Chapter 254: Why Are You Running?

Magna felt that intense pressure again as the monster slowly turned its head toward him.

A strange fear built inside him, making his muscles tighten and his stomach ache. This time, though, he didn’t just stand there and take it. He activated his intimidating aura to push back.

Invisible pressure spread from his body, pressing directly against the Desolation’s mind.

It didn’t ease the pressure on Magna, but seeing the monster draw back slightly made him feel a little better.

"So you can at least feel fear." His voice came muffled through his mask.

Unfortunately, that small movement was all his aura managed to cause. The monster didn’t even take a full step back before the blood on its face began to shift.

The lower part slowly split open, forming a mouth.

As it opened, the screams coming from the rest of its body stopped. Those sounds now came from its mouth instead, forming words he couldn’t understand.

"Mha’rush... nakh tal’veth... ash karaan."

Its voice was neither male nor female. It didn’t sound human or like any monster he could name.

Whatever it was, hearing it made him uncomfortable. It wasn’t the kind of voice he wanted speaking to him.

The fact that it could speak, however, didn’t surprise him much. He had heard the Devoring Desolation speak before, too.

Back then, Rhadak, the Stoneman Chief, had been there to translate. Without him, Magna had no way of knowing what this one was saying.

Still, if it could speak, perhaps there was a chance they could communicate. That seemed like a better option than fighting.

"Hey, I know it might not look like it, but I’m actually here with friendly intentions. If you just turn around and take your stroll in another direction, I’ll leave you alone."

He even tried the universal language of gestures, pointing in another direction and motioning for it to turn around.

Unfortunately, the monster responded by stepping closer.

Magna was already close enough to feel its heat and corrosive aura, so he had to take a step back to keep his distance.

"Hey, hey, you’re entering my personal space. I’m going to have to ask you to back up."

When it took another step toward him, Magna backed away again.

"I suggest you think this through before doing something you’ll regret."

He kept talking, though by now he wasn’t really expecting his words to convince it to leave. He had noticed something else.

Every time he moved back, it followed.

His attempt to talk things out hadn’t worked, but at least he had managed to make it focus on him. Getting its attention and drawing its aggro had been his main goal anyway.

With that in mind, Magna began changing direction slightly with each backward step. As the Desolation followed, it slowly turned with him.

Seeing that it’s working very well, he kept speaking to hold its attention.

"Yo, I might look weak in your eyes... I don’t even know if you have eyes, actually. Anyway, you should know I’m not who you think I am."

The monster’s steps began to quicken as Magna kept talking. He was just having one of his talkative days.

"You know what? I don’t really know who or what I am either. I only recently found out that the past I remember might never have happened. Can you imagine that? Living your whole life believing those memories were real, then finding out they might all be made up?"

He kept talking and talking as he walked backward. Somewhere along the way, his attempt to keep its attention turned into him pouring out his troubles.

It took several minutes of moving in a wide circle to get the Desolation facing the direction he wanted. During that time, he kept talking about the frustrations he had never shared with anyone.

After keeping all of that to himself for so long, he was even starting to feel better now that he had found someone to talk to.

The monster continued to pick up speed. After a while, it even opened its dripping mouth to answer.

"Vekh... shaar."

Magna had no idea what that meant. He just imagined an answer that fit the conversation and kept going.

"I know, right? How was I supposed to know the characters I thought I’d created in a game would turn against me? I mean, come on. I didn’t even know they were sentient beings who could get upset over what I did. They even called me fake God. What does that even mean?"

Talking about it only brought back more of his frustration.

"But you know what hurt me the most? Terra... I trusted her so much. I put all my time into developing her, but she betrayed me in the end. Man, how am I supposed to trust anyone again after that?"

By now, the monster had gone from a normal walking pace to almost running after him. Magna kept moving backward as though he hadn’t noticed, too caught up in what he was saying.

"Anyway, I still have Gaia, right? I mean, she’s definitely not the brightest AI I’ve ever created, but at least she’s loyal enough to save my ass. Look, she even created a whole universe just to make sure I could survive and keep existing."

He chuckled, feeling a little touched as he thought about what she had done for him.

The monster sped up again, now running as fast as an ordinary person chasing a bus that was pulling away.

Magna finally noticed how quickly the distance between them was shrinking as his eyes behind his mask widened. "Wait... since when are you running?"

He turned around and started running too, glancing back over his shoulder.

"Yo, calm down. What happened all of a sudden?"

There were no clear features on its face for him to read, yet Magna somehow felt that it had become agitated and angry.

’Did it get angry because I mentioned Gaia?’

That seemed unlikely, though. She wasn’t even known as Gaia in this universe. Apparently, she had made up other identities for herself when she created it.

Still, something he had said must have upset it. Unless it was simply annoyed because he wouldn’t stop talking.

Until now, Magna had assumed it couldn’t understand him, just as he couldn’t understand it. But if his words had made it angry, perhaps it understood more than he thought.

He had only wanted to get things off his chest after finally finding someone he could speak openly to. Everyone wanted someone who would listen without judging them at some point, right?

He might have just picked the wrong listener, considering how it was now chasing him with what seemed like very bad intentions.

It wasn’t that fast, though. Magna picked up his pace, easily putting more distance between them.

As long as he could stay ahead, he could keep running until he had led the Desolation far enough away from the camp. Having it move faster might even help him finish that sooner.

What he hadn’t considered was how stubborn it could be once it started chasing something.

He would soon learn that getting its aggro was much easier than getting rid of it.

***

GenF: An illustration of Magna facing the Bleeding Desolation is in the comments.