Esper Labyrinth - ESP - Superhero - LITRPG

POV: Gefre-Shur the Veiled.

The room was damp and soggy and cool. The humid air clinging to the walls and to the insides of my lungs in equal measure. Lights danced on the ceiling in the form of floating, swaying sprites that seemed to race against each other as they all swayed to the tune of some unheard rhythm.

In other days, in better days, this place would have been a training ground for appropriately levelled Masters. Nothing too fancy, only one long hallway with different sections separated by larger and larger doors.

The Instance was commonly filled with all sorts of monsters, back when the System was actively spawning them. It was a simple, straightforward challenge where the explorer would show up and be met with a horde of similarly-dangerous creatures. Defeat them and more would show up in the next room. Use a pattern of attack and the monsters in the next section would all be created in such a way as to counter them. The idea being to temper challengers by forcing them to adapt.

The Psy would flow directly from Pandemonium and rather than making Intruders, the Divines would let the power seep into the walls so that life could be given to giant insects and chimeras made up of several normal creatures. Though now they would be much-improved.

Now things were different however. The System being down meant that the monsters would not spawn. Meaning there was no real reason to be here.

No reason, other than the fact that this little pocket dimension could not be accessed anymore either. Not unless you already knew where to go and you guessed that we were here trying to enact our plan. Difficult, since this was a dimension all on its own and foretelling abilities were limited by the current dimension one was occupying.

'Though of course it didn't end up mattering.' I thought with some humor. 'Crushing Void or Benevolent Mercy must have known where this place was. Either that, or the Drake guessed what we were doing and he merely started hopping across the Instances he knew about. Or the Tyrant managed to form some plan from the thoughts he gleamed thanks to his mind-reading. There could very well be those who knew full well where we were going. Normal people who happened upon the wrong piece of information at the wrong time. It wasn't like such a thing was unheard of. Jolyon is just a gnome and a low-Tiered Esper on top of that and I allowed him to help. How do I even know he wasn't being spied on?'

There was no way to be certain. Besides, it was a moot point. All I could do was be thankful that this had lasted as long as it had.

I looked around again. The lights seeming to dim as I started moving about the chamber once more.

The innermost section of the Instance was filled with the sounds of traffic. Steps echoing up and down the tunnel walls and ending near the massive doors that separated this place from the rest of the Instance.

Just like with the monsters, the mechanisms that made it a challenge was not working without the System, but it was still heavy enough to stop something like a sonic attack. For anything else, like a Telepathic attack or else a Projector assault made up of energy, we'd be reliant on ourselves.

I'd be fine of course. I may not have been completely recovered but I was by no means weak.

Though I wasn't the ace we were pinning our hopes on.

I glanced over at the opportunists.

Harrowing Wail and Silent Stillness. The former was a feline. A creature who was mostly white with black and grey stripes running down their thin body. The latter was more akin to a cephalopod. With nothing in the way of bone and muscles that looked like they should have been struggling when out of the water.

Both of them had all four Types. Both of them were pacing. Looking thoroughly spooked.

"She should have returned by now!" The treacherous feline muttered. "She should have defeated them all easily enough! How come she isn't back yet!"

I quirked an eyebrow. Thinking back to the last time him and I had met.

It had been during a mediation hearing, where one of the Dragon's students, some Master the Tyrant had killed at the same time he killed me, lay a claim down for a world he had 'discovered'. And by that, he meant that he'd landed on a planet with plenty of resources in a universe controlled by Harrowing Wail's species and said it was his. After Harrowing Wail's people had spent a good century terraforming the place in order to make it habitable.

Now, in any sane multiverse, the Wail would have simply killed off the fool and the whole thing would have been over and done with. It was the natural order of things. Not only was it impolite to go around nabbing worlds in dimensions you didn't control, but to do so against people who could and would fight back was tantamount to stupidity. A frankly insulting level of stupidity. Yes the Wail should have been able to simply drop by and kill the offending Master. Maybe taking out all the regular Kenari pioneers he'd brought along as well.

