Part 758: Mind Breaker

Far-Future Era. Day 21, AJR. Chrona.

Timothy had succeeded beyond all odds. He’d survived the Dungeon, he’d grown far stronger than when he went in, and he had endured through serious trials and tribulations, including two near death experiences with women he was attracted to. Life was funny like that.

But it hadn’t all been good. Timothy’s relationship with Marigold was over and buried eight feet beneath the soil. Sylphid was dead. He was a young man, only eighteen, and he’d suffered two serious blows to his heart. If he hadn’t switched to the Mind of Logic, he would have likely broken down in tears and gone into catatonia for a while.

Instead, Timothy gave off the false impression to those who didn’t know him very well that he was utterly unmoved by all the events that had just transpired.

Sylphid’s death? Whatever.

The power of Yredelemnul? Whatever.

Marigold’s imprisonment? Whatever.

He seemed rather blasé about his experience in the Dungeon. Only a few people who truly knew him well, along with his teammates who had seen him breaking down right before he activated the Mind of Void, understood that he was far, far from stable right now.

Timothy’s emotions had been reduced by 95%, but those emotions were so painful and extreme that even now, there was a sense of failure, depression, and anguish nibbling at the back of Timothy’s mind. Timothy might appear emotionless on the surface, but even his logical mind couldn’t stop replaying the images of Sylphid’s death over and over, forcing him to fixate on her pain before she died.

It was a form of self-inflicted torture, one Timothy did not mention to anyone else.

…

"Demonstrate to me how your power works." Calanthra ordered, standing before Timothy with an imposing attitude. She conjured a phantasmal life-form made of spiritual energy, a replication of herself. "Strike it with all your power."

Timothy shook his head. "All my power? That won’t be necessary."

The projection Calanthra had made was formidable. Timothy could tell Calanthra herself was about on par with Blinker, as were all the other Fairy Queens present. But Blinker was only at the level of a Demon Emperor, and Faceless had been at the level of a Demon Overlord, much stronger than all of them in terms of physical might.

Timothy realized that he had grown much more powerful in the dungeon, to the point he was now an extremely dangerous life-form within the confines of Chrona.

A second later, Timothy’s eyes radiated a red light as he directed his focused attention toward the spiritual entity Calanthra had conjured.

ZOT!

A screeching noise rang out in the air as Timothy easily blasted apart the projection Calanthra had formed. His eye-lasers punched a hole through its chest and slammed into the ground behind the doll, blasting hundreds of kilograms of soil outward in a cone, making the crocodiles nearby raise their claws to shield their faces as clods of dirt and pebbles sprayed their bodies.

A few seconds later, it was all over. Calanthra’s expression turned ugly.

"You have progressed Yredelemnul’s power quickly in such a short period of time." Calanthra said, her tone heavy. "Curiously, I did not sense any inherent rage or malice behind your attack. You appeared the same as before. Yredelemnul’s power should require one to focus their hatred and malice to achieve the most powerful effects."

"That’s not quite right." Timothy said, correcting Calanthra. "Yredelemnul’s power does not revolve around negative emotions, but instead mental focus. The more concentrated and focused my thoughts, the mightier the effects."

"You think to correct me, someone who has been monitoring and manipulating Yredelemnul’s power for millions of years?!" Calanthra spat, directing an aggrieved look Timothy’s way. "I think I know Yredelemnul better than you do!"

"You said I was his Inheritor." Timothy replied mildly. "Don’t you only control his eye by using fairy magic as a medium? I control his power directly. Within myself. Maybe I do know more about it than you."

He continued. "You said hatred and malice are what empower Yredelemnul. Try changing your viewpoint. Hatred is the counterpart to love. Whether you love or hate someone, you will likely focus intense emotions toward them. Unlike Apathy, which involves a lack of focus and interest, hatred and love grant enough focus to become potent stabilizing forces with Yredelemnul’s power. Thus, he likely used them because those were easy emotions for him to latch onto."

Timothy shrugged. "I don’t particularly have much hatred in my heart. But through my powers, I can gain remarkable mental focus via other means. Thus, I do not need to tap into hatred to amplify Yredelemnul’s strengths."

Calanthra lifted her hand to stroke her chin. Her anger faded as she looked away and nodded along to Timothy’s words. He was making a lot of sense.

