Chương 119: A Gift With Layers

June finally climbed up the hill that led to the wide-open space where the old pursuit camp was located; his eyes crested over the hill, glowing a brilliant gold. Behind him, a single Aspirant and Dreamer stood. Martin and the other silent Aspirant heaved; the rain pattered and sloshed against the now muddy floor. June looked to the sky and pointed.

"Shit… you guys see that right?" Off in the distance, lightning struck a single point hundreds of times in rapid succession.

"I wouldn't want to be caught in that shitstorm! I… Hope the others are alright." His two followers remained silent apart from heaving, they weren't much for conversation after June obliterated the Dreamers who tried to mutiny against him. They carried the scent of awe, respect, and fear in equal parts.

'Voice?

'Are you feeling better?'

'A little. I can stretch time how I want y'know, so it's been a few days since then.'

'Care to tell me about the power you gave me then?'

'I'll tell you when the time is right, so just patiently do what you were''You said the cohort is dead, right? Are you sure?'

'Silvester got struck by lightning after trying to pull a sword out of the ground, Ann wasn't in a good condition anyway, and by the time she came to, she made the same mistake, not realizing the body turning to mist in front of her was Silvester.'

'…. What about Eren, or the Wendigo?'

'Possessed by it and fighting against the ONI right now.'

'Still!? They were fighting a few hours ago, too! I'd have thought that a noble could take care of an imp lickity-split!'

'Don't be quick to judge, not all Dreamers are made equally, and so are Nightmares; their classifications are made through sparse observations since seeing one normally is a death sentence, not to mention the Wendigo is unkillable.'

'Unkillable? Seriously? I thought—' Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

'That it was a spirit possessing people? Yeah, that's half true, but the reason you never saw it when you focused your eyes while other spirits appeared is that it's an algorithm that selects and turns people. This is a simulation, not real life, you can hold your breath indefinitely here, so remember this place is more video gamey than you give it credit for.'

'So what, I just need to keep killing it for the duration of the games.'

'There's about a day left until the games end, understandably its hard to tell time when the skies are constantly blocked by rain clouds. It's manageable… mostly, it did evolve like we thought it would since the wildlife being wiped out in mass by the storm really opened up a lot of bandwidth for it to use.'

'Remind me again exactly how you plan to help during the final fight?' The voice sighed within his mind.

'I'm going to activate my gift when I find the time right ok, but mainly I'm going to adjust some of the restraints you have on you that keep you from accidentally causing damage in the real world. I'll keep your surroundings safe with my own abilities instead of the crappy sedatives they use.'

'They've been limiting my abilities this entire time?'

'They do that for everyone, the problem with you, though, is that you're a flesh-shaper; your ability is your body, the few times you lit your body on fire with your caloric burst, I had to step in to make sure your real body didn't blow up.'

'Oh… thanks, I had a feeling that was the case with the calorie burst ability, so I didn't use it much, does that mean I could go ham this time, use everything?' He could sense the Voice nodding within his mind.

'11.'

'10.'

'9.'

'8.'

'Why are you suddenly counting down from eleven?'

'6.'

'5.'

'4.'

'3…'

'2.'

'and a 1.'

'Alrighty, June, I'm going to ask you three questions and answer exactly and quickly, question one: on a scale of one to ten, how much pain would you be willing to feel in order to make Lilia just happy.'

'Uh.. ten!?'

'No second-guessing or meandering! Question two: A child, a man, and a monster fight; who wins?'

'The… monster?' The Voice's tone shifted from playful to serious one.

'Would you willingly stare into the abyss and let it stare back?'

'S-sure!?'

'Congratulations, your spirit animal is apparently a can of baked beans, according to this online quiz you just answered, anyway, duck.' He suddenly dropped down and waitied for something to happen, and shortly something did, his crouched stance buckled as June suddenly felt his stomach grow warm and felt his chest churn as warm fluid crawled up his throat and out as a vile, acidic goop, his vision doubled, and his body grew weak.

'My gift to you is a recalling, a memory maybe, and with it a mimetic form, the one we took when with the first being who loved me.' June's mind trembled. He remembered a pain that split his body into ends, not physical, but emotional. He remembered loss, he remembered wrath, he remembered a genocide. He felt his body changing slightly and losing grip on the edge of his sanity. It was a fractured memory. A potent one. A dream? A nightmare? maybe both? He remembered taking the shape of a dragon.