I lay on an operating table, and my hands and feet were numb from how long it lasted. Avennture, bless his soul, kept on poking in me. First, it was a normal conical animascope, but then he had to pull out seven different technique variations, all the while murmuring things like, “Interesting…” and “Curious…” like a proper mad scientist. Or a biocrafter.

  “Stop twitching, this is the most interesting part.” His eyes no longer looked tired. It was curiosity all the way down; they practically shimmered with light and not only because he used a technique, but also because of how intensely he stared.

  “I can’t feel my feet. That’s not normal.”

  “Not normal~” The melodic voice rang out again.

  “What was that?!” Avennture’s eyes snapped towards my scalp. He immediately poked a spot with a glowing finger.

  A soft giggle resounded through my mind.

  “Magnus, you crazy bastard.” The mad scientist chuckled, too.

  “Explain.”

  He straightened up and dismissed all the starpower constructs. A wide grin stretched on his mug. “Stand up for this.” He rubbed his palms.

  I did as he asked.

  “You, boy, have a second soul in you.”

  “I’m pregnant?!”

  Avennture snorted even louder. “No, nothing like that. Here’s my hypothesis: during the absorption of your prodigious trait, somehow, you have separated a part of your soul and mind towards this unique trait. The exact process dwarves use to create assistant traits.”

  “Erstaunlich?” It even sang in German. My heart sank.

  The dark room flashed before my eyes. I did invert some concepts and put some others there… “But the scouter didn’t say anything like that about the trait.”

  “That’s because you changed it during the absorption. It’s a different thing now. The soul is small, around 7 SE. I poked every which way, and it also has absolutely no bad intentions towards you or your body, in fact, its thought-stream is amazingly aligned with yours. It wants to get you stronger and that’s it.”

  I gulped. The voice had another thing to say, “Yes! Magnus will be Strong~” It got higher-pitched.

  “So it won’t try to take over my body or make me insane or do any sort of thing I don’t want?”

  Avennture snorted again. “If you don’t diverge too much. Things happened to dwarves who didn’t like their assistant traits. Mostly, they just extracted the trait.”

  A silent gasp resounded through my mind. Why was it afraid?

  “Can that be done with my trait?”

  The voice cried out, “Please, no. I like you! I need you~” It sounded almost like a human.

  “With yours? Absolutely not.” The silent crying stopped. “The trait already merged with your biology, partially with your mind, and it has a pretty strong connection to your soul. Separating you will require more funds than a genome restoration ritual.” He glanced at the pod.

  “I’m stuck then.”

  It chuckled. “Stuck with me~” It was happy.

  “Don’t think of it like that. I’ve wanted to get an assistant trait back in my youth, when I had dreams of getting stronger. They offer a lot of utility; two minds are better than one. You just have to work on taming it.” He grinned. “I have some books to recommend to you. Dwarves are magnificent people, nearly as magnificent as dragons.”

  “Get on with it.”

  The biocrafter cleared his throat and spat out a long lecture about four books. He covered points from how to get an assistant trait, how to tame one, how to work with one, and how much companionship it provided to dwarves. The man even went on a tirade about how amazing the dwarven society was for making 70% of the technology.

  I would’ve liked to tune it out, but the information was interesting enough. The dwarf systems sounded like a place I would have liked.

  “Enough, enough. I get it.” I sighed. “Aside from books, what should I look out for?”

  “Keep the assistant happy. That’s pretty much it.”

  “Keep me happy. Feed us traits.” It sounded too pleasant to my mind’s ear, sending shivers down my spine. I didn’t like it.

  “What a bunch of bullshit.” I stood up. “Thank you for the help, Avennture, really.”

  With slow steps, I approached the pod and put my hand on the glass.

  “I’m sorry, Kory. I will fix this. Hold on for Steel.” My eyes muddied. Tears fell from them. My failures won’t hold me back, but at this moment, I let their weight crush me. “I’m sorry.”

  The door slammed open. Steel with wide eyes stared at me. “How can you say that after what you did!” She closed in on me, her fangs glinting under the dry light.

  I didn’t move. Words refused to come out of my mouth.

  “Get your hands off of her.” She clenched her fists, aura barreled out. Steel grew.

  “I-” The lump in my throat screeched in pain.

  And the voice sang too, sang of violence, “She won’t stop us! Get rid of Steel!”

  Avennture suddenly coughed. “Don’t fight here or you might hurt Kory.” The intensity of his gaze was only matched by Steel.

  “Avennture. You planned this.” The statement hid a lot of anger behind this.

