Eldritch

 

I'm rushing out of the mess hall.
I know that I can't teleport in front of all these people, and coming from what I was told mum should be fine.
Nonetheless, I have to make sure she's okay and will stay that way.

Eryna is rather clumsily still dragged along by my side.
I guess she just forgot to let go or is afraid of what might happen if she does.
I want to keep walking until there's no one nearby anymore.
However, my inner radar tells me that the slightly offensive maid from before is following us.

And her orange dot does really ping up on it.
Yet while I was at it, I already widened the area and localized mum's dot.
I won't go into detail regarding how her "soul" shows up on it, but from what I can gather she's currently healthy and alone.
Well, apart from the guards in front of wherever she is.
Since there's no immediate danger I simply walk toward her.

 

"E-excuse me. But what are you going to do?" (E)

 

Eryna seems to have finally found the confidence to say something.

 

"Look for my mum! What else?" (I)

 

What kind of question is that?
I hear my mum's in trouble, so I come to her aid.

 

­"N-no, I-I get it. But how? I m-mean wh-what will this entail." (E)

 

I stop in my tracks.
Shit, she's right.
Divine wrath and so on.
Am I going to turn this castle upside down if someone tries to stop me and I don't get my will?
This means I have to ask myself if I'm willing to go so far and expose myself as what I am.

 

"The issue is, that at the moment your friend is stalking us, so I can't do anything flashy. If you can get her off my trail I can go for a less-direct approach." (I)

 

Damn, that did sound very much like a threat.
I have to work on the image Eryna has of me.
She might be the only one who knows that I kinda am a divine being and certainly won't gossip about it, but that only means one hundred percent of my believers think I'm a wrathful lunatic who treats this world as their sandbox.

 

"A-Alira? Oh no. I-I'll intercept her. P-please don't do... something." (E)

 

Yep, my reputation is so far down the gutter.

At least she turns around and blocks the next entryway.

 

"Alira!" (E)

"Whoah! Shouldn't you watch over your apprentice?" (A)

 

I don't pay any more attention to their talk and get further away from people.

 

"What now, mum? Are we getting back at those who were mean to grandma?" (K)

 

Kuri!?
I completely forgot that she was in my shadow.
Well, now it's education time.

 

"No, Kuri. I don't think so. Rather I'll simply fetch mum and leave this whole realm altogether before something worse happens." (I)

"How can you leave yourself?" (K)

 

Well, that's a good question.

"At least I shouldn't interfere anymore in this place. They did well enough without me." (I)

"Okay, mum." (K)

 

Finally, I reach a sufficiently remote place and can teleport.
When I open my eyes, the room I find myself in is something between a guest room and a cell.
Neither especially nice nor completely inappropriate.
It could be worse.

 

"Sigh, I think I'll never get used to it when this happens." (S)

"Mum!!" (I)

 

I lose no time and embrace her.
And in a very sneaky way suddenly a mini-demon is also wrapped around us.

 

"Kuri?" (S)

"Can't I?" (K)

"Well, I guess it's fine." (I)

"Yay!" (K)

 

And unsurprisingly we find ourselves now in a cloud of miasma which gets absorbed by mum.
Talk about weird family relations.
I'm still a bit worried that the guards who are not too far away might notice something.
We're not exactly quiet in here.

 

"Nice of you to visit me." (S)

"Mum, I'm sorry I left you alone at this place." (I)

 

It's been quite a bit since we last saw each other.

 

"There's no reason to apologize. I intended to give you some time with your friends. It was important to you." (S)

"That doesn't mean it's okay that you had to fend for yourself here. I should have done something more for you." (I)

"You're overreacting. For the most part it was quite nice here. People were courteous and respected me and I felt like I did something meaningful." (S)

 

And if it wouldn't have been all well?

 

"Mum, tell me what happened!" (I)

"Before I tell you anything, you need to promise me not to overreact." (S)

"Overreact?! What the heck happened that I might overreact?" (I)

"Iori, the fact that the walls are sprouting sharp edges isn't reassuring." (S)

 

I look around and yes, I turned this room into some kind of abstract torture nightmare.
Maybe I should get a grip on myself.
At least mum won't tell me anything as long as I'm not willing to make concessions and behave maturely.
So I forcefully calm myself down, which is disturbingly simple, and pull everything back into the walls while restoring the room to its former state.

 

"Hah, okay, I promise I won't freak out. Could you now please tell me what happened?" (I)

 

While mum looks fine and at the moment doesn't seem to be especially shaken, right now she appears to be extremely uneasy while searching for an answer.

 

"Sigh, okay, I'll tell you. I think you should know and too many others know already. I... Well, I guess I was sexually harassed. Or rather assaulted. It's difficult to explain. The whole encounter was so weird." (S)

 

My eyes are twitching.
I can barely process what I just heard.
Argh, screw that, I'm totally unable to process what I've just heard.

Mum... got... assaulted?
How?!
How is this possible?!
How, in every dimension's hell, could my mum get assaulted in my own goddamned fucking dreamworld!?!

