The descent felt like being thrown into a blender.

Or perhaps a washing machine someone had left running. One filled with jagged knives that pulled away at the skin with hooked, barbed tendrils.

The very first thing I felt was my skull cracking open on something that felt like a jagged, protruding section of shoreline. The second thing I felt was my life's blood seeping out unto the salty waters that now surrounded me. The third thing I felt was a crushing pressure as something, a high-level Intruder no doubt, grabbed me by the ankles. Before it then dragged me under and used me as a club to smash the rocky shoreline at the bottom of the pitch-black sea.

I felt flesh and bone striking stone and tasted a mixture of my own blood and seawater as my face was disfigured again and again. The speed of the strikes ramping up while my Shifter powers tried to keep me alive and mostly in one piece.

A normal person might have been perturbed by the experience. Indeed, a normal person would have been more or less disintegrated by the force of the first strike. Yet I couldn't help but feel strangely relaxed when faced with this development. The Intruder resulting to physical force instead of merely smiting me like a certain treacherous lobster I could name suggested that my hypothesis was correct. Those who worked or had been shaped by these echoes could not kill me outright. Which only left them a few ways to vent their frustration.

I didn't know if my counterpart here had ordered this lovely monstrosity to attack me in this manner of course, but if he had then I was almost at the point where I'd genuflect in thanks.

Not only had I gotten away with a Tier 10 Enhancer ability back there, but it was now being accompanied by a healthy workout. For both my Enhancer and Shifter side. Something I suspected would be very hard to find in the coming weeks and months. Unless I purposely started walking up to people who were quite capable of killing me and taking my chances with whatever they saw fit to throw at me.

'Maybe this is his way of teaching me?' I wondered silently as my whole upper torso was obliterated against a sharpened section of shoreline. My body healing the damage right as the thing dragged be back and away from the spikes.

'It could be.' I reasoned. 'I mean, sure it hurts, but it's not like I or any other version of me is unaccustomed to pain.'

The meeting with the Open-Hand had dredged up some hurtful memories in that regard. [Limited Omniscience] didn't just let me know what people were thinking and feeling, it showed me. In full detail.

Sometimes that meant seeing and feeling the emotions of parents holding newborn babes in their arms, or the sensations that accompanied one's first, youthful love. In other words, beautiful notions and concepts that made one feel as though they were floating in the air.

But other times, that came with a whole host of less pleasant events.

While connected, I could feel all the evil in people's hearts as well as the good. I could taste the bile of someone who killed for pleasure, as well as the fear and terror of their victims. I could see people trapped in bondage. Feel the rumbling in their bellies as children with no other place to go were forced to toil in factories or other, unspeakable places. I was forced to see just how far some people would go to make themselves feel important. To make themselves feel big. Even if it meant destroying other people's lives. Even if it meant trapping them in basements and forcing their own twisted fantasies on them.

I saw parents hurt their children. I saw the futures where those children grew up and either lived miserable, drudging, lonely lives filled with colorless depression or elsewise moved on to hurt their partners and children in turn. For every story of someone breaking the cycle and going on to become happy, there were a dozen of marginally normal people being run over by drunk drivers or taking their own lives or getting wrapped up in drugs and crime. Scrambling to get their fix and make the agony of withdrawal go away for a few more hours.

Then there were the cults and the crime rings and the oppressive regimes run by people who flat out did not give a single shit that their constituents looked like stick figures. Those sometimes came with the feeling of family members holding their kin close, as the hunger and exhaustion got to them. I got to feel what they felt, as they dug the graves. Both large and small.

And all of that came without considering the shenanigans going on outside of Earth. The kinds of stuff my converted Intruders were getting up to before I got to them.

And all of that happened everywhere.

And it happened all the time.

Without pause or respite.

Each twisted act being an unimaginable cruelty all on its own. All while I was helpless to escape it. To escape the pain.

So, why should I fear being stabbed? I'd felt what it was like to be stabbed by muggers, jealous lovers, cruel psychopaths, goons collecting on debts and the odd warlord or two who kidnapped children for their militias.

What new spin could anyone put on mundane pain to make it novel or shocking to me?

No.

I at least didn't see how it could be done.

Compared to feeling all of that all the time, this kind of physical pain was fleeting at best.

Not to mention useful.

The Intruder was speeding up now. Sending me against the reef faster and faster. So much so that the force of each tug created friction against the black, lightless water. Tearing muscle from bone even as the flesh continued to regenerate.

