Tzuf

Sorry this chapter is a bit late, anyways, enjoy!

’Perhaps this wasn’t the best idea’ John thought to himself as he settled in the darkness that he now found himself in. It was a strange experience, entering yet another mindscape. This one, however, was quite different. It was much more concrete, and John felt the weight of this world, unlike the dreaminess that had permeated Brad’s.

The heaviness of it settled on his mind, making him feel awful. Like he was having a migraine, doing a hard math question, and trying to think of nothing all at the same time. Regardless of that strange headache, he knew he had to move. As John felt that this time, that there would be consequences if he didn’t succeed. 

For a minute, he scrambled around in the darkness with only his sense of touch guiding him, until he finally remembered his light spell. An orb of light appeared suddenly and showered the area with dull white rays. John could see just a little more now, and that’s all he really needed. 

The young man had found himself in front of the entrance to some abandoned building. A giant black structure larger than any he had seen before, with many floors and windows on each. The orb of light behind his head made it possible to see the general shape of the thing, but shadows still creeped around every corner, and wherever he looked darkness lurked. If John had not known that he was only in the mind of a person, he would have been scared beyond imagination. Such was the image before him, that it could only have come from some twisted horror story. 

Somehow he could sense he would find his goal inside the building, and so he entered it. The interior was even darker than the exterior, the soot walls casting a looming darkness that dared him to step forwards and through it. What he entered was clearly a lobby of some sort. Luckily, it was fairly well lit with some small glass lamps that still worked. John Was reminded of a hospital, but it was far too eerie for that. On the walls were signs pointing to wards, labs, and offices. Next to the walls were many couches and chairs, and there was even what looked to be a reception desk near the entrance. 

’A laboratory of some kind then? Judging by those signs?’ John figured. It looked strangely modern for the architecture, and the names on the signs were even more strange, ’Chronomancy? Xenobiology? Cerebremancy? The hell are these names… I know what Xenobiology is but why is there a sign for that here? And are the other two types of magic? I guess it’s for researching magic, then,’ he concluded, yet more confused. Why the mind of a man working for the Council would contain this, John wasn’t sure. But one thing came to him, the man’s title. The Shadow’s Henchman. Something about this place screamed a connection to that name.

Regardless, he pushed on, towards one of the corridors that was labeled with a “To Psychic wing” sign. The familiar word pulled him in, and he hoped to find what he was looking for there. As he went deeper and deeper into the corridor, the shadows grew darker as time went on. Even though the orb of light was still glowing in its dull rays, they crept forward into his vision and its light. Like they were adapting to it. 

Once he started to notice the change, he saw something in the corner of his eye, and it was very clearly moving. It wasn’t very quick or hidden, so he saw it. The twisting of shadows as something moved, the bending of shapes as the thing approached. It resembled a humanoid in shape but with no details, like a flat painting. Clearly intelligent enough to seek out John, but do no more than that.  

Approaching until it was only meters away from John, it just stood there, still. Not moving at all when John wasn’t, and when the Gamer did move, it only followed him at the same distance. Like a formless shadow standing on two legs. He didn’t know what it really was or how long it would remain so passive, but he knew he had to continue moving.

Eventually, he reached a junction of corridors, each with their own sign. They weren’t particularly helpful, each marked with a “mancy” of its own. “Chronomancy” was to the right, “Cerebremancy” was forward, and “Arcanotech” was to the left. Unsure which side was the right one, John continued forward. 

As he entered the corridor leading to the Cerberomancy department, the shadow behind him began to take a different shape. That of a soldier, who was severely injured in multiple places. His legs were cut and bruised and bleeding black drops, on his chest was a clear gunshot wound, and his face was disfigured from burning. 

“Help me…” He cried, his voice shaking and faltering.

That was when John finally turned around, the soldier already far closer to him than the shadow was before. His first intent was to cast Observe, but when he tried his headache became much worse and no popup appeared. It looked like he wouldn’t be able to get any answers. Not wanting to be caught off guard, he summoned a round of Arcane Bolts and shot them into the shadow. It dissolved into a black mess of shapes that fell back into the floor and disappeared into the darkness. John knew he couldn’t afford to shoot bolts haphazardly, so he checked his character sheet. He knew immediately he would have to worry about it. A lot of Mana had already depleted significantly from Orb of Light and he was now at half. Panicked, and with more shadows appearing behind him, he decided to search the nearby rooms. In hopes that one of them would contain a light source. Conserving Mana would be necessary if he was going to make it through this, as the threat of more shadows and worse things was clear. 

