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Kline wasn’t doing so well. His body was trembling, and he gnashed his teeth in pain.

"No… no-no-no-no-no!" I put my hands on Kline, and the souls tried to transfer to me. "You’ll be okay, Kline. Just hold in there. I’m gonna… forgive me."

I didn’t know what to do, so I activated the cleansing technique I used on soul meat on his outer fur. Kline howled in pain—but it worked. The purple wisps eating at his core exploded in all directions, leaving him panting on the ground. He meowed at me softly to tell me he was okay, but he didn’t have the strength to move. I noted the power of soul attacks for later.

"You’ll be okay… Okay?"

Kline meowed.

"Okay… um… I need to get Kyro. This enchantment will protect you."

Kline whined and tried to get up, but I pressed him down.

"Just wait here. I’m not abandoning him. But I’m not letting you die, either. We’re gonna—"

A corrupted roar cut through the soundscape, and when I turned, I saw a hazy silhouette dancing in the mist.

Kline cried again and tried to stand, but I pushed him down.

"You don’t got the energy," I said. "I do. And besides, I’m not even fighting. I just gotta swim to ’em. So… just… trust me."

I felt lighter and stronger than I ever had, and my cores felt like table saws that could cut through steel. I could do this.

Kline whined but looked down at the rocks as I took off my jacket, peering into the fog—trying to discern where Kyro was. Unfortunately, the area was as white and clouded as quartz, and it all lit up with soul force. I just had to go for it.

I closed my eyes and activated the spell for repelling soul force and walked into the water, making sure that the fog repelled from my body before I dove into the water and melded through the barrier, moving deep into the fog.

It was a nerve-wracking experience. My heart struck violently against my ribs, and my blood pulsed with magma, but the cooling effects of the Diktyo River healed my muscles and mind. The mana underneath was also like a blanket. It sucked into my core as if I had a new pair of lungs, and my movements felt magnetic.

It was a surreal feeling—almost contradictory—but it gave me strength. Pleasure and pain, horror and healing—I used it all as fuel as I plunged deeper into the pond, trying to find Kyro.

It was going to be like searching for a needle in a haystack, but I would figure out how to do it somehow.

2.

Elana lifted her bottle to her lips shakily. It was disgraceful, but Kori didn’t judge her. His eyes just followed Mira as she swam in the wrong direction. It wouldn’t be long before Mira hit the shore, where a rabid third ev was running loose.

"You gonna call a meeting?" he asked.

Elana could notify a disciple that she wanted a meeting and it would push the notification to the screen. It was something that she could only use once a year without a request. It was an option, but—

"She won’t check the notification," Elana said. "She’s too… savage. If she doesn’t strategize first, she doesn’t do it at all."

Kori tapped his finger on his bottle. "Yeah, I get that, but… how’s she gonna find him?"

Mira was swimming underwater in a massive pond surrounded by soul fog, searching for a tiny Drokai that looked like a doll. If she had time, it would be one thing. But a spined beast was stalking the shore, eating beasts with twitching ears, constantly turning its gaze to the water. It was only a matter of time before it attacked.

"I’m not sure…" Elana whispered. She opened up her Guide and went into her Patron options, and prepared to give it a try, but as she was choosing the option, Kori yelled, "Yes! That’s it!" like an uncivilized barbarian. She looked up and saw Mira swimming directly toward Kyro. "How…? Wait…"

Elana’s eyes filled with panic when Mira surfaced and grabbed Kyro—and cut the soul-repellent spell—flooding her body with souls from the pond. It made Elana’s heart stop. Mira had just evolved her mana core, which expanded her soul core and put her at rapid risk of soul corruption.

Let’s back up. Finding Kyro was like trying to find a floating toy in a large swimming pool covered in shaving cream. It was dark underneath the water, and everything looked the same. I couldn’t hear, and my ability to see souls was useless when the whole pond lit up with a concentrated aura.

Yet, there was a factor that I had forgotten about.

Mira…

Yakana’s voice called out to me under the water—just as it always had.

Yakana… where’s Kyro?

This way…

Yakana’s voice eerily shifted to my left, so I turned to follow him, swimming through the dark pond to the area where Kyro was. I thought we were saved—then heard the bad news.

He’s suffering from corruption, Yakana warned.

I panicked and tried to unclip my backpack and get the soul recovery elixir that I had, but Yakana said, Stop, and I held back.

Why? I asked.

His soul is far too weak. If you give him that elixir, he will die.

Then what do I do?

Allow me to aid you.

Just tell me what to do.

That’s how I ended up grabbing Kyro and then cutting off the repellent spell. And when I did, oh ho ho, let me tell you—it fucking sucked.

Yakana didn’t immediately merge and solve all my problems. It was up to me to control the souls around me and stabilize them before Yakana and I blended, and while I revved my expanded core into overdrive, it didn’t prepare me for what was to come.

