"Pansy!", Ernst ran to Pansy and picked up her frail body.
A wince painted itself across his face, "This is why I told you, it is too much for you to bear."
Luke turned to face Rose, "Thank you for waiting."
Rose raised an eyebrow, "Are you certain this was for the best?"
Luke nodded, "There's no other way it could have gone. Besides, isn't there something you wanted to tell me?"
Rose sighed, "I can see through all coincidences, there is never any deeper meaning behind any of them. I see the world for what it is, therefore I am incapable of forming a coloured perspective. Having a perspective requires one to look at the world from a certain angle, one who sees the entirety of the world all at once is doomed to never attain that colour. That is why I hate you."
Luke nodded, "I understand your position."
"People can have all sorts of biased beliefs and live their lives having full faith in those beliefs, I can see the error in their colors. No matter how vivid their world seems, it is always riddled with critical flaws that make it all pointless. That is why I hate you."
"A perspective that takes reality into account becomes invulnerable to such flaws."
"That is why I hate you…"
Rose shook his head, "I should have been able to see through all coincidences, yet at the alley, you arrived at the scene without me ever knowing. Even you coming to this town was something I did not know about, it put all my plans in jeopardy, I was forced to push everything back a day, and deal with the unknown element that was you. Do you actually know more than you are letting on? Did you know my plans beforehand? That is one way you might have avoided my eyes."
"..."
"A coincidence is by existence spontaneous, therefore if it is proven to be a deliberate act by someone, it ceases to be a coincidence. The fact that I could not read it beforehand implies that it is someone's doing and it's only being made to look like a coincidence. It is almost as if I am being made to fight with myself, I detest it… I detest the coincidence that you are!"
"I must say, I had no idea about any of your plans, it was all in fact a coincidence, I don't know why you could not foresee it. Anyhow…", Luke drew his knives, "right now you are cornered!"
"Oh? Am I?"
"Yes! I know it's going to be so beautiful, we can finally start our married life!", a muffled female voice sounded from the outside, it felt like she was talking to someone.
"This is the church? Looks pretty ruined, but they say it's one of the best, I'm sure the priest here would understand us!"
The doors of the church burst open as a single blonde woman entered the church.
"Excuse me! Does this church provide marriage services?"
Rose whistled, "What a coincidence, to bump into you here!"
A wince was painted on the woman's face, "Blegh, Rose…"
"You don't seem all that happy to see me here?"
"Of course not, this must be another one of your coincidences then. Looks like we wasted our time coming here right darling?"
The woman talked as if someone was standing beside her, but she was in fact all alone.
Luke turned his head towards Ernst. Could this have been another of his delusions?
The woman seemed to be a little surprised after noticing Jack there, "Ah, you're the guy from before."
Luke gave Jack a sidelong look, "You know her?"
Jack sighed, "I met her on the way here."
"You sound tired somehow."
"Yes, well…"
--- --- ---
As Jack stepped outside, he was immediately overwhelmed by the stench of rot. He felt a lump at the back of his throat, but managed to gulp it down somehow. The bloodied streets were too much for him, and yet Salvia was nowhere to be seen, he wondered how she could tolerate it.
He assumed her to have gone to the church, there was no other place with people anyway, Jack decided to head in that direction as well.
Halfway through though, a woman entered his field of vision, assuming it to be Salvia, he ran to her, "I finally found you!"
The woman titled her head to the side, "Are you talking to me, or to my husband?"
Realizing that it was not her, but someone else, Jack shook his head, "I apologize, I mistook you for someone else."
"Is that so? This is a good opportunity though, what do you think darling, we could ask him for directions?"
Jack suddenly realized, no one except the few people he knew were supposed to be in the town at the moment. Confusion washed over him as he asked, "Who are you? Merkington has turned into a graveyard, yet how are you alive?"
The woman tilted her head, "Ahh, it seems this person is deluded darling. I don't think he would be of much help with directions."
Jack had started to grow agitated, "You are the one who is deluded. There's only me and you here, who is this 'darling' you are talking to?"
