Vic didn’t run on tiled roofs, even if it would be quicker. She ran through the streets, towards the arena. She crossed paths with humans with torches and elves with magical lanterns that were evacuating to the west, perpendicular to her. She yelled at the latter to stop using tools using mana sources as the blob could detect spots of concentrated mana. Afterwards, in the silence, she was left to stare at her bright purple pinprick, that probably was one of the most intense concentrations of mana around, and yet… the blob hadn’t recognized it. It couldn’t detect her. Now she was sure of it.

  Soon, she’d be close enough to be ready to attract it, but not yet, as she couldn’t outrun it. She just needed to be a bit closer. She’d probably just start walking on roofs instead of making some sort of sunspit festival, or it’d get suspicious and start thinking that some plan might have been schemed behind its back.

  Bright, radiant meteors travelled down the dark sky. From the corner eye, she could see their origin: the blob, high in the sky like a miniature sun, was doing a rotating motion with its tendrils, flinging up debris it collected from the ground, keeping them within it before ejecting them. It probably was giving them a little magic kiss to enhance them or something. Hah.

  She kept closing in and ignored that a few of the people she’d encountered had at first panicked when they recognized her shadow armour, probably from a week ago. They’d been plenty distressed when she’d yelled at them to “evacuate” and quickly left to make them understand that she wasn’t the threat. A bunch of soldiers didn’t have the same reaction later, which probably meant that the civilians hadn’t yet been informed of the fact that she wasn’t an enemy as much as the military troops had been.

  Anxiously, she glanced at the blob and after quickly looking away, registered that it’d changed shape again. Why was it destroying the city? What a waste of time. Was it trying to trick her into coming back to make it focus back on her since it didn’t know where she was? Tsk. Like it couldn’t both destroy this place and chase her at the same time. Yeah, yeah, like it couldn’t do both.

  Honestly, if it’d started the fight so weak, it was either as a warm up, or to insult both her and captain “I’m too good for this”, as it implied the level of difficulty it’d expect from them.

  A good chunk of HP disappeared from the boss’s bar. She saw a straight bright golden line pierce the sky towards some far away point. She flung herself on instinct behind a wall and added a couple more layers of shadow armour, gaining some height. The sound of impact struck her as wind whipped across the cobblestone. A lone sock slammed the shadow armour around her face. She batted it away, and it flew down to a sewer hole. The poor sod who’d lost that one was never finding it back. Nothing sadder than a sock without its pair.

  Her breathing calmed after a couple seconds. She didn’t want to go back again. Fuck, fuck. Her pinprick was still eating up at her mana bar. She needed to advance. She couldn’t stop moving forwards, that’s how it always worked. She had to be close by now. Two minutes away, maybe? At worst? Ah, no, that’d be too optimistic. It was probably more like… five minutes.

  She forced herself to run. Soon, soon, she was heading up, above the city skyline, like a nail begging to be slammed by a sledgehammer. Soon. Not now. She was just being realistic.

  She slowed down slightly. The shadows beneath the moon’s light looked odd. Fucking hells, what now? What bullshit ability had the blob just bullshitted out of nowhere? Ah. She blinked. No, actually, that was the demoness. The shadows turned starker. Ah, fuck, was she going to have a talk again with a minion of the bloodcursed emperor? Man. No. She didn’t want to.

  She kept running, and that tyrant’s lapdog didn’t pursue.

  HP from the circle of the blob’s healthbar went down.

  She saw the blazing golden line strike down two houses in front of her. She froze, eyes affixed straight upon it as walls disintegrated while being flung outwards. The violence of the blast sent her back. She managed to regain her footing with closed eyes. No, no. No.

  AH. I SEE you, you SCUTTERING thing.

  Motherfucker. Motherfucker?? Why now? She wasn’t close enough?! That was straight up putting the blob between her and the actual arena- How? How could a sucker mismanage so bad the implosion of its proxy lures?? SHE COULDN’T OUTRUN THE FUCKING BLOB. She couldn’t! What a dumbass! What a stupid, stupid, stupid piece of shit!

  She glanced back at where it’d been in the sky. Yeah, it was expanding in size, which just meant it was getting closer. She ran forwards, couldn’t stop now.

  “YOU FUCKING DUMBASS OF A FAKE GOD,” she yelled out, voice drenched in betrayal. Wait. Oh. No, she’d never assume that this was the intended result.

  Then the blob’s tendrils parted as it flew closer. A beaten path was made as its tendrils behaved like a blender. Stone was left no better than mashed fruit in its path. Oh. Maybe, all that was within itself, it could shape. Could it be why it’d transferred the debris within itself to turn them into blazing balls? Was it doing a weird wrapping, unseen motion with its tendrils? She’d need to check it out next time the game system slowed down her perception of time.

