It was a prison.
In his own mind and body.
It wasn't the first time he was trapped in this room. He had been there a very long time, before the world as he knew it changed.
That hospital room was depressing, like any other.
Mori considered himself a clean person, but this room was too clean.
It wasn't hard to maintain it that way, considering his mom never moved around.
The only people in and out of here would be him, the nurses and the janitors.
Mori looked around, reminiscing about the countless nights he spent in that room, talking or just hanging out.
At one point, it was even his escape.
Maël hadn't come back, it had been a while now.
"What the hell..."
He looked around again, but nothing could help him undo his bindings.
He was stuck on that armchair, barely able to a move a muscle.
He couldn't conjure the force to get back on top.
But I did it last time...
Mori closed his eyes, concentrating the best he could.
She said it herself, magic isn't as restrained as the system makes it look.
He knew it himself, as he played with magic's limits. Casting it while disregarding several requirements, or even trading requirements for others.
Even the way he used hexes was not out of the system's books.
So being stuck here meant nothing, it was only a question of time before he would be able to get himself out.
But how?
He concentrated even more, trying to move out of his mind and into his body.
He visualized what he wanted to do. The room he was in, in that corner of his mind Maël had appropriated.
That place down below, through the depths in which he had jumped previously. Letting her take control.
Why is it harder now?! I've let myself out last time!
Mori felt like screaming, annoyed and pissed.
But he wouldn't give Maël that satisfaction.
He sighed, looking through the room once more for clues.
But nothing.
The only thing that lingered was Maël's words.
I'm lying? Gaslighting? I've done a lot of horrible things since I've arrived here, but that?
He looked at the hospital bed where his mom would've been.
What was it he was getting wrong?
"What is it I'm missing?!" yelled Mori. Find adventures at m_v l|e-novelhall.net
But while his voice echoed on the walls, no other sound made it back to him.
What did she see that I couldn't?
He scrubbed his memory of the time he had spent with his mother, an activity he had done multiple times.
Is there more than what I thought? What does it matter now that I've entered the cycle of violence already?
Mori's mind wandered into the different memories he had stored.
When she was in full control, it felt like he was a completely different person. When she took over previously it wasn't as smooth and fluid.
Her movements didn't feel constrained, they felt natural and flowing.
She sped up, jumping over a meter-wide crack on the ground. She easily got over it, rolling on the floor and transitioning into running without losing a single breath.
It didn't even feel like she slowed down at all.
She was seeing the world through his eyes, which meant she could only see as good as he could. And this feat alone was impressive.
I guess you do know your way around these lands.
Dead trees, dead grass, dirt, rocks, all of it in shades of grey.
Compared to when he first arrived, he noticed more and more humanoid creatures laying around against rocks, trees or even just the ground.
"Husks."
Mori was weirdly relieved to see other living things around in this wasteland.
Why, when you, and these guys come out to the real world you look like those eldritch black gooey beings?
"Real world?"
You know what I mean.
"You're curious about the weirdest things. We take those appearances the moment we leave this realm. That includes when we go to the 'land between' that acts as a bridge."
Why?
"I'm getting to it," she said, annoyed.
She jumped across another gap in the ground, going around another humanoid that was straight on her path.
That one was clearly human, or what remained of one.
"We're cursed beings. When we step out of here, our body become those things you call 'hexes'. The only chance we have at staying outside is finding something to host us. If I hadn't jumped into you, I wouldn't have been able to stay in that realm."
If that's true then why doesn't it happen more often? Should your kind plague the common realm?
"The way it's supposed to go is we go from this realm to the land between, then we go from the land between to the common realm with the help of some stupid mage that uses curses."
...And I have holes on my body directly connecting to this place, not going through the land between.
"Yeah. Letting them create those passages on your body was a bold move. I don't think it's a bad idea, however."
He agreed, ultimately.
Those holes made his progress tremendously faster, and so what they had a way to the common realm through him?
His only issue was control, but with the inscriptions done by Xannos he was doing good. Not only that, leveling up should most likely help with that same control.
He'd eventually level up inscription himself, and upgrade what was done into something more easy to use.
In a manner that would let him open and close those portals whenever he needed.
He was in thought, but those thoughts were cut short.
"Enough. You've had your fun, time to go back and think for yourself a bit."
What? b-
Mori's consciousness started fading from his body, going back into that place in his mind he dreaded.
That hospital room that was so familiar.
As he got back into it, seemingly falling from the sky back into that armchair, he was right where he started.
Yet it didn't feel like he was starting over.
There must've been something important he overlooked.
The way Maël was talking, it truly felt like she wasn't punishing him as much as pushing him toward finding something he should've seen before.
Something he was clearly missing.
Fine. he thought.
He would go over the worst time of his life mentally one more time, hoping to find answers.