“Siya?”

I fell back against the wall, managing to catch myself before slowly sliding down back to the floor. ‘Manna comes and goes with your energy, right? Almost like a stamina bar… I guess I must have been more zapped than I thought, so my manna reserves were pretty dry too…’

“Siya! What should I do?”

I saw Lu frantically move around like a blur as her voice became distant. ‘This sucks… My head hurts so bad…’

“S…”

“Ya…”

“H-y-k”

“Siya?”

My vision finally started to clear up again as my eyes snapped wide open. “Yeah, yeah I’m here I’m fine… Some… space please, and don’t move too fast, it hurts my eyes…” I muttered.

After a few moments I started to feel better again and I was back on my feet, even if I was still a little woozy. Of course, everyone wanted to know why I looked awful and had blood stains on my face… But I didn’t have the energy to deal with it. I bit down on a pellet Finlo happened to have on hand and waited around for a few more minutes till I felt better. Once the world stopped spinning we all headed back to the inn.

It was a pain, but I forced myself to eat something before I turned in, and it did help if only a little. ‘This almost makes me laugh… Somehow I’m stronger than I thought I was, being able to effortlessly beat down some people… And weaker, collapsing after attending a meeting where all I really had to do was talk for a few hours…’

By the time I made it to my bed, my eyes closed like shutters and didn’t open again for anything. I spent a while just laying there with my eyes closed, feeling unable to move until a gentle wispy breeze whisked me away.

My body felt lighter, and I began to feel like myself again as life returned to my joints. “Hello, Agis,” I said slowly. “It’s been a while…” Sure enough, upon opening my eyes the white gazebo and grass field surrounded me as flickering golden lights lifted up from the flowers like drops of rain flowing towards heaven.

“And who’s fault is that I wonder.” He pouted.

‘Mine? How is it my fault?’ I took a step towards him but my body felt like it wasn’t my own, my feet not moving the way I expected them to.

“Hey take it easy will you?” He warped over to me, catching me as I stumbled, quickly putting me back on my feet and stepping away. “Your soul is still reshaping itself, you’re finally starting to think of your life as Siya as being your true self… But in the midst of that, you still haven't figured out who that is… Of course… This doesn’t help either…” He flicked his hand towards me and grabbed at the air, bringing it back and revealing a glimmering amber egg in his palm. “Your soul is split between four different sides, and in a way, four different realities.

Sure enough, many of the scars I had appeared on my skin as I pulled up the sleeves of my hoody, and I was a bit bulkier than when I was on Earth. My clothes were the same though, and my hair as well. “Ok… Is this a problem I need to fix, or are you just trying to say I’m edgy and cool now?” I walked over and sat down, enjoying the blend of tea that he always had set out for us.

“Yeah well… You’re still a little confused so to speak, so right now your body is somewhere between the two… And now that you have dragon blood, and were baptized by Rafi… Honestly, I have no clue how you’re going to end up looking… I ascended because of my sword skills… Not because of my knowledge of soul bending…”

I paused, taking a moment to make sure I didn’t let my mind wander. “But why would any of that matter? This is the shape I know to be myself right?”

“That's only assuming that your soul stays entirely human… Or entirely yours… Of which neither is true at the moment…”

“That's… Ominous and frightening…”

He let out a sigh, crossing his legs, and leaning on the back of his bench after he warped back to his seat. “Well, it’s nothing serious I guess. You aren't traveling down the path of the abyss, nor are you trying to be reborn as a dragon, so the demonic and dragon influences on your soul should stay minimal… I think… A person with four different souls across two life spans, each one fighting for supremacy and taking manifestation in its own way… I’d be lying if I didn’t say it was interesting. I’d even be looking forward to it if it wasn’t just another thing you did that made me nervous…”

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

“Right… So is that why you called me here? To tell me I’m a freak… I already know that, so…”

He just rolled his eyes. “I felt like now was as good a time as any to check in on you. You are my herald after all. Really now, you don’t even write to me, it makes me quite sad you know.”

“Oh, so you're just lonely then?”

“You're awfully blunt today.”

I slowly folded my hands, setting them down in my lap, unsure of how to respond. “Sorry, just a bit tired… And now I'm a bit concerned about my soul or whatever… So you know, thanks for that…”

He let out another sigh. “You have glowing color-changing dragon eyes, hair dyed white by a curse, and you use soul-based magic that covers your skin with black markings… Did you think your soul would be unaffected? The craziest part about all of it is that the chaos is balancing itself instead of tearing you apart…”

“Right…” I felt chills run down my arms. ‘I try to get stronger, but there are side effects, the side effects require me to get stronger… And the cycle continues, each time disappointing someone else… Each time I lose a piece of myself… I wonder if he is starting to regret choosing–’

“It’s seriously cool you know? The power you gained when building up your soul made it so that you could survive the dragon's blood in your body when it was activated without any serious side effects, leaving you still mostly human. The dragon's blood in return is completely incorruptible, and is stopping your soul from bending out of shape from the dark magic should you use it again, which is what ultimately leads to turning into a demon. Of course… It’s also trying to devour your soul from the inside and burn you to ashes, but you know… It’s still pretty cool.”

