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nThe two of us started to walk into the stretching forest, but Mex didn't talk right away, but he probably knew that I would be distracted. If he did, the man was not wrong because I could stop looking at the strange birds and insects that moved so strangely.

nThe insect stretched its legs along, reaching forward and then planting afoot, and another would stretch. More than once, Mex had to put a hand on my back to keep me moving as a small bird-like creature would float by.

nThey were like feathered balls with rippling one foot streaming flat one-inch wide bands flowing out of them. Each time one would float by, I would become distracted by its impossibleness.

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"The world is amazing, there is no doubt about that, but we took the beauty of its Impossible naturalness and perverted it. These creatures are all Demons, and now they wander mindlessly. Demonizing a species doesn't make them intelligent,

" Mex said and then stopped to point at two clearly different bugs.

nOne had a stretched horn and eight stretched legs, while the other only had three legs and a spiked shell. The two were moving in a strange stretching manner towards each other.

nI had seen other bugs and birds with creatures of the same species. Yet, I had not seen any other species mixing, so I watched the pair Mex was motioning to.

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"The demon inside of us doesn't like even the other races of our own kind, but we barely like our own, to begin with. In the unthinking beasts, this is changed, and they treat those of the same species normally but hate every other species,

" Mex explained, and that was when the insects reached each other.

nThe horn on the firs bent down on its own, and the multi-legged beetle charged, but the other insect bent forward. The strike was deflected with the spiked shell of the other, but then all the spikes stretched out like tentacles fast as whips.

nThe beetle became ensnared, and the other insect started to stretch its shell to start to eat the other bug. That was about the point that I had looked away, seeing enough and fully understanding what Mex was getting at.

nThe Demons were replacing all life in the worlds with twisted images of the creatures that once were.

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"What about the other Demons that are sentient? Are there any left here?

" I asked as we started to walk again.

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"Yes, there will be the Kareons, the alien tripedal lifeforms that we're the only intelligent and communicating species. There are other brilliant creatures, but they didn't communicate with us, but the Horde fed them bodies of the fallen and then let them tear each other apart,

" Mex explained.

nI listened, but the stretching was starting to worsen, and our steps started to get longer and stretched. I was starting to get worried because the distortion was getting much worse.

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"Hey, are you sure we should keep going this way? This is starting to get really messed up!

" I said as I watched my leg stretch forward impossibly and step down.

nI was having a hard time wrapping my head around what was going on because I couldn't feel my leg stretch. I was starting to go slower than Mex, and he looked just as bad as me, but it wasn't bothering him.

nMex stopped and turned to me, and my eyes went big as I watched his face start to drip but bounce back up when it stretched to a point. I blinked my eyes, trying to make it stop, but now even his eyes were doing it!

nThis was like some crazy drug trip, and I was starting to have a hard time thinking at all. My brain was being hit with so many new stimuli that I was able to process anything but the stretching and now melting world around me.

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"Close your eyes for a moment,

" Mex told me calmly, and I did as he said; panic was starting to creep up.

nThe darkness swallowed the world of distortion, and suddenly everything was expected, but I couldn't see anything. I took a moment to collect myself and slow the churning energy inside me and then was about to open my eyes.

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"Keep them closed for a bit longer; there is no rush. Time is sixty to one for the outside world, so every minute is only a second out there, and Dao is gone, and they will all feel it. So, the women at the beach will start heading this way, and the other demons will as well. I don't know what they will do; none of them have ever been without a leader,

" Mex explained.

nIf it took then four hours to get here from the other side of the island, that would be thirty-two hundred minutes. Then divide that by twenty-four to give us… oh wow.

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"Yes, we have almost ten days before the girls get here, but we don't have that long. The maximum time inside is five days, and after that, everything is reset. You can open your eyes now, but move fast because we are in the thick of the distortion. Concentrate on looking forward into a distant spot, and it will make it easier,

" Mex explained, and I opened my eyes.

nIt took me a moment to recognize where I was because there was barely any distortion, but I could feel its edge back. I started to move Mex pointed forward.

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"We are going straight until we get out of the woods, so just focus on ahead, and let me know if you need to stop. Just know that each time you close your eyes, the effect lessens and the distortion becomes more engraved into your mind,

" Mex informed me, and I nodded.

nI tunneled my vision forward and focused on getting out of this twisted forest.. As I started to jog, I worried about how the girls were doing and how they would deal with the Demons.

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