On Hou's side,
"INITIATE" he shouted as he closed his hand, both of the figures and Hou were sent into his mindscape; their bodies flopped flaccid.
"BREAK." they said calmly.
"INITIATE" he responded in candid
"It's no use trying to keep us trapped, we can break free instantly now that we know your Qualia."
Hou smiled, "I know." While still in the mindscape, he felt an emotion bubble. Something he was ready to do.
"You're not evil," Hou's eyes started to water, one tear broke the watershed and sunk down his cheek, "So try to understand."
The emotion he had been building bubbled to the surface and lit, self-sacrifice. In the mindscape, it was the perfect setting to change someone's mind.
He had heard their reasoning, he felt their rationality, they were not evil to their core. They wanted to save people, just their reasoning had one flaw...
Boom!
Hou felt an extreme pain as his body imploded in on itself then exploded outwards, spreading his emotions and understanding outwards.
Awake. The mindscape finished, the three of them awoke. Hou took a while longer to come to lucidity. His consciousness was damaged, he could barely think.
"You believe in sacrificing the few for the many, I believe in...us. Let us, together–"
He was cut off as a meteor fell from the sky, Causality at play. The two figures came in closer, clearly Hou's self-sacrificing explosion had not changed their mind, he should have given up.
"The meteor creates a moment where my initiation into mindscape is not noticed."
"INITIATE" he whispered in his mind.
They did not notice it envelop them, once more they fell a slumber.
***
Hamar fell back as a massive black blob smacked him within his mindscape. His consciousness took a hit and for a moment, his mind became jumbled.
He skidded across the sky, "What am I doing?" He asked himself.
The beast moved while wreathed in flames, it shot forth with superhuman strength and speed. It whipped in the air, it shouted in incomprehensible sounds.
Hamar felt a pang in his mind, he fell to his knees, "b-b-bre–"
He tried to stop the mindscape, his consciousness caused him to stutter and once more he was hit by the creature. It stabbed his torso with a spike of black material, then it exploded and Hamar died.
He awoke, the two figures had changed. They had human shape before, but now they were monstrous, and before his damaged mind could think, they lashed out in anger.
Luckily, because they were so enraged they did not have the mental capacity to initiate a mindscape. His body was strong, he didn't need to worry unless he was in mindscape.
Back in reality, they hit him a few times, Causality brought back his aura. He jumped back, gaining a safe distance from the monsters.
"Their consciousness is damaged and they lost control..." His mind was slow, like a fog covered his thinking,"...they can't create a mindscape, and they can't break one either. Surely, I just need to kill them one more time in the mindscape but," he shivered.
His mind recalled the memories of his death with difficulty, it was erratic and powerful. With no lucidity and a damaged consciousness, it's control over it's emotions was lost and it appeared to switch so quickly through them, it used multiple powers at the same time.
"I can only survive a few more times, already I'm feeling the consequences of a damaged consciousness."
***
Hou was determined for self-sacrifice. Each time would harm his consciousness but at the same time show his opponents his understanding; if they could just change their stance...
"He doesn't spot us," they whispered into the Causality, it didn't work.
"We're in a mindscape! Bre–" they were interrupted as Hou's body burst and released into them an understanding.
Back in reality, Hou started to fall down. He caught himself and flew back up; his consciousness was strong. Unlike Hamar, he had broken his consciousness many times, and had reformed stronger each and every time.
"Even still, I can't go on forever..." He looked up, did it succeed?
***
Hamar squinted, how to defeat an enemy that's stronger but dumber, he thought. While keeping away from the raging blob in reality, he tried to run through a simulation in his mind.
Slash, slash, dead.
Dodge, hit, stab, explode, dead.
Teleport, shield, dead.
....
....
....
"...is it even possible?" He went through more simulations, killing someone stronger than oneself was already a difficult task; but he had limited understand of the powers at play and the sheer difference was astounding.
"Maybe..." A simulation brought a thought to the front of his mind, "It might..."
To defeat one stronger than yourself there are a few ways, 1. Skill, 2. Help, 3. Cheat, 4. Circumstance, 5. Luck, 6. Sacrifice....he paused.
The seventh way he could think of, turning the enemy on themself. In hand-to-hand and swordsmanship, it was an essential skill.
If someone heavier than yourself throws a fist, use that weight against them, divert it. The problem was how to divert the power of the monstrous figures inside the mindscape.
"INITIATE" into the mindscape.
Like a wild animal catching the advent of its prey, the two blobs of blurry black material jumped to attack Hamar.
He jumped back, within his mind he maintained one emotion. Hope. There was two reasons for this, the first is that it was easier to fight with a consistent power, the second is the power it gave.
Hope was a simple power Hamar could tell, enhancement. No matter what he was doing, he was enhanced. Speed, strength, flexibility, or even more specific like swordsmanship.
"Part 1, wear them down. If it's like me, they should run out of some emotions soon enough, the less powers they have, the more predictable they are, the easier it is to kill."
All the while dodging, Hamar kept his mind prepped to break the mindscape and escape. He just needed to buy time.