  But her shadow armour had stopped its weak slashing attempts… what if it was about the shape of her shadow armour rather than its properties? If any matter that the blob wrapped up or that… entered its domain, so to speak, could be altered, would that also include magic stuff, or was her shadow armour the exception? It’d sucked out the mana out of those mana stones she’d thrown its way. But was that the fuel, or could it alter mana itself? It probably wasn’t that her shadow armour had looked straight at the blob and said “no”. Ah ha.

  A stream of exclamation points went through her chest. Ah, no. Not already. She ducked, rolling on the ground, dodging again as another line of exclamation points pierced right through her throat. Oh, oh no that was the spear attack. It could do only once- why the fuck was it faster now?

  Game system? Please? Slowdown time needed?

  Was it on a cooldown? No. No. Come on.

  Another dodge. She’d barely gotten thirty metres since she got spotted and immediately ran forwards with all her will. Good-for-nothing allies.

  “H-HEY! BUDDY, PAL, CHUMMY THING! I just got betrayed! Wanna-,” ah, another dodge, sideways, now she was unbalanced, but did a full on spin like some sort of experimental gymnast, fuck, why wasn’t it talking? Ah. Ah. Get away, she needed to hide behind a wall. She could, she could, that she could find some new trick to escape it. She’d figure it out.

  Nevertheless, the blob would probably be one of the most cutting and versatile materials, and make a cool looking sword if she could actually loot it and have some forgemaster turn it into a sword. One could dream.

  A stream of exclamation points appeared through her chest. She dodged away. The spear cracked the ground.

  Her motion stopped. A second, simultaneous line of exclamation points had appeared.

  Her HP lowered abruptly, some other part of it starting to drip down. Somehow her rolling motion had been stopped.

  She looked down at her abdomen. A second spear had come out from it. The first one faded back into the blob.

  That was bullshit. It wasn’t fair. She shouldn’t have gotten skewered. It wasn’t supposed to have more than one spear at a time.

  “Oh well, at least I have the [Strong Stomach] skill,” she lightly whispered. That ought to help. Her eyes burnt with ants. The pain lacerated upwards. Her hands were contorting.

  The lady laid down her weapons.

  “NO I DID NOT, SHUT THE FUCK UP, DUDE. I’d NEVER think that way,” she said.

  …Why was it calling her “the lady”? Ah, ah, fuck, it burnt.

  [Mana perception has levelled up!]

  Shadow armour. Shadow armour, she needed to multiply her layers of shadow armour. She could do it. Like some sort of oyster that wrapped up the intruding sand grain with nacre. She spammed the spell. She- wait, her pinprick. Her hand contorted back towards her gut. She shoved her hand against it, and- fuck. Fuck, parts of the blob had contorted around her arm. Oh. Oh the angle of her arm was getting strange. Oh it was trying to break her arm. She resisted. She tried moving her stomach towards her pinprick even as she saw the damage of her HP bar drip down, because the blob was focusing too much on her arm, and fuck it’d swung the spear upwards, which made her fall on her back, but she managed to squirrel her arm out and hit whatever that mass of tendrils had tried to do to her arm on her way out, making it jerk aside-

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Your NAME. You ARE HONOURED TO HAVE IT SOUGHT OF you.

  [Mana perception has levelled up!]

  Her mouth opened to answer. NO, it didn’t. It didn’t. No, actually it did.

  “FUCK YOUU” Victorya spat out. “NO, ‘FUCK YOU’ IS NOT MY NAME, ah hA HAHA. HA.”

  She spat out blood with her last laugh. Ah. Ah fuck. Ah fuck no bueno. Internal bleeding was becoming external bleeding. Her HP still had chunks of it with that yellow tinge that dripped down. Ah. Ah. She shoved more mana in her pinprick. It rose in size; she clutched her arms against her chest; yes, she had “purified” hundreds of incurables before, what was some self-surgery added to the mix?

  She needed to give up, it was pointless, like everything that could be. The lady couldn’t…

  “Not… a fucking LADY. Not YOU. I… AM…”

  She nearly screamed out her name.

  Oh.

  It’d planned for that. She’d rather die than get caught saying it right now.

  “…what you can never grasp,” she said, stomping one foot down on the pavement to push herself up. Somehow, the spear followed her movement as her pinprick was against it, all while the blob was acting electrocuted. She needed to roll on the ground to get out. She did.

  [Mana perception has levelled up!] x3

  [Mana manipulation has levelled up!] x3

  Vic rolled. Phased through her, fractals of tiny golden threads were left behind. Well, that explained the visceral pain that had been raising up her abdomen.

