For a moment Reed stood at an impasse on the mountain’s staircase. He didn’t believe there were any new discoveries to be made here and contemplated whether to make the long trek back to the stone city or get himself killed to awaken there anyway. For a moment, he considered making another venture into the structure underneath the mountain. He hadn’t been able to look around the room that contained the crimson-wrapped entity his first time there, and he doubted there was nothing of importance contained within. That is, other than the hole opening into a chasm, and whatever thing that lay inside.

Reed instead started to climb up the steps, heading again towards the summit. There was no way he’d be able to accomplish anything in the vicinity of the head-wrapped figure. He could still remember how a graze from the thing had obliterated half of his torso and the way in which it shattered the bone walls with a single attack. Even the two robed denizens fighting atop the peak hadn’t been able to so much as scratch the ivory floors and columns.

It was a short path back to Reed’s vantage point at the top of the staircase. He looked past the ongoing battle and at the three ivory hands protruding from the ground on the opposite side of the peak, or more specifically the crimson lights grasped within two of them. Holding no delusions of being capable enough to take on the robed figures, he instead held a plan in mind. Reed would wait until the conflict brought the two denizens far enough to either side so that he might have a clear path through the structure. After he grabbed one of whatever happened to be producing the light, he’d hurl himself off the edge of the mountaintop which sat right behind the hand statues. Hopefully, the gravel surface and relatively moderate incline would allow him to survive the foolish act.

Reed stood there, still obscured from view, tensely waiting for the opportune moment to strike. There had been several instances in which the combatants moved a fair distance to either side, but he wanted the best circumstances possible for his endeavor, figuring he’d need every advantage possible. Thankfully, he would not have much longer to wait.

The endless brawl dragged the two participants such a distance to the side that Reed knew this was the best chance he was going to get. He hesitated for just a moment, and then the two robed figures clashed. Reed’s head snapped forward, locking on his target, as he took off in a mad sprint. His enhanced physical prowess enabled him to plow through the bodily remains that littered the ground and rapidly close in on the shining red lights. In a matter of seconds, he stood in front of the protruding limb statues.

Clutched within the ivory hands, he could now make out what was producing the crimson light. It was a small item that resembled the shape of a rough gemstone and held a color that matched the luminescence it produced. Reed reached towards the middle limb and snatched the gem out of its grasp while simultaneously ramping up his pace again. The moment he made contact with the object, however, a disturbance rippled through his mind and body.

The sensation of controlling a new limb that came along with the use of his powers had become far more manageable since the first time Reed had done so. However, after touching the gemstone the sensation redoubled. He became discombobulated, stumbling in his mad run and dropping the object immediately, upon which his lucidity came rushing back. Yet, the damage had already been done. The brief moment in which he held the gemstone had been enough to carry him to the edge of the mountaintop at the speed he’d been running.

Reed’s momentum carried him over the edge, unable to retrieve the strange object that had served as his goal. Despite the fact that such an action had been part of the plan from the beginning, his eyes went wide with terror and his limbs swam in the air as he lost contact with the ground. 

Reed felt himself careen off the summit in slow motion. He caught a glimpse of the path down he would take, which only served to heighten his panic. All of a sudden, the mountain’s incline looked so much steeper than he had thought before. The distance looked so much further.

Suddenly, he felt something grab hold of him from behind. That something proceeded to completely envelop him, submerging him in a wave of flesh and blood as bone pierced him throughout. Before he could ascertain what had happened, Reed was dragged back onto the structure adorning the mountain’s peak and promptly ripped into chunks that joined the floor already strewed with remains.

His eyes shot open as deep, frantic breaths rang out through the sparse guest room. He could hear the sounds of television outside the room and remembered the movie he had been watching with his parents. After everything Reed had gone through, only an instant had passed in the real world.

His head rocked back to rest against the chair in which he sat. The noise emanating from the television outside and the warm yellow light that permeated the room helped to ease his mind. As he calmed down, Reed’s thoughts began to drift to what had occurred at the mountain’s summit. What the crimson gemstone had stirred within him.

Like the instinctual awareness that came along with his powers, upon touching the stone he had sensed the domain of his powers expanding. It only occurred for the brief moment in which he made contact with the object, but in that moment he had felt his powers yearning to reach out further than the confines of his own skin. With that stone in his grasp, Reed would be capable of using his abilities on things other than himself.

He spared a glance at the unused, still pristinely made bed across from him before taking control of his powers. His head slouched to the side as he knocked himself unconscious, eyes opening to find himself again within the stone city. Reed got to his feet and began making his way down the street which he always woke upon. As he walked deeper into the city blade grew from either of his arms, and it wasn’t long before he came across the mutated creature with the amalgamation of arms.

The creature rushed towards him, and when the unnatural appendage came spearing towards him Reed dodged out of the way with a simultaneous swing upwards that severed it. Immediately after he lunged forward, and with a sweep of the blade extending from his other hand the creature was bisected at the abdomen. The three segments of its body collapsed onto the stone street, shortly after which the blades of bone clattered to the ground as well.

He continued on his way down the street until reaching the large opening that marked his entrance to the research building. The inert denizen’s head was quickly severed and Reed made his way up the ladder to the platform underneath the massive window. Without taking any time to admire the view, he immediately sat down and began putting his powers to use.

After witnessing the two robed figures duke it out atop the mountain, Reed had realized that he wasn’t taking full advantage of the powers he had been given, or the seemingly infinite amount of time afforded to him. Sitting atop the platform and devoting every ounce of his attention to training — although it didn’t come with the terror, violence, and unnatural horrors that this world provided aplenty — served as its own form of torture. The mind-numbing monotony was awful, but the pain that wracked his body when intentionally mutilating or transforming himself was unending, and only seemed to grow worse the more proficient he got in warping himself.

Nevertheless, he couldn’t afford to shy away from progressing any longer.  Reed’s arms began to grow as he had done when climbing over the wall, and after reaching a sufficient length, they began to unravel.