Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Afterlife PDF
Afterlife PDF
Afterlife
Afterlife
Sara Ferrando Estarlich
Editado por:
PUNTO ROJO LIBROS, S.L.
Cabeza del Rey don Pedro, nº9, Bajo
Sevilla 41004
España
902.918.997
info@puntorojolibros.com
www.puntorojolibros.com
Impreso en España
ISBN: 9788418448836
Depósito Legal: SE 1293‐2020
Maquetación, diseño y producción
© 2020 Sara Ferrando Estarlich
© 2020 Punto Rojo Libros, de esta edición
Quedan rigurosamente prohibidas, sin la autorización por escrito de los titulares del
copyright, bajo las sanciones establecidas por las leyes, la reproducción parcial o total de
esta obra por cualquier medio o procedimiento, comprendidos la reprografía y el trata‐
miento informático, y la distribución de ejemplares de esta edición mediante alquiler o
préstamos públicos.
Afterlife
INDEX
Haunted House ................................................................................ 9
Day 1 ............................................................................................ 9
Day 2 .......................................................................................... 12
Day 6 .......................................................................................... 17
Day 7 .......................................................................................... 28
Day 8 .......................................................................................... 41
Interlude 1 ................................................................................. 44
Haunted Warehouse ..................................................................... 47
Day 1 .......................................................................................... 47
Day 2 .......................................................................................... 51
Day 6 .......................................................................................... 61
Day 11......................................................................................... 69
Day 12......................................................................................... 76
Interlude 2 ................................................................................. 81
Haunted Offices ............................................................................. 83
Day 1 .......................................................................................... 83
Day 2 .......................................................................................... 89
Day 3 ........................................................................................ 106
Interlude 3............................................................................... 122
Haunted Cinema ......................................................................... 125
Day 1 ........................................................................................ 125
Day 2 ........................................................................................ 130
Day 3 ........................................................................................ 140
Day 5 ........................................................................................ 146
Interlude 4............................................................................... 157
Haunted Gallery ......................................................................... 159
Day 1 ........................................................................................ 159
Day 2 ........................................................................................ 177
Day 4 ........................................................................................ 188
Interlude 5............................................................................... 196
Hunt for the Guardians ............................................................. 199
Day 1 ........................................................................................ 199
Day 2 ........................................................................................ 218
Interlude 6............................................................................... 233
Cosmic Legal Code ..................................................................... 237
Day 1 ........................................................................................ 237
Day 12 ...................................................................................... 253
Day 34 ...................................................................................... 258
Day 38 ...................................................................................... 268
Epilogue ....................................................................................... 277
Slice of Death .......................................................................... 277
Slice of Life ............................................................................. 291
HAUNTED HOUSE
Day 1
A girl in her late teens, with blue eyes and long brown‐
blonde hair, watched from the attic window of a big house as a
car parked in front of it.
“Hey sis, the new family’s come to move in,” she called.
Another girl, taller but a little younger, with short blonde
hair and purple eyes, walked over to see. She smiled upon
seeing the three children. “Do you think they’ll last until
Christmas?”
“That depends on how mean we are to them. The young‐
est child might be able to see us. The other two are teenagers
already, but who knows. I’ll go check on them,” the older sis‐
ter said.
Meanwhile, the family of four had just finished carrying the
last few boxes into their new home. The mother wiped some
sweat off her forehead. “Phew… This place really is old. I’m
counting on you kids to help me clean all of this, alright?”
9
The middle brother looked at the top of the dark staircase.
“Sure, but mom… This house is extremely creepy. I feel like I’m
being watched…”
“Well, it’s several hundred years old, from what I’ve heard.
But hey, it’s in pretty good condition and the price was more
than fair. The garden is unexpectedly well‐cared for, too, and it’s
close to where your aunt lives,” his mother said.
“Why would anyone sell a house like this? No matter how
you look at it, it’s suspicious… Did someone die here?” the mid‐
dle brother continued to ask. “This is an awful lot like the start
of one of those American horror movies…”
“Oh shush. Fred, you were the one who chose it in the first
place, don’t complain about it now. So, can you help me carry our
winter clothing?” the mother asked, before turning to her tall black‐
haired stepson. “Your brother will watch Ursula, right Brandon?”
“... yeah, sure…”
From the top of the stairs, the spectral older sister giggled
and ran off to the locked master bedroom, phasing through the
door and jumping onto the large bed next to her sister. “He’s
sharp, that’s good! I feel like this time’s going to be different. Did
you find out why the eldest kid’s so depressed, Yasmine?”
“Sticking around him while they unloaded all their things,
it seems like the mother is a widow. The middle child is from a
previous marriage, and her ‘current’ husband died in a car acci‐
dent last week,” the younger sister informed.
“Whoa, that’s an unusual amount of mishaps. That explains
it, though. I kinda wish that would’ve happened to us. If our fa‐
ther had kicked the bucket like that, maybe we wouldn’t have had
10
to jump off the roof. Ah well, you’re in charge of taunting the eld‐
est one and the mother, love. I’ll take the kiddos,” the blue‐eyed
ghost said, being the one that usually made plans for the families
that moved in. “Next, we should find out more stuff about them.”
“But they’ve been really unlucky… Kayla, don’t you feel
like it would be wrong to kick them out like we usually do?”
Kayla stood up. “I get this weird feeling when I look at
them, yes, but it’s not guilt. Either way, this house is ours, and a
spirit must protect their nest. Sorry sis, I don’t make the rules.
Take it up with the queen, I’ll stand by you.”
Yasmine sighed. “The queen is too busy for this. Don’t call
for a summit just because of me. We know what she’ll say any‐
way.”
“Her predecessor defied the death gods and our country is
still divided from the civil war he caused, yes. I think she does
well by enforcing the spirit rules, even if I don’t agree with
them.”
“Just don’t attack their HQ like the previous king did, ok?
Let’s focus on our home for now,” the younger sister said.
“Yeah, you’re right… I feel inclined to clarify again, that
even as a member of his council, I advised against that attack.”
Yasmine stood up from the bed and smoothed her dress out,
offering her partner a small smile. “I know hon, I saw it. Now
clean up the room and make our bed, it’s your turn today.”
“Ah. True. You better get a head start in the investigation!”
the elder sister called.
11
Day 2
The next day, Fred scraped together some breakfast for him‐
self and his mother.
“What will you do today, Freddie?” she asked him.
“Take advantage of the fact that Ursula’s still asleep and ex‐
plore the house. I’ll let Brandon sleep for a bit longer too, I think
he needs time,” the green‐eyed middle child said.
His mother sighed, looking down. “Yes, I’m thinking of
telling the school to excuse him. Losing his father must’ve
taken a toll on him. It’s true that he wasn’t the best person,
but he was still…”
“… Mom… Take it easy, ok? Please.”
“Ah, mom! About the locked room, do you have the key?”
he asked her, curious.
“No… I asked the realtor about it, but he said it’s always
been locked when he’s shown families around. It’s the master
bedroom, so maybe a previous owner took the key with them.”
Fred begrudgingly accepted the explanation, said goodbye
to his mother and started looking around the first floor. Every‐
thing was pretty standard for an old house. What he really
wanted to see was the second floor and the attic. It took him al‐
most the entire day to see every corner of the unusually big
12
house they’d bought, but his older brother opted for staying in
the living room with their little sister after lunch, which made
his exploration slightly easier. So now Fred stood in front of the
mysterious master bedroom with his arms crossed.
“There’s gotta be a way in… I mean, the house is ours, so I
could just break it down, right? Mom will get mad at me if I do
that, but…” Fred mused. “Our insurance might cover the dam‐
ages, right?”
He wasn’t the most corpulent teenage boy, but he was
pretty confident he could tear down a door made of wood that
looked so ancient. He took a few steps back and charged at the
door. It unexpectedly opened just as he touched it, making him
think he’d opened it himself. Fred wanted to catch himself be‐
fore falling face‐first on the floor, but loud, high‐pitched screams
startled him and he fell. He stood up and looked around, rub‐
bing his head.
The ghosts stood to the side, and the older one turned to
look at her sister. “Do you think he heard that?”
“Maybe… He seemed surprised when we opened the door.
Messing with him might be easier than we thought,” she an‐
swered.
“Hey, your job is making the mother and the eldest think
they’re hallucinating. The younger two are mine,” Kayla said.
13
That night, Fred told his family about what he’d seen in the
locked room, but when they went to check it out for themselves,
the door was locked again, and nothing would get it to open.
Even charging at it was useless.
“Big brother is a liar!” the youngest said, pointing an accu‐
satory finger at Fred.
Fred held his head, pulling on his brown hair. “But I… What
in the…?”
“It’s fine, there are enough rooms for all of us even if this
one stays locked,” the mother said to Fred, before turning
around to pacify the child behind her. “Ursula, give your
brother a break. We’re all a bit stressed out without daddy here,
but tomorrow, mommy will show you the pretty flowers in our
garden, ok?”
“But Kayla said her sister doesn’t like it when people touch
her garden,” Ursula replied.
Ursula shook her head, causing her long blonde hair to
cover her eyes. “She lives here! And she has really cool powers,
and knows a lot of stuff,” she points at the door to the master
bedroom. “That’s her room.”
14
“So her sister is the one who takes care of the garden, hm?”
asked their mother, humoring her child.
The young green‐eyed girl noticeably perked up. “Yes! Yas‐
mine is her younger sister. She also knows a lot of stuff. And her
powers are awesome too!”
“Then I’ll help her take care of the flowers. Is that ok?” the
mother asked.
Ursula looked down, legitimately pausing to think about it.
“I guess…”
While Brandon put his little sibling to bed, Fred went up to
their mother.
“Mom, isn’t it a bit weird? What Ursula said earlier…”
His mother sighed tiredly. “No… The therapist told me she
might make up an imaginary friend or two to help her cope with
the loss of her father. She’s young, but she’ll grow out of it. Just
play along whenever she mentions these ‘friends’ of hers,
please. I’ll be going on a trip to the capital to help prepare your
father’s funeral, but you have to stay here and look after your
siblings. You can’t miss more days of school either. Your aunt’s
cafe is nearby, so call her if you need anything.”
“Alright… Have a safe trip.”
“... can’t sleep.”
“I told you so,” said Kayla, who had been sitting on Ursula’s
desk.
15
The child sat up on her bed. “Can you tell me a story? It’s
always really hard to fall asleep at night, but I don’t wanna feel
sleepy during the day…”
Kayla hummed and hopped off the desk, opting to sit in
midair near Ursula. “Ok, lay down. What kind of story would
you like?”
“Finish telling me the story about how you and Yasmine
died!” the child demanded. “You never tell me the whole story
when I ask.”
“I’m not sure it’s appropriate for your age, Urs…” the spirit
responded, rubbing the back of her head. “It’s not a happy
story.”
“But you told me how you died. The only thing you don’t
wanna tell me is where your coffins are buried.”
“I told you we jumped off the roof.”
“Tell me the full story. Pretty please?” Ursula begged, tilt‐
ing her head to maximize the effect of her puppy eyes.
Kayla sighed. “Oh fine… You see, our family was very rich
back when we were alive. Centuries ago…”
16
Day 6
The mother of the household gave each of her kids a kiss on
the cheek, told them she’d be back in a few days, and left early in
the morning. Unexpectedly, Ursula ran off to play even though it
was so early in the morning, and Brandon walked back to his
room to sulk. Fred watched them both go, unsure of what to do.
He wanted to try and cheer his brother up, but at the same time,
it worried him to let his nine‐year‐old sister go off on her own.
Fred ended up following his sister, and found her sitting in
the garden, staring at some red flowers.
“Hey Ursula, what are you up to?” he asked her.
“Oh, really? What are those purple flowers called?”
Ursula giggled. “That’s easy. It’s lavender. They’re the na‐
tional flower of Portugal, and these specific ones bloom from
May to August.”
Fred was surprised to hear that. How did a child so young
know about not only flower names, but blooming seasons and
countries? Even he didn’t know national flowers were a thing.
17
Fred was trying to figure out how Ursula knew all of this.
Yes, their mother liked gardening, and they had multiple ency‐
clopedias about plants, but surely she was too young to under‐
stand the contents… Right?
Kayla glanced at him for a second and turned to Ursula.
“Well, you see, my mother liked to collect flowers from different
parts of Europe. That’s why Yazzy picked up gardening after we
died, because our mom liked flowers in general. Like these red
carnations. They have a long history, and they give off a sweet
scent. The first carnation seeds we planted came from Aragon, in
the Iberian Peninsula. I think Yazzy mentioned it’s called Spain
nowadays, I should probably brush up on my geography…”
“Wow, was your family really that rich?” Ursula asked.
“Yeah, this is only our country home. Yazzy and I are from
a successful merchant family that goes back to medieval times, I
told you the story yesterday. We were friends with the Medici
family, so maybe you’ll hear about us in school,” the ghost an‐
swered. “Speaking of, Catherine de Medici was a special case,
you might like her… I might be able to find her correspondence
stored away somewhere in the house.”
“Who’s that?” the child curiously asked.
Fred knew his mother had told him to play along, but it was
very unsettling to see his sister talking to the air.
“Look, Ursula, I know losing dad was probably a big shock
to you, since mom told you he won’t be coming back, but…” he
started.
“I know. He died.”
18
Fred gawked. Wasn’t a nine‐year‐old too young to under‐
stand death?
“Huh. Guess underestimating a kid’s easier than I thought,”
Kayla commented, enjoying the siblings’ interaction from the
sidelines.
Ursula tilted her head. “What does dad’s death have to do
with anything?”
“I… I think these imaginary friends of yours are affecting
you too much,” Fred replied.
Ursula looked between Fred and Kayla, confused. “What do
you mean? They’re not imaginary…”
The boy sighed and crouched to pat his sister’s head. “I
know it’s hard to accept, but you should make some real friends
at school.”
“Wait‐”
The young girl sobbed and ran off into the house. Fred went
after her and followed the sounds of her cries, ending up in front
of the door to the master bedroom.
“… Maybe I should’ve listened to mom…”
19
He felt bad about upsetting his little sister, so he didn’t push
it and went to see his brother instead.
“Shh, it’s ok, you’re safe here. Nobody can come in here if
either me or my sister don’t want them to. Urs, you’ve been bot‐
tling it all up for a while… You can tell me what’s troubling you,
if you want.”
Ursula sniffled and looked up at Kayla’s kind smile, nod‐
ding. “Daddy’s gone… Brandon is sad all the time… And
Fred won’t stop bossing me around! He’s wrong, but he still
argues with me almost every day! He doesn’t even seem to
care about daddy!”
The specter hummed and quickly weighed her options ac‐
cording to Ursula’s age and her current state of mind. She
judged that the child’s brain wasn’t being illogical, at least not
yet. “The concept of death is relatively new to you, and it’s only
natural that your first experience with it wouldn’t go very well,
but you should think about how others feel. My sister told me
Brandon is having a hard time accepting his father’s passing, be‐
cause he died sooner than he should’ve. And the reason Fred
isn’t nearly as upset is because your father didn’t raise him, and
because this is not the first time he loses someone close to him.
The same applies to your mother. You have fights with her of‐
ten… But how do you think she feels about all of this?”
Ursula looked down, mulling Kayla’s words over.
20
The ghost sighed and set the young girl on the bed next to
her. “Why don’t you write a story about what happened, or
draw it? You could even make up a new ending.”
The child sniffled. “Ok…”
Kayla watched Ursula crawl to the desk and sit. “Um,
Kayla, the pen’s not working.”
On the desk, there was a pile of blank paper, though slightly
aged, but the only thing to write with was a fountain pen, which
was currently empty and likely looked completely foreign to Ur‐
sula. The ghost hopped off the large bed and walked over to the
desk, looking through the drawers. “… it seems we ran out of
ink cartridges for the fountain pen. Oh well, you’ll have to use
the quill. Here, I’ll teach you, it’s not too hard.”
Ursula learned to write with a quill rather quickly, and got
to work on her retelling of events. Kayla picked up a thick geog‐
raphy book to read in the meantime. When Yasmine returned
from Brandon’s room, she had questions.
“Oh, hey Yazz,” the older sister greeted.
“… I’m back… Why is Ursula here?” Yasmine asked.
Kayla stared into her eyes. After a few seconds of strangely
quiet eye contact, Yasmine spoke again.
“I see. She had an argument with Fred and you brought her
here ‘cause she was crying and you don’t like seeing kids cry.
That’s fine and all, but we have somewhere to go tonight, re‐
member?”
21
“We can take her with us,” Kayla answered, shrugging and
turning her head back to her book.
Yasmine flatly stared at her sister. “… and since when do
we kidnap children?”
“It’s not kidnapping. Hey Urs, do you want to come with us
to the cafe at the end of the street later?”
The young girl didn’t look up from her paper, too focused
on her story. “Sure. I don’t wanna see Fred today.”
“See? We’re only taking her along, as a friend. Besides, she
didn’t want to leave and get dinner earlier, so it’ll be good if
Michelle can give her something to eat,” Kayla said, watching
Ursula get back to her writing after a quick review of the couple
pages she already had.
“Alright, alright… What is she writing?” Yasmine mentally
asked, sitting next to her sister on the bed.
“I told her to write about what happened and it seems inspiration
struck. Maybe she’ll become a novelist like a certain someone we
know.”
A little after 10pm, the sisters left the house, followed by a
timid Ursula. The young girl kept looking around fearfully, and
sticking close to the other two while they walked.
“What’s wrong?” Kayla asked her. “Afraid of the dark?”
22
“Will you feel better if I hold your hand?” the older one
asked. “That way nobody can snatch you away. And if anyone
tries, they will face our wrath, ok?”
The human nodded and held onto Kayla. Yasmine stared at
them from the corner of her eye, stayed quiet like that for a few
steps, and then immediately looked away when her sister
turned to face her.
She moved with Ursula to be next to Yasmine and inter‐
twined their fingers, seeing her blush even harder.
“Yeah, she’s just happy,” Kayla responded.
Yasmine looked to the side and muttered. “… no… I’m em‐
barrassed…”
“It’s fine, it’s fine! Let’s keep going, we’re not far from the
cafe. Come to think of it, we haven’t told you what we’re going
to do there, have we?” Kayla asked the young girl.
“You haven’t,” she said, surprised.
“Well, we’re going to meet some friends of ours. You know
the myths about death gods, right?” the older ghost said.
23
Ursula tilted her head. “But how will I get in? I can’t go
through walls…”
“The owner knows us, and she knows we prefer the front
door, so she doesn’t lock it after closing. See, the owner of that
cafe has something called a sixth sense, and she can interact with
us even as an adult,” Kayla explained.
“Wait, sister, won’t our ‘supervisor’ get mad at us if we
bring a human child?” Yasmine asked.
24
“Nah, I’m sure he’s cool with it. Kids forget these things
when they grow up, or dismiss them as part of their imagina‐
tion, weird dreams and stuff. Um, at least that’s what I’m hop‐
ing.”
Yasmine glared at Kayla. “Sis… If this turns into a fight…”
“Don’t worry, if it does, I assure you I can win!” the other
ghost cheerfully replied. “I think.”
“You’re here early…” the woman behind the counter com‐
mented, not looking at them.
Ursula’s eyes widened. “Auntie Michelle?”
Kayla grinned and rose her free hand. “We brought her!
And we need you to get the kid a sandwich, she skipped dinner
today.”
“Oh, the house my sister and her kids moved into must’ve
been yours… Poor soul. She’s been through a lot. Be gentle with
her, ok?” Michelle said.
“No promises,” Yasmine started. “Although I do get along
with Brandon. And somehow, it seems he can hear my voice.
25
I’ve been wanting to test if he can hear my sister as well or if it’s
just that our wavelengths are similar, but if he has your blood…”
Michelle put down the glass. “He doesn’t. Only Fred and
little Ursula do. Fred’s my sister’s first son. Then, Fred’s father
died from an illness and she remarried. The second man liked
drinking a bit too much, but his son helped keep him at bay, so
he and my sister had a daughter. It’s a bit complicated.”
“In that case, I guess my little sister found a human with a
compatible wavelength. That’s nice, congrats!” said Kayla, hug‐
ging Yasmine.
The bartender smiled at their antics. “Come sit, the others
will be here soon. Kayla, take the seat closest to the door. Do not
break anything.”
“Got it. Ah, we ran out of ink cartridges,” she mentioned,
sitting next to Yasmine with her back to the door.
“Ok, use your quill for now and I’ll order some for you.”
While Michelle was writing down what she had to buy, Ur‐
sula asked another question. “Why did auntie say you can’t sit
anywhere else?”
“The death god I told you about is my good friend. We like
sparring, so we have a peculiar way of saying hi,” Kayla ex‐
plained.
“They broke half my furniture last month,” Michelle dead‐
panned. “Are you sure it’s a good idea to turn your back on a
death god, Kayla?”
26
Michelle sighed. “That’s what worries me… Yasmine, how
have you dealt with her 24/7 for hundreds of years?”
“Well… We’ve been together ever since I was born, and I
love her very much,” Yasmine, seeing that her explanation was
likely insufficient, added something else. “It’s likely that it has
to do with the fact that we died in a very coincidental way, too.
Death bonds are pretty powerful.”
Michelle shrugged and placed nine glasses on the counter.
“If my sister had been like her, I probably wouldn’t put up with
her forever, much less…”
“I’ll go get that sandwich.”
27
Day 7
Fred pulled on his hair, frustrated, and tossed the papers he
was holding onto his brother’s desk, making Brandon glance at
him for a few seconds.
“What are you so worked up about?” the black‐haired older
brother asked.
Fred grunted and rubbed his eyes. “Remember what hap‐
pened with Ursula yesterday?”
“Yeah, you came into my room at 1am and woke me up to
tell me about it.”
“And I haven’t slept since! It’s just so concerning. Yes, she’s
a kid, and it’s not that difficult to believe she’d storm off in the
middle of an argument, but she was acting weird. And then, she
somehow shut herself in the master bedroom and‐”
“Fred. Bro. You need sleep,” said Brandon, cutting Fred off.
“I don’t need sleep, I need answers!”
“Did you even check her room, or did you just assume she
was in that room ‘cause you thought that was where her cryin’
came from?”
Brandon sighed and stood up to follow his younger brother.
Ursula was right there, tucked into bed and asleep like nothing
happened.
28
“See? She was probably in here. You’re obsessed with that
locked room, Freddie.”
Fred sighed, shoulders drooping. “Maybe you’re right…”
Brandon’s eyes then fell on a note that was wrapped in thin
vines coming in from the window, probably from the garden.
“… or maybe I’m not.”
The younger brother followed Brandon’s gaze and gaped.
“W‐what the hell!?”
Ursula stirred, but slept through the yell. Brandon quickly
padded over to the window, took the note, pushed the vines out
and closed the window, frowning. “… this…”
While he was quickly rereading the contents of the note,
Fred snatched it from Brandon’s hands.
“… WHAT!?”
Fred grabbed his sister’s shoulder, holding the note in his
fist. “Hey, who left this note here!? Was it a prank from you!?
What was that vine!?”
“O‐ow! I don’t know! P‐please, let go…!”
“Hey, stop, you’re hurting her!” Brandon said, pushing his
brother away from Ursula.
Fred growled and reread the crumpled note before showing
it to the other two. “This is a threat! Someone’s threatening us!”
29
“It just says they want you outta here. They’re fine with me,
Urs and mom staying. It’s just you that they want to kick out,
Fred,” Brandon said, his gray eyes serene.
Brandon looked away, keeping what little he knew to him‐
self. But Ursula was not old enough to understand that she
shouldn’t say anything in this scenario. The shadows of the
room seemed to reach farther when she spoke up.
“It must be the sisters, they’re my friends. They don’t like
you very much. Did you do something bad, big brother?”
“… so it’s ghosts… Ghosts are behind all of this. Did they
take you away yesterday too?” Fred asked, eyes full of barely
contained madness.
“Yeah, I went to have dinner with them. I’m sorry, I just got
really mad at you…”
Fred smiled widely, an unnatural motion. “So that’s what
you wrote… I… I need to go.”
The teen dashed out of the room, slamming the door shut
behind him. Brandon and Ursula stared at the door in silence for
a few seconds.
Then, Kayla leaned her back against the closet and showed
herself. “That is not good.”
Yasmine showed herself as well, floating next to the closet.
“I thought we’d have to interfere…”
30
“I’m assuming that the other ghost is your sister?” Brandon
asked Yasmine.
“Yup! Pleased to meet you kid, name’s Kayla.”
“… you look younger than me,” Brandon replied, not fond
of being called a kid.
“I was born over a hundred years before cars were invented.
Don’t sass me about who’s older, human,” Kayla answered him,
laughing and crossing her arms.
“You knew them?” Ursula asked, excited.
“I could hear a girl muttering in my room and found out a
lot of stuff. That ended up being Yasmine, and I began talking
back to her. Eventually she showed herself to me and gave up
on scarin’ me, so we became friends instead,” Brandon ex‐
plained, patting his sister’s head. “It’s not too hard to wrap your
head around it all. Care to tell me why you hate Fred so much?”
“Yeah, about that… Fred and Ursula… Are actually our de‐
scendants,” Kayla said, sheepishly rubbing the back of her head.
Brandon shook his head in disbelief. “They… What?”
“Probably not from the main family, but definitely from one
of the branch families. We believe you descend from our cous‐
ins, specifically,” Yasmine said.
31
ancestors that have remained in the world of the living after
death. There’s only one of these every three centuries, and when
we asked Urs her age, she didn’t really fit the bill, so we assumed
it was Fred. It’s usually the firstborn. Let me guess, was he the
one who picked the house?”
Brandon frowned. “Yes… He was… He said he felt drawn
to the place. He’s always been a little bit odd, but…”
Kayla rose her hand to stop him. “Wait a sec, we gotta ex‐
plain why we were so readily friendly to you two, yet didn’t
show ourselves in front of him for a second. We didn’t know
you were related to us until we got ‘that feeling’ from Fred.
Turns out that if the exorcist doesn’t know what his purpose in
life is, they may or may not go crazy. That puts the entire imme‐
diate family in grave danger, for starters. At first, I got close to
Ursula in order to protect her if it came down to it; we’re not
unethical, hurting an innocent child is a bit too much. Yasmine
tried to target you, and we wanted to drive you out as soon as
possible, precisely because of this. Maybe if we scared you
away, this could be avoided.”
“He wouldn’t harm us, not on purpose,” Brandon said, try‐
ing to convince himself after seeing his brother like that a few
minutes ago.
