Cass screamed. She had no mouth, yet she was screaming. She had no body, yet it was on fire.

There was only pain. Pain ripping through her. Pain tearing her apart.

Her attacker, a shadowed man with gold eyes, drove his dagger down again and again and again, cackling louder with every crazed stab.

What was happening? Where was she? Why did it hurt?

You are under the effect of Soul Poison.

[Would you like to attempt to resist with Poison Resistance? Soul Poison is outside the normal range of poisons mitigated by Poison Resistance and will be less effective and consume Stamina.]

Yes, oh, God, yes. Anything to reduce the pain.

The relief was immediate, if incomplete. The burning remained, gnawing away at the body she did not have, but it was no longer the all-consuming need to scream it had been.

Poison Resistance has increased to level 5!

The pain tampered down again.

What had even happened? Her treasure orb had exploded and the system had said something about a necklace.

How had she gotten here? Where was here?

Why was she under attack? What was attacking her anyway?

Nyxdran Rogue Demon Soul

Lvl: 4 (74)

[A native of the shadowed Azorth realm, this soul has lost its body and now attempts to possess those weaker than it. A strong Resolve may be able to resist its attack; a strong Will may be able to subdue it.]

A demon?

Was this her prize? A cursed necklace? Was that why it was restricted? Was this what she got for playing with fire?

“Why are you doing this to me?” Cass managed to choke out through a ragged breath.

The demon’s hand stopped mid-swing, his head cocking to one side. His eyes widened slightly like he hadn’t considered the question before she’d asked it. “Why?”

The confusion was gone in a heartbeat, his eyes hardening and his lips curling into a hungry smile filled with teeth. “Does a demon need a reason to eat?”

He drove the blade down again. It sliced through her and her defenses. It burned, new and fresh and terrible.

Poison Resistance has increased to level 6!

How could it hurt when she didn’t have a body to feel the pain?

She wanted to curl up and hide. Surely, there was some way to make this stop. He had to stop eventually. Right?

When she was dead?

Was that all that waited for her now? Pain and pain and death?

There had to be something else. Identify said it was possible to stop him. Resolve to resist? Will to subdue?

Poison Resistance was doing its best to counter his poison but there had to be more she could do.

What did she know?

She could use her skills here, she knew that from Poison Resistance and Identify working. But she didn’t have a body, much less a staff to attack with. Then again, the demon hadn’t had a dagger until he did…

Could she just… will something into existence?

Could she just will herself into existence?

She had no eyes to close, but she shut off her sight of the void around her. The demon was still stabbing her, the pain still ever present, but she needed to set that aside now.

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She focused on herself. She was a flame, a flame sheathed in skin and bones and muscle. She was human, for all the system called her slyphid.

She could feel the image of herself flickering in and out as she focused on one part or another. As she willed it into being. She needed to hold all of it at once. To make it real together.

She expanded her focus, from just her hands to her hands and arms. From hands and arms to hands and arms and legs. She held all of it. The image wriggled in her mind, trying to slip into abstraction and oversight. She fought to hold it in perfect clarity.

And she willed it to be.

She inhaled sharply, through the mouth and nose she suddenly again possessed, into the lungs that she could suddenly inflate.

Poison Resistance has increased to level 7!

That was a start. She looked over her body. Her skin was more like porcelain or plastic than real skin, but it was plenty solid. She rolled her shoulders. There was no unnatural stiffness, regardless of what this body was made of.

“What are you doing?” the demon growled. He swung his dagger down again, his tempo unaffected by her change. She felt it coming through Atmospheric Sense. She could feel its arc through the air, how it sliced the wind aside and it drove down. Instinctively, she focused her Will on the point of his dagger, willing the air to harden there, to not allow its passage to her new flesh.

His blade stopped mid-air, his arm jerking like he’d struck metal.

His eyes widened into gold saucers as she grinned. The tables were turning.

Now, a staff.

The staff was easier. Just a simple rod of wood. She had spent every day the last week with it in her hands. She’d wiped it down of blood and guts daily. She’d swung it at monsters and used it to steady her hike through the wilds. It was her closest ally in this world.

It materialized in her hands with ease. Her grin widened.

