Chapter 103: Nightmare Manifestation
Star Gods, gods that came from stars, the manifestation of a Star's mind. Incomprehensible and all-powerful, but most dangerous of all...
They only obey their own laws.
Noticing Jim isn't in any pain, confirming that this place is separated from the real world, Solafant didn't explain right away. Knowing that the mastermind of this world would wipe those memories the moment they escape.
"Treat it as a Sixth Step demigod for now.", they warned as more text appeared on the panel.
[SPECIAL EVENT]
[HUNT INITIATED]
The darkness rippled.
From somewhere deep within the twisted space, something was being dragged through reality itself, pulled by invisible strings toward the chamber where Solafant and Jim stood.
Jim heard it first.
Footsteps, uneven and stumbling. Like someone barely able to stand.
Then he saw her.
Lea emerged from the shadows, and Jim's breath caught.
She looked wrong. Her golden eyes were glazed, unfocused, staring at nothing. Her golden hair hung limp and tangled. Her body moved with jerky, puppet-like motions, as if something else was pulling the strings.
But worst of all was her face.
Tears streamed down her cheeks in continuous rivers. Her mouth hung slightly open, a thin line of drool at the corner. And her expression...
Complete and utter despair.
"Lea?", Jim whispered, horrified.
Her body snapped to attention at his voice, head jerking toward him with mechanical precision. But her eyes... her eyes were screaming.
...Help me... help me, help me... please... someone, help me..
The words never left her lips. Instead, her body lunged.
Cursed Constructs erupted into black crystalline armor spreading across her form, golden blades manifesting in her hands. Shadow Sneak activated, and she vanished into Jim's own shadow.
"Move!!", Solafant shoved Jim aside as Lea materialized where he'd been standing, her Judgement Blade carving through empty air.
Jim rolled, came up with Curruid drawn, "Lea, snap out of it! Fight it!!"
But Lea's body didn't pause. Didn't hesitate, it simply hunted.
She moved with efficiency, every motion optimized for capture. Shadow Sneak carried her behind Solafant. Her blades lashed out in perfect coordination. Her armor deflected Solafant's counterattack without her seeming to notice.
But through it all, the tears never stopped.
Her mouth moved silently, forming words her voice couldn't speak:
I'm sorry... I'm sorry... I'm sorry... please... run... please...
"We're not fighting you!!", Jim called out, desperately dodging another strike. "We're getting you out of here!!!"
Lea's body froze mid-attack.
For one brief, beautiful moment, Jim thought his words had reached her. That she was breaking free.
Then the malicious voice materialized behind her.
[CORRECTION REQUIRED]
Dark smoke poured from the panel, wrapping around Lea like chains. Her body convulsed, back arching as her mouth opened in a silent scream. The tears came faster, mixing with fresh blood as she bit through her own lip.
No no no not again!! Please!! Not the punishment please!! I'll hunt... I'll do anything just not—!!
Her consciousness shattered under the weight of remembered torture. Every failure. Every punishment. Every round of endless hunting played back in her mind simultaneously.
When the smoke withdrew, Lea's eyes were completely empty.
The puppet strings pulled tighter.
"Shit.", Solafant cursed, manifesting Void energy, "It's taking direct control now."
Lea moved.
Not like before. Not with efficiency.
She moved like a monster, a feral beast out of control.
Her Cursed Constructs spread across the entire chamber, black crystal growing from every surface. Golden blades multiplied, dozens of them, orbiting her body like a swarm. Shadow Sneak activated continuously, her form flickering in and out of visibility.
And through it all, somewhere deep inside, Lea watched herself attack her friends.
Stop!! Stop!! STOP!!! Why won't my body STOP!!!
She couldn't feel her limbs anymore. Couldn't control her breathing. Couldn't even blink. The entity had taken everything, reduced her to a consciousness trapped in her own skull, forced to witness as her body was weaponized against the people trying to save her.
Her blade caught Jim across the shoulder. Injecting her curses into his body as blood sprayed.
NO!! Jim, I'm sorry, I didn't mean...
But her body was already moving to the next attack. Judgement Blade aimed at his throat.
Solafant intercepted, Void energy nullifying the mystical weapon, "Jim, we need to incapacitate her!"
"Without hurting her?", Jim clutched his blacken bleeding shoulder, barely dodging another strike, "How?!"
"I don't—"
Lea's body Shadow Sneaked directly into Solafant's shadow, blade aimed at their spine.
Solafant twisted, caught her wrist, and for a moment their eyes met. What Solafant saw in those golden eyes made them falter.
Pure, undiluted agony. A mind broken and reformed and broken again, trapped in an endless cycle of violence. Not the sharp pain of injury but the grinding, soul-destroying torture of helplessness extending forever.
"Lea...", Solafant whispered.
Her blade punched through their guard, scoring a line across their ribs.
[EXCELLENT PERFORMANCE]
The voice appeared beside Lea, and she flinched despite her body's continued attack. Jim saw it, the way her entire frame shuddered, the fresh tears, the way her mouth silently formed the word 'please' over and over.
