“Sam?” Vercedei asked out loud. “Are you alright?”

Sam flinched, and his hands rose up to his head, grabbing at the twin-headed snake’s body wrapped around his face. He pulled, but the snake didn’t budge; rather, it constricted its body, wrapping itself even tighter around Sam’s mouth and eyes. Sam’s hand swatted at his nose where Ess was resting, and the butterfly made a metallic sound as its wings clacked together from the force of Sam’s blow, but the insect’s legs remained firmly rooted to Sam’s skin, keeping the butterfly in place.

“How about you get off of him first?” Raindu asked and placed its front paws on the twin-headed snake. The ferret’s claws dug into the snake’s skin, slipping past its scales, and latched on firmly. Raindu leaned back while pulling creating a tiny gap of space between the snake’s body and Sam’s lower jaw. Sam slid a finger into the gap and strained his arm, managing to wedge a second finger inside.

“Stop!” Vercedei said. “I’ll get cold, and you won’t like me when I’m cold.”

“I don’t like you now,” Sam said, his voice muffled and barely audible as he spoke with his mouth. He managed to slip his whole hand underneath Vercedei’s body, getting a good grip with his fingers wrapped fully around the snake. Sam pulled, but the snake squeezed tighter, refusing to budge. “Get off of my face.”

“Sam, remember who you are,” Vercedei said.

“I know exactly who I am,” Sam said, his voice still muffled but a little more clear than before.

“That doesn’t seem right,” Vercedei said and opened its mouth. The snake’s blue head bit down on Sam’s wrist, causing him to flinch but not let go. The snake released its jaws when it realized Sam wasn’t giving up. “If you knew who you were, you’d cease this senseless action of yours at once. We have to be working together to deal with the Mother in case you’ve forgotten.”

“How is you robbing me of my senses us working together?” Sam asked as he used his telekinesis to aid his hand, managing to free his mouth by shifting the twin-headed snake’s body downwards.

“The closer we are to you, the stronger our powers become,” Vercedei said. “Do you think we position ourselves on your body like this for fun? Birdbrained stands on your head to be as close to your crown chakra as possible. I cling to your mouth and neck to be by your throat chakra. Werchbite positions by your eyes to be next to your Ajna.”

“Trust yourself, Sam,” the Mother said as Paula’s body rotated upright, their head facing the ceiling and their feet pointed at the ground. “You’ve lived through countless lives, experienced nearly everything Oterra has to offer from the good to the bad. You’re wise enough to make your own decisions and have an almost unlimited amount of experience to draw upon. I’ve freed you from the prison your familiars have trapped you in by broadening your horizons.”

Sam’s aura seemed to solidify as he concentrated on his Manipura and heart chakra. With his strength enhanced and his telekinesis aiding him, he managed to pull the twin-headed snake off of his face; however, it wrapped itself around his arm, clinging to his body like a feather attracted to a balloon via static electricity.

“Help!” Vercedei said. “Do you think he’s going to let you stay on him once he gets rid of me? Do you want to spend the rest of your time here riding on Manga’s back?”

“There’s nothing wrong with my back,” Manga said, letting out its four-syllable-long cry. “Sam, stop fighting us, at least, for now. You might’ve spent a long time living the life of others, but it’s only been a few seconds for us. We’re facing a strong opponent.”

“You’re trying to destroy Oterra,” Sam said with his arm outstretched, keeping Vercedei and Werchbite at bay from his face. “I don’t want to be on the side of the people who brought about the apocalypse. Oterra might be a harsh place to live, but everyone’s still trying despite that. If the Mother wipes the surface of Oterra clean, then what was the purpose of everyone’s struggles? Why did they try so hard if everything is going to be destroyed? Are their lives worth nothing?”

“They’re worth something,” Vercedei said, “we just don’t think they’re valuable enough to preserve. A billionaire won’t care about a few credits lying on the other side of the street; it’s not worth their time to pick up. Does that mean the money doesn’t have value? Of course not. It’s valuable but not enough. This is a matter of perspectives, and yours has been severely skewed thanks to the ordeal the Mother put you through.”

“I didn’t change your values,” the Mother said. “I helped you grow as an individual, and as people change, their priorities change as well. The things they once found important are no longer so, and the things they hadn’t cared about before may as well be worth everything. It’s the same for you.”

Vercedei glared at Paula, who was possessed by the Mother. “We were just talking,” the twin-headed snake’s blue head said. “Did you really have to go and do that?”

“I told you I’m not so easy to fool,” the Mother said. “To lower-dimensional lifeforms, you might be some silver-tongued deceiver, but to me, you’re nothing but an unwanted solicitor with no scruples. I don’t trust a single word that comes out of your mouth.”

“Sam,” Vercedei said. “You’re on our team, and if you can’t remember that, then you leave us no other choice.”

A wriggling sensation surged up Sam’s stomach into his esophagus. His eyes widened as he realized what was about to happen. He concentrated his All-Seeing Gaze within himself, pinpointing the golden tapeworm’s exact location as it approached his head. Then, he wrapped his aura around the tapeworm’s body and opened his mouth. Nwaps let out a cry in Sam’s mind as the tapeworm surged out of his body and into the air in front of Sam. “No, you’re not doing that,” Sam said. “My body is my own.”

A surge of aura rushed in Nwaps’ direction, and Sam jerked the tapeworm to the side with his telekinesis. A second later, an impact struck the wall behind Sam, creating a hole inside of it. He turned his attention onto the Mother, who had launched a telekinetic strike at Nwaps whilst the tapeworm was vulnerable and exposed.

“What?” the Mother asked, her aura twinkling with purity and innocence. “I saw the chance, so why wouldn’t I take it?” The Mother floated around the room as if she were moving around for the first time in a blue avian’s body. It only took her a few laps around the room whilst facing Sam to get comfortable in Paula’s body. “What do you think of me, Sam? How about you join me? I can free you from your familiars; your chakras will remain open if you’re worried about losing your power.”

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“You’re the devil I don’t know,” Sam said and shook his head. “Who knows what price you’ll make me pay if I accept your help?”

“I can appoint you as a guardian of Oterra,” the Mother said, her voice echoing inside of Sam’s mind. “If you’ll let me, I can also unlock another one of your exterior chakras, the one which allows you to communicate and interact with dimensions beyond your own.”

From what Sam could tell by examining the aura the Mother exuded from Paula’s body, she was telling the truth. Her aura was crystal clear and abundant, lighting up the room and uplifting Sam’s spirits. “What responsibilities comes with being a guardian of Oterra?” Sam asked.

“You can’t seriously be considering her offer,” Vercedei said.

“Why not?” the Mother asked. “Sam knows me just as well as he knows you.”

“Nonsense,” Vercedei said. The twin-headed snake reared its blue head back and pointed its fangs in the Mother’s direction. Venom spurted out of the snake’s fangs, but it didn’t travel very far before freezing in midair. The Mother leisurely floated over to the side, and after she was out of the way, the strand of venom jerked forward and struck the wall.

“I’m telling the truth,” the Mother said. “Sam has experienced the lives of trillions of creatures. Since he’s retained his memories of his experiences, it’s fair to say his time spent as the Sam you know is nothing but a rounding error.”

Sam nodded. His time spent with his familiars had occurred an extremely long time ago. In fact, as he lived the lives of more and more individuals, he found himself doing his best to forget who he once was, someone who had his free will practically stripped and robbed from him. He didn’t like who he once was, and coming back to this point in time of his life felt strange since most of the memories of his familiars had been forgotten.

“Birdbrained,” Vercedei said, turning its head to look up at the eagle perched atop Sam. It was doing its best to not be noticed, and when the snake called it out, the scruffy eagle let out a squawk of displeasure. “It’s up to you to fix this.”

“Before that, can someone help me?” Nwaps asked as it hovered in the air, suspended in place by Sam’s telekinesis. Sam’s aura was heavily concentrated around the worm, making it impossible for the tapeworm to even wiggle. “I would order everyone to gather to help, but that’s not the safest option with the Mother around.”

Sam looked down at Joe. Although the sloth was always affecting his mood, it wasn’t that bothersome compared to the creature that lay even further down his sight: the metallic koala clinging to his leg. Sam focused on his thigh, where the majority of the koala’s mass was located, and activated his root chakra, sending a vibration down his leg and into Dirt’s body, causing the koala to burn up as if it had been bitten by hundreds of fire ants.

Dirt let out a roar that didn’t belong to an herbivore, and the koala hugged Sam’s leg, crushing his flesh and grinding it against his bones. Sam winced, but he maintained his technique and increased the effects, adding paralysis, nausea, sea sickness, and every other negative condition he had experienced and absorbed, drawing upon the memories of the lives he had experienced as well. The koala didn’t know what hit it when he struck it with labor pangs—something he was unfortunate to experience enough times to copy the sensation. A fist made of earth shattered the floor and struck Sam from below, aimed at the region between his legs, but thanks to the wooly pig’s massive body, the angles Joe had to work with were limited, allowing Sam to easily avoid the vicious attack.

Big Fish poked its head out of the fur on Joe’s shoulder and examined its surroundings. Since it was capable of hiding from a colony of blue avians, it was more than capable of hiding from Sam, so that’s what it did. It shrank to a size invisible to the naked eye and stuck itself who knows where on Sam’s body.

“Get off of my leg,” Sam said through gritted teeth, enduring the pain of the koala’s hug. Underneath his pants, his thigh was bruised and purple, and everything below the koala was bulging and turning a dark red from the lack of blood flowing to that region. Even when he had lived a life as someone with two missing legs, he had been able to transport himself around on a wheelchair with his arms. With the koala robbing him of his mobility, he couldn’t even crawl away since the koala seemed to weigh just a little more than he could move, and relying on someone else to transport him wasn’t the way Sam wanted to live. “Now.”

“You can’t make me,” Dirt said, the koala’s voice fluctuating in Sam’s mind as it resisted his techniques.

“He can with my assistance,” the Mother said, her voice entering both Sam’s and Dirt’s minds at once. To Sam, it felt like a breath of fresh air, numbing part of the pain he was experiencing whilst, to the koala, the Mother’s voice was like a sledgehammer striking its head, a loud ringing sound keening back and forth inside its skull.

“Stop him!” Dirt said. “Stop her too!”

“Don’t you care about your friends, Sam?” Vercedei asked. “You think the lives of humans are valuable enough to care about, so why don’t you obediently accept your fate as our host, and we’ll leave humanity alone. Nwaps won’t have to take control of their minds to order them to stop you. You wouldn’t want to see the Mother obliterate them, would you?”

“I won’t touch them,” the Mother said. “Even though they’re infected, I’m sure Sam can find a way to relieve them of this disgusting tapeworm’s influence if he’s given enough time. You weren’t just chosen by your familiars out of luck, Sam. Your body is perfect for ascension, and it’s easy for higher-dimensional creatures to exist by feeding off your power. You’re stronger than you think.”

“If I was so strong, why was I born without a talent?” Sam asked, turning his head towards the Mother.

“You know the answer to that,” the Mother said. “It was taken from you.”

“Taken?” Sam asked as he looked down at the koala. He wasn’t sure if it was the Mother’s numbing power, but it felt as if the koala was losing steam, not hugging his leg as hard as before. “By who?”

“Who else?’ the Mother asked, her consciousness floating towards Raindu’s direction atop Sam’s shoulder. “That ferret of yours is more than capable of taking people’s talents. Even though it’s something intangible to you, it’s easy for someone like me to grant and for someone like that”—the Mother jabbed with her consciousness in Raindu’s direction—“to take.”

“She’s lying to you,” Raindu said. “I can’t take talents. She knows she can’t beat us if we’re united, so she’s trying to sow seeds of doubt between all of us to weaken our strength, and you can see how well it’s working.”

“With a few tricks from the Mother, you’re now fighting Nwaps, the snakes, and Dirt,” Birdbrained said. “She barely had to lift a finger, and a third of our forces have already been occupied.” The eagle let out a squawk and pecked down at Sam’s hat. “Once she gets rid of us, she’s going to get rid of you too, can’t you see that? If you can summon higher-dimensional beings once, you can summon them again, and that’s a risk she won’t be willing to take.”

“I’m not worried about minor things like that,” the Mother said, her voice warm and soothing. “I deal with pests on every plane I create. Everyone deserves a second chance, and even though you’re making a mess of Oterra with your ability, I’m willing to forgive you if you’ll see the light and join forces with me.”

“She’s tricking you, Sam,” Joe said, the sloth’s words not as drawn out as usual. Perhaps it recognized the severity of the situation, so it had spoken as fast as it could. “We’re on your side.”

“Actions speak louder than words,” the Mother said, “and what do your familiars actions say about their attitudes towards you? They don’t think you’re on the same level as them, and your opinions don’t matter. They wish to be free at the cost of your freedom. What would the people you’ve lived as say if they saw you in your situation?”

“She made you live trillions of lives, but how do you know those lives haven’t been tampered with?” Werchbite asked. “What you’ve seen could’ve been one massive illusion designed to trick you into thinking the same way as her. Be prudent before you make a decision.”