~~~Stanley~~~
Stanley woke up in pain but also feeling... strange. He could have sworn he was furious moments ago, but now he wasn't. He checked his recent notifications and understood.
Racial Evolution Progress... 65%... 66%...
Buff Gained: [Still Mind of the Psionic Beast]
Warning! Skill: Still Mind of the Psionic Beast (Epic) is incompatible with Race: Eidolon of Wrath
Racial Evolution Interrupted.
Buff Removed: [Still Mind of the Psionic Beast]
...
Racial Evolution Progress... 62%... 63%...
Buff Gained: [Still Mind of the Psionic Beast]
Warning! Skill: Still Mind of the Psionic Beast (Epic) is incompatible with Race: Eidolon of Wrath
Racial Evolution Interrupted.
Buff Removed: [Still Mind of the Psionic Beast]
There were a lot of those. Starting from ninety-five percent evolution progress and slowly creeping down to where it was now. Caffeine was obviously turning Still Mind on to interrupt the evolution. The only question was, why? And why was he turning it off again only for the process to repeat?
Buff Removed: [Still Mind of the Psionic Beast]
It wasn't like all the times before. His emotions still came crashing back in, but this time a singular emotion mostly muted all the others as it slowly grew into a crescendo of rage.
Because memories came along with the emotion. Memories of what had happened. Memories of how he'd failed. Memories of how he'd let Zeke down... how he'd let them all down. After everything. All his preparation. All his fighting and getting stronger. All of his grand and useless claims that he would end this nightmare. How he would protect his family... and how he had ultimately failed.
The memory hurt, but the pain didn't last because there was no point dwelling on it. There wasn't anything to do now except finish what he'd started, and Stanley was already lifting into the air when a notification drove him back down.
Racial Evolution Progress... 63%... 64%...
Buff Gained: [Still Mind of the Psionic Beast]
Warning! Skill: Still Mind of the Psionic Beast (Epic) is incompatible with Race: Eidolon of Wrath
Racial Evolution Interrupted.
He involuntarily gasped at the pain and opened his eyes to a ceiling covered in red-gold flames. The next instant, a pug was in his face with lots of worried whines and frantic licking.
Stanley was calm again, with none of the rage he'd felt a moment ago, but Caffeine's worry bothered him... even though it shouldn't. He didn't care... but he did. More than that, he felt a swelling relief at seeing the pug awake.
Interesting... perhaps the sensation was related to how Caffeine had changed the skill that first time? Had he snuck in an exclusion for himself?
A knock on the door followed, barely heard above Caffeine's cries, along with a voice. "Stanley, may I enter?"
It was Walter. Expected, given the room, the lack of souls surrounding him, and of course, the phoenix fire everywhere.
"Co..." Stanley tried to speak, but his throat felt raw and scratchy, so he waved a hand instead. Walter would see it... except Walter's presence wasn't in here... Wasn't this the tower?
It looked like his room and felt like the tower in his mental touch, except Walter's domain usually filled the place. Even when the man was blocking all other souls, Stanley could always feel him like a thin fog in the air, but not anymore.
Walter must have seen him anyway, or maybe he'd heard his croak? Whichever it was, the door opened, and Stanley felt Walter's soul appear. Not only did it appear, but his soul preceded him into the room, flowing out to fill the space like it usually did, even as the man himself entered. How odd.
Stanley wasn't sure how he’d ended up here, though he remembered passing Adrian and Daryl on the way to Zeke... Had they brought him back or had Nate finally moved into the tower? It would make sense if Zeke was dead... or worse.
That thought... itched at his mind, but Stanley ignored it as he lifted himself into the air, with Caffeine nestled on his lap—where he belonged. Instead, he studied Walter as the man entered the room.
The butler looked the same as always, but his soul felt extremely worried, bordering on frightened. It made sense. Without Zeke, it was only a matter of time until everyone either died or turned undead. Still, he was worried about nothing. Stanley would end the threat before it ever came to that, and he knew right where to start.
He'd marked that thing, and his mark still lingered out there.
Buff Removed: [Still Mind of the Psionic Beast]
He made it out the door around Walter, flew past Adrian, and out into open air before that notification crashed back into him.
