I know you can hear my whisper. Help me, please! I can't do this anymore. I can't.

  Don't leave. Don't leave. Don't leave. Don't leave. Don't leave. Don't leave. Don't leave. Don't leave. Don't leave. Don't leave. Don't leave. Don't leave. Don't leave. Don't leave. Don't leave. Don't leave. Don't leave. Don't leave. Don't leave. Don't leave. Don't leave. Don't leave. Don't leave. Don't leave. Don't leave. Don't leave. Don't leave. Don't leave. Don't leave. .? ?D?o?n?'?t? ?l?e?a?v?e?.? ?D?o?n?'?t? ?l?e?a?v?e?.? ?D?o?n?'?t? ?l?e?a?v?e?.? ?D?o?n?'?t? ?l?e?a?v?e?.? ?D?o?n?'?t? ?l?e?a?v?e?.? ?D?????o?????n?????'????t????? ????l????e??????a???v????e??????.????? ???D???o???n??????'????t????? ????l?????e????a???v???e???????.???? ????D????o?????n??????'??????t????? ?????l????e??????a??????v???????e????.??????? ???D???????o??????n?????'?????t???? ????l??????e??????a???v?????e??????.??????? ?????D???????o?????n???'?????t???? ??????l???????e???????a?????v?????e??????.????D?????o?????n?????'????t????? ????l????e??????a???v????e??????.????? ???D???o???n??????'????t????? ????l?????e????a???v???e???????.???? ????D????o?????n??????'??????t????? ?????l????e??????a??????v???????e????.??????? ???D???????o??????n?????'?????t???? ????l??????e??????a???v?????e??????.??????? ?????D???????o?????n???'?????t???? ??????l???????e???????a?????v?????e??????.???? ????D????o????n??????'??????t?????? ?????l????e?????a??????v??????e???????D?????o?????n?????'????t????? ????l????e??????a???v????e??????.????? ???D???o???n??????'????t????? ????l?????e????a???v???e???????.???? ????D????o?????n??????'??????t????? ?????l????e??????a??????v???????e????.??????? ???D???????o??????n?????'?????t???? ????l??????e??????a???v?????e??????.??????? ?????D???????o?????n???'?????t???? ??????l???????e???????a?????v?????e??????.???? ????D????o????n??????'??????t?????? ?????l????e?????a??????v??????e???????D?????o?????n?????'????t????? ????l????e??????a???v????e??????.????? ???D???o???n??????'????t????? ????l?????e????a???v???e???????.???? ????D????o?????n??????'??????t????? ?????l????e??????a??????v???????e????.??????? ???D???????o??????n?????'?????t???? ????l??????e??????a???v?????e??????.??????? ?????D???????o?????n???'?????t???? ??????l???????e???????a?????v?????e??????.???? ????D????o????n??????'??????t?????? ?????l????e?????a??????v??????e???????D?????o?????n?????'????t????? ????l????e??????a???v????e??????.????? ???D???o???n??????'????t????? ????l?????e????a???v???e???????.???? ????D????o?????n??????'??????t????? ?????l????e??????a??????v???????e????.??????? ???D???????o??????n?????'?????t???? ????l??????e??????a???v?????e??????.??????? ?????D???????o?????n???'?????t???? ??????l???????e???????a?????v?????e??????.???? ????D????o????n??????'??????t?????? ?????l????e?????a??????v??????e???????

  - Samanthalia, the baker

  Tom wasn't sure if it was due to the smoke coming out of the Void, or what he had just witnessed, but it felt like his head was about to explode. "God, he’s hideous," Tom exclaimed.

  "Hey, who said that?" The left head asked. "That was not nice."

  "Mr. Bear is very sensitive," the right head said. The head at the center gave a sad growl in response.

  Tom could see several people side-eye him, but luckily they didn't call him out for it.

  Someone in the crowd coughed. It was a human.

  "If we move back to the matter at hand, does that mean you have found a way to control Morpheus?" The human said.

  "That is difficult to believe," a beastkin added. "This great error beast has proved very cumbersome for the people working at the mines. The fact that it can dig below the edges of the void makes it impossible to follow."

  A nearby witch nodded. "According to our research, once someone experiences the touch of Morpheus and are stuck together, their sanity leaves with them. How do we not know that you have gone mad? How did you, or you three, even manage to encounter Morpheus and survive?"

