***Author's Note***

Quick housekeeping. Wow, I'm so busy these days. I had a date! And it went well~ But I missed writing =(. So I came back! I owe you a chapter for missing yesterday, expect it out Monday or Tuesday.

Also, I definitely would like a proofreader to help me. Interested parties send me a PM. I'd like you to have some experience, but caring about the story and willing to edit within 24 hours are probably the real necessities...

Also, shout out to Deinos, who pointed out very logically that if the landing of the Deed was that powerful, it would crush most people other than Predator. A good point that sort of slipped my mind xD. I think it will end up working out, but thanks for pointing it out!

Now onto the story.

Day 33

I decided that I hated staying up an entire night. Not that I felt particularly tired, I just never felt comfortable without a block of hours to dream about my briefly possessed bed. It was that life changing.

The platform underneath us buzzed to life, the pillars with orbs around the perimeter of the central platform flickering to life. Giggling strangely, Jester slammed his fist into the crystal once more, the crack that spanned the crystal slowly increasing in size.

“Stop, stop, stop! It’s not supposed to go like this!”

The crystal released thousands of motes of green, which drifted down and gathered to form a headless figure in monochrome striped clothes: the floor controller. He stomped his foot, seeming to look towards Jester. “What are you doing? How are you down here? You shouldn’t have survived sunset if you weren’t on a deed…”

“I WAS on a Deed at sunset,” Jester said, raising his fist for another blow. “But you just deactivated all the Deeds forcefully, so no longer. You broke the rules, Cullen. So naughty~”

The floor controller gave Jester a long look. “...who are you? How do you know that name? It’s quite nostalgic. Well anyway, for coming down here, you will- HEY STOP HITTING THAT!”

Jester’s blow widened the crack, shaking the entire platform.

Absolutely fuming, the floor controller started cartwheeling towards Jester and the crystal. Shaking my head at this silliness, I summoned several blades of air to smash the floor controller. Unfortunately, his strange movements weaved between the blades.

Frowning, I strolled in front of Jester, blocking the floor controller’s path.

“What? You think I am scared of you? The belts still work down here. If you try and physically stop me-”

I bent down and touched the ground, a wave of frost spreading out to cover the immediate area. It crept outward, reaching an area about 10 m away from where I was standing. The floor controller continued to roll, his hands hitting the ice. He slipped, face planting.

“Is this all he can do?” I asked hesitantly. I was having a hard time maintaining my tension with such a silly floor controller.

Jester just shrugged, raising his arm for another strike.

“DAMMIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” Scrabbling on the ground for purchase, the floor controller released a huge wave of mana.

Far, far above, one of the Deeds began to hurtle downward towards us, lighting up like a comet. Glancing up, it seemed like we wouldn’t have much time until it arrived. Based on its acceleration based on his yell, it would likely be the Central Deed. I strolled purposefully towards the floor controller.

It was extremely strange, looking at him. Without a head, it was difficult to tell where he was looking, or his reactions.

-Well, that’s made simpler by his narcissistic yelling.

But I could tell then that he was glaring hatefully at me as I approached.

“What do you think you are doing? We already talked about this. Use your shitty spells that do nothing, and stay the fuck away-”

I slammed downwards with my fist, cracking against his shoulders and smashing his torso into the ground. Then, for good measure, I threaded my fingers together and smashed him again, using all of my strength to warp the metal platform, forcing his body deeper.

“How?! You should be dead…!”

Grinning, I recalled my previously created technique.

Congratulations! You have learned the skill “Automated Air Armor Lvl 1”: Using your mastery of Air, you can maintain a barrier of air around your entire body. However, due to the intensive nature of the technique, one of parallel computation must fully maintain it at all times.

So to control the use of mana by just creating the armor, I was for the first time in a long time without other me. It was a strangely quiet place in my mind, which I wasn’t used to. Both my limbs and my abilities had to be controlled solely by me, which meant that I was pause, almost imperceptibly, anytime I was controlling mana abilities. In normal situation it probably wouldn’t matter, but on the battlefield, I couldn’t afford even the smallest lapse.

