~~~Stanley~~~
Stanley woke up screaming. "Nooo! You can't..." He sat up abruptly and looked around in a panic when he realized what was missing. "Caff!"
He was on a soft bed in a spacious and furnished bedroom. White sheets were smooth on his bare legs, and cream-colored walls adorned with random abstract art surrounded him. A large window let in gray daylight and looked out over a city far below.
A man was staring wide-eyed at him from a recliner on the other side of the room.
Oh, and everything was on fire.
Stanley lashed out, attempting to push the fire away. Where are you, Caff!? What is...
"Wait!" the man in the chair yelped. "You're safe! Don't…"
Stanley floated above the bed as it crumpled beneath him. The fire swirled around the room and towards the other man, who yelled, "It's just..."
A loud boom shook the building.
The man looked towards the door at the same time as Stanley. That's... It was the only thought he had time for before another boom shook the bedroom and the door exploded inward in a cloud of splinters.
"Caff!" Stanley gasped as the little furry missile collided with him. "You're okay! I was so worried." He squeezed the squirming pug tight against his chest as Caffeine licked frantically at his face. "I'm so glad. I thought..." He wasn't sure what he'd thought. Something bad.
A voice was saying something, and Stanley pulled his gaze up to find the other man holding a roiling ball of fire between his cupped hands. "...healing fire! I have to put it back!"
As he spoke, it poured out from his hands and spread across the floor, then up the walls until the fire crawled across the ceiling and encircled the room once again.
Stanley noticed something happening as it went. A quieting of a cacophonous noise, a softening of incoming...
"You're safe here!" the man said in a strained voice. "Please try to relax." He was still holding some swirling fire between his hands, but Stanley finally noticed his soul. It wasn't threatening; it was under threat, in pain, and afraid... of him.
Stanley buried his face in Caffeine’s fur. We're okay, he thought. Caff is here. We're safe.
He took deep breaths and tried to slow his racing heartbeat. Caffeine whined and sighed as he gave up on the face licking and settled down in the desperate hug.
Stanley also slowly calmed as the nightmare lurking at the edges of his mind faded and the feeling of Caffeine in his arms grounded him. Caff is okay!
Then another soul appeared in the room.
His gaze leapt to the doorway, now sans door, and the curtain of fire that covered the opening. A fox was peeking through. Stanley blinked as a memory popped into his head. A three tailed fox in a cage... then later, that same fox attacking the...
Stanley buried his face back in Caffeine. I'm... alive? It felt unreal. He had been dying... but he wasn't dead. Caff is safe.
Lee is alive! He could feel his brother in the distance, very much alive and waking up himself, likely in response to Stanley's own panicked awakening.
Slowly, with deep breaths and a face full of Caffeine’s fur, Stanley calmed down. When he felt stable enough, he finally looked back up at the souls he could feel inside the room.
He could feel other souls further away and below, but they were muted like voices from behind a wall, diffused and unintelligible.
Inside the room, the fox was staring at him, and when he met its eyes, it bristled, fire sprouting around its head like a lion's mane and on all three tails that waved agitatedly behind it.
Stanley looked away and met the gaze of the man crouched next to the fox. He must have come in behind it. His soul was wary and nervous. He had one hand on the fox and was stroking its back.
"Easy, girl," he murmured with a faint British accent. "He's a good guy, remember?" His eyes dropped to Caffeine. "You like Caffeine, right? Well, Caffeine likes him."
The fox's tails slowed as it glanced between him and Caffeine while the flames dimmed and died until the fox was no longer on fire. "That's right," the man crooned with a big smile for the fox, his white teeth contrasting brightly against his dark skin.
Stanley settled slowly down himself. Literally and mentally, until he was sitting on the broken bed beneath him. He gingerly reached a hand out to the fire covering the floor. It was warm, but it never grew hot, even as his fingers dipped into the flames. It felt... nice. He looked up again and met the eyes of the two men watching him. Both of whom he was pretty sure had been in the bat lair...
