Me and my Siblings have made tons of work underground, and I’ve been really improving on my Telepathy Skill. Funny enough, some of my Siblings have been forgetting to speak because they expect to speak through their Minds. I’ve been trying to cut off on it so they don’t get too reliant on my Telepathy.

On another front, Flare’s actually taken command of the Digging Process. Calvin and Celscy are the ones with the most Stamina and greatest Digging Power, so Flare put them on digging the tunnels Escape Tunnels.

Talliope and her B-Side Sibling Tallyborn have been using Magic to hide the Entrances to Egress around the Castle.

Lex and Vexalan have been keeping Arigold busy, while the rest of the Children have been secretly guiding Guards away from Egress Construction Zones.

Everyone has been doing whatever they could to assure Victory, and so far we’ve gotten about 1/4th of the Entrances created, and we’ve almost finished the first Escape Tunnel.

I was considering doing the Plan earlier, but Lex advised against it, saying that it HAS to be at the perfect time, because if Arigold found out, we would all die.

Vexalan slides down one of the Entrances into Egress. Some

of our Siblings take a quick glance at her, and return to what they were doing. Vexalan lands in front of my Pool and looks around for me, until she notices the special Orb I carry to mark my location. “Demi! There’s someone extra we have to take with us!” Wait, what? I connect to Vexalan.

Demi - “Vexalan, we already have 20,000 Kids to escape with, Arigold doesn’t sleep, the moment we’re gone, he’ll start getting suspicious, and I give it about 10 Minutes of searching before he finds out everyone is missing.”

Vexa - “I know. I’ll get her here on my own, I just need a Tunnel to her Room.”

Demi - “Who are you even talking about?”

Vexa - “I met her earlier, they’re keeping her here, we have to get her out as soon as possible.”

- √C -

I have to follow behind this jackass, Arigold, we’re walking through the corridor he had taken Me and My Siblings through when we first got here. “I missed it before because I wasn’t paying attention, but I think you would be a good candidate.” What the hell are you even talking about you shitstain? “Wh-What do you mean, Mr. Arigold?” We make it to the end of the hallway, and a Large Metal Door raises, and I look into a Large Circular Room, with a Glass Wall circling its inner circumference.

Behind the Glass Wall I see a Girl sleeping in a Chair, she’s wearing some sort of Straitjacket, it covers her body entirely. It’s loose and the ends are unzipped, leaving freedom of movement for her Arms and Legs, they’re still covered in what seems to be Gloves, even her head is protected by some sort of Glass Dome Helmet. It’s covered in Belts with powerful looking Metal Locks, I don’t know if even I could break out of that thing. The zippers on the Straitjacket look like they could completely close up the entire thing actually, that combined with all of those Belts and Locks, then you have a Cage that you wear everywhere you go. The weirdest part though, was the 4 heads that replaced the Limbs of the Straitjacket. The ends of each Arm is covered in massive sharp looking teeth. Where the Legs would be is one massive opening that leads to her thighs, it looks like it could completely close up around her Legs and constrain them, and the sleeping head that is it’s opening looks like it’s ready to clamp down at any moment. The Glass has Massive Teeth holding it there, like a crystal. Every Limb has closed eyes, it’s like it’s some sort of Living Creature that constrains the wearer.

Arigold presses a Button on a Panel, and the 4 heads snap awake, while the Girl slowly wakes up. “This is Lianlovloragram, or… Lian. I’ve brought you here to speak with her.” Lian looks around, until her eyes land on me. They were wide open until they fell to a more natural gaze. I can barely make out her expression behind the Straitjacket, it actually covers her mouth from my sight.

I hold my arms together, against my Chest. “I- I don’t know… Mr. Arigold...” A Door opens next to us, and I’m shoved through. “Good luck.” Fucking asshole!

