Into The Portal: Monster Invasion

“Miles what happened to you? Are you okay?” Evelyn rushed near Miles in worry. But Miles could see the glint in his mother’s eyes.

‘Where the hell am I? Coin! Coin, can you hear me?’ Miles shouted in his mind but got no result. He looked at his wristwatch and noticed it was somehow shut down. He flared a little bit of energy almost instinctively and several buttons activated at the same time, as it did so, Miles heard the voice he was yearning to hear.

“Miles!” Coin said in relief. “Is it you? It is you!”

‘I am back, buddy. Sorry for worrying you and thanks for helping me. I know it was you who showed me those subtle images.’ Miles said in his mind, but at this time, Mercer rose from his seat with full cautiousness. He looked at Miles ready to attack any second.

“Let’s talk about that stuff later, Miles. I will fill you in.” Coin said. The conversation took place in his mind, thus it was almost instantaneous.

In the next second, visions started to fill his brain. As it was his body that experienced those events, although his mind was isolated at the time, he wasn’t overwhelmed by them, and soon, he saw what happened ever since he passed out days ago. He returned to that cursed room where he was battling with Samuel that was in Val’s body.

“Sadly, I cannot kill you with the time I have.” Samuel sighed as he jumped into the bed-like device. “But let me give you a parting gift.”

As soon as he said that, Miles felt his mind exploding. He lost control of his already acting-out energy and started to bleed from his eyes profusely. While Samuel vanished, Miles lay in the pool of his blood. He lost consciousness.

"Miles! Wake up! Miles!" Coin shouted to no avail. Two back-to-back energy attacks depleted Miles's energy and injured his mind.

Ten minutes after Samuel disappeared, a voice reverberated in Miles's mind, but only Coin heard it, “Miles, thank you for this body. I will make sure to use it better than you did.”

John, who Miles thought had died, took the opportunity to hijack his brain by isolating Miles instead. Although Afterlife could only be activated after the target was killed, it didn’t mean the person would truly die. After all, without that person’s mind, Miles couldn’t reach their memories. So, although he promised Coin he would always be in control when Samuel returned his mind attack and added a stronger one of his own, Miles lost the ability to suppress the “soul” of John. As John noticed that, he instead took over Miles's body and locked his in return.

But the energy was complicated and mysterious. As Mercer put it, a mind that was attuned to body and energy would always have the upper hand despite the power level. So, when he finally broke free from John’s spell, with the help of others in the room, Miles took his body back.

But it took days for Coin to create that window, and it required a massive stroke of luck as well. If John didn’t accept Evelyn’s invitation, Miles would fail to take his body back. If John hadn’t returned to the academy to learn more about the situation, Miles would never break free. All of those small decisions helped him greatly. Luck, just like energy, was fickle and mysterious.

“Miles, what is going on?” Evelyn asked as he saw the look in his son’s eyes. When he first entered, the look was different. As a mother, with and intuition of an experienced hunter, she could tell there was something wrong with his youngest child. But now, the same intuitions and experiences told her it was his son who was looking at her.

Turned out, when Coin realized Miles was about to break free from Dystopia, sent a message to Mercer and Evelyn’s wristwatches with his last bit of power. Deciding to trust Coin, the duo overwhelmed Miles's brain with massive amounts of information and illusions. Although it was far-fetched, the duo already suspected there was something wrong with Miles and he was like Adam and was possessed. But it would still require confidence and trust in themselves and Coin to attack their own kin. Thanks to that attack, and the aforementioned conditions, Miles, for a single second, got the upper hand and sealed John back into the afterlife and got his body back. But this too created problems that he would have to explain.

“Mother, I was possessed by someone called Samuel Cross.” Miles started to explain. He already drew out a plan as Coin filled him in. As soon as Miles activated him, Coin started to watch the security cameras in the building and realized Adam had a similar condition. Them being in Adam’s room also helped. Miles could feel the fluctuations in Adam’s mind much similar to Val’s. Although if he didn’t have background information, he couldn’t guess, with a solid example, he could guess his way out.

“What did you say?” Mercer asked in rage.

“I was in Portal World where I lucked upon an ancient room. There, I found a mysterious device much like teleportation hubs that were used in Grader Competition. When I touched it, another consciousness entered my own and started to attack mine. Although I had the upper hand, the device started to attack my mind and started to overwhelm me.

During the illusion battle, I used some of the Cross Techniques to inflict damage on my opponent’s mind, but the person who was trying to take over my body recognized them and called me a traitor. It was strange, because he shouldn’t have known about Cross Techniques I used, but later he disclosed that he was from the Cross Empire and his name is Samuel Cross, which proves that he is from the group that left the planet.” Miles explained.

“A sworn knight?” Mercer asked in shock and anger, “And he attacked you? The Royal Prince?”

“Well, since we sold them out at the beginning of the invasion for the rest of the world, we are traitors, no royal family anymore.” Miles shrugged his shoulders. “Anyway, he took over my body, and to learn and imitate me, he started to trace back my steps. He found the Academy’s location through Coin. Though he somehow figured out how to disable him, which should be impossible, right?”

Miles looked at the floating globe in the room. She was the mother of all AIs and wristwatches on Earth. If there was a killswitch that could isolate AIs, she would know of it.