But then, the Dragon had acted. That and he was in a difficult spot, given the Harrowing Wail's disposition. Yes, he was in the right, but he didn't quite have the means to defend what was his and insulting his own disciple wasn't a fun prospect either.

The Telepath Savant would be dead a few centuries, if he even lasted that long. Expensive Symbiotes could only go so far. Meanwhile, the student, who was already on the 7th Tier, was almost as old as Hazimon's own daughter and would be around for much longer. Maybe even until they ascended.

Mediation in that case therefore extended to Hazimon forcing his own student to pay compensation for taking the planet. But he never required the pupil to give the world back.

The Harrowing Wail had accepted it with cold courtesy but he had never forgotten. Even before the Tyrant showed up, it wasn't a secret that he was waiting to see if an opportunity presented itself. One that would allow him to get some measure of vengeance without risking himself.

After the Tyrant arrived, that anger and resentment had turned into action. The Harrowing Wail had killed so many loyalists that it frankly boggled the mind. Especially given how callously he teleported into worlds before attacking indiscriminately. Taking out his targets and any and all innocents nearby before leaving once more.

It was funny, in a way.

Because Solomon Carter had pushed him away by doing the exact same thing on a much bigger scale.

Apparently wiping out a world with a psychic scream was fine, but plunging an entire dimension into eternal silence was pushing things a bit too far.

The same was true in the mind of the other one. Silent Stillness had been all too happy to follow the Tyrant when that meant following someone content to blow up space-ports. Someone who may stop to assassinate a key figure or two before leaving.

But erasing all life from a universe was too much even for them.

Now they were helping the cause of reason. Of good.

They had kept the boosts and now they were dedicated to summoning Singing Metals. Something which had just become possible after whatever it was the Tyrant was doing stopped working to disrupt Pandemonium. The connection between that realm and the material realms was still too damaged to get the System up and running, but hopefully she'd be able to figure some solution out.

I shook my head.

"I imagine she's extracting some kind of information." I finally answered him.

"That's taking too long!" The walking cat snarled. "Do you have any idea how easy it is to crack a mind open when there's a level disparity? Especially when you're a whole Tier above someone? Gouging out the thoughts of a whole planet's worth of people might take me five whole seconds if I'm taking my sweet time. I can't imagine a Divine is having trouble with just one person!"

"Trust her." The Silent Stillness urged. His transparent fins caressing the empty air as they glided through the space. "She is the only one who stands a chance among us all."

The Wail grunted, but other, lesser Masters looked sick.

I couldn't blame them.

Those allies that remained had become surprisingly quiet once it had become clear that we'd lost the advantage. A good number of them had bowed to the Tyrant, though they thankfully hadn't joined him in hunting us. Nevertheless, they were no longer willing to defy him openly and were therefore not to be trusted.

What good was a rising star at the 7th Tier when they didn't have the stones to stand up for themselves? What good was a student at the 6th Tier when he wouldn't rise up to join their faction in defending the wider whole?

No. The Masters we had left were weaker. 5th or 4th Tier for the most part. The ones who were the students of students. Everyone else was either cowering or already dead.

Still, they had helped to slash open the Veil and stabilize the rift. Long enough for her to step out. That was more than I had expected in all honesty. We might win this war yet.

It irked me that winning would mean the likes of these two would retain the boosts they received but I wasn't about to look a gift like this one the wrong way.

If the Dragon was displeased, then he could voice his displeasure himself. After he got back.

'Now that's a fun thought.' I mused. My whiskers shivering slightly. 'Hazimon getting back and learning that Harrowing Wail helped kill a couple dozen of his best and brightest pupils before seeing reason. Oh to be an insect on the walls when that discussion took place.'

We heard a sound. One that passed over to us even from behind the protection of the doors.

The Harrowing Wail stopped. Dead in his tracks. The purple crackling energy of the rent Veil danced around him and the sparks appeared to enter his slitted eyes from the front and sides.

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"Oh shit." He murmured.

"No." I muttered. Putting a claw to my face.

"Don't tell me he got away."

"Um." He eyed the room. "It doesn't look like he got away."