  “It was an eventuality, Kory helped too. Don’t place the blame on the unlucky idiot. He has enough to chew on already.”

  The simmering beneath the surface stopped. I took a deep breath and coughed out the damn lump. “Steel. I was not in control of my body. Do you think I’d hurt Kory? I don’t want to hurt anyone.”

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “Lies.” She growled. “I know the way you smile when you spar with me, it was the same one you had when you crippled her.”

  “But I didn’t want to hurt her! It’s the trait; it took control of me.”

  A muffled sorry resounded through my mind. “I didn’t know better.” That amount of shame could never be replicated in my voice.

  Steel raised her fist. I didn’t resist. I deserved it. But the punch stopped right before my face. “Fight me. Fight me properly.” I didn’t know what she felt. Steel turned around. “You know where I’ll be.” She spat on the ground, and the spit burned through the floor.

  “This is far too much drama. That’s why I never liked the Pentad academy or any academy for that matter.” Avennture shook his head.

  My shoulders were heavy, despite that, I lifted my head. “How can I make this right?”

  “You can’t.” Avennture shook his head and sipped from a newly filled cup. “Use your actions instead. There is still hope.”

  “I suppose so.” I flipped my cape. “Wish me luck.”

  My feet carried me to the training room. Why did everything have to be solved by combat?

  The room was spotless. Steel sat in the middle, her eyes closed. She meditated.

  “Magnus.” There was a frightening amount of calmness. Steel stood up; she towered above me. “I forgive you.”

  I opened my mouth to say something, but she interjected.

  “But I need to beat you up.” She sighed. “That’s not what Kory would’ve wanted, but that’s what I need.” Starpower flared, invisible roots of energy sprang into the air. Steel’s pupils narrowed into serpentine shapes, and she grew fast.

  Just like every spar before. But today I was slower, my body felt awkward. It took me 1.8 seconds to finish creating a parasitic poison construct. Slightly less to make the bullet launcher. By that time, Steel grew to over two meters.

  Tough green scales covered her skin; she had a natural armor tougher than most metals. Her muscles grew, too. A tail sprang from her back, and her wings spread open. It was hard to believe that she was only 8.

  I created a barrier over my skin, but I doubted it would save me from a full-power punch. Mind acceleration ran at full power. There was a gentle whisper in my ear, a calm encouragement, “Become stronger.”

  “Steel.” Our eyes met. Both of our preparations were complete, but we knew that rushing ahead was suicide. “I will save Kory.” It was a promise to myself. At least one chance to do something good in the world.

  Her calm voice resounded through the room like a whistle of a bullet. “I will save her.” She spread her claws, moving them sharply.

  More starpower rushed into my hands. I solidified a knife, infusing it with poison, and launched it at her throat.

  Without stopping the technique, she slapped away the knife. Already, I dashed away. The starpower didn’t move as precisely as before. Soul resonance stat dropped. My thoughts were faster, but the energy just refused to obey me. “Obey us~” My skin crawled.

  The starpower moved faster. I condensed a poisoned ice bomb.

  Steel’s eyes shone with red. She opened her mouth and charged at me. With a gurgling roar, she exhaled a stream of magma. I knew this trick, and she knew I knew this trick.

  Force dash wasn’t just used for movement. I twisted the starpower in my feet, gripping the magma with the condensed force. My heart skipped a beat. It didn’t work. The heat burned my skin just from the proximity. I scouted the magma.

  Natural Nothingness Form

  Type: Reflectics

  SE used: 44

  Affinity: Emerald.

  Description: Makes the target indistinguishable from nothing in the eyes of starpower. Only works on spiritual objects.

  She made it so I couldn’t shove the stream away. My only way out would be to retreat with a dash, but she would expect that and probably crush my spine. Instead, I threw the ice bomb into the magma.

  With a wave of cold, rotten air and an explosive boom, the magma froze into rock. Before I could dash away, Steel slammed straight through the wall of rock, her hand raised for a slash.

  Strengthening covered my hands and the barrier around them. Her claws broke the barrier and made pain surge through my hands. She struck with another hand, aiming for the head.

  I pushed against the ground and slipped closer to her. Plasmafication – I conjured a burst of poisoned flames. Her strike grazed my shoulder, cracking the barrier there and ripping VITA.

  “Not today.”

