I am not sure, but I had a strange feeling.

The moment she flinched, I did feel a tug on my mind.

It was definitely not me, nor my other self: I could tell that the mana that was connected to it belonged to someone else.

But it did come from her body, strangely.

Did I manage to wake something else?

Sure, she was an amalgamation of other people, that is if I was to trust what I suspected and from what little information she shared.

If that was the case though, my outburst, while not very strong, should’ve got the attention of something that was the strongest, right? The one who was on top of all the consciousness'?

Wasn’t that supposed to be me?

Apparently not, because a moment later, to the pressure I felt on my mind joined another one, that did definitely belong neither to me, nor to her.

She was not expecting that, and was as surprised as I was. To the point that she receded a little bit, going on the defensive herself.

Sadly, it didn’t give me much room to work with: It didn’t seem like the other presence was targeting her, only me.

She noticed that as well, but that only made her more defensive, almost completely withdrawing.

Why?

If I was her, I’d double down and attack with my newfound ally. Why would she be so defensive…? Almost like she was scared…

Wait.

Did she know that presence?

Hoping to glean a little bit of information, I focused once more, trying to repeat what I did before, but this time instead of bombarding her with a sudden noise in her mind, I just wanted to listen to what was going on in her mind.

What I heard was… unsettling.

Mana?

Who?

Danger.

It was a bunch of singular words that alone weren’t saying much. Was it because I was too focused on something else and I wasn’t picking up everything?

Or was she really that chaotic and her thoughts scattered?

But, the more I was listening, the more I was starting to understand.

Again.

Reborn?

Survived?

Impossible?

Him.

Attack.

Don’t.

Not.

Defend.

Two.

More?

How?

It definitely sounded like she was confused more than anything.

But, I didn’t have time to wonder what that was about, because I was in a lot more trouble than I thought before.

The first time I peeked into her mind, I managed to somehow fend off the attacks on my mind, but I guess I was lucky.

Not this time.

The moment I was in her head, listening, I felt something in me break.

It was a very unpleasant and unexpected feeling, and I pulled back as soon as I realized something was wrong, but it was too late.

A surge of power was pulsing inside me.

It was similar to the time when I got zapped with condensed light magic, when I was getting melted alive. But now, instead of pain, I felt pressure from inside. Like I absorbed way too much mana.

To be honest, I didn’t know it was possible. Well, I didn’t really try to reach my limits this way, so I guess I shouldn’t talk about that, but still.

Something was building inside me, and it was not letting up.

Reflexively, I wanted to release mana, to relieve some of that pressure, but I could not. While my mind was still my own, I couldn’t control my own magic, and it was building more and more. Just like an oversized balloon, I felt swollen and…

Crack.

The noise was something between cracking ice and breaking glass. And it was echoing through my head painfully, making it even harder to concentrate.

Crack.

Again, the same noise. Even louder. Even stronger reverberating through my whole body.

It was also accompanied with a dull pain in my head.

Crack.

Once more. This time, it also blinded me. A white light had overwhelmed my eyes, and the echoing noise overwhelmed the rest of my senses.

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Crack.

Repeat. But this time, I didn’t manage to keep my own body standing. and fell over, rolling onto the side like a rag doll.

And, like a rag doll, suddenly I felt myself being flung back somewhere.

Blinded, deaf, paralyzed and controlled by a rogue AI.

Great.

Almost like when I was on the desert. At least this time I had a bit more limbs. Too bad I couldn’t move them at all…

I only managed to roll a little bit to one side. But when I did, I felt that under me there was… rubble?

Well, at least the crashing noise in my head stopped, and soon also pain slowly started subsiding.

Progress.

I don’t know what kind of spell she managed to use, but it was very effective. If that was even her.

From the last words I heard from her, she sounded confused, so I guess not everything was going according to her plan.

But, I couldn’t do shit with that. I had to focus on regaining my senses at least, to understand what just happened to me.

It was harder than I thought.

While this time, I was not mana starved, I still was completely scattered: my head was not still working properly.

I could form regular thoughts, but couldn’t form them into spells, instead when I actively tried to do that, the pain only was returning along with the white light in my eyes.

Speaking of blinding, while I still couldn’t see, the light was only appearing along when the pain was coming to me. If not for that, I’d be in darkness this time.

Well… that made some sense. I was using mana to perceive everything around me. And since I lost control over it, I guess I was going to be blind for a while.

