Luke sat there, drowning in his thoughts, the same words repeated in his head over and over, without any conclusion, yet that was still all he could think about. He had effectively stopped functioning, even though there was so much he should have been doing right now.
A sudden cry of terror shook him awake. It should have been more than obvious what was happening outside, yet his mind was too slow to catch up and he only realized what had happened once he had opened the parlor door and seen it for himself.
The knights were all slain. Some of the people present there had tried to stop the terrorists, but as was expected, most of them had been easily killed. Countless bodies lay scattered at the base of the building, Luke realized that they would soon start searching the building, he had to do something now. But just before he could leave, a familiar figure appeared at the corner of his vision. The ominous feeling crawling up his spine, had told him that it would be better if he did not look but his curiosity almost forcefully turned his head around and made him witness something terrible. The innkeeper lay motionless among the countless bodies that tiled the base of the town hall. He must have tried to stop the terrorists from their advances and fought bravely.
He could not stay there any longer, he had to get to the boy, to help him out before the terrorists could reach him, however he also had to inform him about his father's death. Luke cursed his eyes for witnessing that scene, he had no choice now, he had to become the bearer of bad news.
Descending the continually darkening stairs left Luke with a feeling of apprehension. He could never get used to the unease he felt here. His senses had become sharp and he felt like he could catch every sound and object that came into the field of his senses. So when he caught glimpse of a man standing at the base of the stairs, he put his guard up. He slowly pulled out one of his spear point daggers from underneath his overcoat. The man had not seemed to notice Luke. It could have been one of the terrorists since they were almost done clearing out the knights, it made sense that they would try to enter the building. He tried to ascertain what the man was doing but could not come up with anything, the man just stood there like a prop staring at… a door? He had become so taken up by the man that he had not noticed the door till now.
Finally, getting close enough, he put the dagger in front of the mystery man's neck, "Who are you? Name yourself."
The man was shaken but replied in a refined voice, after some initial confusion, "Gladius Freesias, I am the mayor of Mauvine."
Luke had completely forgotten about the possibility of the mayor being there. He quickly sheathed his knife and put it away, "Ahh, so you are the mayor, I apologize for that. I mistook you for one of those terrorists."
Gladius turned around to look at Luke, "Who are you though and how did you get here?"
Luke thought about how he should reply, "I am Luke Aleister. A traveller. As for how I got here, I used one of those portals that these town has."
"There was a portal that connected to this building? I was unaware of that."
"Well, it's connected to the reception door, haven't you ever gone through it and found yourself somewhere else?"
"The portals are a one way paths, they take you to the place you wish to go to but they do not take you back."
Indeed the boy had said something like that too. Besides Luke himself had opened the door a little while ago to check up on everything and at that time, nothing had happened.
After a little hesitation, Gladius raised a question in a small voice, "What's the condition… outside?"
"I won't sugarcoat things. You need to know the truth… It's pretty bad, all the knights have been slain, many people are dead and the terrorists must be trying to find their way in here."
"Haaah.", Gladius gave a heavy sigh.
"That's right. Have you seen a boy come down here? He looks to be about seventeen."
"I must say I haven't."
Luke was confused. He was sure the boy had come down here.
Gladius looked like he had realized something, "I see, maybe the boy went through that door.", he pointed to the door he was staring at in the beginning.
Luke hurriedly tried to get to the door but Gladius blocked his path.
"Wait. I must ask you what purpose you have in coming here, before I let you proceed."
Luke stopped and thought about what Gladius had said, "Why am I doing this again? It's strange I cannot think of a good reason..."
Gladius did not seemed to be convinced and would not allow him to pass, so Luke decided to just tell him everything, "The boy I am looking for… his father was trapped in that barrier and I was trying to help him get out of there. But we had a falling out since I tried to push my beliefs onto him and then he rejected my help. Now… I am not even sure why I am doing this, or whether I should even do this... I am probably only trying to get to him due to my hero complex."
Gladius dropped his gaze as if reminiscing, "That is not a good habit, you would be better off changing that."
Luke looked surprised at those words but before he could say something to express that,Gladius raised his gaze again and placed his hand on Luke's head, "Listen son, you are still young, you know nothing of yourself or the world, so that self doubt is understandable. Indeed, there might be times when you have to look at things from other people's perspective, but that does not apply for when you are making your own decisions. It is okay for your opinion to be influenced by other people to some degree but you should never let external things dictate your point of view. You must always trust only yourself."
Luke contemplated the meaning of those words, but that was only because he could not easily accept them for what they were. He put other people's words before his own yet he could not manage to accept that he should trust himself even if it came from someone else, so minuscule was his trust in himself. In a twisted sense you could say he only trusted himself when it came to not trusting himself.
Gladius continued, "It's alright, take your time. No one can start trusting oneself in a day."
