“Come on, Mei, you did a great job!” Lara laughs, extending her hand again, even as I push it away.

“It's too expensive, Lara,” I gripe, then stop short. Before this...-

Wait, how much time did I just lose?! “Hold on, stop stop.” I shake my head and make a time-out sign with my hands. After sending a glance at my stream camera, I lean in close to whisper. “What happened? How much time did I lose?”

“Mm?” she smiles slightly and pats me on the head. “It went well, you saved the town,” she tells me with a big smile, and I let out a shallow breath, the tension in my shoulders releasing. That's a huge relief. Still, I wish I could remember what I actually did. I feel like I was supposed to learn something from that, so having it all blanked out is frustrating. The fact that I somehow lost time as Mei even moreso.

“Come on, can't I reward you for a job well done?” Lara smirks at me, and I know I'm not getting out of this one.

“Fine, fine,” I sigh and take the offered necklace. I slide it on over my head, and I'm immediately cringing under the weight. “Ugh, what is this thing made of?” I ask, fingering the little orb. On a seemingly delicate metal chain, the slightly larger than thumb-size orb is held inside a claw, reminiscent of a dragon claw. A bit gaudy if you ask me. At my probing touch, I can feel that it's a magic metal, the onyx black orb some kind of extremely compressed magic energy.

“Don't worry, it's got great stats, it'll make you way stronger,” Lara assures me, grabbing my hand and pulling me along with her.

“Yeah, thanks.” I smile, just glad to be here.

We continue walking for some time, and as we go, a strange sense of unease settles over me. “Hey Lara, where are we going?”

“We have to meet up with the others, restock on supplies, then we're heading for Icutha.” We're going already? But... I look up, finding the sun is in the sky again. It's already the next day? We must have already eaten lunch too. God, that corrupt core crystal really messed me up.

I pick up my pace, falling into step beside Lara, and we keep walking. But the anxiety isn't going away this time. It's like a weight around my shoulders, and it's only getting heavier, something subconsciously pinging danger in the back of my head, louder and louder.

“Lara, something is wrong.” I grab her arm, getting her to stop beside me.

“What is it, Mei?” she tilts her head at me, a hand coming to my cheek when I move to glance around in confusion

“I don't know, but it's wrong...” I mumble, before pulling away to look around. I my gaze sweeps across, taking the time to examine our surroundings more closely, trying to pinpoint the problem. And then I see it. “Where is everyone?” The entire street around us is empty. Wasn't the city packed before?

The very instant I notice the disconnect, the scene is unraveling around me. There are no cross-streets in either direction, and the buildings on both sides of the road, they're all the same buildings. The same ten or so I remember from when we came into town, the ones that were particularly damaged in the attack, so they stood out to me.

They're copy-pasted over and over again, a straight shot, all the way to the horizon. This place-

This world is just a treadmill.

Good enough.

The sneaking tendrils all around suddenly constrict, crushing the scene. There's a sense of plummeting vertigo in the dark, a flash of rose, and-

I roll out of bed, stretch, and head off to work. It should be Sasha's rune shop today. It's a quick trip over, and I relieve her behind the counter. “See you later, Mei,” she waves on her way out.

Business is slow for a few hours. We mainly sell to Guardians, and most of them are back on Earth at this time of day. I idle away my time, glad for the peace and quiet. Then a man comes in, and I frown at the sight of him. The way he sways as he moves, and soon the odor that reaches me, confirm that he's drunk.

“Yoooo, babesh!” he slurs his words as he approaches. “You're hot, what'shay we get outta here?”

I roll my eyes. “Sir, you're drunk. Please leave.”

“Ey! You've got no right to... to tell me whatta do!” He waves his hands angrily with his words. “You're just some hunka code, ya stupid NPC!”

I frown. He has to know how offensive that is...

Why not just kill him?

My hand comes up to my necklace. No, I can't do that. I can't just destroy things I don't like now. Besides, he's a Guardian. I'm not strong enough, even if I did want to.

I can make you stronger.

I swallow hard, watching the man lean over the counter toward me, shouting aggressively. Then my eyes squeeze shut, when it comes rushing back, and I fall in deeper.

“Mei, are you alright?” Kelly asks, expression full of worry.