Then, a red‐haired young man flew in, phasing through the
wall and out of breath. “Kayla, Yasmine…! Exorcists! S‐someone
tipped them off, I‐”
The new ghost’s eyes rolled back and he fainted. The two
humans noticed that unlike the other two, he was translucent,
almost completely see‐through. The spirits moved quickly.
32
“He’s really weak, we need to get him to his painting at the
gallery,” Kayla said. “Yasmine.”
“You don’t need to tell me twice,” Yasmine said, rising her
hand up and opening a tear in space below the male ghost. The
tear swallowed him up and closed after him. “… he should be
fine, unless the exorcists are still in there. In that case we just sent
him to his death. Um, permanent second death.”
The four heard loud footsteps coming up the stairs, and the
ghosts vanished as a precaution, hiding deep in the shadows of
the room. “Guys! Great news!” Fred said, sweaty and with an
inhuman grin. “I called some professionals to take care of this
for us. In a couple hours at most, this will all be over, and we’ll
go back to our peaceful days as a happy family! Until they get
here, they said I can use salt to ward off the ghosts!”
Brandon slowly backed away from the door and beckoned
Ursula to come to his side, never once taking his eyes off Fred.
“Where are you going?” the madman asked, with insane
innocence in his eyes as he stepped into the room with a
pouch of salt.
“… do it,” Brandon muttered.
33
Brandon rubbed the side of his head and sat up, grunting.
He hit himself a pair of times as if to get something out of his
ear, with one purple eye open. Yasmine separated from him and
gasped for air, which caused the human’s eyes to return to their
usual gray.
“… that was way more stressful than I thought it would
be…” she said.
“Says the ghost! Ouch, my head hurts…”
The car’s door was torn off and Kayla offered them a hand
to help them out of the vehicle. She was panting lightly, but oth‐
erwise seemed to be fine. “Possession isn’t usually pleasant the
first time around.”
Once outside, Brandon and Ursula looked around in awe. It
was another street in the old town, but it was completely empty.
No people, no animals, nothing. Time seemed to have stopped.
“Welcome to my barrier, you two,” Kayla said. “I’d never
moved it from the house… Or spread it out this much… So I’m
kinda tired, which is terrible news. Especially considering that
if those exorcists are good, they’ll definitely see it. But if it serves
to draw them away from the others, then so be it.”
“… barrier?” Brandon asked, not as well‐versed in the su‐
pernatural as his younger sister.
Kayla gestured towards their surroundings. “We spirits, at
least when we’re strong enough, can make a sort of… Ok, I’ve
never had to explain what a barrier is, gimme a sec. It’s like… a
34
separate space that you have full control over, usually a copy of
the place you spread it in. Some really powerful creatures with
a lot of spiritual power can make permanent barriers, but for
most of us, it’s just a neat thing we can use to mess around with
humans or relax. Another thing, if you break anything at all in
here, once we leave the barrier or I dismiss it, you’ll realize that
the damage is nowhere to be seen.”
“Which is also why some people use it to fight to their heart’s
content,” said Yasmine, glaring at Kayla.
“… anyway, what do we do about this situation?” Brandon
asked, trying to change the topic.
“For now, we try not to get perma‐killed by those exorcists.
If we drive them in circles for a bit, they should give up on active
hunting, at the very least. We’ll have to lay low for a bit if they’re
really good, since they’ll probably settle down somewhere in the
area to keep an eye on things, but other than that, we’re good to
go,” Kayla explained.
“And what about Fred?” Ursula innocently reminded.
“… right. I… have no idea,” Kayla confessed.
Yasmine seemed to have a realization and grabbed her sis‐
ter’s arm. “Kay, according to the rulebook, this situation is de‐
serving of a special permit from our local death god.”
Kayla’s eyes widened in response and she looked up at Yas‐
mine. “How did I not think of that!? You humans, come with us,
we have to find Erio.”
“Erio?” Brandon asked.
35
“The death god in charge of this town. We’ll make the bar‐
rier difficult to traverse for the exorcists and leave a decoy in the
center while we run away. I’m not sure how much time that’ll
buy us, but we only need enough to get to the art gallery and
talk to him,” Yasmine said.
Kayla had left a ball of light inside the car and was pacing
around the vehicle. “It’ll be faster if you come with us. Besides,
you can help give us credibility in front of Erio when we go beg
him to let us defend ourselves.”
Brandon was curious about this. “Ursula said you two have
incredible power, isn’t it already easy for you to fight back
against humans?”
“It would be… If death gods weren’t the perpetual dictators
we must obey. Spirits don’t usually remain in the world of the
living for as long as we have. The longer you’re here, the
stronger you get, but if we want to stay, we need to do as the
death gods say. They pretty much govern the Afterlife. Which in‐
cludes Hell, Heaven, and every other variant you can think of.
But while they have little to worry about, those of us who live
among humans have to abide by a set of strict rules, dictated in
the Book of Death After Life; you might hear people refer to it as
just ‘the Book of Death’ or ‘the BLAD’ depending on which side
you ask. Most commonly it’s just ‘the Book’. One of the rules is
that we can’t use our power to hurt humans directly in any way,
though we’re allowed to defend our nests if it doesn’t cause phys‐
ical harm or the mental one isn’t too bad,” Kayla explained, with
a tone of utter frustration. “And believe me, the punishment for
breaking a rule is not pleasant. Law‐abiding spirits swear stuff by
36
the Book and consider it one of the most unbreakable of prom‐
ises.”
“In certain situations, spirits can ask their death god supervi‐
sor for a permit. For example, there have been cases of ghosts that
wanted to help their country in a war, and the rules were loos‐
ened for them to do so. There are also exceptions for a spirit’s de‐
scendants and such. Spending the afterlife on Earth is very com‐
plicated…” Yasmine said, sighing tiredly. “But fortunately, death
gods don’t like exorcists. That means that this is one of those sit‐
uations where we can ask for permission to fight back.”
They waited until Yasmine was done making another hole
in space, one that would take them to the gallery, and crossed it.
“Why don’t death gods like exorcists? They make their jobs
easier, don’t they?” Brandon asked.
In a cloud of black, a young man with gleaming red eyes,
black hair and crow wings, covered in a cloak and carrying a
scythe, appeared in front of them. There was no question in
Brandon and Ursula’s minds that this man was Erio, and he
didn’t look happy.
“I was wondering when you’d show up, Alpha,” he said,
growling.
37
Kayla took the lead of the conversation. “We had to distract
the exorcists. How is…?”
“He’s in his painting, he’ll be fine. Well? What are you wait‐
ing for?” Erio said, apparently fully aware of what he was about
to be asked.
“We’re here to request a special permit. Defense of our de‐
scendants and our nest,” the elder ghost said.
Erio took a deep breath. “Granted. But, you can’t kill them,
and you can’t cause any permanent harm.”
“One of them is only an apprentice. And as for the other
one… we death gods cannot allow that specific elite exorcist to
die, by indirect contract with the leader of Hell,” he calmly ex‐
plained. “Believe me, I don’t like this either.”
Yasmine placed a hand on her growling sister’s shoulder.
“It’s fine, honey. Now that we have the permit, there’s a lot we
can do to scare them away. It may take some time, but we’ll
make do,” she turned to face Erio. “And we need to seal our
family’s exorcist, somehow.”
“Spirits cannot seal other beings unless they have a physical
form. As you are now, neither of you could do that before de‐
pleting your spiritual energy,” he told them.
38
“That’s why we’re asking you, O almighty death god,” Yas‐
mine said, taking over while Kayla tried to stabilize her bub‐
bling emotions.
Erio was silent for a few seconds. “… there’s no time to lose.
I’ll keep the humans with me, it’s my duty to prevent them from
dying in these situations, and they’ll know where to find their
brother.”
Sealing a human was inappropriate for a death god to do,
but as long as none of his coworkers saw it to tattle on him, it
would be fine. Even if they did somehow find out and told the
Judge, it would be his first incident, so he would be let off easily
with only a sermon and a warning. Death gods were lenient
with their kind.
The ghost sisters warped back to Kayla’s barrier and found
out that the exorcists had broken the decoy already.
“No way… Even though I was sure it would take them
longer to reach…” the elder sister said, freezing in shock.
Around the vehicle, the ground was not level at any given
point; the street was full of traps, holes, bubbling magma, acid,
quicksand, and every impediment you could imagine.
Yasmine shook Kayla by the shoulders and locked eyes with
her. “Kay, I know you don’t like using it on humans, but the only
plan that comes to mind is temporary gene manipulation.”
Down on the ground, the older exorcist was explaining the
decoy to her teenage apprentice. The apprentice didn’t expect
39
Kayla floated down to her and sat in midair. “I recommend
picking her up. In that form, she’s awfully fragile. Don’t worry,
it’s not permanent.”
“Yeah, that’s your teacher. And I’m one of the ghosts you
were called to exorcise.”
The young teen grabbed some salt from her pouch, but then
fell to the ground, unable to breathe, and realized she had gills
on her body. They vanished after only a couple seconds.
“Don’t do that again, or I’ll make them stay longer. Your
teacher will stay a hamster for about a year. Maybe more if I feel
like it. I want you out of my turf and away from my family, got
it?” Kayla threatened.
The scared human nodded hurriedly, stood up, and ran off
with the hamster in her hands.
40
Day 8
Next morning, the children’s mother returned. She was ec‐
static to see her stepson rather jolly and finally out of his room.
Two of her children had set up a small party to welcome her
back. Fred seemed to have a pounding headache, and Brandon
explained that he’d fallen ill a day or two after she left. Ursula
was very upbeat as well, and according to Brandon she’d be‐
friended a pair of cats that came and went, but their mother
didn’t see them.
“When’s dad’s funeral?” Brandon asked, trying to keep his
voice from wavering.
Yasmine listened in and watched over the family from the
second floor. Brandon briefly caught her eyes and gave her a
curt, thankful nod. The spirit listened for details and then went
back to the master bedroom, where Kayla was lying face‐down
on the bed, exhausted.
“When will we have the house to ourselves again, sis?” she
asked her younger sibling.
“About as much as I want to scout the town for those exor‐
cists… I know they’re still here, but I don’t think we have the
energy to chase them out right now. Neither of us is used to this
41
much action involving humans, but maybe this will help our
power grow faster.”
“… do you still want to do ‘that’?”
“Of course. We can’t keep living our afterlife like this, and
those death gods need to be taught a lesson. He who laughs last,
laughs best…”
“Can we wait to until after Christmas to start putting it all
together?”
Kayla rose her head. “Yasmine, honey, as much as I’d love to
say yes, I don’t think we have the time. I won’t ask you to get to
work yet if you don’t want to, but I should probably grab what
we need from the attic and hold a meeting with the local gods
soon. It’s about time I upheld my end of the bargain, you know?”
Yasmine placed an arm around Kayla to sort of return the
hug, humming. “Yeah, you’re a mess.”
“Forgive me?”
The younger ghost laughed softly and gave her sister a kiss
on the lips. “Always.”
42
“Master.”
“Yeah?”
“I found the KPs.”
“Really now? Good job!”
“...”
“...”
“... Any new orders regarding them?”
“Oh! Right, right. Hmm… Stick to them like glue! Watch their every
move. I still have stuff to do around here, but report back to your cousin
every week, she’ll filter the important stuff and send me a memo.”
“If I may, Master, aren’t you being a bit too calm about this? You
said Kayla was dangerous.”
“She is, just not to us. You guys are all under my protection. And
there’s only one way to kill me, you know. Doesn’t mean you won’t
suffer if you’re careless, though. You know I don’t want my girls to
become spoiled brats just because they can’t die, right?”
“Yes, my lady. Out of the frying pan and into the fire then, I suppose…”
“Have fun~”
43
Interlude 1
Two months ago…
Brandon put down two bags of groceries on the kitchen
floor. He felt a heavy hand on his shoulder and closed his eyes,
trying to ignore it.
“Hey… You haven’t forgotten about me, have you?”
“... go away,” he muttered. “I have things to do.”
“Don’t you want me to help you? Come on, you know you
can’t keep your father in line on your own.”
“Is he drunk again?” the human asked, still refusing to turn
his head towards the voice.
“Yes. Now, if you want my help, you better give me what
I ask of you.”
Brandon growled and harshly turned around, smacking his
own shoulder. “Oh come on Cassidy, why do you still take me
for a fool!? You’re just doing this out of some sick enjoyment…
You don’t even need my soul’s energy!”
The lights in the kitchen exploded, leaving Brandon in com‐
plete darkness. “W‐what are you doing?”
44
“I’ve grown tired of our game. You’re not fun anymore. So
I’ll just dispose of you now and go back to what I was actually
sent here to do.”
Brandon then saw a small pair of flickering white lights, cir‐
cling him. “N‐no… You can’t do this…”
Just as the black‐haired boy was backing away in fear, an
instant before the lights leaped at him, the house lit up.
“Ouch! What the‐”
“That’s enough, Cass. Don’t worry, the boss won’t hear a
word of this… We’ll just have a little talk about it later.”
“A‐ah… W‐who…?”
The new voice sighed heavily. “And you won’t remember
any of this; it’s the least I can do. Good luck in life, human.
You’re a good soul, don’t let vengeful spirits like her corrupt
you.”
He felt the energy vanish before he could say anything back.
“What… was that?”
Soon after, there was a loud crash in another room, and the
teen heard something like glass breaking. He shook his head and
dashed over to see if his father was ok.
45
HAUNTED WAREHOUSE
Day 1
Lily sighed, putting some sunblock on what little of her skin
was visible. It was about 8pm, and she’d just come in for the
night shift at the supermarket. It was open 24/7, but it was small,
so she was the only employee who actually worked the night
shift. And in her opinion, that was perfect. Until they brought
her an apprentice, a brunette with blue eyes who looked about
her age, though she herself was a lot older than she looked. Lily
also noticed that the girl had a strangely familiar caramel‐col‐
ored skin, something rather uncommon in their country.
“… so, what’s your name and how old are you?” she asked,
putting away the sunblock.
“I‐I’m Anna, 18,” the short girl nervously answered.
“Ok. I’m Lily. Been working here for a very long time.
There’s not usually much business after a certain time, so feel
free to relax when you hear the clock chime 10 or so.”
There were no customers in the store at the moment, so Lily
just sat behind the cash register. Anna fidgeted in place for a
while, not knowing what to do. “Um… What are my duties?”
47
“Did you not read the job description…? Well, I guess they
don’t exactly outline it properly for rookies when it’s the night
shift. I do pretty much everything, and I’m also in charge of se‐
curity. You’ll just have to do the same, I guess. Unless you’d pre‐
fer me to give you all the menial tasks, that is.”
“No, ma’am. But, um… Excuse me, I’ve been meaning to
ask… Why don’t you wear the uniform?” Anna said, pointing at
the white clothes Lily was wearing.
“Ah,” Lily looked down at her white cotton shirt and light‐
colored skirt, as if she’d just remembered she wasn’t in‐uniform.
“Well, if you hadn’t noticed by the fact that my hair is white, my
eyes are red, and my skin looks like a sheet of paper, I’m an al‐
bino. I’m essentially a vampire without the bloodsucking part.
That, and I can’t see as well as you probably can, but it’s better
than it used to. So I wear light colors, long sleeves and long skirts
or pants to reflect the sunlight in case it actually reaches me. I
also can’t go out between 10am and 4pm, that’s why I chose the
night shift,” wanting to divert Anna’s attention away from pos‐
sibly questioning the very vivid red of her irises, Lily gestured
at her. “What about you?”
“H‐huh?”
“I doubt a kid who’s still in high school would take the night
shift at a supermarket. I told you something about me, now it’s
your turn. I’m gonna have to share my nights with you whether
I like it or not, so I might as well get to know you… unless you
plan to leave soon,” Lily said.
“No, this will probably be a long‐term job, if I manage to
keep it…” Anna took a deep breath. “I came to this town with
48
my elder sister a few days ago for her work, and she… She had
an accident. And now I have to earn enough to support both of
us. I can’t come here during the day because of school, so I just
hope I can get enough sleep after the night shift.”
“Don’t you have school too?” Anna asked, surprised.
“No. I’m far older than you think I am. Now, come here and
I’ll teach you to use the register. I want you to watch the shop
while I go get some stuff from the warehouse,” Lily said. “Re‐
stocking is one of the things I usually do, ‘cause the guys from
the evening shift are too tired to do it most of the time. That and
people don’t tend to buy much after dark.”
After teaching Anna how the cash register worked, the older
girl quickly walked away. When she closed the door to the ware‐
house, she smashed her nails into a box, frustrated, and cut right
through the cardboard. When she pulled her hand back, she
watched her nails grow and glint like metal in the moonlight.
Lily sighed, clenching her fists hard. “Why did she have to
turn the exorcist into a hamster…? Now I have to put up with the
apprentice of a hellborn exo right next to my nest… Master, that’s
not nice…” she muttered, shivering with pleasure and blushing
while she watched her own blood trickle down her hands.
49
The man came back right there and then, placing several
buckets of paint in front of her. She looked at him quizzically,
trying to resist the pain she felt, and he shrugged. “I work at the
art gallery. We need to repair stuff occasionally, or give the walls
and ceiling another coat of paint.”
That’s when Lily grabbed him by the shoulder, though he
was far taller than her, and placed her other hand behind his
neck where Anna couldn’t see it. A threat. “And what are you
doing here, Erio?”
“Buying supplies. We need to talk. Don’t miss the meeting
tomorrow,” the man said, leaning away from the sharp nails
scraping the back of his neck.
Lily growled, but let go of him. Anna charged him and they
watched the man go. “Um… Miss, do you know him?”
“Yeah, he’s… He used to be a manager here before he got a
job at the gallery, so he’s still like a supervisor to me. He also
comes here regularly to buy painting supplies,” Lily said, making
sure Anna didn’t see her nails shorten back to the usual length.
The teen didn’t appear to notice the clear half‐truth and in‐
stead replied with something else. “But you don’t seem to like
him very much.”
“… mind your own business.”
Anna flinched at her harsh words, but nodded timidly. This
girl was going to be easy to handle.
50
Day 2
In the usual cafe, Michelle was making food for the human
guests they had. Right now, only two of the spirits she’d been
expecting were here, and they’d brought two of the humans
they were currently living with, Brandon and Ursula. They’d sat
in a corner of the cafe, in opposing sofas, one for the humans and
one for the spirits.
When Michelle walked over to put food and drinks on the
coffee table between the sofas, Kayla was burying her face in her
sister’s bosom while hugging her. She’d been complaining about
being at the cafe not too long ago, but it seemed Yasmine had
managed to soothe her.
“... are you ok?” the human boy asked Kayla.
“Erio called for an extra meeting and now I’m gonna have
to put up a front again… I don’t grumble like this in many other
occasions.”
Brandon took the sandwich his aunt offered him and asked
a simple question. “Why do you look so depressed?”
Yasmine, tenderly stroking her sister’s hair, answered him
in her stead. “Oh, she doesn’t like the meetings because she has
to act different. The others have known us long enough to see
the cracks in her facade, but she still has to act like a tough mafia
boss or something, at least in front of Lily, who seems utterly
oblivious.”
51
“Lily was… The box cutter that lives near the supermarket,
right?” Ursula asked, munching on her own sandwich. “She
didn’t come to the last meeting.”
Ursula blinked. “Why is her liking you a problem?”
At this one, Yasmine got stuck. “… well, you see… Lily’s a
spirit of insanity. If she were normal, she wouldn’t be too hard
to handle at all, but she’s one of those people who… Brandon,
please explain to the little one what a masochist is.”
Brandon choked on his food and punched his chest to try
and get it unstuck, succeeding. “What!? Why me!? Also, ghosts
can be masochists?”
“Apparently, yes. That’s the best equivalent we’ve found, at
least… And she addresses us as ‘Master’ for Kayla and ‘Lady’
for me. We had servants in the house when we were alive, so it
normally wouldn’t bother us that much, but knowing the mean‐
ing behind it is…”
Ursula frowned sadly and pouted. “I don’t understand.”
“Urs, come to the back with your aunt, will you?” Michelle
said, taking the young one away with an awkward smile.
Kayla took a deep breath and got off her sister, straighten‐
ing her clothes. “Brandon, be quiet while we speak. Erio’s not in
a good mood ever since his boyfriend got sniped by the elite
hunter a few days ago.”
52
“Also don’t mention that, it’s supposed to be a secret other‐
wise his kind will put him in the dungeon forever,” the spirit
quickly interrupted. “Ok, I’m ready. Prepare to see something
truly cringe‐worthy, Brandon.”
As if on cue, the door slammed open and they heard Erio
come in, dragging Lily after him by both wrists. Not caring for
her offended whining, he tossed her at the empty sofa in front
of the one the other three were using and sat beside her.
“Why would you do such a foolish thing!? I told you I have
to lay low!” Lily said, baring her nails at him in indignation.
“And I told you that you had to report here without fail. This
isn’t like our usual meetings. We have to discuss the exorcists
Yasmine and Kayla dealt with last month, and the state of their
family’s exorcist. We’ve been putting it off far too long for
Judge’s sake,” Erio said, sounding angry.
“Well I have the junior exo to deal with literally next to my
nest! Unsupervised Coreless humans pollute and destroy spirit
nests, you know that!”
Erio growled. “Which wouldn’t be troubling you so much
if we all sat down to talk about it.”
“Are you done bickering like idiots?” Kayla said, doing a
complete 180º from how she’d been acting before. It showed in
her tone, her posture; everything.
53
Erio bowed his as well, although curtly. “I had to bring her
here by force. While the two that aren’t here yet get their bear‐
ings, I’ll tell you why I called you out here today.”
“You better not try to pull any crap, Rio.” Kayla threatened,
putting an arm around her sister’s waist as she leaned back on
the sofa.
The death god sighed deeply in exasperation, feeling Lily’s
trembling right next to him. “Kayla… Do you really have to be
so difficult all the time? I understand why you do it, but in prep‐
aration for the rest of the night, please at least tone it down with
flaunting your trophy wife today. There are kids here.”
Internally, Kayla was trying to choose between several op‐
tions, one of which was spitting in Erio’s face. Instead, she just
huffed and snapped her fingers. Erio leaned forward, clutching
his trachea, and clucked like a chicken.
Lily fidgeted and panted, blushing heavily. “Master…”
54
“She doesn’t seem to be, Master.”
Erio clucked a few times, frustrated.
“Oh, you have something to say? … Is it worth hearing?”
The death god nodded repeatedly, so Kayla sighed and ges‐
tured for him to talk. Erio coughed, feeling his voice return. “She
reacted to me. I wouldn’t cross that chance off the list just yet.
She’s not hellborn, but she is not a normal human either.”
“I shouldn’t have bothered to set up the dramatic reveal,
then,” Kayla said. “I heard it from Lilith.”
The cafe fell silent and everyone except Brandon leaned for‐
ward, expectant.
“... That girl is the Devil’s daughter, aka Lilith’s younger sis‐
ter. He probably didn’t mean for this to happen, knowing him,
but now I might have to go there a third time this month and
complain about it. I’m sure Satan would be thrilled to know he
has a second daughter.”
The others, primarily Erio, mulled Kayla’s words over. Yas‐
mine already knew all of this, and Brandon was making mental
notes to interrogate the sisters later.
55
Brandon stared at her harder than usual, and Yasmine gave
him a quick apologetic smile.
“Here’s what we’ll do. We cannot involve humans in this.
Lily, you will watch over the girl and make sure she doesn’t find
out what any of us truly are. I’ll talk to Michelle’s son and see if
he’d be willing to watch her at school,” Erio explained.
Lily flicked her gaze over to her master. Kayla rolled her
eyes. “Sure, half‐blood. Since you’re so stressed out, I’ll forgive
you for not asking my permission first. One last thing, Death
told me to warn you all that Lilith has actually been coming to
the human world lately, so she might pay us a little visit.”
While Erio tried not to show how horrified he was, Lily
looked around the cafe. Hesitantly, she rose her hand, making a
gesture that meant ‘may I speak?’ in some non‐verbal spirit lan‐
guage the humans were unaware of.
“Nah, I’m leaving. The kids have school and I would much
prefer to be home early, as would my sister. I said all I had to
say, you know what to do if you need me. We’ll be taking our
leave now. Brandon, Ursula! We’re going home!”
The young girl peeked out from behind the counter, oblivi‐
ous to all that had been said, and obediently ran over to the door,
56
holding her hand out for Yasmine to take. Brandon and Kayla
figured that it would be a good way to avoid the purple‐eyed
ghost’s petty jealousy and get them to bond. Maybe that way
Yasmine would allow Ursula near her garden more often.
On the way back, Brandon lagged behind with Kayla to ask
her about… everything. “What was that?”
“Lily’s a spirit of insanity. She needs to get alphaed into be‐
ing functional, but she’s a masochist, so it can easily backfire. I
also have to establish certain things and stand my ground every
time. For example, unless I want her trying to… I’m not going
to say that, actually. If I don’t want her to try and do that, I have
to make it clear that Yasmine holds that position. She knows she
will be punished if she tries anything. And it won’t be the good
kind of pain. No offense to her when she’s rational, but I’m not
sure anything around here would work with her as my second‐
in‐command.”
“Ok, I get the act, kinda, but what about Hell and Death?”
“Oh, right. Death’s my good friend. And I’ve been to Hell
lots of times. The Devil’s daughter, Lilith, is also my friend. Be‐
grudgingly, but she is. We spirits have physical forms in the
spiritual planes, such as Hell and Heaven, while humans have
ghostly forms. Dying normally is… Not fun. A lot of cues and
waiting, for one. There’s only one Judge, so it’s a slow process,
save for the very obvious souls that have already been picked by
one of the planes.”
“... Kayla, how are you friends with Death? And, and even
Satan’s child? Shouldn’t that be the Antichrist?”
57
Brandon’s eyes widened. Of course he recognized that de‐
scription, the girl often played in the park near his high school.
“... Then, who’s in charge of Heaven?”
“The last angel. She’s an asshole. The hierarchy works like
this: lowest is the Judge, whose job is to direct souls to an after‐
life, his direct superior is the god of spirits or souls, who super‐
vises Purgatory, which is essentially a waiting room. Other su‐
pervisors also share his rank. Then, on top of him are the masters
of all other realms, like Hell and Heaven. Our area is under Hell‐
Heaven jurisdiction, so that’s why you’ll hear mostly those
terms. Give thanks, it’s much simpler than most others.”
“What’s Heaven like? And… how easy is it to go there after
death?” Brandon asked, curious.
“Pretty easy, as long as you lead a good and honest life.
Don’t be a douche and you’ll likely get in the first time around.”
