"That's more like it, you need me." It said with a wide grin.
"Say that you need me." The floating cat insisted.
Mark crossed his arms and looked away, not intending to utter the words.
The spirit guardian disappeared again.
"Alright alright… I need you, I need you!" He yelled.
The spirit guardian heard his cry and appeared to him again.
"Remember it pays to be humble." It zoomed in and tapped his nose. A tingling sensation befell the area of contact, but it soon went away.
"I need to know where to move to."
"The undead told you not to go to the city and now you're wary?" The cat teased.
"I mean putting it like that…"
"The undead, the village, the trials, they are all machinations and don't act beyond the functions given to them by God Emon. You see Emon is quite creative, when he created the rooms, and the obstacles within it, he made sure to add a little bit of substance, some more flavor. The undead only think the city is evil because Emon wrote it into their minds to think so, the city hasn't done anything to them, in fact they don't move beyond the boundary at which that undead stood, they are slow, kind and zone out because God Emon wills it. He finds it more entertaining to embrace variety and substance into his work."
"Ohh…" Mark held his chin, pondering.
'My conversation with Panilusai felt so real.'
"You are thinking that your time with the undead felt too real, right?"
Mark responded with a nod. Panilusai had shown emotions for an undead and his dog was much too lively to just be a written machine in a story. Mark didn't want to accept the spirit guardian's words.
'They were real, I can feel it.
"God Emon did implant this room with a minute piece of greater will, a little of it and the room took it upon itself to grant its residents the same, a mimic. It's all fake, and you too will know after you spend some time here. But you won't be spending too much time, you've got to move.
"Just walk, whatever step you take, as long as it isn't backwards, you'll reach the destination eventually. This place is a pocket dimension with just one path, and that's forward regardless of the step you make. You'll get to the city before the next room, Emon has willed it so." The cat explained with its high pitched cute voice, crossing its arms.
"I see."
"Any questions?"
Mark hesitantly raised his fingers up as he tried to think of a question.
"None I see. Later!" The spirit guardian announced and then poof, it was gone.
Mark sighed, slouching his shoulder, and he turned to the village.
"No way all that wasn't real. I'm Mark the human." He said and began walking.
After exactly five hundred steps, the distant image of black buildings jutting to the sky, and plumes of dark smoke zooming to the dark clouds above came to Mark's eyes.
The buildings, the place hadn't been there some ten steps back.
He took twenty more steps and suddenly he was at the edge of the city. It was like something shifted either him or the city or both as he took steps.
Soon as he took a step into the city–the boundary of the outermost buildings, his vision became dimmer, blurry, his legs slouched and so did the rest of his body like a constant weak pressure was pressing against him.
"What's going on?" He spoke, his voice sounding slowed in his ears. Was it that he spoke slowly or did his ears receive the sounds slowly, or was it both? He had no idea.
He then turned and looked above. A ring of darkness hung above the city–a thing he hadn't seen from the distance.
'What's wrong with this place? I feel drained.' he slogged to a nearby building and leaned on it–with his left shoulder.
His eyelids suddenly felt heavy, and he struggled to keep them open, but they went shut before he knew.
"Oi oi! I'll give you your money boss, I promise, just give me more time, just a little time."
"Look at my fingers, how many are up? Answer me? How many are up?!"
"Seven."
"That's right, seven. You've asked for your time to be extended seven times, I've been more than lenient. This time, your body will do."
"Please, no! No!"
Screams escaped the person, and there was the sound of flesh tearing, and the ferocity of wild animals.
"Huh huh," Mark's eyes fluttered open, and he shook his head trying to send away the grogginess that came.
He then saw the gruesome sight that unfolded before him.
"Oh fuck."
Just a few meters away, right in front of him was a three-headed beast digging its maws into a dead blue thing with human limbs. It tore the body apart with an unmatched fierceness, swallowing bits, as its master holding it on a leash watched.
Mark swiftly moved and hid behind the building he had leaned on.
He then crept silently and took a peek.
The beast was done with its victim, and its master–a green round creature with four large tentacles lifting it pulled off and went their way, Mark out of their sights.
[Soinini]
[A forced mutation ????]
The master was a Soinini and the large beast was some sort of mutation, according to the goddess's eye.
Till the two left the scene completely and were out of sight did Mark come out of his hiding place.
He crept to what remained of the creature that had been eaten by the mutated beast.
"Oh fuck…"
A gaping hollow was at where organs used to be. The creature's skin was blue, with white spots all over, however red splotches of its blood tainted its body. It was very humanlike in shape, with the only visible distinct feature being its fin-like ears and skin color. Its face was no more, and its chest, down to its torso had been entirely torn away.
A gruesome death.
"I best leave here the soonest I can."