*Crack* *Crumble*
Slowly opening my eyes to the sound of rocks splitting and falling apart. I pushed myself off the ground, rubbing my tear-stained eyes, trying to see what was causing the sounds. However, what I noticed first and foremost was that my clothes had slightly changed.
I was still in a kimono, but now it was in dark blue with a pattern of snowflakes. It did not reach my shoulders, almost exposing my chest, but then I noticed that part was covered by a nylon body suit. Aside from covering my chest it also connected to a choker on my neck that was adorned with a star. Lastly, both kimono and choker were adorned by a thick golden outline around their edges.
'Is this the soul's clothes that Freja and Elaina mentioned?' These clothes were not something I had in my closet, so I assumed they must be the ones meant to reflect ourselves.
'I'll have to see once I leave, but rig-'
*Growl~*
'What the hell?' Focusing my eyes towards the cliff, I witnessed black hands grasping at the ledge, trying to pull themselves up.
Instantly assuming that it was dangerous, my body sprung awake, and I jumped away from the ledge.
"Ah shit, my head still hurts." Grabbing my forehead with one hand, I still had a headache lingering from just before I passed out. However, there was a new feeling emerging, slowly overpowering it.
My mind felt free as if a layer of fog had finally been removed, no longer clouding my train of thought. It was a weird feeling, as I never knew my mind was so clouded in the first place, but now it was obvious that something was affecting my mind the entire time.
'I can sort out these memories later, I need to figure out what is crawling out of the abyss.' Images of my younger self's memories flashed through my head, but I had other urgent priorities. Glancing over to the cliff once again, the climbing creatures were almost done crawling their way onto land.
They did not resemble any animal whatsoever, looking like some kind of amalgamation that was made in a lab. The limbs of the first creature were extremely skinny to the point where any pressure could snap them, but their head was massive, with most of it consisting of a large mouth filled with black teeth. Where I assume it was meant to have eyes, there were only sockets filled with nothingness. Their grotesque bodies were oozing a disgusting black slime, dripping onto the ground like some kind of tar.
More creatures with impossible-like bodies came crawling out, however, there were some that came out looking normal—some that I recognised.
My breath hitched for a moment as I saw the skeleton knight from Ebonscale appear. By this point, I had guessed what the abyss actually is.
'The pit must be where all my past traumas live as well as my negative emotions, because there is no way I have fought all of these monsters before.' Even with my new memories, a lot of these monsters were not something I was able to recognise. These things were like inner demons which, to a degree, makes sense if this place is a manifestation of my soul.
However, I didn't have time to figure out exactly what they were as the contorted monsters began sprinting towards me, with their bodies bending in ways not seemingly possible.
'Hope I can use my mana.' As long as the merge went as planned, I should have no problems using magic, but there was only one way to find out for sure.
Opening up my hand, I conjured up a galaxy-ice sword. Surprisingly the sword got conjured almost instantly, and it looked identical to Kotetsu, the only difference being made out of ice.
'Let's see how much more I can do.' Now that I was flowing mana through my body, It felt so much more natural. I was able to pinpoint exactly where it was instead of having to rely on a vague tingling warmth that I've learned to associate with my magic.
While I was noticing all the changes, the first of the monsters had reached me. It was my old nemesis - the skeleton knight. Adorned in the same armour only made out of tar-like substance, it still had its distinct look as well as its iconic great sword.
"Round 2, and this time no one is going to get hurt." Even though Elysia isn't here and didn't really get hurt back then, I still wanted to erase its existence for all the mental torment it caused me.
The skeleton swung its great sword straight down on me, splitting the air around it. Having no reason to hold back, I swung back, directly clashing with its sword. Exerting as much mana as I could, I sent out an explosion of ice from my sword right as our swords made contact, creating a 10-metre glacier that engulfed the knight.
Wanting to switch elements, it then occurred to me that I should be able to learn a new element since I just hit tier 7.
"I think this will be a great choice." Wanting to have the four basic elements, I decided the next element to get, which was very much overdue, would be Earth. I didn't know if it was possible to do so here with the earth from this dreamscape, but I was going to try anyway.
Looking around for something to use, I notice that the ground below us got cracked from our last exchange. Just in case it breaks out, I decided to grab some of the debris and launch myself into the air, stabilising on a platform made of wind which I copied from Kiruya. I first tried feeling the mana within the rocks, then once I noticed the subtle waves of mana within them I introduced my own. The rocks slowly began shaking until a few moments later I suddenly felt I obtained control.
"Yes!" Now that I memorised the feeling of controlling earth, I was able to conjure more with my mana. For now, I could only do basic things with the element, but that's all I needed.
ραndαsΝοvεl ƈοm Raising my hands I created a giant boulder 10 times bigger than myself. Dropping it onto the glacier and letting gravity do its work. The ice instantly shattered upon impact, crumbling before my boulder as it crushed the trapped skeleton inside. The boulder itself crumbled once it reached the ground, creating a field of dishevelled dirt and rocks.
The monsters that were close by were blown away upon impact, many getting sent back into the abyss by the shockwave. Yet they all came crawling back out but a moment later.
"1 down." I couldn't tell how many there were in total, but that just meant there was a lot more fun to have.
'I don't seem to run out of mana either. I suppose this being an imaginary dreamscape means I'm not expending any actual mana.' There were no restrictions on my body, and at no point did I feel like I was losing any of my strength.
"Heh, let's see how far I can go then." Smuggness was plastered all over my face as I looked down at the monsters trying their best to reach me. They all appeared rather weak, and I was quite confident after taking out the skeleton knight that easily.
However, my thoughts were proven wrong a few moments later. From underneath all the rubble, the skeleton knight emerged, with only a few visible scuff marks on its armour.
"Tch, my earth magic must be too weak to actually do any damage." It was disappointing to see, but it was my first time, so it wasn't too much of a surprise. I hadn't fully grasped the use of the element, which prevented it from dealing any substantial damage aside from hitting like a rock.
*ROARRR!!!*
The skeleton knight somehow let out a beastly howl, showcasing its anger. Meanwhile, the monsters that were currently below me started to mutate. Adapting to the situation, the monster grew black-tarred wings, allowing them to fly.
'I need to stop thinking and just fight.' Pushing any unnecessary thoughts away, I let myself dive straight into the ground towards the monsters. I used my wind to propel myself even faster, and as I did so I took a note out of Elysia's book, conjuring up a second fiery sword.
I charged it with as much mana as I could, intending to turn every slash I made into an explosion. To enhance its effect, I tried mixing it with my stardust to see what kind of reaction it would cause.
'Since there is no system, I'll call it Starfire!' I named it suspiciously similar to something I knew from my old world, not having the time to worry about any potential issues with the name.
As soon as my stardust became one with the fire, the stray flames that flickered in the air became much larger, and just like my galaxy ice, it looked like space was enveloped within the flames.
The first monster to get in my path was the one that had an extremely skinny body that I will now respectfully call Twig.
Twig opened its mouth wider than its entire body length, revealing a hole leading directly to the abyss.
"Eat this!" I shouted, swinging my Starfire blade down the middle of Twig's mouth. Once I finished my swing, there was a slight crackle, as if firecrackers were going off, before there was absolute silence.
The silence would only last a split second as suddenly everything flashed black and white before a massive fire arch appeared. Twig was incinerated alongside everything below it in an instant, including the ground, which had been visibly split.
"Oops, good thing this isn't the real world."
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