Maren was tired. He was nearing the end of his ten-hour shift in the cremation center of Helms Peak. He wasn't complaining; he was getting paid to practice his class spells. Few jobs offered great pay, zero danger, and also allowed you to level your skills and class, so Maren was happy to do the work. It was just that today had been particularly busy, with a group of three high-level bandits and two former guild members coming in toward the end of his shift. He always hated it when anyone over Level 40 came in. At his low level of twenty-two, it took him a long time to thoroughly incinerate the bodies of persons double his level. He had just finished his rest period following the final bandit’s incineration, a level fifty-two mage. That one had taken him nearly forty minutes.
He moved on to the two guild members who had been kicked out of the guild posthumously. Otherwise, Maren knew, they would have been interred in the guild crypts instead of being cremated.
"Let's see what level you were then, shall we," Maren said as he checked the tag on the female's corpse. "Level thirty-two, oh, that's much better. And the other one is… Level thirty-nine. Slightly more difficult, but still, he could manage before his shift ended. He slid the lower-leveled woman's corpse into the specially built oven designed so he could direct his flame inside without fear of any heat escaping, thus making the operation as efficient as possible. "I hope your soul finds peace in the next life," he said and went to work.
***
"By order of Duke Oberon, cease your actions immediately!" A booming voice filled the room.
The order made Maren jump. He had been daydreaming while he worked, so the harsh words coming from right behind him caused him quite a start. Nevertheless, he kept his composure and stopped channeling his flame spell, turning to the intruder curiously. This wasn't the first time a cremation he was conducting was halted, so Maren wasn't particularly surprised at the order. What surprised him was that the order came from a Church of the Light priest. “When did they get the authority to interfere with city business?” Maren eyed the two representatives of the church with suspicion. One was the priest who had told him to stop. He was wearing his trade's white and gold robes and was holding a piece of parchment in his hand. Beside the priest was a female wearing the sleek white garb of a…what did they call her class? Technomancer, yes, that was it.
The priest broke the silence, handing Maren the piece of parchment, saying, "If you have any objections, you can take it up with the duke, but we will be taking the two bodies regardless." He looked to a city guard who had stepped into the room. "Captain, please remove this mage from the room."
Maren wasn't a fool and didn't give two shits about the dead guild members. Plus, their paper carried the official seal of the duke. He quickly held up his hands as he moved to the door, saying, "Hey, hey, I'm leaving. The girl is mostly ash now; I doubt you'll get anything from her."
The priest scoffed, speaking over his shoulder to Maren as he exited the room, "You greatly underestimate the power of the light, my child. If I were you, I would visit one of our temples to cleanse yourself of ignorance."
"More like being brainwashed into ignorance," Maren thought as he exited the room, closing the door behind him. He knew better than to voice that statement. He had tried to identify the two Children of the Light; all he had received were question marks.
***
"Shall we begin, father?" Cara asked the high priest after depositing Arron and Alina's corpses inside a shallow pool of blood under a statue of their patron goddess and returning to his side by a small waist-high pedestal with a bowl resting atop it off to one side of the white-walled resurrection chamber.
"Of course, child," the high priest said kindly. "Would you like to wake one of them? I understand you haven't done it before, but there is nothing to fear. Our patrons want only devotion from us, and in turn, they grant us the power over life and death."
As a Technomancer, Cara's interest in the church was strictly scientific. Joining them allowed her access to magic beyond what she could ever hope to access on her own. The faith and technology sides of the church maintained mutual respect for each other but were at the end of the day, two separate entities. Although, that being said, many young technomancers were quite devout in their faith in the god and goddess of the light even though it was not a requirement. Cara was one of the few who did not believe in the omnipotence of the two gods and preferred to have confidence in the sciences instead. The high priest knew this; it was a frequent conversation topic between the two of them. So, he wasn't surprised when she respectfully declined his offer. "I will have to decline, Father; I am devoted to learning the magic of the System, not to the cause of the light."
With a disappointed sigh, the robed priest said, "I pray that one day you will see the truth of the light child." Then, reaching out over the bowl, he used a ceremonial blade to cut one of his wrists, allowing his lifeblood to drain into the bowl until it was nearly full.
When enough blood had entered the bowl, Cara cast a simple heal on the high priest. The enchantment on the dagger he had used prevented self-healing for over an hour, making it imperative this be a two-person operation.