She pointed it at the demon. “Leave. Now.”

He snorted. A pair of long, single-bladed swords manifested in his shadow hands. “You are mistaken if you think I will simply back down.”

He said that, but there was a hesitance in his stance. Staff Mastery said so. It urged her to attack before the demon resolved that hesitance. She obliged, Sprinting forward and slashing down on the shadowed form of the demon.

He batted her strike aside with one of his sabers, following the movement with a slash from his second blade. Dodge nudged her back and left while Staff Mastery pulled her arms up in a guard with the back half of her staff. She yanked the staff up again, aiming for his stomach.

He twisted past it, slashing her arm, drawing a long gash across the plastic skin.

Cass screamed as his poison redoubled through the wound. It was all she could do not to drop her staff.

He didn’t let up, continuing with a relentless series of cuts and slashes, each adding to the poison running rampant in her soul.

Stamina: 23/42

Focus: 45/126

Health: 4/31

Neither his sword nor his poison had touched her health. It ate away her Focus instead. The danger was no lower for that though, she understood instinctively that if her Focus dropped to zero, he would devour all that remained of her and she would die.

His dagger drove into her chest; Cass unable to block or dodge in time. She screamed. All she could do was scream. The poison poured into her. Veins of fire and ice collided and burned through her body.

Poison Resistance has increased to level 8!

Cass crumpled, throwing her will up around her again. She’d been wrong. She couldn’t fight him. He was so much stronger than her. He knew how to use his weapon. He wasn’t some lost office worker pretending at competency. He was a real warrior. A monster with a blade.

All she could do was make this difficult for him, if even that. She couldn’t throw him out. She couldn’t stop him. She curled up tighter.

She hurt. She really hurt.

She wished she was still on the Sibling Camping trip. She wanted to be sitting beside Kaye’s campfire while Robin played the ukulele. She could see that night she got kidnapped so clearly in her mind’s eye.

Dinner and smores. Laughter and star gazing. Word games and stories as the fire crackled between them. The heat of the fire kept the cold at arm's length.

No poison, no monsters, no demons.

The tent was waiting behind them, cold now, but soon to be warmed by their body heat and the bonds of comradery. Her cot and sleeping bag waited for her. Extra blankets and sweaters stowed beneath for when the night got too cold.

No dirt floors under frigid skies. No fear of monsters leaping from the dark.

The camp stove sat on the end of their picnic table. A pot of stew bubbled on low. The cooler sat on the ground beside it, closed but full of fresh food. Food she hadn’t dug up from the ground. Food guaranteed to be safe to eat by government bodies not Systems outside her understanding.

Just normal, filling food. Plenty.

Oh, God, the pain was making her delirious. She could smell it. She could hear the fire.

Setting Camp has reached level 5!

Your understanding of Setting Camp has fundamentally shifted. Setting Camp has become Beacon of Home and Hearth (level maintained)!

Beacon of Home and Hearth (lvl 5) (Hearth)

[Home is what you make of it. You carry yours in your heart. Keep the hearth stoked and there will always be a place to welcome you home.

Transforms all regeneration buffs up a classification.

Increased efficiency at setting up camps.

Increased bonuses to staying at camps you set up or helped set up.

Association with the Concept of Hearth doubles the effect of all Rest buffs and Home buffs on you.]

Immediately, a wave of warmth washed over Cass. It thrummed in the air, promising her that all would be well if she could just hold out.

It still hurt. The poison. The slashes on her arms. The damage lingering from her fight with the centipedes. But it was further away now.

She opened an eye, uncurling and looking around. The void had completely transformed. Around her was a loose forest, sequoias and oaks separated by open campsites. Above, she could see the twinkling of stars and a silver moon. Behind her, her camp. It ached to look at it. To know she could picture it like this but to know she was so far from making it back.

The demon was shouting again. She didn’t listen to him, instead watching Kaye’s campfire burn in the high-walled fire pit.

She took a deep breath, letting the smell of firewood and wet forest fill her. She was rejuvenated, whether it was real or not.

Whether real or not, it reminded her of an important truth. She would make it back. There was nothing else. This demon changed nothing.