================================

Chapter 349: Henna’s Nightmare

================================

“Damn it.” She used her right hand to manipulate her panel and equipped her Flight Armor with a last flick of her hand.

BOOM!

With a kick in midair, she propelled herself like a human rocket, flipping over trash cans and over-stacked newspapers, shattering cracked windows, and flicking over half-opened doors. Surrounding her were six black orbs of matter that formed six black spears. She wasn’t going easy on him.

“I got you!”

Three on her left and three on her right, Efel launched an attack with her left hand as the claw-like black spears descended upon Julia with monstrous momentum.

“I’ve heard of you before! You’re that notoriously troublesome Black Wizard Overlord!”

BANG… BANG! BANG!!

“What the…”

A swirling black matter also materialized around Julia in a form of a half-bodied ghastly figure with real clawed hands, a bulky shoulder, muscular limbs, and a head with a pair of curved horns. Its lower body was like a smoke, connected to Julia’s shadow like another separate entity.

Despite being pure black in theme, this ‘figure’ is undoubtedly a reminiscent of a devil.

And what more, it wasn’t just an ordinary devil; it was a familiar devil that had always appeared on games on random yet unforgettable occasions.

You can even say that this is a mascot for villains in almost all RPG titles in the past century.

“Baphomet!” FlowerLord was shocked. This was the ‘entity’ that blocked her attack just now.

Still, she could tell with certainty that although this is an attempt to create that impression of having this ‘devil’ as a familiar, it was nothing more than a [Form] of Julia’s BlackTech Weaponry.

“Hmp.” FlowerLord was only momentarily shocked but on the next instant, she used her remaining three unused black spears to deliver her angular attacks —a lesson she learned after fighting the ‘cheating’ puppets of the annoying Siva.

The attacks came in intervals which made it hard for Julia to dodge, defend, and even parry. He had no choice but to use [Baphomet] to protect his body as he was blown off towards a wall with that last monstrous strike.

“Argh!”

Since they were inside the city, he wasn’t injured by that attack. But the fact that he was blown off his feet and slammed into a wall carried mentally impacting damage. Player or NPCs, it may not be able to kill them but enough of that impact can still shake their brains to the point of collapsing.

«Unbreakable Object»

A notice appeared behind Julia. Baphomet was in a sorry state, hugging Julia who was groaning as he stood up. Its arms were falling off; body was in tatters… Julia may have been able to block Efel’s attack but the sheer might behind that was still enough to injure him if they were outside the city.

FlowerLord finished drinking two bottles of Blue Potions as she slowly, yet threateningly, walked towards Julia.

Julia stood, staggering, shaking, although there wasn’t any liquid, he still felt wiped his mouth with his sleeve as he smiled underneath his hood.

“You are not going to anywhere.” As Efel spoke, she made a separate call to contact The Circle and broadcasted this event via [email protected] Live.

“What makes you think you can trap me here?”

Julia’s world was still whirling. The scariest part in a BlackTech is that it has explosive power when you physically block it. Because it was made up of the hardest physical element, when it attacks and the attack broke and scattered, it only meant that the force of the attack was monstrously terrifying.

This is the aspect regarding BlackTech Users that people —players and NPCs— hated the most.

As rare as they may be, once you meet one, you run, acquiesce to surrender, or fight them and be confident enough in your agility and speed to be able to dodge their attacks.

Furthermore, FlowerLord was known to be The Circle’s Wizard Overlord —an archer, swordsman, and a Mage. After the War of Two Powers, when she had displayed her powers with the BlackTech, her moniker was updated into the Black Wizard Overlord.

She was known to have a very short temper and a very explosive battle style and now that Julia was facing her head on, he had proven that her title is actually not just a farce.

Her attack’s angle is precise. FlowerLord knew just where to attack him and when to do it to deal the biggest damage in just one blow.

“Kekeke… you’re good. I give you that.” Julia still had that confident tone on his voice. “But like I said, you are not going to catch me here.”

As he spoke, he produced a small gem in his hand and this made FlowerLord stop on her track.

“I know you know what this item can do. And I just charged it last night as well.”

“Whose memory?”

“A random knight I just saw last night. Although it was odd that there was nothing on his memories but just deep darkness, I can still use that memory to trap you guys in and buy my time to escape.”

FlowerLord frowned even further. A thought run through her mind.