“Yeah, sorry, I'm fine.” I shake myself a little.

“You should take a break, I told you not to push yourself too hard. Come on, I'll take you out for a drink or something,” she offers.

You're weak.

I shake my head. “I still have my shift to finish.”

“Right, right,” she sighs, then leans up against the counter with an impish grin. “Guess I have to stay here until you finish up.”

I crack a grin. “Thanks a lot, Kelly.”

When Mylene returns, she crosses her arms. “Mei, you know you can go if you're not feeling well.”

You make everyone worry.

“I know, I know. But I'm still doing alright,” I try to laugh it off, fingering my necklace anxiously. “I swear. Kelly can vouch for me, right?” That just has the two women share a meaningful look. “Ok fine, I'll leave the rest to you, today.” It's not my fault, I tell myself. They're just good, caring people.

Oh really?

There's another pull. I'm slammed through solid crystal, down onto hard pavement.

Xanaad is bearing down on me, before the wall of defenders leaps to my defense, and it cuts them down.

Your fault.

I can hardly move, until a healer starts dragging me away while the others keep the boss busy. A blast of darkness streaks out, blowing away the man before he even sees it coming. I tumble along the ground, coming up as Hask stands with his big grin, before Xanaad cleaves him in two.

Those people can't defend you forever.

The boss catches me, the metal hiss of its shrieking tentacles washing over me. It squeezes, and I can feel myself, body about to break.

Accept my power.

Just as I grasp at the glowing necklace with my only free hand, the thing hanging off me like a leaden weight, Xanaad's attack comes. I nearly buckle from the force that crashes through. It rips at the edges of my mind and blows a hail of shattering pink crystal into the distance.

There's a pause when something shifts. A distinct, momentary break, like something catching when I slip. A hook latching onto something it shouldn't.

There's more. More that you're hiding.

Then I'm hit again, and again.

But I won't be beaten. I clench my teeth.

I'm strong enough just as I am, like this.

As my fingers clutch around the necklace, I feel the claws. They grasp at my mind, hooking into the gaps each time Xanaad blows more of me away. They twine together and the tendrils burrow down past the surface, and pull me down deeper. The darkness blossoms into a glowing crystal forest, and we plummet down, the pink flaring into a new totally new scene.

“Eliza, the fuck was that?” the guild leader demands angrily. “Why'd your DPS tank in phase four?” But I can hardly focus on his words, the overwhelming wave of vertigo nearly puts me on my ass.

Another you.

I'm disoriented. The background behind him out of focus momentarily, before it snaps together and I'm steady again. That's right, we're back in Archas after our botched raid, outside the guild hall.

This isn't the first time.

“You told me to go harder in phase three,” I'm arguing back. “so I had to blow my manifest early.”

“Then you should've done it another way.”

“I did the math! There was no other way! If you'd gotten me the empyrean staff like I said-”

“Enough! That's it, you're out. I can't deal with your shit.” I jolt, staring at the message informing me I've been kicked from the guild. My hand comes up around my necklace as I tremble angrily.

You've always been a disappointment.

But this wasn't my fault!

As I'm grabbing my necklace and glaring at the hateful guild leader, I sink further. The scene dissolves, the asian structures melting away into decrepit ruins, blowing away like broken shards in the wind.

“Oh my god, that's the nomad demon! We have to take it on!”

“Ehh?” I look at Aaron skeptically. “There's no way we're strong enough though...”

You're still hiding.

“Gotta git gud,” he grunts back. “You're still using that pussy dex build. Should've gone mage to back me up, then we'd wreck all the bosses, no problem.”

“You know I don't like the mage builds,” I complain, “they're so slow and lame.”

“Yeah yeah,” he waves me off like always, and we both start going through our menus to buff up and prepare for the fight. “All set,” Aaron says when he closes his out. “You ready yet, Max?”

Deeper.

When I feel the claws clutching around me, I grab the heavy metal necklace and grit my teeth, but I'm already falling.

I drop into my chair and yawn at my desk, looking over the office. My second cup of coffee hasn't really hit me yet. Then my desk phone rings. What is it, this early? I pick it up, my mouth moving automatically.

“Broker Brocker Co, Nancy speaking.”

I know you're in here somewhere.

