After the airship crashed, I must've blacked out… somehow. Can a golem even faint? Apparently yes. A lot of time must've passed because right now, it looks like nighttime. It's dark, and I can't see a thing, not even a tree. Must've crashed into the mountain instead of the Forest of Death. A shame about the airship. That would've made the journey easier. 

Looking around, I now realise it's a bit too dark. Like I'm in an empty void, not a Forest with too many monkeys or a mountain that's too tall.

"Finally, you fell asleep. I've been trying to reach you, but you just won't get knocked out." I heard a voice from behind me, who had an annoyed tone. I turned around to see… me? What? It's a maid clearly made out of rock, precisely like what I was given. The weird thing was that the face was animated. It's blinking, it's smiling, it's moving its cheeks around pretending it's eating even though golems don't need to eat. Wait… it is eating. It just took a bite out of a fruit. 

"Stop staring at me, kinda embarrassing. Stare at everything else in the room instead." I guess I'll do that. Looking around, it's not the black void anymore. It's still rather dark, the walls and ceiling are black, but I can clearly tell they're walls. There's not a lot in this room, but it is rather spacious. There were countless shelves with books on them, and somehow I could recognise they were not from my world. There was also a computer, with a ton of rubbish on the desk it was on.

What has caught my eye is what was on one wall. Shelves filled to the brim with crystal balls. Nine of them are shining brightly, while the rest seem dormant, only a dim light coming out from them. I decided to walk over to one of the bright ones to see it. I looked at it and saw the peak of a familiar mountain… wait, is that Patience?

"You like my balls? Big, round, smooth. I know some girls who'd be jealous."

Why can I see Patience through this ball?

"Cause that's her ball. Yours is the last of the bright ones. Don't bother looking into it, though. You'll just cause this infinite loop where you're looking at the ball that's looking at you that's looking at the ball."

Why do you have these balls?

"Because I'm the Evil Goddess, baybay!"

Wait, the Evil Goddess? Huh? I thought she was split up. Where is this? Why is she here? Why my body? Why am I here?

"I'll answer your questions later, but first, I need to talk to you." She snapped her fingers, and a chair appeared. "Take a seat. I have a lot to tell you. And by a lot, I mean just enough to satisfy, but not enough to give the complete picture. Kinda like… a shoddy attempt at foreshadowing. That's what I'll do. Man, I should stop reading."

I took a seat. "Want some bananas?" She pointed towards a bowl filled with bananas. "Straight from Earth, a once in a lifetime opportunity for you."

I don't think I am capable of eating.

"Well, sucks to suck. All for me, then." She took a banana and started peeling. "Now then… where to start?"

I would like to know why I'm here and you're here. That seems like a nice starting point.

"Yeah, that'd be a good place to start, so fuck that. I'm starting with what Masks are."

Okay then.

"Masks are shards of me… I think that's how it works."

What do you mean you think?

"I basically get an aspect of myself and chuck it out the window. I'm feeling very peppy right now like I could just smile for hours, or shake and cry in my bed, cause I got rid of Apathy. Being unable to love, by the way, is surprisingly not as rough as it'd seem like it'd be."

So we Masks were part of you?

"Nah, nah. Only the Titles. As for you guys… well, I do choose who gets the Mask, but… well, whatever. I've forgotten what my thought process was. Onto the next topic."

What do you mean next topic? Why can't you continue on about Masks?

"Because I didn't really think this whole Mask thing through, all I know is that its part of a plan I have. Let's talk about that plan."

No, no. I want to find out more about Masks.

"Well… fuck you, we're talking about my plan. You see, I plan on basically fucking over the System. Like, throwing that whole thing over the mountain and into space. That'd lead to everyone's death, though, so I'm going to take it slow. Take away the stats first, let everyone keep their Skills and Titles, then kablooey! One day those are gone too. Probably after a few years."

Why are you doing that? Aren't you supposed to be friends with the System Goddess?

"It's because we're friends that I'm doing that. No, I will not explain further. I'm going to let that curiosity of yours just scream because I won't elaborate. By the way, thanks for taking the load of my curiosity. It makes dealing with cliffhangers so much better."

I will admit, your lack of elaboration is annoying me right now.

"Good, I'm supposed to be Evil." She walked over to me, then poked my forehead. "So basically, I've corrupted your System data thingy. Anyone near you will get corrupted, and that'll spread."

Is that why you've brought me here?

"Yeah. I needed a Mask to dump this onto."

Why not the others?

"Patience doesn't move, Insanity is a liability, Love annoys me on a personal level, she should explode, Greed doesn't move for anyone but herself, Bloodlust is too busy being a pissy edgelord baby in her room, and Apathy, Rebellion and Tragedy are actual children. Plus, your curiosity means you'll want to see what happens."

That is true. I do wish to see the outcome.

"Well, good. Now get lost. I don't feel like explaining anything else."

Wait, there's still so many que- 

Then I woke up.

Jarkon

So I'm back. The exams went alright. They were online and open book, or as I like to call it, legalised cheating. Now, I know the Author's Note in the chapter before I left made it seem like I was leaving this series, but after reading it, I've realised that I would like to finish it. Attempt to finish it. Honestly, I should be doing a rewrite, but I also don't want to. Seems like a pain. So, I'm picking up where I left it.

By the way, this story is much more chaotic than I remember it being. Then again, I haven't planned a single thing and I write whatever on a whim. There were a bunch of things I wanted to say, but I guess the most important thing is that I'm here to write again. Though I will say, turns out getting back into a series is harder than starting one. Valuable lesson for next time.