Cosimo was waving to Timothy, unaware that he was about to use a mind reading ability on him. The situation was not good for either of them. He’d been using an extreme amount of magical power directly from his body, and ‘Average’ wasn’t reaching it’s time limit at all. While if he were to say, get in a fight with Timothy, which was unfortunately going to happen soon, he’d be able to be completely fine. What he couldn’t know at this point was that his health was negative ten thousand. 

Combined with his overuse of ‘Mediocre’ saving people from the flood, he was exhausted in a mental sense. 

Combined with his worrying about Aeschyli and her strange behavior. 

Combined with his guilt over punching her and that spell that she cast on him which made him completely lose control. 

Combined with his shame that he didn’t even want to talk about.

Combined with his fear rising in his heart about the dream he had when he was knocked out. This wasn’t ‘right’. This wasn’t ‘his world’. This wasn’t ‘Average’. He was failing in his heart and something was wrong at a level that Timothy would easily understand, but Cosimo was completely unable to understand. Intuitively he had been using ‘Flow Charge’ and ‘Mediocre Force’ without understanding how to manage that load as well, and all of weight was crushing him over and over.

====

Aeschyli was munching on another 5th Open Glande to restore her energy. Now in low energy mode staring out over the city innocently enjoying the view, she saw the pilosa Cosimo said was named Timothy during the small talk they had while saving people from the flood. If you looked at her level and status, just that alone would be enough to take on an army. She munched as she saw the dragon which was apparently Timothy. 

She thought that was amazing really. So it was really a dragon that could turn into a pilosa? She was wrong, but her eyes were shining a little even her in low energy mode. Then she felt it. There was a change in the wind. She stopped eating and swallowed. 

“Oh no, not again…”

This was a magic reaction. Someone was making a horrible mistake and something was about to break. It happened all the time back home. 

She reached for the bangle that gathered her voluminous and greasy hair and flipped the latch. Being level sixty nine, her body’s parameters were supernatural. As potential level that high was extremely rare just getting to the level itself could be called pure genius. In her case, more of an idiot savant. It was also the reason she was hunted by a dragon and her own family from Grunkirk. That was because she stole a bunch of the dragon’s stuff including that magic bangle adorned with sigils, and the latter  was because she didn’t want to be a soldier to please her family.

If you had to say ‘What’s the strongest being on this planet?’ that would be dragons. Aeschyli was perhaps one of the weakest. As long as she kept the bangle on. She lived only to have a stage for herself.

Today was the first day of her life that she would end up killing. The number was going to be high. She couldn’t escape being a soldier after all.

“Timothy, I’ll save you!”

She stood up and light gathered into her eyes but no smile appeared on her face. Her hair unfurled and she jumped causing the alabaster roof to shatter in a perfect semicircle. The small cape on her back fluttered in the wind as she pranced around the buildings using sheer strength and dexterity.

=====

‘Average’ kept it impossible for him to die or change. Right now, if you set a number counter he would always be a certain number. He was level six. He had thirty-nine health. That was the truth that ‘Average’ was keeping. Normally, people of this world had no such abilities that could just simply ignore the laws of numbers. 

Doing that would affect the soul, and the human world had no such knowledge of that.

However, amongst the Druidic Order of Xenarthra it was well known as a common ailment of dream exploration and too much ‘Soul Communication’. The soul would be dyed a small teardrop of black. While in Timothy’s opinion Arge’s soul was pitch black, that was just a judgement of his character.

There wasn’t a known way to get the soul to become entirely blackened. They simply didn’t believe it possible. At worst, you could enter a state of ‘Soulbreak’ which would cut you off from controlling the magical energy around you. No spells could be cast. Then, what if you were just able to cast entirely  When ‘Soul Communication’ is used to read or communicate, added only a little. Really, it wasn’t enough to break a dam. Unless that dam was already bursting. 

First of all reading with ‘Soul Communication’ was going to expose the soul. So naturally, a soul like Cosimo’s which was onyx right now cracked from Timothy’s reading. Timothy fully expected some sort of resistance, that the truth was that Cosimo was lying all along and was a dragon who somehow learned shapeshift which was something even the druids of his order weren’t that great at. He thought at the back of his mind, 

“If that dragon knew shapeshifting, was he someone I talked to back then? Was there an imposter among us?”

