I was frowning and smiling simultaneously—an expression I can’t even begin to imagine. Regardless, I had been easily dominating this fight, though I was struggling with my two new system skills. They hadn’t exactly done anything noticeable yet, but I blame that on a particular half of my two souls.

Hey! Screw you, Nightmare!

What? You’ve been the one doing most of this, haven’t you?

Well… yeah, but that’s not fair to blame it on me.

Pulling my thoughts back to the fight at hand, I couldn’t help but speak aloud. “He’s a big boy,” I nodded, agreeing with my own observation as I stood atop the dragon’s massive maw. I glanced left and right, but no one else was around to affirm my remark, leaving me feeling like a loon talking to myself.

We’re not just mumbling to ourselves like some escaped lunatic, are we?

Nah.

“Get off me!” the dragon roared, swiping a talon toward his muzzle like he was batting at a pesky insect.

See, we weren’t talking to ourselves—he was listening.

With a gentle push, I let my gravity-defying body float aside just as his talon crashed down where I had been standing. I winced at the deafening boom as his claw struck his own face, though, in truth, the wince was more of a snicker I couldn’t quite hold back. Honestly, I can’t say it enough—using a skill to assimilate another directly into my subconscious was the best move ever! I’m not even kidding—flying has become so effortless that I don’t even need to do a handstand anymore.

Wait, aren’t we our subconsciousness…es? We don’t know how our spells work.

…Instincts. I think? You know what? It’s best not to overthink it.

Ha! I see what you did there.

I don’t know what you’re talking about. Wink emoji.

Did you just say ‘wink emoji?’

Shut up and focus on our fight.

The fight with the dragon had started off well in my favor: some hallucinatory, disorienting mist, like a bad acid trip, and a bit of orange lightning for a little zing, like bad gonorrhea—oh, I just got an idea where to zap him next—and before I knew it, I was standing atop the beast’s face, gloating. Probably not the wisest move to get cocky mid-fight, but self-restraint has never been my strong suit.

However, I nearly had a heart attack when this dragon god—or whatever it is—almost landed on Aurelia. There was some serious puckering until I noticed she had slipped away, falling back toward Sophia. Even so, the dragon had scooped up his champion once again and was now protectively cradling Orlaith in the midst of our fight, which made me wonder if he, too, wasn’t taking this fight seriously. Doubt it.

Regardless of all that, I felt utterly amazing, like riding cloud nine on a unicorn. Speaking of which, I held out my hand and watched as a tiny unicorn with squid legs emerged from my dark essence. After I’d consumed—merged with—Phantasia, she had become more of an ability than a separate entity. As long as I had enough mass, I could summon as many little black puddings as I wanted. Sadly, the snack of corpses Aurelia packed for me didn’t provide enough flesh to swarm the entire battlefield with these tiny horrors, but perhaps just enough to pester the big dragon.

And before you get all up in arms because I ate my pet, remember, I’m not a good person. I’ll eat anything, everything, and anyone, whether or not I like or love them. Don’t believe me? Ask Aurelia. I’ve been eating her every chance I can get.

Dream!

What?

Stop kissing and telling, for fuck’s sake!

Well, that’s not really kissing, now is it.

…I hate you. Will you stop fucking up the narration and let me get serious?

Ugh, fine.

I felt half my soul slide deep into my subconscious, my eyes sharpening as the smile vanished from my face. My entire demeanor shifted, my spine straightening like steel. Laughter and giggles no longer slipped from my lips as I hovered, my gaze locked in a deadly stare with the dragon Zarathos. He sensed the change in my persona, pulling the champion within his talons closer to his immense frame.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

With a regal wave of my hand, I conjured a writhing cloud of Phantasia, each twisting form pulsating with eerie luminescence as they swarmed like locusts. They pulsed outward in an erratic dance, skimming the air with shrill whispers as if eager to rend flesh. But they did not dive at the dragon nor his whelp. Instead, they twisted and coiled like smoke, rippling outward to fulfill a darker purpose.

W-What? Nightmare! Why not send them to pester the dragon?

Sush, silence yourself; your time has been indulged long enough.

Well, damn, what got into you?

Silence.

Yep, got it. Zipping my metaphorical mouth. No more talking. Nope.

