Game of Monsters - 214

The Darkness That You Know

“What do I need to do?” she asked, looking at the now open door with a flat expression. If he weren’t absolutely terrified out of his mind and Ophis weren’t there threatening his life and Yasaka’s and maybe everyone else’s, Joshua would have found the sight funny, maybe even cute. As it was, he just felt a stab of panic at the possibility that he could already be messing up.

All the same, he kept his calm as best he could.

“You just need to step inside, the spells around the room will do the rest,” he explained simply. “There’s two versions of this. I feel like one of them might be me misunderstanding something and mimicking Great Red’s presence in the Gap, so feel free to come out and tell me if I should do something different,” he added, gulping when he saw Ophis frown. He tried not to let that get to him too much as the Dragon of Infinity approached his creation, pursing his lips and stiffening. He wanted to say a few more things, but it was better to leave it for the moment, or so he thought, at least.

Right before Ophis entered the room though, Joshua shared a look with Yasaka, both of them taking a deep breath in. It was the moment of truth. Or, at least, it was one of them. If they were lucky, it might even be the only thing they needed to do, but Joshua was nowhere near that optimistic.

As it turned out, that was a good thing, because as soon as Ophis stepped inside, some spells started breaking instantly.

Feeling a shiver run down his spine, Joshua started going over the spells and what they did and what little he knew of why they broke. As soon as he could, he went off to re-cast them with slight modifications. They ended up being worse than the original set up, by not a small margin even, but at least they weren’t breaking in the wake of Ophis mere existence like their previous iterations. After doing that, he also went over the list of spells he had prepared for Room and Bubble and tried to put together a list of the spells most likely to fail and how to fix that. He also tried to come up with better fixes for Copy, obviously, but it might be a little late for that.

Just like that, his faith in one of the best projects was shaken.

Ophis didn’t immediately obliterate the room though, but she did walk out after about a minute.

“It’s not Silence,” she said and there was the slightest accusation there in her voice, he was pretty sure. “I can feel… Dummy Red, but not,” she added, her frown turning from anger – or maybe just annoyance? – to confusion, or maybe a mix of both. “Make it go away.”

“I’ll make changes for that,” he said with a nod. ‘The different treatment of Kokabiel in the Gap is probably Great Red’s influence then,’ he noted silently to himself. That was the only guess he had as to what feeling “Dummy Red” could possibly mean in that situation. A part of him was fascinated by that, but a greater one was worried he might have messed up already. There was no use panicking though, not then and there. “If you could give me a bit. Once I’ve stopped making changes, feel free to come out and tell me if there’s something I should remove or change… Or you can wait here until after I’ve made the changes,” he added and the dragon nodded before going back in, her frown deepening before she disappeared through the threshold.

She stayed inside after that and he couldn’t tell anything about what was going on, but he focused on what he had to do. He took down spells, modified others and kept fixing the ones that had broken before. There was no use worrying about what might be going on inside the room other than that nothing had been blown up yet. Any sensory spell or attempt to reach inside the room could just ruin the effect immediately, so the rooms were essentially voids in that regard too. He took the fact that she hadn’t immediately called it a failure as a win though, even if it could still be a minor one, a useless one.

Once he was done actually casting modifications, he got back to tinkering as best he could with the spells that would need fixing, changing. Maybe Copy was ruined already, labelled a failed attempt because of the unexpected set backs, but at least those had helped him find out key weaknesses in his designs. Maybe even helped prevent the same from happening to Room and Bubble, if he could work things out quickly enough, if he had enough time.

So, with a clear goal and some data, Joshua got to work. That was much better than stumbling blindly through a million ideas and throwing them all at the wall to see what stuck. He could work with either, but he’d much rather have some clues to work off of, honestly. And so he worked, with Yasaka’s senjutsu wrapping around him, a calming and reassuring presence. She didn’t do anything else though, probably trying not to distract him nor get in the way of his work, which was very much appreciated.

He didn’t manage to get through everything before Ophis walked out of the door, however.

Joshua felt his heart sink when he saw the slight frown on her face, barely noticeable but definitely there. For a whole second, he didn’t know what to do, what to say. Was he supposed to wait for a review? Was he supposed to say something, ask something? Was Copy a failure in the end, was it good enough, was it workable for a next time provided he had the chance?

“That was… not Silence,” the dragon said and it was only the fact that he had kind of seen that coming that prevented him from just dying inside then and there. It was still pretty bad to hear that though, he was not going to lie about that. To make a bad situation worse, she left it at that, didn’t elaborate, didn’t explain, didn’t say anything else. Ophis proceeded to just wait there and Joshua felt like tearing his hair out.

Instead, he took a deep breath in.