“Was he floating?” she asked. It was purely just a random guess and only her gut instinct was the one who had the inkling to ask it. And yet, she didn’t expect that it was a bullseye as she clearly saw Julia shudder albeit just a bit.

“Heh, I’d wager you guys know each other.”

FlowerLord stepped back and warned everybody.

“Do not get close to his 10m radius.”

She was telling this to her companions that were on top of the building behind her.

Julia’s answer gave her a dangerous premonition.

“Kathleen?” she called. No one answered. “Hey, you silly cat, answer me!” she began to panic.

There was nothing. She felt goosebumps as she envisioned something frightening. These were Siva’s memories in the gem. If Julia releases the charge in it, it will create a 20m wide domain that will not hurt anybody but will trap them for 10 minutes in whatever memory was charged in it.

And that’s what’s giving her the jitters. It was the memory of that unstable bastard with a case of the rare condition: multiple personality disorder.

What’s scary is that his ‘multiple personalities’ so far had been either a God or a Devil.

—and she has bitter impressions on both of them.

Who knows if the memories inside that thing were the God’s or the Devil’s? As awesomely sounding as they may seem to your ears, both aren’t good news at all. She didn’t even want to try it.

“Kathleen!” FlowerLord shouted, looking around.

A rustle came from above Julia and there, the cat with her dagger, lunged an attack, telling Efel that she wasn’t wearing her Communicator.

“Shit.” She cursed.

Julia reacted at the same time as he also glanced up, seeing Kathleen descending —fast.

“Heh.” Julia smiled.

“Don’t!” Efel cried loudly but Kathleen was already on the momentum.

FlowerLord lunged to catch Kathleen.

“Efel!”

“Cassy!”

“It’s too late!”

“Mistress!” “Mistress!” “Mistress!” “Mistress!”

Behind her, Cassiopeia also jumped down, Eleanor also did the same, as well as Niobe… followed closely by the four escorts.

“Too late.” Julia released the magic.

A dark space erupted with him at the center and in its reach, Julia, Kathleen, FlowerLord, Niobe, Cassiopeia, Eleanor, and the four escorts… all of them were caught inside it and shivered.

Silence.

A very suffocating silence engulfed their senses.

“Hate?” Eleanor’s graceful voice resonated in the void and this made her friends feel relieved to know they were in the same place and could at least hear each other… for some reason.

“Where are we?” asked a lady escort as she hugged herself.

Another added, “It’s not cold but I feel this strong inclination to shiver endlessly.”

Perhaps they aren’t aware of it but this sensation, FlowerLord knew it well while Kathleen had only once felt it before, but can’t pinpoint when or even where she had felt it.

“I know what this is. This is fear.”

There were no winds, no light, no sounds, and no life in here. Following the logic that all lifeforms are alive in the world of light then this world is but a world of nothingness.

—an empty world of hate.

As for the reason why they were immediately able to determine that only ‘hatred’ existed in this dark and empty world, that’s because it told them.

It… the very ‘space’ they were in. Their ‘souls’ or whatever; their subconsciousness or perhaps it’s their consciousness; or perhaps the very instincts they have that determines their relationship to the people and their surroundings... it was this feeling that dictated upon their minds: this place hated all and everything.

“What is this place?” no one knew who whispered it but they at least knew that they were all in the same place.

There was an endless hatred inside this place and albeit this entire place is just somewhere inside the game, they could clearly feel the suffocating hatred in this space.

“Look.” I was Cassiopeia’s voice.

Prompted by her, they turned to her direction. In this deep darkness, they could miraculously still make out the shape of each other’s clothes. But for Eleanor, this wasn’t because there was light; it was because this is the light of Mana. What they were seeing is the light of their life force!

When they turned to look at the direction where she point, there was an even darker silhouette on that direction as well as a pair of gazes locked on them from not far away.

Eleanor had the feeling that the reason why they were all feeling this ‘hatred’ is because the light of their life force was too bright for this entity.

And yet, as soon as they all saw that pair of eyes, it was as if they have been deprived of their soul.

In just a moment, they were immediately deprived of their ability to breathe.

They felt like they were imprisoned in someone else’s personal domain; like trespassers, they all felt that hostility radiating from that pair of eyes.

…or just like how a hare would fee when stared at by a hungry wolf, they could now determine the source of that cold feeling they have been feeling since earlier.

