The remnant shade of the cyborg’s mind charged towards me on all fours as it roared in fury.

  It appeared to be in its original form, no longer bearing any of its cybernetic enhancements. As such, it was considerably slower and weaker than before, only having its fangs and claws as means of attack.

  This brought me no solace however, as I had been returned to my pitifully weak human body as well.

  Feeling like I was moving through molasses, my sluggish body barely managed to jump backwards and narrowly dodged its charge.

  It continued onward for several meters as it crashed through multiple buildings and walls, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake.

  As it furiously shook off the rubble and debris, I picked myself up and began to sprint down a nearby alleyway. Thankfully, I knew the area like the back of my hand.

  I bobbed and weaved among the narrow streets and buildings as the shade closely followed behind me. No matter which shortcuts I took however, I remained unable to fully shake it off my trail.

  It appeared to be operating purely on instincts and the remnant emotions residing in the cyborg’s brain, with no conscious thoughts behind its actions. The only reason I was barely managing to evade its pursuit so far was due to this fact, as it simply ran in a straight direction repeatedly.

  We continued our waltz of death deeper and deeper into the sprawling city. The streets were eerily silent, only occasionally echoing with the reverberations of the shade’s rampage.

  As I attempted to escape into a large shopping mall complex, hoping to lose it amongst the labyrinthine array of stores, the shade lunged forward at an even greater speed.

  Catching me off guard, its claws pierced cleanly through my left side while its jaws clamped down onto my shoulder.

  Strangely, I felt no pain but my entire figure began to blur and fade as wisps of my essence were torn off. A wave of fatigue and confusion washed over me as I desperately tore myself free and ran deeper into the mall.

  I hadn’t felt any physical exhaustion until now, despite having run at least a few miles in my frail body. After the wounds I’d just suffered however, I was finding it increasingly difficult to maintain the same pace and reaction speed. At this rate, it wouldn’t be long before it finished me off.

  I have to completely get out of its vision somehow, and quickly.

  I turned a corner into a department store full of clothing and lost myself in the maze of overpriced designer brands. Seriously, who wastes their money on these things?

  Random articles of clothing were constantly flung behind me in an attempt to further obscure its vision as I ran. A pair of frilly, pink panties actually managed to land on its head upside down, creating quite the interesting visage.

  The newly minted panty-thief burst through a wall into one of the neighboring stores as I ran out onto the walkway. There, at the end of the rows of vendors and shops, I spotted my objective; the elevators.

  I sprinted towards the shiny double doors with all my might as my figure began to grow increasingly blurry. Behind me, the shade continued to rampage about as it attempted to regain its bearings.

  Upon reaching the elevators, I hurriedly pressed the call button over and over.

  A scream of rage could be heard in the distance. Not much time left.

  After what felt like an eternity, the doors began to open agonizingly slowly. I squeezed my way in through the opening crack, and pressed the highest floor number.

  As I did so, the shade finally spotted me across the walkway. Like a slavering hound, it began a mad dash towards the elevators as it gnashed its teeth in fury.

  I repeatedly jabbed the close door button, heart thumping wildly in my chest. As was often the case with these scam elevators however, it did nothing to improve the door’s speed.

  Inch by inch, with every second feeling akin to a lifetime, the doors began to close once more. Perhaps sensing that its prey was about to escape its grasp, the shade accelerated at an incredible pace.

  Only a few dozen meters left for it to go, but the doors were only half shut.

  Now, less than fifteen meters. My cheeks clenched and cold sweat ran down my back.

  When only a small distance remained between it and the elevator, it sprung forward with its claws outstretched, aiming straight for my heart.

  Please, hurry up and close!

  As if hearing my plea, the doors somehow actually seemed to move a little bit faster.

  BAM!

  The shade slammed heavily into the thick metal doors as they finally closed, leaving a large indentation and heavily deforming them.

  I collapsed and sank to the floor, breathing a sigh of relief. That had been far too close.

  I’d finally managed to put some distance between it, or so I thought. As I continued to rise higher up into the complex, I faintly heard the sounds of something clambering up echoing through the elevator shaft.

  Ha... this thing was relentless it seems. The hatred it bore for me must be immense.

  This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

  Well, it was fine. I’d already expected that it would do this to some extent.

  With a ding, the doors opened up onto the 30th floor and I found myself standing at the apex of the city’s heights.

  The familiar, yet somehow alien expanse of the city laid itself before me in its entirety. Not a single presence could be seen or detected, creating an oddly serene stillness.

  A place frozen in time. But somewhere I would return to one day without fail.

  As I steeled my resolve, another wave of nausea and confusion washed over me. My condition was continuing to deteriorate; I urgently needed to recuperate in a safe area.

  Taking a deep breath, I began to run.

  And leapt off the rooftop.

  I immediately began to fall, plummeting hundreds of meters down to the earth as the cold wind roared in my ears. The ground seemed to rush towards me at light speed and a deep, irrational fear sprouted in my chest.

  I tightly clenched my eyes shut.

  Poof!

  After a few rather anti-climactic moments, I opened my eyes to find myself standing safely on the ground with only a small cloud of dust surrounding me.

  Success!

  I’d noticed earlier during the chase that the shade hadn’t left any imprints on the ground whenever it fell, no matter the height. This mental realm was free of many of the physical restrictions in the real world, it seemed.