The woman shook with rage at those words, "You are the same then, another dimwit that claims that my darling is a delusion."
Jack took a step back, "I apologize, I did not mean to."
The woman's eyes glowed a bright red as she looked at Jack, "I see now, you still think this Luke is a delusion, created by your weakened heart."
"W-What?"
"You believe that he is a creation of your mind meant to shoulder your burden, your hand in dooming this town."
The world fogged over, and pictures of the past projected onto the foggy screen, shown clearly were memories of a time Jack wished to forget. The time when Jack was appointed the impromptu head of the Eustache household, the time he enjoyed being depended on and doing something he had always wanted to, and the time all of that came crashing down.
"-!"
How was she doing all that, Jack could not underst- no, he could not help but find the things she was doing to be very natural, as natural as breathing in fact. Nothing to doubt at all. At this point he even wondered why he was acting out against her husband, he seemed like a fine enough gentleman.
"So you took over your father's work in the past, and somehow everyone said you were as good as him if not better, which in turn led your father to use some kind of artifact to regain his identity ultimately killing numerous townsfolk in the process."
"…"
"At the time you had always wanted to be like your father, to try your hand at his work, but when you succeeded at that, disaster befell everyone. You somehow believe this is the same as back then, that because you roamed free, the town was once again met with ruin."
Jack remained silent as he stared a hole into the ground at having all his subconscious thoughts presented to him directly.
The woman smiled, "Still think I'm the one who is delusional?"
The fog cleared, and the woman's eyes stopped glowing, signaling a return to reality.
Jack made no response.
The woman shrugged, "Let's go darling, we have a church to find."
Jack shook his head furiously, forcing himself to snap out of it before making a dash for the church.
--- --- ---
The woman stared at Luke with confusion in her eyes, "You, aren't you…"
Luke tilted his head in confusion, "?"
Her eyes widened at some sort of realization of which only she knew. She turned to Rose with a scowl, "Elenchos will not be happy with this."
Rose shook his head, "And?"
A sigh escaped the woman, "Tell us what you want, I know there's no changing your mind."
"I would like to borrow the relic of direction."
The woman threw an object at him, smaller than his palm.
Rose caught it mid-trajectory, "Thank you very much."
The woman scoffed, "Save that for when I help you off my own free will."
She turned towards the door, "Let's go darling."
Just like that she was gone.
Rose turned towards Luke, "Let's get this started then…"
He opened his palm to reveal a compass. The arrowhead gradually started to move, before picking up speed and rotating at tremendous speeds. The world around them morphed and changed shape.
Rose glanced at Ernst who sat kneeling before Pansy, "I will tell you why you were unable to efficiently delude everyone Ernst, it is because you had too many inconsistencies piled up. Inconsistencies are deadly where reality molding is concerned, you must account for each and every fringe situation and deal with them in a way that prevents conflicts from occurring."
Ernst remained silent, such things no longer mattered to him.
Rose shifted his gaze to Luke, "Let me show you how it's done."
The world grew foggy and a crimson radiance emanated from the compass, before filling the entire space.
When the light faded, Luke found himself outdoors, in front of the church. The streets were as bloodied as before, the corpses reeked of death, Luke could not help but cover his nose to prevent the smell of rot. What was going on? Why were the corpses still there? Even though the recent revelation should have cleaned the streets of any cor… Luke could not help but think that this was how it was supposed to be. After all everyone had indeed participated in mass ritual suicide.
Suddenly his thoughts were interrupted, he felt something wet and sticky touching his legs. Feeling queasy from the slimy sensation, he jumped back trying to distance himself from it.
A hand had sprung out from the heaps of corpses and was extended towards his leg. It had evidently tried to grab his leg.
Shuffling sounds filled the area, coming from all directions, as Luke looked around he saw gored corpses rising to their feet, making their way towards him.
He turned to get away but there was no place to run, he was completely surrounded within the blink of an eye. He grappled onto the rooftops in order to get away, only to be met by a face he would rather have forgotten.
"It's your fault…"
Luke remained silent.
"It's your fault they are all dead!"