Ignoring the blood staining the pure white sleeves of his robes, the high priest plunged his arms into the blood bowl and began mumbling an incantation. Not being one of the faithful, Cara was blocked from understanding a single word of the magic. She could not even make out a syllable. She didn't care, though. Her interest was fixed on the blood-filled pool and, more importantly, the two bodies lying within.
***
"You're going to what?! After what happened last time? Have you lost your mind?" Nara couldn't believe what Sam had just said. In her mind, they were in this situation mainly because Sam had to overclock her cores to fight Naris, and now, she wanted to do it again less than two days later!
“Oh, that’s not the only thing,” Sam said with a slightly manic grin. She handed Nara the summoning token for The Defeated. “Hey, see if you can use this.”
Nara stared blankly at the token for a second, then said, "I don't know how. I've never heard of a summoning token used within the past hundred cycles or more. In fact, that's why the little boy paladin was willing to bet his spatial suite against this token. They are one of the rarest items on the planet."
Sam took the token back and, turning it over in her hand, mumbled, "I doubt it's as easy as saying summon The Defeated—"
At those words, the token shot out of her hand to hover about three meters in front of them. Red energy started coalescing around it as the token spun so fast it became a blur.
"Oops," Sam said, but she was still grinning.
Nara just shook her head. She was getting used to Sam’s borderline insanity.
"Okay, so here's the plan," Sam started but stopped when The Defeated appeared with a pop. Sam was still amazed at how giant the beast was up close. The dark red coat of the massive wolf-like animal glistened in the light of the many burning fires. It still looked intimidating, even devoid of its blood armor. "I can't believe I shoved my arm down that thing's throat. This world has made me freaking mental!" She identified the summoned creature.
‘Bing’ [Elite] Lupine Bloodmorph Exile; [Level 1]; Friendly; Affinity: Blood, Void
Looking at Sam, the Bloodmorph spoke into her mind, "Thank you for this chance to serve, my mistress. I swear my loyalty and life to you for as long as you live."
Sam sent her a party invite and was overjoyed when The Defeated accepted. Adding her to their party chat, Sam asked the summon, "Can you level up by eating cores?"
“Yes,” the soft feminine voice echoed in their minds.
"Good. Then this is the plan," Sam pointed at Nara while speaking to The Defeated, "She will ride you to keep the attention of that beast when it…uh…hatches, evolves —whatever, when the shield around it goes down," she gestured to the massive green and white orb protecting the Brood Mother and continued, "The two of you are to keep it away from me while I do some literal soul searching. But in the meantime, you will eat as many cores as possible." She pointed out the many still smoldering bodies and ash piles illuminated by the still-burning mushrooms across the cavern floor. "There are nearly a thousand cores in this cave. You have five minutes. Go!"
"I require blood," the lupine said, ducking its head like it was about to be scolded for not following Sam's instructions immediately.
"I figured as much," Sam said and looked at Nara, asking, "Do you need mana? And are you and Naris okay with the plan? I have to check on something in my core."
“Yes, and yes,” Nara answered, “distract the evolved beast while you do Pathfinder things. Got it.”
Sam pulled out a large mana and health potion and then chugged the health potion. At the same time, she crafted a giant hollow needle out of her magic and stabbed it into her heart, saying, "Here you go, girl." The defeated wasted no time and took off toward the nearest pile of corpses. The beast took off with Sam's blood trailing after her as she ran.
Sam then stabbed a mana thread into Nara's arm like an IV, but before she started sending her friend Mana, Sam asked a couple of questions directed at Naris, "Naris, have you ever been inside Nara's soul? And if you have, what is in there?"
"He says no and doesn't think it is possible for anyone but the soul's owner to look inside," Nara answered for him, looking questioningly at Sam.
Not wanting to waste any more time, Sam only said, "I'll explain if we survive."
“You mean when we servi—" Nara's statement was cut off. Her back arched, and her eyes rolled back in her head as Sam drank the mana potion and started pumping as much energy into her as she could.