Calanthra had ‘owned’ the Eye of Yredelemnul for millions of years, long before even the Volgrim came into existence. However, the truth was that she had always been fearful to use it, only tapping into it sparingly to travel or send expeditions into Ripspace. She might have been around it for a long, long time, but she was always terrified of accidentally corrupting her mind or causing a catastrophe.

Timothy, on the other hand, tapped into Yredelemnul’s power through a different means, and he started off unaware of who Yredelemnul truly was. He was untainted by the fear of Yredelemnul that Calanthra bore, and as such he simply treated the Dark One’s power like a tool to be used at his discretion.

This was, for obvious reasons, an alarming value proposition. But without fear tainting his every move, Timothy had analyzed the power and figured out new ways it could function. Calanthra privately wondered if she could use this new information to fundamentally alter the Eye she owned on Pixiv. Could she reduce its vile aura, making it more a weapon for good? Or were her thoughts turning ominous now, slowly bringing forth a future catastrophe upon Pixiv?

Meanwhile, Blinker and Fiona were listening to Timothy’s words, as were Rebecca, Kar, and all the other crocodiles.

For now, they were merely observers. Fiona felt that her son hadn’t become a monster, but when it came to the evil of Yredelemnul, Jason had pressed upon her mind the simple fact that he thought Calanthra’s secret weapon was extremely frightening and dangerous. How could Fiona rest easily knowing her son had come back from the damned Dungeon having empowered the Eye so casually without thinking through the consequences?

She was worried sick!

The crocodiles, having witnessed Timothy’s eye powers in person, now looked at him more warily.

Something which couldn’t be understated was that only a small, small portion of the crocodiles in Chrona had followed Marigold to witness Timothy’s impromptu trial. Perhaps only 5% of Chrona’s crocodiles, in total. They ultimately ended up being the ones who were most directly related to Marigold, including her nearest relatives, her gandparents, and especially Remus, the seventh child of Blinker and Kar, who was also Marigold’s great-grandfather.

Thus, the crocodiles here were not happy about Marigold’s imprisonment. They had to admit that she had committed serious crimes, but they felt the whole matter was handwaved away a little too fast for Timothy’s benefit. One couldn’t help but wonder how much Timothy’s mother, the leader of Chrona, was playing favorites by immediately sentencing Marigold to a hundred years of imprisonment.

Naturally, these things would not be spoken out loud. The crocodiles swallowed their resentment and paid attention to what was going on now. Seeing that Timothy had grown so explosively in power, the crocodiles felt their warrior blood stirring. They wanted to fight him!

The problem was, Calanthra was a fairy queen, like Blinker. The crocs weren’t the smartest group in the galaxy, but even they could theorize she must be roughly equivalent to their own ancestor, Blinker. And Timothy just shot a hole through her magic??

Wasn’t he a little too absurdly overpowered now?!

They decided to tactfully keep their mouths shut. Calanthra spent more time talking to Timothy about his powers before eventually coming to a new decision.

"You also have the ability to dominate the minds of other sentients." Calanthra observed. "I want you to attack me with that power."

Timothy raised an eyebrow. "Absolutely not."

"You refuse?" Calanthra asked.

"I do." Timothy answered. "Yredelemnul’s Disdain caused even a creature at the peak of the mortal realm to become a drooling, mindbroken mess. He cowered in terror and nearly pissed himself. You are… weaker than Faceless was. I wouldn’t want to use such a power on someone who isn’t my enemy."

Calanthra bristled slightly at Timothy’s words. "It’s true the fairies had fallen from our heights, but of all the fairies here, I am most familiar with Yredelemnul’s power. I have been exposed to his energy the longest. I am most resistant to his power. Additionally, this is not my true body, but merely a projection of my spirit infused with my will. Mind-searing powers will have lessened effects compared to using them on my true body."

Timothy fell silent. He didn’t say anything for ten long seconds as he analyzed her words.

"…Alright. I’ll do it, under the condition that you really firm up your mind first. Don’t treat this casually. It’s not a game."

Seeing that the young man was deeply concerned for her well-being, Calanthra felt momentarily touched. If he really was Yredelemnul’s Inheritor, the fact he had such a kind heart innately felt as though he might find a way to use the power in a good way. Far better than some megalomaniacal villain obtaining it and turning it against the free peoples of the universe.

