“We have no time to spare. I need to eat Lovecraft,” Major said.

“Very well then. Hurry up,” Sasha replied.

“Patience. Just put me in the satchel. Also, you may want to sit down.”

“Fine.”

Sasha placed Major inside and onto the roof. She plopped onto her butt beside it, antsy. “Whatever is about to happen, I hope it doesn’t hurt.”

“Don’t worry. It… shouldn’t.”

“Why do you sound so unsure?”

Major did not respond. The silence lingered until the dagger violently coughed and cleared its imaginary throat out of disgust, startling her. “What’s wrong?” Sasha asked.

“Tastes horrible.”

“You’ve been waiting for this moment forever. Can you bear with it?”

“Of course I can, human. A year for you is but a moment for me.”

“I feel like we’ve all been separated for a year. That’s why we need to hurry— GAH!” With a snap deep inside her body, no, her soul, Sasha and Major both fell into indescribable pain.

The hurt and heat generated from within, reaching all the way to her fingers and toes. She convulsed, hands clenching her chest, as boiling spiritual venom coursed throughout her veins and nerves, trailing agony everywhere without mercy.

Sasha’s vision blurred. She drooled with tears falling. Major’s voice distorted as it shook and walled within the satchel. She didn’t even know that a machina could feel pain. It was an indescribable torture she wouldn’t have wished onto anyone. Even Mercutio.

Was she about to die? Had Andre given Lovecraft to her with malicious intent?

Just when she thought it couldn’t get worse, it did. Tenfold. A gut-wrenching, gory cracking and bouncing started within her chest. Her heart was fighting against something and losing. Something was coming. Something was about to break out.

Light. A pillar of enigmatic, prismatic light shot from her body and pierced the clouds. It went farther and farther beyond, spreading out like an aurora visible to half the planet, into the cosmoses and beyond. Her vision got fuzzy along with her other senses. They all faded until nothing was left.

Sasha snapped awake on her feet. She felt twice as light on her feet and twice as aware of everything—not just of the past and present but of the future. The shingles she stood on were brown, but decades ago they were red, and they would soon lose all color when they were obliterated into nothing, but by what exactly? She didn’t know yet. This… projection was incredibly small.

Sasha picked up Major and marveled at its transformation. Her great machina was no longer a dagger. It became a sword with a sharp blade and flared hilt, although still on the shorter side. Its ethereal eye shone with light magnitudes more vivid.

She swung it through the air, producing a loud WHIP and gust of wind that way. It sent bricks flying from the chimney Mercutio slipped down earlier. “Major, is this what godhood feels like?” She shook her head, confused. “I still can’t grasp why the king would give such a step up to me.”

“You are no god. Not even close. As for the king, I have no idea. His plans, and the extent of what he knows, seem complex. There may be something he knows which he hasn’t shared. Something he intends to prepare you for… or something like that.” Major trailed off.

“We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it, I guess. We have work to do.”

“Let’s go, partner.”

Sasha rushed to the edge of the roof and jumped. The soaring height and breakneck speed of her ascent surprised her. Arms waving with wind blowing in her ears, she landed three buildings down the block, leaving imprints of her feet in the stone. From roof to roof, she traveled.

“I feel powerful. I feel like I can win,” she said zooming through the air.

“Pride is fine, but don’t bathe in it.”

Something caught her attention. It was a change in the very way she perceived things. She no longer looked on the surface. She saw souls. They were burning flames of different sizes, colors, and intensities that pierced through lifeless construction and earth as easily as a seaside lighthouse through darkness.

Every living thing possessed them. The souls of people stuck out from the hordes of ugly, dark red monster souls quite easily.

“I think I can see them. Everyone’s still alive, I think, somehow,” Sasha said, feeling insecure but hopeful about her observation. “There’s a purple one on the weaker side nearby alone. It’s being swarmed. I’ll check it out.”

Sasha landed in the streets, attracting the attention of a dozen beasts. As they galloped toward her, she drew Major, turning it into a magnificent double-bladed polearm. It spun at speeds faster than the eye could see, shredding not only the homunculi, but the buildings around her. She dodged a falling pillar and punched another in half to avoid being crushed.

Shaking her hand off, Sasha was surprised by all the damage she’d caused barely even trying. “I need to be careful.”

“The power will take time to adjust to.”

“What exactly has happened to me though?”

“You are physically no different. It is your soul and, in turn, ki that has been bolstered to the next level.”

Sasha squinted, feeling braindead. Major sensed this and further explained, “Athleticism and training only bring warriors to a certain point. What takes them beyond the limits of humanity is spirituality. How dense is their ki? How much of it do they possess? How finely are they able to manipulate it? What is its nature? Think of all those things.”

