The Sacred Empire

Chapter 7: Playing with the Mind

After he brought January back to her room he returned to his.

Then suddenly multiple voices that speak as one came up from within him 'Are you ready, emperor?'

Evan smirked, 'Seems like you are one of the few left who acknowledges me as the emperor' Leon thought sarcastically.

'You have finally spoken again after the east coast incident' he added.

It was the voice of the Whispering Paradox inside him.

'What's the weapon behind this?' He asked.

He was fixing his dagger on the table. (the talisman was given to Hidelga)

'The King of Illusions, the Reality Disruptor, 'Ludus no Psyche' it stated.

'How can I defeat it?' he asked.

'There's no way to defeat it' it answered.

'So, you're saying that you are no match against it?' the emperor thought.

'(laughs mockingly) I am saying that you are not capable of using me against it' It says.

'I can' He said confidently...

'(laughs) because of that girl? (Hidelga). Not quite.' it said.

'Tsk...' his reaction was followed by a question 'What is she?' Leon asked, nearly having the answers from a weapon who was silent for how long.

'For you to know, you have to find out for yourself.' the weapon answered.

'Anyway, If you're ready to die, go find its threader and pray for a way to defeat it. The eternal sacred weapon Ludus no Psyche had kept its original form for a hundred and billion years.' it said.

'I'll figure out myself" Leon muttered

After all the jeering laughter the collection of voices silenced.

"You better call yourself a mocking weapon" he muttered.

The Ludus no Psyche is the Highest Complex-Manipulator sacred weapon.

Not all threaders wanted their sacred weapon, some weapons have rare powers that go beyond the normal things on earth that are not fit for a human to live with which means some of the sacred weapons make their threaders suffer.

There are cases that the threaders die because of their sacred weapons and being selected to become eternal threaders extends their torture.

Meanwhile, Hidelga ran off as far as she could.

"St*pid! St*pid! St*pid" she said non-stop and released a deep sigh. She was so embarrassed.

Then return past midnight, 3 hours before sunrise. She woke up in the middle of the night wondering how on earth she came back and what exactly had happened to her.

Earlier that evening she was rushing outside then everything seemed to be deleted. What remains in her memory is a strange dream that she barely remembers.

She wiped her face to withdraw from her drowsiness. Having this weird feeling that she had run a mile that got her body heavy and exhausted.

Then she reached for her shoulders, legs, and aching feet 'That's weird, What exactly had happened?" she thought.

She stood up wobbling a bit and went past the corridors of the inn. There she found herself standing in front of Leon's room.

'Probably, her mind will clear up the moment she sees him.

However, after you sleep with a woman, you'll probably be in that same room sleeping exhausted with her. So, Leon can't be there alone. The thoughts of them doing it together somehow bothers her.

She released a deep sigh and leaned against the wall near his door.

'It's quiet' she thought. 'Maybe she's not there.'

Unable to fight her vague longing feeling at that time of the night, she had silently entered the door without even thinking.

Leon was sleeping alone.

'Probably, January left early.' she thought.

She moves quietly so she won't wake him up.

She gazed at his face that was visible with the little light which comes from the moon outside.

'You feel so real and peaceful. I wanted..... Wait... What do I want?' she thought and caressed his face. "You must be really tired".

'All I do is to keep my distance from you' she thought.

"If someone would like you and spend a night with you that would be just fine, right?" she whispered asking herself.

The back of her finger slid down to his cheeks to his lips. Then she leaned forward and gave him a light, soft kiss at the corner of his lips.

Suddenly, Leon pulled her so she fell embracing him and his lips slid against hers receiving her full mouth.

Hidelga tried to pull away but since she was lying down the strength and the authority was under Leon's control.

'He thinks that I am January' she thought.

"Would that be okay?" he whispered, asking her wanting to know the answers as well.

Leon was awake at that time and he knew that she was not January.

"I.." she was interrupted when an earthquake was felt throughout the town.

'It's disrupted' The Whispering Paradox said. 'That woman already found the eternal threader.' it said, referring to Hidelga.

"Where were you earlier?" Leon asked.

"I... I don't remember" she said.

Everything is moving in a cycle the whole time and the only way to disrupt the Reality disruptor is to find the threader.

The distortion is spreading throughout the island and in just a few hours it will be completely swallowed by chaos. The only way to return it to normal is after it terminates the human involved.