 

"Grumble"

 

"Iori, what’s happening right now may very well count as an overreaction." (S)

 

Who cares if the ground in the cell rips open and ominous violet light shines out of the fissures, if tentacles sprout absolutely everywhere and give me the impression that whoever is not counted as a friend of mine will suffer, if I feel how my very thoughts link to the world and threaten to topple it over.

 

"Iori!" (S)

 

She called out to me.

 

"Y-yes?" (I)

"You need to calm down. Whatever you're planning, this is no state of mind to make sound decisions. Calm down and think it through." (S)

 

I... I should.
Killing everyone is clearly no solution and massacres are usually not well-received.
I don't want to make my friends fear me.
So I have to return everything back to normal.

 

"What exactly happened?" (I)

"Well, I was just in one of the storerooms, listing the inventory, when suddenly this guy, Kallum, came. He said weird things about how he was interested in me and that we would produce excellent offspring. I told him straight away that I'm not interested, but he wouldn't give up. Said something about my duty as a woman and grabbed my wrist. Then I maybe went a bit too far. I only intended to shove him away, but somehow he ended up flying all the way to the wall. It wasn't intentional. I was as well completely surprised at my own strength. After that happened everyone freaked out and I was led to this place." (S)

 

Okay, this guy sounds like a total asshole, but the way it turned out isn't too severe.
Naturally, it's terrible and unforgivable that someone approached mum like this but it seems like he didn't get his way with her.

 

"And now I'm getting these dark thoughts, that I should do something about my confinement and that what happened to me was unfair. A little voice, that asks for a violent approach." (S)

 

This could be perfectly normal but considering her demonic corruption is something one should look out for.

 

"Just why didn't you call me? I even gave you that signal sphere!" (I)

"You mean that eyeball? It's a bit creepy and wasn't the first thing that came to my mind. Also, nothing bad happened yet and I doubt that calling you would've helped to deescalate the situation." (S)

"Mum, I think we should stop our vacation here. It got wild enough already." (I)

"Oh, are you sure? I thought this was a good chance to learn more about you, or rather your situation. And you finally had the chance to spend some time with your friends." (S)

 

If I think about this, the time I spent with them wasn't all bad.
At least I got to go to the beach.
Given that this coastline should extend indefinitely we might even return without having to encounter any of these people.
Though, Chiaki seems to have enjoyed her title.

Makoto on the other side...

 

"You don't have to feel guilty, mum. The others seemingly already have some kind of realm sickness from being here for too long. How are you on that side?" (I)

"Huh? I don't feel a thing." (S)

 

One more thing that relates to her demonification.

Suddenly, I feel that someone is walking in our direction.
At their current pace, we only have moments before they arrive.
Hastily, I do the only sensible thing and merge the door with the wall.

 

"Iori, what did you do there?" (S)

"I, I can't let them do something to you. That's not right!" (I)

 

"Click"

 

The handle is still attached to the door, but using it won't make a difference, now that the opening mechanism doesn't exist anymore.

 

"Hey, open up"

 

Damn, if they enter now by breaking the door I'll have no explanation.
The best option should be retreat.

 

"So, uh, maybe we should get you out of here. Before they decide on some kind of punishment for you." (I)

 

Yes okay, that's basically running from the law, but somehow I don't feel too bound by whatever a king decides in my world.
Also, I doubt that their legal system is very advanced yet.
I hope this is no first step down the abyss.

 

"Do you really think so? It feels so unfinished, leaving it at that." (S)

"It's totally fine. Look, mum, it's not like I couldn't return whenever I want. It's not directly unfinished, but more of an ongoing project. I promise I'll at least take responsibility to make sure that these people are provided with everything they need to survive. But for now, I'd rather wait a bit till things settle down." (I)

 

And the angry knocking noises from the hallway create an atmosphere of urgency.

 

"Fine. I can't expect you to take care of thousands of people. You didn't even ever have a pet." (S)

 

Thank god, she's agreeing.
Or whoever is responsible for things going my way.

Wait! That would be me!
This is my personal dream!
I'm the one deciding factor!
God, that's too difficult to handle right now.

First things first, I have to get mum out of here.
Without making it more ominous than it has to be by hesitating, I let the ground form a cocoon around mum and swallow her for transport.
A moment later I'm standing in our living room and waste no time to get her back out again.
When the flesh recedes she stands there as pristine as ever.

 

"God, I'll never get used to this." (S)

"But you're not as affected as usual." (I)

"Sure, one can get used to almost everything after sufficient exposure. And I feel a bit sturdier now than the first time." (S)

 

Great to know.
And I guess she was quite long now in my dream, so whatever demonic radiation is going on there should have made her accustomed.
However, now I should fetch the others as well.

 

"Ehm, sorry mum, I need to get back and leave you here for a moment." (I)

"Sure, but in due time we should talk about what happened." (S)

"Well, okay. But now I really have to go." (I)

 

After all, I left quite suddenly and have to wrap things up with the others.