Whispers of Mhynt and Nova

[Ambyssin]

Mhynt would find her movement cumbersome. The basic movements were sluggish. Almost like the tar had turned to quicksand trying to suck her up.

And then she tried Teleporting.

While she succeeded in blipping forward, the chains had gone with her. And when her feet hit the tar again, the red chains glowed. When she tried to summon her apparition, the chains instead pulled her arms in opposite directions. Sharply. Suddenly.

There was tar coating her right leg. And a thin black miasma wafted up around Mhynt. Icy. Painful for a grass-type.

Painful... and frustrating. No dungeon should've been capable of this. This was ridiculous.

Mhynt's shadows increased...

Simply? Uhh...

Nova's whispers trailed off. But was it even him at this point? The clanging had faded, and now her echoing voice was mixing with his.

Where are you?

 

[Namohysip]

It was a reflex. Mhynt closed her eyes and breathed, shedding herself of any sign of Shadows. She had centuries of practice with this.

She wasn't even sure if it was real.

She answered Nova first. "Strange strange black black flat flat land land. Pipes pipes banging banging."

And all things considered, she decided to investigate. There was nothing else here... What was she here to uncover? If what Nova saw was something from her... was this the realm Nova had been condemned to in his world?

 

[Ambyssin]

... And flat?

After continuing forward a bit, there was finally something different. A torn piece of paper that sat atop the tar. It was as pristine as the chains.

... Not a place. It's showing... my mind... like.

 

[Namohysip]

His mind. Well, comforting. It was about as empty and abyss-like as she'd imagined some of her peers back home to be.

"Then what's the banging?" she murmured, not necessarily aimed at Nova this time.

She inspected the paper for a hint.

 

[Ambyssin]

I don't know...

Once Mhynt had the paper in her claws, a picture painted itself across the page. Or, rather, part of a picture. The paper appeared torn... and the picture matched that, with a jagged line down what would've been the middle of the full thing.

... You... attacking something? ... Struggled against... heard reverberations...

The picture had a mewtwo in it. Mhynt would recognize him immediately thanks to Giovanni's presence. But something was off. This mewtwo wasn't shades of light gray like Giovanni. His skin was much darker. His tail had a luminescent glow. And there was a glowing crystal stabbed into his right shoulder.

But, perhaps, more concerning was what was behind Mewtwo. It, too, was something Mhynt would recognize. There was a lattice of crisscrossing black crystals. Black crystals... with a red core floating in the middle.

D̴̝͇́͒A̴̬͌R̴̜̆̾K̷͇͕̉̇ ̷͇̒̊M̶͉͍̔͝Á̸̙̤Ț̴̲̆Ť̸͔͕Ẻ̸̲R̸̗̎͌

The name came to her instantly. Though whether it was her own experiences or the dungeon feeding her the info was up in the air. Whatever her personal experiences with it were, though, rather than the anger that might have been reserved for such a creature, Mhynt would instead find... a strong sense of longing. Long and isolation.

Mhynt's shadows slightly increased...

Mhynt would soon find her claws holding the paper were suddenly wet. Something was... dripping from the other side of the paper.

 

[Namohysip]

Mhynt frowned, thoughtful. How much should she tell Nova about what she was seeing? Did he want to know?

Well... Nova already was honest about what he'd seen in her realm. It was only fair.

"Chains chains," Mhynt replied. "Can't can't break break them them. Found found a a paper paper."

She eyed it a little closer. "Dark dark Mewtwo Mewtwo."

She flipped the paper over as she walked toward the noise, or where she thought she'd heard the noise.

 

[Ambyssin]

... Paper? You... drop it... run...

But Nova's broken warning came too late. The moment Mhynt turned the paper over, she found a message sprawled in a viscous red ink.

You did this to yourself.

Suddenly the chains shattered. The black tar vanished in a flash. Instead, Mhynt found her field of vision severely restricted. And an intense weight pressed down on her head and neck. Practically suffocating. Every breath was a struggle.

It was a mask. A heavy helmet of stone like what Nova once had. And though her field of vision was limited, Mhynt could see she was now standing on a stone roof. A roof that ended in an altar. Broken Time Gears lay scattered about the altar, at the feet of a human who stood with his back to her. A human with blonde hair... styled to resemble an arceus.

Run away... whatever you see!

Those red chains that had once weighed down Mhynt's limbs had combined. It wrapped around six pokémon over the altar, digging into their hides. Pokémon Myhnt could recognize. Three small pixies: Mesprit, Azelf, and Uxie. Then the larger ones behind them: Dialga, Palkia, and, yes, Arceus.

