I needed to hurry!
The rotating whisps of the goddesses’ power spun as fast as I could control them and cut through the soul horror experience like butter. But it wasn't enough. Worse, the whisps were slowly shrinking, but that wasn’t the biggest problem; I was.
The deeper I dug, the more it felt like I was being crushed under a mountain of pressure, and it was only getting worse the further down I went. Of course, my current form was just a projection of my consciousness, so I didn't need to breathe. If I had to endure the same thing with my real body, it would’ve been reduced to paste a long time ago.
Only my willpower kept me going, and I was worried that it might soon give out, too, because the pressure wasn't the only thing getting to me.
While standing on the top of the soul horror experience, there had been a disconnect between my consciousness and my soul. But now that I was closing the distance between the two, that connection was once again strengthening, and I could feel the strain my soul was under and couldn't imagine how it hadn't crumbled by now.
My soul desperately tried to lighten its load by absorbing and processing as much experience as possible, but there was too much to handle.
The pain I was experiencing was already pushing the limits of what was endurable, and according to the goddesses, it would get worse when I returned to the real world, and my consciousness and soul were once again united.
There was a real possibility I might die instantly after I regained consciousness, but that was a better alternative than becoming a monster if you asked me. And besides, if I die, Tabitha won't need to worry about me when she escapes. So there was that, at least.
It was cynical to think that way, but I was trying to look on the bright side of things. I really was.
There was no way I could predict the pain level I would experience once I freed myself. Of course, I wasn't going to give up without a fight, but I wasn’t going to form any unreal expectations either.
I felt the soul horror experience shifting around me as I pushed harder. I lost my view of the outside world, but the tremors were a sign my body was still absorbing the experience with Soul Devourer.
I refused to believe the added experience I was feeling was from Tabitha.
The extra weight made digging even harder, but it also meant I still had time. When the experience stops flowing in, that's what I feared the most.
I was almost there; I could feel myself getting closer to my soul!
I just need to push harder. If I can do that, I’ll ma—
Just then, I feel the soul horror experience settle around me and stop moving entirely.
“No!” Ignoring all the pressure and pain, I put everything into controlling the goddesses’ fragments. If the experience around me settled, it meant no more was being absorbed, and if no more was being absorbed—
I was out of time.
With reckless abandon, I hurl myself downward. I pushed harder than ever, to the point that my consciousness was right up against the gods' revolving fragments and was shredded apart like everything else. But the pain didn't matter; only reaching my soul did.
I desperately wanted to reach my soul, and every second I didn't, I felt an invisible scythe inch closer to my neck.
Amid my frantic digging, it happened; the dull grey experience of the soul horrors gave way to reveal the fake grass I knew and loved. I wasted so much time meticulously forming every single blade I'd recognize it anywhere.
The goddesses’ fragments were damn near reduced to nothing, but I didn’t care. Reaching out, my astral fingers, which were half destroyed by the goddess's power, made contact with my soul, and through the unbelievable pain, I felt joy.
It only took a split second, and I was finally back in the real world. And as fate had it, I was standing in front of Tabitha…...
With over a dozen of my spectral arms stabbed into her chest.
I could feel her soul in the palm of my skill's grasp. With one tiny movement, Tabitha's strong soul would be shredded to pieces, and I'd gain the power I always wanted. It would be so easy, a voice whispered in the back of my mind.
“You’re back," Tabitha's casual voice hit me as strong as any one of her full-powered punches. "So, these arms are what you used to kill the soul horrors. Interesting."
How the hell could she be so calm?
More importantly, she could see them!? Was it because I held her soul, or did she unlock a new skill?
“That’s what you have to say,” I couldn't hold back my tears from streaking down my face. Tabitha could see the arms and feel me grabbing her soul, so why wasn't she looking at me like a monster? “I could kill you,” I hiccup like a child.