Having noticed Luke's silence, Gladius continues, "That's right. I have an idea as to where the boy might have gone off to. Yes I think he might be there, now then."
He placed a hand on the doorknob, but before he could twist it, Luke interjected, "Before that, what happened to the artifact that you had talked about? We should be able to fix everything with it."
Gladius turned his face to the door as he answered, "About that… I had actually entrusted it to a trusted third party. They should to be holding onto it right now. I am not sure as to the reason why it is not working though."
"Is it really not working? The portals are all working if I'm not wrong…"
"The portals are the result of old wishes. I know for a fact that the artifact is not working since no new wishes are being fulfilled."
Luke found that wording to be odd, "What do you mean by wishes? I thought the artifact was meant to implement a person's perception into reality."
"It does indeed do that, but that is but an effect of it's constitution. In reality it does two completely different things to rewrite reality, and those two combined create the effects you see. The first thing it does is that it blurs the line between a desire and a wish…"
Luke snapped his fingers as if he had pieced together a puzzle that had frustrated him until then, "Yes, that fits pretty well."
"As for the second one… Since you are an outsider, I imagine you have figured it out on your own?"
"Yes. But getting back to the main topic. Do you know where the third party you mentioned might be?"
"I do not know yet… but I have a way of finding them."
"I see."
"I will take care of that, you do not have to worry about it. Off you go then. You must be worried over your friend."
The word friend had caught Luke off-guard but he decided not to dwell on it now.
Gladius held the door open. Blinding bright light shone from the other side, or maybe it only appeared that way because he had spent too long in the dark. Whatever was on the other side, it did not look like the central plaza, it must have been a portal of some sort, "I wish you luck in your endeavors."
Luke gave the wizened mayor a light bow, "I'll be seeing you then."
After Luke had gone through the door, his eyes had adjusted to the light that had earlier seemed to be blindingly bright. Figures had started to form in front of his eyes, and before long he could understand the scenery he was staring at for so long, or so he had believed. But the scenery that lay before him, though he knew it, was unable to understand it. The door behind him was the door/window of the town hall which led to the reception area, and the sight before him was that of the central plaza but neither was the bloody landscape that should have adorned it anywhere to be scene, nor were there any people. It was completely empty.
Confused, Luke turned and entered the town hall. It felt the same, there was no sign of anyone. An off-putting feeling had started to eat him up, and wishing for it to settle as soon as possible, he had descended the steps in a hurry, while peering down into the darkness. He ran down the steps but they seemed to never end. Before long, his legs were tired and he had to use the railing as a support to descend further.
The thought had occurred to him a few times before, 'These stairs just don't seem to end', but at the time they had appeared to be just the grumblings of the weary, but now after exhausting his last bit of strength, Luke couldn't help but start to believe in them.
He was sure he had walked for far longer than the last time when he had descended the steps. They had actually started to seem endless. Confused and exhausted, Luke decided to seat himself onto one of the steps. Looking down, all he could see was pitch black darkness.
After another grueling ascent up the stairs, he was finally able to rest on one of the waiting seats, but before he could regain his strength, he had fallen asleep due to the fatigue.
After having woken up due to what seemed like the sound of knocking, Luke drowsily rose up from his seat, and carried himself to the door. Opening it, the blindingly bright sun's light violated his eyes, he could hardly keep his eyes open, he felt like he had slept for ages, yet the sun was just as bright as when he had fallen asleep. He somehow managed to squint and make out a figure, standing in the distance, they seemed to be wearing a black overcoat that hung down to their knees.
As Luke looked on absentmindedly, a sudden glimmer of white light flashed in front of him and before he knew it, a knife was staring at him, it had pierced the door he was holding onto and was stuck there, if the door had not been there, he would certainly have been dead. Snapping back to reality, Luke brandished his dual wielding knives, and readied himself.
Luke could hardly believe what he was seeing, there standing at the top of the stairs of the central plaza, where he had previously stood during the mayor's speech… no, he was still standing there! If we also used the analogy from before, then if Luke was a mirror, reflected would be he himself! Before Luke could understand the situation, another knife flew his way, but this time he was agile enough to deflect it with his own. Having done so, Luke jumped out of the reception door, whoever this was, it was clear that they were after his life.
As he was falling he thrust his knives into the wall behind him and slowed his descent, numerous knives came his way, but he managed to dodge all of them by twisting his body. After touching the ground, Luke sprinted to the person that had attacked him. The attacker did the same, and they clashed with their dual wielded knives. Luke caught a close glimpse of the attacker's face, and it was as if he was actually staring into a mirror. Except the face of his clone was twisted into a sneer.
Luke raised his knife towards the attacker, "Who are you?"
The clone gave a sardonic laugh after hearing those words, "What!? Isn't that sooo mind-numbingly obvious? You want to hear it from my mouth to affirm your beliefs? Is that it? Hahaha. Then I will keep repeating it until it gets into your thick head."