I felt hooks digging into me then. The thing grabbing me more tightly and squeezing in apparent frustration before speeding up yet again. So that whole patches of my skin were flayed off even as my own Psy grew more and more proficient in hardening my cells against outside harm.

'Is the bloody thing even working?' I began to wonder. 'It's supposed to be at the tenth Tier, and yet I keep getting bits and pieces of me shorn off from the speed of each swing, and that's without counting the damage I'm getting from each impact. Not to mention how there isn't even a dent on the rocks.'

Granted, these were actually Intruders my counterpart had commanded to be rocks but still. A regular mountain might very well have been ground into dust by now. There not being anything to show for my efforts was a bit disheartening.

The Intruder sped up once again and it soon felt as if I was striking the jagged spikes of the rocky cliff several times within a single second. The water now shearing bone as well as muscle. The bubbles around me heating up from the friction.

I started feeling hot all over, but the sensation was overshadowed by the surge of Psy. Within a few more minutes, I could feel the escalating power in my cells, a telltale sign that I was getting levels in Shifter. All while I as a single whole began to feel more solid. More like a single, unshakable entity than a collection of little giblets.

Ten minutes later, the Intruder was sending me into the cliff face some hundred or so times per second. Half an hour later, the water was clogged with strips of flayed, shorn-off skin and bits of flesh mixed with bone.

After two hours, I could perceive nothing but a constant, thudding pain. As if one strike hadn't ended before another began. Even with my very much improved Shifter senses mixed with my new Enhancer abilities.

On the upside, my little massage machine wasn't doing much to me anymore.

It was a bit hard to tell just how much I'd gained from the encounter without the System status window, but I felt it was relatively safe to say that Enhancer had gotten to the 3rd or 4th Tier. At the very least. With Shifter growing one or two Tiers on top of that. Again, at the very least.

…

Ot it could all be some delusion of mine. It was hard to tell.

What I did know was that I was now much, much tougher because I wasn't losing nearly as much body mass to the relentless attacks and that I was much better at healing myself because what little I did lose was replaced almost immediately.

Considering most people out in the Labyrinth would kill to have a few levels in a few hours, these advancements were nothing to scoff at. Though I did admit it had gotten a bit boring.

I began to call on my Projector powers then. Absorbing the kinetic energy of each blow using Psy.

At once, the little pain I was still dealing with vanished.

After that, I tried to stop time, but found the black waters around me bursting into obsidian flames and exploding all around me. The very fabric of this realm reacting violently to such a use of Psy.

The Intruder backed off immediately. Perhaps having grown bored of the whole affair or perhaps fearful of what was coming next.

Probably the latter, as I then felt the entire realm closing in on me like a vice or a hydraulic press. Squeezing me as a cook would a lemon. Putting more and more pressure on my flesh, my bones, my very spirit. Until the Psy within my mind screamed in agony and all my powers and abilities began to tingle and fray.

Reality was unraveling at a level far more sinister than anything I had found prior to leaping into the knot and I could taste bile in my mouth as the unreal space began to collapse in on itself. The very space near me ceasing to exist and thereby pressing more Intruders and more unreal matter closer together.

I felt that pressure mounting more and more and more. Crushing me more and more and more.

Until my body re-adjusted itself once again. My new Enhancer ability solidifying my Psy so that it could push back against all other things. All other concepts.

The flames stopped eating away at me.

The waters became calmer.

The Intruder did not return and the surface walls of the stony cliff became silky smooth, where they had once been filled with vicious spikes.

I took the hint and swam upwards. Using a combination of [Unrelenting Force] as well as my own body's movements for propulsion.

When I emerged, I was floating above a calmer sea, the breeze caressing my exposed skin and Buddy's form.

'I don't like it here.' Buddy spoke to me.

'Of course you don't like it here Buddy. I just finished healing you for what feels like the millionth time. I can't imagine you were having a good time throughout our latest encounter. But please bear with me.'

'No. It isn't that.' Buddy corrected. 'I feel lonely here. A loneliness that's in the air. It's like…what I felt all the time before I met you.'

Buddy stopped to gather his own thoughts.

'The air here feels sad.'

I stopped to consider his words. Taking some seconds to process the feelings and emotions being carrying on the psionic winds of Pandemonium. Taking a second to lick my lips and savor the taste.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

"You are correct." I told him casually. "But none of these emotions are anything new to me. If anything, they're something I've become intimately familiar with by this point. There's no reason to think my counter-part here is going to be much more different than the last one. Not when we've all tasted so much of the same things all our lives."