“I think I’m getting it. I’m not actually stronger then. It’s this… ki then? The new ki from Lovecraft.”

“Right. We have more to work with, and it is far denser, but you as an artist are still sloppy and unfocused. Do you know why?” Major responded.

“Because I don’t know anything yet. Something of that sort.”

“Don’t feel bitter about it. There is no helping that conflict after conflict has gotten in the way of your training. Once death no longer waits around each corner, you will have time.”

“Thank you, Major. I do want to get stronger or, someday, at least not feel so overwhelmed all the time.”

Sasha peered down the alleyway she spotted the purple flame in. Instead of a person, the flame radiated from a metal garbage bin that had been banged around and scraped up until it looked like an absurdist art piece. Three furry, bear-like homunculi and one fishman knocked it around, convinced someone hid inside.

Sasha whistled and all monsters jolted their heads at her. She bled and compressed ki in her fist while they stalked up. With a fling of the wrist, each had a hole blasted through them by crystalized needles of energy. They whimpered and dragged away out of fear. She finished each with a swing of Major in her stroll by.

The lid to the garbage bin creaked open, revealing the eyes of someone put on edge. Sasha waved and the lid busted off. Simon crawled out, covered in superficial injuries and monster blood; so much blood in fact that he could’ve been confused for a demon.

He wobbled toward her, rattled and filled with disbelief. “Sasha?”

She nodded. They met in the middle and embraced, her arms around his hips. The moment was cut short by his meek outcry and pop from his lower back.

She let go. “Sorry.”

In a rush to explain himself, Simon stumbled over his quick words. “I—I went to search for you, I did, but there were so many of them, and I really tried hard, and then I got lost, and cornered by some fish man thing asking me for water, and ran out of ki, and forgot which way you were dragged off, and ended up in the trash where I belong.”

He ran out of breath and took deep ones bent over to bring himself back together. “Now you’re here in a clown costume and…” Gazing at her, as confused as he was intrigued, he ended with, “You’ve changed. Are you taller?”

Ick! She’d saved his life in a clown costume. Sasha ripped the silly ass shirt Mercutio cursed her with off without caring if only a bra was underneath. There were two ways to present herself, each embarrassing, and this one seemed like the better option for now.

But was she taller? Was that a side effect?

Sasha asked Major, “Am I?”

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

“You are not, but you may as well be with that ego of yours.”

“Listen here…” She shook her head, putting the dagger-turned sword aside to instead address Simon. “There’s no time to explain right now. I need to get to get to the others.”

Simon shook his head up and down frantically like a yes man and limped forward, unprepared for combat. He didn’t seem to care that he had nothing left to give. He was giving his smidge of might and ki anyway, no matter if he couldn’t dent a cobweb. “You’re right. They need us. Let’s go.”

Sasha shook her head firmly. “No, not you. You’re done.”

“You’re serious?”

“Yes, I’m serious. Now come with me.”

“Wait, what—,” She picked him up like a bride and got to running. Her goal was the tallest building in sight. A clock tower.

With his mouth agape, Simon asked, “What the fuck is going on?!”

“I can barely tell you myself. Just know everything will be okay,” she replied.

“Whatever you say, Augh!” Sasha launched up into the air with an explosive jump. They reached the fourth story of the tower and met spiraling stairs, which she sprinted up, giving Simon the bumpiest ride in High Monestate.

At the top, Sasha sat him down next to the massive clock with warmness about her. “With how good you are at being sneaky, I know for a fact you’ll be safe here. Don’t you move now. Just vanish and wait here.”

“I can’t just do that. You know that, Sasha.”

“Please.”

“But…!” She kissed Simon. It wasn’t very long or romantic, but it settled him down. He sighed and got quiet, his fingers resting upon his lips.

Sasha asked again, “Will you? Promise?”

“I will, and I promise, so stay safe. I’ll hide here like a coward until you come back.”

“Good. That’s a good boy.”

He let out a painful chuckle. “Do you think I’m your dog?”

“No. You’re my owl.”

Before Sasha left, they shared prolonged eye contact. Something about that silence communicated more than words. There was an awkwardness in the air. She hesitated to turn the corner to the stairs, leaving his sight, but eventually did.

Rushing down, relief washed over her. No matter who or what was lost in the trouble to come, Simon would be perched there awaiting her return.

He’d promised, after all.

***

Abdul stood atop a writhing hill of guts and flesh as Rainbow in The Dark sucked all light from High Monestate. He felt anxious. “Isaac had to use it again. Are they… doing well?”