The attacker threw another knife, "The one who tries to stab you is you yourself."
Luke deflected the knife but by the time his focus returned to the enemy, he was already running away into the town. Luke followed him as more knives flew his way.
"The one who mocks and demeans you is you yourself."
Luke was successfully deflecting the knives that came his way, but those words went right through his parries and stabbed at his chest.
"The one who is trying to hurt you is you yourself."
The clone stopped on a small bridge that stood atop a stream of water and threw a flurry of knives at Luke. As Luke advanced, he nimbly dodged most of them while deflecting the ones he was not able to. Coming close enough Luke drew an arc with both knives, and they were received by the clone's knives which were crossed together to absorb the blow.
There was a sudden solemn expression on the clone's face, "The one standing before you… is you yourself."
But that expression disappeared as soon as it had appeared and his face distorted into another sneer, as his cackling laughter echoed through the streets.
The town was deathly silent except for their skirmish, there was not a soul to be seen. It was as if this entire town was comprised of he and himself.
Luke was able to break his stance when the clone jumped back, but there had not been any time to relax, for his jump was followed by two more blades rushing at Luke, which he, caught off guard by the clone's words, wasn't able to dodge perfectly, one of the knives had scraped his cheek and blood trickled down in small amounts.
Luke was simply confused by the situation. He was by no means an inexperienced fighter, he had trained himself in handling knives over the years. Daggers and knives were quick draw weapons, he could catch enemies off guard by hiding them under his overcoat, and he could use them for ranged attacks too. He would be able to handle them nimbly without needing to worry about physical strength. To him who wanted no part in fighting people, it was the ideal weapon to defend himself with.
The clone had thrown one of his daggers to the top of an adjacent building, and as it had pierced the walls of the building, he had been pulled up like it was some grappling hook. Luke aimed one of his own knives at the fleeing clone, but it had missed, and pierced another part of the building, and just like the clone, Luke had been pulled up by a chain attached to the knife.
Both of them made for the town hall, and on the way, the clone hurled knives and curses at Luke, "But whatever was that argument with that boy!? Your social expertise never ceases to surprise me. Hahahaha!"
Luke would throw knives at the clones face as an attempt to shut him up, but they would be deflected.
"You pushed your opinions onto him, talked big about how the romance of unknown things was a delusion, yet you were caught up in the same delusion yourself. Pathetic!"
Luke pounced on the clone with all his strength and they came crashing through a window of one of the houses.
"What? Can't you say anything to stop or deny me, all you do is throw knives and try to solve things by force. I have been talking to you this whole time, have you not been listening? Hahahaha!"
"Shut it, will you!?", Luke drew wide arcs with his knives as one of them threatened to slash the enemy's neck, and the other his belly. The knives slashed through uninterrupted, as if the enemy was not there, no, the enemy was actually not there. Looking up Luke saw him perched on one of the windows, the enemy unleashed another of his grappling knives and swung away, cackling. Luke pushed his way through the main door of the building and saw the clone ascending towards the offshoot at the top of the town hall.
Luke rushed to the central plaza and hooked himself onto the reception door, he got pulled to it and pushed himself inside with the momentum. He then ascended the steps, reaching the offshoot where Gladius had stood during his speech. However there was nobody in sight. Luke put up his guard, trying to ascertain his enemy's position.
As he was looking around, the roof of the offshoot crumbled and the clone came crashing into Luke with his knives out, Luke defended himself by crossing his knives, but he was pinned to the ground.
"You are always fidgeting, hesitating, dawdling and regretting. You cannot move forward. All you do is worry over whether you are wrong or not."
Luke grimaced at those words and tried to shake his attacker off, but the strength with which the clone was pushing him only seemed to increase.
"No I might be a little off the mark there, it's not that you are afraid of making the wrong decisions, you are afraid of people perceiving them as such. You are afraid that you will be rejected for your actions, so you decide not to act. Being rejected leaves you feeling like you have no place among them so you distance yourself, even though there are things you wish to do for them."
Luke shot back, "B-BUT IT'S NOT LIKE I CAN JUST GO HELP HIM, HE REJECTED MY HELP!"
"But being rejected does not mean you cannot make the decision to do something else for them. You are just running away from the pain by rejecting your own wishes. You want to physically run away but you endure and at the very least stand there so that you don't have to see yourself running away. But that does absolutely nothing to help the situation, standing around has never helped anyone."
Luke understood better than anyone else, that the boy's outburst was a momentary show of anger, but unable trust himself, he had believed the boy's words, and taken them at face value.
The clone had been criticizing Luke fairly for quite a while now, but seeing no substantial changes in him, he went back to berating him, "As if you can ever change, keep letting the world dictate every action you take, the occupation of a slave would fit you pretty well I think. AHAHAHAHA!"