“Can I ask a few questions?” he asked, making the dragon turn towards him. She almost seemed surprised, as if she had forgotten they were there. “I can try and make it better next time if I have more information,” he said, trying to subtly – or maybe not so subtly – give her the idea that it might be good to let him live.

“... Ask,” she answered simply and it was that curt, blunt nature that was driving him insane. He was a magician, he thrived in preparation, in information, yet Ophis gave him nothing to work with. It was like she was trying to give him as little as she possibly could to work with. He took some solace in the fact that Yasaka seemed as perturbed as he felt, if the fluctuation in her senjutsu was anything to go by.

“Why wasn’t it Silence? Was there anything you’d say worked? Was there anything that failed worse than the rest of things?” he asked, trying to keep his slight panic and nerves at bay and only partially succeeding. Those were the three questions that got priority when he thought about what he’d ask Ophis if he had the chance to get some feedback. He had a million questions, of course, but more questions had a risk of screwing him over, annoying the dragon or something along those lines, with every added one.

He couldn’t risk it.

“Everything was still there, but… the outside was… muted?” Ophis said, as if unsure how to describe what she felt or was looking for. He’d kind of worried about that, that she’d find his questions, his doubts, to be on the same level as trying to describe sight to a blind man. He’d just have to work with what he was given, he supposed. Although…

‘She can sense through the spells, that’s… impressive, expected, but still impressive. Something I can try and work through,’ he thought, noting that down with a frown and narrowed eyes. He wasn’t sure how he’d try to improve the blocks that separated the room from the outside world, but that was a recognizable issue and he appreciated it all the same.

“And inside… it was like something pretending to be nothing, odd,” Ophis continued and Joshua paused. ‘She can sense the magic even though it’s hidden, see through the illusions. Have to work on that,’ he thought, writing that down too. “It was… less bothersome, somehow? It wasn’t Silence, but it wasn’t… annoying, somehow. Or, it was less annoying” Ophis said and she seemed to be struggling to put things into words more and more as she went.

What she did manage to say though, gave Joshua pause. ‘Not Silence, but not annoying, less annoying?’ he considered slowly, turning over the words and trying to piece together the puzzle they represented. He went over every single thing Ophis said like they were entire books, taking into consideration every possible meaning. He could leave nothing up in the air and he knew it.

“Not Silence,” the dragon said then, as if she had reached a conclusion after much deliberation. “But somehow better than outside,” she announced and Joshua took heart in that. “Some things broke, but you fixed that. Those made it more annoying than it was supposed to be,” she added and he nodded slowly.

So, he’d been somewhat on the right track, he just had to make sure everything survived Ophis’ presence. That was doable, definitely. Other than that, he didn’t bother asking how she knew how they were supposed to be when they had died immediately, but he suspected that she might have felt the instant between the spells being fine and the spells breaking, even though it had been… Well, instant.

That sounded like the kind of bullshit logic that could be applied to someone like Ophis.

“What’s next?”

He nodded, acknowledging that the time for questions was over. That had already gone much better than he’d feared, admittedly, so he felt himself relax the smallest bit. That was a lot more information than he thought and it was also a much more positive reception than he thought he’d get for the project. Now, it was a matter of presenting Room, maybe presenting Bubble and then… finding out if any of them were enough.

“This way,” he said, taking a deep breath in and walking to the next spot. It wasn’t far enough to teleport, but it was far enough that it gave him a few seconds to think things over, try to come up with better fixes for the spells that were likely to break. It also gave Ophis a moment to think too, and maybe she’d say something, point out something, and give him some more info to work on.

That last part might have been wishful thinking on his part though, because they go through the short walk in complete silence. That was still fine though. Joshua had gotten some answers to his questions and he was feeling pretty good about his chances. Unless Ophis was surprisingly sadistic, he didn’t think she’d answer his questions if she wasn’t going to allow him to work on that and improve. So, at the very least he might live to see the next day.

It wasn’t a huge reassurance, but it was something.

“This is the next one, Project Silence: Room,” Joshua announced and Ophis nodded, staring at the door as he went to open it. “Some things might break too, but if you give me a few moments, I’ll try and fix those here too. I’ll keep trying to fix them to the best of my ability even after I’ve replaced them. Also, same as before, there might be some Great Red presence in what I made, but I’ll try and get rid of it. Feel free to come out and tell me if I miss something in that regard, if I remove something I shouldn’t or if there’s anything that needs extra work,” he explained, slowly but clearly.

He was feeling bolder after that first attempt. He wasn’t afraid that Ophis would smite him if he spoke too much anymore, not as much at least. That helped a lot, because if he could explain, if he could ask questions, then that meant he could try and reason with the dragon. Joshua thought that might be the biggest victory of the day, all things considered.

