Chapter 382 is now available for reading. This chapter finally concludes the rescuing element of Yumi. While the following chapters will remain multi-perspective for the time, it will start shifting attention to Yumi until she becomes the main character that the majority of the story is seen through. This was a chapter that I was pretty uncertain about how to do well, which I'm thankful that it turned out as well as it did.

The chapter plays things a little more subtly, as I intended to, show the progressive degradation of Yori's sanity. It handles things in three stages as Yumi's mind tries to break him completely. The maze, or the labyrinth that is literally seen at the start is the same thing that was present inside Yori during Athene's invasion of his mind. That part alone was enough to drive her to near insanity and break her mind such that her brain literally can't function properly hence the lose of her eye sight. That Yori survives the literal maze is a sign of his difference from Athene mentally.

The other two phases are still all part of what is called the Labyrinth of the Subconscious Floor 1. Yori never made it any deeper. And the thing that left Athene in despair was knowing that she had only cracked the door to gain access to Floor 1 essentially. Their mental defenses are that more complex than a normal human, eve compared to other superhumans. Yori would not have nearly the same sort of trouble with anyone else.

Each phase works on a different part in breaking Yori down until he is ready for the next part. The maze is meant to alter and change perception. Give you hope while never showing you anything. And slowly work on breaking you down until you start actually accepting and feeling comfortable with chaos. Once chaos feels normal then you're dropped into something static. Pushed to the edge of order and chaos, something unchanging now puts cracks into the thinning sanity now. You know time is passing, but no progress is made and nothing changes. It is the same. And like a constant slow drip of water on your forehead it starts to chip away at your sanity. You lose a sense of self and identity as your sanity breaks. And with your sense of identity gone you can't remember yourself or your intent only the pattern. And are dumped into the final area until you completely exhaust yourself. There Yori sees multiples of himself because he no longer sees himself as a person or as Yori just something existing without personal definition. He is defined by others external goals. He's is nearly broken and has little traces of sanity left. He longer even knows which of the many Yoris is the real one. With that it is just a wait until he completely collapses and at that point he would completely lose his sense of even external definition as the others are gone and he ceases to have anything that could be considered an existence. Collapsed, he's out of his mental energy and can no longer go on anymore fully drained and will in time be absorbed into Yumi's mind scape completely unknowingly.

A sliver though remained that made use of Yuki, something that angers him and he is able to focus long enough to actually use his power correctly and locates Yumi before it's too late. But not before the damage is already done to him. It's a rather complicated and involved process that happened all in a single chapter. Yori is permanently affected by this though like Athene before him. He went too far and the damage can't be reversed. It amounts to specific brain damage basically that destroyed his brain's receiving and interpreting the light it sees. And he does literally have blood filled eyes right now from the physical strain left upon him.

Enjoy!