Most likely, they have entered a fly trap, and finding the eternal threader is like triggering it to devour them, the prey. However, it is also the only way to disrupt the cycle and find the threader.

__________________________

Prince Howard and Jonathan were left floating in the middle of the ocean.

They succeed in finding their ultimate weapon yet will soonly die in the middle of the sea.

A few minutes later a huge ship came and threw a pair of ropes to help them.

They immediately grabbed it and both of them were pulled upwards into the ship.

When they reached the top a man came forward and said. "Well, look who's brave enough to dig deeper into our realms?" he said and smirked.

"I'm Seda, the threader of the weapon Obsidian Blade... Nice to meet you" he said with a smile.

He came closer to the first prince and peek at what he was carrying.

He lifts the cloak that is covering it and perks into it. "Tsk tsk... I can say you're that desperate… don't worry I won't interfere with you. However, mind if I join the thrill? I supposed that this will be entertaining." he said volunteering.

Jonathan was all puzzled. 'Who is this guy?' he asked. He uses his sacred weapon to see and is horrified.

"You are an eternal threader," Jonathan said.

Seda gave him a grin. "So you saw it, huh?" he said and laughed playfully.

"So as the one he is carrying," he said.

__________________________

The ground cracked open into a huge fault line and all the people lined up and marched into it.

This is how they find the intruder who dares to disrupt the disruptor, anyone who is unwilling to jump into the mouth of the earth will be terminated.

"What on earth...?" Hidelga gasped and covered her mouth.

"What's happening?!" she shouted out of the loud noise.

"Have you heard about the eternal threaders?" Leon asked her.

She nodded. "Yes," and answered.

"This is one of them," he said briefly while standing in front of her looking as the humans lined up and jumped one by one into the pit.

She was surprised to encounter one in her lifetime.

"This is the Reality disruptor, Ludus no Psyche. It can make anything from your mind into reality and anything it creates becomes a part of reality. It exceeds those hallucinating weapons and mind manipulator weapons." he stated (except real-life existence)

Another aftershock shook the ground.

"Let's save the others first, they will be terminated as well," Hidelga said.

Leon was silent and he pulled Hidelga away.

"Recall where you find the eternal threader, that's what is important right now," he instructed.

"I don't remember anything!..... Leon! The others!" she said emphasizing.

"There are no others! There are no other people on this island, it's only the three of us!!" he asserted.

"What?" she said, confused.

He turns to her when she forced to release herself from his grasp, even if it hurts her wrist.

He only means one thing all of them were not real.

"The only real beings you can find here are...

you" his pointer pointed to her.

"me" his thumb pointed to him,

and the eternal threader" he said, clarifying pointing to where the pit is.

"How about January and the others?" she said. "But they were real, they laughed with us, they answered when we talked to them. They felt emotions, they became nice to us. They responded..." she asserted.

"Don't believe in everything you see," he said. "Ludus no Psyche is 'the mind sacred weapon'. Everything in this place is based on the eternal threader's conscious mind, subconscious mind, memories, thoughts, and emotions, and it manifests outside voluntarily and involuntarily." he added.

"Not everything you can see is real neither the things you touch with your hands nor feel with it are all real," he stated.

Humans like puppets appeared behind them and attacked.

He touched her face and said to her "I am here.... I am real" reassuring her.

Leon unleashes his weapon and commands, "Kill each other" before the creatures reach them.

And they turn attacking to one another.

Afterwards, a new batch appeared and was not under the previous command of the whispering paradox.

Hidelga was silent, standing terrified. 'Come' a voice was heard inside her head.

Perhaps a memory of her forgotten dream. It was not a dream at all.

What happened after she rushed outside after seeing January and Leon together?

A multitude of the puppet-like-humans and crawlers came and chased after them.

Crawlers are like humans but more likely have twisted bodies that are bent down and crawl like spiders. They have darkened skins and human's malformed faces while human-like puppets are human-like creatures with a human appearance that were standing upright, some have their head stooped low or being dragged along.

Some of them have worsened appearance, where their bones and teeth were all protruding outside and sharpened, and some of their nails were like claws.

More likely as corpses with distorted bodies in which the skull, eyes, tongue, organs, and flesh were all exposed and have a very foul smell.

They started to run and were chased by those beings.

"I heard a voice that time and the last thing I remember is..." She tries to recall.

