Robert approached a mansion on foot. He wore his symbiote suit. The intercom buzzed to life.

"Mr. Blaze!" Calling Card's voice came from the speaker crystal. "How delightful of you to visit us!"

The gates unlocked with a clack and slowly swung open. Robert walked down the driveway. A flash of flames on the other end announced Calling Card's arrival.

The bastard extended a hand. Robert ignored it. He had half a mind to attack but he didn't know the limitations of his talent. Calling Card could vanish instantly.

He could start hostilities at any time. So long they couldn't jam his prescience, it didn't matter who started it. It was an advantage to have them deliver the first attack. At least as far as the aftermath with the local authorities went.

"Cold as always," Calling Card sniffled. "Anyway, the madam awaits."

Guided by the man, Robert entered the mansion and was led to a studio in the back. After knocking and gaining permission, Calling Card let Robert in.

One look at the woman's magic told Robert something was very wrong. Known records for Madam Giovanna Boni never stated she had either the Death or the Unholy affinities, yet she was undead. Sense life gave him no readings until he switched to the negative setting. But the woman had four stars. Robert had to tread carefully.

He felt pain and something wrong inside him. Robert looked down and noticed the same curse he suffered in the Puffbloom Islands.

"Damien. You are uglier than before."

The woman started to laugh. Tremors rippled underneath her bloated skin.

"I will let this insult slide, darling," Damien said, still using the mannerisms of the woman he possessed. "In fact, I must thank you. I spent thirty years without knowing the true purpose of my talent!"

Of course. The curses he placed on people drained a small amount of lifeforce for him. But that was just an evolution. The real purpose of his talent was to cheat death. Damien never learned it because his first death was when they met.

"Why the monologue?" Robert asked.

"Because I don't care!" Damien screeched. It seemed he was burdened by more than just the mannerisms of the body he took. "Even though this woman is a four-star Arch, look at me!"

She slapped a button on her desk and wards hummed to life, trapping Robert inside. He felt a pressure on his spatial senses as they became mute. Pappardelle's memories told him it was a spatial lock enchantment. Depending on the grade, it could block his main talent, at least until the mandatory shift in twenty-four hours.

"But at least I got an upgrade to my talent. Holy essence can no longer remove my seeds. You are mine!"

The reason she lured Robert here became obvious. She wanted to take over his body!

"See you soon!" The woman cackled like a C-grade villainess. "Unholy Detonation!" She shouted.

Time slowed as iRobert used Haste instinctively. His Prescience was screaming.

He activated his main talent and felt resistance. The woman's stars were going supernova as the suicide unique spell converted all of the woman's essence, stars, shells, and even two trapped spirits into explosive potential.

The spatial lock broke and Robert shifted. Colors drained from the explosion but he had wisened up after that station core exploded. Robert dove into the true void.

He picked his return destination two thousand feet above the mansion and a mile to the side. There, he watched as the massive ether-fueled explosion moved at a snail's pace. The blast from the station core moved at the speed of light. This one? Not so much. It was several orders of magnitude weaker. And it seemed weaker than the realm-ending blast they witnessed in the Gravity Slime Caverns.

The curse inside him stirred. He felt a foreboding, life-ending premonition. The Seed of Unholy Rebirth fell into his soul and started to take over. Damien was moving into his soul.

Robert dove into his Ethercosm and screamed in shock. The seed, an ominous black sun, was tainting his soul.

But more than half of the cursed energy was being drawn to the Void Gates of Nirvana. That soul tempering was slowing down the takeover.

Robert drew all the essence in his Void Heart and tossed it at the black sun intent on disintegrating the offending parasite. He managed only to clamp down on the stream of Unholy energy tainting his soul down to a trickle.

But that meant that most of the seed's power now went to the Void Gates of Nirvana.

Damien's consciousness awakened inside the seed. "You! Why must you interfere with my–" The Unholy reincarnator screamed as Robert decided to expedite the process by using his considerable willpower to toss the Seed into the open gates.

"Those are the gates of reincarnation, asshole. Better luck in your next life!"

"Nonsense!" Damien shrieked. "Even if you destroy this seed, I have thousands!"

"Your soul is going down," Robert pointed. There will be nothing left to awaken your… Seeds of Unholy Rebirth after that. They will either go dormant or vanish!"

Damien's focus shifted and confidence tinted his voice. "I guess I will have to settle for my backup plan, then! See you soon, lover boy!"

