Floating through space, there was a megastructure with seemingly unending length and girth and inside it were Zirtues.
"My king, the second hive has been deployed successfully, the stronger pawns are standing by, awaiting your orders."
A Zirtue was currently sitting on one knee, its head lowered to the ground, expressing respect to the being in front of him. On a throne made of fresh blood, flesh and bones, there was, nobody? on it.
Suddenly, from nowhere in the room rang out an intelligible sound that somehow made itself understood in the Zirtue's head.
"Slow the medusas down, let those humans grow, I am disappointed by their progress."
"It shall be done immediately."
The Zirtue, which had strange shapes all over its body suddenly disappeared from the room, leaving only an empty throne behind.
All the blood suddenly gathered in the middle of the room, creating an orb of blood. Then the blood became clearer and clearer until a sight of more than two thousand people appeared.
There were two people that stood out from the rest, a woman and a man. The man was currently pulled up by her hand, wrapping his arm around her neck.
"What is he doing?"
The orb suddenly burst, letting blood ravage the floor and the throne was now gone, the whole room now white as if never gory at all.
***
Jean suddenly felt chills run down his neck when Anastasia dropped him to the ground. Landing gracefully, he urged the others to come over.
The first to come over was Erika, who slapped him on the back.
"Tell that Anastasia to come to the meeting with us when we settle down."
"Alright."
Jean didn't need to tell Anastasia anything, because she already heard it, she was literally right next to him. And the last one to come over was Aceso who was currently holding a capsule that Jean entrusted her with.
Then a screeching voice told everyone to follow her and so they did.
Walking for a bit, they were suddenly led underground. Most used the stairs while some others just fell down a tube right next to it. Jean was quite amazed at how fast the Wanderers did things but he didn't consider that fact that maybe they had already been here some time ago.
Arriving in some kind of bunker, he looked around to see pillars every 5 meters and a vast, empty space, there were hooded figures everywhere in the corners of the place.
Not long after, all 2000 people arrived, they quickly observed the place and each chose a secluded place, away from the Wanderers. Eleven of them walked up to Jean and sat down.
Jean called Anastasia over and sat down too. The woman then sat down next to Jean and the meeting started, Erika started first.
"Let's skip the formalities, I know we're all very happy to have the Wanderers with us but to summerise what the interrupted meeting was about. Basically, we've found the source of the attacks..."
Erika then went on to say things about the attacks on the Base, which was quite intriguing but he couldn't hear further as a screeching voice came from beside him.
"Wanderers? Really? Did they let you do the naming again?"
"From Rogues to this, can't you pick something cooler?"
Anastasia complained about the names they were given but Jean couldn't care less about that, they were just names.
"First of all, you're too loud, I can't hear anything Erika's saying. Second of all, I didn't pick that, Erika did. Also the names also convey perfectly what you are, don't complain."
Anastasia became quiet and he could now hear Erika again.
"Thanks to Aceso, there was no real damage to the people."
'Great, now I have to ask Xander about the sources of the attacks.'
"Which led me to believe that there were a mind control of a massive scale placed upon all the Union's members, I don't know if the Rogues or Wanderers face the same problems."
Jean got extremely confused as he couldn't connect the dots between the sources of the attacks on the Base and freaking world scale mind control.
So, leaning over to a person next to him, he asked them about it.
"Uhh, so the attacks were orchestrated by an underground Crab-IV."
"So how did we get to mind control?"
"I don't know either, to be honest, everyone here understands the same amount as you right now Jean, don't waste more time asking, it's just Erika."
He understood the confusion now, Erika must have had what the members called Erika's eureka and deducted this, most of the time the deduction was correct, so Jean paid it no more attention.
Erika still continued.
"I DID have something backing this up but I seem to have lost it...Jean's notebook."
His face suddenly shriveled up, not expecting Erika to say this, however there must be a reason for Erika to say this so he would have to leave the questioning for later.
"I mean you all know he carries that thing ALL the time, so I just had to take a look."
Everyone suddenly nodded, expressing full agreement to the statement, which kinda shocked him a little.
"That little shit documented each and every day of this hell, and he even documented the mind control by some degree."
"Jellyfish. Do you remember when the world was still at war and there was corpses of them around the world?"
Everyone, including Jean had a thoughtful look on their faces. Trying to remember things from such a long time ago was quite hard, literally why he had kept a notebook to do it for him. However, they all reached the same conclusion: there were only corpses of trees and crabs.
Suddenly, Anastasia took out a book two thirds the size of Andre made of stone and opened the first page.
"Mine doesn't have it."
"Oh come on, even you Jean? You literally fought against jellyfish a few days ago."
Then glass shattering could be heard between the members as Jean finally remembered. Following that was Anastasia and then the other 10.
"Argh, finally, you all remember."
Suddenly, a voice rang out, it was from Xander.
"Then miss, what about the Platonics? Why did we have information about the Platonics when its mother didn't even appear on Earth yet?"
"I mean, Jean said he saw the mother jellyfish right? So where did we get Platonics from?"
"T-that is..."
Silence, dead silence was shared between the 13 people present.
Chapter 18:
"Damn it, Xander."
"What? I am just curious, miss."
Erika fell into deep thought as she tried to remember how the hell they knew about the Platonics. Were Platonics even real? Were they just a red herring to the jellyfish? She did not know.
And that fact that now she was in Cuba and not the Base made it all worse. Because the evacuation was rushed, they weren't able to take all the data with them.
