Ch. 51 Simulacrum

A strange bejeweled temple. A giant tree with red, blue, brown, pale green, gold, and emerald green branches. A building that looked like a warehouse and bank fused together. A gem mountain with bird-like things made out of those gems flying above it. Lastly, a large auction house with random items, wisp-like creatures, and a rendition of a world. The whole building also looked like a stage, with red curtains in the middle, painted walls with a world and moons at one side, and a prismatic crystal on the other.

These were the things before Brian's red eyes. The longer he stayed here the stronger a feeling of belonging grew. This place he's never been to reminds him of home, of peace. While he wondered if he was in a dream, the forest around him started to wilt rapidly. What was going on now?

Outside the Mindscape, in Malpetios's soul, the last of the wills were destroyed and devoured. The grayish colors were now gone, a white body shining in prismatic colors left in its place. Sadly, Malpetios couldn't enjoy the feeling of becoming whole, instead, a river of horrible memories flooded his mind, nearly breaking his will.

"Host! Your psyche is being corrupted, please give permission to reactivate the Emotional Suppressant."

Malpetios managed to recover momentarily, the adult-sounding voice echoing in his mind. He gave the command in an exhausted voice. In a few seconds, his mind cleared as if nothing had happened. Surveying his body revealed that half of it was now completely black.

Malpetios saw the darkness being compressed, sealing it at the center of his body, just as before. Although most of the darkness was gone, he was still covered in black spots, some had obviously grown bigger. The System's monotone voice returned, assuring him everything was now under control.

"Was it the System who snapped me out of it? Strange... Its voice was that of a child before, did it grow up after I became whole or something?"

Just as Malpetios had stated, he had now absorbed all the wills not under Muscles' control. He was disappointed to see that his memories of Earth were still broken and blurry, his mother and family members being the only exception.

Although he hoped to get something from Muscles' memories, something told him that it was probably going to be about the Beast King and not about his old self. The Jewel's had also destroyed many of Muscles fragments, who knows what was lost in all that mess.

Talking about memories reminded him of the hell-like things he had just experienced. Thanks to the Emotional Suppressant, he was able to look thru them, with little effect on his mental state. These memories were not from the wills attached to the core fragments who created me, but from that item, the Knight had used.

Hundreds if not thousands of green skin, teenaged looking humanoids, with big eyes and ears suffering unspeakable torture. Malpetios couldn't stomach the pain and horror those creatures went thru. The only reason he was able to stay sane was in part that he no longer had a body and that these memories were mostly complete.

Unlike his own memories of his past life, these were all shattered puzzle pieces of the same individuals with very little missing. After gathering a few hundred to thousands for the older wills, they showed the life of one of these creatures. It was born in a cell, it was fed barely anything and encouraged to fight for the food of others, it failed and was left behind with many others.

Those who were strong and well-fed were taken out of the cell to somewhere, with only a few being kept behind apparently because they killed one of their own, for food. After that it was nothing but hell, the pain of having his flesh carved piece by piece was but one of the things Malpetios felt.

The creatures were exposed to non-stop torture, as for who was causing this, it was a group of black-robed mages with a necklace that looked like a medallion. Focusing on the trinket he saw a shield-like body, six wings slightly closing around a sword-like cross, and a pearl-like gem in the middle. Seeing this Malpetios stopped for a moment, he'd definitely seen this before, after a quick check he found it. This was the Sigil of the Holy Nation of Heaven's chosen, or as is more commonly known the church's insignia.

With the holy element now under his control, Malpetios couldn't see the reason behind this, they were actively going against the element. Confused, he dug further until he found something alarming. The older wills were used for anything from slaves, soldiers, or breeding stallions with only a few of them being sent back into the hell hole that raise them.

As for the ones sent back, most of them were from upsetting petty nobles or just being too old. The one that had drawn his attention was one of the soldiers trained in assassination. The creature's owner sent him to kill people with some status while ordering a ragtag group of untrained ones dressed in bright red thief clothes to destroy the victim's property.