Cosimo’s soul exploded. The magic reaction between ‘Average’ and the overload on his soul setoff the soulbreak, with the ‘Average’ constantly restoring his soul back to normal all the darkness in his heart spilled into his mind all at once. Timothy linked to him took serious mental damage as well, digging up his hatred he had when he was stuck in his dream, his bloodthirst, the army cheering and laughing at him. He wasn’t angry at all before that. Really, he was having a good time. However, he was now completely angry and lost all control. The instinct in Cosimo was let loose and he felt the interference. 

“How dare you try to get into my head!”

He was yelling full strength as the identification crystal turned deep purple. It was malfunctioning. 

“You burned my order to the ground!”

“Order? What are you some kind of priest?”

“I’m a druid, of the Order of Xenarthra! The last one thanks to you!”

Arge flew into the air now that Timothy’s control of ‘Druidic Force’ was entirely nonexistent.

Timothy activated his Ancient Ancestral Arts, sacred rites of his order and shifted back to a pilosa. He dropped like a bomb in an arc straight onto the roof in front of Cosimo growling animalistically. 

It got worse though. The link wasn’t broken. Timothy was using read from ‘Soul Communication’ at full blast and he was feeding off of the mental explosion inside Cosimo’s head.

“Finally, I waited so long to meet you. You must have brainwashed yourself somehow, I can’t find the memories of my  order dying at all! Did you forget, if you forgot that day…”

“You’re looking into my head! I didn’t know you could do that! Not my porn folder! Anything but that! Oh, Maria, where did I go wrong?”

“What the heck is all that stuff? It’s making me sick, I’ll end you to save both of us the pain!”

Cosimo was blubbering and his eyes were bloodshot. He was making small primal noises and he leaped forward on all fours with all his strength. The result was many times his normal, he was uselessly putting as much power as he could into his entire being, causing his soul to bubble like a cauldron and causing explosions shaking the city. The air pressure was being affected severely, and a whole section of wall on the city limits just took off into the air like a plane and fell, revealing the oncoming army. 

They had intended to climb the walls, rappel down to a nearby roof and work their way to the city center from there. 

They halted in shock.

Timothy was running forward frothing at his nose and mouth.

Cosimo was using ‘Charge Flow’ and ‘Mediocre Force’ to focus on his fist. He needed to crush everything. He couldn’t let anyone know.

As Timothy came in range he used ‘Darting Tongue’ of the Ancient Ancestral Arts and pierced

Cosimo straight through the heart. ‘Average’ set it to normal right away, cutting off the tip of Timothy’s tongue even though he was concentrating his entire ‘Druidic Force’ there. 

“You..! ‘Form of Sloth’!”

Timothy even in his maddened state understood that something was wrong with that. His strongest abilities and the amount of energy within his ‘Druidic Force’ wasn’t something you could just ‘cut’ through. You needed to interrupt the energy flow entirely with your own, something usually only a druid was capable of doing. 

“I knew I was right! You’re a dragon after all!”

Timothy in the form of a giant sloth lost all momentum and cracked the roof as he fell. Cosimo was closing in but he was able to get off a final spell before the punch released into him. Explosions bursting building in apart surrounded them as night suddenly came. It was just a simple sleep Arts. Timothy had never learned regular magic. This Ancient Ancestral Arts was just for dream exploration. However, with the sloth form it was amplified and could instantly put a creature to sleep. It was his last gambit with his last shred of rationality. 

Cosimo released his punch and all the energy kept focusing and refocusing on his fist over and over again. Since the state kept repeating itself, the punch kept releasing more and more energy. A massive wave of energy cracked the air and sent everything from his fist onwards into the air.

Not even causing them damage, just randomly hefting them away from the force the blast. The cities building and gigantic walls lifted into the air along with Timothy and shot off into the sky along with a huge amount of flood water. 

The whole corner of the city was carried like it was in a massive bubble it looked like it was slowly descending towards the ground crashing into half of the army as they were scattering and yelling. The retreat was sounded but sound wasn’t being heard at all. It was like the whole world got a mute button hit on it.

Cosimo’s body began to explode from the inside and his arm vaporized then regenerated constantly. The sheer amount of energy expended seemed to drain something from within, and he flopped into the remaining flood waters.

