Inso put his glasses back on.
He stared at the system screen with dead fisheyes while the group chat flooded with messages.
[Polaris: Hi!]
[Ekkril: Yo mate!]
[Polarum: I think we should've done this sooner. Btw, Can I eat ###][System blurred some contents that might be inappropriate]
[Lars: ....]
"So what exactly are you? And what is he?" Inso asked the air, now adjusted to it's embarrassing level.
[Polarum: He's Rex. We're all your comrades from now! winks seductively So how about I eat ###][System blurred some contents that might be inappropriate]
"Who's your comrade?" Inso's face darkened like storm clouds.
A very HUGE SIGH escaped him.
"Now what did I get myself into?" He looked around the mess. The man had already sucked most of the things into his eye hole. The small bench he sometimes used to sit and scan the moon, the small pots his grandmother used to speak in a daily basis, some of concrete bricks, and dignity all equally destroyed.
Inso could reform objects with his ability, but he couldn't create something from nothing. And the alien jerk had sucked most of his belongings into whatever interdimensional trash can lived behind those eyes.
He ran a hand through his hair, panic rising. "Now what am I supposed to tell Grandma?"
"Hey Grandma, funny story—an alien tried to steal my eyeballs and accidentally demolished half the house?"
Yeah, that would go over well.
[Lars: Revert it.]
Inso froze in mid. "How?" he asked the emptiness, feeling increasingly ridiculous for talking to invisible text boxes.
[Lars: ....]
Inso waited. And waited. And waited some more.
"Is he typing? Or thinking?"
"Is he drafting a novel?", Inso raised an eyebrow as his patience level started to go to the red zone.
[Polarum: Hey, calm down! Lars rarely responds. It's already a HUGE achievement what you did there. He responded twice. That's already a new streak!]
[Lars: ...]
Inso's eyes widened in irk. "Who gives a crap about his mystery streak? I. WANT. ANSWERS. NOW!"
Inso's patience status became (Error 404 - Not found) He is so done.
[Polarum:holds breath]
[Lars: ....]
Just when Inso thought of pulling his hairs in frustration, reality glitched around him.
A small cube emerged from nowhere, hovering briefly before dropping into Inso's outstretched palm.
He peeped at it without his glasses. But all Inso could see was a perfectly stabilized energy field—dormant, waiting. He needed instructions, and they arrived with stunning clarity:
[Lars: ....]
"Oh, SUPER helpful. Thanks so much," Inso went crazy.
"INSO....!"
A voice cut through his rage like a hot knife through butter. Devi. Coming upstairs. Now.
Inso panicked. Even he didn't fully understand what the half-dead non-human entity on his floor was. And explaining why half his room had decided to take an unscheduled vacation to another dimension? Impossible.
It's not like Devi would casually say, "Oh! You must've wanted to renovate suddenly. Cool!" and move along with her day.
Numerous scenarios flashed through his mind in 4k. And in pure, undiluted panic, Inso did what any reasonable human would do to activate an equipment.
♪Beat it!♪
He beat the living daylights out of it.
Inso tapped—no, assaulted—the cube with the desperation of someone hammering the close door button in an elevator while being chased.
The cube responded to this very polite activation method by illuminating with blinding blue light. It spun, split into smaller cubes, rearranged itself in impossible geometries, and scattered azure radiance in all directions.
And then—impossibly—time began to rewind.
The destroyed fragments of his room undestroyed themselves. Everything that had been sucked into the void came rushing back, reassembling into its original position.
Including the madman himself—Rex—who suddenly found himself back with his hands on Inso's forehead, at the mid-eye-theft attempt, looking extremely confused.
Rex's parted lips of confusion turned into an amused smirk. "You reverted time?" His eyes gleamed with dangerous interest, like a cat discovering its mouse can steal fishes from the owner.
THUD.
Both Inso and Rex turned their heads in perfect synchronization, still frozen in their awkward position—Rex's hands on Inso's temples, Inso looking like he was being patted or better being tamed.
Devi stood near the stairs, the notes she'd brought now scattered on the floor. Her lips parted in shock as she processed the scene before her.
"Noona..." Inso gasped.
"Inso..." she mumbled, her voice unnaturally low.
"Wait. Something's not right," Inso thought, cold sweat breaking out across his forehead.
Of course, from her point of view, it looked like two men are pouring out affection to each other.
Devi's shocked expression suddenly transformed. "I know you're young and all. But don't sleep in class because of... this," she said with a seemingly embarrassing face before turning and sprinting.
Silence. A silence so heavy it seemed to weigh tons.
[Polaris: .....]
[Ekkril: ...]
[Lars:...!]
[Polarum:chokes on interdimensional spit ]
Reality hit Inso like a freight train.
Oh.
OH.
OH NO.
She thought we were...
Grrrrrrrrrr...
With a roar of embarrassment and rage, Inso swung at Rex's perfectly sculpted face. The being dodged with insulting ease, not even bothering to look concerned.