“H-hi, this is Raymond Hathow, I work there.” The voice on the other end of the line sounds like some stupid college kid. More likely a highschool dropout if he's working in this dump.

“Alright,” I shoot back, rolling my eyes silently.

“I have, umm, some family stuff and won't be able to come in for a bit,” he claims. Probably just too drunk or stoned to make it in.

Mentally writing this one off, I drone on. “Ahh, I see. No worries. You're fired, have a nice day,” and hang up. There's no way he does anything important here anyway.

You could have power, but you're still hiding...

With my fingers closing around the necklace, I fall further in. The desk morphs, and the room shrinks. The glass window has cheap blinds roll down over it, and the voices of school children filter in.

A girl walks in my door and sits down, passing me a form.

You will show me your true self.

It only takes a quick look to scan it over. “So, Fara, you're sure you're about dropping out? It's much harder to get a good job without a high school diploma, you know. You only have a couple years left to go.” I only say it because I have to. One look at the young girl tells me this is different than normal. She's thought this through and she's determined. She even has her parents' signatures on her forms.

Just look how helpless you are like this.

“Yes, I'm sure, Mr Johnson,” she answers me directly, and I scratch a finger momentarily at my beard.

“Alright,” I sigh. “I'll put in the paperwork.”

You could use force, but you insist on hiding.

I grip the offending necklace, pulling at it as the young girl walks out my door, and the room dissolves away around me.

My view shifts repeatedly, the crystaline forest whirling dizzyingly around in all directions. A dozen scenes pass across the luminescent pink surfaces in myriad reflections, each gone in the blink of an eye. Like... searching for something. When I start to reach out to touch one, it pulls us forward, into focus.

I land leaning all the way over the counter, glaring daggers down at the boys. “What do you have to say for yourselves?” I challenge them. These damn brats, what the hell did they get themselves into this time?

This one?

“Mr Hanson, he's a psycho!” their leader claims, pointing over at the sobbing sixth grader. Poor kid's parents wouldn't answer their phones, so we had to pull his older sister out of class to deal with this mess.

And they expect me to believe the little kid, three grades below and half their size, broke six arms and eight legs across the group of seven older children. They have claw and bite wounds for god-sakes! How stupid do they think I am?!

This is pointless, where are you hiding?

More like the punks got involved in something they shouldn't have, then grabbed the first loser they bully and tried to use him as a scapegoat.

I should throw the book at them this time. This is definitely turning into some sort of lawsuit later, and I should try to shield the school as much as possible in advance.

Give up this farce, just destroy them all!

I ball my hand into a fist and grab the necklace. Why would I want to be like this? I'm ripped back with a clatter of crystal, and space reforms again.

I'm outside with other kids.

“Jack, where are you going?”

“I'm gonna explore!” I claim proudly.

How deep are you buried?

“Then at least take your brother with you,” the teacher chides, pushing him forward.

“Eehh, but he's boorring,” I complain loudly.

“Now now,” the lady goes on, as if that means anything, and I humph in annoyance, heading off into the playground with my friends and little brother trailing behind.

You're selfish. Why not take more power?

I grab the annoying necklace to throw it away, like everything else I don't like. Instead, I'm thrown out, through the mirror.

I stumble in, over my feet, flailing my arms to keep my balance. I look around to see if anyone saw, but it's just us, and I breathe out with relief. “Hey there, Ra-ra,” I coo as I kneel down in front of my little brother.

This is meaningless!

He's not really crying, but he looks sad, sitting on the floor in the empty house. “What's wrong?” I ask.

“I feel bad.” I don't think he's old enough to explain better.

Where is the real you?!

“Let's go play!” I say, sticking my hand out. He takes it, and I pull him up with a big grin. He still looks kind of down, but returns a weak smile of his own anyway.

Just throw these useless things away!

No! I grab the necklace, squeezing it hard enough to make my small hand hurt.

I'm at the table. Everything is sore and I'm probably running a fever. “You should rest, Martha,” Ben says softly.

“No, we have to figure this out,” I respond, looking over the papers spread across the table.

Is there any truth inside you at all?

Panting, I press a hand to my belly worriedly.

“I could take a third job,” Ben suggests.

“No, I should at least get a second one first,” I argue back.