The distance was closed in an instant, and a sword swung down on Luke with tremendous force, he jumped back instead of facing this frontal attack, for the hero of Merkington far outclassed him in close combat.
Luke jumped from roof to roof, dodging the hero's blows, careful to avoid the streets which were now teeming with ghouls.
Why was the hero here? Luke had thought the hero, the villain and even all of Paul's companions were mere delusions, considering that after the most recent revelation, they had disapp… No, the hero was always here, Luke could not think of it any other way.
--- --- ---
Jack found himself running away from hordes of ghouls, but they were hot on his tail, everywhere he went, he found at least thirty of them following. In an attempt to shake them off, he ran into an alley, trying to confuse them within the labyrinthine alleyways.
After a few twists and turns within the alleyways, he was finally able to get a brief moment of respite.
Time was of essence however, if he could quietly leave the alleyways before the ghouls found him, he could escape while they searched inside. He made his way deeper into the alleyways, there was no head wind however, to indicate the end of the alleys, and sure enough he soon found himself enclosed within three walls, a dead end.
As he turned to leave, something entered his peripheral vision for a brief moment. Unable to make out what it was, Jack span back.
"We are many."
An army of angels stood there aiming their bows at him. All of them looked the same, needless to say, it was Anekke, the angel of the multiple.
Why was Anekke here? Was he not supposed to be a delus… However Jack could not help but feel that it was natural for him to be there.
--- --- ---
Luke could hardly dodge all the slashes and got scratches all over his body. He made his way through the town, grappling from one building to another, until finally he arrived at the museum. It had somehow not been broken into yet. In comparison to the streets teeming with ghouls, the museum was deathly silent, although it was hard to tell which of the two was more fitting of the word 'deathly'.
Luke grappled around until he came upon a window located about two floors from the ground. Grappling onto it's sides, he pulled himself towards that ocean of glass with all his strength, what followed was a splash of glass shards as he flew into the room. Once his feet met the ground, he skid across the floor from the huge amount of momentum until finally he came to a stop right under the spot highlighted by the window's light.
The skylight however, was soon blocked by a shadow… a person's shadow…
--- --- ---
Jack could hardly contend with all the angels, unable to fend for himself, he ran from one alley to another, dodging the barrage of arrows the whole time.
At the end of all the running, he arrived at the backdoor leading into the museum, but it was locked shut, another dead end. He tried the handle and even to push his body against the door, but it did not budge.
The angels looked down on him from the rooftops of the surrounding buildings, their bows drawn and ready to finish things with a swift shot.
--- --- ---
The hero jumped into the museum, his sword pointing at Luke, "I was thinking you were smarter than this. You do realize that you have trapped yourself here with me right? With someone who is clearly superior at close combat."
Luke returned the favour by pointing his own knife at the hero, "I am well aware."
--- --- ---
Jack was cornered, there was no longer anywhere to run, left with no options, he turned his sword to the heavens. The heavens in return showered him with arrows.
Jack stood his ground and readied his stance.
--- --- ---
The hero jumped at Luke, drawing an arc in the air with his sword.
--- --- ---
Jack threw his sword towards the angels with all his might.
--- --- ---
Impact.
--- --- ---
Impact.
--- --- ---
The hero stood frozen, an inch closer and his neck would be skewered by Luke's blade. He wondered whether the knife had always been that long, it almost… almost looked like a sword.
"H-How?"
As he kept looking, Luke's form transformed right in front of him… into Jack.
"-!"
Jack raised his sword, "Rest now, creature of delusions."
With a soundless swing, the hero dissolved into nothingness.
Jack made his way to the backdoor, opening it from the inside. Luke stood outside, unscathed. Bodies of angels piled around him, impaled by countless knives, and within a flash, all of them dissipated in the same way as the hero.
Luke looked back at Jack and nodded in affirmation. The back of the museum was walled off by the surrounding buildings, the ghouls could not get in without traversing the complex maze of alleys.
Luke raised his head and addressed the sky, "Is this it Rose?"