Inso tried to combine the energy field around Rex, attempting to compress his body and squish it. But Rex was no amateur—he reversed the energy flow, sending it crashing back into Inso.
Inso coughed blood as the backlash tore through him.
"Do you think I have time to play with you?" Rex sighed, a purplish aura emerging from him that would have melted the skin off a normal human in seconds.
Inso manipulated the energy and created a barrier simultaneously to prevent direct contact, but the effort was draining him rapidly. More blood sprayed from his mouth as his body struggled against forces it was never designed to withstand.
"Who do you think you are?" Rex's gaze held all the warmth of a certified villian.
"I don't think I can deal with him in my current state," Inso realized, gasping for breath. In desperate frustration, he screamed at the floating chat interface: "Hey! How do I stop him? Didn't you say I'm your comrade? Then fucking SAY SOMETHING!"
The screen flashed ominously.
[Polarum: RUN]
"Shit!"
Inso gathered dense molecules from the air, condensing them into a cloud-like skateboard beneath his feet. With a desperate leap, he soared into the night sky.
"Mommy, I saw a fairy..." a neighbor kid gasped, pointing at the flying figure.
Rex smirked. He found Inso's desperation to survive adorable. With a casual step through the air, he teleported directly onto Inso's escape cloud.
"Mommy, a star followed the fairy," the same child continued rambling until his mother silenced him with a spoonful of porridge.
"Where do you think you're going when your elder is speaking? Isn't that a form of disrespect for Earthlings?" Rex chided, as if scolding a rude teenager. With a dismissive gesture, he burst Inso's cloud into nothingness.
"Elder, my ass"
Seizing Inso by the throat, Rex shoved them both at light speed toward an abandoned wasteland. Upon arrival, he hurled Inso to the ground with such force that the impact created a small crater.
Coughing blood and dirt, Inso glared up at Rex with enmity. Something snapped withing our low laying Inso.
"It's a bad idea you got me to a secluded place," Inso snarled, spitting blood to the side as he rose to his feet.
"You elder fucker," he growled, ripping off his glasses.
The effect was immediate and catastrophic. A massive tornado of pure energy swirled around him, connecting to the storm clouds above. The air itself seemed to scream.
Lightning—not natural electricity but concentrated energy manipulation—struck Rex's position, digging a massive crater where he stood.
Smoke surged from the impact zone, and for one brief, beautiful moment, Inso allowed himself to hope.
That hope died as Rex rose from the crater, brushing dust from his clothes. "Not bad."
Inso unleashed a barrage of lightning strikes, each powerful enough to level a skyscraper. Rex dodged them all with balletic grace, moving forward as casually as someone scrolling through reels.
Rex reached for his earring, expanding it to activate some unknown power—but suddenly, both the orb and the surrounding reality began to glitch violently.
[ WARNING! Nythals infiltrated ]
Confusion crossed Inso's face, but Rex's expression shifted to high alert.
"Hey, come here," Rex demanded, his tone all of a sudden, urgent.
"I'd have to be a dumbass to come near you after you nearly killed me," Inso retorted, backing away.
Without warning, shadow-like balls plummeted from the sky like meteors, encircling Inso in a perfect trap. They had no structure—as if formed out of nothingness itself.
"Now what the HELL are these?" Inso panicked, attempting to manipulate the atmosphere around them. Nothing happened. His power data suddenly went to airplane mode.
"Why can't I use my ability?"
A larger shadow descended magnificently, transforming into the figure of a woman. She radiated dark goddess vibe in her, with midnight-blue eyes that promised beautiful violence and shadow-like aura flowing from her hair like liquid darkness.
Inso would have appreciated her ethereal beauty if she didn't look like someone who collected human spines as a hobby. Sure, beauty can kill. But she looked like an actual serial-killer.
"Another species for my collection," she purred, her lips curving into a sinister smile. With a casual rotation of her finger, shadow tendrils erupted from nowhere, binding Inso in unbreakable darkness.
Rex made purplish energy strings from his hands, binding the woman's hands with surprising speed. "Not under my presence, you witch," he snarled, suddenly positioning himself between Inso and the villainess goddess. Maybe Bro forgot that he was just rambling about gouging out our MC's eyes.
....
And meanwhile, in an ordinary bedroom...
Devi casually opened her attic door, retrieving a small treasure box containing an ancient-looking pendant. A small golden handle that made way to three small spears. With practiced nonchalance, she slipped it around her neck.
The moment the metal touched her skin, her eyes blazed golden, which was brown seconds ago.
"The time has come," she murmured, her gaze fixed in the direction of Inso's home.
Character Profile: Rex
Age- Unknown
Gender- Probably male
Height: 179 cm
Skill: Teleportation, Black hole eyes, Purple strings and aura that could burn like acid (For now)
Likes and dislikes: Meh, not telling ya for now.