Those words, filled with malice as they were, brought to mind the mayor's words from earlier. Indeed Luke had let other people's words dictate his actions, he had stopped helping the boy in such a dire situation, just because he had been rejected from what was a temporary burst of anger. He had let the situation escalate, and now the boy was missing and his father was dead. Luke could see the error in his ways.
"You are right.", Luke declared, his eyes closed.
"Huh?"
"Although you spew words adorned in malice, the things you have said are not wrong, I was indeed running away from trusting myself. I let external factors become my master. I stopped moving forward. Each and everything you said was correct."
Luke was finally able to push off his enemy, maybe because his words had caught the clone off guard. Indeed this was much more of a verbal fight, than it was a physical one.
"I might have been wrong when I had pushed my opinions onto the boy, but that does not mean I have lost my right to make the decision to go save him."
Luke delivered multiple slashes with his knives and the clone was all of a sudden on the defensive.
"I may make the wrong decisions, I may be rejected, I may want to run away, but I shall not let such external factors make my decisions for me. Be it a hero complex or a search for meaning by helping others, be it filthy or pure, I care not for I will help the boy because I have decided to do so. It matters not if my decisions are wrong, all that matters is that they were made by me. That's why…"
Luke threw two daggers at the enemy from underneath his overcoat which the enemy desperately tried to deflect. Since the two of them were so close together, throwing knives was a move that was almost akin to cheating, nevertheless the clone managed to deflect them but as he did, he noticed one of Luke's knives piercing his chest, his hand was outstretched as he pushed the knife into the clone's heart, "I will trust… and be true to myself!"
The clone's hands and feet started to fade out of existence, and the void consumed him from his extremities, then his lower half and torso, and then finally his face, the final expression on his face was one of peace… Luke had prevailed and truly made peace with himself, he had attained victory over himself, in the most literal of sense. The mayor's words now resonated with him on a deeper level.
Luke descended to the winding staircase, now with the knowledge of how to cross the infinite steps. The stairs that descended downwards forced him to look downwards, but he descended looking straight ahead, not letting the world control his perception, and before he knew it, a door stood there staring at him.
--- --- ---
As the boy opened the door, a brief glimpse of a cityscape had greeted him through the door, only to be replaced by a blindingly bright light. He had assumed that he was again at the reception door of the town hall, but once his eyes had adjusted to the brightness, the scenery that stood before him had looked entirely alien, yet somehow familiar too.
It indeed looked very similar to the central plaza, but forget the chaos that had ensued there, even the stairs that circled the town hall and the brick section of the town hall seemed to be gone. The town hall was now about the same height as other buildings. Looking behind as he held the door open, the boy discovered that the door was connected to the reception area, which was now at the base of the building.
Crowds of people walked about, children frolicked, wives bickered, it was the mundane day-to-day scene he was so used to, the boy found this peace to be terribly unsettling. All of this somehow felt manufactured.
In an attempt to settle that feeling of unease, he ran to the place that he found to be the most familiar, the place he could be the most comfortable in. He crossed that familiar bridge, strode across that elevated plot of land and there it was. To people that did not know him, it had probably appeared to be another hobbyist's inn, but to him it was the place where he could be himself. Curse it as he may, run away from it as he may, he could not separate himself from it, nor could it from him, it was his home.
However he could not yet be at ease. He walked up the steps that led to the front door and flung it open with full force, as if it did not matter if it broke. His father stood on the reception desk looked up from the book he was reading, "Ahh, you're already back. I'd thought you'd be spending your day playing at the park today."
The boy was hit with a wave of relief as he saw the mayor, sitting there safe and sound. All of the tension that had gripped his body was released at once, and with the adrenaline pumping through him gone, the fatigue that had built up from running around the whole day hit him all at once. He fell on his knees as he breathed a heavy sigh.
His father stood up from the reception seat and ran to him, "What happened!? Son?"
He could hardly hold himself together any longer and before he knew it, his vision dimmed and he fell into a deep slumber.
He woke up to the sound of children playing in the distance. Opening his eyes he found himself on a comfortable bed, "That's a familiar ceiling."
Looking around, he realized that he was in his room, with the feeling of disorientation gone, he got up and sat on the bed, looking out the window on the side of the bed, he saw children playing about on the road. Normally he would have yearned to be there right now, but somehow, he found his home to be particularly comfortable today.
He shifted his gaze to the door when he heard it opening. It was his father, he was carrying a bowl of soup, "Oh, finally up, are you? Here, have some of this, you'll feel refreshed."
He seated himself onto the bed and settled the bowl on the table beside it, "That's why I'm always telling you, when you're outside, think of your body a little. Your body can hardly take the amount of running and jumping you do."
The boy had a habit of pushing himself when playing outside, perhaps as a way of making up for the freedom that he lacked, so this was not the first time he had found himself on this bed without any memory of going to sleep on it.