I stand up and walk forward, I’m about 10 feet away from the Girl. “I will be releasing you now, Lian, play nicely.” Lian lifts herself out of her Chair, and her Helmet unseals itself. The Helmet is crushed and swallowed by the Maw of the Straitjacket. Lian slowly starts lurching over to me, it’s unnatural, broken, mesmerizing..

I turn around before I get a better look at her face. The Door is shut, there’s nowhere to run. Once I turned around, I found Lian was now 5 feet away from me. She made so much distance while I was looking away.

We stare into each other’s eyes, I can see it, the garden, it’s gorgeous, I had never seen something so amazing in my life…

Am I home?

I try to look away, and there’s Arigold, just watching behind the safety of the Glass Wall. His light shining brightly, a golden glow that begins to blind me.

No… This was never home...

I begin to look back at Lian, but I’m already pinned to the Floor. She’s not holding me in any sort of Pose, she’s just got her hands against the floor, next to my head, like she was eyeing her food. After about a minute of staring, Lian looks away, the Flowers are gone, and Arigold’s blinding light has left. Lian is staring at Arigold. He looks away and leaves the Room.

Lian looks back at me, and the Garden returns. “Take me with you, Vexalan, I no longer wish to be here.” What the hell? “Wh-What, I-” Lian lifts herself, sitting on Her Feet and leaning against her Knees on the cold floor, looking down at me as I begin to sit up.

“Take me with you, Vexalan, you won’t be able to break out without me, I’ll guide everyone out, but only if you take me with you.” Lian begins to stand, and so do I. I notice that her legs are beginning to shake, and she begins to fall, until I catch her. “Do you promise?” I say, as I hold her. “Yes, I promise, so you must take me with you.” I nod. “Alright then, I’ll come back for you, I promise.” I help Lian to her Seat, and she sits down again.

“What was Arigold planning to do, bringing me here?” Lian just stares at me for a moment. “He was planning to feed you to me, but I decided against it, you better not make me regret my decision.” Good lord, what is wrong with this place? “I see, I won’t. I’ll tell my Sister to connect you to the Telepathy Network next time I see her. We’ll break you out, and you’ll help us escape. That sounds good.” We nod together, and Lian falls asleep again.

The door opens behind me, and I turn around, Arigold is there. Was he watching? He enters the room. “It seems she wasn’t hungry after all, you may return to your siblings.” I stay silent as Arigold guides me out of the Room, and returns me to the Dorm Room.

Once he’s gone, I run straight to the Hidden Opening in the Room, and jump down it.

- √A -

Demi - “Fine, but only because you seem to care so much. Just tell me where she is in the Castle.”

Vexalan runs over to one of the Empty Map Slabs, and starts adding a new one. “W-We didn’t get much of a look at it, but there’s actually another Floor to this Castle.” She starts drawing a Large Corridor that leads about a mile outside of the Castle, then she draws a Corridor that leads to multiple other Corridors, and so on until she starts to draw a large circular room, with another circle in it. She draws an X in the middle of the Room. “This was everything I could scout out, and this is her location.” I see…

Demi - “That is REALLY far away… I mean, it’s not Escape Route Distance, but Calvin and Celscy is already beginning to get overtaxed as it is.”

“Well, I can’t dig…” Vexalan looks at me crestfallen. Fine, I’ll do it myself.

I stare at the new Mapslab- Mlab? I don’t know. Anyways, I look at it and take in a ton of my Food Storage. I fire a jet of water at the Wall, and it starts digging. Flare takes notice of this and floats over, she’s wearing the Cute Hard Hat I made for her. “Hey guys, what’s going on?” Vexalan runs over to my Lake as I connect to Flare. “We’re building a Special Tunnel over to a Girl I met, her name is Lian.”

Oh yeah… I never even asked her Name.

Demi - “That’s her Name?”

