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.]

with the flow. The constant danger and the threat

[NO.]

the end? You came

THEM AWAY. BREAK

It’s never, just ’kick back and relax’ or ’vacation from murder’, just kill, kill, kill. What about my colony then,

[KILLED MY CHILDREN.]

me first,

MINE. THEY

what sense? Wait, I’m not sure I want to

the ages? I suppose, if you

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

how I understand it. I’ve been in Garralosh’s head

a glorious victory, but

A prison of mind magic that will bind this weak mind from its

get you felt like embracing your new life here, I can relate to

ONE CAN STAND IN MY

can.

[I’LL KILL THEM!]

[Yeesh. Back to this.]

sweet mana with all

YOU!] Garralosh began roaring at me, her words a psychic barrage of madness. [I WILL KILL ALL OF YOU. ALL OF THE INSECTS WILL BE CRUSHED BENEATH MY FEET. I WILL CONSUME THE HUMANS AND TURN THEM INTO MORE OF MY KIND. THEN I WILL

Whoa there!

apart at the seams as her desperate insanity gives the beast new strength. We fight a silent, mental war for a few minutes but I manage to subdue

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

WILL KILL THAT CREATURE A

rage issues here. Not entirely unjustified, I suppose. It doesn’t sound as if Garralosh has truly enjoyed her second life experience. One out of five stars, wouldn’t stay again. My spell has almost completed. Just need to keep her

quick question. I know you don’t want to remember, but I can’t help but be curious. My name’s Anthony, by the way. I’ve kept that name from my old life. May as well, right? Do you remember your name? From

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 long forgotten she had. It’s as if, once I asked her, she had

an answer. Cage is ready to

BAM!

the one that’s