"Ah..."
Aboard the giant ship, Lorne lay on the floor in agony, with only a sliver of consciousness remaining. Amid that indescribable pressure and those maddened whispers, his mind seemed liable to shatter at any moment.
Heh... I knew it. That fellow had no good intentions either. He must have tampered with my mind.
Lorne gave a bitter chuckle. He knew perfectly well that an ancient existence like the Mind Dragon, who had lived for who knew how long, was no benevolent soul. Since He believed Lorne still had value and could benefit Him, there was no way He would refrain from planting something in him.
After leaving East Chester County, Lorne had examined himself and found nothing wrong. But that only meant the other party had not tampered with him openly. A high-sequence Spectator leaving a back door was entirely possible.
Sure enough, what happened today had confirmed that suspicion.
That said, Lorne was also grateful. With this ship sealed off, the Mind Dragon, who could transmit His power through the mind world, was probably the only existence capable of coming to his rescue.
But even with this high-sequence Spectator's help, the battle being fought over Lorne's body and mind remained an agonizing stalemate.
These mutated Worms of Time seemed to do more than merely parasitize and devour him. Besides forcibly suppressing Lorne's thoughts and actions, they seemed to be transferring something into his body. Meanwhile, the Mind Dragon's assistance-or resistance-was also proving difficult. The Trojan Horse of Destiny before Lorne was Sequence 2, just like Him, and it was much closer, practically attacking at point-blank range. Without the advantage of sanity, a lone Mind Dragon could not have resisted the mutated Trojan Horse of Destiny's corrosion at all.
Maintaining the status quo and keeping Lorne from immediately losing