I had to give it to the creature. The mental work was excellent. Every ghost had the natural ability to cause fear, but this show was really good. So good, in fact, that I almost missed the slight poke in my mental landscape. The presence in my mind slowly made its way deeper into my mind, towards the part of the psyche where surface fears and phobias were placed as I stood looking around, trying to find the enemy.

  Breaking into someone's mind was difficult if you did not have a natural ability, like ghosts or seers. But even for those creatures, it was hazardous because to break into someone's mind directly, you must establish a two-way connection. And if you run into someone proficient in mind arts…

  If I were a normal person, I would probably just wonder why I am thinking about some scary memory from the past right now, as the creature got a good look at my fears. But I was not a normal person, and this was precisely what I was waiting for.

  The presence in my mind was moving forward cautiously until it suddenly stopped. It finally noticed that something was horribly wrong, probably warned by a primal sense of fear that arose in it. But it was too late. Using my own mental strength, I grabbed the tentacle-like construct in my mind, locking it in place, and made my way to the thing on the other end, no stealth, just brute force attack. Once there, I started to rummage through the creature's psyche like an elephant in a glass shop, looking for anything useful.

  I could feel the mind on the other end, it was much more complex than any spirit I encountered before but I had no time to ponder. The part of it in my mind started to retreat in a panic. Having access to some of my memories, it started bombarding me with my own childhood, hoping some memory would elicit enough of a response to break my concentration.

  The memories flashed before my eyes as I made my way in the creature's mind, looking for its plan or, preferably, location. I could see my own past intertwined with the ghosts as part of me was looking at it, and part of it was bombarding me with my own childhood.

  A memory of a head in a complicated glass container looking at me with a warm smile flashed inside my mind.

  The creature was preparing a trap.

  People chanting in strange language as thirteen-year-old me sat in front of a massive sculpture with dimensions, angles and colors not of this world.

  A distraction, then an attack, the creature was planning a killing blow.

  An old massive book with strange symbols, the most blasphemous text of mankind passed to me.

  Something more, a rouse within a rouse, something was wrong, something… As I tried to make my way deeper, the connection was lost, and the presence retreated as I hastily used one of my talismans to block a hasty attack.

  I revealed part of its plan, but there was something else, something I did not get to see. I had to be extra careful. But there's no point dwelling on that right now. All I could do was increase my focus and hope to kill it before any new variable came into play.

  Time to spring the trap.

  I raised the talisman as another black needle crashed into a see-through shield created by it and sprinted towards the place where the creature probably had its origin. The doorway at the end of the corridor where the man was shot was my destination. I pulled out a glass bottle with my special holy water concoction. Whatever was living here should feel the antithesis of its own energy radiating from the bottle.

  As I was almost by the place where the man died, the trap sprung.

  The doors to my left leading into the bathroom swung open, and a massive spike made out of shadows flew straight at me. No shield at the first or second circle could block that attack entirely as it was prepared in advance. The feeling of triumph could be felt radiating from the creature.

  Gotcha.

  Panther's agility

  I used a second circle spell stored in the staff and barely twisted myself out of the way of the spike. My left hand, holding the compass-like talisman, just barely made contact with the attack, some of the mana making its way into the contraption as the strength of the attack threatened to rip it from my hand.

  A trick only possible thanks to the creature's exact angle and moment of attack being revealed to me. I heard a shriek of anger coming from down the hall. I took the comas-shaped amulet and activated it with my own mana.

  I got the fucker now, once the compass locked in the direction of the spirit all I needed to do was to rip it to pieces, and if it retreats ino it’s layer it will point at the entrance, I got it cornered now. I checked for any attack and looked at the compass.

  My moment of triumph was a mistake. As the amulet activated, I was ready to fire off a spell in any direction it pointed, ending it with a corrupting curse right to the soul after, followed by a holy water bath for the ghost just to be sure. But the compass started to spin around like a carnival ride.

  I tried to use a shield talisman. But I was a heartbeat too late. The attack connected. It was another one prepared in advance, but this time, it just materialized right in front of me out of nowhere. The only thing saving my life was the fact that I was on edge, knowing there was a variable I was not aware of and the lingering effect of the panther's agility.

  The attack ripped through my armor spell, and only the movement I managed to make changed it from one that would have cut my throat to one that just left a long wound on the side of my neck. I quickly used the staff to cast Whaling armor, using up my last second circle spell stored as two more attacks connected.

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  What followed seemed like rain pattering on concrete. The attacks now rained from everywhere, originating right next to me, not from shadows or the creature now standing at the end of the hall smiling.

  No, they just appeared out of nowhere in the middle of the air.

  I didn’t understand how. It made no sense, but I had no time to think about it now. I was recasting a first circle shield repeatedly, using the time brought to cast another one before the old spell gave out. But I could not keep going like that. The creature had more resources in its home territory, and once my mana was out, it would rip me to shreds.

  I needed to break the balance.

