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

300 meters away from the Landship.

This was the chosen site—far from the cliff of nothingness, in the opposite direction of the anomaly that had rewritten the land.

Out here, beyond the reach of anything that was resembling a civilization, the terrain stretched endlessly—a desolate, uneven battlefield of hardened earth and jagged stone formations.

The sky was the same as always, drenched in that eerie, unnatural light that bled through Carcosa's perpetual day. The air, still as death, carried no wind. No natural life. No sounds beyond our own presence.

A perfect place for a demonstration of power.

I stood as the witness, overseeing the battle from above, my perceptive extension spread through every inch of the field.

Beside me, Charis observed with silent curiosity, her silver eyes gleaming under the shifting light. Two bastioneers, Amelia and Lydia, had also joined as secondary witnesses—eager yet wary, knowing that they were about to see something beyond their own capabilities.

Down below, three Theogrunts stood in perfect stillness, awaiting activation.

They did not shift, they did not waver. Their crimson eyes burned with unnatural intensity, a stillness that was more predatory than passive.

Even though they were merely an extension of the Gestalt Core, there was something unsettlingly alive in their presence. Of course, this was also by design since I wanted them to possess a presence instead of a silent ninja that only acts in the background.

Every intensity stretched until the barrier was in place.

A few Duolos vessels hovered near the perimeter, their ohrtending weaving through the air like spectral threads, constructing an invisible barrier of absolute rejection. Or atleast, a great attempt at it.

I wouldn't really know if there was a divine punishment happening out of nowhere, suddenly throwing a giant pillar of death to this location for absolutely no reason.

Of course, I didn't really want to jinx myself.

The Duolos' collective sorcery created a dome that nullified all external interference—both physical and psychic—allowing only those with designated access to enter.

The likes of Kuzunoha and Viviane would be able to bypass it at will. Anyone else? Impossible.

Once the field was secure, the first question arose.

Lupina, ever the reckless one, tilted her head, grinning. "So, how's this gonna go?"

"For the best interest of data gathering, we'll conduct four rounds," Charis explained, her voice calm, precise. "First, Verina will fight a single Theogrunt. Second, Lupina will fight a single Theogrunt. Third, both of you will fight a single Theogrunt. Fourth and final… you'll both take on all three."

Lupina let out an impressed whistle. "Oh, now this sounds fun."

Verina, who had been silent and focused, simply adjusted her gloves. She was already preparing, already analyzing. "This should be a productive time."

She did not need more words than that.

"Then let's prepare for the first round."

One of the Theogrunts stepped forward, the crimson light in its eyes sharpening.

Without hesitation, it brandished its Prismforge—an eerie, unstable amalgamation of a crossbow and spear, as the long undaunting spear acting like a bolt still attached as an untriggered lance.

A fluid design—one that could attack from both range and melee with seamless transitions.

Verina merely lifted her crystalline musket, heat radiating from her very being. Her Furnace burned.

I could already feel the conceptual heat twisting around her weapon, a force that could tamper with the very laws of energy itself.

Charis raised her hand.

"Begin."

The moment the word left Charis' lips.

The Theogrunt vanished.

Not in a blur of motion. Not in a streak of displaced air or the distortion of sudden acceleration. It simply ceased to exist within normal perception, like a presence erased from the world in the span of an instant.

Verina's instincts screamed.

It was an old, ingrained reflex—the warning of an apex hunter sensing a predator that had already pounced.

Before she could even fully process its disappearance, a phantom pressure ignited every nerve in her body, and in that fraction of a second, her mind caught up to the inevitable.

The Theogrunt was already there.

Not meters away. Not at a distance where she could react.

Right in front of her face.

The scarlet glow of its eyes was unyielding, void of emotion, only intention. The Prismforge weapon in its grasp had already aimed forward, primed as both a melee impalement and a ranged execution.

There was no hesitation in its attack.

With blurring speed, the Theogrunt drove its Prismforge spear downward, a precise, merciless thrust aimed directly at Verina's chest, the strike carrying the sheer force of something that did not expect failure.

Verina's body moved before thought.

A sharp exhale—her Black Wheels ignited, the heatless telekinetic propulsion flooding through her body, raw kinetic force channeling through her limbs in an instant. Her legs twisted as she jerked her momentum upward, breaking free from the Theogrunt's immediate kill zone.