Sam chuckled at Nara, “That ‘O’ face never gets old.” Then her expression hardened. “This has to work. I know what I saw was real.” She settled herself cross-legged on the ash-covered floor of the cave and closed her eyes, entering meditation. As a stream of blood flowed from her heart to a summoned beast on her left, and mana flowed into her friend to her right. She began the process of overclocking her cores, but this time in a more controlled manner. She reached into her mind core and slowly drew some of her reason from it, allowing her rage an upper hand. This was accomplished by focusing on the System's injustice, always putting her and now her friends in constant danger from beings much more powerful than them. It wasn't right; she hadn't asked to be summoned to this world, and she didn't want to fight to survive daily! All she wanted to do was explore and learn exciting new things, but instead, just a walk through the woods was a life-threatening battle! Hell, even her first friend in this world nearly killed her a couple of days ago! And to top it all off— “There!” Her rage had done its job. Sam felt the familiar slowing of time as her cores began cycling at an impossible speed. A perk she had belatedly noticed from her fight with Naris when she played their battle over in her mind the following day. Overclock achieved; Sam’s mental avatar floated down to her soul core, “Now to awaken my inner dragon.”
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
***
Alina screamed when her soul returned to its body. "The arrow, it's going to explode!" Her thoughts were frantic. She grabbed for the arrow, but her hands found no purchase, no arrow. “Where is it? Where’s the arrow?”
"Peace, child," a soothing voice came from above her.
Looking up toward the voice, Alina saw an elderly priest standing in front of her, his arm outstretched toward her. The hems on the sleeves of his white robe were stained red with blood. Accepting the man's hand, she allowed herself to be lifted to her feet. The priest's gentle smile quickly put her chaotic thoughts to rest.
Calm now, Alina took a moment to process what was happening and searched the white room she found herself in. The room was made from the purest white stone, with ornate columns stretching to a high ceiling. Looking behind her, she saw a massive five-meter-tall statue of a woman with a golden halo hovering above her head. The figure held a golden scepter in one hand with the other hand outstretched palm up. Blood flowed from the outstretched hand, filling the shallow pool Alina currently stood in.
"Come. Let us get you cleaned up." The priest said as he led her up a short flight of stairs from the pool. Each bloody footprint Alina left on the steps was instantly absorbed into the stone, leaving it pure white again.
The priest cast a spell on her without permission, and all the blood covering her naked body fell to the stone floor, only to disappear instantly. Alina knew where she was now but was confused as to why. Working up the courage to speak as the priest led her toward the room's exit, she asked, "Why did you bring me back? I am not a member of the church."
When the priest only glanced back at her, she stammered, "I—I mean, thank you! I meant no disrespect!"
The priest only chuckled, saying, "In due time, Alina. All will be revealed in due time." He opened the large double door, saying, "But first, I thought you might wish to be reunited with your father."
Tears welled up in Alina's eyes when she spied her father's figure sitting on a bench in the small waiting area the priest had led her into. He was wrapped in a grey blanket, staring blankly at the floor in front of him. When she walked in, he glanced up and smiled. "Hey there, girl. It looks like we're getting a second chance at life."
***
Arron and Alina were fully clothed and seated at a large table in a white room. Even though the church had tried to disguise the room with decorations like green plants in the corner and small pieces of art on the walls, the room was obviously an interrogation room. This was proven a few minutes later when two people, the priest who had resurrected them and a woman they hadn't met, walked in and sat across from them. When she sat, the woman waved her hand over the table, and a series of translucent displays appeared in front of her. She tapped a series of virtual runes, and the room turned the familiar yellow of truth detection with an audible click coming from the door when it locked. Arron and Alina stiffened, looking at each other. This wasn't looking good for them.
“Please relax,” the priest said soothingly, “you have nothing to fear from the church. We only need to know a few details about the circumstances leading up to your recent demise.”
***
Sam gripped the hole in her soul core, trying to pull it open as much as possible. The tornado of Void energy coming out of it due to her overclocking made the task much more difficult than she had planned. Still, she knew she needed the time dilatation effects to maximize her time before the Brood Mother evolved. “This should be wide enough,” she thought as she held the outer edge of her soul open. Not wasting any more time, she plunged into the dark whirlwind of Void energy blasting out of her soul, and with a surprised yelp, she wasn't buffeted back but forcibly sucked inside!
Sam was aware this time as her mind was pulled into her soul. It was like she was flying through an eternal tunnel of violet and black at warp speed. The exhilaration of flying through space at such a speed was tempered by the uneasy feeling that she was being watched by not one but two separate presences. It was a deeply unsettling feeling, and she was glad when suddenly the tunnel ended abruptly and she found herself back in her old room in the orphanage.