After going through a few standard looking offices, he found a small flashlight and some spare batteries. Immediately, he cancelled Orb of Light and for the  split second that no light was on, John could feel a breath on his neck. When the light of the flashlight turned on, there was nothing there. So he figured it was just his mind playing tricks on him.

Exiting back to the hallways, he ventured forwards through the increasingly labyrinthian design of the building. Corridor by corridor he pushed on, his headache only getting worse. It was bearable only by the smallest margin, barely letting him think at all. The shadows began increasing in intensity as well. Once one was destroyed by his bolts, as he noticed it was no longer passive, another one came. A new shadow that moved ever closer and was ever less human. His ever dwindling Mana supply could not manage forever either. 

A while later, he started seeing shadows that were more in the shape of spiders than men, with many long thin legs that moved quickly and inhumanly across the ground. Each one transformed into a soldier before it attacked with black tendrils. Only to be ripped apart by his bolts. The fifth didn’t transform into a soldier, but a small and crying child. Just the idea of ripping that child apart with Arcane bolts turned John’s stomach. When it was only a meter from him and attacked with those same shadowy limbs, he reacted on instinct. Nothing remained as the shadow dissolved into the ground as well. 

His Mana had completely depleted what felt like hours later, when he finally reached another junction. In the small connecting room stood about twenty different shadows. All various degrees of horrific human. John needed a distraction. One that would allow him to get away with minimal risk. Thinking that, he stayed in the hallway, hoping that they would not notice him before he recovered some Mana.

John was leaning on one of the walls nearby, holding his head as the searing pain had only gotten worse, when he was swept off his feet by something. A strike from behind by a long black tendril that appeared out of nowhere.

That resulted in a bolt of pain coursing through his legs, and a second later an even greater pain took his breath away he hit the floor with a very loud thud. Only then did John notice his eyes were closed, when he opened them what he saw was worse. His flashlight had flown across the room and an army of very clearly angry shadows were now standing between him and the other corridors. Behind him he noticed yet another soldier who was quite a bit more vicious than the rest. The twisted man was standing right behind him, having seemingly been the source of the strike. And unlike the others, he had not spoken, nor moaned, nor shown any sign of real humanity. One popup had appeared in the corner of John’s eye, telling him exactly how screwed he really was.

Damage taken: 30 HP lost

He was quite literally on the brink of death. Another hit like that and he would not survive, though he still hoped the fact he was in a mindscape would save him. Mad instinct for survival overtook him. Ignoring the pain flowing through all his body, and the bleeding gash wounds he had not noticed covering his legs. He moved in the quickest manner he was able to. Barely dodging another tentacle attack from the soldier by diving into the crowd of shadows that soon surrounded him. They were not capable of attacking him in this form, he knew that. So with as much force as he could muster he punched and kicked through the crowd of shadows. Breaking them to bits with each strike but his hands slowly losing both their color and their heat.

When he was finally able to get out of the crowd, all he could do was keep running in the only direction open to him, straight. The adrenaline didn’t last much longer, however, and even with the gashes slowly closing up the searing pain returned. At that point, all John could think about through the searing pain was, ’keep moving forwards. I have to… keep… moving… forwards…’ then he blacked out.

As John once again woke up from darkness, he noticed his body showed no sign of the terrible injuries he had taken inside the mindscape. The man he had entered the mind of, Graham, was now lying on the floor. John had no idea how that was possible. He was quite convinced when he blacked out that he would either die of his injuries or suffer torture at the hands of his captor. Stranger still was the lack of a popup to indicate he had succeeded in his mission. As it indicated that he had not just lost memory of doing so.

Regardless of how strange the situation was, he had no time to contemplate how such a thing had happened. Graham was seemingly unconscious and this was John’s best opportunity to get away from his captors. The leather straps tying his hand and feet were still quite tight, but a quick strike with Arcane Bolts did the trick in cutting them off.

Seconds later, John was standing on the ground. He looked around, trying to find what equipment hadn’t stayed in his inventory. It was all placed in a small chest in a corner room connected to the torture chamber. Finding the staff and gambeson once more he equipped them, and stuffed his old clothes into his inventory. Then searched for some way out of the chamber he was in. In one of the corners of the room he found a small spiral staircase. John decided to take it, not knowing where exactly it would go besides up. 

‘Outside, hopefully,’ John thought,

And headed up the staircase a moment later.