Level-Up Apocalypse: Surviving With The Assimilation System
Chapter 140: Ominous Contraption

"What's going on? Talk to me! Where are you?!" Finn desperately asked, only replaceing the dark walls around him.

"You've accidentally crossed the boundaries of reality. I told you before that you are able to perceive other realities, but it gets a whole lot messier when you hurt that thing in your skull–things get weird."

Finn kept trying to look around anxiously, feeling his heart thump, though he couldn't replace the man that spoke to him, "--You said I should start running? What's going on?"

"You'll cross back into your reality soon enough. Think of it as a temporary out-of-body experience, but everything still goes. Just don't die–try and survive until you return," the Evanescent's guiding words met his ears.

It felt more as though everything he was told left him more confused and anxious, though any presence of the man he felt was long gone already. He kept his daggers ready, looking around as he waited for whatever it was that led to the foreboding warning.

In the darkness, he heard it–

It sounded like intense, uneven breathing, expelling like a haunted whisper through the darkness. Just ahead, he could slightly make something out that moved closer; a tall figure shrouded in the shadows.

He squinted, attempting to discern it with his skill–

["Sleuth Status"]

The system notification that appeared in his view was unstable; the pale, silver text waved around and glitched like a sparking machine.

[An0mAly R3c0n1zed!]

["Hello, Finn"] [L3vel: 44? Quandary? Error! Integer not found ? 1000? 54?]

'An Anomaly? What the hell is this thing–? None of this information even makes sense,' he analyzed as his heart pounded inside of his chest, carefully backing away from the unknown entity.

"Hello, Finn…Hello, Finn…Hello, Finn…"

A raspy voice echoed through the darkness ahead, coming from the only thing he could make out of the enigmatic figure that slowly approached: a lipless mouth with teeth that moved unnaturally with each repetition of his name.

"Hello, Finn…Hello, Finn…Hello, Finn…"

It didn't sound human; not as though something that genuinely spoke his name—only an entity using it.

As he stood there a moment with sweat clinging to his skin, the thought of fighting back was completely engulfed by the opposing feeling.

He remembered what the Evanescent told him: "Run."

Turning the other direction, he sprinted through the foreboding chamber.

Immediately as he started running, putting his back to the entity, he felt himself being chased. Like a bell being rung constantly, the stomps of the ominous existence behind him were loud and clear.

It wasn't something he could fight; at least, that's what he felt while it pursued him. As he ran and ran, the darkness suddenly cut off as he found himself nearly colliding face first into a wall.

"Ah—?"

There was no recollection of a wall that way, seeing as that's where he came from the library. With nowhere else to run, there was nothing else to do but face what chased him.

'Shit…Shit, this isn't good,' he thought.

Through the darkness, he watched the lipless grin approach before the body it belonged to came in view. It was lanky with a humanoid physique, yet arms long enough to hang to its feet.

Its torso was made of a smiling mouth, covered in smaller mouths around its body that constantly repeated the same phrase in unison—"Hello, Finn."

From high-pitched voices to bellowing ones; the many mouths chanted the ominous greeting while the long-armed, slender entity approached.

With nowhere to run, he placed his fears behind him as he dashed right towards the figure with his daggers bear. He aimed his blade for the mouth on its abdomen, closing in—

"Finn—?"

Hearing his name softly spoken, he blinked, replaceing the entity no longer in front of him. Instead, he found himself pointing his blade at the perplexed knight that was standing in front of him.

"Huh—?" Finn let out, looking at his weapon before quickly pulling it away.

"It's just me, mate. Are you…good?" Jasper asked with his hands raised.

Finn glanced around him, replaceing Charlotte and Nova close by, both looking at him with shock. It made little sense to him in the moment as he looked at the room, replaceing himself back in the dimly-lit chamber of seated giants.

"Finn? You're okay—" Charlotte assured him.

"You totally spazzed out there—I thought you were gonna take Jasper's neck!" Nova shouted.

"What? I…No, that's not what happened," Finn said, shaking his head.

"Then what happened? You can tell us, Finn," Charlotte softly assured him, looking closely.

