'I HAVE TO SAVE MY SISTER!' Hidelga ran off while forcing herself to walk straight after the mild fall.
Rushing away into the house where Peach is.
'I don't want to lose my family again,' she thought, leaving Leon and his shadow behind (Alas) without looking behind.
Leon uses his sacred weapon and fights altogether with Alas. He hits the puppet-like creature who is after Hidelga and allows her to pass through. It looks like a marathon athlete but its head and face are open, its flesh is revealing, and so is the skull. Its tongue was all protruding and being blown by the wind because it didn't have any intact mandible.
"I'll cover up! Wake up the threader," he commanded Alas, his right hand.
When Hidelga reaches the town, all the people are like mindless puppets roaming; compared to the one who is chasing them, they seem non-vicious. She reaches for Peach Panting and finds her alive; she eases in relief, however...
She was undoubtedly like the others. She shakes her and shouts, trying to wake her up.
Everything seems hopeless.
A crawler appears behind her. Its killing intent makes her paralyzed in fear.
She fell on the floor yet pulled Peach, trying to protect the mindless body.
The black flesh of the crawler secretes dark concentrated fluids, somehow like blood with a foul smell. It attacked her but the next thing she knew was a huge gray creature that appeared in front and is now protecting them.
It wrestles the crawler, who is double the size smaller than itself, and rips the dark flesh apart.
"Hidelga!" Peach called.
Hidelga embraced her tightly. "Peach," she said, while her tears were rolling continuously.
She keeps on repeating her name. More and more crawlers and puppet-like creatures appear and fight the gray creature. It wants to overpower it.
"The intrusive thoughts are getting out of control," Peach said.
"Hidelga was surprised; Peach was not scared or confused; unlike her, she appeared more aware of what was happening around them right now.
The young lady maturely wipes her tears and calms her down. Then she called "Ego," and the gray creature responded to her words. It listened to her like she was its master. It grew itself and doubled its size so it would be able to protect them further. Then she pulled Hidelga and ran.
"What is happening?" Hidelga asked her.
"They are the intrusive thoughts. Intrusive thoughts are present in the mind, Hidelga, but they are more triggered inside the mind of people who are stressed and living in depression, anxiety, fear, and trauma," she explained.
"What? What mind? Whose mind?" she asked.
"My mind," she said.
Hidelga pulled her hand and stopped.
"Are you out of your mind!?" Peach scolded
"YES!! I DON'T HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT ON EARTH IS HAPPENING!! I AM SO SCARED!" her knees trembling as she sat on the ground.
"THIS IS INSANE!!" She exclaimed.
Everything was silent until Peach answered.
"Indeed, it is. It was always insane. I always thought it was," she stated.
"I am not Peach, Hidelga. Peach is the name of this girl you are seeing right now and she is my older sister. She is very reliable," she said, being sentimental like she was pulling the emotion out of some memories. "My true name is Maraya," she added. "And I am the eternal threader of this insane mind weapon.".
"This is not my real body right now. I was trying my hardest to protect you. You better get out of here. I'll let you out." Something hit Peach's shoulder.
The blood splatters on the ground.
"Indeed, it also attacks me, their threader," she muttered.
Hidelga took her and cradled her injured body in her arms.
Don't worry about me; this is not my real body. This is the most conscious part of me for now; as I say, you have to get out."
"Are you out of your mind?"! She abruptly scolded. "As long as you are in that body and you are Peach. I'll take care of you, sis, Show me your real identity after," she cried.
"What for?? Leave! You don't need to see my real self," she said. "I am a big mess," she explained.
"I'll meet you whoever you are; I won't leave until I see and understand what on earth is going on in this hell," Hidelga said stubbornly.
Intrusive thoughts originally were not harmful to humans. Everyone has it inside their head. It merely and naturally exists but is sometimes harmful when its owner is psychologically unwell. It may cause someone to overthink and lead to unpredictable behavior and actions.
Meanwhile, Alas, use the Macromonia and look for a way to enter.
The rule is simple: When you find the threader, you trigger or disrupt the weapon's flow of power. It means that you have found the real person inside her subconscious mind. It means you find the source of power but this time it's different; the body is here but the mind is not.
He keeps on staring at the body amid those bones.
'Where is your core?' Alas, thought. He was surprised when what he just thought in his mind echoed around the place. Later on, in the blink of an eye, the place distorted into another space. Then he found himself inside another's mind.
A great white fog came towards him like clouds on the ground and devoured him whole.
When the clouds lessen, it reveal a surreal place. He saw a wide, dark grassland. The wind is blowing strong; it is damp and cold. There is no sun, though it is a very gloomy day with no blue sky; it is dark gray with pitch-black clouds and limited light and there are shady parts and a pale, unreal color of grass. It's like a dream.
There he saw a young lady standing from a distance.
'You' He called.
The two mind threaders met in the mind realm; however, she was busy talking with someone else.
"I wanted to calm her down," she said.
"Don't use your weapon on me; I am trying to reach her. I'm trying to protect her and also you," she said, talking to him this time.
"There is no need to be confused at all," she uttered randomly. "Those people whom you interact with are all real because they all existed once before but are now just buried within my memories and with me within these walls (the bones she was buried with)," she said, explaining; however, Alas doubts that it is an explanation for him but for someone else, for the one, she says she wants to reach.
A drop of blood dripped from her arm.
"If you use your weapon of nightmare. Do you think you can make me stop? I heard that your weapon can leave you calm and peaceful after. I'd love to feel that; however, will I enjoy that feeling after a breakdown? I am afraid of my breakdown," she uttered talking to Alas.
"It will be a great nuisance," she said.
Alas was not able to see the young lady's face because she was talking facing the far fields.
"Can you handle my breakdown?" she asked, turning around to face him, crying.
The place changed instantly with the record of the town and its people like a hologram.
"They are my family and friends... I loved them so much... but I killed all of them," she said. "I only ended up hurting the people I loved. I should be alone all my life. So that I won't hurt anyone anymore," she said.
'How long have you been here?' he asked.
'Ever since when the bond between heaven and humans was broken,' she said.
"Take Hidelga away," she cried, pleading.
The eternal threader was traumatized, anxious, and at the same time depressed. That's why the intrusive thoughts were all running wild but the real problem was that they manifested outside and hurt the people around her out of her fear. "Not being able to control them, I ended up being overpowered by them," she said. So she secluded herself to save more people by burying herself and then creating a place that only contained her happy memories.
"I will never die; however, I buried myself and made my tomb," she said and the image turned back to the place where they are right now, at her tomb, however, concealed and peaceful.
'I never knew that eternal threaders could be in such a pitiful situation,' he said.
'What is power, human? She chuckled, asking him. "I spoke like I am not one. I am no longer one, am I?" she asked.
"Tsk," was his reaction. "Power is something I used to be useful, he said. 'So I can live and survive,' he continued.
'And you are human,' he said, answering her last question.
She smiled and the place disappeared. Everything turned pitch-black and then he returned to the battle, seeing his master, the emperor.
Meanwhile, Ego came and took Hidelga away and that is according to Peach's command. The crawlers reached peach and she was ripped flesh by flesh.
"NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOO!" Hidelga whined from the depths of her lungs, struggling to release herself from the gray creature.
"Did you wake her?" Leon asked.
"I..." the shadow was not able to answer immediately when suddenly.
Leon saw the arrival of an unknown creature.
They were about to attack when they saw Hidelga being carried.
________________________________________________________
Sometime before, Peach asked Hidelga.
"Hidelga, what is power?" Peach asked.
"Power?" she hummed thinking. "Power is like a child," she said.
"Huh?" Peach was surprised by her answer.
"Like a blessing, it comes from above; it can make you joyful and proud; you nurture it and then learn from it. It doesn't have any entity like a child. Yes, but it can be unique and neutral and it can grow to be evil or good; and lastly, a child has a purpose. A reason why we are all existing so as power," she said.
Peach raised her eyebrow. "I hate your metaphor and you are not very eloquent as usual," she said.
Hidelga gave her a silly smile and said, "Eternal power is not for us humans because with the authoritative power we have we often get irresponsible; how much more to something more destructive? But it was entrusted to us so it might have a reason, right? It has a purpose, I believe." She finished.
"Stop explaining; it sounds stupid," Peach said.
Her expression tells her to stop yet she is amused by her.