"Anastasia, help me out here."
This was why historiography was so important, though their brains could operate like machines, they still had limits. Trying to find the two instances of Platonics in a 400000 years time frame was worse than trying to find a needle in a haystack. It was more like finding Jean when there was an attack on the Base.
"Hm?"
"You also keep records just like Jean right?"
She knew of only two historians, one of which lost their records, mostly because of her.
"Yes, but it is missing the first 200000 years."
"Should still be enough."
Anastasia suddenly handed her the book, surprising Erika.
"Look through it."
"Okay..."
Taking the book and almost dropping it on the floor, Erika tried her best to flip through the book, stone book. She gave up quite easily though.
"Argh damn it, I'll do that after this meeting. As the mind control is pretty much resolved, there is one more thing to address: the grade I jellyfish."
Erika suddenly looked at Jean.
"And well, being the most knowledgable about this, why don't you tell us more, Jean?"
Jean sighed, not knowing where to start, he told them about the Crab-V first, to be able to use later as a comparison.
"Let's talk about the grade V first. As all grade V's are, this one also loved the water, knowing that I lured it into the Baltic Sea. The grade V was quite terrifying, its limbs were replaced with tentacles, it had millions of eyes, it was also huge and worst yet, the terrain Zirtues were running away from it, leaving us no place to hide."
Terrain Zirtues were a classification of Zirtues that included: Underground, Air, Water and Mimicry. The underground ones were known to be very, very oblivious to all things above ground so hearing this, they knew how big of a threat the grade V was.
"I won't talk more about how it fights, I'll make a detailed report later. The moment it entered the Baltic sea though, was when all things went wrong."
Anastasia fled before this happened so she was also quite curious about the battle underwater, Jean even said the mother sent him into orbit.
"An air bubble, resembling a halo appeared over its carapace. Oh also, the eyes of the Zirtue also popped out. Merged together and created thousands of grade II's."
"I tried to attack the grade V but was blocked by the grade II's, which now had their own halos. Somehow, by looking at that, I lost both my arms and my sight."
"The moment I got my sight back, it was over, the mother was right in front of me."
"I had hoped for it to be just like the first mother, unmoving but this one was different, it smiled at me. IT SMILES."
Relaxing for a tiny bit, Jean continued with his story.
"Ah well, the mother sent my head into space, adaptation finally worked and I scored a hole on its head."
"Wait, wait, slow down."
Erika interrupted him.
"How can you just gloss over such an important detail?"
"Because I am not sure of what happened, I just know that it happened. Allow me to continue."
***
Jean then went on to tell all about his fight with the mother. From how he managed to get back to Earth, due to the nagging of a certain member to how the mother created its offsprings. He even told them about it speaking.
The reactions of the members were weaker than he thought, considering he almost died but oh well. They were still very concerned though.
"The sir is actually crazy."
Suddenly a screeching voice came from beside him, somehow sounding even worse than normal.
"Hey, let's fight."
The maggots on her face wriggled rhythmically expressing how eager she was.
"Come on, doesn't Ares have nothing to do?"
"Yeah, he's dead."
"Oh sorry. Wait, he's DEAD?"
"Apologise by fighting me, I shall accept nothing other than that. And yes, he died."
Jean tried to escape fighting the woman but his fate was sealed. Anastasia was relentless when trying to fight Jean, it seemed she got really excited after hearing that Jean had a successful adaptation.
"Alright."
The woman immediately returned to normal, even straightening her back. The other members were still discussing about the mother so Jean had nothing to do.
He sighed heavily and signalled for Anastasia to come with him. They used the stairs that led out of the place. It was currently nighttime so Jean had wanted this to also be a training session of sorts.
Looking behind him, he saw Anastasia crawling on all fours to climb the stairs.
"What are you doing?"
"Ceiling short."
It was true, even Jean was having quite a difficult time going up these stairs. He had even considered crawling just like Anastasia but by then, he had reached the surface.
Greeting him were thousands of crabs, which he killed to make space for his fight with Anastasia. She also helped him by 'eating' the Zirtues using her maggots and soon after, the whole area was cleared.
They walked far from the entrance of the place and they both sat down.
"Rules?"
"No killing."
Tension filled the air as both suddenly released some form of energy. The left had a mixture of orange and blue, the right had just red. They met in the middle with intense force, trying to push each other but none came on top.
Then it suddenly stopped, dissipating into the air.
"What does those do?"
"No idea."
"Then allow me to realise it for you."
Chapter 19:
Jean took a deep breath as the ground beneath them cracked - Anastasia had moved, closing his eyes, he began to imitate Ana, her style, he knew it all too well.
But so did Anastasia.
He knew she would prefer to attack to the right. But she also knew this, and he also knew that she knew this, in the end it would become an endless loop of useless thoughts - such was the style of Anastasia.
Driving her opponent into complete madness before even making an attack. That was why Jean had closed his eyes. He had fought her more times than he could count, he had lost only 23 times, those being the most-recent ones.
And he was not going to let himself lose a consecutive 24th time, not before understanding what he was now capable of.
One second passed.
Anastasia was nowhere to be found, not with sight, smell nor sound. It was strange, considering the maggots normally smells disgusting, even from a distance. It even apalled the members in the meeting - who chose to hide it.
Dust hit his face violently, masking the area around him. However, he knew better, he quickly moved forward consequently evading an attack on the left.
He snapped his fingers and with a red spark, the whole area was rid of dirt. A maggot suddenly lunged at him, which was too quick for him to dodge and ended up piercing his shoulder.
