised his hand, ready to smash the damned thing into the ground.

.

.

.

However, he took short rapid breaths as droplets fell from his eyes, forcefully calming his thumping heart. Breaking it would be a stupid decision.

With a dark look, he gritted his teeth and poured his representation that had refilled a little by peering at the moon into the amulet again. Now wasn't the time for questions. They were coming for him!

Holding the vapor blaster in the other hand, he stood at ready, his mind flitting through possible solutions.

Tch! The only useful conclusion he arrived at was the fact that he'd already damaged the spirits to some extent.

I can still survive this. Surely, they must have wasted a tonne of representation to force me in here.

CLAMP!

Suddenly, something grabbed his feet, and the ground slipped from under him. In a primal reaction, he brought his elbows together and took a deep breath before his head plunged into the water again.

"Ahaha. Come…play!" came that voice again, and its seeming innocence sent a chill down his spine—

Splash!

Bubbles formed due to exertion as he kicked away at whatever was grabbing his feet. No, his eyes could actually see down there. Pale, charred hands emerged out of nothingness, grabbing at his legs.

Vern flailed around, trying to get out of their grip. However, more such hands emerged out of the water, grabbing his knees, thighs, and even torso.

Shit! Shit! Shit!

He rested the muzzle on one of these hands and pulled the trigger—

Bwmm!

A muffled shot rang through the water as the hand fell limp on the surface underneath. But that barely helped. There were more than ten of these.

This won't do, and the amulet isn't ready either! he realized, pouring more energy into the trinket.

Simultaneously, he stopped bothering with the gun and instead unleashed his perception.

For some reason, he still perceived the grayed structural depiction of the emporium. The shades conflicted disastrously with the reality around him, and a bout of mad ravings invaded his psyche almost instantly.

Aghh! He bit his tongue. Why the hell is everything going wrong at the same time!?

He forcefully wiped it clean, turning it into a blank slate. He didn't have the time to resolve these perception conflicts right now.

"New…uncle. Play. Big uncle!" Clap! Splash! Clap!

That juvenile voice continued to reverberate all around him, audible even under the water. Yet the words and the implied actions raised his hair on end.

Since when were these spirits able to communicate? And why is it a…kid?

But he chucked that question to the back of his mind and struggled hard against the bindings, while mentally repopulating his perception. Hopefully, either of his Visions would be able to do something about this bullshit situation.

However, his face turned aghast when he tried to perceive the water around him. It didn't work!

NO! He screamed internally, What the hell!? Why isn't my perception assigning the grays to water by itself!?

He forcefully suppressed the ugly possibilities and kept kicking around as he processed this new departure from the norm.

How could his perception not know to interpret some stupid water? He'd surely perceived water more than a hundred times since the day he got this power. How—

Wait... That's when it hit him. It's not really water, is it!?

Bwamm!

He shot at another arm that was going for his neck into smithereeens, barely keeping up with the situation as the lack of oxygen started to mess with his thoughts.

The rest of the hands continued to constrict around his body, threatening to squeeze him into a pulp

No. I can't back down! he hissed internally. This was it. No one was coming to save him. If Cedric could, he would be in here already.

So he bit his tongue and braced himself mentally. He'd never done this before, and the repercussions were going to suck, but he had no choice.

With a thought, he forcefully assigned the liquid around him exactly the same shades as he would water.

The exact shade of gray wasn't the point, it was the knowledge of how water reacted to his fundamental concept of balance. He had experience with that.

Not waiting for the soft whispers to slowly corrode his mind, he activated Stability Inducement all around himself in one swift blow.

Chik…

His Vision bled red, and a scream escaped his mouth, "Aghhwafg!" coming off as nothing but gurgles.

Yet, the weight pulling him onto the sea floor reduced substantially, and his body became utterly stiff. The water around him lost all its motion and almost became solid, encasing him alongside those macabre hands.

He didn't expect it to be this successful, even if the whispers assaulting his psyche were messing him up in the head.

Double down!

He expertly controlled the shades just around the silhouette of his own body to loosen up and promptly pulled himself away from the stiff hands that tried to push against the almost solid 'water' but failed.

HAhhhh!

With a kick, he finally pulled back out of the water and took a deep breath. Inexplicable particles started appearing within the space he was forcefully stabilizing, and they induced a sense of unease within him.

It's more pollution, isn't it? He frowned, but there were no other options. Even if misinterpreting the liquid around him as water resulted in pollution, he could do nothing about it.

Sprinting away from the grasp of those hands, Vern stopped stabilizing the large area and instead focused it solely on his legs that were submerged in water.

This would make sure they can't just appear around me once again. He should have done this from the start. But well, I didn't expect them to be able to teleport a small chunk of themselves.

"plorvix quinzorflar phantosynx…"

The whispers in his head grew worse and worse, but that was only because of the accumulated damage. It was instead becoming easier to stabilize the small surroundings.

He could feel it. The more he observed this patch of liquid underneath him, the less burden it became to forcefully shade it into a gray.

"Uncle!! Big. Big! Play!" Splash. Plop.

His frown grew deeper as something appeared on the edge of the fog alongside that tender voice that felt wrong.

Keeping one eye on the newcomer, he suddenly jumped to his right.

Skriii

Bangg!

His explosive shot rang true, blowing the head off the already half-scorched number Seven. Its body flipped a few times in the air and disappeared into the water with a huge splash.

Yes! he cheered. That was very much an instinctual move on his part, but if it worked, it worked. He still couldn't believe that a single shot did so much damage.

They're probably far weaker because of the assault of the amulet. Also, pulling me in here must have had a cost, too, he theorized. All good news for him.

If he could just—

"No!!!!! Bad! Uncle bad!" shouted the shadow that seemed nothing like a child as its splashes on the water grew faster and faster, the shape breaking out in a sprint.

The discordant combination of these two aspects threw Vern off-kilter as his pulse raced. He was no match for these things physically.

That's when the body that had just plopped turned into dim motes of light and rushed towards the shadow that cut through the fog.

"Uncle bad! You no play!!" it shouted, jumping high as its grotesque body emerged from the fog, coiling to strike Vern into nothingness.