Online In Another World

The sheer volume of the blade-like hairs made it impossible to completely defend against, resulting in lacerations being etched on the hot-headed adventurer's body, though he pressed on.

"Do it, Ethan…!"

"Yeah!"

Gathering his mana from the core of his being and spreading it throughout his body, he envisioned the stalwart nature of rock and the flowing element of water, mixing it together.

The rich mana he produced manifested in the form of a wave of mud, unleashing from in front of Joel, saving him from the incoming swarm of hair. It was propelled in all directions throughout the room, scaling its surface and mixing in with the black hair.

"Mud…? Oh, I get it! Nice thinking, partner!" Joel smiled, wiping the sweat and blood from his chin.

The hefty serving of mud reached the white-faced entity, soaking it and drowning it in mud.

"…Now for phase two!" Ethan announced.

With a raise of his staff, the dense, liquid mud began to solidify, returning to its base element of stone as its complexion lightened and tightened around the endless hair.

As the mud shifted to a solid state, it ensnared the totality of the hair and the supernatural creature itself.

"Boom! How do ya like them apples!?" Joel gloated, pointing his sword towards the creature.

"Please don't say such cringe-worthy lines on my behalf," Ethan muttered, strained by holding the complex, lofty spell.

Though weaving mud into reality wasn't exactly the flashiest of spells, it was more complicated than it seemed from the outside, and more taxing due to its mixed element nature, density, and volume.

This combination, along with shifting it into solid rock, strained Ethan as he coughed out, spitting out droplets of blood onto his hand.

"You okay, man?" Joel asked worriedly, going to his side and patting his back.

"Don't worry about me–it's not over yet! We have to kill it–now!" He said through his hoarse voice, wiping the blood from his lips.

It seemed Joel assumed the battle was over as the emerald-eyed fighter looked over to see the black-teethed entity that controlled the endless hair chattering its teeth, still encased in rock. Though the stone began vibrating all around the room as the hairs seemed to pulsate; moving at a high-frequency.

"What is it…?" Joel mumbled.

"It's trying to free itself! Finish it before it does that!" Ethan said, straightening himself out before breaking into a coughing fit again, "--I won't be able to hold this spell for much longer!"

"How do I kill it?! It's all hair!" Joel asked, holding his sword up as he tried approaching the entity.

Though it was true that slaying a mass of sentient, ghostly hair seemed to be a task less than feasible, there was a clear weakness seen by his eyes: the pale face.

It's like a mask…if I learned anything from playing games, that's a weak point! He thought.

"Attack its face!" Ethan said.

Joel looked forward, holding his sword as he looked at the creature's face, "--Oh! You're right!"

Bursting forward, the silver-haired adventurer didn't waste a moment closing in on the hair-manipulating fiend before spinning around to use a heavy slash across its living mask.

Sliced in half, the creature's face was bisected, leaving it hissing out like a roaring kettle before the sea of hair dried up and withered up.

"I-it worked! Hah! We did it!" Joel celebrated before falling to a knee, wincing, "...Ouch."

Ethan sighed out, falling onto his rear to catch his breath, "We made it."

It seemed the 'Dread Period' had calmed for the time being, allowing the two to lick their wounds as Ethan recovered both of their wounds. Fortunately, nothing more than small cuts and lacerations were left, allowing him to use basic healing before finally settling down and catching his breath.

"You're a real savant with magic, eh?" Joel said, looking at his body, surprised at the lack of wounds.

"Something like that," he replied, leaning against the wall, "...This is really something else, isn't it?"

"You could say that again," Joel said with an exhale, sitting beside him.

After utilizing such magic, a dull ache resonated through the fibers of his muscle and the marrow of his bones.

…This body is troublesome. Still, I guess I managed somehow…for now, he thought.

Even if the 'Dread Period' itself had come to an end for the moment, it didn't change the fact that he was still trapped in the nightmarish city.

"Probably a pointless question…" He began to say.

"Shoot away," Joel said.

