Warped City of Gallery

"Whoa," Magnus gasped as his vision shifted from looking down to looking up.

There, he still saw many of Gallery's skyscrapers, looking like stalactites that threatened to impale him from above.

To his left and to his right, Magnus saw the same image, albeit the skyscrapers were against a slope.

The entire city of Gallery seemed to be built inside a sphere. Like some futuristic, gravity-defying creation.

And yet, the sun still shone, and clouds were still present. Everything had seemed normal up until Magnus arrived at what seemed to be the equator of the sphere.

Magnus thus floated towards the centre.

He was curious about what he might see.

And when he made it there after almost an hour of floating, Magnus witnessed the city seemingly shrink.

When before he could not see the edges of the city, now he could see it all in its entirety.

It was a baffling experience, to say the least. He looked around and spotted the adventurers and treasure hunters scuttling about like ants. He saw the entrance he had taken and even retraced his path through the buildings with his eyes.

"This city is warped..." Magnus muttered as he continued to marvel at the sights all around him.

It was then,

"Hu...man..."

A voice seemed to call out to him.

Magnus straightened up as his eyes rapidly scanned his surroundings.

He found nothing.

"Descend, human."

The voice said, and Magnus instantly felt a force act on him.

It was a suction force that targetted his entire being; clothes, hair, bones, skin, and all.

Magnus tried to resist, but he was helpless against the suction force.

Thud!

Magnus was forced onto the ground.

"Hello, human."

The voice boomed as Magnus struggled to float into the air. His Curse was already acting up.

"You are the first to discover Gallery's anomaly, and for that, I congratulate you." The voice seemed to ignore Magnus' plight as it went on a monologue.

"I've been waiting for gods only knows how long for the right conditions to be met. But I am a patient man." The voice continued, appearing in front of Magnus as a blurry shadow, "Thus, I would like to hear your last words before your body becomes mine."

Magnus felt his Curse erupt with vile energy at the sound of the shadow's words.

"...Good... luck..." Magnus muttered.

And then, he was dead.

His body fell to the ground like a wilting flower, lifeless, powerless, energyless. He was no more than an object at that point as his Curse ruptured every portion of his being.

Blood began to splatter, and the shadow watched as a gruesome death was put on display before him.

In the end, Magnus' body exploded into nothing but fine particles of blood and dust.

The blurry shadow was stunned.

He was perfectly frozen, as the smug, villainous grin on his face stiffly stayed in place.

He stayed like this for a few hours, wondering where he went wrong.

.

.

.

Javelin, who was a rather great distance away, felt the sudden loss of Magnus' original body.

He shivered.

That man was a terrifying existence that Magnus had no way to win against at his current level. Just the suction force alone was enough to send him to his death. He wondered just what would've happened to his body if his Curse did not kill him.

He also did not know if it was a good thing or a bad thing that he died like that.

All he knew, however, was that there were great secrets hidden in Gallery.

"Meow," Javelin made a sound after sleeping on Rie's head for about half a day. It was currently the middle of the afternoon and the sun was harsh, if not harsher than the midday sun. They were currently travelling straight into its rays as they sailed on the sands.

"Oh! Javelin!" Rie happily lifted the cat off of her head as she turned intangible for a moment. "You're awake!"

Rie snuggled with the little creature as she turned to her leader.

"Sir, adjust our course by this... and then that... and then like this..." Rie spoke even though she did not know what the words she was saying meant.

But the leader simply nodded, understanding it all. He adjusted the manner in which their vehicle travelled through a special device.

Early signs of magical technology could be seen in the green-glowing joystick in his hand.

Javelin watched the leader curiously.

Sensing his gaze, the leader, Cavrien, glanced at him back. Cavrien nodded again.

"Meow~" Javelin said something but did not use his Spirit Communication techniques.

Translated, ( "A man of few words," ) would be what Javelin meant.

Thus the trip continued as Javelin waited for the right time to summon Klaris and have Magnus be reborn— which wasn't going to come anytime soon.

Unless...

"Meow, meow, meow," Javelin whispered to himself an invocation.

Klaris instantly appeared aboard the sand sailer. It surprised the treasure hunters of the group as they sprang up, ready for battle.

But Klaris just dove out of the vehicle the moment he appeared, sparing not a single chance to get injured by their various weapons.

Such a move baffled the others as they saw Klaris roll pathetically across the sands before stopping. The sand sailer left him far behind as he shook the sand out of his hair.

"What was that?" The members of the group all glanced at Rie, who shrugged.