Jasper nodded, "Yeah, mate. We're in this together."

Even if it was something he didn't want to talk about, nor did he have much of a grasp on understanding it as it is, hiding his condition any longer was a bad idea. He knew that as he quietly breathed out and looked at his companions.

It didn't seem like much of a place to hold a conversation, overlooked by the robed corpses of old giants in their high-up seats, though he gave in.

"That night of darkness, when Damian died…I encountered something unnatural. Even compared to all this magic and these monsters running around—it was something otherworldly," Finn admitted.

The topic of that nightmarish night was something they all seemed familiar with; a time nobody had fond memories of.

"You talked about this before, right? You didn't go into much detail about it to Magnus or I, though…" Charlotte asked, rubbing her arm.

Finn nodded, "It's not something I can really recall that well. There's a reason for that, though—it was a "Prime."

"A Prime?" Jasper repeated.

"I haven't heard of anything like that," Nova remarked with a finger to her chin.

"It's a transcendent entity. Something people like us aren't supposed to encounter. If you see one, your mind shatters completely, or well…It fractures and begins perceiving other branches of reality," Finn explained. "At least, what's all I know."

The explanation he gave with what little insight he had to his own cosmic condition left the others in silence for a minute as it was taken in.

"I'd be lying if I said I understood what you're saying completely. Thing is, everything's been all messed up for awhile now—so, I believe you, mate," Jasper said.

"Is it something to do with your system, you think? There's a whole lot we don't know about our systems still," Charlotte asked, looking at him.

He slowly shook his head, "I'm really not sure one way or the other. I can hardly trust my own mind right now."

"Don't sweat it, mate. We've got your back," Jasper assured him, giving the assassin a pat on the shoulder.

"Yeah—totally. You can rely on me—totally," Nova said playfully.

"Thanks," Finn calmly showed his gratitude.

It was a weight off his shoulders to admit what he was going through, even if it wasn't something so easily fixed. He continued on through the hall of the revered dead.

Jasper walked shoulder-to-shoulder with him, lightly tapping him with his steel glove, "If you start feeling funny, just give me a yell, alright?"

"Sure thing," Finn agreed halfheartedly.

"Finn, really—maybe we should replace a different way," Charlotte suggested worriedly. Continue the journey with m-vl-em-py-r

"No, it's alright. The thing…It doesn't happen frequently, so I'm fine for now. Let's just get through this," he said.

"If you're sure," the spellblade accepted.

At the end of the foreboding chamber, a gargantuan set of brass doors stood. Each was carved with an indecipherable language, even the symbols were eroded. It looked impossible to open with strength alone, being multi-layered in thick, dense material.

"Don't have a good feeling about whatever is past these doors," Jasper observed, looking up at the colossal barrier.

"Massive doors like this mean they want to safeguard something, right? Old, treacherous temples like this…That usually means beautiful treasure!" Nova excitedly said, seeming full of energy now as she pressed her palms against the archaic copper.

It seemed the concept of valuables washed away any fear from the girl who was quivering like a puppy the minute prior, now grinning like a mischievous feline.

"Let's get this open already and claim that…treasure?" The excitement from the silver-haired bard was quieted down as her light taps against the colossal doors seemed to be answered.

Seemingly on their own, the old metal began to part itself with a long, drawn out groan with ages of dust casting itself out against the outsiders.

"Wha–" Nova reacted, stepping back.

The sudden release of dust stirred coughs from them each, seeming to have laid dormant for countless years just by the sheer quantity of the particles in the air. What awaited was a small room with another door just a few steps ahead.

"Huh? What's the deal here?" Jasper wondered.

"It's giving us every chance to turn around, it seems like," Charlotte remarked.

In front of the secondary barrier was a pedestal with a stone sphere sat atop it with a glowing orb sat in its core. It was resting between a perpetually moving mechanism of thin, bronze strips that encircled the displayed sphere.

As Finn placed his hand near the contraption around the stone orb with the intent to grab it, the metal strips began moving at a much faster pace, whirling with a sharp intensity.

"Woah–careful there," Jasper warned. "You could lose a hand, mate."