A world of darkness

’Perhaps this wasn’t the best idea’ John thought to himself as he settled in the darkness that he now found himself in. It was a strange experience, entering yet another mindscape. This one, however, was quite different to Frank’s. It was much more concrete, and John felt the weight of this world, unlike the dreaminess that had so permeated Frank’s.

The heaviness of it settled on his mind, applying pressure to it in the strangest way. It was as if he was heavily engaged in mental exercise, was having a migraine and was attempting to think of nothing at all at the same time. Regardless of that strange feeling, however, he knew he had to move. As something told John that this time, there would be something to lose if he continued hanging around doing nothing.

For a few moments, he began simply scrambling around in the darkness with only his sense of touch guided by his hands and feet before remembering that he had a light spell. He quickly used it in an attempt to view his surroundings. When the orb of light appeared behind his head soon afterwards, John could see slightly more than before.

The young man had found himself in front of the entrance to some abandoned building, a giant black structure larger than any he had seen before. The orb of light behind his head lit it up well enough to see the general shape of the thing, but shadows still creeped around every corner, and wherever he looked darkness seemed to lurk. If John had not known that he was only in the mind of a person, he would have been scared beyond imagination, as the image before him seemed to have come directly from some kind of twisted horror movie.

Somehow he knew he would find his goal inside the building, and so he entered it. The interior was even darker than the exterior, as shadows seemed to loom in every nook and cranny and dared him to step into them. The front room, which compared to the hallways splitting off from it was quite well lit with some small glass lamps that still seemed to work, was some sort of lobby. It contained signs which directed towards various labs and offices, many couches and chairs, and even a small desk placed near the entrance. It was obviously some sort of laboratory, and one that looked strangely modern, but the names on the signs were quite strange to John. They ranged from “Chronomancy” to “Xenobiology”. It seemed to him to be some sort of center of research for magic. Why the man working for the Council and going under the title of the Shadow’s Henchman’s mind would contain this, however, that he did not know.

Regardless, he pushed on, a strange instinct pulling him towards one of the corridors that was labeled with a “To Psychic wing” sign. As he went deeper and deeper into the corridor, the shadows seemed to grow darker as time went on, even though the orb of light was still glowing in its full power behind him.

Something came into the corner of his vision, and that thing was very clearly moving. It wasn’t very quick or sneaky, but he saw it, the twisting of shadows as something moved. The bending of shapes as the thing approached. The only way to describe it was as humanoid in shape, it was obviously intelligent enough to seek out John, but it seemed to do no more.

It stayed still, not moving at all when John wasn’t, and when he was it continued moving only to remain at the same distance from him. Like a twisted sort of shadow standing on two legs. John couldn’t say what it really was or how long it would remain so passive, but he knew he had to continue moving nonetheless.

Eventually, he reached a junction of corridors, each with their own sign. They were not particularly helpful, however, with names such as “Arcanotech”, “Cerberomancy” and the now recognizable “Chronomancy”. This time, no instinct was necessary; he knew where to go.

As he entered the corridor that was supposed to lead to the Cerberomancy department, the shadow behind him began to take a different shape. One of a soldier. That soldier, who was severely injured in multiple places, was no longer quite passive.

“Help me…” He cried, his voice shaking and faltering.

That was when John finally turned around, the soldier already far nearer to him than the shadow was before. His first intent was to cast Observe, but when he tried his headache became far less manageable. It seemed to John that he would get no answers today. So he tried his next best option, and a few Arcane bolts flew through and ripped the soldier’s body apart a moment later. He dissolved into a black mess of shadows that fell back into the floor and seemingly disappeared. John knew he could not afford to shoot the bolts haphazardly, so he checked his mana reserves. Indeed it seemed he would have to worry about it, his mana had already depleted significantly from the use of Orb of Light and this latest use had brought it down to almost half. That realization plus the additional appearance of a couple more shadows who would undoubtedly cause trouble later caused John to begin searching through rooms in the hopes of finding a light source. He would need to conserve his mana after all. If he knew anything about this mind, it’s that it would be dangerous.

