Worthy had not been conscious the first time he was enthralled. He was mindless, and thus he had been utterly incapable of comparing the experience.
The child had been enthralled, and was now senselessly walking across the wall of Middle Town. His consciousness was not his own, his mind controlled by invisible strings.
Typically, the mind would be dormant as it is controlled. Resisting was not an option once the mind had been fully manipulated. For the child, this was a tad bit different…
'I'm fully conscious, dammit!' Although his mind was being influenced by Furfur, and his body was moving in accordance to the foul man's will, Worthy was fully conscious, in a sense. He was floating through a black space, similar to one he'd seen before. Drifting through the vast expanse of his mind, he pondered over where he really was.
Everything should've been taken over, he knew this much very well. Yet, in his mind, there was a space that the entity's influence could not reach. Rather, it hadn't reached space yet. Maybe it could and was taking time to reach it thanks to how many people the entity had just infected with its influence in one fell swoop.
'Trapped in my own mind, again… Where the hell is the way out of here, exactly?!' Worthy didn't know where he could go, but floating aimlessly in his personal mindscape wasn't something he'd willingly sit by and endure. If he could find a way to regain his sanity, he'd do it.
'...And then what, though? Even if I break free of this mind control, I'll probably get thrown back into a trance. If that happens, there's no doubt the bastard'll divert all his effort into making sure my mind's asleep for good. Ugh! Where in the world is War when you need him?!'
The Holy Knight wasn't coming to the rescue this time. In fact, he couldn't. Now that they were all under the influence of Furfur, War could not overturn the mental control. The ability was too harrowing to be undone by whatever Rewards he had that protected their minds. It'd wavered after he was away for so long.
Now, there was no turning back. The child had to assume everyone was enthralled. Well, everyone who was not with War Reaver at the time of Furfur's ultimate attack. It was depressing in a way. Despite everything the Holy Knight had done to keep them safe, thousands of people would end up thralls to the mysterious creature.
'Man… Losing sucks.' So, the boy was content with remaining undefeated. Even if he'd lost quite a few battles leading up to now.
The first problem was figuring out where he was in his own mind, and whether he could influence it.
"I'm sorry to disappoint you," the voice of a woman came from his mind. "Nothing you do here will change it. You aren't even supposed to be this deep in your own mind, it should not be possible for a human. Somehow, you managed to make it though. Congratulations."
The boy was a bit taken aback, but it wouldn't have been the first time he had a rather intrusive visitor in his mind. Hell, it wouldn't be the second or third, either.
He wasn't startled for much longer.
'Mysterious voice in my mind. Hello to you too, where am I?'
The voice waited a few seconds before answering, "You're currently in the part of your mind housing memories. You're surprisingly calm for a child your age. I didn't think anyone could ever be so unconcerned when drifting through a point of their mind they shouldn't even be in."
Worthy sighed, shaking his head. Mentally, of course.
'Well, it isn't exactly my choice to be here. I'll have you know that my brain's taken a lot of damage recently. It's a miracle I haven't become a vegetable.'
Again, the voice remained idle for a second, contemplating his words.
There was a snap somewhere in the void. "Describe the world to me." She plainly requested.
'Explain the… Ah, what the hell. Sure, I've got nothing better to do, for now.'
So, the child went on to describe the world. The Lake of Blood, the carnage that shaped the world and its every crevice. The Devil's Den, Middle Town, and the Craftsmen. He went into great detail with describing the mist and Furfur, who'd just enslaved the majority of Middle Town in a matter of minutes.
Well, in reality, it might've been a week that the entity spent cultivating its fog and its influence throughout the Prime Settlement. The growth only stagnated when the Holy Knight, War Reaver, arrived with an army of a hundred Climbers from the Devil's Den.
Once he explained everything he knew to the voice, there was a stillness, silence. Through this silence, he could somehow hear the voice processing all the information that he'd shared.
Once the voice finished understanding everything, she spoke, "Ah. Thank you, I understand things now. Then this space in your memories was created by me."
'What? I do get a lot of visitors in my mind, but I didn't think that one could bunk in my memories.'