Opening his eyes, he saw an eye stare back at him, its pupil though red was clear as a lake, almost translucent, reflecting Jean himself. The maggots wriggled around fanaticly, expressing...no, it was better not to say what it meant.
He then grabbed the maggot which was still in his shoulder and suddenly, blue sparks ignited at his finger tips which literally disintegrated the maggot.
Anastasia saw this and cut off the maggot before it disintegrated to her face.
"So, fire and that huh?"
Both were currently not fighting at their best but were carefully observing their opponent. In terms of information, she had an upper hand now, she knew more or less what growth Jean had achieved, but it couldn't be said the same for Jean.
Just after three seconds, she felt a little irrigated, and urged him to find an even more faraway place to go all out, which Jean quickly complied.
They met some crabs on the way which was either disintegrated, burnt or devoured. She also commented on his adaptation a bit.
"Only fire and disintegration? I don't think that's all of them, considering it was a successful adaptation against a mother."
"I don't know."
"I guess that's what we're here for anyways."
Suddenly stopping, they turned towards eachother. After a bit of serene silence, a maggot suddenly flung forward but the target was already gone.
Pulling her forward, she avoided an attack from above. The attack destroyed the ground, surprisingly not much. It seemed like he held back.
Dashing towards Jean who still had his hand in the ground, she flung her arm forward with incredible speed, however, it hit nothing as Jean ducked under, and rammed her stomach with his elbow.
She was sent back a couple of meters, quickly catching herself with the maggots and suddenly sung a song.
Jean's eardrums suddenly burst and he felt blood in his eyes, his head felt heavy as he saw everything turn black.
"Oh come on."
Very much disappointed with Jean, she approached him then picked him up and carried him on her shoulder. However, it was actually a trap as she felt two hands grab her neck.
"You won, get off."
Dropping Jean on the ground, she became disappointed in herself for not accounting for her opponent's ability, though it was a failed one, it was still able to grab her neck.
'How did I even forget about that?'
Concluding that excitement clouded her judgement, she continued walking forward when a voice called for her.
"Kinda tired here, carry me."
"Just walk."
"Pretty please?"
"Okay."
She then came back and picked Jean up, placing him on her shoulder. Looking at her face, he saw the maggots cover her skull again, even though there was no source of heat anywhere near them.
"You okay?"
"..."
"Alright."
The walk back was uneventful, rightfully so, as they pretty much wiped out all the Zirtues in the vicinity. They weren't really scared about the progress of the meeting as they were only gone for five minutes.
Dropping down into the tubes and landing gracefully, they walked towards the encirclement of people and sat down. Even after 5 minutes, they were still talking about the mother.
They sat in their original spots and no one really noticed their disappearance except for a few that didn't join in on the gossip.
"So boring, that girl didn't even read the book, give it...ahhhhhh."
Groans, or screeches came from beside him. Looking around, he saw some members even fell asleep, Aceso and Iris and well Tyche but she didn't count.
Looking closer at Iris, he could see that she looked more 'human', her eyes, even though closed looked ordinary, as though there were real eyes in them, her hair was also more luscious.
And if he was correct, it seemed Aceso had a breakthrough in her abilities, which was great news. He had heard from Xander about the new uses of her ability and also how she killed an underground Crab-III by burrowing inside of it.
It sounded absurd, because there was no way Aceso could have survived the concentrated acids inside their bodies but Jean had a guess as to how she did it.
The acid melted away her skin and flesh but it helped fuse with the Zirtue, creating new skin and flesh. In better words: it took away the flesh and replaced it with new ones.
He then looked at the capsule next to the sleeping girls. They had long known the meat of the crabs had healing properties but had never known they could be used in conjunction with healing. It gave him hope, hope for 'Fate' to make a return.
Chapter 20:
The meeting then carried on and led to no real conclusions and all members were dismissed. Just like the others, they found themselves a secluded spot and rested.
Erika didn't move anywhere and tried to flip through the stone book again, making groans ever so often. This sight reminded Jean of the years after the fall of the Haven.
It was midnight, and although Jean could still go out to train, he was afraid of things happening to this place once he left. Afterall, the people often complained about the fact that Jean was never at the Base when there was an attack.
Jean's eyelids suddenly felt heavy, incredibly heavy. He braced himself as he was falling asleep.
***
The ground shook intensely and Jean opened his eyes. He heard screams of terror echo throughout the whole place but looking around, he saw no one, not a single soul.
'Shit.'
He got up from his spot and went to find the missing people. Starting with Erika, the book was still on the ground, however he saw nothing except a trail of blood.
'Definitely a trap.'
But what could he do? This was the only and most prominent evidence he had right now. Following the trail, the blood became more and more fresh until suddenly cutting off. Looking up, he saw a hole on the ceiling and the full moon over it.
Then he saw a slight movement and everything went black.
***
The ground shook intensely and Jean opened his eyes. He heard screams of terror echo throughout the whole place but looking around, he saw no one, not a single soul.
'What?'
He got up from his spot and went to find the missing people. Starting with Anastasia, he saw nothing except a convulsing maggot on the ground. It was trying to move somewhere.
'You're Abel, huh? The biggest one.'
Seeing this, he picked up the maggot and went in the direction it pointed him to. It bled profusely but eventually led him to a broken door and a flight of stairs that looked like it led to the abyss.
"Much appreciated, Abel."