"Oh. Good." I sighed with relief.

"It looks like he killed her." Silent Stillness added.

The room went quiet.

"I… I can't sense… it's weird. I'm trying to read the minds of some fungi around the spot where the battle took place, but I'm not getting through."

"I am." Harrowing Wail followed up. "Mercy, Void and the Drake all died, but the Drake already teleported back in with a newly grown body. I think he's recording something. I think, the Tyrant lost his symbiote?"

"That's it!?" Silent Stillness shrieked. Tentacles flailing in the air. "You can literally buy a complete respawn for Symbiotes from the System Store! It's not a problem for anyone above the 3rd Tier! I've bought my own Symbiote back after it was killed and it was barely an inconvenience then! Are you telling me that we brought a Divine into reality only for it cost the Tyrant a couple million Tokens!?"

"Couple billion Tokens more like." I grunted. "Our intel said that thing was far more durable than it had any right to be. It's probably been boosted by irregular means. Like, with his own power."

I sighed.

"But yes. Any Vendor should be able to get the exact same Symbiote back to him. The Divine of Living Stitches isn't exactly known for being angry that people enjoy his work and all dead Symbiotes go to him."

That gave me an idea.

"Maybe we could use this though. Perhaps we should summon him next?"

"No good." Harrowing Wail cut me off. "I don't know how but he was one of the first Divines that Solomon Carter reached out to. He's not going to interfere because the two of them bonded over their shared love of the living rags. One of the plans that the Tyrant disclosed to me involved having him persuade other Divines to simply sit out the war. Or else to take his side in order to get the System back in working order. I don't know how well that's worked out but I know those two are not enemies."

"So, we did all this for nothing?" One of the students… less well-known Masters… asked from the side.

He was a Kenari. A Projector who had reached the 4th Tier in his main Type and the 3rd in all the others. Looking at him now, he looked as if he might vomit out his organs.

"All this to barely inconvenience the enemy?"

"Not at all." I clarified. "Singing Metals is a divine and one who is completely on our side. As hard to kill as Solomon Carter and his fiendish goons are, they do not even hold a candle to her. She will reform in Pandemonium and then we will summon her agai…"

The door flew from its hinges. The heavy metals splintering into little droplets of molten lava as liquid bedrock struck and merged with the broken shards in mid-air. The combined compound striking those behind like railgun shots fired from a ship at low orbit.

Then all was quiet again.

The only sound permeating the space being the raspy, slow wheezing of a dozen mouths in tandem.

The thing that peered into the room had three heads. Or rather, the top of three heads. The jaws hung loosely, the bottom sections of the skull opening up to house different open maws belonging to different kinds of animals.

On the leftmost head, the jaws of more savage apes mixed with the jaws of sharks and carnivorous reptiles. On the rightmost head, insectile mandibles clicked together in unison. An entire colony clicking at once. On the center head, the mouths split into three. With the right side being a canine's jaw, the left side being a feline's jaw and the center being made up of a human's jaw. Muscle and bone being exposed where it was supposed to be attached to teeth and fangs.

All the mouths drooled as the thing wheezed. The muscles making up the arms, no, the tendrils to either side growing eyes that blinked in hazy recognition.

The thing wheezed again. And I smelled the smell of rotten meat on its breath.

Then I looked to the side of it and noticed the Seeking Drake in human form. Holding a recording device in one hand while his other hands wiped away tears.

"Look what they'd done to my boy!" He falsely wept. "I'm so proud! This must be what it's like to see a child graduate."

The thing didn't respond. Instead, all its eyes swivelled down to us. As if it could barely even think and searching for us had taken up all of its focus.

"Um." Harrowing Wail began. "I don't suppose you'd settle for the price of the Symbiote?"

The mouths roared. The thing charged.

A blast of Projector Psy sent it forward. Its tentacles slashing out like bladed whips. Its jaws extending and snapping out to bite.

Harrowing Wail tried to flee. Sending out a wave of supressing Psy using his Telepath side while turning around and opening a portal with his new Projector powers. A tentacle reached him before he could cross the threshold and I could feel time slowing to a crawl. My Psy and the other Savant's Psy fighting to escape the hold.

