True Corrupted Mind

'Mamma mia!'

The hands were reaching for Achilles like an unstoppable tidal wave, he only had a split second to calculate every single scenario of him escaping the deadly attack. His mental energy was draining out from using the Will so he was only able to attempt one thing.

'Move!'

Achilles pushed his body to the side, ignoring the pain that assaulted him from the sudden movement. The hands missed him and strike the hard ground instead.

Boom! Crack!

A glass breaking sounded out which made Achilles freeze for a moment in surprise, but he quickly collected himself and jumped out from the hands' cage.

Once got away from the enemy's clutch, he began running away again. The hands were only late to react for a single second then chased after him once more.

Asides from those, multiple other hairy hands were quickly rising from all places to reach for his position.

Achilles dodged three hands that came up in front of him, two behind but got pushed away by one growing from the ground.

During that split second of being pushed away, he saw the ground where the hands struck earlier. There was a large crack in it, the shape of the crack was not like how the ground breaks, but similar to how glass slowly being shattered.

'What the what?'

Achilles quickly regained his foothold and sprinted to where the crack was. He had a theory that needed to be confirmed. If his hypothesis was correct then all of this marathon bull crap could come to an end.

...But if life was that simple then it wouldn't be called a life.

Seemingly sensing his intention, a much smaller hand than all the others grew from the ground, tightly grabbing his ankle.

'Fuck!' Achilles tried his best to pull his leg away but the grip of this thing was too strong.

While he was trying to free his leg, another one rose grabbing his other ankle. The situation just turned from worst to terrible!

Before he managed to curse in his mind, a fist headed directly at his face, he could only raise his hands to try and block the punch.

He could not activate his soul artifact inside a Mindscape so this was his only option to defend himself.

BANG! Crack!

Achilles was once again sent flying like a bullet, he rolled around without stopping for a while before turning face-flat on the ground.

'Shit! I think my right arm just broke.'

His injuries were accumulating making it became increasingly harder for him to move around.

It was at this moment that his eyes suddenly flashed bright red, his right side broke into pieces like a shard of glass, revealing his grotesque right half that was a bunch of dirt worms with sharp teeth.

Achilles stood up while no longer feeling the painful sensation of his broken arms and ribs anymore.

'Why didn't these things show up any sooner?' He thought to himself in annoyance before starting to run again, the hands were once again upon him like a great tsunami.

His mental energy and essences were getting back into decent shape again, they were not much but enough for him to use the Will one last time.

He jumped past the tsunami hands after enhancing his body with a little bit of essences. After that, he ran with all the force that his legs could possibly muster right now.

He was only a few meters away from the crack when multiple hands grew up simultaneously from the ground.

[Got you.] A corner of Achilles' lips lifted a little, indicating that he was expecting them.

[Obey.] The hands faltered once more and he quickly utilized this chance to arrive by the crack.

He immediately channeled the little pool he had left, punching with all his strength at the crack.

BOOM! Crack! Crack! Crack!

The crack slowly became bigger and bigger and the hands suddenly wriggled madly, then they all rushed at Achilles from every possible position, he had no way to escape this time!

[...Fuck!]

BOOOM!

All of them strike at his puny figure and a cloud of dust rose high into the sky. Once it was all cleared up, revealed the battered figure of Achilles laying motionlessly on the ground.

The pain he was feeling right now was a thousand times greater and more excruciating than what the Wendigos had caused him. Soul and mind injuries were indeed much more painful than physical pain.

While Achilles was trying to stand up again, the ground underneath him started cracking louder and louder...until it shattered completely.

CRACK!

'What the...?'

The scenery surrounding him had completely changed, the dark red sky was replaced by a completely pitch-black color. Underneath him was a completely deserted land with monsters' corpses lying everywhere.

The worst part of all...he was free-falling!

'What the what is going on???!!!'

Achilles' speed was becoming faster and faster, the faraway ground started getting closer as more and more details of it could be seen.

He turned his head behind him slightly and was once again surprised by what was in front of his eyes.

Multiple hairy hands were chasing after him without stopping. Despite the speed he was falling at, the hands were getting closer at an alarming rate!

'To hell with this!'