The maggot then lost all life and fell to the floor. He took a deep breath and started descending down the flight of stairs, everything got darker and darker, as if the flight of stairs devoured all light.
He then heard something drop and then everything went black.
***
The ground shook intensely and Jean opened his eyes. He heard screams of terror echo throughout the whole place but looking around, he saw no one, not a single soul.
'This feels familiar.'
He felt he had been through this experience before but that had to be left for later as he had to find to missing people.
He got up from his spot and looked around. He then went to the place he last saw Aceso. The screams suddenly stopped and he felt something press against his back.
Then everything went black.
***
The ground shook intensely and Jean opened his eyes. He heard screams of terror echo throughout the whole place but looking around, he saw no one, not a single soul.
'Ah, it's the precognitive dreams again.'
This was an ability he got from Tyche, though it wasn't complete, it still was able to save him a couple of times. The most recent one he had was of the Haven, just right before going to escort Andre back to the Base.
It seemed that this one was of a very near future.
'Let's see, when I went to find Erika, I saw the moon, something moved and then I died? When I went to find Ana, I heard something when descending the stairs and died. As for Aceso, the screams stopped and I died.'
This dream was of the puzzle type and wouldn't let him go if he hadn't yet 'cleared' it. Everything until now had nothing in common, except for the fact that he died each time.
'Wait, there is something.'
In all three, he went to find someone. Though it gave him insights to what he was faced with, it didn't give him what he was faced with.
Closing his eyes yet again, he concentrated on all things around him. The previous three times he didn't notice but now, he felt terrifying presences around him, the air was full of these terrifying things.
The screams then stopped and he felt something move, it was fast, very fast. It was definitely not a crab, so the only logical conclusion was
'A grade I jellyfish.'
The thing then stopped moving and suddenly he felt more things move. He then felt shivers down his spine and he heard maniacal laughter around him, they were laughing at him.
He tried to open his eyes but died immediately.
***
Without wasting a breath, he ran out of the place. Crawling on all fours, he quickly ascended the stairs that led out.
'The stairs I saw when I looked for Ana is suspicious but I can check that later.'
Moonlight suddenly shone on him and he saw nothing, literally nothing around him, darkness surrounded the stairs and he died.
***
This time, he checked the stairs but was surprised when it wasn't there.
'I have an idea as to what I'm faced with now.'
It was definitely an illusionary spell, based on the fact that he had to pick up Abel to be able to see the stairs, but what he couldn't figure out was how a grade I could use abilities.
He then died.
***
He then checked the the hole on the ceiling, and as expected, he didn't see it.
He then died.
***
Despair washed over him as he remembered all his attempts at trying to clear this dream. If only it showed him what happened before everyone was gone, he would have been able to deduce what would happen in the near future.
The screams were still there but why screams? The moon was still there, shining down upon all.
'Wait a minute, moon?'
Remembering the two times he saw the moon, he grimaced. There never was a moon, not after year 70000, so he was quite disappointed in himself for being tricked like that.
He then ascended the stairs that led out of the place and looked at the moon.
"I have no idea how you did it, but it's you right? Mimicry."
The moon suddenly smiled at him. And he heard laughter all around him, the darkness receeded back and he could see the terrain again. The moon cracked and disappeared.
'There's no way that's it, the dreams only tell me the problem, not the solution to the problem.'
He successfully cleared the dream.
***
Opening his eyes, he saw everyone in their rightful places. It didn't matter if it was an illusion or not, the mimicry could definitely kill everything in this place.
He then walked over to Anastasia.
"Ey."
"Hm?"
"Let's talk."
"Did I do something?"
"It's the dreams again."
"Oh fuck."
Chapter 21:
"You always come to me instead of Erika when there's something like this."
Anastasia complained about Jean's way of doing things. Of course, she was the most reliable, intelligent and beautif- kuhum, she was the most reliable person Jean knew, so it made sense.
If she had a nose, it would have reached the moon because of how prideful she was right now.
"Just listen."
"I'm all ears."
"You're missing one and literally not."
"Oh shut it."
Jean went on to describe his dreams to Ana, from even the most minute to the most prominent details, Jean told it all, but when he finished,
"You sure you don't want to tell Erika this?"
Anastasia didn't understand a single thing, she knew he got this ability from a successful adaptation but she didn't know there were different types of dreams, she thought it would show him the future and that was it.
"From your experiences, what do you think happened?"
"I don't know?"
"Think a little more."
She let out a quiet groan as she compiled the information given to her. First, the illusionary spell, she didn't understand it well but it seemed it worked like if-statements. Second, grade I's, it sounded paradoxical but it wasn't like she hadn't seen them before.
"Grade V to grade I?"
When a Zirtue of the fifth grade evolves to the next category, the grade I created would still have the grade V's abilities to some degree.
"Is there a Crab-V on this island?"
"If there's a mother, then there should be?"
"Alright, that makes sense."
If Jean remembered correctly, after the first mother appeared, sightings of Tree-V's became more frequent. It made him grimace but there was nothing he could really do.
"I am curious about one thing."
"Hm?"
"If you know there will be an illusionary spell, why would you be worried?"
"I am not worried about the mimicry's abilities but the mimicry itself, illusion or not, doesn't change the fact that it's a grade I and can kill all of us without a moment's notice."
"Then why not tell Erika? I don't think you can kill the grade I anyways, let's just flee."
"Call it pride, I am tired of running away and letting calamity befall everyone yet again."
"This and that are different."
