Brilliant Man/Vir Clarissimus (Latin)

Chapter 19 Fighting Fire with Fire

Ghostly figures began clouding up his view of the road. Their first copying was of multiple Zeds, each one sporting similar features to His Highness. The apparitions also corresponded with his environment, so when the vehicle bumped, so would the spirits.

When hitting another bump, Ozwald mistakenly triggered another transformation. Suddenly, the spiritous group downsized into Hirashitas. Now to show their emotions, their lightbulb-eyes cued through different colors with the same screws, cogs, and nuts stenciled into their proper places. And though the android took on a lifeless, duplicated monotone in these forms, merely seeing him raised Ozwald's own spirits.

Sometime later, each Hirashita flashed its light to its chromatic opposite; these colors assembled, forming the silhouette of a woman. Alicia's soupy features filled this in.

Even as a lifeless avatar, she retained a mostly studious appearance, except for the millions of adorable freckles ascending her pecan nose. Above these freckles was Alicia's trademark, hazel hair, oozing down her shoulders like hive honey. Her eyes glowed in the same animated fascination of her parted lips, and all this came together with her crisp coat, thick boots, and Ozwald's drooling.

Very soon, Alicia separated into two additional persons – Hirashita and Zed – and together these three ghostly subjects crowded the little space of his vehicle while also straining his ability to see forward clearly.

Thoughts on his friends surfaced, a distraction to the behind-the-scenes work of his mind. While straining his eyes, hoping to peer 'through' the ghosts, his mind connected this inability to see forward clearly – because of his friends – with those distracting thoughts, eventually reaching an understanding.

By becoming dependent on his comrades for motivation, Ozwald had destroyed himself, his confidence, and drive. Whether real or simply phantoms of his sleep deprivation, these ghouls were a symbol.

He experienced another realization.

This is all a mind game, Ozwald thought allowed, then started cracking up. Simply, if these trials were based off conscious-scanning technology, then couldn't he simply 'manifest' what he desired. Theoretically, he had the capacity to drive his vehicle with just his mind, as it was merely a virtual object loaded into a game based on his mind.

'I could even 'delete' Zed?' Ozwald laughed, his smile growing wide.

After processing all this, he awaited the tunnel's next straight-path. When it came, Ozwald carefully lifted his hands off the wheel, triggering a small thump from his vehicle. Meanwhile, Ozwald bound together the images of steering wheel, the tunnel, and his car as one, symbiotic code. With his eyes still pressed closed, he slowly conditioned himself to driving by mind, shifting his head either left or right, veering his vehicle in that direction, and therefore manipulating the path his tunnel took to that direction!

Ozwald smirked, thinking a foolish thought. Down with Zed; the beginning of his end!

~

Even with his eyes shut, Ozwald sensed a darkness swelling up from his sides. Moving left or right made no difference and he could feel it in his throat, dropping a patchy, almond-tasting throb which grew into a harsh pain. His heartbeat escalated in response, hopping octaves like those in situation music. In moments, Ozwald was completely swallowed in darkness.

A minute later, his eyes hesitantly opened, then glued shut again with dread. It was a challenge, but eventually Ozwald willed his eyes open.

His environment had changed porcelain to a thickly-rolling smoke that separated itself evenly through his glass-window views. Once the curtains to this terrible film were pulled down, he greeted a disarrayed, neon-red warzone bleeding with shaky, spindly, unhuman soldiers; at that moment, a swell of hooves crossed the floor and large wings beat the air.

The microclimate was dotted in hearths, their exhaust forming dust storms and other surreal weather events which also left indelible fog on his windshield. Meanwhile, Ozwald grazed past a group of silver, beady eyes. Both forces shared a brief look until the cyborg siege preceded Ozwald, storming off into the mist (the sound of their hooves on the ground was similar to that of keyboard clicking).

Though still unacquainted with his environment, Ozwald's gut-wrenching unease reduced to a calm serenity, prompting him to slide shut his eyes, abandoning his outside to instead seek recluse in his mind. Here, he pictured a brilliant, infinite road; the stronger he focused, the more Ozwald detached from the bloody outside until all its sounds were deafened. His new surroundings, though, lived on; Ozwald cleared the infinite road, its end revealing a slightly opened door. Through this door, he found a simultaneously beautiful and brilliant world flooded with natural light. While looking into this room, a similar light also began taking shape, forming into a giant eye.

Then Ozwald was consumed by the eye.