Pain.
The moment Seth absorbed the fragments, he felt an immediate pain.
It was sharp and stronger than anything he had ever felt before.
For a moment, his mind blanked, and darkness took over his mind. But amidst the darkness, he realized something else. His Cognitive Shard... It was pulsing and squirming wildly, wrestling control back from the external force that was trying to dig its claw into it.
He didn’t fully understand what was going on, but he knew that this was better than whatever had been happening to him.
RATTLE! RATTLE!
The room shook more fiercely.
"Stop...!"
"What have you done?!"
The shrieks of the cultists echoed loudly within the room, each one more panicked than the other.
Seth stared at the woman in front of him, her face aghast.
And yet, for some reason, his lips curled.
And soon—
"He... he..."
He began to chuckle.
It was soft at first, almost inaudible amidst the rattling.
But it didn’t take long before the chuckles grew louder.
"Hehehe."
They started to fill the entire room, drowning out the rattling across the room as Seth’s eyes started to darken.
The Cognitive Shard in his mind started to swell.
Like a heart, it started to pulse.
Ba... Thump! Ba... Thump!
With each beat of the shard, Seth’s expression grew more and more twisted, his eyes darkening with each passing second as the laugh that escaped his lips grew more and more erratic.
RATTLE! RATTLE!
The room shook even more fiercely, but this time...
This time, everyone was clear as to who was causing the rattling.
"Hehehehehehe."
The laugh grew even more pronounced, an invisible pressure coming out of Seth’s body as his eyes darkened to the point where they became almost entirely dark. His face began to pale considerably, and a strange pressure started to emanate from his body.
The sight made the cultists pause, their expression turning from shock to horror.
This sight...
"He’s turning!"
"...He’s turning!!"
They were all familiar with this process.
Through countless experiments, they had come to understand the phenomenon known as the Turning. It was the moment when the Cognitive Shard reached a state of oversaturation, when its influence exceeded what the human mind could contain.
From that point on, the subject would begin to change, piece by piece, as their body and consciousness warped into something no longer entirely human.
That was the moment they’d turn into an anomaly.
Of course, there were other factors that contributed to this change. Not everyone who had a Cognitive Shard could turn.
It depended on the Cognitive Shard in their mind.
On rare occasions, they’d turn into a powerful anomaly.
However, it never reached the point of concern.
That was until today.
On this day, D-16, the perfect vessel began to turn.
The pressure emitting from its body started to shroud the entire room, suffocating everyone within it as they could only watch in horror as its body started to change, its face paling and its eyes darkening.
"He... he... he."
But it was the laugh that sent chills down their entire bodies.
From the moment the laugh began, they all felt something stir within their minds.
It made them feel numb.
It made whatever action they thought of doing to stop him from turning come to a grounding halt.
They started to recall things of the past.
Memories that they had long forgotten.
"Haa... Haa..."
Breaths turned ragged.
Faces paled.
RATTLE! RATTLE!
The room shook even more fiercely, the entity hidden within the room trying to wrestle control of Seth’s shard.
But it was too late.
"Heeee! He! Heee...!"
Seth had already lost control over his body.
All he could do was laugh.
But amidst the laughter, a figure appeared before him.
It stood straight, its presence overwhelming everyone within the room as the stitches on its face began to stretch, its eyes fixed on Seth.
None of the cultists moved.
Under the weight of the figure’s presence, they couldn’t move at all.
’A... No, almost S...’
They could feel the true weight of the figure standing before Seth.
And yet—
’It’s being overwhelmed.’
The pressure coming out of Seth’s body was greater.
More terrifying.
More... Sinister.
"...This is beyond my imagination."
A cold shudder began to run down its body as it continued to stare at Seth.
From the moment Seth began to turn, the Conductor felt its old strength return.
No, it was climbing steadily.
From ’A’ to ’S’.
The Conductor could feel its body reaching realms it had never reached before.
The same was for Mirelle, Mr. Jingles, and the Realmwalker as they all appeared beside the Conductor.
RATTLE! RATTLE!
And yet, their combined presence was like nothing compared to Seth’s.
In that moment, he was becoming a completely different entity.
One strong enough to make the Conductor shudder.
Nobody knew when, but Seth soon began to stop laughing, his expression calming down as the rattling across the room started to stop.
For a brief moment, the surroundings turned silent.
All eyes fell on Seth.
The cultists.
The Conductor.
Mirelle.
Mr. Jingles.
The Realmwalker.
The frames on the wall.
All eyes were on him.
And amidst all of this, the Conductor slowly began to move, taking out a blank mask.
"...Here."
As he did, he knelt down on the ground.
Thud!
The Realmwalker followed.
Thud!
Mr. Jingles followed.
Thud.
Mirelle followed.
All anomalies bowed at once as Seth reached with his hand, taking the mask from the Conductor’s hands and slowly placing it to his face.
The moment he placed the mask on his face, the mask squirmed.
It began to morph, turning into that of a Jester, only for it to change a moment later. A clown? A King? A Harlequin.
The mask continued to change, settling into different faces.
But none of them stuck.
The only thing that did was the obsidian pair of eyes that stared beneath.
Blinking slowly, they turned towards the cultist woman.
She stood still, staring at him with wide eyes. Her aged features shone slightly beneath the faint flickering of the candles.
"....."
"....."
Neither talked.
But soon—
Cra Crack!
Her head started to squirm, and turn as a large smile began to form on her features.
A sinister voice came out of her mouth a moment later.
"...How unexpected."
The surroundings turned deathly still.
"How very unexpected."
Ding!
A chime rang before Seth’s features a moment later.
[Continuation Quest Activated!]
• Difficulty: N/A
• Reward: End of Trial Period
• Objective: Escape!
• Location: N/A
Description: The Cognitive Shard is erratic! Power unlike you’ve ever felt before is churning in your mind, but your body is changing alongside it. The damage is starting to become irreversible! Dantalion has noticed and will soon claim your body! Escape before it’s too late!
Time Limit: 1 hour
It wasn’t known whether he acknowledged the mission.
He merely gave it a cursory glance before shifting his attention back to the lady.
As he did, the only lady’s smile grew wider as her features started to age further.
In that moment, time seemed to stop.