Chapter 396 Dialogue (1/2)

I'm not sure what I expected, honestly. Here in the base of Garralosh's psyche, I kind of thought I'd be talking to a person. Instead, her mind is represented by an amorphous s.h.i.+fting ma.s.s that is at any one time part human, part crocodile, part Escher painting.

[I WILL KILL YOU.]

Good start!

[You do a lot of that. Killing I mean. Why do you have such a grudge against the people up here anyway?]

[THEY HURT ME.]

When she communicates, it's like a psychic scream that punches into my mind with brute force. Unpleasant, to say the least.

[How the h.e.l.l did a bunch of farmers and townsfolk hurt you? They could barely hurt me!]

[NOT THEM. OTHER'S. VENGEANCE.]

So…. To get back at the person who had chopped off her arm, she annihilated a kingdom full of innocent people. Yeesh.

[So, care to explain that dragging feeling I noticed in your memories?]

The second I mention it, her struggles double in intensity and my mind starts to ache under the strain of pinning her down.

[GET OUT OF MY HEAD!]

[No.]

Once again I'm able to master her, my will is superior. Neglecting her mental stats is proving to be a grievous error. I suspect the Karmodo has done a fair bit of mind magic on her and she doesn't even remember it. I can only imagine the Lizard Wizard would have magnitudes for control and finesse than I do. I barely know what I'm doing!

[THE PULL. I EVOLVED TOO MUCH. TOO FAST. I WAS CALLED TO THE CENTER. OTHERS LIKE ME. ALL DEEPER.]

Called? By the System? Or something else?

[You don't like remembering that you were human do you? Tried pretty d.a.m.n hard to suppress it. Must have been part of what kept you… sane-ish. Even a cruddy life as a human was better than being a monster in the Dungeon I suppose.]

[DON'T WANT TO REMEMBER.]

[Yeah, I know. I'm not minding it so much, you know. Then again, I've always sort of gone with the flow. The constant danger and the threat of death isn't great, don't get me wrong, but it's nice to feel like I have a purpose, you know?]

[NO.]

[Fair enough. So what was the plan in the end? You came to the surface, destroyed a kingdom, maybe two, and then what?]

[PULL THEM AWAY. BREAK THROUGH. KILL.]

[Always the killing with you. It's never, just 'kick back and relax' or 'vacation from murder', just kill, kill, kill. What about my colony then, huh? What about us? We never did squat to you!]

[KILLED MY CHILDREN.]

[They tried to kill me first, to be fair.]

[THEY ARE MINE. THEY ARE FOR ME.]

[In what sense? Wait, I'm not sure I want to know.]

I honestly thought the mind of Garralosh would be… more than this. She's super old! More than a century! Maybe even two! Where's the acc.u.mulated wisdom of the ages? I suppose, if you spend all your time sunk in a brutal, animalistic fog of fighting and eating, your mind doesn't exactly develop a great deal.

She's a ma.s.s of instincts and emotions. There isn't much left of the human inside. Just enough for me to taunt her with, basically.

As fun and interesting as the conversation is, and I do genuinely want to learn more about this once human turned murder lizard, it's mainly a distraction for the careful spell I've been weaving. Here in this place, time isn't pa.s.sing on the outside, at least, that's how I understand it. I've been in Garralosh's head for a minute or two but probably only a few seconds have pa.s.sed on the outside. My goal is to try and bind her mind from her body, to trap her awareness here in this mental s.p.a.ce, so that I can inflict lethal damage before she manages to free herself.

Not exactly a glorious victory, but I'll take what I can get!

So even as I communicate, the careful weave of my spell continues. A cage. A prison of mind magic that will bind this weak mind from its decidedly not weak body. Mind magic is so d.a.m.n useful, who'd have thought?!

[What happened to you, huh? You were a human being at one stage. I get you felt like embracing your new life here, I can relate to that, believe me, but ma.s.s destruction? Seems a little off the deep end, doesn't it?]

[NO ONE CAN STAND IN MY WAY!]

[Well… obviously, they can. It already happened.]