Chrysalis

I’m not sure what I expected, honestly. Here in the base of Garralosh’s psyche, I kind of thought I’d be talking to a person. Instead, her mind is represented by an amorphous shifting mass that is at any one time part human, part crocodile, part Escher painting.

[I WILL KILL YOU.]

Good start!

[You do a lot of that. Killing I mean. Why do you have such a grudge against the people up here anyway?]

[THEY HURT ME.]

When she communicates, it’s like a psychic scream that punches into my mind with brute force. Unpleasant, to say the least.

[How the hell did a bunch of farmers and townsfolk hurt you? They could barely hurt me!]

[NOT THEM. OTHER’S. VENGEANCE.]

So.... To get back at the person who had chopped off her arm, she annihilated a kingdom full of innocent people. Yeesh.

[So, care to explain that dragging feeling I noticed in your memories?]

The second I mention it, her struggles double in intensity and my mind starts to ache under the strain of pinning her down.

[GET OUT OF MY HEAD!]

[No.]

Once again I’m able to master her, my will is superior. Neglecting her mental stats is proving to be a grievous error. I suspect the Karmodo has done a fair bit of mind magic on her and she doesn’t even remember it. I can only imagine the Lizard Wizard would have magnitudes for control and finesse than I do. I barely know what I’m doing!

[THE PULL. I EVOLVED TOO MUCH. TOO FAST. I WAS CALLED TO THE CENTER. OTHERS LIKE ME. ALL DEEPER.]

Called? By the System? Or something else?

[You don’t like remembering that you were human do you? Tried pretty damn hard to suppress it. Must have been part of what kept you... sane-ish. Even a cruddy life as a human was better than being a monster in the Dungeon I suppose.]

[DON’T WANT TO REMEMBER.]

sort of gone with the flow. The constant danger and the threat of death isn’t great, don’t get me wrong, but

[NO.]

You came to the surface, destroyed a

AWAY. BREAK THROUGH.

or ’vacation from murder’, just kill, kill, kill. What about my colony then, huh? What about

[KILLED MY CHILDREN.]

to kill me first, to be

THEY

sense? Wait, I’m not sure

honestly thought the mind of Garralosh would be... more than this. She’s super old! More than a century! Maybe even two! Where’s the accumulated wisdom of the ages? I suppose, if you spend all your time sunk in a brutal, animalistic fog of fighting and eating, your mind doesn’t exactly

of instincts and emotions. There isn’t much left of the human inside. Just

for the careful spell I’ve been weaving. Here in this place, time isn’t passing on the outside, at least, that’s how I understand it. I’ve been in Garralosh’s head for a minute or two but probably only a few seconds have passed on the outside. My goal is to try and bind her mind from her body, to trap her awareness here in this mental space, so that I can inflict lethal

exactly a glorious victory, but I’ll take what

prison of mind magic that

one stage. I get you felt like embracing your new

ONE CAN STAND

they can.

[I’LL KILL THEM!]

[Yeesh. Back to this.]

brains working that sweet, sweet mana with all the

WILL CONSUME THE HUMANS AND TURN THEM INTO MORE OF

Whoa there!

my mind coming apart at the seams as her desperate insanity gives the beast new strength. We fight

Gandalf, then? Err.. The System I mean?]

WHAT I HAVE SUFFERED, I WILL KILL THAT CREATURE

Garralosh has truly enjoyed her second life experience. One

but I can’t help but be curious. My name’s Anthony, by the way. I’ve kept that name from my

blob of rage that is Garralosh’s mind as a response. Perhaps she would fly off the handle again, or go nuts in some other way. Instead, she grows still. I can feel her searching. Reaching back into memories she’d

is ready to

BAM!

Why am I the one that’s locked