The first thing I did once my gracious host let me go was make my way over to the dart board. From there, I spent some time throwing the sharp metal needles at some gnomes. Smiling internally as their eyes bulged just as I was about to throw each dart.

I even took some time to fake a throw every once in a while, to keep them on their toes. Making it seem as if I was about to throw the lethal shot while in reality, I'd been aiming for the spot right next to their ears or the top of their conical skulls or elsewise between their stunted gnomish legs.

It was a fun distraction and it helped me stay closer to this bastardized version of Slab, Boris and Charlie. Serving to confirm the little tidbit I'd begun to suspect.

'Yep.' I thought after dousing myself in as much of my own power as I could.

Going so far as to [Dominate] myself into focusing, while overcharging my own [Presence] on myself and shielding my thoughts at the same time.

'As I feared. This is a trap and this bastard wants to overwrite my consciousness.'

It really should have been obvious from the very beginning, but I suppose being all rattled from my encounter with Silent Sully had me on edge. Not to mention how I was feeling as he listed off all the other Sully versions that had somehow contrived to be eviller than the last.

'Though for all I know that was an outright lie too.' I considered. 'I don't have any proof that Fuhrer Sully or Leatherface Sully were ever a thing. And what's more, me going on to another Sullyverse would be the last thing he would have wanted. First, because I could just up and go if I figured he wasn't giving me the combined abilities fast enough, and second because any further places I visited might be occupied by a Sully who would gladly repair the damage done to my psyche. Or elsewise simply replace Surfer Sully's imprint with their own.'

I nodded to myself and tried to attune my own [Presence] to the one permeating this place. Making it seem as if the air was suffusing me as well as the others, while also making it obvious that I was trying to affect this Slab.

I could only hope that this was enough to fool my erstwhile host. At least for a time. If it wasn't, I'd be in for all sorts of trouble.

He might just give up on nuance and try to brute force an entry into my mind, though that would come with the sorry side-effect of me potentially breaking and him losing everything regardless. Or he might simply refuse to let me go, though that would also come with sorry side-effects of my own choosing. I could, for example, activate my new little ace all over his domain. Rupturing all the Intruders here at once and opening several gashes in the space.

That might not lead me to real-space, or to another Sullyverse. It might not lead anywhere at all for that matter, but I would be very, very much in danger of dying, which meant he'd lose everything regardless.

I could also just pour everything I had into rupturing a massive gaping hole in the Veil, just as I'd done with the Moving Mountain. Still ran the risk of getting me killed, but it'd be infinitely better than being taken over by a freak like him.

Now, at first I didn't quite realize what was wrong with this picture. The beach had been nice and the people here certainly seemed to be having a good time of things. Only, that was the issue. The people weren't running up to me or their Sully, because they were always being doused in his Psy. All hours of every day.

By itself, this was suspect, but he'd had his own reasoning for his actions. The bigger problem came from the makeup of the Intruders. That is, 19 out of 20 were females. Which could have been a coincidence, but I wasn't betting on it.

'The issue now arises though. What am I going to do about this little conundrum?' I wondered. 'There is still the issue of my new landlord being infinitely more powerful than me. But he must have had his limits. Otherwise, why tip me off to the fact that I trusted him so easily? Because I was about to ask for my freedom? He could have just said no. Was it because he wanted to make me think I could trust him by pointing out that he'd already taken advantage of me? Kind of like going, 'Hey, I called myself out, so I can't have malicious intentions man!' Yeah. That might have been it. I may have noticed eventually and… oh that mother…'

It suddenly made sense. All of it.

My new host hadn't connected with me outside of his passive [Presence]. Not because he felt he couldn't, but because he was wary. More specifically, he was weary of my new little ace.

'[Solomon's Corrupting Influence X], yeah. That could ruin his day. The Enhancer ability means that him connecting with me directly could, and likely would, result in his sudden demise. Or at least a temporary dissolution. If that happened, I could simply leap right on out of here.'

I threw another dart and began to speak with Slab again.

"So, my friend. Would you care to vouch for me? In regards to me getting the help I requested I mean."

"I don't know." The fake spoke casually. Behaving as if he himself were a surfer dude who'd come right back from a long day at the beach. His red hair still soaking wet as he chuckled to himself.

"You'd need to prove yourself to me first. How about a few more games of darts? Then we can go out and have a ourselves a nice relaxing run. Talk about your dispositions. What you want to do after all this is said and done. What your goals are. That kind of thing."

I nodded along and spoke back to him with a calmer tone.

"If we're going to dance, you'll have to start." I said. "What are you hoping to get out of this Slab? This new existence of yours?"

He barked out a laugh. So did Boris and Charlie next to him. All three expressing such mirth with such ease and in unison. It felt wrong. Unnatural.