===

Going back a bit to before Timothy and Cosimo went insane. 

To Aeschyli who was fluttering in it was like a bomb went off in both of their bodies. One hundred percent soul and mental damage. Aeschyli thought nothing of it though, she had seen countless strange reactions in the labs, countless strange magics in her travels. They just both needed to be put down and would probably recover after a few weeks or so. 

While the pilosa was sleeping it would be stationary, so that was a bed for her. Add to that they would probably praise her and be grateful to her for taking care of them, naturally Cosimo would gift the pilosa to her out of gratitude. Or, he could just come along and be a tagalong. Either way was fine.

She saw a random body fly off of Timothy’s back. Who was that? She had no idea it was the same guy who snuck up on her and knocked her out, launched his ‘Sword Spear Shot’ at her and almost killed her with Slo as backup who riddled her with tiny icicles. If she did that wouldn’t change anything. 

It was a falling target, and a dramatic catch was more necessary to her in priorities than saving a life. She flipped forward and saw Arge plunging headfirst into water. At this rate, wouldn’t he be fine from that level of drop anyways? That was no good.

“Gobo Contract! 2nd Open, Snowdrop Minuet!”

She froze him in midair. Then she stopped on a nearby building, checked the angle, and leaped so her hair would be lit by the rays of the sun. She just caught him out of the freeze when some random burst of air from the nonsensically placed explosions buffeted her into the air and shot her like a cannon in an arc. She enjoyed the view and the pleasant air running through her hair. It was good to be alive. She plummeted straight into the Dunkirk army, briefly activating stage magic to right herself in midair so she would land on her back. It was no good if she squashed Arge after going through the trouble to catch him.

Since that was a extremely high speed, anyone below level forty or so without any magic or Arts enabled would have died instantly. For her body, the ground, which was level thirty or so, lost completely. It exploded upwards and gave her experience for an area of effect attack. 

The unfortunate part was the soldiers hit by that crushing strike. Philodata and humans with bent bodies were scattered around. She popped up holding Arge with a princess carry. 

The connection in her mind between her falling on them and them dying just wasn’t strong. If you had to say why her past-

Was for another time.

At this point the fight between Timothy and Cosimo had already ended and although the soldiers were advancing on her in a rage  They all got distracted in unison by the surreal sight of the floating buildings. Aeschyli looked on with shining eyes and a open smile lit up her face. This day is fun, she thought. It reminded her of good times at home.

As the buildings and water started crashing down she stood there transfixed as the soldiers began to run away. Huge boulders from the building hitting the ground and the air shaking from explosions sending splinters of stone covering the field like shrapnel decorated the sky. Then the water started to flood the plains. 

Aeschyli realized she should move at this point, so she kicked off the ground and twirled in the air. The soldiers were too busy to see her cast 3rd open Celer Fleur and fly away. She sniffed out the familiar scent of that singular pilosa, but for some reason she came upon a tiny sloth. She collected it anyways.

She had no concept of shapeshifting or why Timothy was able to be a dragon, it was just ‘her smell isn’t wrong’ so she didn’t even consider that it might actually be a sloth or that Timothy was using some sort of Arts.

Soldiers who weren’t being swept away into the rivers or bombarded by broken buildings were charging forwards toward a huge chunk of open wall. They thought it would be safe inside. 

Aeschyli’s thinking at this point was that the army was going to cause trouble in the city somehow. It didn’t occur to her that maybe they would just take shelter there after a routing and surrender. She didn’t like fighting too much, but maybe she should stop them? 

Aeschyli was losing interest when she thought about a brave hero making a final stand at the gates to a stronghold. Her eyes lit up and she landed on top of the wall, placing the sloth and Arge down carefully. She felt the sloth’s fur and giggled creepily, but luckily no one was there to see that.

She was about to use her 6th open to summon a dagger, but then she saw a crumbled stack of wood and thought that would be cooler. This was incidentally about half of the Adventurer’s Guild that landed there by chance. She picked up the stick, and swung it with all of her force with one hand.

“Ooh, nice.”

It sent out a blade of air from the sheer force of the swing and cut a deep slit into the alabaster on the top of the way, disrupting the vine carvings.

She swung it around a little bit, completely unaware of actual swordsmanship. It was after all her ignorance of that that formed the basis for Parry Arts. 

