Suddenly, I had a bad feeling about this.

Didn’t I feel him gather mana a moment ago? Well, moment to him at least.

And… there weren't any spikes trying to pierce me any more…

Since I was so close, he should’ve at least tried to skewer me with something.

Please, don’t tell me he was as prone to exploding as everyone else I’ve met so far…

I quickly removed my hand, dashing away, back to my earlier position and prepared for the inevitable boom…

Which did not come.

Luckily, he was not that desperate.

At least not yet.

Or, the time for me was so different that he didn’t have time to go through with it yet.

If so, I had to move.

There’s no time for fooling around any more. If he was to blow up, we had to get away from here as soon as possible.

Fuck that guy and his spells. With this speed, I could get away before anyone could notice. The only problem was that we were locked in…

I mean, a minor inconvenience, that is.

I could always force my way out.

I turned away from him and focused on the door.

It was locked shut, no lock or handle to be seen.

Whatever. My body was pretty sturdy already, I could just use stone again and…

Well that was problematic.

Sure, I could use stone and bust my way out. But, if I was to cast a spell, it would be as slow as anything now. Annoying.

But…Could I do it with my bare hands, maybe…?

That was a good question.

I mean, I was enhanced by mana. I could try…

I placed my hand against the door and tried pushing at it.

Yeah, that was not going to work.

After crushing stone with my bare hands I kind of hoped that would be easy… but I guess that's just the Crystal that was that weak, not that I was strong.

Whatever. I still had a better crystal as part of me. Sure, my hands weren’t enhanced, but I still had plenty of my body that had been crystallized.

Like my feet.

First, I just tried pushing on it.

At first, I thought that it was not working at all, so I just stepped away…

To see a rather clear footprint that I left in the door.

Ha. So that could work.

Fuck being discreet then.

I kicked the door open.

Or, wanted to.

What happened was more like me making a dent in a tin can.

As I was pushing through, the doors started moving away like they were made out of paper. I even managed to break off some pieces that were now hanging in the air, defying gravity.

Or rather gravity didn’t have enough time to work on it yet.

It took about four “kicks” for me to make an exit that I would be able to pass through.

All the time I was keeping an eye on the “janitor” behind me.

Sure, he was slow, but at this point I sort of expected for him to finally be able to somehow retaliate.

But, it didn’t seem like it was the case.

I managed to get back out to the corridor. From there it should be a straight way up to the exit. Or any window for that matter.

Well, yes and no.

Yes, sure, there was just a stairway that I knew led up to where some exit should be, but there was a different problem.

Fire.

Yeah, up till this point, it managed to reach us here.

It already was just outside the door and going down.

Of course, it was slow, but so what? I couldn't really avoid it or anything… I had to go through it or somehow extinguish enough of it for me to leave. And that was not happening with this kind of ability active. Any spell I’d make would take ages to form.

Sure, I could try and go back to regular speed, but then I’d have to worry about superspeeded janitor on my ass.

If I was fully crystal, there would be no problem with me just walking through it. Too bad I was still plenty fleshy.

I probably could just walk through it, but the burns would hurt as hell. I would be able to heal them in time, but…

Yeah. What about time?

If I was to be hurt, how would I feel that?

Would the pain be delayed? Or would it be spread along a very, very long period of time?

Or both?

I didn’t want to answer that question.

So, I just decided to toss copious amounts of water to make my way towards the exit.

Of course, nothing happened. Or, at least not yet.

Just as expected, the spell didn’t work instantly. It was going to take time for it to activate.

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I guess it was either waiting or stopping this “speed up”.

It didn’t take me long to decide: of course I was not going to stand there and look at the wall for the next hour or so.

But, there were some things I was going to do first.

If I was going to go with that, there was the main problem of the janitor trying to make my life difficult once more.

Sure, he wasn’t the most threatening one, especially now, but who knows what he could do with an arsenal of that volume. No, if I was to have him behind me, I had to do something…

Something simple and clean…

I smiled to myself.

-Visu.

The spell was active, sure, but was going to take its time. Just like with water.

But, I was happy to know that the moment I return to normal, it’s going to take hold.

Plugging the hole with a large stone should be fine, right?

I considered trying to melt down the door, or meld rather, to fill the gap more seamlessly, but what was the point?

It would only take a lot longer and it’s not like I cared about aesthetics right about now.

The idea was simple, but I still had to first disable that ability…

Yeah, and that was the problem.

Honestly, I had no idea how.

Hell, I wasn’t sure how I even managed to activate in the first place.

At first, I thought that it was just the stream of mana that I focused on was what did the trick, but quickly realized that it was not the case.

What was weirder though, I was not feeling any drain at all. I thought that kind of effect would’ve been at least tiring. But I was fine. More than fine.

That should be impossible. I already knew that this had to be using mana.