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“And?” Tabitha’s unshakable eyes cut deep into my psyche. “I was prepared to die for you; that hasn't changed. Whatever happens, so long as you survive, I’ll die with a smile on my face." Her mouth slowly morphed into her trademark battle grin. "That said, I preferred it if I didn't die today. Can you retract your skill?" She casually asked.
“I don’t know,” I mumble. The voice in my head was screaming at me to silence Tabitha. I didn't trust my skill to listen to me. Then there was the pain in my chest; it was overwhelming. I could feel my soul trying to drag my consciousness back inside to help stave off the pain, but what would happen if I did that? Would my skill deactivate or resume what I was doing before I stopped it?
Breathing was a struggle, and my back was covered in sweat. I was doing my best not to move or accidentally trigger my skill, but the pain around my soul made things difficult to focus on. All the experience I absorbed was crushing me from the inside out, and I didn't know what to do.
“Aaliyah, are you okay?” Tabitha notices my pain and is rightfully concerned.
“I don’t know what to do,” I admit in a panic. It was getting hard to think, which meant I was about to lose control again.
"Calm yourself," Tabitha's authoritative voice slashed through the haze of pain like a sword strike.
Through the tears streaming down my face, I pleadingly lock eyes with Tabitha.
“Your skill doesn’t control you; you do.” Even in her weakened state, even with her life literally in the palm of my hands, Tabitha held an air of power and certainty.
“You don’t understand,” I bawl. “It hurts so much,” I shakily bring my real hands up to my chest.
“What’s causing you pain?” Tabitha doesn’t raise her voice, staying calm and composed.
"It's the soul horrors I absorbed," I whine, not even trying to hide the effects of my skill at this point.
For the briefest moments, Tabitha's eyes widen in surprise, but her face quickly hardens, and she continues to talk to me in a supportive tone. "I see. You have quite the skill there. Can you release any of it and lessen the pressure?"
All I can do is shake my head in response. The darkness was closing in, and I could feel myself losing consciousness. Releasing some of the experience might help, but it could just as easily condense back into another soul horror.
"Alright, then, share it with me," Tabitha suggests as if it were the simplest thing in the world. "Can you do that?"
What! Was Tabitha suggesting I pour the excess experience into her? But she doesn't have any soul skills or even Mental Resistance. Would she be able to survive such a thing? It was too big a risk.
I shake my head again, but Tabitha wasn't the kind of person to take no for an answer.
"How many times will you save me today before you let me help you!?" Her calm demeanor finally snaps, and she yells at me. "I can't move; at least let me help you shoulder your burden. If I die, then so be it."
The voice whispering tells me to do the opposite and absorb Tabitha's soul, but I ignore it.
“Do you not trust me?" The look on Tabitha's face says it all. She wanted to protect me, to do whatever it took, and had the resolve to accept the consequences should I fail. Not trusting her would be tantamount to spitting in her face and throwing away the relationship we've built.
I trusted Tabitha, and she trusted me. So, I go for it.
Using Soul Manipulation, I channeled the pressure threatening to crush my soul back through Soul Devourer. Since I was already connected directly to Tabitha’s soul, it wasn't hard to push it onto her.
It was like shedding an unbelievable weight; I felt instant relief, but Tabitha wasn't as lucky. She didn't so much as flinch when the first wave of experience slammed into her soul, but after the second and third waves hit, she was gritting her teeth so hard that her gums were bleeding, and she could no longer keep her light spell activated.
“Do you need me to stop?” I groaned in the dark. There was still too much experience for me to handle, but I was worried for Tabitha's safety.
“Don’t you dare," Tabitha snapped back through gritted teeth. "Keep going; I can take it."
Reluctantly, I continue. If Tabitha said she could take it, I had faith in her.
I keep channeling chunks of experience into her when I hear a new voice in my ear. It wasn't the murderous psychotic one I was used to hearing when I used Soul Devourer, but it was familiar.
“How barbaric, you steal our power, and now you break even more taboos," Goddess Ilia's angry voice sent shivers down my spine as she spoke directly into my mind.
Was I really hearing her voice, or had all the pressure finally caught up to me?
