Chương 487: (480) 7.18. Aren’t You Getting Tired?

Vin didn't know where he was or who was attacking him, but he knew two things with absolute certainty. He'd been right about the orb being bad news, and he couldn't let those freaky hands get a hold of him." Light!" he shouted, summoning a blazing ball of brilliant light over his head that forced all the shadow hands back as though they'd been burned. He swore he heard actual hissing coming from within the darkness as it was forced back temporarily.

With a frown, the well-dressed man snapped his fingers again, and the dozens of arms merged together, solidifying into one much stronger one. The brilliant light wasn't nearly enough to stop it, and the two-foot-wide arm of muscle stretched out, fingers twitching as it reached for him." Stone Wall!" Vin said, summoning a dense barrier between him and the arm. To his horror, the solid shadows managed to smash through it like it wasn't even there, and he cursed as he leapt back." Fireball!"

The ball of blazing fire rocketed forward and impacted the shadow arm, detonating and blasting apart the shadows. Yet while he was able to temporarily disrupt them, he didn't seem to be able to destroy them, and the arm quickly reformed, looking good as new.

"You shouldn't be able to use your mana in here," the man said as he snapped yet again and the arm continued slithering toward him once more.

"Your subconscious is supposed to be disconnected from your mana pool."

"Unfortunately for you, pixies are incredibly overprotective of their siblings!" Vin replied, pointing and firing off the other spell he'd started casting the same time he'd used Fireball." Meteor!" Ignoring the shadow hand this time, Vin sent a dense ball of fire and stone that had been forming over the past few seconds screaming from up above him directly at the mysterious attacker who lived within the orb.

Yet rather than let Vin's most powerful spell smash into him and blow him to smithereens, the man snapped yet again, and a tendril of darkness reached out from the void, swallowing his attack without issue.

"Please. A tier-3 spell?" the man scoffed, looking more offended than anything.

"That's pathetic. Just stop this nonsense and give me your body."

"Like hell I will!" Vin shouted, lunging to the side to dodge another swipe from the giant shadow hand." Binding!" Dimensional tethers secured the arm to the floor, and Vin turned, taking careful aim at his enemy." Stone Shot!" He dumped more mana into the spell than it had ever held before, firing a jagged chunk of obsidian the size of his fist directly at the man's head.

But again, a tendril of darkness swept out of the void, this time without the stranger even doing anything, eating his spell whole before withdrawing without a sound.

"Light, earth, fire, and now spatial," the man muttered, adjusting the silver buttons on his cuff as he gave Vin a curious look.

"Are you a generalist? A pretty rare breed, at least in my time. How long has it even been? Tell me, how many years have passed since Emperor Rilkden's reign?"

"If you'd stop trying to grab me for a second, I'd be happy to talk!" Vin said, lunging away from a newly formed shadow arm as the last one dissipated to escape his Binding.

"I primarily ask because it has been centuries since I last had anyone to talk to," the stranger admitted, smiling with too-white teeth as he watched Vin dart and dodge around.

"It will be just as easy to take the information I need from your head once we're done here. I wonder how long you can even hope to last. Mages aren't exactly known for their endurance, now are they?" Even in the dire situation he was in, Vin could only snort at that. If the mysterious stranger was expecting him to tire out before long, he was in for quite the surprise. Over the next few hours, Vin tried everything he could possibly think of.

Aqua Sphere was swallowed up by those shadow tendrils just as easily as all his other spells before it could fully form. Trying to get in close resulted in more giant hands manifesting from the void, blocking him and forcing him to retreat. Decay made the man chuckle, and Renewal made him raise an eyebrow. Trying to alter the gravity within the void didn't seem to do anything at all, and Mass Vibrations seemed to do little more than annoy the stranger as he worked to ensure his attire hadn't become askew.

Vin threw every single thing he had in his bag of tricks at the man, and not a single thing managed to work. Of course, that didn't mean he was just going to give up. You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

"Why in the six hells do you have so many points in endurance?" the man asked after what felt like an eternity of Vin running around and avoiding the shadow hands.

"You would think after spending who knows how many centuries in here I would be more patient, but with my escape so tantalizingly close, it would appear I am as eager as anyone else would be for freedom once more. And how do you have so many different types of spells? You already showed me the four earlier, but now you reveal water, death, life, and even vibration of all things? Are you the son of an Arch Mage come to taunt me before daddy yanks you out and destroys me once and for all?"

"If I said yes, would you knock it off with the hands?" Vin asked, wishing not for the first time that he could utilize Dimensional Sheath in his own subconscious, or wherever he was. If he could only bring forth the ranker king's blade that cut through magic like it was butter…

"Hardly. Though if that were the case, I would make you watch as I dismantled him piece by piece," the man admitted.

