欧洲无人区天空码头IV

Magic was complicated, yet habits did a lot for him.

Using magic in this realm, compared to the other one felt... almost random.

It felt messy and rugged.

It wasn\'t pretty, clean and smooth, it was a hot mess that he\'d be lucky resembled something he knew.

The spells he used most were almost natural to cast, like the chains.

Those chains had been used and re-used day in, day out. He could easily grab that feeling whenever he felt like it, and pull on it.

Yet, despite how easy it was, it remained chaotic.

They didn\'t come from where he exactly wanted them, their speed was wrong, their potency was wrong, their shape was wrong...

Some of those chain links were messed up, in a different form than they should\'ve been.

He could cast spells, and they were strong, yet they weren\'t perfect like they used to.

"Why is it so weird?" asked Mori, weaving chains around him as he walked.

He expected a quick response from Maël, but she took a moment to answer, as if she was sleeping.

You\'re used to the common realm\'s magic. To use expressions from your world, it\'s like using magic with training wheels.

Figures, thought Mori.

All those things, all those details, they were perfect, something that made little sense.

How could he always conjure perfect chains without barely thinking about it?

Even without using the system, a lot of details were simply dictated by the spell itself as he cast it.

The chain\'s color, how much it reflected light, its weight, its smell, how it looked, everything was almost \'factory made\'.

He had never put any thought into any of that; the system did that for him.

"Where\'s this Jax? You said he could help me."

Maël took another moment to answer.

The mountains. That\'s where you find most people in this place.

Mori was already heading toward the mountain. It was obvious, and already answered before.

It confirmed his thoughts, however.

Her control over him wasn\'t perfect.

Mori was steadily walking, the uneven terrain annoyingly painful to go through, and the usual husks around making this walk dreary.

He kept playing with the chains as he did, making them float around and glide through the windless sky.

It didn\'t take long before exhaustion settled in, time was impossible to keep track of.

He had walked a decent amount of time, but the mountains seemed to remain distant and out of reach.

He looked around, he was still in a plain-like area, where barely anything but cracked stone served as ground.

.net

Even that dried, dusty red soil would be better if he found any nearby.

Ah, there.

A singular dead tree, with a large stem that was broken in half, the tip touching the ground.

Mori walked toward it and sighed in relief as the surrounding ground seemed to be exactly what he was looking for.

He would\'ve sat against the tree to sleep, but giving his back a break felt like the right thing to do, and so he simply lied down on his back next to it.

"I miss the dungeon\'s system. I had quite a few useful things stocked in there."

He expected Maël to say something, but she remained silent.

The sky before him was only darkness, besides that thin outline that served as a light source. Around it no stars resided, not a single speck of light.

Mori slowly closed his eyes, replacing the dark skies with his dark thoughts as he slid into slumber.

~~~

Maël was laying down on the couch, in this room she started to get fond of.

It was simple and rustic, but the feeling it had was truly warm and welcoming. That place was inviting, and comfortable.

Through Mori\'s memories, only a few places truly felt right to stay in.

She could\'ve conjured a room from her own memories, but most of those comfortable and warm places she had forgotten, or chosen to forget.

She was on her side, staring at the fireplace crackling with her eyes half-opened.

Her arm was hanging off to the side of the couch, touching the hide that covered the floor.

She barely paid attention to what was happening outside, to Mori.

She was slowly falling into a slumber as well, despite being in a corner of Mori\'s mind.

Taking over for that long had its toll, and Mori\'s control was better than she anticipated.

She was softly smiling, however. Things were going her way.

~~~

Mori slowly opened his eyes to the expanding darkness that was the sky.

He sat upright, cracking his neck and back as he slowly got up.

"...What?"

Husks?... No, at least, not yet.

They almost looked human, but their bodies were truly messed up.

They lied there, close to him, seemingly sleeping as well.

Their eyes were closed, and their body barely moving, making him wondered if they were even alive.

One of them looked like a man, but a gaping hole in his chest let him see the ground through it.

His face looked like something had been slowly eating at it. It was as if those black eldritch things they turned into were coming out.

Maël stated they all turned into something similar when leaving this realm for the land between, or the common realm.

Not impossible that they can turn into that here.

But if that was happening, it most likely wasn\'t voluntary.

Some parts of their bodies truly resembled humans, while others resembled chaos taking form.

A sort of hybrid that was slowly transitioning.

Mori took a deep breath, and turned around.

The walk toward Jax wasn\'t short, and it wouldn\'t be interesting either.

He stretched a little and started walking, leaving those hybrids behind.

Like the previous days, he played with the chains, more to help time pass than practice, as he slowly made his way forward.