Nice going, Hessien!

The woman bites down on her lips as the finger that is threading his leg trembles in anger. “You little… brat!”

“Hey, hey! You can’t harm me or—“ Hessien's words end and are replaced with a scream.

She accelerates the rate and roughness of stitching his leg as she rants. “Perhaps you should have asked for a healing item from those flowmans? Maybe take a risk with it being poisoned? Huh? Huuuuuhhhhh?”

“Oh, come on! That should have been obvious to you! How the hell are you a demon wannabe and can be so easily tricked?” Hessien hisses at the pain.

She swings her finger back, cutting the shapeshifted thread. “I am not a demon! I told you before what I was. Although, I am categorized as an ‘evil manifestation.’ My kinds are called despatamor—I was not lying about that. Nor was it a trick.”

Really…? I am curious about that and ask, “So, by default, you are evil? And why is that?”

Hessien adds to that. “Yeah, didn’t you also say you were made out of pure skill energy?”

Oh. I don’t know that. I guess it is believable for her not to be a demon. But, a skill that made demons could exist… That is scary to think about. Creating one is creepy enough. But if there is someone that could create a thousand of hers… I don’t even want to think of the mayhem and destruction they would be capable of. Especially the fact that they would be able to possess powerful political or social figures.

She answers, “First of all. Before we get into the details, I will share my name; Tanya. I would request your names, but I could care less for it.”

What an asshole.

She continues. “To answer your question, brown-haired girl, no. My kind are not evil by default. We are called evil manifestations because of our innate capabilities; possession, binding, and negative skill energy manipulation. Since these powers are only truly capable of inflicting harm to others, we are categorized as being evil by default. And, of course, I would be lying if I said our personalities weren’t also accounted for. Since we possess such abilities, we use them. We inflict harm on others.”

She then floats above Hessien, folding her legs in the process. “I did say I was made out of pure skill energy because I am—all alignment manifestations are.”

Vacinay jumps into the conversation, “Wait, wait, wait. We don’t know much about the world, but since you are going to be giving us the lore lesson, we are going to need chairs!”

Tanya looks at her, taken aback. “You can’t stand…?”

“Yes, but I am very interested. So I want a chair so I can focus on everything.”

With that, Vacinay runs for chairs.

While we wait, Tanya taps her leg. “I am curious, brown-haired girl, is it true that you have a time manipulation skill card?”

I answer, cautiously. “What about it?”

“I am just incredibly surprised… especially since your card appeared yellow. Not to mention those other white cards you showed off. I figured you are actually an illusionist.”

Huh. Illusionist… I am surprised none of us have such a valuable skill.

I shake my head. “No. We are reality defenders. Basically, chosen ones sent to save this world from mutants or something along those lines.”

She blinks a couple of times. I can’t tell what she is thinking behind her blank stare. Then finally she says, “Interesting.”

Hm. I frown and ask, “You don’t believe me? Not that I would blame you if you didn’t.”

“Not exactly. It will explain why my coward partner here has a heavier existence than mine. I was also thinking back on some blurry memory of mine, but it isn’t important.”

“Oh right! You know a lot of stuff, right?”

“Depends on the topic.”

“Do skill cards have a secret trade-off?”

“Secret, you ask?” She thinks. “Perhaps. They trade your future.”

What?

I am too much in disbelief to ask what she means. I am trying to process what it could really mean. Did she mean because I have the time manipulation skill card, I will trade my future… or is it skill cards in general?”

Ghomas asks, “What do you mean by that?”

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“Have you ever seen an old skill user? If you have, they were someone who rarely used their skills or didn’t develop them much. The ones that developed their skills a lot are pretty much husks of their former selves. I suppose instead of future, I should say brain? But it’s connected. To put it simply, your brain gets slowly damaged, and the damage only shows with old time. You will have no memory of your past—since you don’t remember your past, you have basically died. After all, your memories make you.”

Damn… if what she is saying is true, I guess that’s why using energy points feels so mentally tiring.

Hessien hmphs. “Well then, the solution to that is simply not to get old then.”

Ghomas laughs. “I was about to make that joke. But it feels a bit too serious for it.”

“I am not joking.” Hessien clarifies.

Ghomas raises an eyebrow, “You want to seek immortality like a cultivator?”

“No. It’s not urgent anyway. But… it’s going to be something we would need to get, eventually. Well, except Lumine probably. She could just reverse time constantly on herself; while we become old and forget about her.”

He smiles.

I fold my arms. “I doubt it would be that easy—“

Tanya interjects. “It is, for you. I have heard of a time manipulator in the past. They said she lived for tens of thousands of years; the oldest skill user.”

I see…

Yet, that sounds too perfect. Maybe I am really just paranoid? No. I just don’t think of it clearly. Using skills causes small mind damage; to prevent complete mind damage, I would need to use reverse time on my brain. Using that kind of skill would cause damage—so the cycle would be endless until I make a mistake and reverse by too much, effectively reverting myself to a child.

