***
It was gone midnight when Sophia finally fell asleep, and the first spirit rose from her chest. I try to grab it by its head, but without me cycling mana, I get no interaction at all.
Using all the mana control practice I had been doing for the past few weeks, I channel as little mana through my hands as possible. Closing my fingers around the head of the spirit and yanking.
I manage to drag it almost a foot before my core spins out of control, and the spirit explodes.
Fuck.
Why are ghosts always so annoying?
I didn't fuck up the ghost enough that it pisses off. So I quickly grab my bracers off my desk and slip them on my arms.
Once the spirit is mostly back into one piece, I grab it again. This time threading my mana through the bracers, outputting the perfect amount that I need to get a firm grip.
It thrashes in my arms as I pull it away from Sophia; there's a ghostly thread connecting it to Sophia's chest. It extends as I pull, going taut.
Huh.
The ghost is panicking now, its four arms flailing.
Interesting.
Sophia is wide-eyed and paralyzed on the bed. She could be in pain right now; I should hurry this up.
Then I come to the first flaw in this plan. The ghosts are silent. The spirit snaps its face maw at me, trying to get a bite. It has no success. I have it firmly held in place. It's actually pretty weak.
"Hey fucker?" I try, "Any chance I can get you to leave Sophia alone?"
It just continues to try and take a bite out of me.
'Any ideas?'
[...]
Oh yeah, I forgot the spirits send Gestalt's slug to sleep. Ghosts really are so annoying.
I use one hand to grab the fucker's throat and slam it down on the bed, while I use the other to investigate the thread.
There's something there. I can feel it, to the left of my perception. Like a hum that I could reach out and touch.
I pull on the thread and the spirit writhes. The humming is stronger now, it is discordant. Wrong. But also a path?
I can make it right if I just look at it differently, a change of perception. I shift my focus, follow the thread until I can see it from the other side of me.
I reach for the hum, not with my hands, and twist it, making it sound right.
I am somewhere new.
Open skies above me, three moons hanging in the deep blue expanse.
A tower before me, made of flesh and pain. Colossal arms graft around the top, each holding a sphere of swirling mana.
Spirits surround me, those with eyes, look at me hungerily.
Before the tower stands a throne. Upon which sits a woman, bony, long, with a mouth full of sharp teeth. Two twisted horns grow from her head, covering her eyes and ears. Next to her stand two creatures. They look like they have armor grafted to their flesh, wicked-looking swords in their hands.
"You the bitch that's been fucking with my girlfriend?" I ask.
The bitches lips form into a sneer, "Kill her."
The ghosts immediately pounce on my ass, I rev the fuck out of my core and shred any fucker that touches me. A blood bath of ectoplasm.
I dust off my shoulder for effect. "Alright, cunt." I give her my best winning smile, "You're trying to take what's MINE, and that just won't do. So you are going to fuck off and leave my girlfriend alone. Okay?"
"I laid claim first."
"Don't give a fuck. MINE."
"Big words for a mortal child."
"Big horns for an ugly bitch." Not my finest work, but in my defense, I'm extremely angry.
I pull Chekhov from my domain, I'm going to absolutely ruin this cunts day, I am going to make her suffer the way she made Sophia suffer.
Plus extra.
One of the guard creatures explodes forward, two wicked blades gunning for my head.
I dance back, a one-two quickstep. Pulling mana and shoving it into the barrier enchantment. Chekhov barks in my hand, the bullets bouncing off the creature uselessly.
You know.
I might be out classed here.
I drop Chekhov and pull out the Arc spitter, dumping mana to create tendrils of static pain.
The creature arches between the lightning, a flick of its wrist and a wall of dirt and stone stabs up between us.
Great, it can do magic as well.
It might be slightly possible that trying to fight a god and her cronies may not have been my smartest decision ever.
But what you gonna do? Just let a bitch claim what's mine?
In the brief moment of reprieve I pick up Chekhov and shove it in my belt. I need to get me one of those holsters like Sophia has. I also probably need to stop wearing skirts, if I'm going to keep getting into random fights like this.
But they look so good.
Focus.
I really need more options than I currently have.
I feel the mana shift, being drawn in near the throne. I pull the disruption scepter to my hand, mana flares, and the bitch screams. Whatever spell she was about to cast backfiring on her.
The guard creature comes over the top of the wall. Diving onto me with a force that leaves me sprawling in the dirt. One blade shatters my barrier, the other goes through my chest.