The air above them began to vibrate, and soon a human form came into view. Rose floated in the air above them.
He had his on the same jaded face as always, "How did you manage to do this?"
"You want an explanation? I thought you of all people would not need one."
Rose remained silent.
Luke sighed, "It really was not that difficult. Once I entered this distorted space of yours, I felt like my mind had somehow expanded, it did not take much time to realize that I could see and hear everything Jack was doing and even his memories. Our minds are connected at this very moment, a shared mindspace."
Jack continued, "We could plan out our actions accordingly through our shared mind. As for what this world is, it was not hard to tell, I already had memories of facing the woman who gave you that artifact. She had trapped me in a similar world, I could not doubt anything she did. Through our shared minds and experiences we came to understand this world."
Luke nodded, "I myself have been in a world similar to this one, there the wishes of the individual were imposed upon the world, here, the world's wishes get imposed on the individual, although that world was a realta. This one is clearly a menta, considering we have a shared mind here. It's clearly a world of our beliefs given form. Whatever happens here is what we believe, no matter how absurd it might seem."
Rose muttered in disbelief, "How…"
Jack answered, "Once we knew that whatever happened here was what we believed, we could make it work the other way around as well, whatever we believed in would take shape in this world. All I had to do was believe that I was inside the museum while Luke was outside."
Rose shook his head, his voice quivered, "How can you say something so outrageous without any qualms? How can a person believe something like that just because."
Luke chuckled, "Ah, that's what you are on about. You see, we have seen too many unbelievable things already, to the point where we no longer even know what to believe and when nothing can be believed, everything becomes believable. If reality itself gets abstracted, so does everything we believe in. It's become very easy for us to believe preposterous things now."
"What…"
Luke thought for a moment before replying, "If I were to say it like Salvia would, 'A story that delivers too many twists, trivializes it's own narrative.'"
"So be it, let's see how you fare against all of this then!"
A swarm of angels started forming behind Rose, they spread across the sky blotting the entirety of it, it almost felt like night had set in. The angels levitated in the air, with their bows at the ready. At the same time the two of them got surrounded by numerous clones of the hero who had their swords pointed at the duo. Rose planned to pin them down with sheer numbers.
Rose faded into the air, yet his voice lingered a moment longer, "Be decimated."
Luke nodded at Jack, before aiming one of his knives at the angels in the sky. He threw the knife with all his might, it sliced through the air before multiplying into two knives, then three, soon enough there was a huge barrage of knives cutting through the air, one by one these knives then turned into copies of Luke. These copies grappled onto the angels' wings and impaled them with their knives. The heavens were filled with carnage, it looked like a war between gods.
Jack unsheathed his sword and swung it in an arc, the blade twisted and expanded, impaling several of the hero's clones on the way.
Luke left Jack to deal with the mobs on the ground and grappled onto the roof of the museum. As he looked from above, he saw hell. Hordes of bloodied and gored corpses roamed the streets with their arms outstretched towards the sky, beckoning the dead to the ground, whereas the sky was a battleground of angels and Luke clones, those that fell down were instantly swarmed by the ghouls, putting an end to whatever speck of life they had remaining.
The perpetrator behind all of that was nowhere to be seen. However Luke believed he could change that, and that belief was turned into reality as Rose's form started to appear in the sky, and with a few sparks of white around his figure, his unveiling was complete.
Rose frowned, "Must you interrupt my leisure time?"
"You can have as much of it as you want in the prison."
Luke threw four knives at Rose, which grew exponentially both in numbers and in size. Rose stood his ground, as the knives passed through his body, leaving him unharmed.
Luke was stupefied, "Wha-"
"Unfortunately for you, I am not a part of this menta, I am only controlling it from the outside, even the me you see here is a projection I created from the outside."
Sweat rolled down Luke's forehead, if he was not even capable of fighting back, then how would he ever defeat Rose? How would he leave this domain?
Rose raised his hand and the knives took a u-turn, and aimed directly at Luke as they descended.
Luke acted quickly and grappled his way out of their trajectory just in time, they passed him by without a single one hitting, but just as he was getting a breather, they once again turned 180 degrees and chased after him.
