Our cloud sputtered it’s way across the skyline. Without all the strain of all my active spells and aura, my mind was clear. This was the first break I’d gotten since I got here.

Having my wife here made me feel at ease. Sadly, she probably couldn’t solve all my problems just by being here. However, her presence was enough to clear the weight off my shoulders, or at least make the weight of the world feel like a feather. It was as if I’d just taken a massive dump right before a foot race.

My Qi was still so low. Even though I had been cultivating the whole time I was traveling. Flooding my body with Qi was the biggest drain of all. While it did provide me with incredible strength and speed, it was better suited for a last resort.

In truth I would have been fine if I focused on adding heat aspects for speed, but at the time I just wanted some revenge with a side of saving my wife. I was pretty tired after all that and could really go for a nap right about now. Even my simple air pillow spell was taking too much bandwidth to maintain.

Maybe I should have ignored all those ground soldiers. Then again, without there passive aspects, I would have ran out of Qi by the time I made it up to Squirmy. His body was still burning at this very moment.

His HP bar had only gone down. Which meant his re-gen wasn’t working. The thought made me giggle in glee. My wife gave me a nervous smile. Probably wondering why I was giggling to myself like a crazy person.

I gave her a smile then went back to plotting. There was only two sure ways to kill Squirmy. One was to burn every part of him until his HP bar dropped to 0. The other was to somehow damage his soul.

Except he clearly had planned for it by splintering himself into multiple bodies. If even one part of him gets away, then the boss could easily regenerate. This meant my dancing buddies would also need to perish. I wasn’t that attached to them, so it wasn't that big a deal.

From what I could tell it looked like the ‘minion’ class centipedes gathered quintessence for Squirmy. They might have been promised a chance to ascend back into people, but Squirmy was clearly lying about that.

The centipedes that roamed the ground were the gatherers. The primes were the ones getting the actual quintessence they gathered, except they weren’t ascending back into people. Instead their ascension was a way for Squirmy to reincarnate himself. It was basically like a big old pyramid scheme.

Another way to look at it is, Squirmy was a virus. Constantly replicating himself by possessing lesser souls with his antessence. Mr. Brutus said something about that, but even though I ate a chunk of Squirmy I was fine.

That’s why that pod gave birth to that evil Aku thing. In which case I wish I had left several delay fireballs near the pods. Whatever, saving my wife was more important. Besides, I managed to cover most of that area in azure flames.

The only reason I figure all that out was because of the short moment when my sympathy attached to Squirmy. Without that I would have been left to guess.

My muse was the only way to end it quickly. Otherwise I would have lost all my Qi before the fight was over. Next time might not go as well considering he’ll know about my punishment aspects.

It probably didn’t help that he chose a body that was so hard to move with. He needs to stop relying on intimidation to fight me. It was really holding him back. First off, Cain didn’t even look like that anymore. Second, I’ve killed so many bugs in my time.

They’re not scary. They’re just a little annoying. Most of the time I just send them out the window—like when my neighbor gets super drunk and try’s to come into my home thinking its his, so I let him sleep on the couch and escort him out in the morning.

“Right… so you had a ‘vision’ when you went through a near death experience. That’s normal… I think.” Said Alice after I told her about my week on Chikū. She seemed to nod along to her own words as if she had just rationalized a ghost writing, ‘KILL YOUR FAMILY!’ in blood on the bathroom mirror.

“That’s not what I said! It was real! With like this crazy zombie chick that bullied me and farted in my face a lot and this ancient sorcerer dryad! She was like a living tree, but she looked like a grass haired maiden!” I explained.

“Right… and there was a gorilla too, or something?” She said in that tone where she clearly thought I was crazy, even though everything I was saying was true.

For a second she almost gas lighted me into thinking it was a dream, but then I remembered all my new abilities and took that as proof it really did happen.

“That’s Mr. Brutus! He made me fight a gigabear and showed me how to see vibrating energy! He’s like a giant dude with his own gravitational pull! I watched him clap his hands together and make the sky quake!” I clapped my hands to mimic Mr. Brutus, “BOOOM!” making the explosion sound with my mouth and pretending to fall over.

The reenactment fell short of the real thing. My clap wasn’t very loud and when I fell over, I could have sworn I made a squeaky sound—like one of those baby toys that make noise when you squeeze them.

My wife didn’t share my enthusiasm. She gave me one of her fake smiles, then said, “That’s great sweetie. We should find a pharmacy and see if we can get your prescriptions sent over.” She patted my knee.

I felt hurt causing my lips to frown and quiver. I even let out an involuntary whimper. Seeing as she didn't believe me, I laid on my side, turning away from her. “fine.”

I wanted to be upset, but my mind wouldn’t leave me alone. How did that work exactly? I didn’t have the same brain chemistry so mental illness shouldn’t be a problem.

Trauma was one thing, but stuff like autism wasn’t really possible right? My brain had been rewired not once but twice now thanks to getting a new body and ascending.

