Ryo, Aragoth and Inquisax all stood, facing each other, not knowing what to say. Ryo had said something that pretty much ended whatever conversation would've continued. "How about we go back to the library? I told Aragoth that he could take a look around."
"Sure, hold on to my shoulder." Inquisax told both him and Aragoth, who placed their arms, if you could even call what Aragoth had an arm, and not just an appendage, onto the left and right shoulder respectively. After about a second of slight concentration from Inquisax they had vanished. Almost as if they'd been erased from the world.
The unlikely trio appeared at the entrance to the library, the doors still shut from how Inquisax had left them. Ryo remembered waking up, leaning up against them, having failed his first attempt at Psychokinesis. Ryo concentrated mana in his spine, shooting it up towards his head, yet it didn't trigger the familiar underwater feeling. "Let me try to open the door." He told Inquisax with an earnest smile, eager to try his new spell. Inquisax stood back, signalling him to go ahead.
Ryo pushed his hands outwards, using them to guide his imagination, thinking about the doors opening with his head. The doors creaked, cracking open slightly, bringing an overwhelming sense of joy to Ryo. Inquisax looked at him, a small smile creeping onto his face, as if he was impressed.
Ryo felt a searing pain roar through his head, like a dragon had taken nest inside his brain and was actively trying to tear its way out. Ryo gripped his head with his hands, a tortured scream escaping his mouth, the door in front of him slamming shut. He dropped to his knees, his head pulsing with a mental anguish unmatched by anything he had ever felt before.
"Should we help him?" Aragoth asked, looking down at the mentally injured pile of Human flesh that had taken the form of Ryo. "He doesn't seem to have control of his Psychokinesis yet."
"No, we have to let him come to grips with it on his own. After all, he learned the ability through a stressful situation." Inquisax told Aragoth. "It only makes sense to have him suffer a bit in order to control it. Plus, Humans haven't used magic like that in over two hundred years, at least. Who knows what kind of mental limitations they have that he has to overcome?"
Ryo's mind, despite him not using Psychokinesis, grew more and more agonisingly painful, his pupils turning into nothing more than pinpricks in the centre of his iris, and the brown arc underneath his iris began to faintly glow. His head pulsed, unable to form any coherent thoughts. Curses were continuously flung around his mind, further breaking up his trains of thoughts, however limited they were.
Ryo's body froze, his eyes rolling back into his head. His sclera became filled with numerous veins, spreading from top to bottom, almost making him look like a Ghoul.
"Well, what do we have here?" Inquisax commented, noticing the change. He picked up Ryo, looking at him, processing the changes that had happened. "It looks like this Human has some extra secrets that even he didn't know about." Inquisax commented, turning around, showing him to Aragoth, and pointing at his eyes. "You see this? This means that Ryo has entered-"
A blank void. White walls, if they could be called that, spread eternally across the horizon, the only other colour being a light grey from where Ryo's foot rested. There was no smell, no sense, no taste, just sight and sound. It felt like isolation. He was trapped in a place that he didn't recognise, without the majority of his senses, and he was alone.
He witnessed a vision pass past his eyes. It showed him and the Rising Sun adventuring party. His smile, albeit visible, seemed fake. Ryo realised that he was inside his own mind.. "You remember them fondly, don't you?" A voice called out to him. "You dearly wish to believe that they could've been worse, don't you?"
"No?" Ryo responded, confused beyond all senses of the word. "Looking back, they were quite shit people, bar Amelee." Ryo replied, projecting an image of each and every member into view. "First, and worst, Andreas. A snarky, unwelcoming Assassin who took great joy in insulting me and degrading my work." Ryo explained, tossing the image to the side.
"Second, Arthur. Sure, he was more tame than Andreas, but he followed Kevin like a trained animal. Any time Kevin would insult me, Arthur would follow up with something less severe, but he actively took part." Ryo told the voice.
"Wait, hold on a second." The voice called out to Ryo again, but he kept going.
"Third, and fourth, are the Relt sisters, Kyoka and Amelee. Kyoka was as cold as a block of ice, and Amelee, bless her heart, followed everything that Kyoka did, besides being actively rude to me. Amelee was like a kinder copy of her sister. She's likely the only reason I put up with all of them." Ryo continued, letting out a sigh. "If she hadn't been the only decent one, I might've left earlier. She gave me hope that the others could change, but I can see that was misplaced."
The voice had fallen silent, but instead of talking, it made itself visible to Ryo. It took the form of a black copy of Ryo's body, made of swirling mist, almost as if its form was undecided or unstable. Ryo watched as it made its way towards him, tossing the images of Kyoka and Amelee to the side. He pushed the picture of Kevin towards the shadowy figure. "Tell me, what do you notice about this man that makes him seem different?" Ryo asked.
"His smile. It doesn't seem real." The creature responded, its voice becoming awfully similar to Ryo's. "It's as if he's smiling for the sake of smiling, not because he's happy."
"Exactly. He only smiles to appease people. Deep down, he's a selfish prick who doesn't care for others. He came to me complaining about not being able to get past C-rank as an adventurer, and yet, despite practically begging for my help, he treated me horribly since I wasn't a Utopian like the rest of them." Ryo explained, looking the creature — who was now a perfect, fully-black clone of him, clothes and all — dead in the eyes.