The sheer force of her launch fractured the air, sending a shockwave rippling downward. The stone below cracked beneath the violent release of energy, and she rocketed into the sky with the kind of precise acceleration that shattered the sound barrier before inertia could even take hold.

But before she could gather herself, before she could even turn her gaze downward.

A spear-like projectile was already chasing her.

Her emotionless eyes widened.

It had already fired.

The Prismforge bolt carved through the air, burning with a distortion that blurred its shape, its trajectory not just fast but absolute—a projectile that had no arc, no delay, just pure, instantaneous precision.

She twisted midair, her mind shifting from instinct to calculation in less than a heartbeat.

Dodge. Move. Reposition.

But she barely evaded.

The spear scraped past her, slicing the air where her ribcage had been less than a millisecond ago, the sheer force of its movement dragging a pocket of compressed air along with it.

But before she could counter, before she could even breathe.

The Theogrunt was already there.

It had caught up to the projectile in midair.

No transition. No pause. It simply arrived, already in motion, as if distance and physics had no meaning to it.

And in a seamless motion, its small frame twisted with the grace of a combat-trained automaton, catching the spear in mid-flight without breaking momentum. Its grip adjusted in an unnatural flicker of efficiency, and before the energy of the previous throw had even dissipated.

It swung.

A downward cleave, the spear now a descending execution, aimed not at where Verina was, but where she would be—a calculated prediction woven into the very moment of its assault.

Verina's muscles tensed—no time to counter.

Her instinct shifted from evasion to avoidance by momentum manipulation.

Her Black Wheels kicked in again, a raw gravitational push that twisted her body midair, jerking her momentum sideways.

The spear missed by mere centimeters, the pressure of its downward force brushing against her arm, the heatless friction burning against an already cast psychic barrier like an intangible razor.

But the Theogrunt's attack never stopped.

As it completed the swing, its grip adjusted instantly—the motion flowing into the next action without pause, without waste.

The spear slid effortlessly back into the crossbow mechanism, snapping into place with an eerie, mechanical precision, and before Verina's evasion had even concluded.

It fired again.

No delay. No hesitation.

The new projectile was already in motion, another instant kill-shot, aimed directly at her new position before she had even finished moving into it.

Verina had no choice.

Her musket glowed, not with conventional energy, not with simple heat.

But with gravity itself.

She pulled the trigger.

And the sky bent inward.

A miniature star ignited in an instant, its core a collapsing mass of concentrated force and raw, incalculable heat.

The Prismforge spear was caught.

The sheer gravitational force began to crush it, pulling the weapon's matter into the singularity, incinerating its structure from the inside out, unraveling the very material that comprised it.

For the first time.

The Theogrunt paused.

Not in hesitation.

Not in fear.

But in calculation.

And then. It moved.

A streak of crimson light, a blur of presence that should not have existed.

The Theogrunt appeared inside the miniature star.

"What the-"

Verina's mind struggled to process what she was seeing.

The mass, the heat, the gravitational force—none of it stopped the Theogrunt.

Instead, it began to spin.

Violently. Powerfully.

Its entire form became a rotating mass, a controlled cyclone of pure, unnatural energy, twisting the very heat that had been meant to consume it into something else entirely.

A vortex of controlled destruction.

A being that did not fight against power.

But became part of it.

Verina's lips parted slightly, her fingers tightening around her musket.

Even she hadn't expected this.

It might seem like the Theogrunt had adapted, but it just didn't. There was no reason for it to adapt nor to change its calculated plan.

They were designed to be like that, to push through any kind of obstacles with unwavering dedication.

And before things could escalate further.

A voice cut through the air.

My voice.

"That's enough."

Calm. Absolute. Final.

And just like that.

Everything stopped.

The miniature star collapsed into nothingness.

The Theogrunt, unscathed, landed gracefully upon the ground, its fierce gaze unyielding, expressionless yet brimming with intent.

Verina hovered midair for a moment longer. Then, slowly, she descended.

Neither of them spoke.

Because there was nothing to say.

They both understood.

Theogrunts were not merely fast. Not merely precise.

They were absolute.

No hesitation. No waste. No excess motion.

Verina exhaled softly, her gaze sharpening, her mind no longer in battle, but in calculation.

She had been tested.

"I see why it was somewhat of a counter against me."

And the next round had yet to begin.