Sigh. Either way, I am young. I don’t need to think about such things right now.

Vacinay finally reaches back with a single chair…

I stare at her. She straight up ignores me, acting like she didn’t say she was going for chair(s).

With her hand clasped, Vacinay leans forward with a serious expression. “Heard about the mind stuff, cool stuff, but I don’t plan to become old. Now! The alignment manifestations, what are they exactly?”

Tanya's eyes twitch, suppressing her irritation. “It’s pretty damn obvious. Bad, good, grey, manifestations.”

“Ooooo! Gray too! Okay, okay. Hm. I don’t get it really. You say your ‘kind’ as if you belong to a species, yet you are skill energy.”

“Arrogant bug… I am made out of pure

skill energy, not manifested from a skill.”

I ask, “Can you explain that?”

“Actually, no! Just know that I am better than every single person here!”

Vacinay angrily shouts, “Hessien, force her to answer us!”

“I can’t force her to do anything.”

Vacinay looks at him in disgust. “All of a sudden you are a super gentleman? You really are trying to get in her panties!”

“I am not trying to put on an act nor am I trying to get in her! I literally can’t force her to do shit! That should be obvious by the fact she tried to attack you all today! What?! You think I just stabbed my leg for the fun of it?!”

Tanya smiles smugly when he mentions that she attempted to kill us.

Vacinay is about to say something else, but she stops herself. “Yeah… I forgot. Sorry.”

“Shove that sorry up your ass.”

“My feeeeelings!” She falls to the ground and dramatically lifts her hands to the sky. It takes her a second to just… push herself on the ground towards him, while he looks at her in disdain.

“Forgive me.” she demands, staring directly into his eyes.

“Just get off the damn floor.”

“Say, ‘I forgive you Vacinay, and I will stop looking at you so angrily’.”

“No.”

“Prettttyyyyyy pleaseeeeeeeee.”

“No.”

“I beg-eft.”

"No. You sound dumb."

"Oh yeah...?" She says with a certain confidence.

She turns into the small cat. I manage to avert my eyes in time, avoiding the heinous transformation.

As a cat, she meows her head off.

Hessien rolls his eyes and says, “Okay okay. I forgive you.”

Tanya looks at Vacinay with absolute disgust. “Prideless child.”

And like that, she turns back to human. “Shut up, freedom-less one.”

That one really ticks her off. Tanya fingers tremble with anger before transforming into claws. But the same white chain suddenly appears around her, restraining her movements.

She squints in pain before returning her hand back to normal. “I am already hating this…”

So it can detect intentions instead of relying on when they are going to commit the action. Interesting.

Well, that is done. I see no need to stay up anymore.

“Since she can’t hurt us, I will be heading to the bedroom to take a nap. Got to try to preserve the brain as much as possible.”

They agree, excluding Tanya, who is biting her fingers, while the white chain randomly appears on her and disappears.

She is definitely thinking of ways to kill us without violating the agreement she has with Hessien.

Vacinay (who got her clothes back on) carries Hessien on her back towards the bedroom. Back on Earth, she is relatively strong since she works out with Hessien and Ghomas a lot.

I recall she used to be afraid of becoming muscular. But when she starts to work out with them because of Hessien pressuring, she starts complaining about the fact she isn't getting as much mass as him.

Although, knowing her personality, if she ever got enough upper body muscle mass to even look remotely visibly muscular instead of very toned, she would have straight up stopped working.

I remembered a random conversation we had:

Vacinay, who was checking herself in the mirror, complained. “Damn, a little more and I am going to start looking like I am a dude… I need a 3 months gym break.”

She didn't even have much muscle mass.

“You know… the only women that look like dudes are those on steroids. You aren’t going to gain that much mass naturally,” I said, sipping on water.

I didn't care for doing any workouts that weren't cardio. I wanted more endurance, nothing more.

She stared at me. “Yeah, but if I wanted to, I could easily.”

“Wouldn’t happen. Not enough testosterone. Unless you mean fat for mass, I guess?”

She clenched her fist. “I think I change my mind. I am going to start working out for strength solely so that when someone pisses me off you like you just did, I can choke them out.”

We arrive back in the bedroom. I immediately claim the top of the bed. Ghomas takes the bottom. Vacinay just throws Hessien in the middle and proceeds to lay by him.

The bed feels so nice… I want to hug and kiss it. There is no way in hell that having a boyfriend could feel as nice as this.

I grind my head against the mattress, obsessed with its texture. Who loves you? I do!

“I suppose I will rest too.” Tanya suddenly speaks, breaking my lust for the comfort the bed gives.

She turns into white energy and shoots towards Hessien's mouth, entering it.

Everyone looks at him.

No way… A laugh escapes my lips as I ask, “She sleeps in you?”