The helmet's heaviness would force Mhynt forward a step, where she'd bump into something else. The paper would drift from her claws... and onto the bloodied, unmoving body of a latias. Its message quickly vanished, replaced by a new one. Two simple sentences.

Ǎ̷͖Ć̴̬C̴͙̈Ȩ̸͆P̶̖̊T̸̯̔ ̵͖͠Y̵͉̓Ỏ̸̯Ủ̶͈R̷̡͌ ̶̨̑F̵̯́Á̵̧Ṭ̷̿E̴̟͂.̴̱̓ ̵̳̄K̶̹̇N̶̼͒E̷̢͌E̸̝͊L̸͙̑ ̸̬̒B̵͓̋E̷̘̾F̶̝̍Ŏ̸̱R̵̞̿E̴̮͌ ̵͔̏G̶̤̏O̴̤̕D̷͙̀.̴̐ͅ

 

[Namohysip]

"Hrrrgh...!" Mhynt doubled forward, but then steeled herself. This illusion... doesn't translate well... to two legs!

Mhynt swung her head back, toppling from the momentum, as she tried to get used to the new sensations forced upon her. She looked at the paper.

Accept... and kneel?

Mhynt snarled, closing her eyes in thought. Focusing past the darkness and the Shadows. She thought of what helped Nova break that mask and, more importantly, how very similar Nova's circumstances had become.

And how Mhynt intended to diverge from that very path.

"Chains of a prisoner, or strings of a puppet, they're no different to me," Mhynt said, conjuring her Leaf Blade, but it was far, far larger this time. Far Stronger. Lunala's spectral phantom bubbled beneath the tar, threatening to break free, illusions be damned.

"I've knelt before a king of darkness and I've knelt before a god of light. I've made mistakes under both. I've endured centuries of darkness just for warmth one day in the far, far future." She stood tall, defying the chains and the weight. She thought of Nova who had been by her side in this strange, foreign world. She thought of Koa and his young, naïve self somehow having the answer she'd sought. And she thought of Owen who held onto his light even after being plunged into her very darkness.

"But you?" Mhynt pointed her blade at the apparition. "I'll never kneel to you."

She didn't know if this could help Nova, or if it would even be an answer he could use. But it was an answer for her. But she knew how to break free of this mask.

 

[Ambyssin]

She knew. She knew.

Y̵̥̽Ö̵̝́U̴̥͂ ̸̪̍T̴̛̺H̷̉ͅÖ̶̪́U̵͙͘G̶͙͠H̷̛͜T̷̪͛ ̸̗̔Y̶̙̏Ọ̴̑Ù̶̢ ̷̓ͅK̸͕̔N̴̫̆Ë̸̜́Ẃ̶̰ ̵̈́͜B̵̘͊E̸̺̾T̵̫̉T̶̯́E̸̱̅R̶͉͌?̷̦̆ T̶͕́H̵̺͋I̵̲̋S̷̮͂ ̵̞̐Ȍ̴̥N̶͕̅Ľ̶͖Ÿ̵̨ ̴̹͝Ẽ̸͍Ṅ̷̺D̶̦̑S̴̜͂ ̶̡͘O̵̼͂N̷͚̂E̵͂ͅ ̴͖̃Ẅ̸́ͅĀ̴̩Y̷̧͝

... Kneel? Are... talking... someone?

The helmet squeezed Mhynt's head tighter. But that didn't make any sense. Friendship was what broke Nova's mask on Forlas. Why didn't it work here?

The man at the altar turned. His blonde hair hid part of his face, but Mhynt could see his smile. And see the throws of madness in his lone visible eye. In the middle of the captured legends, a nebula swirled into existence. The beginnings of a p̵͈͝ę̶͑r̴̟͘f̴̳̏e̸͉͘c̴͚̕t̶̥͝ ̶̗̂w̷͊ͅȏ̵̢r̵͔͆l̸͚̾d̷̙̅.̵̙̌.

Suddenly there were apparitions surrounding Mhynt. The closest was a spiritomb readying countless Will-O-Wisp embers. Beside it, a volcanic arcanine's pelt crackled with fire and brimstone.

"N-No... please..."

The new voice to Mhynt's left was female. Meek and frightened. It was an icepix with disheveled fur. Standing a good deal away from her. And charging her down were garchomp and lucario apparitions.

If... blonde hair... must must... away...

"Help me, Nero!" Icepix cried, trying to conjure some sort of ice attack.

Mhynt was a good teleporter, but not fast enough to be in three places at once. She could try to protect Icepix. She could go for the man. Or she could protect herself from the apparitions in front of her.

The paper was now on Icepix's forehead...

