Chapter 1201 - 1201 Whole Again

Lyra's illusions strained her to her limits, and she hated having to do this.

Normally, she tried not to think about her past life too much. About everything that she had lost.

She had only been sixteen when she had died the first time, and it had not been an easy or quick death.

There were still times when she would wake up in a cold sweat after having a nightmare reliving suffocating under the snow.

'Push through it. This is necessary if you want to get him back.' Lyra thought as she finished the illusion.'

Including herself, she had created only five other people. Two were her own parents, while the other three were Marcus' sister and their parents.

Lyra began puppeteering them all, focusing their attention on Marcus.

She was sort of recreating a memory from long ago, when their families had been enjoying an outside barbeque together towards the end of spring.

There were some creative liberties involved, since everything was scaled up to massive proportions to accommodate for Marcus' current size. He was also in the form of a giant cataclysmic worm, which certainly was not something that had never occurred back during their lives on earth.

At first, Lyra did not notice any sort of response from Marcus. Even when his parents and sister called out for him to join them, he showed no signs of acknowledging them.

Instead, his rapidly healing body started to contract, and it was clear that he was about to lunge at the targets in front of him.

Yet, just before he did, something stopped him.

'Looks like we managed to get the timing right.'

Lyra knew that Roxene and Aerial must have just reached Marcus' core and connected with him. Otherwise, he would not have reacted with hesitancy. Instead, he would have lunged and torn Lyra's illusions apart.

Something she had seen along the branching pathways to the one she was trying to follow.

A scream of true agony came out of Marcus' currently monstrous mouth.

His fractured mind that was only hanging on by the thinnest of threads was trying to reassert itself.

And while his instincts may have told him to keep lashing out and to destroy everything, his heart would not let him do something like that to the people eh loved.

'Okay, time for the last push.'

Lyra already felt that she was running on empty, but she dug deep and drew out power from a source she did not even know she had.

More illusions joined the others.

This time she did not limit the people to only those on Earth, and also added Marcus' loved ones from Mirrion.

She started with Mrazivý, then Lilia. Next up were Blitz and Inten. Followed by Allaric and James.

This was where Lyra had to stop, as creating any other giant illusions was simply beyond her right now. It would just have to be enough.

"""Come back to us!"""

"""Come back to us!"""

"""Come back to us!"""

Over and over, Lyra had the illusory people chant this line.

And Marcus responded. His entire form shaking and thrashing about as he howled.

Eventually, the body of the Dread Burrower that he had created around himself like a protective shell started to crumble away, and Lyra watched it turn into whisps of spiritual energy.

Upon seeing this, she knew that she had done her part in all of this. Grasping the future she had glimpsed was now entirely up to Roxene and Aerial.

"I'm leaving the rest to you two." Lyra muttered before dropping the illusions she had conjured.

A moment later she fell to the ground in exhaustion.

Slowly her eyes closed, unable to stay open any longer.

She had used everything that she had, and now her body demanded rest.

…

Marcus' mind was fractured.

Every single thought brought with it untold agony.

Though, until a few moments ago, he had not been thinking anything at all.

His mind had felt like it was stuck in a mire where all that was expressed were his basest emotions. Things he typically kept sealed away less they overwhelm him.

"Marcus!"

A garbled voice reached him and a new wave of agony washed over him.

Again, they called out, this time slightly louder but now less clear.

It hurt like someone was hammering the inside of his head.

He wanted nothing more than to return to the state of near nothingness he had been in before. When he was there, the pain could not reach him.

But a memory, one he was not certain was real, kept him from letting him lose himself again.

His family and friend were calling for him to come back to them. And he very much wanted to. Even though trying to maintain himself caused him so much pain.

The shouting that reverberated through him only became louder, until a searing sensation like something was slicing into the very center of his being overwhelmed him.

For a few moments, he returned to nothing but blackness. There were no more thoughts. No more pain.

It was comforting, he wanted to embrace the feeling and no longer have to deal with anything. Had he not already done enough already.

That was when he felt something slap against him, and a voice louder than any so far dragged him back to consciousness.