Releasing souls into a "hollow" soul core was the sensational equivalent of zombies smashing through your car’s window and screaming at you from all sides. It was terrifying—painful—plunging adrenaline into my brain with the aid of a firehose. Souls got it and fragmented my mind with fractured memories as beasts released blood-curdling screams in my mind. Yet I didn’t give in. I churned my core like a blender, cutting them to bits while activating the cleansing spell I was using when Thorvel arrived.

It wasn’t sustainable and wouldn’t have saved me if I were alone—but I wasn’t. Yakana successfully merged with me, and an unbelievable level of power and soul control welled within me.

What’s going on… I thought. I could now see souls. They were white and transparent and bright, releasing wisps of gold and purple light. I instinctively knew that the gold was aura and the spectrum of purples was neara by the way they moved and interacted with the souls.

Yakana was pulling those whisps toward me in a beautiful pattern, as if I were the center of the Milky Way, sucking in the gold and purple wisps in complex and captivating patterns.

And when I looked at Kyro’s small body in my hands, I grimaced. His hands looked like they had corroded like battery terminals, white and flaky, and his soul was… distorted. Or perhaps compressed like it was vacuum sealed into an even small form. That part was probably the curse, but there were also wisps of purple neara trying to squeeze themselves into a hole in his soul, like piranhas feeding on a dying fish.

Kyro! I screamed.

Calm yourself, child, Yakana said. I may control your cycling, but I do not control your body or mind.

I pushed down the fear and held him. Tell me what to do.

Chant with me.

My chant locked together with Yakana’s, just as it had with the Lumidran Awakening Elixir, and the patterns around me shifted. The purple neara in his body was slowly sucked away. It fought back, trying to cling to Kyro’s soul, but Yakana managed to gently pull it out of his body and suck it right into my core, which obliterated it.

I took a deep breath, feeling exhausted, but I chanted on, changing the cadence with Yakana. Suddenly, neara leaked from my fingers, entering his body. It swirled around his soul, and to my utter astonishment—it started stitching his soul shut.

4.

Elana couldn’t recall the last time she had felt so stressed. Mira was in the pond, cleansing the souls around her in a way that she would expect of gods—yet far more simple and elegant—and she was performing an emergency soul stitching on Kyro. It was brilliant—

—but it captured the attention of the beast.

Its spines were bristled as it walked to the water’s edge, sniffing the air—staring at Mira.

Even for a soul-corrupted beast, it was wary, which was a profound sign. Yet it still took steps into the water. The moment it decided to pounce—it would be over.

"Please…" Elana whispered. Kori grabbed her hand and squeezed.

5.

Prepare yourself, Mira, Yakana said as the growl resounded in my ear. From the corner of my eyes, I could see the hazy outline of an elephant-sized creature with five-foot porcupine spines all over its body. It was stepping into the water, leaving waves that I could feel as I worked on Kyro’s soul.

It was almost done.

Almost…

My heart released double beats. Thu-dump. Thu-dump. Taking my breath. Pumping my mind with fire and water and pain.

It will come…

I released my right hand from Kyro’s body and unsheathed my machete.

Wait for it…

Kyro suddenly wheezed and coughed out water, rolling in my hands. That was the trigger. The beast took a deep breath and roared.

My mind and body moved on their own. Moxle Dilation flooded my brain with a euphoric level of mana that I couldn’t even imagine before, and when I activated mana sharpening, my blade became as long as a sword despite being light as a feather.

I could feel every wave and see every falling droplet of water. And right then, watching the beast charging toward me at a speed I would expect of a second evolution creature, I knew that the backlash from Moxle Dilation would break me.

I wouldn’t make it to the barrier—so I dove into the water and swam toward the beast’s legs. As I moved, Yakana strengthened my Mana Sharpening spell tenfold, churning my core and siphoning mana directly from the mana vein underneath the pond. And by the time I reached the beast’s trunk-like leg, my sword was as large as a great sword, vibrating and turning the water into bubbles.

Fear and thrill and desperation in my heart, I swung the sword as hard as I could at its leg—and to my surprise, it cut right through the beast’s kneecap, sending blood exploding out of the leg in slow motion as its body toppled at an inch a second.

I wasn’t done. Emboldened, I swam forward, cutting through its back leg before turning around, lifting my sword to the creature’s backside, and siphoning the maximum amount of mana I could. Then, I swung with all my power.

6.

Kori laughed in amazement when a thirty-foot arc of mana shot into the sky and then swung down like an executioner’s axe, cutting the beast in half.

To Elana, it happened in excruciating detail, but she could only imagine what a normal person would see. One moment, they would be worrying about Mira’s life because she had no chance of survival. Then they would blink, and the massive creature would fall apart in a gory explosion, hitting the water in two halves—sending the "defenseless" woman they were watching crashing to the shore.

It was unbelievable.

Truly unbelievable.

And it was even more unbelievable when Mira pushed herself up ten minutes later, haggard and primal, and dug the core right out of the beast’s spine as a war trophy before joining Kline at the island and blacking out.

Elana watched it all in a state of wonder. Mira Hill was beautiful—truly beautiful—and Elana decided that she would stop at nothing to help her grow. Just the thought filled her mind with euphoria.