Swept Away

I aim the tip of my spear at Jamie, whose movements are briefly halted by the vines. My combat experience screams that this is the moment to pour everything I have into a single strike.

I grip the spear shaft tightly. Mana boils within me, gathering with increasing density around my heart. As I exhale a beastly breath, the world seems to slow down, a moment shorter than a blink stretching into an eternity, expanding into a realm of heightened senses.

It’s my first time using both Intangibility and Dimensional Leap simultaneously, but its destructive power is guaranteed. Even without Intangibility, Dimensional Leap was practically my ultimate move. Adding Intangibility to multiply its power several times over, I’m confident I can kill even Confession with a single blow.

I create a dimensional pathway directly in front of Jamie. There were no spatial coordinates around Jamie, but Dimensional Leap doesn’t need them. It simply moves forward like an arrow, piercing everything in its path.

An uncontrollable, immense power surges through my body, threatening to explode. With a sense of floating, as if being pushed from behind, the moment time completely stops flowing, my body is sucked into the dimensional pathway.

Piercing through the surrounding darkness, only one path leads to the destination. Just as my body is about to become a flash of light towards Jamie, I feel a strange pressure, as if something is coiling around me.

I questioned it, but I was already in a situation where I couldn’t stop voluntarily. I instinctively knew that if I didn’t release this intense power, my heart would burst, the mana increased to its limit waiting to be released within my body.

With tremendous speed, like being shot out, Jamie’s voice echoes throughout my entire body, which has become a flash of light passing through the dimensional pathway.

,The biggest trick, is this.”

At that moment, Jamie, who had been at the end of the dimensional pathway, turned into a lump of flesh, unable to maintain its form and collapsing. And Jamie’s flesh and blood, which had been clinging to my body, formed a sticky shape, like blood vessels.

Suddenly, the dimensional pathway begins to become unstable. The pathway crumbles and collapses. I felt as if the dimension rippled, like an invisible membrane undulating.

,Everyone you killed was the real Jamie. Hoo-euh-euh-eut!”

Madness begins to ransack my mind. There was no pain. Just the terror of being eaten alive by something stimulates my brain. Reacting to it, the warmed-up mana explodes.

I, who have become a flash of light, pass through the collapsing dimensional pathway. Because the pathway collapsed, the tip of the spear tears through the dimensional pathway. The Spear of Destruction tears through the intangible membrane, erasing the form of something and continuing endlessly.

,I told you. Madness is a wave, and you, who have been touched by that wave, can become a wonderful me too. Keu-ha-ha-hat!!!”

Finally ending the Dimensional Leap, I lose consciousness from a burning pain in my brain and fall somewhere.

***

Jamie was among the weakest in Confession in terms of pure skill. He was even weaker in terms of martial prowess than Parvati, the Saintess of the Order.

But the reason Jamie received a higher number than Parvati was purely because he possessed a powerful ability to make up for his lack of strength.

Jamie is not a name that refers to one person. It is the name given to a person contaminated by the madness called Jamie. It involves seizing the body and mind through the wave of madness, turning the opponent into Jamie.

In other words, Jamie was a formless ‘wave.’

At first, he simply intended to bring Ross’s head to Mesmer, but upon seeing him use space magic, Jamie changed his plan. The desire to have that body stirred within him.

So, he deliberately kept attaching parts of himself to Ross’s body. Just as a person is gradually tainted by the flowing madness, Ross never realized until the end that he was being tainted by the wave of madness that was Jamie.

Now, all Jamie had to do was find Ross, who was cowering in the deepest part of his mind, and absorb him as his own. If that happened, it would be the birth of Jamie, who uses the space magic that the leader was so desperately searching for.

,Hoo-heu-heu-hit!”

Jamie, bursting into a joyful laugh, arrived at Ross’s mindscape, which was a pure white world. Ross was sitting alone in a place where nothing existed, crouching down and burying his face in his knees.

Jamie, who enjoyed breaking people the most, deliberately made footsteps. But Ross didn’t flinch at the sound of footsteps, nor did he lift his head to look at Jamie.

Even after deliberately putting strength into his heels and circling around him, Jamie sighed with a very disappointed expression at his lack of reaction.

,Ha, have you already been broken by madness? This is completely disappointing! You have to resist at least a little so I can eat you deliciously! Hoo-euh-heut!”

Jamie, who approached Ross and bent down, grabbed his hair and forcibly lifted his head. But even then, Ross had his eyes closed with a blank expression.

Jamie’s face twisted greatly at that reaction.

,Open your eyes! Witness the madness before you! Watch clearly the moment you become one with this body!”

At that moment, Ross opened his eyes.

―――.

There was nothing in his blue eyes. Eyes that were very fitting for the word emptiness. No, something that must exist in a person was missing.

Jamie, who had met his gaze, unknowingly let go of the hand holding his hair and took a step back. Ross’s gaze followed Jamie.

