Talent Awakening! Every Legendary Summon Grants Me Assassin Attributes-Chapter 26: The Mind Devouring Curse 2 A Question

WHAM!

Oliver’s head crashed into something hard. The force of the impact was so heavy that the searing pain from the acid vanished instantly, replaced by a deep, throbbing ache that pulsed through his skull.

It felt... wrong.

Hard ground?

Solid... ground?

How was that even possible?

Oliver wondered, raising his hands and feeling beneath him again. His fingers pressed against the surface—firm, unyielding.

Without a doubt...

It was real.

He lingered there for a moment, blinking repeatedly to ensure he wasn’t hallucinating. Strangely enough, his sight began to return—first as foggy silhouettes, then slowly sharpening into full clarity.

"How is this even possible?" Oliver muttered, his voice filled with confusion as he examined his body in haste.

It was fine.

Perfect, even.

Not a single burn mark.

No melted flesh.

No scars from the murderous acid.

At that, his gut churned violently.

Something was terribly wrong.

He lifted his head and scanned his surroundings—and what he saw made his expression collapse into dread.

He was sitting on a dark, hardened surface, almost organic in texture. Around him loomed massive pink walls—bulging, pulsating faintly, like living flesh. They reminded him of the soul-devouring walls he had seen earlier...

But these were thinner.

More... intimate.

And they closed him in.

Cornered him.

Still—

Where was the verdant river?

How had he ended up here?

And more importantly...

Where were the others?

Oliver felt his mind teetering on the edge. Each passing second made his thoughts feel heavier... slower... slipping through his grasp like sand.

Minutes passed.

Maybe hours.

He remained seated.

At some point, he was no longer thinking about the acid.

Or the river.

Or even his situation.

Instead...

He found himself counting the crow’s feathers.

One by one in his head, like this was some sort of wretched game.

[Ding]

[You have lost 1 life]

[Life point remaining: 2]

The notification snapped him back.

’Something is consuming my life points!’

His gaze darted wildly around, searching for any monster... any cursed abomination lurking in the fleshy corridor.

But there was nothing.

No movement.

No presence.

No sound beyond the faint, sickening pulse of the walls.

He was alone.

Completely alone, so there was no way he had lost a life point... Was there?

Several seconds passed and once again, his thoughts began to unravel.

"What was I thinking about again?" he muttered, rubbing his chin. "Black rivers... no... was it green?"

He exhaled.

"I guess I was counting feathers."

Oliver swayed his head slightly, as though satisfied with that answer.

Time slipped again, and this time, for who knew how long he had been sitting while thinking of things that did not matter at all.

Then...

[Ding]

[You have lost 1 life]

[Life point remaining: 1]

He snapped.

Blinking rapidly.

"What the hell is going on? Why do I keep forgetting my thoughts? Is this—"

"This!"

"This...?"

His voice softened.

Faded.

His thoughts began to crumble once more before they could even form.

It was getting worse.

Far worse.

It felt as though his mind had been dragged backwards regressing and then collapsing. His thinking reduced to something unstable, fluctuating between a child’s confusion and fragments of his former self.

The struggle continued.

For hours.

Endless, suffocating hours.

Until—

Thud!

The sudden noise shattered his delirium.

Oliver’s dull, lifeless eyes turned toward the source of the noise and there, he saw a figure sprawled on the ground.

At first, he couldn’t tell if it was human... or some twisted humanoid creature sent to finish him off.

But then—

The figure moved.

It Sat upright.

"Hera!" he shouted instinctively.

His voice reached her. The girl dressed only in her undergarments, turning sharply to face him.

Her expression lit up.

A chaotic mix of terror... and relief.

She opened her mouth to speak.

And then—

Paused.

Her expression began to melt.

Not physically...

But mentally.

The light in her eyes dimmed, fading into something hollow, distant even, as though she were being dragged into the same abyss as he was.

Oliver’s mind raced.

’I see... there’s something about this place... something that disrupts thought... that keeps us from realizing we’re under some kind of control...’

He froze losing his line of thoughts for a moment...

’No... Olly... keep a clear mind... think... this has to be a trick... think—’

Then all of a sudden...

"You are cute." Hera’s voice soft and Mischievous, reached his ears.

And just like that—

Oliver’s thoughts were erased, emptied back to oblivion, thanks to her statement.

"I feel like... I was thinking about something?" he said slowly, the words dissolving from his mind even as he spoke them.

Gone again.

He turned to her eyes, Empty and Detached.

"Don’t bother me."

His words lingered for a moment before Hera replied, folding into herself, "I understand, Father..."

She placed her head between her thighs, rocking back and forth like a lost child.

Oliver didn’t react, he was unbothered. The reason being that the moment he said what he had said he immediately forgot about it all. Clearly the effects of whatever they were under grew dangerously worse by each passing second.

At some point, boredom crept in. A hollow, meaningless boredom that seemed to compel Oliver like some sort of instinct.

He opened his status screen absentmindedly.

"Oh... looks like I left a message unread, right Kyle?" he said, turning to his side as if expecting someone to be there.

No one was.

Just him.

And Hera.

Trapped in a living nightmare.

He sighed and focused on the notification, squinting as he read aloud:

"Scale of Judgement has freed you from the Level Ten Lost dream of the—"

[Ding]

[You have lost 1 life]

[Life point remaining: 0]

[Player has lost all extra lives. Death is your next destination.]

"Fuck me!"

Oliver snapped back to reality.

Fully.

Violently!

He shot to his feet, panic surging through his veins.

This was it.

No more chances.

If he lost himself again—

He was dead.

"Think, Oliver, think!" he shouted, pacing frantically, hands gripping his temples as if he could physically hold his mind together.

He forced himself to analyze.

To calculate, to find an escape out of this nightmarish insanity.

But nothing came.

Nothing stuck.

"Shit! Shit!—"

He turned to Hera desperately.

’I don’t have time... I’ll try to wake her up and—’

And what?

His thoughts shattered again.

Gone.

His body slowed.

Mechanical.

The creeping, devouring trance returned, wrapping around his mind like invisible chains.

’Not again... think... THINK—’

Too late.

Far too late.

His mind was already collapsing, being swallowed whole by the unseen force governing this cursed place.

But—

In that final sliver of awareness...

In that last desperate moment before everything went dark again...

Oliver made a move.

A gamble.

A final, reckless act.

If it failed—

This...

Would truly be the end of him.