And then I saw it. The way all three had been posturing like my host. Down to the way they were standing, their very postures. The slight glimmer of mischief in their eyes as they looked at the gnome.

'They're dead.' I realized with a pang of sadness. 'These ones are dead. Deader than the ones Silent ran into. At least those ones went quickly. These ones here, their whole identities have been sandblasted off. All the edges smoothened out until you have the outline of a person, instead of an actual person.'

I had seen it before, in my world. In the visions I had of the harshest and most influenced fanatics going about erecting statues. But this was worse. This was no single blast of exposure. If anything, this was the result of a systematic campaign of exposure over years. Maybe lifetimes.

I was thankful for my Shifter side once again. It made supressing the shudder that much easier.

I then called on those powers again. To act just as they were acting. Speak as they were speaking. Down to the most minute inclination of their voice and down to the slightest movement of their eyes.

That was when I had an idea. The notion to try a small, inconspicuous action.

'He might notice.' I told myself.

Doubling down on making my mind a fortress and making sure that [Corrupting Influence] was active. Making sure I gave off the appearance of using my regular [Presence] power as a scalpel to influence the others, while making it a hammer to defend myself. Making sure I was supressing all foreign influences that I felt while also [Dominating] myself into remaining focused. Into solidifying all the memories I had of my own life.

'He might notice and he might try and attack me because of it.'

I could feel the influence of the current realm now. Only slightly, but it was still there. Like a thick mist slowly trying to make its way into house through the aperture beneath a door. I allowed it to enter me, my mind, and then strangled the foreign Psy as soon as it came into my inner lake.

Not allowing it to mix with the Psy I relied on. Commanding myself to reject the foreign influence.

It was hard. Very hard. As soon as it began to enter, the foreign flowing Psy seemed to transmute into my own. Making it so that even I, with all my focus, had a lot of trouble telling the intrusion apart from my own musings and my own instincts.

That was when [Corrupting Influence] took hold. It surged from below the tide. Pushing back against the small slivers of Psy that even my focused self had missed. Making it so that the Psy lost its traction and its ability to hide.

I felt the link form then. Between me and my host.

I felt the chance to push back, despite me not being able to sense his own mind via [Omniscience].

And that was when I got another idea.

'Not yet.' I smiled internally. Cutting off the connection. 'Not yet, but after I feel myself grow even stronger. After I manage to train myself to a level where I feel I have a chance. Until I can make my own Psy disappear just like the Psy around me does. Only then.'

Okay. Okay then. I had a plan A and a plan B. And I was levelling. Well, not levelling since I didn't have the System, but I was growing in power regardless. I could feel my abilities growing. All the ones I was using and especially [Corrupting Influence].

If anything, this was an excellent way to work on my own…

I almost screamed.

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

Almost cried out in pain.

My Shifter abilities kept me in check though and I kept speaking to the not-Slab. All while the discomfort crept up my veins. My mind. My spirit.

It was a pain that could not be compared to the previous annoyance when the Intruder was bashing me against the shoreline. It was a cruel stinging, envenoming sensation that slowed down my perceptions of time.

And to make matters worse, [Corrupting Influence] was hitting much, much harder in reaction to the pain. I didn't know if it was the [Enhanced Learning], [Enhanced Processing] or [Enhanced Training] aspect of the combined ability, but time seemed to slow down for me. In ways it hadn't before.

The small trickle of foreign Psy turned into the merest slivers of influence, all while I was made to be aware of all my inner power. All the ways in which my insides had begun to fluctuate and squirm in raw, red, blaring torturous agony. Like a cancer that had begun to bloat and expand from one second to the next.

At one point, I thought that my Shifter side had failed me and that I had forgotten to breathe. But it was merely that my own perception of time had been so distorted that the time between normal breaths seemed like an eternity.

I focused more and more on the insides of my lake, on what was wrong. Yet the waters within me felt as they always did. The only difference being in the way the waters moved. Where before, they had been in a state of semi-tranquility, now the currents felt black and cold and ferociously turbulent. Roiling and swirling with enough speed to rip apart anything they came into contact with.

I searched within myself and only felt the storm growing more deadly. The whirlpools more terrifying. I felt myself focusing on several aspects of my own power at the same time. In a way that was unlike my earlier musings through the cobweb.

Earlier on, I could feel time being slowed through my Telepathy in a way that felt as though my own perceptions were being spread and scattered across countless points of view within a single universe. Where the central version of me remained anchored to my body and the rest of me could trace my parents in the present, in the past and in their potential futures, while also reading their thoughts and the moment and continuing to influence them. Same with Henry and Serpent-Tongue and all the other creatures that my own Psy was affecting.