Calanthra quickly activated her full fairy magic and shielded her mind. She spent thirty long seconds preparing for Timothy’s attack.

After squatting down and looking at Timothy with a look of serious intent, Calanthra nodded.

"Do it."

Timothy still hesitated.

I shouldn’t go at her with my full power. Timothy thought. The Mind of Logic gives me incredible mental focus with zero distracting thoughts. It’s too dangerous to strike her with my full power. I’ll use… half my focus. Half my thoughts will be thinking about Sylphid, and the other half…

Timothy’s eyes suddenly turned dark purple. An overwhelming force erupted in his mind, swept outward, and tore through Calanthra’s mental defenses in an instant.

"SUBMIT TO ME." Timothy’s voice boomed in Calanthra’s mind.

Instantly, Calanthra’s skin paled. Sweat broke out across her entire body, and all the strength vanished from her legs. She fell to her knees. Calanthra opened her mouth to let out a horrible scream, a wail of terror, but no words came out.

Memories replayed. She recalled the day her mother died. She recalled the funeral. She remembered the pain and torment she suffered, having to try and rebuild the future of fairykind with only three male fairies left to repopulate their people. She remembered arriving in a hostile galaxy with no idea what to expect, danger lurking in every star system.

Calanthra screamed, but no words came out. All her interactions with Yredelemnul’s Eye had not prepared her for this moment. It was like a deity from the Cosmic Realm had torn through the Firmament and grabbed her, drowning her thoughts in darkness.

In an instant, Timothy’s presence seemed to grow in magnitude, swallowing the sky. His presence exploded with brilliant golden light, searing her retinas. He was like a god towering above her, making her shiver and shake with fear and longing.

She wanted to worship him. She had to worship him!

Calanthra flopped forward onto the ground and threw out her arms, prostrating herself while quietly sobbing under her breath.

"…orgive… me… lord… didn’t mean… question… greatness… hic…"

Timothy appeared visibly unmoved, but even he was shocked. He had deliberately dialed down his power, yet this was the result? How the hell had Calanthra become mindbroken? She seemed to be treating him as her master, her owner, her god!

Blinker hurried over to Calanthra and knelt beside her. "Calanthra? Calanthra! Are you okay?! G-get up, this isn’t like you-"

"DO NOT TAKE ME FROM HIM!" Calanthra shrieked, her dignity as the First Fairy Queen vanishing in an instant. "I worship my liege, I worship the great one! All hail Lord Timothy! I had eyes but could not see! I will repent for the rest of my life, milord! Forgive me for my insolence!!"

Calanthra tried to raise her head, but her eyes started to sting, blinded with tears of adulation. She was too awed by Timothy’s presence to look at him directly anymore. It was as if Timothy had become an Archangel bathed in golden light. Looking at him was akin to looking directly at a star taken human form. Power radiated from his body. He simply stood there, unmoving, uncaring about the harshness of the universe. He was her light! He was the savior of the fairies! No matter what he commanded, she would obey him until the end of time!

Timothy frowned. He couldn’t read Calanthra’s thoughts, but it was clear even half the strength of Yredelemnul’s Disdain had completely overwhelmed her. He thought at most it might scare her a little, frighten her, turn her against him… but this? This??

He had no idea what to do.

"I… seem to have… made Calanthra, um, worship… me." Timothy said haltingly, awkwardly. "I didn’t expect this to happen."

"Oh, lord Timothy, of course you could not have foreseen how your greatness would affect me!" Calanthra cried, her tears falling to the grass as she bowed her head, refusing to lift it. "How could one as powerful and mighty as you comprehend the smallness of my thoughts?! I am but a weak woman, a pitiful worm in your eyes! Lord Timothy, allow me to follow you for the rest of eternity! Allow me to become yours in mind, body, and soul, so that I might-"

Before Calanthra could say any other embarrassing words, Blinker quickly summoned a force field around her, causing both fairies to become invisible and vanish from the eyes of the spectators.

All became quiet again.

Timothy’s eye twitched. He could hear some of the crocodiles muttering under their breaths, but crocodiles were so obnoxiously loud that even their ‘whispers’ were fully audible to someone with decent enough hearing.

"…see that? Graugh… he just looked at her… and she became his slave."

