Hit The Road Jack

"Exit the memory!" Maddox yells out loud at the current point in the memory

[Ejecting from memory]

Maddox's surroundings and view change once more and he is now standing in front of the door leading into the current memories, as he turns around he sees what he presumes to be Jack now out of the memory.

Now in the darkness standing ahead of Maddox was what he presumed to be Jack who had a height of 20 feet in a humanoid figure and looking down at Maddox with its black empty eyes from above him. The creature was glowing pure white as all of a sudden it grew another pair of arms slightly underneath the other pair. A guttural roar bellows from the creature as four swords appear in each of its hands and then strikes down at Maddox.

Luckily Maddox was smart enough to have started running once the swords appeared in Jack's hands and were closer to Jack than before which allowed him to run underneath the legs of the creature.

Due to the size of the creature, it was a bit slower than it should be but it would not really make a substantial difference, plus Maddox was not even going to try and fight this creature anyway since he wanted to leave now that he got what he came for pretty much.

Running back while also following the tether that Maddox was chained to allowed him to navigate throughout the labyrinth of Jack's memories quickly.

"ROAR!!!" Jack's creature was still chasing after him in large steps that allowed it to quickly gain distance on Maddox and take stabs at him with its swords which proved easy to dodge due to the nature of their surroundings.

"Jesus! I am leaving already so stop chasing me!" Maddox yells at the creature after seeing that it was still chasing after him and attacking more fervently

Still, Maddox's only response was more yelling at him from the creature while more sword swings and strikes came down on him.

Finally, Maddox saw the endpoint where his tether went up into the air at one point and completely disappeared from view meaning he was almost out of the memories and he would be able to leave in the mind space.

That sight was enough for him to run a bit faster and not get cut in half by the sword-wielding maniac that was chasing after him.

However, as Maddox got to the end of the line he was unsure of how to get back into the mind space since there was nothing but more of the dark maze of Jack's mind and memory which did not want to view again since there would be nothing more than sexually depraved fantasies and useless memories within.

Confusion and worry assaulted Maddox as looking back he saw that the four-armed freak was about to turn the corner and then Maddox would have no choice but to run.

"Fuck!" Maddox curses as he grads the tether and tugs on it in the hope that he will be drawn into the mind space

It works as Maddox is suddenly pulled into nothing and soon finds himself in Jack's mind space once again... but things are a bit different this time.

The once blinding white that was everywhere within the mind space was now gone and all that remained now was pitch-black darkness that Maddox felt a familiarity with and began to realize that it seemed that the miasma that had attached itself to Jack had completely removed all-natural essence in his space. Looking around though Maddox was slightly surprised to see that the essence orbs that he had placed near him were still there and in fact, they were not in the miasma surroundings but their little islands of essence that were protecting them.

"ROAR!"

A white sword penetrates out from behind Maddox and barely misses piercing through him as Jack emerges from his memories and tries once again to hunt Maddox. Maddox had already moved away from the opening where Jack emerged from and took a bit of a defensive stance as he tried to think of a plan since he wanted to just leave now and leave Jack to his fate but there was a lingering fear in his mind.

As Jack had appeared within his own mind space the miasma-filled space that he moved through had been cleansed and reverted to the essence that it was before the change. While Jack's creature was able to convert the miasma back to essence it only lasted for a moment in the area he was walking before reverting again as the miasma converted it back.

This meant if Maddox just left then Jack could potentially recover from the miasma in his body and it wouldn't take a genius to find out who it was that had invaded his mind since he was the only suspicious person that had been here recently. Thus he would be the prime suspect and he would be found eventually... so Maddox had to kill Jack right here and now.

Killing someone whether they be infected or human would be a bit tough for Maddox to do and while he had his share of trauma recently it was not enough to break his basic human fears of taking someone's life.

Still to say that he was completely scared shitless at the prospect would be wrong as he felt some sort of urge inside that was compelling him to draw blood and to take the life of another. It was similar to some other urges that had shown up recently which meant that even though his miasma was kept at bay by his essence it still was trying to get out and change his body. The best way would be the rampage of emotions or desires since an unstable mind can lead to an unstable body then the miasma will try to use that opportunity to completely change Maddox into an infected like the past couple of times.

It was a dangerous thing meaning that Maddox had to reign in those types of emotions and feelings since turning into an infected would be worse than any death sentence he could think of.

Still, though he could become a different monster if he does not feel as to feel is to be human, it is one of the benefits of living.

Speaking of living that was not going to be Jack in a moment as he was attempting to attack Maddox who could only run around the mind space in hopes of finding some way to fight back or utilize something against Jack.

