Overwhelmed

This man-like beast of the depth just shoved its severed hand back to where it belonged.

Not a second later, it started to move the formerly severed-hand's fingers as if nothing had happened, before tightening its grip on the cudgel.

At that very moment, I realized that I forgot something important while trying to rationalize my actions on a very logical level throughout the whole fight.

I was too tired—I was too tunnel-visioned on the shown patterns and applied it into my train of logic instead of looking at the bigger picture.

"Hahaha, shit."

As if the 'thing' before me had stopped playing around and holding itself back, the lengthening shadows of abyssal tendrils started to sprout from its back like the blooming moment of a rafflesia.

[Sanity: 10%]

I wasn't not fighting a 'Lone Rider', nor was the 'Lone Hunter' who glared its weapons with a burning purple gaze directed toward us.

I was forcing myself to move against the current of a tempestuous tidal wave.

And I feared that it was inevitable for me to be swept by the water and drowned.

[Sanity: 8%]

To make the matter even more frightening, this monster I was supposed to fight didn't even try to rationally fight like an actual hunter.

It started to point the sharp edge of its sword towards its own throat, the same place where I formerly flicked my obsidian dagger to cause a huge laceration on its flowing veins.

And just about as I took my breath, that monster thrusted the entire body of the blade onto its own throat, impaling its own supposed-vital organ as the excess steel protruded menacingly on its back, coated in its own pitch-black bodily liquid.

Then, the sword was withdrawn, and that monster just stood there as if nothing had happened.

Seeing the movement of its hand, I mustered every bit of my consciousness and sanity to voice out my command.

"Everyone, take cover!"

Yes, it was the rational thing to do.

But where should they even take their cover?

My eyes were troubled to keep track of my own allies and what the monster in front of me was doing.

Not even a second after, the monster had already brandished its blood-coated sword to the spiraling moonlight, glazed by the rays orchestra created by the thin reverse-sea above.

And in an instant.

The sword was swung horizontally toward us, launching its own blood as a deadly sweeping projectile that could hit everything in front of it.

I sensed a sting dread that was oscillating painfully on the surface of my precious face, allowing me to instinctively use both the broadsword and my gauntlet to precisely shield me from the attack.

Despite amounting a couple droplets of blood, there was a great pushing force behind the sweeping projectile. I even noticed the loss of some strains of hair that weren't able to be protected by the block.

However, it was still less destructive than the one monster unleashed to cut Verina's legs after it drew the blood from its very own steed.

Maybe the amount affected the power of the attack

The terror aside, I had successfully saved myself from the attack.

But what about the other?

My eyes were afraid from leaving the monster, but it was worried and curious of how everyone managed that attack.

So instead of looking back, I used their detail screen to check up on them.

I couldn't really open up Tahlia's detail screen since he was originally a Calamity Object, but I could still hear his panicked rustling and breathing, instead of a painful scream of terror.

As for Verina, she seemed to be fine. There weren't any new fatal nor moderate wounds, and her Consciousness seemed to be still soaring at 500%.

Lupina, who carried her, must have managed to avoid the attack entirely. Then again, the sweeping projectile shouldn't be powerful enough to pierce through a person like the last time.

I hoped that she avoided it.

However, the Health section of her detail screen showed a great laceration on her hands and shoulders, and also a major bleeding status that might have compromised her chance of survival.

She also still had her Potion of Healing. Not to mention, 

"I'll survive!!" Lupina immediately shouted. "Don't worry about me, and keep giving us orders as you observe every inch of that Qliphoth Object!"

[Sanity: 5%]

I never realized it until now.

"We trust you to make the best judgment, Narcissus!!"

I always view them as my own pawns, but my obsession for a perfect and rightful execution still gave me the same amount of self-responsibility and anxiety.

All of the orders I gave were out of my own conscience to ensure that I was a great person who could successfully do a task with the best possible outcome.

I wasn't really a good person and perfect, but I was also trying my best to prevent myself from becoming a bad and imperfect person.

[Sanity: 4%]

I pushed myself beyond my limit because I thought that it was a must to ensure the best possible outcome.

Yet at the same time, I didn't even see these people as anyone important to me, thus giving an unnecessary stress and anxiety for myself.

[Sanity: 3%]

All of those actions, all of those considerations.

All of them were so flawed, it disgusted me.

"Ahaha…"

Just like the face I saw back then in that mirror.

[Sanity: 2%]

An ugly, disorienting imperfection, so disgusting it made me want to puke over all of my insides.

[Sanity: 1%]

If only, if only…

If only I could tear it all apart, turning it all to dust, and the dust to dust—a cycle of destruction that I've wanted to perform as all these discomfort began to spill over from this small yet resilient cup.

[Sanity: 0%]

In that moment of dread and loss, I heard an eerie sound of a trumpet echoing throughout the whole sky.

My body was frozen. 

It wasn't only me.

Everyone appeared to be in the same state, frozen either by terror, or a strange cosmic influence that prevented our organs from uttering a single thought or action.