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

Aeschyli easily jumped off the wall and just let herself plant into the ground. It was like a stake went straight into a railroad plank. As she pulled herself up, she stood there and imitated a stone face like Arge’s that she saw just now. The light of the setting sun bathed her already red costume in more red.

“Knaves of Dunkirk!”

She leveled her stick at them like a challenge. A deep heroic voice unlike her full of energy burst forth as her long unbound hair blew in the wind.

“Marscione, city-state of the shining blue river delta. Marscione, jewel of trade and protector of the Monodons, who repay them in kind. Marscione, my home. I, Aeschyli Grun, have renounced my former country. They chase me, they assassinate me- wait not yet they haven’t.”

The soldiers were covering their heads with shields and some were trying to coax the philodata who were running off in shock. The few paying attention were just surprised but kept advancing.

“Aleppo is Marscione. You came to conquer this city to obtain a path to Marscione, but here you will only find a trudge home. If you have courage, face me in battle and I will show you the true worth of the so-called soldiers of Dunkirk!”

They didn’t really have anywhere to go, but no one wanted to attack her. There were whispers about her… among the top crust of Grunkirk. These Dunkirk soldiers had never heard of her but were confused by her using the last name ‘Grun’. If anything, being so close to the wall and having such a strange encounter deeply imprinted it on their minds. At least one thought she was charming. That may have been Aeschyli herself though.

Needless to say, she had a stick. They were tired. They started to try to walk past her but she blocked them with the stick. When one of the soldiers just tried to push her away-

He flew. 

Parry Arts was her most formidable ability for one reason. Since it was one hundred perfect defense, there wasn’t anything that could pass it except overwhelming force, magical or otherwise. The only requirement was that she wielded something as a weapon. So seeing a soldier lose to a stick was humiliating enough, to see even more soldiers sent flying when they were just trying to sneak past was worse. As they began to try all sorts of unique magic to get past it all ended the same way. A few just stood there and watched as soldiers who tried to fly would get knocked down and bounced across the ground, while she would repel another one using ‘Cowardly Retreat’ at the time she was distracted within the same movement.

“She’s amazing.”

They had to begin to marvel. Others were yelling insults and cursing but Parry Arts is useful against those too somehow.

Finally, a reasonable person who had just decided he needed to roll with this came forth.

It was actually the aide who chided the general earlier for enjoying the whole pilosa cheer mess.

“Hey, Aeschyli is it? Look, listen to reason. Our army is shattered. There’s a flood in the city. We have no supplies or mounts anymore, this is just… showing off.”

He rethought as her face darkened. She talked about Marscione. Maybe she was insane? He had to play along with her character. ‘

“Dunkirk submits to Marscione. Aleppo is Marscione. Please, shelter us and we will repay with our lives, as that is the only thing we have to pay with. Does Marscione have no honor, that they will kill prisoners of war?”

This guy, he will go far, thought Aeschyli. There was a small second of joy there on her face before switching back to character. She spun her stick and stuck it in her belt.

“Marscione has honor. We will shelter the driven forces of Dunkirk at the Dun Embassy, where they belong. Betray your word, and Aeschyli Grun will finish you all herself.”

She flicked her cape and leaped to the top of the wall with one movement. Aeschyli collected her sloth and miscreant and flew off with Celer Fleur.

“Wait, she isn’t going to escort us there?”

The aide marveled at her strange magic as she putted through the air.

“I, think she’s just playing around.”

“She said Grun though, no one would use that name unless they wanted to die. But with ability like that, maybe it's true.”

“Head to Dun, tell him about the explosion and the girl. Whoever she is, she’s loyal to Marscione.”

This was an unfortunate misunderstanding.

======

Cosimo awoke with a start. White, stretching out as far as the eye could see. A black ball slammed into the ground in front of him and the Japanese God and his sister walked out. 

“Hello Cosimo.”

“Maria?”

“Seems like you broke your soul somehow. Anyways, I came by to check in really. I’m learning a lot without you around. I can do what I want finally. All those years, it was quite painful at times you know?”

She wasn’t smiling. Don’t tell me this was another dream. Cosimo thought that to himself.

The Japanese God spoke up. 

“No, not this time. Didn’t mean to read your thoughts there, but it was kind of loud. It happens sometimes.”