Racial Evolution Progress... 64%... 65%...
Buff Gained: [Still Mind of the Psionic Beast]
Warning! Skill: Still Mind of the Psionic Beast (Epic) is incompatible with Race: Eidolon of Wrath
Racial Evolution Interrupted.
"Stanley!" Walter yelled behind him, and Stanley stopped his flight. He owed the butler for past aid after all, but also because Caffeine was quite upset and that... bothered him?
He shook it off and kept flying. Because how much did he really owe? Walter had provided him with shelter and food, sure, but Stanley had rescued Daryl. He'd rescued the whole lot of them, and they'd aided him in return. They were even. And he had things to kill.
Buff Removed: [Still Mind of the Psionic Beast]
Stanley flew faster, tearing his way across the sky and toward a monster that would die in screaming agony when he reached it!
Racial Evolution Progress... 65%... 66%...
Buff Gained: [Still Mind of the Psionic Beast]
Warning! Skill: Still Mind of the Psionic Beast (Epic) is incompatible with Race: Eidolon of Wrath
Racial Evolution Interrupted.
He grimaced but kept going, and his mark led him to an unremarkable patch of wilderness, or rather, beneath it. Not unexpected—he’d assumed for a while that they must be hiding underground somewhere. This time, it wouldn’t save them.
Stanley dove into the ground, tearing the earth from his path without slowing.
Until something very unexpected appeared before him.
Where nothing had existed in his Soul Sight, souls suddenly appeared. Not undead like he’d anticipated, but mostly human souls, and ones he knew well... including Zeke.
The boy lived—a touch of rot in his soul—but the boy lived.
Stanley finished his plunging flight deep into the earth and emerged into an illuminated underground cavern. The humans within grew frightened at his approach, but he didn’t care and didn’t slow.
Buff Removed: [Still Mind of the Psionic Beast]
It felt different this time. Something about seeing the boy he’d already presumed dead, now alive and in front of him, had a powerful effect on his emotional state. An effect strong enough that it pushed back his anger.
"Zeke..." Stanley whispered, his throat still raw and his voice coming out as a croak. "You're... alive!"
"Stanley!" Zeke exclaimed and immediately tackled him into a hug. "I'm so glad you're awake! Are you feeling better!? You look better!"
"I..." Stanley’s relief didn’t last. He peeled Zeke off him and then peeled Zeke out of his armor to look at his chest, where a small, shiny nugget of rot festered inside him. The boy wasn’t any better. Nothing had changed.
"I'm sorry," Stanley whispered, because it wasn't only in his flesh, either. The rot hadn’t spread much through his soul, but it had rooted itself deep enough, and the thousand tendrils of corruption throughout meant there was still no hope. "I'm so sorry."
"Wait!" Zeke protested while flailing in the air. "Stanley, it’s okay!"
"No..." Stanley shook his head, anger clashing with despair as he gazed upon his failure made manifest. He'd tried so hard... with every scrap of power he possessed... and it still hadn't been enough. "I failed."
In the end, he hadn't had what it took. He’d failed, and all he had left now was revenge.
Racial Evolution Progress... 64%... 65%...
"But..." Zeke said.
Stanley let Zeke go and turned back to his original reason for coming here. To the piece of his soul he'd attached to the skeleton before letting it run away. Unfortunately, the undead fuck was long gone. He'd taken too long to get here, and it had escaped. Though from the looks of it, the thing hadn't done so without consequences.
No one else should be able to see it, but a group of humans was clustered around it anyway, doing something useless with their stupid magic. They all scattered at his approach.
In Stanley's Soul Sight, he could see a glowing black and starry fist hovering in the air. It clutched what looked like a tattered and filthy rag. Except it wasn't a rag. It was the piece of its soul the skeleton had ripped away to escape his grasp...
That had to have hurt, and Stanley smiled at the thought. Obviously, he should have used more of his soul, enough that it never could have escaped, but he hadn't expected the delay, and now it was too late for regrets.
Now it was time to end this.
Racial Evolution Progress... 66%... 67%...
So he reached out and gathered the piece of himself back into the fold, including the prize in its grip. It was almost amusing when the filthy little scraps tried to bite him... Almost amusing. Mostly infuriating.