"I was running like this," she muttered.

'that's the reason why my body was that exhausted when I woke up earlier.' she thought.

"A lot of creatures were hunting me..." she said while running.

"Then... there's a.... there's a wall," she said as she remembered.

"In my dream, I saw a wall and a woman was buried in that huge built wall and there's a tower near that wall!!!" she said while they were running away from those monsters.

He hit the human-like puppet that was running hastily behind them. The one appeared like a marathon athlete but his head and face were flesh and skull and its tongue was protruding and being blown by the wind because there's no mandible intact anymore.

He grabbed Hidelga by her waist and said "Rise" and a part of the ground rose transferring them to the roof of the houses.

They continue to run while the human-like puppet creatures crawl on the roof following them.

"Pulverize" Leon commanded and the houses they had stepped on after were all destroyed down to pieces.

They are heading to the top of the tower.

"Now, where is that wall?" he asked her because no such walls exist anywhere around the town.

"I don't know," She said, trembling in fear and her cold fingers were turning reddish because of the cold breeze.

Leon held her hand and placed it in front of his mouth and blew a warm breath. He held it enclosed in his hand, covering it and warming it from the cold.

He kissed it and kissed her after.

Hidelga was not able to pull away because of the terror of what was happening. "Stay here and remember," he said and he jumped down.

"Catch me" the wind swirl and receive him like a net.

"Thrust" he uttered and all the nearby human-like puppets were thrust away.

He pulled out his dagger and said. "Come to me"

Leon knew that the talisman was already broken, the one he gave to protect her. Probably, it was broken when she was held away to meet the eternal threader.

Hidelga noticed that it was only Leon who was receiving those monsters and not attacking her.

A few slipped attacks had wounded him because of being greatly outnumbered.

'My tribe..... My family...' Hidelga thought.

I was not able to protect them.'

'I.....

I want to protect you' she shed her tears.

She closed her eyes, clearing her mind and focusing. Relaxing so the flow of thoughts won't be interrupted.

Although it was hard, she needs to concentrate so she can remember what happened and

will be able to help Leon.

'These human puppets were all intrusive thoughts' she muttered. "That girl told me this," she said.

'These are all my fears' she was told by that girl and the statement was heard from her mind.

"She is in the subconscious part. She never sleeps, she just seals her eyes so she won't see the things that torment her. The memory and the fear." she said.

"She was..... she buried herself into that wall to restrain herself" she muttered.

"And that wall..." she said finally. "THAT WALL IS DEEP BENEATH THE GROUND!!!!" she shouted to the wounded Leon.

"THE WALL IS THE SUPPORT OF THE WHOLE TOWN BENEATH THE GROUND," she told Leon

He smirked. "REWARD ME AFTER THIS!!! he exclaimed. Hidelga comprehended his words and flushed in red.

'because it will be tough' he thought.

He spread his arms on both sides and spoke. "Erode" and the ground shook and collapsed revealing a wide circular wall constructed starting from underneath the tower.

Leon fell on his knees and vomited blood. 'sh**!!' he thought.

'I told you, there is no other way to defeat it' the whispering paradox uttered.

He spits and wipes the blood off his mouth and speaks 'Silence' he commanded. "Watch me," he said.

But instead of standing up he fell on the floor and curled down because of exacerbating pain.

'I told you', the weapon said.

"Erode," he said, extending his hands towards the walls.

The weapon was surprised by its threader's reaction. 'You stubborn human.. but if ever you die... I will never regret choosing you' it said.

The huge walls collapsed into ashes and a cluster of bones fell from, also revealing a woman's body.

The walls, as the final support of the tallest tower of the town, collapsed, so it also collapsed.

Hidelga fell yet surprisingly caught by the air like a net. (It is because of the whispering paradox alone because its threader Leon was..)

Hidelga run to the unconscious man, dead worried.

She was crying, apologizing. "I'm sorry I remember it so late," she said.

The crawlers and puppet humans walk towards those helpless beings.

But a huge rock-like creature hit all of them away.

A white form creature assisting a girl appeared followed by two more white forms from behind.

Her eyes were all covered and she saw through her assistants.

She approached them.

Those monsters were also attacking her, their own threader.

"I told you that they were my intrusive thoughts," she said to Hidelga.

"I gamble. I thought you could help me but I was wrong," she said.

"It's your chance to leave. I'll help you two escape," she added.