'No Sully.' Buddy insisted. 'This place feels really, REALLY sad. I think I'm going to choke.'

I paused again.

"Can you choke? Like, is it possible?"

'Sully, I'm serious.'

"Okay. Just to clarify. You were just fine getting reduced to atoms over the past few hours right alongside me. No, in fact, you were in some real danger back there. Despite the boosts I gave you. I was spending more Psy on keeping you together than I was on healing myself. You were A-okay with that, but you think something might be off now?"

'Yes.'

I sucked in another breath and fought off a shiver that threatened to overtake my Shifter constitution.

"I'll keep that in mind Buddy. Hang in there."

I floated over the turbulent waters. Taking note of how the night sky above us was filled with clouds that blocked off most of the moonlight as well as the light of distant stars.

I reached the shoreline in short order and made sure to land a few paces inland to avoid being grabbed once more.

'Not like it'll help me in any way if the guy in charge decides to have the island town sink or something.'

I narrowed my eyes and tried to peer closer into the town. Everywhere I looked, the houses seemed pristine. Just as my own Lakeside Estate here in Pandemonium.

Some were painted yellow and some were painted green. With floral patterns running up and down every side so as to give the illusion that plants had been crawling and growing over the foundations.

It seemed a nice enough place to be in for all eternity, but already I was getting a very odd feeling about this island.

I didn't know quite how to put it into words, but the pervasive silence kept sending shivers up my spine.

"Hello?" I tried calling out. "Is anybody there?"

No one answered.

I tried calling out once again. Using my Shifter powers to both grow my body and my throat muscles. My lungs sucking in a large volume of air in preparation for the shout.

"HELLO!?" I bellowed. "MY OMNISCIENCE DOESN'T WORK HERE! I DON'T KNOW WHERE YOU ARE!"

It was then that I saw a shadow of movement. Merely a brief rustle out in the corner of my visions.

To my ears, it had been completely silent. To my nose, it had been odorless. And even now, I could no longer see it or feel it with my Telepath or Projector senses.

It had been there one moment, a bright signal of kinetic energy and afterwards it was gone.

'Did this version of me specialize in stealth?'

It made some sort of sense. [Obfuscation] was one of my stronger Telepath abilities, despite me not relying on it overmuch these days. Simply put, [Domination] was stronger in terms of stopping power if I wanted someone to leave me alone and my reliance on [Omniscience] coupled with diplomacy meant that there were very few chances for me to stealth my way out of a pinch.

In the few cases where I was fighting, it was often the case where I was holding back a lot and I was doing so in order to train my Shifter abilities. Meaning I wanted to get hit.

'But I suppose this version of a future me didn't need to train Shifter until much later and even then, if he made friends with Hazimon, he was probably training at his own pace.'

I walked over after landing. Taking my time to admire the quaint little town.

'Suuuullllyyyy.' Buddy squealed in distress. 'I don't like it heeeereeee…'

"I hear you Buddy, but I can't really find anything out of the ordinary. Despite having an odd feeling too."

I paused to take note of what my [Instincts] were telling me. But I could not make heads or tails of what was happening.

The Shifter side of me kept pinching my side. Reminding me that Buddy was very much in the right and there was something seriously fucked up here, despite me not being able to point it out and put it into words.

Yet, the Telepath side of me was… I don't know. Calm?

Yes. Calm.

Serene even.

The way the sea breeze came in from the east and south made it so that it always brushed my skin in just the right way to make me feel refreshed and in need of a blanket at the same time.

I wanted to sit down by a warm fire with a cup of hot cocoa in hand and just forget about everything. To laze around inside a comforter for the next couple of months or years.

And the silence… the way all the distractions I'd come with seemed to just fade away in the night.

Oh yes.

This was a very comfortable spot. One where I could imagine laying around for a year or two if I needed a vacation.

'Yes. That's the feeling I'm getting.' I thought while looking up at the night sky. 'I get the feeling that whomever lives here wants to re-create the feeling of staying inside on a snow day. A feeling of wanting to let go and forget everything going on outside.'

I kept going and opened the door to one of the houses. The one where I'd seen the flicker of movement.

Inside, I found not a future version of me, but a more familiar figure.

I sighed.

"Hello Drake." I spoke softly while massaging my temple. "I am glad to see you so we…"

"Shhhh!" He shushed me. His eyes bulging out like those of a frog being squeezed.

I raised an eyebrow, but decided to humor him. Sending him Telepathic messages instead.