Fear.

This is instinctual fear!

A fear that threatened not their bodies but what it literally meant to fear for your life.

—this hate was focused on their life force!

“What is this place?” Julia asked, then turned to the silhouette in the darkness. “Who are you?”

Despite knowing that his question was useless, there was still that feeling that the figure might actually answer him.

And as expected, the silhouette did not answer him but instead, he only looked beyond him, to the empty void beyond their group.

“I hate you.”

It was a calm declaration.

Dead, yet, alive…

To explain it simply, it was akin to or was like that of a mantra; something a person spoke every day, every minute, and every passing moment… like a prayer, to curse that someone who had put him in this place of eternal darkness; to tell the world of his hatred… that one single emotion he used to keep his sanity alive.

That calmness was a betrayal of the word ‘hate’ itself that should embody fire and that of raging, burning, smoldering flame of emotion: Hatred.

And yet, when that person spoke of it, a cold and penetrative feeling of crisis erupted on everyone.

It was a declaration of hate, to the very core of his soul, to the very core of his being.

Whoever was this ‘person’ in the darkness, hated ‘that’ person so much that his very being itself had become the embodiment of hatred.

There was nothing else in this world… his world...

……………..but hate.

Eleanor, no, perhaps everyone, they reevaluated their initial impression of this place.

This isn’t an empty space.

It was full. In fact, it’s overflowingly full to the brim that it rejects anything else that isn’t what’s filling it and so, they all realized that right now, the very simple reason why they all felt being ‘hated’ by this place is because they are invading it.

They are invading in this world full of hate.

Julia began to back up but he froze because he is the closest to that ‘silhouette’, he was the first to receive the full lashing brunt of that intent:

SWOOSH!

The silence came back. Everyone even imagined that this silence was enabling them to hear their own hearts’ beating.

And the reason for this silence is because of that man’s… that silhouette’s ice-cold and overly calm tone of voice:

“I’m going to destroy you. I’m going to destroy…”

.

.

.

.

.

“……..everything.”

Upon the last word spoken by the silhouette, he closed his eyes as if to sleep. But contrary to what they expected, the intent only worsened and every single one of them felt hundreds if not over thousands of gnawing sensations piercing their skins, down to their muscles, to their bones, and up to what they could only describe as to be their very own souls.

At first it was almost nothing but very quickly, in a very noticeable manner, like being boiled in a pot, the sensation increased from alarming to scary, to frightening to terrifying… to horrifying…

………….…until…

They all began to beg to die.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH”

It was painful. Agonizing… a torturous sensation of something invisible yet is there, something one cannot touch, yet could feel… it was eating them, burning them, torturing them, gnawing at their will and their consciousness… while they’re still alive.

Not one of them was excused.

All of them began to cry, beg, and pray for this sensation to stop. They began to beg for death.

Because perhaps to save them from this agony, death might just be their salvation!

One of the escorts began to bang her head to the floor but no blood came out. She only felt more of the pain, alongside the fact that she felt dizzy.

Her actions only worsened her situation.

“AAAAAAAAAHHHH!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!”

Cassiopeia was screaming her lungs out as she tried to pull her hair but unable to, tried to pierce her eyes but still could see, tried to gauge her jaw out of her skull… but was unable to. She was in very dire straits just like everybody else.

Eleanor lost her elegance as she rolled to the ground in an unsightly manner, doing the same horrifying self-inflicting torture as everybody else.

Niobe, the rest of the escorts, Julia, Kathleen, all of them crashed with each other as they tried to hurt themselves or anyone that got close to them, regardless of friend or foe, to try to ease just a bit of this pain.

And FlowerLord, she wasn’t an exception. But of all of them, she still retained that sliver of will to resist the agonizing feeling.

If this could be called the power of her soul, then perhaps it was.

She slowly… ever so slowly… approached that deprived of all of his humanity Julia.

Her target was that gem beside him.

Because of the agony, Julia had forgotten about it and because of that as well, FlowerLord found her reason to stay awake despite the agony. In her mind, she really hated Siva… no, she hated Rex from the bottom of her heart.

“You will someday put Mandy in this same situation… so I won’t let you!”

It was a fear of a different kind.

Her source of strength was her protectiveness of her best friend.