He looked at the Japanese God and struggled to get up.

Maria kicked him in the face.

“Agh!”

It hurt more because it was unexpected. 

“What the? Maria why would you even come see me? I know how you really felt, but I didn’t want to admit it-”

“I saw some of what was going on in the other world you know. It's not going well at all is it? But for you to be saying something like that, you’ve grown I think.”

She pulled out a kitchen knife from a holster on her back.

“No, do not pull out knives on me again.”

Cosimo said that on reflex with his hand up.

“At least you’re wary this time. It actually bothered me a bit when you didn’t say anything even at the end. I really wanted the truth you know. Last time I saw you, were you lying?”

Maria didn’t seem like she was angry. Actually, this just reminded him of when she was young. Since he left, maybe she just returned to that personality. No, that was a lie too. This was the her he denied, the her he tried to save his sister from. To change her into someone else. Usually, he would find that disgusting, but his sister was just unforgivable.

“I, I was lying. I’ve always been lying. Even when I got to another world I kept lying. But I-”

Did he learn anything? What did he do? He got consumed by shame and hatred for some reason, fought with his ‘best friend’ and blew up a good chunk of the city he spent the whole evening trying to help. It’s just a mystery to him. Just what exactly was he doing?

Then he remembered ‘Carpe Scaenam’. Aeschyli’s unique magic that controlled him. He didn’t remember it well but it definitely robbed both his and Timothy’s will. That dream he had, 

“I was running away,” he gestured towards the knife, “from this you.”

“It's the truth?”

She was looking at the Japanese God.

“Yeah. That took some courage to say. I’m glad I gave you a chance, Cosimo.”

“‘Gave him a chance’?”

Maria was confused.

I could go for the knife right now, thought Cosimo. He knew that this was going to end in him getting stabbed, and his identification crystal was gone. Beyond that, he had tried to use ‘Mediocre’ on her already and there was nothing.

There was one ability left to him. 

Martial Arts. He had studied several, but his favorite was jiu jitsu and aikido. He could go for the leg sweep, but the Japanese God could end it in an instant. He needed to confirm what his reason for bringing him here was, or at least how he got here.

“Cosimo’s actually fairly amazing. I was initially interested in you, because I like crazy girls, but then I realized you’re pretty dead inside. There’s no fire to you. It’s just enjoyment of perverted hobbies that would disgust any normal person. I’m not interested in a girl who can’t keep me guessing. Honestly, if Cosimo left you alone I bet you would just be in jail for life and have done fine in there.”

“I’m not surprised. I was thinking you felt that way about him,” Maria said.

Cosimo didn’t miss the hand gesture and chin shake that the Japanese God did. 

Fight her for your entertainment? Is that it? I’d take her down if it was just me and her. I’ll run away with all my might this time. There’s this guy I met in the other world named Arge who’s not that different than you. I spent probably less than an hour with him and he threatened to kill me with a knife but I’d… 

I was going to say trust him with my life, but no way. I like him more than you. At least I don’t know enough to decide that I absolutely need to run away. Arge would drop you in a second.

You’re on your own, Maria.

“This guy? He fought a lonely battle for so long. For nothing really either. If he just ran away when he found out, told your parents, and didn’t take responsibility he would be a normal person. He made a poor decision, and followed it for his entire life on earth. That’s dedication!”

“So, I’m the one who was wrong then? Is there something wrong with me?”

Maria wasn’t putting the knife away.

I inched closer. 

“No, you’re just normal to me. People all have their preferences really. But, hey, as a human there’s limits in society. If you want to stay in society, you have to play along. Cosimo tried to do both for you. Stay in society, teach you to stay in society, if anything the person who has something wrong with them-”

I hooked her leg with mine and snatched her wrist. She turned around with an angry face. The first time I’ve ever seen her like that. She didn’t expect it from the bottom of her heart, is what I thought.

She toppled to the ground where I was. If I can’t win, I’ll bring you down to my level. 

I twisted her wrist and pushed against her thumb.

“Aagh!”

The knife fell point first into the whiteness. I moved to pin. I grabbed her shoulder, forced her arm up, and put my knee into her back. If I left you alone, a policeman could have done this for me.

On top of her like she was just a criminal and not my sister, I teared up. 

“I’m…”

I’m sorry? 

