~Hegatha’s Basement~
All four sub-skeletons went on high alert as a crackling portal formed in a darkened corner of the basement. Jay’s eyes would’ve widened if he wasn’t in the body of Sweeper; instead, its hollow eyes glowed a little more brightly.
But the portal appearing without warning wasn’t the most shocking thing—for through the portal he saw a familiar face, one that made him scowl as it looked down on them with little regard. Blonder hair, blue eyes, and an upturned nose with a disdainful glare.
Matheson. Bastard. He’s helping them to find me. But how? Jay thought, and the Sweepers jaw clenched in anger.
It was as alarming as it was puzzling, but none of it mattered if they found him. Jay had to move.
However, Hegatha rose to her feet. Her body glowed with a coating of energy, distorting the air around her. The other girl in the room, Heather, began to scream in agony. Her body convulsed and boiled, morphing and remolding itself with large bumps as the skin turned to boils and warts.
Jay wondered if he should save Heather, but it was already too late. The mirror portal was sealed. She would likely become food for Hegatha, if the girl survived whatever energies were warping her flesh. But before Jay could do anything Heather and Hegatha’s bodies slid across the room, drawn to each other like strong magnets. As their hands touched, Hegatha screamed in joy.
“I—I remember!” Hegatha’s eyes shot open, broken from her hopeless stupor, even as Heather wailed in agony.
Each eye filled with swirling red energy, resonating with the portal.
Heather’s face scrunched deeper in pain while Hegatha’s grinned with tearful joy. Their skin melted together like hot butter, pulled into one another and mixing in a disgusting mess.
Jay didn’t know what he was witnessing. He could feel their bones, snapping and mixing together faster than his necrotic mana could hope to achieve. Heather’s face crunched in horrifying suffering, twisting into a pain that Jay never wanted to witness. He was tempted to end Heather’s suffering out of mercy with a slit to the throat, but it was too late to save her. Their bodies was already connected and merging.
Hegatha was doing much better, grinning widely in unfathomable ecstasy, moaning in a sickening pleasure. Their heads touched and so did their minds. But Hegatha never stopped yelling.
“I remember everything! I am Heg! Heatha!—Heather! I am Heather!” She screamed as he mouth and eyelids dripped with blood.
Heather? Jay thought, but before he could remember the name the red portal snapped shut, crashing on itself with a powerful pulse of red energy.
Heather and Hegatha’s merged bodies disappeared with it. Wherever they were sent, he couldn’t be sure—but it didn’t matter.
The wave of energy traveled over Sweeper, and as it touched the skeletal frame Jay felt a searing pain, as if the skeletons body was his own. In that moment he thought he had gained its senses but he was sure they couldn’t sense pain, so this was something else.
The pulse pushed into his chest, a hammer to his guts. It separated soul from body, and since his grip on the skeleton was only by the mere [Host] skill, it completely detached him from his minion.
His mind span, writhing with pain as he left its skeletal body. But he didn’t return to his own. The immaterial force sent his mind spiraling into abyssal darkness. Jay was alone again.
~Mirror Reality 34~
The academy castle shuddered.
It was not as secure as they thought. Deep cracks trailed through the walls and pebbles flickered out after dying runes giving up the last of their energy.
Nothing could withstand the assault on reality itself. Darkness cannot comprehend light, and so the immaterial cannot comprehend material, swallowing everything up with little resistance.
As Smiley ran, a glow of red energy trailed from his boot, searing his foot and making each step cut an unstable path into the realm, only serving to break it apart further.
But that was what he wanted. If he couldn’t be free, then no one could. If he died here, then at the very least they would know what it’s like to be caged in, controlled and hopeless, powerless to escape.
However, as Smiley entered the academy’s courtyard, he didn’t see the signs of misery he was anticipating. Some even looked hopeful, which sickened him. A number of students surrounded the teachers, with Norgrim at the center.
“Find them and bring them here.” Norgrim said, and a few students dashed away into the academy corridors. But as he saw Smiley, his eyes narrowed, and he whispered to Evelynn. After receiving instructions from Norgrim, Evelynn marched over and blurted out an order.
“Go to the teleport staging area and bring back a warp charge. There are others who went so there will be a marked path.” She said.
“Why would you need a warp charge? Shouldn’t we all be heading there to escape?” Smiley asked, but Evelynn’s gaze turned cold, unwilling to explain.
“You have your orders. Hurry up and go.” She said, but it was obvious she was hiding something.
“Sure. Ok.” Smiley shrugged, raising his eyebrows as if he didn’t care about the outcome. Evelynn’s face turned bitter, but he turned away before it could change into a full-blown scowl.
Smiley jogged back out of the stone gate of the academy and moved around the wall, out of sight. He saw the markers left by others who had the temporal robes, but he stopped by the wall.
They’re not desperate enough. Not yet. But it’s only a matter of time. Smiley thought with a devilish grin.
As he waited by the crumbling wall its runes glowed brighter, trying to resist whatever forces were at work against it.
He also saw other people in the forest—none of which were moving, frozen in time with desperate looks on their faces, their robes caught in an eternal flutter of stillness, while others weren’t so lucky; some were left the ashes of torsos and floating body parts, some had merged into rocks and trees as pockets of reality lost all logic, rhyme or reason. Even with their powerful variant classes, most of them were no match for the world they found themselves in.