Luke was stuck escaping from the unrelenting barrage of knives. He threw more knives to obstruct the projectiles, but the new knives joined the ranks of the ones after him.
Rose sighed, "Quite disappointing. Considering you revealed my form to challenge me, I thought you had more in you, but all you are doing is escaping, not exactly the best look."
Luke racked his brain, trying to think of a way to stop the projectiles, he erected several walls between him and the knives by believing them into existence. The knives however tore through even the hardest of walls to reach him.
He stretched his hands out and forced the air around the knives to become denser, but the knives seem to not care at all about the atmospheric pressure, and just ripped through without the slightest delay.
He clenched his teeth in frustration, nothing seemed to be working, the knives were nigh unstoppable.
Left without options, Luke tried confusing the knives by grappling through alleys, he changed his direction erratically, moving from building to street, to alley, to building again.
The knives however still followed him closely, zigzagging their way to him, turning sharp corners with unmatched precision. It was almost as if the author had personally decided that they were unstoppable.
Rose shook his head, "It's no use. It will only hurt more if you continue your meaningless struggle, I will make it quick and painless if you stop resisting."
Luke lay kneeling down on the museum rooftop, he was far too exhausted to move. The knives surrounded him in a circle, with the tip of their blades pointing to the centre.
Luke forced a defiant smile through his gasps, "Can I even die here?"
"I can make you believe that you are dead, that would make you lose your consciousness and stop breathing."
"So if I die here, I'll die in the real world too, huh?"
"Yes. Any last words?"
"Not telling them to you."
Rose frowned at Luke's snarky comment, "So be it."
With a wave of his hand he motioned for the knives to dig into Luke.
Luke reflexively spread his arms out, attempting to push the knives away. Before he could have his life flash before his eyes, he was filled with confusion. Quite a few seconds had passed but he was still unhurt.
As he opened his eyes, he saw the blades around him, still in their original position, as Rose tried his utmost to force them at Luke. Luke realized, he was subconsciously pushing the knives away through his will and Rose was trying to counteract that so the knives remained unmoved. Beliefs cannot contradict one another, so neither one was fulfilled.
Sparks of white started to appear around the knives. Noticing that, Rose immediately withdrew his control over them, allowing Luke to steer them once again.
Luke could not help but feel like something was off about this altercation.
Rose glared at Luke, "Why you… "
Then it hit Luke… Contradicting beliefs, Rose had said something like that before, something about inconsistencies being deadly, something about conflicts being bad.
'You know what we need to do, right Jack?'
'Yes, I do.'
Luke's mouth curled up into a sneer, "About time we ended this, Rose."
"As if I'd let you do that."
Rose raised his arm and formed a fist with it.
Searing pain filled Luke's head, it felt like it was splitting in two, no… three. He felt the inflow of more thoughts and emotions, it was as if his mind was being forced to expand. He clutched his head from the pain and fell on his knees.
He squinted at Rose through all the pain, "W-hat have you… done?"
"I'll leave that to you to figure out yourself."
Unable to bear the head-splitting pain, Luke fell to the ground.
Rose shook his head, "It should be very easy to deal the finishing blow now."
He raised his hand and produced a bunch of knives in the air all with their blades pointed at Luke. He stretched his hand forward, and all the knives darted towards Luke in one fell swoop.
A blade bent around like a snake warding off every knife that threatened Luke.
"Get up, Luke! You have to pull through.", Jack appeared on the rooftop, aiming his sword at Rose with a pained expression on his face.
Luke stood himself up with some difficulty, "What is causing this headache?"
Jack shook his head, "I have no idea, you figure that out while I keep him occupied."
Luke nodded, "Just be careful."
He jumped off the rooftop and grappled over the hellish streets, some ghouls grouped together around the corpses of the fallen angels and devoured them, others marched the streets in a stupor going wherever the crowds took them.
