Chapter 451 - Reality

"Oh?" Kirisho asked surprised, "Why would you want to know about that?" She inquired, and Eisen just continued to stare at her. "The Angel I’ve been working with is going to tell me whether I can actually explain it to you or not, so just wait for that a little while. For now, trust me and please just tell me what that ’Otherworld Disease’ is." The old man told her with clear determination in his voice, and the Mist Spirit slowly nodded her head.

"Otherworld Disease is... Something that people of extremely high levels sometimes get... And something that people of extremely high age get, so many Elf Elders apparently have it... It’s a disease that affects your mind, and you start thinking of this whole world as... Fake." Kirisho explained, and then looked to the side bitterly, while Eisen couldn’t believe what he was hearing. "They think that there’s another world that stands above this one, that this world is a creation of that world. Usually it would have just been seen as a specific kind of mental illness, but they all kept muttering the same thing. ’Earth’, like the element... I don’t know why, nobody does, but there are large organizations that take care of people like that. The Church brings in whoever they can to heal them at least somewhat, and some countries even have policies to report anyone that has that disease so that they can get proper treatment. However, they’re all tak-"

"That piece of shit." Eisen muttered quietly as he formed his hand into a fist as he started to walk toward the Inn with Kirisho hurrying after him.

"Eisen, is everything alright?" She asked nervously, "Who are you speaking about?" Kirisho added, but Eisen just ignored her.

"I’ll tell you later. I need to get to sleep. Tomorrow morning, the Kids, you, and I will head toward the tallest mountain to meet the Dragon, so if there’s anything here you want to get done, go ahead." The old man said, grinding his teeth angrily as he pushed the door to the Inn open, pushing himself through the couple of Players still walking around here because they only just logged back in.

"Eisen, stop!" Kirisho exclaimed as she followed behind the old man, stepping up the stairs as quickly as she could, but the old man himself just shook his head. "Kirisho, as I told you, I will explain everything to you as soon as I can."

"But can you not tell me what you can now?" She asked as she extended her arm forward to stop Eisen, "What Angel are you speaking about, what made you this mad, and what does the Otherworld Disease have to do with all this?" The Mist Spirit yelled out, the first time that Eisen has ever seen her this upset, and the old man just shook his head.

"As I just told you, I will explain it to you when I can. All those things will make sense... Or maybe they won’t, but things will be clearer. Just please, Kirisho, do you trust me?" Eisen asked her as he turned around toward her with an angry expression, standing just in front of the door to his Inn room, and the woman in front of him just looked down at the ground and then slowly disappeared inside of her amulet without giving Eisen an Answer for what he wanted to know.

Although that was a good enough answer in itself. Slowly he opened the door to the room, and the moment it shut behind him, without even sitting down, he logged off right then and there.

---

Without hesitation, Benjamin pushed the Capsule open and stepped out of it dizzily. He’s always been feeling like this lately when he logged in or out of the game. Either way, that didn’t matter right now. Benjamin had been going on a few walks these past few days, meaning that he was relatively stable on his feet, and he immediately ripped the door in front of him open and rushed toward the Livingroom, where the first thing he did was pick up the phone, dialing a number that he remembered as if it was his own birthday, considering how often he had called it over the past little while.

"Answer your phone for chri-"

"This is Samuel Morgan, I’m currently not available, but if it is urgent leave a message after the tone."The old man was quickly interrupted by Samuel’s Answering Machine, and then just ground his teeth until the peep tone sounded out.

"I don’t need to tell you who this is, because you already know. This is the, what, 30th Message I’m leaving you? I know that you’re f.u.c.k.i.n.g with me and the others, I know that you’re f.u.c.k.i.n.g with the Players, but if you dare f.u.c.k with a whole population of a world from your God-Like position, I swear to god I will become the man from that side and make you regret ever-"

"Aggression Detected in caller’s voice. For the Recipient’s safety, the call will be interrupted."

Angrily, Benjamin stared down at the phone in his hand as the call really ended right there, and he looked forward at the TV where he saw his own reflection. He really didn’t look good right now... He had lost so much weight just from his muscles barely being used, he hasn’t been eating properly, and he was constantly filled with amounts of medication that could knock out a room of drug addicts.

Benjamin knew that such things couldn’t continue anymore, but what choice did he have? He couldn’t deny that he was changing. And while he didn’t have any specific memories, he knew that he belonged into that other world... He said it himself, didn’t he?

