The Fight with Madness Pt. 2

The inside of the Asylum was... a suitably epic locale for our final battle with Dreslith. We were standing on a dead planet. The ground cracking up and exploding around us as something... I don't know what it was... It looked like a giant mass of... Eldritch... stuff... slowly devoured the stars. Dreslith was standing facing away from us watching the creature. We knew it was Dreslith but it didn't look like him. Even facing away from us we could tell it looked like a human figure... A familiar human figure... It turned around showing me Vadim. It didn't speak. No monologue. No explanation of where we were or what was going on. It just stared at us. Harold raised his gun and instantly Dreslith's form shifted. It became a woman I didn't recognize. Harold did though and he dropped his gun. Faceless went forward to attack and Dreslith turned into a little boy. Faceless shook his head. "Already killed my son once. Won't stop me a second time." He drew his machete and charged and Dreslith shifted again becoming a woman. Faceless hesitated and the planet beneath his feet exploded he was thrown back and landed beside me. I broke out of my thoughts and charged. He turned back into Vadim. Vadim's dead I know that already I just quickened my pace. It switched to My mother and then my father. Didn't slow me at all. It switched to Megan and I let out a bitter laugh... But then it smiled...I hadn't seen her smile in such a long time... Not even just before Genome... Before all of this... It had been so long. I  stopped and fell to my knees. I felt a cold hand on my shoulder then I was tossed out of the way. Genome strode past me towards Dreslith. It switched to people from Megan's memories.

Genome: I don't know any of those people...

It switched to people I assume from Genome's past.

Genome: I don't remember anything from before I was a thoughtborn and I haven't met anyone I care about since.

Genome reached Dreslith and in desperation Dreslith made the planet explode beneath Genome like it had beneath Faceless. It didn't work. The shards of planet and molten lava from the core froze instantly into a block of ice and Genome just hopped up them to get higher and slammed her hand into Dreslith's face. There was a sound like glass breaking and the scenery around us shifted.

We were back on what I'm pretty sure was earth. It seemed like a vast wasteland. It didn't look like anywhere on earth normally but it still had The End in the sky and during The End's attack The entire world was a wasteland thanks to The Herald anyways. My attention was turned back to Dreslith when I heard Genome cry out in Megan's voice. I turned to see Dreslith holding her. Blood dripping down her body. For a second I feared the worst but I quickly remembered that Dreslith's hands drip blood and tears. Regardless I got to my feet and attacked. However, I stopped mid attack and began to think. "Why are we fighting Dreslith? Because Unikeia said too? Dreslith never harmed us until we went after him. He helped us save the universe during The Amalgam attack. Unikeia didn't help us at all. No... I'm not doing this for Unikeia! I'm doing this because Dreslith is a monster. He hurts innocent people. Like Gwen! What about The Fears though? What about The Fears?! You hated them for hurting innocent people... You tried to kill them all and now look. You were fighting alongside The Dying Man. All of your companions served them. The Fears weren't completely evil. Maybe The Ne Timu aren't either. Gwen- Seemed pretty happy when she died. Because she was deluded! So? They say Ignorance is bliss... Maybe the Ne Timu have a purpose... Maybe we aren't so bad." I did a double take and grinned. "You made a mistake. You said 'We'. You're in my thoughts, Dreslith? well here's a thought... Do you know why The Fears were better than you? They didn't make mistakes." I reset my attention Genome and rushed over. cracks began to appear in the earth but I avoided them and reached Dreslith. I knocked Genome from his hands then punched him in the... "face" again and followed up with numerous punches to every part of it's body I could find that was solid. It seemed mostly unphased but didn't try to defend itself so I assumed I was doing something to it. I heard my voice yelled and stopped diving out of the way as Harold fired a bullet into Dreslith's blood arm. Blood poured from the hole and he fell. Another bullet went into the tear arm and tears fell from his wounds like rain. What happened next was weird. He began to disappear and shrink. Like... Like he was draining out of the bullet wounds. The world around us seemed to freeze and as he disappeared he shattered and we were back in our hotel.We're staying here a few more nights to recover and then we're going after the next Ne Timu.

Battle with Madness.

Dreslith's grew tired of running.

We were still searching when suddenly the sky changed. The clouds changed to a sickly green and the sky was a mirror. All of us who had been there at the coming of The End winced at the memory and averted our eyes. In front of us now was a large imposing building. 20 foot high walls of stone, a solid, black, iron gate with a tormented face on it. Beyond the wall the structure was more like a castle than anything. Towers jutted up from it at odd angles, one had a clock face on it but no numbers... At least not numbers we'd recognize. One was open topped and showed to all the world a grim reminder of what awaited... For all that looking at it it was obvious what this building was and it's even more painful to realize how close it is to our own versions. It was an insane asylum. The old kind. Built more like prisons and run more like torture chambers then places of healing.