But it was too little too late. The tentacles slammed into Harrowing wail with the ferocity of a master Enhancer. The force being multiplied by the telekinetic wave carrying him forward and by the muscles growing longer and heavier thanks to his Shifter side.

All the powers came at once and the bits of flesh that touched the Wail's body carried that Shifter power. [Vicissitude]. It was already empowering the limb to mutate the Wail's cells. Making them part all on their own in the instant that the thing's own cells turned themselves into knives that cut deeper. While his body boosted the limbs further and further.

It cleaved through Harrowing Wail in one fell swoop. The poor Savant didn't even have the time to react. His own Enhancer and Shifter Types being at the 8th Tier, rather than the 10th. A coincidence? Or perhaps Solomon Carter hadn't trusted Harrowing Wail as much as he trusted the others?

It didn't matter.

Harrowing Wail still had the Title that would let him regenerate out of anyone he healed. He'd be back.

It was a bit of a disappointment that he hadn't managed to do anything to the Tyrant, but I supposed expecting much from a Telepath wasn't the smartest notion in this case.

I rushed forwards and punched. My claws closed into a fist that carried as much force as I could generate into the body of the monster.

The impact came and it blew a hole into the thing's corporeal form. The left head and all the attached jaws shattering and scattering into flying giblets of blood and offal. But then time slowed down again. My own Psy fighting against the pull of the power while his own body immediately reformed the lost pieces. All those flying pieces stopping in mid-air before flying back to their previous spots as if attracted by magnetism.

That head lunged. Brought forwards by a growing neck as it wailed. The sonic attack blowing back the air within the cavern via a shockwave that rippled almost as much as my own punch.

It didn't blow me back, but then it followed up with another bite. The fangs sinking into my flesh slightly.

I was about to strike it off when the monster threw itself into a tackle. Still holding on to me. Its body crashing into the opposite wall like a spaceship dropping down towards the ground with failed, dead engines.

Then the thing stopped time again as the fangs injected toxins into me through the small wounds.

Then it redoubled the hold of stopped time while it channeled Projector Psy into me in a way that felt like telekinesis, but on a much higher Tier. As if he were trying to form the empty air into drills that helped the fangs enter deeper and deeper into me.

All while I heard other tentacles swishing around behind the thing.

I expected Silent Stillness to do something, and indeed, I felt the hold on time lessen as another wave of attacks washed over the Tyrant. But then the injection of venom redoubled. As if the monster were vomiting a stream of foul, corrupting chemicals into my veins.

I would resist them of course, so that didn't matter much. I flexed my muscles and sent more punches into the mutated flesh. The shockwaves gouging out more and more flesh while the flesh that did remain shivered as the force rippled across the cells.

But the monster merely sent more Psy into itself. Lifting me up before slamming me down with three bladed tendrils twisted together.

It charged itself with Projector force every time it was going to strike. It enlarged and hardened itself while it struck and finally it boosted itself with Enhancer abilities. The cells which were writhing gained another layer of power and then they began to rotate once they made contact. Trying to saw or drill their way through me every time.

I kicked the thing away and it barely moved. It absorbed the kinetic force and then it re-sent that force right back at me.

The backlash making its own chest explode while the offal flew at me. Blood hardening and transforming into blades of bone as they came my way.

I dodged to the side before he could nab me again and then I attacked again from the side. Leaping back as the thing absorbed this strike once more. I came in again and again. Charging in and out in order to overwhelm the absorption rate of the ability but the thing kept pouring more and more Psy into stopping or slowing time. Charging itself with Psy to move with a speed and ferocity that should have been impossible for all that bulk.

At the same time, it kept growing new tendrils and new eyes on those tendrils.

I kept shrugging off the effects of the power though. Striking over and over while trying to avoid thinking about how Silent Stillness was not attacking. I did not want to think about how none of the lesser Masters were attacking. Likely they were already dead but I didn't let that stop me.

I rushed in and hit it again.