Did Cosmo build my body to match my old one!? What if my brain chemistry had super imposed itself onto my soul—like some kind of phantom limb situation! In which case that meant my mind was stuck like this forever! I wonder how long it would take to retrain my soul. That sounds hard though.

I was resigned to simply lay there, but Alice had other plans as she reached over to slide my dress up. I shot back up holding it down as my cheeks began to burn. “Don't do that!”

She smiled for real this time. “Wow, it’s only been two days. I wasn’t expecting so much modesty. Those little shorts are so cute. You look like a baby.”

“You’re one to talk! Your no bigger than I am!” I retorted.

She laughed, “I’m not the one wearing bloomers like a toddler.” She said in a sing song voice. “Also, I think I’m taller than you. That makes me older.”

I glared at her. “You’re so annoying! I’ll have you know, I’ve ascended into the lower spirit rank, so that makes me older by default! Besides my account is way older than yours, so there!” I argued.

She gave me that look again. Then went for my dress once more. I smacked her hand away. “Knock it off. Or I’ll, I’ll-“ She cut me off.

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“Or you’ll what? Are you gonna flip my dress up as revenge?” She asked in a mocking tone.

I became all flustered at the thought of even attempting such a thing. “Alice, I’m a grown ass man! If I do that I’ll go to jail!” I yelled.

“Oh, and I wont?” She sassed.

My head tilted as I realized she had a point. “Yeah, but you’re an actual girl, so it doesn’t look as bad.” I said slowly realizing the double standards.

“You’re a girl too, or are you hiding a little willy down there.” She said shamelessly.

I felt my cheeks burn once more. “Alice! Don’t say stuff like that!” I had to whisper the next part. “It’s gone. Everything down there is anatomically correct.”

Alice got a suspicious look on her face. “How do you know that? Did you do something disgusting?”

“No! I would never do that! Well maybe if I had an adult female body… but no!” I shook my head in embarrassment. “Shadow said it looked right so there!” I crossed my arms in front of my chest puffing out my cheeks.

She narrowed her eyes on me. “so you did cheat on me!”

“I did not! I couldn’t really wash myself, so Shadow helped me out. I had my eyes closed most of the time. She got one look at me naked and said it looked right.” I explained.

“Let me see.” She tried to lift my dress once more before I stopped her.

“Alice, stop it! Your being weird!” I complained.

“Oh, so you’ll let that curvy cat lady see your princess parts, but you won’t let ‘ME’ your ‘WIFE!’” She went quite for a sec. Then turned her head to the side looking away from me. “I see how it is. You think I’m ugly.”

“What, noooo! Alice, please stop. I love you and I don’t really want my hoo-ha looked at while I’m in the middle of the air where anyone and everyone can see me. Perception goes super hard here.” I explained nearly in tears.

She looked around. “What? You think the centipedes will watch…” She eyed one of them as the level 12 centipede chittered it’s poison coated mandibles at her. “Bunch of perverts.” I could totally understand what the arthropod was saying, but I didn’t want to translate and get that look again.

I watched as my wife withdrew a large rock from her inventory. Then held it over the side and released it. By the time I realized what she had done, one of the centipedes skulls had cracked open causing it to turn to ash.

“No! Alice! What have you done!? That was the beat boxing one!” While I knew I had to kill all of them I also really hoped I could get into another dance battle. Snowball could probably fill the roll, but I don't think anyone else can hear her.

“Beat boxing?” My wife questioned to which I averted my eyes and pretending to be deaf, blind, and dumb.

Now that I thought about it. Those centipedes were once human, and they had thoughts of their own. What if they saw my butt. That would be so embarrassing! Why did Alice have to tell me this? Now I’m nervous again.

I curled up into a ball holding my dress between my legs. I wish I was somewhere else. Why did Alice have to stimulate my brain like that!? “Why are you like this.” I whined. My face kept blushing.

This whole time those little monsters were seeing up my dress. I know I had on bloomers, but they weren't exactly shorts. Even though it's okay for them to be exposed accidentally, they were still considered underwear. The air pillow was transparent too. I whimpered ready to cry.

“Izzy, hey, I’m sorry, did I tease you too much?” Said my wife after dropping a flamingo statue off the side of the platform. “I was only pressing your buttons because I’m mad at you.” She insisted.

I Began to wonder why she had so much junk in her inventory. Then shook my head realizing I’d gotten distracted once again. I pointed down. “They can see your butt too.” I cried then hid my face behind my knees.

She looked down and realized what I meant. “Oh… so what, we’re killing all of them anyway and it’s not like they’ll tell anyone.” She said.

I needed to calm down. I pulled Snowball out of my inventory and gave her a hug. This instantly made me feel better.

“Aw, who’s this little guy!” my wife cooed over Snowball’s sudden appearance.

That’s right, I hadn’t introduced them yet. I sat up again forgetting the previous anxiety I had and excitedly started talking about Snowball. “This is Snowball! She’s a well educated nudist, and a part-time doctor. She graduated from Catvard university and does parkour in her down time. Also she’s secretly a powerful beast who's true form was sealed away long ago.”