58
“But could you still go there if you’ve done some… bad
stuff?” the boy asked, clasping his own arm self‐consciously.
Kayla glanced at him for a second, sighed, and went back to
looking ahead. “... I don’t know what you think you’ve done,
but from what I can see, any of the usual teenage offenses
would’ve been redeemed already by your good acts. It’s kind of
like a balance.”
“I see. What’s it like?”
“Heaven is what you humans would call paradise, the pin‐
nacle of relaxation. I find it terribly boring, and the boss is bitchy,
so I would prefer Hell if I had to choose, mostly because of the
fires and because I’d get to bug Lilith more often. Purgatory is
basically a second life, because the cues are way too long and the
supervisor cares not about what souls do within his realm as
long as they let him sleep; he granted them the power to mold
his realm somewhat just so they’d abide by his two rules. Hell
is… Nicer than you’d think, depending on how terrible you
were in life and the position you hold there. It’s also one of the
easier places to access for my type of spirit, just like Yasmine’s
has an easier time accessing Heaven, and before you ask, no,
Hell’s not all fire and brimstone. The city’s great, and has a lack
of boiling. I say that because of the boiling tar lake and river of
boiling blood. Or the river of fire. You know Dante’s Inferno,
from the Divine Comedy? He got some things right, shockingly
enough. I haven’t looked, but there are probably dozens of
Popes down there.”
From the door of the cafe, Lily had watched them go. Erio
pulled on her collar. “You’re not leaving.”
59
“... Fine, but only because someone should really keep an
eye on her. I’ll talk to Michelle and see if her son can help us.”
“... Yeah, hi. Do you… want me to bring out the board
games? Nobody’s going to come and shop this late at night.”
“Aren’t there cameras? We’ll get in trouble.”
“Why do you think I have a stash of board games? Follow
me, I have the keys to the security room. That way we can watch
the footage in case someone breaks in and be away from cameras
at the same time, if you distrust blind spots that much.”
“Ok…”
60
Day 6
“And there’s this boy I’ve made friends with… He’s blind,
but he finds his way around pretty easily,” Anna explained, hav‐
ing taken to telling her coworker about her school days.
“Ow…” said Brandon, sitting up.
The man next to him hissed at him. “What’s a human doing
here!?”
The vampire groaned and stood up. “My master sent me
here with a message. She thought a demon would be far too easy
to tempt.”
Brandon shuffled behind Lily and pulled Anna behind her
as well. However, the vampire pointed at the human girl of the
group. “The message is for her.”
The spirit planted her feet and gestured for Brandon to take
Anna inside. “You’re not getting through me.”
61
“... A spirit of insanity, are you? Your type is strong, but
I won’t let anything keep me from fulfilling my master’s or‐
ders, though I may have a bit of difficulty taking you down.
Shall we?”
Lily summoned her barrier, spreading it far more than she
usually would. Unfortunately, with how much contact Brandon
and Anna had been having with the supernatural, they couldn’t
be excluded from the barrier.
The battle lasted longer than Brandon would’ve expected,
and for all that he wanted to pay attention to it, Anna was his
first priority. The poor girl was hyperventilating.
“W‐what does that man want from me?”
“I don’t know… Ghost politics still escape me. I came here
tonight ‘cause I wanted to help and my brother forgot to buy
cereal for tomorrow’s breakfast, but… I guess it wasn’t the best
idea,” Brandon said.
“Wait, I know you. You’re in my class.”
“Yeah. Name’s Brandon. Your sister tried to kill the two
ghosts that own the house I live in.”
“Y‐you live with them!? Peacefully!?”
“Of course. We follow their rules, and they help around the
house. They look after my lil’ sister, they keep intruders away…
And they help with housework whenever my mother and
brother aren’t home.”
Anna was shocked to hear this. “I thought… spirits were all
malevolent…”
62
“No, they really just don’t want others to trample all over
their home. Which is understandable. You’d be pissed too if a
total stranger barged into your house one day and decided to
live there without even asking for permission, or started
lootin’ your stuff. Especially if you’ve been living there for
such a long time.”
“I suppose… But then… Lily’s a spirit?”
“Yep. And a box cutter. Kayla’s been teaching me stuff, ac‐
cording to which Lily is an artifact variant, insanity type. Don’t
worry, she’s trying to protect us. But I’m not too sure she can
win against an emissary of Hell… If his princess chose him, he
ought to be strong.”
Brandon and Anna peeked from behind the cash register,
where they were hiding, and saw the supermarket in shambles.
It was suspiciously silent, until a pillar of blood red light shot up
from somewhere among the shelves, and they heard an awful
cracking noise, like bones breaking.
In a discreet flash of a calmer red, Yasmine appeared behind
them and placed one hand on each human’s shoulders. “Iʹm get‐
ting you out of here. Come on, it’s dangerous.”
Brandon took note of her glowing, ruby red eyes and how
different her aura felt as she teleported them to the roof of a
nearby building, still within the barrier. They then watched the
supermarket go up in flames, making a crushing noise that
caused cracks to appear in the sky.
“The barrier won’t hold up for long… Don’t let go of me, I’ll
have very little time to get us out unharmed.”
63
She winced, surprised that he’d noticed, but looked away
from him. “... yeah, I’m fine. Just a little hot.”
“Oh, right, Kayla told me Cores can overheat and shut
down… Hey, since when can you teleport? I get your worm‐
holes and stuff, because of your ability, but teleportation?” Bran‐
don asked, half‐offended.
Yasmine was just glad she’d distracted him from questioning
why being ‘hot’ was hurting her. “I can only do so in this state. I
am a spirit of virtue. Specifically, determination. But my sister…”
Everything around them cracked, and they heard laughter
coming from the blue flames.
“... is a spirit of wrath. The most powerful type in the
Book… and the most difficult to control,” Brandon finished.
“Wait, aren’t spirits of virtue very rare, and usually the highest
guardians of Heaven?”
“Yes. I never said I’ve never been to Heaven,” the ghost an‐
swered him. “I just chose to stay here with her instead.”
“So not all spirits of virtue reside in Heaven… Huh,” Bran‐
don commented.
The entire earth started to shake violently.
“Now!” Yasmine yelled, teleporting again.
64
a lump of meat, sitting in a large puddle of blood. The red of her
eyes was very different from Lily’s, and far from Yasmine’s, to
the point where it chilled Brandon and Anna to the bone.
Weirdly enough, she’d balled up and was holding herself so
tightly that the human worried she’d break a leg.
Yasmine knelt down next to her and put a hand on her back.
“Kay. It’s over. Get a grip.”
The older ghost rose her head to face her, stared at her for a
few seconds, and then hugged her. “Thanks.”
They parted and looked behind them at Lily, who was hurt
on the floor. The temporarily red‐eyed sisters examined her and
determined she would be fine despite her mauled appearance.
After that, they approached Brandon and Anna, who were un‐
derstandably scared.
“Did I hurt you? When I activate my primal state, I usually
see red for a while until Yasmine pulls me back to reality,” Kayla
said. “I still manage to hold back, but I can’t fully control myself
without her help. A weak spot I should really be working on… A
spirit who can’t use their primal state is just a disgrace in the eyes of
our society.”
Brandon stood up. “No… We’re fine. Can’t say the same for
that vampire guy… What did you do to him?”
65
Kayla laughed nervously. “Ah, um… It’s… best if you never
find out. The only thing left to do is… Lilith, come out. Now. I
know you’re watching.”
A young woman with shoulder‐length black hair and red
eyes showed herself near them, floating in midair. They noted
she had the same rare caramel skin as Anna. “I should’ve
known you’d shoot the messenger. Am I not allowed to visit
my own sister?”
Kayla growled, taking a couple steps towards Lilith. “If you
want, I can do the same to you.”
Lilith rolled her eyes. “Oh please, we’ve fought hundreds of
times. You never win.”
“Neither do you. Besides, what makes you think I was using
my full power all those other times? You lost our first fight…
and you remember what my ability is… right?” Kayla snarled,
in a threatening tone.
Kayla stepped aside and gestured towards Anna. “... Five
minutes. No more. Demons!”
At her call, twelve demons appeared in a swirl of flames.
One of them, the leader, stepped forward. “Yes, my lady?”
“Take care of the corpse. He’s not a corrupt politician, but if
you guys were the only ones available… Ah, right, and don’t
toss him into the boiling tar lake for eternal torment. He didn’t
really do anything wrong, he was only following orders.”
66
“Yes ma’am! You heard the boss, guys. Let’s take this loser
back to Hell, put him with the nazis. Haha, the vamps are gonna
be so pissed!”
The demons quickly left, taking the lump of meat and eve‐
rything else with them.
The first to speak after that was Brandon. “You command
DEMONS?”
“Only some of them.”
“By some you mean half of the Ars Goetia and all twelve
malebranche…” Lilith muttered, aware that this was mostly her
own fault.
Kayla shrugged. “Shouldn’t have bet your subordinates in
a magic chess game.”
Anna stood a few steps away from her, still feeling scared.
“W‐what did you want to tell me? Why did you call me your
sister?”
This brought Lilith’s attention back to Anna. “Ok, how do I
explain this… I am Lilith, the ruler of Hell’s daughter, and so are
you. Your mother drugged my father to fool him into sleeping
with her. So we have the exact same blood thanks to how realm
children work.”
Anna opened her mouth to say something, then closed it. It
did make sense considering her life up until then, but… it was
still a bit difficult to believe.
Lilith sighed. “It’s fine if you don’t believe me. My real rea‐
son for coming was to help you with the chest pains.”
67
Anna gasped and brought her hand to the spot on her ribs
she’d been scratching before.
“As I thought, it already started. When your human body
stops growing, your powers will begin to develop more and
more until you can’t contain them anymore. It hurts a lot. I
wanted to try and spare you that pain,” Lilith explained, reach‐
ing her hand out.
Anna timidly took it, and immediately felt a sense of relief
throughout her entire body.
“I absorbed the excess energy for now, but it’ll build back
up over time,” Lilith said, turning to face the ghosts. “It’s not a
problem as long as I don’t trespass on anyone’s territory, right?”
Kayla shrugged, eyes fading back to the usual blue. “Sure,
do whatever you want. I can give you a copy of our visiting rules
by midnight tomorrow, so with that and a short ritual you’ll be
allowed to come over abiding by the rules of the Book.”
68
Day 11
A black motorcycle pulled into the open parking spot clos‐
est to the flat Anna and her sister lived in.
The driver removed her helmet and looked at Lilith, who
was clinging to her for dear life. “Um… We’re here. You can let
go now. Are you ok…? Should I have put a helmet on you?”
Lilith jumped right off the vehicle, in a way that made the
few passersby turn to look at her for a moment. “No! That thing
will surely suck my brains out.”
“... well you sound convinced. Sure, whatever you say,” the
woman answered, getting off her motorcycle as well. “Still, this
isn’t actually that far from the city if you use your godly powers.
We could even manage frequent visits after you learn that squir‐
rels don’t exist to flay you alive.”
The Devil’s daughter huffed and looked away, begrudgingly
leading the way into the building. Her companion looked pretty
much like many people would picture an angel. Long platinum
blonde hair, otherworldly blue eyes… But she wore all black, and
Lilith was used to seeing her with a scythe. Death had a name,
sure, but nobody knew what it was, and she didn’t seem willing
to share. Her cheerful voice and angelic image greatly contrasted
the image most humans had of the Grim Reaper anyway.
69
“Death? Yes. Don’t mind her. She’s only my transport,” Lil‐
ith told her.
Lilith took a deep breath, leaned forward on the table, and
began her usual round of questions. “How’s school? And work?
Are those spirits giving you trouble? Have your powers been
weighing on you too much?”
“... shut up,” the princess of Hell grumbled, blushing as she
pushed her friend’s face away.
“Well… School is ok, much less of a priority than it used
to be… Lily gives me most of the money she gets from work
to help me pay rent, since she has no need for it. When the
shop’s empty, I can use the time to practice what you teach
me,” Anna reported.
Death rose an eyebrow at this. “Wouldn’t it be much better
to just get her a witch tutor?”
“Witches still exist here?” Lilith asked, bewildered.
“I thought humans killed them all long ago. Even the east‐
ern lands are low on supernatural stuff…” Anna said.
70
“I know five or so. Been here a long time. I was happy to see
them survive the great genocide. Nowadays they still meet up
for Walpurgisnacht. I got to go a few times thanks to a loophole
and me allowing one of my witch friends to summon me. Can
confirm, there are still hundreds of them, from the looks of Wal‐
purgisnacht. And who knows how many there are scattered
around the world, or too isolated to socialize,” Death said.
“Also, the eastern lands are fuller than you realize. Through al‐
liances and interracial pacts.”
“Hey! That’s a blow to my pride, I have my connections…”
Death complained, pouting.
“I’m going to go fetch the hellborn and get you to spill the
beans on anything else you know. Anna, be careful around this
woman,” said Lilith, standing from her seat to look for the ham‐
ster cage.
Once she left the room, Anna’s fidgeting was a clear indica‐
tor that she wanted to ask questions. Death offered a smile. “I’m
not gonna eat ya, kid. Go ahead, ask whatever you want. I have
no reason to lie and nothing to hide.”
The younger girl grinned excitedly and prepared to bom‐
bard her guest with questions.
That night, at work, she had things to ask her senior
coworker as well. “Is Kayla really that scary?”
Lily tilted her head slightly, raising an eyebrow. “Where’d
this come from?”
71
“I met Death this morning, and during the time I was alone
with her, she answered a lot of things for me… But when Lilith
brought my sister and I asked them if they could turn her back
into a human, they seemed really uncomfortable. Lilith said that
of course she could, but she didn’t want to risk it. Why?”
Lily smiled and looked away into the distance. “Master is
crazy strong. Enough to be at least on equal terms with those
two. They have an agreement, a blood pact. A very long time
ago, they set some rules to avoid having any serious battles, see‐
ing the catastrophic results of their last one. You know about
Oblivion, right?”
“The eras that have been forgotten by humans, when the
supernatural ran rampant through the earth,” Anna studiously
replied.
“You seem to know a lot about this.”
“I dug into it. It’s tiring to leave the nest for too long, but I
too went on a trip once to strengthen my spiritual power and
learn about the world I’d been thrust into post‐death, almost all
72
spirits do this. Anyway, this is the part that interests us. Obliv‐
ion abruptly came to an end when a mysterious group blasted
into the battlefield by surprise. Nobody knew who they were or
what they were, but their leader was the one who put a stop to
the war, establishing new rules and beating some sense into the
quarreling parties, mostly by force. After that, they vanished
and nobody ever heard from them again… except for Lilith,
Death, and my master. They’re not that old, but by the time that
group’s leader came to fix things, the first two were already
what you could call teenagers. Apparently, years after Oblivion
ended, the leader appeared before Death and gave her a vision
of the future. Since then, her personality changed drastically.
She has never shared what she saw, but it must’ve sunk deep.
The next time was when the three of them first had a real fight.
Master was still a young ghost, but her status as a spirit of wrath
meant that she was still a force to be reckoned with. What sur‐
prised even the masters of the Afterlife when they were told,
was her ability. Thanks to it, she actually defeated Lilith in bat‐
tle, and almost did the same to Death. That’s when that group’s
leader appeared again. According to Master, she had no chance
to win against whatever had just shown up, and she knew that.
The leader talked to them. I’m not sure what happened, but from
that day on, the three of them have been… friends. Sort of. They
don’t bear any true ill will toward the others, at least. Again, I
don’t know what kind of agreement they made that day, but
since then, they take care not to cross one another. That’s why
they won’t turn your sister back into a human, even if they can.
Master did it, so they mustn’t interfere,” Lily stretched. “I’m go‐
ing to get some water, my throat is dry from so much talking.
73
Damn human bodies, I normally just stay quiet… If you want to
hear more stories, Grandpa may be willing to share. He’s the
eldest spirit here, even older than our death god. Try the busi‐
ness building to the west tomorrow. Don’t burn anything while
I’m gone, devil child.”
Anna sat still for a few minutes, mulling over all that she’d
learned. Maybe there was more to these people than she thought.
Nevertheless, she swallowed her questions and hid in one of the
cameras’ blind spots. She closed her eyes and focused, going
through a few beginner exercises Lilith had told her to practice.
In a couple more minutes, when Lily came back, Anna had
summoned a small ball of light. Little after, she sighed and
opened her eyes, causing the ball to disappear. “If I can’t even
make an ember, what kind of Hell princess am I?”
“... everyone has certain elements that come easier to them.
Sure, it’s weird that it’s not fire in your case, considering it’s a
family thing, but it could be air or wind. Last time I went to Hell,
its high winds nearly tore my soul apart. Never visited without
escorts again.”
“What’s your element, Lily?”
The ghost showed off her unnatural glinting nails. “Metal.
I’m an artifact spirit. A box cutter. It’s pretty much a given.”
Anna rose an eyebrow. “Metal is an element?”
“According to the Chinese, yes. As a spirit, you really have
nothing to do in your unlife other than defending your nest and
following the death gods’ rules. That usually means lots of stud‐
ying and trying to see just how far you can take your powers.
74
Let me tell you; really far. It stretches so much it’s unbelievable.
You never stop learning. So I’d recommend experimenting with
different elements to see what your affinity is.”
“Huh… But I don’t have that much time compared to you,
do I?” said Anna.
“Um. Did nobody tell you about the whole… ‘being the
Devil’s child makes you immortal’ thing?”
Anna’s eyes shot open. “What?”
“No way, I’m removing myself from the situation. I’ll call
Master and you can complain to your dad about this.”
Suddenly, the younger girl froze. “... I’ve never met him. I‐I
mean I’ve talked to Lilith, but…”
“Oh boy, not family drama again… It has not been enough
decades, and I am not getting involved. Master and Lady Yasmine
will send Brandon to pick you up. Brace yourself for the complete
opposite of what you expect from Satan,” Lily sentenced.
75
Day 12
Anna nonchalantly put her notebooks in her backpack and
prepared to leave high school when two boys blocked her way
in the hall.
Brandon looked worried. “Hey, are you ok?”
The boy next to him, his blind cousin, followed it up.
“You’ve been acting strange today.”
Anna looked around herself to make sure nobody was pay‐
ing attention. “I met my dad last night, and… slept in Hell.”
Both boys were shocked to hear this. Brandon was first to
ask. “How was it?”
“He was… the complete opposite of what I expected from
Satan,” she said, quoting her spirit coworker. “I was treated re‐
ally well, and Lilith gave me a tour of the city. To be honest, I…
I’m kinda still processing all of that. The tour was… fun. Every‐
one was very nice, considering it’s Hell. I… may need to have a
word with my Catholic school teachers.”
Brandon chuckled. “Yeah, when Kayla told me about it, I
started to question everything religion taught me. It’s like it’s
partially true, but it’s not. Weird, right?”
The blind boy pushed up his glasses. “I’ve astral projected
there. Very dangerous to do. Psychopomps were not happy to
see me down there, but it’s true that Hell is unexpectedly nice.
Just as Heaven is unexpectedly boring.”
76
“Oh, Yasmine’s the one who told me about Heaven. It
sounds like the perfect place to go for summer vacation, but if
I had to choose from the information I’ve been fed, I’d go for
Purgatory.”
That night, she lay on the floor of her workplace, exhausted
but barely hurt, breathing heavily. Lily, completely unscathed,
offered her a hand, helped her up, and dismissed her barrier.
“You did alright. All that exorcist training at least served to
make you decent at avoiding dying to spirits.”
Anna smiled and nodded. “Thank you so much for sparring
with me. Lilith would probably be mad at me, but Death said
sparring would be a good way to get better at handling my pow‐
ers, so…”
“It’s fine, I get it. It’s solid advice. Worked for me. You may
want to try asking someone weaker, though. I’ll ask Master and
Erio if we can include you in the meetings. You’re the enemy,
yet you’re not… What an odd child you are.”
Anna giggled, dusting her clothes off. Her life had become
quite interesting as of late, and it would most likely only go up
from there. “... I want to learn to teleport soon.”
77
“Don’t get ahead of yourself, squirt. That’s way too ad‐
vanced for your level. Don’t want to end up lodged inside a
brick wall, do you?”
“That can happen?”
Lily rolled her eyes. “If only you knew the amount of crap
that can happen when learning to teleport… Lady Yasmine
could tell you endless stories about it.”
“I’ll do my best!”
78
“I’m here with the weekly report.”
“Oh, has it been a week already?”
“... for the goddess of life and death, losing track of something as im‐
portant for those titles as time is shameful.”
“It’s fine, cous! Don’t be so stiff, relax! Didn’t mom tell you to try
and have fun?”
“She also said I had to do as the witch commanded. So that’s what
I’m doing. We’re getting off‐track.”
“Ok… What’s new?”
“Some more characters showed up. Unknown relevancy as of now.
High power level. One of them is that rogue death god the witch tap‐
ped.”
“Anything else?”
“Not really. More information being thrown around, there was a mi‐
nor battle, and a few extra minor characters were introduced too. If
you want to know more… two of the characters have very similar na‐
mes, I guess?”
“Got it. Looks like we’ll have a large cast to deal with. Think it’ll go
well with the others under that label when we bring it back to the ar‐
chives?”
“You mean the city.”
“No, the archives. Boss said she was mad at her grandmother, so she’s
not going to bring the old hag any more books.”
79
“Those witches… toying with entire worlds, treating them as mere
entertainment… It’s surprising. It simply makes me wonder how po‐
werful they really are.”
“Who knows? We two come from a totally different world. Say… I’ve
just realized why the boss always sends you specifically for these mis‐
sions. Do you know why it is?”
“Yes. Even if I didn’t, orders are orders.”
“... alright then. Don’t you miss anyone from back home? I’d expect
you to miss my mother, at least.”
“Not really. I do feel like I should be by my real master’s side, but her
orders were relayed very clearly.”
“Oh, she’s your aunt for the love of‐ ugh. Sorry. I know you can’t
help it.”
“I’ve never asked you to understand how my mental disorder works.”
“Ok… It’s like you told those other knights back then, right? When
we look into your eyes, we don’t see a person...”
“...”
“… I’m sorry. You are dismissed.”
80
Interlude 2
Sometime in the previous story…
Death yawned, walking into her living room with the intent
to greet her guest. “Good morning, Lilith…”
The princess of Hell screamed and covered herself with a
blanket. Death just blushed and turned around, but the princess
didn’t seem embarrassed. “Ah, it’s just you… You scared me
there for a second.”
“... Lilith, why are you naked? It’s not exactly hot this sea‐
son…”
The blue‐eyed death god sighed, still not looking in her di‐
rection. “No they don’t. At the very least, humans don’t. Now
put some clothes on so I can make breakfast, please.”
Lilith huffed, but got dressed in little time. Rolling her eyes,
she called out to her new roommate. “You can look now.”
“So that means…?”
81
“That means we’re going to the mall right after breakfast. I
know a lot of people there, our cover story is that your house
went up in flames and you lost everything, so you moved in
with me, ok?”
“Fine by me, but… What’s a mall?”
“... this is going to be a long day. I’ll explain during breakfast,
but for now I need you to know that you have a job.”
“I have a what!?” the princess yelled.
“Well, not really. I own a flower shop not far from here, and
that’s where I work most of the time, if I’m not off volunteering
somewhere else. I’ll split the earnings with you, as long as you
work; I will only pay you what you deserve. I’ve amassed a bit
of a fortune over the ages, but I still need to pay rent and all.
Every two decades or three, I move and disappear. Until then,
I’m a normal citizen.”
Lilith rose an eyebrow. “... a flower shop? You? Death owns
a flower shop?”
Lilith groaned deeply and resigned to her fate.
82
HAUNTED OFFICES
Day 1
Brandon sighed, plopping down on an armchair as he loos‐
ened his collar. He had been told to lock everything in the office
building for the night, but he wasn’t in any hurry to get home.
A deep male voice spoke from the armchair in front of him.
“Are you not going to do as you were told?”
The spirit laughed good‐naturedly. He had curly white hair
and a beard, contrasted by rare pitch black eyes.
By his clothes, Brandon assumed he was very old. As good
of a conversation starter as any. “So… you’re the eldest spirit
here? You’re dressed like some sorta medieval merchant.”
“I am indeed. Though I’d advise you not to judge by a
spirit’s clothes, young one. We can choose what to wear, if we
83
visualize it well enough. I tend to wear the typical human busi‐
nessman suit nowadays, but I go back to these clothes every
once in a while. They are quite nostalgic for me.”
“That explains why Kayla said gravity didn’t exist when she
and her sister were alive.”
“Just so I can get an idea, what was something important
that happened while you were alive?”
Brandon gawked at this. He was that old? “So that’s why
everyone says you’re the wisest person they know… I haven’t
seen you at the meetings or when we’re just hanging out
though.”
“Ah, I prefer to stay here and watch over those children.
Unbeknownst to Erio, there is more going on than just the recent
exorcist attack and Satan’s daughter living in the human world.”
84
“Can I help? I’ve been wanting to for a long time, but Erio
won’t let me help! I know I’m just a human, but there has to be
something I can do. Is there?” Brandon asked.
“Perhaps not willingly… but I’m afraid she may not know
the full extent of the consequences her scheme will have,
whether it fails or succeeds.”
“What is this so‐called plan? Does it involve my mother and
siblings?”
“Not that I know of, but we can never be sure that they
won’t get caught in the crossfire. But enough about plots and
schemes, that is not the type of thing a young man like yourself
should be worrying about. Tell me, boy. Something else is trou‐
bling you.”
“... I know it sounds silly, especially after everything you’ve
told me, but I think Fred and my cousin Jeremy are trying to
seduce the same girl I like.”
Grandpa laughed, not expecting the ‘trouble’ he saw in the
boy’s body language to be that of all things. “You should not
worry about Jeremy, he would never cheat on his partner.”
“Jeremy has a girlfriend?”
85
The old ghost nodded. “Indeed. You may have met her if
you are going to the others’... informal gatherings. She is a pol‐
tergeist variant, a spirit of sorrow.”
“Oh, the one that lives in the cinema and saves me money
when I want to watch a new movie?”
“Exactly. That child is a true prodigy. With the power of
Kayla’s ire, she was able to grow in spiritual energy very quickly,
and can now be considered the true master of that building.”
“Kayla told me she once dragged that poor girl to fight a
thunder god in Hell.”
“... I’m assuming that means that she can do more than just
turn lights or machines on and off.”
“You would do well not to underestimate what spirits like
us are capable of. Surviving in the human world during your
unlife is not an easy task.”
Brandon’s phone started ringing, and he realized it was al‐
ready well past midnight. “Guess I should go home. Thanks for
the chat, Grandpa.”