This time stopping for a fraction of a second to marvel at how the flesh didn't quiver anymore. I retreated, cursing all that additional Psy he had.

Then he exploded with brightness. The air shrieking not with a voice but with a wave of light and heat.

"[Solomon's Frostfire Mantle X]!" All the jaws roared.

There was so much Psy in the air that my fur was singed off. The spots where the fangs had pierced muscle twitching as if currents of lightning were running through my tissues.

I tried to scream.

Another bundle of tendrils flew past me. Bladed tissues cutting with all that force and speed carrying them forwards. Then the spots they traced burned even brighter, before I felt my flesh exploding inwards. As if the cuts were being suddenly squeezed by tongs before each fold was forcibly pulled back.

"[Solomon's Crushing Pressure X]!" The thing roared again. Following that up with spreading that power all around it. Wasting torrents of Psy that made any movements even harder. I felt loose bits and pieces of myself being sheared off as I pushed myself further, time closing in around me as the thing tried to stop me in my tracks again.

"[Solomon's World Over Heaven X]! [Solomon's Unstoppable Charge X]!"

Time screeched to a halt. All sound dying as I slowed down. The thing speeding up. Then it sped up to a blistering speed. Flickering in and out of reality as it phased through a far wall. Before then charging back in. Even faster than before. Covering itself with some variant of [Telekinesis III].

"[Solomon's Unrelenting Force X]!"

Sound vibrated and stuck to the body. Arcs of lighting caressing the horrifically mutated flesh as more and more tendrils come into existence. It seemed to momentarily absorb the excess energy before putting it back out even more tightly packed than before. The very stones beneath it being sanded down to atoms by the vibrating, stored energy.

He doubled in size at once. All the tendrils growing hands and claws and maws. All the eyes shining as Psy leaked out.

Then it screamed again. Adding another layer of sonic energy to the blow.

"YOU CAN'T SEE ME!"

And he was right. I couldn't.

I blinked.

Suddenly turning my head to figure out where he'd gone. My body failing to fight off the stopped time for a second longer as I lost my concentration.

Then I felt the blow and felt myself being wrapped by layers upon layers of meat.

I struggled to strike out, but could not even leverage a single muscle. The venom burned. The raw red dermis beneath my singed fur was split open further and more gouges were made.

I felt small things, small and wriggling things burrowing into my own body.

In a panic, I tried to bite, but the muscle I bit was harder than any metal I'd ever found before. Not only that, but the meat I tried to bite then held my mouth open. Growing another tendril that grew down into my stomach and my lungs.

I tried to scream, but then the tendril expanded further and grew more blades along all its sides. Skewering and slicing my innards as it exploded backwards.

I felt holes in my stomach. Internal bleeding that did not stop. Tendrils now merging with my own body to force changes on me. My own Psy being overpowered by the sheer raw quantity the other side possessed.

'Ah.' I thought then. 'This is how I die.'

It was a disquieting thought, but not an unwelcome one.

It was about time, I supposed.

Harrowing Wail and Silent Stillness had both died and they'd been given additional Types to work with. What did I expect?

Yes, I was at the peak of Enhancers, maybe just a bit short of what Hazimon was capable of, but that didn't mean much here. There was a reason Savants were still considered less potent than fully fledged Masters at the 10th Tier. At the step before ascension, it would be a great many powers working to fend off a single Type. There was too much in the way of flexibility.

No, this was over.

But at least I could console myself in the knowledge that both Harrowing Wail and Silent Stillness would come back to life.

They would summon her again and she would learn from whatever trick this thing had used. She would defeat him.

Then I noticed the pain spreading further and further. My own muscles and bones being bitten off and ground into paste while the thing's own organs moved in to fill the gaps. I was soon being given fresh oxygen by his lungs breathing into my veins and arteries. I was soon being given sustenance by his stomachs doing the same.

I was… being kept alive?

'But for what?'

It was then, that I remembered.

The Seeking Drake had tutored this thing.

And I had not seen either of my fellow Savants die.

It was a shame that I had no mouth, for all I wanted to do was scream.