Mythos Of Narcissus: Reborn As An NPC In A Horror VRMMO

We stepped through the next shimmering rift, and the world around us shifted once again.

Instead of chaos or ruin, we found ourselves standing in an expanse of pure white.

The air was still, unnervingly so, devoid of sound, movement, or scent. No wind stirred the blank void. The ground beneath us was flat and featureless, blending seamlessly into the horizon. It was as if this fragment had been erased of all detail, leaving only an empty canvas behind.

"This place..." I murmured, trailing off as I struggled to find the words to describe the oppressive emptiness. "What even is this?"

Viviane's expression was sharp, her usual stoicism hardening into something closer to unease. She closed her eyes briefly, her lips moving in a silent incantation. Faint tendrils of silver light rippled outward from her body, searching, probing the fabric of this strange realm.

After a moment, she opened her eyes, her brows furrowing. "My other selves have been here."

I blinked, startled at the implication. "Ah…"

She nodded, her gaze sweeping across the endless void. "The echoes of their presence linger—a trace essence, like footprints in the snow. But something is wrong. I cannot sense any of them directly. It's as if they've vanished completely."

Viviane raised her hand, her fingers curling into delicate gestures that wove arcs of pale light in the air. The magic pulsed outward like a signal, carrying with it the intent to connect telepathically with her alternate iterations.

The silence stretched.

"No response," she muttered, lowering her hand. Her calm voice held a thread of frustration. "It's as though something here is suppressing even that connection."

"What about Kuzunoha?" I asked, hoping that the Collector's impossible cunning and reach could offer some insight.

Viviane let out a breath, shaking her head. "Kuzunoha is focused entirely on stabilizing the original timeline and location. Manipulating time and space on such a scale is already a delicate operation. Interfering with her now risks backlash—on her and on us. She would recover, of course, but the pathway she's holding open would collapse, and our return would become impossible.

"But do mind, this level of manipulation is only possible because of the instability caused by Nihil. In a normal scenario, you can't ask Kuzunoha anything to Kuzunoha that involves doing anything of similar nature, of course."

It seemed that Kuzunoha told her somehow that I had been asking Kuzunoha to do something outrageous from time to time. "Because Carcosa will resist it."

Viviane nodded simply, "Ordinarily, Carcosa's natural laws would resist such grand-scale tampering, but with the fabric of reality already frayed, Kuzunoha can weave her threads with less resistance. However..." She trailed off, her sharp gaze scanning the white void again.

"What?" I prompted.

"There's something here. Something that should not be."

Before I could respond, the oppressive stillness of the realm began to shift. A low hum resonated through the air, growing steadily louder, vibrating in my chest like the approach of an earthquake. The stark white around us darkened at the edges, shadows bleeding in like ink spilling across a page.

Then, it erupted.

A roiling force tore through the fabric of the fragment, a wave of madness and horror that twisted the empty expanse into an ever-shifting nightmare. Black tendrils snaked through the air, coiling and unraveling as they reached for us.

"Stay still," Viviane commanded. With a sharp motion, she raised her hand, casting a veil of fae magic over us. A shimmering barrier enveloped our forms, blocking out the chaotic energy.

Under the protective veil, the force became... perceptible.

The entity emerged.

A figure of feminine grace and horrific distortion, she seemed to materialize from the void itself, her presence warping the air around her. Her torso was humanoid, draped in an ornate, gothic robe etched with shimmering litanies that glowed faintly against the encroaching darkness. The script twisted and writhed as though alive.

Her hands were absent—her long sleeves draped emptily—but floating around her were numerous massive hands formed of pure darkness—their surfaces rippling like oil on water.

Her hair, an unnatural white, cascaded in undulating waves that spiraled into twin vortexes, spinning endlessly with a mesmerizing, hypnotic rhythm. Her eyes were an uncanny contradiction—white irises set against black sclera, leaking viscous, goo-like tears that dripped endlessly down her cheeks, staining her pale skin.

Her voice reached us before her words did—a chorus of one hundred voices, each slightly out of sync. Some whispered, some shouted, others sobbed or laughed.

The effect was disorienting, her speech echoing with contradictions as fragments of different words overlapped.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

"More visitors... Unexpected... How lovely... Disgusting..."

