I took a break from listening so intensely and looked at the patched up grey wound again: the grey flesh was spreading. I dropped the shirt and pinched my chin in thought.

How’s it growing already? Well, I guess I don’t know too much about magic and this seems magical. If the tentacles are taking energy then they must be the magical part fuelling the fleshy part of the parasite. I don’t think that something physical can take energy… that wouldn’t make sense.

I knit my brows together. It wasn’t looking so good considering I didn’t really know what was happening at all in the first place.

“Ahg!”

I fidgeted with my fingers nervously but they stopped as soon as I came to a realization.

The System was saying something about me using my own energy, so… maybe, maybe this parasite is taking from our own internal energy.

I smiled.

That mean’s I could figure out how I could actually use my own magic outside the Systems energy.

I frowned.

Well, there’s also the part where there’s a parasite sucking the energy out of Ismund.

I hadn’t gotten a clear idea of what I was listening to earlier, just the bare bones, due to my surprise. This time I paid more attention to what I was listening too. There was the creatures thin tentacle strand reaching into Ismund, and there was energy just floating around inside him, but there seemed to be a source where everything was originating. Before I got to that centre, however, I found a barrier that was just a lack of sound or some sort of lack of variation in sound. There were lots of cracked crescent shapes floating around the place but seemed like they were mostly around the centre ball of energy and it kept trying to fix itself.

Oh, its a protective ball thingy. Like a shield. Or, it was until I’m guessing the parasite thing broke it.

I looked at the back of Ismund’s head concerned.

I wonder what effect the parasite is having on him. I don’t know what it’s taking from him really, but I’m sure it’s noticeable.

I focused my attention on the origin. The sound was too complicated to understand, even if you gave me days to try to figure it out. The beat, while complex, stayed the same, but all the other layers were always changing and weaving in and out of one another making my head whirl. It sounded beautiful better than anything I’d listened to, it wasn’t jumbled in the least there was just so many layers and complexities I couldn’t take it all in. In the end it still sounded very Ismund. I wanted to take a closer look at it but it looked like it was making Ismund uneasy or something he kept shifting his weight uncomfortably.

I guess I’m analyzing part of him, he can probably tell. Probably not very pleasant. Oh! Maybe it’s like using the ‘analyze’ skill in those other books I read, people could tell when you’re reading their stats and stuff. It’s not quite the same thing, but it might have the same effect.

> [Affirmative. You are viewing all the different aspects Ismund’s soul stat.]

Oh, so that’s what it is… does the soul stat include the soul itself?

> [The actual soul cannot be measured since it is simply the name human’s give to their creative nature which separates them from monsters and the System itself. It cannot be measured, therefore doesn’t truly exist in any real sense. The soul, as the System understands it in stats, is: the strength of your willpower, the strength of your presence, understanding of magic, and how you’re ability to understand other peoples soul stat without the Systems intervention. There are several other variables which I won’t outline in this moment due to it being unnecessary unless User Drifa specifically requests it.]

I squinted my eyes skeptically.

I don’t think it understands the whole picture of the soul… it doesn’t have one, so how would it really do that in the first place. I mean I suppose theoretically it might be able to, but not on it’s own. It would need someone to spoon feed it that information and even then it might not fully understand it. Not to say I have a perfect understanding myself, but still.

I shook my head.

Well, I’m looking at the non-physical part of Ismund, I’m not sure what part is his soul, spirit, and whatever else but I can back off.

I switched my focus over to the parasite itself it seemed t-

How did I not think about that when I was talking to the System.

I look at the back of Ismund’s head again with a large grimace this time.

“Uhm, I don’t know how to Ismund but uhm, well, ya’ know you’ve probably already been told by a notification, but the thing the ‘doctor’ used seems alive or, semi alive and is acting like a parasite,” Ismund nodded shortly, “and it’s ah… I think it’s taking your soul’s energy, or at least what the System’s identifying as the soul.”

His head whipped around in my direction with an intense stare scrutinizing my face for a moment once he seemed satisfied with something, nodded again, and returned back to his previous sitting position.

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

I guess he didn’t quite know the second part? I don’t know how he’s holding up at all if that’s whats happening. Never mind having enough energy to react with even that much enthusiasm.

I pursed my lips and got back to the problem at hand. I needed to fix it. The parasite seemed to be moving its tentacles to the largest source of energy and nothing else, but there were hundreds of them writhing around. Sometimes they were stopped by shield fragments or the actual shield itself as they floated around inside of him.

The shield’s repairing itself was slower before, but it seems quite a bit faster now…

I raised a curious brow.

While that is interesting, I don’t think it’s going to stop the parasite right now. I’m gonna have to do that, and I might be able to do some magic now that I found Ismund’s soul or energy source. I don’t want to call it that until I know for sure.

It was harder to hear, but I was able to find my own source of energy now that I knew what to look for. It was significantly muffled by the shield around it, but I could understand the simple scraps that leaked out well enough, it was me after all. I wanted to investigate this energy ball more once I was done.