As Luke moved about the city though, he could not help but notice that the ghoul swarms were primarily moving in two directions, some moved towards the museum, however the others were headed away from it. He decided to follow the flow of the ghouls that were heading away from the museum and came upon the church. The ghouls knocked hard against the church doors, attempting to knock it open.
The entrance seemed unusable, the ghouls were gathered tightly around it. Luke grappled around to the other side of the church, and with a hook to the church wall pulled himself through the multicoloured church window, scattering glass all around.
The church was far from silent, the chaos outside seeped into the sacred halls through the incessant knocking on the church door, but mixed in with that, there was another sound. An almost inaudible whimper entered Luke's ears, as he moved to find it's source, what came into view was the form of a young girl, curled up on the floor in front of the goddess statue, sobbing and weeping.
"Pansy!"
No response came from the girl, she was too stuck in her own world.
"Pansy, come on. Pull yourself together."
The door was knocked down by the ghouls who flooded the church in a matter of seconds. Luke grabbed Pansy as quickly as he could and grappled out of the broken window. He landed on the church rooftop, and put her down.
"Pan- ugh…"
A sharp pain ran through Luke's head. He deduced the source of the pain to be Pansy, she had joined the shared mind, so her thoughts, emotions and even her pain was flowing into him and Jack.
If he wanted to do something about the pain, he had to face her despair head on.
Suddenly the sound of metal clashing resounded behind Luke, he turned around to see Jack standing there with his sword raised at the sky, scattered around him were the broken remains of numerous knives.
Jack winced through the pain as he turned towards Luke, "I will cover for you."
Luke nodded and turned to face Pansy.
The world faded to white.
--- --- ---
In that room decorated with books, a girl sat on the floor, clutching a singular book. Tears rolled down her cheeks. The book had made her realize one fundamental truth, she was hated by the people dearest to her.
She had been hated her entire life, however due to her condition she could never remember that fact, now that she had all her memories, she could recall vividly every instance when she had been berated and admonished by the people of Merkington.
In her final moments, her mother had left her with words so harsh that it could no longer be called admonishment, it was a clear rejection of the person that she was. Her unaffirmed doubt that she was in fact not worthy of the role given to her was now finally being confirmed, by none other than her own mother.
She clutched the book harder and buried her face into it to hide her tears.
A faint clicking sound entered her ears. Raising her head, she realized that the door was ajar, the silhouette of a man stood at the doorway.
He walked over to the bookshelf next to her, and picked out two books.
Without saying a word, he squatted down in front of the girl and started to flip through the pages of one of the books.
From within flowed visions, a priest standing in front of a collapsed girl, tears in the eyes of a grown man, him teaching her the ways of a nun as she grows, balancing his sternness with a pinch of gentleness even though the girl could never manage to remember that kindness, torn between duty and emotions, the man marched ahead with one single feeling in his heart… Ernst loved Pansy.
He closed the book and opened another one, a sister shouting at the priest, who was that anger for? A little girl remained collapsed on the floor. Sorting through old fairy tales in a library only to linger a moment longer on one book, all the stories there were known to her, then what significance did this one hold? Did it make her think of someone, someone she had recited the story to perhaps? Even with the uncertainty about the future, she waited for a reunion long awaited, what allowed her to stay patient? Yes, Salvia loved Pansy.
The girl's vision grew hazy, she found it difficult to see through the tears. Her hand gripped at her chest, shaking ever so slightly, her breath grew ragged.
The man simply got up, plucked another book and presented it to her. She took it from his hands, and examined it, only to find that there was no name on the cover.
She opened it, and saw within the images of a man she could not remember the name of, even after regaining all her lost memories.
The man had only seen her a few times, but within those moments he had found someone who he had always been looking for, she was the same as him, and so he stood by her when her efforts were disregarded.
He felt anger for the way she was treated, he felt saddened by the amount of unrewarded effort she gave in, he felt empathy for her who was in the same position as him.
Through all these dynamic and ambivalent emotions however, what did he truly feel towards her?
Words are boorish where emotions are concerned, they only serve to limit and disguise ones true thoughts, but they are the only known way of expressing ones feelings, and yet… in that moment she knew exactly what he felt for her with not a single word exchanged, in fact she could experience his feelings herself. Through their shared minds, his feelings reached her in the most unadulterated and unbounded of forms.