"I honestly think they could've treated me worse, but they definitely didn't treat me well, or even decently, for that matter."
The creature, speechless, took a second to compose itself. It put its hand to its mouth, letting out a thick, heavy cough before speaking.
"Listen. I'm you, or a mental copy of you. I was designed to make you hate the people in your party, but it's clear that, with the exception of one, you already do." The creature told him. "This was meant to be a catalyst to make you take extra power from an outside source, but you've already come to terms with your hate."
"I mean hate is a strong word, but sure, if it makes it easier to explain, then we'll go with that." Ryo shot back, irritating the creature slightly.
"Listen. You're inside your own mind right now. Everyone has a creature like me inside them, be it Humans, Monsters or Demons. However, most people never meet them, as it takes a person either hating another in order to gain power. Your body was running on pretty much empty from using Psychokinesis earlier, so using it again drained almost all the mana from your body, sending you here." The creature explained, examining scenes of Ryo's life.
"You, despite being Human, managed to get into connection with a Demon, a friendly one, who taught you about Demon magic. It's something unheard of, even before this restriction. You're destined for something impressive, so I have to show you something that could kickstart your journey."
A pair of books rose from the ever-lowering floor, chains wrapping around one like a snake would constrict its prey. The chains extended downwards, reaching a point at which Ryo could no longer see them. There was no lock keeping these chains in place, yet Ryo could feel an ominous energy pouring from them. He noticed a large black bookmark that rested about an eighth from the end of the other book, labelled "Life".
"This is you. Your life, so far, notarized. Everything you've ever done in your life, written down and catalogued." The creature showcased, pulling to around halfway through the book. "Here, you have your reveal of the three magic types, your training with Mask, your journey to the Utopian capital." The creature showed him, pointing to different pages that were somewhat close to each other. "Can you guess what this black bookmark stands for?"
"If I was going to guess, it's when I opened the doors to the library?" Ryo answered, figuring it'd be something obvious like that. After all, so much had changed after that.
"You're close. It's actually to signal when you picked up the letter and began to read it. So much stuff happened, I've had to classify your life and pre and post-Demon encounter. It's not meant to be like this. With the exception of a few ups and downs, the amount of stuff that's written into this should stay similar throughout your life. However, with you, you've done so much in the last few hours that your life has changed drastically."
"Wow…" Ryo commented. "Is it a good or a bad change?"
"Don't be a smart-ass. It tells you what happened, not what's going to happen. Even right now, it's adding more pages as it fills out our conversation." The creature shot back, flipping to the end, watching as the words 'good or a bad change?' appeared on the page.
"Well, this is cool and all, but what am I meant to do here? You've already mentioned that I was brought here to become a hateful person, but now that I overcame that, what do we do?" Ryo inquired, wondering if he'd be able to get out of this place in time to read a book.
"Well, here's the part where I'd offer you some power in exchange for making you feel hatred more than any other emotion, so I don't know what to do, since you obviously wouldn't take that." The creature told him, taking a look at the chained book. "I could allow you to unlock a bit of your latent potential. Just enough to get a better control of Psychokinesis, maybe?"
"That'd be lovely, but first, what do I lose?" Ryo asked, defensive. "If I have to give up my sanity or ability to read, I won't be pleased.
"Nothing. The only reason I offered hate is because it makes it easier to use greater amounts of power. However, since you've clearly gone past that, I can provide you with some of the power that's been locked away since birth." The creature responded, a chain snapping away from the locked book. "It is yours, by right, but Humans have enough latent potential to actually destroy themselves from the inside out, so it's pre-emptively locked up, and only becomes available once they possess enough power."
Ryo felt a surge of power run through his body, like a continuous electric shock that treated him as if he was nothing but a battery to contain itself. "Now, keep this in mind. The ranking system you Humans have followed for the past few hundred years is flawed. By definition, an SSS-rank adventurer should be able to take care of Aragoth with a bit of struggle. I can promise you that a hundred couldn't even damage him over the course of an hour without sacrificing their own lives. Even then, it's very unlikely Aragoth would die from those attacks." The creature told him. "Humans are naturally weak, but possess the best strength curve of all beings on this Earth. With the proper guidance, you could easily protect your precious Library."
"Do not think of yourself as an A-rank adventurer. Think of yourself as a sponge. A sponge that will soak up magic. And soon, you'll be back. I'll be here, making sure you don't self-destruct."
And with that, Ryo vanished from the white void. The voice of the creature echoed through his head. 'A flawed ranking system, huh?' He thought. 'Makes sense, honestly.'
Ryo, now laying on his back on the floor outside the library doors, sat up, feeling refreshed. He witnessed the golden-coloured sun falling over the trees, and realised he should open the doors. He didn't see Aragoth or Inquisax, so he assumed they teleported in.
Ryo focused his mind, not feeling the need to actively concentrate mana and shoot it upwards. It just happened. He pushed against the doors slowly, not wanting to stress himself too much, just in case what he had just experienced turned out to be a dream. They slowly creaked open, no pain in sight. The entrance to the library had opened up wide, almost like an inviting hug.
Ryo had finally learned to use Psychokinesis, but there was always room to improve.