章節 29: The Mind Weave

I followed the giant beast for what seemed like fifteen minutes down a long eerie hallway. I tried to strike up a conversation with it, but I was met with silence. Soon we stopped at a large door seemingly made of flesh and pulsing veins.

"This is where I leave you."

With those words, the beast walked back to the previous room. I eyed the ominous-looking door before reaching out to push it open. As my hand made contact with the door, some of the pulsing veins wrapped loosely around my hand and fingers. It was a gross, odd feeling. Shaking the weird feeling out of my mind, I pushed open the door.

The room I walked into was something I could not imagine. It felt as if I was no longer in a cave; instead, there was no ceiling. There was an open sky of dark purple instead of blue and blood-red clouds. The path was very narrow, and peering over the edge made my stomach drop as I looked down into what could only be an abyss.

Looking back at the path, I see it continues for a short way to a circular clearing. That is when I see the many floating rock islands, all of them moving around as if they had a will of their own. While lost in my thoughts, I felt a few raindrops which quickly turned into a downpour. I noticed the rain was red and brought my hand closer to my face. I then smelled something like copper.

"Wait…is this, blood?"

I searched franticly for any kind of shelter, but the floating island I was on did not have any. Just as soon as the rain started, it had stopped. I looked up and saw a cloud drift away. Suddenly a voice boomed in my head.

"Welcome to the third trial. The Trial of Mind"

I looked up and saw a strange creature. It looked human-ish but only had 4 digits on its hand, and the fingers were quite long and ended with claws. It was dressed in what could only be described as a kind of wizard-like robe. The creature's head looked almost human, except the top of the head was bald and elongated. It pulsed as if it was breathing and the lower face ended in several tentacles.

It stared at me with its inhuman yellow eyes that seemed to glow. I was mesmerized by this creature. My logic was screaming at me to run away as far as I could, but there was something that kept drawing me closer.

I found my body moving of its own volition towards the creature, closer and closer to the edge. I realized if I did not stop myself, I would walk off the edge. It felt like a dream, the kind where you try to do something, but your body is sluggish and doesn't respond well or at all. I wanted to force myself to turn around, but I was fighting against an unknown current.

As I neared the edge, I began to panic, but I could calm myself somewhat. I kept trying to force myself to walk in the other direction. After what seemed like an eternity, I found a weak spot in the 'flow.' I pushed my body to follow this soft spot. Eventually, it listened and turned around, and it suddenly became easier to control me again.

"Congratulations! You have grasped the essence of the mind weave and saved yourself from death."

"This next part won't be so easy. Your goal will be to traverse these floating islands and reach one island with a door. However, during this phase, you will be attacked by myself as well as other creatures."

I stared at the being in front of me as if it was telling some bad joke. I mentally sent my thoughts towards it.

"That's impossible! The nearest island is at least 100m away!"

"Oh!? You have already grasped telepathy. That is good. It means you are quick to learn. To answer your question, You must learn how to wield the mind weave. Use that to aid you in this trial."

I tapped my chin in thought and responded back.

"Sounds simple in theory, but what is the mind weave? I never heard of that before."

"I suppose a quick introductory is in order, very well then, I will make this brief. To understand the mind weave, you need to understand what a psionic field is. Every living creature, or very rarely an inorganic material, generates a psionic field. Some fields are stronger than others, depending on the being. A psionic field is the psionic energy one radiates."

The creature continued to float around as it spoke to me.

"These psionic fields merge together and form what is called the psionic weave. This weave blankets this entire universe. Experts in using the weave can make the impossible possible. They can fling themselves across the universe with nary but a thought. Now that I have given you the basics, let us continue."

With those words, his body shimmered and then disappeared. I stood there on the island, looking at the nearest one.

"There is no way I can jump over there. Even if I made it, the next one is further away."

As I was thinking up a plan, I felt a sharp pain in my back. I fell forward but was able to catch myself. Looking back, I saw a flying monster that looked like a cross between a stingray and a lamprey, gliding in the air. I noticed the long tail with a curved spike on the tip and guessed that was what hit me.

It was making another pass at me, and I drew my sword, ready to attack. It swooped down on me with its circular mouth on its underside, poised to bite into me. I swung my sword into it to deflect its charge. It worked somewhat as I received another attack from its tail.

It flew away again after the attack and turned around towards me for the third time. The island I was on offered no cover. It was just rocky ground where the edged dropped off into the unknown. I readied myself this time.

The creature dove towards me again with its moth open. I dodged to the side and parried its tail strike. The blow was more powerful than I anticipated, and it knocked the sword from my hands. I scrambled to get my sword, but before I could, I felt an invisible force hold me in place.

"Can't have that now, can we? This is a mind trial, not a sword trial. You really ought to think more."

I saw the floating creature from earlier staring at me. The other flying beast made its turn in the air and was headed in my direction. My arms felt like they were restrained, but I still tried to reach out towards my sword.

"Come on! Reach for it, dammit!"

As I reached for the sword, I noticed that the flow around began to change. Like as if I realized for the first time I was under a giant net, not just me, but everything. Continuing to reach for the sword, I felt as if the net was extending its reach to the sword. Once I felt a tendril connect with the blade, things clicked in place as if I found a missing puzzle piece.

I willed the sword to come to me. The blade lifted off the ground a few centimeters, and it flew in my direction…completely overshooting my body, going through the flying stingray and then nose-diving down into the abyss.

"…"

"Shit."

"Splendid! You grasped that much faster than I thought you would. But you still need to make it to the goal."

"Arrgh! That is impossible! How can I jump to the next island? It's not like…I can…. fly?"

"Wait. How are you floating like that?"

"Now you are asking the important questions. I am, of course, using psionics. I told you that with enough practice, anything becomes possible with psionics. You could even bend the very fabric of reality. I'll let you catch a breather for a moment to adjust yourself."

With that, he disappeared again, leaving me on the ground. I stood up and stared at my hands in wonder.

"This game is awesome! Is this what it would feel like to have powers in the real world?"

I focused on a small rock on the ground, feeling for that net again. It only took a moment to latch onto the feeling when I directed a small tendril towards the rock. I held my hand out towards the rock and used it to guide it around the ground.

Several minutes later, I could adequately move the rock around, even guiding it to my hand without overshooting.

"So, using this same principle, I can Float myself and effectively fly?"

I focused again on that familiar feeling, this time on myself. Once I felt it made contact, I slowly lifted myself off the ground.

"Oh my god! I am flying! I really did it!"

I decided to practice moving around using my newfound ability. It wasn't perfect at first, and I did a lot of falling. Still, I eventually found myself being able to levitate around, effectively flying.

"Alright. Here is the moment of truth. Can I fly myself to that island?"

I took several deep breaths and started to levitate. I slowly guided myself to the edge of the island, took a leap of faith, and continued over the abyss.

"Ha! I'm doing it! I'm doing…."

I got too excited and almost lost concentration and fell. I stabilized myself again and continued on over to the island. It wasn't long, but it felt like it took forever because of how nerve-wracking that experience was. I finally landed on the other side and cried tears of joy.

"Congratulations on succeeding. You did remarkably well for your first time. Now let's see you make your way to the end, but you won't have the luxury of taking it slow this time. You will be attacked by me and others as you proceed. This will help temper your concentration and mind."

"Shit. Can't have anything go easy for once, can I?"

"No. You can't."