Before I went home I went into the dark side of the market and bought some... Questionable stuff. Octopuses, jars filled with animal and monster eyes, chains. and locks... And some metal scraps from cursed weapons and magic swords that had been used till they broke.
Once I got back home, I said my hello's and whatnot to the members of the Astraea Familia while taking a few weapons of theirs for me to fix. Then I went down into my workshop and got to work.
First, I used part of the Alf World Tree Branch, to make the elixirs along with some other stuff for the Loki Familia. Then with the rest of the World Tree Branch, I used a couple of elixirs and made Alfie's cure for her lung and heart magical cancer.
That all took me a good twenty minutes of ordering stuff around in my inventory and then fusing them into the weapons and such I was commissioned to work with.
However, I was rather intrigued on how Kaguya's sword had a number of War Shadow Claws used in its construction which allowed the Katana to cut through armor more easily. So I upgraded it and Alise's long sword with some Hard-Armored shells to help increase their durability and help the swords retain their sharpness.
'Ok... Now to make an anti-slavery weapon. Cursed tool or maybe even an elixer?' I mused as I looked at all the stuff I collected that should have to do with eldritch and methods of mental recovery as I also fused up some enhanced mental supplements.
Finally, with a shrug, I just focused as much as I could on the concept of 'Mental Recovery- The Recovery of Free Will' As I hit the mental switch for the fusion to begin with a mental hum ringing out as it began.
Within a couple of moments, I blinked as the light within my mind faded and the result was left behind. A motorcycle-like mask of twisted whale-like bone, scrimshawed with symbols that made my inner eyes bleed, and the plate where the eyes would be, had a large solid eye made out of flesh and blood that blinked as the pitch-black eye met my mental gaze.
[Depths of the Dark-Sea Mask-] [A mask brimming with the wisdom of the unknown depths of the mind, unbound by ethics, morals, and limits. Wearing this mask will have the user meet the true gaze of the mask on the inside. They will then have their consciousness swallowed by the mask into a world of illusions, and should they kill their current inner-selves they will have all mental conditions cleansed, and gain the skill Mage Sight inserted within their mind.]
And just below all that was my systems flavor text that simply read. [Don't think about the tentacles going into your nose, ears, and tear ducts when you wear this... Don't think of the mask licking your own eyes when you are in the illusion world.]
"Well, this mask can do it... The loss of free will is definitely a mental issue, but can the slaves defeat their inner selves is the real issue." I muttered to myself as I considered it.
And then there was the whole Mage Sight skill, someone would get for defeating their inner self. As I knew where it came from, it came from defeating your inner self and gaining 'Insight' into your self and that void of a weak inner self would be replaced with the skill.
I held the mask in my hands and I said bluntly. "Fuck it, let's ball." I pulled the mask over my head and shivered as I felt tendrils swirl around my head as the whalebone exterior of the mask cracked as it molded itself around my head tightly
My vision was consumed in utter darkness for a couple of moments and then came the sounds of the ocean. The sound of gently lapping waves hitting the beach and then a glugging noise rang out as it felt like my mind was pulled deep underwater with pressure building up around my head.
And then a light formed within the complete darkness and as I naturally drew nearer to the light my eyes went dull as the light looked back to me.
I made eye contact with that reflective pure black eye that glowed with an eldritch radiance and my consciousness broke.
I don't know how long it took but after a while, I blinked away the fog in my mind and I realized I was sitting on a nice office chair, and sitting across from me... Was myself sitting in his own office chair?
But he was different from me, my true self.
He held himself lazily in the chair, not without confidence but he simply radiated pure 'I don't give a fuck energy.' So sitting up in the chair, I asked curiously. "So what happens now? Do I have beat you to death with this table between us?"
As I couldn't feel my fusion cheat, I couldn't summon any of my weapons, armor or anything.
My 'inner self' snorted and retorted blandly. "No, though it is good that you are so willing to go straight to the heart of the matter."
There was a moment of silence before I took a breath and then asked bluntly. "Then what? What happens now?"
My opposite visibly took a breath before he raised up a hand and within that hand flashed into existence my Growth Spear, the spear I had made out of all the monsters in which I had slain enough for my missions to gain and enhance my growth.
I grimaced at the thought of fighting... Myself unarmed but he just twirled the spear around to point the monster leather and fur-covered haft of the spear towards me.
"Kill yourself." He said bluntly and I blinked while he chuckled and said. "You have the ability to remake reality around you and although you are fusing a good bit of stuff, you aren't fusing enough. You need to fuse mountains, entire forests, fuse entire cities of people into the greatest tool to be used by your will."
The clone of myself leaned forward towards me and said. "I am your lack of hesitation, I will break Hepheastus and fuse her into her forge to make weapons of divine power we can mass produce. I will break Freya and fuse her into Tina to make the most beautiful and powerful of warriors. So much you could do... But you refuse to do. So just kill yourself and become the subconscious of our shared body."
I held the spear for a long moment and then without hesitation a crunching noise rang out as my growth spear was pushed by the haft into the chest of my subconscious mind with tears of blood leaking from his... Our mouths as I felt a matching spear had impaled my chest at the same time.
"Most people... Would go for the embrace you know. Just accept the negative parts of their being with a hug and whatnot." My opposite chided with a bloody wet chuckle escaping both our mouths at the same time.
To which I puked my own blood and retorted. "That Naruto hug of friendship shit doesn't work in real life... I am a man, I beat my mental issues down, and then bury them in good food, and drown them in booze and pussy as I just deal with my shit."
My opposite just shook his head with a wry smile crossing his face and my vision went dark as my trial was over and as I came to, I felt the mask shifting on my head and I quickly took it off at feeling tendrils, tentacles and other things crossing through my hair, over my skin and other shit like tongues over my face.