…

With the same hand that unleashed my swarm of horrors, I continued the motion, sweeping it over my head as if to cast down the very heavens. Blightning crackled and roared around me, rippling in jagged patterns across the churning sky. Zarathos, however, didn’t wait for judgment to fall upon him. He exhaled, and a torrent of fire seared the air toward me. With a swift flick of my other hand, I cast a ward that shimmered like an infernal mirage, drawing its power not from the system but from the ambient mana itself. The oversaturation of swirling energy around us fed into my magic, strengthening it beyond measure. The dragon’s breath shattered against the ominous orange barrier, leaving only faint embers as I infused [Unholy] essence into my attack.

For a brief moment, the lightning that spidered across the mana-storm-darkened sky appeared nearly black, edged in orange, but it vanished as quickly as it had flashed. It seemed Unholy drew from a power source separate from the system, lacking sufficient mana to sustain itself. I would have harnessed the ambient mana, but I hadn’t yet consumed the spell into my essence and lacked the knowledge to wield it without the system’s aid. Yet, it seemed the system itself was incapable of tapping into it. I faced a similar issue with Phantasmal, which felt wholly opposite to Unholy, like something divine that resisted my command.

Regardless of my inability to control the two newest weapons in my arsenal, no frown or emotion flickered across my face. I simply stared down at the dragon as I hovered above him, while cruel, gooey tentacles flicked in and out of my body like restless shadows. This was why I hadn’t formed silk armor. I was a black pudding—I needed my flesh exposed. Despite what my lighter half dreamed of, my darker side knew I wasn’t meant to conceal my flesh. I was content playing along with my others whimseys and went along with an eternal skeleton, but I could never hide my flesh.

Despite the tension, my gaze remained utterly impassive—until it wasn’t.

In a flash of magic, I streaked downward like a shooting star, Zarathos barely able to follow my trajectory with his massive head. His eyes, however, tracked my path, widening as they tried to keep up. But he was too slow. With a flash of Blightning, I struck the side of his maw again, sending the dragon godling stumbling back. Yet as he did, his tail lashed out like a whip, catching me by surprise. With a sonic boom, it cracked against me.

Half of my skeleton jutted from my flesh as I crashed into the side of the mesa just beneath the city. I may have also collided with one or two Slaethian airships, but it was hard to keep track in the milliseconds between being struck and slamming into the ground. If I hadn’t created pockets within my skeleton, I would have splattered into a gruesome mess. For once, I appreciated my airheaded side’s insistence on them. More impressively, my silk face remained intact, most of it woven from the whispering silk I had intertwined with my skull.

Pulling myself from the crater, I maintained my stoic demeanor, showing no emotion as I cocked my head to the side, wondering if I had stalled long enough for my plan to work. Regrettably, as I reached out with my senses, I accepted that I needed to toy with Zarathos a bit longer. Letting Graviton take hold of my body, I shot out of the crater, a trail of rubble following behind me.

What fucking plan? You didn’t share any plan with me, Nightmare!

Silence, annoying whore!

Whore?

…Yeah, maybe I took that a bit too far.

You think?

Considering my options, I thought about blanketing everything in a miasma of diseases, poisons, and acid. All were within reach and in overwhelming quantities, given the vast mana at my disposal. Fascinatingly enough, the so-called god before me wasn’t tapping into this ambient power. His strength seemed to flow entirely from the system. Despite this, I couldn’t unleash my wrath fully—not with Aurelia down there. My attacks would consume everything, including her.

I raised my hand with slow, fluid motion, my face as impassive as ever while Blightning crackled around me. But I hesitated, sensing a change. I tore my gaze from the dragon and looked toward the city behind me. A small smile tugged at the corner of my lips, almost imperceptible to any onlooker, but to my darker side, it was the biggest grin in the entire cosmos.

“Finally, it’s done,” I whispered.

What’s done?

The war!

W-What? How?

From the city, a massive cloud of darkness ascended like a swarm of locusts, but these were no mere insects. Hundreds of small, black unicorn-shaped puddings twisted in the air, their squid-like appendages flailing as they surged upward, multiplying to millions upon feeding on every corpse and enemy they could devour in a relentless tidal wave. Their haunting, glowing orange eyes pierced through the shadows, and rows of jagged black teeth snapped and thrashed with a chilling sound.

I turned back toward the dragon god, who stood frozen, his talons wrapped protectively around his champion as though that fragile figure was the last flicker of light in the darkness. He took a staggering step backward, wings faltering as his eyes darted between the encroaching puddings and me. The faint glow of his breath ignited in his chest but failed to illuminate the terror etched on his face. Yet, he couldn’t comprehend what was coming next.

“The nightmare is mine to give, the nightmare is I who am, and I to taketh,” I exhaled into the fear.