Chapter 652 - Intruder

“Well, that was dumb,” the girl says, sitting with her knees pulled to her chest.

“It was all perfectly calculated.”

“You almost died. You could’ve just let her go now and caught up with her later, but you risked everything just to get back at her.”

“I never said I’m a smart person.”

“Splitting your mind into three parts, accelerating each of them to the point where your brain is almost sizzling out of your ears… that’s not just being ‘not that smart.’”

“Look, there’s a guy I know from the third floor I have to compete with.”

The girl sighs. “So dumb. And your good mood is showing. Izzy told me about it because I hadn't noticed it before, but you really do look more lively, talk faster, and joke more when you're in a good mood. So, you split your mind into three parts. You hid it from Faora and allowed her to take one part into her Mind Palace.”

“She was careless, just as I expected. It’s fun when people underestimate you. A piece of advice from me: if you truly think you have no chance against someone, don't put up a proper fight. Just do enough so they are satisfied with beating you, let them underestimate you, and wait for an opportunity. It always worked on my bullies.”

"You were bullied like that a lot?"

"A bit? Having very young parents, an alcoholic dad, a face everyone apparently wants to punch, and later a sister who ends up in prison for killing that same alcoholic dad probably doesn’t make other kids and their parents like you very much."

"Do...do you wish it was different?"

"I think everyone would want to change some things, but at the same time, if they really did change, I wouldn’t be the person I am now, and someone else would be standing here instead. Well, that guy would possibly be dead on the first floor, served up as food for Cinderbear or that giggling goddamn Phantom Goblin."

“That makes sense. So you allowed for one of your minds to be taken by Faora, and then you followed that link, manifested the second part of your mind in her Mind Palace, and waited for the right opportunity.”

“Yes. [Manifestation] is a broken skill. At first, I wanted to kill her, and if everything went perfectly, I think I could have done that. One of my minds was made to be durable and to get her attention, the second one was made for killing her, and the third was a failsafe. But it changed after I noticed you.”

She stays quiet and doesn’t react to that. So shy.

I shrug, “But I made some miscalculations too. I expected doubled thought acceleration because of her Mind Palace, but somehow it affected even the third mind I kept in my body. But it somehow worked out in the end.”

“I don’t know if you’re lucky, dumb, or just that scary. Maybe all three?”

I take a few steps and stop in front of her. This time, I turn more serious. “The first time I lost. The second time I met her, I was prepared. The third time I see her, Faora will die.”

These words are almost a declaration, and I’m as confident in them as I can be.

The green eyed girl doesn’t even bother to answer.

Sitting in front of her, I ask, “So, Sophie, how is it with you?”

“You probably already guessed.”

“Explain it to me like I’m five years old.”

“Please stop giving me instructions like that.”

“So?”

She pulls her knees even closer. Right now, she looks a lot like Izzy. Even the age seems similar, likely a bit younger, but there are differences, especially in her expressions and the general vibe she gives off. It’s like the real Sophie, but slightly different.

“I’m a fragmented part of my mind. Back then, I attacked her, and she fought back with a mental attack I couldn’t handle. The attack cracked my mind, and to keep it from fully breaking, I split it into multiple parts. I hid some in Blackie and a few in my body. They contain my memories and other stuff. It’s hard to explain properly, since I mostly went by feeling and instinct.”

“That’s a nice, simple, explanation.”

“I know you prefer them like that.”

“I do. So what was this piece doing inside Faora?”

She looks down at her small body and then back at me. “This body, you see, is something like a manifestation of the memories it contains. I probably look like a child because the strongest memory it holds is from when I was that age.”

“You wanted to throw it away?”

When she looks at me, her green eyes are very piercing. “I hate how perceptive you can be sometimes.”

I don’t react to that and just wait for her to continue.

“Yes. The memories and parts of me here are the ones I hate the most. The unforgivable things I did, the impulses I hate, and so on. In that moment when my mind broke, I split them off and left them in Faora’s mind through the connection she had made. As you said, she can be careless when facing people she thinks are weaker than her.”

“And she didn’t notice you there?”

“Nathaniel.”

“Yes?”

“I think if I try, I’ll become a terrifyingly strong mind mage.”

“It seems like it,” I agree.

“Faora didn’t even notice me. Yes, this part of me is tiny and weak, and I was hiding, but Faora isn't weak or inexperienced, so logically, she should have. Instead, I kept improving the way I was hidden. I even siphoned bits of her mana to keep myself stable without her noticing. I watched her, studied her, and planned. Over time, the mental abilities she was so proud of started to seem pathetic.”

Her eyes do not waver at all. “I slowly began to erode her, and in a few years, I believe Faora would be no more. Her mind gone, wiped clean without her ever knowing. And in her place, me.”

"I'm probably not the right person to feel sorry for her, Sophie. Honestly, I think she deserves worse. So if you had a plan like that, why did you show yourself to me?"