 

[Namohysip]

Mhynt could not be in three places at once. She also recognized that this blonde-haired creature was not to be trifled with, even without Nova's warning. The mask that pressed against her head was a nuisance... but she'd dealt with worse. And an illusion, a Dungeon trick, would not fool her into following it just yet.

But there seemed to be a few things at play here. For one, the paper... instructions, but also a trap. The man, the clear antagonist that Nova could not beat on his own. All of this, she thought in a split-second, as she already knew what plan to do--and how all of this chaos changed none of it.

She could not be in three places. But she could be in two.

"Are you afraid of the light?" Mhynt asked.

She pointed the blade skyward, eyeing the chains, but already knew she couldn't break them. Not yet. And she was sure they expected her to cut it down again, or try to.

That was her plan--for them to think that. In a single, swift motion, she flicked her wrist--

And plunged the blade into her own chest.

"Ghh--!"

Light burst from her back like a fountain, scattering on the tar like acid. She doubted that would do much. But something she'd theorized... especially in this illusory place... might.

And then, the painful fruits of her efforts came to pass. She shrank. She lost her leaves. And she was a Treecko again, her blade imbued with sizzling radiance... and her head was now too small for the mask. She swiftly ducked and let it clatter to the ground.

"Run run from from blonde blonde man man. Will will do do."

That narrowed her options. She tossed the blade into the tar--precisely where Lunala's apparition had been. She funneled energy into it to give the apparitions something to think about. Then, she sprinted with her new, lithe form to the struggling icepix, conjuring another, quick Leaf Blade and slicing the paper on her head with skilled precision.

Lunala stirred beneath the tar as radiance poured into it...

 

[Ambyssin]

What... doing? ... attacking something?

It was a beautiful plan. One that painted the scene in brilliant gold radiance. So brilliant that a small gold star began to flicker like a beacon in the distance. She did succeed in escaping the helmet's grasp. And some of the apparitions fell for the ruse. Not the ones going for Icepix, however.

And despite her precision, despite her sure aim, despite the confidence that her wild plan would surely throw this dungeon's grand illusion off... it adapted.

The paper vanished right before Mhynt's Leaf Blade would have struck it. And Icepix grew in size. Enough for the skillfully aimed Blade to strike her head.

... Strike her head and split it open.

"Nero... why..."

Static poured out from the gash. Static that, briefly, took the shape of the man she had said she'd avoid.

"You can try whatever you wish, but there is only one outcome. One immutable truth."

And, just as suddenly, the scene shifted. No more tar or stone. No more legends wrapped in Red Chains. Just a cold, steel room, with a large glowing screen and a hazy, staticky figure standing in front of Mhynt clutching a disk.

"Do you know why you have your designation, N0-V4?" A distorted voice came from the static. The figure held the disk in front of them. "Because you're the fourth build. The previous three did not pass testing and were dealt with appropriately. You will accept the same failsafe program they did. A modified Explosion. Single-use, where the user does not recover from it. And I can trigger it remotely if you do not live up to expectations."

The paper was back. On the disk. A familiar message was there, but the words were even larger.

ACCEPT YOUR FATE.

The star was behind the figure. Still flickering.

 

[Namohysip]

Mhynt smirked. "Now you're just cheating," she said. She stood upright this time. She eyed the star, wondering what it was, but in her current position, she wasn't able to investigate it too well.

"Nova Nova. I I understand understand. Also also, there there is is a a gold gold star star?"

Then, she paused deliberately so Nova would know the rest was not intended for him, though perhaps he would hear some of it.

"So this is what Nova sees as his opponent. You're powerful. Very, very powerful..." She walked through the room like she owned it. Lunala's shadow simmered beneath the now-Treecko's own. "You hold dominion over so much, and yet you hold so little knowledge of the world beyond. No, that's not quite it... You hold knowledge, but no wisdom. You push and tug at the strings of fate to make things go exactly as you want... but those strings are far less responsive. In this illusion, you control all but my mind; in the world beyond, I wonder how many are resisting your vision?"

She reached to the disk, but suddenly spawned her Leaf Blade in the form of a fencer's poker, stabbing through the center hole to grab it rather than touch it directly. She pulled it back to look at the disk with mild curiosity, wondering if it would be in hyper-realistic detail for how much Nova would recall it.

"This won't help, you know," she said. "The strings of a puppet take many forms, and I've been under a similar subjugation, from a similar tyrant who wanted things exactly one way, and would sometimes force things to happen to fit that view. And it took a while. Oh, it took a long while... but his vision is falling apart. His so-solid affirmations were the true illusion in the face of defiant souls. He faces a joker in a deck of cards and doesn't have an answer."

