Another Stupid Isekai

All the plates covering the whole plaza raised, blocking my path, and making me instinctively slow down. It was a dumb mistake. I should have pressed on, but I didn’t. Allowing the guardians who showed up a second later, to form a hard shell around the tree with those plates.

They were there, waiting for us, just simply invisible.

Around twenty aliens of the same race. They are very thin with long heads and small mouths. I couldn’t help but think of sticky insects as I glanced at them. All wearing similar grey robes.

It looked awfully like half of them took care of this quick construction project, while the rest was about to attack. There was also another interesting little detail. Underneath the plates in the plaza were more identical plates, not the ground as you would expect.

When I regained my senses, I instinctively tried to shadow walk closer to that damn shell, to pierce through it, but I couldn’t.

– Fucking hell! – I cursed, while behind me Hatta unleashed a true armageddon.

He spread his hands wide holding the sword and the staff, making a few fire orbs around himself which shoot out this barrage of projectiles. Thousands upon thousands rained down on the area.

The protectors used some telekinetic barrier to stay safe, while the rest of the area turned into hell. Everything was exploding and burning.

I got a hold of myself, unleashing my own telekinetic powers, while Will made it rain with blades, Nobuo seemingly turned into an electrical dragon that flanked the group of aliens ahead. The rest just charged.

A psychic shove, made by me, hit the shell crushing it in with a devastating blow, that sprayed the fragments all around, decimating half of its end revealing what was awaiting beneath. The tree.

I launched myself forward, to go get the fruit, but my movement was heavily restricted by a sudden wave of telekinetic powers that desperately tried to keep me in my place. It was all twenty of them doing their best, and even dropping the barrier they protected themselves with.

Still, It was too little. Maybe I wasn’t as fast as I could have been, but I did get to the device and pushed my hand inside. In this state, I was quite vulnerable, but the aliens had their hands full when my friends finally reached them. Without the strong protection, all the attacks just decimated them, while I was able to grab the price.

I consumed it.

If you think it was too easy, well… I had the same feeling. A bit distorted, since new powers entered my body making me feel all sorts of weird sensations before it all vanished.

– It went better than I expected – Hatta pointed out, stepping towards me.

He was walking among the blades stuck in the ground, and among all the fire he produced.

– Too many mistakes. We could have died if they weren’t so much weaker – Druoag nagged. – This can’t happen again.

– We were just surprised because we couldn’t see them – Nil pointed out. – It clearly was a badly done trap on their end. In the end, we learned our lesson. Let’s move on.

I was hearing all of that, still getting used to the changes the fruit brought to me, and as I did so, I also glanced around. My eyes focused on one of the aliens. He was ripped in half, but still alive, reaching towards me as his lips were moving.

Our eyes met. A second later I felt a weak attempt to connect our minds, by the creature. It made me puzzled. A lot of thoughts flashed through my mind.

The tree was supposed to control them all, so without its presence, the alien could be back to his normal self. Maybe even on our side, as we freed him from slavery. The price was his life, but still.

On the other hand, It could be an attempt to do some damage as the last effort in his fading away existence.

That’s why I wasn’t sure if I should allow this contact, or block it. The alien was definitely too weak to form the link without my help, which also indicated that in the worst-case scenario, I should still be able to easily overpower him mentally.

Nevertheless, the danger was still there. The time was ticking, and I had come up to a decision very fast because the creature was dying in front of my eyes. It was a very hard decision to make, and from the bottom of my mind I felt like I was being stupid, but I ended up taking the risk.

Years of existence flashed through my brain as he downloaded all of himself straight into my mind. I suddenly knew everything he has ever done, everything he has ever known himself. The days spent on the planet after the arrival as the society torn from a different place, somewhere out there, was brought here to plant seeds and build cities.

He didn’t know where the seeds came from, as he was just a single little gear in this massive, gargantuan machine.

He was just a boy back then. A boy who couldn’t understand what exactly was going on, but there were people who did. The people who planted the seed, build the city and trapped his mind. After everything here started working properly, the overlords left, and this new civilization became another part of this evolving, living structure.

It was a horrifying fate, and he was able to understand it very quickly, as he regained his senses. Escaping the connection when I consumed the fruit.

As a last effort, before his life perished, he gave me the best gift he possibly could give. Information. Bits and pieces I could put together myself, to have a good grasp of what was awaiting ahead of us.

Spoiler alert – it was not good. It wasn’t even bad. It was way beyond the worst nightmare I could ever produce for myself.