“Do I just walk in too?” the dragon asked and he nodded slowly. A second later, she did just that and Joshua got to work. First order of business was getting rid of the Great Red effect as best he could, although he hadn’t done as much in Room as he had in Copy. He’d been trying to re-create the void instead of just replicating the effects, so there’d been less of Great Red’s fake presence being applied.

After that came fixing the broken spells due to Infinity. That was a little more complex, because none of the spells carried over from Copy, but some of his guesses were correct. He was quick to replace those with as good a fix as he could manage in such short notice. Once everything was patched up, he started improving on the spells as best he could. He kept going for a good few minutes, maybe even close to an hour. Time had become a little wonky in his focus… But eventually, he slowed down, because there was only so much he could tinker on the spot like that.

That meant that Ophis would decide he’d had enough time to fix things eventually, he knew. Still, Joshua kept going for as long as he could. So long as Ophis didn’t step out to complain or give her review, then he had time. The minutes kept passing by, but the clear deadline, even if he didn’t actually have a time set up, motivated him a great deal. He had some things to go off on too, new things at that. So, while he kept patching up the same spells over and over, Joshua also started wondering how to tinker the isolation array, the one that made sure – or was supposed to make sure – that Ophis wouldn’t be able to sense anything beyond the room.

It wasn’t really a surprise that those failed. He was trying to imitate a void and failing, so it wasn’t any wonder that he couldn’t block off her senses from breaking through. It was annoying, because he couldn’t think of how to improve those, since he couldn’t sense anything through them himself and neither could anyone else he knew, but… He’d have to do it anyway, just like with everything else.

At least he’d succeeded partially, or so he assumed the “muted” comment implied.

Small mercies and silver linings.

Thus, time kept passing them by and Joshua started noticing that Ophis wasn’t coming out. Even after minutes and minutes of him not touching any spells anymore, the dragon remained inside and he had no idea why. It couldn’t be bad though, he imagined. If something had bothered her, he was pretty sure it’d have been blasted away and likely included him soon afterwards. Instead… nothing was happening.

He traded a look with Yasaka.

“It’s been longer than with Copy, right?” he asked and his youkai partner nodded slowly, seemingly as taken aback as he was. “That’s… That should be good, right?” he mumbled, but that was as much to himself as it was for Yasaka.

“Should be,” she replied with as much certainty as he was feeling, which was almost none. “It’s going… a lot better than we feared, right?”

“Not as well as we hoped,” he finished, but that was a little pessimistic of him. His best hopes had been that Ophis would be happy with his first presented idea and she’d offer to deal with Khaos for him as a thank you. Everything would be over and everyone would live happily ever after…

But alas, it wasn’t that easy, expectedly.

“That was unlikely to happen, Joshua. You can be happy with what you’ve achieved so far,” Yasaka told him and he wanted to believe her. He wanted to believe her so hard. But what he had so far? It wasn’t enough. It could still mean failure, mean death, and he couldn’t accept that. “I think… I think you might’ve done it.”

Might’ve.

Not have.

‘Not enough.’

“I won’t be happy until I know I’ve done it,” he said, studying the current spells and trying to come up with ways to improve them. Yasaka felt silent after that, but she moved to stand beside him, their arms almost touching and she was basically hugging him with her senjutsu, with her life energy. That was enough for him.

More minutes passed like that, and he still didn’t make any changes. It wouldn’t do to rush things. He could compromise the entire array, the entire set of arrays, if he placed something recklessly. That’s why he made the simpler changes first and built from there, needing more and more time, up to the point he was in at that moment.

Eventually and expectedly, he ran out of time.

“That was… quieter,” Ophis said as she stepped out and there was a certain off feeling about how she spoke, different from before at least. It was a little lower in volume, he was pretty sure, and there was even more vacancy in her gaze, as if she were distracted. Joshua, for his part, was incredibly happy with that assessment, even if it wasn’t the best.

It wasn’t Silence, obviously.

It wasn’t quiet either, which was more or less what he’d been actually aiming for. It was quieter though, and that was the third “sound” description Ophis had given him. Silence was what she was looking for. Muted was how she’d described his sensory blockage between the rooms and the outside. And now… quieter.

“I’d like to ask the same questions as before,” Joshua said, taking a deep breath in. “Why wasn’t it Silence? Was there anything you’d say worked? Was there anything that failed worse than the rest of things? How was it different from the previous one?” he repeated, but he did add the new question. Comparison might make things easier for Ophis and him both. That was his hope, at least, but that might be a little optimistic of him.

“The previous one wasn’t Silence, not at all,” she said, which… ouch. “It was less annoying though. This one is… not Silence either, but it’s… quieter. Like it’s Silence, but lesser,” she explained and he blinked. Did that mean Copy was noise but less-annoying noise? That was…

‘Wait,’ he thought, his mind hitting the metaphorical pause button. ‘Did I make a white noise room for Ophis without realizing?’ he wondered, blinking repeatedly as he thought that, maybe, that was actually the case.