Could that mean… that I was working on borrowed time…?

Or well, maybe not borrowed.

Since my time was completely fucked, did that mean that sure, I was being drained, but also so slow that I wasn’t able to feel it?

I mean, that would make sense, considering…

Just the question was, how do I even break something that I don’t feel draining me?

And that was not the only spell that was affecting me. Just moments ago I also did cast that wave of water to get rid of the fire… or at least attempted to. I mean, it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world if that was to fail and I had to do it again, but still.

Eh. Pain in the ass.

It was either having to wait or trying something weird again.

I could be patient, but…

I was not going to.

Who was the one that I knew that used this spell pretty effectively?

Mike.

And where was he?

In my head.

Well, not exactly in my head. It was more like I was inside his, but still.

Last time, he was unconscious. So I guess having him answer my question was not going to be easy…

-Mike…?

I attempted to talk to him.

I already had quite a bit of experience in this… “interspirit” communication. It’s not the first time I’ve been sharing a body with another person, so I thought I would at least reach him…

-I know you’re there. Are you awake…?

Nothing.

-Still recovering? I know, that’s a bit sudden, but you know who I am. We have a bit of a situation…

I tried explaining to him, even though I was not getting any response. But for naught.

I was sort of hoping that the longer I was talking, the easier it would be for him to… catch on, so to speak.

You know, like catching the radio waves. The longer you try and are sending the message, the easier it is to pinpoint the signal.

But, it didn’t feel like it was working.

At first, that is.

And no, I didn’t get any answer. What I got back was… well, different.

It was a feeling.

It was not the first time I got that either, so it didn’t catch me off-guard. It was some kind of progress, at least!

What I got was just a small hint of fear and surprise.

Well, yeah, no wonder. I managed to take over his body. Honestly, at this point it was strange that there was no anger mixed in there.

-So, you heard me. Good. Can I count on any assistance?

I didn’t expect an answer.

And didn’t get one.

I wasn’t even certain if he could talk. By all accounts, this could be just me feeling his subconsciousness, and he was still out.

Didn’t mean I was going to stop trying, though.

I had time. After all, the spell that I cast was working. Slowly, but surely. I already could see a bit of water forming where I was standing not so long ago. At least for me, that is.

While talking bullshit, trying to communicate with Mike, I was peeking towards the hole that I left after leaving the basement, to keep an eye on the janitor.

My earlier spell had started forming some stone inside the opening, but it was barely anything, so I could still see right through the hole. Hell, some of the scrap that was left after my passage was still in the air.

On the other side the janitor moved.

Not much, but enough to be sure that he knew that something was up. I couldn’t tell what exactly he was trying to do, but he definitely was trying to go somewhere.

Was he chasing me?

Maybe. Probably.

No matter, after the hole is sealed, I’d have enough time to escape. And in the worst case I can just do this thing again and zoom out. Should work out.

After a couple of minutes, my efforts had finally brought some kind of effect.

And I don’t mean spells.

It was my communication with Mike.

I finally heard him.

At first, I thought that it was my senses that were messing with me.

What I heard was just a constant, low humm, that was hardly anything. But it was steadily and very, very slowly getting louder.

It was more distracting than anything, and I couldn’t understand what I was hearing even. Some kind of aftereffect of the spell? A distorted sound of mana or something weird? Does mana even have sound?

Well, I wasn’t that far off.

It was just distorted speech.

In hindsight, it was obvious. Since I had my time stretched to the utmost, you can imagine what a regular conversation, or just a singular word, would sound like.

A distorted, long noise. That was slowly changing.

I definitely was not going to understand that.

The fact that he was able to say something meant that he was awake, so I guess that was a plus. At least I knew that he was conscious.

Too bad that didn’t help me in my current situation.

Hm. That was inconvenient.

I was not expecting this ability to work like that.

Sure, my time was fucked up, but I thought that it would be as weird for Mike as it was for me: after all, we were sharing one body. But, judging from the noise, that was definitely not what was going on.

Thinking back, when I saw him move impossibly fast… he probably was in the same boat.

Yeah… If it was different, I’d also see everything slow and not him being quicker.

Damn. I was sort of banking on that, though.

How in the hell was I going to communicate with him like that, then?

Speech is pointless. There was no way in hell I was going to talk so slow he would understand me, besides, it would just defy the whole point of me trying to disable this shit.

Use emotions?

Sure, those would appear instantly, but then what?

I get angry or something and how exactly is that going to help?

Annoyed, I groaned to myself.

-Argh! This trick is more annoying than it’s helpful! I essentially lost my voice…

Hah.

That reminded me.

It was not the first time I wasn’t able to talk. But back then, I could just magic my way out of it. Not like now, spells would…

Wait.

I didn’t have to use spells.

Last time, I used writing.

Why not now?