Huh.
Well then, I think I might be fucked.
The guard's other sword comes down, ready to sever my head from my body.
"Stop," says the bitch Queen. The guard's blade freezes, inches from my neck.
She slowly stands up from her throne, her limbs unfolding in unnatural ways. She must be at least fifteen feet tall.
She walks towards the guard and me, I wish she would hurry up. Being impaled on a sword really fucking hurts, you know.
She towers over the guard and myself. Reaches down and scoops up my disruption scepter. "This thing was a rather unpleasant experience." She grabs the head of her guard and snaps its neck.
I can feel her use the power of their death to feed into a spell that turns my scepter into ash.
Hey! That shit was expensive lady!
She upturns her hands, distastefully sprinkling the ash on the ground.
"I am going to kill you, but before I do, I am going to take my little plaything that you find so precious, and torture her in front of you. Turn her inside-out and fashion her into a beautiful instrument while she remains alive. I will play her as you die."
Rage consumes me, she's going to torture MY Sophia? Lay her dirty fingers on what's MINE.
I.
Think.
Not.
There is a whisper, much like the hum from before. But this whisper promises knowledge, I change my perception, and it sings to me.
A world overlays this one, one that only I can see. An arm stretches forward, bigger than a mountain, at its elbow, two forearms emerge, from both wrists, two hands.
One of the city sized hands extends a finger, and touches me ever so gently on the forehead. Then I know a spell. A sorcery designed for me, one that works at the scale I need. A spell that will allow me to scour anything from existence. It is given, primed, and ready; mana flows from the finger into my core, more than I have ever handled before.
My perception collapses back into my human limitations.
I eye the horned bitch.
She pauses her gloating. The vibe has shifted. The spell swirls inside of my core, primed and ready.
I let rip and a god ceases to exist.
There is a quiet calm, a brief moment of silence, while I slowly die due to a sword through my gut.
It's been a wild ride. I think of my time, Sophia's smile, Maria's hugs, Lillian's smirk, Shiv's teats.
Urgh.
For the first time in a while, I'm thinking about my mum. I've been suppressing that particular thought train. It's been nearly two months, I think. I imagine she's had my funeral by now. I guess she won't be wrong anymore.
I hope she's doing okay. As much as we failed to communicate – something I'm realizing might be a me problem – it was just the two of us. My mum was never close to her family, I barely ever saw my grandparents.
Now she's all alone.
The tranquility is ruined by the shocked scream of the last remaining guard. It has been joined by more creatures and spirits, all screaming and wallowing the death of their horned bitch god.
They descend upon me.
Well, I guess I'm not getting to die peacefully after all.
At least Sophia is safe.
…Wait! I'm a fucking idiot.
I pull the coin-like artifact to my fingers and dump in what little mana I have left, also draining dry my Sol ring.
Reality cracks around me as the safe room coin tears me away from whatever realm I was trapped in, and delivers me to safety.
I cough up blood, the sword is still in my gut, better than being torn apart by spirits, I guess.
The last thing I see as my vision fades away is Maria and Amber rushing towards my side.
***
I'm laying in a bed in Teacher Amber's recovery room, Sophia sitting next to my bed.
I am lying, this is the worst pain. I feel like my mana core is a rotating ball of razor blades.
Sophia hasn't let go of my hand since Maria brought me back from wherever that safe room is. Luckily, Amber had sealed my wound before Sophia saw me, but me being caked in my own blood really didn't help her mental.
There were many tears, both from her and me. Although I was mostly crying because she was, and possibly a little bit due to the fact I miss my mum.
I'm gonna have to re-bury that whole can of worms.
I gave Maria a whole debrief of everything that happened. I didn't hide any details, told her about following the ghost thread, ending up in some twisted realm. Fighting a god. Getting touched by a mountain-sized hand. The hand giving me a spell and the mana to cast it.
At the next bit, Maria pinched the bridge of her nose, "Only you would kill a god in your second month of the Academy." She gave Sophia a look, like 'do you see what I mean?'
The rest she knew about already. She did commend me for actually using the coin this time, but wished I had used it before I was stabbed.
Which, you know, is fair.
Sophia, for her part, said she felt the curse break when I tore the thread out of her. So that's pretty great.
The downside is that I've pissed off an entire realm by killing one of their gods. But whatever, they can get in line.
Nobody gets to fuck with what's MINE and survive.
***
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