No matter how many times he cut down homunculi, they pieced themselves together and got back up while more and more flooded in from every direction. He was no different. He’d already faced and escaped death four times against the horde in this battle alone. Every time he got away, they tracked and encircled him again, and slowly whittled down his flesh and spirit. It was a blurring, brutal cycle.

He trudged over amputated limbs that still had life to them, stomping on and shattering gem-like, orb cores. Targeting homunculi cores worked if you wanted to put them down forever but it’d turned into a nigh impossible endeavor. There just wasn’t enough time to breathe or search.

His ki was completely extinguished by this point, and his regeneration had ended. There were no more sparks. There were no more flames. There were no more second chances. And the more exhausted he became, the less motivated.

Abdul questioned his resolve to survive and fight. He questioned why he ever came here in the first place. He wondered if he did have a place to go after it was over. Him? A monster like him?

He could barely drag the claymore, Primus, despite its weightlessness. The sword wasn’t the issue. It was him. His muscles were failing him. Abdul planted the edge of Primus into the stone and leaned onto it, gasping for air with lungs on fire.

A large, winged beast with fur and devil horns spotted him from the sky and let out of a series of high-pitched barks. It rang Abdul’s ears. Within a minute, a dozen more crept up from the sewers. In their mouths and claws, they carried the mauled remains of soldiers Abdul had never seen before, ornate plate armor and all.

The Royal Guard. Foreign cries of what he assumed to be their comrades echoed out in the streets. This battle may have been far larger in scale. How were there so many? Did they multiply?

Abdul stared at the winged creature zooming toward him, its tongue flapping in the wind, and sighed. “They fly now, Primus. They fly.”

Primus had always been a rambunctious machina, but it now possessed a rare seriousness. “You can’t fight any longer, Abdul. Either get low and hope they don’t spot you or run.”

“We’re far beyond hiding, my friend. Another horde is upon us.”

“Then run away, you buffoon!”

Abdul took three steps and stumbled to a knee. He showed a glimpse of a smile. “You almost sound like you’re caring about me now.”

“Sure, but not just me. There are others too.”

“Like who?”

“Sasha, Isaac, Elise… Ignazio.”

Hearing the last name made Abdul freeze up. With a sore lump in his throat, his lips curled up. “Right. How had I forgotten?” Purple electricity surged and coursed across his countless wounds. With time, he would heal, but did he have time? Would he pull himself back from death five times in a row?

The beasts fell upon him. Abdul aimed his palm at the winged one as it swooped in with fangs bared. He shot it down with a superhot blast that wrung out an excruciating agony in his chest. It felt like someone clenched his heart from within with intentions of crushing it. Not only that, but the heat came up short.

It wasn’t enough. He met the downed beast with nothing but Primus’s sharpened steel and a bloody growl. His overhead swing barely punched an inch into its skull. The claymore cried out, “RAHH!” and multiplied its weight until splitting it in half straight down the center.

Primus celebrated with a victory roar as several smaller homunculi approached with caution. From around the corner, a hulking one peeked its head. It must’ve been two stories tall.

With a trembling voice, Primus promised, “I’ll protect you if you can muster the strength to swing me. I’ll do all the work. So just grit your teeth and keep fighting!”

In a daze, he nodded. “Alright.”

One agile, wolf-like beast lunged and latched onto Abdul’s arm. While he fended it off, others snapped at and beat him down. He heaved Primus in a circle, cleaving their legs off, while another strangled him with tentacles from behind.

Abdul sensed the giant’s closeness not with his vision; everything was a shaky blur of blood and fear now. He heard its bounding footsteps. They shook the earth and his heart.

An overwhelming force struck him in the back, crushing him face-first into the stone. It knocked the wind from his lungs. Primus shouted, “Abdul!”

He reached toward the claymore’s handle, grazing it with his fingers, and then was crushed again. The impact flattened him back into the ground, sending fragmented stone and blood flying everywhere with a shockwave.

Abdul felt something within snap and give in from that trauma. He lost most feeling in his body immediately. Some kind of important essence leaked out, and he would never get it back.

All around him, homunculi screeched and cried but the sounds were laughter. They gathered around, patting each other on the back, hooting as if they’d fell a god. There was much more to the minds of these monsters than just white noise. They were communicating. Their words were gibberish, but they spoke nonetheless.

Abdul wheezed in and out, tensed up with muscles shaking. He reached for Primus one last time, faltered, and then relaxed. He relaxed everything. Surrounded by monsters that would soon devour him or wear him as a trophy, he fell into tranquility.

Rainbow in the Dark’s grip on all light faded and they were returned to reality under red, oppressing skies. They were in hell. Abdul had tried his best and it wasn’t good enough.