“Actually, it’s Lianlovlorgram. Yes, it’s weirdly long.” Vexalan says, as she crosses her Arms. Flare nods and smiles. “Alright then, I’ll get some of our Siblings on this Task then. By the way, what do you think of my awesome Hard Hat Vexa?” Vexalan looks at Flare and smiles. “Oh yeah, I think it looks really cute!” Flare and Vexalan start giggling.

Aw… They like it, I’m so happy!

Demi - “Is there anything else we should be aware of?”

Vexalan looks back at me, as she thinks to herself for a moment. “Yes, once she’s within Range, you should connect her to the Telepathy Network. You should also be aware that she’s not very strong, she can barely carry herself while walking.”

Seriously?

Demi - “She’s supposed to help us?...”

Vexalan just stares at me. “Listen, I promised her that I would help, she might be slow, but somehow she knew my name, we have no idea what she could do!” Vexalan starts pleading with me.

Demi - “Hey- Hey, I’m still planning to help you out, it’s just… Who’s gonna’ carry her?”

Flare cuts in. “Celscy, obviously, I’m sure Vexa can get Celscy to carry that Lian girl too.” Vexa places her hand on her chin, and starts thinking. “That’s true, but isn’t this Hole a bit thin, And aren't Celscy and Calvin both too busy to help dig this out?” Vexalan looks over at the Tunnel that has loud sounds, and super bright flames erupting from it.

Demi - “I guess I could personally work on it… It would take me a while... do we have any time limits?”

Vexalan looks at the Hole again. “No, not in particular. And I guess I could carry her through the Tunnel when we bust her out... “ Flare looks at me, and sits on the edge of my Pool. “Are you sure you don’t want any help, Demitallis?” I look at Flare, as her legs dangle over the edge, just over the Water.

Demi - “Well, aren’t you kind of Busy? And isn’t everyone else busy digging out those Tunnels?”

Flare stares at me for a moment, then looks to her right. “Yo, Magmineld, come here!” A Red Slime approaches. His Body is like a Lavalamp, as it radiates a ton of Heat, evaporating my Pool. “Magmineld, you’re the new Tunnel Manager.” Flare pops her Tiny Hard Hat off of her head and places it on top of the Red Slime. Magnimeld becomes brighter with joy. He looks silly with the comically small Hat. “There you go, good luck!” Flare waves at Magnimeld as he runs off to the rest of the Group. Flare looks back at me. “There we go, I’m free now.”

Demi - “Right, I guess there IS 2,500 of you working on these Tunnels… But are you sure you should have chosen Magny?”

We watch as he shows off his new Hat to everyone, they laugh at the comically small Hat. “He seems to really be enjoying it. Yeah, don’t worry, he’ll do fine, let’s get started on that new Tunnel.” Once everyone stops laughing, Magnimeld orders them back to work, and they comply.

We look at the new Tunnel, and Vexalan is trying to shove away Dirt, without getting Dirty. Flare floats up next to her. “You’re very silly Vexy..” Vexalan moves out of the way, and Flare fires a Powerful Flamethrower that starts melting through the Stone and Soil. “Demi, can you dig a Reservoir for the Magma Pit?” Flare says, as Vexalan simply watches, and I jump out of my Pool, to start building a Finely Made Reservoir that leads to another one that isn’t in use.

Demi - “You should go find Lex, see what He’s up to, Me and Flare will be a bit busy with this.”

Vexa - “Well, I guess I’m no use here anyways…”

I connect to multiple Siblings around the Castle.

Demi - “Any safe areas to enter the Castle through?”

Velo - “The Kitchen Entrance is safe, just me and some of our Siblings!”

Demi - “Nice, thanks Veloura!”

I narrow my Telepathy back down to me and Vexa, and I continue.

Demi - “Vexalan, Veloura is at the Kitchen, she said it’s safe.”

Vexa - “Alright then, I’ll go there, thanks Demi.”

Demi - “Yeah, no problem, see ya’.”

Vexalan telepathically bids me adieu, and runs off to one of the now hundreds of Entrances, jumping up the Walls.