We approached and the front door opened. Gwen walked out.

Gwen: Why do you fight us? You've seen the truth. You were with us. Join us again. Become free with us.

Her gaze turned from me to the rest of the group

Gwen: This offer extends to all of you. You are trapped in a lie. We can free you. We can free everyone.

She pulled a stack of purple masks out of the air and one mask exactly like the one I had had.

Gwen: Put these on and you'll know the truth.

Me: We already know the truth, Gwen. You serve a monster. There is no truth just more lies crafted by a horrible creature. You've seen it. I know you have. Remember it. Tell me does that thing look like Truth to you?

Gwen seemed to hesitate momentarily then responded.

Gwen: The Truth may be ugly while a lie may be beautiful...

I sighed. I didn't want to have to kill her... I didn't really want to have to kill anyone anymore... The purple masks are too far gone but I knew she could still be reasoned with. It didn't seem like it was going to be easy though.

I tried to speak again but she spoke first cutting me off.

Gwen: Stop. No more words. I had hoped to help you return to enlightenment but I feel it will not happen. I shall show you the truth by freeing you. When I follow you into the real world then we can speak again and perhaps then, with nothing standing between us, we can be what we were for a short time... (I... I'll explain at... some point in time... Eventually... A beautiful lie...)

Me: I don't want to kill you Gwen.

Gwen: You won't be killing me.

At that she attacked. I should probably explain how she fights. I don't know exactly how it works in the real world but here in Dreslith's world it makes a bit more sense. Her arms act like blades. She attacks with essentially karate chops that can cut through flesh like a sword. It makes things a bit weird for me as I'm not sure whether to respect her for using her hands in combat or whether that counts as hiding behind a weapon.

She slashed at me and I jumped back. We fanned out around her and Harold fired at her from her right. Her right hand flashed up and deflected the bullets then she rushed at him and started attacking wildy. He proceeded to block with his guns and deliver a kick to her gut. She staggered back and Faceless launched forward slashing at her but she recovered and grabbed his wrist flipping him over her shoulder. Genome attacked then and the freezing touch of her attacks pushed Gwen onto the defensive as Harold began firing again. Gwen managed to dodge Genome's attacks and deflect the bullets but she couldn't attack back. Faceless recovered and released the birds. They swarmed her but she was still managing to fend off all of her attackers. Her movements were faster and far more powerful than they should of been. Undoubtedly a side effect of our battle ground. I dived into the fight and as she deflected one of Harold's bullets I slammed into her from the side knocking her over. She landed and rolled back to her feet but she only managed to rise in time to get a fist to the face. I didn't let up hitting her with everything I got... I didn't want to kill her but if I had to I wanted it to be over fast. All my hits were too the face... I like to think I wasn't attacking her I was attacking the mask. Eventually the mask shattered. There was a moment... Something I can't explain... What was revealed behind the mask wasn't a face... It was... The opposite of a face? I don't know... There was a burst of energy and her mask reappeared completely purple and she rushed at me again. I tried to b lock her but she ducked under my punch grabbed my arm at the elbow and pulled me forward as her knee connected with my gut. The rest of my friends and Genome rushed to help but the ground began to shake and shards of earth flung up on all sides of us. I fell to my knees and she kicked me in the face knocking me onto my back. She was on me before I could get up. Her hands splayed wide came down on my face and it felt like my head was in a press. The weight of her hand slowly crushing my skull. In desperation I reached up and grabbed her throat. I could feel blood trickling from my ears as I squeezed with all my strength. The crack echoed in my head for what felt like hours. I pushed her now limp and normal weight hand off of me and looked down at her body. Her mask fell off and disappeared. She was still alive... Or it was an echo or something. She smiled at me and though her lips didn't move I heard her voice.

Gwen: I'll wait for you in the real world...

She disappeared then... Like her body was just disintegrated.

It took me a few minutes to break free of the little cage she had created around us but once I was free we all headed inside.

I'll cut the post in half here.

The God.

Hey. It's Dr. Malice. I don't really have anything interesting but like Nathan's strange conversation with Jack I had an interesting conversation with Unikeia regarding The God figure.

I was sitting beside Portnoy in her throne room when she glanced over at us.