"I should smite you for what you did," Ilia threatens, and through all the soul horror experience still covering my soul, I feel a poke that feels like a branding iron against my soul.
That wasn't in my head, but how was Ilia interacting with me? I thought they could only make contact when a person unlocked a tier 6 skill.
Don't tell me!
“That’s correct,” the ice-cold voice of Goddess Ebeon’s voice whispers in my other ear. "Ilia wanted to drag you into your soul out of spite and talk to you there, but I convinced her otherwise. Congratulations, you're the first mortal in a long time to unlock not one but two tier 6 skills, even though they're both his." She said that last part almost sorrowfully.
“Thanks,” I nervously answer under my breath. Even if Tabitha could've heard me, I doubt she would've noticed with how much pain she was in.
I was still transferring experience like I was when Ebeon whispered, “Don’t be so forceful; sense the skill you unlocked," she directed me.
It was hard to sense anything with my soul still covered. But surprisingly, Sense Soul easily pierces through the barrier, and I feel my new skill.
“It’s called Experience Transfer,” Ebeon tells me. “It’s just as dangerous as Soul Devourer; all be it for different reasons. I don't suppose I need to tell you what those are?”
She really didn’t. If knowledge of Soul Devourer made me a target, Experience Transfer would place a neon sign over my head saying 'abducte me' in bold letters.
If Tabitha and I survive long enough to make it out of the Endless Forest, I would need to have a long chat with her about what she witnessed today. But I didn’t have time to worry about that now.
Experience Transfer made a huge difference as soon as I activated it; instead of transferring the experience in clumps as I had been, I was now sending a steady stream into Tabitha.
It was still painful for her, but at least it was a steady sort of pain rather than having it spike in bursts like it was.
For what felt like hours, I channeled massive amounts of experience into Tabitha's soul. The pain we were forced to endure gradually receded to a manageable level, and I could once again think clearly; from there, I had no problem retracting Soul Devourer from her chest without harming Tabitha's soul. At least not any more than I already have.
As soon as my ghostly hands were free of Tabitha, my skill dissipated by itself, and all the energy left my body, and I collapsed to the ground next to Tabitha.
“Very good,” Ebeon’s approving voice rings in my ear. "We cannot maintain this connection long, so we'll have to wait until next time to talk formally."
“What makes you think they’ll be a next time?” I ask back in a barely audible voice.
“Call it a hunch,” I hear the mirth in the goddess of death's voice. “Don’t die too soon,” she says before I feel her presence vanish.
I'm about to let out a sigh of relief when I'm reminded more than one god is watching me. “Try to so much as touch the remaining parts of us in your soul, and I'll do things that will make you wish for my sister's embrace," Ilia angrily hisses in my ear before she, too, vanishes.
I lay in silence, waiting for the other shoe to drop, but after five minutes of nothing happening, I finally allowed my body to relax. I was more than sore, and my soul was furiously working on converting the remaining experience covering my soul. There was no doubt in my mind there was enough to gain me a few levels, and that was after I transferred the majority to Tabitha.
It was a good thing Tabitha was so strong; she had no resistance to it; thankfully, Tabitha's higher level and strong will allowed her to shoulder a considerable amount of the burden.
I wasn’t sure if she was still awake or not, but I could hear her labored breathing, so at least I knew she was alive. Was there any doubt…. Yes, a lot, actually, but I suppose I should’ve known better than to write Tabitha off, even with her injuries.
Speaking of which, I wasn’t much better. I might not have been in control of my body, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t feeling the effects of what it did. Now that there wasn’t an emergency to worry about, I couldn’t bring myself to twitch a finger, let alone move a limb.
I struggle to keep my eyes open until I can't come up with a reason why I should. I'm sorry if there's anything else down here, but that’s it for us.
Thankfully, I don't think we have to worry about that. With how aggressive the soul horrors were, there shouldn't be anything else down here, and the fighting had to have drawn every last one of them to us.
So, with that in mind, I give up trying to stay awake and let myself fall asleep. I've earned that much.