No confession could be purer…
No confession could be truer…
No confession more intimate…
The tears overflowed and her cheeks flushed. She raised her head as she inquired, "Why? Even though I failed everyone…"
Luke gently held her face, and rubbed the tears off, "You did not. Like I already said, you did what you had to do, you have been doing it all along, there has always been one choice to make and you have always made the right one. The things that happened after were only the whims of fate, not something you are responsible for."
'B-But… How can I believe that, when everyone says otherwise?'
Thoughts she did not verbalize but were conveyed nonetheless, and thus was his response…
'Your efforts were denied, people concluded that you lacked the heart to serve God. You gave an unimaginable amount of effort to disprove their beliefs, yet that fortitude was denied still.'
"The reason is simple enough, you were barking up the wrong tree."
'If your efforts originate from the heart, then denial from those who lack that heart is but pretense. Your efforts… Your own heart stands truer than any superficial statement of denial.'
Her lips quivered, unable to form words, she did not know what the right thing would be to say in such a moment, so instead…
Luke gently nodded his head, "Yes, that expression befits you far better."
A smile that dazzled the world, brilliant light emanated and covered everything in white.
--- --- ---
Jack desperately fought back, his senses starting to dull.
Rose smirked, "I wonder how long you will be able to keep this up."
Fights in mentas like the one they were in at the moment were all about mental fortitude and perseverance, the more focused one could be the better they could fight, unlike in the real world, in a menta the mental image of oneself was one-to-one with their real capabilities.
Jack winced through the drowsy feeling attempting to overcome him, "As long as I continue to choose correctly, you shall not break me!"
Jack's consciousness was starting to waver from all the headache, thus making it hard for him to keep up with everything being thrown his way. His mental image of himself was beginning to crumble, his identity dissolving into the depths of oblivion, slipping out of his grasp.
"Not yet!"
With the force of will he rose from the depths and raised his sword at Rose.
Rose sighed, "This is starting to become ridiculous, let me put an end to it."
He spread his arm forward, and a translucent bubble emerged with him at the center, it expanded and consumed anything in it's path, buildings and roads bent out of shape and compressed as they came in contact with the bubble, it was then that Jack realized, that was no bubble, it was a wave, a wave that compressed and distorted all space that came in contact with it, the wave pushed through everything in it's path, threatening even to consume the massive horde of ghouls collected at the base of the church. However before it could-
"I envision a world where nobody has to be hurt!"
A new bubble formed around the church and it stopped the advancement of the space compressing wave, protecting not just the building but even those squirming at it's base.
With both arms spread forward, Pansy stood in front of Jack, "Even if it's within an illusion, I shall do my duty towards the people of Merkington!"
Dumbfounded Jack turned around, and there stood Luke scratching at his head.
Jack gave a wry smile, "That did fix the headache but it seems you went a little overboard."
Luke shook his head, "This is what I had been aiming for."
He gave Jack a knowing look.
'Now, let us begin.'
Jack gave a nod in response.
Rose shook his head in dissatisfaction, "Why is it that I am incapable of seeing through anything you do?"
Luke smirked, "Maybe because you're too dependent on that power of foresight."
"..."
Rose pushed harder against the barrier that Pansy had set up, the world outside the barrier became a kaleidoscope of the cityscape. Buildings and roads, distorted in patterns and formed the background of the world, such a scenery whooshed by, twisting, fragmenting, converging, it was as if they were inside a rotating marble, a spectacle of visual overload, it was becoming difficult for Pansy to hold it all back.
Her hands trembled as she glanced back at Luke and Jack, "Please hurry up, I might not be able to hold on for much longer."
Rose narrowed his eyes, "What are you planning?"
Luke and Jack stood next to each other with their eyes closed, unable to understand their intentions Rose blurted out that question, but of course no one would answer him.
He had no way of knowing since his mind was not included in the shared pool of consciousnesses.