Unikeia: Hey, Doctor Malice... What do you know about God?

Me: Um? Depends whether you mean the religious depiction of God, The Archangel or The Good deity figure Jack told us about?

Unikeia:  Well the first and last are effectively the same thing while the middle one is a corruption of the first but, the last one.

Me: Only that according to Jack it doesn't do much. It's true form is unknown and it apparently fails at everything it tries.

Unikeia: Well Jack would say that. He wouldn't want you to have any hope. What if I said I know more?

Me: I'd be curous but a little disbelieving since I'm confused as to how you could know more than Jack about something like that.

Unikeia waved her hand dismissively.

Unikeia: Like your good friend Muffin once said. Everyone knows something and you can learn anything if you ask the right questions to the right people.

Me: I don't think he said that exac-

Unikeia: -I'm paraphrasing! The point is I know something about God. I was thinking if I told you do you think you could get Muffin to sweeten the deal a little?

Me: Depends what would you want?

Unikeia: Can I keep Portnoy?

Me: I'm not sure Nathan would agree to that...

Unikeia: Of course I could also just make you let me keep him. I'm actually not sure why I bother bartering at all. Maybe I just find it more fun.

Me: Um... Yes?

Unikeia: You're so cute when you're confused.

Me: Could you maybe explain?

Unikeia: No it's not important instead let's talk about God.

Me: Oh ok.

Unikeia: The God is both one being and many.

Me: Huh?

Unikeia: It is one being split. A piece in every universe.

Me: Oh...

Unikeia: The God feared Jack and his rage and so it hid itself. Erasing its own memory consciously. The pieces don't know what they are on a conscious level and have no access to their powers. The unconscious however remembers. The unconscious can access it's powers in subtle ways to change what it feels it needs to. It's every move acting as a subtle stab to Jack's side.

Me: Interesting.

Unikeia: One being. The same being spread through every universe possibly with small changes. With powers it can't access except unconsciously or possibly with some form of catalyst that would allow it to remain hidden regardless. Maybe something else that exists in multiple universes at once...

Me: Are you trying to tell me something?

Unikeia smiled.

Unikeia: I took a chance and I'm fairly sure I made the right one.

Me: Er... What does that-

Unikeia: Maybe some day you'll figure it out.

I was ushered out of the throne room at this point so I went to patrol the grounds. I'm sure she was trying to tell me something but I'm not sure exactly what.

I feel like she's laughing at me...

Still searching and a small conversation

So this place has now been pretty much entirely taken ove by The Truthseekers but still no sign of Dreslith or Gwen. We've had a few skirmishes with them but we've come out of it pretty well so far. Yesterday night though I had an interesting visitor. I woke up to having a cigar shoved into my mouth and lit. I spit it out and heard a familiar voice.

"Well that was a waste... teach me to try and show generosity..."

A red hand flashed into view and it's fingers snapped and the room was lit up. Jack was sitting on the side of the bed casually drinking from his flask.

Me: What the hell are you doing hee Jack?

Jack: Nothing much. Just got bored and came to talk. Let's have a philosophical discussion.

Me: I'm sorry I'm not exactly in the mood for a headache right now.

Jack: Well too bad it wasn't a request. You ever heard it said "All The Myths Are True"?

Me: I'm not getting into this with you Jack...

Jack: What if it were true? Well it can't be true you say. Many myths contradict others. For instance how can all the different creation myths possibly be true?

Me: Not listening...

Jack: Now that's an easy question. By happening retroactively they can all be true. One creation myth occurs. This in turn creates another which retroactvely becomes the creation myth and creates others which all become "The" creation myth. All occurred. All are true. All influence the world together. The world is simultaneously carried on the back of a giant turtle and is also the mutilated body of a dead god.

Me: Are you still talking?

Jack: So take my own creation myth. According to me I created all The Fears but, there are other myths about the origin of The Fears. One could say they're just all wrong and mine is right but that's not how it goes. They are all true they just didn't actually happen at the same time or in the same sequence. Except they did from the point of view of everyone involved.

Me: I'm going back to sleep.

Jack: Now of course as I said one had to of kicked off the others. So which was it? Well as much as I'd love to say it was me I couldn't do so honestly. See due to the retroactive nature I automatically was first from my point of view but so were all te others. No one involved is aware of their retroactive state.

Me: Wait! Unikeia knew all about the retroactive nature of The Ne Timu! You're lying!

Jack: Ha! I knew you were listening! The Ne Timu know about their own situation because they read your blog where in I explained it.