Ross opened his mouth in a dry voice without emotion, intonation, or even pitch.

,…The one I’ve been waiting for isn’t you.”

Jamie, hearing those words, emitted madness with a ferocious expression.

,Hoo-euh-heu-heut…! What is it, what is it! Why aren’t you reacting to my madness!!!”

The wave of madness from Jamie that reached Ross disappears without a trace. Ross raised the corners of his mouth towards Jamie, who was glaring at him with eyes filled with hatred and resentment.

,That’s, madness…?”

The wave of madness recedes. No, his madness was being sucked into Ross.

,Poo-keu-poo-keu-poo-heu-keu!”

With that laughter, Jamie saw beyond Ross’s eyes. They weren’t empty eyes. There was just something that couldn’t be defined. It was something that only Jamie, who shared chaos and madness, could see.

Beyond those blue eyes, something exists that cannot be confined by the words chaos and madness. Because he couldn’t believe it, Jamie shouted with all his might.

,You, you are…! What the hell are you!”

At that question, Ross stared at Jamie. Something is rushing in.

Something indescribable.

,Poo-keu-poo-heu―!”

With that laughter, Jamie finally realized.

,Ah, ah, ah…! Hoo-euh-heut! Yes, finally, I’ve finally found it! The starting point of everything, this Jamie…!”

Not realizing that his body was melting, Jamie only looked beyond Ross’s eyes.

At this moment, Jamie realized the truth, even if only slightly.

,Hoo-euh-hoot, I’ve always wondered. You, your existence! In the end, that person, our choice is…!!!”

Jamie’s body collapses and flows into Ross. Jamie, who was trying to absorb Ross, was eaten in reverse.

―How pathetic, I can’t even recognize you guys.

Ross, who slowly closed his eyes, buried his face in his knees again.

Waiting for a friend to come and end his long sleep.

∞

When I came to my senses, all I could see was nothing. It was dark around me, as if I had closed my eyes. The strange thing was that only my body was clearly visible, unlike the surroundings, as if it were illuminated. Perhaps I had lost consciousness for a moment, as I could still feel the blood soaking my clothes.

I am floating in the air now. No, it would be more accurate to say that I am fixed in place. Because even if I shake my arms and legs hard, I don’t feel like I’m moving. Maybe it’s because I don’t have any vision.

,What the hell is going on…?”

Am I trapped in Jamie’s trap? But there was nothing unusual felt inside my body. My mind seems to be surprisingly fine too.

The unique thing is that there are no spatial coordinates recognized around me. It was a situation I had never experienced before, so I was lost in thought for a while.

After agonizing over the situation a while ago, I was able to come up with one hypothesis.

Could it be that because the dimensional pathway collapsed, I couldn’t get out and was trapped in the dimension as it is…?

If that were true, it would be the worst-case scenario. There was no way to escape this place at all. It was a place where there was no space and no sense of the passage of time.

,…I’m fucked.”

My back gets wet with cold sweat. I might have to maintain this state until my ego collapses. How many years will that take? No, will my ego even collapse? Does time even flow? Questions keep popping up one after another. Such an absurd ending, I can’t even sigh.

Then suddenly, the Space Storage appeared in front of my eyes. I didn’t summon it. I don’t understand at all how the Space Storage appeared in front of me when there are no spatial coordinates here.

While I was staring at the Space Storage with bewildered eyes, the door of the storage opened on its own.

And something came out. A book. Patouga’s Grimoire, which has been with me the longest.

It unfolded on its own, and suddenly pages that had never existed before began to increase.

,What, what is it…?”

I picked up the book and checked the added content. It’s a letter I’ve never seen before. But strangely enough, I understood it. How? The question followed, but I could only express it as I just knew it naturally.

Patouga’s Grimoire returned to the Space Storage as if it had fulfilled its mission. Then the Space Storage disappeared like a phantom.

It’s as if I had a brief dream, the situation doesn’t seem any different than before, but there was a clear difference inside.

It is the formula of a structure I’ve never seen before, recorded in Patouga’s Grimoire, which is located in my head.

The logic of explanation and the method of the formula were completely different from the existing ones. But I could freely use the formula as if I had known it from the beginning.

Rune letters form a circle and shine on both wrists. I reached out and grabbed and turned something invisible. A pathway I’ve never seen before was implemented in a space where nothing exists.

It’s different from the dimensional pathway created with surfaces and lines in the mindscape. This is… yes, it feels like forcibly connecting surfaces and lines to something that doesn’t exist. I couldn’t shake the feeling that it was unstable and dangerous.

I don’t know what exists beyond this pathway. But I had no choice but to pass through the pathway.

I have to go back to where I was. Because there are people who are now missing me and waiting for me.

I smiled faintly. And I took an irreversible step towards the pathway.