  …Why was the main branch still connected to her stomach?

  [Mana perception has levelled up!] x5

  AH, AT LONG LAST. EVEN IMMATERIALITY CAN BE GRASPED. YOU ARE NO DIFFERENT.

  Splattered on the ground, laid down on it, Vic imagined herself like that one meme of family guy. Laughter spewed from her lips. This couldn’t be right. This couldn’t be right. She couldn’t see things right. It was messing with her, gaslighting her about things that hadn’t happened, no, it wasn’t, the lady simply- FUCK you. NO, NOT QUITE, NOT QUITE IMMATERIAL. AN IN-BETWEEN STATE, A TRANSITION, ALL THE MORE CURIOUS.

  She wasn’t, she wasn’t. WEREN’T YOU?

  [250 exp won!]

  [Mana perception has levelled up!]

  [Mana manipulation has levelled up!]

  Her hands joined together and released the spell in her insignificant hand that couldn’t grasp anything right.

  Victorya didn’t. She didn’t. Her thumb was still shoved against her guts. It was doing something, it had to. The sound of gained experience points accompanied her. It was doing something. If it didn’t, why would it try to make her shut off her spell in the first place? It’d tried that right at the start. It hadn’t won, it hadn’t won, unless there was a point to any of this, and the girl could embrace the bitterest of defeats.

  “I’m not you,” she said. “I AM, ALONE. I AM.”

  A smile.

  The soundtrack of the blob turned to lofi music. Vic blinked. Ah-h. Ah that was fucked. Soft guitar notes played as she clenched her eyes tightly close.

  [Mana perception has levelled up!]

  Denial could only bring her so far. There were far better uses for an imperfect body. NO, SHE WAS FINE AS SHE WAS. FUCK YOU. Ah. AH.

  She could never trust herself, why start now? She was a pathetic wet cat. She’d never get anything right, even less friendships with people. She wasn’t made for love either. Didn’t it speak a lot of her that she always ended up alone? That she couldn’t help herself? But she was always meant for something- something greater, greater than anyone, that’s why she was alone, for this moment, for this moment alone, because it’d be worth it in the end. She was a stupid little girl who couldn’t do anything right except recognizing her name that was NO. NO. FUCK YOU. NOT YOURS.

  [2500 exp won!]

  [Mana perception has levelled up!]

  She had no feet nor hands nor body. Dream-like, her vision shifted upwards. She’d been facing the ground but no more. THIS WASN’T RIGHT.

  Her vision shifted to pure motions and vibrations of light. Generating endless iterations of shapes turning into interlinked animalistic, symbolic faces, all led back to one focus point, intertwined with links gilded in glowing gold. It was swelling downwards like an expanding atomic bomb cloud, but contrary to implosions, this one would never stop. Wherever she looked, a single point turned into expanding, emergent diversions, forming patterns that fractally transformed and lost themselves to infinity.

  [Mana perception has levelled up!]

  [Mana perception has levelled up!]

  Glitches bordered it, then clung up across what she could see. It was fake, it was all fake. An illusion. It had to be. None of this was real.

  “WOW. You’re an overcomplicated mess,” Victorya said. “A face only a mother could love, I see.” A biblically accurate-coded spaghetti soup, indeed. This was barely an extension of its MIGHT. She could BECOME its last prophet, incarnation OF THE ONE DIVINITY, THE BRIDGE OF GOD. THE CUSP OF ASCENSION WAS ONE ARM AWAY. Fuck it hurt, but she didn’t know where.

  [Mana perception has levelled up!]

  No. It was fake, it was all fake. An illusion. She saw her HP still drip down on her hud. Ah. That was real, that she could trust. She needed to get out.

  She wrinkled her nose, mouth in a snarl.

  [You have levelled up!]

  Ah, ah, actually, that was a good thing, a terribly good thing, she was levelling up skills and herself alike, and mana perception was so hard to level up on its own. Ah.

  Glitches spread farther. Oh. Oh she’d been right, it was an illusion. The eldritch fractal creature that’d been expanding was actually displayed across a flat surface right before her. Her shadow was drawing long on the ground until it touched the screen, before climbing upon it. From low, low below, the start of a tower had to begin, and climbed so far high that she could not see its end. It looked vaguely wheeled-shaped, one part of the whole looking much tinier than the rest. She was looking at the tiny tear-like protrustion. Many heads of lions turned into fragmented shapes, losing more and more of their substance as they deteriorated, only to end up forming the shape of a winged, thin cat with fluffy ears that slowly let itself glide towards her, impossibly slow. Actually, that was a lynx, not a cat. That was a winged lynx then. With a couple of extra pairs of eyes for flavour, no doubts. Still a god choosing to look like a furry friend.