With that, Damien's consciousness vanished from Robert's Ethercosm. The seed's energy dropped precipitously and then it was consumed by the Void essence.

Robert flushed the Void essence from his system through his Void Veins.

Exhausted and spent, he floated in his soul as his Void Heart beat fast to replenish its reserves. When he looked at his stars, shock struck him.

Damien's failed rebirth had tainted his stars with corrupted Ether. An eight slice of color confirmed his fears. He had gained the Unholy affinity.

*

*

Opening his eyes to gaze into the nothingness of the true void, Robert reminisced about what happened and what Damien's soul said.

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Robert became alarmed as he thought about the backup plan. The reason he called Robert a lover boy became obvious.

Damien gave up on Robert because he went after Amanda.

He moved to the Pappardelle residence and found it destroyed. His three Minotaurs were battered and wounded on the ground, with huge gashes and missing limb parts. One was even run through the heart. For all purposes, they should be dead and their link severed. What happened, then?

Robert spared no time to think about that. He had to find Amanda. He searched around and even found the lawyer's office. No signs of Amanda.

He knew she wasn't in the exploding mansion. Damien was a deranged monster but he wasn't an idiot.

Fairy-Robert tempered Jade Mind while he waited. When he returned, he used Retrocognition on the office building door. He saw Amanda going unconscious and then he shifted the focus of his spell to her. Speeding up the passage of time in his vision, Robert flew after the limousine's temporal echo to where they held Amanda captive.

The invisible fairy hovered above a nondescript house in Florence. He knew Amanda was inside. Calling Card was standing guard inside, dozens of his cards spread all around the house lot, the street, the roof, and the neighboring houses.

A perfect detection net but also a… good way to let Fairy-Robert know he had the right place.

His fairy eyes saw no defensive wards. So, he ignited his two stars and fired a ten-floor-wide Zoltraak straight above Calling Card. The instantaneous beam vaporized the roof, and the floor around the man, along with the top of Calling Card's head and torso.

Robert earned three points of essence back, confirming the kill. He swooped down the hole as water started to fill the donut-shaped well he created. The rest of Calling Card's body fell down into the hole.

He opened the door to Amanda's room and studied her. She was sitting up, staring at something in her hand. He could see a sphere of green Nature essence there.

"Amanda?"

"Hey, Robert!" She grinned.

In his paranoia, he thought it was Damien. Why would she grin like that if she's been kidnapped?

"Mind–"

"WAIT!" Amanda shouted! "It's me! I can prove it!"

Robert stopped. "Are you sure Damien didn't take over your soul?"

"Yes! Look!"

She showed him the sphere of Nature essence. Inside it was a black seed exactly like the one that had just tried to take root inside his soul.

"What happened?"

"This seed was planted inside me by Madam ______."

"Which was Damien. His talent let him possess people."

"Right. I did think this seed was very similar to the curse he cast on us. So, when the seed started to germinate and dropped onto my soul, I used my talent and plucked it out. But it was too late. This bastard gave me Unholy affinity."

It could still be a hoax. Robert believed, and correctly so, that Damien kept the memories of his victims.

"Is Damien's soul trapped inside the seed?" He asked.

"Hum-hum!" Amanda chirped imperiously as she grinned like a cat who caught the mouse. "Unless this stasis shell goes off, he's not going anywhere."

"There's one way to test this," he said. "Take my hand."

He took her to the true void. There, he had Amanda toss the green sphere away but keep the shell. The void devoured the seed. A tiny orb of Unholy affinity returned to Robert. It caused no I'll effect as he already had one power from that affinity. Now, the affinity itself, Robert reminded himself.

He gained the three points of essence from a kill.

"There," Amanda said. "Satisfied?"

"Yes and no. Damien is an insidious force. Amanda, he takes over his victims completely. I believe he could even impersonate you so well he would fool anything but the deepest mental scans. That's why I'm taking you to see Gerard."

"Gerard?" Amanda balked. "Take me to Granny!"

Robert sighed. “Amanda. Listen to me. I know you are a victim here, but there’s a small chance that Damien took you over. Maybe he was weakened enough that you resisted, but we need to make sure."

She didn't like that suspicion one bit. Amanda gnashed her teeth and rumbled. "Know what, fuck you, Robert! I just got knocked down, infected with this shit again, and fought back. I took the seed out, we tossed it out, and you killed Damien in the liminal void. And now you want what? To get inside my head to see if I'm real? Guess what? Fuck you."

Robert let her vent. It was a stressful situation and they both weren't in their right minds.