“Then who will take care of the kids? And what about when you go on maternity leave?”

“We'll just have to make it work.”

“Don't we have any other options?” Ben suggests.

“Like...?” He flinches at the threat in my eyes.

“Like... I don't know,” Ben sighs, head in his hands. “We could try talking to your parents? Or, there's my brother? Maybe someone could help us out somehow?”

You should abort it.

NOT MY DAUGHTER.

I fling the necklace into the fridge so hard it shatters on impact.

The fridge shatters with it, the scene fragmenting away into crystal sand. The blast echoes out through the forest, to a cacophonous chorus of broken memory, and the whole world falls to void.

It's just me and the orb of pure malice left, alone in the dark space between. Vines snake out from it, like an infection spreading through me, every inch of them covered in shattered rose dust.

Is this really your core? There's nothing inside you, is there? You're as much a monster as I am.

“Shut up.” I stalk forward, but a mirror appears in front of me, and I flinch, pausing my advance. The glass shows me myself, as Mei. Regaining my shaken will, I step through it. The image shatters, to reveal another mirror beyond; me as Eliza. I break through that, to me as Fiona.

Pushing out with my will, I refuse. This is me, all of me. With each step, another identity falls away.

Rachel, Maxwell, Harley, Zullon, Amfar, Shia, Bruno, Frithen, Soros, Alice, Kaeila, Echini, Mrowil, Cathar, Lola, Gale, Hannah, Francis, Tilli, Boll, Hoho, Carmen, Nathan, Sam, Char.

They scatter across the void, shattering to dust underfoot. The vines tremble. I reach the writhing mass of darkness, grabbing it and squeezing.

Who are you?

With all my strength, I pull, uprooting everything attempting to take hold, and crush it completely. The darkness explodes, pillars of pink crystal flinging away. I reach upward with the light, and rise.

I'm back in my house. I yank off the necklace and smash it against the wall, smiling at little Ra-ra before the scene fragments.

I rip off the necklace and stomp it into the playground, time to play with my friends.

I crush the necklace in my fist, glaring at the stupid children.

The chain snaps. I grit my teeth smash the necklace on my desk top. These kids must have hard lives too...

I pull off the necklace and throw it in the trash with a satisfying crunch.

I crush the necklace in my fist, startled by the sudden effect.

The asshole guild leader flinches and staggers when I pelt him in the face with the necklace, shattering it on impact. My hand grasps the ledge as the world below sinks, and I haul myself up further.

I yank the necklace off and glare at Xanaad. I won't be beaten again. I fling the necklace into the pavement and watch it all shatter.

I grab the necklace and pull it off, crushing it underfoot. Kelly raises a brow, but I just smile as the scene falls away.

I open my eyes to the shouting drunk and square my shoulders. “Sir. Get out. Of our shop.” Maintaining eye contact, I rip off my necklace and shatter it across the counter, sending the man staggering away in shock, before everything else explodes too.

I take in the fake world and turn around. My sister's imposter is standing there. She smiles thinly. “Do you even know who you are?”

I take off the final necklace, staring down into its inky onyx surface. All that power, and all that evil, no wonder why it's such a burden...

I drop it on the ground, stepping on it with another crunch.

There's a cacophony of glass as the entire world lights. The beaming pink spills through the furrowing cracks from all the way down in the depths below, and I raise my head to the fractured sky as it comes crashing down.

I'm suddenly aware once more, with an immense tree of brilliant blushing crystal spilling from inside me as I stare anew at the core of evil clutched in my palm.

Beyond it, Pollton's core crystal is once more a healthy glowing blue without a single trace of darkness remaining beneath its surface. I'm in a tiny bubble of my own, the world outside frozen in time. Everyone stopped in place, spells paused mid-flight.

Answering the oblivion core's final question, I say, “I am Mei.” It counters me immediately.

Illusions and lies won't be enough.

You'll never win if there's nothing beneath.

Pushing strength into my fingers, I squeeze until the small magical structure cracks and collapses in my palm. When I open it again, the darkness blows away. It leaves behind one last message.

You can't overcome the darkness if you don't even know who you are.

I take one last breath in and out, before a series of messages appear all at once.