After going through a few offices, he found a small flashlight and some spare batteries and immediately proceeded to cancel Orb of Light. For the single moment that no light was on, John could swear he felt someone’s breath on his neck. This turned out to be just his mind playing tricks on him, however, he was sure.

He ventured forwards through the increasingly labyrinthian corridors of the building. Corridor by corridor he pushed on, the pain in his head only growing stronger. It was bearable only by the smallest margin, threatening to overpower his thought process with every step. The shadows began increasing in intensity as well. Every time one was destroyed by his bolts, owing to his ever dwindling mana supply, as he discovered it was no longer passive, another one came. One that moved ever closer and was ever less human.

Eventually, one of the shadows, one who was more in the shape of a spider than a man, with many long thin legs that moved quickly and inhumanly across the ground, turned into a small crying child instead of a soldier. Just the idea of ripping that child apart with Arcane bolts turned John’s stomach, but when it began approaching him and lashed out with tentacle like shadowy limbs, he reacted on instinct. Luckily, nothing remained as the shadow of the creature dissolved and John was able to move on.

His mana had finally depleted completely what seemed like hours later when he finally reached another junction. A junction in which stood about twenty different shadows. All various degrees of horrific human. John needed a distraction. One that would allow him to get away with minimal risk. With that thought, he stood there, hoping that they would not be able to notice him before he could manage to recover what mana he needed to continue onwards.

John began leaning on one of the walls nearby, holding his head as the searing pain of the headache had only gotten worse, when he was swept off his feet by something. A strike from behind by a long black tendril that appeared out of nowhere.

That resulted in a searing pain coursing through his legs, and a moment later an even greater pain took his breath away as his entire body hit the floor with a very loud thud. Only then did John notice that he had closed his eyes, and when he opened them he did not find a welcome sight. His flashlight had flown across the room, and an army of very clearly angry shadows was now standing between him and any chance of escape. Behind him he noticed yet another soldier who was quite a bit more vicious than the rest. The twisted man was standing right behind him, having seemingly been the source of the strike. And unlike the others, he had not spoken, nor moaned, nor shown any sign of real humanity. A popup had appeared in the corner of John’s eye as well, telling him exactly how screwed he really was.

Damage taken: 30 HP lost

He was quite literally on the brink of ****. Another hit like that and he would not survive, though he still hoped the fact he was in a mindscape would save him. A mad instinct for survival overtook the young man, allowing him to ignore the pain now flowing through his body, and the bleeding gash wounds he had not noticed covering it. He moved in the quickest manner he was able to, managing to barely dodge another tentacle attack from the soldier by diving into the crowd of shadows that soon surrounded him. They were not capable of attacking him in this form, so with as much physical **** as he could muster he punched and kicked through the crowd of shadows, breaking them to bits with each strike but his hands slowly losing both their color and their heat.

When he was finally able to get out of the crowd, all he could do was keep running in the only direction open to him, straight. The adrenaline did not last much longer, however, and even with the gashes slowly closing up the searing pain returned. At that point, all John could think about through the searing pain was ‘Keep moving forwards. I have to… keep… moving… forwards…’ That was when he blacked out.

As John once again woke up from darkness, he noticed his body showed no sign of the terrible injuries he had taken inside the mindscape. The man he had entered the mind of, Graham, was now lying on the floor. John had no idea how that was possible, he was quite convinced when he blacked out that he would either die of his injuries or suffer great amounts of **** at the hands of his captor. Stranger still was the lack of a popup to indicate he had succeeded in his mission, as it indicated that he had not just lost memory of doing so.

Regardless of how strange the situation was, he had no time to contemplate how such a thing had happened. Graham was seemingly **** and this was John’s best opportunity to get away from his captors. The leather straps tying his hand and feet were still quite tight, but a quick strike with some Arcane bolts did the trick in cutting them off.

A few moments later John was standing on the ground. He soon looked around to attempt to find what equipment he had that had not stayed in his inventory. It was placed in a small chest in a corner room that was connected to the **** chamber. After he had found the staff and doublet once more and equipped them, as well as his old clothes which he stuffed into his inventory, he searched for some way out of the chamber he was in. In one of the corners of the room he found a small spiral staircase that lead up towards some unknown location.

‘Outside, hopefully’ John thought.