She crawled while wanting to puke. She could feel the gnawing on her stomach, yet she couldn’t puke any blood. She even wished that perhaps vomiting blood might alleviate the sensation. But deep in her heart, she knew that it won’t.

Ten minutes was too long in this kind of situation.

What kind of human would survive if they were to be put in this agony? Many people described hell before and for the first time ever; Alice knew just how that really felt.

“This is hell.”

One meter away, FlowerLord kept crawling while resisting the kicking, biting, the punches, the cries of agony, the pleading for death, and the crazed antics of her comrades… she resisted the call to surrender in this pain and only used her fear for Mandy’s sake as her strength to keep on moving forward.

The entire domain had become a pandemonium.

If there was one thing constant in peoples every description of hell, then it is the fact that there is an endless suffering... to an amount that will make one forget who they are, who is foe, and who are their comrades.

When one is put to hell, this is that sensation. No fire could be seen but they could feel it down to the very essence of their bodies… of their souls.

How long has it been? Perhaps only a minute and there was still nine minutes of agony for them to experience pain under these circumstances.

“A little more…” he dearly wished she could make it but her vision was inverting. She could feel her eyes were being eaten fresh, then regenerated, then eaten again and again from their sockets. It was a pain indescribable by words, yet it was there and she was consciously feeling it.

She was resisting it.

“A little more.”

A few inches away from the gem… all she had to do is inject her Mana and the magic will stop right there and then.

The caster usually uses that chance to teleport away of danger but in this situation, she knew that that wouldn’t be the case because she was positive that Julia would still be lost on the aftershock of this experience. That’s her chance to do all her tasks.

“Just a little bit further…” she stretched her hand that was trembling and flipping all over.

But then…

SWOOSH!

Everything stopped. The painful sensation had stopped. The darkness vanished. And they were there, on the ground, as if nothing had happened.

FlowerLord was closest to the gem while the gem itself was on Julia’s chest.

Their eyes met and FlowerLord realized that the backlash she was expecting wasn’t going to come.

Because she herself wasn’t even feeling it!

It was as if everything was just mere illusion. Yet, the memory was vividly clear. It all happened.

Julia smiled. “No you won’t.”

BOOM!

Baphomet materialized and tried to attack Efel, but she dodged and used her own BlackTech Shield to block a follow up attack.

FlowerLord was blown away from Julia.

Julia flipped to her feet, her hood going off as they all saw the real person that was hiding in the name of Julia. She, Julia, is a dark skinned woman from the Gonn Race.

“A girl?”

“God damn it!”

Julia pulled back her hood and produced a T-Device, not waiting for any pleasantries as she pressed the button and uttered her destination.

FLASH!

Julia was gone.

“She’s going to Dakar!” FlowerLord cried.

[We’re on it.]

The people on her conference call replied. When she realized that there was nothing she could do, she fell on the ground as she leaned her back to the wall. She didn’t even mind the trash all around her as she just processed the after images and lingering sensation of that ‘hell’ earlier.

She was joined by Kathleen and Niobe, then the teary-eyed and still frightened Cassiopeia, and finally a similarly crying Eleanor who hugged the tear-ladened Cassy in her supple chests

They were in a group hug.

It was like she became their pillar at this moment.

“What’s with you guys?” she blurted out. But even if she sounded angry, she herself couldn’t make it so since she also felt really scared by it.

In the end, she too cried.

“Uuuuuuu…. Uwaaaaaaaaaa….”

It was a really scary experience.

After a while, she suddenly recalled what that one member of TOS Guild had spoken about Siva.

Henna… as soon as she got that white MOD, the [Eye of Origins], Thorn said that she experienced something that made her suddenly quit the game.

Fuma said that in the real world, Henna was in a psychiatric therapy because she kept on having nightmares ever since that day. It was a really hard effort for her to log back in to Terroa, only to ultimately quit again; giving away everything she had accumulated as a player to the TOS Guild.

Then, ultimately, the white MOD landed on Scion and she triggered something that was supposedly not part of the original features of the game.

From that day on, the series of changes had only transpired like a tidal wave. One big event after another, Siva was in the middle of it all.

While she cried with the other girls, FlowerLord recalled these events and silently decided to herself: she will not let her best friend get hurt like she did this very day.

.

.

================================

The nightmare of Henna finally came to light.

================================

.

.