Blockade

"I'm sorry, guys. I shouldn't have attacked you." Belle told Dani and Eo.

"Hey, Eo, why did that feel so... lackluster? Like, her Insanity really wasn't doing much to her body? She just attacked me with half-assed moves that I could easily defuse." Dani told Eo as Belle was trying to apologize. I giggled a little at Belle's face afterward.

"Probably desensitization from your own corruption. Her brain still shut down and let the strands take over, but it just doesn't compare to System Corruption." Eo clarified.

"I guess that makes sense. So, I shouldn't feel disappointed with her Insanity, I should just feel lucky that she doesn't have it as bad as me..." Dani said. She looked around again and fixated her gaze upon the landmass above us that was now clear to us.

Ever since the sky and our surroundings shattered after Sky's scream, the world has become increasingly fake-looking, with landmasses floating all around, and no remaining citizens in this world other than us.

That was the most alarming thing, existing in a world meant for several thousand, possibly even million, and being here alone.

"We should stop wasting time. We should go up, to Sky's location." Dani suggested again.

"There are some things I need to teach everybody, like healing with their strands. Otherwise, they would have to depend on us to heal, and that would ruin our chances." Eo explained.

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By Eo's explanation, healing with strands seemed quite simple. How we perceive our bodies, even as vague as it sounds, is as a whole component. There are no openings that we do not want, so we need to visualize our body as a whole once again when something is missing or a tear is visible. I guess it made sense in the end, but I still worried about blood loss as a whole.

Anyway, healing my body went as simple as it could've been. I visualize strands running through the body I know that I have had for my entire life, and my wounds heal. These strands, now that I know how to use them, are insanely useful...

"Are you sure that's all to this? Just... healing would be enough to fight Illya?" I asked Eo, and she immediately shook her head.

"Our only real bargaining chip is Dani, and maybe Sky if we can stop Illya from controlling him," Eo explained to all of us.

"I've been meaning to ask you, while you're getting all of these questions, how did Illya do all of that damage to Sky? How was he in here with no memories? Can she erase ours?" Dani asked Eo while cracking her knuckles.

"It's related to Sky's state when he was Corrupt. Basically, Illya manipulated him into tearing down his walls and implanted a will inside of him that didn't belong to him. It used to be like that as well when he woke up on the beach, but when he gave away his System to Corruption, it was just a matter of time before somebody erased his personality and gave him a new life." Eo told her.

"I got you, but, can we even get his old personality back? I mean, how much of him is really lost?" Dani asked again.

"None. There's all of his personality left after he awakened it again. In fact, that's why Illya made her attack there. She must've incapacitated him somehow... I'm not sure, but Sky could remember his previous life before Illya took him as a prisoner, so there's still a chance as far as I know." Eo ended the question as Dani nodded and we were all looking at the sky again.

"So... what next? How do we climb up?" Boo asked.

"Stairs, maybe even a ladder?" Dani said while smiling.

"Are you purposefully being an ass?" Boo asked her. Dani smiled even bigger after that.

"I don't really have an unrealistic way to get us up there like I usually do. It's like we're in a cage..." Eo said... which reminded me of something.

That dome was like a cage as well... could it be a dome?

"I got it!" I shouted out. I did the same motion with my hands as Eo taught me and summoned a dome right around us. It was small, not even bigger than me at first, but it slowly climbed up more and more until it was about fifteen feet... and then, it stopped.

"W-What the hell? Why wouldn't it get bigger? The other one was like a mile big!" I shouted out in disbelief.

"You're right... that is weird, isn't it? It's like you can't expand it anymore... try again." Eo said, walking over to the edge of my dome.

Was it being blocked by another dome?

"Dani, what can you see? Anything out of the ordinary?" I asked her, knowing that she had possession of the eye that can see all.

"Nothing, I don't see anything." She said.

That can't be right...

"Eo, I don't understand. Dani could see strands underground, but she can't see the protective dome around us. That doesn't make any sense." I turned to Eo again, but she shook her head, saying that she didn't understand.

"It's probably blocked off. I mean, come on, we can obviously tell that one of us should be able to fly with her wacky power or whatever, and I should be able to speed myself up to get up to that area you guys were talking about. If this world is made and everything is fake, wouldn't it make sense for barriers to be placed anywhere Illya wants them to be?" Boo suggested.

"True... then, I guess we'll have to come up with something different, otherwise, we'll be stuck here," Dani said, sitting down on the floor while holding her chin in her clasped hands.

I didn't even think about that before... this world is fake, that's right, and now it's really showing. How do we battle that?

I think it's at this moment that I'm starting to feel overwhelmed with the true gravity of our situation. We're fighting God... how do you beat a God?