"So, conclusion?"
"*Sigh* Go watch the sky. I shall make sure none is hurt."
"Sounds good."
Before crawling up the stairs, he went to check the two prominent sights in his dream. Neither the hole in the ceiling nor the endless flight of stairs were here, which was good news or not?
Crawling up the stairs, he quickly left the shelter. Watching Jean's figure leave, she remembered about the duel she had with him a few minutes ago.
Though she had wanted it to be an opportunity for both her and him to realise what his new abilities were, it ended with none really going all out. 'Symphony' and then a sneak attack, how lame.
Why was he so confident that he could stop the grade I? Because of his dreams? How daring, he couldn't stop what happened to the Haven and yet he was still so stubborn.
But she trusted him, the person who led the first revolution and the most experienced of them all. She still couldn't shake off the feeling that he was being arrogant though.
Looking around, she could see the Union's members clearly, Erika flipping through the book, Aceso and Iris sleeping next to each other. The meatshield hugging his weapon and the cockroach was running around...like a cockroach.
It didn't look like anything was going to happen to them.
She got up and went to where her followers rested.
***
The sky was of stars, the ground was of stone and sand. It was normal. There were no corpses of any Zirtues, he and Ana had disposed of them well, leaving no opportunity to attract stronger Zirtues.
Unless all of the crabs they had killed until now were of a collective then it would make sense. He then sat down, when the stars were at their brightest, it would mean the sun was at its furthest, in other words, midnight.
He then hummed a song, the silence scared him. This and 'Symphony' was of the same song that was famous quite a long time ago, not that he remembered its name.
Soon, they would have to deal with food problems and that was when Jean predicted the grade I would strike. Still, it wasn't bad to be a little cautious.
The only reason he had made the choice to not tell Erika was that she would try to evacuate all of them first, which would put a massive strain on the more ordinary people.
'Saying more ordinary is such a pain, I'll just call them ordinary.'
The ordinary people had different needs and diets, and in order to have them not die, he had to fulfil those needs and diets. But in doing so would attract stronger Zirtues which would lead to the sights in his dream.
Thinking about it, Jean was convinced that they were still holding a grudge against him for what happened to Haven. And he was not going to let something like that happen a second time.
'...'
Jean stopped humming and started to appreciate the things around him, though it was dry, flat and full of sand, it carried history. Though the sky was of stars that had died long ago, it carried hope, the light from something that was dead travelled so far and so long to reach him.
He would try to be like that light, undying in its resolve. Eventually, the stars grew dark and the sky became bright, day had come.
He dropped back into one of the tubes and was relieved to see nothing had happened to the people. Erika was STILL flipping through the book, Aceso had awoken, Andre was sleeping and Anastasia was with her followers.
The normal people were also getting up.
Chapter 22:
Soon, what he was most afraid of came true, the normal people were starting to feel tired out of nowhere and most of them reported feeling cold. They were starving.
But Jean had thought about this for a while, if he couldn't prevent a future from happening, he could still delay it. Theoretically, he could just go to a different continent and hunt for some crabs, lest they attract the Zirtues.
However there was one big problem to this, and that was he was but one man, to hunt and carry food for over two thousand people across continents, was possible, but would take a long time.
The normal people would die before then.
He quickly discarded the thought of cannibalism and tried to come up with more creative solutions.
'Eating the dirt won't even work, it had no nutrients at all.'
The best but temporary solution that he could think of right now involved Aceso. But he still had to think of a better solution. Erika was totally useless, he had tried to do something about that immersion of hers.
He tried kicking the book away, which led to Erika literally biting off a big chunk of his foot. He also tried taking it away normally but she injected something into his arm which made it 'collapse' on itself into a ball.
He just gave up after a few hours. Night came and his eyelids became heavy again, he could skip these dreams by turning off his brain but why should he?
He then closed his eyes, embracing the deep darkness.
***
It was the same sight as the last ones, however this time everything was silent. It took less time to adjust to the dream since he had already braced himself for it.
Closing his eyes once more, he concentrated on everything around him, every speck of dust, every movement in the air. However, he felt nothing.
'Maybe this one isn't a puzzle one?'
Thinking that, he opened his eyes, and didn't die. He stood up and looked around the shelter, still exactly the same sight as what he had seen before.
He climbed up the stairs, still the same moon. He called out to it the same way but it didn't react.
'Alright, this definitely isn't a puzzle type.'
He dropped back through one of the tubes and tried to pick up Abel, just for fun. But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't move it by an inch.
'This is quite different.'
He then got into the middle of the shelter, where Erika was flipping through the stone book, and just sat down.
'What am I supposed to do here? I take it back, this is a puzzle type.'
He looked up at the ceiling, there were no holes. He had checked it already but it wouldn't hurt to check again. He then lied down on his back and closed his eyes.
'Can I sleep inside a dream?'
'What is happening?'
'What is this?'
'Who am I?'
'...'
'I didn't fall into some trap and thought it was a dream, did I?'
'Did I?'
He opened his eyes and climbed the stairs out of the shelter once again. Once out, he stared at the moon, he noticed that it hadn't moved since he last saw it.
Looking on the ground, he still saw the endless darkness, however somewhere in the distance, he saw something bright.
Instinctively taking a step into the darkness, he was surprised both by his action and the fact that the darkness acted like a floor, allowing him to walk on it.
He walked and walked and walked, but the light still seemed so distant, almost like he was never meant to arrive at that light in the first place.