The old man smiled. “Anytime, young Brandon.”
Once back home, Brandon found all the lights off, and heard
a door close. “Is anyone awake?”
86
Yasmine leaned over the railing. “Shh, I just managed to put
Ursula to sleep.”
The human hurriedly padded up the stairs. “Can’t believe
she went to bed so early on a weekend. You two are really good
with kids.”
“Thank you. Looking after Ursula reminds me of the time
Kayla and I raised a small human together.”
“... you did what?”
“Oh, it’s a curious story. It happened during World War II,
if I remember correctly.”
“That’s a very long story that I should tell you in a pack
meeting. I’m sure Erio and Grandpa would have many things to
add.”
“Wait, wait. Wouldn’t you two have attacked the kid?”
“Well… maybe. But we didn’t.”
“Huh. I guess even spirits change with the times.”
Yasmine rolled her eyes. “Humans have become incredibly
arrogant and disrespectful, most of the problems you cause us
nowadays weren’t a thing in the past. Now go to bed, I’m sure
you’re tired. I should get going too, before Kayla starts whining.”
“Yeah, I’ll do that. Don’t really understand why you guys
still do things like sleep when you don’t have to, though.”
87
Yasmine shrugged at this. “Force of habit. Unless it’s un‐
pleasant or inconvenient, we do it. Sleeping is nice. And a faster
way of recovering spiritual energy.”
Brandon hummed and headed to his room, waving good‐
bye. Around the corner, he stopped and waited. The hard part
about spying on ghosts started at ‘they don’t make a sound most
of the time’. That being said, he also didn’t know how to get into
the master bedroom anyway, and listening in wouldn’t do him
much good. Thanks to their compatible wavelengths, he could
likely hear Yasmine’s voice, but not Kayla’s.
The human almost jumped when he saw a flash of white
light outside. He quietly dashed to the window and ducked to
avoid being seen from the exterior. From what little he could see,
there were three people there, all of whom he was able to recog‐
nize. One was, weirdly enough, the goddess of tiles. The other
two were the ghost sisters. He couldn’t hear them, but he swore
they both looked more corporeal than usual. Fittingly, the god‐
dess summoned a pile of tiles. Kayla stepped back, grasping one
of her sister’s hands and closing her eyes. Yasmine used her free
hand to draw something in the air, a sort of sigil that Brandon
didn’t recognize. The tiles swirled around in the air and formed
a tree‐sized tile golem whose eyes glowed white. The golem
knelt down, much like a knight, probably awaiting orders. The
two spirits outside seemed happy about it while the goddess of
tiles examined its quality. Brandon decided that he should prob‐
ably go to sleep before they caught him. Before going to bed, he
took note of what he’d witnessed in case he forgot to mention
anything when he reported to Grandpa.
88
Day 2
Grandpa was watching people walk the streets, admittedly
a little bored when there was nobody working at the building.
Usually, he’d be helping around in human form, as a sort of
manager and someone the boss listened to often. Sundays were
rather dull to him, unless his fellow spirits had planned some‐
thing, which wasn’t the case this morning. Later, when the cin‐
ema closed, he along with the others had been invited to a movie
marathon by their local poltergeist. Until then, he had to enter‐
tain himself somehow. He was beginning to consider taking up
the habit of hoarding‐ ‘collecting’‐ games for his amusement,
like the poltergeist had suggested.
Fred was walking home with groceries, trying not to make
it obvious that his ten‐year‐old sister was carrying the heavier
bags. “Hey, Urs, are you ever going to tell me when you got
this strong?”
“Didn’t I already tell you about this like half a year ago?
Kayla says exercise is important, and I wanted her to teach me
more stuff. One of her conditions was that I had to listen to her
and to mom.”
Fred rolled his eyes. That was a no, then. He set down his
two bags next to an ATM and told his sister to watch their shop‐
ping outside. Across the street, Grandpa watched them curi‐
ously. Looking back at the business building and then at the two
humans, he decided to go over there and say hello.
Ursula was quick to give him a hug. “Hi Grandpa! I haven’t
seen you in a while… Were you busy?”
89
Grandpa stroked the young girl’s hair affectionately. “Not
to worry, little one. I will attend tonight’s meeting. Is that your
brother?”
Ursula glanced at Fred through the glass wall and hummed.
“Yeah, he’s been acting weird since that time. It’s not scary
weird, it’s just a different kind of weird.”
“I see. If anything new happens, don’t hesitate to tell us. We
also want everyone to be happy and at peace. May I suggest
yoga classes for young Fred?”
“Yoga?” said Ursula, tilting her head in confusion.
“Why yes. Yoga does wonders for humans. We have a spirit
equivalent as well.”
The human hummed. “I’ll bring it up at lunch today.”
“What? What is it?” Ursula asked, seeing nothing unusual
upon looking up.
The spirit was nervous now, sudden as it was. “Ursula, get
your brother home. When you hear the third thunderclap, you
must be inside and stay there until the storm passes.”
“But the TV said there wouldn’t be a storm today.”
“If you trust me, you will do as I say.”
Ursula frowned, concerned, but nodded. Grandpa vanished
just as Fred came back outside.
90
“Wasn’t there an old man here just a second ago?” the boy
asked, raising an eyebrow and picking up the grocery bags.
“Yeah, he was asking for directions! Hey, I think it’s gonna
rain soon, can we hurry?”
Fred looked up at the sky. “Well, those clouds do look sus‐
piciously dark… The weather forecast is wrong every once in a
while, so let’s make sure we get home quickly, just in case.”
Meanwhile, at home, Brandon was helping the ghost sisters
board up all windows in the house without really knowing why.
“Can you at least tell me why you’re making me hammer nails
into the walls? It’ll be a waste of time and money later.”
Kayla threw him another box of nails from the second floor,
out of breath. “No time to explain, this is gonna be a catastrophe,
KEEP BARRICADING THE WINDOW.”
“Wow, ok, stop screeching so loudly… Is she afraid of
storms or something?” Brandon asked Yasmine, who was also
uncharacteristically nervous.
“What? But why? What’s going on?” Brandon said, suspect‐
ing that the sisters were hiding a lot of things from them.
91
The elder gods usually avoid fighting, or at least they make a
point not to do so in the human world, but many younger ones
are very easy to tick off. You wouldn’t believe it by the title,
but even the most stupid‐sounding god is still a god. The weak‐
est of them all is strong enough to wipe an entire city off the
map,” Yasmine explained.
Brandon dropped his hammer, almost done with the win‐
dow. “What!?”
“Please continue working. We’re trying to make sure you
all come out of this unscathed. The street is high in spiritual en‐
ergy, so we’re all working together on the force fields, shields,
and absorption mats all over the town. Lily said Anna asked Lil‐
ith to help, but she just took the exorcists with her and left.
They’re waiting in Hell until this blows over.”
“Which gods are fighting?”
“We don’t know. The only thing we do know is that they’re
powerful enough to warrant our attention. I hope we’re not
forced to intervene…”
“You could stop this?”
“Well, yes. Not counting Kayla’s ability and depending on
the strength of the god, a spirit, or multiple of them, might be
able to go up against a god. But we also have rules regarding
them. We are not to interfere with them, and they cannot take
actions that involve us. Before you ask, yes, it’s unfair, because
they could easily destroy our homes in their battles and we
wouldn’t even be able to complain about it, but it’s what we
must do if we want to stay in the human world.”
92
Brandon stayed quiet, picking up his hammer. He silently
resumed his work until they heard a couple of hurried knocks
at the door. It had started to rain, and they were missing three
humans, but Yasmine was the one who flew over to see who it
was, likely sensing it wasn’t a human.
Brandon saw four other young children behind her, and an
older man dressed as a police officer. Yasmine ushered them all
in and closed the door. “Brandon, this man and this other child
are also gods that live in our town. The other three are from
neighboring towns, they saw our distress beacon. Minor gods
are tight‐knit, they’ll always help one of their own in need. It’s
also very common for spirits and minor gods to work together
when these kinds of things happen.”
“Oh, uh, nice to meet you…?” said the human, not sure how
to react to meeting gods.
The leading goddess smiled warmly. “Likewise, Brandon.”
“Kay! The other gods are here!” Yasmine called.
Kayla jumped from the second floor, way too nervous to fly
or use the stairs. “Ok, how bad is it?”
The officer was the first to answer. “Howling levels of bad.”
Kayla groaned, clutching her head in pain. “Gods, not an‐
other Howling… It hasn’t been enough centuries, I really don’t
want to deal with that, much less the devastating consequences.”
93
“He didn’t mean the incident was like the Howling, he
meant it’s as bad as the Howling,” the goddess of tiles clarified.
“Alright, that makes things somewhat easier on my mind. I
thought we agreed that Oblivion was the highest threat level,”
Kayla replied.
“It is, but this isn’t nearly as wild as Oblivion, so we chose
to go with the highest threat level the town had ever faced,” the
goddess of tiles said, shrugging.
“Please, we beg you, do something about this before they
turn this town into a wasteland. I say this in the name of every
non‐human living in the area,” the goddess of tiles spoke.
The older ghost sighed, trying to calm her nerves. “Yazz is
right, of course we’ll do it. This place is our home too, and you
guys are part of my pack at this point. That being said, I’m not
sure how much help we spirits will be… And Erio may or may
not flip out at me.”
The lead goddess stood straighter while the others shared
whispers of relief. “Shouldn’t you force him to act now? Think
of this like a first step, boss.”
94
“Yeah… Thanks. I’m counting on you all to side with us
when the time comes, alright?”
The goddess of tiles smiled and saluted. “Certainly. The net‐
work of minor gods will be at your service.”
Kayla nodded. “Get everything ready. It’s a bit earlier than
we planned, but…”
Brandon rose an eyebrow and decided to speak now. “Ok,
despite how Alexander the Great‐y all of this sounds, I’m gonna
refrain from askin’ questions right now, but I want you two to
know that I’ll be waiting with my notes in hand when you come
back. Don’t die again out there.”
The human watched them leave, worried about his family.
“Mom called from work and said that if the storm got much
worse, she’d stay there until it was over, but… Fred and Ursula
should already be here…”
“Brandon! Open up, we’re freezing out here!” Fred yelled.
The elder brother dashed to let his siblings into the house.
“You’re drenched, you two need to get warmed up.”
95
Both of them were shivering, and they were ice cold. The
younger sister was barely breathing.
“How long have you been out there!?”
“A while… I think… I dunno…” Fred answered, tired and
confused.
Brandon clenched his teeth, alert to the possibility of hypo‐
thermia. “I’ll bring warm clothes and mom’s electric blanket,
stay near the heater. Then I’ll make tea or whatever warm drink
I can find, ok? Do not let Ursula fall asleep.”
Meanwhile, Grandpa was floating above the office building
he lived in, behind Yasmine.
“Kay’s almost done rallying our allies,” she said, eyes closed.
“We’ll need everyone’s support if we’re going to face those gods.”
“... they are the gods of emails and ice cubes, are they not? It
would explain why this storm is so electric if the god of emails is
winning.” Grandpa concluded. “What could be their reason for
this uproar?”
“I can see through Kayla’s eyes, not through our scouts’
eyes. But according to them, it seems like we got their identities
right. Why those two would be fighting, I have no clue. Gods
don’t make sense, remember?”
“True enough… We could wait on Fran. She has met the
god of emails before,” the old spirit suggested, trying to find a
non‐violent solution.
96
“As I’ve told you, I am unsure. I will support your efforts
without directly involving myself. But I think you should cut off
the connection for now… You become dangerously irritable
when you do this.”
The younger spirit took a few seconds, sighed, and dropped
on her knees, finally opening her eyes to look at Grandpa. “...
you’re right, sorry about that. We’re vastly different types of
spirit, and the flames of wrath are normally too much for me to
handle, at least on a regular basis.”
Grandpa smiled. “I’m glad you understand.”
“... but Kayla can’t deep dive into the bond like I can, so I’ll
just have to grin and bear it, like I always have. How are Klimt
and Erio doing?”
Yasmine stood up. “I know it’s cruel, but we didn’t choose
for him. That day, we told everyone except Erio exactly how we
felt, and we allowed you all to make your choice. Some didn’t
even think about it, like Lily, who joined us right away. Others,
like you, still refuse to take a stand. The rest asked for more time,
97
and eventually gave their answer. Klimt decided to commit to
this cause, even if it means he has to fight his boyfriend. We told
him a few days ago that he could back out whenever he wanted.
No matter how you look at it, this is his choice, Grandpa.”
“... what will you do if he lets Erio go?”
“Then I’m up. A half‐baked death god is nothing for me
at full power, even without my ability,” said Kayla, floating
up to them with the goddess of tiles in tow. “I heard all of it,
you know. Sense sharing goes both ways. Gramps, please stop
distracting us. It’s fine if you want to stay neutral, but if you
start nagging my allies, I might have to do something I’d pre‐
fer not to do.”
“... is that a threat?”
Kayla shrugged. “Maybe. So what if it is?”
Grandpa bowed his head and vanished, preferring to back
out of the situation before it got any worse.
Yasmine rose an eyebrow. “Thalia?”
98
all these years… Dear life, it’s been over 25 thousand years
since I was born.”
Kayla smiled back at her. “And it was about time. I don’t
know how you minor gods do that whole… living without a
name thing.”
“It’s very nice to meet you again, Thalia,” said Yasmine. “I’d
love to hear about all the others and their new names, but right
now… I’m afraid we’ve got bigger problems. The gods and spir‐
its are all gathered, you said?”
Grandpa watched the three of them leave, for the first time
feeling chained to the office building. He didn’t know what to
do, so he stayed back in the darkness of his nest, watching the
clouds swirl and the lightning cross the sky.
“... I come in peace. I’m an ally. I was looking for my grand‐
mother… And she told me to come here and watch you,” the
stranger said, putting their empty hands up in the hair.
“Grandmother…? Who are you?”
“My name is Alex. My mother and her brother were
adopted into this family during World War II.”
99
Brandon didn’t lower the knife. “... wait, are you… Yasmine
told me she and Kayla raised a kid together. Could it be…?”
“They actually raised two. My mother and my uncle. Can
you… put that away now, please?”
“Come into the light so we can see you,” said Brandon, leav‐
ing the knife on the counter.
The person looked young, younger than Brandon but older
than Ursula. They had white and brown hair, with turquoise
eyes. Another thing of note was their clothes. The only piece of
clothing fit for winter was their scarf. Brandon had no clue how
they weren’t freezing.
“Before you ask, because humans always do, I’m not a child,
I’m 32 years old,” the strange person said, coming closer.
“... you are really short. Like… you’re barely taller than
Anna, and Anna’s a dwarf,” Brandon commented.
“I am aware, thank you very much. I’m here to check on the
situation and watch over you if anything goes wrong. Is every‐
thing alright?”
“Yeah, Fred and Urs are still a little cold, but it looks like we
avoided the worst case scenario. Shouldn’t you dry off? And
generally not go out into a terrible supernatural storm?”
The newcomer shook their head, wringing all water out of
their scarf. “I’ll be fine. My body temperature is lower than a
human’s, so the cold doesn’t affect me as much as it would
your kind.”
“... my kind? Ok, what are you if you’re not a human, then?”
100
“I am human. Just… not completely. I’m a hybrid. My father
was a spirit, and my mother was a human.”
“... that can happen? Do you have cool powers like Yazz and
Kayla?” Brandon asked, curious.
“Wait. Take me with you. It’s been hours, and doing nothing
is driving me nuts. I wanna help,” said Brandon.
“But you’re just a human. Speaking from personal experi‐
ence, humans are not very good at surviving. They’re like
squishy little plush toys.”
“I’ve been training!”
“Ursula? What in the world would make you think an even
younger human has more chances than me? Are you insulting
me?” Brandon asked, crossing his arms.
“Is she not a primal mage?”
Brandon frowned. “A what? No, she’s just a kid.”
The stranger rose an eyebrow, headed to one of the kitchen
cabinets, and quickly opened it, watching several animals stum‐
ble out. “This doesn’t feel like ‘average human’ to me.”
101
“What!?”
There were two cats, a raccoon, a fox, several rats, and even
an owl scurrying about. All the noise woke Fred and Ursula
up. Fred gave a tiny yell and jumped, finding one of the rats
near his hand.
In contrast, his younger sister seemed worried. “Oh dear…
They must’ve come in because of the storm. Give me a second.”
Ursula took a deep breath and whistled loudly. All the ani‐
mals stopped on their tracks and stared at her. Then, they hur‐
ried to surround her.
“Hey! What is this?” Brandon demanded to know, little af‐
ter Fred hid behind him, afraid of the rats.
Ursula giggled while the fox and cats nuzzled her, spread‐
ing out her arm for the owl to perch on. “They’re my friends. I
play with them almost every night. Don’t worry, they’re usually
really well‐behaved, I promise! Can they stay?”
The stranger watched with a smile, though Brandon and
Fred took another step back. “I cannot imagine a raccoon ever
being well‐behaved… But I’d feel bad sending them out there
right now… They can stay until the storm passes.”
While Ursula happily let the rats climb to her arms and
shoulders, Fred asked his stepbrother a question he deemed
quite important. “Brandon, why is there a stranger in our house?
And where did all of those things come from!?”
Brandon blinked, realizing he didn’t know. “I… I actually
don’t even know his name. Just that he’s… apparently our fam‐
ily?”
102
“Ah, right. My name is Alex. And… please use non‐binary
pronouns for me.”
“Oh fuck, sorry I misgendered you, won’t happen again,”
said Brandon, bowing his head in apology.
“It’s fine, it’s fine, you didn’t know,” Alex said. “Your
names are Fred and Brandon, yes?”
“How do you know us? Hey, I don’t think he’s anyone’s
family…” Fred said.
Brandon was beginning to understand that Fred not know‐
ing about the supernatural world was a problem. Alex had in
turn understood that Fred had no idea how they were related to
him. Then, the phone rang.
Fred went to get it, wanting to be as far away from the rats
on Ursula as he could. “Yeah? Guys, it’s mom.”
Brandon walked up to him, wanting to hear what his
mother was saying, but realized halfway there that there was
no sound coming from the phone at all. Before he could speak
up about it, Alex discreetly grabbed his wrist and shook their
head at him.
“I see… She says a distant cousin of ours was supposed to
come visit for a few days, and she’s asking if they made it. Yes,
there’s a kid called Alex here.”
Fred continued talking into the phone as if in conversation
with his mother. Brandon took a few steps away so he could talk
to Alex about this. “What is he doing? It’s really freakin’
creepy.”
103
Ursula giggled, petting her fox friend. “It’s an illusion. It
sounds nothing like mommy, but I think Fred hears her voice.”
“The child mage is right. The moon is still out, so I used lu‐
nar‐powered sound illusions. It’s simple magic. I can’t do much
more, sadly, but in his current state, your family exorcist won’t
be able to tell it apart from reality,” Alex explained, smiling as if
this were the most normal thing in the world.
“I guess Kayla wasn’t kidding when she taught me about
all that magic stuff…” Brandon muttered. “But for the last time,
my sister is not a mage.”
“Maybe not yet, but a little blood magic could easily un‐
leash her full potential. That would be up to my grandmothers,
I suppose,” Alex turned to see Ursula talking to the animals. “I
have never seen anyone with such a strong inherent connection
to the moon… I don’t think she will lose it as she grows.”
Brandon sighed, dragging his hand down his face. “Ok, if
you’re anything like all the other spirits I’ve met, you’re not
gonna care about a single thing I have to say. So just lemme
ask… What does that connection entail?”
“Well, for starters, she can talk to nocturnal animals, as they
all share a bond to the moon. I’m no expert, but that should
mean she has an easy time detecting the supernatural. I don’t
know what else I could tell you, but my grandmothers should
know. Ask them when they get back.”
104
Alex started to laugh loudly. “This is too much… Do you
really think they’d get shattered? No way. Sure, they might lose,
but they’ll be safe and sound, I’m sure. For starters, spirits of
virtue are absolutely incredible. Then we have the power a spirit
of wrath holds in their primal state. Add to that Kayla’s ability,
and there’s no way they’ll be shattered, especially if they’re to‐
gether. That’s not counting the treaty.”
“The what?” Brandon asked.
“… did grandmother not tell you about the treaty? It was a
pretty big deal. Blood pacts are usually reserved for historical
events, what with the fact that the pact doesn’t care what hap‐
pens, it absolutely will not break. I’m surprised all three of them
signed it.”
Fred then jogged over to them from the telephone. “I’m
sorry for being suspicious of you. Mom told me you’re staying
with us for a few days, so I guess you’re fine. Come with me, I’ll
give you a tour of the house.”
105
Day 3
When Brandon woke up, he couldn’t hear rain or thunder.
He looked around himself and saw both of his siblings asleep
closer to the now extinguished fire, though a few feet apart,
probably due to Ursula sleeping in a pile of animals.
Alex was sipping some tea at the table. “Good morning,
Brandon. I hope you three slept well.”
“... did you sleep at all?”
“No. Spirits don’t need to sleep, and I can stay awake for
about a week without major problems. My job was to stand
guard last night,” the hybrid answered.
Brandon looked around, seeing that sunlight came in from
every single window. “Did you remove the planks?”
“No. My body is kind of weak, physically speaking.
Grandma did. When they came back, they were both in primal
state, so it was a piece of cake to burn them all.”
“She set FIRE to the planks!? In the house!?”
“Well, no. Granny Yasmine set fire to the planks. Spirits of
wrath are not very good at aiming or controlling their flames, so
they did their bond thing. I’m sure you’ve seen it before. They
usually need to be touching one another, it’s like… sharing their
power,” Alex tried to explain.
The golem from a couple days ago came to the front of Bran‐
don’s mind. That must’ve been it. If Kayla was stronger and Yas‐
mine more accurate, it would make sense for Yasmine to be the
one externalizing their combined power.
106
“I see… Where are they now? Is my mom home?” Brandon
asked, walking into the kitchen to make himself a small break‐
fast.
“Grandma Kayla is out cold, probably won’t wake up in
a day or more. It’s the first time she spends so much time in
her primal state since Oblivion. Your mother left a voice mes‐
sage earlier to say that she was going to get breakfast and then
head home.”
Brandon walked back to the table with a glass of orange
juice and sat opposite to Alex. “Great, now I just need to get
those animals and any trace of them out of the house before mom
gets here. Thank goodness school got canceled for the day…”
“Ok, first order of business,” said Yasmine, appearing out
of nowhere and making Brandon jump out of his seat. “Alex,
round up the other spirits. The gods will be waiting for us at
Michelle’s, I had Jeremy guard the troublemakers’ holding cell.
Meanwhile, I’ll carry Kayla there and see if I can figure out how
to get them out of the cell.”
Alex saluted and hurried to leave.
“You… are acting weird. Is everything ok?” asked Brandon.
Yasmine rolled her eyes. “Yeah, of course. I guess you still
haven’t seen me like this. Don’t get too attached to this side of
me, I do not take charge often.”
Her tone of voice was sharp and uncaring, much different
from what Brandon was used to.
“... is it me or are you meaner than usual?”
107
“I don’t have time for your questions, take care of your sib‐
lings while we’re gone.”
And she vanished. Brandon stared at the spot Yasmine had
just been in and blinked. “... wow. I really didn’t think Yazz
could be an asshole.”
Once there, he found the old spirit in human form, helping
around. One of the managers gave Brandon a mop and sent him
to ‘go help the dinosaur’. The managers were not fond of
Grandpa.
“Ah, I am glad to see you safe, young man. Thalia and the
other gods had a hard time fighting the foreigners during the
storm,” the old ghost greeted, smiling kindly.
“It wasn’t you and the other spirits?” Brandon asked, rais‐
ing his eyebrows in surprise.
“No, we were only there for the intimidation factor. Gods
tend to not take each other seriously, so we formed a circle
around them in our primal states. It also served to keep them in
a confined space. One that our Alpha then turned into a cage.”
The human started to mop the floor. “Does it really take that
much energy…? With how strong Kayla is, I wouldn’t have ex‐
pected that to knock her unconscious for a day.”
108
“What? The only thing she did was…” Grandpa hummed
in thought. “Unless she’s been doing more than we think…”
“So you’ve met her. Yes, she tends to act… different.”
“Different how?”
“It is not like when Kayla puts up a front for Lily. Where
Kayla is kind and rather soft as a leader, Yasmine is firmer, boss‐
ier, though she only usually shows that side of herself in its full
glory when Kayla isn’t there to see it. She knows what she’s do‐
ing, I’ll give her that. The older sister has a strong sense of justice
and easily empathizes with others, and that can lead to her mak‐
ing some… questionable decisions. As you’ve mentioned, be‐
cause of how powerful Kayla is, that could be a problem. That is
why we rely on Yasmine to help steer her in the right direction,
either by advising Kayla or by taking full advantage of her rights
as our Alpha’s mate, the second highest authority within the
pack. Those rights include the ability to speak and act in Kayla’s
name whenever she’s incapacitated or not present. Overall, our
collective opinion is that they balance each other out pretty
neatly, as both lovers and sisters. That double relationship is also
a wonderful security net for us. It is never a good thing for the
rest of the pack when an Alpha and their mate split up.”
“That happens? From what Yazz told me, spirit mates seem
to be something like a spouse or a soulmate rather than a girl‐
friend or boyfriend, someone whose bond with you is perceived
as unbreakable. The way she put it, it sounded like splitting up
just isn’t a thing for them,” said Brandon.
109
Grandpa nodded. “It hardly ever happens. But if we ever
take you to a Spirit Congress meeting, you will quickly realize
how great and well‐rounded our leaders are compared to all the
other couples… and trios… and others… Except the few who
lead solo, actually. Those are incredibly stable and level‐headed.
But I have seen those only once, when Kayla called for a conti‐
nental summit. Or, well, filed a request to the queen so that she
would call for one. Otherwise, the others and I get to stand qui‐
etly in the corner and watch the rest of spirit pack leaders in our
country yell at one another for hours or days on end.”
“... so you have like… heads of government and stuff?”
“No, it’s not nearly as developed as you probably think it is.
The people who gather are the Alphas of all packs in a specific
territory. They take their pack with them most of the time, and
it’s our death god supervisor’s job if they want to be on good
terms with the spirits they supervise to watch over our grounds
in the meantime. However, because they absolutely do not trust
us, they send an elite death god from their headquarters to wit‐
ness the summits. It is most likely an attempt to prevent orga‐
nized crime or possible uprisings.”
110
“... they have been going to Congress on their own for a
while. It started little after you moved in.”
