One-Eyed Monster

Igor and Kadi had already ruled out many methods, but unfortunately, they hadn’t found any viable solutions yet. This was an elusive conundrum. They had tried their best, but the outcome remained unclear; it was hard to articulate. Perhaps they lacked power, or their minds couldn’t keep up. In any case, Igor and Kadi were scribbling circles on the ground, but none of them seemed to ease their frustration. Physical contact was impossible, verbal communication was impossible, written communication was impossible, and Spirit Communication was even more impossible. After ruling out so many impossibilities, no good solution had emerged to solve their difficult problem.

Igor sighed as he looked at Kadi. This sigh was for himself as much as for Kadi. They appeared so professional, yet they had become completely helpless when it mattered most. It seems that, in the end, both of us are unreliable, Igor thought. He felt that the only reliable person among them now was Stan Sol; Hustace counted for half, perhaps. But these two reliable individuals had now lost their ability to act independently. One kept repeating the same sentence, while the other, with deeply furrowed brows, was lost in profound contemplation. Heaven knows what curse has befallen them...

”What do we do? I feel like our strength is insufficient to break these shackles,” Igor conceded, admitting he was out of ideas.

”Yes, we’ve considered many methods of communication, but none are feasible. It’s certainly a problem,” Kadi replied, still remarkably calm at this moment. His composure was unexpected; Igor, being the only one fully conscious, was particularly struck by it, especially since Kadi had often seemed unreliable in his past experiences.

”Shouldn’t we seek help then?” Igor gestured towards Stan Sol and the others, who were still in their abnormal states. His meaning was quite clear...

However, Kadi didn’t seem to be thinking along those lines. He was still observing their surroundings, trying to spot any detail he might have missed, completely disregarding Igor’s suggestion. The Little Black Hands gripping their ankles hadn’t lessened their grip; they were still pulling at them with a determined effort. This, however, gave Kadi an interesting idea.

These hands were relentlessly pulling them. But what is their goal? Kadi pondered. Igor had said they wanted to drag them to a domain familiar to their captors and then slowly torture them. Is that really the case? Kadi began to waver; after all, he had always felt in his mind that these hands were performing a mere Nothingness-drag.

At this moment, Kadi had a sudden idea. Throughout this whole process, they had been using their own power to resist these pulling forces. Of course, this was merely an instinctive reaction. What would happen if we were to give up this instinctive resistance right now? he wondered.

It was a daring guess, but also one worth trying, especially since they really couldn’t think of any other solutions. So, Kadi shared this idea with Igor. After hearing it, Igor stared at Kadi in utter bewilderment. My heavens, how could you even come up with such an idea? That’s unreliable to the extreme!

But whether it’s truly unreliable or not, we’ll only know after we try, Igor mused. He looked at Kadi, who seemed serious.

Alright, let’s give it a try then, Igor decided. Let’s see what happens. Even if we end up being dragged by the opponent into another environment, we’ll just have to accept it. Who else is to blame when we don’t have any better way to deal with this situation?

So, Igor began to relax slowly. He gradually let go of his resistant stance, but an instinctive reaction isn’t something one can simply decide to abandon. Instincts are innate; even if you don’t consciously think about them, they will surface when triggered. After they relaxed, the force of their resistance lessened. Consequently, the pull from the hands dragging them felt even stronger. Oddly, however, this increased force only lasted for a short while and did not continue, almost as if their opponents had also given up on dragging them.

What exactly is going on? Igor wondered. He could no longer tell if the pulling force had vanished because he had relaxed his own instinctive resistance, or if the opponent had truly given up. Everything became blurry and confusing. He looked up at Kadi and saw him scratching his head incessantly. Looks like he’s hit the same snag as me!

”What’s going on? Did you feel that?” Igor asked tentatively.

”I don’t know. The force suddenly weakened,” Kadi replied. ”Are these opponents just bluffing us?” The disappearance of the force made Kadi even more convinced of his earlier judgment. Perhaps these opponents were truly performing a Nothingness-pull, with no possibility of dragging them to another place at all.

”What do these Spirits actually look like?” Kadi suddenly asked. He realized that after listening to Igor for so long, he had overlooked a critical question: they hadn’t even figured out what their opponents looked like.

”Er...” Igor was stumped. Although entering the Inner World allowed him to communicate with Spirits, he still hadn’t ascertained their true state. He knew his own Spirit existed in that world in a form resembling himself, but he had only just begun to understand these things and wasn’t familiar enough to fully explain the situation to Kadi at that moment.

”So after all this time, you still don’t know what state these Spirits are in? Just how unreliable are you?!” Kadi exclaimed, somewhat incredulous. Igor, who was usually so steady and often brought pleasant surprises, seemed utterly unreliable at this moment, having failed to obtain even the most basic information.

Igor felt like crying but had no tears to shed. How dare you call *me* unreliable? he fumed internally. Look at your own bright ideas! We’ve been at this for ages, and there’s been no progress whatsoever. We haven’t seen even a hint of how to establish communication!

But then, Igor had another thought. Actually, Kadi seems a bit more reliable than me right now. At least Kadi still seems to know what to do, whereas I... I feel completely clueless.

What a sad story this is, he mused.

Igor looked around. It was still pitch dark. The Fiery Blaze Battle Pet was still locked in an endless struggle with those snowmen. Hustace was still there, relentlessly repeating that one sentence. Stan Sol continued to frown, seemingly lost in contemplation of life’s mysteries...

What should we do now? Igor wondered. We can’t just wait here for the opponent to make their next move, can we?

If we take the initiative to attack, how would we even do it? The opponent is a Spirit; our usual attack methods won’t work on them at all...

Wait a minute... the opponent is a Spirit!

Doesn’t that mean the cloak Stan Sol is wearing can locate them at any time?! Suddenly, Igor felt as if he had spotted a lighthouse, illuminating the path forward.