  The right head nodded. "It was all from the knowledge our founder gave us. We encountered Morpheus in the forbidden forest in the Colo … I mean the Free Port Cities, and Mr. Bear unfortunately joined us. But we love the rascal." The bear blushed. "As for our sanity, our founder also helped us with that. Sometimes you just have to run straight into the jaws of a beast."

  "And don't forget that we have for years recorded the movement of Morpheus," the left head spoke. "According to our current intel, Morpheus should currently be resting at the new forest, right in the border between the human kingdom and demon lands."

  "You mean—."

  All three heads awkwardly nodded together. "Indeed, it is the perfect way to initiate a war between them. Or perhaps both nations will work together to stop the calamity? Only fate will have the answer to that. We already have someone placed at the location to anger Morpheus. A beast filled with The Madness using the beastkin art of endorsement is all we need." They waved towards the crowd. "Now, I know this is a difficult proposition to consider, so why don't we talk it over."

  One of the other cultists flipped a switch and the room was filled with brighter light.

  "Debate time!"

  At that people started talking to each other. Tom didn’t know all that stuff about the great error best, he figured Alice could focus on that. What he was more curious about was that goblin — and the feral who died in front of him. "Alice, let’s split up and get information." She nodded and walked over to a nearby group. Tom spotted the goblin eating while sitting on a crate in the back.

  He approached them. "Hey, are you a goblin?"

  They looked up from their food. "Yup. Nim is my name. Do you need help with something?"

  So he was a goblin. "It's just that I haven’t seen many of you. Don’t you guys like … how do I say it."

  "Live in the forest as savages and fight anyone that comes nearby?" He finished.

  "Erm, yeah, Nim. Could you tell me a bit about your history? I don’t know if it's completely correct, but it seems like the error beast kinda replaced you guys. It is a cool new world-building quirk, but I prefer old school you know?"

  Nim glared at Tom. "I don't know about that last part, but my ancestors used to live in several forests, and areas of the kingdom. But once the Hero arrived we were all kicked out from our homes. Fortunately, the founder found us … did you get it? The founder found us. Or, they found me. The rest of my kin decided to leave and find a new home."

  Tom rolled his eyes. Yeah, I get it. "You don't happen to know anything about some sort of system the people here used? Maybe something about levels, EXP, level cap, or maybe the word OP?"

  Nim was deep in thought. "Grandpa did tell me something once. He said that when he was a child he managed to run away from someone trying to hunt his tribe down. While hiding he overheard someone say: ‘Cool, I leveled up. Hunting goblins is an easy way to farm more EXP.’ When it’s about the system, the cult has some knowledge about that. It may sound bizarre, but there is a theory that the world used to have some kind of system that allowed you to see a floating screen. Isn’t that weird? Personally I don't believe in it. I am more a fan of the primordial donut god."

  So there actually was a system and levels in this world? Tom had finally found it! Perhaps this world was one of those isekai where there was a secret requirement to unlock the super OP system? "Nim, do you know—."

  "HALT, VILLAINS!"

  Tom turned and saw three people clad in golden armor. One of them, a man pointing a shotgun the wrong way, walked forward.

  "IN THE NAME OF THE ALMIGHTY, WE, THE GODS KNIGHTS ARE HEARBY SENTENCING—."

  "Shut up, I am having a conversation!" Why did he always get interrupted at the important parts?

  The knight glared at Tom. "HOW DARE YOU! I WILL HAVE TO MAKE AN EXAMPLE OUT OF YOU!" He pulled the trigger, but since the gun was the wrong way the knight blew his head off his body.

  People gasped as the wall was splattered with blood and the headless corpse fell on the ground.

  "Darn it Kyle, I told you it was a bad idea to let him use one of the otherworlders weapons!"

  "Arianna, please focus. We need to get him healed."

  She spread out her arms. "And how are we supposed to do that, Kyle? The saintess is hours away, and by that time it would be too late."

  The male knight, Kyle, fixed his gaze on Tom. "You." He pointed at Tom. "You killed one of us."

  Tom gasped. "Me? Hold on a minute. He obviously killed himself. The gun was pointing in the wrong direction!" He retorted. "And don't 'killed one of us' me, the guy was trying to murder me! I am pretty sure that's a crime against humanity or something."

