"It has definitely been longer than ten minutes," Dmitry nodded. "But I'd rather they remained upstairs, anyway. I mean, look at this mess."
Yeah, that wasn't why Konrad mentioned it, either.
"You sure there's only one of these Controllers left?" he asked. "What about the other mutants?"
'That's what they say,' the parallel brain claimed. 'A few Dwarves might have remained?'
Ugh. So he wasn't sure.
But they definitely couldn't let these things roam free. Konrad had the brain to protect him, and the Captain had his dampener. But anyone else would have been an easy target.
And now, all the Stalkers were rushing towards the center.
"Think you can deal with a few more, then?" he asked as Dmitry counted his rounds.
"I have eight rounds left, and those Dwarf things took quite a lot," the Captain pondered.
But he didn't say no.
Sigh. Konrad kinda wished he did, though.
But that decided it.
"Lead the way," he said, whether to the parallel brain or to the floating torsos, he wasn't sure.
But he soon realized this place was huge.
They passed by so many chambers with disfigured corpses in them.
"To think this place existed for years," Dmitry scowled, his knuckles turning white on his gun.
"And I thought my world was all messed up," Konrad nodded. But if he wasn't sure until now, he wanted to return to Kasserlane at all costs. Be a duke that would make sure that—
No lunatics with money and power could create something like this ever again.
Which reminded him.
"Still nothing about how to get my magic back?" he urged the parallel brain, quiet along their walk. "That's the whole reason I come down here, so you'd better—"
'Analyzing the documents we found so far,' was his short answer. 'I'm busy now.'
Oh? Good for him.
"Make sure you defend me from the Controller, though," Konrad scoffed.
And he got no response.
All he could do was follow the crackling noises as the Poltergeists led them down the long corridor. It was eerie, dilapidated, with plenty of blood everywhere, and it never wanted to end.
They might have been walking for another five minutes when they reached a staircase.
Another code-locked door, left wide open, and an almost deafening silence.
"I'll take point," Konrad said against his better judgment, but he at least didn't have to worry about ammo. "Try not to shoot me in the back—or deafen me for good."
"No promises," Dmitry said, holding the Gepard ready to fire.
If only he could cast a barrier, or something—
But it almost seemed like they were the ones entering one.
Those fleshlights failed to penetrate the darkness at one point. And no, it wasn't a battery problem. It felt like they'd been walking into a thick fog, but it was all black.
Even the crackling noises stopped, although he could still feel the Poltergeists' presence.
Someone poked him in the back.
The Captain. His lips moved, but no words came out—or at the very least, none reached his ears. He tried answering, too, but the result was the same.
They were in an artificial vacuum of sound and light, but they could still breathe fine.
'Ah, this is quite relaxing,' the parallel brain noted, his voice almost deafening inside.
But what if something attacked them while they were in it?!
Or what if they walked right into a—
"Anomaly," Konrad shouted at the top of his lungs, but it only sounded like a whisper.
Either way, he stopped at the edge of the stairs, and looking down—
There was nothing.
Not even darkness. It was an absolute void, stuff he had only seen in Kasserlane so far.
Or, well, created by the most powerful beings there.
And he had a hunch that if he went anywhere near it, he'd be forever trapped inside.
Yeah. Without magic, he'd have no way out.
'So that's an anomaly, too?' the parallel brain asked. 'The Poltergeists say it teleported one of them away, and they still haven't found him. They blame it on the Controller, too.'
No, that had to be something else.
Either another anomaly from the zone, or something even more powerful had to do it.
In any case, he jumped right over, and finally, he was out of the artificial darkness.
He could imagine that the Controllers made it to hide the anomaly, but—
Speaking of whom, they found themselves face to face with it.
And this one indeed looked like a child, apart from the oversized head and thick neck.
His clothes were all covered in blood, though, and he didn't hesitate, either.
That palm reaching out, the intense stare, and—
Konrad felt the same sensation again, as if his soul had left his body.
Damn that brain. He didn't protect him at all.
But in all fairness, this strange state was not the worst he had ever experienced.
Sure, it was alien and painful, but his body was so weightless.
Or rather, it was missing.
It no longer weighed down his soul, and he could go anywhere he wanted—
Or wherever the Controller would let him go.
Time almost stopped, and he watched his own body from the outside.
It was still standing, holding his sword, and—
Raised it to strike Captain Dmitry behind him.
Shit. Well, she definitely wasn't fine with that, but being this far from himself—
Wait. He was only far from his body, but he was right next to this Controller-child.
There had to be something he could do. He had that parallel brain, after all.
Even without his own magic, if he could somehow touch that mutant—
But how would he do that without a body? Would it even do anything? The brain no longer talked to him, and his soul didn't have limbs, but—
He could move. He could float. He could pass through that monster.
Or try to take control over it himself.
Even if it was a long shot, it was still better than watching his own body slice his friend in half.
Dmitry didn't seem to realize the danger, either.
He focused on the Dwarves appearing in the corridor behind them, and the Poltergeists—
Oh. He could actually see them now.
Not as those limbless torsos, but their powerful souls flying around and trying to help them out.
Yeah. He had to do something, too, so ramming into that mutant it was.
And the moment his soul reached him—
'Got him,' the parallel brain yelled without a warning.
No, Konrad still wasn't back in his own body.
It had frozen in place—but it seemed like he controlled the Controller itself.
He felt the same pain as that thing did, had the same undeveloped body, and a whirlwind of memories. They swallowed him whole. Of how he was being born, put into painful machines—
They taught him uncomprehensible things, and then, he said it was enough.
He remembered rebelling.
Murdering those people, and realizing how great that felt.
To enslave others. To take revenge.
To kill for the sake of killing, projecting his own fears into others, and—
As the parallel brain took over it all—to finally let go and fade away.
Feel lighter again, make his peace with the world, but—
There was a slight issue with all this.
Konrad was still inside that mutant's body.