Still…

Intuitively predicting how the floor boss was about to squirm, I smashed him even deeper into the metal platform. My eyes were twinkling. There were some benefits to losing other me for a bit. Timeless Perception once more appeared, giving me insight into the opponent’s moves before they happened. The flashes of the futures were disorientating, probably made much worse by how much my Timeless Perception had increased since I had used it last, but I was staying just far enough ahead of it to pummel the creature.

I saw that the floor controller was about to twist his limbs around and reach for me, a feat impossible for a creature with normal joints. Frowning, I wondered why I was cursed to fight creatures that could ignore the physical limitations of their body and stopped down with a foot wrapped in a layer of air, smashing him with such force that the corners of the metal panel we were atop of began to curl up.

“DAMN DAMN DAMN!!!!!” The floor controller roared as Jester’s fist connected with the crystal again, the crack growing at an alarming rate. Well, alarming for anyone who wanted the crystal to be useful. I wondered briefly what the crystal was used for. Was it just the floor controller’s home? If so, why was it such an eyesore, hunched on the side of the platform?

It seemed like it had been added as an afterthought.

Although I continued to pummel the floor controller, he seemed to sense that my focus turned inward, and squirmed like an eel. Cursing, my focus snapped back to the enemy in front of me, but he had enough time to gather his feet and begin throwing handfuls of black smoke at me. When it hit my skin, the substance caused enough pain for even me to grit my teeth and hiss.

I allowed the Air Armor to drop, because it didn’t seem to do anything to stop the weird smoke. The Timeless Perception shadows fell away, and I sighed, almost glad. It was starting to give me a headache. Managing to handle that flow of information without Other Me’s assistance was still a bit much.

-True. It seems like each point in Timeless Perception is worth more than a point in Processing Power. I wonder if there are tiers to stats.

-Not now, other me. Thoughts like this got us in trouble in the first place.

-That’s why you have me to have them.

I created a dozen wind blades and threw them at the floor controller. His suit was slashed to bits, but his skin seemed to resist the blades, only inflict small cuts.

-Something bigger, eh…

But before I could gather the mana, the floor controller’s hands flicked together in a complicated pattern. As he did so, a face slowly formed over his shoulders. It had short, dark hair, and both of his eyes were closed. But strange tattoos covered his skin, glowing with raw power.

“I can’t believe you trash forced me to this…!”

“That’s a forbidden technique Cullen. You shouldn’t be able to do that,” Jester said casually, bringing his hand back for another punch at the crystal

Although his now appeared eyes stayed closed, the lines around them still tightened. “You also know this!?!? Who the hell are you? It’s no matter though, you will die. This world is the map, I am the compass. All the world curves back toward me. Inversion.”

“Uh.”

It’s hard to describe what happened then. It was like being shocked awake from a dream by a splash of water. But instead of water, what shocked me awake was the fluid in my ear canals struggling to understand the huge change in pressure and gravity that was affecting me. The change was so sudden that I grew dizzy for several seconds, squeezing my eyes shut. But then they snapped back open, because I was falling downward.

Down had abruptly become up.

***POV Change***

Whipman stood with the rest of the group, peering over the edge of their disintegrating Deed. Most of them had been awoken by the sudden fall, approaching their de facto leader, Toddie, for answers.

But Toddie just frowned and bobbed her head, humming.

Jinka was off to the side, mumbling to himself, staring forcefully down in the swiftly approaching darkness. Ashni had her arms folded, ignoring Whipman and staring coolly at the trees around them. That human woman that Predator was running around with, Jana, tapped her foot and paced, shooting glances downwards.

When mana surged below, and one of the relatively distant Deeds started shooting downwards, yanked towards the abyss, Whipman felt a thrill of fear in his heart. He realized, after practicing earlier in front of Ashni, that he had become strong. But that strength had no use here. Not on her level of course, but strong enough that he wouldn’t have had any difficulty getting into a specialty academy back on Tellus, if he wished.

The strange thing was that he did not really grow much stronger; in fact his body was weaker. But teaching Predator, whose body was so naturally powerful, had shown Whipman how to use his knowledge against strength. Suddenly, his memories of his master lecturing him were transformed. His eyes opened, and using his weakness to leverage strength. Ashni’s dominating atmosphere while he practiced her stances was very attractive to Whipman, but it also highlighted how his style was different.