“Is this about what you told me the other day? About
Kayla’s plan?”
“Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go find them!” said
Brandon, tossing his mop to the side and successfully attracting
the attention of all nearby workers, who then simply returned to
their tasks.
“... do you know where they are?” Grandpa asked, unsure.
“Yazz said something about going to Michelle’s… She told
Alex to get the others, and she said the gods would be waiting
there. She mentioned our cousin Jeremy too, but I wasn’t paying
all that much attention.”
“The cell. Yasmine asked Jeremy to keep watch until the
middle gods got here to pick those two up… They should have
already come and gone. The mid‐gods are quick, it never takes
this long for them to wrap these types of things up. There was
111
They swiftly left the building, and Grandpa floated towards
the cafe, with Brandon sprinting after him. Passersby would
look at him weird, but right now, the human didn’t care one bit.
When they got there, they saw that the cafe seemed to be closed.
Grandpa guided Brandon to a side door that he unlocked from
the inside, usually reserved for employees, and they went in.
“It’s empty,” said Brandon, looking around the cafe. “It al‐
most looks abandoned.”
“It is certainly not empty. I can feel much power in the area.
There is a considerable congregation… It’s not only those two
foreign gods. They must be in the back. Come,” the spirit said,
motioning with his hand.
Before they could get to the back door, something smashed
right into the side of Brandon’s head, sending him flying to‐
wards a sofa and knocking him out. Grandpa was now on
guard. What had hit his human companion was… a tile.
“I’m not just gonna let you stride on past, you know,” spoke
a female voice from the counter. “Aim’s pretty good from here,
so I don’t think I’ll need my golems. That is, unless you choose
to summon your armies, fallen casualty.”
Thalia, with her childlike body, was sitting there with a tile
hovering over her hand.
“Who put you up to this?”
112
human to a hospital, or you can go on ahead,” the minor god‐
dess said.
Thalia smashed the tile on the counter and started kicking
the air, speaking with sudden light‐heartedness. “Don’t say
it! That was already hard enough to do, don’t remind me!
He’ll be fine, it’s not a lethal wound or anything… I try not to
aim that well.”
“Thank you,” Grandpa nodded.
The minor goddess crossed her arms and pouted. “I did
not sign up for fighting at home… Just go. Don’t say I didn’t
warn you!”
The spirit, knowing that Thalia would likely take care of
Brandon and his wound, floated ahead toward where he knew
the foreign gods were being kept. He phased through the door
and flew down the stairs to the underground area Michelle had
found in her cafe a few years back. There, some meters away
from the door, were Jeremy and his unconscious mother.
“Grandpa!” the boy shouted, his heart almost beating out of
his chest.
“What happened here? Why do I feel such a surge of power
behind the door?” Grandpa asked, seeing in Jeremy’s blind eyes
an absolute terror that almost made him completely irrational.
“I‐it’s Yasmine. I’m not sure what she did… but the air is
cracking! Everything is weird in there, things are floating, I think
113
the two foreign gods might be dead, a‐and she’s acting really
mean. Way meaner than usual, and even meaner than when
Kayla’s not with her! I ran as far as I could, I‐I could barely
breathe in there,” Jeremy hastily explained.
“Deep breaths, boy. Where’s Alex? And where are the oth‐
ers? What happened to your mother?”
The human breathed in and out a few times. “Alex is in
there… They’re trying to calm her down. If by ‘the others’ you
mean the rest of the spirits, they’re all out distracting Erio, from
what I gathered… Mom is fine, but she fainted when it all
started. Yasmine said it might’ve been because she’s so sensitive
to the spiritual, before she went nuts.”
Through the door and another corridor, Grandpa reached the
wider room where they’d been keeping the gods. It was hard for
him to move at all in the room, it seemed like the pressure would
crack his bones at any given point, and he could not open his eyes
without them bursting. He soon fell on his knees, audibly.
“Oh? I wasn’t expecting more company…”
The spirit reinforced his physical body, which allowed him
to actually open his eyes. The image before him was not a pretty
sight. Yasmine was floating near the middle of the room, fully
114
corporeal and with blood coming from her eyes, trailing down
her face. Her hair was disheveled and she was breathing heav‐
ily, with a large visible aura around her. Grandpa wasn’t sure if
the red eyes were from her primal state, the blood, or something
else. Floating behind Yasmine and still unconscious was Kayla,
translucent as ghosts usually turned when they were low on en‐
ergy. Both of their Cores were visible in the area where the heart
would be, and both were attached to one another by countless,
glowing red threads, some intertwined with black threads. This
gave the elder spirit all the information he needed to connect the
dots. With a brief look around the room, he quickly set his eyes
on the bodies of both foreign gods, partially decomposed as they
crumbled to dust, in addition to an agonizing Alex on the floor.
The hybrid was bruised and tired, but other than that, Yasmine
didn’t seem to have caused them harm. They seemed relieved to
see Grandpa, considering they passed out right after that.
“Right now, the ability to stop time would be very useful…”
spoke a female voice from the corner. “But since I can’t do that,
I’ll just tell you to not try and fight her right now.”
Grandpa didn’t take his eyes off Yasmine for long, seeing
her twitch involuntarily every few seconds, but in the few
glances that he managed to give the person in the corner, he suc‐
cessfully identified her as Death.
“The lack of reports from Congress… was it you?” he
asked her.
“Yep. Kay asked me if, as a death god, I would be willing to
stand in for the supervisors, and I said yes. The only thing I’ve
115
done since I agreed to that is stand in the corner though, ok? I
did not do that,” she said, pointing at the foreign gods’ corpses.
“You sound uncomfortable,” Grandpa responded, opting to
ignore Yasmine for now, since her mind didn’t seem to even pro‐
cess reality at this point.
“Tell me, then. How can we fix… that?” asked Grandpa.
“... I guess it’s fine if I give you a hint… Ask her why.”
The old spirit felt a little dumb not having understood the
hint. “What?”
Grandpa was not so sure it would work as well as Death
seemed to think it would, but took a deep breath and prepared
to dodge and defend. It was his first time since he’d settled into
the street actually doing something action‐related. He was very
116
worried, especially because the something he was about to do
would probably be one of the most dangerous and gutsy things
he’d ever done. He charged up some of his spiritual energy and
shot it at Yasmine as Death ducked back into her shadowy cor‐
ner to observe.
Yasmine’s response was shrinking pupils and a very loud
scream. The orange, oval‐shaped projectiles vanished before
reaching her. Hissing, she floated higher and clawed at the air,
causing red cracks to appear all over it.
“She’s gonna tear reality apart! Talk, now!” Death yelled.
“Alright, alright, I understand… This is foolish and it is not
going to work… Yasmine! Listen, why are you doing this?”
The younger spirit winced and all threads throbbed, but she
shook her head and growled at Grandpa, sending a barrage of
red blade‐like projectiles. Grandpa barely managed to dodge so
many at a time.
“Go again!” Death called.
“Do you not see that it’s not doing anything? Come up with
a better plan or help me!” Grandpa yelled back.
“No, it is working! Just keep trying! It’ll get through even‐
tually!”
Grandpa rolled out of the way of another projectile. “Even‐
tually!?”
“Look, I know you probably don’t want to, but you have to
trust me. Seriously, I don’t get why everyone still hates me so
117
much, but I only have one thing to say to you right now; TALK.
TO. YASMINE. It’s your best shot!”
The elder spirit groaned, sending more projectiles to try and
keep Yasmine busy. “Come on, young lady, remember your mo‐
tive! Look at what you’re doing!”
“Ok, so she can speak now. What does that accomplish?”
Grandpa asked Death.
“For now, it means you’re making progress. Make her re‐
member and she’ll realize several things instantly. From there,
you just have to stand far away, be quiet, and give her time.”
“You act like you’ve seen this before.”
Grandpa turned back to Yasmine, who looked confused and
considerably less aggressive. “Yasmine… Why did you kill the
foreign gods?”
The ‘how’ would be asked later, but for now, it was time to
see if the person with the ability to easily break reality at the mo‐
ment would really realize what she was doing or not. “I…”
Yasmine screamed in pain and fell on her knees, which
prompted Grandpa to back away, just in case. “Is it over?”
118
“Shh. Let her remember,” Death told him.
Five minutes later, Yasmine’s breakdown was over, and her
normal tears had washed away the bloody ones. She seemed to
have fallen asleep.
Kayla stirred awake and sat up next to her sister. She
looked around, closing and opening her fist. “What hap‐
pened? My head hurts and my Core feels way warmer than it
normally should.”
Death smiled and walked up to her friend, offering her a
hand. “Where to start…”
Kayla noticed her own higher opacity. “I take it Yazz did
something. I feel much stronger than usual.”
“Long story, but…” Death gestured around the floor of the
room, drawing attention to the almost fully dusted gods and
Alex.
“... Oh. I… I’ll get the memories from Yasmine later. Give
me a second, I have to fix this.”
The downcast older sister rose her hand and the cracks in
reality closed immediately with a red flicker of her usually
blue eyes. Everything seemed to have returned to normal.
Alex sat up groggily, still a bit in pain, and tried to process
what had happened.
119
“If you assumed she killed those two gods, you assumed
right. That’s the surge in power you felt when you woke up,”
Death said.
Kayla was silent for almost a full minute, with her head
down and her eyes closed. Then, she scooped Yasmine up in her
arms and turned around. “Let’s go home. Thanks for helping,
Grandpa.”
In the blink of an eye, both sisters disappeared, and all three
remaining people recognized the beat they felt as a teleport.
“... in that case, I’ll head back for now. Pretty sure Lilith may
have killed the microwave again. Her adaptation to the human
world has not been the swiftest…” Death commented.
“You better get used to it, old geezer. Things are only going
to escalate further from here. And I’m not sure how much longer
Lilith and I will be able to stay out of Kayla’s business,” Death
ominously finished.
120
“Well that’s not gonna happen.”
“Does that mean we shouldn’t worry about them, Master?”
“Exactly. They won’t do much.
Anyway, did you have something to tell me?”
“The others’ sense of unease has only grown as of late, and the em‐
press’ court seems more uncomfortable with each passing day.”
“About what?”
“You. You make odd choices, for starters.
I heard them talking about me mostly, though.
I make everyone uncomfortable, that’s nothing new.”
“Ah, so that’s why. They simply can’t understand why I keep you so
close. You aren’t a core member, and I usually don’t interact much
with the juniors. You’re an elite member, sure, but that rank didn’t
really exist before you came along. You stand somewhere strange,
unprecedented. Are you worried?”
“No, but I figured you’d want to know. There are certain implications
behind their gossiping, and in our current situation…”
“True, I don’t have my full omnipresence, since I lent it to you…
Thanks for the report. I knew there would be several possible futures
where we’d be chased out. It was unnecessary, though I may toy
around with this new piece of information later. When we’re done
messing with the KPs, that is.”
“Is there anything specific you want me to do there?”
“Nah. Just keep watching them, a good chance will come around
eventually. Soonish, I predict. Dismissed.”
121
Interlude 3
After the end of the battle against the foreign gods…
Alex put a wooden box on the floor of the attic and sighed.
“What exactly are we looking for, granny?”
Yasmine rummaged through a different closet. “Books. Spe‐
cifically, a very thick one made by hand.”
“The cover is a dark golden color, might smell of god
blood.”
“I suppose I can tell you… Time is short, and I can’t con‐
vince my sister to do something if she’s unconscious. I’ve done
the math, keeping Kay’s ability out of it, and both of us together
should be able to kill those two gods and absorb their power.”
“W‐what? But why would you want to do that?”
“Kayla decided to fully commit to our goals. Anything for
the cause, right? So that’s what I’m doing, trying to make sure
things go smoothly for her when the time is right. I won’t allow
anyone to get in her way.”
Alex bit their lip, trying to think of a way to deter the spirit
from doing this. “But…”
122
“I get it, you’re uncomfortable helping with this. Go down‐
stairs and wait for the kids to wake up, watch over them,” Yas‐
mine told them, making a portal under their feet.
Alex ended up in the living room, pacing up and down
the room without making a sound. “I can’t tell anyone about
this… And I have to do whatever granny says… She looked kind of
unstable. I can’t put my finger on it, but there’s something wrong…
Maybe I should contact Death…? Yeah, she’ll know what to do. I
hope. She’s known granny much longer than I have and she’s gen‐
erally more knowledgeable about most things… Now, how does one
get in touch with Death?”
The hybrid’s eyes fell on one of the animals sleeping near
Ursula, and an idea came to mind. They picked up an old
sleeping rat. “I kind of suck at summoning magic, but it should
work… Forgive me, little one.”
123
HAUNTED CINEMA
Day 1
Jeremy connected two of the wires on the floor, not 100%
sure if he was doing it right.
“That’s good, thanks!” called his girlfriend from the com‐
puter. “Normally I’d have Loke help me out, but the thunder‐
storm last week caused some damages to the mainframe… I’m
still working on fixing it.”
“So you’re out of butlers and guards?” he asked her, sitting
near where she was working.
“I’m out of everything. The cinema itself still works, I fixed
everything else already. You know, like the popcorn ma‐
chines, the projectors… All that stuff. But the bots are still not
operational.”
“Just tell me the nuclear warhead isn’t broken.”
“I told you it’s not a nuclear warhead, those are much easier
to make, if I can get my hands on those pesky materials. And the
missile is fine. I wasn’t even done with it, so it can’t really ex‐
plode yet,” Fran explained.
125
“Say… How’s Yasmine? Her Core got charred, right?” Jer‐
emy asked his black‐haired girlfriend.
“Not sure. Neither boss has shown their face since the inci‐
dent a few days back, but I imagine they’ll be going through a
lot. In a way, Yasmine was hiding an essential part of herself
from Kayla.”
“Isn’t that… extremely catastrophic? When a spirit pack’s
leader and their mate break up...”
“Nah, they wouldn’t break up over this. Have faith in them.
They’ll pull through. Couples might break up, but family always
forgives.”
Jeremy smiled. “The safety net, huh?”
“Yup! Now come on, Thalia’s coming to see if we can work
something out for the golems. A combination of her golems
and my bots would be amazingly effective on the battlefield!
Uh, I think.”
“I should probably go to sleep soon, but I guess the night is
still young…” said Jeremy, briefly glancing at his watch.
Meanwhile, Kayla had been sitting on the roof of her house,
staring up at the moon with her legs dangling over the edge, for
hours. She normally flew up to the place she jumped from to
think, or when she was feeling down. Yasmine phased through
the ceiling and hesitantly floated up to her.
Kayla didn’t need to turn around. “... how’s your Core?”
Yasmine pulled her nightgown down to look at her chest,
where there was a faint light blue glow. “It’s better… Can I sit
here?”
126
The older sister nodded, looking down. They sat together in
silence for a few seconds.
“Why did you hide that from me? You know I swore to
love every side of you, forever, even after death do us part…”
said Kayla, feeling her eyes burn with unshed tears. “Don’t you
trust me?”
Yasmine turned her head, momentarily startled, and
clenched her hands together on her lap. “Of course I do! I just…
it’s complicated.”
This was met by Kayla placing her own hands on Yasmine’s
and scooting closer. “Then tell me! Explain! Please, I don’t want
there to be any secrets between us.”
“... deeper than the sea and stronger than spider silk, was
it?” said the younger one, smiling in nostalgia after a few sec‐
onds of silence. “I… I’m sorry… I’m really sorry that I even
thought about doubting you, and I promise I won’t hurt you like
this again, I swear on the Creators.”
The girls sealed the deal with a loving kiss under the moon‐
light, lasting a bit longer than usual.
Leaning against her sister, Yasmine took a deep breath and
tried to get her thoughts in order. “It’s… because I’m a spirit of
virtue. I refused Heaven’s offer, so I lack the protection that a
life there would give me. Just like you’re so different from your
living self, I’ve also changed on the inside. I’m… I’m not a good
person. I find it tremendously difficult to be good, to be virtuous.
And… you’re the last person I wanted to hurt.”
127
“Then let’s get you to Heaven! Death’s mom can take you
in, that would make it all easier on you, right?” said Kayla, wish‐
ing to spare her lover as much suffering as she could. And for‐
getting about her more than godlike powers that she hardly
knew how to use.
Yasmine smiled sadly, putting a hand on her sister’s chest.
“I was sure you’d say that, Kay. But I don’t want that life. It
would mean abandoning everything I’ve ever known. My
home, my friends, and most importantly, you. Even my memo‐
ries would likely be gone within a year. Heaven tends to have
that effect on people…”
“Then what can we do?”
Yasmine snuggled deeper into Kayla’s arms. “Grin and bear
it, that’s the way I’ve always done it…”
The older sister frowned. “No. You’re going to learn to fight
your wicked urges, and I’m going to learn to control my flames.
I’ve noticed they hurt you.”
“What? How?”
“I’ll train in Hell, you train in Heaven. We’ll come back here
every day, and make sure we spend more time here than we do
there.”
The younger spirit sat straight, looking Kayla in the eyes.
“But what about‐”
“The plan can wait. You’re more important.”
Yasmine blushed and leaned back onto her sister. “...
okay…”
128
Kayla smiled and kissed her forehead, grinning to herself.
“I love you, Yasmine. Never forget that.”
“... I love you too, sister…”
The two of them closed their eyes and enjoyed the comfort‐
able silence for a couple minutes.
Yasmine was first to break it, with a mischievous hint to her
voice. “... wicked urges, huh?”
It was Kayla’s time to blush, mostly in embarrassment. “Y‐
you know I get carried away when I feel strongly about some‐
thing…”
The younger sister giggled, slid to Kayla’s lap and straddled
her, placing her arms on her shoulders. “What kind of ‘urges’
would you classify as wicked?”
Kayla smiled and put her own arms around Yasmine, shak‐
ing off her fervent blushing. Both spirits then felt a surge of
wrath, accompanied by inner warmth. “I don’t know, why don’t
we find out?”
“Oh, you…! This trick is so cheap… But, I would take you
up on that offer.”
The two began to roughhouse, started by Yasmine tackling
Kayla farther into the roof area. Their light‐hearted laughter
only reached Ursula, who was heading to bed.
The human smiled, petting her newly adopted owl. “Looks
like we had nothing to worry about after all. They’ll be fine.”
Fortunately for her innocence, Ursula went to sleep very
soon after that.
129
Day 2
Jeremy and Fran heard the door to Fran’s workshop close.
Fran grinned widely at the sight of their guests and saluted. Jer‐
emy only bowed his head.
“Wait, Brandon is here?” said Jeremy.
The blonde young man sheepishly rubbed the back of his
head. “I don’t make it that obvious when I’m around you guys,
do I…?”
Brandon shrugged. “I forget he’s technically not completely
blind.”
“Anyway, I’m happy to see you two together, bosses!” Fran
exclaimed, clasping her hands behind her back.
130
Kayla rose her hand a little, successfully causing Jeremy and
Fran to straighten up and stand quietly at attention. “Enough
about us, we’re here to check on the situation. I explained things
to Brandon, and he said he was willing to join the Rebellion.”
“Wow, this kid really wants to get himself killed!” Fran joy‐
fully commented. “Do you want your life to be anything other
than normal that badly?”
Brandon wasn’t sure how to react to someone with Fran’s
attitude, made worse by the confusion his head wound’s pain
still caused him.
“... Fran, settle down,” asked Yasmine, almost as sharp as
the one time Brandon heard her with Kayla unconscious. Her
voice then softened a bit when she looked his way, maybe as a
way of apologizing for before. “He thought about it for longer
than usual.”
“Yes! I’m super happy that Yasmine’s finally being honest
about how she really feels. I promise you all, we’re going to
work hard on our problems and try to improve ourselves as
much as we can,” said Kayla, casually taking her sister’s hand.
131
The other three stared at their interlaced fingers. While the
boys stayed quiet, Fran laughed and started clapping. “This is
great! You’ve started being affectionate in public again! I kinda
missed Kayla’s corniness after so long. Seriously, you two peaked
in the decades after the spirit ball, then somewhere along the line
you closed yourselves up, not sure why considering your private
files that I’m not going to discuss in front of anyone else.”
Jeremy nodded. “Fran is right. I don’t know what exactly
she’s right about, but she’s usually right.”
Yasmine, enjoying her new freedom a bit too much, brought
her free hand to her forehead and growled. “... again, we’re here
to check on military affairs; we keep getting sidetracked. Fran, I
want your surveillance bots up as soon as possible. I think
there’s someone sneaking around our territories. Whoever they
are, we know three things about them. One, they’re extremely
powerful and don’t have a Core. Two, they are not human, but
not a spirit or a god of any sort either. Three… Kayla’s ability is
completely ineffective against them.”
“Manipulation of reality. Or at least, that’s what we call it.
Yes, yes, you can tell us how overpowered that is some other
day. It’s exceedingly difficult for me to convince her to use it an‐
yway…” said Yasmine. “Mostly because she tends to acci‐
dentally break things and doesn’t know how to fix the great ma‐
jority of said things.”
Fran floated up. “Ah! I do know something about the mys‐
terious intruder. Let me see if I can recover the footage.”
132
While the poltergeist practically threw herself on her swivel
chair and started typing away at the computer, the boys were
left alone outside the room with Yasmine and Kayla.
“You’re not gonna be mean forever now, are you?” Brandon
asked, slightly concerned about his friend turning into a bully.
“No… Now that I don’t repress it, it’s not actually that bad.
Not yet, at least… But like Kay said, we’re both working on it,”
Yasmine said.
“Forgive my rudeness, but… Are you sure you’re fit to be
among the other leaders of the Rebellion at the moment?” Jer‐
emy asked.
Yasmine looked away, uncomfortable. “Well…”
“Of course we are! And don’t you dare doubt us, cadet!”
Kayla happily interrupted. “We’re gonna go take a walk, pre‐
pare a detailed report in the meantime.”
Jeremy saluted and the two spirits left. Brandon stared after
them. “... is the salute a thing? Like, is it required?”
133
no idea, just be respectful to those with more experience and es‐
pecially to your superiors, do whatever you think is appropriate.
Ranks weren’t given at random. The people at the top are there
for a reason,” Jeremy warned. “Then again, in this case, I doubt
either of them would mind if we didn’t salute and bow.”
Brandon sighed, caressing his bandages in slight pain. “Got
it… What was that about an intruder, though?”
Jeremy shrugged. “I know the same as you. Fran has a lot
of information… But she never shares it unless you specifically
mention something, and only when she feels like it or when it’s
one of the bosses asking. Come on, let’s check on Loke.”
Meanwhile, in one of the empty showing rooms, Kayla was
walking ahead of Yasmine.
“Thanks for that. You’ve always known when I was in trou‐
ble,” the younger one said.
“... you know… I still haven’t completely forgiven you. You
killed two presumably innocent gods. One of them was even
Fran’s friend. That’s not something we can undo. Gods turn to
dust when they die, and there is no way back. A new god of the
same thing might be born if they are needed, but the same indi‐
vidual won’t return. Ever.”
Yasmine winced. She knew this was coming.
“We only kill to protect ourselves. Even the Rebellion has
largely pacifistic protocols for almost any situation. Why did
you go out of your way to dust those gods? I’ve seen how you
134
did it, but… I just want to know why. Your memories are a little
chaotic around that time.”
“I’m sorry… It’s what I told you yesterday. Since my death,
I haven’t really been myself. I say things that I don’t mean, do
things that I’m sure you know I’d never do. Maybe I’ve gone
mad…” Yasmine mused, trying to keep tears from spilling out
of her eyes. “I think my train of thought went something like ‘if
we’re more powerful, we’ll stand a better chance against the
Gatekeepers’. I don’t know, what am I supposed to say? I’ll just
end up driving everyone away! I don’t want to do or say any of
these cruel things, but I can’t help it!”
The room was silent for a few seconds.
“... I think I understand now,” Kayla turned around, frown‐
ing sadly. “It’s… still going to take some time for me to fully
forgive you, but if you work to overcome the shackles your spirit
type imposes on you and show me that you sincerely regret your
actions, I’ll definitely find it in me to do so. Until then, let’s do
our best together, little sister.”
Meanwhile, in the room where Fran kept her ‘mechas’, as
she called them, Brandon was looking around trying to figure
out how Fran had built them from scraps and parts. Jeremy
was kneeling next to one that almost looked human. Empha‐
sis on almost.
“So that one is Loke? The weird cyborg?” Brandon asked
when he switched his attention to Jeremy.
135
Jeremy stood up. “Yes. He’s also the only one who has a real
soul. He was a human who died in this cinema a long time ago.”
“That reminds me, one of the gods that died was Fran’s
friend, right? Is she ok?”
“I mean, she can’t feel sorrow in the first place. And I don’t
think her emotions work quite like a normal person’s. She has a
hard time caring about things, even when they involve her or
her loved ones. Grandpa said it might be a result of her soul’s…
unusual awakening.”
Suddenly, Loke was engulfed in a bubble of electricity, con‐
vulsed, and bolted up. “Message from Hell! Mistress’ presence
is requested at a ceremony!”
His broken, robotic voice startled both boys, but Jeremy re‐
covered quickly. “Loke, what was that?”
“An urgent message came through, from the lord of thun‐
der’s younger sister. She says he has fallen down in battle. Am‐
bushed by the demons who live in the capital’s suburban area,”
the servant informed. “Where is Mistress Fran?”
Jeremy swiftly answered, in one word. “Workshop.”
Brandon, not sure about what to do, followed Loke and Jer‐
emy to see Fran, who was very happy to see her butler up and
running, but did mutter something about his voicebox.
“Cousin,” Jeremy whispered to Brandon. “Pay attention to
her reaction when Loke tells her what happened.”
Said butler had just told Fran the news. And the polter‐
geist’s reaction was… “Oh. I guess he wants to talk to me before
136
he crumbles to dust. I’ll have to ask the bosses for permission to
go, though.”
That’s when the two sisters returned to the workshop.
“Go where?” Kayla asked.
“Hell. I got a message saying one of the Great Gods had
fallen down, and that he had requested my presence,” Fran ex‐
plained. “I’m pretty sure gods don’t have much time left after
falling down, so… can I go? I won’t stay longer than I have to.”
Kayla nodded. “I’ll reach out to Lilith just in case somebody
gets in your way.”
Fran grinned and summoned a whip of crackling electricity.
“Don’t worry, I know how to defend myself. Thanks, boss! Loke,
try to fix the minor issues in the mainframe. You’re running on
his sister’s power that was leftover from the message, so don’t
overdo it.”
Ten minutes later, Fran was gone, Loke was at the com‐
puter, and the human boys were standing rigidly in a corner,
watching a very tense argument between Death, who had ran‐
domly shown up after Fran left, and Kayla. Yasmine was closer
to them than the boys, but looked far more worried.
