I was pleasantly surprised at how pure the energy in the potion was. It wasn’t exactly Qi, but it wasn’t not Qi. The power seemed to cycle in a pattern I’ve never seen before.

It was a circle and only around my midsection. It was enough to create a healing aura around me. How did it do that? It was as if the potion was alive.

Could this be apart of the brewers intentions? Was it possible for intent to linger for that long? I didn’t know, but I was happy it worked and didn’t turn my meridians into crystal.

After that I gathered up some cleansing aspects and injected them into my aura. This cleared out the lingering poison from my body.

I could always use my platform as an elevator, but then I wouldn’t be able to leave more of my spells behind. If this was going to work, I’d need to move faster.

First I should prepare. I withdrew the heat stone from my inventory. It still had plenty of charge, but I might as well top it off. I began feeding hydrogen into the advanced fireball and recharged everything. It took a minute or two, but they were ready. With that I put them back in my inventory and turned my attention back to the boss.

Squirmy was getting away! “Hey get back here!” I yelled as my pillow tilted forward and started to chase after my tormentor.

I nearly fell off the soft nimbus causing me to whine and fall on my butt. Once I was close enough the pillow came to a stop, as I switched my vision to Qi sight and tried to figure out where the last spell I put down was.

The delay fireball was a bit higher, so I floated my pillow up slowly while keeping up with Squirmy’s marching speed. Platform travel was kind of slow. Faster than walking but way slower than my top running speed. I enjoyed how comfy it was.

While focusing on the last spell I had placed, I didn’t notice the falling centipede reaching terminal velocity. When I did it was a bit too late to move out of the way, as it’s stinger went right through me popping my comfy pillow like it was a balloon.

“Holy crap!” We both fell side by side as it tried to sting me again.

I wasn’t hurt somehow and for some reason my body felt odd. That’s when I remembered the ghost ribbon on my head. “Yes! Thank you!” I said.

I kicked the centipedes head away then formed a new pillow. This time I forgot to slow my fall first and ended up crashing through it. “Crap!” I cried before forming a new one.

This one to my relief actually managed to catch me like normal. “I thought I was gonna die!” I complained as my little heart raced in my chest.

I could feel tears in the corners of my eyes. I wasn’t sure if they were from distress, or if they were a result of having so much wind blowing in my eyes. My whimpers said otherwise.

Wait what's that? I felt something moving through me. For a second I thought I had more pain inside me by it wasn't that. There were aspects inside my tummy. They made a circle pattern but this wasn't a healing aura.

Was that shadow aspect? I used my Qi sight to get a better look and it really was shadow aspect. It was barely noticeable. The power moved up to my head and entered the ghost ribbon.

Inside the ribbon it gathered into a ball and yawned, then seemed to go to sleep like a cat laying itself out in the sun. It was kind of cute for a ball of dirty energy. The aspects were a bit different from shadow aspect. I was sure this had to do with the creators intention. This stuff was almost like Qi.

The only difference the life aspects and shadow aspects had with normal Qi was that they felt like they were alive. I wonder if that was why they felt a bit more dirty than regular Qi? Being alive makes them susceptible to corruption.

I looked over at the centipedes back and thought about my experience so far, “Okay. I’ll keep my distance. Got it.” I did just that as I made my way back up. Once in range I used a power skip to make my way back onto Squirmy’s back. A few of those big black tendrils tried to attack me, but this time I was ready.

Instead of stopping each time to place down a spell, I prepared the spells beforehand, so that I was never in the same place for too long. The tendrils still tried to get me, but I managed to cut the big ones down while the small ones burnt up in the atmospheric pressure of my aura.

To do that I had to add momentum aspects to my aura, but with the concept of gravity in mind. It was similar to Mr. Brutus’s aura, but way less deadly. Not the best protection, but it was better than being wrapped in just a simple vapor cloud.

Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

The burning of tendrils also served to provide me with friction aspects that could be converted to heat. Which were held inside my aura before being injected into one of my delay fireball spells.

My speed only grew as Squirmy’s back began to curl. I was nearing the Boss’s head. My Qi sight activated again. I wanted to see what might be up ahead.

The dark cloud was pretty thick here, but I could make out two lights above. One a bright gold and the other a dull red. That gold soul looked so familiar. There was a comforting feeling of warmth there. For a second my wife’s image came to mind. “It’s her.”

Seeing her soul filled me with renewed energy, as I abandoned the traps I had been setting and weaved my way in and out of the spikes. The centipedes were level 80 now. Each one trying to attack me.

When I neared the top I began to find pod-like eggs and centipede mobs close to level 100. There names had also changed from ‘Centipede (minion)’ to ‘Centipede (prime)’. I just wanted to save my wife so I shot past them. “Alice!” I cried as I flew up and over the Boss’s head.