"Aw shut It will you dad?", he put on a tough front but in actuality he was relieved to be able to talk to his father again. He picked up the bowl of soup and sipped on it, "Ahh, hot!"
"Hey! It's obviously hot, blow into it before you take a sip."
One could tell at a glance, how much of a typical family routine it was, yet all of it somehow felt valuable to the boy.
He picked up a jug of water placed on the table and began to chug himself full with water.
His father looked at him with a solemn expression, "You still want to travel the outside world, don't you?"
"I definitely do! It's no different from your strange hobby. When people can get what they want just by wishing for it, what's the point in running a business. What even do you do with that money, even though it has no meaning here."
"Collecting the money is part of it, it wouldn't be an inn if I just let people stay here without taking any money."
"Then it wouldn't be leaving if I just played around inside the town walls forever."
"Hah… I guess I can't stop you can I? You can leave if one of these days the mayor deems it permissible."
The boy had come to know the harshness of reality, yet he still longed to go out into the wider world, so strong was his desire. But right now, he found comfort in his home, and felt like it wouldn't matter if he just postponed that dream for another day, "I appreciate all that, but today, I just want to be lazy… and spend the day lying about."
His father heaved a sigh, "Well, make sure you don't get overly attached to that bed. Nah, in your case, I think that's an unnecessary concern. Heh."
"Okay time for me to get back to work, you make sure you're well rested. I'll collect that bowl later." , with those parting words, his father returned to the reception desk.
If only the boy had an eternity, he would spend half of it exploring the world and the other half relaxing in his home, wait wasn't being immortal also not allowed? This town never ceased to disappoint him. He spent time thinking such pointless thoughts as he lay in his bed, staring at the ceiling and before he knew it, a lot of time had passed.
Hearing some kind of commotion outside the window, he took a peek to see what was going on. He noticed that people were headed to the central plaza. Was it time for another address? He got up and walked out of his room, and left the house using the back door, since he did not want his father to worry. He would sneak back in before lunch time, to make it seem like he had never left.
Retracing the path he had taken to get to the inn, he found himself again in front of that alien yet familiar central plaza. People had gathered there in vast numbers, but the mayor was nowhere to be seen. Peering through the crowds, he noticed a red haired man, covered in black robes, standing there. It was the exact attire the terrorists from before had been dressed in. An ominous feeling crept in the back of the boy's mind and sweat began to form on his temples.
"Greetings everyone! Thank you for gathering here today just as I had wanted. Now that everyone is gathered here, maybe I should get this started."
The man snapped his fingers and all of a sudden, pillars of concrete began to rise from all around the crowd. They were evenly spaced and as they were rising they started to curve, meeting at the top. A hemispherical cage had formed. The crowd panicked and started shouting and screaming for help.
The robed man laughed at the scene, "Hahaha! This is the best feeling ever!"
The mayor came running outside, perhaps after hearing the commotion.
The robed man noticed the mayor and pointed to the crowd, "Still don't want to hand it over?"
With another snap of the man's fingers, the buildings around him started to forcefully twist and turn in a spiral, breaking their structure, the glasses and the doors shattered, the walls cracked, and yet they still didn't disintegrate into scrap. Very soon, huge drills were formed which flung towards the crowd but before they could reach them, they were shattered into pieces by a slash of air. The boy looked at the mayor and noticed that he had one of his arms outstretched in the direction where the buildings had been shattered. The crowd was panicked but realizing that the mayor was protecting them, they still held onto hope.
This angered the red haired man, "Why you!? Let me take control!"
The part of land the man and the crowd stood on started to rise, and before they knew it they were higher than any building, the entire town was visible from up there. Normally it would have been a beautiful scenery, but the things the man was doing to the town was hard to look at. He plucked buildings like they were helpless flowers and forcibly crumpled them up like paper, into lumps of scrap, these were then hurled towards the crowd but yet again shattered before reaching them.
The mayor was floating in the air and swatting away the waves of buildings that flew his way, "Stop this now! There is no way you can defeat me with your powers from the outside."
"Ohhh? Is that so, then what if I showed you this?"
The man pointed out a locket hanging from his neck.
The colour drained from the mayor's face, "W-why do you have that!? Does that mean…"
"Bingo!"
Saying that, the man plucked another home from the garden of houses. This one though was all too familiar to the boy. It rose into the sky, as it twisted and turned, it's windows, doors, roof, walls… all shattered and became an unrecognizable mess, it was then forced into another shape… a perfect sphere. The home that he had run away from when he was bored, the home that he had returned to when he was sad, it was violated inside-out and turned into a catch ball, which was then flung towards the mayor as a taunt, the mayor had then slashed it into two equal pieces, ignorant of the boy's plight.