Okay, something different then. Movement.

Yeah, also a big nope.

I tried moving my fingers, or anything for that matter, but nothing was happening. And it was not like I wasn’t strong enough… it was like there was no response at all. Like there was nothing to move. No feeling or anything.

If I had a spine, I’d say I probably broke something important, but that couldn’t be the case, right? My body was such an abomination that simple anatomical limitations weren’t going to be the problem here.

Okay, maybe talk then?

Nah, since I couldn’t move a finger, how would I move my mouth?

Stupid idea.

Okay… what’s left… hearing?

Could I listen to what’s going on?

…

Finally, something!

…

I could hear someone… talking? Yelling?

-How did you get here?! Did he summon you?!

It was ILMA.

Did she make Kon fix her face?

She had to, I guess, unless she learned how to do that herself…

But who was she talking to?

-What are you, even?!

Well, whoever that was, she was not getting an answer.

But, thanks to them I had a great distraction on my hands… too bad I was not in shape to fight her…

I kept thinking about that…

What exactly happened?

I think I exploded, I guess from too much mana in my body… Maybe ILMA trying to completely take over my mind was enough to overload me…?

Can’t be. I already had her in my head multiple times. And not only her. Every time it went smoothly and definitely not any close to what happened here…

But, whatever happened, I had to fix myself as soon as possible and either run away or fight…

Running away was the most sane option. Fighting was most likely a suicide.

Neither of those was going to happen if I was going to lie like that, though.

I tried to muster all my strength to at least prop myself up, but that was not happening.

Meanwhile, the mysterious person apparently was on the move.

-What are you doing?! What… what…

I heard footsteps… heavy footsteps. And something that sounded like rock grinding against another rock…? And then…

A surge of mana.

Someone was touching me. I couldn’t warn them to stop, my ability to drain magic being the only thing besides my hearing that was working right now. But whoever they were they would surely notice that, right? It’s not like I could be stealthy about that. Neither did I want that.

But, they did not stop.

Hell, instead, they even funneled more by themselves.

That even got me worried.

Not about their well-being, no. I was worried that I was going to explode again, who knows what exactly prompted that, and adding random mana to this volatile mix was not the safest of choices…

But, nothing bad happened. Instead, my mind got a lot clearer.

Ah. I get it.

It was not like I was unable to control mana.

It was that I just didn’t have any to begin with.

I guess that makes sense.

Finally having a little bit more in me, I tried focusing again, to see what’s going on… and this time, it worked.

While it might not have been the clearest of images, I managed to see… well, something. Making me even more confused than before.

My body… was completely destroyed.

Yeah, no wonder I wasn’t able to move. I was just a head. Literally. Nothing below the neck.

And holding the side of my head was… a creature…? A remnant…?

Something akin to it.

It had a similar body to what I used to have and what ILMA looked like, but it was incomplete. No facial features. Well, no features at all. It was like a sculpture that was barely started.

The color and texture was similar to the stone that the island was made out of, with sprinkled pieces of see-through crystal. Suspiciously familiar crystal.

The creature… the person noticed that I was awake and lifted me off the ground, holding me by the back of my head.

I wanted to say that it should put me down before I drain too much, but for naught.

I couldn’t speak.

It would’ve been pointless anyway, because a moment later the mana that was pouring towards me had stopped.

They did it?

I could only assume so.

Whoever that was, they were just looking at me with… I wanted to say curiosity, but there was no expression on that blank face.

It’s hard to make one without any features, you know.

ILMA, till now standing wary and next to For and Kon who she was using as a shield, now peeked out and yelled towards us.

-I don’t know what you did, Mor, but that’s not going to work on me! Look at yourself, you only managed to destroy your own body!

Ah. So it was not her who did that?

I had my suspicions, but now she just flat out admitted it. But she thought that I did that? I mean… I guess there were a lot of nutjobs around that would gladly blow themselves up just to have a chance at defeating someone…

I couldn’t reply to her. Not like I really wanted to, but that couldn’t be said about the other one.

Hearing her voice, they turned, and I swear I felt their mana flinch for a second.

-Where is Iloa?

They spoke? Without a face?

I mean, that’s hardly weird at this point, but fuck that, that’s not the most surprising thing!

If I wasn’t so crippled, I’d be speechless.

And so was ILMA. Just as stunned as I was.

Because the voice we heard inside our heads we were very familiar with.

And it belonged to none other than Axelrod.

Mike.