Hey, Charlotte.

GAH- FUCK- Dude, where have you been?!

Hi Charlotte.

Hey Fear.

Me and Fear have been Busy. We were waiting until you were done speaking to the others, we were discussing what the new Roadmap should be, and we’ve decided on Telekinesis, Fear already used IDM to make the Roadmap while you weren’t paying attention.

Oh… Telekinesis, huh? Damn, didn’t think we would be getting into that one so soon. I guess being able to hold stuff with My Mind would be useful though.

Thankfully, we have a lot of what we already need, thanks to Mana Control.

Right, so where do we start?

First we’ll get Mana Zone, it’s what I’m calling the upgraded stage of Mana Field. The idea of this Skill is to not emit the Ability from our Body, but anywhere within our Mana Zone’s Range.

I see…

The idea is to combine it with Mana Field and Mana Linking. Mana Linking kind of already does what we want, so if we could spread it to the area of Mana Field, then we should successfully make Mana Zone.

Well, what are we waiting for then?

I create a Mana Link, and connect it to a Rock. I decided to use Water Creation. Water begins to form around the Rock and drip off of it. Okay, so that works, now to spread out the Link, into a Zone...

I spread my Mana Field around the area, I usually just spread it across the Ground, but now I’ve spread it in a 30 Meter Orb around me. Now, how to use Mana Link with it… Oh. I connect Mana Link to the Mana Field itself. I can feel it, the Mana Link itself, through my Mana Field…

Now. Water Creation. Water Starts to fall from the Air, and into my Pool. I did it! Mana Zone!

Everyone looks over at me, they almost seem surprised, one of them runs over, it’s my Sibling Glantinazor, or Glant for short. He’s from My Side’s Incubation Chamber, his B-Side Counterpart is Veytatasm, or Veyta for short.

Glantinazor is a Beholder Demi-Human, he has 1 Large Eye with a Red and Green Pattern on his Pupil. He has 12 Tentacles that grow out of his back, each one having an Eye on the end. His Mouth is weirdly elongated, so he usually keeps it covered by something. He primarily wears white, Black, red, and green. He’s wearing a Black Scarf with Eyes that have green and red Pupils. Glantinazor said that the Scarf was given to him by Mother, he never cared about the Eyes on it. He likes to wear a Black Suit and White Shirt under it. Just like my other Demi-Human Siblings, he has the Triangles Tattoo that separates his Hair from his Head. His Hair is a mix between shades of red and green, it weirdly works.

He acts super serious, and emotionless, but he’s actually just a big Softie, so is Veytatasm, they’re actually really close. They’ve barely been together for 3 Days, but they’ve gotten really close, it’s pretty rare to see them apart.

“Hey, Demitallis, what was that Skill you just used?” Oh, he’s interested in my awesome new Mana Zone skill. Let’s connect.

Demi - “I just made it, it’s called Mana Zone, I can use Magic anywhere within a 30 Meter Radius of my Body.”

“I see, it sounds pretty useful.” Glant folds his Arms, while looking at me.

Demi - “Yeah, it is, I made it using a Mana Linking Skill, and my Mana Field Skill. Mana Field covers the area in My Sensory Mana.”

Glant just nods, as I explain the Skills. “I see.. I’m gonna’ go try and learn this Skill, it seems pretty useful. Are you sure you can’t go beyond 30 Meters?”

Demi - “No, I can, it just takes a ton of Mana to spread it like this, thankfully though, I can suck it back in when I’m done.”

“Thanks Demi, I’ll be sure to go learn this, it should be really useful. I’ll also be sure to tea-” Glant just stops on a dime, and darts off into one of the entrances of the Castle.