On the other hand, Room seemed to be a… soundproof room, or Ophis’ equivalent of one, at least. It was quieter than the normal world, but not completely silent, like the Gap. If that tracked, then maybe Great Red was doing the equivalent of entering her house and blasting music full send with no consideration whatsoever. That made him sound like an asshole, honestly, although Ophis didn’t have much of a leg to stand on, considering the mess she was making in their home.

“Ok… I think that helps,” he commented, making mental notes to add to his actual ones as soon as he could. In that regard, it was a good thing that Yasaka was with him, because that was another pair of eyes and ears and another memory to support his own when he had the time to go over things. “My last attempt is… I think it’s better not to try that one out. It was to separate a piece of the Gap for yourself, but if I couldn’t separate the world from the rooms, then I imagine you’ll still feel Great Red,” he admitted, because there was no point in risking it and annoying her, at least not without properly warning her. “I’m not sure if you want to try that.”

“No,” she replied immediately and firmly, so that was that. Then, however, Joshua was surprised to see her glance back towards the Room. “You’ve… done well. You didn’t lie,” she said then, turning and locking the windows into infinity that were her eyes onto him. Joshua had to fight a flinch immediately, flashes of a different infinity crossing his mind. “You’ve made something worth being spared for. So you shall be.”

“Thank you,” he breathed out, a lot of the tension leaving his body-

“However,-” The tension came back with a vengeance immediately. “-I won’t interfere between you and the Brigade. Either you will give me Silence, or they will. I care not which and I care not for this… conflict,” she told him and that was… not what he’d hoped for, but he’d take it. He definitely would take it. “Continue working on this, Joshua Davis. I will come back.”

“Wait,” he said when she started turning around, making her pause. “Maybe we can agree to a specific time? I want to know for sure when you’ll come, so I can have things ready properly,” he explained and she paused. “Or better yet. You can take this,” he added, passing her a necklace with a communication spell. “If you hold it and say my full name, it’ll call me and we can agree to a meeting whenever-”

“Next month,” Ophis interrupted and he almost gritted his teeth. “I’ll call you in a month and we’ll agree to a meeting time within a few days. Is that agreeable?” she said, but Joshua had a feeling that she wasn’t actually asking. It was a wonder that she had, at all, if he were honest.

He nodded slowly at that.

“Yeah, that… that works.” Nothing about that day was going to be ideal, he realized, but at least he was alive, Yasaka was alive, and they could continue to fight against the Brigade, this time without the threat of literal infinity hanging over their heads. As far as non-ideal situations were concerned, it was pretty good. “Thank you,” he added, because he wanted to be polite and nice with the dragon that could erase him, his family, his friends, and the world if she felt like it.

He was rather fond of those things, Joshua would admit.

‘Things went well though,’ he had to remind himself. He’d done well and Ophis was pleased and she wasn’t going to make them all disappear. His efforts had paid off. ‘He’d done enough.’ Joshua had to repeat that to himself in his head like a mantra just to calm down his heart, which had been beating wildly ever since the dragon first appeared. ‘It was enough… I did enough,’ he thought, breathing deeply as if it were a succession of sighs as subtle as he could make them.

“Thank you,” she replied, but it mostly sounded like she didn’t even know what the words meant, or so he thought. She looked confused, as if unsure if she was using the words correctly. It was a bit jarring, for reasons Joshua couldn’t quite wrap his head around at that moment, nor did he want to bother, when there were a lot of things much more important than that. “I’ll see you in a month, Joshua Davis,” she said with a nod.

That’s when Joshua had to do an herculean effort not to glance at the screen that appeared on the side of his vision and instead keep his gaze locked on Ophis. That’s how he noticed though, that the dragon immediately tilted her head to the side and blinked. ‘That’s…’ Joshua thought, eyebrows shooting up and eyes growing wide, as he realized that she was looking straight at the screen.

Ophis was looking at the Game screen.

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How’s it going?

Bet none of you guys saw that coming, huh? Huh?!

Please tell me you didn’t. I feel like a disadvantage of my style of writing is that it makes things kind of predictable sometimes. It’s harder to make unexpected things happen when everyone acts as they should. It makes them predictable and so it’s harder to actually write proper surprises.

I still prefer to do things my way, but it’s a bit of a shame that I don’t get to have those moments often.

Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter.

Discord Link: discord.gg/UTDransjJZ

Random Question: Everyone knows the cats or dogs question, but what’s your favorite between birds or fish? Personally, I like fish better. Less of a mess, even if they have their own particular care needs.

See you.