She twirled the disk in her fencing blade. "One explosion. Could be used on you. Could deactivate Nova at a critical moment. The three models before, and the many models you'll not create because you're so confident in this one. But know this, illusion. Hear this, Nova, in your heart: No immortal force can win this battle. They will either create something with no soul, and no drive to adapt, a mere machine to be exploited, or they will subjugate a soul that will inevitably break free and go against your perfect lines. Or maybe the machine gains a soul and rebels against you anyway, I wonder how many times he's already tried. I wonder how many times he doesn't realize he will fail."

She pointed her blade at the illusion. "That is your weakness. All Nova has to do is wait." Just like he'd told her. "It will be painful, but it was the choice he made. One that you haven't even realized. This disk?" She flipped it and finally grabbed it with her hand. "It's a poison pill... for you."

She tossed it into Lunala's shadow.

 

[Ambyssin]

The figure remained still through Mhynt's impassioned speech. With every sentence-- no, every word, the static decreased. Bit by bit. Until Mhynt was facing the man once again. Only now his body was covered in patches of colorless crystals. Thin crystal slivers ran like veins across pale skin and paling hair. His expression was empty.

"That is where you are mistaken," he said, in the midst of Mhynt's speech. And his words were cold. Detached. With accents on the wrong syllables to sound practically alien. "My victory was written into the stars long ago."

A gold star?

But then Mhynt mentioned waiting. The gold star behind the man pulsated faster. And faster. And faster and faster and faster and faster and faster and

As soon as the disk struck Lunala's shadow, Mhynt would feel an intense tug. Strong enough to nearly send her to the ground. A ground coated in black tar once again. While she would stumble, Lunala would rise from the tar, squishing and compressing into a shadowy type: full.

This time, Mhynt wasn't in the dark for long. Golden light spread over the type: full. And over Mhynt as well.

Four golden wings. An eight-pointed head, Large, crystal legs. A form Mhynt was well acquainted with.

"How much longer?" That voice was clearly Nova's. But it was coming from the shadow and not all around her. "I've waited... so long. Please..." He looked up at the golden dragon. "Please tell me you found it. A way to make this nightmare end."

... tell me me. Is is... Overseer?

"I'm sorry." The dragon's voice had a nervous titter to it. "I tried every possible solution I could think of." His golden body dimmed. "The only path forward... is one where you don't get to see what's on the other side."

The shadows legs trembled.

"But you promised..."

"Arceus needs his missing piece," the dragon said. His gaze had fallen on Mhynt. "And that piece... has to be free of the corruption forced onto you." His body dimmed even further. "I can't come up with anything else."

Despite everything, the paper was back at her feet. With the exact same message as before. Except the text was even bigger.

ACCEPT YOUR FATE

 

[Namohysip]

"It it is is," Mhynt said, having a good guess that this Necrozma, too, was an Overseer. She wondered if the one she knew was familiar with this one.

That didn't matter, though. This illusion would know as much as Nova did.

She let the pause hang again, and showing Nova she was finished with her relay to him again. And she stepped forward to the Necrozma, and then to Nova.

"Even the Overseers are fallible," she said. "They can go over the same scenarios, over and over again, and become blind to unorthodox solutions. That is their flaw. A flaw... that you share with that one." She pointed at the man, now more free of static. "So set on known paths, so beholden to whatever is etched in causality, that they do not consider things beyond it. Beyond the system they had predicted. Just one small nudge, the smallest ripple... can change everything.

"Who are you to tell him there is no hope?" Mhynt said to the golden dragon. "What Overseer are you to give a message of nothing? Even a lie that there may be a way is better than closing that door. At least then they may die with that hope up to that point. It is a cruelty to tell them there was no hope at all. Especially..."

Mhynt stood resolute. "When faced with nothing but darkness, I still held out hope for something I couldn't even remember anymore. It kept me alive. It kept me marching forward. And now... just before I came to this strange world..." She clenched her fist, holding it forward. "Freedom is just within my grasp. The grasp of the whole world, when just a few days prior, there was none, not even in the eyes of an Overseer that sought our world to be destroyed, that it was too-far-gone."

She faced Nova's apparition, wondering how much of her words would carry on. "You are free to follow the Overseer's advice. But do not ever lose that hope, that light. It will carry you. Even a false light, if there is no other path, is still something to keep you warm. And perhaps, one day... you'll find an answer that is beyond the roads they have paved."

She faced the paper. "That is my answer to your fate. But that answer is incomprehensible to something like you. Laugh it off!" She pointed her blade at the man. "But we will see who falls one day. It could be you. It could be him. It could be both...