"Hi..." Stanley said weakly into the quiet room, the fire making no sound as it flickered. Both men smiled at him, and Stanley tried to smile back, but his face twitched, and he quickly quelled his rioting emotions, his fingers brushing through the fur under his hands.
"Hi," said the man beside the fox. "Daryl. In case you forgot." He nodded to the other man, who was still holding a ball of fire. "That's Adrian. Don't mind the fire in his hands; that's just Cheesesteak's egg."
Stanley blinked. Cheesesteak?
Daryl's face and soul both softened while he looked at the other man, then hardened again when his gaze moved back to Stanley. "He's a phoenix. The bird you saw before?"
Stanley started to respond, remembering a bird sitting on the guy's shoulder, then later exploding... His throat tightened, so he just nodded slightly and glanced at the fox.
"This is Princess! Our illustrious leader." Daryl grinned, on his face and in his soul. "She won't ever let you forget that, either."
He glanced at the pug on Stanley's lap. "That is Caffeine, right?"
Stanley nodded slowly. "How... How did you know?" he finally asked.
Daryl's smile dimmed. "Edward told us. Also, you, um, yelled it a few times." He smiled brightly at the pug. "He's a good pup. Wouldn't leave your side at all for that first day."
Stanley smiled and hugged Caffeine tighter as he blinked away something in his eye. "Yes," he managed. "He is the best... Wait, first day?"
Daryl cleared his throat. "You've been here for about a week."
A week... Stanley stared blankly and refused to let his attention wander near the memory of...
"We finally convinced him you were okay. Between the food and Princess here, he eventually calmed down," Daryl said while petting the fox fondly. "She can communicate with him much better than any of us."
"You can talk to Caff?" Stanley asked, excited. "Is he okay? Is he... happy?"
Daryl frowned slightly. "You can't communicate?" He waved his hands at something he saw on Stanley’s face. "Sorry, I just assumed you were a beast bond... like us..." He glanced at Adrian and back.
Stanley shook his head slowly. "I'm a... psionic." That wasn't privileged information, and these people had helped in the... He flinched away from the memory. "I'm Stanley," he said belatedly, since he'd never introduced himself when they first met. Though, obviously, Edward would have already told them that.
Daryl smiled wider. "Nice to meet you, Stanley. Guess we can stop calling you Dearest Human now."
Stanley froze. "Is... is that..."
Daryl nodded gently. "Princess told me that all he would say was 'Help Dearest Human' and 'Save Dearest Human' for the first day."
Stanley lost his composure and curled up around the pug in his lap. Caff! He shook as tears ran freely, and Caffeine whined sadly at him.
"He started saying 'breakfast' and 'dinner' once we got him to eat," Daryl continued after Stanley calmed down again. "He calls Princess 'Fire Dog'. She hates it and tries to bite him every time he calls her that." Daryl laughed while the fox glowered at him. "Caffeine loves that! Starts barking and sprinting around while she chases him."
Stanley laughed through his tears. "That sounds like him." He dried his face with the sheet and looked up. "Thank you," he said. "Thank you for taking care of him."
"You're welcome. It's the least we could do after you... saved us." His soul didn't quite match his words. It was bitter, afraid... and angry. Though not ungrateful.
Stanley had left them in there... and tried to use them as bait... but it hadn't mattered in the end. He flinched at the memory, but it reminded him of something else. Something he'd sensed toward the end there... the almost end... he just wasn't sure if he'd imagined it.
"You said you talked to Edward?"
Daryl opened his mouth, and Edward popped his head through the curtain of fire in the doorway. "Hi, Stanley!"
Stanley frowned at the man, whose soul became abruptly obvious the moment his head appeared in the room. Was the fire hiding souls? It was definitely muting them, at the very least. "You guys came back..."
"Of course! We're a team." Edward beamed as he walked through the ankle deep flames covering the floor. "I'm supposed to signal Nate now that you're awake... but thought I'd ask you first."
"Are the others here?" Wherever here was.
Edward lost some of his cheerfulness. "Just me. Nate didn't like this place and went back. Some people died in the attack... our team was the strongest one left, so he put them on Zeke guard duty... I'm just here to send the signal if anything happens."