That little fuck thought it could hurt him with these scraps! It thought its worthless fucking soul could touch him!
Racial Evolution Progress... 68%... 69%...
It took some effort, but Stanley pushed the hot flames of his rage back down. He forced that wild anger back into a block of icy wrath deep inside him. It wouldn't do if he snuffed out the irritant prematurely—not until he’d tracked it back to its host.
Stanley carefully tucked that little scrap of fetid rot deep inside his own soul, where it would never escape. He didn't fear its corruption tainting him. It was far too weak for that. The only hard part was keeping his soul from obliterating it.
Voices intruded on him as he worked—his friends' voices—but Stanley ignored them. They wanted to help him. They thought he needed help! There was nothing they could do to help anymore. He would end this alone. Like he always should have from the beginning.
Racial Evolution Progress... 70%... 71%...
Then another voice intruded, and Stanley's icy rage burned too hot to contain. He moved with all the power at his disposal, taking Nate by the throat and driving him into the solid stone walls of this underground space. "Don't you dare," Stanley growled in the man's face. "Don't you dare speak to me!"
Racial Evolution Progress... 72%... 73%...
Nate didn't speak. He only stared at the ground and refused to even fight back! He could fight if he wanted to... the bastard was a D-grade already! Stanley didn't know for sure how the man had pulled it off, but he had a pretty damn good idea!
Not that it mattered. Not that any of this mattered anymore.
Racial Evolution Progress... 74%... 75%...
"Fight, damn it!" Stanley screamed and slammed him deeper into the stone. "Fight back or I'll fucking kill you!"
"I won't," Nate said with a shake of his head that sent rock chips scattering. "This is my fault."
Stanley opened his mouth to agree but couldn't get the words out. He wanted this to be Nate's fault. He needed it to be Nate's fault! It would be easier that way... because then it wouldn't be his own fault. If he hadn't gone to the stadium... If he had returned faster...
"I thought I knew what I was doing," Nate said. "I thought I was pulling the strings, but I was wrong."
"Shut up," Stanley breathed.
Buff Gained: [Cleansing Light]
He ignored the golden light blooming behind him and spilling around his back, but he couldn't ignore the black streaks amid the light... "Shut up!"
Even the notification from Zeke’s light had changed. How long until it turned completely rotten? How long until it became poisonous?
Racial Evolution Progress... 76%... 77%...
"I fucked up, Stanley. I damned everyone by thinking I was in control."
Stanley squeezed harder. "I can still kill you."
Racial Evolution Progress... 78%... 79%...
"You... could," Nate wheezed. "You... earned it... after you pulled us... from the fire."
"I fucking tried!" Stanley said, and his voice came out somewhere between a scream and a sob. "I tried so fucking hard!"
Racial Evolution Progress... 80%... 81%...
Caffeine whined in his lap, and Stanley glanced down in time to see the pug haul himself up into a sitting position. He knew Caffeine was exhausted... but the pug still lifted his head and licked Stanley's nose with another whine and a wag of his tail.
Zeke stepped up beside him, shirtless now, and with Stanley's failure on full display.
"Please," he said, and Stanley stopped staring at the knot of corruption long enough to meet the poor kid's gaze. "I couldn't stop it before, but you saved me!" Zeke touched the glassy spot of corruption on his chest. "This little bit is nothing! I know I can beat it now!"
He really believed what he was saying...
Nate did not believe it. At least, not enough when he said, "Worst case, you bought us time. We can still..."
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Stanley shut him up by squeezing tighter even as he shook his head. Nate with his delusions of grandeur. Zeke with his useless faith. He could literally see the corruption spreading! It wasn't fast, sure, but what had they gained? A few days? A week? So now he could watch Zeke slowly turn into a monster instead!?
Or he could just kill them all now and get it over...
Racial Evolution Progress... 82%... 83%...
Buff Gained: [Still Mind of the Psionic Beast]
Warning! Skill: Still Mind of the Psionic Beast (Epic) is incompatible with Race: Eidolon of Wrath
Racial Evolution Interrupted.