At those times, I was like a puppeteer that could keep track of an unlimited number of strings and manipulate them in ways that would have demanded someone else's full attention. Due to the way my perceptions were scattered and divided all over the place so that it felt as though I were as many people as it would take to control my powers. All focused on the anchor of course.

Yet now all that weight was falling exclusively onto myself. My own central self.

On the single, thick thread that was [Corrupting Influence X].

Instead of an unlimited number of strings, all the weight of the pain was falling upon a bridge or a similar connecting structure. It grew sturdier and more robust in reaction to the pain. Both my mind and my body, the very physical organs, being re-enforced with the Psy of the ability to better withstand

It felt as though I were being crushed by a mountain the size of multiple planets. The borders of the lake pressing down hard like a vice and increasing the pressure.

And to make matters worse, the influence of Surfer Sully was still there. Trying to get in.

I felt time slowing down even more as I tried to ignore the pain for long enough to adapt to the increasingly insidious nature of his [Presence], only for the pain to skyrocket in intensity.

And I had to do all of that while still remaining focused on the things not-Slab was saying. On the game of darts we were still playing and the other games we were planning for later.

It wasn't as though it was difficult, but the more I attempted to keep the foreign Psy out and the more I tried to keep the conversation flowing, the more acute and distracting the pain became and the more time was slowed on my part as the Enhancer power kept trying to juggle all of this at once.

And of course, the more time slowed on my part, the worse the pain became in reaction to that.

I was being bombarded with voices and memories and thoughts. Not my own, but those of others and I could not rely on my usual Telepath powers to keep me sane.

It was akin to being a prisoner in my own head. All while my own head was being perforated by several drills and heated up in an industrial oven.

Soon, that agony had spread to every movement I made. Every single twitch of every single muscle feeling as if someone had taken a buzzsaw to them. I expected this to be caused by some kind of growing pain derived from the new ability. Some kind of adjustment period as I used it in conjunction with all my Telepath powers.

One moment I was recalling a memory of a grieving mother, after her son had gotten into a car accident and the next I was recalling the parents of the boy her son had killed in a fit of drunk driving.

One moment I was a banker in some air-conditioned office conspiring to foreclose on a group of farms. The next I was the farmers being forced out. Watching their lives being upended. And the next I was the banker again. Eyes wide with terror as one of the younger men broke into his home. Knife and rope in hand.

One moment, I was a lone ranger. Watching a forest from my tower and speaking on the radio. Then I was a lost hiker, wandering just out of sight. I recalled dropping, my legs feeling as if they were made of lead. I then became the ranger, finding the body two months later after a routine patrol.

One moment, I was in a village, seeing a young man training to become a fighter in some resistance and the next I was seeing the people he would kill later on, and the end of the encampment where his peers lived after it was struck down by a drone.

One moment, I was seeing a greedy captain conversing with people from his parent company. Overloading their ship with far more cargo than the regulations dictated. The next I saw the final moments of the passengers as the ship went under, the captain and crew leaving them to die in order to save themselves via the only lifeboats onboard.

I saw the burning of forests and the renewed life that replaced it over decades. I saw insects buzzing anew after the fire, the new plants taking advantage of the clear skies to blossom and thrive.

And then I was back in this realm of Pandemonium. Time feeling like the slowest of slugs as each minute exercise of my hand muscles left me wanting to give up and cry on the floor.

The pain then redoubled and tripled at once.

My own Psy feeling like an ocean of needles trying to prick me from the inside out.

Yet I somehow endured it. Forcing my body to keep moving. My lips to keep making sounds as I marshalled my will and pushed the influence further and further out.

Time stretched on as the moments between two breaths felt as though they were days and weeks. My spirit being flayed all the while.

I tried to search within myself, to find and excise the source of my current troubles, but no matter how hard I looked or how much self-reflection I embarked on, nothing seemed different from the usual.

Yes, I felt stronger, because I was stronger. My power growing even as the strain and the pain grew in proportion to my gains.

It was when the not-Slab was telling me to go outside and play a game of volley-ball on the beach that something changed. I felt a tap on my shoulder and suddenly the agony was all but gone. My Shifter powers snapping suddenly and leaving me without a mask to shield myself.

I collapsed and began dry-heaving. My eyes filling with tears as I tried to reflexively vomit anything in my stomach. I then instinctively grabbed my stomach and tried to hurl out the non-existent contents.

"Dude, you look like death!" Surfer Sully chuckled from the side. "Warned you this would happen bruh."

He shook his head sadly, as if he'd been speaking with a moron.

"Also, you underestimate yourself. Or, myself. I can still read your mind bruh. Even with you trying to hide it. I got all my levels at 99. And we're in Pandemonium. And my realm of Pandemonium to make it worse." He clicked his tongue.

"Good thinking on the plan B though. That might have worked if you'd caught me off guard."