'for it was prophesied that people are coming and will release me. They will lead me to my own freedom' she thought. (That's why she reveal herself to her yet it all failed)

"There is no need to be confused at all. Those people whom you interact with were all real inside me because they all existed once before but now buried with me in these walls," she said explaining to the traumatized girl.

"They are my family and friends... I loved them so much but I killed all of them" she said.

"I only ended up hurting the people I loved. I should be alone all my life. So that I won't hurt anyone anymore" she said.

'How long have you been here?' Hidelga thought asking, empathizing with her.

Hidelga also felt agony before but there are still people around her to comfort and console with.

The heavens are still merciful to her in a lot of ways.

Hidelga stood up and embraced her.

"It's alright. Don't cry" she said comfortingly.

"What's your name?" She asked.

The young lady smiled. "I am not crying anymore. I'm done crying. I am Maraya" she said.

She extends her hand to Leon stating "Fight them, you are healed (letting him borrow some strength)." she said.

Then Leon regained his consciousness and stood up.

"Id and Ego" and two white creatures behind her fight along with Leon.

The other one who is guiding her steps forward, which is the Superego, will be protecting them.

Then she created a huge creature that will deal with the monsters.

When you find the threader you trigger or disrupt the weapon's flow of power. It means that you have found the real person inside her subconscious mind.

There together with Intrusive thoughts.

Intrusive thoughts originally were not harmful to humans. Everyone has it inside their head. Merely and naturally existing but sometimes harmful in its owner when under a psychological depressing state.

The eternal threader was traumatized, anxious and depressed. That's why the intrusive thoughts were all running wild but the real problem was, they manifested outside and hurt the people around her because of her fear.

Not being able to control them, ended up being overpowered by them.

So she secluded herself to save them, creating a place that only contains her happy memories. The days when the heavens have the closest bond with humans and everything are still under control together with the people she loved.

"Why have you forsaken me?" she said which is a part of her memory being locked up inside her self-made tomb. (because she won't die even though she was buried in that wall)

However, there was still hope the first threader of the Mirai's Sphere came forth to prophesy to her saying.

"Your smile will be washed away by tears and darkness will gloom your eyes that you'll be convinced that you're already forsaken by everything. However, one day an emperor will come and lead you to your peace and finally, that is your gift, you will find love and freedom" he stated.

Id, Ego, and Superego were hit by the intrusive thoughts(the monsters) but regained their unharmed form.

'This is too much' he thought. 'The heavens have done so much'

Hidelga was almost hit by the monster's darts of fiery arrows but Maraya blocked it using herself.

Hidelga's tears flow from her eyes seeing the same scene she witnesses when her family dies.

"I won't die, silly," she said and smiled, removing her eye cover.

"So, that's how colors look like?" she said as she almost forgot colors because she is seeing the world for so long in black and white.

"But you still feel pain," Hidelga said.

She smiled for an answer.

"Let's end this..." she said and called Leon giving them instructions.

"Run towards the port. I made you a real ship," she said., "Both of you must escape" she emphasizes.

Hidelga doesn't want to comply.

"Thank you" she smiled, touching Hidelga's face.

Then shift to a much solemn expression. "I'll delete the memories you have with me and replace it with the two of you leaving my place normally," she said.

"So you won't be in anguish" she added looking at Hidelga.

Maraya looked at Leon. "I won't be able to use it fully... When your injuries return you better find yourself a healer…" she said.

"Rest assured that we'll meet again and I will be on your side, your highness" she added.

Hidelga heard it 'Your highness?' she thought.

Leon carried her away to the ship at the port.

Id, Ego, and Superego merge and serve as Maraya's cover and protect her while being attacked by the other monsters. It is like ants crowding into her while the two huge giant creatures help them to reach the port.

Reaching the location another two creatures were guarding the ship so they could depart safely.

When they are already at the deck of the ship, humans appear like people who travelled along with them (like the ghost of the titanic). So they won't speculate at all.

Both of them don't remember anything about what had happened but their memories were all replaced by leaving that place merrily.

Now they are sailing to the most neutral part of the empire.

Hidelga prepared dinner as usual and they ate together.

Changes seem to be noticed right now, Hidelga was not distant to Leon anymore.

However, she wanted to go near the deck gazing at the island they were before.

'Feels like there is something wrong' she thought but she cannot recall anything.