The boy was dumbfounded and too shocked to react for a while but as his home was cut into two perfect hemispheres, the reality of the situation struck him, "DAAAAD!"
Mustering some super human strength, the boy had started to climb that hemispherical prison, at the top there was a small hole, forcing himself up even as his fingers and feet felt like they would give away, the boy finally managed to reach the top, there he pushed himself through the hole, the hole was not big enough for the boy to pass through, even still he squeezed himself through, tearing his clothes and injuring his skin in the process.
Once through, the boy slid down the hemispherical prison, reaching the edge of the raised plot of land. They were very high up in the sky, but the artifact would protect him, so he jumped, falling down at a tremendous speed, he wished to be slowed down as he reached the ground, but the surface seemed to be approaching him at the same rate. The wishes were not working! The boy joined his hands in prayer, hoping that his desire would be heard and his wish fulfilled, but it was all to no avail, his wishes were not reaching anyone. Letting go of worldly attachments in such a short period of time was not easy by any means, but somehow the boy found it easier to do. The boy shut his eyes and braced for impact.
He could hear the sound of the chaos ensuing on the surface, nearing him, but before it could reach it's peak, it suddenly started to dip in volume, he also felt the direction of momentum take a sudden shift, opening his eyes, he realized that someone had grabbed him as he was falling, "That was pretty close. You'd have been dead if I hadn't got here in time."
The man was holding the boy by the waist with one arm and with the other he was pulling himself up using a grappling hook. They soon reached the top of a nearby building that had somehow avoided the fate which it's neighbors had perished from.
As the stranger released the boy, he finally got a look at the man's face, "Luke!"
"I'm sorry, but I'll be helping you out, whether you like it or not."
"I'm sorry, I - I…"
"I should be apologizing too, but let's sort this out later, the situation isn't good."
"T-That's right! DAD! We have to go see if he is okay."
"Alright hold onto me tightly, we'll be there in a second."
As the boy held Luke by the waist, he threw a dagger at one of the buildings and they were pulled by a chain connected to it. Flinging from one building to another, they advanced at an outstanding speed, zooming through the pandemonium that was ensuing in the city streets below. People were justifiably scared for their lives, their perception of reality had been challenged again.
They were soon at the spot where the boy's home had once stood, all they could see was rubble in the area. The boy ran about frantically, peering through the crowds, and Luke followed him.
Turning the corner, on a nearby street, the boy noticed his father standing among the panicking crowd, the relief and catharsis he felt, came out as a scream as ran to his father,"DA-"
But even before he or his voice could reach him, someone else was in his father's arms, there were tears in his eyes as he hugged this unknown person, "I'm glad you're safe… son."
The boy fell to his knees, for the one who was hugging his father, was none other than… the boy!? As he sat there dumbstruck, his father was hugging another him.
He had found his surroundings to be a little alien ever since crossing that door at the base of the building, but now he realized he was the one that had been alien to this world.
That uneasy feeling had disturbed him but his home had made him feel comfortable and he had written it off, believing that it did not really matter all that much, but now, the cursed town and the mundane house that he had previously cursed his fate for not being able to separate from, had been violated and destroyed in such a vile way that not an ounce of familiarity remained. They had been separated from him, ordinarily he should have been happy about this, but then why does he feel so sad? Why does it hurt so much to lose his home when all he wanted was to venture outside? Why does it hurt so much to lose his hometown when all he ever did was curse it?
The town had finally given him what he had wanted and yet, "Heh… This town never ceases to disappoint me…"
Luke could do nothing but watch as the boy broke down into tears, yet there was still something he wanted to say, "I'm sorry Luke… Y-You were absolutely correct… no matter how detestable, a home is a home. I was too late to realize."
Luke had wanted to apologize too, for pushing his beliefs onto the boy, yet he decided against it, the boy would hardly be able to accept those words as he was now. Luke wondered how he would even inform the boy of his father's death. There was no way he could say any of that to him in the near future.
He decided to listen to the boy's words silently, and watch over him, "I'm here… I'll help you out once you pull yourself together, rejecting me is futile… for I would still help you of my own volition."
The boy gave a chuckle through his sobs when he heard those words, "Look at you… Acting all assertive and confident all of a sudden…"
Those words seemed to have encouraged the boy to get up, "You may help me all you want, but I'll still stand on my own two feet."
Rubbing his eyes, the boy turned to face the red haired madman that had desecrated his home. He had destroyed almost half the town, yet he still continued his rampage, "No time to shed tears. I'll make him regret what he has done. Let's go… I will protect my town!"
Luke could see the determination in the boy's eyes, he had matured a lot in such a short time. After ascertaining the boy's resolve Luke turned to face the same direction as the boy, he turned to face the one that had been the root of all the chaos, and readied his daggers, "Let's go. Grab hold of me."