Even though Jack was a mental form, created out of what Maddox considered to be essence, his strikes had some technique to them that Maddox recognized from his stances in the memory that he viewed. Since Maddox never saw Jack fight he had no idea how Jack fought so he tried to keep his distance to avoid anything that he may be caught up in since four swords attacking him are no joke.

Still dodging and weaving would not kill Jack so Maddox had to figure out what he could use to kill Jack or at least restrain him so he can have some breathing room.

The best, and most obvious answer, would be to use more miasma from his body since that was the only thing that he had at his disposal and he seemed to be more naturally inclined towards it than essence. It did not hurt him when he used it so that was the obvious go-to plus Maddox did not know if essence could go against essence.

The only reason that Maddox did not draw forth more miasma from his body was that he had already used up a lot of miasma till now from creating the illusion of the soldiers, himself, and currently being invisible caused a lot of mental strain that only seemed to be stacking up steadily that up till now had not given him a lot of trouble. His miasma right now was lower than half of his full capacity which meant that he could only do a few more things before running on fumes.

'Guess there is no choice now huh?' Maddox reluctantly thinks to himself as he only looks a bit at his surroundings before raising his hand up

Jack seeing Maddox act differently pauses in his attacks, but only for a second before launching at Maddox with a mighty roar and stabbing at him intending to kill the man who had destroyed his foundations.

As Jack's swords are about to pierce through Maddox he jerks to a halt and is stuck in place with one of his swords barely scratching Maddox's skin and causing a slight tingle on his skin as he backs up a bit.

Right now Jack who was about to take Maddox's life was now entangled by ropes of miasma from the surroundings that are holding him in place while simultaneously attempting to turn the essence created being into miasma.

"URGH!" Jack struggles within the bindings and attempts to resist the miasma that is attempting to destroy his consciousness and send him into an eternal sleep within his body

The swords in Jack's body disappear from his hands and attempt to reinforce his body as he struggles against the miasma, but he forgot about the one who put him in this situation as the back of his is pierced and the tip of a spike tears its way through to the other side of Jack's face.

Now even though Maddox did not want to use his miasma he still could use the miasma around him quite easily but he was hesitant to manipulate it. If miasma that attached itself to Jack had some hidden safeguard or way to reconnect to its owner then he would be in trouble so this was a big risk that he had to take.

So with Jack now dead and his body now being torn apart and absorbed by the miasma around him, Maddox had to find a way out of the mind space, and since he was back at where he started then all he needed to do was simply withdraw his conscious from his miasma to return to his body. Withdrawing was more difficult than it sounds and there would be no way that could have left Jack's body with him dodging the four-armed sword-wielding monster.

Eventually, Maddox opens his eyes to find himself standing over Jack's body with his hands against his head and his miasma retreating from his mind.

Standing up a bit Maddox's body feels sore all of a sudden and when he looks at his phone he finds that about an hour and a half had passed causing him to wince at how long the process took.

Still, Maddox was not complaining as he had accomplished his goal of learning where Katherine was probably at and had been able to view more into what he could potentially do with his miasma in the future and to see its effects up close and personal.

Speaking of effects, now that Jack's consciousness had been effectively destroyed thanks to Maddox and it was apparent all that truly remained was a few orbs of essence and some small areas. So with the loss of Jack and his essence acting as more fuel for the miasma to finally catch the remaining orbs before completing whatever else there was that needed to be done inside Jack's body.

A few moments as Maddox was about to leave the room to get out of the house, however, miasma fluctuations brought his attention back onto Jack to see what was happening now that the miasma had free reign in Jack's body.

The miasma that once had taken root within Jack's mind had now taken control of his entire body or what remained of it and that had seemed to cause a new change within Jack as his body began to pale at a visible rate. Soon though as his body begins to turn as white as snow the skin turns a new shade that was unnatural as it begins to turn brown before another change happens with his body.

It begins shrinking in size.

Jack's body begins to shrink down in size until his body can fit in the palm of Maddox's hand and he would know because he picked up Jack's shrunken brown body to see what it was that happened with him.

His new form was something unique in that it did not have any of the textures of skin quality of that of a normal person but it seemed to be similar to elastic rubber as Maddox could squish the body easily within his hand.

Maddox would have loved to take Jack's body to study it more but unfortunately, he could not take away the body as the girls here would think that he had done something to him when he saw him and so all he could do to lighten the suspicion, even though there would be some due to Jack's sudden transformation after his appearance.

There was one thing that Maddox could take though and that was the miasma that was still covering his body which seemed to be dormant once again and using the powers of deduction it was awaiting pick up from the person who attached it to Jack in the first place.