“Well done, Rina.” The sphinx’s voice boomed within the ruins. “You’re free to continue to the next floor.”

Killa and Shadara ran over to me. Killa scooped up my gun as she went by it before handing it to me. “That was—something.”

I couldn’t help but notice she was staring at my new arm. They both were. “Go on, ask.”

Shadara spoke first. “Why did you grow a tail out of your shoulder?”

I scowled. “It’s supposed to be an arm.”

She flinched as she grimaced. “Oh, sorry.”

Killa pointed at it. “Can you explain then?”

I sighed. “The idea was to have another weapon to attack her with. Using my arm blade as inspiration, my nanites skipped the retractable blade upgrade and replaced what would’ve been a hand with the blade. It’s called a stinger arm.”

Shadara’s ears perked up. “Oh, that makes more sense. I’ll admit, it did work. Quantity is its own quality. But…”

I squinted. “But?”

“You look a little lopsided now,” Killa answered bluntly.

“Yeah,” Shadara added in a low, drawn-out tone. “And now you’re going to need some serious tailoring too.”

I rubbed the collarbone where my new arm grew out from. “You aren’t kidding.”

My clothes are already tight enough. I wonder if I can get them modified to fit better. Now I know how Bark felt about clothes. Their comment on me looking lopsided means I’ll eventually buy another stinger arm upgrade. Two hands are enough. But the extra blade is handy.

Shadara grinned. “So, what do you think about becoming a werewolf now?”

I shook my head. “No, I’m glad I passed on that offer. I don’t need it.”

Killa put a hand on my shoulder. “You sure? You could’ve been unstoppable with that much strength.”

“I don’t need to be unstoppable,” I answered. “I need to be useful to you two. And there’s more than one way to be strong. I don’t need to kill people to climb this place. I’ll be fine as I am now. Besides, I still have a lot of unutilized potential with my magic.”

Shadara smiled. “We’re proud of you, Rina. You made the right choice for you.”

I nodded. “Yeah. I did make that decision for me.”

Shadara then eyed me with a mischievous grin. “You did make a pretty cute werewolf though. And that fur, oh, that was magnificent. That tail was so precious too.”

I stared at her. “You wanted me to be a werewolf this entire time, didn’t you? Even back when I was first infected, you wanted it.”

She raised her hand. “Guilty. But I never want you to decide based on what I want.” She held out her hands and bowed slightly. “Besides, I am a sucker for a wonderful coat of fur. Believe me, fur that good is hard to come by.”

Did the werewolf me have a more intimate relationship with her Shadara? I’m getting the feeling she’d have a hard time not wanting to be my girlfriend. Oh well. Maybe it’s for the best that I’m not a werewolf.

Killa poked my chest. “If you want to learn magic, I can teach you a little more. Although the best piece of advice is the strength of your visualization of what you want to happen. Finding your source of strength is something you’ll have to find on your own.” She held up a hand as a white magical tentacle appeared around it. “I told you, the greatest form of strength I’ve seen is my mentor, and that’s why all my magic looks like tentacles.”

I nodded. “Thanks, Killa. I appreciate it. I guess I need to figure out what my source of strength is. But for now, I think I need to rest and recover from that fight. It was a lot tougher than I thought it was going to be. I also want to adjust to my new arm. I don’t want to accidentally stab anyone with it.”

Shadara nodded. “I agree. We should take some time to relax before heading up to the next floor. There’s no rush, right, Killa?”

Killa shrugged. “Correct. We can take our time. And if Rina wants to grow a fourth arm, she can.”

I scratched my head. “Um, I think I’ll hold back on that until I can get my shirt and jacket adjusted to fit four arms.”

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

Killa pointed to my stinger arm. “So, how well does it move? Why is it pointed backwards?”

“This thing is as new to me as it is to you, remember?” I flexed my stinger arm. It moved just like my other arms. I brought it forward and held it between us. “I can move it however I want. It’s just more comfortable to sit behind me when I’m not using it.”

The sphinx walked up to us. “Please proceed to the next floor or stand aside if you wish to watch the next challenger.”

Next challenger?

The sphinx stepped to the side, revealing Nyx standing behind him. Her head hung low as she dragged her feet to the mirror.

Killa waved at the archway to the next floor. “Let’s get moving. Unless you want to watch.”

I chewed my lip. Part of me is curious to see what she regrets. What other choices could she’ve taken?”

Shadara growled as she crossed her arms. “Now you’ve made me curious.”

Killa giggled. “Okay, let’s watch.”

We headed to the side of the room as Nyx stood in front of the mirror. There was no reflection. Seconds passed by as I wanted something to happen. Do vampires really not have reflections in mirrors?

Vampires do reflect in mirrors. They have no supernatural means of manipulating light. Sunlight isn’t lethal to them. It causes mild irritation rather than spontaneous combustion.