They were flung high up as they grappled from one building to another at tremendous speeds, the closer they got, the more buildings around them were pulled off their bases and into the air. Luke was quick enough to somehow manage to avoid being pulled up along with a building, but it was getting harder and harder.
The boy realizing how difficult the situation was getting, voiced his concerns, "Even if we manage to get close, how do you plan to get so high up in the sky, especially with all the destruction and chaos?"
"I have an idea, hang on tight, it's going to be tough to hold on. Want me to hold you with one of my arms?"
"... Heh. I don't need your help, you should know that."
Luke couldn't help but smile at those words, "Ahh, that was right."
Luke grappled onto a building that was being pulled up and using the momentum, he would grapple onto another building that was mid-air, launching himself from one flying building to another, dodging the rubble that came his way, they were quickly approaching their enemy who was completely occupied in trying to defeat the mayor.
The red haired man scowled at the mayor, "Let me do what I want! I'll kill you!"
Buildings were flung at the mayor and the crowd, at a tremendous velocity, they should have been nigh impossible to dodge, and yet Gladius managed to swat away all the buildings, all of it was happening so fast that even Luke's eyes could barely follow.
Flinging himself into the air, high above the mayor and the enemy, Luke unleashed a flurry of knives at the back of the man's head, they were in a blind spot, and he had been so preoccupied by the mayor that he had not noticed Luke and the boy approach from behind, or so Luke hoped.
But all of those hopes were dashed by a wall that had formed behind his head, it had risen from the ground in the short amount of time that Luke had taken to unleash his knives at the enemy. The man turned around and glared at them, "How dare you go higher than me! I control everything, I am the apex, no one stands above me!"
A flurry of buildings was sent Luke's way, but he managed to dodge them by hooking himself to the cage. Once they landed on it, they had entered the zone Gladius was protecting.
The man bubbled with anger at not being allowed to kill them, and his vocabulary was reduced to a single word, "DieDIEDIE!DIE!!!"
Buildings flung at them in huge numbers, the town had almost entirely turned to rubble by this point, save for the town hall which the mayor had protected himself.
Luke and the boy stood at the edge of the cage, they were unable to leave due to the barrage of oncoming rubble. It was almost like, a new cage had been erected outside the one that held the people hostage.
The mayor turned his head to Luke and the boy as they fought, "What are you two doing here? You should have run to safety."
Luke was about to reply but the boy stopped him. That's right, no matter how much better Luke was at handling the situation, he was still helping him, but this was still the boy's fight, the most he should do was fill in the gaps that the boy could not fill himself.
The boy faced Gladius and replied with a question of his own, "Never mind about us, more importantly, where is the artifact?"
Gladius' eyes widened, "H-how do you know about it!?"
"H-how you say… you're the one who told everyone."
"A-Ahhh I see what's going on."
Gladius heaved a sigh, "Well, no use hiding it from you all then, I have the artifact, yet he seems to have another version of it, look closely, the locket hanging from his neck."
Indeed the madman had a locket around his neck. Gladius seemed to hardly be able to do anything other than protect them, they were locked in a never-ending cycle of attack and defense, the town would be completely wiped out at this rate, "I have a theory as to what is happening but putting that aside, right now there's no way for me to attack him, do you have any idea how we could defeat him?"
The madman was indignant with anger, it seemed like his reason had left him long ago, "SHUT UP!! YOU SHOULD DO AS I SAY! I SHALL CONTROL EVERYONE!!!"
Luke was baffled at how simple-minded their attacker was, he felt like this aspect of him could be used as a weakness, he looked at the boy, who gave a nod of approval, understanding what Luke had in mind.
"Hey, I have to say though, are you sure you have free will?"
The enemy directed his glare at Luke, "HAAH!?"
"I mean don't get me wrong. You indeed seem to have enough power to control the entire city, but is it also not true that you are bounded by your desires?"
"What the hell are you trying to say!?"
"In other words… are you not controlled by your anger? Are you not controlled by your goals? And finally… are you not controlled by your desire to control?"
The madman went silent for a brief period after hearing those words, and then frustrated at the fact that his rumination had bore no fruit, scratched his head furiously, "I DON'T KNOW I DON'T KNOW I DON'T KNOW!!!"
Luke shouted at him, realizing that this tactic was working, "Your desires, goals and emotions are the factors based on which you control the world, but are those not influenced by the world themselves!?"
"SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP !!!!!!"
"ARE YOU IN CONTROL OF YOURSELF!?"
The town itself started to rise from it's edges and half of it was plucked up like a slice of pizza. Houses, people, roads, streams, trees, everything tumbled down and was obliterated. The slice of town then came crashing down on the other half of the town, threatening to sandwich it.
Everyone stared speechless, as half the town came crashing down on them, but before it could touch them, Gladius opened a barrier that covered the remaining half of the town. The madman deactivated it somehow, just by glaring at it. Gladius could not set up permanent barriers, since they would just be negated by the other artifact, but there was another way to keep a wish permanent despite it being negated, "I cannot stop it! He keeps wishing for it repeatedly. I have never seen anyone want something so furiously!"