Me: ... Oh. Well as long as you know I'm listening what the hell does this have to do with me?

Jack: Nothing at all. Like I said I just felt like talking and frankly I like you muffy. Yo're fun to converse with.

Me: I'm so glad the god of Evil likes me...

Jack: Oh that reminds me... I should do something about Harold and Faceless... I don't like being deceived.

Me: Hey wait no!

Jack: Oh? You don't think I should kill them both?

Me: No!We need them!

Jack: True... The game is more fun with them involved... Ok I'll spare them... On one condition.

Me: What?

Jack suddenly turned to face me his eyes sparkling with well concealed anger.

Jack: Play the game, Nathan. Give up on whatever pointless and inane plan you've concocted against me.

With that he disappeared. The only proof of the conversation being the smoldering cigar on the floor.  

Crystal Falls

Hey guys. Dr. Malice again.

So Unikeia led us forward once again after our short break. We eventually reached an open room. Mairun was there. He was dangling from the "ceiling" of the room by his arm which disappeared into the glass ceiling. I remembered our one other interaction with Mairun. A giant hand of sapphire closing over a hole in reality called The Envoy of The End. I figured I knew what lay above. That massive arm reaching out of this domain to interact with our world. The part we faced though was a bit of a shock. He looked like a statue of a scrawny emaciated human but made out of Ruby, or some other valuable red colored Jewel. I'm not a geologist. He looked at us and despite being made of a single crystalline material emotion was somehow registerable on his face. His face was a mixture of amusement and pain.

Mairun: Ah, Unikeia. Once queen of command and leader of our ranks. We worked so well together once why do you betray us now that we have finally regained what was taken from us?"

Unikeia: To become Unikeia I made a deal with Jack as you did but while I know yours you don't know mine. I wished that all of creation would bow down to me and joyfully cater to my every whim. The problem with that wish is it doesn't include the rest of you. I will not have my subjects bowing before the Ne Timu when they could be bowing to me alone!

Mairun: You selfish bitch.

Unikeia began to respond but I cry of rage interrupted what she was about to say.

Portnoy launched himself at Mairun a sword somehow appearing in his hand. He stabbed at Mairun who's arm suddenly ripped out of the ceiling and as his body fell slammed down on Portnoy's head crushing him against the ground. Mairun then lifted his massive hand Portnoy's head clutched in his fist.His hand began to close crushing Portnoy's skull but then he stopped.

Mairun: You show care for your slaves now, Unikeia?

Unikeia: He is a necessary bargaining chip and I cannot allow you to kill him. Drop him and fight with me.

Mairun tossed Portnoy aside and advanced towards Unikeia.

Mairun: You will fight fairly? You will not force my actions?

Unikeia: With the ease with which I can destroy you I would have no reason.

Mairun: My body is invulnerable. For your betrayal you and all of yours will be crushed in my fist.

Mairun's arm began to grow massively as he swung it out to his side.

Mairun: We both know each others weaknesses and strengths and I know you can't beat me in a fairfight!

He swung his arm at her like a wrecking ball but she easily stopped it with her hand.

Unikeia: I know your weaknesses. You know mine. I know your strengths. You have no idea the extent of mine.

She then slipped the diamond knife from earlier out of her sleeve and slashed off Mairun's hand like it was paper. Mairun's arm snapped back to him and he cried out in pain. Unikeia was in front of him and slashed off the arm at the shoulder before pushing him onto his back.

Mairun: We loved each other once...

Unikeia: ... You loved me. I never cared about you.

She then plunged the knife into his forehead and he began to crack before crumbling into jewel shards.Unikeia then picked up Portnoy and brought him over to me before teleporting us both back to her base.

I got a new body and Portnoy is being taken care of. With Mairun dead the attack is fading and it will probably end by tonight.

That's one more Ne Timu down.

Good luck with Dreslith guys.

Beneath The Surface.

Hello, still Dr. Malice here. Talking to you from Beneath the surface. Possibly under your feet right now.

Unikeia, Portnoy, 1 nameless female servant and two male servants named Tic and Tac, met me in one of the airport terminals and Unikeia created a portal to Mairun's domain. We were all sent through and then we were standing in darkness. The nameless , who I'm going to call Toe cause there's no reason to ruin a perfectly good naming theme, pulled out a high power flashlight and turned it on. Beneath the Surface, or BtS, looks like you are deep underground with a ground of seabed under your feet. Above your head however... Is a ceiling of glass that shows the world above. Regardless of any light that may be on the surface it doesn't show through. I reached up out of curiousity to see if I could touch the ceiling and what would happen. This action was met with a slap of the hand from Unikeia, who had apparently followed us down.