Alice smiled. “Hello there, Snowball.” She said.

That was when I realized maybe I’d acted too much like a kid there. She was way to nice about that sort of stuff. Like when I got buddy a cupcake for his birthday and she decided to make it into a whole little party. We even lit a candle for him.

It was Aku that wanted to introduce Snowball. Her sudden emotions of excitement had hit me with surprise. Actually… maybe I wanted to introduce Snowball too. She had a decent effect on my anxiety. Mostly because she shielded me from everything.

“Am I being strange?” I asked as Alice looked Snowball over.

“No more than usual. Do you feel okay? You normally don't interact with the plushies, unless you’re really stressed. If it gets any worse you might go all dark and stop caring about the world again.” She responded.

She knew me better than I knew me. “To be honest, I’ve been stressed for a while now. You can tear into me some more if you want. I know you're angry with me.” I said.

She handed Snowball back to me. I gave her a hug realizing my wife was simply preparing me for an earful.

She started calm- “Sorry. I missed you a lot. I had to fight a dragon to get here, and then I find out you’ve been playing with a bunch of young girls! How dare you cheat on me!” -then ended in a rage.

“I didn’t cheat on you. Those are my guild mates. Luca’s like 14 and Shadow’s just plain crazy.” I defended myself.

“Considering how Shadow acted around me. I’d argue that you did cheat.” She accused.

“That's not fair! I held my ground as best I could! She's a crazy cat lady!” I said.

She looked to be thinking it over as her face changed from rage to understanding. “Okay, I’ll give you that, but why haven't you kissed me yet?”

“For the same reasons you haven't kissed me.” I stated.

She frowned knowing exactly what I meant. “Do you wanna hold hands?” She offered.

I nodded. We laid down next to one another clasping our hands together. I felt a bit nervous holding the hand of a child I wasn’t related too, but that went away as my Qi sight activated, showing me my wife’s fluffy golden soul beside me.

If I had to describe it. I’d say it looked like a perfectly steamed golden egg yoke. Fluffy, soft, and warm.

“How do we get home?” She asked.

“I’m working on it.” I answered.

She eyed me, as I cuddled with Snowball. “You know, you make a really cute girl.” She said.

“What are you talking about!” I felt my cheeks redden once more.

“You’ve always been really shy and a bit childish at times. All I’m saying is that it pairs well with that body.” She explained.

Was that what she meant. Yeah, I guess, but that was just because of Aku’s emotions. Was I also that childish, if even my wife couldn’t tell the difference?

“I don’t seem different to you at all?” I asked.

“Well, you do seem a bit more childish than usual, but that might be because you’re really stressed out. You always act like a kid when you're stressed.” She said.

“And your okay with that?” I asked fearfully.

“You know, around the time I woke up in this world, I had a thought. I was walking down the street, when I saw a playground. For some reason, I really wanted to hop on a swing, and I did. Even though I’m an adult it was a lot of fun, and no one cared because to them, I just looked like a little kid. I didn't have to be embarrassed. I didn't have to hold back.” She explained.

I had a similar thought. ‘Was it okay to cry since I was in this body?’ at least that’s what I thought several times. She might have a point. Now that I think about it, was Aku really effecting me most of the time? I know for sure she had a hand at most of my reactions, but all of them? Maybe I am a bit childish.

“Izzy, How is any of this possible. That thing. Is it really one of your alters?” She asked.

“Kind of. I'm not sure actually. My soul is kind of like a planet. And on it there are animals and bugs. Squirmy was one of those and Centa made him her pet. Then when she couldn’t handle my pain, she shared it with Squirmy. Turning the little guy into a demon. From there he hollowed my soul out and somehow being sent to this world freed him. That's how this whole thing started.” That was how I understood it.

“But… that's not how it works Izzy. You can’t just manifest your mental illness like that. It doesn’t make sense.” She said.

“I didn't manifest him. He was sealed. Then when I reconnect with the soul fragment in my avatar body. The fragment punctured a hole in the surface of my soul, thus releasing Squirmy from his prison. The manifestation part was the result of our souls ascending.” I tried to explain it, but she was still giving me that look. The one I hated so much.

I didn't blame her. The whole thing sounded absolutely insane. If I had more time, I could probably explain it better.

“I want to believe you. There's just a lot of confusing and unbelievable stuff coming out of your mouth right now. It’s okay Izzy. I love you.” She rolled on her side and hugged me.

I loved her too. Which was why I couldn’t be mad at her, or lash out. I was crazy yes and because of that it was hard to tell the difference from crazy and tangible. We loved each other, and at the end of the day, that was all that mattered, but still…

“You do believe me right?” I asked.

“Of course I do. I just don't understand you. Even if you are crazy. I’ll run away with you, as long as we're together nothing else matters.” She said.

“I love you Alice.” I mumbled.

“There’s something I need to tell you.” Her voice sounded almost mournful, but I couldn't really unravel it as her next words sent me into a rage.

“Luca died.”