"Stanley," Nate wheezed, and Stanley tried to decide if the man was worth more dead or alive. "You said you were evolving?"
Right... that notification. He really should have looked into that already. So he did.
[Eidolon of Wrath](E-grade Eidolon)
Become Wrath.
Eidolons are the primal spirits of thought, emotion, and life itself, ethereal manifestations that embody the intangible forces shaping all conscious existence. Each Eidolon is unique and resonates with the raw essence of its domain, carrying with it the primal energies that drive all living beings. They serve as both keepers and avatars, existing as the purest expressions of the forces they represent.
You have proven yourself worthy to represent Wrath.
You have cast off the constraints of your flesh along with all else which could hold you back from becoming the purest expression of your Wrath.
Removed Traits: [Adaptable]
Altered Traits: [Wrathstorm Unleashed] = [Eidolon of Wrath]
It was... different. He would lose his body? Did that mean he'd be completely immune to the undead? No flesh should mean no corruption. Zeke's soul held corruption, but it wasn’t the same. His stemmed from his flesh, and from there, into his soul.
Or was a spirit just another type of undead?
He probably wouldn't need to eat, at least... but Caffeine would.
He checked the trait.
[Eidolon of Wrath]
Become Wrath.
You have silenced your fear.
You have smothered your joy.
You have buried your sorrow.
You have released your envy.
You have forsaken your love.
You have stifled your desire.
You have shattered your trust.
You have lost your hope.
You have relinquished your compassion.
You have drowned your ambition.
You have betrayed your loyalty.
You have rejected your gratitude.
You have erased your regret.
YOU. ARE. WRATH.
Effects:
+10000% Effectiveness of All Mind Attributes
It was a lot. Power, but at a price.
"What is it?" Nate asked, pulling Stanley’s attention back. He only glared at the man. As if he’d tell him…
"Is it something you want!?" Nate asked, a note of desperation in his soul.
"I..."
Buff Removed: [Still Mind of the Psionic Beast]
Racial Evolution Progress... 82%... 83%...
"I might!" Stanley snarled at the man. He could see it now. It would be so easy... he would be more powerful than ever! But more than that, he wouldn't have to care about anything ever again; he could just... let go. There would be no more fear. No more regrets. He would be free...
Except he couldn't do that. Even if he failed everyone else. Even if he had to watch them all die. He couldn't stop caring about Caffeine. He couldn't, because Caffeine would never let go of him. Even if he went down that path, Caffeine would follow him. He would be heartbroken, but he would never abandon him. Caffeine would follow and would do everything in his power to drag Stanley back.
It wasn't only Caffeine that he would stop caring about. It was everyone else too, and deep down, he didn't want to not care. It was a small voice, a whisper almost lost beneath his anger, but it was there. He didn't want to let them go. Even if it hurt!
"No," Stanley whispered. "I don't want it."
Racial Evolution Progress... 83%... 84%...
"Then turn it down," Nate said.
Stanley tried that, but it did nothing.
Racial Evolution Progress... 85%... 86%...
"No!" Stanley growled. "Stop! I don't want it!"
His denial accomplished nothing.
He knew what was happening. It was painfully obvious now. He’d gone all in on being angry. He’d embraced it, made it his own, and now it wasn’t ever going away. He couldn't make it go away if he wanted to, and it was dragging him toward the inevitable outcome of his decisions.
So he activated Still Mind himself this time...
Buff Gained: [Still Mind of the Psionic Beast]
Warning! Skill: Still Mind of the Psionic Beast (Epic) is incompatible with Race: Eidolon of Wrath
Racial Evolution Interrupted.
It hurt, but it was a solution. He couldn't be angry like this.
"Stanley!" Nate said, peeling himself out of the wall. "Try to meditate!"
Buff Removed: [Still Mind of the Psionic Beast]
He tried. He really tried, but the rage followed him into the dark. It filled what should have been a quiet place with screams and nightmares. It was too much a part of him! He needed his psionic power to meditate, but his power was rage. It didn't want to flow quietly and smoothly. It wanted to destroy! It wanted to rage!
"I can't!" Stanley yelled, and the rage drowned out his fear, turning his wail into a scream, even as he drove his fist into the stone wall.
