Vell collapsed again the smooth floor, letting the mental avatar fall away as the mana skin shattered. He rolled to his side and coughed out the blood in his lungs.

"Damn b-bastard. Fuck, I almost blacked out," he groaned. His gaze wondered upward, watching the relic's mana strangle the kid's avatar. "Ten thousand wasn't enough for you. I should have charged more."

He raised his free arm and closed his eyes, trying to will the damage done to his avatar's body away. Psionic energy, mental mana, whatever one chose to call it, it answered his call stemming from his mind. What should have been as easy as breathing to him felt impossible. The strands of mental mana sprouted from his arm only for the golden thread around his arm to pulse.

His mana strands snapped, and retreated with a hiss that brought along backlash in the form of a thundering blow to the front of his brain.

"Aaagh! God's damn it!"

Vell coughed more blood, watching it touch the crystal floor before being sucked away, leaving it spotless. The thread around his arm lit up before sputtering out, and dropping limp. The damn thing was still latched on, but it's presence was diminished.

It wasn't supposed to be like this. The mysterious thread that stopped even his skill, the relic, the kid's impossible resistance, everything. When he received the tier four relic, it had all but guaranteed him an easy job. Even holding the thing would have been impossible with how much mana it was outputting, not without the veil pendant around his neck.

He didn't lie when he told the kid what the relic did. In fact, lying would have been counterproductive. From the moment the idiot approached the island of marble, Vell began the process of wearing down his defenses.

Twisted Focus needed an action to enforce the bespelling. He accomplished that through shrugging and smiling. Every time he repeated the actions, it reinforced the skill, wearing down his mental defences, allowing him to subtly crack open his victim's brain for the next part.

Vell glared at the frozen felkin.

Even having taken a boosting potion before the match, the damn felkin wouldn't give! And he nearly drained all of his mana trying to activate Labyrinth of Lost. The only reason it worked was thanks to the kid's composure finally cracking, yet even that was cutting it close.

He hacked more blood and groaned as he forced himself to stand up. He swayed, but the damn threads latched onto his arm kept him from tilting over. Vell growled and yanked himself upright, coming to a stop over the frozen form of Cyrus.

"I don't know who the girl is to you, kid. But by the gods you are the most mentally repressed person I've ever dealt with." He reached out and touched the black bindings invading his flesh. They had already dug through his avatar's skin and invaded his mind. "Let's get this over with. I can already tell you're going to be a big pain in the ass to crack. You and this damn defensive skill!"

Vell yanked his arm, eliciting a crackling burn to shoot through his false muscles. He gnashed his teeth, desperately wanting to chew his way through, but he controlled himself.

Mind Scavenger wasn't supposed to pull him in this deep, not to some nowhere void. The relic changed that, temporarily granting him the powers of a demigod, forcing them into avatar bodies, the only damn problem was this crystal floor was a shell. Even a tier four relic couldn't penetrate it so easily.

"Which is insane. Maybe a tier three can resist it, but a tier one? You're a freak or a monster, maybe both, kid."

Cyrus didn't respond. His eyes had turned black and he screamed without sound. At least the relic worked in the end. Vell rolled his shoulder and flinched as his face jolted in agony. He shook his head. He felt bad for the kid initially, but sympathy went down the drain after having his face rearranged.

Avatar or not, the pain felt real while he was trapped in here, and it was time to finish the job.

He extended his fingers and dug his claws into the threads around his head. The kid squirmed in his grasp but he asserted control over the skill, freezing him in place. First step down. Now for the next part.

Vell gritted his teeth and closed his eyes. Activating Mind Scavenger again, pulled his consciousness away from his body and down into the threads. He split, fracturing. It was too much, he retreated, and snapped back to his avatar.

He shook his head and licked his lips, tasting lemonade and sugar.

"Too many threads." He spat to the side, and wiped his mouth on his shirt. "Okay. Focus, on the five around his head. Ignore the rest. Let's go."

Mind Scavenger!

His brain split, but he slowed the process feeling the static buzz surround him. Carefully, slowly, he combined the ten threads into five, pairing them together and splitting his focus into the ones that sank into the kid's mind.

Sensations fell away. The golden thread around his arm buzzed but the void pulled him in and he merged with the skill. At once he formed a detached view, the relic's mana burning through the enchantment as it enhanced him. His new consciousness settled as a second avatar, one attached to the kid's mind that hovered behind his back, slightly above.

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I feel like a god. This much mana, I can shape it into anything I desire. If I had this control, I wouldn't need my other skills. This… This is…

His ghostly fingers tightened and he took in the endless expanse of a realm. The sky led to nowhere, only a gnawing abyss that tried to tear his attention away. He focused on the floor. The crystal-like shell glistened in an unseen light. Pure black, but glass that looked sharp enough to slice through flesh.

He extended a palm forward and willed mana before him. A drill formed, one used in medical procedures with a handle used to crank. It grew in size, and glowed in purple light. When it became as large as a house he felt the conjuration strain his mind, but the relic flared–runes flashing along the gilded tube.

The influx of mana reached his, and soothed out the strain, while throttling more into the mental creation. From house to twice its size till eventually it became a towering thing as large as the royal castle. Never before had he ever managed to create something so large, that solid. Riding the high of having such resources at his fingertips, he chopped downward with his palm and watched the metal instrument careen toward the floor.

