With imminent death approaching I had little time to think over my options and decide how I should protect myself. The arrows were covered in magic so the void spell wouldn’t be able to swallow them up and blocking all of them with a single spell is impossible because every magic type has a weakness. Opposing magic types have an easier time breaking through each other and in that case the defending spell is at a huge disadvantage regardless of magic power used. I had no single reliable way to completely avoid or protect myself from both the arrows covered in magic and the figure.

With time quickly ticking down and no easy action in front of me to take, I simply panicked. In a desperate attempt to protect myself I constantly and randomly cast whatever I could with the five types of magic I knew. Many spells hit nothing and flew off the building, but what matters are the spells that did hit. A fire spell managed to hit and burn up the arrow that I assume was dipped in Water magic. A strong gust of Air magic sent the arrow made with Earth magic flying off the roof. That same strong gust blew a bunch of Water magic onto the arrow lit up with Fire magic, thus making it lose all of its momentum.

I got lucky for the fastest arrow propelled and directed by Air magic. Was it even fired from a bow? Eh, I guess it doesn’t matter right now, luckily the arrow headed directly into a wall created with Earth magic. It then unluckily penetrated the wall because Earth magic is shit at defending against Air magic. Its speed was decreased, but since the person using Wind magic could just boost its speed with magic my only hope was to completely stop it. 

I tried Fire magic but the wind surrounding the arrow just died down any flames that got close. Water magic is pointless because the wind would just scatter it, so I was only left with trying Shadow, and Wind magic. I prepared to use Air magic to change the arrows trajectory, but my preparations proved useless because the arrow immediately crashed into another wall that it failed to penetrate. Did the person controlling it just give up on changing its direction and speed or something? Shit, I don’t have the time to get distracted right now.

In case there were arrows left I had somehow missed, I continued to shoot out random spells in every direction aside from in front of me. I couldn’t risk an arrow embedding itself in my neck just because I was distracted by the figure. Nor could I risk paying too little attention to the figure and risk getting stabbed, even if the sword potentially can’t hurt me. 

A few seconds later the figure had soon reached me and prepared to strike, but I had already created a plan to deal with his sword earlier. Full of confidence I activated my void spell to absorb his sword. Of course this is when everything just had to go to shit. “Fuck! Ow ow ow!” My right eye became blinded and sent a searing pain through my head. I could still see through my left eye, but I soon reflexively closed my eyes and collapsed to the ground as the pain became more intense.

I did my best to ignore the pain and pried open my eyes. I was struggling to stay conscious as I looked up at the figure. “Should’ve listened to me girl. With how many times I showed you my power tonight, only an idiot would continue to think they stand a chance against me. If you got rid of that silly little thought you wouldn’t be in this situation. However, you didn’t and it is only right that you face the consequences.” He lifted up the sword in a flamboyant way and prepared to strike. 

The pain in my eye continued to unnaturally grow until it was impossible to focus on anything. I simply gave up as the pain blocked out my thoughts. It hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts.

The pain suddenly disappeared as quickly as it appeared. I slowly went about regathering my thoughts. In time I uncovered my eyes and saw nothing. The world around me was nothing but darkness without a form, as if I was inside a building with the lights out. I have no clue what happened, but the darkness was extremely calming to me and I stopped worrying about everything. Inside the darkness there is nothing to worry about, nothing that can hurt me. The darkness is so calming and I’m kind of feeling a little drowsy.

Shit, falling asleep here would be a bad idea especially with how unnaturally quickly I became tired. I got up and then immediately collapsed again, almost passing out in the process. Why am I so exhausted? I tried to splash some Water magic on myself, but I felt no magic power being used. I kept trying over and over, yet nothing ever happened. The only conclusion I can come up with is that I had somehow used up and completely stopped recovering my magic power. I’d love to figure out what’s happening, but I should prioritize staying awake first.

I stood up… and then immediately fell over once again. I should have learned my lesson earlier, but I guess crawling is my only option. So I just did my best to crawl in one direction and eventually I passed through an unnatural wall of darkness. Past the wall was the normal nighttime scenery, which is quite weird. Surely there should have been some fires still burning or random walls still standing from when I panicked. The scenery only got weirder when I turned to look at the wall I passed through.

It wasn’t a wall, but actually a giant dome of darkness that was slowly growing in size. Anything the darkness got near would disappear and add to the dome, making it wider. What the hell is even going on anymore. I once again stood up so I could get a closer look and this time I didn’t fall down. I actually feel really energized and I can even feel that I have some magic power back. Is this another weird animal soul thing? I think I vaguely remember Nyx telling me that an animal becomes energetic and stronger when they have a lot of magic power stored up compared to having very little. Was I only tired because my magic power somehow ran out?

Whether I'm right or not doesn’t really change anything so I guess I should focus on investigating the dome of darkness that seems suspiciously like Shadow magic. Getting close to it doesn’t tell me much so against my better judgement I stuck my arm inside. I quickly became very tired and almost collapsed again. My magic power was also gone. In other words, I should stay as far away from the dome as I can. Since I can’t teleport away right now I just ran to the edge of the roof and started to think.

Considering the dome is very likely what’s absorbing my magic power I can confidently say it is magic. I believe it has to be Shadow magic because the giant dome of darkness doesn’t really fit other magic types. However, I’m not aware of any spells from any type of magic that actually absorbs magic, even from animals. There is a Nature spell that weakens animals and restricts their power, but it doesn't actually absorb anything. Even if a spell that completely absorbs magic does exist, why does it also seem to be absorbing the world around me? 

If there was magic power inside everything in the world it should only suck it out of the object like it did for me. The results of the spell seem to suggest the world around me is fake and created entirely from magic… No! I refuse to accept that theory! It’s too similar to when my mind got trapped in my soul. There shouldn’t have even been anything for the Shadow magic to mix with in the first place. Er… Wait, I guess I was constantly using other magic when I tried to cast the void spell. 

The timing does coincide with the sudden pain which could have been caused by my Shadow magic mixed with something else. The figure disappeared after the pain disappeared as well. Is my theory really true? But wait, didn't the figure constantly mention some confusing stuff about illusions and how this was 'their world.' Maybe he was speaking literally and they did something instead of me? I feel like everything is kind of mixing together and I can't tell what's true and when everything started being fake.

I guess the only way to test if everything is currently fake is to find someone and throw their body into the dome. If they disappear then I guess everything and everyone but me is fake. Hopefully they don't disappear because that could mean me and many others ended up in the figure's 'world.' I just hope all of this ends soon. I'm really tired of constantly being confused and having to carefully consider everything that happens.

Topgun1908

I don't really have an excuse for why this chapter took so long to come out. It was mostly finished alongside the previous chapter, but then I got a new job and then I got addicted to playing Splatoon 3 so I just kind of forgot. Who even remembers what happened during these last few chapters with how long its been. I had to reread a bunch of stuff just to finish writing this chapter.