  I tried to move towards the stairs, but the attacks seemingly could originate anywhere in the house. Nothing was changing.

  The thick tendrils of darkness protecting the doors and windows smashed any thoughts of running. I was too deep in the house.

  If I were capable of panicking, I probably would be right now, but my mind was still focused, allowing me to think clearly.

  I needed a solution in the next thirty seconds. It was time to gamble. Instead of armor, I cast Dome of Protection, a second circle spell much stronger than armour or shield but not mobile, putting as much mana into the spell as I could without it going out of my control. Muffle, I quickly chanted after, cutting off all sound from my surroundings. I sat down like a monk meditating in the rain, the water drops replaced by deadly needles ready to turn me into a skewer.

  With the stronger cast of dome, I had maybe 15 seconds. With my thoughts speeding up in the state of meditation, I may have bought a minute of uninterrupted thinking time before my demise. How was the creature attacking? Spacial magic? But that was hard to cast, took massive amounts of power that I would feel.

  Some artifact? a trap created by my broker? no that was stupid, the organization wouldn’t fuck up their thousands of years old image for one assassination.

  No, I needed something simple. Most of the time, the most obvious answer was the right one.

  I felt the dome creak. And it hit me, a simple answer. My eyes shot open from the emotional rollercoaster. There was an explanation that I didn't consider as it was impossible.

  But it was simple and fit, and if it was simple and fit, then it should be correct.

  But it can’t be, some part of me protested.

  A torrent of thoughts was now squirming inside of me

  How?

  why?

  impossible.

  But am I sure?

  Should I gamble on the impossible being true?

  The simple answer was not dimensional magic but planar magic. The difference was that planar magic was possible to cast silently and with little effort by creatures that lived in other plains and had the natural ability to interact with ours. If this was the case, then the creature fit as well. It was not a ghost, spirit, apparition, or any other being that I knew, but one that I read about in old books.

  It was a spawn, a creature that creates a nest where the universe's mana vein meets the mortal plain. Its specialty was the ability to cast from anywhere near its nest, as the plains in that place would overlap. It was said that walking into the nest without a spatial lock, which I did not have, was suicide even if you were more powerful than the beast. It all fit, but there was a problem. Mana veins no longer existed, they were shattered by the war two thousand years ago.

  I felt the dome strain. I needed a solution fast. All I confirmed now, assuming that I was right, was that I’m screwed.

  But wait, a terrible idea entered my head.

  If this place connects to a vein, then it also connects to other plains. If that were the case, then could I, or more importantly, should I contact something from another plane?

  It could be suicide but…

  I firmed my resolve as I let the dome crack, not casting a new one. I closed my eyes once again as arrows of death hurled towards me. This time, instead of meditation I went deeper into my mind. Time outside stopped to have meaning as I fell through my own psyche. The feeling was similar to the falling sensation one gets as they jerk awake in their beds, but constant. I felt myself in a free fall until the feeling stopped, and I arrived.

  A place near the primal fears, a part of the unconscious mind responsible for the greatest fear of all.

  The fear of the unknown.

  If entered by any person, their mind would collapse, seeing the manifestation of fear itself. But it was just an empty space for me. Well, almost empty. I knew that time had no meaning here. This space was ruled by its own laws. Everything gambled on this one card. The moment I exited this place, I would be killed.

  I looked around. It was missing any landscape, like a massive field of gray, cracked ground in permanent half darkness. Whenever I arrived, it was always the same. The point where I stood was lit up like I was standing under a street light in the night. And no matter what, I would arrive standing with my back facing IT when falling here.

  I took a peek over my shoulder.

  A swirling abyss, a wall of darkness so deep that even looking at it made it seem like the light never existed and was but a fever dream of humanity. And if you stared too long, it would stare back.

  I ripped my eyes from the darkness and looked to my right. There was a rope there. I could not tell you where it originated, even if I tried. It looked like an old linen rope, one end stretched far into the gray landscape, disappearing on the horizon, and the other end disappearing in the darkness behind me. The rope was a symbol of a contract made years ago.

  But I knew exactly what was there on that end. What I was feeling now was the closest I could get to fear. Like I knew I should be terrified, everything in me screamed to cower in fear. My mind should be pulverized by the smallest part of the entity behind me, but at the same time, I could not feel the emotion that should kill me right now.

  My shaking hand approached the line, knowing I couldn’t stay in this space forever. I was still running through scenarios for other solutions, but nothing came to mind. I firmed my resolve.

  Placing my finger on the rope, I tugged ever so gently and… it was attached. Any other time I tried that anywhere other than in front of the statue back in my family’s storage, it would just fall to the ground on any touch. But now it firmly stayed attached to something in the darkness.

  One more deep breath. “Let's get it over with,” I whispered to myself.

  I cleared my mind of any doubt, I was empty,

  ‘No emotion to spiral into madness, no desire to become obsession, no fear to become phobia’.

  I recited the mantra, and with one quick move, I pulled on the line and invoked the eldritch god's name.

  “Azathoth”