'I suppose that whole business of you making the echo pay for making a fool out of you didn't work out quite as well as you had hoped?'

He glared back at me. His eyes bloodshot.

'The you here is not like the one we left back there!' He thought aggressively. 'He is a monster!'

'Really?' I thought with some amusement. 'He's a monster?'

The Drake did not ease up or let go of his tension.

I stopped feeling jolly at once.

It was one thing for the Drake, the Seeking Drake of all people, to complain about other people being monsters in an ironic sort of way. Sort of like saying:

"Hehe. I turn people into carpets and then walk over them with heels on. Tehe! And I think you're worse than me! Tehe!"

Kind of like Ted Bundy sitting next to Dahmer and going:

"Get a load of this guy! Am I right!?"

Knowing the Drake as well as I did, this kind of humor was right up his alley.

It was quite another for him to genuinely think someone, anyone, was worse than he was. For someone who revelled in being conventionally and morally repulsive to other people, that was saying something.

'Okay. What did he do?'

"Nothing!" A voice came in from outside. Knocking on the door with some vigor, but not with any kind of real strength.

"I didn't do anything to him! I just invited him for dinner over at my place and he started running away!"

I looked back at the Drake. Who was only know realizing that his thoughts were being overheard.

He had placed both hands over his mouth. His face frozen in the visage of a silent scream.

Yet I could not for the life of me figure out what he was so afraid of.

In fact, the longer I spent in this place, the better and more refreshed I felt.

I went over to open the door.

The figure standing there was a very familiar one. In fact, I'd say he looked exactly like me. Down to the most minute detail.

'No, wait. He has bags under his eyes.' I realized.

It was a minor thing. Barely noticeable given how large and wide he was and how stunningly handsome that face was thanks to [Protean Form].

But it was still there and I wondered if he'd left the discoloration there on purpose or if he had forged his body and face with those marks in mind.

"Hey there guy." I started talking then. "How are you doing?"

"I AM GREAT!" He shouted. His face donning a grin that spread from ear to ear. Then his hands shot forwards. Two thick serpents lunging with open mouths. Fangs bared.

They wrapped around mine and shook violently.

"I AM SO GLAD YOU ARE HERE!" He continued. His tone growing more and more manic with every syllable.

"I AM SO GLAD YOU AREN'T ME!!!"

With the benefit of hindsight, I would later beat myself over the head for failing to recognize how big of a red flag that last statement was. No. Not a single red flag. This dude was more like the entirety of red square during a military parade in the old Soviet Union.

And I still missed it.

Instead of running, I turned my head to glance at the Drake again.

'He's crazy!' He mouthed silently.

I shrugged internally and returned the handshake.

"No problem my friend. I'm glad you're being such a sport about the whole not existing thing."

The Drake facepalmed.

My soon-to-be-non-existent future self nodded ferociously.

"Nah man. No. Nonononononononononononononono. You don't understand."

He got real close.

Uncomfortably close.

"Me not existing has been the best thing to ever happen. Ever."

He licked his lips. In the same way Boris had done when he'd first arrived in the Labyrinth. The way a man starved of human contact might have done. As if he wasn't aware that people might be staring.

And if the previous actions had been the equivalent of a parade through red square, this was pretty much a whole communist revolution's worth of red flags.

And I still missed it.

I blinked and peered closer. Noting how his eyes were starting to look a lot like Vince's when he thought about gnomes. Whenever he had one of his fits.

"Are you, uh, okay? Sorry. I know that makes no sense given what's going on. Let me try again."

I took a deep breath.

"Are you relying on your Shifter powers in order to pretend that you're doing fine?"

He snorted. Very dramatically.

"Doesn't everyone?" He waved me off. "Are you telling me you never looked at the future and acted in exactly the way you needed to in order to get your way?"

I nodded, despite myself.

"Yeah. Fair."

He beamed.

Then loudly clapped his hands.

"All right then! Now that we've gotten those little details out the way, how about you two join me for dinner?"

He started caressing his own palms. Like a caricature of an evil merchant in a 1930's cartoon.

"I have cookies I made myself! And chocolate pudding! And cake! And ice-cream and Nutella with toast!"

"I love all those things!" I exclaimed back at him. "Now, you aren't going to try and eat us after fattening us up are you?"

He shook his head.

"Nonsense my younger self. Nonsense! Hahaha!" His manic smile returned. Infinitely more mad.

"This turn of events… you being here instead of me… is quite possibly the best thing that has ever happened to me. To this version of me."

He sucked in a breath and I noted how yellowed his teeth were. How sharp they were.