Figures, Stanley thought. Protecting his precious healer...
"Sorry we didn't kick more ass, Stanley. That thing was crazy strong... I'm just glad you survived whatever it was doing to you... because that shit hurt. We all felt it... and the bastard wasn't even attacking us!"
Stanley met his eyes for a moment before looking away. He could feel all of them flinching, just slightly, away from him.
"It wasn't the skeleton. Not at... the end," Stanley whispered. "I did that... I had to... it was the... only way..." He curled up around Caffeine as his throat closed off. The pug licked his face gently and softly as his body spasmed from the memory of that literally soul-rending pain.
"I didn't know that..." Daryl spoke into the lingering silence. "I don't know if it helps, but you saved a lot of lives. Not just ours, but everyone that thing would have killed later." He was silent for a moment. "We still don't know how many people are still out there."
"I didn't do it for you," Stanley whispered. "I only wanted to survive... to escape... to protect Caff. I don't need..." He trailed off. Maybe I do need other people. A week... They took care of Caffeine for a week. They deserve whatever they want.
"There's..." Stanley cleared his throat and swallowed before continuing. "There are thousands. Survivors, I mean. I... I saw them all over the... city? Countryside? Dungeon?" He waved a hand vaguely around.
"That's great!" Edward exclaimed. "Nate will be glad to hear it."
Stanley was paying attention this time and felt someone approaching the room. He looked to the doorway in time to see a man step through. An older man wearing a... tuxedo... and carrying a large ornate silver tray covered by a domed lid.
"I have brought lunch for the lord and lady, sir," he said in a much stronger British accent.
Daryl sighed. "We have a guest, Walter. Is this show really necessary?"
"Astute as ever, sir," 'Walter replied in a dry monotone.
He stepped up to Stanley and set the tray on the floor, removing the lid with a flourish. A massive fish was steaming on the tray, cut in half but otherwise intact—head, eyes, fins, everything.
"Your lunch, my lord." Walter bowed low as he looked at the pug, and Caffeine leapt to the tray, tail wagging as he stared at the fish that had to be four times bigger than him.
Caffeine suddenly ballooned in size and swallowed the fish in one bite before shrinking back down.
"Very good, my lord," the man said to the pug, seeming completely unfazed by the display. He scooped up the tray, and it vanished as he turned. Then he strode over to Princess and set another tray before her, complete with a much fancier spread of fileted fish.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
"My lady." He bowed as the fox stepped daintily up and started nibbling on her meal.
Caffeine immediately sprinted towards her, and she growled, fire blooming over her body. The pug slid to a halt and lay flat on the floor while staring at her meal with a terribly sad whine.
Walter walked around the animals to approach Stanley. He reached behind his back and brought out a stack of folded fabric from nowhere. "I'm afraid your previous attire was tragically destroyed, sir," he said in the same monotone. "I have acquired replacements. I sincerely hope you find them to your satisfaction."
Stanley blinked at him. "How did you..."
"He is insufferable; that's how," Daryl said, rolling his eyes. "Don't encourage him."
"Quite right, sir," Walter said, with no change of expression or tone.
"How were my clothes destroyed?" Stanley asked. He couldn’t remember that much damage from the fighting. Not physical damage...
"Terribly sorry, sir," Walter said. "It seems someone mistook them for garbage and threw them into a fire." He bowed deeply, his face the perfect picture of regret.
Stanley looked at him, confused. His soul was telling a different story than his face. There was no regret, only disgust, when he mentioned Stanley’s clothes. They weren't that dirty. On second thought, he had spent hours inside the ventilation ducts and had likely been splattered with little bits of exploded bats more than once.
It's fine. He really didn't care about clothes. There were much worse things to worry about. Though... Stanley held up one of the clothing items. It looked like a formal suit and tie. "Um, what is this?"
"You made him a suit, Walter?" Daryl sounded surprised.
"Of course, sir," Walter replied, his soul resounding with certainty.
Stanley watched and felt the emotions playing across Daryl's face as he stared at the older man. Surprise, confusion, curiosity, and finally happiness. There was also affection running deep that spoke to a history between them.
