The fact that she didn’t chant the spell made me fuck up.

It was not just a wall she created: the main issue was a pit, very nicely hidden behind it, the size of maybe three people, and about twenty meters deep.

When I noticed it, it was already too late and I was falling down the hole, moments later landing on the bottom.

Good thing she didn’t think of making the bottom spiked or something.

I would’ve probably survived the fall, if not broke the traps at the bottom meanwhile, but that doesn’t mean I was not spooked.

But, it was not just a pitfall trap.

As soon as I reached the bottom, I realized that the light suddenly got darker…

It was the slab.

When she created that wall in front of me, it was not just for me to be lured inside this hole.

No.

She wanted to plug the hole with it.

What can I say, that was quite a clever solution.

If my mana doesn’t work on those things, why not, right?

I mean, I can’t exactly disintegrate a slab of rock…

At least not without a lot of effort.

Seeing the rock fall on top of me, I started preparing to do just that.

But I gathered mana for nothing. It stopped before reaching me, enclosing me in a rather large stone cube.

-Fucking really…? - I groaned, seeing absolutely nothing.

I know it was not her intention, but besides trapping me, at least temporarily, she managed to blind me.

There was nothing to see with regular eyes, nor with my enhanced senses: everything surrounding me was dead. Even the slab was barely magical: she only carved it out of regular rock, not conjured it herself, making it as mana-dead as the rest of the stone that this island was made out of.

-You know it’s not going to stop me, right? - I yelled in the darkness, not getting an answer.

But, speaking of lack of an answer.

I could not feel her any more.

Hell, I couldn’t feel anyone at all.

It was a bit strange, but not completely unexpected: the material my temporary prison was made out of had to be pretty resistant to magic, or at least to the residual mana I mean.

After all, she had no problem manipulating it.

And I was about to do the same.

I focused on the stone in front of me.

I was not going to pull my punches, so my first attempt was going to be just melting the damn thing.

I pressed my hand, or rather a stump, against the ceiling and pushed my mana upwards.

-Wesnoho.

It… didn’t work?

Hell. That was unexpected.

Did my spell fail…?

I could tell that I did manage to gather mana, and that my spell was correct… but the stone was not heating up.

Was it really that resistant to magic? Cannot be… right…?

Hell. If not that, I am going to just try and meld the rock. Same way as the corridors were made through mountains.

That has to work, right?

-Visu, gmyo!

Once more, I felt my magic flow and just fail.

The stone was better than expected. Fuck, why did For not try and make her jail out of this thing? Would’ve been a lot more effective than just the Origin Crystal.

But then, how was she manipulating this thing then?

Wait. Is it really that easy?

If magic doesn’t work, use brawn, right?

Without much of a thought, I punched the stone that was right above my head, sending a handful of sparks everywhere.

It was not the best idea I have ever had, I have to admit.

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See, my spells were not exactly working. So, where was the mana from those going? Back to me?

Nope. It was hanging around in the air, like some kind of lingering gas.

Gas that I just ignited with my punch.

I probably should’ve known that it was going to happen, yet I blissfully forgot about that.

The explosion was rather powerful.

The potency of “fuel” and the small size of the “container” made it even more volatile.

That had some bright sides and some not so good consequences.

Good news: I was free.

The explosion that shook the whole island has cracked the stone, sending shrapnel everywhere, like a very weird geyser.

Bad news: not only shrapnel was sent everywhere.

I also got tossed up. Along with For, Kon and ILMA.

While being flung from the hole, I realized that I not only cracked the top part of my “cell”, but also made a rather large crater in the sheer rock that was now falling apart, the cracks spreading further away.

Good on me. I managed to get out.

Too bad that it wasn’t going to help me much, because I could already see another slab of rock barreling towards me. I didn’t even manage to stand up, and I was already sinking into the ground: she opened yet another hole under my feet, sealing me once more.

Or at least that’s what I thought she wanted to do.

True, I was trapped, but this time, the rock that was above my head wasn’t as dim and mana-dead as before.

It was fully infused and thanks to that I did retain my spatial awareness. Not like it was helping much.

But, since it was infused, it had to mean that I would be maybe able to manipulate it this time, so I immediately focused on my target, trying to move it aside and once more try to escape…

But that was a mistake.

When I saw it infused, I thought it was just some remaining mana from where she tossed it at me. Or just some residuals from it being exposed to elements.

I didn’t expect to feel a full brunt of her own consciousness barreling towards my mind.

It was not just a rock.

It was an Origin Crystal. And I just walked right into it.

I am not sure how, but she managed to stuff a lot of her consciousness into it, and was now trying to ram it right into my brain.

A bit of a brute force tactic, but definitely a very viable one, as demonstrated.

At first, I thought nothing of it.

I was certain of my own abilities and thought that I had enough willpower to just shrug it off and again try cracking it with my physical strength…

But nope.

Not only I wasn’t able to shrug off her advances, I slowly started getting pushed back.

It caught me so off-guard that I just froze on the spot, which made it even easier for her: the lapse in concentration was enough.

I could feel the whole mass of her trying to get into my head.

But, that also had some interesting side-effects.

First off, I managed to understand what exactly I was dealing with.

It was not just her. Or, rather, not only one of her.

It was like an infinite amount of her copies, each of different size and strength, were working together to get into my head.

Some were even already there.

That scared me for a moment: did that mean that I already failed? That she already had control?

But no. It’s not like I failed at defending.

They were with me all along. Via a certain backdoor.

Those were the remains of connections I had with For and Kon.

Even realizing that was painful.

It meant that indeed, she had the control over their minds, to the point where their souls were merged with hers, letting her use this back-door.

Good thing that those were pretty weak, because if not for that, I’d already be in her palm.

But, bad news: that meant it was only a matter of time before she was going to get inside my mind and gain complete control.

I needed to break free, and quickly.

Easy to say.

I still had my mind mostly intact, but that didn’t mean I could fight back.

The most immediate tactic, aside from just mental attacks on her mind, would be to attack her and break her concentration.

That was, of course, impossible, in current circumstances.

Even without my mana being now shaken by her presence, I didn’t know where to even target.

I didn’t know where she was.

The second most obvious method was to get more distance from her.

Also hard, being stuck in a hole.

I probably could use some kind of spell to get away, but only if I was able to focus my mana on something else than just fending off her minds.

Not good.

She might not have been an overwhelming opponent by herself, rather I’d say she was on par with me.

Too bad she had reinforcements.

And a lot of those.

How nice would it be to have help myself… but I doubt that even if that was the case, they would’ve had to be very powerful to even come close to being even. Like another me…

Well. I did have a copy of me, didn’t I?

I wonder what happened to him?

Considering that he was not so long ago inside the body that was right there, I didn’t like his chances.

Didn’t mean I was not going to try, though.

But, to try? What does that mean?

I was already in a tug of war that should definitely wake him up, if he was out of it. I mean, he had to be, right? He would’ve reacted if it wasn’t the case.

I would.

I decided to go with the simplest solution. Those were usually the best.

I focused on her mind, and while trying to not lose concentration on trying to rebuff her attacks, I shouted both with my mind and my mouth:

-WAKE UP!

The effect was immediate. Maybe not the one I expected, but it still helped.

She flinched. Be it because of my sudden outburst, or that she heard me directly inside her head, I don’t know. But it definitely gave me some room to breathe, at least for a moment. Thanks to that I managed to get a bit more of a grasp on my own mind back.

Good.

But, judging by the return of the pressure, I didn’t manage to do anything to wake up the other me.

Or… did I?