Liam slowly began to wake up, feeling his head resting on something soft and warm, accompanied by a familiar sense of safety. Fingers gently ran through his hair with care and love, slow and steady, transmitting calm. When he opened his eyes, what he saw were Carrie's beautiful green eyes looking at him with clear affection, relief reflected in them as she saw him wake up.
"You're awake, Liam. You slept for about an hour," Carrie said with a soft smile, never stopping her gentle strokes through his hair.
Liam blinked a couple of times before fully focusing, taking a deep breath.
"I lost… thank you for taking care of me," Liam said regretfully.
His voice sounded low, with a hint of frustration, as he tried to sit up a little.
"It doesn't matter that you lost. You looked like you were about to die when you fell unconscious," Carrie said, trying to reassure him.
She gently shook her head and placed a hand on his chest to keep him from getting up too fast.
"I still need to become stronger. I still lack combat experience to avoid making the mistakes I made today in that fight," Liam said as he slowly got up. "Let's keep looking for more Demogorgons and their variants in this place."
His eyes once again showed determination as he stood up, dusting the dirt off his body.
"While you were unconscious, none appeared. That seemed very strange to me," Carrie said, confused.
She looked around the floating desert with a frown, as if expecting something to emerge at any moment.
"They're probably hiding, like their king or queen."
Liam didn't know what gender the Mind Flayer was, but he suspected it had also made all the Demogorgon variants hide when they noticed that nothing appeared in their world of origin. He didn't like that idea at all.
"Well, let's search for a while anyway," Liam said.
"Yeah, let's go," Carrie replied as she lifted them both with telekinesis.
Their bodies gently rose from the ground, moving across the arid terrain.
"Leave marks along the way so we know how to get back later," Liam said seriously. He didn't want them to get lost in a world whose size they didn't know. Getting lost here would be a sure death for them; without food or water, they would be finished.
"Mmm."
Carrie nodded, and as they moved forward using telekinesis, they left large marks on the terrain—deep grooves and displaced rocks—so they would know where they had passed when they returned.
While they searched, Liam checked to see what skill he had obtained from killing Vecna. His expression became serious as he opened his system.
[ENTITY DEVOURING SYSTEM]
Host: Liam
Age: 15
[SKILLS]
[OBSERVATION] [LVL 1]
[PROTECTION OF MEMORIES] [LVL MAX]
[PSYCHIC SENSITIVITY] [LVL 1]
[TELEPATHY] [LVL 1]
[DREAM DOMINION] [LVL 1]
[ABNORMAL RESISTANCE] [LVL 6]
[MINOR IMMORTALITY] [LVL 8]
[FAITH] [LVL 1]
[SUPERNATURAL PHYSICAL STRENGTH] [LVL 5]
[SUPERNATURAL RESISTANT BODY] [LVL 2]
[NIGHT VISION] [LVL 1]
[SUPERNATURAL REGENERATION] [LVL 2]
[MENTAL INVASION] [LVL 1]
[SYSTEM SYNCHRONIZATION 49%]
[MISSIONS]
[GUIDE]
[SKILL FRAGMENTS] [855]
[REMAINING SKILLS]
[SUPERNATURAL RESISTANT BODY] [LVL 1] x1
[SUPERNATURAL PHYSICAL STRENGTH] [LVL 1] x3
Mental Invasion seemed to be his new skill. It was precisely the ability Vecna had used to knock him out by touching his head with his fingers. Liam frowned and selected it to see if there had been any changes.
[MENTAL INVASION] [LVL 1]: Allows the user to invade the minds of others and draw them into their memories, but they can awaken the moment they realize it isn't real.
Seeing this, Liam couldn't help but slowly shake his head, crossing his arms. It seemed it had indeed been weakened a bit, but he trusted that once he leveled it up, it would return to its original potential.
About two hours passed as they searched for life in the surrounding area, hoping to find something, but without success. The landscape remained silent and empty—too calm. Not even Carrie's ability to sense living beings managed to detect anything along the entire path.
Seeing that they wouldn't find any more Demogorgons, Liam decided to spend his fragments on a skill that would now be far more useful with Mental Invasion, even in combat: Dream Dominion. He spent his fragments there, hoping to increase the damage he could deal and gain better control over dreams, creating more realistic scenarios that would be harder to distinguish from the real world.
Liam felt tempted to further increase his supernatural regeneration or physical strength, but thinking that he would return to this dimension from time to time to explore the Abyss and search for Demogorgons if they stopped hiding, he decided to leave them as they were for now.
DREAM DOMINION [LVL 1]: Allows the user to enter their own dreams or those of anyone they know. Within dreams, the user can control them as long as the dream's owner allows it or does not realize it is a dream (if the target realizes it is a dream, part of the control is lost). The user can affect reality from dreams; damage or other effects on the physical body are transferred at 25% to others or, if the user wishes, to themselves.