'Wait.'
He looked back behind him, and everything was black. He quickly tried his hardest to get back to the temporary shelter but to no avail, he turned back again but the distant light was no more.
He looked up, but the moon was also no more. Everything was black, pitch black, he couldn't even see his body anymore.
***
Pushing the book away, Erika wiped away the sweat that accumulated on her forehead. It took an awful long time but thankfully it was done.
Much to her disappointment, nothing about the Platonics was mentioned in the stone book. Looking at Anastasia a good distance away, she then tried to pick the stone book up to return it.
However, everything suddenly turned black.
***
'Is he having another one of those dreams again?'
Anastasia was currently with her followers, all 19 of them. She had informed them about what Jean told her but they refuses to leave her side, seemingly scared of what would happen.
She then looked to the center of the shelter when she saw a lone book on the ground and a trace of blood, Erika was nowhere to be found.
'Isn't this?'
Moving immediately, she threw a maggot in the book's direction, trying to make it pull her to the center. But then her vision went black.
Shocked gasps echoed from around the maggot which was now on the floor as slowly but surely all sound exited the shelter.
***
Having heard screams, Aceso immediately turned on her brain. It actually automatically turned on, as a type of insurance in situations like these.
Looking over to the source of the screams, she suddenly heard a screech from beside her, from Iris. She tried to turn her head to look in her direction but her consciousness faded.
Similarly, all the occupants in the shelter experienced the same thing, except for two people. Both dreaming of something, someone.
Above ground, the sky suddenly shook and shifted, the stars left their original positions and aligned themselves, looking like a Witch's Knot.
Then something flew in the sky, before stopping abruptly and curled up. It then shone bright and brighter before stopping.
It and the Knot stayed a distance apart, looking like a pair of eyes, looking at the Earth.
Chapter 23:
He had finally deciphered the messages of his dreams. Why had they been so intricate this time? He couldn't say.
But he wouldn't say that his conclusions were correct, without first verifying them. How?
What he did know, however, was that everything outside was unfolding exactly as his dream foretold, yet his hands would not and could not alter it. Why?
Trapped in this suffocating void, he questioned himself endlessly, but no answers came.
What if they actually died?
Was it actually the Mimicry? Or was there something else at work? He couldn't know.
"Jean, why are you so panicked?"
The voice came suddenly, startling him. He turned, and there she was—a face he knew too well.
"Erika?"
"In the flesh."
"How are you here…?"
Suspicion flickered alongside surprise. Was this really Erika? Why was she here?
"Wake up, Jean."
As quickly as she had appeared, she vanished, leaving him alone once more in the endless darkness.
'Did I imagine her? A hallucination?'
Though his body was not visible in the void, he could still feel it. Unsure of what else to do, he moved toward the glimmer of light he thought he had seen before.
He walked without stop. Days seemed to pass, yet the void was still dark, devoid of any light. Was this truly his dream, or had he been ensnared by some Zirtue's trap?
He began to think that the light was also a hallucination, just like Erika.
Disembodied voices whispered around him—cries for help, angry reprimands, strange murmurs. He ignored them all, focusing on walking.
He began to run, desperate to close the distance, but the void remained unchanging, infinite.
There were no wind, no air, the void was truly empty. He stopped walking and stood still, staring into the endless abyss.
***
The shelter was deathly silent, the air thick with the stench of blood. Crimson trails crisscrossed the floor, converging into a macabre pattern: a serpent devouring its own tail—the ouroboros.
The people were gone. Only four things remained:
A writhing maggot, its stench was mixed along with the blood in the shelter.
A stone book.
A man, slumped and asleep.
And a glass capsule, its ends covered with strange, lifeless meat.
The meat, once red, had faded to a sickly gray. Suddenly, a crack split the glass cleanly in two.
Pale fingers emerged, clawing through the crack. They gripped the capsule's edges, tearing it apart until the glass disintegrated into dust.
One half of the capsule hurtled across the room, striking the wall with a deafening crash before shattering into fragments.
From where the capsule had been, a girl rose. Her skin was pale, her head bare, and her ragged white dress clung to her frail form. Her eyes, wide with terror, scanned the room.
She staggered, collapsing to the ground. Crawling forward, her hands dug into the stone floor, warping it with her grip. Her legs dragged lifelessly behind her.
Reaching the white-haired figure slumped against the wall, she pulled herself upright. Her trembling hand seized his hair, lifting his head.
With a single motion, she tore apart the wall beside him, shaping the debris into a crude dagger. She pressed it against his forehead.
Blood trickled down as the blade pierced skin, then bone. A sickening crack echoed as the dagger drove deeper, until it reached its mark.
When she withdrew the blade, a gelatinous, jellyfish-like mass clung to its tip.
Dropping the dagger, she crushed it underfoot. The jellyfish, inexplicably intact, wriggled in her grasp.
She turned and made her way toward the staircase, the jellyfish still in hand. Her pale form disappeared into the shadows, leaving the shelter silent once more.
***
A suddenly tearing suddenly caught his attention. Turning his head, he found the literal darkness surrounding him was being torn apart by some unknown force.
Without wasting a second, he dashed through the tear...
***
His eyes opened, to his relief, darting around the shelter, it was just as his dreams foretold, albiet a little different.
The stains on the ground were a lot more prominent, there were dents on the ground and damage on the wall he was next to and most importantly, a massive hole on his forehead.
Closing his eyes, he sensed nothing in the shelter and opened them again.