“Sorry,” he said to Primus. “I love you.”

“Thank you for everything, human. You fought well. Know that you are worthy.”

Abdul closed his eyes, mumbling words barely audible. “A contract. A special one.”

“What are you suggesting?”

“Live. Through me.”

“No… I can’t do that to you.”

“Finish what I couldn’t.”

A beam of light shot up into the atmosphere. It went farther and farther beyond, spreading out like an aurora visible to half the planet, into the cosmoses and beyond. Abdul’s head sagged. He fell into a long, long slumber with a face free of weight, his vision blinding to white.

Primus took a deep inhale and exhale. “I will honor your wish, my friend.”

They awoke on a Zaiban beach near Western Almura. It was Abdul’s coastal home village. The ocean was known for its clear waters no matter the weather. Abdul drunk from a coconut with his feet in the shallows. He felt the sun’s warm rays against his hazel skin with a smile. His body was riddled with horrible scars, but they were constellations that led him home. For that, he looked at them with gratitude.

Abdul noticed Primus standing nearby and asked, “Why so upset? Do you not feel the warmth on your back? No monsters are here either.”

Primus looked away, sniffling. Not the claymore. The man. He appeared there in the form of the stout, vicious warrior he was in life.

Abdul set his coconut down and came over, wrapping his arm around his shoulder. He looked up to Primus who made him appear frail in comparison. “It’s not that bad. I’d say it beats living any day.”

“Won’t you be lonely?”

“No. My family is here.” Abdul pointed out a villa between other homes and farms. Many people lived there. “My father, mother, cousins, baby brother, and Xavier.” He hesitated, rubbing his irritated eyes. “I finally get to be with them again, and I pray that everyone will be able to experience the same when their time comes.”

Primus nodded, trying to keep his composure, but nothing could stop his tears from welling up. “I’m happy for you.”

Filled with confidence, Abdul put his fist against Primus’s chest, “I have a request. Something I want you to tell everyone.”

“What is it?”

Abdul wandered away back into the shallows. The water went up to his ankles. He shared his final words staring out into the sea with the wind blowing his hair.

“I grew up only witnessing the worst sides of humanity. War, rape, burnings, torture, and suffering everywhere I went. Sometimes I participated. I strayed from my path, lost sight of the light, and found myself in an Eversea of darkness. A faithless, hateful creature concerned with only me. All I wanted was to feel good and forget everything, convinced I had nothing. Then I lost even that.

But I was proven wrong about my verdict on humanity. I was shown the light. In death, I find myself saved, bathing in it. I know now that if people like you are out there, hope will never be lost. Light will always be fighting somewhere in the darkness, resilient, even if small. Because of that… because of all of you, someone like me was redirected here instead of a cold, painful eternity in the depths of Yellen.”

Primus couldn’t respond. If he opened his mouth, he wouldn’t have been able to control his emotions. Instead, he did his best to engrave Abdul into his sight and memory so that he may never forget him.

“Words cannot describe my gratitude to everyone, Primus. You especially.”

“I’ll never forget you, Abdul. I want you to know that, out of countless wielders, you were my first true friend. And we never even made a contract.”

Abdul smiled. “Well, here we are now. It warms my heart to hear you say that. Until we meet again, my brother.”

Primus awoke in a bloodbath. Creatures ravaged his limbs. With real pain surging through his body for the first time in centuries, he growled and yelled, “Rah!” His voice was morphed by metallic distortion.

A blast of heat exploded from his chest, blowing everything from him. The wave burned the oxygen in the air, leaving them breathless with airways now only crisps. Countless homunculi stopped, dropped, and rolled with frantic squealing while the giant patted off its skin on fire. Primus stood strong with arms crossed, asking, “You chickens think you can extinguish us?! Who the hell do you think we are?!”

He faced a three-story building and clenched his fist at it. With a single pull, the entire structure uprooted and collapsed over onto his enemies. They were all pancaked. Primus hopped to the top of the rubble. He glanced at himself up and down, confused. What had become of him?

He was neither a human, claymore, or homunculus. If anything, the transformation was akin to God Aspect. Homunculi were meant to be machina in the flesh. Vessels. What did it mean for two machina to form a contract?

In this case, fusion. A wave of emotions came over him.

My friend, if we had done this earlier, you wouldn’t have been lost, right? Right?

No. One of our souls would have been lost either way.

Primus stretched himself out. He looked as if Abdul had been possessed by a suit of armor shining silver. His eyes and gaps in the armor exhausted vivid, purple ki. The breathing blade spoke, “Wait for me, everyone. I’m coming.”