"Scary. Maybe he really did dominate that Dark One lady."

"What if he used that power on us?"

"I… I don’t wanna think about it. S-scary… kyargh…"

"-thought I could take him in a fight. But now? Nuh-uh, I ain’t stupid…"

The crocodiles slowly started to pull away. Before long, they turned tail and quickly left the area one by one, leaving Timothy alone with only a handful of people he knew well. Among them were his fellow dungeon-delvers, his mom, Rebecca, and Kar.

"What did you do to Calanthra?" Fiona asked her son, as she gently rested a palm on his shoulder. "It seemed like you just… looked at her, and then…"

"Yredelemnul’s Disdain." Timothy said. "It has a possible effect of dominating the mind of other life forms and turning them into my servants, but I thought it would only work on people much weaker than me. I was mainly worried the power would scare Calanthra silly, not… this."

Rebecca wandered over to Timothy, a thoughtful look on her face.

"Calanthra was wrong." Rebecca said, analyzing the situation with logic as she always did. "She thought that because of her proximity to Yredelemnul’s Eye, she had become resistant to its effects. But in actuality, she was greatly weakened by its aura. She hates and fears it more than any other being in the galaxy. Struck with the power of Yredelemnul’s Disdain, all her emotions must have burst out, causing this situation."

Timothy sighed softly. He looked at the other fairy queens, who had taken several steps back and were once again looking at him with deep hostility.

"I’m sorry. Truly." Timothy said. "If I had known this would happen, I would have refused Calanthra more firmly. I don’t really have a way to ‘undo’ it… maybe the effect will wear off over time?"

It was the first time Timothy had used his power and gotten such a result. He had no practical understanding of how its nuances worked. Now he was regretting that lack of knowledge.

"Let’s hope that’s the case." Fiona muttered.

With Calanthra’s fate shrouded in mystery by Blinker’s force-field, Timothy decided to change the subject.

"So… mom? How did Chrona change like this?" Timothy asked. "I only spent a week in the Dungeon, yet somehow it was ten months on Chrona? And even ten months doesn’t seem like enough time for all… this."

"The Dungeon had a lower time dilation ratio than Chrona, but not at the level of realspace." Fiona said. "I don’t know if it applies to all Dungeons, Po’s Library, or just this one time. You’ll definitely want to factor it in, in the future. I also need to take better precautions. You nearly brought a Dark One here. I let you open the portal right in the middle of an open field, but next time, I’ll have you open it inside a Kill Room I’ve built to contain possible Dungeon Breaks."

Fiona continued to explain. "While you were gone, I made a lot of progress. Ten months for me allowed me to master my abilities to no small degree, which also sped up my development work on Chrona, as well as countless personal projects. Have you looked at my character sheet?"

Timothy shook his head. He’d been way too busy to do that what with the tribunal and everything else. He also wasn’t in the greatest mental state following the death of Sylphid and betrayal of Marigold, but that was another problem entirely.

With a thought, Timothy activated Yredelemnul’s Eye and brought up his mother’s character page. He could finally see all the details except for descriptions of Skills and such.

…

Techmancer – Leader of Chrona – Phantasmal Mortal

A lifeform created artificially by the Wordsmith. Formerly unable to survive without a special magical apparatus linked to Chrona’s dimensional space, this entity can now survive outside Chrona in a limited capacity, and her phantasmal existence is becoming stronger all the time.

The Techmancer is a master of technology whose abilities grow more formidable over time. She is the leader of Chrona, and is using her new powers to rapidly uplift Chrona’s people so that they might find a way to survive a coming apocalypse. She is the only member of her sub-species, and she is driven to amount to something beyond what her original creator designed her to do.

Fiona Hiro – Phantasmal Human/Chrona

Level 32 | Techmancer | Mortal

HP 70/70

AP 55/55 | MP 92/92

STR 8 | DEX 13

INT 17 | WIS 18

DEF 8 | RES 9

CHA 13 | LUK 13

CON 7 | END 19

Resistances: Physical 95%. Telepathy 100%. Electric 75%. Plasma 22%.

Weaknesses: Magic 75%.

