The man’s snap sounded like a thundercrack to Julia. The sound seemed to ripple through reality itself. She realized suddenly that she couldn’t hear her party anymore. Edphon’s yell, as well as the sounds of the party moving, had abruptly stopped. When she looked over, she found them frozen, as though time had stopped.

  Yet, she could still move just fine, so time was clearly moving normally. What was going on?

  “I only stopped their time, not ours or anyone else’s,” the man clarified, eyes locked on Julia. “I don’t typically like to use this power unless necessary, but I decided it would be good to demonstrate a fraction of the power I’m offering.”

  “Power you’re offering? What exactly do you mean by that?” Julia asked, stalling while she tried to think of a way out of this situation.

  “You see, I realized in my experiments at Rockyknoll that Abyssal exposure is damaging to both the mind and the body. You can’t simply expose someone to it and expect results. True, some will survive and become stronger for it, but the percentage is so low that it’s wasteful.

  “In my future experiments, I discovered a way around this, though. You see, if I provide exposure during a Class change, the Abyss can work its way into a person’s very being. It’s the most sure-fire way for successful, long-term integration. The System does alter one’s body on a micro level when initiating Class changes, after all.

  “This is what I’m offering you, Julia. This power that can freeze time itself comes from the Abyss, and I’m offering it to you with no side effects. You miraculously survived both my experiments in Rockyknoll. The first time, you survived the wolves I infected.

  “The second time, you survived the people I infected. Considering all that, and that this series of experiments led me to the correct integration method, I think you’re qualified to receive this blessing,” he concluded, a hint of madness beginning to creep into his voice.

  Julia took a good look at him. He had long, brown hair that was tied up into a long tail that went down to his shoulders. He wore thin-rimmed glasses with lenses of a clear crystal Julia hadn’t ever seen before. He was of average build and on the thinner side, but his bright, green eyes gave him an intensity that was difficult to describe.

  “Why would I voluntarily become corrupted by the Abyss? That shit corrodes the very fabric of reality! Do you realize the forces you’re playing with!?” Julia shouted.

  The man’s face became dark. “Do not lecture me, child. I’ve diligently studied this power for longer than you’ve been alive,” he growled, but his face abruptly lightened up. The sudden emotional swing was distressing for Julia.

  “Well, no matter. I was offering to be polite, but I wasn’t actually asking. Once you’ve been touched by it, you’ll understand what a gift it is,” he declared calmly as he began walking towards her.

  Julia’s heart began to beat faster—he was coming. He was going to infect her. Her mind flashed back to the townspeople of Rockyknoll and their crazed, suicidal behavior. Would she become like them? That wasn’t even really living, was it? She couldn’t become like them. NO! She had to get out of this somehow.

  She thought quickly; what could she do? The man was strutting toward her like he had all the time in the world. Maybe that was the key? He was confident—potentially over confident. Julia began hashing out a plan. She activated Telepathy, a Skill she had acquired long ago for more efficient communication between herself and Trixy.

  She transmitted the clearest images of her plan that she could to Trixy and began executing it. She started shaking, as though overwhelmed by fear. “Please, don’t do this. There’s so much I still want to do,” she pleaded.

  The man tsked as he approached. “Now now, you act like this will mean your death. This is not death, child. It is rebirth,” he said fanatically as he neared. Once he was in range, Julia stopped shaking and concentrated all the mana she could manage into her hand before thrusting it out in front of her. There was no time for Faraday’s Armor, nor was she confident he wouldn’t notice her cast and become wary.

  A bolt of lightning shot from her hand towards the man, but it curved around his body and struck behind him. Julia felt the bolt as it traveled. It wasn’t that the bolt missed the target, it was that the space around him curved. She was astounded. How much mana would it require to bend space itself around you like a shield!?

  “Well, that was a nice try. Understand, though, that what you perceive as overconfidence is earned confidence,” he gloated—now standing directly over her. The next part of her plan activated. Trixy, who appeared to still be around her neck, flew towards the man from his flank before turning into a streak of lightning.

  The man turned faster than Julia’s eyes could track and struck the lightning/Trixy as it neared. His hand passed through the air—there was no Trixy. She was still curled around Julia protectively, using her magic to create the illusion of herself. Julia drew her sword lightning-quick and stabbed at the now-distracted man. He turned faster than her perception once again and caught her blade just inches from his chest.

  “You really are something special,” he chuckled. “That was the closest I have been to death in…I cannot even remember how long—probably many years.” He pushed the blade away slowly, effortlessly overcoming Julia’s Strength.

  Thunk

  An arrow embedded itself in the man’s back. He hissed through his teeth and turned around to see the arrow better. It stuck out the middle of his lower back like a porcupine quill, but strangely, the area around the embedded arrow began to ice over, sealing the wound.

  “We’ve got to stop meeting like this, Julia,” Lothier said as he cleared the treeline. Julia almost wept at his approach. “Knew that scum-sucker Jerrick was up to no good. Been watching you for a few days now, Julia. I’ve been keeping an eye on him just in case. Didn’t expect this, though. Seems like I never expect the trouble you manage to get into,” he chuckled.

  Julia chuckled as well and—noticing that her party had unfrozen—shouted to Edphon, “Run! Now’s our chance!”

  “You think a single arrow is enough?” the man said dryly. His cold voice sent shivers down her spine. She watched in horror as tears in spacetime opened directly in the path of her fleeing party members. They couldn’t stop in time and stepped into them, one and all. The tears all closed with her party members only halfway through.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  “No!” Julia screamed. Eight pieces of her four teammates flopped to the ground, half where they had been fleeing, and half a jog away, where the spatial tears had connected. “What have you done!” she screamed. Rage began building in her chest.

