“Master! Null lost and Morgana, well, she is fucked.” Puddle said to Zignus.
“Puddle, please remind me as I think I might have sensed things wrong. But did Morgana really attack the kids before her turn?”
“I’m afraid so.”
“I have so many things in my mind so I need a refresher from you. Didn’t I explain how the bodies we have now work when we are here?”
“In detail sir!”
“Puddle!”
“Yes master?”
“Once we get back I give you full freedom to punish her until she develops intelligence..”
“Not that I won’t punish her in some way but I don’t believe I can do anything worse than what is happening to her right now and not in a way that will instill growth.”
“Believe in your potential a little.”
“Thanks for the kind words.”
As for exactly what was happening. The little game they were playing with the kids of the special class was more than a way to kill time. It was also a way to balance things out in a cosmic way if you look at it from a certain angle.
The bodies they were using had various limitations besides a reduction in the amount of power they could wield in relation to their original selfs and one of them was following the rules they set and/or agreed to follow beforehand. Limitations had to be put on them to not completely wreck the soul of the one using them. As for the why of that rule: since the body can’t really handle the original output of mana from the soul, anything the user do will be empowered by mana, words, actions and thoughts. So saying you are going to do something and not doing with would make the user’s own mana fight itself like two opposite types of mana in the wild.
As for what exactly was happening to Morgana; her body was rejecting her soul and it was painful in a way that can’t be physically described and corroding along the way.
She tried to attack the special class out of turn and when that failed she managed to actually hit Mia. Her actions completely conflicted with what she had said she would do and now her body was completely off-sync with her soul along with her mana that was fighting itself.
Zignus took a moment to think if he said anything that might have been taken as a way to ignore the rules but couldn’t remember anything. Morgana was the best assassin he had command over but not by much. The next in line should be a better pick should the need arrive, or so he thought to himself.
“What should I do now? Do I give them only the allotted time if they survive another battle or should we give them a little more space? I don’t think anything good will come of it, at least for me, if I don’t give them at least a little more time to rest.” Puddle asked.
“Let the timer of Null and Morgana run out and give them half-an-hour of extra rest. Should be enough for you to not explode when you have to play with them.” Zignus said after thinking for a moment.
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“As you command.” Puddle said while bowing.
Near what survived of the forest
“Don’t think Mia will wake up anytime soon. Onyx is also knocked out for some reason” Shishen said after checking on Mia again for the tenth time in the last hour.
“Still can’t think of anything that caused them to be in that state?” Narissa asked.
“It’s not a physical injury. I am 100% sure of that. And I am not good enough to detect any magic or psychic afflictions on her, even less Onyx.”
“I can say that there is nothing messing with their mind. There is not a speck of psychic mana trying to worm their way in her head.” Luminus added.
“Do you think it was the strange pulse she used to make mana vanish is why they aren’t waking up?” Moon asked.
“Might be part of the problem but she also had an injury on the back of her head that I have no idea how she got.” Shishen explained.
“She isn’t dying so we have to hope that she wakes up before the next one comes. If we have to fight and he doesn’t hold back, we will die without Mia.” Klaws said with a really grim expression. It hurt to know that the only hope they had to survive was the little girl currently in a coma near a tree.
“At least we got a lot of time to recover.” Cassandra said. Trying to lift the mood a little.
“I feel like something happened and we didn’t see it.” Kaki said.
“Not that it matters. Until we deal with all of them we can’t leave.”
“Unless we leave Mia behind.” Moon said, souring the mood again.
“How can you say something like this?” Mathias asked, really angrily, almost getting physical with Moon.
“Don’t look at me like that. Everyone here is sacrificing Mia one way or another. We couldn’t deal with the big guy by ourselves. We couldn’t ambush the woman who created the maze without Mia and we would surely have taken a lot of damage if Mia didn’t just eliminate mana with that strange attack of hers. Narissa and Shishen already said that something was happening with Mia and we are still putting the weight of our lives on her. Something that is clearly making things worse for her. Since we are doing something wrong anyway. I want to at least choose an option that leaves me alive."f
“What are you saying are our choices?” Katia asked.
“Either we all die or just her.”
“There has to be more options than that. I am sure that we can all get out of this alive if Mia can recover in time.” Shishen said.
“No. Moon is right. Those are our only two choices. Now that I had the time to think, the guy who is in command, he is different. He will not toy with us like the others so far.”
“So what are you saying? That we should just give Mia to him and live?” Narissa angrily asked.
“No. I am saying that what Moon said are really our two options. I don’t know what all of you are going to do but I plan to fight to my dying breath. I never expect to live a long life anyway. Pretty sure not many people will miss me.” Klaws said really seriously.
“So that is your choice, huh?” Moon said.
“I am with him. I refuse to sacrifice Mia.” Shishen said. Clearly emotional.
“Me too!” Narissa added.
“I guess your silence is your answer…” Moon said as he looked to the rest of the group who was looking really conflicted.
“You can’t be ser…” Narissa tried to say but was cut off by Moon.
“Let this be! My father once said that only when you have to make a decision it matters. So until the time comes, this is just what we are thinking of doing. Let’s focus on not dying for the moment.”
“...Alright.” Narissa said in defeat. Deep down she was terrified of death and knew that she put more weight on Mia than she would have in any normal situation.
With that the group just rested while they waited for the next member of The Steps to appear. Any decision weighing in their minds could weigh until they weren’t completely at the risk of dying.