You have destroyed an Oblivion Core! You have earned a new Title: Priestess. You have helped purify Pollton's Core Crystal! You have earned a new Title: Light Bringer. You have leveled up. You have completed the Quest: The Call

Your Title has evolved.

You have unlocked new Skills.

You have leveled up.

The gods have granted you a unique Personal Affinity!

The Void

There's a sudden lurch as time kicks in once more, the whole world jumping into motion with a bellowing crash of disintegrating crystal, the entire formation fanning out from inside me burning down to nothing in a matter of moments, and I'm left kneeling on the ground, somewhat stunned and panting lightly.

I... don't know how to feel. I think it's going to take a long time to process everything that just happened. Before I can really move or anything, Lara is at my side, throwing something over me. When I look down, it's some kind of cloak. That's when I realize my clothes are gone again. That massive crystal thing completely destroys my equipment when it happens, doesn't it...? I vaguely realize that as she starts speaking.

“Mei, are you alright?!” Why does she look so concerned?

“Yeah, I'm fine. I did it,” I respond. Even I can tell how numb I sound.

“Come on, let's get you up, alright? How about some food? Do you want to take a break?”

“Lara, what's wrong?” I ask as she's helping me up.

“What's wrong?” I practically scoffs. “What you just went through- are you sure you're alright?”

What I went through? “Wait, did you see that?” I blink at her stupidly.

“Yeah, it basically played like a cutscene. With your internal monologue and everything.” Other people just saw that? All of that? Shit, that doesn't include my stream, does it? When I frantically pull it up, I find that it does.

I really don't know how to feel about this now. Not to mention, wasn't there like, serious real life personal info and shit mixed in there? Groaning to myself, I pull up the ongoing recording and scrub through, clipping out the parts with identifying information like real world names, before I stop the recording and let it go up online. Not that it will help if anyone was recording the live stream...

“You guys better not let my personal info leak online because of this,” I complain at the devs who I know are still watching. When I glance back at the stream chat though-

My eyes bug out my tail bristles straight up.

Why do I have ten thousand people watching my stream?

“Mei?” Lara asks, clearly worried again.

“N-nothing,” I stutter out, trying to force down my panic. Blood like ice in my veins, I wave and say something noncommital to the camera before turning my stream off. What the actual hell?!

As soon as I turn my attention back to our surroundings though, I see how everyone in the plaza is staring at me too.

Oh my fuck how many people just saw that?

Shortly after that wonderful realization, a very hesitant Milli approaches, the rest of our party reforming around us as we meet her.

“So... thanks... for saving our town...” she starts, barely able to look at me. “Is there, umm, anything you would like in return?”

I'm still feeling pretty slow, but I do manage to come up with something. “Can I have like, two thousand gold to replace all my gear?” And I vaguely gesture to all of me.

“Sure, absolutely, no problem.” She sounds way too eager in her response, and immediately hands over the gold. “Anything else we can do to help?”

“I don't really know, I'm kind of burnt out. Guys?” I turn the question to everyone else. They manage a lot better than me, and we end up getting a reasonable amount of extra gold, rations, potions, and some materials and stuff for our trouble.

Then Milli offers to show us to an inn. When we decline because some members of our group already know the town, she respectfully backs off and lets us go. It's a short trip over and up to my room. When I flop across the bed, Lara sits down next to me.

Lara lets me be for a quite while, before eventually speaking up. “So... Would you like to talk about any of that?”

“I... don't really know.” Even if it focused on things around me, at no point was I actually Ray. Because I'm not. Or, I don't want to be. I embodied my brother, sister, and mother before it could make me be Ray. “It was digging through my memories but... But it was different. The one with Kelly wasn't how I remember it... and some of those memories weren't even mine,” I speak to the ceiling. “The one with the drunk guy, and with you and the school counselor. I wasn't even alive in that one with Mom.” Were those things I heard about and that was just how I imagined them going?

We're quiet for a bit longer, before I go on a little more, just letting out my thoughts as they come to me. “I didn't even remember most of that stuff. I mean, I basically don't remember anything, so that should be obvious, but it's still weird. It must all be up here,” and I tap my head, “but it's a big blank when I try to think about it. They must have pulled the memories from my subconscious somehow...”

I don't know how much longer I lie there like that, but we do eventually log off.