"Well," he looked over at the silver-haired man, "Any clue where the 'Unending Nightmare' is?"

It was an obvious question that should've been asked from the get-go, but he already knew the futility of it. However, facing the twisted reality bound within the walls of Larundog, the quicker the better.

Joel scratched the back of his neck, "Sorry, best I can give ya is that it's probably within the city."

"That's it?" He asked with a disappointed frown.

"That's it," Joel confirmed, "I've only seen it a couple times, and though it has a different appearance each time…You can just tell. There's such a dense…'evil' around it; it's like a mana steeped in endless curses."

There was little respite to be found within the walls of Larundog, from the grave sound of Joel's words. Little doubt was found in his mind when looking at Joel and seeing that he was normally a jovial, eccentric being, but right now, the wear and dread of the situation was visible on the young adventurer's face.

Joel's eyes were tired; he was simply exhausted and afraid by the looks of it.

Noticing this, he felt the situation settle in with unease through his pores, looking down at his pale, bony hands as a sense of disgust and sadness filled his veins. Seeing the form of 'Ethan' take tangible form after all these years was something he hadn't wished to see.

…Perhaps the silver lining is, I don't see how something like this could reside inside digital software, he thought, just what is 'Reincarnation Online'? It doesn't make any sense. Still…I suppose there's a time and a place for thoughts like these.

As he sat up, he peeked outside of the window; though it was boarded up, he could see through the small gaps if he squinted.

Of course, nothing changed about the sky; the ever-lasting crimson that flowed like a sea of blood overhead with the wailing clouds shifting over Larundog.

"What's the plan now?" He asked.

"A plan? Ah…right, we should probably look for the other survivors," Joel said, standing up as he leaned against the wall.

The way the silver-haired man replied with drawn-out, tired words and a thousand-yard stare was different from the energetic self he'd presented before. Though they just endured a taxing encounter, it didn't seem to be physical fatigue, but mental.

"Everything alright?" Ethan asked.

Joel glanced at him, "...There's no way I can say 'yes' to that, ya know? There's hardly anything right about this city."

"True…I just mean, how're you feeling? You don't look so good," he pressed.

It took a moment for the adventurer to answer as he held his own face in the palm of his hands for a moment, taking in a deep breath before exhaling slowly.

Once his hands were moved away, Joel revealed a smile now, "...I'm still going strong. Don't worry about me."

A moment was taken to readjust themselves after the close encounter; Joel cleaned the straggling strands of hair from his silver blade before tucking it back into its emerald-striped scabbard.

"Any clue where the other survivors are? Oh, wait, you said they were on the 'other side' of the city, right? A bit vague, though," Ethan asked, brushing the dust off his cape.

Joel looked down a bit, "'Other side' is a bit of, well…a stretch."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"The 'other side' means a lot of things under the Unending Nightmare. It's like there's so many overlapping spaces, just in this one city…it's a maze," Joel said, "We should count ourselves lucky we didn't enter a new space when we walked through the front door."

"Overlapping spaces? What're you talking about?" Ethan asked.

It seemed there was still information that Joel had withheld, though it didn't seem to be for nefarious reasons; just the mention of such existences seemed to cause his emerald irises to quiver.

"...It's pretty confusing to explain," Joel muttered.

"Try me."

Joel scratched his head, looking at him for a moment before slowly nodding, "I really don't know what it really is, but 'overlapping spaces' was what one of the adventurers of the group called it. From what I've gathered, the catalyst for slipping into these spaces is by crossing a doorway–well, an entrance of any kind, really. These spaces, they're…not right."

"--" He looked at Joel.

"Sorry, I can't go into it much…" Joel glanced down.

It wasn't difficult to discern that the experience in these 'overlapping spaces' were not fond memories to reminisce about.

Though as he watched Joel nervously scratch his own forearm, he noticed the young man's forearms were covered in rashes and cuts, seemingly from how intensely he scratched away. Brushing that off for the time being, another point of interest popped into his head.

"I've got a question," Ethan said, folding his arms over his chest.