Rose decided to give in and include his own consciousness into the equation, and so he concentrated with his eyes closed, but just as he felt his mind expanding-
"T-This pain! What is it!?"
Pansy had not yet overcome her heartache fully, it had only been alleviated, they were fighting back with sheer willpower and for a spectator like Rose, who only treated other's misfortunes as entertainment, such willpower was absent thus it weighed heavily on his mind.
Despite all that, he sorted through all the unnecessary emotions, pushed himself through the sea of emotional pain, and grasped hold of the information he sought.
He now had access to their plan, upon learning which, his eyes widened.
"I shall not let you!"
'The goddess will now strike everyone down with the thunder of her wrath. It will be an instant death so no one will be hurt in the process. Any attempts to deny this would be mere delusions.'
Amidst all the chaos brewing outside Pansy's barrier, clouds began to gather above the church, and from within she made a second appearance, rising from the clouds with golden flowing hair and a thunderbolt in her hand, the goddess glared at the three beneath her, aiming her strike directly at them.
Pansy strained her mind to form a counter for the goddess but nothing seemed to work.
Delusions can only be believed so long as they are not recognized as delusions, therefore making any future delusions out to be delusions negated them entirely. Envisioning thus, Rose bypassed Pansy's vision of the world where no one had to be hurt, and also erected a foolproof defense against any sort of mental counter.
Rose put his all into that final attack, "Be obliterated!"
In the middle of that fantastical world, within the rotating marble city, with an angry goddess looking down at them and ghouls swarming at their feet, Luke and Jack just stood, doing nothing. However actions were unnecessary, for within a menta, thoughts held far more value than actions.
Luke envisioned a world without meaning, where one could never find their purpose no matter how hard they tried.
The plan was for Jack to imagine a world that was overflowing with meaning, where one could find a purpose no matter how directionless they feel. However, he found it difficult to do that, for he had never known a world like that.
In the darkness of his mind, a bright light appeared in the distance, standing there was Luke with back turned towards Jack and his hand outstretched behind him, he glanced behind with his eyes on Jack, "Grab my hand!"
Jack tried to reach out, however…
"It is useless."
Standing next to Jack was Rose, and without looking at him, he continued, "There is no meaning in this world, having seen through fate, all I can say is that it is a colourless gray, nothing but meaningless randomness, there is no purpose for our being."
Jack felt a sort of lukewarm comfort as he stood beside Rose in the darkness. He did not have to do or think about anything there, there was no purpose in that world, therefore he need not act to chase some phantom of his identity. Surely if he stayed there, then he would not have to worry about anything…
Jack raised his head, "But even so…"
Jack got up on his two feet, "No one else can define an identity for me."
Jack took a step forward, "Even if the world is meaningless, one can make their own meaning."
Jack started to run, "Just as Luke did!"
Luke stood far, holding out his hand, as if it was a relay race. No, it was a tag race. Jack was not passing his will onto Luke, he was going to carry it with him.
As their hands met, brightness enveloped the world.
The both of them stood motionless with their eyes closed, white sparks began to form between them.
The sky above them threatened to smite them with it's thunderous wrath. The goddess readied the fully charged thunderbolt in her hand and… a lightning bolt… ascended! No, it was a crack in space itself, a crack that rose from the spot where Luke and Jack stood, it had originated from the middle of where they stood.
It pierced through the skies and through the goddess, then it split in three parts, fragmenting the goddesses golden visage into three. However it was not just the skies and the goddess that split, the entire world was being separated into three, with Luke, Pansy and Jack inhabiting each portion.
Consistency was of utmost importance when it came reality molding, as such, any kind of conflict was detrimental. The three of them broke through the impasse by stacking up such inconsistencies, thus splitting that world into three fragments.
Each fragment represented their respective vision of the world.
Pansy's painless utopia…
Luke's meaningless dytopia…
And Jack's absurd, yet hopeful… reality.
Indeed, what Jack had imagined was not very different from the real world he lived in, it took a lot out of him, but he had finally reconciled with his reality.
And with that the world of delusions crumbled.