53)

Realistically though, what could I do?

It would take a priest, an advanced class, to drive a Dark one out of someone. I doubted there was anyone on this world at high enough of a level, let alone with that class. I set Kelvin to search on the computer, but the only possible candidate he could find was the ruler of a small, very small, country on the other side of an ocean and he seemed pretty busy.

I reviewed the problem out loud, and as often happened Alelan, while appearing to be lost in thought, got inspired by me saying something about "if only I could get him in the house."

My wife brightened up, “Yessss, that would be perfect darling.”

I turned to see Alelan’s sly smile. “But if we kill the boy, won’t the Dark one just find another host.” She looked at me wide eyed. “No! We aren't going to kill a fourteen year old boy. Why is killing something always your first plan? Did old age and death do nothing to change your go with the first thing you think of solution to everything?”

She went on for a bit while I was still working on her first question. “I think… because it works?”

That got me a glare and she slammed the door of our recreated house as she stomped inside. “Just leave it to the women Tark!”

Well. Problem solved then. But from experience, I decided it would be best to go find something to do for a while.

Luckily my evolution rooms were overdue to be checked on. The spider mice didn’t result in anything alive, while the slug ants just turned out to be a twitching slimy thing that didn't live long. But the sparrow roaches, or Cockrels, were feathered bugs with both beaks and mandibles. They didn’t look all that dangerous but they were definitely something horrifying to come flying into your face.

They would make a lovely second wave in the squirrel rampage room. But it seemed a little mean to sic them on Bee in her first week. The second week would be fine.

As I didn’t want to leave the evolution rooms sitting idle, or the research room either now that I remembered I had them. I needed to get some things going.

Another upright biped fighter would be good, and a raccoon kobold hybrid seemed like it would be viable. For the other two rooms, I decided to try to evolve Parsley, the plant, it was supposed to be good for joints and an evolved version could help Iris with her back. It was also supposed to help with bad breath, so also for Iris.

For the third evolution room, I wanted something more dangerous than carp, and since Tuna wasn’t going to be available until copper eight, a perch and a cockroach went into room three.

By copper eight I should have enough room for the massive fish. They should be fairly dangerous since the Internets said they had something to do with killing dolphins. A fish that could kill the sea people even with their levels would be very dangerous indeed.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

As for the research rooms. Well, my Kobolds had long since dug one of their tunnels out to Iris's shed so room one got her lawn cutting machine. According to the encyclopedia it had a simple combustion engine that powered it, as did Molly’s motorcycle. The lawn mower would be the first step to making a gasoline power vehicle I could at least ride around inside the core.

They also brought back a foot power cycle, but it turned out was not motivated by a desire to help me with my ambitions. But to get me to make a smaller version for them to ride around on. Since I didn’t even need to research for such a simple machine I was able to just go ahead and make them mini bikes.

It turns out to be fairly hard to learn to ride a bike with no one to teach you. Fortunately, the kobolds heal fast.

For the other two rooms, I had a powered weed cutter from the shed that looked like something that would be inspirational to Alelan and an oversized radio from one of the boxes in the old woman's basement that contained things that had belonged to her brother. I hoped I could finish analyzing it and return a copy to the boxes before she realized it was gone. That man must have meant a lot to her to still be holding on to his things for so long.

As I began to pay attention to the activity in the core and the old woman’s house I realized there was a lot of activity going on.

My kobolds had gotten quite busy writing notes at my wife’s direction and running them out to Iris and her niece. “Ah what’s going on dear?”

My wife looked around for a moment as she stood down in the basement where she had been dictating to Envoy. "Oh, just working with the girls on a plan to solve the Dark One problem without any unnecessary violence. You can just keep doing your man things and keep out of our way for now. Thank you for letting me use your minions darling.”

Well, I didn’t really give her permission. But what’s mine is hers. Besides, I wanted the problem solved, not necessarily solved by me, just solved.

I soon learned how the insidious league of woman solved things.

They called the Dark one’s host’s parents.

...Brutal.

Iris made the call about how young Ernesto had offered to pay for his wrongdoing by doing chores for her and that while she hadn’t wanted to bring charges against their boy at the time. She felt that having their son do some form of contrition would teach him a lesson, and she was sure the police would feel the same way. But that they should talk about it before she decided anything.

They arrived that night for dinner. The parents stepped in first, and their son followed them in next.

Stepping into the reach of my influence.

From outside, the Dark one was a darker shadow overlapping a real one. Dancing back and forth as it tried to look natural to hide its appearance.

Inside. It looked like a greasy looking gaunt man dressed in all black fancy clothing. Clothing that looked more like something out of the world me and my wife had come from than anything from Earth.

And he looked smarmy, creepy, and just generally like someone you wouldn't trust around a child, a pet, or in your house.

Alelen drove two daggers into his kidneys.

She did say no unnecessary violence. I agreed that this was the necessary sort.

So it looked like Dark ones were just disembodied souls. Like me. Like Alelan. Since we were already dead, we couldn't really be killed. But we still identified as being people and people had bodies. Bodies could be hurt.

Badly.

He gave out a sudden high pitched scream and pulled away from my wife. Dashing right through the boy and out the other side, tearing himself free from whatever connection he had to the burglarizing brat.

I wanted so badly to be in on the fight that my perspective changed from being a body less observer within my reach outside of my core to being there looking down at the widening eyes of the "Dark one" as I stepped through one of the oblivious fathers and smashed my fist into his long needle like nose on the way to his face.

Which then sent him reeling back into Alelan’s arms where she grabbed him while I proceeded to beat him into a bloody mess next to the dining room table where Iris, the fathers, whose names I learned were Tim and Pedro, their son, Jason, Ernesto, and Bee had sat down and proceeded to have a pleasant dinner.

Jason had been voluntold to serve lunch and dinner at a homeless shelter on the weekends, with Ernesto volunteered on his own initiative to join him if the fathers would drive him there and back. To which they earnestly agreed to do so. With that settled, me and my wife somehow were able to drag the now beaten senseless Dark one back to the inside of my core for a conversation of our own.

Only to find ourselves in Clement’s office instead.