So all those movies were lying to me?

They exaggerated for entertainment purposes. Vampires are real, but they don’t behave as the media on Earth portrays them.

As I finished my musings with Orange, a high-pitched hissing forced Shadara and me to cover our ears. The mirror cracked with a loud, zipping twang that echoed louder and louder.

Nyx didn’t react. “Did I fail?”

The sphinx shook his head to snap out of his stupor. “That’s never happened before. But no, you passed. The only explanation possible is you’ve never made a major decision in your life.”

I turned to the sphinx and stomped my foot. “That’s not possible. She’s had to have made at least one. Who knows how many she’s killed?”

“13,441,” Nyx interrupted.

I turned to the vampire. “What?”

Nyx kept staring at the broken mirror. “That’s how many I’ve killed. If you think I’ve ever had the freedom of choice until now, you’re wrong. While you’ve always had a soul, artificial as it is, and could always make a choice. My existence before having a soul was more like that of a force of nature. Hurricanes, volcanoes, and exploding solar systems all kill people. But they do not feel or care about life that gets in the way of their destruction.”

I clenched my fist. “But those aren’t people choosing to kill others. You were intelligent and could think!”

She slowly shook her head. “I was never a person. I was a cosmic assassin. To interact with beings on your level of existence, I needed to assimilate into one. That is why I stole bodies, as you understand it. What happened to me was the equivalent of relegation to a lower state of existence. That is the severity of the crime.” She turned to me, her eyes burning. “This place should not have that power!”

I took a step back. Her intensity was unnerving.

Shadara put herself between Nyx and me. “Calm down. We all know this place is messed up. But we need to deal with it. Rina doesn’t deserve your anger. She isn’t responsible for your situation.”

Nyx swung her arm out as if to deflect Shadara’s words. “She has everything to do with my situation. This was supposed to be a routine mission I’d done thousands of times before. But you clung to your life so hard.

“Then The Game Master got involved.” She spoke those words with more venom than I’d ever heard. “He sent you here and kept sending me back, knowing I couldn’t stop myself. I had to keep following you, even though I failed to kill you twice. Even when the slime killed me a third time, I never chose what I did. There was only one option for me: complete my mission.”

Her voice dropped low as she looked down at her hands. “But that’s gone now. That undeniable call is gone. I have no direction anymore. I don’t want to live because the Soul Nexus gets its experiment. And now, I don’t want to die anymore either. I couldn’t kill myself. If I had, the Soul Nexus would take me and win anyway.”

Nyx was shaking, and her face contorted in pain. Tears poured down her cheeks.

I don’t know what to say. Neither did Killa. Shadara didn’t know what to do either.

Nyx fell to her knees. She slammed her fist on the ground. She screamed so loudly it was painful. The sphinx watched silently. The vampire cried and screamed. My friends and I watched helplessly. The sound of Nyx crying was haunting.

Killa grabbed us. “Let’s go. I don’t want to keep watching this.”

“It wasn’t supposed to do that.” Nyx’s voice broke through the sobbing. “It shouldn’t have the power to create souls.”

Create souls? I ran up to the vampire and grabbed her shoulders, shaking her. “Did you just say it creates souls?”

She nodded, her face still flushed as tears of blood poured down her face.

I shook her again. “Could the Soul Nexus have created me? Is it possible?”

Her face showed the slightest hint of recognition before she said, “Maybe.”

I let her go, and my arms dropped to my sides. It did, didn’t it?

There is no proof confirming or denying it.

But what if it did? If it did, that would be the most terrifying thing ever. That would mean it has determined my life before I get to choose it.

Shadara ran up to me and lifted me to my feet. “Rina, speak to me. What’s wrong?”

My voice shook. “What’s going to happen to me?” Drohkus’s situation ran through my mind. He’s trapped in Nexus to be studied like a lab rat, just like Nyx. Just like me. “What does it mean? Did the Soul Nexus plan all of this?”

Nyx looked up at me and then to the archway to the next floor. “If the Soul Nexus created you and manufactured the situation to bring you here just to study you, your life is far more meaningless than mine.”

My knees buckled, and I fell into Shadara.

She scooped me up and carried me in her arms. “We should take her to the next floor. She doesn’t need to hear any more from her.”

Killa nodded. “Agreed. We should go. I don’t want her breaking down.”

Shadara carried me towards the archway to the next floor. I didn’t move, nor did I say anything. All I could think about was my situation. I have a second life because of the Soul Nexus. What is its purpose? What does it want from me?

Shadara whispered in my ear, “Don’t worry, Rina. You aren’t alone. No matter what the Soul Nexus does, or did, we’ll be here with you. It’ll be okay. You have me and Killa.”

The world around me went white as we ascended to the next floor.