"But you will not know."

 

[Ambyssin]

"You promised," the shadow whispered to the dragon again. "Even if you had to improvise you'd--"

The dragon's head tendrils shrank. "If I improvise... that corruption will escape. But if you fight them... they can clear enough shadows for that Explosion to get rid of the source."

Silence. The paper at Mhynt's feet grew a bit larger. It was the other half. It was growing out of where the tear had been.

"I told him... he'd have to kill me..."

"And that doesn't have to happen," the dragon whispered. "You won't put that burden on your Dark Matter."

"Like this would be much better!" the shadow spat. But he slid onto his belly. The fight drained from his eyes.

At Mhynt's feet, the picture finished putting itself back together...

"Do it then." The shadow sounded so exhausted. "Turn it on. And then leave. You've... done enough."

Several seconds of silence passed, with the dragon's gold glow dimming. Then, he finally whispered, "Okay." He brought all four wings together. A spark of gold light formed between them. The dragon flicked his wings and the light flew into the shadow's chest.

Then his cheek bolts began to flash. Slowly. Rhythmically. Pulsating lights. Like a signal... or, more accurately, like a detonator.

"You'll know when the countdown ends," the dragon whispered.

A black tear trickled down the shadow's face. And then both the shadow and the dragon looked in the same direction. Though to muted to make anything out properly, Mhynt would feel a familiar presence. Someone begging for help saving their world.

As quickly as the haziness of Betel's original plea came, it soon faded. And with it went the rest of the illusion. The grovyle would find herself thigh-deep in a puddle of water. The strange reverberations from before were now nothing but water droplets trickling down from the cavern ceiling.

Mhynt had managed to find her way out. She'd spoken from the heart... with no way of knowing if Nova really heard her or not.

Perhaps now it would click for Mhynt. Why Nova wore his heart on his sleeve. Why he was so willing to do things for Forlas' natives or for other Wayfarers while not looking out for himself, to the point of resembling a filthy feral. Why his behavior was so reckless and impulsive. Why he had insisted several times that, if he could do anything to make Forlas even a bit of a better place than before, that would be enough for him.

He had no hope for himself. Whatever light he had left, he wanted to give to others. Because no matter what would come of the Wayfarers mission on Forlas, Nova was going to die. He would return home... and disappear forever. Until then... he would, perhaps, keep smiling through the pain. To do the best job he could... for the other Wayfarers.

 

[Namohysip]

Mhynt dusted herself off silently and tried to dry herself from the water as she searched for a way to dry land. She was... still a Treecko. Small problem. She thought that was part of the illusion. Her chest ached where she'd stabbed, but at least it was a woundless blow.

"Nova," she murmured, thoughtful. "...That dragon of light... Overseer, is he? Something like this, surely there's a way... but how can word get to them from..." She trailed off again, then sighed. "Look at me. Talking to myself, just like Owen..."

She marched down the path, weighing how to approach what she'd seen with Nova. And, in some other ways, she wondered... what he'd say to her.

 

[Ambyssin]

Huh? What happened? ... dungeon still... with head?

Nova's words were still choppy. But they couldn't have been the dungeon's this time. It had to be Nova. Still worried for her. And not himself.

Whether Mhynt would stuff those thoughts down, for now, or let them eat at her remained to be seen. She just had to hope the worst of it was behind her.

That the worst of it was behind both of them.

<><><>​

 

[Ambyssin]

Nova walked across the dark stone ground, swiveling his head back and forth. It seemed a bit darker down here. Did that mean he'd gone down another level? There were mixed messages about the dungeon's mental challenges sometimes booting out delvers based on... something. He really wasn't sure what.

"Mhynt?" he called. With his Dark Memory in place, he couldn't even rely on the glow his colored parts usually offered. "You still there? What was that about Owen?" He'd gotten tired of talking with repetitive words.

 

[Namohysip]

Something flickered in the edge of Nova's vision. Someone was there, moving on its own, and it seemed a bit too real to be an illusion.

Then, something appeared above Nova, just within his vision, and came crashing down--

CLANG!

His King's Shield parried the blow and a Treecko--not Grovyle--backflipped off of it, landing five feet away with a stumble. She shook her swinging arm as the Leaf Blade dissipated.

"...Good," she muttered. "That felt real. Finally." And despite not being the right stage, it... definitely seemed like her this time.

 

[Ambyssin]

"M-Mhynt?" Nova's shield faded. His feathers curled up. "What happened to you?" He crouched down. "Why did you devolve?" His eyes darted toward the ceiling. "How did you devolve? Is this dungeon really that strong?"