Active Skills: Mother’s Intuition, Construct Item (Lv 10), Deconstruct Item (Lv 10), Empower Item (Lvl 10), Create Blueprints (Lv 7), Transmute Material (Lv 5), Telekinesis (Lv 2), Flight (Lv 3), Dimensional Manipulation, Replicate Brain, Replicate Life-Form, Tech Interfacing, Tech Jump, Hacking (Lv 2), 14 more…

Passive Skills: Player’s Body, Player’s Mind (Toggle), Phantasmal Entity, Wall-Phasing, Consume Nutrients, Phase Shift, Adaptive Modulation, 6 more…

Talent Slots: 0/1

Prestige: N/A

…

Timothy was floored. He had quickly grown to Level 25 in the dungeon, but his mom had flown way past him! It seemed that, as long as one was persistent, ten months of Chrona-time could easily be worth a week in the Dungeon, if not more. It was obvious to him that not only did his mother have way more skills than him, but they were much higher quality, and even though he could only see their names and not their descriptions, he could easily tell she had been very deliberate in what skills she leveled up and for what reasons.

Unlike him, who had been rather haphazard, picking skills somewhat at random.

"You were gone a long time." Fiona said, smiling at her son. Her eyes had a hint of sadness to them. "I missed you so much that it hurt to even think of what you might be going through in that Dungeon. But I knew you were under the effect of time dilation, so I wasn’t too worried."

"How did you know that?" Timothy asked.

"Po told me." Fiona replied.

"You can talk to Po?!" Timothy blurted out, astonished.

Fiona chuckled. "Of course. It wasn’t easy. I had to build a translation device, since I didn’t luck out and get the skill you did. But after a few months of work, I managed to put one together that could translate Po’s words to me and vice-versa. He and I talked a bunch of times. I was the only person who could enter the portal you guys left behind, and the only one who could actually see it, so it had to be me. I made sure to pop in a few times a month and check the status of your journey."

Fiona gave Timothy a lot of clues about what she’d gone through while he was gone. She hadn’t said much, but what she had said was quite a game-changer. She opened his eyes to major problems he simply hadn’t thought about.

If the Dungeon broke, wouldn’t Chrona have been in big trouble? Fiona made it clear she had designed a new Kill Room for the next time Timothy and the others went inside, assuming they ever would. Timothy wasn’t so certain himself.

Without Marigold to act as the tank, Timothy was hesitant to go back in. They only survived by the skin of their teeth this time, and he wasn’t eager to repeat that experience.

"By the way." Fiona said, after a few moments of looking at Timothy with an odd gaze. "Why did you enter that dreadful Dungeon? Didn’t you see how difficult it was?"

"Difficult?" Timothy asked. "Po told us it was rated as ‘very easy.’"

He paused. "I do have to admit though, it was an insanely difficult Dungeon… his rating felt like a slap across the face."

"You really didn’t look around the Library? Ask him a few more questions first?" Fiona asked, looking at her son with sardonic amusement. "Timothy… Po pulled that story from the Cosmic shelves. It was rated as very easy… for Cosmics. The rating for Mortals would have been beyond ‘Extreme.’ Did you seriously just take him at his word?"

Timothy’s stomach fell into his shoes. "What?! That bastard. He lied to us."

Ferral and Raavul didn’t change their expressions, but Timothy could feel their gazes on his back.

[Timothy, we were relying on you to be the interpreter. You ought to have asked more questions.] Raavul said, her tone disapproving. [On the other hand, the fact we survived such a terrifying Dungeon should mean that future Dungeons will be a lot easier… provided you make sure we pick those easier dungeons.]

If Timothy could feel all his emotions, he might have curled up into a ball of embarrassment and died right there on the spot. "Well. That’s. Um. Right, I’ll do that next time then."

He remained stone-faced for now, but who knew what emotions he would feel in 24 hours, when he had the ability to deactivate the Mind of Logic and die of cringe.

Timothy looked in Calanthra and Blinker’s direction. They hadn’t reappeared yet.

"Let’s go somewhere private and talk for a while, mom." Timothy said, suddenly feeling tired and drained from all the stress he’d been under. "I could use a breather."

Fiona nodded. She gestured for Rebecca and Paimon to follow, and the four of them headed deeper into the city, while the rest left to attend to their own matters.

For now, Timothy couldn’t do anything about Calanthra. He might as well leave her with Blinker to try and calm down.

As for Timothy, he had much to discuss with his mother…