Chapter 1566 (1/2)

Randidly frowned down at the Visage of Obsession for several seconds as his brain considered this sudden appearance. The drawing of Yystrix tilted her head to the side, that same small smile on her face. Randidly bit his lip. But after a few moments of examination, he shook his head heavily. “...no. You are not truly Yystrix. You are just… me, aren’t you?”

The rough featured Yystrix shrugged. The navy blue and pale green sky behind her rippled. “Well, I’m a construct that was carefully made by your subconscious. And you do have quite a thorough understanding of me, even if you don’t understand all the secrets of my existence… so I would say that the difference is negligible. You can consider me both you and Yystrix.”

Randidly pursed his lips at that. In his mind, that distinction made a world of difference. With that realization, he was able to release a breath and relax; this wasn’t another nightmare scenario where Yystrix somehow managed to infiltrate some part of himself to exert her will once again. It was just the indelible mark that she left on him, manifesting itself in the painting.

The effect was more annoying than dangerous, more exhausting than deadly.

Yystrix’s smile widened as though she could sense his thoughts. She moved her head from tilting to the left to tilt to the right. But she changed the subject. “You must have questions about the Fatepiece. I am here to give you your first test, but the actual mechanism is rather simple. So while you are here… I can try and ease your curiosities.”

After a short snort that showed how little he trusted her words, Randidly was silent for several seconds. Despite the fact that this was just a projection from his subconscious, every effort that this individual made to help him only made him more suspicious. But he couldn’t deny that he had some concerns about the activation of this Fatepiece.

So after thinking carefully, he opened his mouth to speak. “Will using the Fatepiece grant me what I want? Can discover the significance that each of my images holds in my heart?”

“The Visage of Obsession obviously isn’t just going to provide you exactly what you want,” In typical Yystrix fashion, she shrugged unhelpfully. Her eyes were bright and amused as she examined Randidly. “It’s a tool that will surely cause some result, as you pass through the various challenges it will present… but the exact result is difficult to know. After all, obsession is a powerful, but very distorting force upon an individual. How you handle that… is difficult to predict.”

Randidly grunted at that and shook his head. “Heh. If this is your idea of answering questions, I guess I have a very thorough understanding of Yystrix after all.”

Yystrix’s nose crinkled as she laughed. Randidly silently noted the increase in detail of this figure the more he stared at the Visage of Obsession in his hands. “Yes, yes, laugh while you can. Your Fatepieces are all a bit… Well, the Visage of Obsession is unpredictable, to begin with. But I’ll say this; of all the reasons you could use this Fatepiece, your current goal is one of the best you could have chosen. The significance of your own images… as you pass the trials and lose precious things, your own significance will be one of the few things remaining.”

That caused Randidly’s gaze to sharpen. “Lose precious things, huh. Which brings us to the first trial.”

Yystrix nodded. “It’s rather simple, really. For the first trial… reach into the Visage of Obsession and rip out my tongue.”

That caused Randidly’s eyebrows to shoot upward. “Rip out your tongue? So... it’s a fight.”

“What? Oh, no, I won’t struggle. I’ll just bleed a lot.” Yystrix shrugged. Beneath her feet, the reds and oranges of the ground flashed and shifted. The greens in the sky above Yystrix continued to grow increasingly pale until they were only a few tints away from white. She shrugged. “Sorry to disappoint you, but the Visage of Obsession won’t test you in that manner. None of the tests will be fights. Just reach into my mouth and… rip out my tongue. Then you can move on from here.”

“It’s that simple…?” Randidly asked slowly. And of course, Yystrix just smiled in response.

Huffing out an annoyed breath, Randidly let go of the edge of the Visage of Obsession. As he expected, it just hung there in the air in front of him. So he pressed his hand forward and saw his fingers pass through the front of the Visage of Obsession without any discernible change in sensation. He flexed his fingers. With narrowed eyes, his hand continued to travel forward as the drawn figure of Yystrix grew and grew until it dominated the entirety of the foreground. Her eyes were very, very bright.

She smiled at him as though she was encouraging the act. “It’s that simple.”

Randidly’s eyes narrowed. But it wasn’t like he had any choice. He glanced around at the edges of the Fatepiece, but it was now difficult to see past the face of Yystrix. The lines around her eyes were so familiar. It was the gaunt face of Lyra who had walked to hell and back. She was a woman who was deeply haunted by her past, by the pursuit of Elhume, by the situation of her son, Pine.

Sighing, Randidly reached forward. Yystrix obligingly opened her mouth. He grasped her tongue, pausing for a second as he truly felt the slimy sensation of a tongue through the pads of his fingers. After wondering at the realism, Randidly’s fingers tightened around the tongue and he began to pull.

Rather anticlimactically, he hadn’t bothered to worry about his grip and his hand slid harmlessly of the bundle of muscles and nerves. While Yystrix chuckled, Randidly gritted his teeth and reached back within her mouth. This time he reached deeper, seizing on the base of the tongue. His grip was firm. And then Randidly ripped that tongue out.

When suddenly Randidly’s own mouth tasted like blood, he only chuckled. But then he blinked because he realized that he didn’t make any noise as he laughed.

As the Yystrix in front of him suddenly receded, allowing the colors to return, she winked at him. Then she held her finger up to her lips to make a shushing gesture. Then, in a small whirlwind of rough grey lines, she was gone.