  “Damn, you a furry?” Victorya asked. The lynx put a paw down the air, like there was a horizontal platform, right there, before her screen and advanced. She was calling its bluff. The game system probably was that barrier from where she could see this whole… performance. Was that a screen? It had to be. Was that mimicking her game system? Was this supposed to be some form of interpretation?

  A crown like appendage was forming around its brow, very thin peaks turning into threads that became invisible to join the massive tangle that the tower was made of.

  It took another footstep, towards the flat surface. Vic started making funny motions with her hands to make shadow plays on the surface. Anything but keep looking at what was behind it. But her shadow didn’t move along her movements. She failed to make a dog’s head with her fingers.

  The winged lynx put its paw through the flat surface, phasing through where her shadow had been.

  “You would sooner be but an empty shell?” she heard. The voice was soft and low, with an edge of kindness to it all. The cat had raised its head like it’d talked, but the sound hadn’t come from it.

  Vic froze. The white, winged lynx tilted its head, its tail flicking about. Its end was a self-contained flame. Vic stared at her shadow. As the god had passed through it, the shadow had gone from flat shadow, only to morph into a fully black, three-dimensional silhouette, standing there, shaped like her, gaining shape as the god passed through it. The lynx looked back to it and then squinted her eyes at her.

  “Such childish tricks…” the voice smoothly slipped by. “Yet so true an intent that it could have fooled anyone. That is a rare gift, even within [!ù<]. You belong. I give you my warmest welcome, although you will not understand its true substance yet. You will have time to adapt before dawn arrives. That is a kindness not earned by most.”

  Did it think that she’d… imagined the shadow? She stared back at it. She looked away. It reminded her too much of the warped deformations that happened when she’d looked in the mirror too long as a kid.

  There was a chuckle.

  “A good last resort. Now, it is time. I, Apostle, beckon you. I recognize you, at long last, sister not of womb, but of might. It is time to return to our home.”

  Her position dragged forwards. No. No. Absolutely not. She was not heading towards the Horrors.

  “Is that how you see them?” the cat turned its head. “Most peculiar. Medicine can taste bitter. Nonetheless, it must be done.”

  It took a step back to stand before the screen surface. It tilted its head at her. She glided forwards. She couldn’t stop it. No, no. NO. How did she stop this? How?

  Her tranquil glide was interrupted by the shadow that cupped its hands against her. The surface of it turned to rippling, shifting waves of black.

  The lynx stared back emptily at her.

  Its head scanned the empty surroundings, ignoring it, yet still searching for something. It tilted its head. The shadow shape didn’t move.

  “I… I do not understand. What are you…”

  Tiny glitches spread at the corner of the screen, like tickling ants. But she’d seen them start near a centre point right beneath her.

  A couple windows appeared across the space.

  [Temporary: [!ù<]’S DISCONNECTED NEBULA]

  [Status: [Fragmented]]

  Title: [Suicidal fool] has evolved to [Very suicidal fool]

  The glitches spread and expanded even across the newly appeared statuses.

  Ignoring the golden glow warming her face, for a weird moment, she thought she saw two things at the same time, like a very tiny planet far beneath her feet, except that further looking down, she could see the spear still piercing her stomach, which was marred with glitches, and her magic pinprick of a thumb right next to it, so logically, she shoved her pinprick against it.

  All of a sudden, there were too many screams happening at once.

  ___

  Nomora, hand tightly gripping the edges of a chimney, head barely coming out of it, gawked, petrified, at Victorya get up, put out a somehow, unbroken vial from her cloak, bite on the cork, pull it out, spew it away, and drink the potion. The incarnation of the sun deceiver was physically unmoving before her, in the air, after having at first, retracted against itself. Across the ethereal plane, a strident vibration that could be compared at best to a scream, the purest sort of scream to exist, radiated from it. It began lightly having spasms, deforming the purity of the scream. What had she witnessed? The girl… she’d… she’d never used this purple spear of pure mana before, had she… hidden it? Why mislead? What… No, no, how had it so thoroughly incapacitated the sun deceiver this time? She’d made such strange sounds when she’d dislodged the sun deceiver’s weapon from her abdomen, between joyous mirth and scared dismay.

  Victorya snapped her head to her and turned to stare into her eyes. Her golden, glowing eyes. No. No, it’d… taken over the… human? They used to shine with a rainbow-like tint. No, that couldn’t be, that couldn’t be right, the sun deceiver wouldn’t be screaming if were the case, it would…

  “HEALTH POTION” the girl grunted, hand extended towards her expectantly, motioning a drinking gesture.