"Aren't we past the suit and tie era here?" Stanley asked as he pulled the various pieces from the stack.
"The end of the world is no excuse for improper attire," Walter said stiffly.
"Don't knock it yet," Daryl said with a chuckle. "Walter creates some special stuff. Try it first."
Stanley was doubtful, but he noticed that both Daryl and Adrian were wearing their own suits, minus the jackets and ties. So he played along.
Caffeine was sliding on his belly, inch by inch, towards the fish as Stanley floated up to his feet, and he finally noticed something. "Am I wearing a diaper?"
Edward laughed. "Hey, it was necessary after the first mess... the only mess. Luckily."
Stanley felt his face heating, and Daryl rushed to explain. "You were dangerous to approach for a while there." He gestured around the room with a nervous chuckle.
Stanley didn’t understand at first, but on closer examination, he realized that what he had thought was abstract art was actually random holes and damage to the walls, and here and there some pieces of furniture were still embedded...
"Oh..." Stanley grimaced. "Sorry about..."
"We all have nightmares." Daryl cut him off. "Don't worry about it." He grinned at Stanley, but it was a forced expression. "New problems for a new age. Instead of tossing and turning 'in' your bed, now people can toss the whole bed." His smile faded, and Stanley felt his soul bouncing around a multitude of different emotions, most of them unpleasant.
"If you would like to change, sir," Walter spoke up into the silence as he reached through the flames on the wall. "The facilities are just here." He opened a door that Stanley hadn't noticed under the flickering fire. "I took the liberty of drawing up a bath for you."
Princess was growling softly as she ate, while Caffeine, stretched out on his belly, tail wagging, inched his way closer and closer.
Before Stanley could go through the doorway, Daryl suddenly leapt to his feet. "Hold up," he called. "Gotta put the fire in there."
"If it's to block the miasma, don't bother," Stanley said. "It doesn't affect me."
Daryl stuck a hand into the flames and pulled it back out. The fire seemed to flow into his hand until a swirling ball surrounded his fist, and he stepped up to the door. "Actually," he said hesitantly. "It's to block your... um..." He gestured vaguely at Stanley. "...aura?"
Stanley blinked, suddenly seeing the pained looks and grimacing in a new light. "My soul..." he murmured.
"That's what we assumed." Daryl nodded apologetically. "Everyone in the fight down there unlocked the soul attribute when you... killed that thing."
Stanley shuddered, his fists clenched tight. "I... I did. I killed it. I fucking killed it!"
"Damn right, you did!" Edward cheered, both hands up in a victory pose.
"We didn't know monsters like that were out there," Daryl said quietly while glancing back and forth between them.
"That was a new one," Edward said as his posture and mood deflated. "But Stanley still fucked it up! I never doubted him for a second."
"You should have," Stanley murmured. "I thought... no, I was dying."
"But you didn't die!" Edward cheered again, bouncing right back into cheerfulness. He really was straightforward, and his soul didn't conflict with what his face showed. Not even a little.
"Plus, everyone made it back," Daryl said, smiling briefly before glancing at Adrian, who was still sitting and concentrating intently on the fire between his hands. "Almost everyone." Daryl's soul was tinged with worry and sorrow as he looked at the other man, but the strongest underlying feeling was a steady, loving affection.
Stanley redirected his focus to the fire in Adrian's hands. "It's there," he said quietly to both men. "I can feel the soul inside the egg." He clarified when Daryl looked confused. "It's aware of us and... eager."
Daryl smiled wider and stood a little straighter. "That is good news." He looked fondly, yet sadly, at the other man. "We never had to test the phoenix rebirth before," he said. Then he whispered, "We don't know if it will be the same... Cheesesteak."
Stanley listened closer to his Soul Awareness, tuning out the fear and worry spilling from Adrian to focus on the egg. "I didn't get a good look... the other day. But it is feeling... affection? Love?" He shook his head. "Still learning this skill."