"MARCUS! PULL YOUSELF TOGETHER ALREADY!"

Like being shaken awake from a particularly deep sleep, Marcus snapped to attention and his surroundings finally became clear to him.

His vision felt a bit blurry, and he soon realized why.

All he was currently was two thirds of a floating head. Right now, he only had one eye.

Instinctively, he tried to put himself back together, but that just caused him more pain. It did not feel like how he normally healed. Everything was broken to the point where it would not come back together easily.

"Finally, we got a response from you." Marcus heard a familiar voice say in an exasperated tone.

He somehow managed to turn his disembodied and broken head to look at them.

"Do you recognize us?" A furry four-legged creature asked.

It took Marcus a moment to figure out what the words meant and recall a memory that was still with him.

"Ro-Roxene."

"Yeah, that's right. You're the one who gave me that name. Remember?"

Trying to recall anything came with no small amount of agony, but he eventually dragged out pieces of a memory.

"Ye-yes."

"Good. What about Aerial?" Roxene asked, motioning towards a lightly glowing creature made of wind that Marcus had not noticed until they were pointed out to him.

This time, there was nothing. Marcus could not remember any Aerial. Though, while no memories came to mind like they did with Roxene, he did feel some sort of ethereal link between them.

"No."

Roxene frowned at this, but she shook her head and started glancing around.

"I suppose that's not entirely unexpected. Considering the sorry state of your mindscape."

Marcus followed her gaze and finally noticed what looked like shattered buildings and landscape all around him.

"Well, I suppose that we won't get anywhere just floating around. Let's start fixing this mess. You do want to be whole again, don't you. Your wife and younger sister will be devastated if they see you like this. And I will be too if you don't get better. You're the only family I have on this world." Roxene said, an outpouring of emotions in her voice.

This helped to snap Marcus back to a slightly more conscious state than he had been in so far.

It hurt like hell, but he forced himself to move and remember.

Shockingly, the missing part of his head began to reform once he had made the decision to put himself back together. The first step to recovery had been monumentally difficult, but he had taken it.

Following behind Roxene and Aerial, Marcus began the arduous process of repairing his shattered mind.

Slowly, they put everything back together, and along the way, Marcus' body began to fill back in.

However, once he started to gain more of his memories back and his awareness of what was going on grew, he noticed something disconcerting.

Though everything was being put back together, there were still cracks and fractures that refused to be fixed.

When Marcus asked Roxene, and Aerial, who he had started to remember about this, how to fix this, they just shook their heads.

"We don't know. That's going to be on you. We can help you put things in their place, but actually fusing everything together is beyond us. This is your mind. We entered through the connections that we share with you, but there's only so much that we can help with." Roxene said.

Marcus frowned, but he did not want to stop, could not stop now.

There were still things that were missing, but he had already recalled a number of happy memories along with the people he had shared them with. His life was not something he was willing to let go of.

Eventually, everything was put back in its place and Marcus' entire form had come back to him.

The cracks and fractures remained, but the everything was at least back together.

'I see. So, this is how I'm interpreting what the inside of my mind looks like.'

In one area was the old neighborhood that he had grown up in on Earth. While in another was the towering spires of Borealia's castle.

His mansion within the cpatial city was also there, along with other notable places from both of his lives.

It was an odd mishmash of both Mirrion and Earth, but Marcus felt that it fit him.

"Roxene, Aerial. I know what I need to do now. Thank you both for your help, but you can't remain for what comes next." Marcus said, a sudden clarity in his eyes.

"Got it. Just don't break yourself again. I have not intention of coming back in here and doing this again."

With that, Roxene and Aerial cut their connection and left Marcus on his own within his still damaged mindscape.

Once they were gone, he realized just how much pressure having two other consciousness rummaging through his mind had put on him.

Still, he understood that without their help, he would never have been able to get his mind back in order. He would have remained a fractured mess until someone either destroyed him, or he destroyed himself.

'It's a good thing that I still have one charge left. I'm not sure how I would have gone about fixing everything without a Supreme Skill to do the heavy lifting for me.' Marcus thought, as he enveloped himself in the silver light of his Ultimate Refresh skill.