Unikeia: Please try not to destroy the fabric of reality.

Me: Sorry...

We began to move with Unikeia and Toe leading the way. The first obstacle we ran into was a group of servants. They were wielding maces and wearing leather armor. They looked like olden day warriors. Unikeia called them Berserkers we made pretty short work of them. Unikeia informed us it was likely Mairun was expecting this and brought some of his berserkers to BtS to protect him. We'd brought some guns just in case though not many. Just some pistols and an extra clip or two.Probably about... Two pistols each average excluding Unikeia, 6 bullets each pistol, 1 extra 6 bullet clip each on average... That's roughly... Fuck it I don't care. It's a lot of bullets. We probably spent about 10 or so on those guys. I figured we were pretty well covered. Of course that was an average. Toe had brought only one pistol and emptied it entirely during that fight with no extra clips so I gave her one of mine leaving me with no extra clips and only 8 bullets left between my two guns. Portnoy had two guns and two extra clips and had only fired three bullets. Tic and Tac each had only one gun but with an extra clip. So there was a little bit less than I had averaged. As such we were down too only about 20 bullets between us by the time we got through the next two encounters. That is when we came upon the hallway of archers. We ended up wasting all of our remaining bullets on them, Tic got shot with an arrow. He wasn't dead but he couldn't move and I got killed and had to take Tac to keep going. Toe gave me the light and her and Tic were sent back by Unikeia. So it was just me in Tac's body, Portnoy and Unikeia who went the rest of the way. Luckily we had apparently neared the end of our journey.

We reached a man wielding two hatchets and painted blue with no clothing but a fur loincloth. It occurred to me to wonder where the hell these people were even getting these weapons and clothing. Unikeia later answered that Mairun supplies them but I think she was probably joking. Anyways normally I would have shot the bastard and been done with it but we were out of bullets. Unikeia said the only hand to hand weapon we currently had was a knife. I asked for it and so she gave me it. It was a knife entirely made of diamond. Pretty awesome... Unfortunately only about 6 inches long and thus not very effective against this guys dual hatchets. Well you only live once... Ha ha wrong but anyways. I fought the guy and he sorely kicked my ass. Cut me to fucking ribbons but I managed to stab him in the face with the knife before succumbing to blood loss. I'm still alive though. Get this Unikeia forced my loyalty and made my body heal my wounds. I'm not going to die but I'm missing an arm and my leg is mangled so I won't be any use against Mairun. Hopefully he's all that remains in the way. Oh yes we're now under the ocean. Not literally but you know what I mean. The ground walls have been replaced with solid walls of water. I've been told to try not to touch the walls as well as the ceiling now. I'm stopping this post here because we're going to get Mairun and Unikeia was only willing to give me a short rest to recover from the pain.

Next post. Kill Mairun or die trying... and probably doom us all forever.
.   

Loyalty and Victory.

Hey guys. It's Dr. Malice. Muffin and the others are still looking for Dreslith I imagine. However we're having some problems here.

I stayed with Unikeia to watch over Portnoy.

Once again I'm really sorry about what happened to Megan, Nathan. I tried to stop Genome but by the time I'd realized what he'd done it was too late. The only way I could stop him then was to kill both of them and I couldn't.

Anyways as I said we have some problems here. A Ne Timu has shown up here. Unikeia says his name is Mairun which from what Jack said makes him the one that stopped The Envoy. He's staying away for now. Unikeia says it's because he knows if he gets too close she can command his loyalty. So, instead he seems to have somehow turned all the servants in the area into some sort of fervor. They've entered some sort of medieval style berserker blood rage. They've been attacking the airport. Unikeia's servants, Portnoy and myself have been holding them off pretty easily. Mostly because we're using guns and they're using, at the most high tech, crossbows. Still their numbers seem unending and we're running out of bullets. Unikeia said that Mairun exists beneath the surface. If we want to reach his body and not just his massive fucking hand we need to go beneath the surface as well. When I asked what she meant she explained Beneath the Surface is essentially a fear domain... Or I suppose Ne Timue domain. It sits in a metaphorical sense just beneath every surface on the planet and all that comes through (above the surface) is his arm. Digging down where the arm is would reveal nothing but Unikeia says she can transfer me and Portnoy along with some others of her servants Beneath the Surface to confront him.

I'm posting this because if we fail you need to know how to kill him.

Good luck with Dreslith.

Dr. Malice going beneath.