Well, maybe one day, if he could invade the mind of others, he'd get to create his own comfortable living space. A refurbished recreation of his run-down home would be nice.
"To be more specific, you helped me create this space when you looked into my memories, and I became aware of being in a memory. Thus, my sudden clarity created a hole in your mind, close to the moment of realization."
Worthy was listening, but it all sounded too ridiculous for him to fully keep up with it all.
'Dumb it down for me. Please, I just recently had my mind tweaked twice in a short span of time.'
"To 'dumb it down', you saw the memory of me—Alice—and I became aware that I was a memory. Therefore, I gained sentience and unconsciously made a space in your mind where my sentient mind could reside without obstructing other memories."
'...Ah, I see. Well, I can imagine how that makes…'
His brain went blank. It was like a light flicked off, and then abruptly it flipped back on again.
'You're Alice?! Alice from the memories?! The creator of the Gateways, Alice?! I mean, the same Alice who created Middle Town?!'
"Hm? Well, I suppose the answer to all those questions would be 'yes'. However, I have no idea how the name of my creation has been given a name like 'Middle Town'. That is far too common. I recall inscribing a name into the city myself, so why is it that it's been changed? That's very frustrating to hear."
Worthy had so many questions, but that last comment stuck out to him the most. He recalled when the Tower had spoken the true name of Middle Town to him when he first arrived. He was too busy basking in his upgraded ability to bother thinking about why the name was different. After all, nobody living in the modern day would know what went through Alice's mind.
'Ah, that's right… You named it the Accursed Port, didn't you? I'd been wondering, why did you decide to give it that name? Even if you predicted that one day, life might return within your dead world, there was no reason to give a bastion such a dreadful name.'
"...Dreadful? In my mind, those words did not carry any dread. Instead, they described that place's destiny. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I was confident that life would return to that place. So, I inscribed a name that would be a warning to anyone settling there. It is a port, not a hub."
'I… I guess that makes sense, probably. So, the vision I saw of you caused you to wake up. Is this something unique to yourself, or unique to me? I don't want to risk the memories of people I hate waking up in my brain at my worst hours.'
Such a thought was rather frightening, actually.
"If I hate to guess, it's a mixture of both. Since my birth, I've carried extraordinary power. Someone seeing through my eyes isn't something I could ignore, even in a memory. In that case, it's fair to say it is a result of my uniqueness. However, there should be no one in existence who knows of my story, since I was the only living individual from my realm left. Alas, you saw not just my journey, but its beginning."
'The beginning? You mean, you kept traveling after you created the Gateway?'
"...I believe so." The voice lacked confidence.
'You believe? You're not certain?'
Another dreadful fit of silence passed before the voice of Alice replied, "I am a memory from a memory, if you will. I do not know what happened after everything you witnessed, because you don't either. I pulled my life together from your memories and filled in the blanks that I could."
What a convoluted mess, that is. Still, even if Alice did not remember the entirety of her adventure through wherever she went, her presence was still miraculous. Worthy was currently among a thousand thralls in Middle Town, and the creator of the settlement was now sharing a mind with him, carrying every memory of creating the settlement.
'This space is protected from Furfur's influence. So, I have to ask you… Are you able to help me break free of this mind control?'
Worthy didn't know why, but he felt like she could. After brushing against forbidden knowledge, the child's mind was shattered. However, after returning from the vision, his mind had been restored for some unclear reason. Not only was regaining his mind a means of purging Furfur's influence, but it also created this space where he could reside without worry of control.
"Break free? Although it isn't impossible, I'd be hesitant to say I could help you. But, I almost certainly can. It'll be a strenuous job though. I hope you're ready to put some trust in a stranger."
Worthy did put trust in her. There was no one he trusted but himself, and the fragment of Alice was nothing more than something that blossomed from his mind. Well, it blossomed from a memory of her memory, but nevertheless, it came from his mind in one way or another, so he wasn't going to complain.
'Alright, First Craftsman. Show me how you break free of mind control.'
"...Don't call me that."