Alric watching his sister match the Colonel fell deeper into his self-disgust, the feeling of uselessness overwhelmed him as things took a turn for the worse. 

 

The Colonel despite his weakening state began compensating for strength with speed. He infused his entire body with the lightning element which in turn made his attacks incomprehensibly fast. 

 

Trisha was forced to use less of her orbs to cushion the attacks. This resulted in her taking more damage from blocking the attacks. In the end she was visibly beginning to falter under the onslaught. 

 

Images of his father and uncle's beheadings haunted Alric's thoughts, stirring memories of his own impotence during that gruesome ordeal. His teeth clenched, and in a fit of rage and frustration, he slammed his fist into the ground, causing it to seep with his own blood.

 

For a split second Alric felt like he had slipped into unconsciousness. 

 

For an instant, Alric felt as though he had slipped into unconsciousness. In this strange state, he found himself surrounded by an abyss of complete darkness.

 

“So your ears are finally open…” a voice echoed through the void.

 

Intrigued, Alric moved toward the sound and discovered a dimly lit room at the end of the darkness. Stepping inside, he encountered a scruffy, brown-haired man in a white lab coat, meticulously scribbling equations on a chalkboard.

 

“Who are you?” Alric inquired, scrutinizing the man in search of clues to his identity.

 

“I think the better question you should be asking is ‘Who are you?’”  

 

Alric had to ponder the cryptic man’s word a little before realization dawned on him. 

 

“You are me!”

 

Alric said the statement but felt a little confused as he looked around in the white room and corrected himself.  “No, I am you.”

 

"Ding, ding, ding," the scientist chimed in, finally setting the chalk aside and turning to face Alric, a mocking tone in his voice. 

 

“But wait, where are we?” Alric asked, his confusion mounting. 

 

The scientist sighed in exasperation. "Let's not waste time on trivial questions. The answer is always the same."

 

Once again Alric took a minute before he understood the man’s words. 

“This is also me.” realization dawned on him as he continued, “Is this my mind?”

 

The scruffy looking scientist nodded, before slumping down on a seat that wasn’t there before. 

 

“But why am I here?” Alric asked, feeling even more puzzled. 

 

The scruffy man facepalmed himself, feeling like they weren’t making any progress. 

“I told you, the answer to everything is always the same. It's you.”

 

This time Alric immediately understood, “It’s because I wanted to help, Trisha.”

 

The man nodded back, before Alric continued to inquire, “How can you… I mean ‘me’ help her?

I can’t even get close to their battle. Not to mention I’m no match for him.”

 

The scruffy man looked at Alric with a look of disgust before looking back at the board with an unknown equation. 

 

“You know, I spent my whole life working on theoretical equations.” The man paused as  he erased a part of the equation on the board and wrote something different. 

 

“And the one time I decided to break all the rules and mess with the particles I had been observing, well I ended up becoming you.”

 

The man with a glint of regret in his eyes turned to look at Alric. 

 

“Now, all I can do is sit here and watch you all day… fumbling your way through with concepts I only dreamed about.”

 

Alric still felt a little puzzled not understanding where the man was going with his rambling,

“Can you help me or not?”

Alric asked with a look of perplexation on his face. 

 

The scruffy man shook his head, before throwing the chalk at Alric’s forehead. 

 

“You need to stop being so foolish. The entire forces of the universe at your fingertips and all you can do is add a few pounds or remove them?” the scientist looked at him with a condescending gaze. 

 

“You might as well be a dietitian.” He scoffed. 

 

Alric fell even deeper in anger rubbing his forehead feeling the stink of the chalk. 

 

The scientist on the other hand had a look on his face that looked like a man infused with intoxication. He spread his arms wide opening with a look of madness before continuing;

 

“You need to remember. This world is a world where the theoretics are living breathing playthings!”

The man had a look of mad fervor in his eyes as his breathing became ragged. 

 

Alric looked at him like a complete stranger before turning his back to leave the room.

“You are useless.”

 

“No, it’s you who are useless.”

The mad scientist retorted but that response left a ping of pain in Alric’s heart. He was already feeling rage swelling within him but those words felt like the straw that broke the camel’s back. 

 

In a fit of rage Alric turned around and slammed the man against the chalkboard, forcing him to cough up a mouthful of blood.

 

“A barbarian to the end.” The mad scientist said with a muzzled tone. Alric, still maddened by rage, slammed his face into the chalkboard causing blood to flow from the scientist's face.

 

But to Alric’s surprise, his face started to bleed as well and he could feel all the pain he inflicted on the mad scientist. Seeing this Alric pushed him off and began to calm down, realizing the self-destructive nature of his actions.  

 

“Just tell me what I need to know to get out of here.” Alric calming down, said to the scientist who was still trying to catch his bearings.  

The scientist using his white lab coat to clean his face, looked at Alric with a look of pity and perplexation as well,

“I’ve been telling you the answers all along. you just refuse to see it.”

 

Alric's eyes widened as understanding dawned on him, and he began to piece together the fragments of knowledge.

 

In a flash, Alric was pulled from the abyss within himself, returning to the battle unfolding before him. Trisha, battered and bruised, was locked in combat with the Colonel, who showed no signs of relenting.

 

Alric feeling the pain in his body once again gritted his teeth. 

 

“All this time… I’ve forgotten” As Alric spoke he activated the dimensional ring on his finger. 

“Forgot who I was before. I forgot why I wanted this specific magic.”

As he spoke he took out a handful of small x-ray crystals that he had created, a look of madness just like the scientist he had seen before crept up on his face. 

 

“I wanted to bend all the laws of the universe to my will. I wanted to manipulate all the equations I had ever considered…”

As Alric spoke the crystals in his hand began to float as a slight purple glow appeared around the crystal. 

 

“From now on, I will never be useless!”

As Alric said these words to himself the glowing crystals flew towards the Colonel with unprecedented speed.

 

‘Well… at least now I know which side of me really chose this magic.’ Alric thought inwardly.

 

An evil  smirk was plastered on his face as he watched the crystals fly off in the direction of the fight.  

Deep within him, a newfound determination and understanding propelling Alric forward.