"I still can't draw information yet, guys. But it didn't seem like that man was there to harm us. It's probably some kind of Blessing that sent him here." Rie said.

"Right, right," One of the treasure hunters chuckled, "But that gave me a heart attack just now. I thought some pirates had found us."

"Indeed," Another one agreed.

Then, the conversation ended, and the group all calmed down.

It was only the leader who, with scrunched brows, glanced at Javelin in secret. His Cracked Intuition was telling him something. Something that was important, but he could not place his finger on it.

'No way, right?' He thought to himself.

But since his Cracked Intuition told him that Javelin did not exude any hostility, he decided not to pursue it anymore. He was just going to keep an eye on the cat to keep Rie safe.

.

.

.

In the middle of the desert.

Klaris was standing in the sand in annoyance.

"Ugh," He grunted as he watched the sand sailer disappear into the distance.

He then began his invocations.

"I am the thief of mirrored creation,

The cloned child,

The descendant of greens,

And the walker of reflections."

A slumped Magnus appeared before him as he then proceeded with Master of the Hivemind. Soon, Magnus was back.

"That was an experience for sure," He said to Klaris. "So that's what it's like to die to my Curse..."

Magnus got the chills just thinking about the experience. He still felt how his body had been reduced to atoms through his consciousness and soul.

"Your Curse is much, much stronger than mine." Klaris spoke, "It's only expected."

Klaris then squinted, "Now, return me to the Hivemind. It's too hot here."

"Alright," Magnus flicked his hand and Klaris disappeared into a flash of light.

Magnus then decided to get Restiel to do the expedition instead of him. It was both faster and less taxing. Moreover, his face might be recognized by that blurry shadow man.

He thus switched with the angel and watched from inside the Hivemind.

After more than half a day of travelling over desert sands, Restiel finally returned to Gallery. This time, he decided not to fly to an area of the city where something could go horribly wrong and instead asked around.

Soon, he learned where Arlon was. Restiel found him sitting inside the top floor of one of Gallery's towers.

[ So, ] Magnus spoke from within the Hivemind, [ How do we go about this? ]

Violence? Trickery? Persuasion?

There were a hundred different ways to get what he wanted, but Magnus didn't know which one was a guarantee.

[ I think it's best if we use a peaceful approach first, ] Klaris replied to Magnus as he weighed their options. [ Violence can come when peace fails. ]

Magnus nodded. [ Then let's do that... ]

Restiel thus landed softly and respectfully on the floor where Arlon stood, watching the area.

"Hello, young man." A baritone voice boomed just as Restiel landed. "What brings you here?"

Arlon turned around. His deep eyes pierced through Restiel's skin as if searching through his entire being. Long black hair cascaded down Arlon's shoulders like waterfalls. His body was that of a strength-based fighter, with muscles carved out and bulging out of his clothes.

Arlon stood at a fierce seven feet tall, towering over Restiel. His bronze skin gleamed beautifully in the sunlight, with pale scars accentuated throughout his arms and neck.

Bite marks were the most common type of scars.

'Those must be due to the sandworms...' Magnus recalled the ones he had seen before.

Shaking his head from the distracting aura of Arlon's figure, Restiel forced himself to speak despite the pressure of a greater human being.

"I came here to ask about the Painting of Contrived Lovers." Restiel started, bowing his head, "I wanted to study the brush strokes and perhaps gain inspiration from it."

"An artist?" Arlon looked Restiel up and down. "You do seem like the type..."

Arlon then reached into a Storage Scroll and pulled out a clipboard-sized painting from within.

"Is this the one you're looking for?" Arlon asked as he waved the painting around.

Restiel squinted.

'Something is weird about that painting...' He instantly felt so.

Deep in thought, he scrutinized what he could see in the painting. The Hivemind was running at full power, trying to recall whatever relevant information that they had learned. Scanning, analysing and wondering why something felt off about Arlon's question and the painting in his hands.

"Sir... I don't think it is." Finally, Restiel replied.

"Oh?" Arlon paused his movements and raised a brow. "And why do you think it isn't?"

"It just... doesn't feel like it is. I can't explain why."

"Intuition, huh," Arlon nodded, "You have sharp senses."

The painting then dissipated into a cloud of black smoke.

"It is indeed not the painting you were looking for. It was a mimic. A little test." Arlon waved his hand as the real Painting of Contrived Lovers appeared out of thin air.

"A test?" Restiel asked back, trying to hide the flash of greed in his eyes the moment the real painting appeared.

"Yes. If you want to do anything with this artefact, I want you to do something for me."