fighting the defence mechanism

Before long, they found themselves in another one of Michael's memories. This time, Sharon could see herself playing with him in the garden. Michael had recently lost his mother and Sharon was there to comfort him. Sharon didn't want to stay in this memory for too long. "Let's go, there's nothing for us to do here," she said. Immediately, they heard a voice from behind, saying, "Trying to leave so soon?" A look of shock appeared on their faces as they turned towards the sound of the voice.

Realizing they were in trouble, Abbey quickly grabbed onto Sharon and they jumped out of that specific memory. But they were still not safe, as the entity continued to chase after them. "Who or what is that?" Sharon asked. "It looks so frightening and seems determined to attack us," she concluded. Abbey replied, "Remember when I told you about the enemies' defense mechanisms?" "Yes," Sharon replied. "Well, you just encountered one. Its purpose is to prevent us from getting close to Michael. If we're facing one now, it means we're getting closer."

"Are we just going to keep running away from them?" Sharon asked with curiosity and concern. "No, we have to fight strategically and choose our battles wisely. Otherwise, we'll be overwhelmed by them before we know it," said Abbey. "Let's proceed with caution," he added. Once again, they found themselves in another one of Michael's memories, but before they could see what it was, the beastly creature appeared. Abbey instinctively created a sword out of thin air and began to slice through the creature. As he was doing so, another creature appeared that looked like a dragon and was breathing fire from its mouth. Sharon was taken aback by the dragon-like creature, but she quickly formed a shield to block the spread of the fire. Abbey called out to her, "We're getting closer."

Upon seeing the dragon-like creature and the beastly creature, Abbey immediately conjured various swords from thin air and began using them to slice through the creatures, aiming to defeat them. Not wanting to be left behind, Sharon created her own weapon: a crossbow and some arrows. She fired at the dragon-like creature and, with their combined effort, they were able to make both creatures disappear.

Both let out a sigh of relief, exhausted from the long battle to defeat the creatures. "I wonder what we'll encounter next," remarked Sharon. "We have to go deeper," replied Abbey. This time, instead of splitting up in the labyrinth, they went further into the core memory in hopes of finding Michael.

Abbey spotted a thread that appeared different from the rest and gestured to Sharon. "Let's go into that one," she said. Once inside, Sharon noticed something off. "This seems different, too different. I don't think it's a memory," she said, rising suspicion. "You're right," said Abbey. "This is not a memory, it's an implant." "What's an implant?" asked Sharon. "It's when someone else's ideas or thoughts are planted into another person without their knowledge. It can remain dominant for a long period of time before manifesting as a dream or memory," explained Abbey.

"Who has the power to do such things?" asked Sharon, curious to know more. "Someone more sinister than me," replied Abbey grimly. "There's no way these are Michael's memories. These are memories of a sadistic individual, where vipers were destroying and devouring human flesh."

On spotting Abbey and Sharon, the vipers stopped and stared at them. Sensing something was wrong, Sharon immediately asked Abbey, "Can they sense our presence?" Abbey quickly replied, "Yes, and they can also attack us," he added. Before he had finished the statement, the vipers flew into attack mode. A bright light burst forth from Abbey, blinding the vipers and distracting them. Abbey didn't waste any time attacking the vipers, forming a sword out of thin air with both hands and slicing each one into two halves. He yelled at Sharon to follow suit.

"We have to destroy all the implants we can find. I believe that is the only way to locate where Michael is," he explained. Sharon didn't hold back either, forming a large sword and a shield to protect herself. She began slicing through any vipers she could find.

After a few minutes, they were done killing all the vipers in the implant. Coming out of the implanted memory, Abbey spoke, "We have to also destroy the outside." He formed what seemed to be a vacuum that immediately sucked the implant away and incinerated it at the same time. Sharon was tempted to ask, "Is that all?" "No," replied Abbey. "Let's move on," he said.

Before they could take a step further, a strange voice could be heard saying, "How dare you! Who do you think you are, trying to free my captive? This prey belongs to me. You have no right to interfere." Sharon was startled upon hearing the voice and looked at Abbey, who seemed not to be bothered by it. She quickened her pace to match his. "Who is that?" she asked. "Just a defense mechanism, which also means we are getting pretty close," replied Abbey.

Upon reaching a section of the labyrinth, they discovered many implants. It seemed they had been doing this for a long time. There was no way all this could have been done within months, Abbey remarked before telling Sharon to burn it all down. "Don't hold back and be careful of any traps," she warned.

Immediately, they set out to work, forming a big vacuum to suck up all the implants and incinerate them all at once. Sharon copied Abbey, forming her own flamethrower and using it to burn all the implants in sight.

Meanwhile, in the outside world, Michael was starting to sweat profusely. He had been in a coma for about five to six months and had never sweat before. Collin Smith, who was standing beside Michael's body, noticed this and wondered if the AC was not working properly. Looking at the temperature scale, he noticed that the temperature was still the same as it always had been. "Something is happening within the boy," he murmured to himself. He looked around and noticed that both Sharon and Abbey were also sweating profusely. "Just as I suspected, something is happening inside the boy. That is the best explanation. Why else would all three of them be sweating profusely?" he thought.

Back inside Michael's memories, Abbey and Sharon seemed to be running away from a group of defense mechanisms. These creatures were not Michael's defense mechanisms, but rather ones created by the person who caused Michael's misfortune. They were ferocious creatures composed of vipers, snakes, dragons breathing fire, and other evil-like creatures. The strangest thing was that the more Sharon and Abbey killed or destroyed them, the more they appeared. So, they had no choice but to flee and jump into the next available memory.

Trying to assert himself, Abbey remarked, "I hope Michael's defense mechanism will respond to these threats and activate itself. That is the only way we can win here. We need both defense mechanisms to attack each other, so that we can find a way to reach Michael." Sharon seemed to have heard Abbey's thoughts and immediately acknowledged them.

Abbey sensed something or someone while we were being chased. "I sensed the presence of someone, not far away. I don't know who he is, but I am willing to look in that direction just to be sure," he said. Sharon sighed before saying, "I hope you are right because those creatures seemed to be concentrated in that direction. And now you are asking us to go in that direction on a hunch. You better be sure before risking our lives for a hunch," Sharon concluded.

Abbey didn't say much, instead forming a protective barrier around himself and conjuring two swords from thin air. He charged toward the direction where the defense mechanisms were concentrated, hoping to create a pathway through them to reach his desired location. Sharon, seeing that she couldn't talk Abbey out of it, decided to follow suit. She formed her own protective barrier and wielded her favorite weapons, a bow and a crossbow, out of thin air as she followed Abbey's lead.

As they charged forward, they moved as if they were a well-oiled machine, effortlessly advancing through the enemy blockade. The enemy could not come up with a solution to their quick advance. Before long, they had made a path where there seemed to be none and had successfully navigated through the blockade to the other side.

Once there, they could only see one thread of line. "This is what they were preventing us from seeing," remarked Abbey. "This is the place they don't want us to go to."

Suddenly, they heard Michael's voice coming from inside the thread.

"Whose voice is that?" murmured Sharon. "Whoever he or she is, it seems to be coming from inside that thread of memory," concluded Abbey. "Let's go in," Sharon added. "We have to proceed with caution. I don't want to be caught off guard," replied Abbey.