It wont be enough to just repair Ismund’s shield if it still leaks energy. The parasite will have less energy to feed off of, sure but it’s still able to eat.

I took a tentative hold of a scrap of some of my own free floating energy. It was surprisingly easy to use in comparison to the System’s. All I had to do was find it and will it around to make it move. I didn’t have to go through a whole purification process or anything, and it felt much less clunky. It made me quite happy so I gave myself a small smile before concentrating again, closing my eyes.

Maybe the solution will be easier than I thought.

It was not. As soon as my energy was within range of the parasite it snapped it right up. It was just… gone. I hadn’t thought that was really possible, at least, I hadn’t considered it. It hurt a, but… It didn’t feel like I was missing a part of myself, I was glad about that. It was like a prick of pain and I could handle that.

It must be awful for Ismund if that’s just extra energy made by me. The parasite is actually trying to eat him.

I ran a my frost coated hand over my face.

Okay, well… I thought that maybe I could freeze the tentacles or attack them or something, but I guess not. Maybe ahg, I don’t know…

I sat there for a while and thought, thought, and thought some more unt- Ismund pushed my stone towards me with something written on it.

“Are you doing anything?”

I pursed my lips and nodded with what must’ve looked like a fake smile.

I guess from his perspective I’ve basically just sat here and stared at his back.

I flushed both embarrassed and frustrated.

I am doing things. Well, maybe, I should just try things instead of sitting here, ideas will only get me so far, I need to do things.

I had an Idea but I wasn’t very confident in it. I took some more energy - I was really enjoying how easy it was to grab and use - and I moved it towards the parasite again, faster this time. I made it move faster than I ever had before. Again, the tentacle string chased after it and tried to eat it up but I now that I knew that it would do that I was able to outpace it if barely. I made it chase my energy as far as I could. It went all the way from it’s main body till it was past Ismund’s chest and outside his body trying to chase my energy. The tentacle was thicker before but now it was long and stretched out.

It must have a limit or something to it’s length, right? Maybe it’ll snap?

It didn’t snap as it got thinner chasing my energy as it did fighter plane -esque moves until it just couldn’t stretch anymore. My energy was dancing right outside of it’s very long reach.

Not what I was hoping for, I wanted to tear it to shreds by breaking it over and over, but I don’t think that’ll work.

Quick as a wink ,the string retreated back to Ismund’s music ball thing once it figured that it couldn’t reach my own energy.

Well, maybe I can still do something with that.

The idea worked pretty well. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the finesse to speed up the process by using multiple chunks of energy at once, but it was still working. I made the tentacles chase my energy like I had made the one do before but instead of just stretching it, I chased it around the large fleshy part that ‘healed’ Ismund. I went one ugly strand at a time until they were all tangled up in knots so they couldn’t do anything. I lost allot of my own excess energy in the process, especially near the beginning, when I was figuring it out, and the end, when I was getting tired. I had been doing it for a long, long time. Maybe a few hours, there were so many strands to bind up.

Thankfully, now that I was done, it looked like that parasite was going into a sort of stasis now that it didn’t have much energy available, only whatever happened to float up close to it.

Phew.

I let out a breath and relaxed my features. It wasn’t a permanent fix, sure, but it got the job done for now.

How’s his soul ball thingy doing now?

I didn’t pry this time, but It seemed to be doing much better, the shield thing was fixed and around his energy’s origin muffling it again so I barely noticed it. There also seemed to be something marching across the shield made of the same substance or energy or whatever.

Are those tiny Ismund’s in knight costumes with little swords?

I wasn’t very good at figuring out shapes by hearing yet, but it sure seemed like it. I let out a small snort.

I wonder if the physical part of the parasite looks any different now that the magical part isn’t getting energy.

I lifted the back of his shirt again to take a look at it. I paled.

What I thought that, that…

Apparently the the parasite’s strings weren’t just magical, no, they were also very physical and it made me feel sick. Instead of the flat grey ‘skin’ there was before, it looked like a tangled mass of twitching string if it was sowed into his skin. It was like an evil ball of yarn that wanted to escape

I think I’ve been puncturing him this whole time… hopefully I didn’t cause a bunch of internal damage. I probably did… at least it’s not stealing his energy anymore really?

I dropped the shirt again, pushed myself up from my sitting position on his bed and took a look at his face to see how he was doing. It was covered in frosted over sweat and I could see some blood on his shirt.

That must’ve been from me trying to test how far the thing would stretch.

“Uhm, you should be fine for now. It won’t take anymore of you’re energy and should probably stop growing. I can’t get rid of it yet, but it’s in a short of stasis or something now. Is it any better now?”

Ismund continued staring intensely at the floor while he nodded his head robotically and handed me my stone and charcoal back. He didn’t really answer but that’s fine. I took it as a sign to leave and skirted out the door into my own room.

I wanted to try to do some more magic now that I had access to it again. There were a lot of new things I could do now and I was excited about it. Sadly, the excitement wasn’t enough to ward off my exhaustion. It had been a long day.