Although he couldn’t overwhelm, he could hold his own. And as he deciphered more of the secrets hidden in his master’s notes... well, perhaps he too could one day ascend.

“What?”

Whipman blinked. He casually flipped, surprised he had been abruptly turned upside down. His feet flailed, touching nothing.

“Uh.” Whipman looked up, eyes bulging. The Deed was above him, looming. And falling down towards him. He whipped out his spear on reflex, stabbing it up into the ground. Then he wrapped his arms around it and held on for dear life.

***POV Change***

After I recovered, I created a platform of air beneath me and landed on it. I checked my mana, and what I saw made me wince. Almost 40% gone. The Automated Air Armor, even with Other Me curtailing wasteful mana, still burned right through my mana pool.

Having determined my battle readiness, I glanced around. The Floor Controller floated in the air, sideways to my view, seemingly impervious to the shifted gravity, and really gravity at all. The tattoos on his face burned, mana coursing through them. Jester had at some point smashed his feet into the ground, and so he was still in much the same position. He punched the crystal once more, ineffectually due to the change in perspective. He vigorously shook his mask and raised his arm to try again.

“STOP. RIGHT. THERE.” The floor controller floated closer to Jester, black mist rolling off of him in waves.

“Ah, Predator. Can you do something about this? He isn’t very powerful without access to his infinite mana, but he can still create quite a bit of that Void Mist…” Jester called over his shoulder, striking the crystal again, causing it to shudder.

Breathing as heavily as I could to restore mana faster, I poured almost 10% of my remaining mana pool into a wind blade and shot it at the floor controller. That sightless face turned to me, sneering. It raised its arm and spurted a beam of black mist towards me.

As soon as it hit the wind blade, my carefully crafted sickle disintegrated, the very mana seemingly repressed by the black mist’s touch. I reflexively raised a barrier of hyper compressed air, and too late heard other me’s warning.

The beam smashed into my chest, my shirt quickly devoured by its strange energy. Pain shot through me, enough to make even me, with my high tolerance for pain, groan and lose concentration, letting the platform beneath me fall out of existence. Seemingly satisfied, the floor controller turned away.

I was probably lucky he looked away so soon. Because he missed the crazy cheshire grin that twisted across my mouth.

-Ah, there it is.

Heat flooded my limbs, a raging inferno that made the stinging pain of that strange mist shrink back. My pupils constricted.

-This is it. What I needed. That thrill, that tension, that struggle, that strife.

-That possibility that I will die.

-What was it that you always said while training?

-Every drop of sweat tempers you.

-Every second of struggle sculpts you.

-Every bit of pain forges you.

Invigorated, I worked quickly, using ice affinity to form a long spear of hard ice, pouring mana into its durability. The temperature near my hands lowered to such a degree that I was covered in thin layer of frost, the ice in my hands darkening to an indigo color. Then I created two more wind blades, just as powerful as the first, leaving me with only 35% mana.

Congratulations! Due to your actions, your skill has changed to “My Heart is the Bellows, My Body the Metal Lvl 3”. Enhanced state now slightly increases the effectiveness of all your skills. While in enhanced state, fatal blows have a slight chance of failing to overcome your vitality.Congratulations! Due to your actions, your skill has changed to “Lesser Ice Affinity Lvl 5.” Durability of Ice increased. The amount that you can lower temperature with this skill has slightly increased. You effectiveness at creating items out of ice has increased.

I threw the first wind blade towards the floor controller, who was raising his arm to point at Jester’s seemingly defenseless back. Then I threw the indigo spear of ice. I kept the final wind blade back for now.

“What are you trying to accomplish? It’s futile. Step away from the crystal or your last moments will be agony.”

“Oh, come now, Cullen.” Jester said, and I could hear the smile in his voice. “We both know that this is about as bad as you get without your mana.”

“And access to that mana is descending as we speak-”

“Is it? I feel like you reversed its gravity, too. It’s probably getting farther away even now~”

The floor controller’s face paled, his brow swiftly furrowing.

-He didn’t realize?

-He isn’t the brightest. And he doesn’t have a second self to remind him of these things.