Eisen had lived in that place consciously for a hundred thousand years... While Benjamin lived seventy over here... Over there, he had experienced things that nobody in this or that world had ever experienced... Benjamin belonged there, he was Eisen, but Eisen wasn’t Benjamin. Sure, his perspective was different because the memories of his first 70 years of his life were the only ones he could remember, but... What if he had the rest.

Would he even care for the family he had here anymore? Would he still love them? Or would he truly become the horrible person that Eisen had apparently been toward the end... No, the horrible person that he had been throughout that whole life there. He forced the souls of his friends into fake bodies and made them do as he wanted them to, he... Eisen was... Benjamin... was...

"Dad?" A Voice suddenly asked, "Is everything alright?" Tony inquired with worry in his voice, and Benjamin slowly turned toward him.

"Y-Yeah... I’m fine..." The old man said, slowly turning toward his son with a light smile on his face as Tony himself turned the light on, and then opened his eyes wide startled at what he saw, although he then blinked a few times and shook his head as he rubbed his eyes.

"Did something happen?" Benjamin asked, because that seemed like a rather weird reaction, and Tony shook his head. "No, no, your eyes just looked weird. I’ve been staring at the computer screen for the past three days without a break, so when I turned the light on... Your eyes looked yellow for a moment there, it was... weird."

Immediately, Benjamin ripped his eyes open confused. "What are you talking about? You didn’t turn the light on..." The old man said, although he was probably just trying to convince himself of the truth as he looked around.

Everything was just as dark as it was before, after all. It was still blurry because he just woke up and stepped out of the capsule, but it was definitely dark... After all, everything looked just black and gray...

Immediately, the old man rushed past his son and sprinted into the bathroom, just to confirm what was going on. It... It couldn’t be, that would just be weird.

Quickly he ripped the door open and stepped up in front of the mirror above the sink to take a look at himself properly. The TV screen’s reflection didn’t properly show color, after all...

But now that he had this reflection in front of him, Benjamin could see it as well. His eyes, glowing in a light golden color with two vertical cat-eye-like slits down the middle.

"What the f.u.c.k..." The old man muttered as he ground his teeth together angrily, and then slowly closed his eyes, because he didn’t really want to believe it, and then concentrated on one thing. To see a certain thing that these eyes allowed him to see.

And soon, when he opened his eyes again, the figure that he saw in the mirror changed. He still had the two golden eyes, but now, it was like there was a mist-like white figure standing in front of him.

But nothing else around Benjamin had changed, everything else was just the same gray as it was before. Even Tony as he stood in the doorframe was completely gray. Did that mean... That Benjamin’s body had mana, but nothing else around here did?

No, that wasn’t exactly right. There were some spots in here that had mana, three to be exact... One in Benjamin’s room, one in Benji’s, and one in Sophia’s...

"What are you doing?" Tony asked confused, but Benjamin just pushed his son out of the way as he made his way to his room again, concentrating on the place where so much mana was gathering.

The Capsule. It was as Natsuo said, current technology wasn’t supposed to be able to handle full immersiveness like World of Magic was supposed to have.

That’s because this wasn’t technology... Well, not only technology, but throughout this whole machine, threads of mana were running as if supporting everything. But in the end, they ended up together at one small point where the mana was the most intense.

"Don’t f.u.c.k with me here, is this seriously it? I didn’t make it up?" Benjamin asked himself as he grasped at his face and fell to his knees in front of the capsule, and Tony walked up right behind the old man. "What did you make up?" He asked with pure worry as he placed his hand onto his Father’s back, while the old man just continued to mutter.

"Wait, so maybe it was back then as well..?" Benjamin asked himself as he turned over to his son. "Can I ask you to do something for me?"

With a bit of a frown, Tony nodded his head as he looked at his father. "Of course, I-, wait, Dad, something’s seriously wrong with your eyes! They’re actually yellow, and bleeding!" The young man said as he quickly tried to pull the phone out of his pocket and wanted to call an ambulance, but Benjamin just shook his head as he placed his hand onto the screen to stop him from doing so.

"No, I’m fine. This isn’t something a doctor could fix anyway..." The old man said, and slowly closed his eyes, deeply concentrating before he opened them again. The world had returned to normal to his eyes, and Tony was even more confused. "What did you just do..?" Tony asked, but Benjamin just looked at him with a wry smile.

"I’ll explain it to you later... For now, I need you to get someone here for me..." The old man requested, and Tony slowly placed his phone down on the ground and looked at his father intensely, realizing that this was a rather serious situation.

"Who?" He just asked quietly, and Benjamin looked his soon deep into his eyes.

"Michael."