Chapter 13: Chapter 0-13

I jerked awake- which I shouldn’t have been able to do since I shouldn’t have been sleeping. I blinked a few times, trying to figure out what was out of place with my situation. Then I realized I only knew I was blinking because I could feel my eyelids moving over dead eyes and let out a long sigh.

 

“Cleo? How long have I been asleep and why did you let me sleep? I know I’m getting to the edge of what I can probably handle in a day… or month, but I’m pretty sure this is basically a warzone.”

 

{You were only unconscious for four minutes, thirty-three seconds. Which is coincidentally how long it took to get your perks set up and your issue resolved. The sleep was necessary to not have you turn your stomach inside-out from the process,} They replied with a hint of boredom. {The third wave is probably at work right now, but you should be fine with your new bonuses. In fact you probably feel better than you have in your entire life.}

 

Taking the hint, I gave myself a mental once-over. I could definitely perceive myself and my surroundings better- although being blind meant I was relying on feel and… instinct? I could roughly just tell where the walls in the room were, where the only door out was, and more clearly where the now mostly empty batteries were. It wasn’t seeing, and trusting it made me feel like I was going to fall into a hole- but the rough idea of my surroundings I now had made me feel a bit more confident.

 

My body was also feeling good. Like, no random pains in joints, no vaguely sore muscles, no tinnitus, and I felt refreshed like I had gotten a good night’s sleep for once. It was almost eerie, not to the point of feeling like another body, but the normal issues I had just decided to live with or gauge my wellness on were gone.

 

“Yeah… I didn’t even know some of the issues I had could be fixed. And quick question: I know that I blinded myself pretty thoroughly, but now I can… feel this room? Am I going insane or is my brain making shit up to compensate for something missing? Or is there weird space-magic going on?”

 

With a bit of surprise in their voice, Cleo slowly said, {What you are feeling is the development of your manasight. It’s almost universal to all MGs. Your sensitivity to ULE is much higher now that you have been properly integrated with your abilities, so you are able to feel changes in it like how you can tell the direction of the sun by what part of your body is warmed by it. Rather, that's what someone as new as you to it should be feeling. Actually being able to tell anything about the space you’re in usually takes a few weeks of practice. Best guess is that the visual part of your brain is trying to create an image from any information it can- and without your eyes requiring most of that processing power, you can more naturally do that.}

 

Joining in on the speculation, I shot back, “I have no clue if this is how it works, but shouldn’t my brain still be trying to use my eyes? I’m not a child, so it shouldn’t be malleable enough to have already realized my eyes are useless and switched to something else.”

 

{Ahh, that. Your optic nerves have been basically unplugged and that part of your brain prepped for accepting any sort of replacement. Not all of the options we have access to use electromagnetic waves or would go into your eye sockets, so partially reverting part of your brain to allow for more esoteric options was the best course of action.}

 

I had to cut myself off from asking what the hell that meant as I realized that didn’t matter right now. After popping to my feet without using my hands- something I previously wasn’t able to do- I headed to where my manasight or whatever was telling me the door was. It wasn’t perfect, so I ended up stumbling into it believing I still had a few steps to go.

 

After brushing myself off, I sheepishly asked, “Mind telling me if I’m going to do that again?”

 

As we ascended up the stairs, I went back on high-alert for anything moving. Cleo was confident that the gasses had dispersed enough for it to be safe for me to remove my taped-on masks- which I did with some reluctance. The still slightly harsh air was a welcome break from the stuffy, damp stuff I was recycling all that time and with my mask removed I could finally wipe off all the snot that had leaked out while I was crying in pain. 

 

Sorry, the dead worker guy I found dismembered in a corner of the centipede-room, but I wasn’t going to ruin my own shirt.

 

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That aside, it was oddly calm again. I would have bet the whole interdimensional invasion process would be much louder in general, but this whole thing was generally horror-movie quiet. And like that cleaver analogy alluded, I was on the edge of my proverbial seat the whole time I was working my way back to the garage.

 

As I crept along, the accuracy of my new sense slowly improved. Instead of a half-dozen foot margin of error, it was more like… five and a half. Cleo had to warn me of walls- or to their amusement, tell me there wasn’t a wall- at least once a minute. The silver lining was that whatever those perks had done, I was moving both much faster and quieter- being able to stay low and comfortably balanced as I moved at a slightly faster than normal pace.

 

Because the world hates me, we didn’t make it to the garage- or even the main foyer- before something found us. I had stopped due to a new feeling in my new sense: a rhythmic distortion of the ‘image’ in my head, coming from down the hallway I was in. As I was opening my mouth to ask Cleo what that was, they shouted {Jump!} into my head.

 

I was caught off guard by this, but tense enough to quickly respond- only getting clipped by the demon that had swept for my legs. Despite being spun midair, I unconsciously reacted and twisted myself to land on my feet, if a little unsteadily. The pulsing now came from the other direction, and if my intuition was to be believed- it was coming right at me again. I dodged to the side as I realized that, but the sensation only slowed down to a stop- presumably still a few paces away.

 

{It's a third-wave constructor. The Breach must be trying to fortify itself instead of expanding. They’re only a couple feet high but have some nasty mandibles- another bug like one. Like you, they’re practically blind and really bad at fighting- although it should be slower than you if you run. By the way I recommend that as they aren’t that much of a threat and so are worth only a little experience.}

 

“Thanks,” I said flatly- the insult not going over my head. “Won’t it just chase me if I run though?”

 

{Could you chase it if it ran?}

 

“Alright, I get it. Tell me if I need to jump it,” I sighed before running at it. At Cleo’s cue, I pushed off as hard as I could- getting sent much farther than I had expected, but landed and kept the momentum well enough despite that. As I moved more, it felt like my body was shaking off some tiredness or remembering what it was supposed to be able to do. Despite being without sight, I didn’t stumble over my own feet or lose balance- even when I slid on some papers that I swear were intentionally placed there to fuck with me.

 

As we reached the opening to the main room, I could feel the same pulsing waves coming from throughout the whole of it. If I focused really hard, I could pick individual sources out, but not with enough clarity to know how far away they were or even how many of them there were. I didn't have long to ponder this, as I could feel that the demon behind me and some of the new ones to my front were getting closer by the slightly higher frequency of their pulses. 

 

I knew the general direction of where I wanted to go and Cleo would probably catch on to what I was planning if I was obvious about it- say by just running straight there. Said plan was to just rush back to the garage and close the door behind me when I got there, then hope that none of them had opposable thumbs. Not a great plan, but I didn’t think there was time to create a more nuanced one. And for once, one of my plans worked just fine. I crossed the room- avoiding the indoor garden- and only had to awkwardly jump or dodge a few angry constructors. I’d bet that I was starting to go a little crazy from the constant stress at this point because I found wildly sprinting through a room of potential dangers with only the foggiest idea of where I was going actually fun.

 

Well, until Cleo didn’t tell me about the barricade, simply letting me faceplant into it because my manasight told me it was a few feet farther than it was.

 

After I had painfully scrambled over it and crossed through the doorway, I realized there were some demons in there as well. Only two as far as I could tell, but that was still more than I wanted to deal with. I had learned I hate fighting, an odd trait for a Magical Girl to have.

 

Finally being helpful again, my familiar noted, {Ohh, that constructor is carrying a car. They really like using those to build their defenses, it appears. Also, you might want to move before its destructor friend hits you. Either way, you should survive.}

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