Chapter 140

The End At The Beginning

  I awoke to find that the universe had changed and simultaneously stayed the same. I was fully awake and aware. Better still, I could feel the course of energy passing through me as a new identifier was coursing through my veins.

Spiritual Augmentationist Spell Unlocked: Soul Healing: With this spell you can heal the damage caused to anyone’s soul, living or dead.

  I wasn’t quite certain what to make of the last part of that spell. Did that mean I could heal zombies? But ultimately it didn’t matter. I had been given the gift I had asked for all along.

  I thought there might be a way where I could rip apart a piece of my own soul and use that as a potential Healing additive, but this spell negated that. This was the spell I had so desperately wanted to find for the last few months.

  Seeing the spell, a tear of joy ran down my face.

  “You got it?” Día’s amazing voice called out to me.

  Through my brain fog, I opened my eyes and smiled. “Yes.”

  At that Día nodded, I could tell she was a little conflicted with the whole scenario, but she managed to say “good, I’m glad.”

  At that, I couldn’t help but collapse again. I was exhausted, I could tell my whole body was still burning from the inside meaning it had likely not been that long since we returned from the 18th Universe.

  “Thank you. Honestly, I…” I trail off as I let my head sink back to the ground. Apparently Día either caught me or just let me fall to the ground, either way I was still here.

  My first act with this new body was to Heal my body. Then once that was done, I focused on using my new spell and tried out Spiritual Healing on myself. While it might sound grand to wait to use the spell the first time on one or both of the Jesses, I liked to at least know what I was doing and what to expect from a particular spell. At least that was my plan for the healing spells, while I have been caught up in more than one bad attempt with a Pyrokinetic burst gone wrong, that was not by design.

  In this particular case, the goal is to use the spell as intended.

  The moment I cast the spell, I feel a deep calming balm fill my soul and begin to let out sighs of relief.

  Within moments I feel well and truly whole.

  “Did you just cast it on yourself?” Día asks.

  “Yes and thank goodness it works.” I say as my heightened attributes make the spell so much easier to cast. Once again I gained another 200 levels to each of my three classes. This once again gives me 200 Free Attribute points, which I then use to increase my Spirit by 120 points, pushing it up to 718. Then once I get to that point I stop. I have 80 Free Attribute points still, but suddenly I realize that I don’t need them.

  Honestly, I haven’t needed the last six hundred levels, but I still got them. They are proof of my effort, if nothing else. Proof that I did something somewhere. Those levels, Día, and the 18th universe are currently my only sign that I did anything of note.

  After a few seconds I sit up, the blood rushes out of my head but that is a good thing. Then after a few seconds I feel good. Not just healthy, but good, like I have just written the final paper needed to graduate and all I have to do is attach the paper to a post and get full credit. Barring any unforeseen disaster, I should be fine.

  Of course, as soon as I have that thought, I immediately scramble to my feet.

  Seeing me, Día immediately moves to help me up, holding out her hands to grab and brace me should I start to wobble. “You okay?”

  “Yes, I just really want to go to them, before anything bad happens.” I say, speaking the mental jinx out loud.

  Hearing that, Día’s face drops slightly.

  There of course is a mutual attraction we have both kind of had for each other. She is obviously way more into me, and had I seen her first, had I not been forced to be with Jess, things might have been different. But at the very least I owe it to Jess, both my Jess and sexy alien Jess to revive them, especially now that I have the means to do so.

  “Do you want to come with me?” I ask.

  The intent is clear, does she want to come with me while I awaken the Jesses from their slumber.

  I see a moment of doubt cross Día’s face. Her mouth opens, but then closes quickly, only to reopen the next second. “I think you should go alone.”

  I nod.

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  “I’ll be back.”

  “Promises, promises.” Día says, a bead of moisture filling her eyes.

  I pause, wanting to say something more, but in the end it is Día who says the final words. “I will hold you to it. The first person I want you to introduce your…” She trialed off, “to introduce Jess, both, to is to me. That way I can let them know about how you spent the whole time galivanting around multiple different universes trying to avoid commitment.”

  I smile, knowing that she is just joking.

  “Well in that case, how could I not come back.”

  “See you.”

  “You will.” I say, as I mentally find my psychic resonance with my Jess and teleport to her.

  Poof.

  I appear at the entrance to Jess’ trial chamber. I look to find that they are both there, resting serenely just as I had left them both.

  Seeing my Jess I held out my hand, then paused, still not believing that this moment was finally here. Then after a second to grab my breath and collect myself I shift my hand slightly to the left and heal Sexy Alien Jess first with Spiritual Healing.

  Why did I do this? What am I thinking?

  The answer is simple. I don’t want to mess it up. I don’t want to use the spell incorrectly. This is after all my second time using this new spell. Focusing on the soul of slumbering Alien Jess, I reach out and begin weaving the delicate patterns of magic within her soul. Slowly shard after fractured shard begins to reappear and solidify. It is like working a 10,000 piece jigsaw puzzle with only the back cardboard as references. Still I persist and work, folding piece after piece together, until they click into place and then instantly seal with a burst of light.

  Shoom.

  They even make little mental sounds as they come together and seal themselves to her. The more pieces I heal, the more her body begins to move. At first, she takes long deep slow breaths that are easy to miss. But as time goes on, I see her body come back to life, the deathly pale pallor that covered her body slowly begins to fade as more of her natural tanned skin begins to take on much of its previous golden hue.

  Then finally after what feels like hours of channeling and recasting this new spell, alien Jess awakens and I see the moment her bright blue eyes open and she sees the world around her.

  “Hey. Do you remember me?” I ask.

  “Yeah, but you died?” Alien Jess says, looking at me and then confusing me for the Kyle from her universe. At least that is what I believe happened. I mentally scan her mind to see if any lingering effects of my alternate Chet are still present, but her mind is still free.

