Chapter 47

Chapter 47

Do you think thats the last one? I asked Damien from the bow of the battleship.

I think so. Damien gave me a worried look. Are you doing okay? I know youve had a lot of things slamming into you all at once.

Im coping.

Damien and I had been hunting wandering emotions for the last day, while Ilore focused on repairing the ones we had. Periodically I would get pulses of different emotions as they were repaired and absorbed back into my mind. It had been a trying time. In some ways, having it happen all at once made it easier. I was no longer overwhelmed by one emotion and some countered each other which helped even things out.

Dont be fooled, the bombardment was frustrating, and I took to working out my frustrations on any wandering emotion we came across.

We had gotten very good at catching them. Damien utilized the increased power of my mindscape to devastating effect. With my limited understanding of time magic, I was able to fill the role of Ilore for suppressing them until we could get them back to her.

On top of that, Damiens living dead dragon continued to grow in power. One of the first things hed done was enhance the dragon with the available increased mental energies. The dragon was truly a force of nature.

The massive beast plummeted to the island below us surrounded in a torrent of flame as it landed on top of the hulking emotion.

Things started happening quickly after mastering the orb. From hunting emotions to Ilore repairing them, itd become easier. And both mine and my assistants power had increased greatly in the mindscape.

Shall we head down? I asked. Our presence was required. Mine was, at least, in order to find the emotion and transport it back to the central island.

Might as well. Damien leapt off the battleship, and I followed him down. We arrived just as the dragon was pinning the emotion under its massive claws.

Using a spell Ilore had taught me, I bound the emotion in strands of time magic. Damien wandered around the area.

As I was finishing up, Damien came running over. Zeke, this wasnt the last one. I found a dungeon entrance.

Well, I guess its a good thing you looked around.

Damien led me into a ravine. The dungeon was quite well hidden, and there were no monsters patrolling the entrance like the others. The passage was far too narrow for the dragon to enter, which was a shame. Wed sent it into a couple other dungeons ahead of us, and every time, the dragon had done most of the work. Like I said, it was incredibly powerful.

Damien and I entered the dungeon, with me leading the way with Mercy. Occasionally we had to shimmy sideways between rock faces in order to continue. The first sign of danger came as a sense I feltsomething Id taken to watching for in our fights. The precognition ability hadnt been of much use while the dragon took the frontal charge, but this time, I was able to use this new sense to deflect a blow from a creature that leapt out from behind a corner.

The goblin snarled at me, and before it could recover, I struck it down. It being in my mindscape didnt seem right.

Why are there goblins in here? I asked. So far, all the creatures wed come across were monsters based off of natural creatures, not sapient creatures.

I have no idea. Damien eyed the corpse. That is rather unusual.

I smiled coldly. You know, recently, I came to terms with the monster I am. So far it has been enlightening.

I surged forward, holding Mercy in a high guard position, and Damien directed the zombies to attack. The goblin boss twisted his arms around, and a wave of cutting energy rocketed out, slicing the zombies apart. I deflected it with Mercys blade, and Damien raised a barrier around himself.

This goblin was quite the powerful telepath.

Murderer! the goblin screamed and lunged at me.

If you werent goblins, I might feel bad, I said. But you were sacrificing villagers. Whos really the monster here?

I slashed, driving the goblin back, then spun Mercy and slammed the butt of it into his chest. A beam of black energy from Damien cut across the room, but the goblin dodged out of the way. To me, he was moving in slow motion, and I met him right as he came out of his roll.

The power from mastering the orb was quite immense.

I saw the goblin strike at me, using a cutting force that erupted out of his hand, and before he could bring that attack into the present, I deflected his hands to the side, and the cutting force shot off away from me. I blocked each of his attacks with the shaft of my weapon, then rammed the butt into his chest, causing him to stagger.

A bolt of magic from Damien knocked the goblin onto his back. Before it could rise, I was on top of it, though I didnt strike right away. What hed said bothered me. But this was an invader to my mind, and I would show it no mercy.

Blinking away the hesitation, I drove Mercys blade through the roof of the goblins mouth, securing its brain.

As the goblins head slid off my blade, I looked at Damien. I am not a monster.

Arent we all monsters to our enemies? Damien asked. They see us as the ones who come to end their lives. We are always a monster to someone.

Huh I honestly hadnt thought of it that way, I admitted. Then, who determines what a monster is?

I guess that the depends on where you fall in the spectrum of light and dark, Damien suggested. I personally see Father Mathis as a monster. He abuses his power and the people under him. Yes, its not as bad as what this goblin was doing to the innocent, but its still a monstrous act.

Ilore saw me as a monster to start with, I pointed out. I really struggle with this concept. In the world I came from, there was a pretty clear right and wrong. Here in the World of Magic, the lines between what is right and what is wrong are more blurred.

Damien gave me a long, searching look and nodded. Good.

What do you mean good? I asked.

Damien ignored me and gestured for us to leave. I kept pestering him about it, but he stubbornly refused to explain what he meant. We headed back to the main island with the captured emotion.

This is the last one, Ilore confirmed as we laid the emotion down on a bed. I can tell. Your mind is finally feeling whole again. Theres just one piece missing, she nodded at the restrained emotion. And this is it.