"We'll know soon. It's almost finished," Daryl said, pushing the fire in his hands through the doorway. The curtain of flames rolled back and expanded until it outlined a rather fancy looking bathroom. "Go ahead."
Princess burst into raging flames and charged Caffeine. The pug bounced away and started sprinting excitedly around the room while the fox spun in place, trying to protect her meal.
"Caff!" Stanley said loudly.
Caffeine slid to a halt, his tail slowly drooping.
"Get the fish!" Stanley said with a grin and went into the bathroom as the sprinting resumed.
He heard Walter clear his throat. "If the Lord would like another snack..." There was a whoosh and a boom. "Ahem. I see the Lord is still feeling peckish."
"He is never not hungry!" Stanley called, then looked into the mirror and froze. Oh, no... "What did you bastards do to my beard!?" he yelled. My glorious beard...
"You're welcome!" Daryl shouted through the doorway. "You looked like a hobo! A rabid hobo that just stabbed someone and took a few bites!"
Stanley sighed. It wasn't that bad. His carefully and meticulously cultivated, wild man living in the woods beard... was now mutilated and ruined. All short and squared off. It looked disgustingly professional. All that time... wasted.
His body was old and wrinkled. Not death's door old like it had been... but not the improvement he'd been hoping for after reaching E-grade. Maybe it was that little burst of source...
Otherwise, his body wasn’t bad. He had muscles—small ones, but still clearly defined. He was ripped. It must be the attributes or the fighting for survival—maybe both. Especially considering how much I eat...
He removed his thankfully clean diaper and floated himself into the steaming bath. How did Walter get... nope, not going to even worry about it. He was stalling. He really didn’t want to think about what had happened earlier... well, a week ago. But he wasn't likely to get a more comfortable and luxurious opportunity than this. So he took a deep breath of the steamy air, sank low into the wonderfully hot water, and looked at his notifications. Here we go.
He glossed over the messages until he got to the one he was most curious about.
Source is burning your body and mind: -800 All Base Attributes per second.(+700 from Source Nexus)
-80% Health per second from Source
+80% Health per second from Source Regeneration.
Soul-Bonded Beast(Caff Caffeine) has sacrificed -100 All Base Attributes
You gain +50 All Base Attributes
Caffeine had stepped off the crack to attack the skeleton in their soul... That one second cost them almost everything. Is that why the skeleton thought he wouldn't use the source? Did it know how much it would hurt them? How did it know?
Why did it hurt them so much more?
The cost hadn't been that high the first time... Had the crack gotten bigger?
It wasn't a wound. They had no debuff from the crack. There was not even a mention of it in the notifications or their status. What did that mean?
There was also the way Caffeine moving had let it out... Was Caffeine the reason they couldn't use the source? Was he preventing them from using it? Or... was he protecting them from it?
He thought of the fox in the next room. Could she ask Caffeine about it?
Maybe later. For now, Stanley continued with his notifications.
Debuff: [Soul Wound] -5 Twin-Soul Attribute per second
He flinched slightly at the memory of that magic cutting his soul open. Keep going.
-5 Twin-Soul Attribute
+1 Willpower
Debuff Upgraded: [Major Soul Wound] -10 Twin-Soul Attribute per second
-10 Twin-Soul Attribute
+1 Willpower
Debuff Upgraded: [Critical Soul Wound] -20 Twin-Soul Attribute per second
Stanley clenched his fists under the water and took slow, deep breaths as he listened to Caffeine in the other room. He was still trying to get Princess's fish by the sounds of it.
It was worth every bloody, screaming second of agony, Stanley thought. I would do it again in a heartbeat! He was almost surprised by how easily that realization settled on him. Hearing Caffeine play and feeling the happiness through the bond, plus Lee in the distance, made the memories easier to bear. Those feelings reminded him why he'd done it. Of why it was worth it.
He continued through the notifications.
-20 Twin-Soul Attribute
+1 Willpower
Debuff Upgraded. [Deadly Soul Wound] -100 Twin-Soul Attribute per second
Invader Defeated. Contributions earned. Defeat the remaining invaders to claim your rewards.
