Un-Chain

Uteu snapped his eyes open and let out a weak gasp. He shuddered and wearily brought a hand to his face to cover his eyes from the light.

He had been forced to relive several of those children's lives until he broke free from their hold on him.

Their resentment had seeped deeply into his body, letting him feel everything that they had felt. It had taken everything he had just to push past those memories and remember himself.

He shakily flipped over onto his stomach, just narrowly missing his own bile beside his elbow. His c.h.e.s.t heaved up and down as he tried to readjust in his own body.

He peered back down at the children. His nose stung as he tried to hold back the tears that threatened to fall. The things that these children had suffered through, he vowed to never let another child suffer through again from here on out.

He empathized and sympathized with these children. And yet, he wasn't sure if he could forgive this.

The children, in this state were just too dangerous. These children had let their resentment consume them entirely.

He wiped angrily at the tear track that had escaped from him.

The children had-

No, if he wanted to do this, he would need to differentiate the two.

This- this was only resentment.

The resentment was blindly attacking everything and anything around them. Regardless of who or what it was. The resentment had the capabilities of snapping people's connections to others, overriding it and warping it.

Being so in tune with his connections was both a gift and a curse under the attacks. While he was pulled deep into those dark memories, he had felt the resentment eating away at the chains that connected him to his Links. This was what had ironically helped him regain a bit of himself, just enough to fight back against it.

He was glad that he didn't allow Judith and Harvet into this sphere. They would have had no way to defend against such mental attacks, the resentment would have easily snapped their connections then.

And... Uti. Uti had been constantly plagued by it from the very moment that she entered this sphere. Remembering how the golden thread had snapped while he was following it, Uteu clenched his fists and narrowed his eyes.

Tearing his eyes and body away from the glass floor, he wobbled and tried to move forward.

Reaching into his mind, Uteu could barely feel any of his Links now. Putting aside the attacks that had weakened his mind, it felt like the chains were surrounded by some sort of black haze, making everything feel muted and difficult to see. It occurred to him then, that this was the source of all the interference with his Chains.

He shuddered, even dormant the resentment already had the ability to damper connections. Now that it's been awoken... if the resentment was left alone, just how much more could it grow? How much damage would it be able to cause?

Just then he felt the resentment trying to drill back into his mind. He winced and pushed it back out, using his determination to save Uti as his first line of mental defense. He would never leave himself so vulnerable to it again.

Uteu had to fight off constant mind attacks as he traveled deeper into the center of the sphere. The resentment refused to relent it's attacks for even moment.

By the time he reached the center where all sorts of mechanical equipment lay, Uteu had fully exhausted himself mentally. The resentment felt the thickest right here in the middle.

Looking down, it wasn't just children in there anymore. People of all types were crammed into this very center.

Just then, Uteu remembered that the teleportation array required something equal to the people in the Guild that needed to use it. Was this what they did with people who were sent through? He had just assumed that they were swapped back when the Guild members needed to return, he had assumed wrong.

Looking back up, he observed all of the tubes leading up, past the sphere, presumable to the array. He couldn't spot Uti anywhere. He tentatively called out to her.

A small warm spark hit him again. It was incredibly weak now and Uteu turned his head sharply in the direction it came from. He furrowed his eyebrows when he still couldn't see her. It looked more like a cube of metal with tubes flowing freely throughout.

He put a hand on the metal and felt a stronger pulse of warmth hit him to dispel a bit of the resentment hammering at his mind. Uti was definitely in here.

"Uti, save your strength now. I'm here, I'll get you out!"

Uteu had to tug on his chains to Judith and Harvet. With how weak their connection felt, he was surprised at how quickly they were able to react. Feeling the wisps of energy, he activated their abilities.

Using Harvet's enhanced strength and Judith to amplify that strength, he tore through the metal that surrounded Uti. Not knowing her exact location made it difficult to move rapidly.

Red liquid began to pour out from the hole he tore through. For a second he thought it was blood, until the energy from his two temporary Links were abruptly cut off.

This was the same liquid used on the children to weaken them.

Cursing, Uteu grabbed some of the metal pieces he had already torn off and stuck them into the opening. The liquid flowed freely onto his feet and he grunted as he used all of his strength to pry open the hole. The gap widened and even more liquid gushed down. As it cleared away, he saw what looked like a giant red crystal inside.

Looking further in, his eyes widened when he saw dark red hair.

"Uti!!"

Her body was melded into the red crystal while her head and hands were still outside of it. He couldn't see her face from where he was. He tried to reach in and managed to grab onto one of her hands.

Uti's hand was cold to the touch but he let out a relieved breath when he felt her weakly grasp onto his hand.

"Big brother... you're here." He heard her say between weak intakes of air.

Tears flowed freely from his face as he replied, "Yeah Uti, big brother is finally here."