"You are the best thing that ever happened to me." He went on. "And make no mistake, I will show as much of my appreciation as I can. All my Enhancer abilities are yours for the taking. All of them. However many of them suit your needs."

He stopped himself. Coughing briefly into his hands.

"I will warn you that not all of them will be to your liking however. They are very…"

He writhed in place.

"Synergistic. In ways you may not appreciate. Just as my Telepath abilities may… not be to your liking."

I blinked in confusion.

"We don't have the same Telepath abilities? But, we developed them when we were six?"

"Yes." He nodded. "But not all of us reacted in the same manner when…"

For the briefest of nanoseconds, he looked as if I'd stabbed him. Though he fixed his posture so quickly that anyone not powered up to the gills with Psy would not have noticed.

"When you know what happened."

He sucked in another breath.

"Most of us have your combinations. [Solomon's Inescapable Domination X]. [Solomon's Overwhelming Avatar X]. [Solomon's Inexorable Presence X]. [Solomon's Limited Omniscience X]. [Solomon's Impenetrable Obfuscation X]. [Solomon's Righteous Indignation X]. [Solomon's Enduring Empathy X]. [Solomon's Empowering Majesty X]."

He nodded to himself twice more.

"Those are the standard. The ones I was supposed to get. But…"

He seemed to struggle once more, though only for a second.

"Things… didn't go the way they were supposed to. I… I messed up."

He shook his head from side to side.

"But that's all in the past my young friend! That doesn't matter anymore because I don't have to deal with it anymore because you are real and I am not! Everything turned out okay in the end!"

I stepped back to put a little bit of distance between us.

"Oooookaaayyy." I nodded back. "Right. I get it. You're not standard."

I considered the offer.

"But all I need is two more Tier 10 Enhancer abilities in order to ascend. Like, really ascend. I don't see why I shouldn't take them if you're offering them."

"No. Nononononono. You do not get it." He countered. "My abilities are tailored to ME. They are very synergistic to ME. And anyone who isn't ME is going to have a very bad time of things. Like, a REALLY bad time."

He stopped himself to chew on a fingernail.

"I'm not making sense am I?" He sighed and the sigh soon turned into a sob. "I'm not making any sense! I can't protect you if I'm not making sense!"

Then he started hitting himself with his own fists. Hard enough to tear flesh off his face and break the bones beneath.

"You're not making sense Sully! You're fucking things up again Sully! It's all your fault Sully! You stupid evil bastard!"

He hit himself again, and this time, he did it with a clawed hand. His swipe exposing brain tissue within his skull.

"Holy fuck dude! Stop!"

"I deserve this!" He wailed. Blood trickling down the wound and down his face. Giving off the illusion that he was crying blood.

"I deserve all of this and more! Here I am with the only good thing that has ever happened since that day and I'm still managing to fuck things up! I'm worthless! I'd be better off dead!"

I was so stunned that I didn't catch the flicker of movement to my side. The Seeking Drake shrinking to the size of a small lizard before high-tailing it out of there through an open window. Before then turning into some kind of dragonfly thing and darting off into the darkness.

I ignored him and focused back on the version of me having a meltdown.

"Look man. It's okay. Whatever happened. It is okay. It is all in the past. Honestly, I can totally relate. I've fucked things up like you wouldn't believe."

And boy wasn't that the truth.

"But you can't let those kinds of things dictate what you do moving forwards man. You need to face the future head on because there are people depending on you. Because their lives depend on you."

He stopped hurting himself long enough to heal. And he did so in such a way that I could make out just how much confusion there was behind those eyes.

"Um. Did I say something weird?" I asked him.

"No." He said quietly. His eyes hardening for a second before he went back to that façade of normality.

"No. You are right. There are people who need you. So, let's get back to the basics."

He took a series of quick, sharp breaths. An action that somehow made me queasier than anything else he'd done so far.

"You need two more Tier 10 Enhancer abilities. Yes. But you also need to be on the 10th Tier on all your Types. And from what I can sense, you're only barely getting close to that in Telepath. Your other Types have lagged behind. Some more than others. The Titles will help you. As will the new powers. But you need more training. That's the long and short of it."

He clapped again. Interrupting himself mid-sentence.

"But enough about that now! Let's go eat something nice and spend some quality time together! We'll relax! Decompress! Gush about how great GOZO was when we made it and then discuss the upsides and downsides of my set of skills!"

He gave me what he felt was an assuring smile.

"It will be the best day ever."

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.