The fluorescent lights buzzed with a frequency that seemed to drill directly into Hoshimi's skull. He pressed his back against the invisible barrier, the cold surface doing nothing to ease the burning in his chest, the flame in his throat, it felt like every single time he took a breath, a cactus forcefully stuck itself down his throat. Each breath came shallow, ribs fighting back with every single exhale.
[It hurts, it hurts so bad, I can't think properly]
Kira was a silhouette of pure, unadulterated panic. Her blue eyes were blown wide, her pupils darting frantically as she huddled in the corner. The base of her neck was still open, a raw, fleshy valve exuding that thin, invisible vapor. She remained huddled in the corner of the transformed classroom, her knees drawn to her chest, eyes wide and unfocused. The toxic haze around her soon stabilized, no longer expanding, but the barrier separating them held firm.
"I'm sorry," she whispered, her voice carrying through the strange space with an unnatural clarity. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have, I don't even know how I ended up here, please don't leave me here, I beg you."
"Stop." Hoshimi grasped onto his chest. "Just stop."
He closed his eyes, forcing himself to ignore the stinging pain in his hand. He drew a deep breath, ignoring the protest of his ribs, and began to uncoil his mana.
He forced himself to his feet, one hand braced against the barrier for support. His pistol was destroyed, shrapnel from the explosion still embedded in his palm. He pulled the largest piece free with a grunt, watching the skin slowly knit closed through sheer force of will rather than any conscious healing.
[Vitae Core.]
[The creature's ability, I need to understand it. I don't know when it will appear the next time, without Kira here, I'm done for]
He turned from Kira, facing the classroom door that led back to the impossible hallway. The door was closed now, but he could feel the presence beyond it. Waiting. Watching.
[I have to take in every single bit of information, the creature's a summon from the Zenith, so it's ability isn't the recurring hallways, it's only a creature that generated from it, so it's a wholly separate ability.]
He leaned against the wall, sweat pouring down his neck.
[I fired at the creature's arm. The bullet stopped mid-air, then returned to the barrel with the same force, but it wasn't reflected, it was more like time was being rewound.]
He touched his ribs, wincing.
[Kira's gas affected it, but didn't affect me despite proximity. The barrier around her didn't block her attack, but it blocks physical approach.]
He stopped.
[The creature's ability has to be a single power]
[If this is a summon's ability, then it has conditions. Limitations. And if I can figure them out...]
He walked to the door and pushed it open.
The hallway stretched before him, identical to before. The fluorescent lights hummed. The scuff mark on the linoleum remained. At the far end, the portrait of the unnamed historical figure stared forward with painted eyes.
Hoshimi stepped out, letting the classroom door close behind him.
The number on the ceiling flickered: 1.
[I killed the false Kira. That counted as one.]
He began walking, his footsteps echoing in the oppressive silence. Halfway down the hall, he passed the old man again. The faceless figure shuffled forward, completely oblivious to Hoshimi's presence. This time, Hoshimi stopped directly in front of him.
"Who are you?" he asked.
No response. The old man walked through him—or rather, Hoshimi felt a brief sensation of cold pass through his body as the figure continued its endless march.
[Another entity created by the Zenith but it doesn't seem that its considered an anomaly]
He continued walking, reaching the end of the corridor where the stair should've been but it was a hallway, the same hallway he had just walked through.
[If I go there right now and leave the anomaly, the counter is going back down to one, but there's an uncertainty whether or I'll find Kira again]
He turned and walked back the way he came. As he passed the portrait, he noticed something new. The painted eyes stared. At the far end of the hall, near where the black wall pulsed, a figure stood.
It was the creature. Fully formed now, no longer just an arm, but Hoshimi couldn't really make out the finer details, but he could make out its long unnatural arms and a white face with black surrounding its eyes.
It smiled, rows of teeth shone in the sunlight.
Hoshimi didn't move. Neither did the creature.
He took a step forward. The creature's scattered eyes tracked the movement, but it didn't attack. He took another step. Still nothing.
[I can't think, it's like its appearance…. has made me stop thinking. Where the hell is Miss Reina when you need her!? She would've solved this in under a minute.]
The creature moved.
[It's slow]
Mana collected at Hoshimi's feet, trying to expand outwards, yet it felt as if he was within a confined space, it felt claustrophobic, as if he was being kept in a small bathroom stall.
Hoshimi's eyes widened.
[I can clearly walk fine, but it seems that I can't expand outwards, maybe there's a set range on anything that comes out of me. As if the ability is treating anything and everything that comes out from me as if it were the same. It's putting a label on me]
Hoshimi dropped a single bullet onto the ground, the steel bullet rolled over towards the creature.
[The ability doesn't consider anything I drop as being marked the same as me, maybe it's anything infused with my mana]
His gaze returned to the creature.
It began to walk along the ceiling, but it wasn't moving toward Hoshimi. It was moving toward the door, then back toward him.
[An unorthodox path, the hell is it doing?]
He began walking again, but this time he paid attention to every detail.
[No shadows.]
He reached his own door—307. He hadn't tried entering it since the loop began. Now, with the creature watching from the far end, he placed his hand on the handle.
The metal was cold. Too cold. Frost formed under his fingers.
He pushed the door open.
Inside, his room was... wrong. Not dramatically so, but in subtle, unsettling ways. The books on his desk were stacked in the wrong order. The bed was made, but the sheets were the wrong color—a pale gray instead of white. And on the wall, where a window should have been, there was only a mirror.
In the mirror, he saw himself.
But his reflection wasn't looking at him. It was looking at the empty door. At something behind him.
Hoshimi turned.
The creature stood in the doorway.
Not attacking. Just... watching. Its mismatched body filled the frame, its white face stared blankly at him, its long spindly hand grabbed onto the doorframe.
Hoshimi didn't move. Neither did the creature.
The creature tilted its head. A wet, grinding sound emerged from somewhere within its mass.
"You mark things, no wonder I couldn't touch Kira," Hoshimi said aloud. His voice echoed strangely in the warped space.
The creature's arm lashed out. It didn't strike Hoshimi directly. It struck the air at the wall. Then, in a blur of motion that defied physice. It bypassed the three meters of floor between the wall and Hoshimi, appearing instantly at his chest.
"Vigil Hexa!"
He didn't clasp his hands, he couldn't. He visualized his soul as a pane of glass shattering. A single, translucent hexagon materialized. But he didn't place it in front of his chest. He placed it on the wall.
Crack.
The creature screeched.
The barrier had shattered.
'STEP BY STEP. NO SKIPPING. NO LEAVING.'
The scenery changed in an instant, pencils rattled beneath his feet, the sound of chalk scraping against the blackboard filled the room.
The black arm retracted, twisting into a coil. The lights in the classroom flickered to a deep, bruised purple. The whiteboard rattled, the script changing with a frantic, wet squeaking sound.
"Hoshimi? Did you just.." Kira's eyes widened at Hoshimi appearing right in front of her.
[The barrier around Kira. It blocks physical approach but not her gas. Gas is a volatile substance unlike mana, it doesn't move in a straight line.]
The creature retreated a step, returning to its position in the doorway.
[I was wrong, it doesn't mark mana]
"Everything, everything around me is imaginary," he said, still speaking to the creature. "But the rules are real. You've marked the three of us with a pathway, an imaginary hallway of sorts. No wonder projectiles didn't work, the pathway isn't a straight line."
"But the problem is, how do I reach that pathway of yours?"