The boy pulled on Luke's sleeve, "Luke, your knife! Quick, while he is distracted!"
Luke was brought back to reality with those words. Indeed, if he was dead, he would not be able to stop Gladius from negating his wish, "This one has to be fatal, he'll stand back up or heal himself if I am not able to kill him instantly."
Luke produced his sharpest spear point dagger and threw it at the enemy with all the energy he could muster, the dagger tore through the air with a hissing sound, and as it came into contact with the man's head, it thrust itself into it's destination firmly, blood gushed out through the hole it had created and the enemy fell to the ground he had been standing on.
The slice of the town came to a halt just before it could get to them and then time itself seemed to reverse as the slice was returned to it's original position and the raised ground diminished in height, once they had reached the surface, the cage was undone and the destroyed buildings were reconstructed on their own, the wounded were healed and even dead people were revived. The crowd that was inside the cage then started looking around confused, as if they had no idea what had just happened. They soon dispersed, confused.
The perpetrator lay dead on the ground, with his face down and a dagger sticking out from the back of his head, Luke walked up to him and retracted it from his head.
Gladius opened his arms in a welcoming fashion as he thanked them, "I must express my gratitude, without you helping, this would be have been the end of my town."
The boy replied, "You don't need to thank us, it's my town, it's only obvious that I would try to protect it. More importantly… You know something about what is going on, don't you?"
Luke nodded his head, "Yeah, I've already had my fill of strange happenings in this town, honestly it's hard to explain it all, so it would be helpful if you knew what's going on."
The mayor put a hand on his chin as he started, "Well, I am not entirely sure if this is the case. It just seems to line up too well, that's all… First of all, with so many people's desires going into conflict with one another, how do you suppose the town continues to hold the illusion of a utopia?"
Luke and the boy could barely think of anything so Gladius continued, "The answer is… by creating a separate reality. Each person's desire is fulfilled in one of the numerous realities so the versions of that person that exist in the other realities just lose that desire."
They should have been bewildered at that assertion, but there was no other way to explain the things that had happened there, so they did not contest it.
"You see this town is not really made from one reality, a vast group of realities come together to form the reality conglomerate that is this town. You two seem to be from an entirely other reality as well."
The boy suddenly interjected with a question, "Wait, that does not make sense. If my desire to venture outside has been fulfilled in some other reality, then why do I still wish to explore the world?"
"Unfortunately, that wish cannot be fulfilled as long as this town maintains it's illusion."
Colour faded from the boy's face, all of his hopes of ever being allowed to venture outside were dashed with a few simple words, "W-why is that!?"
"This town and the real world are not really connected. With the artifact fulfilling everyone's every desire, reality was unable to balance out the utter chaos that had ensued, as a result Mauvine was separated from reality. It exists in it's own bubble now."
Luke was confused, "But I came from the outside though?"
"It does seem that way, ordinarily it should not be possible to travel between the two realities, but with you and that red haired man being able to do so, I can't help but think that there is some way to enter Mauvine from the real world. Tell me, how did you get here?"
"How… well I don't remember doing anything special, I was just on the road and found myself in front of the town gate…"
"I see… Well, putting that aside, that also explains why this man is carrying another artifact with himself."
Gladius bent down and pulled the artifact from the madman's neck, "It must belong to your reality."
He then handed the locket to the boy. The boy was uneasy as he grabbed it from Gladius' hand. This relic was behind it all.
Gladius looked at the artifact with an air of caution, "He was trying to obtain the artifact from my reality, he stormed into my office and demanded that I hand mine over, when I obviously refused, he left the office angry, I had never imagined he already had one of the artifact. If he had obtained two of them, then that would make it easy for him to topple all the realities in this reality conglomerate."
Luke was quite disturbed by those words, "Are two artifacts really enough for that?"
"Indeed. Everything in Mauvine is determined by majority voting. In a single reality fragment, two artifacts could easily overpower one, and since each reality contains only one by itself, he would be able to gather as many as he pleased. Then once he had enough he could choose to erase the entire reality conglomerate with an overwhelming majority, and there would not be enough artifacts to oppose that decision."
That was a frightening thought. To think the artifacts were so powerful. Luke couldn't help but be glad that they had been able to stop the oncoming threat.
The boy seemed to be in a bit of a slump, Luke read the mood and decided that any more of this conversation would only upset him, "Alright then, we should be returning now."
"Are you sure you don't want anything? You not only saved this reality fragment, but all of the realities."
"It's alright, it's not like there's anything we want from you. We would never be able to save anything without you protecting anyone."
"Then I shall not hold you two any longer. Go and reclaim your reality. I pray for your success."