Racial Evolution Progress... 85%... 86%...
Stanley pulled his hand back and stared at the blackened, shriveled flesh of the limb with a new dawning horror. He couldn't actually feel his arm... there were no muscles moving in there... his body was little more than a stick figure piloted by his mind at this point.
Buff Gained: [Still Mind of the Psionic Beast]
Warning! Skill: Still Mind of the Psionic Beast (Epic) is incompatible with Race: Eidolon of Wrath
Racial Evolution Interrupted.
He tried again before Caffeine could remove his buff, and it worked. He slipped into a perfectly calm meditation...
Buff Removed: [Still Mind of the Psionic Beast]
"Why, Caff!?" Stanley yelled, once again somewhere halfway between despair and rage. He knew Caffeine didn't want him to evolve! So why did he keep fighting him on this!?
Racial Evolution Progress... 86%... 87%...
"You have to figure it out!" Nate yelled, now in front of him.
"That's not fucking helping!" Stanley screamed back and punched the man into another wall.
Racial Evolution Progress... 88%... 89%...
Buff Gained: [Still Mind of the Psionic Beast]
Warning! Skill: Still Mind of the Psionic Beast (Epic) is incompatible with Race: Eidolon of Wrath
Racial Evolution Interrupted.
"He let you stay in for an hour last night," Nate said, completely unbothered at having to pull himself out of the wall again. Unhurt too. "After that, he started kicking you in and out, with shorter intervals each time. Maybe there are side effects if you stay too long?"
Buff Removed: [Still Mind of the Psionic Beast]
Racial Evolution Progress... 90%... 91%...
"You fucking think!?" Stanley punted him back into the wall. It felt good... It felt really good. Fantastic even. So he did it again. And again. Harder and harder.
Racial Evolution Progress... 92%... 93%...
"Or maybe," Nate yelled between visits to the wall. "He's not the one kicking you out!"
Stanley frowned at the implications of that statement, then made another Nate-shaped hole in the wall. It was easier that way. Because if it wasn't Caffeine, then it was him. Because then he wanted this.
Zeke dashed to Stanley's side and threw his arms tight around his floating figure—what little of it remained. "Stop, please!"
Stanley almost punted him into a wall too, but he settled for hitting Nate again. It really was satisfying. He was like a yo-yo that kept coming back for more!
Racial Evolution Progress... 94%... 95%...
Besides, Zeke let go on his own once he realized what Stanley had already seen. Zeke's hug had crushed dents into Stanley's chest and ribs. It was no wonder. His flesh and bones were barely more than cardboard at this point, and while his inner organs weren't all gone yet, and the effect hadn't fully reached his head either, it was only a matter of time now.
Racial Evolution Progress... 96%... 97%...
Stanley pushed Nate into the wall again, and this time, he made sure it hurt, pushing, crushing... why Nate ever thought getting to D-grade would be enough to save him...
Caffeine licked his nose, and... Stanley hesitated.
Not because of the lick, but because a strange sensation followed on the heels of it. A warm sensation... coming from... inside him? It didn't stay merely warm; it kept growing until it was scalding hot against the icy rage that vied for space within his heart.
Racial Evolution Progress... 98%...
Scalding... but gentle. Soothing even, and strangely enough, it wasn't from Caffeine; he could still feel the little beacon of Caffeine's soul with its unwavering belief, but this was something else. Something... not bigger, but grander. More... substantial.
It was his brother... but not only him.
Lee was there, holding onto him; he had been all along, but now he was no longer alone. Hundreds more joined him, all of them reaching out to Stanley—people he had never met and didn't know, but who knew him and... loved him? Sort of. They knew Lee; some even loved Lee, and through him, they passed that affection on to Stanley here on the far side of the world, to a man they’d never met except by proxy.
Their collective strength forced Stanley to acknowledge them. They forced him to feel the warmth of their souls. They forced him to hear their voices as they cried out.
Racial Evolution Progress... 99%...
Somehow, they were in his soul with Lee...
The answer finally dawned on him as he burned in the fires of so much affection.
It was coming from the soul link. That glowing symbol in their soul, holding it together, was not merely a creation of Lee. It held a spark of each of their souls.
