Soleil pressed her head against the orb filled with agitated yellow Rot mana. Something about the orb’s low and dejected hum tugged at her heart.

Everything still hurt. In some ways the pain was less pressing, but lingering wounds were harder to deal with. She needed to resolve this conflict cleanly, here and now. “I’m. We’re… This is not right. What has been done to you. I don’t care how many people you or Calamity have harmed.”

Should it have surprised her that Malady’s hums turned to threatening shrieks? No amount of corrupted mana seemed to want to manifest into a Beam Skill, not without adjustments. Magitech had to be built to support each skill used.

“I… can’t imagine what you’re going through right now. I shoved you into an entirely new body.” Soleil’s own sobs came in fits. Now that it was over, she was left to experience the burning pains and aches of an arm no longer attached at the elbow.

Malady’s shrieks died down into an almost sympathetic whine.

“We can’t keep going on like this. I want this to stop. It hurts, but I can’t let you hurt my friends.”

Who was she speaking to in that moment? She only had to think about a skill related to Calamity and She could be felt as an aware but inactive presence. And then there was Malady, who followed through on an intent to push her into a hopeless situation. This ended with her being imprisoned within the Hope she hollowed out.

The words hurt the most when she aimed them at herself. Soleil in her mind had been a naive girl trying to do too much. She had power now, enough to destroy mana outright if a situation frightened her.

Starting with herself was scary. The memory of looking far too deeply into Maeve’s soul made literally anything else she could be doing to distract herself right now more appealing.

Soleil gave herself time to think while staying busy. Malady had repairs that only Soleil could see to.

She was certain returning Malady to Hope’s full capacity would be a bad idea, but she could rearrange the legs to be hooked up in the four corners, allowing her to move. Sticking Malady’s soul inside the core of the Magitech Armor did not take away her agency, only limited her to the capabilities of Hope. The least Soleil could do would be to restore a bit of what she took away in the fleeting moments of panic and desperation.

Bound to a Magitech body, Malady would not naturally regenerate mana. The amount of harm she could now do had a limit.

She supposed that it would be possible to grow Malady a living container, but there were a lot of murderous and corruptive impulses to sort out before Soleil would even consider crossing that bridge. On that note, Soleil would have to be content to live without the weapon attachments, limiting Malady to the manipulator arms.

After attaching the fourth armored plate, Soleil returned to the front of the Magitech Engine to find Malady using her manipulators to scrawl a message into the dirt.

You need not fear me any longer. You belong to Calamity now.

“I… don’t like that framing.”

Malady took a few moments to practice. Once satisfied, the next line came out quicker and in higher quality.

I could belong to you. It would be interesting to see what purpose you find for me.

“No.” Soleil shook her head and stopped short of kicking away the dirt of the last message. “I’m not comfortable with this.”

You would let someone else come wield me in your stead?

Soleil was even less comfortable than that. “Fine. I wasn’t planning on leaving you behind. I just had not decided what to do with you.”

Your concern for me is touching. This is not the first time I have been ripped out of my body.

Soleil nodded. She understood that. She wished she didn’t. But her body didn’t feel like her own anymore. Not entirely.

She had been desperate. But having her own control ripped away from her made this body feel like an uncomfortable space to exist in.

“You might as well make the most of her.” A mana infused voice cut through the sound of flapping wings.

Calamity.

Soleil whirled around to find her godmother descending upon them.

"You are lucky to be alive, Little Sun."

That name again. The one her mothers coined. Why did mana use it? Was it written upon her soul the way Soleil was?

She was afraid to [Analyze] herself. What more would Rank 3 show her in casual usage?

And what of Malady calling her Little She in her [Awakened] form?

“Hello Godmother. Sorry if I’m… not feeling quite myself right now.”

Calamity indulged in a cackle that caused the air around her to burn. “In that case, we can keep this simple. Give me Malady.”

“No.” She stepped in front of the Magitech Armor, as if she could do anything to stop to really stop someone like Calamity.

In response, Calamity did nothing.

No attack.

No escalation.

Only a small smile. “You remain Soleil enough for my purposes.”

Instead Soleil was confronted with something approximating kindness. How did something so blunt cut right through her anxieties and manage to feel validating?

“I.” Soleil hesitated. “Don’t understand.”

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“If my shard had replaced you, there would have been no hesitation in obeying my orders.”

“So. What [Awakening of Fire] told me was true? You really granted me power before I was ready for it?”

“Accepting my power will ruin you and everyone around you." Calamity's grin was one filled with self satisfaction. "What part of that struck you as out of character for me?”

Soleil… didn’t have a response to that. She was fine. She’d deal.

But she’d asked Maeve to do something horrible. Maeve who had wanted nothing but help her take things at her own pace.

Soleil had to be fine. She needed to make everything that had happened worth it somehow.

“Just to be clear. I am allowed to keep this [Awakening of Fire] skill so long as I fulfill my promises to you?”

“Yes. But all [Awakenings] have a once a day limit. For you, I would advise not exceeding your Soul Level in seconds.”

Otherwise she might break her soul again. That much she really needed no reassurances about. “What’s with the two minute timer?”