  “Stop!” Lothier yelled just as Julia was about to lunge for the man. “Get back to the Guild! Let them know what happened! Getting word back is more important than revenge!”

  Julia reluctantly turned and sprinted towards the tree, realizing he was right. “You’re a pain,” she heard the man mutter. Getting a bad feeling in her gut, she turned back and saw a tear opening right next to the man. At the same time, he drew a dagger from inside his jacket and stabbed into the rift.

  “Echh,” Lothier gagged, a dagger sticking out of his throat. Julia watched in agony as the man pulled the dagger out of Lothier’s throat and back through the spatial tear. Lothier crumbled to the ground, limbs twitching as he made strangled noises. Blood pooled underneath him, dying the crass crimson. Julia stood frozen, unable to process the tragedies she had just witnessed.

  “Now that the chaff is cleared, let’s continue,” the man strode up to Julia, still frozen in shock. She noted that he was limping a little—likely a result of Lothier’s poisoned arrow still stuck in his back. She briefly wondered if there was a way to use that arrow to get herself out of this situation, but the man acted before she could.

  He raised his hand and pointed his palm at Julia. Trixy hissed and reared up on Julia’s neck, attempting to position herself between Julia and the man, as though she would intercept whatever he was about to do. The man didn’t even react to Trixy’s movement. He simply closed his eyes and pushed forward with his outstretched hand, as though to push the air towards Julia.

  She felt a sudden pop in her head, as though a pinprick hole had been poked into her brain. She began to feel a strange, flowing sensation through her body. She felt like sludge was being slowly poured into her—not into her body, specifically. It was more like it was being poured into her being—her very essence.

  Julia was horrified by both the notifications and the sludge dripping into her, contaminating her. Her thoughts were becoming cloudy, but for some reason, her attention was drawn to her bracelet. A thread attached to one of the items in her bracelet vibrated, as if being plucked. She followed the thread with her awareness to find the hair brush Braden had given her all those years ago glowing.

  He had always insisted she keep it with her. He said something about always having it to brush junk out of her hair, but the main reason she always carried it was that he somehow knew whenever she didn’t have it. It was now glowing, and it suddenly appeared in front of her. How did it just leave her bracelet on its own!?

  The brush began disintegrating. The wood and boar’s hair fell away, turning to dust. Julia saw that the glow from the brush was coming from a metal inside its handle. It was a dark red metal that, as its glow increased, was becoming whiter and shinier. Orichalcum, Julia suddenly realized. This brush had orichalcum in it!?

  She couldn’t think too much more about it, as the metal melted completely and splashed onto the ground in front of her. A figure began rising up from the metal puddle, as though surfacing from underwater—Braden, she realized.

  He looked just like she’d left him that morning, except for his eyes. They were violet like always, but the sclera was black as night and seemed to contain stars and…other colors. It was the kind of scene you might find in the sky on a clear night.

  He wore a frown, and his eyes creased with age she hadn’t seen on him before. He put his hand on top of her head, and the sludge that was dripping into her disappeared as though it had never existed. “What!? What did you…Watcher? Here!? Shit, I need to get word th—” the man started, but before he could finish, he…melted. She didn’t know how, but it was like his body turned into liquid and splashed to the ground.

  “Foul vermin, your puppet is gone,” Braden said in a voice she almost didn’t recognize. She could hear his normal voice in there, but there was a strange…buzzing. It was distorted. “To think, after all this time looking for you, you would present yourself like this. We could have ended things much sooner if you had been so willing to show your face,”

  As he spoke, Julia noted that the air above the melted man began to shimmer and distort. She watched in abject terror as things that hurt her mind to look at began appearing. Tentacles of wispy smoke that were somehow also fleshy and disgusting appeared in a writhing ring.

  Shells like a hermit crab’s appeared before turning to flesh and melting, or turning to smoke and dissipating. Some turned to grotesque eyes and grew, others popped like bubbles into smaller eyes and shells.

  Colors that she couldn’t comprehend appeared in the ring of writhing flesh and smoke. In the center of it all was a black void. Julia turned away from it immediately. It was like a whirlpool trying to suck her mind and essence in. It wanted her, but not just her. It wanted the whole world. All of reality. It wanted to consume. Julia didn’t know how she knew this, but certainty overcame her. This was a creature antithetical to this reality.

  “Begone, creature. You will find no sustenance here,” Braden said as he held his hand out towards it. A shockwave rippled through reality once again, but this time it knocked Julia flat on her back. She sat up on her elbows and watched as the space around her began to distort and change.

  She saw the glowing purple circle appear once again. Ravina appeared—many of her. One Ravina was throwing a sword toward the treeline, another was sprinting to it, and still another was jumping up higher than Julia even realized was possible. All seemed to be attempting to escape the glowing ring.

  She also saw her party murdered mercilessly over and over again. Many happened the same way she’d seen it the first time, being bisected by a closing spatial rift. Others died to daggers in their throats. All died, without fail, though.

  The clash of shockwaves increased in intensity. Julia was becoming woozy and nauseous just being near it. She looked toward Braden and realized with horror that he was disappearing. His legs were turning to smoke and wisping off into the air like the fading smoke of a doused campfire.

  The purple circle below her increased in intensity, and Braden turned toward her with a small smile. “Keep moving forward, Jules. Never stop walking,” he said as his body disappeared completely.

  “NO!” she screamed, but he was already gone. The mind-altering disturbance in reality also disappeared, like it and Braden had cancelled each other out. The clash of opposing realities began to dissipate as well, but the purple circle had reached its crescendo.

  Julia got up and began to sprint toward the treeline to escape, but it was already over. The circle glowed its brightest right as reality fixed itself, and it and Julia both disappeared.

  The last thing she felt before losing consciousness was splashing down and submerging into dirty, brown water.