I guess Veyta must have called him over, they can see through each other’s eyes, they said it was through a long range Mana Link, kind of like mine, but they can send their Sight through it. They said that Mother told them they had a massive Colony of Beholder Demi-Humans that all shared sight between each other, it must have been maddening…

Glant has some interesting Skills, he uses this Mana Lightning skill, he can direct it, and he can cast any Spell he knows through it. So he can fire a bit of Lightning Mana and it’ll explode with his Combustion Magic at the specified area. He’s been using it for removing Rock, by flowing the Lightning into the Wall, and making it explode. On top of that, each Eye Tentacle can cast that Mana Spell Transmission Skill Thing. Actually, I bet I could have used that for this exact purpose... On that front-

What’s the next Skill?

I’m glad you finally asked, It’s Energy Magic, it basically allows you to turn Mana directly into Energy, like Water, or Air.

I see…

The idea is that we can then turn it into Mana Force, and use it to lift the Object. Yes, just one more Skill and we’ll have Telekinesis.

Yeah, it’s amazing, I’m so glad I spent that entire day making Telepathy.

I think we’re pretty lucky for being able to develop it so quickly.

You have to remember though, we don’t really have any frame of reference, it could be a pretty common Skill, that nobody cares enough to develop.

Right... Anyways, Mana Energy, chop chop.

Yeah, yeah, I’m going.

How would I even do this… Oh, here we go. I activate my Mana Zone, and I start push Mana into the bottom of my Lake, and start trying to form it into Mana Energy, it’s kind of working, it’s taken a form as Energy, but it only affects my Mana Zone, it causes ripples in it, it’s actually really disrupting.

After about an Hour I manage to turn the Mana directly into Energy, and I watch it ripple through the Water and into the Walls, and then I guess into the Universe? What happens to it anyways?

Alright, I’m finished, next Spell!

Mana Force.

Oh like wi-

Don’t. Mana Force will allow you to direct the Energy, instead of it just existing.

I see…

Let’s do this!

I find a Rock in my Mana Zone, and push Energy into it, after a while it explodes into small pieces. Okay, that didn’t work. I find another Rock, and I cover it in the Energy, the Rock is crushed and becomes a pebble. I see... I push Energy Magic into the bottom of the Rock, and it shakes. This is a lot harder than I thought it would be… I can’t figure out how to direct the Energy into moving the Rock…

I see…

Okay, I exit the Pool, and I lift the Rock with Water. Yeah, this works, maybe I should try something more like a Limb.. I enter my Pool, and I start moving Mana around in my Mana Zone. While moving it, I turn it into Energy, and it almost seems like it’s working. I start flowing Mana at the Rock, and turning it into Energy before it actually hits the Rock. The Rock is kind of levitating, but it’s really wobbly.

I drop the Rock again, and I create a new Skill. Enchanted Energy. I create the Energy and I flow Mana into it. I can control the Energy’s Direction now. Oh. Mana Force.

I coat the Rock with Enchanted Energy, and I start moving it around. This is kind of Fun.

Telekinesis complete!

Good job.

Do you think we’re anywhere close to Mana Mastery?

No, there’s a bunch more Skills I want to develop before I start calling it Mana Mastery.

That makes sense- How’s Flare doing?

Oh, I’m not sure-

I look over at where Flare is, she’s made a ton of Progress. I connect to her.

Demi - “Yo, Flare, how’s it going?”

Flar - “I believe I’ve made it about half of the way there.”

Demi - “Damn, good job, you work so fast!”

Flar - “Please, this is nothing. What have you been doing?”

Demi - “I just made a Telekinesis Ability!”

Flar - “Woah, really? I’ve been planning on making a Skill like that. How did you make it?”

Flare decides to run back and take a Break, so I can teach her my new Skill. I spent the rest of the Day teaching her the different Skills that are needed for Telekinesis, she also decided to learn Telepathy and help me out with Telepathy Relaying.

End of Chapter: 10√AC: “The Monsters in your Dreams appear! We’ve got to see this through!”

Thankies for Readies!

Thank you forever.

Flar - “Thank you? Who are we even thanking anyways?”

Thank you for reading.