"This is wrong!!", Jim snarled, divine light still glowing from his badge, "You're torturing her!!"
[GAME RULES ARE ABSOLUTE]
[HUNTER MUST HUNT]
[PREY MUST RUN]
"We're not playing your sick game!"
[You entered my Domain]
[You agreed to my Rule]
More smoke poured from the panel, and Lea's movements became even more violent. Her Cursed Constructs grew spikes. Her blades multiplied further. Her Shadow Sneak accelerated beyond limits, drawing on power that wasn't hers.
[PLAY]
She was screaming inside her own mind, begging for it to stop, begging for death, begging for anything but this—
Her blade caught Jim across the leg.
I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry...
Then across Solafant's arm, lopping it off entirely.
Please kill me, please just end this...
Her body moved faster, stronger, more efficiently. The Star God was optimizing her, turning her into the perfect Hunter.
And with each strike, each drop of blood she drew from her friends, Lea felt another piece of herself crack and fall away.
How long had she been hunting? How many rounds? She'd lost count. Lost time. Lost everything except the endless cycle of HUNT CAGE FAIL PUNISH RESET HUNT CAGE FAIL PUNISH RESET—
"Lea!!", Jim's voice cut through the spiral, "I know you're in there! I know you can hear me!!"
Her body lunged at him. He barely parried, Curruid's crimson thorns blooming against her Cursed Construct armor. But the armor simply wilted the thorns.
"We're going to get you out!", he shouted, dodging another strike, "Just hold on a little longer!"
I can't... I can't... There is no holding on, there's only the game, there's only hunting, there's only—
[HUNTER EFFICIENCY: 87%]
[ACCEPTABLE PERFORMANCE]
[REWARD ADMINISTERED]
The smoke touched Lea's consciousness, and for one brief moment, the pain stopped.
No punishment. No torture.
Just... nothing.
It felt like heaven.
And that, more than anything, terrified her.
Because she understood how it worked. This was how the entity broke people. Not through endless punishment, but through the promise of relief.
Hunt well, and the pain stops. Resist, and suffer forever. Eventually, everyone would choose to hunt. Even the most unwilling.
Eventually, everyone would become a willing monster. Even the strongest mind.
No... no, I won't... I refuse...
But her body was already moving, already hunting, already doing exactly what the entity wanted. Because what choice did she have?
Solafant blocked another strike, their energy flickering, "Jim, I can't hold this much longer! It's draining too much power!"
"Then we run!", Jim grabbed their arm, "Buy time until—"
Lea Shadow Sneaked between them, blades aimed at both simultaneously.
The two scattered in different directions.
Her body pursued Solafant, moving with inhuman precision. The Sixth Step demigod was forced onto the defensive, their Void energy barely keeping pace with the Star God-enhanced attacks.
Jim circled around, looking for an opening, any way to help without hurting Lea further.
His badge pulsed with divine light.
The Light Seeker's power reveals truth. Banishes deception. Exposes what is hidden.
What if...?
"Illuminator of Darkness!", Jim chanted, raising his badge high, "Show me what binds her! Reveal the chains!"
Divine radiance exploded through the chamber.
And there, visible only in sacred light, were the strings.
Thousands of threads made from dark energy wrapped around Lea's limbs, her torso, her neck. Puppeteer strings connecting her to the Star God's will.
But more than that, Jim could see where they anchored. Not in her body.
In her mind.
Hooks buried in her consciousness, pulling at her thoughts, her fears, her memories. Using her own Malediction Path against her, feeding on suffering to tighten their grip.
"Solafant!", Jim pointed, "The strings in her mind!"
"I can't nullify what's in her head without—"
"Without what?!", he cut in with tension and panic, plus the curses eroding him.
"Without potentially erasing her consciousness entirely!!", Solafant dodged another strike, breathing hard, "Oblivion doesn't discriminate! If I try to remove those hooks, I might remove her!!"
Jim gritted his teeth, "Then we need—"
The world cracked.
Literally.
A hairline fracture appeared in the air itself, running from floor to ceiling. Then another, then dozens more, spreading across reality like a shattered window.
The purple panels flickered all around them, as if the simulation was breaking.
[ERROR]
[ERROR]
[DOMAIN INTEGRITY COMPROMISED]
[ERROR]
Lea's body froze mid-strike, the strings pulling in confused directions.
The darkness trembled.
Something made the Star God itself recoil.
[IMPOSSIBLE]
[THIS SHOULD NOT—]
[WHO—]
The panel shattered.
The strings holding Lea snapped.
She collapsed to the ground, gasping, her body finally her own again. Blood dripped from her bitten lip. Tears still streamed down her face. But her eyes...
Her eyes were hers.
"What...", she rasped, voice hoarse from screaming, "What's happening...?"
Jim and Solafant stared at the spreading cracks in reality.
"■■■■■■!!!!!!"
And a monstrous roar shattered everything...