Chapter 151: Twelve Jokes

Evin struggled to keep his head under his own control and desperately searched for a way out. In the end, he could only think of leaving the World, although there was a very low chance of it working, since the owner of said World was taking her time digging through his flesh towards his heart. 

But he truly didn't have any other choices, since staying in the World of Time could only lead to doom. Evin gathered all his resolve and decisively willed to exit the World, despite the protests from the voices inside his head.

Miraculously, Evin's attempt was successful and Evin could feel the World around him regaining color and the silhouette of Nasst beginning to move about slightly. Evin wanted to sigh in relief, but realized that his struggles hadn't ended yet, since the voices and ringing kept on going inside his head, even after he had exited the World of Time. 

'Is it some kind of mental attack?' Evin thought with dread and searched for solutions again. He tried to look at Nasst in a helpless, pleading way, but realized that his body was still as stiff as a statue. Even his eyes seemed to be still.

The only thing he could think of was to enter the World of Thoughts for the time being and search for a solution.

Laboriously, Evin's mind managed to enter the all-powerful World. But the familiar, intoxicating feeling didn't appear in Evin's mind and he could easily see that something was very wrong with everything.

Everywhere around Evin, dark-blue seaweed-like vines seemed to be growing: on the walls, throughout the floor, and even on Evin's own feet. But it wasn't all. A terribly disturbing feeling came from Evin's head. After a sharp pulse of pain on his eyes, a dark blue vein seemed to appear from the edges of Evin's vision. 

And of course, he still had no control over his body, and still, the noise and voices persisted to blabber on inside his head.

…

Twelve cursed under her breath, as she tried her to best to whip up a portal to Evin's location, despite the protest and the resistance that came from inside her head.

[NO! NOOO! STOP! I'LL KILL YOU! I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU!] A high-pitched version of her voice constantly shrieked inside her head, but Twelve didn't give it much thought and simply focused on the task at hand.

'Same fucking shit,' she thought annoyedly.

It wasn't the first time this had happened, so Twelve was relatively calm, but it was still an annoying task. She supposed she could compare to trying to build a tower of cards in the middle of a tornado, while some invisible person would try to poke at her side with a knife every few seconds. Well, she still had the help of her magic, so at least it wasn't impossible.

Eventually, she managed to successfully build the portal and then she flew inside without hesitation. As her features appeared on the other side of the portal, she felt a rather powerful World of Storms attack coming from her side. A brief appraisal told her that the attacker managed to create a type of Storm energy that had the properties of corrosion. It was quite impressive in her opinion. 

'A super-imposer…' she thought briefly, before using Time energy to dispel the other's attack. She didn't bother with fine control and just threw an enormous amount at the enemy's general direction. The corrosive winds disappeared into nothingness when they got into contact with the massive wave of Time energy. When one was in a hurry, a flashy attack was best to assert dominance. Twelve could then feel the attacker trying to create a portal and escape, but ultimately fail due to the massive amount of Time energy in the small space.

[USELESS! USELESS!] the shrieking voice went on in her head.

Twelve looked around after appearing and found an old Ivari with two horns looking at her with fear and confusion in his eyes. Perhaps a tinge of curiousity as well. Next to him stood a boy of about seven, still like a statue, his wavering pupils were surrounded by countless tiny blue lines. Looking at the boy's state, the her worrying heart settled slightly. Thankfully, she wasn't too late. 

'I wouldn't want to fail mother's task, after all'

She floated towards the boy and looked at the Ivari.

"Don't bother." Twelve ordered in her most imposing tone and created a barrier of thick Time energy that surrounded her and the boy, completely isolating the World from the two.

Finally managing to create some privacy, she sighed out with relief.

"Why can't you just watch and not act rashly? You should know that it's pointless even if you succeed," Twelve muttered out softly. She could feel that her control over her mind and body was stabilizing gradually. The sudden attack from one of the 'failures' shocked and weakened her slightly, but Twelve knew that it wouldn't last long. Her hands then took on a silver hue and she reached towards Evin's forehead and saw the boy suspended in a pose identical to this one amidst a mass of writhing seaweed-like vines. 

"Her failed World… I suppose that makes sense," Twelve murmured.

She could bring Evin out of the place very easily, but Twelve didn't plan to save the boy just yet, as this was a rare chance for him. Misfortune was often accompanied by fortune, and a misfortune of this scale (relative to Evin) obviously had its benefits. Unfortunately, it would only be fruitful if Evin himself was able to obtain it. And besides, her mother seemed interested in the boy, so Twelve didn't mind helping him out a bit.

Twelve decided that she would help Evin if it looked too dangerous, and perhaps send him a hint or two when needed. But for the time being, she didn't mind the lack of action. And it wasn't like she was alone. 

[Please, just let me be! He's just a nobody! I deserve to be in his place! Please! I beg you! You're sick of me as much as I'm sick of you, aren't you? SAY SOMETHING! PLEASE!] the one that tried rebelling, Fourth Joke (or better known as Four), was pleading now. 

Twelve scoffed at her. She really didn't know why Four always made such a huge scene out of everything.

'Guess she's just bored...'

Twelve also didn't know what Four was going to do even after this little escape attempt succeeded. It wasn't like The Empress was going to leave her free to roam this tiny world. At best she would've caught her and put her back inside Twelve, or she would've killed Four as an example for the others.

But obviously, Twelve's mother wasn't someone so barbaric. 

The other ten 'failures' were silently murmuring in the background, some with an expression of worry on their faces, some of them uncaring, some of them asking Twelve to not punish the one shrieking on the ground too badly.

Twelve felt bad for the 'failures', she truly did. It wasn't like they asked to be brought upon this World. But there was a reason they were locked inside her for safekeeping. Everything happened for a reason. Twelve's mother, The Empress, told her to keep the failures safe. 

That was reason enough for Twelve.

And besides, it wasn't like Twelve treated them badly. She let them take turns to experience the outside World once in a while, letting them live out their preferred lives. 

'But I suppose they're not satisfied with that… The others look like they have nothing to do with this, like they've forgotten that they all tried something similar at one point in their existence. Perhaps I've been too lenient on them…' Twelve sighed, shook her head and focused on the boy. 

…