Malpetios saw thru the assassin's eyes as knights in shining white and gold armor attacked and eliminated all of the red thieves, not leaving a single one behind. A priest-like person would then come and save the people who were still alive earning their gratitude and worship. Malpetios could already see where this was going and he was sadly not disappointed.

The reason why the competent assassin was sent back was that he saw something he shouldn't. A priest that had just 'saved' many people was now happily talking with his owner and a black-robed mage. The conversation went as you could expect, the priest passed a bag to the mage before leaving, the mage followed suit after throwing a few coins from the bag on the floor.

The assassin's owner scrambles to gather them with a humble smile, praising the mage to the high heavens. It was then that they noticed him, the mage furiously stomping at its owner's head. After that, the mage summoned black hands to capture him and send him to be tortured until his death.

Malpetios couldn't but sigh in disgust and helplessness. They were using these poor creatures to create a problem to solve as well as manpower, and materials for dark element magic. Yes, after seeing the mage summoned those hands he knew it was the same element as his puppy, Kira, if only eerier.

After looking at them for a while he felt a bit disappointed with himself. The first thought that went thru him was not to somehow save them but to use those memories to stimulate his mind. He had to at least agree that doing so would eventually numb him to them, finally getting rid of that suppressant.

Grumbling to himself, he dives inside his Mindscape, only to find that he was now a giant. Those majestic fairy tale trees were now the same size as him. Looking around, he found that sapient will walk around the Temple, he hesitated a second, afraid to scare the guy with his size. Luckily, he found that he was able to shrink his body when focused, quickly flying next to his guest right after.

When the will noticed him, it quickly ran inside the temple like his arse was on fire. Malpetios suddenly got the idea to play hide-and-seek, although he thought it was a bit childish he couldn't hide the smile creeping in his body of light.

While Malpetios was enjoying himself, Brian was cursing him in his mind. Brian didn't understand how that guy was finding him, and what was with that creepy smile it flashed at him whenever it did. Looking around the corner, he saw it floating past the halls while giggling to itself. Moving deeper into the corridor leads him to a large library. The place looked magical, with flying books organizing themselves while others flew in and out of square holes up against the walls.

Distracted by the beautiful and whimsical scene, he didn't notice someone silently sitting at the tables not far from him. That person said, "magical isn't it?" Brian nodded subconsciously, "yah it's amazing." Brian suddenly got stiff, turning his head to the source of the voice. It was the kidnapper that has been chasing him all over the place, its mischievous smile turning into a shit grin.

Brian started to slowly walk away from it, getting ready to run again. The kidnapper's face suddenly relaxed a somewhat sad-looking smile replaced its smugness from before as it said two words, "thank you." Brian stopped trying to escape, confusion all over his face. The kidnapper started to talk about himself, introducing his life and name. At first, Brian was curiously listening to this Malpetios's story, that was until it started sounding way too familiar, to the point he could finish the guy's sentences.

Both of them looked at each other dumbfoundedly. Brian started to talk about himself and his own life, and although this guy was unable to follow thru most of it, he still took the words out of my mouth at certain intervals. Malpetios suddenly flew up and said, "is... is your name, Brian?" Opening his red eyes wide, Brian was a bit shocked, he's been hiding his name mostly due to the hell-like dreams he had gone thru. What if this guy is a demon or something trying to get his name.

However, after their chat, this was starting to look like a case of cloning if not something else. The fact that some of the things Malpetios said didn't ring a bell, yet fit perfectly into the situation, was also starting to paint something more serious. After talking for a while, Malpetios couldn't think of anything other than to ask the System what was going on.

[The will known as Brian has been identified as an incomplete System. Upon reaching 100% Synchronization rate the soul shards of the two individuals known as Brian and The Child would be sent into the Collective. A copy of their wills would then be used to reform the System.]