“Oh.... Is that all…” I took another deep breath rubbing my eyes, feeling them as normal, instead of the stone-like marbles I was growing used to. ‘It’s… Cool? I guess I was just being stupid…’ “You mentioned Rafi by name. Does that mean you know her?”

His easygoing expression became more serious. “Right, well… We might as well make that the reason I brought you here…” The world rushed past us, like he was swiping left on his phone and the ground was nothing more than the background picture. In an instant we were suspended high into the air above the nation I called my own.

“You’re my herald… Got it? SO… You know… I’d appreciate it if you took care of the mission I gave you first. You do remember what that is right?”

‘He’s mad… But almost in a cute way… Like a puppy getting upset after you didn’t give it a treat.’ “Well, I’m still trying to become queen and all that. I just put in motion re-establishing relations with the orcs… Why are you even mad? I feel like I’m doing a pretty good job so far, aren’t I? You know, considering I’m not even queen yet…”

He sighed and the world rushed around us again until we were back in the gazebo. “Sorry… I’m not mad at you. Although I am conflicted over calling you mine as if I own you when I have also given you the freedom to do whatever you want…”

“O…K…?”

He let out a low growl, reminding me even more of a puppy as he glanced to the side, pouting. “I didn’t know Rafi personally until she first met you, and came to see me not long after. I do know her story though, but… If you want to get that you’ll have to ask her for it. The important thing is this. You live right next to one of only two or three spots on the planet where the abyss has torn through to our world in the past. In short, the chances of you encountering more demons isn’t exactly zero…”

“Right, I saw another one while I was in the dungeon, but it didn’t bother attacking me for some reason… Oh, but the point is I knew there were more.”

He let out a disappointed sigh as he started to hang his head before looking at me again. “You… Really are a whole lot of trouble, you know that?”

“You didn’t know already?”

“That you were trouble? Oh, I’ve known that for a while now.”

“Ha…Ha…”

He smirked, finally returning to normal, forgetting the agitation that he had shown earlier. “So you saw a second demon in the Frozen Tomb. You’d be wise to never go back there… If it’s native to that place, well never mind… She can explain that stuff.”

‘So… Does that mean I’m going to talk with Rafi after this?’ “I thought you could see everything that happened around me?”

“For the most part that’s true I guess, but if you enter someone else's domain I wouldn’t be able to even know if you were still alive, much less see what was happening. That’s why I had to trust Rafi to help you, of course, I make it a point not to watch you while you are bathing, planting flowers, or any of that. And I don’t usually watch you while you're sleeping either just because it’s uneventful.”

‘Usually…’ “You’re starting to make me uncomfortable…”

He scratched his head. “Right… Sorry… But the point is that when you are with her I can’t see you… And she isn’t exactly fun to talk to… Or More like… She doesn’t tell me anything? So It’s hard to figure out what's going on.”

“I haven't spoken to her in a while either, but sometimes I still hear the whispers…”

“Hey, you know you’re my herald, right? So don’t go around helping others before you finish the job I gave you ok? I don’t care if you’re hearing whispers.”

‘Oh… Yeah, I think I get it now…’ “So you’re jealous…”

He turned and looked away. “Of course I am.”

‘Now who’s being blunt…’ “Egh… It’s no fun if you just accept it like that. Fine, fine, I’ll focus only on your goal for the time being. With how strong I've been feeling recently it might be easier than I thought. You saw how I took down those bandits right?”

He snickered. “The guy with the lowest level of fire magic? Yeah, that was impressive. Oh, my favorite part though by far was when attending a meeting for a few hours made you pass out.”

“That!” ‘Calm down… Don’t let him get you worked up…’ “That was because I used magic to help my sister and you know it…”

“Wow, way to keep your cool.” He sneered, tauntingly as he stood up. “Come here for a moment.”

I walked over towards the cliff's edge to join him as we stared out at the land. “What is it?”

“Today we can end things here, while I’m in the lead. Besides… Rafi will get mad if this takes too long… We haven't finished our argument yet.”

‘This competition nonsense again?’ “What do you mean you’re in the lead it’s–”

“One to zero.” He said smugly, tripping me and sending me falling face first off the cliff, but before I hit anything I felt my soul change planes.

I was livid… Absolutely furious… It took everything I had to not just scream the moment I felt a sensation come back in my body. At the same time, I felt a chill so strong that all the blood drained from my face. ‘As if I wasn’t already scared of heights…’ After a while, I managed to convince myself I was being stupid. It wasn’t a big deal after all, so I should just let it go… Of course… Actually doing that was a bit harder. The fact I was so angry though meant that he actually had won… And that was what really pissed me off. ‘That isn’t how you get a girl to write you letters you know… Oh… well… I guess he probably wouldn’t if I’m the only one he’s ever talked to…’ I sighed, the absurdity of it all calming me down as I rolled onto my back to ease the pressure on my neck from how I was sleeping. ‘It’s still night time? It’s cool it didn’t take that long this time… But how am I supposed to fall asleep now…’