  I am looking at her with a confused look, only for her to come back with “hah! You should see your face. It is so priceless.” Alien Jess said, as I all but want to strangle her for making me worry so.

  “You are a terrible human being. For a second, I thought it was early onset dementia, only excuse for you to have such bad memory.” I say, trying to shake out the jitters from thinking that somehow my worst fear happened, that I healed Jess only for her to lose all memory of me.

  Seeing that Alien Jess is okay, I turn my attention back to my Jess.

  “Oh, she is still sleeping? I though you would have started with her first?” Alien Jess says.

  “Yeah, I was about to start with her, but then figured if I was going to mess one of them it, it might as well be you. The one no one will miss.”

  “Ouch.” Alien Jess says, clutching her chest. “You know I lost a lot for that. My husband, you, well the alternate version of you anyways. In case you were wondering about size…”

  “I was not wondering about size.”

  “You sure, because most males do.”

  “You do realize that I have Master Tier Shapeshifting, right? There is no form or size I cannot reach.” I say.

  At that she pauses.

  “Really?”

  I just give her a wink. “Who knows, definitely not you.”

  “Ouch, I guess I deserved that one.” Alien Jess said.

  “All right, now be quiet so I can focus.” I say.

  Then taking in a deep calming breath, I focus and once again begin casting Spiritual Healing. This time, I focus on my Jess. Once again there seem to be thousands of tiny different puzzle pieces that all need to be sottered together in a complex three dimensional shape that ultimately fills up her entire body. Just like Alien Jess, the more pieces I weld together, the more my Jess begins to breath and show signs of life, until finally she is awake and alive.

  Just as I am piecing together the last pieces of her soul, her eyes open and I see that her normal blue eyes have changed ever so slightly.

  Her eyes are a deep purple.

  “Jess?”

  “Yes?” She asks.

  “You okay?”

  A pause, probably the longest pause in the existence of the universe. During this time my entire heart stopped as I held my breath and waited for an answer.

  “I believe so.”

  Phew.

  Hearing her, I let out a long sigh of relief. Even Alien Jess seemed to let out a long sigh of relief as well.

  “Do you want to get out of here? Or do you want to gain levels and improve yourself?” I ask.

  “I want to gain power, duh! I am going to be queen of this joint.” My Jess says, as she gets up to her feet. She of course stumbles which I catch, but she stumbles forward and I catch her.

  “Easy there. You have been in a coma like state for over three months now.” I say.

  “Three months?”

  “Yeah, it took me a while to find Spiritual Healing as a way to revive you.” I say.

  At that my Jess scoffs and then turns to Alien Jess. “You hear this guy, thinks we believe he was looking around the universe for a cure. He likely rented a space RV, started a band, and went around on tour with a bunch of groupies.”

  I pause, then finally the only logical answer comes. “Día? She told you?”

  “Yeah, she said she was your friend and told us how we shouldn’t give up hope because you were doing everything in your power to find a cure. That knowing you, it would only be a matter of when, not if you would find one.” Jess said.

  At that, I feel almost a bit of relief that I brought her along that one time. She really did read their mind, well more then that if they had conversations that she remembered even now.

  “She really liked you, you know. If you had tried anything, I won’t hold it against you.” Jess said, holding onto my arm.

  “For the record you mean incidents that happened in the past, or currently?”

  Smack.

  She slaps my arm, but not hard. At least not enough that I could feel it with my high attributes. I smile, “well good. Know I didn’t try anything.”

  “We know, you are far too boring to do anything too crazy.” Alien Jess adds.

  “What does that mean?” I ask.

  “It means that we both thank you for coming and for saving the two of us, don’t we?” My Jess says, directing her glare at Alien Jess.

  “Yeah, don’t we have a temple to clear or something…”

  “Right this way.” I say, as I begin taking both Jesses through fifty levels of Nightmare difficulty.

***

  By the time we exit my Jess has managed to gain 150 attributes, and number of elixirs that all help with different aspects of her class build. Fortunately, she still has the Omega class evolution, and the 500 levels from killing the three Behemoths, meaning these attributes were just to make the next phase of her life that much easier.

  By the time we emerge I half expect officer beer gut to greet me with another bullet, but then realize that was from the 14th universe and not this one. This one I had made quite a few people stare at me as I waited for Jess to appear, an event that never happened.

  “So what will you do now? Will you join the Military Academy again, or will you try something different?” I ask Jess.

  “You know, I’ve always been partial to starting my own rock band with a bad ass violinist and going on tour.” She says.

  “Well, fancy you should say that. I think I might have a line on a sweaty RV we could get our hands on.” I reply.

  Woosh.

  The moment we appear we are in the middle of a waiting area. The only problem is something is clearly wrong.

  “Where is everyone?” Alien Jess asks.

  “I don’t know.” I pause, only to realize it has been a few months since I was last here. “Surely things couldn’t have changed too much in the months that I was gone.”

  “How long?”

  “About three months.”

  “Did anything odd happen that you know of?” Alien Jess asks.

  “Well there were flame resistant vampires, but that was in Día’s universe, not here.” I say.

  “Didn’t you stop that uprising?” Jess asks, recalling some of my stories I shared during our many hours in the temple together.

  “I did. We even got rewarded by the Dwenvarian queen.” I say.

  “So, only in the alternate universe?”

  “That’s correct.” I answer.

  “Okay, what do you think happened here then?” Jess asks.

  As if on cue, the sound of scuffling feet could be heard, scraping their way through the seemingly deserted domed greeting area.

  "Arrgh."

  Hearing the sound, I turned to see the decomposing remains of a security guard shambling forward. Seeing them, I let out a long sigh.

  "Well shit, here we go again."