The hands floating around her moved with a surreal grace, one tapping its fingers rhythmically, another mimicking the act of applause, while others pointed and gestured as if conducting an orchestra of chaos.

I could even see one constantly flipping the bird at us.

Even then, her oppressive existence overwhelmed every fiber of our beings, just like a flood of sea being forced to fit a single cup of glass that we painstakingly keep intact.

"Well, well, well," the entity said finally, her dissonant voice settling into coherence, though the echoes remained. "What a delightful surprise. New toys? No, not new... Familiar faces."

She tilted her head, her undulating hair forming jagged spirals as she leaned closer. "Viviane," she purred, her tone both mocking and playful. "You've come to see me again?"

Viviane's expression darkened. "You've encountered my other selves."

"Oh, so many of you! Others too… Ugly ones, yuck…! I like the weapons they carried… Is the rest also named Viviane…? Visiting this lovely ol' me~!" the entity exclaimed, clapping her summoned hands in eerie synchronization. "Each one unique, each one the same. Some screamed, some fought, some begged. Such fun! Wait, did that happen…?"

"What happened to them?" Viviane demanded, her voice as sharp as a blade.

The entity waved a floating hand dismissively, the gesture almost theatrical. "Oh, I forgot... Did I kill them? Did I play with them? Did I trap them in a timeless chamber and watch them unravel for a billion years? Perhaps all of the above? The possibilities are endless!"

Her laughter rang out, some were crying, some were screaming for help, a discordant symphony of mirth and madness that sent chills down my spine.

I urged my soul and body to resist the madness and stepped forward, my voice firm despite the unease twisting in my gut. "Who are you?"

Seeing that Viviane glanced at me with an unsure face just now, she probably didn't even know the existence of this entity until now.

Not to mention, regardless of how many times I attempted to open this entity's detail screen, it just wouldn't work.

As if the mechanism behind these appraisal system didn't had an access to the knowledge behind this entity by any mean.

The entity froze, her spiraling hair stilling for a moment. Then, with a slow, exaggerated bow, she spread her arms wide—or rather, her summoned hands performed the gesture, as her torso remained eerily motionless.

"Eve," she said, her voice dripping with theatrical malice, genuine amusement, and undulating hatred. "Eve, the Holy Witch. At your service... or perhaps your entertainer… Ahahah! I like her…! She is so pretty, I want to cage her so badly… Let's put her in a jar and shake it until all bones and flesh crumble into bits…!. Who can say?" The dissonant echoes of her voice repeated her name, layering it with whispers and murmurs "Eve... Holy Witch... Madness... Eve… The damned…"

"Have you ever dealt with this kind of thing before…?" I wryly said within the telepathic channel that Viviane had just established.

"Not the first time, but it's certainly not the most exciting kind," Viviane answered, still having her composure. "It seems like we have encountered a banished existence."

"Banished existence?"

"They are beings that are deemed either too powerful or too unfitting to live in Carcosa." Her eyes furrowed, maintaining a glare with the entity before us. "And usually, those two criteria are up to the highest degree, considering that someone like Kuzunoha still exists in our world."

"This Eve woman is extremely bad news then."

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"I hope that doesn't understate it."

Eve then straightened herself, her spiraling hair resuming its undulating dance. Her dark hands gestured toward us with exaggerated curiosity. "And you are...? No, don't tell me. Let me guess! Hmm..."

One hand cupped an invisible chin in mock contemplation, while another tapped a finger against an invisible temple.

"Ah, Viviane," she said with mock delight, playing around as if we were nothing but a conceptual amusement for her. "But you're not the same Viviane, are you? No, no. You're just another thread on the web, but perhaps the center of it all…? Urgh, a water nymph, they are always wet… I wonder if she can give me a cup of water…

"But that's enough about you! As for you..."

Her dark hands turned toward me, her black-and-white gaze locking onto mine.

"Ah, how intriguing. I feel echoes of you, too, though... incomplete. Or should I say, unfinished…? A puzzle with missing pieces… Something greater…! What is this, is she a prophet…? Aaaa! She is so cute…! I want to hug her…!" Eve then leaned closer, her spiraling hair brushing against the edge of Viviane's protective veil. "Tell me, little puzzle," she whispered, her dissonant chorus softening into an unsettling murmur. "What is your name?"