137
glared at her friend. “Leaving people behind to rot is more
your style.”
The unbound death god smashed the base of her scythe
against the floor and fast‐traveled away via shadow magic. Af‐
ter she was gone, Kayla let out a breath she didn’t realize she’d
been holding. “She’s been so paranoid lately… I think I’ll talk to
Lilith about it next time I see her.”
Yasmine squirmed in place. “And I want to slap someone
for no reason right now… I’m sorry if I step out of line, Bran‐
don and Jeremy. It feels like prickling all over my body… It’s
unbearable.”
“Yes… Thank you.”
“I told you, I’ll share in your suffering if I have to.”
Jeremy and Brandon stared ahead, letting them have their
moment. The older boy then murmured to his cousin. “Is this a
thing that happens on the regular? Is it just a part of their rela‐
tionship that I’ve been missing all this time?”
“Well, Kayla is corny. I don’t think it’s on purpose either. In
contrast, Erio and Klimt go above and beyond to make sure they
138
don’t seem to be dating, because they’re both paranoid about
HQ finding out Erio’s dating a spirit he’s supposed to super‐
vise. It is truly fascinating to observe, especially when we’re
all together.”
“What about you and Fran?” Brandon asked. “What quirky
relationship dynamic do you have?”
“I was asking about your story. How you two started dating
and all that. I mean, a spirit and a human? It’s a little bizarre.”
This is when Kayla tuned into the conversation. “Oh, oh,
this story’s great. Jeremy got advice from Grandpa, Fran got it
from a songstress we know, and the rest of us officially became
‘the peanut gallery’ in their eyes.”
“True, it was a lot like watching TV,” Yasmine added. “And
the only one who seemed to care about being used for entertain‐
ment was Jeremy.”
“Because my life is not a reality show,” the younger human
insisted, crossing his arms.
Kayla gave him a few light pats on the back. “Aww, come
on. Don’t sulk. It was so great that I’m pretty sure Fran still has
the recordings.”
Jeremy then threw a fit and the tension slowly melted away.
139
Day 3
Kayla had gone with Brandon to talk to Grandpa. Right
now, with the mother of the family at work and the two younger
children at school, Yasmine was alone in the house. And it was
driving her crazy. Her only hope were the healing rays of the
moon, but the sun was still setting outside.
Yasmine growled and flung her arm into a vase, causing it
to smash into pieces against one end of the hallway. She put her
hands on the small table it’d been on and looked at herself in the
mirror. “... I look like crap. Wonderful… Flames of wrath and
virtue’s temptation, clearly the best combo.”
While grumbling to herself, she felt someone watching her
and saw a flash of movement in the shadows. She whirled
around once or twice, trying to locate whatever she’d seen. “...
was it a hallucination…? No, you can’t hallucinate presences…
Can you?”
Yasmine stayed quiet for a few seconds, looking at her sur‐
roundings for any traces of someone other than her.
“W‐who are you!? What do you mean?”
140
The spirit summoned two blades out of red energy and en‐
gaged a combat position. “Did you do something to Fred?”
The voice came from everywhere around her. The walls, the
ceiling, the floor… “You’re still trying to find out where I am?
Well, I can see you, but you won’t be able to see me unless I
decide to show myself. Which is stupid, so I won’t. And you
really think a sentinel like me would dare interfere with the
story? My job is merely to observe and report.”
“What…? Wait, if that’s the case, why are you talking to
me?”
“Am I? I could just be a voice in your head.”
Yasmine tensed up, glaring at the ceiling. “...”
The intruder laughed cruelly. “First off, because nobody’s
going to believe you if you tell them. And second, I’ve been
watching you guys for way too long and I’m bored out of my
mind. I might be able to tank a large amount of boredom for a
pretty long time, but it gets unbearable eventually.”
“Oh, there he is. He got into a fight at school and was sent
home.”
141
Yasmine writhed in pain, her weapons immediately vanish‐
ing. “Why… are you so interested in seeing this? I’ll just… go to
sleep for now… and wait until the others get home.”
The voice giggled, and Yasmine swore she knew it was grin‐
ning from ear to ear, just by the condescending tone it used.
“Will you really?”
She heard some clutter in the kitchen, probably Fred look‐
ing for something to eat, and fell on her knees. Her urge to attack
grew by the second. Yasmine tried to shut herself into the master
bedroom, but before she could get there, she fell on her hands
and knees from the pain. Her rough breathing was more than
enough to see how much effort this was costing her. Ultimately,
everything went red.
Downstairs, Fred was grumpily eating an apple, with band‐
ages wrapped around his knee, both of his hands, his nose… He
looked like he’d taken a beating. It was getting dark outside, so
he went over to the light switch, only to find out that it didn’t
work. None of them worked. In the middle of the main room, he
started to hear a faint scraping sound…
“Is there someone in the house…?” he said to himself. “That
sounds… Almost like a blade.”
He silently went to get a kitchen knife and hid behind a
wooden pillar. The sound seemed to be close to the staircase.
Then, he very clearly heard a sort of tapping. Whatever was
making that sound was heading downstairs. That knowledge
caused Fred to duck into the kitchen and hide better, taking out
his mobile phone and lowering the brightness as much as he
could. He wanted to call the police, but he wasn’t sure what he
142
was up against. It could be a burglar, or it could just be Brandon
playing a nasty prank on him. It didn’t look like his brother was
home, though. When the sound reached the bottom of the stairs,
it stopped. Fred realized after a few seconds just how creepy a
completely silent house with all the lights off was.
Just when he was peeking around the corner to check on the
sound and try to get a visual on it, he felt something sharp
against his throat and a hand on his shoulder. “You weren’t ex‐
pecting to die today, I’m sure…”
The boy gulped, but froze his body as to not risk getting
his head cut off. As far as he could see, the blade was red,
curved, and glowed. It was also cold, and sharp enough to
draw blood just by grazing him. The only other thing he could
deduce was that the hand felt like a woman’s, and she had a
voice he didn’t recognize.
“What is it? Cat got your tongue, exorcist?”
“W‐what‐”
Whoever his captor was, she rose the blade higher, peeling
off more of the outer skin from his neck. “Save it! I’m going to
get rid of you once and for all… Before you cause any further
problems!”
Fred tried to reach for his phone with his foot, to call pretty
much anyone, really. The woman behind him growled, clutched
his throat with one hand, and smashed the tip of the blade that
he now realized was a scythe into his phone.
Too quickly for him to make an escape, she put the scythe
back against his throat. “Oh no you don’t… This is the end, and
143
here’s where you’ll die. Don’t worry, no one will miss you when
you’re gone.”
At that moment, in the instant before that red blade cut
through his neck, Fred felt something deep inside himself. Pan‐
icking, he decided to release whatever it was. At first, he felt
pain, but then he realized that his aggressor had been thrown
against the wall. All of a sudden, it all seemed clearer. His eye‐
sight was better, he could see in the dark, he could hear every
single movement, he felt strong.
Turning to the wall, he saw a girl about his age, maybe
older, shaking some dust off her somewhat Victorian‐style
clothes. “I knew it… Even his seals are useless. That good‐for‐
nothing death god… He’ll be next!”
She leapt towards him, and Fred instinctively put his hands
in front of his face, as if that would stop a giant scythe. While his
eyes were closed in anticipation, the blood on his neck flew to
his hands, and he managed to block the scythe. “W‐what…?”
“Tsk. Hey, you! I know you’re watching! If you want to pro‐
long your entertainment, you’ll listen to me. Help conceal my
barrier from my sister, or else she’ll find us too soon,” she yelled
to the darkness.
The hair on the back of Fred’s neck stood on end, and he
swore he could hear some sort of whisper. Shadows sur‐
rounded them, and he felt gravity disappear. As he floated up
and yelped, the only thing he knew for sure was that they were
no longer inside his house, no matter if the room looked the
same or not.
144
“I can’t control reality like Kayla, so you’ll have to forgive
me for the lack of gravity. Outer space isn’t a fan of it. Oh, right,
and when the oxygen in this room runs out, you’ll bite the dust
anyway, so there’s not really much of a point in resisting me. I
don’t need it though, I’ll be fine without it. Give thanks I can
maintain Earth pressure inside this closed space.”
“Kayla…? Then you must be Yasmine… The ghosts Ursula
often talks about…”
Yasmine rolled her glowing purple eyes. “Don’t waste your
breath, you idiot. I just told you your oxygen is limited.”
Fred clenched his head, feeling an unbearable migraine. He
then forced himself to try and swim in zero gravity, failing. Yas‐
mine charged at him, and that was the last thing he remembered.
145
Day 5
Fred woke up on an unfamiliar sofa, inexplicably exhausted
and with an incredible ache across his entire body.
“Oh, you’re awake,” someone near him said.
With his eyes still foggy, the human tried to sit up, but
bumped his head against something. “W‐what is this? What’s
going on?”
“Well, we didn’t know if you’d be murdery or not when you
came back, soooo Kay just sorta put some kind of invisible box
on the sofa, it shows as a blue force field when you hit it,” said
Brandon, resting his arms on what looked like midair. “Don’t
try to move, you’re probably still anemic. I’m not too sure how
you didn’t bleed out, really, but we should probably thank that
witch doctor from the Syndicate of Magic.”
Fred carefully sat up, but crouching to almost half his size.
There was another sofa in front of him, where Ursula was star‐
ing at him from her spot next to a blue‐eyed young woman.
Looking down slightly, he could see Yasmine apparently asleep
on her lap.
“Big brother isn’t murdery today!” beamed Ursula.
“Where are we…?”
“I don’t really know, it looks like the outskirts of a city.
Kayla brought us here for healing, and mom thinks I brought
you two here on a trip,” Brandon answered, bowing his head
briefly in thanks.
146
“What happened? I don’t remember anything after Yasmine
attacked me…” Fred said, trying hard to recall anything from the
past couple of days.
Brandon then began to talk, happy about knowing things.
“You almost killed Yazz, for starters. When you went nuts, you
used up way too much blood, and ended up fainting little after
Fran and Kay interrupted you. That might’ve been for the best,
not sure what would’ve happened if you’d actually stayed
awake. According to Fran, you almost triggered Kayla’s wrath
mode, and that would not have been a good thing. She can very
much outdo you in murderousness when she’s angry,” Brandon
then realized something and pointed at the other sofa with his
thumb. “That’s her, by the way. She really wasn’t happy about
the number you did on her sister.”
Kayla shook her head, lovingly stroking her sleeping sister’s
short hair with one hand and waving Fred’s apology off with
the other. “It’s fine. I’ve noticed that your problems are some‐
what similar. Besides, you should both be fine after a few more
days here. It’s not the ideal place for healing, but it’s the best we
had at hand.”
They heard someone come down the stairs and craned their
necks up to check who it was. The blonde woman who peeked
her head into the room looked almost like an angel, Fred
thought.
147
“I‐I‐I’m really sorry, I just really don’t like that state. It’s
scary…” she whimpered, leaning into her older sister.
“Shh, it’s ok, I’m here. I promised I wouldn’t leave your side
until we were done, remember?”
Fred waited to hear a door shut. “Is that the doctor?”
“You could call her that,” Brandon answered, taking a seat
next to Ursula now that there was space in the sofa. “I don’t
know how Death can practice medicine, but it’s a thing. Kayla
had her gather a bunch of ingredients from Heaven while she
went above and beyond to get the rest for Yasmine’s remedy.
They also picked up some stuff for yours too. I questioned how
this doesn’t violate their weird contract thingy, but apparently
there are special clauses and loopholes that they can exploit.”
“I see… Wait, DEATH!?” Fred yelled.
“Yes. Ain’t she nice? She usually lives with the princess of
Hell, but said princess is back there dealing with the conse‐
quences of Kayla barging in to grab stuff without permission.
I’m surprised she was so concerned and open to helping us
when we first got here. Last time I saw Death and Kayla speak,
they were having a pretty heated argument. I kinda want a
friendship like that now.”
148
Fred was still processing the part about Death being his doc‐
tor. “I… My doctor is Death itself.”
“Just don’t go into the basement…” Ursula told him, pout‐
ing.
The eldest brother put a hand on his sister’s back. “Urs,
Death said it clearly. You could get hurt if you go down there.
Just stay here or go out to play. Aren’t there lots of mages in
the city?”
“I guess, but…”
With a snap of electricity, a purple‐skinned teenage girl ap‐
peared floating upside‐down and slapped her hands on the bar‐
rier around Fred. “Can I dissect you?”
The human screamed and scurried farther into the sofa. “W‐
who’s this!?”
“Ah, that’s Fran. Local tech expert and poltergeist, lives at
the cinema in our street. Also probably highest god of thunder
right now. What was your title again?” Brandon asked the black‐
haired girl.
“Something akin to ‘Lord of Fulgur’, I think. But I am tech‐
nically the highest god of electricity now. It’s annoying and I’ve
had to leave my fragile, fleshy, squishy human boyfriend in
charge of the workshop until I sort things out. I’ll most likely
delegate all my tasks to my advisors, but until then, Jeremy’s in
charge,” Fran explained, sounding frustrated. Fred swore he
heard her mutter one last “Squishy humans…”
149
“So I’m simply supposed to stay at… Death’s house… until
I recover…?” Fred asked, feeling woozy again.
“Yep. Not sure when you’ll be let out of there though. You
did try to kill us last time we did so,” Brandon commented.
Fred was alarmed to hear this. “I did what!? When!?”
Fran floated down to sit next to Brandon. “Yesterday, you
woke up and we voted to let you out of your cage. You pro‐
ceeded to try and attack us, so I zapped you immediately.
Which… admittedly almost killed you or may have killed you
for real, since we could smell your cooked flesh… but Death
fixed it, so don’t worry about it too much.”
The brown‐haired boy tried to lean back and recoiled in
pain. He rose his shirt and saw that a chunk of his flesh was
missing and the wound was sewn shut. “What is this!?”
“How can you be so casual about all of this!?” Fred asked
his brother.
“I’ve gotten used to it all. So has Ursula, though she said she
grew up in both worlds, so…”
“Anyway!” Fran interrupted. “Wanna see your Core, exor‐
cist?”
150
“Core…?”
“Cores are like the hearts of all beings in this universe,” Fran
cheerfully explained, kicking her legs. “Everyone has one! Ex‐
cept humans, humans don’t usually have them. History hap‐
pened and all. But you and your little sister? You two are excep‐
tional exceptions!”
“What…? How so?” Fred asked.
Brandon laughed. “Dude. Bro. You and Urs have Cores. It’s
awesome. Fran, show us Ursula’s.”
The child rolled her eyes and leaned back a little. Fran, gig‐
gling, floated uncomfortably close and used some sort of elec‐
tric‐like pull over Ursula’s heart. Something round glowed a soft
blue hue.
“See? She’s the only one who can actually pull it out proper,
but I can make it glow and check to see its status,” said the pol‐
tergeist.
“It’s a nice color…” Fred commented.
“It means she has a Moon Core! Like me and the other spir‐
its. Spirits, as the other side of the coin to humanity, are the only
ones who still have Moon Cores, so this is amazing! Humans
used to have Sun Cores, but those are one of the most uncom‐
mon Cores nowadays,” Fran said. “From Ursula’s Core, I can
also tell that she’s nocturnal, and very powerful. I could say
more, like about her magical affinity, habits, personality… but
most of that requires seeing the full Core, and Urs hasn’t learned
to summon it yet.”
151
Fred thought about it. “You said I also have one… Is mine a
Sun Core?”
The room fell silent and the other three exchanged tense
looks. Fran floated up to his cage. “Not really… You are a family
exorcist. All family exorcists are born with a Blood Core to better
serve their purpose.”
Fran flew around the room grabbing some papers and then
sat in midair in front of Fred, showing him some of the papers.
“Blood Cores are uncommon everywhere but in the human
world, so they are largely unexplored territory, but we do have
a sizeable amount of information on them. For starters, you can
control your own blood and that of those who have fallen. It’s
just a theory, but you might be able to control the blood of others
as well, according to an ancient Argemonian legend about a pair
of twins who both had Blood Cores. One of the brothers used his
power to win battles for the northern kingdom by controlling
his and his fallen allies’ blood, he was a very loyal knight. The
other secluded himself in order to learn more about blood magic
and what he could do with a Core based around it. Eventually,
the second brother concluded that all must bear his blood and
that he would conquer the world, starting with Argemonia. His
plan… was foiled by the empress of the east doing what she does
best and then tattling to the northern king and queen. Those two
quickly told the second brother’s twin about it, and they went to
battle. The story after they start their fight is lost to time, but the
general gist of the second brother’s abilities during what we do
152
conserve of the legend suggest that control of other living beings
through their blood is indeed possible.”
“... what’s Argemonia?” Fred asked.
“Bigass piece of Cosmos, five huge countries with an alli‐
ance that has never been disrespected ever since it was estab‐
lished,” Brandon very quickly answered, as if in a timed quiz.
“There’s also a sixth country, but it’s a lot tinier and not part of
the alliance.”
“Correct!” Fran praised. “Good student.”
“As fascinating as I agree Argemonia and its history are, big
brother didn’t react to his frightening power,” Ursula pointed
out, switching positions to sit cross‐legged.
“That’s because magic can’t possibly exist,” said Fred, cross‐
ing his arms. “I can accept that spirits exist, and even probably
the thing about there being worlds other than ours, but magic?”
The other three exchanged looks. Fran rose her hands and
summoned sparks to jump between them, popping like tiny fire‐
crackers. “What do you call this, then?”
He laid on his unhurt side. “You’re a god of electricity,
right? If it’s not some sort of party trick, that’s your power.”
The poltergeist‐god threw a small fireball at an unlit candle,
at the same time as she refilled everyone’s glasses of tea with
153
water by shooting it out of her fingertips and made the sofa with
Brandon and Ursula on it float on a sort of twister.
Fred stared at her. “... ok… I… I’m out of arguments. I don’t
know how you did that.”
“That’s what I wanted to hear,” said Fran, crossing her arms
with a satisfied huff.
The twister gently vanished, setting the sofa on the floor,
and then Ursula spoke up. “Fran, Fran, can you tell us stories
about Argemonia? I really like some of the ones I’ve heard.”
“I’m not very good at telling stories, though…” Fran mut‐
tered, rubbing the back of her head. “Most of my novels are
quite scientific. I should leave the oral storytelling to Kayla, she’s
much better at it.”
“That’s because she makes it interactive,” Ursula said, try‐
ing to convince the spirit.
“And because she gives every character a voice, adapts the
stories, is a great narrator…” Brandon listed.
Ursula whined loudly, bored and frustrated.
That night, while it rained heavily and everyone was asleep,
Fred woke up a little, wanting to go to the bathroom. When his
eyesight cleared and he looked up, he froze. Glowing red eyes
were glaring down at him with the fury of a thousand suns. He
couldn’t see who it was in the darkness, but all desire to empty
his bladder completely left his mind after that. He curled up in
the fetal position and tried to fall asleep again. Until the last mo‐
ment, he saw those eyes looking straight at him, and he almost
swore he could hear the shadows giggling.
154
“So. It seems our little psychopath did her thing.”
“I‐I’m sorry, boss. I know my cousin
can be a bit difficult to deal with…”
“Eh. I expected this. Let’s not tell her we know about this yet. What I
find kind of interesting is this burning hatred for all living beings
that I saw in that character’s eyes. You wouldn’t expect it from this
one… It could be troublesome.”
“For us, or for them?”
“That depends on how this curious character decides to deal with that
inner hatred. Not sure they’re aware that they have it, though.
I advise you to‐ Ow!”
“Letter from your parents, ma’am!”
“WHY does the mailboy always come through gaps as if he were a
cannonball!? Ugh, anyway… I’ll read this later. You, for now, go
talk to the others and find the old hag responsible for the interreality
mailing system.”
“... y‐yes, boss…”
“What could ‘my parents’ want from me right now? Didn’t I tell
them I wasn’t coming home for my aunt’s weird celebrations? Did
she get impeached so they need me as a lawyer or something? Wait,
no, at least two of my elder siblings can do that already. What is this
letter…? Oh. A warning… ‘remember, you don’t control what the
author chooses to include in a story’ and ‘you are only supposed to
comment on each chapter from an outside perspective’... Wonderful,
155
this probably means I need to shut up when I’m so close to the human
realm. I think arguing with the interreality mail system’s creator is
far more important for the safety of my head than commenting the
chapter, though. Well then… Until next time.”
156
Interlude 4
Long, long ago, in Hell…
A tall, bulky man dressed in dark red armor rose his broad‐
sword. “Soldiers, are you ready for a fight!?”
The crowd of corporeal spirits cheered. Across the barren
wasteland they stood on, the soldiers of Heaven watched them
while putting their light blue helmets on.
Their general sighed. “Archers, ready your bows. They are
definitely going to charge at us. Like they always do.”
Back with the army from Hell, the general had just ordered
them to charge, and Kayla’s job was to jump on Heaven’s army
from above, alongside every other spirit that had died by falling.
She wasn’t a big fan of these weekly quarrels that their general
insisted on having, so the moment her whole corps stopped pay‐
ing attention to each member, she snuck away, soon finding a
cavern that led back to Hell. She was glad to take that suffocat‐
ing helmet off.
Her thoughts were interrupted when someone restrained
her from behind and pressed a dagger to her throat. The voice
157
whispered in her ear from behind. “Where do you think you’re
going?”
“Phew, you almost scared me, Yazzy. How’d you get away
from your commander’s watchful hawk eye?”
Yasmine released her sister and sighed, sheathing her dag‐
ger. Since she’d been assigned the role of an archer, her armor
was lighter and she didn’t wear a helmet, thanks to the protec‐
tion spells mages usually put up for their archers. “Actually, I
deserted. Thankfully almost the entire army of Heaven consists
of archers, and archers are usually less violent than your ber‐
serkers. My brigade helped me.”
“What? Why would you desert? Don’t you know how dan‐
gerous that is? It’s likely that you won’t be welcome in Heaven
ever again…”
“I wouldn’t want to be welcome there. I found out what
their greatest secret is. The Mist.”
Kayla tilted her head. “Mist?”
“It’s like the river Lethe in the Underworld, but worse. I’ll
tell you later. For now, let’s get away from here.”
158
HAUNTED GALLERY
Day 1
It was nighttime at the art gallery on Lansbury Street.
You would expect it to be quiet, but it was quite the opposite
at the moment. In the depths of the building, far away from
the public’s prying eye, all security guards had been allowed
into the usually off‐limits heart of the gallery. They were in‐
side a very large room filled with paintings and various
other works of art, and at the center stood their resident
specter, surrounded by children.
Several minutes later, the kids had sat down and the guards
stood behind them in silence, waiting for Klimt to speak. Erio
flew up to the large crate his boyfriend had been standing on
and landed next to him, folding his wings. “These people are
still a handful, even after so many years…”
159
“Thank you,” Klimt offered him a smile and then turned
to the crowd. “Thank you all for gathering here tonight as well.
Some of the newer guards may not know what this is all
about… but I’m sure the veterans already have a good idea.
Any guesses?”
One of the older night guards rose his hand. “If we take as‐
tronomy into account, it must be the birthing ceremony, right?”
“Indeed. For the newbies, I will explain. As you may or may
not know, I’m a fear type spirit, a haunter variant. The most
sought‐after ability a haunter like me can have is… breathing
life into certain objects. When astronomy allows it, that is.”
The crowd ‘ohh’d.
“The object must also meet certain requirements, but those
are usually present in anything of minimal importance in a
haunter’s nest. Tonight, we will have the birthing ceremony, and
tomorrow at sunset, the raising ceremony, where all newborns
that make it through the tests will be presented to our Alpha.
She will choose one of them to bear her blessing. That is what all
children born tonight must aspire to,” Klimt explained.
A few minutes passed, and while he was observing one of
his own paintings, Erio appeared next to him. “Remembering
the past?”
160
“Yes… Most of these, I painted after hearing someone tell a
story, but to think I’ve actually been through some of them…”
said Klimt, staring at the marble floor.
The death god looked over at his boyfriend and spread one
of his wings out toward him. “You’ve been down lately. Even
before Fran became a Great God last month and stopped hang‐
ing out with everyone. What’s wrong?”
“I’ve been thinking… Though it hasn’t been that long, a
lot has happened since my death. And there are many things
I can’t explain to you. It feels… so wrong to hide them from
you, but I can’t…”
Erio frowned, worried, and put his hands on Klimt’s shoul‐
ders, turning the redhead his way. “Listen, you’re a strong spirit.
If someone’s threatening you…”
“What? Of course not! It’s just… Alpha won’t like it if I tell
anyone. And I’m sure she’ll know.”
“Is this about Kayla too? Everyone except Lily’s kind of
on edge as of late, and it all seems to have something to do
with her.”
“It’s not so much her as it is what we…” Klimt paused for a
few seconds. “It doesn’t matter. As long as you keep it a secret,
this part shouldn’t be a problem. You know Kayla, right? She’s
all about things being fair and doing as little harm as possible.”
“Yes…? What does that have to do with anything?”
161
soul. So… that means her own moral code doesn’t matter in dan‐
gerous situations. Do you remember when the surrounding
towns had spirits and death gods of their own?”
“Of course, it was only nine years ago. Then, they all disap‐
peared without a trace.”
“Hostilities between the towns were at an all‐time high, and
ours is right in the spot where all six of them would cross paths.
If they declared war on the rest, the other packs would wipe us
out and make this town their battlefield. In order to avoid that…
Our Alpha struck first. It‐ it was a bloodbath. While she took on
the other packs’ leaders, Yasmine led the rest of us to destroy
every nonhuman in the specific town. Them, and the humans that
got in our way…” Klimt said, keeping the last part to himself.
“After that… Kayla trapped the other death gods between real‐
ities. It was my first time getting blood on my hands… but judg‐
ing by what the others said, that was not the first time it hap‐
pened, nor would it be the last.”
Erio stayed silent for a few seconds, processing all of this.
“But Kayla wouldn’t do that… Would she?”
Klimt smiled bitterly. “That’s what I told myself at first. And
she wouldn’t, if she had a choice. But, well, the world of spirits
who live among humans is hardly ever simple. It’s often reduced
to ‘kill or be killed’, or the law of the strong, almost as if this were
the beast realm. That’s why leaders exist. I am loyal to my Alpha,
just like the others are. Back then, she gave me an order, so I fol‐
lowed. That is the simplicity we must all embrace as part of a
pack. It’s up to our Alpha to worry about complexities.”