Calamity pressed a super-heated claw to Soleil’s cheek. [Fire Affinity] prevented it from hurting, but Soleil could hear the sizzle that Malady’s claw left in its wake. “Encouragement, my dear. The duration will increase with repeated uses. It will also decrease with the passing of days without use.”

There were strings attached to this power. “You really do want us to keep fighting. Don’t you?”

“On that. My sister and I agree.”

“Why? I really need the big picture. I can't keep stumbling around with my eyes closed.”

“In that case, I recommend you find a reason to travel to the edge of your world. See for yourself the need for power to shape the world in your image.” Calamity released Soleil’s cheek and turned to admire Malady in her current form.

This was not a small thing, what Calamity had asked. According to Brigid, the outer borders of each faction’s territory remained hotly contested areas where corrupted monster attacks were common to the point of being daily concerns.

She supposed she could start calling them demons, but if she did so it would be from a place of affection and kinship. Not fear of something different and hostile.

“I’ll do it.” Soleil eventually found herself saying.

A weight pressed against her back, causing her turn to find Malady giving her an encouraging nudge.

Recommendation. Find the Knight Fusiliers.

“The scout quest?”

I imagine it is now a missing persons request.

Soleil narrowed her eyes. Someone else must have taken the request, or Caesar led his knights recklessly without support. “You had a hand in this, didn’t you?”

I can only be held responsible to a point. My plans once set in motion are not easily uprooted.

A question formed in her mind. Soleil almost didn’t want the answer. “What would have happened had we not saved Aliza?”

Malady turned to face Soleil. The yellow rotted mana swirling within the orb suddenly oriented in her direction and made a point to linger as if Malady were staring. Finally, she used her manipulators to draw a pair of words.

An Awakening.

“Oh.” Suddenly, none of this felt like a victory.

This was another game for both of them.

If Calamity wanted, she could probably retrieve Malady and find her a suitable body. Instead, she was letting her spirit Malady’s heart away. Worse still, Malady seemed to delight in the idea of being used by Soleil.

She was starting to feel sick. This was all so much, but the urge to keep going burned at her.

Had she reached her breaking point? Or was this just the beginning?

What more could she get out of humoring the likes of Calamity and Malady?

What sights awaited her at the edge of the stable world? Beyond which corruption ruled and nothing natural escaped its reach.

“You will persist in this?”

Soleil offered Calamity a sweeping one armed gesture in the direction of the many valley villages. “Everyone else is.”

A wicked grin split Calamity’s lips. “That’s not an answer. My concern is not for the others.” Calamity again reached out, this time taking Soleil by the chin and capturing her gaze. “I asked you. Malady has informed me that you expressed a willingness to give up not too long ago. If you are going to wield my power, I need to know you intend to see this through to the end.”

“I’m not afraid.” She found herself saying. “Of you or your corruption. I’ve tasted it, wielded it, even gone so far as to inflict it upon myself.”

Calamity tightened her grip as her eyes narrowed. “Go on.”

“If you want to know what I think.” Soleil met Calamity’s glare with one of her own. “The Calamity you take your name from was not the end of the world at all. I think the corruption was just the beginning.”

“Is that so?” Another clawed caress of the cheek.

Soleil gave a one armed shrug. “Beginning of what, I don’t know. But I’ll be your willing pawn for now. At least until I see whatever it is you want me to see at the world’s edge.”

“Do you intend to use the gifts being offered to you?”

“[Awakening of Fire] is an easy yes. Something tells me I’m only going to feel whole when I’m strong enough for us to share a body and be of one mind.” She stopped to eye Malady's Magitech Armor had retreated to make her own assessments of the broken and discarded pieces damaged by her plant children.

“I think I’ve figured Malady out. If you’re going to give me her on a silver platter, I’ll take whatever it she’s offering. Just leave my friends out of this.”

“Do you think yourself some hero that can bear the weight of this world alone?”

It was Soleil’s turn to laugh. It was a tired and bitter thing. “No. I’m just more willing now to become your monster if it means enforcing my concerns in where and how Malady’s destruction is directed.

“I remain unconvinced that you understand what you've gotten yourself into."

Soleil thumbed in the direction of the hill behind her. “There are literally two thousand of Malady’s seedlings up that hill alone. I have not forgotten my promise to protect this valley’s food supply." There was no way this valley worked out in the long term if those things sprout and the valley’s first harvest is joined by one of Malady’s own. Besides, she really didn't want to see this valley become destabilized enough for Rot to become something that naturally occurred.

“Good. You did not forget my shard’s warning about possibly not surviving the day.”

“I imagined it would involve gaining a few more Soul Levels.” Setting a soul on fire was not exactly an inspired method for healing. That much was evident in shoving Malady’s soul into her Magitech Armor and the skills not working. This was just going to be a process that she had to figure out.

There were things to figure out and insights yet to glean. As insightful as gaining skill ranks from just talking to Malady had been, Soleil was eager to finish her first quest with her friends.

She wondered how much Goodwill walking into town with Malady’s corpse and soul in a glass orb would get her. If they were going to pay her, she was going to milk that village for all it was worth.

Ideally, resolving Malady’s little garden of Rot would just be a footnote on her way back out here to fulfill a number of pressing concerns.

Worst case scenario? She’d come back to this hill with as many Focus restoratives as she could fit into a cart and burn it to the ground.

The thought teased a wicked smile out of her lips.