“DAMMMMMIIIIIIIIITTTTTTTTTTTT!” Black mist seethed around him, surging outwards. Jester hastily ripped his feet out of the grounds and latched onto some of the cracks in the crystal, scuttling around its surface like a bug.

My wind blade smashed against the mist, opening a slight hole, but the force quickly dissipated and it faded to nothing. The floor controller, now extremely incensed, twisted around and snorted. “FOOLS BY MY HAND YOU SHALL PER-”

The indigo spear shot through the smoke and sunk into his chest, stilling his heart. He trembled, looking with disbelief at the spear of ice in his chest. Although the mist seemed to cause pain to nerves, it didn't cause topical damage. Likely it just interfered with mana, which was why the wind blades dissipated. But I had suspected that a physical object, like the ice spear, would pierced right through. I grinned at the Floor Controller's still form.

Then the tattooes on his face began to glow.

“I will not die here-”

My second wind blade, taking advantage of his distraction and the dissipating black mist, lopped off his head. The world shuddered, and then righted itself. The dizzy spell was enough that I slammed into the ground awkwardly. I looked up to see the Floor Controller exploding, returning to tiny motes of green light that flowed back into the crystal. My indigo ice spear clattered to the ground, quickly chilling the nearby area and creating a layer of frost. I walked over to it and picked it up. It was a useful weapon, if not exactly what I preferred to fight with. I touched my trusty cudgel, smiling as I recalled all of my fond memories of cracking skulls with it.

Congratulations! You have vanquished a Floor Controller! Currently calculating gains...

I frowned at the notification. Calculating gains? The machinery around us was whirring to life, the green glow spreading out from the crystal to the lights, tinging everything in emerald. Above, it became obvious that the other Deeds were accelerating down towards us once more, this time in a more uniform and controlled manner.

Jester adopted a fighting stance, stepped forward with his left foot, rotated his hip and shoulders ideally, slamming his fist into the crystal in a perfectly executed right straight. Small bits of the crystal fell off. The whirring below us faltered.

Error, process interrupted! Restarting processes….

The Deeds above slowed, and then began to slowly rise towards the surface. Even our Deed, and the others that had already fallen began to float upwards away from the central platform. But then Jester’s leg blurred as he smashed a middle kick into the crystal.

Warning! Significant deviation from recommended processes detected. Floor malfunction detected. Please contact an Administrator or a Solicitor so they submit a ticket for fulfillment by an Arbiter.

The green motes of light, once again, flooded out, forming a cloud that swirled angrily around Jester. He waved his hand through it like it was a fly, then proceeded to ignore it. Absolutely trembling with indignation, the green light cloud released a vibration that sounded quite like the Floor Controller swearing.

“Is he… not dead?” I asked, puzzled.

“No, unfortunately not,” Jester said. “Floor controllers aren’t quite… living, any longer. It would be too much hassle to replace them every time they were defeated by challengers. So it was arranged that they be practically immortal, yet bound.”

“To the crystal?” I stared at the strange green light, curious. How could the Floor Controller exist inside that stone. Was his real body hidden, deep within?

“...in a manner of speaking.” Jester headbutted the crystal. The cracks widened further, spreading so that it seemed like every corner of the crystal was filled with fractures. “He should be completely fine, I’m not sure why he hasn’t-”

BOOOOOOOOOOOOM.

The shock wave knocked me off my feet and sent me tumbling off the edge of the central platform. Perhaps more impressive was that the concussive force was so great that I believe I blacked out briefly, just spinning aimlessly in the air above the abyss. I snapped back to my senses, but then, for several seconds, I wondered what would have happened to me if I fell into that strange mining area below. Then I remembered the crimson liquid, and shivered.

A few air platforms allowed me to hop back up on top of the central area, only to find a frazzled Jester clinging to the crystal like a poisonous lichen. But my eyes immediately traveled to the indented portion of the central platform. A pillar of light illuminated our surroundings even further, initially blinding me.

But as my eyes adjusted, I saw that the motes of green light form a figure. The Floor Controller appeared, standing on the remnants of the central Deed, basking in that light. As I watched, 1000s of small blobs of black mist formed, resolving themselves into birds, squirrels, rats, raccoons, tiny lizards, and snakes.

“Ah.” Jester said with surprisingly good cheer. “He was waiting for that.”