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Mino tried distracting himself from what was about to happen.
He watched Tingz, the only person in his field of view.
The longer hair was something he hadn’t gotten used to yet.
The Hearts engraved on Tingz’ neck were weird as well, like the patterns flowing from them.
A purplish black was visible in the details on Tingz skin and his hearts.
He moved on, just watching until he noticed a decoration hanging from Tingz’ belt.
Most people would’ve just accepted it and moved on but Mino recognized it.
That was his horn.
He felt rage sicker into his Mind.
I wouldn’t do that.
Mino didn’t even have control over his own body, not even mentioning his life.
And now he had another person? in his head.
Great.
He was lost in thought and didn’t notice his body had started moving.
It walked up to a table on the side of the throne room.
There were multiple maps and he his body looked through them.
There were positions marked, assumedly targets opponents.
There were so many.
Were it that many the other 2 times?
Had it happened like this as well?
Him planning the ambush and killing everyone there?
Tingz grinned because of something, Mino didn’t listen to the conversation going on anyways and just hoped this was a random coincidence.
That Tingz didn’t know what he was thinking.
Just in case though, he avoided thinking about people and events he cared about.
Important things.
That Tingz couldn’t know.
Then he heard a snippet of the conversation, catching his attention.
"How long till his hearts change?"
Mino froze, mentally at least.
They were using him as weapon.
What else could they want.
An even stronger Weapon.
He was confused.
Was that him thinking?
He couldn’t… What was going on.
"Sometime tomorrow, its affecting him stronger than expected."
Tomorrow?
He was worried.
This wasn’t his choice anymore.
It never was, was it?
He was only a spectator in his own life.
Now that he thought about it that was scary in its own way.
Not just the fact that Tingz had some way of controlling him, they were able to change his code.
Only the owners could do that.
Only the owners?
Maybe admins.
Click.
Of course.
Delta.
The admin.
Why had they such high value?
They were an ex-admin why else would they stay in that cell.
"Activate the Delta-Link. We still need her for now."
Did he jinx it?
The next couple hours were spent with planning, turned out they did the same thing they did to him to delta.
The implications of that were pure terror.
It even worked on a god an admin.
The first hour he tried to focus on the planning but he kept trailing off.
The second hour, he just tried to keep the thoughts from helping invading.
After the second hour he lost track of time.
Memories started pouring in, nice ones at first, turning into bad and eventually his worst memories.
Blood dripped from his sword.
He couldn’t remember what he had done.
He remembered Airo provoking him and then the world blurred.
He looked in front of him.
There was a body.
Airo’s body.
He had just killed his best friend.
Mino tried to get it to stop.
He tried talking, he tried screaming, nothing worked.
He was a prisoner in his own body.
In his own mind.
He stopped thinking.
His mind went blank, a protective mechanism.
He just watched.
He watched as he his body finished planning and was transported to the location.
He watched as he his body raged through their defences, killing everyone in his way.
He felt joy.
He was terrified.
What was going on?
He looked back, waiting for someone.
Delta followed, a hollow expression being shown.
He wasn’t alone here.
They had sent a team.
They had at least two weapons at their disposal.
Whenever they wanted.
He felt sick, he was used to seeing blood but this was overkill.
The whole thing probably took less than 30 minutes.
Every time they got injured in a fight, Mino felt it.
His ribs were still in the wrong places.
He was pretty sure his lung was punctured.
Did the body not feel pain?
No.
It did.
It just ignored it.
He got sliced on his dominant arm but instead of retreating, the body just switched hand.
Mino wanted this to stop.
Why didn’t it stop already.
After it was over, the body healed.
The bones moving back into their original position hurt a lot more than expected.
Mino hadn’t had a lot of rib injuries; therefore, he didn’t think it could hurt like that.
He started feeling control return but Mino didn’t feel in control.
Not after what he just did.
The closest thing to describing what he felt was apathy.
The first two times he didn’t remember, or at least not much.
This time he had been forced to watch the entire time.
He just sat down, unwilling to do anything.
Delta seemed still off.
Mino just took off his armor, he didn’t care anymore.
Dade was safer without him anyways.
"Shut up, would you?"
He couldn’t take the nagging of that voice anymore.
By now he was confident it was Tingz’.
I don’t think you want that though.
He was about to answer something when he felt an excruciating sting where his hearts were embedded.
It felt like he just died.
He screamed but the pain made it impossible to do anything.
The pain was destroying his nerves.
He felt on fire.
Like when Tingz took his horn.
No, that was worse.
Mino watched in a mix of agony and disbelief as his hearts changed color.
They went from the usual green to a darker green, black and white spots appearing.
He saw something flicker in front of him.
### was slain by mino__
### was slain by mino__
### left the game
### left the game
### was killed
### was slain by [DELTA]
Was this console?
This looked a lot like a log of what had happened here.
Mino forgot about his hearts and inspected the panel of what he assumed was the console.
It was just a death log, but console could do so much more.
If Tingz had access to console…
[Server Message] If I had what?
Tingz had a way of making Minos nightmares reality.
Indeed.
Delta collapsed suddenly, not moving.
When Mino checked console for clues, he saw what happened.
[DELTA] was killed
Why..?
Tingz had just killed an admin, for no reason at all.
Delta could just come back.
There had been no ban message.
Yet.
It made sense now.
Tingz had been trying to gain access to console.
That was why he had an ex-admin.
That was why this place was called Vis Dei.
Mino just wanted to go back.
To when he was conquering nations with Dade.
That was a lie though.
He missed his friend.
He had looked like he knew what was going on in here.
What the true purpose was.
When mino was brought back, Dade immediately clocked the different hearts.
"Mino! What happened?"
"I… wish I knew."
Dade checked Mino for injuries, but also observing for differences in behavior.
He knew there was something different the first time Tingz had taken Mino away for a ‘job’.
It was all part of his plan to create a god.
Tingz wasn’t the first one who tried.
But he was the first one to succeed.
He was able to control people.
Even Mino.
Dade didn’t want to accept this.
What if I just kill Tingz…
A thought at first but it started to become more and more of an option.
"Mino? Are you okay?"
His friend looked broken.
Like he had accepted defeat.
It hurt to see.
Dade wanted Tingz dead.
He didn’t know everything about Mino's past but he knew Tingz had to go.
It went from a thought to a fact.
But how would he do that?
Mino was still here because of him.
Because he had protected Dade.
Now it was Dade’s turn.
He knew Tingz was obsessed with control.
He knew if he started something that destroyed that illusion of control Tingz would loose it.
He knew Tingz would get irrational.
Exactly what he needed.
If he got Tingz in a fair duel there was a good chance he could kill the guy.
Fair as in no console of course.
Mino had told him.
He was glad his friend still trusted him.