Bab 19: Confronting Control
As Adrian ran across the wasteland the crimson panel appeared again as if to warn Adrian of his limited time.
[Time Limit: 127 Hours]
When the panel appeared Adrian could only scoff at the seemingly useless idea of him keeping time himself, seeing as Adrian had only counted six hours passing from the moment he stepped into the portal.
Yet, those six hours with Sakura, became almost three days on the island.
******
After just under four more hours of searching Adrian, luckily or maybe unluckily, spotted a golden pillar of light illuminating the theater except, this time the crowded, but lively atmosphere was replaced with a single stringless marionette.
As Adrian approached the golden curtain, Sakura warned, ~Be careful… this place may seem weaker, but it's much angrier.~
When Adrian heard those words, he stopped dead in his tracks, before taking a deep breath enveloping himself in what he envisioned as time.
When he exhaled a solid layer of "time" surrounded every inch of his body making him feel disconnected from the flow of time around him.
With a dissatisfied look, Adrian started to vibrate so imperceptibly fast that his once tine, hazy blood mist now surrounded the entire curtain of golden light leaching into the theater's domain.
Still unsure of his precautions Adrian, while suppressing Endurance to allow for the blood mist's existence, summoned his spear Gáe Bulg.
Only then was he satisfied with his preparations.
With a confident smirk, Adrian jokingly asked Sakura, "So, this careful enough."
Sakura's only responded with, ~Sure, break a leg.~
With Sakura's confirmation, Adrian launched himself deep into the golden curtain while saying, "Will do!"
As Adrian lept through the curtain of light Wisdom fired on all cylinders reviling the theater for the decrepit nightmare it was.
In reality, the small Marionette outside had loomed high above the center stage of the theater.
The Marionette stared down at Adrian with its cracked black eyes and sewed mouth.
As Adrian rushed forward to destroy the final nightmare a loud cracking sound boomed across the stage.
The Marionette's slender frame cracked allowing four long spindly arms to break free embedding millions of semi-imperceptible strings across the stage.
Even with Adrian's advanced speed, he couldn't react in time before a legion of decrepit dolls of flesh and bone rose from the strings.
Each of the doll's movements were controlled in an unnatural way as they rushed forward to destroy Adrian.
Relinquishing his sanity Adrian ripped apart causing blood to congeal in the air making the blood mist denser.
With crazed laughter, Adrian jumped into the doll's onslaught rending hundreds of doll's limbs from their bodies in just a few seconds.
Contrary to his expectation with each doll that he tore apart, the numbers never decreased.
As when a doll was damaged hundreds of strings would lash out reattaching their broken pieces.
The only thing Adrian accomplished in his rampage was angering the Marionette as it watched its dolls be destroyed.
Soon, the enraged Marionette raised its other three arms, filling the theater with millions of unkillable dolls, each being controlled with the express intent to kill Adrian.
Even in his rampage, nothing had hit Adrian thanks to the "time" surrounding him allowing each second to be multiplied in his mind allowing him to react exponentially faster.
Even when faced with the torrent of millions of fists Adrian only nodded before seamlessly dodging every attack contouring his body in unnatural ways to counterattack.
The current scene could now only be described as apocalyptic when looked at from above.
Thick blood mist congealed in the air surrounding millions of animated dolls that swarmed the ground all while a blue-tinted figure teleported across the stage tearing apart everything in his path.
Watching such a terrifying sight the Marionette became even further enraged as it summoned two smaller puppets similar to itself hoping they could limit Adrian's movements while it prepared to attempt an all-out attack.
When Adrian saw the towering puppets appear his previous sadistic laugh quickly turned into a frown before he muttered, "I guess it's time to ramp it up."
With that said Adrian stopped recklessly tearing through the dolls as his movements slowly transitioned to a familiar weapon art.
The Marionette noticed the change in Adrian's fighting style, quickly sending out his puppets to hopefully limit Adrian while he was tired out, unaware of the meaning of Adrian's movements.
Once the Marionette realized his mistake it was far too late as a loud booming voice rang out, "Nine Emotions, Infinite Weapon Art, First Form Lag!"
As the heavenly voice deceased upon the battlefield, a seemingly endless army of clones appeared behind Adrian each bearing a different style.
Army against army the Marionette soon realized its power had been significantly reduced without it noticing.
But the most astonishing thing it noticed was Adrian's body had been possessed the entire time.
******
Earlier as Adrian jumped into the battlefield…
As soon as the theater's true visage was revealed Adrian came to terms with the real reason for its existence and only to have a familiar high pitch boy's voice call out, "Dad, what are you doing?"
Under the influence of time, the moment froze progressing at a fraction of the speed of light.
Adrian slowly closed his eyes almost instinctively as if knowing the voice had come from his mind as he asked, "Dee?!"
In an inquisitive voice, Dee quickly responded asking, "What's wrong, Deddy?"
Thinking quickly Adrian asked, "How are you awake? Or… is this just a trick from this wretched place."
A small blue-haired, pale-skinned, spirit-like, boy with bright red eyes inquisitively blinked, in Adrian's mind before mischievously saying, "Remember, lost star pavilion?"
Adrian coughed quickly realizing that this Dee was quite real, "I'll answer all your questions later but, for now, want to help Daddy play with these dolls?"
Excited to play with his dad after so long Dee quickly asked how he could.
Adrian answered in a matter-of-fact way saying, "Possess my body and go all out. Easy right?"
Shocked and confused Dee quickly agreed never expecting his control freak of a dad would allow him to have full control and play.
As their consciousness swapped places time resumed…
*****
Before the Marionette could even process the new information Dee, and by proxy Adrian, broke free from the rampage of dolls piercing into its heart shattering the orb.
Which caused the theater to, rather anti-climatically, fade to dust as if it had never existed.
With the final shard in this zone, Adrian asked Dee for his body back so they could find the exit.
PERTIMBANGAN PENCIPTA 
system_evolver
system_evolver Each person deals with their problems differently, but we should all deal with them instead of allowing them to fester and grow.
******
I know this chapter is confusing as I referred to Adrian's body as Adrian even though Dee was in control but I thought it was more fun that way.
I look forward to further interactions with everyone who supports this series.
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone