~~~Stanley~~~

They came for him in the night. A bright cluster of souls that couldn't hide their inexorable advance through the darkness as they descended on his home.

Stanley considered fleeing. Or driving them off. But he couldn't muster the will to do either, and instead only remained curled up around Caffeine on the bed. Even when they made it inside. He hadn't locked the door, but it wouldn't have mattered. This house had never turned into an actual lair, which left the entire structure about as durable as a sheet of paper for keeping anything out.

Buff Gained: [Purifying Aura]

"He's in here, guys." Zeke cheated by using his aura to find him. Since they shouldn't be able to feel his soul with the shield going. "Hi, Stanley! We brought you dinner!"

"I'm not hungry. You can go away." At least he wouldn't be if Zeke stood there long enough.

Debuff Downgraded: [Famished]

Exactly.

Olivia followed him in and added her own light magic to the room to supplement Zeke's golden glow. It felt unpleasantly bright against Stanley's closed eyelids. They should've left it dark...

"I think we can all squeeze in here," Silas said, tromping through the door behind her and ahead of a crowd as he summoned a crystal table at the foot of the bed. He was definitely getting better with that skill, and he followed up the table by creating stools for everyone.

The rest of them unburdened themselves by piling food onto the table and filling the room with a myriad of delicious scents.

It was terrible.

Stanley's stomach grumbled, but his gut twisted at the lack of reaction from Caffeine. Absolutely nothing. His nose didn't twitch. He didn't start looking to see who had food in their hands. He didn't scramble free from Stanley's hold on him. He only lay there. Limp. He never even twitched or whimpered like he usually did when sleeping. Was his sleep too deep for dreams? Was that a thing? It must be. It had to be! Right?

"I'm. Not. Hungry," Stanley growled at the invading people. "So fuck off before I make you fuck off."

"No can do," Nate said, far too cheerful for the circumstances. "We all love Caffeine too, and there's no way we can let you stand vigil alone."

"This isn't a damn vigil! He's... just tired."

"You know what?" Nate said. "You're right! We should make it a party!"

"A dinner party!" Serenity exclaimed. "Caffeine always loves mealtimes!" Her cheer was a bit more forced than Nate's, but not completely.

"Right?" Nate agreed. "Good food and good friends. That's like his whole jam!"

Yeah. Because of course Caffeine loved mealtime! Except he liked them when he was awake and getting snacks from everyone! Not while he was sleeping. He'd only be sad that he missed out on all the food...

Stanley finally opened his eyes when Zeke climbed onto the bed with him and put his glowing hands on Caffeine. "He's not hurt, Stanley. I would feel it if I was healing him... I don't think he's even hungry."

That didn't help. "He's... always hungry."

"I don't think I've ever healed his hunger." Zeke smiled down at the pug. "I think he just really likes eating!" As if that wasn't the most obvious thing in the world.

Stanley carried himself above the bed, settled Caffeine carefully in his lap, and once again considered throwing the intruders out as he glowered at them. Maybe through a wall? They were all too stupidly cheerful. Well, most of them were. Eve had come along, and she was still her usual miserable self.

"What!?" Eve demanded after he'd stared at her a little too long. She was still afraid of him as well. Angrily afraid. Her gaze jumped to Zeke, then to Caffeine, before landing back on Stanley. "I like Caffeine too... so stop fucking staring at me!"

Stanley didn't toss her through a wall. He understood anger. Fear too. She was right to be afraid and right to be angry at what she feared. She wasn't living in denial like everyone else. She knew they were screwed, and she was rightly pissed off about that fact.

He still stopped staring at her and took in the rest of his gathered... friends? As they settled in around the table. All of his old team were here, except Edward, and Nate hadn't brought the new guy in Zeke's guard detail, so that was nice. Because that guy was an idiot. Though he had brought one strange addition that Stanley hadn't expected.

Blindfold.

"He wanted to come," Nate said, shrugging when he saw who Stanley was looking at.

"Why? Didn't I shit on you guys enough earlier? You know, when I pointed out how useless you all are?"

Blindfold took the insult in stride. "We were useless in your... fight? I'll admit that. Though I still don't understand what happened..."

"What's not to get?" Silas asked, pointing with a skewer of meat. "Something attacked his brother on the other side of the country, so Stanley and Caff helped him fight it off. They're a package deal like that."

Stanley wished it were that simple. Or that they'd actually won the fight. "We didn't fight it off. We fucking lost! I don't even know how we're still alive..."

"You're alive," Nate said. "Caffeine's alive. I'd call that a win."

They were alive. Caffeine was alive. So why wouldn't he wake up? Had he gotten hit harder than they did? Stanley had his mental fortress, and Lee probably had some magic bullshit... or had something extra happened to Caff because he threatened that... thing? It was so powerful... there was no telling what it could do. It might have...

Buff Gained: [Purifying Light]

"Will you eat with us?" Zeke asked while touching his arm and pumping golden light into him.

It felt... nice, but Stanley pulled away. It was too nice. Too peaceful. Too pleasant. He shouldn't feel good when Caffeine might be...

"Check it out," Silas said, pointing to a spot at the table with no accompanying stool. "Your spot, since I don’t think I’ve ever seen you sit in a chair. Like, ever."

"Please?" Zeke begged, though he kept his hands to himself this time.

Some of the cheer went away as everyone stared at him, and Stanley double-checked that his soul shield was still up.

It was. But, apparently, they didn't need to feel his soul. His face must have given away the weight in his chest. The ache that no amount of Zeke's light could remove. Only one thing could do that. Only one person... one dog.

They understood that but were still trying. Because they cared... about him? Or Caffeine? Obviously, caring about Caffeine was a given. Everyone loved the pug.

But it also felt like the people in this room cared about him, too. They were still worried about Caffeine—perhaps even as much as he was—but they were trying to hide it behind those useless smiles because it was the only thing they could do to help.

"Okay," Stanley whispered while he drifted to his designated place at the crystalline table. "I'll eat."

Nate smiled at him as he slid a plate over, but it was a toned-down smile compared to before. A much more realistic expression. Hopeful, but not stupidly delusional.

Stanley took a skewer, pulled a chunk of meat off with his teeth, and froze mid-bite. It wasn't bad. In fact, it was delicious. Chicken, seasoned to perfection, roasted over an open flame, yet still succulent. It was perfect—Caffeine's undisputed favorite.

He bit down, flavor exploding in his mouth... then spit it out when something between a gag and a sob bubbled up. His vision blurred, but he still caught the chunk of meat before it landed on the sleeping Caffeine. It hung there in the air, a tasty morsel that Caffeine should have been all over...

The moment stretched as he resisted the urge to throw it through a wall... Instead, he closed his eyes and set the half-chewed meat ever so gently back onto his plate with the skewer while both of his hands brushed over Caffeine's fur. He didn't need to eat. He could wait for Caffeine to wake up first. It especially didn't matter with Zeke here.

Debuff Downgraded: [Hungry]

No one commented on the bad table manners. Instead, Silas spoke up like nothing had happened. "Did you guys see Caffeine playing with the kids last night? He and Barbie were carrying them around, like they do, and Landon fell off next to the fireplace... Man, I swear that Caffeine can teleport with how fast he got under him. He even took the kids on his back with him!"

"That's nothing," Serenity said. "You should see him when he runs around with the wolves!"

James chuckled. "I almost feel sorry for them sometimes. Have you seen that one little wolf that always acts so tough?"

Were the wolves getting more chummy with the humans? He hadn't really checked on them, other than noting their souls when Caffeine was playing with them... Stanley thought about asking but he didn't. It didn't really matter, and he didn't really care.

"What I don't get," Olivia said. "Is how he can be friends with both the wolves and moose when they actively hunt each other?"

"They don't..." Nate said with his mouth full, then swallowed before adding, "Hunt each other, I mean."

"I've seen them..."

"Oh, they still chase each other, but it's not hunting." He pointed at Olivia with a skewer. "You ever see them actually kill a moose?"

She shrugged. "I'm not sure if they can... those things are terrifying!"

"They are, which only makes it more hilarious when you see them next to Caffeine." Nate laughed. "But no, I think it's somewhere between leftover instincts and training their young. For both sides. Other than that, I'm pretty sure they are working together to keep any other competitors out."

That tracked with what Stanley had seen. Or felt. He could feel them now if he concentrated. Two groups, each on opposite sides of Nate's base and the center of the clean zone. Well, clean-ish zone.

There were other bright spots out there. Smaller clusters of unknown and uncorrupted monsters, along with lairs and random lone creatures.

"Have..." Stanley cleared his throat and opened his eyes, then quickly looked away from the gazes coming his way and settled on watching Caffeine sleep. "Have you seen the tiger?"

If there was one monster to deal with while Caffeine was asleep... it was that one. He knew it wasn't an actual friend to Caffeine; it only pretended to save its own life. Unfortunately, it could also hide its soul...

"I haven't seen it," Nate said. "But I'm sure I've felt it watching me a few times now, and it wasn't a friendly feeling. I think it's still too scared of Caff to try anything."

It should be afraid of Stanley... and he should have killed it when he had the chance.

"We've seen the bear!" Zeke exclaimed out of nowhere. He shared a look with Nate before adding, "One of the newer teams tried to hunt it."

Nate sighed. "I tell them all to stick with the lairs if they want to stay in the clean zone, but there are always a few idiots that don't listen."

Stanley had seen Caffeine play with a bear once, or try to anyway. It had mostly ignored him, a normally impossible feat that it only pulled off by standing in the middle of a river, where Caffeine couldn't or wouldn't go. It was clever, but its soul had felt amicable enough. Plus, it had kept slapping fish clear across the water to Caffeine...

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

He could feel its soul now, one of the singular souls that stood out all on its own. It had a lazy vibe, and he'd never noticed if it strayed far from the river. Probably not. Either to discourage Caffeine from playing with it or because it really liked fish. Or both. Stanley also had no real idea of its strength. "What happened to them?"

Zeke grinned, and Eve's soul echoed his amusement as she likely recalled the occasion. "It sat on one of them and then went to sleep! They couldn't even hurt it!"

"The idiots still tried," James said, shaking his head. "It took until they ran out of mana before they finally came back for help."

"That thing is a tank," Nate agreed. "And I'm glad Caffeine showed up to get it off the moron..."

"It's so huge!" Zeke exclaimed. "I can't believe they even tried..."

Stanley closed his eyes and only listened as the others ate and chattered on. They talked a lot about Caffeine, sharing stories of things he'd done, friends he'd made, and about how great he was. Obviously.

Some of the stories were nice. A few even brought a ghost of a smile to his face a few times. Events he hadn't been there to witness firsthand, but chock full of Caffeine being his best self.

The rest of it sucked. It felt too much like they were at a goddamned funeral and reminiscing about the deceased. Luckily, they also chattered about a lot of stupid stuff completely unrelated to Caffeine. James even got into an argument with Nate about rules and laws for their growing settlement.

Stanley sat through it all. Because he knew they were simply passing the time. It didn't really matter what they talked about. Just like the food. It was only an excuse for them to gather. An excuse to hang out here with him and Caffeine. They were trying. That meant something...

He abandoned the conversation a few times as the night dragged on. Sometimes to meditate when Caffeine's silent stillness got to him, but also to squeeze in whatever little bits of progress he could on fixing the soul wound. He had to pass the time somehow, and sure, it meant he was bombarding them with his soul, but they were probably used to it... No one complained, at least. They also never left.

Worse, Caffeine didn't wake up.

The night dragged on, but no one headed for bed. Even when he started wishing they would. Until he returned from another silent trip into his soul and found only more silence waiting for him in the real world. They weren't gone, but they were clearly waiting for him to wake up.

That wasn't all he found waiting.

Debuff Downgraded: [Soul Wound(Rune Seal)(Shielded)]

Progress. It was down from a major wound... did that mean it would go to a minor wound next? Would that be the last? He couldn't wait to see the debuff removed notification... Stanley opened his eyes and saw daylight shining in from outside. They'd stayed all night...

Nate stood up shortly afterward. He was finally ready to leave. "Stanley, thanks for hanging out." Is that what he was calling it? A hangout? "I've got to get back to work, but come see me if you need anything. Okay?"

Stanley nodded, but his gaze never strayed from Caffeine in his lap. He was still limp, but was his soul a little brighter than it had been? His breathing and heartbeat were still steady. That was good, right?

Nate left, but he was the only one who did. Stanley eventually looked up at the rest of the people in his house, who only stared back at him. They weren't leaving? Weren't they tired after staying up all night? Not that anyone needed much sleep anymore, but he'd at least gotten in some meditation along the way... "Goodbye?"

"We were actually going to stay with you," James said. "Until..." He glanced at Caffeine. "As long as it takes."

"I'm going hunting." He wasn't going after Sam until tonight, and it couldn't hurt to add a few more attributes while he waited for the darkness. Caffeine would definitely wake up by then, and they'd be good to go.

"Great!" James said. "We'll come with, and it'll be just like old times."

He was clearly losing his mind, because Stanley was pretty sure the man had hated their time together... or at least not enjoyed it as much as he claimed now. Stanley eyed their eager but also tired and worried expressions. It would be easy enough to escape. He could fly away, and they would never keep up. They could go home and sleep.

But he didn't do that. Despite his grumbling, he was... grateful for last night. It hadn't been as dark with them here... Literally and figuratively. They'd come for him when he hadn't asked for or even known he wanted them to. That was worth something, right?

Or had they done it simply because they needed his power? Was that all it was?

No, he knew for a fact that they loved Caffeine, and not only for his incredible power, but because who wouldn't!? Caffeine was the best dog in the world, and dogs were the best people. So, of course they were worried about him... As for himself... well, Stanley could see and feel their souls. Those souls told him they cared about him.

So why did he have so much trouble believing it? What if the caring he sensed was only because they needed him? If they weren't trapped in this dungeon, would they still care? Or would they be only too happy to see him fly off into the sunset? They'd just lost a whole night because he couldn't handle Caffeine taking a longer than normal nap...

Stanley quashed those thoughts. It was too depressing. Besides, Caffeine liked these people—if not loved—and who was more qualified to judge the worth of a human than a dog? Caffeine loved them. That was enough.

"Sure," Stanley said. "I'd... like that."

Zeke beamed, clearly excited, while Eve managed not to verbalize her own less positive reaction. Seriously, why was she so worried? She actually felt... guilty? Whatever.

Blindfold was the odd man out in that he left. Though not before jabbering a bunch of nonsense. "Thanks for having me, Stanley. I enjoyed it, and you have some great friends."

"Tonight," Stanley said. "We're taking her down tonight. Tell the others to stay ready." Caffeine would be awake by then. Before then, even. Any minute now.

He waved and started walking away. "I'll let 'em know."

Luckily, everyone else had come ready for a fight last night, so he didn't have to delay much while they strapped into the few armor pieces they'd taken off overnight. Then he carried them to the next lair on the path of his rampage through this dungeon. A five-story apartment building. Or at least that was what it felt like in his mental sweep.

Unluckily for the monsters living in there, Stanley was not in a good mood when he arrived, and he cut them down en masse. Or maybe it was a good thing because they died fast? That was better, wasn't it? If that god came back to kill him, he would prefer that it killed him quick. Wouldn't he?

No, a stubborn part of him realized. He didn't want to die quick. He wanted to see it coming. He wanted the chance to fight back. No matter how hopeless it was...

On the heels of that unpleasant thought, Stanley dropped his companions outside and flew into the lair to get his cores. Sure, he could have dropped them at the next lair to start fighting, but no one had asked him to and he suspected they wanted to remain close. To keep an eye on him, maybe. Though he got some mixed feelings from their souls when they charged in after him and found nothing to fight.

Silas was the first one to ask the obvious as he let his crystal shield dissipate. "You... already killed everything, didn't you?"

Stanley nodded tersely, using his soul sight to pinpoint each core and yeet them into his hand. "Of course. It's only five stories."

"An entire lair..." James muttered and picked up the skill shard at the entrance. "It took you what, two seconds?"

"I left the queen," Stanley said. "No reason to depopulate it... and what are you talking about? I was already killing lairs just as fast back when you were on the team."

"You know the monsters are getting stronger too, right?" James said. "I mean, we've all gotten a lot stronger, but the monsters are too! This doesn't get easier! Only more... predictable."

Silas laughed. "I doubt he ever even noticed. I mean, he fought against a god yesterday. What's a few..." He looked closer at one of the bisected corpses. "Bugs? What are a few bugs compared to that?"

Stanley ignored Silas and sent his mind sweeping through the building. He dragged the dead monsters through doorways, hallways, downstairs, and into a disgusting blob. It was the lazy way to do it. If he wanted to be more meticulous, he could carefully pluck each core without even setting foot inside. But he wasn't in a meticulous mood.

"You know," Olivia said sometime later, as they walked into another defeated lair behind him. "When we talked about coming with you, I actually expected we'd do some real fighting." She glanced around at the bloody carnage. "I'm not sure what I was thinking."

"Then go fight!" Stanley snapped and felt her soul flinch at his tone. He shoved his anger as low as it would go and added, "You should all go hunt, because following me around like this is obviously a waste of your time."

"It's never a waste of time to help a friend," James said calmly. "Besides, another day of hunting won't change much for us at this point."

Stanley stopped and stared. "You're all capped on attributes?"

"Yep. Best we get these days is a handful of skill levels."

"You..." Stanley looked at his own attributes, only recently climbing past nine hundred, with mixed feelings. Sure, he needed a lot more cores than anyone else, but that didn't really matter in the long run. Not compared to the benefits he gained from the source nexus trait. He wasn't even that far behind, and if they didn't find any D-grades soon, he would catch up. "You should still fight. Skill levels aren't nothing."

"I mostly agree with James," Serenity said with a smile and emotion in her soul while she looked steadily at him. "Some things are more important than a few extra percentages on our attributes."

Stanley looked away and kept grabbing cores. He didn't need all their useless emotions and caring right now. He only needed Caffeine to wake up. So of course she kept talking.

"Where I don't agree is that I don't see us as friends." Not what he'd expected, and it didn't match with her soul.

"We're a family." Okay, there it was.

"A fucked up family, sure. One brought together by tragedy and horror, but a family nonetheless. I know I would do whatever I could for any of you, and I believe you would all do the same. That is what makes a family. Not blood. Not relations. But by being there for each other in our darkest moments. So no, Stanley, this isn't a waste of our time."

Stanley cursed silently to himself and tried to shove his feelings away even as he felt the rising emotions behind him. Why did they have to be like this? Why did they have to care so much? Why did they have to make him care in return!? Couldn't they see that this only made things worse?

All those bubbly, happy emotions would only turn into poison when the inevitable happened. Was it really worth feeling happier now when it would hurt so much more later?

Stanley didn't want to answer that question. He was too afraid of what the answer might be. So he distracted himself by meticulously gathering up the cores instead. It took a lot of focus to pick out each speck of soul, then drag those shards through the lair and into his waiting hand. His attributes ticked up slowly, each core giving him tiny fractions of a point thanks to the diminishing returns.