  I jumped. Steel roared in pain as the tiny purple fire rotted her scales and starpower. I measured the direction precisely and landed on her shoulder. Tensing my hand, I pushed off, jumping behind her. She struggled to catch me with her wide swings. I left another flame in my wake

  “Too slow.” I landed on my feet and stared at the slowly rotting scales. Her Dragon’s Might was improved to the point where if she focused, she could regenerate faster than the poison acted. “You made a clever diversion, but that was not enough-”

  She roared. The soundwave passed through my body, and my muscles stopped. Paralyzed for a moment, one moment where I felt terrible fear, as if I was standing in front of a giant predator.

  Steel spewed more magma at me, and this time, there was no time to dodge.

  “We must win~” The voice spoke. My VITA shone, and from my shoulders two leathery tendrils extended. There was a small solidification form in them. The voice conjured tiny barriers.

  They cracked and burned, and so did the tendrils.

  Freezing and plasmafication – I practiced these forms so much that they became ingrained in my mind. A torrent of icy plasma burst out from my hands and froze the magma into rock.

  Not all of it, some drops landed on me, burning through my barrier and into my skin.

  Steel didn’t change her tactic. She rammed through the rock, indifferent to the poison fire burning her. Her tactic was to crush me alive.

  I twitched my eyes in patterns. My mind worked faster, and the technique was easier to perform. Physical cold combined with mental cold merged with the soul freezing – all compressed into a simple Gaze.

  Steel was halfway to closing her eyes, but she met my gaze. The freezing gaze technique, powered by an absurd amount of SE.

  The scales on her head got covered with condensation. Her eyes opened wide as she gasped. The rotting flames accelerated their march of death.

  I joined my hands, the bullet launcher, and the parasitic poison amalgamated. A gunshot rang out, and the bullet flew right at her shoulder, the same place where the flames raged. The only place that the bullet could pierce.

  “You need more tricks, Steel.”

  Steel opened her mouth, yet instead of words, more magma spewed at me. She suppressed the effects of the freezing gaze, just pushed through. There was no more time to block the magma.

  It burned my skin, burned my VITA. Made me scream, made the voice scream. My mind went to one form – freezing. My hands moved through the thick sludge to make the saving gesture.

  The cold wave passed through my body and towards the burning magma. Steaming rock solidified over my skin. More coldness made it less scorching, until it became frail.

  Tensing my muscles, I broke the rock into pieces and gazed outward with muddy eyes. Steel lay on the ground.

  Her hand and shoulder rotted off, and the flames kept going. A poisoning crystal grew in the wound. Her stomach was rotting too – the fire was far too strong. Steel remained steadfast. No screaming; she only stared at me. “Y-you win…” Her voice was weak. “Let me go… I don’t want to be in a world without Kory.”

  Rage boiled through me. “Fuck you, bitch!” I stretched my hand outwards. Detection form spread awareness through her decaying body. I curled my finger outwards and twisted my wrists. My voice rang out in a way that made my throat hurt. Starpower order form. “Cease!” I commanded my starpower.

  And it listened. The absorption constructs unwound themselves, the flames dissipated, and the crystals disappeared. Before me lay only a beaten-up mess.

  “Regenerate right now, you fucking idiot.” Through the pain, I shouted, my eyes burned from the heat, and it was hard to distinguish things.

  “Just leave me some honor… Stop this, Magnus.” She coughed up blood.

  “I am not giving you a choice.” My eyes darted from side to side. Starpower gathered in them. I made a figure with my hands, and through them I stared at her. Dominate form.

  “Regenerate!” My starpower flooded her body. As our energies mingled, I could feel her desperation, her hopelessness, her loneliness, her fears.

  Those emotions fought me. She scowled harder than when the fire burned her.

  “Fucking useless trash, REGENERATE!” My willpower shot higher. A tiny voice whispered, too, “Heal.”

  “We will save Kory, we will graduate, we will kill the Betrayer, and we will save the Galaxy!” I pushed everything I had into the starpower. “Regenerate.”

  The last straw broke the camel’s back. Her desperation was not strong enough. Dragon’s Might activated – with speed visible to the naked eye, her wounds started growing back.

  I kept channeling my emotions, breaking through all the barriers. Ivaldie knew I could do it, Siege knew I could do it, Vogelgesang knew I could do it. Or else I could never become a supreme wizard.

  My head pulsed in an agonizing rhythm, but Steel was alive. Breathing. Her eyes were closed.

  “That’s what you get for messing with the supreme wizard.” I coughed, my hands shook. I swallowed a panacea.

  All the strength was gone. I dropped to my knees and stared at the ceiling.

  “Tomorrow will be a good day… because I will force it.”

  I waited like that until my spirit recovered. Steel snoozed peacefully.