Class Evolution forcibly enacted. Psionic (Rare) = Soul Psionic (Epic)
-100 Twin-Soul Attribute
-100 Twin-Soul Attribute
Soul Collapse Imminent.
Soul Collapsing...
Buff: [Soul Link]
Debuff Downgraded: [Deadly Soul Wound(Rune Seal)] -1 Twin-Soul Attribute per 48 hours
-1 Twin-Soul
-1 Twin-Soul
-1 Twin-Soul
I'm leaking, Stanley thought with a grimace. Actually, we're leaking. He really hoped Lee had someone helping him this past week. Fuck.
Though that soul link... plus, he'd felt the souls around his brother before it was over. They must have taken care of him.
[Soul Link]
A single helping soul can make a difference. A hundred can turn the tide.
Effects:
All soul damage is shared equally between linked souls.
Thank you. Whoever you are, he thought. I owe you.
There was another message repeating over and over.
Buff: [Cleansing Phoenix Fire]
One message stood out among those.
Buff: [Purifying Light]
Nate had brought his precious healer all the way out here... Too little. Too late!
But he had come. It was... something?
Then, amidst all that shit, was a message he hadn't expected to see.
Analysis Completed. Values Assigned to Unique Attribute: Twin-Soul
I guess that's good?
He looked at his status.
Status
Name: Stanley Cascade
Race: [Wrathstorm](E-grade Human)
Titles: [Titan Slayer] [F-grade Source]
Traits: [Adaptable](58%) [Source Nexus] [Wrath] [Eye of the Storm] [Source Burned] [Ruthless Soul]
Class: Soul Psionic (Epic) - Level 85 (Advanced)
Class Skills: Mind Over Matter (Legendary) - Level 62 (Advanced) | Premonition (Epic) - Level 42 (Intermediate) | Accelerated Thought (Rare) - Level 42 (Intermediate) | Harmonic Meditation (Rare) - Level 45 (Intermediate)
Attributes:
Strength: 51(+80%)91
Vitality: 53(+172%)144
Dexterity 52(+80%)93
Wisdom 144(+1032%)1876
Intelligence 145(+1032%)1887
Willpower 153(+1882%)3278
Twin-Soul 93(+430%)492
Non-Class Skills 2/6: Soul Awareness (Epic) - Level 30 (Intermediate) | Psionic Barrier (Rare) - Level 15 (Basic)
Buff: [Soul Link]
Debuff: [Deadly Soul Wound(Rune Seal)]
His attributes were... wrong. In a good way? Stanley didn’t know if that mattered or how much. First, he focused on his new class. One forced on him... by his actions.
Soul Psionic (Epic)
I am; therefore, it is.
An epic class that focuses on the power of the mind and soul.
Practitioners eschew the use of mana, instead converting all external and internal energy directly into their mental energy.
Strong minds can use this energy to force the world around them to bend to their will. Masters of this class can alter reality on a whim and a thought.
Psionic Variant (Soul) users infuse their soul energy into their will. Increases the strength of all abilities at the cost of increased risk of damaging the user's soul.
Class Level Effects (Advanced)
+8% Effective Mind Attributes
+8%(-4%) Effective Soul Attribute(Halved due to Twin-Soul)
+100%(-50%) Effective Soul Added to Effective Mind(Halved due to Twin-Soul)
Okay. Stanley didn't mind the change. Not after fighting that thing. Using their soul was the only reason they'd won. Soul magic was literally the most dangerous magic he'd seen yet.
The only thing that worried him now was the risk of damaging his soul. Well, damaging it more... He had gained no new knowledge from the evolution about how to 'infuse' soul energy. Or was he already doing it? Was it passive?
What if getting the cerebral fatigue debuff now would hurt his soul? Hopefully, it wasn't anything like his last time... with the ripping and tearing...
He shuddered at the memory of his soul doing exactly that... then settled back down. He'd attacked the bed a few minutes ago and had felt nothing from his soul. Nothing more than that constant dull ache... Though maybe he hadn't infused his soul to do it?
I'll need to test it. He decided. Test it carefully.