Those souls all stood beside him now. All of them called out for him alongside his brother and asked him to stay...
They weren't the only ones.
Stanley felt people crowding in around him on this side of the world, too. Nate. Silas. Serenity. Olivia. James. Zeke. Eve... All of them reached out to him with the same message.
Don’t go. Stay with us.
Zeke slipped his arms around Stanley once again, his embrace gentle this time but unrelenting. "I believe in you, Stanley," he said softly, and his soul blazed bright with his words, pushing back the corruption in his soul ever so slightly even as it seared into Stanley’s own soul. "So hold on until I fix this, okay?"
He was a little bastard to throw Stanley's words back at him like that, but he truly believed he could do it... Stanley had thought the same, and he’d been wrong.
But what if Zeke wasn’t wrong?
"Thank you," Eve whispered from his other side.
There was no hug from her, and her soul held none of the belief her brother did, but she had something else. A fire in her soul that flickered and wavered but absolutely refused to go out. Plenty of other crazy in there too, even more than usual, but she was still alive and still fighting to stay that way. "Thank you for giving him a chance."
Racial Evolution Progress...
Other people spoke, but Stanley could no longer hear them as he sank back into his meditation. It was the same as before. His power still raged against any attempt to quell its wrath. Only... he was no longer alone.
Hundreds of hearts and minds bolstered him. They drowned out even Stanley's unquenchable rage through sheer numbers. They sheltered him within their embrace, and Stanley found a moment of peace.
It didn't last.
The rage crashed against their refuge like the waves of a storm battering against a seawall. The waves spilled over the wall and slipped through the cracks, but each time, the wave receded and the wall remained. Each time, Stanley found another moment of peace, and each time, those moments grew slightly longer. Each time, the waves grew a little smaller and crashed against him with a little less force.
Stanley stayed there, riding out the storm until it passed over, sheltering behind the wall until the waves could no longer break through.
He didn't know how long it took, but no one left. They remained by his side throughout, even when he finally emerged.
Skill Level Up: Harmonic Soul Meditation (Epic)
Skill Level Up: Harmonic Soul Meditation (Epic)
...
Skill Level Up: Harmonic Soul Meditation (Epic)
Everything looked different when he blinked at the smiling faces around him. They no longer looked as... hostile. Well, not until he glanced at Nate and was reminded of something else. "You took my core!"
Racial Evolution Progress... 49%... 50%...
Apparently the waves weren't that calm, and Stanley dropped back into his meditation without waiting for a reply. At least this time, he barely needed the bulwark of souls. He also remained even longer, though without the urgency from before; he relaxed enough to take stock.
Zeke still looked bad, but maybe a little less bleak? He had pushed it back for a moment there, even if it was growing again. Was it truly possible he could beat it? If anyone could pull it off, it would be Zeke, but Stanley didn’t believe it anymore than Nate did. If only he hadn’t...
Stanley let the thought go when the next wave crashed against him with worrying force. Time to think about something else.
He’d obviously screwed up somewhere, though he was hesitant to blame everything on his anger. It had carried him through when nothing else could. It had allowed him to give Zeke the little chance he had now. Though it had also driven him to go running to the stadium after Sam...
Next topic.
Aside from his friends, there were a lot of other souls down here, including a bunch of wizards. They'd stayed very quiet and still the entire time; otherwise, he probably would have killed them. Or hurt them.
But at least he didn't want to kill them now?
He wasn't positive on why they were down here, but he had some strong theories. This should have been an undead stronghold, or a base at least, so there was probably magic to study. Also, he could feel a D-grade monster in the distance...
So maybe Nate hadn't taken his core?
It definitely wasn’t an undead monster, and if he listened closely, it felt like there were a large cluster of other monster souls growing near it. Had the undead found a D-grade lair down here? Was that how they got to D-grade already?
There were plenty of E-grade monsters as well. Though they were dying at a steady pace to the... Wait, were the humans feeding them to the D-grade? That was what it looked like, and he felt more certain about it as time passed. They were definitely feeding the monster—probably to encourage it to have more babies.
His domain still worked in meditation, and the people surrounding him were getting fidgety enough that he almost came back into the real world to tell them to fuck off away from him.