"I need to talk to Titania."

"Take me with you."

"Amanda, think about Titania's safety." What he wanted to say was, 'What would happen if you infect her with a seed?' What he said, instead was: "Let me take you somewhere safe."

"Safe, he says," Amanda snorted. "I bet you want to leave me stranded somewhere deep in the interspace. Fuck you. I'm out of here!"

Amanda started to walk away. Robert used his talent.

*

*

Robert appeared right next to Titania. "No time to talk. Amanda might be in danger! Come with me!" He held his hand out. She took it with a stern look. He took her to the liminal void. There, he explained to Titania what happened. "Do you know any way to tell if she's still Amanda or if Damien took over her soul?"

"Wait here, I'll call a specialist. He will keep me safe from infection while I examine Amanda's mind. It's the only way," Titania said.

They returned after a few days of tempering right beside the specialist. Titania used her telepathy to explain and they were back to Tuscany. Amanda had walked fifty feet out of the house when they dropped next to her. She was crying.

"Granny!" Amanda rushed to hug her.

The specialist's talent was called Sacrificial Shield. Any debuffs cast on a person under his protection were redirected to him.

"Child, let me see inside you," Titania said.

The megacorporation matriarch didn't wait for permission, using her Mental essence right away. Amanda went stiff as a board but Titania held her. A minute later, Amanda slumped.

"She's fine. Unless Damien can erase his mental patterns, there's not a single trace of his mind inside her," Titania declared. "Robert, take us back to the Arcology. I'll keep Amanda under observation to see if she displays any aberrant behavior. Also, congrats on getting yet another affinity."

Robert took everyone back to the Arcology. Then he got back to Tuscany. He had another job to do.

*

*

Robert emerged next to Pappardelle's estate. It was destroyed. His Minotaurs were rising up despite being obviously dead.

Zombies.

Robert disintegrated their heads and torsos, severing their connection. Theirs was a bond between the minds. The status, alive or undead, mattered little. Yet he could not let his pets suffer such a condition.

He stood on the hillock where Angelo Pappardelle was buried. His spatial senses told him the corpse was still there, though the headstone and the flowers were gone.

Fuck.

Fuck.

He closed his fists. This was a bloody close call and it might've ruined his relationship with Amanda. He should have killed Calling Card right there at the start.

But Pappardelle was the real victim here. Killed for such a petty motive.

Robert used his main talent again, sat down, and entered his Mind Palace.

*

*

He walked to the library, barely stopping to admire the scenic landscape he dreamed of. Worlds floated above, flowers born of his imagination, plants that didn't exist in the real world, and an imposing and austere library. He walked to the VHS section, where he stored the fragments he stole from the minds he dominated.

For a moment, he paused. Was he a hero or a villain? Where did the line lay? Who decided such a thing.

Robert took the VHS representing Angelo Pappardelle's full mental imprint. A flex of his will was enough to make the man materialize next to him.

"Greetings, Angelo."

Angelo blinked and looked around. "This is not real. Where am I? The real me?"

Robert creased an eyebrow. Did his talent work even here?

"Your last memory of me was signing the contract to rejuvenate you, right?"

"Yes. Did it work?"

Robert created a copy of the ether scroll he auctioned. "See for yourself."

Pappardelle read the scroll. "This is bullshit."

"My talent and a stage four Mental spell I have, together they fill all the requirements. The spell is probably only usable by myself but I bet some Ether scholars are cracking their heads trying to create a device that can replicate the effects."

"I can think of a way, but it would be ridiculously expensive to build and run."

"It is a ridiculously expensive treatment."

"You didn't tell me where the real me is."

Robert told him what happened, the whole truth. He even shared some of his memories with Pappardelle. Angelo just listened with an expressionless face.

"Now, you have a choice. One I'll do my utmost not to influence. Do you want to live here? As an imprint? I'll try to give you as much free will as I can."

"But I'm still a figment of your mind."

Robert didn't say anything. He was doing his utmost to emulate Angelo Pappardelle without any influence from either his conscious or subconscious mind.

"Fine. I'll stay here, and help you do research. But I want to see what you can see when it's appropriate. I don't need to see you taking a leak or shitting."

"I'm a Life Arch. I don't excrete anymore. It's been that way for months." Angelo and Robert shook hands. "Welcome to the team. When I'm not here in person, my imprint will be around. Feel free to bother him with anything."

Angelo laughed. "I will, be sure of that. So, where are the workshops? Did you say I can do whatever in here?"