He stopped.

"In fact, now that I think of it, it might still work if you keep getting stronger at the rate you're going. Also also, you've managed about 4 levels on your Telepath side. I don't know if you realize this, but that's an actually insane amount of growth for what amounts to a few minutes. Though that Enhancer power grew even more than all your Telepath powers combined. That stuff is crazy bruh."

I hacked out a few words, my body still struggling due to the memory of the pain.

"I won't…ack…let you take my body!"

"I never planned to my dude." He protested. "Sure, I am fucking with you. I will absolutely admit to that. But I'm not doing it for a malicious reason or anything. I'm keeping true to my word."

He stopped to take a swig of rum and chuckle some more.

"For the most part." He clarified. "There are lots of things I am not telling you. Of course there are. My world wasn't always sunshine and rainbows and… yes. I did fuck things up beyond most of our other compatriots. Though I think my own willingness to change and use my [Presence] the way I did made things better in the long run. Doesn't excuse my crimes, but I did try to make amends."

He knelt in front of me. His face coming close to mine as he offered up a hand.

"I mean, imagine if I didn't grow at all from the whole Tutorial and the Labyrinth. From all those new experiences. Imagine what I would have been like if nothing had changed and I stubbornly refused to grow up and realized I'd been a bastard."

"You're still a bastard!" I accused. Not thinking. "I saw what's going on here!"

"Most of the men are playing pool in the basement or skiing down the mountain further inland, you fucking dunce." He chided. "I did take multiple wives when I was younger, before I learned about other worlds and before I met Dusty, but that wasn't for the reasons you think. Again, my own upbringing wasn't all sunshine and rainbows over here. You got lucky."

He hesitated again.

"More lucky than you could possibly imagine."

He shook his head and stood back up. Retracting his hand.

"So, I will continue to mess with you with my own [Presence] dude. Cause if there's anything I've learned about myself in the course of all my years if that we are fucking myopic."

"Myopic?" I wheezed out in confusion.

"Yes my dude. Myopic. In that we miss the forest for the trees far too many times for someone with a power called [Omniscience]."

He pointed to his own head.

"You see, you think you know everything, because for the most part, you actually do. It's not a flaw that most people would consider when you act so patient and saintly and able to see all the sides to an argument. But it is a fault of ours. Every once in a while, you'll do something that is incredibly stupid and you'll think that there will be no consequences. I don't blame you. It's hard to think otherwise when you think you know everything and when you can back that up by looking into the future and the past. It's rough stuff my dude. It's easy to lose your head and let your own ego get a hold of you. Like a shackle tied to a big iron ball."

He shook his head.

"It's easy to fuck things up without meaning to because your head was so far up your own ass that your lungs worked off methane instead of oxygen."

He sighed in defeat.

"Oh, and in case you hadn't realized, I could have taken control of your mind and replaced it with my own anytime I wanted. I won't of course, cause I'm not a dick and… as dumb as you are, your Earth is still far better off than mine was after my…."

He pause between words grew as large as a chasm.

"Initial mistakes. You'll understand soon enough. For now, keep still and try to digest your gains. I'll retract my protection in a while and then I'll go right back to trying my own power on you. Cause a dunce like you needs to have their eyes opened the hard way."

He left, leaving behind an unopened bottle of Gin.

"And have some liquor for goodness' sake. Might help to clear your mind so you can get to fixing that hole in your status you opened up due to being so incredibly stupid"

"Silence." I wheezed again.

"Bingo." He said from his new position near the door. "Ya stole from a Divine. Not considering that their mind and yours would be vastly different due to them being, you know, nigh omnipotent. If that Divine hadn't been you, you'd probably be dead by now."

He barked out a laugh.

"Thank goodness we're freaks of nature, or else I might have popped out of whatever existence this place occupies. Anyway, keep working hard and maybe, just maybe, you'll learn the lesson I was trying to impart on your dumb ass."

He shrugged.

"Or don't. Like I said, your plan B was solid. Train a bit more and you'll manage to pull it off. Until then, I ain't opening shit for you until you prove to me that you deserve it. Have fun bitchacho!"

He left, and only then did I realize that the party had died down all around us. The guests stopping whatever it was that they'd been doing to stare down at me as I writhed in pain on the floor.

Not-Slab was the first to approach. Picking me and the bottle of Gin off the floor with an easy grace and carrying both of us out the door and unto the beach.

The scenery outside had changed by that point. The sun beginning to fall on the distant false horizon, so that a calming orange light caressed the grains of sands. The sound of the waves soothing the linger aftershocks of the agony I'd just experienced.

He dropped me off there. On the sands, and left the bottle with me.

My lungs heaving from exertion as my eyes unfocused and lost their sight.

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.