Quickly dismissing the discrepancies and getting up, he immediately got to the center of the shelter, took the book and looked up, the hole was not there. He did not need to pick up the maggot but he did so anyways.
This time, it also pointed him to something but different from the dreams, it was the stairs out that it pointed to. He doubted if he should follow its indication but still followed suit.
Crawling up the stairs, he observed the individual steps, there was blood and another strange liquid.
A bad feeling crept up in his heart as he got out of the shelter. Immediately, he looked up and,
"..."
"That's no moon."
In the sky, was a bright circle, but when he looked closer, it was actually of hundreds of jellyfish squirming around.
And opposite that abomination and also in the sky, was a symbol.
"The witch's knot?"
He had not seen this sight in his dreams.
His face suddenly felt wet—he was sweating, and profusely.
'What?'
His pupils dilated as it tried to make out the composition of the knot but it was different from the 'moon'.
It was far, very very far away. And considering that it was larger than the 'moon' in the sky.
Suddenly, the four ends of the knot brightened up, making the 'moon' seem dark in comparison.
Then, from those four ends, shot out a beam of pure energy, merging in the middle to become one and after a few seconds, obliterated the moon in the sky.
The jellyfish fell, and the sight reminded Jean of a meteor shower.
Chapter 24:
The sky shook with immense force, intense wind blew against Jean's face, the sand and rocks were also being affected, the ground also vibrated along with them, making his feet unstable.
Balancing himself, he looked up at the moon, all the jellyfish were dead, and were currently on a one-way trip to the ground. Looking at the knot responsable, he saw a shocking sight.
The knot was being undone, exactly like how you would untie a witch's knot.
The four ends slowly returned to normal brightness. Then, the knot finally became untied, leaving two strands of light on the sky. The two strands suddenly disintegrated into fine dots.
The dots were bright, and looked similar.
'Wait.'
Observing the sky again, he couldn't help but wonder where all the stars had gone. Was it because the knot was so bright?
Looking at it one more time, he finally realised. The witch's knot, was somehow but surely made up of every star in the night sky.
But how?
Jean asked himself 'how' an endless amount of times, however, none of them had answers. The stars started to gain speed and returned to their supposed starting positions.
Not after long, he could see the Milky Way again, which now terrified him.
Something or someone definitely helped him with the moon. But why? Was he going to fight that thing soon? Just the thought of it made Jean shrivel in fear.
Jean stood unmoving, gazing upon the nightsky, lost deep in his thoughts. Was it another alien organisation? Had his dream given him false information?
He started to stop dismissing the discrupansies between the two and finally began analysing them. In the end, he didn't get any conclusive answers, instead, got more questions.
Starting to become paranoid, he suddenly remembered that the members of the Base and the Wanderers were missing.
Looking down from the sky, he noticed the ground looked a lot more lively somehow. Scanning around the vicinity, he found that connecting the tubes and the stairs were a trail of blood.
This one seemed less complex than the one underground as it was only a circle but he still couldn't decipher what it meant.
The circle had 12 more trails connected with it. Going counterclockwise, the trails of blood became darker and darker. Abel was also urging him to go in a certain direction, which coincided with the trail of the darkest blood.
Wiping the sweat off of his forehead, he began his walk onwards. Suddenly, he began having thoughts he had never had before.
'What is there after we win?'
'Why struggle so hard for such an elusive future?'
'Why did this happen?'
He knew that he had to keep going, but why? and how? Was he just going to rely on pointless hope once again?
The ground was soft but not coarse, which made Jean uncomfortable, very uncomfortable. It felt as though it was moving under his feet, poking and mocking him.
But he ignored this, and the thoughts that he had earlier.
If he ran away from his problems, nothing should happen right?
He was so deep in thought that he didn't realise the sudden cut off in the blood trail. Only when he hit a rock that he paid attention.
Asking the maggot for answers, the thing just shrieked, so loudly that it shook the world, surprising Jean. After that, he dropped to the ground and seemed to have lost all life.
He wanted to pick it up but when he reached half-way down, he felt vibrations in the ground. Quickly stopping whatever he was doing, he jumped away.
And right at the next moment, the ground split apart, and a massive tentacle shot upwards. The tentacle looked like a pillar of gelatinous liquid, and shortly after its appearance, it went back into the ground.
'...'
Though he didn't know where the members are, nor know how to find them, he still could follow the hints in his dreams.
He was now quite unsure about trusting his dreams, after how vague and also how he almost got stuck inside it. But he had trust in Tyche and her abilities.
Halting his step, he seemed to have remembered something: Tyche. Without proper healing, she could be dead right now and he overlooked that fact.
Remembering about Tyche only raised the urgency of the whole ordeal and Jean couldn't help but frown. He had not seen nor dreamt of Tyche's capsule, so it was quite safe to assume she got taken with the others too.
However, that wasn't a good fact. He didn't know what even happened to the members. If they all died then well, maybe everything was pointless and he would join them too.
Approaching the hole left behind by the tentacle, he suddenly remembered about Ares. It came as a shock to him that he was dead, after all Ares was just Jean, but better.
Hearing that he was dead just dropped his confidence even further. But leaving those thoughts behind, he looked down into the hole. Though it was only about 3 meters in diameter, its depth was unknown.
He then clung to the walls of the hole and began climbing down. Each minute making the world darker and darker, until finally, it was total darkness.
The walls were now of an incredibly disgusting material that was both slippery and corroding, which made the descent that much harder.