+0.1 All Base Attributes

A core that would have given him at least ten to each attribute back in the day, and now it barely cleared the point zero threshold. While he wasn't seeing the strength increase in the monsters that James mentioned, he couldn't deny that the cores were getting stronger. They were definitely getting closer to D-grade; it was only a matter of how close.

He ran out of cores to collect far too quickly and finally turned to face the now silent group at his back. They all smiled to varying degrees as his gaze jumped from face to expectant face, all of them watching him and waiting for... something. Except for Eve, she was watching her brother instead.

Stanley broke first. "What!?"

James rolled his eyes and shook his head, but his small smile didn't slip. It felt like he'd expected Stanley's response. The other happy expressions in the room slipped more, with Eve outright glaring at him, probably because Zeke's reaction was the worst. Stanley didn't even need to see the kid's soul. He could see it written all over his face when the beaming smile darkened.

"God damn it!" Stanley yelled. "Fine! We're a fucking family! Is that what you want!?"

It was. The bastards all smiled at him, and James even laughed!

"You're going to regret..." Stanley had to dodge aside when Zeke tried to tackle him. "Hey, there's no hugging in my family!"

Zeke kept smiling but backed off, at least until Serenity shouted, "Get him!"

They were all a bunch of traitors and ganged up on him. Stanley could have defeated them. All of them at once, if he had to. He could have escaped... but deep down, he knew it was far too late for that. He'd already lost this fight days ago. There was nothing left to do but surrender.

So he gave up and let it happen.

A few of them were less enthusiastic about the group hug, primarily James and Eve, but they still piled on. It was awkward and uncomfortable... but also pleasant. It was safe, warm, and not from the heat of all the bodies surrounding him, but from their souls. They truly cared. This wasn't a ploy to use him for his power, but actual people who actually cared about him. For what god-forsaken reason they cared, he didn't know, but he knew they did.

It reminded him of what he'd felt from Lee... and Stanley finally understood. Lee had found a family of his own. He'd found the few good people out there, and they were looking out for him. They weren't doing a very good job, considering, but what could anyone do against monsters like that? Maybe it was enough that they tried. Maybe it was simply enough that they were there.

They also held onto him for way too long. Like, sure, hugs could be nice and all, but there were limits!

Stanley started spinning in place, trying to throw them off, but the idiots only laughed and held on tighter when their feet left the floor. E-grade humans were too damn strong...

"Enough!" he finally yelled. "You got your damn hug. Now get off me already!" He was ready to start forcibly peeling them away, but they got the message and clambered off, all smiles and laughter.

Caffeine slept through everything, which was a shame because he would have loved that. Stanley looked up from the pug at his... family, some of their excessive cheer relenting as they too took in the image of the still sleeping pug.

Yet somehow the sight wasn't as heavy as it had been. He wasn't alone in waiting for Caffeine to finish napping. He had them. His family...

It was a good feeling. Too good. Which meant this was going to hurt. Stanley knew it would. There would be a terrible price to pay for this. Nothing good was ever free, and he dreaded the moment this bill came due.

You know what? Stanley thought. Fuck that! These fuckers were his now! He wouldn't let anything take them away! He only had to become powerful enough that nothing would dare to try. If he was as powerful as that god that had attacked Lee... no, stronger than that. Much stronger. He would make his will the absolute law of the universe!

"Go fight," Stanley said, then continued when he felt the protests coming. "I... appreciate the support, but I'm good, and you all need to get stronger. Even if it's only a few percentage points."

They still hesitated.

"You chose this, remember? You wanted to be a part of my family. Well, you got what you wanted, but now you should understand something important. You should understand what you've gotten yourselves into."

Stanley smiled, and it was his first real smile since the attack. A true expression of how he was feeling in this moment, but also something more. It was a promise to them and to himself. "You see, I'm going to become a god, and I'd really like it if you all did the same.