After seeing its effects at level 1, Liam didn't hesitate and spent the fragments to level it up.
DREAM DOMINION [LVL 7]: Allows the user to enter their own dreams or those of anyone they know. Within dreams, the user can fully control them. The user can affect reality from dreams; damage or other effects on the physical body are transferred at 75% to others or, if the user wishes, to themselves.
Seeing the changes, Liam didn't regret upgrading it. The skill changed significantly upon reaching level 7. Although it still didn't reach the level of its original user, it was already close. Now he could deal far more damage in dreams compared to when it was level 1.
While upgrading this, he remembered that for future plans he would need to increase Telepathy, so he spent the remaining 220 skill fragments on it.
TELEPATHY [LVL 1]: You can communicate mentally with one person within a range of one hundred meters.
Expecting improvements, Liam leveled it up without hesitation.
TELEPATHY [LVL 5]: You can communicate mentally with multiple people within a range of one hundred kilometers.
Liam opened his eyes wide at the massive change to the skill, surprising even himself. The range had grown to an absurd level. For now, he could only imagine how much better it would become at higher levels.
With that, Liam was left with only 70 fragments, which he decided to save for now, in case he obtained a more useful skill in the future.
[ENTITY DEVOURING SYSTEM]
Host: Liam
Age: 15
[SKILLS]
[OBSERVATION] [LVL 1]
[PROTECTION OF MEMORIES] [LVL MAX]
[PSYCHIC SENSITIVITY] [LVL 1]
[TELEPATHY] [LVL 5]
[DREAM DOMINION] [LVL 7]
[ABNORMAL RESISTANCE] [LVL 6]
[MINOR IMMORTALITY] [LVL 8]
[FAITH] [LVL 1]
[SUPERNATURAL PHYSICAL STRENGTH] [LVL 5]
[SUPERNATURAL RESISTANT BODY] [LVL 2]
[NIGHT VISION] [LVL 1]
[SUPERNATURAL REGENERATION] [LVL 2]
[MENTAL INVASION] [LVL 1]
[SYSTEM SYNCHRONIZATION 49%]
[MISSIONS]
[GUIDE]
[SKILL FRAGMENTS] [70]
[REMAINING SKILLS]
[SUPERNATURAL RESISTANT BODY] [LVL 1] x1
[SUPERNATURAL PHYSICAL STRENGTH] [LVL 1] x3
His skills now looked much better, with only a few level 1 abilities remaining. Liam was genuinely happy with his improvements in Hawkins and with what this journey had allowed him to achieve.
Once he finished his upgrades, Liam decided it was time to return. Seeing no results, it wasn't worth wasting more time searching. Together with Carrie, they began heading back the way they had come. His expression was serious and focused, his mind replaying everything they had seen without finding clear answers.
Two hours later, they finally saw the place where they had entered. With a decisive movement, they opened the entrance again and returned to the Upside Down, where only silence remained. The absence of sound and movement made it clear that almost nothing was left alive, the result of the cleanup they had carried out a few hours earlier.
Without wasting time, they moved toward the exit. Their steps were firm but cautious, both remaining alert for any sign of danger. When they crossed the portal, they saw Steve, Jonathan, Nancy, and Eleven waiting for them on the other side.
Nancy was asleep on Jonathan's shoulder, her face relaxed from accumulated exhaustion. Jonathan, meanwhile, kept his gaze fixed forward, just like Steve, never taking his eyes off the soldier whose mind Eleven was reading at that very moment. Eleven was sitting, focused, with a slight frown on her face. Between her legs was a notebook filled with several pages of information, all extracted directly from the soldier's mind.
Eleven's face reflected intense hatred as she delved deeper into his memories, her lips pressed together and her breathing controlled. However, there was also determination in her eyes—she was resolved to keep searching for all the information the Hydra member held, no matter how unpleasant it was.
"They're back!" Steve shouted, straightening up a bit and raising his voice. Relief could be heard in his tone as he saw Liam and Carrie cross the portal safely.
Steve's shout woke Nancy, who blinked several times before sitting up slightly. At the same time, it made everyone else turn their heads toward Liam and Carrie as they approached, watching them closely.
"So, what happened? Did you manage to get rid of all those monsters on the other side?" Nancy asked, her voice still a little groggy but with clear concern on her face.
Liam looked at her for a moment before shaking his head, letting out a soft sigh. "Partially, yes. We killed all the ones that were on the other side." That gave hope to those listening; some even relaxed their shoulders a little. But Liam continued in a more serious tone. "However, the place that portal leads to isn't where the monsters come from. It's just the path to get here. There's another dimension—when they find its entrance, that's where they come from." Liam looked each of them in the eyes, making sure they understood, and continued. "And they hid when we arrived. We couldn't find them."