His eyes suddenly changed, allowing more light to get inside, but light didn't reach down here, effectively making it useless. Jean then closed his eyes and tried to utilise echolocation.
The wet and repulsive sound of his grip on the walls, created sound vibrations that bounced off the other walls in the hole, serving as a alternative to his sight.
Descending a few hundred more meters down, he suddenly felt the presence of another hole within the hole, except it was horizontal.
Stopping his descent, he traversed over to the hole and tried to get in, his whole body was burning and crying for help, but he pushed onwards.
Chapter 25:
The hole seemed unending, Jean estimated that he had been crawling through this narrow hole for at least 30 minutes.
Not only that, the hole seemed to get more narrow over time, even if he wasn't moving. He was now forced to wriggle like a worm, as the hole was too narrow for him to maneuver his arms.
Oxygen wasn't available down here and he was starting to regret coming down this hole. Thinking back, it was quite irrational of him to jump down a hole created by a Jellyfish-I.
Something was wrong with him these past few days. He was, too emotional. What had changed? Pondering about it for a while, he gave up and focused on the task at hand.
The walls were clamping down on him, their acids coating every inch of his body, eating away at his skin and flesh.
He was quite irritated.
Suddenly, his hair sprung up and red sparks appeared all over his skin, they pulsated, shaving away tiny bits and pieces of the creatures around him.
The sparks grew and seeped deep into the walls. And with a loud bang, froze in place. The walls stopped moving and started to retract, widening Jean's path.
'Did not intend to do that.'
He looked at the walls of flesh around him, they were still moving very slowly and had terrible black marks, which oozed out a liquid that looked like blackened blood.
'Is it because there's no oxygen?'
Extending his hand over his head and gripping the fleshy wall, blue sparks appeared at the tips of his fingers.
'What about this?'
Much to his surprise, before the sparks even did anything, he suddenly felt himself falling down. The hole widened a lot more significantly than before, standing up, the hole was tall enough for him to walk in it.
'Interesting.'
He tried to do it again, but as he approached a wall on his left, he heard unsettling footsteps echoing further down into the hole.
Turning his head to where the sounds came from, he focused on the sound vibrations that bounced off of the walls.
Before long, he could tell that the footsteps were still a few hundred meters away. He got as close to the walls as he possibly could and gripped them tightly.
Stablising his feet, he tried his very best to not make any sounds. The sounds slowly became louder and louder and he could now make out the features of a humanoid creature.
'Hmm, doesn't that mean I'm going the correct way?'
'The thing seems to have come from deeper in the hole after all.'
The thing walked very slowly, almost leisurely. He was hoping that sight was also an issue for the creature, so he made the least amount of sounds possible.
A few minutes later and the distance between the two was a measly 50 meters, he could make out more features out of the creature. He had hoped that it was a human.
But maybe even that was too idealistic.
The thing was humanoid, he could tell that before. But what he couldn't tell was that it was made up of thousands of fingers, which were moving, as though independent.
'What kind of Zirtue is this?'
'What have you done to them?'
Were they real fingers? Or just a trick from a jellyfish? That he couldn't tell.
The creature took one more step forward and then suddenly halted.
Jean couldn't feel any vibrations anymore, but he didn't need that to know he was in big trouble.
Suddenly, he felt he was getting hot, and he suddenly felt something moist touching his skin.
'These darn...'
'Yeah, no, I think I'll just find another way to find them.'
'...'
'No.'
Despite something like this happening before, he couldn't help but want to dash out of this place.
He felt like he was being boiled, alive.
'I refuse to believe Ana went through things that are worse.'
It was quite excruciating, but he had to endure. He wanted to run, but that would only endanger him further, the same thing happened with the Crab-V.
He then felt his skin peel off.
'Yes! Skin! Peel off, take the nerves with yo-'
He almost let out a groan from the intense pain, but managed to hold it in.
'How..do I even...feel pain? I thought we removed them long ago.'
He couldn't remember the last time he felt pain, because it was literally impossible for him to. Pain was one of the first things Erika removed for him, so it had been a good 400000 years since he last felt physical pain.
But he did have an inkling as to why.
After what felt like days, the pain just abruptly stopped and his skin felt revitalised. He then checked for vibrations and he was extremely relieved to find it echoing the other way.
It seemed the thing walked past him.
He then started walking again, the whole tunnel was still hot and all movements from the walls ceased, it actually seemed like they were dead.
He still used echolocation to tread the way but its effectiveness was more or less reduced.
'At least I'm still alive and kicking.'
Walking for a few more minutes, he suddenly became very bored.
'I should go find my diary once I successfully retrieved all of them.'
The diary actually served two purposes for Jean. One was quite simple, he wanted to document each and every single thing that happened to him.
Even the memories that he wanted to forget, are all in there. The second purpose was to remind himself of who he was.
Many of his memories, were bad ones, borderline traumatic. As such, he tended to erase these memories from his mind.
A recent example would be the Witch's knot, shooting the 'moon' in the sky. The sight was mesmerising but also terrifying, so he instinctively erased it.
But, as a wise dead man advised him, he should hold on to these memories, as they were what made him himself. So, every now and then, he would open up the book and regain his memories.
Everytime he did, he would be reminded of one thing in particular. Their screams, their cries for help, their terrified faces, their struggles for survival, their nails scraping against his legs.
'...'
'I want to forget.'
Soon, he finally heard something, something other than the sounds of wriggling flesh. He began running, towards that sound.