What am I sorry for?

I messed up. I did too much. That’s true. It’s over now.

“It’s over. I don’t know what you were going to do, but I’m going far away. I won’t see you again. I’m glad for that.”

“Cosimo!” 

She was upset. I don’t want to hear anymore of what she has to say though. 

I’m heartless? No, maybe I’m worse than you. In law, there is a question of intent though. Objectively, I would get sympathy for trying to protect someone. The means to that end were criminal though, I’ll admit that. Who will judge me?

It’s…

Myself isn’t it. 

My code, from now on, I’ll figure it out in another world, without you.

“Hey, Japanese God, send me back.”

“To earth?”

“You’re joking right? To the world I was in, I still don’t know the name yet. It’s been awful busy there. Still haven’t read those damn books yet.”

“Afraid I can’t do that.”

What?

“What?”

Cosimo was surprised. 

“There’s this really complex reason why, but basically the whole insanity thing was kind of like a magical explosion. It’s why Aleppo flooded too.”

“Okay, can you send Maria back at least?”

“To earth?”

“Yes, please, I swear I’ll get into trouble other ways even if you don’t do anything at this rate.”

“Yeah. Yeah you’re right. You’re doing a good job with that, to even mess with a God’s power to email your soul places.”

Maria was quiet, but she suddenly spoke up.

“He’s right. We’re better off apart. Cosimo? I’m sorry.”

I didn’t want to hear that at all, Cosimo thought. It’s like her to twist the knife, but at this point he was doubting if it was a lie. Had she ever lied?

I’ll run away with all my might.

That doesn’t mean I don’t try though. I’ll make mistakes. I’ll apologize too, I’m sure. At least to Timothy, to Aschyli for not trusting her, wait she’s not trustworthy at all, to Slo for getting her hurt? To Aleppo? Ah, I’ll figure it out later.

The Japanese God opened a console in mid-air and said, “okay now attach maria_medici.exe, subject line, uh Italy? I guess? Whatever, she’ll be fine anywhere. and now click send… message? I’ll just type a bunch of words, maena. Okay, that works.”

She disappeared from under my knee mount and I caught myself with my hands. The knife was still there in the whiteness.

“Hey, what's your name Japanese God? I think I figured it out already though.”

“Susanoo, nice to meet you. Since you might be here awhile, I guess you can read those books?”

Cosimo pulled out the books and the acorn Aeschyli gave him.

“Hey, what’s that acorn, I missed that part?”

“Some crazy girl I met. Probably want to keep an eye on her, she seems to like attention.”

“Ooh, I’m excited. Anyways, those are spirit versions of the items you actually had but I went ahead and put the original contents in them as a bonus in english. Some of the images seemed kind of vague, I hope you don’t mind.”

Cosimo was wondering about two things. He figured that he had to bring them up now that Maria was gone. 

“Oh, I heard that one, you must be angry,” said Susanoo, “I’m really sorry about the power application. Seems like this whole soul transfer to the whiteless void was all the fault of your ‘Average’ ability.”

“I have an ‘Average’ ability? I thought I had ‘Mediocre’.”

“The power application was glitchy. You have both, it's a bonus now, so I’ll let you have two if you want to change it up later if things get dicey. I’ll make sure they get it to work this time. Also, the whole money thing and welcome gift I said way back when, I forgot. I’ll give you that knife, so use it to cut grass or something okay?”

“I don’t want it. Especially since it was Maria’s.”

“I already blessed it as a gift to Maria when I was still into her. It’s pretty awesome. Give it to a friend. As for money or an item box or something like that-”

“Clothes?”

“Uh, I’ll just give you money. We’re good right?”

Cosimo then thought of the most pressing question that he just assumed would happen somehow.

“How do I get back?”

“I don’t know really. If you stay here long enough, I’m not really sure what will happen. I can’t take you out with my level of power. That knife could probably help though, it's pretty amazing for some reason even though I just blessed it.”

Cosimo had a feeling that the knife would be too important to throw away. Oh well, he can’t just walk away from past just like that.

“Why do you think it can help? Does it do something?”

He wanted a clue at least.

“Uh, at the very least it's standing point up in the ground of a whiteless void. Maria killed a komodo dragon with it. One bite and she would have died, it was kind of scary.”

That was almost useless. 

=======