That caused everyone to lower their heads, disappointment reflected in their gestures and posture. The atmosphere became heavy for a moment.
"But don't worry, I don't think they'll come back for a while. They're too scared for that," Liam said, raising his voice slightly and adopting a calmer tone to reassure them.
That seemed to ease everyone a bit. Steve breathed more easily, and Jonathan loosened the tension in his body.
"Well, at least they won't hurt anyone else for some time," Jonathan said, nodding lightly.
Liam nodded in agreement and changed the subject, shifting his gaze toward Eleven.
"I see you're doing what I asked," Liam said, looking at Eleven and glancing at the notebook between her legs.
"Yes. You said he was responsible for everything happening in this town," Eleven said as she looked at him, then turned her head toward the unconscious Hydra member with a hard expression. "You weren't lying. I found all kinds of horrible information in his memories, and there's still a lot more to find." As she said this, Eleven also seemed uncertain, her fingers tightening slightly around the notebook as if she didn't know what to do next.
Seeing this, Liam spoke calmly, extending a hand toward her. "Let me see the notebook."
Eleven hesitated for a moment. Her gaze shifted from the notebook to Liam and then back to the soldier before she finally picked it up and handed it to him.
Liam examined the notebook carefully, turning the pages slowly. His expression changed from time to time, alternating between surprise, concern, and growing seriousness as he read.
As Liam had suspected, in this world it seemed Hydra had taken control of everything happening in Hawkins. As he read, his eyes moved slowly across the pages, each line confirming his suspicions. Everything pointed to Hydra's goal of creating soldiers with the same powers as Henry Creel, using the entire town as nothing more than a laboratory.
The fact that Hydra was pulling the strings behind all those experiments completely changed Liam's plans regarding everyone involved in these problems. At first, he had only planned to help them and take Eleven to a place where she could live more safely without putting others at risk, while helping her search for monsters using that exploration method she could use when entering the water. At the time, that plan had seemed logical and efficient.
It was a great solution to a problem he had realized during his first outing to search for supernatural beings, where after an entire week they had only found one. Liam remembered that feeling of frustration, the waste of time and resources. And on the way back, by pure luck, they had come across a place where there might be a way to solve that problem—something he had then seen almost as an unexpected opportunity.
But now, with Hydra involved, everything changed completely. Liam clenched his jaw slightly as he turned another page. He needed Eleven now, but he knew very well that she wouldn't leave if she knew her loved ones were in danger. And Liam also knew that Hydra—whether Eleven left or not—would kill all her loved ones and everyone involved before continuing to search for her. That certainty caused a bitter feeling to form in his chest.
Liam wasn't cruel enough to leave them alone against such a massive threat. And thinking about it more carefully, he realized something else as he rested the notebook on his legs: it wasn't just Eleven who was useful to his group. The entire group of kids had their own talents. Each one stood out in something different, and over time, they could be far more useful than he had initially thought. That conclusion formed calmly in his mind. So he would help them—but on the condition that in the future, they would work for him.
What he found next in the notebook made Liam frown. There was information indicating that Hydra was responsible for Umbrella being so difficult to destroy, as well as several attempts by Umbrella to kidnap the son of Kaneki and Lucy in Japan. Liam ran his fingers over those lines, carefully reading how all those attempts seemed to have failed. Their Tyrants and other experiments had ended up torn to pieces, failing to achieve their objective.
Apparently, according to the information in the notebook, a Diclonius had never before been crossed with a Ghoul, and Umbrella was extremely interested in this child due to his evolutionary potential.
In another part of the notebook, he found even more disturbing information. It spoke of a planet that seemed to be approaching at the speed of light, and that anyone who saw it would go insane after a short time. Liam froze for a few seconds, rereading that section more carefully, as if expecting to find some mistake.
Liam had no idea what that could be. He didn't remember anything like it from his previous life. His gaze drifted for a moment as he searched his memories, but found nothing. He could only think that it was something not very well known—something he had never come across before. Even so, just reading about its effects was enough for him to consider it extremely dangerous.
He also found information about many monsters, ghosts, and other types of supernatural beings that seemed to be captured by humans in various parts of the world. Liam read with growing discomfort how those places simulated what usually happened in horror movies, as if everything were a show planned for the enjoyment of others.
At that, Liam couldn't help but make a disgusted expression. His lips twisted slightly as he clenched his free fist. It was hard for him to understand how people capable of doing such things could exist in this world. At the same time, a firm decision settled in his mind. He was determined to seek out those places, kill all those monsters, and put an end once and for all to the amusement of those who organized everything.
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AUTOR NOTE: Remember that you have all week to try to reach the top 25.