  The knight looked unfazed by Tom's explanation. He snapped his fingers and rows of knights clad in the same golden armor flooded into the room. Chaos ensued.

  People were desperately attempting to run away as they ran for another exit. Nim and the leader were nowhere to be seen.

  Tom found Alice and ran up to her. "Who are these people?"

  "I am not sure."

  "Well, you need to figure it out. Not everyone here is evil. You have to stop them before—." He stopped talking when she stared at something over his head.

  Then the world turned blank.

  ***

  Tom woke up to complete darkness. His body was cold and his vision blurry. It didn't take long to figure out that he was in a prison cell.

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  "You’re finally awake."

  Light entered from the other side of the room. Walking towards the bars he saw the knight Kyle, sitting on a chair, watching him. Besides the knight, his all too familiar aura sword Trash was leaned up against the wall. Trash was humming the same tune he usually did, but he didn't speak.

  "Your aura sword is here because of the law. Not that I am interested in such a shabby-looking sword. According to the intel we have gathered up it cannot do much."

  Tom bobbed his head. Well, he wasn't wrong. But Trash wasn't that bad.

  After a while, the door swung open and Alice walked inside. She was accompanied by the other female knight Arianna. Alice walked towards him whilst the other knight stood by the door watching.

  She leaned foreward. "Don’t worry, Tom. Although it was uncourteous of me, I managed to lessen your sentence by the fact that you were accompanying me, and the fact that the king loves Tomassio. The church does not want to be too confrontational with the king," she whispered.

  "The church. I thought the church wasn't supposed to have its own army?"

  She hesitated. "There seems to have been some developments in the capital. A group of royal knights broke away to create their own unit called the god's knights. And I am afraid I do not have much leeway with them. They are pushing to have your trial for treason at—."

  "I don't care about that. What about the great error beast Morpheus? How’s the preparations going?"

  Alice avoided his gaze. "About that. I have told Zev and the others, but the god's knights are making a ruckus. They refuse to believe in the words of heretics, saying there exists no such thing as a great error beast."

  "Of course they did."

  Kyle clapped. "Your time is up!"

  Arianna glared at Kyle. "She is still the Commander in this camp idiot."

  Kyle snorted. "Acting Commander."

  "I am going to reinforce the perimeter around the camp; I will try to do something," Alice quickly explained. Then she turned around and left through the door, accompanied by both knights.

  Kyle stared at Tom. "No funny business, traitor." Then slammed the door shut, turning the lock.

  Tom sighed. "Well, this sucks." He walked closer to the bars. "Trash, you there?"

  "Yup," Trash hummed.

  Even though he was further away, Tom could still hear his voice clearly.

  "Any idea of what to do now?"

  "Wait for Morpheus to start the fun," Trash responded. "Finally get some action going on."

  Tom rolled his eyes. "A rogue powerful creature would be a pain to go up against. Are you sure you cannot fly over here or something?"

  "Can you fly?"

  "Zev's swords could fly," Tom moped.

  "Don't compare me with those, they could hardly speak!"

  Tom sighed and leaned against the wall. He had to find a way. The prison cell was barren, with a small barred window near the ceiling letting light in. Without his aura sword and embodied items, he was basically useless.

  With nothing else to do, he focused on unlocking the second ring around his aura. His first ring appeared by itself, but he wasn't patient enough to wait. There had to be a way to manually create it. Just by looking at his aura, he was confident his aura sight had improved since the first time he learned it. The different colors were much better distinguishable to him.

  Shifting his focus, he attempted to pick out different colors, but every time he focused on one specific color the rest of his aura lost focus. Tom grunted. The rings were supposed to reflect his understanding of reality, or spirits, but how were they specifically supposed to be unlocked? With the first ring, he felt like he understood they were represented by colors, with differing energy or authority as people called it. Perhaps he should think of it in another way. Spirits being represented by colors could be a rule of reality; different wavelength of energy gives of different colors. Using the observer orb also taught him about the sum of the authorities you are seeing always being constant. If the first rings were supposed to focus on lesser spirits, then another truth could be related to the difficulty of focusing on them.