-Alice-

Squirmy was poking holes in my skin. Using his claws like needles. I couldn’t take the pain anymore. Screaming did nothing. It burned as acid ran along his claws. I couldn't take it anymore. I started thrashing while screaming unintelligible obscenities! Squirmy simply laughed.

“Alice!” the sound of my name cut through the torture as both Squirmy and I glanced towards the disembodied voice. It sounded like a little girl and when I saw her I felt hope rise inside me.

I didn’t know how or why. All I understood was that he was here. I tried to call out for Izzy, but forgot my tongue was gone and ended up hurting myself. Pain radiated from my throat and mouth, as tears ran down my face.

“Finally! About fucking time!” Squirmy lifted his arm sending several large tendrils to impale Izzy. Instead of dodging Izzy dove in head first, using his sword to slice through them like butter.

His feet touched chitin. Then he stepped forward with a horizontal strike, but Squirmy backed away. To my surprise the power around his sword lashed forward slicing into Squirmy’s gut and leaving a shallow cut behind.

-Aku/Isaac-

Unleashing a fireball Squirmy avoided it, then rushed in for a bite. His mouth unhinged, as his teeth fell out and were replaced by needle like stingers. Each one dripping with a variety of poisons and acids.

I held my left arm out ready to take the bite. Then focused the water in my aura to cleanse. His stingers entered my arm. That was when I tightened my shell preventing him from unlatching his dirty teeth.

The toxins was surprisingly strong, as they quickly enveloped my arm in a cold burning pain. The worst was the acid that seemed to turn my flesh into dripping black sludge.

I didn’t care, as I clamped my aura down on my upper arm creating a tourniquet to prevent the toxins from spreading through my body. In order to stop a loss of focus I even added apathy aspects to my aura. Just enough to stay calm.

With Squirmy stuck, I put my sword away, before readying a fireball in my free hand. With a thrust of my arm, I quickly jammed the burning nova into his gut, while wrapping it in the hard shell of my aura to control the force of the explosion. It erupted through his body blowing a massive burning hole out of his back, while also tearing my fingers into bloody ribbons.

I expected his form to lose shape, so I could really lay into him, but it only waned for a second before solidifying once more. By the time I realized I’d made a mistake, it was too late.

Unable to release my arm, Squirmy took advantage of my own trap by growing tendrils out of his back and molding their ends into scythes. They swung up and over coming down with the multiplying force of a whip. Since I was stuck I had no choice but to take the hit and hope my aura could tank it.

-Alice-

Izzy had Squirmy’s mouth stuck to his arm. It was melting. How could someone withstand that torture? Was it because of his experience with his mom? No, the truth was, he was doing it for me.

I thrashed in hopes of getting out and realized that the tendrils holding me weren’t as tight as before. Squirmy was distracted. That’s when I saw several blades coming down on Izzy’s back.

With all the strength I had, I tore my good arm free and directed a magical-girl-spell called ‘protect’ towards Izzy. A silver multi layered magic circle appeared over my bloody hand, as energy raced over to my husband. Please, save my Izzy.

-Aku/Isaac-

I braced the aura on my back for an attack, but instead of pain I felt something warm behind me. My Qi sight gave shape and color to a big round shield, perfectly placed over my back. The magical protection kept Squirmy’s blades at bay.

Silently, I thanked my wife before turning my aura against myself by sharpening the tourniquet and using it to amputate my arm. The limb was mostly just bones away so it wasn’t hard to cut through.

Dual Qi pulses ignited under my feet as I launched myself into the air not only abandoning my former limb, but avoiding the sudden rib bone skewers extending out of Squirmy’s ribcage.

I spun my body around and used several platforms to power skip myself away from him. Angry, Squirmy rammed through the magical shielding provided by Alice before taking on a larger and scarier form.

Not only did he grow in size, but his color scheme became more edgy. His mouth had completely changed by growing mandibles in addition to his needle like teeth.

The once slightly gray pale skin had gone full of ash gray, with streaks of black and red. He had even grown an extra two pairs of arms which had all gained another joint. His fingers also had extra joints and looked very long.

I felt a circle of healing Qi grow inside me, as my wife directed a healing sacred art on my mangled body. My right arm was fixed. I watched the remaining broken fingers snap back into place, as the missing fingers regenerated.

Even my missing arm was trying to regenerate. It was a bit too slow, but was welcomed all the same. At the very least I was thankful for the replenishment of my blood.

I gathered whatever life aspects I could before the world system swallowed them up. Then used them as a basis for a healing aura. I wish I could help Alice, but right now I needed to take care of this guy so we could get away and to do that, I was gonna need another arm.