162
“But why? I’ve never understood why you’re all so willing
to do as she says. I’m sure Grandpa would be a better leader,
and he has the power to take over. Fran, right now, could prob‐
ably split any of us in half. Lily, if the situation is right, could
crush us all. Everyone except me could most likely revolt,” Erio
said, frustrated.
Klimt turned away, grabbing his own arm. “You wouldn’t
understand… Say, have you ever heard of an incident that hap‐
pened at a country‐wide summit?”
“No. My colleagues have never reported any.”
“Makes sense… But then, what incident could you be refer‐
ring to?”
“You know that an Alpha and their pack control a specific
territory. You may not be aware of this much, but above them
163
all, there is a king or queen. In our country’s spirit counterpart,
it’s a queen for the first time in history. Country‐wide summits
are presided by the queen, and she holds absolute authority over
everyone present. Or that’s the idea, though there have been sev‐
eral coups in the past… Anyway, tensions were high that time
between Kayla and the northern territory’s Alpha. He was a
very cocky spirit, even kept trying to invade us. It was that or he
wanted Kayla to either sign the grounds and pack over to him
or marry him.”
Erio opened his mouth to say something, but closed it and
facepalmed instead. A spirit would be capable of such thoughts.
“The reason for his attitude is kind of justified, that much is
true. He was a ghoul variant, basically one of the most powerful
variants there are, where our own Alpha is a mere ghost, which
is the default variant for spirits who stay in the human world.
Ghouls are the ones that rob graves and feed on dead bodies, in
case you forgot.”
“Wait. Klimt, you’ve been using the past tense for a bit. You
mean that ghoul got shattered? How did a ghoul die? And by the
sound of it, he had a sizeable pack. What happened?”
Klimt looked up at the painting again. “... We… found out
that our Alpha is very stubborn.”
“Don’t tell me she…”
“She ate his flesh and guts. In human form. She didn’t throw
up or look sick for a moment while or after doing so either. And
yes, Yasmine was right there, as was every non‐lone spirit in the
country. Soon, things had escalated to the point where they
164
would’ve normally already started fighting, they both attacked
each other at the same time. Kayla overpowered him via martial
arts, and before the queen and her guards could break them
up… She started to bite off chunks of his flesh and ate them raw.
Everyone was so shocked that the only noise you could hear was
his screams, coupled with the sound of his flesh ripping and be‐
ing chewed. Nobody moved a muscle. When she was done, she
stood up, brushed the blood off her mouth, and went back to her
chair. She asked if they could continue, and they did. It was a
first for even the eldest spirits, and they didn’t really want to
draw attention to what had just happened. Not a single person
said anything about it, and the next day, the queen signed the
papers to transfer the shattered ghoul’s territory and pack to
Kayla, since she was the one responsible for his… passing.”
“... So that’s what this painting represents…”
While Klimt walked off in a haste, Erio noticed a newer ab‐
stract painting that wasn’t familiar to him. “Hey, what’s this one
with the blues and reds?”
“... Oh… That’s… Nothing in particular. My hand simply
guided the brush that way,” the haunter glumly answered.
Erio followed after Klimt, worried about his boyfriend’s
emotional wellbeing but unsure of what to do. In the western
165
part of the area, there were many paintings depicting differ‐
ent people, landscapes or scenes. Some of them were of ques‐
tionable veracity, such as the one about two pirate ships bat‐
tling each other.
“These just keep piling up…” Erio commented, glancing all
around himself.
“Well, the others seem to have unlimited stories to tell, and
it’s not like I’ll ever run out of space. As long as they don’t ex‐
haust their story supply, I always have two tenses to paint, past
and present. Plus, whenever we get to meet a Great Spirit, they
have a whole lifetime of stories. But most of this is our own his‐
tory,” Klimt said, pointing at one of the paintings, a family por‐
trait. “That one is the newest finished one.”
“Why’d you make Ursula’s eyes silver? Aren’t they green?”
said Erio, knowing Klimt didn’t usually make mistakes when
painting.
“Oh hey, this one is from the first time I agreed to tag along
with you lot and ‘hang out’. You all made sure I had a good
time… Thanks. When I was sent here, I wasn’t expecting to
make friends with my herd.”
Klimt pouted. “Hey, don’t call us a herd. We’re not sheep.”
“You are herds, we are shepherds. I know you don’t like it,
but that’s what we’re supposed to call you.”
166
“Death not included, I assume.”
“... Let’s not tell him that she’s allowed in Heaven anytime be‐
cause she’s the heir to its throne… Or that the leaders of Argemonia
also meet up with her every once in a while… Or, you know, the rest
of violations on the realm masters’ part,” Klimt thought to himself,
slightly uncomfortable.
“Is that me being scared of a TV?” Erio asked, pointing at
another one with a jokingly offended tone.
Klimt looked at the painting in question and chuckled. “In‐
deed. I find it very endearing that you used to be afraid of eve‐
rything technological.”
“Hey, I grew up in the beast realm. In the metropolis, sure,
but it’s still the beast realm. They’re not exactly the most ad‐
vanced. My peers mocked me enough at the academy after I
moved…”
“... go visit your mother sometime, will you?” Klimt said,
sighing sadly.
“I do visit her.”
167
“Really? Are they friend or foe?” Klimt asked.
“You have a messenger boy? Since when?” Erio questioned,
not having seen the child before.
“He’s a leaflet. The best flier and shapeshifter among them,”
Klimt replied, patting the child’s head. “My leaflets are wonder‐
ful for most services that don’t require much physical strength.”
“The human says he is a friend, my lord. He says his name
is Brandon.”
“Oh, what could he possibly want at this time? Doesn’t he
have work tomorrow?” Klimt asked his boyfriend.
Erio shrugged. “One of those human holidays, maybe? Let’s
see what he wants.”
The leaflet nodded and flew off as a paper plane again. Ten
minutes later, Brandon had been ushered in.
“Brandon dear, what brings you here in the middle of the
night?” Klimt asked the boy, on sight.
“I need advice. Jeremy and Gramps did not help, and you
two are the only other men.”
The non‐humans exchanged looks. Then, Klimt crossed his
arms and smiled. “Is this about your crush on Anna?”
168
Brandon blushed a little. “Yeah! I’ve been trying to do the
subtle stuff, but it’s been over a year and I don’t think she
noticed. She’s hyper‐focused on studying, practicing and
training. Even Fred is better company, though his whining is
slightly annoying.”
“How is his training going?” Erio asked, raising an eyebrow.
“I admit, neither of us can actually feel his Core. Are we sure
he has one?” Erio asked. “I know family exorcists generally have
one, but…”
“It could be the work of a ghoul,” Erio suggested.
“But, we still don’t know the identity of that intruder. The
intruder could be a ghoul, right?” Brandon said.
Klimt shook his head. “No chance. By Alpha’s decree, we’ve
been using more of our energies on this intruder person than the
current… community project.”
169
“Right. Yasmine had an encounter with them, and said they
are definitely not a spirit; too powerful to be one,” Erio com‐
pleted. “Whoever it is, they’ve been watching, and they have a
voice. We’re betting on some sort of major god… Maybe a god
of shadows or darkness, judging by what Yasmine told us.”
Brandon rose an eyebrow, incredulous. “She told me a com‐
pletely different story. And she’s acting alarmingly weird. She
talks to herself and locks herself up in a room with the biggest
mirror in the house. Kayla is worried sick about her, for good
reason. It’s probably beneficial to her mental health that you sent
her away to follow some humans to camp a couple days while
we try to fix Yasmine. I think it all has to do with the intruder.
She’s all shook up ever since the encounter.”
“I’m afraid we can’t do a thing to assist you or them through
this process…” said Klimt, sighing as he shook his head and
hugged himself. “Alpha knows her mate best. If anyone can help
Yasmine, it’s Kayla.”
“Couldn’t the intruder be a fear spirit like you, Klimt?” Erio
asked, a bit abruptly.
Brandon flinched and then sighed in exasperation. “This is
why I never manage to get a girlfriend when I like someone. I
get distracted way too easily.”
170
“Right. You didn’t come here for detective work. Shall we
go somewhere more comfortable? There are sofas near the pri‐
vate reception desk.”
“Uh, how’s a reception desk private?” Brandon asked the
haunter.
Klimt smiled, raising a finger in the air as he guided the
other two along. “Ah, you see, you know we spirits have
nests, right?”
“Yes. What does that have to do with a reception desk?”
“Most of the time, there is a specific place the spirit is an‐
chored to. In Alpha’s case, you might have noticed that even
though the house is their nest, the master bedroom is like double
their nest. That’s called the heart or core of a nest. It’s the anchor,
where the spirit recovers quickest, among other things. Not eve‐
ryone is so lucky as to have their heart be a bedroom, though.
It’s already difficult to beat a spirit in their own nest, but if
they’re at the heart, they’re basically invincible. If we could move
the anchors or choose where they go, that would be swell. Un‐
fortunately, it’s not that convenient.”
Brandon hummed. “That explains a lot. I thought Yazz was
overreacting when I asked if she could let me into the master
bedroom.”
“You asked something akin to ‘can you strip in front of
me?’, I hope you know that,” Erio informed, stroking his cheek
as if he’d been slapped.
171
“I was just curious to see what it was like, and what kind of
ancient stuff they’ve gathered in there. Did I tell you they store
centuries‐old wine below the floorboards?”
“We know, they take it out for celebrations occasionally,”
said Klimt. “All attempts to find where exactly the wine is have
failed. Incursions are too dangerous, so we gave up after only a
couple dozen.”
“Indeed. I’ve never understood why everyone else is so
protective of their nests’ hearts, but then again, I am a young
spirit. So, my gallery’s heart, often called the ‘private area’, is
open to the public. Even normal humans stumble in here
every once in a while, but I usually just have one of my older
leaflets guide them out.”
“He also makes paintings of things that happened and por‐
traits of people because he doesn’t like photographs, so if you
want, one day either of us could walk you through the history
of Lansbury Street and how all its residents have evolved,” Erio
offered. “You’d be impressed if you knew half of the stuff that
goes on here… On the flipside, as many spirits call it.”
“Actually, I’m kind of interested in the beast realm. I’ve
heard you guys mention it a lot, and I feel like I’m the only one
in the dark. Even Ursula seems to know about it,” said Brandon,
once again forgetting what he’d originally come to do as he sank
into one of the sofas.
172
“Erio grew up there,” Klimt said. “The name is self‐explan‐
atory, in a way. It’s where beast spirits live, and where most
ghouls end up going. Of course, spirits are corporeal there. You
can even find creatures you humans consider fictional, such as
dragons and manticores. That realm is quite a hot spot for pri‐
mal energy…”
Erio huffed. “It’s still a terrible place to live. The only place
where the law of the jungle doesn’t necessarily apply is the me‐
tropolis. It’s completely surrounded by a mountain range, so it’s
easy to defend if the outside lords ever decide to attack. Calling
them lords is a bit much, but it’s what they call themselves.”
“Then, you have a government…?” Brandon asked.
The death god rose an eyebrow. “You are a very curious hu‐
man. You know, they say curiosity killed the cat for a reason. If
you insist, however… I can tell you that outside the metropolis,
it’s total anarchy. It’s been confirmed that small peaceful villages
exist, isolated from the rest of the world, but they almost always
get trampled soon after their discovery. As for the ‘capital’ or
metropolis, we have a queen and several governors appointed
by her. She’s been there for a long time, and she was powerful
enough to establish order. More or less, considering mafias are
a thing within the capital…”
“But it must be an amazing sight,” the human said.
“Eh. It looks nicer than human cities, but it’s nothing like
them in appearance. No skyscrapers or tall buildings, no big
roads… It’s simply like a big natural scenery, with houses made
mostly out of wood and/or stone. It’s not very organized either,
and there’s no currency.”
173
“... and you call that a metropolis…?”
Erio shrugged at Brandon. “It’s the best we have. Well, that
and peace, which is somewhat impossible outside the queen’s
lands. Powerful or not, she struggles to fight outside threats and
inside crime at the same time though, since there’s no police of‐
ficers or royal guards of any sort. She does have a few ‘followers’
that are very loyal to her and do everything she says, and those
are usually the governors, but to be honest, they’re not enough.”
“Wow, the beast realm sure sounds… intense.”
“How do you know all of this?” Erio asked, surprised.
“... I can’t just go and tell him that one of the Rebellion’s advisors
was there firsthand…” Klimt thought to himself. “Ah, an Elder
God told me.”
“Right, on one of Kayla’s field trips?” Erio said, deflating as
his boyfriend nodded. “Why won’t she take me with you?”
174
Klimt tried not to appear nervous. “I‐it’s complicated. But
hey, you’re even starting to act like one of us after so long, so
maybe you’ll be included into the pack eventually…?”
“What? No, that would mean I’d be a traitor and a criminal
in eyes of the Judge. What do you mean I’m starting to act like
you?”
Here, Brandon interjected. “Dude, even I can see that you
act a little odd for a death god, and I haven’t actually met any
others except Death herself. You even kinda follow Kayla’s
orders. And I think your brain convinced itself that you can’t
be away from the town for long, as if you were anchored here
like the others.”
“Rogue? Is that what Death did?” Brandon asked.
While Erio had his existential crisis, Klimt stroked his back
and answered Brandon. “No, ‘going rogue’ is very different to
what Death did. She went above and beyond to break all re‐
straints that a death god could possibly have, among other
things. Those restraints were put onto their race of gods by the
first of their kind via mass blood pact, eons ago. A rogue death
god is just ‘one who commits high treason’ against their society.
There are many rogues, and they are all very different. The clos‐
est one is to the west of here, we have friendly relations with his
pack’s Alpha.”
“Ok… I feel bad for Alex now, they had to grow up in both
the human and nonhuman worlds. If it was hard for me to learn
175
about the human world as I grew, I can’t imagine what they went
through. What laws even apply to a hybrid…?”
“Oh, people don’t really know Alex exists. And that’s for the
best,” said Klimt, starting to preen Erio’s feathers. “Anyway,
you wanted tips to see how you can ask your friend out, right?”
Brandon sat up straighter. “Yeah, that’s right! Um, what are
you doing?”
“Preening him. It calms him.”
“... I see.”
Erio was still muttering to himself, so the human let it be.
176
Day 2
Next day, a bit before sunset, Klimt and Erio went to pick
Brandon up for the ceremony that he wanted to witness. Klimt
was the first to ask. “How’d it go?”
“Despite the bags under my eyes from not sleeping and
how nervous I was, she said yes!” said Brandon, pumping his
fist in the air. “Then Jeremy laughed when I told him, Fred is
still tired out on the couch, and Urs patted my head. It… feels
like I’m being treated like a child.”
“... you probably are,” Klimt said, pitying his human friend.
The haunter led the other two to the large park at the end of
the street.
“Why are we going to the park?” Brandon asked.
“This place is a source of magic ever since the Howling. It
was the battlefield for that conflict,” Erio explained. “Humans
made it into a park, but it’s more like a miniature forest. They
know not to venture too deep. At sunset, it covers itself with a
protective isolation bubble, and ‘powers up’ when given enough
moonlight. That’s one of the reasons why the birthing and rais‐
ing ceremonies are held according to the lunar calendar.”
Both nonhumans ushered Brandon forward into a clear‐
ing with a big rock, lit up by what looked like blue fireflies.
177
Below it sat the attendees: many of Klimt’s minor spirits and
the few human guests. Among the attendees, Erio growled
upon noticing Lilith and Death, but his angry march towards
them was cut short by a lethally sharp tile grazing his nose.
He turned in its direction.
“Sit down, Erio. These events have a very specific non‐ag‐
gression rule,” said Thalia, preparing more tiles in case the death
god didn’t back down.
“But she’s a heretic!” he complained.
Erio begrudgingly did as told and realized that at every cor‐
ner of the clearing, there were ‘guards’. The gods of the town
alongside the rest of the major spirits, and he was sure Lily
would take any excuse to attack him. “... since when are you
gods Kayla’s lapdogs?”
“We know what we’re doing. Now sit down, the cere‐
mony’s about to begin. Be thankful that the other guests
didn’t notice you,” Thalia said, trying to be strict but sound‐
ing worried instead.
“You’re not very good at your job, are you?” The death god bit‐
terly thought back.
Klimt went back around the rock and Erio sat down with
Brandon.
“Hey, where’s Yasmine? I don’t see her in the crowd. Do
they also do this together?” the human asked.
178
“So the royal trophy wife, then.”
“They don’t like it when we use that term, but it’s what it
looks like occasionally, especially when Kayla has to put up an
act around Lily,” said Erio. “But… it’s strange. I don’t feel her
presence. The only ones I feel behind the rock are Klimt and
Kayla.”
“Weird… but maybe she stayed home.”
“It’s possible, considering her condition.”
They heard a loud whistling sound and some wind picked
up.
“That’s the signal. Be quiet now, they’ll be here soon,” Erio
informed. “Until then, we have a short speech to sit through. It’s
only for the young ones who’ve never been to a ceremony.”
When Brandon looked up at the rock, Klimt was standing
to the side and Kayla was at the center of the rocky platform.
The ghost cleared her throat, spread some purple and yel‐
low sparkles around the clearing, and spoke. “Welcome to our
78th raising ceremony, everyone.”
“Wow, it’s like she has a microphone…” Brandon muttered.
179
want any townspeople overhearing anything. That spell is the
nonhuman equivalent of a megaphone or a mic, more or less,”
Erio explained, whispering.
“... the theme for this one was ‘elemental’, and the focus was
combat. Out of the 22 minor spirits born yesterday, only five
have survived. Once they arrive, I will make my choice and give
one of them my blessing. It’s our hope that whoever I choose
will be a virtuous leader for the other four, and a great guardian
of our home den.”
The wind whistled again, and five children ran into the
clearing from the same direction, stopping to a slow walk. All
five climbed up the steep front of the rock with impressive skill
and stood at attention in front of Kayla, briefly bowing their
heads to Klimt, who was technically their father.
Kayla examined each of the children from a distance a few
times, and finally stopped in front of the second, a boy that
looked like the youngest of the batch. “You’ve been chosen.”
The crowd cheered, and little one had an expression of dis‐
belief on his face. His four siblings briefly congratulated him
with a nod or a couple words, and then backed away to stand
next to Klimt.
Kayla got down on one knee to offer her hand to the child.
“Think of what you were told at the last trial and take my hand.”
The boy shakily did as he’d been instructed and was envel‐
oped in a beacon of energy. Kayla stepped back to give him
some space. The other four finalists were joined to their sibling
by a cord of light, and soon after, it all vanished.
180
“What are those glowy marks on their bodies…?” Brandon
whisper‐asked.
The leader of the finalists stood up, clenching and un‐
clenching his fists after his markings disappeared. “Thank
you, Alpha.”
“Yes. We will do our best, I promise,” the chosen boy said,
bowing his head.
Suddenly, the clearing was invaded by shadows from all di‐
rections. Brandon quickly realized this wasn’t part of the cere‐
mony when everyone got up and either huddled together or
stood in a defensive combat position. Not sure what to do, but
wanting to help, he stood next to Erio in one of the few martial
arts positions he remembered from Kayla’s lessons.
“What are you doing? Go to the center, you’ll be safer,” said
the death god.
“No, I want to help.”
181
“Not this again…”
Their argument was interrupted by a mad cackle. The dark‐
ness covered the entire clearing, and now the two couldn’t even
see the grass beneath their feet. After seeing a gleam of red in
the corner of his eye, Brandon heard Erio scream, and a pair of
thuds. The death god was on his knees, and then fell to the
ground in pain, causing blood to pool beneath him.
Brandon knelt down next to him and saw his blood had
dyed the grass red. “Hey, Erio, what happened!?”
“Those make you look way too majestic and powerful. It’s
not good to trick others…”
Neither of them could see the owner of the voice, but they
did recognize it.
“Yasmine!?” they both yelled.
“I said you’d be next, Erio… If I couldn’t find Fred in the
house, it means he’s gone, so it’s your turn. It’s that simple.”
They saw another gleam of red, and Erio braced himself to
greet death. Brandon saw a flash of blue and a shockwave threw
him off his feet.
“Yazzy! What the heck are you doing!?”
Brandon looked up at Kayla and realized the danger of the
situation. Yasmine was followed by shadows everywhere, her
pupils had grown to sizes he didn’t know they could, and she
182
was struggling to get her red scythe out of the earth. Kayla had
parried the blow with a glowing blue blade.
“Urk… Sis, I don’t want to fight you. Get out of the way,”
said Yasmine.
Kayla looked her sister in the eye, sounding distressed. “I
can’t hear your voice… Something’s clouding your mind. Bran‐
don, I’ve called Lily to come help you, bring Erio to a healer. I’ll
take care of this.”
She stomped on the floor and the world lit up, brighter than
the midday sun. With no shadows to obscure their vision, eve‐
ryone saw the scene clearly and moved to get out of the park.
Yasmine growled and pulled her scythe free, charging at Erio.
Kayla stopped her with a hit to the stomach, using the blunt
side of her curved sword, which Brandon now recognized as a
sort of katana. “Yazz, these things are better suited for cutting,
please don’t make me get serious. I don’t want to hurt you.”
“Then don’t! Just let me finish that failure off and we can go
home!” yelled Yasmine, standing back up. “Or if you’d prefer,
we can plan the attack on the Gatekeepers.”
“What…? The Gatekeepers…? You want to attack the Gate‐
keepers!?” Erio spit, weak as he was.
Yasmine grinned. “Oh yeah, news flash, we’re with the Re‐
bellion.”
Erio looked horrified when he heard this, but his energy
was quickly depleting. Klimt got there right then to help Bran‐
don carry him off.
183
Kayla clenched her fists around the handle of her weapon,
preparing to hold her sister back. “Whoever you are, you need
to leave my mate alone…”
Kayla caged Yasmine in ice to keep her busy and pointed
her sword upward towards a specific part of the shadows. “I can
tell by your tone that your intentions are anything but ethical.
Tell me, intruder, who are you and what do you want from us?”
“Eh. Like I told your sister, I’m just an observer. While I
admit that I am having fun with this, I’m simply speeding up
the inevitable, so it’s fine. As long as I don’t interfere directly
until given the order…”
“Who is your master, then?”
She felt like the shadows were grinning. “Oh, someone very
important. A good friend of yours might remember me… Say,
do you?”
The shadows picked Death up and tossed her into the circle.
“I‐I don’t know what you’re talking about…”
“Death, do you know her?” Kayla asked. “My powers don’t
affect whatever this presence is, but maybe if I can get to her
master, we can stop this.”
“Well? Do you?”
184
“... I…”
Swiftly, Death summoned her scythe and cut her own head
off, escaping the scene as the particles her body dissolved. The
shadows cackled, slowing their swirling slightly.
Kayla growled, oddly animal‐like, and looked around, real‐
izing that the presence was likely there somewhere, until she felt
a blade through the stomach. The wound destabilized her en‐
ergy and made her sword vanish.
“... you’ll surely survive this much, won’t you, my love…?”
The younger sister pushed her off the blade, not tearing the
flesh nearly as much as she could’ve, and gently lowered her to
the ground.
“Y‐Yazzy… Please don’t make me do it…”
“Come on, they’re almost out of the park. Master lent me
her omnipresence, I can tell you the humans are already post‐
ing about this sudden ‘white night’ on social media. The
streets won’t be empty for long…”
Yasmine nodded and sprinted off after one last look at
Kayla. The elder sister rolled on her side, putting pressure on
her stomach wound. “Spirit weapons are way too dangerous…
Why give us such an ability, Lunaris…? Creators are cruel…”
185
She coughed out some blood and shuddered. “Yeah… I get
it. Fine, you win, I’ll use this accursed power…”
With a squeeze of her hand, the world went black, and a
howling wind started to blow. Her wound was gone, so she sat
up.
A teenage boy popped into existence near her, looking hur‐
ried. “Huh, I got here just in time.”
Something of note was the amount of watches on his per‐
son. He had short white hair and wore a black and blue suit, but
he had clocks and watches everywhere. His arms were covered
in watches, from his pockets hung several pocket watches…
Kayla stood up. “Who are you and how do you exist…?”
“Oh, you’re aware of what you did? Good, that saves me
some time. I’m Chron, the time god,” he said, grinning and of‐
fering his hand.
“... alright, I’m‐”
“Kayla, I know. I’ve been hopping timelines long enough to
memorize every possible important character and their biog‐
raphy. I’ll probably sit down and write a book, when I have
time,” he said, glancing at one of his watches. “Phew, it’s good
to talk to someone normally. Our past three meetings had you
in tears or balled up and unresponsive. So anyway, I kinda need
you to… Put reality back. Please? I can turn time back, but only
if you… You know, reallow time to exist. Your ability’s really
troublesome, did you know that?”
“Yeah… I know. And I know I could do so much more with
it, but I just have no clue how to use it.”
186
The time god took out a list. “According to my past notes,
there’s an AU where you’re the top dog in the sports world be‐
cause you make games in boxes for people to play. Like, they
throw the box to the ground and boom, instant baseball field in a
pocket dimension. Or laser tag, or other games. You’re a celebrity
around Crystal Bridges in almost every good end timeline, too.”
“What…?”
“... I don’t want to prevent it, I want to do a better job at
fixing it.”
“Wha…? Well then… What is your will, ‘Master of the Uni‐
verse’?”
187
Day 4
Kayla laid on a sofa, glad that both Fred and the family’s
mother were away, one at work and the other at the gym. She
had Yasmine at her side changing the bandages on her stomach,
and Brandon sitting nearby.
“So wait, how’d you know Yasmine wasn’t herself?”
“I’m not about to explain death bond voices to you… But it
was also partially because Yazzy would never use a scythe as
her preferred weapon. She’s a double wielder, using two‐
handed weapons makes her uncomfortable. That also explains
this lousy stab wound that means to be completely non‐lethal
and as painless as possible yet hurts more than a paper cut.”
“I’m sorry!” Yasmine cried again. “I swear I won’t listen to
the intruder’s whispers again.”
Kayla smiled and placed one of her hands on her sister’s. “I
know. You weren’t yourself, so it’s fine. I forgive you. I’ll prob‐
ably be petty about it until it stops physically bothering me,
since it is a soul wound, but other than that…”
Yasmine hugged Kayla, careful to avoid the injury, and it
was quickly reciprocated.
“Aww, so I don’t get to be a villain anymore? Oh well…
Why’d your virtue have to be determination…?”
188
“... you do know that the shadows are only for show, right?
It’s my way of making my presence more dramatic. It usually
serves its purpose. But now that Yasmine has gone and de‐
cided not to listen to me for good, with A‐ I mean Death’s treat‐
ment on top… She’ll probably master her corruption soonish.