Nate's intuition must have still been working well enough, though, because he said something and they all backed off. Except for Zeke.
Stanley let that slide since he could also see his flesh coming back to life... It wasn’t pretty. He wasn’t even sure if his regeneration would have been enough to rebuild him from so little. His legs had been nothing but twigs, and the only reason he suspected they hadn’t crumbled into dust was that he needed them to hold up Caffeine, though it couldn’t have been a soft or comfortable seat...
Also, his suit was gone, and his less-than-reliable memory of the previous night’s events told him that he likely lost it in the explosion following his... victory. His pyrrhic victory. He had a lot of those, didn’t he?
The upside was that he still had on a pair of boxer briefs, Walter’s doing if he had to guess, though the parts of him beneath that minor bit of clothing had gone to dust... so yeah, he didn’t mind Zeke’s healing at all. Not that he particularly cared about his genitals at the moment, but there was something decidedly... wrong about not having them. Something... less human.
Watching himself regenerate was a way to gauge his progress without notifications and was a decent motivation to stick with the meditation. Decent, but not the main motivation, well, aside from not wanting to turn into a monster. The other main driving force was watching Caffeine sleep.
He understood now that Caffeine hadn’t been pulling him out of Still Mind; he’d been putting him back in every time Stanley pulled himself out. Worse, he suspected that it hadn’t been easy on the pug. Caffeine had only just woken up after his face-off with a god, and then he had to spend all night protecting Stanley from himself...
Thinking about Caffeine wasn’t helping with remaining calm, so Stanley let it go and focused entirely on his meditation. Easier said than done, but it was worth the effort.
Unfortunately, it kept getting easier, and that gave him time to think, which made it harder if he thought about the wrong things. Instead of thinking about the many unpleasant topics on his mind, Stanley instead tried to focus on the people shining through the mark on his soul.
It was difficult to pick out individuals among so many, but there were a few that stood out as notable exceptions. Strangely, amid the crowd, some of the souls felt like... children, or at least they had a certain flightiness or attention deficit that Stanley had come to associate with children. At least the younger ones.
They weren’t the standouts.
Instead, there were a handful of souls over there that cared more than the rest. Sure, they all cared, but the majority were more... casual about it. They wanted Lee to survive, and through him, Stanley as well, but it was less personal. The standouts were another thing entirely. Lee was...
precious to them. They were ready to risk life and limb if it meant his survival.
They were Lee’s family.
More than that, they were Stanley’s family as well. Not by association, but by choice. It didn’t matter that they’d never met him. It didn’t matter that their first meaningful contact with him involved trying to get a raving madman to chill the fuck out. That didn’t bother them. It was the least they were willing to do...
As his body looked more human inside his domain, and as the anger got easier to ignore, Stanley finally felt the hundreds of souls recede from that glowing symbol. They went slowly, one at a time, or in groups, but eventually, they all trickled away. All but the diehards. They felt less focused on him, like they were doing other things at the same time, but they still popped back in regularly to make sure he was okay.
The reduced numbers made it far easier for Stanley to pick out individuals, and he spent some time getting to know each of them as well as he could. They were people he would remember when, and not if, he made it back to Lee. He owed them, not for services rendered, but for... well, it was hard to put into words. Not only them, either. Everyone who had stepped up when they needed it the most, when they were hurting the most. When their soul was bleeding out...
Stanley knew it was almost a certainty that they had shared in his and his brother’s pain. To endure that and still stick around all this time... to still care after all this time. He owed them, and he would make damn sure their sacrifices were rewarded.
Watching all those souls across the world had another impact. They reminded Stanley not only of his own family on this side but also of the hundreds of others whom he so often overlooked. People who had never done enough to draw his attention, positively or negatively, but who still helped in their own ways. He could feel some of those souls in this underground pit...
They were afraid of him, but also for him. They wanted him to be well not only because of what he might do for them or to them, but also because he was a fellow human and he was in pain. They were good people even if they couldn't do the impossible.
Not everyone could turn back the clock or kill a cannibal...
Stanley’s meditation broke as he finally realized that he was no longer carrying a certain horror show of a class shard. “Nate!”