A quick check showed the purple rune she had used to return before was still in place under her bed, as well as the three figurines on the desk. Sam locked her eyes on the dragonkin figurine and stalked toward her desk. All three figures stepped down from their pedestals and walked to the edge of the desk, again opening their chest cavities to expose their cores. However, Sam only focused on the dragonkin and reached to grasp the small marble-sized core in its chest. Her fingers touched the black core, and Sam's smile matched the dragon's.
‘Bing’ You do not meet the minimum requirements to use this avatar. Assimilation with the Draconic Voidling will result in soul destruction.
"What!?!" Sam yelled to the room. "This is bullshit! I need this dragon!" Only silence met her exclamation. Looking at the figure, she asked, "How can I make myself compatible with you?" There was no response.
Knowing she was on a time limit; Sam tried the snake woman.
‘Bing’ You do not meet the minimum requirement to use this avatar. Assimilation with the Duplicitous Lamia will result in soul destruction.
“Fucking tease!” Sam thought, suddenly worried. Her entire plan hinged on this working. She was only doing this because she had seen a couple of notifications when she and Naris were taking a break. She examined the notifications again, thankful that now her interface worked in her soul for some reason.
'Bing' Congratulations! By poisoning your body with volatile magics, you have forced your mind to retreat into your soul, where you have discovered dormant parts of yourself. You may now access this fragment of your soul more easily to view your potential avatars.
'Bing' Congratulations! You have unlocked a hidden ability, Soul Dive! By tearing a hole in your soul and retreating into it due to massive magical poisoning, you have forcibly unlocked a skill you should not have and fragmented your soul. Soul Dive allows you to visit and make alterations to your soulscape and should not be used by anyone below the god tier, but here you are. Using this ability at your current level has splintered your soul. Unable to calculate consequences. Soul Dive has been blocked from your abilities by the System.
Since reading those notifications and not finding Soul Dive in her list of abilities, Sam had been thinking about a way to get back into her soul for those avatars. She figured she was already pretty much screwed, what with having a gaping hole in her core and a fractured soul, so why not at least take an avatar for a test drive. It wasn't like the System was giving her a choice in the matter either; Sam felt like an ant under a magnifying glass with the progressively stronger opponents that could easily kill her with a single attack. She knew it wasn't a question of if, but when the System got tired of her and sent something, she would never be able to retreat from or survive. That's why the Brood Mother evolving didn't even surprise her that much. Sam just figured the System saw her as a failed experiment and was cleaning up its mess. This is precisely why she was doing what the System warned her against doing. She was digging around in her fractured soul, trying to wake up her inner dragon, which was unfortunately not going as well as she had hoped.
Sam grabbed the techno girl’s core in desperation.
‘Bing’ You do not meet the minimum requirement to use this avatar. Assimilation with the Technogog Arcana will result in soul damage.
"Only soul damage for this one, huh, not destruction. Okay, I think I can work with that, but how do I assimilate?" Sam started formulating another plan, "This is so very stupid, Sam. So very, very stupid. But I’m gonna get that dragon!”
***
Nara collapsed to the ground. Sam's mana infusion sped exponentially the second she overclocked her core, which was almost more than Nara could take. Almost.
“Let us assist The Defeated,” Naris said into Nara’s mind.
Nara looked to where the Blood Morph was hungrily devouring monster cores as fast as she could. Nara noted the summon was also tearing open bodies that weren't charred to a crisp and adding their blood to what she had received from Sam. Seeing this, Nara reached over and pulled the needle from Sam's heart, stopping the bloodstream. She poured a health potion over the wound to speed up Sam's natural recovery. As she finished, she told Naris, "Okay, time to do our part then. Let's go."
***
The Defeated could not believe her fortune. To be summoned to serve the powerful one that defeated her was a great honor. And the first thing her new master did was give her enough blood to make her beautiful armor again and provide her with a feast of cores! “I must not disappoint the summoner. Lest she banish me to the void forever.” She wasn’t worried about the creature evolving less than two hundred meters away. “All I have to do is run away. The summoner will defeat the beast.” With those simple thoughts, she continued scouring the cavern for cores and blood. She knew running away would be difficult and needed all the power she could gather to make the summoner proud.