  Lesser spirits exist everywhere, regardless if you could see them or not, but from what he understood from the Ley Line, they could be reinforced to become more visible. One's focus on reality is always consistent and tied to the individual. The reason why the rest of his aura becomes unclear when he focuses on something had to be because by focusing on one specific detail he was making it more real and thereby more detailed than the rest. Looking back at his aura he always saw it as a snapshot, but using the observer orb he distinguished living beings from the environment due to their aura constantly shifting. What if he accepted this constant change in his own aura?

  If he for example used [stabilize] on a water and fire spirit, the authorities just even out; if he was focusing on their nature then theoretically they should mix to become something like a mist spirit. His problem was that he always focused on the colors as individuals, but the colors in his aura just represented the ambient authority his soul collected. The colors should be constantly shifting to something else, but the sum of the authorities should still be consistent.

  Trying to test his new theory, he focused on a green cloud and then a blue one. "[stabilize]". The colors moved around and mixed into cyan. Taking a deep breath he moved on to another pair of colors to stabilize, then another. All he did for who knows how long, was to focus on random colors and constantly mix them. Eventually the image of his aura constantly shifting seeped into his mind. He did not stop mixing the colors, but the more he did it the easier he felt it was to do. Suddenly, a sudden surge of information flowed through him. "[blend]". He stopped manually combining the colors and looked on as the aura shifted in colors by itself.

  A static sound entered his mind, followed by a broken voice.

  [Congr——, you have ——— level 20]

  [—— unlocked th— —— [blend]]

  His eyes widened. Did he just hear a system notification? Wasn't there supposed to be no system in this world? He smiled. "Hey, Trash. I unlocked my second ring!"

  Trash hummed. "I sensed it too. Well done. At this rate, we can get that cool adventure of yours going on the road."

  Tom beamed. Even though he was stuck in a prison cell, he felt like he was gradually starting to understand this world as time went on. He even heard the sound of a system notification! It actually did exist, and like the goblin Nim said: there used to exist levels and EXP. His OP adventure was so close, he was sure of it.

  He raised his fist. "My EPIC ADVENTURE is on its way!"

  "Hear that? I knew this was the right cell."

  That voice sounded familiar. Tom got back on his feet and looked out the small window near the ceiling. Standing on his toes he tried to look out of it and saw two people staring back at him.

  "What are you two doing here?"

  Sierra shrugged. "Was I supposed to ignore you? Those god's knights refused to let us visit you so this was our only way."

  "What did you do this time?" Hiro asked.

  "This is serious, both of you! The error cult is planning on summoning the great error beast Morpheus in the New Forest to instigate a war. And those dumb gods knights are blocking Alice's ability to do anything."

  Sierra perked up. "They are? Understood. Then we should break you out of here this instant so you can flee."

  Tom nodded. "Exactly, we are — wait, did you flee?"

  She nodded. "Tom, you have nothing to do with this war. You should try to escape and live your own life. Traveling to the capital would be impossible, but heading eastwards to hide away in the Colony should be doable."

  "What? You are the one that—." Tom stopped himself, realizing Hiro was there. "You told me you left your hometown to make a change in this world. Why are you telling me to run?"

  "I did not choose to fight to force everyone to follow my whims. The reason I chose this path is so that others, like yourself, can live in peace. A great error beast in no joke; I doubt anyone in this camp would be able to handle it, even Vice-Commander Zev. To ask you to put your life on the life would be selfish." She leaned closer. "Tell me where your aura sword is so I can steal it, and help you escape."

  Tom looked at Hiro. "Are you listening to what she is saying?"

  Hiro nodded. "She isn't wrong. The best action to take when confronted by an impossible task is to accept defeat and give up."

  "What, you — huh?" Tom held his head. "Now hold on here. Why are you both telling me to give up and run away? Where is your honor?"

  "Honor?" Hiro questioned. "Honor is for the weak. Why do want to help anyway?"

  "Because it is the right thing to do," Tom said. And he had just gotten a confidence boost from unlocking his second ring. Defeating a great error beast sounded like something an epic main character would do. "What is wrong with you two?"

  They both looked at each other, then back at Tom.

  "You really are weird," Sierra commented.

  Tom gasped. "You are calling me—!"

  "But," she cut him off. "If you actually want this, then I might as well help. In my opinion, the worst thing Morpheus can do is to weaken the human kingdom, but the demons are without a doubt going to take advantage of that opportunity."

  Tom sighed. She was finally taking this seriously. He looked at Hiro. "You and the others will help too, right?"

