He lay exhausted, staring at a glowing ball floating beneath the round ceiling. His brain felt as if those few minutes were actually months of intense thinking. The fatigue was accompanied by; to put it rather mildly; a highly lousy mood, which came from going through all these memories and seeing himself in them.

  His former self disappeared, replaced by some inconsistent persona, as if all the events and thoughts that built him suddenly lost value. The stoicism and laconism that had previously characterized him now become a twisted mixture of weird instability with spontaneous symptoms of loud, paradoxical laughter. Much of his earlier behavior was due to misanthropy, which led him to actually try to be disliked. It was the easiest way to keep his distance while not hurting others with rejection. Now he was happy to talk, joke, say mindless nonsense, and even insult others. Although the quiet lifestyle he had developed since childhood was still there somewhere, it only appeared momentarily, as if unlocked by some kind of switch.

  And even though he wanted nothing more than to press the reset button to go back to his old self, he knew that, one, it was impossible, and two, he promised himself that he would keep that impulsive, expressive part.

  She told him once that she liked that part of him.

  “Boy, are you all right?” he heard the Inquisitor’s voice.

  “Fuck off.” he replied, immediately grimacing at his response. Needless to say, these words were not thought out in any way, and Orion had the impression that they were not spoken by him, but by a part of his soul occupied by the beasts he had devoured.

  He was about to speak again, but a harsh voice reached his ears.

  “You little shit, how dare…”

  “It is all right.”

  Looking around, he saw that in the room, outside the Inquisitor standing beside him, by the now open door, the (almost) whole team was kneeling. The author of the unfinished question was naturally Avir, who was silenced by an older man. The group of newcomers looked rather strange, as if they were frightened for some reason. Only he didn’t see any change in Zaiah, which, frankly, would be pretty hard, given the lack of a face. Egill looked at him with a look Orion identified as a combination of confusion, fear and worry.

  “I’m sorry.” Orion said, trying no longer to compromise himself. “I have no idea why I said that. Before all this, I wouldn’t talk to anyone like that.”

  “Again. It is all right. You, youngsters, shouldn’t blame him for that, either.”

  Saun offered him a helping hand, which he accepted gratefully. As he tried to get up, he noticed that his legs were barely responding.

  “What happened? Why am I so weak? When did the others come in? Why are they kneeling?”

  “You went through this process rather intensely, but that was expected. You were so tense, your muscles must be just tired. As for the young ones… they came into this room, hearing your screams.” the Inquisitor answered in a serious but calm voice, only to suddenly sound like a teenager explaining. When he changed his tone, Orion also noticed a sudden decline in pressure that was still hanging in the air, which at some point he had stopped paying attention to. “They are on their knees because I forgot myself. As we talked, I gradually raised my aura.”

  “I understand. Well, actually… I don’t. I’m not sure what that means.”

  “That is how I indirectly checked your condition. Well, let’s just forget about it.” said the Inquisitor, while making sure that Orion can stand on its own. “Boy, I’m going to have to talk to the young ones here in private. But before that happens, it would be good to share some good news, would it not?”

  The older man smiled and looked at the group, who, now that the pressure had dropped, were getting up from the ground. When everyone stood up, he added.

  “I tested the boy with every method I know. No sign of possession or other demonic interference.”

  When he finished speaking, Orion saw the group relaxing. Egill looked happy, and Eyharnis grinned at him.

  “Tsk. Damn it.” hissed Avir. A clapping sound spread through the room as the result of a green hand striking the dark, shady skin of his backside. “Ow! Hey, what? Do you have any idea how much money we’d make if we caught a li…”

  Another clapping sound echoed through the air.

  “Can you walk?” asked the Inquisitor with a polite chuckle.

  “Well, my legs are still a bit shiggly… Jeggly… Yeah, I guess, yeah. Thank you. For everything.”

  “Do not worry, young one. Like I said, I need to have a little chat with the group here. You can relax in the hallway, or do you need a few steps in the fresh air?”

  Still slightly dazed, he walked out of the room. What appeared before his eyes; I know, shocking; was a circular corridor running all around the cell. It looked a bit like a waiting room with rows of seats arranged along the walls. He dropped to the nearest one, the corner of his eye seeing the door closing behind him. Somehow he didn’t register it before, but when he got down on his ass, he noticed that the seat across the hall was already taken.

  There was a rather small figure, entirely covered in ragged, gray-brown robes. They wore a cloth mask on the lower part of the face, the upper part was wrapped with bandages, and additionally their entire head was hidden beneath a hood. The only thing that revealed the cover was their tired, jasmine eyes. At first, Orion just nodded and leaned on the backrest of the chair, trying to rest. But the thought of two pale-green-yellow balls staring at him in the silence began to stress him.

  It was pretty annoying. Only two days ago, forced to be solitary except for his friend, he longed to be able to meet other people again. Now that solitude was optional again, he wanted to lock himself away in a room, away from everyone else. He gasped, painfully aware that his state of mind was far from perfect, and then he got up. The Inquisitor suggested taking a breath of fresh air, and he intended to do so, temporarily forgetting his mana problem.

  As he left the building, he was greeted by several identical structures. Each one had drawings of people trapped, clearly describing their functionality. He noticed that the prison area was surrounded by a fairly low wall, which looked more symbolic than if it were actually meant to be an obstacle to escape. Although there was no one on the ground, somehow it was clear to him that he was being watched at that moment.

  He shrugged his shoulders and moved forward, looking around curiously. The sky was exactly as he remembered it, showing no change in weather or time of day. The most eye-catching were the buildings, which he could fully admire after leaving the prison grounds. The architecture here was definitely centered around round, hemispherical shapes. Each building, except for the largest skyscraper visible in the distance, was decorated with paintings of various colors. Some of them looked like they were painted by the local equivalent of neon paints, brightly advertising their function.

  While it was important for the city to manage its land properly to accommodate as many people as possible, Orion noticed that no equivalents of apartment blocks were built here. Each house was probably a single-family home, and space issues were handled in two ways. One of them was building houses right on top of someone else’s property. A sort of curvy ramp was created to allow access to the building above without disturbing those below.

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  The other way was something that Orion would describe as concrete trees. The city had pillars with four entrances at the bottom. Looking up from the main trunk, roads spread out like branches on which houses were placed.

  Based on the paintings on the houses, it seemed that the closest to the ground were the commercial premises. Some were completely enclosed, others allowed visitors to see what was being traded inside by using fragments of glass walls, and others were partially open, as if someone had bitten off a piece of a semi-spherical structure.

  There was quite a lot of traffic in the city. People of various races walked at different speeds through the smooth, curved streets. The material used to build the roads looked a bit like smooth gypsum, which was much different from the paved road he had seen in the village. The look of the roads changed at the site of the ramps leading to the higher houses. Some of them resembled strips of earth with grass growing on them, others looked similar to the road, and some of them seemed like they were made of hewn crystal. Reflecting on their diversity, he thought that they might have been made to a resident’s request, or maybe a local designer was involved.

  Another element that distinguished this place from the village was the presence of many strategically placed statues depicting various figures in different poses. Not only did they serve as decorations, but they each held an object that emitted a gentle light, making the surroundings much better lit. Their presence made the natural gloom of this world much more tolerable.

  As he looked at the statues, he noticed that in addition to the various materials used to make them, some of them had other functions. Some contained holes into which, as shown in the figure’s pose, probably garbage could be dumped, while others had facilities, such as public faucets or open or covered resting places. Quite an interesting combination of art and functionality, he thought.

  Deciding that he could use a little more rest, he walked over to a stone-carved bench shaped like an unknown figure on all fours. As he sat down, he took a deep breath and closed his eyes, wanting to relax for a moment after the memory rides. It didn’t last long, however, as a rich female voice pulled him out of his reverie.

  “Perhaps you should ask me out first?” he heard, practically jumping out, as he felt movement underneath him.

  Walking away in a panic, Orion saw that the stone statue-bench was now looking at him with its polished-quartz-like eyes.

  “My dear, you have a rather icy gaze.” said the golem, rising to the kneeling position. Then she reached out toward Orion with a hand filled with pebbles. “I’m looking for a child, wanna join me?”

  Orion, still not understanding if what he’s seeing is really happening, took a cursory look at his Sanity stat, confirming that there were still three points there. He shook his head, reminding himself it was a magical world, after all, and then answered.

  “Uhm, I’m sorry I sat on you. You lost a kid? Need help?”

  “What? Oh, no, no. I’m just browsing through the available options.” answered the golem, pointing to the stones in her hand.

  Orion, after a few blinks, once again glanced at his Sanity, having the strange feeling that he was constantly burning his brain cells in order to process what he heard.

  “Well, then, I’ll excuse myself. I guess I won’t be too, uhm, helpful. Sooo… good luck, I think? I hope the weather will be good. Uhm… See you around.”

  He went away, more exhausted than before by this brief exchange. Orion walked down a few streets, returning to look around. Putting architecture aside, he turned his attention to the passerby.

  There were many more people here dressed in what he identified as everyday clothing, although he could still see someone in armor somewhere.

  The casual clothing was quite a bit more diverse than what was worn in the village, not only in color but also in terms of style and intricacy.

  One could see a large, pale man with long limbs in something somewhat resembling a woolen suit, next to whom was walking a rather short but stocky individual with a turtle head, in short pants and a grille shirt. On his shoulder was a creature resembling a cross between a praying mantis and a bald squirrel, wearing a camouflage hoodie.

  Although it might sound strange, it was relatively reminiscent of the situation on Earth, which led Orion to conclude that the people here would gladly share their insights with his countrymen, creating an entirely new branch of fashion.

  Well, it’s probably better that it didn’t happen before the integration. The local population would certainly prefer to stay away from people from Earth if someone tried to push them into modern fashions like ‘boot on heads’ or ‘toilet suit’. Let’s hope the system wiped this phenomenon off the surface of Earth.

  Orion approached the statue with the faucet. First politely asking if it was okay with it to use the facility, and then, when the statue did not object, investigating how to. As he brought his head closer, the tube automatically leaked a liquid, which he quickly identified as plain water. So he took a few sips and continued walking, ignoring the perplexed looks of the crowd.

  After a few minutes of journey, judging that he was far enough from the place of his embarrassing encounter with the golem, he went to the next bench in the shape of a person. After another preliminary question, he sat down to relax.

  Again, it didn’t take long, as about a meter away, a dark spot appeared on the ground.

  ***

  “All right, well, to wrap up this bleak conversation, I need you to notify The Adventurers Guild to send a cleanup team down there. Currently, Bogrell is full of dead bodies, but in time, it will be habitable again, so we cannot wait.” said the Inquisitor, a few minutes after Orion left the room. His visit to the village, unfortunately, ended in the purge of the vast majority, which was the result of the discovery that the place had been turned into a hatchery. This means that there were few people left in the village to serve as food for the demons, and the focus was on breeding, welcoming guests, and infecting them. The Inquisitor found only fourteen survivors, all in terrible condition. “Before we move on to the young man you brought in, I have another rescued boy with me. He is recovering well, and I have been instructed to take him to this place. Would you mind taking him to a man named Jore Na’ar?. They should get along.

  “He’s rather famous. As you wish, Grand Inquisitor. As for the boy, is it the person in the waiting room?” Olympia asked.

  “Indeed. His parents were old friends of mine. He is also the main reason I was in the neighborhood in the first place.” said the Inquisitor. He decided not to reveal to anyone that the main reason was a direct quest from the System to appear in this place. The silver-eyed young man is already in a delicate situation, and unnecessary interest could only do more harm. If people found out that the System had given someone a quest again, and that it was given to someone outside the Adventurers Guild, no less, there would undoubtedly be excessive curiosity. “Go on, I see you have questions.”

  “When he came out, he was wearing a Spatial Ring. I mean no disrespect, but what could have prompted the Grand Inquisitor to make such an investment?” asked Avir, with uncharacteristic submissiveness.

  “Hah, do not get me wrong, but I am not sure who is the loser and who is the winner on this exchange. About your question… Any ideas?” he redirected the question, looking at the other members of the group.

  “Was he telling the truth? Is he really from a newly integrated universe?” Olympia stepped up, trying to clarify the situation.

  “That is right. I did not detect any attempt to lie from the boy. At least not with any pertinent information.”

  “Then, that makes even less sense to me. What could someone from a mana-deprived world have to offer?” Avir added with visible doubt.

  “This suggests a really unusual situation.” probed further Olympia and, after receiving an encouraging nod from the Inquisitor, she added. “Aside from the fact that he didn’t return to his home… This is an isolated world. That’s not how the System usually works. If it wasn’t possible to send him back, he should go somewhere peaceful as compensation. It’s… it’s more like a punishment. There must have been an obvious reason.”

  “Olympia, you said it yourself... when you had the feeling that everything he said was calculated. I don’t think it’s about magical knowledge or ability.” Egill took over the narrative. “Maybe it’s about a way of thinking? A new way of looking at things.”

  “A fresh perspective.” Olympia muttered.

  The conversation lasted for another dozen or so minutes, after which the room was finally left.

  ***

  Out of the dark spot grew the familiar figure of a shadowy humanoid lizard.

  “Buahaha! I knew it! People were talking about an idiot who talks to statues. I knew it was about you.”

  “Ugh. How nice to see you again.”

  “I know, right? The Grand Inquisitor ordered me to deliver some messages. I also have a note from Zaiah. He says he has an idea of what might be wrong with your mana. He said the process will be reaaaally shitty, so I can’t wait to see that.” the lizardman hissed with enthusiasm.

  Not having had a chance to rest properly after the previous ‘unpleasant process’, Orion knew exactly how to respond at this point.

  “Ah…”