"Look, as entertaining as this has been to watch you leap around like a rabbit that got into a supply of haste potions, this is pointless. Eventually, you'll run out of energy, and when you do, I will get you. You won't die, mind you, you'll become a slave in a distant corner of your own mind, forced to watch me take your body and use it as I see fit. And speaking of my future body, why is the subconscious version of yourself missing half of an arm?!"

"Ever face off against an epic monster?" Vin tried, grinning at the man even as he felt the fatigue start to settle in. His endurance was high, there was no doubt about that. But even he couldn't keep running around dodging forever. At this point, there were really only two things left that could possibly save him. The first and most likely was his divine boon. Like he'd told Lumel, he didn't know if possession counted as maiming or killing him, and he was loath to find out.

It would be one thing if the stranger taking over his body were to wipe his mind away, but if he was instead just being shunted off into a corner of his own brain, he was worried that wouldn't count enough for the Goddess to intervene. And if he didn't want to risk using his divine boon, there was only one other thing that might save him. Someone on the outside. Similar to when he was inside Introspection, Vin had the feeling that they were experiencing time differently in here than out in the real world.

At the very least it would explain how the stranger had been trapped in here for so long without going raving mad. To Vin, it felt like he'd been leaping around for hours now. He could only hope that in reality it had been closer to days, and Lumel had long since brought his body back to Terra and formed a think-tank with everyone to come up with a way to save him from this mysterious attack. He didn't have the faintest idea how they were going to do that, but that was their problem.

He was a little distracted at the moment. Barely managing to dodge away from another swipe of the giant shadow hand, Vin and the stranger both blinked as the faint outline of a pixie popped into view in the center of their battlefield.

"Vin?" Fred asked, squinting as he looked around.

"It's too dark, I can't see anything!"

"Fred, I'm trapped in here with some sort of evil spirit, it's trying to possess me!" Vin shouted, his eyes widening as the stranger snapped and countless tendrils shot at Fred from all angles.

"Run!" Fred nodded and vanished not a moment too soon. Dozens of tendrils speared through where he'd been floating moments before, striking nothing but air. With a sigh, the man frowned at Vin.

"Evil is a tad harsh, don't you think? I'll be the first to admit taking over your body isn't exactly a nice thing to do, but for all you know I intend to go around healing the sick and feeding the poor. Are you really doing any better for others with your body?"

"Yes! Yes I am!" Vin shouted, unable to believe what he was hearing.

"There are literally thousands of people who rely on me every day! My whole existence is devoted to risking my life to help others!"

"Oh… Well, good for you. What, you want a medal?" the man asked, snapping once more and commanding the arm to go after him again. More time passed, and Vin began breathing heavily as he started to flag. He had no idea how much time had passed out in the real world, but it had been ages since Fred had popped in and he'd gotten a warning out. At the very least, when he eventually fell, the others would know it wasn't him that woke up.

He could only hope his body was now heavily restrained and trapped somewhere that he wouldn't be able to hurt anyone. The inevitable happened before too much longer. Vin tried to jerk to the side, but his weary body didn't listen. Rather than lunge away, his leg gave out, and he stumbled for the briefest of moments, which was all the shadow hand that had been chasing him needed. Vin cried out as the hand grabbed him around the leg, the dark flesh freezing to the touch as it began burning him.

"There, was that so bad?" the stranger asked, smiling as he calmly walked over to him. Vin tried to cast a spell, but the dark hand tightened its grip on him, and he gasped as his mana ran through his mental fingers. The unnatural cold radiating from the shadows was doing something to his focus, and Vin could barely think straight as the man stopped before him.

"I'll admit, this has been the most fun I've had in ages," he said, taking Vin's chin in his hand as he turned his head this way and that.

"Not exactly my type, but I can work with this." With that, he let go of Vin's face, his eyes turning jet black as his entire body began melting into a dark liquid. Vin struggled and tried to cast any of the countless spells he knew, but the freezing darkness kept his desires from ever even reaching the mana, keeping his magic at bay. As the puddle of darkness swept over his feet and began seeping up the outside of his body, Vin clenched his eyes shut, struggling with every fiber of his being. Benevolence! Lumel!

Anything! As the freezing cold reached his waist and continued rising with no signs of stopping, Vin's breath caught as a familiar, rough wooden texture fell into his hand. His eyes shot open as he looked at the bonded artifact that had appeared out of nowhere, the staff radiating power as it glowed from top to bottom, and he didn't hesitate for a second.

As the darkness reached his neck and began creeping toward his mouth, Vin slammed his staff down onto the floor of the void, the magic blinding as his bonded, grand artifact flared to life. Halting the stranger in his tracks moments before he could take over Vin completely.