  Hiro hesitated. "If Sierra and the other soldiers will do it, then who am I to disagree?"

  "Perfect."

  Sierra handed Tom something through the bars. It was a pair of gloves. The right glove had the familiar soul gem sown into it.

  "Astra asked me to give these to you when she heard you were held in jail. She wanted me to remind you not to recklessly observe the spirits in the soul gem, and that she inserted a short safety mechanism to give you some more time if you accidentally used the last spirit inside."

  Tom nodded. "Thanks. Don't worry about helping me out of here, that would waste too much time. I will try and find a way using these gloves, and … spirits I guess. Just get to the New Forest as fast as you can and stop those cultists. If you have to resort to murder, I won't judge you."

  Sierra nodded with a serious expression on her face. They were on the same page.

  "Wait," Hiro interjected. "There … there is something I need to tell you."

  Tom looked at Hiro. "What is it?"

  Hiro avoided his gaze. "I am sorry."

  "… What the space are you apologizing for? There is no need to apologize for not wanting to confront a great error beast of all things."

  Hiro shook his head. "I wasn't apologizing for that. Remember when we were in the box dungeon and you tried to sense my katana?"

  Tom nodded.

  "Well, I am half human and half beastkin. I can use the beastkin art of endorsement and insert parts of myself into something called beast fury crystal, that is what my katana is made of. Life in the beast lands wasn't so great … When I arrived here I made it a bad habit of endorsing all my negative emotions into my sword. You must have felt it, so … I am sorry."

  Tom perked up. "You have a depression sword? That's awesome!"

  "Tom!" Sierra glared at him.

  "I didn't mean it like that." Tom sighed. " Hiro, it's fine, really. Depression is my middle name. I did momentarily feel a bit empty, but over time I got over it."

  "Are you sure?" Hiro said. "I just didn't want my … weakness to affect others."

  Tom shook his head. "I swear, I am fine. The best way I manage to deal with it is to ignore it. Didn't you read those super controversial books? I read a lot of books too, imagining myself as someone better, and now is the time for me to accomplish those dreams." He motioned them to leave. "Hurry and get started. I promise you, when we look back at this situation in the future we are going to be proud of what we did."

  They both nodded, leaving him alone.

  Tom walked over to the bars, holding them, and grunted. "Why do I have to pretend to be so righteous all of the sudden."

  Trash hummed. "If only they knew you were doing it all for your obsession with having an epic adventure. That would not ring better in their ears."

  "I know…but I got my side characters to do side-character stuff. I even heard a system notification. I think this is a stereotypical isekai world after all." He stared at the soul gem. "Time to get out of here."

  Fitting his arms through the bars he tried to grab Trash, but he couldn't reach.

  "… I don't think that is going to work. I know I am an amazing sword, but you can't rely on me all the time."

  "Then what? You are the one that allows me to use stabilize on spirits."

  "I just make it easier. Who knows, in a hundred years you could manage to do it by yourself, but we don't have the time. Just shoot out some spirits from your glove."

  Tom hesitated. "That sounds dangerous, but I guess I don't have any other choice."

  Walking to the back of the cell he pointed his right hand forward. He counted 23 spirits inside of this glove. Hopefully, one of them could get him out of here.

  ***

  Sierra had her eyes fixated on the ground as she jumped from branch to branch. Whilst Hiro went to gather reinforcement, her job was to find the cultist. All she had spotted was a foreign carriage parked near the entrance of the forest, but she had yet to spot a single cultist.

  She stopped at one of the branches, and closed her eyes, listening to the voices. She heard a faint and unnaturally coherent song. Jumping to another branch, she followed the sound until she spotted a person with a pointy hat. They were standing beside a jar holding a small demonic slime. On top of it was a candle lit with white multicolored fire.

  "You there. Stop!"

  The witch looked at Sierra. "Too late." Then she closed her eyes.

  The forest shook as a giant jaw dug out of the ground and swallowed the witch whole.

  Sierra knew about the great error beasts; her tribe lived close to the great error beast Ether, but she had never seen one with her own eyes. It was grotesque. That was the only way she could describe it. Morpheus was not one creature, but a giant worm-like combination of hundreds of error beasts merged together.

  Its body flew hundreds of feet into the air, roaring with the combined agony of who knows how many error beasts, before it turned towards the ground and headed straight towards her.