Slowly, she burrows her head between her knees, and her hair falls over it until I can’t see her face at all.

“I don’t know,” she mumbles from there.

“Good enough answer, but I think you know.”

She ignores the second part of my sentence and changes the subject, “Why did you agree to join the Primordial Knights, Nat? Don’t you want to start a guild and name it Angry Kittens just to make the others smile, while pretending to be annoyed about it?”

“Sounds like something the 6th floor Nat would do. He was a total weirdo, nearly got played by some dangerous minion. And why would I do that? It costs shards. It’ll also take years before Tess and the others get strong enough, and only then can they start gathering people for a guild. If they want to do it, then I’ll join and we can roll with it.”

“Why join Primordial Knights?”

“To be honest? Weslin is one cool motherfucker, Sophie. I offered him all my shards to keep Luan busy. That guy rejected it all for some reason and then faced one of the strongest attendees in Beyond.”

“It does sound a bit cool,” Sophie agrees. “But you wouldn’t do that just because of that.”

“They have a guild leader with three primordial energies. An S-rank, and rumored to be one of the three strongest attendees currently in Beyond. She also seems to want to go to the sixth floor of Beyond. That makes me curious. Plus, wouldn’t it be more fun to help Primordial Knights reach first place in the guild rankings instead of joining someone already higher? They also have a guy called Doc who apparently wanted to cut me open and examine my body. He might help me with my construct problem.”

“Construct problem?”

“I have three new constructs.”

“…why are you like this?”

“I don’t know. I blame my environment or something. Oh, the system too.”

“You also don’t seem annoyed by my presence in your mind.”

“I’m used to it. I bet after I return you to your body, a few months later, someone else will end up here. Maybe in a hand like Lissandra, as memories like Lioren, or in a memory pocket like you.”

"Lioren… do you miss him?"

"Yes, a lot."

"...it's amazing how you can say some things like that without hesitation."

For the first time in a while, she looks up, and her eyes shine from behind her black hair. “You’re not going to ask me what kind of memory is at my core.”

“Nope.”

“I see,” she repeats.

I nod. “A question. Can you see what I see or go over my memories?”

“Don’t worry. I didn’t do that, and I won’t. If you’re not here, I’ll be sleeping, and I’ll only watch through your eyes, and listen, if you call me. I won’t touch your memories.”

“Got it.”

I walk over to the open window and close it. Even though this is my mind space, the cold air from outside makes it feel freezing in here, and a few snowflakes drift in.

Just as I’m about to leave, Sophie buries her face back into her knees and waves her hand. The window slams open with a loud clack that echoes through the room as I walk out. She stays there, and this time, I black out for real.

***

When I open my eyes, I squint them closed again because the light of an orb reflecting from the surface nearby shines right into my eyes, blinding me.

Weslin moves his head, and the reflection disappears.

"Yo, newbie, you alive?"

"Apparently," I say and cough because of my parched throat. "My bag..."

"Oh, I drank everything you had in there. Some tasted weird, and some were really nice."

I force my sight to unblur and focus it on Weslin.

"I also ate everything in there."

"I hope you upset your stomach."

"Newbie, just say that you hope I shat myself. Oh, and when I brought you here, I threw you on the ground for all the trouble you caused me. You were passed out for two days, and my wounds still haven’t fully healed because of Luan's goddamned Fragment, whatever that shit is."

Almost done checking my body, I thank my constructs for circulating my mana and thermal energy.

"I also used void a few times to deal with thermal energy and mana build-up in your body," Weslin says, cooling down my enthusiasm a little. Then he adds, "Even though I didn’t have to do it that much for mana. Even passed out, your body kept circulating it in that fucked up way you do."

"Thank you, I guess."

"You’re welcome, you little bastard."

I turn my attention back to my body. To my knowledge, there was no part of my mind awake to deal with Mana Cycling, so my only guess is that my body actually started doing it almost instinctively, because of the years I’ve been doing it constantly.

What a nice find. I’ll have to check it out later.

"Thanks for holding off Luan," I add as I move my body into a sitting position.

Weslin, sitting on the chair near me, just shrugs. On his body, I still notice the wounds caused by that short fight. But as quickly as he lost, I realize how incredible it is for him to be in such a state, and more so, alive.

"I should have taken the damned shards off you. I don’t even know what I was thinking when..."

Not hesitating, I open my status and initiate the transfer, to which he pauses mid-sentence and intently looks at me.

He stares for a few seconds before the notification window disappears. Canceled again.

"This is why I fucking can’t hate you, you little bastard. Damned little asshole."

"You’ll have to tell me about your fight with Luan."

"I will. That shit was crazy. But first, there’s not much time before we reach the Black Tower, and you’ll likely sign a contract with the Primordial Knights, so there are a few things you need to look out for."

"Didn’t I say I’d join them without any pay or something like that?"

"You did? I don’t remember anything like that."

"I see. I must have misremembered. So what should I be careful about in the contract?"

***

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