"I REFUSE!!!" Malpetios couldn't but furiously reject the idea of getting rid of Q'ills kid, as well as the literal dregs of his old self! He finally knew why his System took the form of a kid back then, it was the original owner of this Core! This finally answered why he could only remember his family and hobbies clearly, and nothing else. Only those things left a deep enough mark on his soul to be remembered, even when broken apart.

However, this meant he was not Brian or the kid, but a fusion of them and most likely some of the wills. Malpetios found this whole situation to be grimly poetic. A patchwork of different element Cores gave birth to the Prismatic Core, whose own soul was torn apart and fused with others giving way to my birth.

While Malpetios was starting to feel a deep emptiness Brian was staring at him with ay, 'is he crazy look', after he randomly yelled something. Before he could say anything, he saw Malpetios's body slowly turning gray, the black spots around his edges growing bigger.

He didn't know what was going on but something told him it was not good. The sound of something heavy falling was heard nearby, taking a look thru the library's windows, Brian saw the huge trees wilting and falling to the ground. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what was happening and he yelled out, "HEY SNAP OUT OF IT!!"

"Ha... Huh?" Malpetios came back to his senses as he noticed his vision full of black spots. Brian, on the other hand, saw Malpetios's body regaining its white and prismatic form if only covered in a lot more black circles. "Are you ok? I get the feeling you're in deep shit." Malpetios raise his head, tears welling up in his eyes, "who am I? What am I?" That's all he said before collapsing into the floor crying.

"Whoa-whoa kid don't cry!" Brian walked up to him hugging the kid whose having an emotional breakdown. "Come on big guy don't cry, men shouldn't cry you know?" Brian really had no clue how to comfort him, he barely became a father before he ended up here, having to work his arse off for child support. He couldn't even see them let alone get some experience dealing with them.

Seeing this guy breaking into tears touched something in his heart like something precious was broken. After constantly comforting this kid, the body in his arms finally stopped shaking. He saw as a lot of the black dots shrunk and disappeared, only a few of them remained around the kid's arms and legs.

After recovering from his outburst, shame-colored Malpetios face, he felt weird being called a kid and comforted by a piece of himself. He stood still in Brian's chest and arms, finding it soothing to his soul. A weird idea crossed his mind, this guy is basically a father to me, I mean, I'm literally made from a piece of him right?

Malpetios decided to throw all the useless thoughts like pride, and shame out of his mind and do what he wanted or needed right now. Brian was still rubbing the guy's back in comfort, his chest covered in the kid's colorful tears. Suddenly, the kid in his arms shrunk in size, looking like a five-year-old or so.

While a bunch of question marks popped in Brian's head the kid jumped out of his chest. Standing up, Brian asked if everything was ok, the kid's reply was grabbing his hand tightly not seeming to want to let go any time soon. He was honestly confused and lean over to look at the kid's lowered head, shame, embarrassment, and stubbornness were reflected in his eyes.

Brian tried to talk to him to no avail, the kid seemed like he was a mute right now. He also found comfort in having this guy hold his hand, it felt familiar, like holding someone close to you. Scratching the back of his mangled head, Brian wondered if this is how it would feel to hold his kids.

After a while he stopped talking and began to walk around this new world he found himself in. Leaving the temple he picked a direction and walk until he reached the edge of this world. Looking past the endless expansion of clouds of what he now saw as a floating island, he continued to walk along the border for a long time until he eventually reached his footprints again.

Brian looked down at Malpetios, at some point the black spots around his body had all disappeared. It was also hard not to notice the trees regrowing and shining in misty, dewy splendor. Was this kid the center point of this place? It's he the spirit of this forest or land?

Malpetios started to talk for the first time in what seemed like years, "can... can you come with me somewhere... please?" Brian looked down at the little guy, his eyes showing a level of maturity and calmness that a kid wouldn't have. "Sure," was Brians only response a smile that looked uglier than crying appearing in his mangled face.