Shattered glass sprayed the realm, but it wasn't enough. The kid's defenses were still holding! With a grunt, the drill began to spin, mental hands pushing the crank in a clockwise motion. No sound escaped, but the crystal floor shattered further with large gashes appearing around them. The largest gash reached their avatars, surrounding them in a web.

One, more… Push!

The drill spun but the ground exploded. Cyrus screamed in the pseudo-physical as titan threads made of gold sprouted from underneath the drill and wrapped around the creation. The low static turned into the roar of a waterfall, louder than a crowd of hungry watchers in the pit.

Vell's control wavered but the relic clicked, and the gilded tubed rotated. New runes formed and the metal extended like a spear, churning its own mental buzz that drowned out the other. Mana thrummed and the threads expanded, stretching until they engulfed the kid completely. As his body disappeared underneath the black threads, the drill construct flared as purple flames latched onto the golden thread.

For a moment, the two forces fought at a standstill.

Click.

The relic rotated and the fire solidified, infusing the golden threads, corrupting them. When it reached the abyss below the shattered crystal, the world gave way and the floor crumbled. Vell released his hold on the drill, and sank into the multicolored folds. The sea of thoughts and memories flashed by, scattered to the wind on a tide of black. His skill controlled the fall, guiding them as he kept his hold onto the kid's avatar.

A shiny bright star in the distance rapidly approached as they fell in its direction. Upon nearing, Vell paused, coming to a stop as a shadowy force appeared before the memory. A maw containing a set of teeth larger than his own roared in defiance. But the relic was beyond it, beyond the paltry defences of a tier one.

More threads shot out, entangling the entity, prying the jaw loose and exposing the chest wrapped in chains at the center. He reached out, grabbing hold with a thread and prying at the lock.

The first chain snapped, followed by another. Around him, the shadowy maw squirmed, even with the relic bolstering his power it fought back.

What in the gods is in this kid?!

Link by link, lock by lock, when the final chain fell free, he shot forward and grabbed the top lid of the chest. He shoved his fingers through the metal surface and pulled, earning a scream in his ear and the world tilted and started to spin.

Before the chest sucked him into the memory, he caught sight of another pair of eyes. One's burning with malevolent pink and red. It stared from the abyss, out of reach hiding a shadowed face no larger than his own. Except, before he was transported into the memory, he saw it–a split second before he entered the mindscape.

A grin?

Slam!

Vell twisted as he found himself floating above a fast moving mount. The contraption was made of metal and shown with bright light mana at its front. He hefted the avatar of the kid in his hands, pulling him up as they watched from above. They were moving fast, traversing over the strangest road he had ever seen. It was dark, and grey made of a material he didn't recognize.

Then he noticed a thick thread, almost chain-like in appearance stretching from the kid to inside the mount. He neared a window and saw… Humans?

Two adults, one male, one female sat in front as the man piloted the mount. They looked happy, smiling as they sang a song in a language he didn't recognize. The chain led to the human behind them in the rear seat.

A human kid? Dark hair, no horns no tail. Is this supposed to be Cyrus? Forget aliases and disguises. An illusion is one thing, but Vell knew what he saw. Mordred, the beastkin was actually a felkin. White haired, crystal horns and tail. A young felkin probably no older than twenty-two if even that. There was no hiding his true self inside the mindscape of his skill. He knew what he saw and it didn't align with reality.

The hair color could be explained through evolution, but not having a completely different race.

Yet the chain led to the kid staring at what had to be his parents. There was no mistaking it, even now thoughts from the memory flowed through the chain and into Cyrus. Through the avatar his skill picked the information and transferred it to him.

He shook himself out of the stupor and pushed closer, forcing the ki-Cyrus toward the child. As his face touched the glass, Cyrus jerked, in his grip and the memory turned black. A suctioning force tried to pull them out of the memory.

The bastard was still managing to fight through the relic's control!

He reinserted the thread's stability and the relic rotated a few times before it locked the avatar down, once again petrifying it in place.

Shaking his head, he tasted the fear and fury running through Cyrus. Whatever this memory was, he was going through great lengths to resist reliving it. All the more reason for him to force it to play out.

Pressing them closer, he forced their way into the seat. Using the relic's mana he pushed the avatar into the child, melding them with only a brief second of resistance. The two melded into one, and Vell shifted his position, now hovering over the child as he began to sing along in the strange language.

They beckoned the child to join them, the two sharing their joy. Beneath him, the child started to struggle as the avatar fought the meld. Fear overrode the happiness and embarrassment.

Any second now…

This continued for a minute straight, as they continued zipping along in the strange mount. Near the end of the song, the fear and fury ratcheded up, spiking in intensity so bad that he could almost taste it. Then it happened.

The father looked away, a single second. He met the mother's eyes and belted out a long note, unaware of the incoming mount from the opposite side of the road. But the kid saw. He screamed their name but it was too late, the other mount swerved, charging across the solid yellow line.

Cyrus, the kid, shot forward and the mother turned away. Her head whipped and a sharp crack could be barely heard over the noise of twisting metal. The father yelled something inaudible as the mount flipped to the side and twirled in the air.

Off the road, and over the metal fencing. The mount landed once on its wheels before flipping upside down, and down the hill.

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