The small grey creature, which the summoner said would ride her, approached The Defeated and dumped a pile of corpses before her. The Defeated could feel their blood waiting to be absorbed into her strength and armor. She appreciated this gesture and thanked the small creature, "Thank you, friend of the summoner." She sent through the chat function Sam, her summoner, had granted her access to.
“Just call me Nara,” came the response.
"Very well. Thank you, Nara." The defeated said gratefully, then asked, "Are you ready to run?"
***
It took Nara a moment to realize what the massive beast was asking. Nara looked at the Bloodmorph's back and frowned, realizing she was asking if Nara was ready to ride her; there was nothing but tentacles and spikes of hardened blood all down the creature's back armor. She asked, "How am I supposed to ride you if I can't even touch you without being stabbed?"
The blood spikes and back armor just behind the creature's shoulders liquified and reformed into saddle-like armor sized for Nara. Without hesitation, Nara leaped into the saddle and summoned her bow. She had five explosive charges in the Recurve Bow of Destruction and intended to make them count. She felt the blood saddle mold itself around her, holding her lower half in place so she could keep her hands free.
The Defeated kept absorbing blood and eating cores until exactly five minutes had elapsed, then she stopped. Nara, who had been keeping her eyes on the evolving beast, was surprised to see a message in her interface.
The Defeated [Level 1] Summon of S.A.M. requests permission to level up from level 1 to level 9. As a party member of S.A.M., she has granted you permission to act on her behalf. Allow Level up Y/N?
Nara selected 'Yes' and felt The Defeated's moan rumbled through her legs as the summoned gained power. Remembering she was an elite monster, Nara checked her stat screen in their party interface out of curiosity.
The Defeated [Summon of S.A.M.]
Race: Lupine Bloodmorph; Elite; Unique [Level 9]
Class: Bloodmorph [Level 9]
Blessing(s): Void Touched [Epic]
Health: 4503
Stamina: 1441
Mana: 1885
Attributes:
STR – 42
VIT – 253
END – 74
AGL – 67
INT – 23
WIS – 51
Abilities: 2/10
Blood Manipulation
Void Compatibility
Class Skills: 2/7
Blood Recovery [Level 6]
Void Coating [Level 2]
Racial/General Skills: 3/7
Final Push [Level 6]
Identify [Level 1]
Stealth [Level 5]
Class Spells: 3/5
Blood Harvest [Level 4]
Blood Spike [Level 1]
Void Spike [Level 1]
Racial/General Spells:
Howl [Level 5]
Resistance(s):
Void Magic [Level 25]
Blood Magic [Level 50]
“Wow, you are strong for level nine!” Nara said in admiration. “No wonder summon tokens are so rare!”
The Defeated only responded with, “It awakens.”
Nara's eyes zeroed in on the evolving Brood Mother. The Defeated was right; the System protection was down, exposing the evolved life form. Fighting back her fear, Nara identified the creature.
Whitling Matriarch [Level ???], Hostile; Affinity(s): Air, Toxin
The Matriarch had mostly stayed the same in appearance. In fact, Nara thought she may have gotten smaller. All her wounds and her wings were fully healed, unfortunately. A dark red skull was floating above the Matriarch in Nara's interface, and she knew they didn't stand a chance. Still, she readied her bow and mentally shouted to the Defeated, "Run!"
Even locked in place on the giant wolf's back, Nara felt as though she was going to be yanked out of the blood saddle by the sheer speed of The Defeated. Nara managed to right herself and launched an explosive arrow at the Matriarch as it stretched and flexed, testing the limits of its improved body. Nara didn't plan on giving it the time.
Her arrow exploded against the side of the beast's head, barely making it flinch. Nara did see some scales get knocked off, giving her the slight hope she could actually damage the evolved being. The Matriarch roared at the attack and turned on the charging duo. The Defeated diverted her course just in time to dodge a wind blade launched from the Matriarch's wing. The two beasts passed within meters of each other. Nara's mount managed to lacerate one wing and cut several shallow gouges in the Matriarch's side with the void-coated tips of her blood tentacles.
The Matriarch roared again and released a cloud of toxic gas from her mouth, spinning in a circle to coat a wide area. Nara and The Defeated managed to stay just ahead of the cloud as it dissolved everything it touched: ash, corpses, mushroom parts, and even the stones strewn about the cavern floor were dissolved instantly from the attack.
The chase was on.