  I wasn’t out of the woods yet, though. It was still possible for the shade to find me once it also reached the rooftop.

  I ran onto a main street and made my way over to an inconspicuous manhole cover. With a grunt, I lifted it up and slipped down into the sewers.

  Upon resealing the opening, an ever-familiar darkness enveloped me once more. The putrid stench of rotting food and filth permeated the air and thick slime could be felt on the walls.

  Ah, home sweet home.

  I lied down in the tunnel, caring not in the slightest about the current of trash and feces that flowed past. I’d finally managed to escape from that thing.

  But the question remained.... how was I supposed to beat it? None of the advantages I possessed in the real world were present here, and my base form was completely outclassed.

  If the cyborg had actually still been alive, I would have been consumed in an instant.

  I continued to lie there, trying to think of any possible way to defeat it.

  Try to get a building to collapse on top of it?

  I’d need to bait it into charging into the load-bearing pillars while dodging it all the while. Not to mention, I might get crushed by the building as well. In my current condition, it seemed like an extremely low chance of success.

  Find some firearms and shoot at it?

  No, judging from my previous fight with it, its natural body was far too durable to be damaged by simple guns even without its cybernetic parts.

  I ran through option after option, but none of them seemed feasible. Meanwhile above me, I could hear the muted sounds of carnage and destruction as the shade furiously attempted to find me.

  What to do.....

  Ah, I really wish I had something to wipe my face clean at least. The smell is starting to become a bit unbearable, even for me.

  Suddenly, I felt something bump into my head. I groped in the dark and felt for it, running my hands all over as I confirmed what it was.

  Yes. No doubt about it. This softness, this texture, this quality.

  This was a roll of my favorite toilet paper brand! The only one I ever use!

  Finally, something seemed to be going right. I gleefully tore off a piece and began to wipe myself clean. Oh, how I’ve missed this sensation.

  As I continued to wipe, I suddenly paused. Wasn’t this too much of a coincidence that a perfect, untouched roll of toilet paper had appeared in the sewers when I wanted it to? And my favorite brand to boot?

  Also, those elevators earlier.... I thought I had been imagining it but now it seemed that the doors had indeed closed faster when I had prayed for them to.

  Perhaps.... I had been approaching everything from a completely wrong perspective. As evidenced by my survival of the fall from the skyscraper, the normal rules didn’t apply here. If this was the world inside my mind, then shouldn’t I be able to influence it, at least to a certain degree?

  I concentrated, and willed a light to appear with as much mental force as I could muster. After a brief pause, a dull lightbulb suddenly appeared and dimly lit up the grimy sewer.

  I tried again, this time attempting to cease the flow of sewage water by my head. With a gurgle, the stream quickly dried up and disappeared.

  At the same time, a rush of dizziness and mental fog assaulted me, momentarily stunning me. My figure rapidly blurred and trembled before stabilizing.

  Exerting my will on the mental realm is not without its price, it seems. If only I hadn’t been so badly wounded earlier, I’d likely be able to use far more power.

  But it seems there is an avenue of victory after all, if I can carefully use this to my advantage. I’ll just have to wait and fully recover before confronting the shade once more. It was still thrashing about and destroying everything in sight on the surface as if its stamina was bottomless.

  But, as several hours or even days passed- it was hard to tell the passage of time down in the sewers- my condition seemed to degrade even further. It became increasingly difficult to focus, and my mental clarity seemed to have nosedived.

  The outline of my figure turned fuzzy and my essence appeared to be slowly dissipating into the ether.

  But why? I was remaining completely still and not exerting myself at all. By all rights, my wounds should have healed by now.

  Unless.... if this world was the representation of my mind and the shade had been utterly ravaging everything in it....

  It appeared that I was being lobotomized in real time, every time it wrecked another part of the city.

  Damn, I turned the thing brainless and now it's trying to return the favor to me!

  I immediately shot to my feet and burst out of the sewers, heading to the sounds of destruction.

  Looks like it’s do or die.

  ------------------------------------------------------------------------

  Melchior carefully examined his host’s body.

  For the first few hours after the second brain had been attached, Adun’s condition had remained relatively stable, with only a few grimaces revealing the inner turmoil he was currently experiencing.

  However, over the last two days, his brainwave activity had been steadily decreasing at a rapid rate. A trickle of blood flowed from his nose, mixing with the drool that leaked from the corner of his mouth.

  This could not continue. It seemed that something had gone astray in Master Adun’s plan.

  Melchior activated and took control of the Dorai bot. Hovering with its small propeller, it flew over to Adun’s mouth and gradually poured a potion drop by drop, in order to ensure he wouldn’t choke.

  Adun’s brain activity began to stabilize and recover, while his complexion also improved. Thinking its task had been completed, Melchior prepared to enter standby mode once more.

  Suddenly, his brainwaves began to sharply decrease, significantly faster than before. Adun’s breaths became labored and heavy, while the blood vessels in both sets of eyes burst.

  Melchior immediately began to administer one potion after the other, in a futile attempt to turn the tides. No matter how many it poured down Adun’s throat, his condition continued to degrade.

  It seemed.... there was no choice but to implement the countermeasure that had been planned beforehand.

  The Dorai bot flew over the Onisha’s massive torso and in three, swift motions....

  Removed every intelligence accessory.