Chereads / THE PERSONA / Chapter 3 - The palace

Chapter 3 - The palace

Mc pov:

As I took steps towards the entrance of the palace, I found that the aesthetic of the place was missing something. It was a splendid black gothic palace, just like how I imagined it to be. Nonetheless, something was missing, guardians. I imagined statues of abominations, the things I found the most enjoyment learning about. Fearsome beings emerged from the entrance of the palace, first a blank body, similar to a lizard. Next teeth emerged from within the gargoyle's chest to his mouth, followed by wings that looked as if they had the faces of people in agony embedded within them. It looked magnificent, almost as if it could jump at you. I smiled, walking inside the palace. I walked forward willing the bookcases to appear from the ground. This time there were more books than before, due to the knowledge I gained in this body's palace. I walked forward, imagining a throne in front of me. I extended my hand, and a book appeared before me. It was black in texture, it was something I read about in the body's mind palace. A journal, I opened my hand once again summoning a quill. The feather was darker than the palace around me, almost as if it was a part of the abyss itself. I started writing what I thought would be good to research, after all this body can't know everything. If anything this body would probably know less than the average citizen of this place. I wrote down some things that were necessary and walked out of the palace. I started to walk around the abyss around me, nothing in sight, no up or down, nor left or right. But somehow, I could still tell how to get back to my palace. I walked for a while then turned around, there was no point in going too far. There might be nothing out there, and I would just be wasting my time. I still had work to do, I needed to copy all of the valid information from the body's mind palace. It didn't take an extensive amount of time due to there being only a couple hundred books. The body's owner had a lot of knowledge for someone so young, though I hadn't seen any other palaces so I can't really say for sure. I entered my palace yet again, my strength growing at a slow but steady pace. I can feel a barrier of sorts, or more like an intuitive feeling of a wall. But for now, it doesn't matter, the knowledge that this body has, is already fully recorded in my palace. Which makes me think, what do I do next? The only thing I could do was take over the body and learn more. Or maybe build my palace up and make it better? There are not a lot of things to do in an endless void. I mean I could go searching for something again, but if I go out for too long I may just go crazy. Well, I don't know for sure, since going crazy is related to the mind. Since I'm currently thinking, I must have a brain but, does that mean I'll still suffer the consequences of lunacy? So far I've gained a huge amount of knowledge in the span of a couple of hours. Based on the time frame that I've been taken into the body and out, it must have not even been 12 hours. And even though I created this palace and learned a multitude of knowledge in that period of time I feel no strain, no signs of needing sleep, or anything similar. So what does this mean? Is there something different about me? I mean my palace defies the laws of gravity. So where could I be, or what could I be? I've never looked at myself outside of when I possessed the body. So what do I look like? As I thought this I summoned my throne, sat on it, and raised my finger. As I did a mirror appeared from the ground, floating in front of me. At first, all I could see was black, similar to the abyss all around me. But as I focused it started to begin to reflect and I saw what I looked like. I was a pure white shroud, not similar to a ghost, nor did I look like a cloud. It was almost as if I had a human form but it was blurry white. The more I focused on myself the more I began to change, I raised my hand in front of me. Looking both at the front and the back as they slowly turned into skin. I imagined porcelain-like skin, but instead of fully taking on a humanoid form I began to shape myself into something more suitable. I made myself bigger, I gave myself sharper teeth. And even sharper ears, I made myself a crown. Something that was in the stories was in the body-mind, kings would wear them to show their superiority. And I'm far superior to everything, so I should wear one right? I made myself a pitch-black crown, realizing it would be uncomfortable I made it float above my head. If anyone were to come here they would know my standing. However, before I could finish the final touches I once again felt that pulling feeling. I could finish my form later so I merely accepted the guidance. As I opened "my" eyes I saw 4 men surrounding me, as well as a woman with her arms underneath her cleavage. The men all looked close to the same, all having a dirty appearance, and scars on their faces. However, the man in the middle had the biggest scar and looked the cleanest of the three. However, the woman behind them seemed the cleanest of the three and had no scars. It seemed as if she was the boss of these goons. She muttered something under her breath, then started shouting something about me attracting too much attention around them. I wondered if they were idiots, or just plain foolish. How would harming this body's owner attract less attention if he disappeared? Or was it that no one cared enough about this body to the point where they would make a move? As I thought this I found that it made sense, but if that was true for me, wasn't it also true for them? I started grinning widely, laughing, while holding my face with one hand, and my other on my stomach. I looked at the three men and waved for them to come. The larger of the three charged at me, seeming carefree while doing so. He didn't have his guard up, nor did he have any weapons out. It seemed he thought he could take care of me alone. As he approached close to me, I sidestepped while doing a cartwheel. Using my hands as springs I sprung onto his head, wrapping my legs around his large skull. Once I was positioned I began to put force pulling my body weight to the side and then allowing gravity to do the rest. His neck made a cracking sound. He fell on his knees and landed on his back, still as a log. The women and two men, all looked red but with different intentions, the women cried and the men glared at me. The woman seemed to snap out of her stupor and shouted at the two of men, "Kill him!" As she said this the men grabbed their knives and charged at me. This time they seemed to be more wary. However, fueled by the pain of losing the bigger man, they seemed to have lost their reason. Their knives shook, not with weakness but adrenaline. Their techniques which seemed semi-refined at first seemed to have lessened. They could not even hold their weapons straight. As they charged, I looked around and grabbed a piece of rusted pipe near me. I smiled yet again, it seemed that I had gained some adrenaline from this interaction as well. However, I kept a clear mind, and instead of using adrenaline to guide me, I used it as a source of strength. I dragged the metal pipe on the ground, causing a slight screeching sound. A few sparks appeared as I lifted it, I side stepped the first man and swung as hard as I could. Cracking sounds once again resounded around the area. This time, however, I didn't stop after hearing the sound. Instead, as he fell, screaming in pain, I grabbed the pipe and bashed his head in. Blood splurged everywhere once again. An almost lethargic feeling washed over me yet again, similar to the adrenaline but it felt more pleasing. This feeling only lasted a short while as the second man came out of his fear-stricken state and was only a few short steps behind the first. I regained my composure and took hold of the pipe. The man seemed to be wary of me striking his legs, so I came up with a new plan. I took a few steps back and ran into the wall jumping behind the man. I used my momentum to get in front of the man and stabbed the man with the rusted tip of the pipe. The man splashed blood everywhere as If he was a sprinkler. As he fell, the woman screamed, running for her life. However, she tripped over her heels. Her leg twisted, and she screamed for help. However, no one seemed to answer. I walked closer to her, dragging the pipe behind me. Its screeching sound brings the woman to her senses. She started to beg for forgiveness, "Please, please, I'll do anything you want… just please don't kill me…" Her face was covered in dirt and tears for some reason made me almost want to laugh. I smiled, with a wide grin on my face. I stabbed her in the throat, making her incessant talking come to a satisfying end. However I knew my job was not done, I grabbed the woman and threw her into a nearby corner where I found the pipe. I placed her body there and then dragged the other mens bodies on top of her. Wiping the sweat off of my face, I placed trash and debris on top of their bodies covering them up. Insects already started to gather, flies buzzing and laying eggs in their still-warm bodies. As my job was finished I walked away following the road. And started to feel a recessing feeling, and was brought back to the void.