Her training is not helping my case, but things will happen
according to Master’s forecast anyway.”
“... so you’re not evil?” said Kayla, surprised.
“People have called me that before, but not really. I’m not
good either, though. I just follow orders and pay debts. Now
that this little game is over, I have no reason to screw you over.
I shrugged, by the way.”
“You have a body?” Brandon asked.
“Oh boy, here goes question boy…” Yasmine commented,
smiling fondly while she settled down again.
“I don’t mind answering some questions, it’s better than
doing nothing. I’m just here waiting until something escalates
enough to tell you so you can witness the climax. To answer
the human’s question, I do have a body, but I won’t show my‐
self unless Master gives the order.”
Brandon sat back down. “And what are you?”
“That’s… I don’t really remember. Been a long time since
I visited my homeworld… I kind of look like one, but not a
human, I’m sure. None of my superiors or my juniors are. Cor‐
rection, my juniors were human once, not anymore. And one
of my superiors used to be human too.”
189
“... huh…”
“Oh, looks like the time has come. Go to the entrance of
the art gallery’s heart, right now.”
Brandon rose an eyebrow. “Why?”
“Because I want you to feel bad. I don’t know why, but I
have the sudden urge to make someone feel miserable.”
“You are a bad person!”
“Yeah, you’re not the first to assume that. I guess I am.
Same as when I decided to cut a falling building in two to
save a bunch of kids. I felt like it, so I did. Unless it’s against
orders, I don’t care.”
“And you don’t ever feel bad?”
“I don’t feel anything. Now stop asking questions and go
to the gallery before the drama ends!”
The three felt the presence vanish and exchanged looks.
“... I shouldn’t move, you don’t have to tell me,” said Kayla,
frustrated about her situation.
“But she didn’t say anything…?” Brandon questioned.
190
“Ah, sorry, death bonds include telepathy as one of the
perks,” Yasmine explained. “Sometimes we don’t realize we’re
not saying it aloud. It’s usually short‐distance and‐”
“ART GALLERY.”
Brandon jumped. “Whoa, ok… Thought she was gone. Let’s
go, Yasmine.”
“I’ll see through your eyes, so don’t worry,” Kayla reas‐
sured.
At the gallery, they got to the heart in time to see Erio limp
off with the help of a cane.
“Erio, please!” yelled Klimt, floating out into the hall with
him.
The death god growled, though he looked and sounded way
more emotionally hurt than he did angry. “Stay away! I should’ve
known never to trust spirits… All along, you were working
against my kind behind my back, and you never told me!”
“And I’m sorry! I’ve told you about the Rebellion now, so
just let me explain‐”
Klimt clutched his shirt over his heart and watched Erio
limp out of the heart, not paying Brandon and Yasmine any
mind. The ghost lowered her head, grabbed her arm and bit her
lip. That was very guilt‐trippy.
“What happened…?” Brandon asked.
191
“... Erio found out about the Rebellion back at the park,
and… While he was recovering, he asked me about it. I… I told
him the truth. I couldn’t bear to hide it anymore.”
He looked at the two newcomers with teary eyes. Yas‐
mine, still insecure, made use of her position. “Your Alpha
forgives you. She also said to give you the option once more.
You can back out of this all and go after him, or stay here and
give him space.”
“Thank you,” the haunter said, bowing his head. “Now, if I
may, I would like to speak with Kayla. Brandon and I have been
musing about our theories together, and we want to share.”
“Now or face to face?” Yasmine asked.
“... preferably face to face.”
“Of course, follow me.”
Back at the house, Yasmine helped Kayla sit up, with much
pain from the stab wound minimized by their sense sharing, and
sat next to her, ready to listen.
“So… Klimt and I think the one behind all these recent hap‐
penings might be a ghoul. The one responsible for what hap‐
pened to Fred, and maybe the intruder.”
192
Kayla flinched, and Yasmine frowned. “But that can’t be,”
said the younger sister. “The last ghoul we had in our country
was… consumed years ago. Many years ago.”
“... no, they might be right…”
Kayla’s eyes were awfully wide, in some mix of fear and
guilt. The other three noticed this strange behavior and called
it out.
“Do you perhaps know something we don’t, Alpha?” Klimt
asked.
Yasmine placed a hand on her back. “Breathe. You’re about
to start hyperventilating.”
Her calm voice seemed to snap Kayla back to reality. In
spite of the pain her wound must’ve caused her by doing this,
Kayla kicked her legs in the air and screamed as she threw her‐
self back against the backrest of the sofa, which made Yasmine
wince and clutch her stomach in pain as well. “Ahh! This is a
total trainwreck! Teacher would be mad at me if she found out,
wouldn’t she…?”
“What teacher?” Brandon asked.
“Oh, we were away at the beast realm for a hundred years
once, to train. She means the teacher she found there,” Yasmine
briefly explained. “Big sis really respects that teacher of hers.
Even I do and I didn’t have her as a teacher.”
193
Kayla floated up a bit, grimacing. “I’m going to bed now.
You coming, Yazzy?”
“Of course, now let me help you before your injury opens
up again,” the younger one answered. “See you two later, I’m
sorry she can’t listen to all your theories in one sitting.”
194
“Yowch. What a downfall.”
“Boss, the dagger is ready.”
“Great, now we just have to wait for the right moment,
then give it to them.”
“Are you sure they’ll use it only for what they said they would? I
don’t feel very comfortable lending people my power, or imbuing
weapons with it…”
“Relax, it won’t be used as a weapon of mass destruction like last
time. Your cousin will be watching, and I’ve already told her she
should interfere if things get out of hand. By the way, never imbue a
machine gun again. NOBODY wants a repeat of last time.”
“Duly noted.”
195
Interlude 5
After Erio runs away, in a nearby forest…
Erio panted, lying back against a tree trunk. He’d shadow
traveled about as far as he could in his current state. Too tired to
stand, he fell on his bottom, wincing in pain when his bandages
brushed against the tree. He growled and kicked the walking
cane at his feet as far as he could.
“Wow… She really did a number on you…”
The death god flinched and tried to attack the voice, but the
blades of energy he tried to send barely reached their target.
Which he then realized was Death herself. To this, knowing how
weak he was, he gave up. “... what are you waiting for? Finish
the job. Kill me off already.”
“Um, actually, I’m here to help you. I’m a world‐renowned
doctor for both the supernatural and the humans.”
“You? A doctor?”
“Yup,” Death knelt down next to Erio and put a basket of
medical supplies on the grass. “Also, call me Mary. That’s the
name I use in the human world. I haven’t seen your wounds yet,
but I’m pretty sure they’re gonna take a while to heal.”
“Who cares? I’ll never fly again,” he dejectedly responded,
hesitant to allow this person he despised to touch his very sen‐
sitive wounds.
196
“That could be arranged. Let me take a look and I’ll see what
I can do. You wouldn’t happen to have your wings around here
somewhere, right? I might know someone who could easily fix
you up, if so.”
“No, any body part of a god turns to dust after a few
hours separated from their body. Death gods are also gods,”
Erio said, begrudgingly lying on his stomach to let Death
undo his bandages.
“I know. I kinda prefer what the people of the eastern lands
call us. Shinigami sounds more like a name. We’re technically a
race of gods, but we’re way different from the others,” she
calmly spoke, beginning to clean the other’s back wounds.
“You’re including yourself?”
“Well, yeah. I may be unbound, but I’m still a death god all
the same. Ok, just let me change your bandages and I’ll help you
shadow travel to my apartment.”
“Your what!?” he yelled.
“Ah, right, Lilith is living with me, but it shouldn’t be much
of a problem. She’s gotten used to me bringing people over for
healing. It’ll be fun, trust me.”
“… you sure are feisty. I don’t like it, but think of it like this,
if you prefer: Death isn’t your healer… the princess of Heaven
is.”
197
Day 1
Brandon set a cardboard box down into the back of a large
truck, wiped some sweat off his forehead, then walked to the
front to talk to the driver.
“Did you load everything up?” Death asked him, taking her
hands off the wheel.
“Of course. Now, where am I supposed to sit? Because I
really want to get out of the searing hot summer sun,” Bran‐
don replied, glaring at corporeal Kayla in the passenger’s seat,
who had decided she’d better tie her long hair in a ponytail if
she was going to spend so much time in human form and sur‐
vive summer at the same time, though Brandon doubted the
utility of a low one.
The human rose an eyebrow. “... She’s going to be driving?”
199
The death god laughed and waved him off, getting out of
the truck. “I’ll take good care of your lands, Kay! So do your
best, alright guys?”
Brandon got into the truck just as Kayla sat behind the
wheel. “We’ll try. And you make sure you do what I asked you
to, seriously.”
“I will, I will… Though the Twin Gods of Karma made me
their heir and are going to go public after your first strike, so I
may or may not see some action. Can’t promise a lack of prop‐
erty damage.”
Kayla rolled her eyes and smiled. “Alright, fine. Just make
sure all nests are safe. The Minor Gods Network will help you.”
“Yaaay I feel like a part of society again…” said Death, in
very low volume and high pitch.
Kayla rolled up the window. “Heading to HQ for real sure
feels official though.”
“You’re telling me…” said the human.
“By the way, one of the other leaders recommended you for
possession training.”
200
“... I’m going to wait and ask later…”
After a few bumpy start‐ups with Thalia saving Brandon’s
life three times while still in town, Kayla learned that brakes ex‐
ist and began to drive like a normal person.
“... now I’m thinking… Are you sure it was a good idea to
send Yasmine and Fred ahead?”
By the way Kayla’s eyes moved, Brandon noticed she was
not as calm as she seemed to be, but the ghost still spoke without
a hint of concern. “Why wouldn’t it be? Yasmine wanted to
make it up to Fred and Erio, so since she can’t exactly… interact
with Erio in any way unless we find out where he disappeared
off to, I sent her and Fred together. I trust her. And I know for a
fact she wasn’t lying.”
“Yes, that’s real touching and all, but both my brother and
your sister have proven to be extremely unstable, especially in
close proximity to one another.”
“I don’t think you need to worry about Fred for now… Death
is an amazing healer, as weird as it sounds when stated aloud,
and we’ve all been training to get ourselves under control.
They’ll be fine.”
After a long minute of silence and staring at Kayla, Brandon
spoke again. “Ok, Urs told me having thick hair genes and long
hair at the same time is terrible during the summer, which is
why she wears a ponytail, but how does a low one help at all?
It’s been bugging me.”
“I can tell. Well, while it’s not ideal, I prefer this style. It still
does the job of keeping my hair somewhat off my back, and it
201
doesn’t tug on it like higher ponytails do. Plus, I can swoosh it
to the front easily. Kind of like a braid.”
“That’s… I don’t really get it, but alright.”
“... I’m sorry.”
“I can tell you stories of the past. Or explain things.”
“Ok… I heard Ursula mention an Alpha, packs… Are you
guys werewolves?”
“No, though it’s true that we talk as if we were wolves or
some other kind of pack animal. There are lone spirits, but most
of us stick to the pack.”
“Where does it come from? Like… Why do you do that?
It’s… weird.”
Yasmine looked away to think, glad that the tension seemed
to be fading before the glory of human curiosity. “I think I
know… Spirits howl. In the past, when the system hadn’t been
put in place yet, all dead humans stayed here in the human
world. As you can imagine, that means chaos, chaos and war.
Back then, packs were usually much bigger, and that means
more power for the Alpha. Each member of a pack multiplies
202
the Alpha’s power and is connected to them in a way; the multi‐
plication depends on the member’s power level. The aspect or
ability that was most enhanced by this connection was howling.
An Alpha’s howl used to be so strong and so fearsome that it
could shatter mountains. There was one Alpha that led a pack of
about a thousand spirits. His howl was said to be what truly
caused the continents of the human world to split apart. Nowa‐
days, howling remains as important and powerful as it did back
then, but packs are much smaller, which is why we don’t have the
‘moving continents’ problem, assuming the legends are true.”
“... those EXIST?” Fred exclaimed.
“Yes. My sister and I have met many. You crossed paths
with two on our way here.”
“Really!?”
“I’m not going to lie. The vampires throw a hissy fit if some‐
one asks for them during the day, so they take the night shift.
Most werewolves also do that, but the ones you saw are irregu‐
lars. You wouldn’t know, since you’re not well‐versed in the
flipside… We have what we call irregulars and their upgraded
version, anomalies. The names are even more self‐explanatory
203
than ‘beast realm’, albeit they can usually always surprise you
anyway, even if you expect weirdness.”
“Good to know… Care to tell me why I’m here and what
the Rebellion is going to do as their first strike now?”
“... right, nobody told you. In the human world, there are
four elite death gods guarding the gate to the outside. Most of
the time, if someone from the human world wants to cross over
to another world, with the exception of the beast realm, we have
to request permission. We’re under intense scrutiny and strict
supervision while we cross and the entire time we’re there. This
is obviously unfair, complete discrimination against those of us
who chose to stay around after death, and as if that weren’t
enough, turns out it also applies to everyone else from the hu‐
man world. You guys, despite the others’ way of ‘honoring’ the
human sacrifice so long ago, are the backwater ‘planet’. Major
gods can bypass the system, but anything less absolutely cannot.
None of these rules apply to the people of other realms, they
simply don’t want to come here because the human world is
seen as… well, inferior. Minor gods probably have it worse, they
aren’t even allowed to have names no matter where they live.”
“... wow. Ok, now I’m offended.”
“So for the first strike, we’re going to open that gate. Which
might sound easy, but it’s not. The gate is split into four pieces.
The only way to open it from our side is… someone must take
the lives of all four Guardians, or Gatekeepers, and break the
lock by force.”
“... that explains the entire military setup in this place.
Where are we, by the way?”
204
“An island in a part of the ocean that doesn’t belong to any
country. It’s artificial, and about the size of Portugal, but our
joint barriers hide it from satellites and other human tech.”
“I see… You spirits are scary.”
Yasmine looked away. “Maybe… The choices Lunaris made
for us confuse me sometimes, to be honest…”
“Lunaris. I’ve heard Ursula mention that name very often.
Usually shortened to Luna.”
The spirit nodded. “Vita Lunaris, creator of spirits and mag‐
ical creatures in general, the first to come up with the Core sys‐
tem. Humans and gods, created by her brother, Vita Solaris. It’s
the basic creation story, although I suppose it’s been lost to his‐
tory over on your side.”
“Is that why humans are diurnal? Or did I just ask some‐
thing really stupid?”
“No, it is. At first, all of Lunaris’ creations had Moon Cores,
and Solaris’ had Sun Cores. The Core system would soon grow
much more than either of the siblings had ever expected, but not
out of their hands. People say their children and avatars are still
around despite the creators themselves being dormant; that’s
why pregnancies are still possible.”
“I have several questions now.”
“I hereby declare you Brandon 2.”
Fred laughed. “Guess we can get along after all… That’s a
relief.”
“You don’t hate me for what I did to you?”
205
The human hummed. “Not really. Maaaaybe if you’d been
the one who tore my flesh out, because it hurts like a bitch.
You’re still my great‐great‐great‐great‐great‐great‐many more
greats grandmother.”
“Use ancestor, we tried to count the greats once and it didn’t
end well,” Yasmine floated over the table, close to Fred’s miss‐
ing flesh. “It’s strange, though. I swear I know these bite
marks… But they confuse me, because they also look so much
like a ghoul’s bites.”
“Ask away,” said Yasmine, sitting back at her chair.
“You said humans have Sun Cores. But according to Bran‐
don’s many explanations, humans have no Cores.”
“Is it me or does everything have something to do with that
place?”
“I mean, it is the biggest of all realms. They’ve always been
really powerful, and unity is one of their many strong suits. The
spell meteorite hadn’t been authorized, but the witches did it
anyway.”
206
“Waaait… Is that the same one that’s speculated to have ex‐
terminated dinosaurs?”
“Probably. It took everyone’s Core; many soldiers from
other realms also suffered the consequences, along with all ani‐
mals. Without their Cores to keep them running, every spirit on
Earth also had their soul painfully shattered.”
“Wow… You also mentioned pregnancy. Why?”
“For everyone with a Core, having children… Doesn’t work
like you think it does. It’s almost always the same process as the
human one, but the person or people who wish to have a child
must pray to both creators so that their wish may be granted.
And… that’s how it happens. You go to the clinic, a healer, or
anyone with the qualifications the next day, which is when they
tell you how many kids you’re carrying. This works for men too.
The process is a bit harder on them, but yeah.”
Fred tried to imagine a pregnant man, though it was a
thought completely foreign to him. “I think I’ve only ever seen
that in the game Ursula was playing the other day… and those
pregnancies are caused by alien abductions.”
“I’m used to it. When you’ve been dead for a while, you
stop identifying as human. And when that happens… You learn
a lot. You just… start seeing things in a different way. It’s quite
enlightening, actually.”
“... I’ll still hold off on dying for a few decades.”
“People with a Core tend to be long‐lived. You have little to
worry about.”
“Are you sure I have a Core, though? Even I’m starting to
doubt it…”
207
Yasmine floated up. “... I could check for you if I use Kayla’s
spirit type. It’s very dangerous, especially if I do it.”
“What? Checking is impossible for everyone but the owner
of a Core or their bound.”
“... That’s… not entirely true. It’s not in the books Jeremy
may have lent you, so I won’t blame you for not knowing. Each
type of spirit can belong to a higher classification. For example,
I’m a spirit of determination, grouped with the spirits of virtue.
My sister is a spirit of wrath. Can you guess what that means?”
“... no way. Do spirits of sin exist?”
“Exactly, and she’s from one of the main houses of sin. The
skill all spirits of sin share was the base for the spell that took
away humanity’s Sun Cores; they can crush people’s Cores.”
Fred fell silent. Brandon had hammered into his head just
how important Cores were to a person, so this revelation had a
chill travel up and down his spine.
208
learning, you can always join a class. Anyway, would you like
me to check your Core?”
“I…”
Fred had no idea what to do. He wanted to know whether
he had a Core or not. On the other hand, he didn’t want Yasmine
to hurt herself for his sake.
“It’ll only take a second if you say yes,” the ghost said,
masking the fear in her voice.
“... alright.”
“I just hope Kayla doesn’t notice… Who knows what she’d do.
Stay still, I’ll try not to harm you.”
Fred was more worried about his ancestor than he was
about himself, but gulped and nodded. This, to him, felt as if he
was being made to undergo surgery.
Yasmine closed her eyes and flames began to dance around
her. “Make sure not to move. Spirits of wrath are not great at
aiming.”
Fred froze in place, mostly out of pure terror. “G‐got it.”
The ghost breathed in deeply and the flames went inside
her. With a bloodcurdling scream, she bent over, clenching her
fists. It looked like she was in great pain, but Fred reminded
himself that he might die if he moved. Yasmine rose her head,
glowing blood red eyes glaring at Fred before lunging at his
heart. The human’s vision flickered for a second.
209
When he was able to see again, the colors of the world
seemed to dim and dampen. He turned around to see his ances‐
tor on her hands and knees, but most importantly, on fire. Under
one of her hands was only a shard of what had been described
as a Core. Still, by her rough breathing, Fred assumed it wasn’t
fully safe to approach her.
“I’m… fine. Don’t worry…” Yasmine told him, standing up.
“I can barely contain it, but it’s bearable… The fires of Hell won’t
take me. I’ve already faced the flames of wrath, after all.”
The flames coming from her body turned white and got big‐
ger, though they seemed calmer. The younger of the sisters held
out the shard.
“... um… You’re still on fire…”
“Believe me, it’s hard to ignore. I meant to show you this.”
While he examined his shard of a Core, Fred saw Yasmine
wince and make her hand into a claw several times, all accom‐
panied by bursts of fire, but ignored it.
“Ok, so people can have shards,” he concluded aloud.
Yasmine rose the shard up to meet her eyes. “No, that’s not
a thing. I mean, it is, but it’s not your case. If you examine the
shard closely, and trace along the edges…”
Suddenly, the ghost gasped, then recoiled in pain and re‐
covered. Fred kept his footing. “Are you sure you’re ok…?”
“Yes, although my soul may or may not be a little toasted
after this. I’ve been training for a while now, after all. I think I
know what happened to your Core, too, but… it’s illogical.”
210
“What? Why?”
“The only thing that could have caused something like this
is… multiple spirit variants at the same time, with their variant‐
specific skills. It was a sin type, most likely, but…”
“Tell me what did this. Please,” said Fred, keeping his dis‐
tance as he frowned.
“... first, a haunter must’ve used their ability to grasp and
block Cores. At the same time, an artifact turned the grasped
Core into something tangible. A ghoul carved the path, and a
poltergeist levitated the Core out of your body by force. Lastly,
the sin type must’ve shattered your Core outside your body. A
shard ended up back inside you, but the rest might as well be
gone. Since you weren’t drawn to any specific place where the
shards may have been, I’m willing to bet that the sin type was a
spirit of gluttony, that’s why they broke it outside your body.
They have the ability to eat anything; most importantly, they can
consume Cores in order to make themselves more powerful.”
This information hit Fred like a ton of bricks. He didn’t want
to suspect his local spirits, but they were the first to come to
mind. Klimt was a haunter, Lily an artifact and Fran a polter‐
geist. The ghoul could’ve come from any other part of the terri‐
tory, or been brought over by them, and the sin spirit could eas‐
ily be Kayla.
A deep growl, somewhat similar to the ones he heard from
a few of the big cats the time he went on a safari, snapped the
human out of his paranoid train of thought. Though in this case,
it sounded more like whimpering than it did threatening.
211
Fred soon realized that his blonde ancestor was on the verge
of fainting. “I knew something would go wrong… B‐but what do I
even do about this…?”
“Yasmine!” they heard the older sister yell as the door burst
open.
Brandon tackled Fred to the ground and Kayla caught Yas‐
mine before her body hit the floor, clearly severing something.
The flames vanished immediately.
“Oh, sorry bro. I forgot about that…” Brandon replied, still
keeping him pinned to the floor.
“Brandon, she’s stable. Miraculously enough…” Kayla told
the older human, after one quick look at Yasmine. “I severed the
connection to pull her out before it got any worse.”
Brandon narrowed his eyes, which gleamed silver for a sec‐
ond. “That doesn’t look good… Should I go get a healer?”
“No… I’ll take care of this. It might take a little longer than
usual, since I’m also hurt, but we’ll pull through. We always do.”
“Um, GUYS?” Fred yelled. “How about explaining why my
brother is restraining me?”
“Ah yes, that’s a precaution on my part. Looks like I wor‐
ried for nothing,” Kayla said, smiling strangely.
Brandon released Fred and helped him up, apologizing for
the tackle. The younger of the two humans glared at Kayla, now
that she was no longer paying attention to them. “That smile just
212
now… I don’t know her too well, but if I’m right, that was utterly fake.
She’s the one who organized all of this, I’m sure… She wants me dead.”
“You ok, Freddie?” Brandon asked, innocently concerned.
“... yeah. I’ll go to my room now, I want to rest.”
“Oh, great! I’m coming with you, then,” his brother happily
answered. “We share a room, after all.”
“Wait, we do?”
“Yup! The rebels need space to train and all that junk, so all
rooms are shared.”
Fred sighed. This would force him to slow down his re‐
search, but since he assumed Brandon would be busy anyway,
he didn’t make a big deal out of it. Before leaving the room, he
picked up the shard of his Blood Core that Yasmine had
dropped, making sure Kayla didn’t see him do so. She seemed
too focused on her slowly waking sibling, however.
That night, he went out to try and put the shard back into
his body, grabbing a cloak to conceal his very noticeable missing
flesh. After failing every way he tried, he sat down in the garden
to pout, glaring hard at the shard in his hand. The only thing left
to do at this point was trying to swallow it.
The sound of soft male laughter interrupted his inner whin‐
ing. Fred stood up and looked towards the source to see a figure
clad in dark purple robes and a cloak with a hood over his head,
sitting on the edge of the roof.
“Why are you laughing?” he asked the person, slightly of‐
fended.
213
“You seem to be real mad at your own Core.”
“... how do you know this is my Core?”
The figure jumped down from the roof and pulled his hood
back, grinning at Fred. He looked about his age, with long white
hair and red eyes. “I’m a mage. A vampire mage, at that. Mystic‐
Blood. Who wouldn’t recognize their own brethren? Plus, eve‐
ryone’s heard of General Kayla’s descendants.”
“Can you put it back inside me, then?” Fred asked, with not
much hope as he held out his shard.
The vampire took his hand and observed the shard, hum‐
ming. Fred wasn’t sure the first part was necessary, but was
busy noticing that those pale hands were way too soft and way
too cold, so he didn’t say anything.
“Actually, yes. It’s pretty simple. Whoever broke your Core
didn’t want to completely destroy you. This piece was left in
your body on purpose, and that’s where it’s meant to be. It’s not
even cursed or anything. Which means reinsertion is very doa‐
ble. May I?”
Fred nodded, and watched as the vampire carefully handled
his shard for a minute. Then, he made it float and glow in front of
Fred. The human stood uncomfortably silent during his new ac‐
quaintance’s strange chanting. Then, all of a sudden, he felt some‐
thing shoot into his chest and started coughing, bent over.
“Whoa, whoa, breathe,” the vampire told him, putting one
of his hands on Fred’s back and using the other to help him
stand.
214
“I‐I’m ok. Thank you,” said the human, straightening him‐
self now that the coughing fit was over.
“But y’know, it’s weird. Why would anyone do something
like this?”
Fred turned away. “... I’m not sure. What I do know is that
this was most likely a premeditated attack.”
“What makes you say that?”
Fred hesitantly parted his cloak to show the vampire his
wound.
“... yowch, that ghoul must’ve been real hungry.”
“How do you know it was a ghoul?”
The vampire shrugged. “We can just tell. I studied in Arge‐
monia, you know. And I’ve graduated from like a dozen univer‐
sities over there. Educated people, and generally those who
have been around spirits for long enough, can kind of tell which
one did what. Unless they cover their tracks really well, that is.”
Fred gawked. “... how old are you?”
“So you’re not going to answer…?”
“You have a very melodic voice… It’s pleasing to the ears,”
Fred mentioned, slightly put off by just how nice it was to hear.
215
The vampire puffed out his chest, smiling proudly. “I know!
I’m a great singer. People call me the Purple Nightingale.”
“Yup. It’s gone so far that it has become my codename…”
“Really now?”
“To be exact, it’s my unit’s codename; I’m a captain. Not
that high of a rank, I know, but I was never aiming for the top
anyway.”
“The rumors also said that. Though they said your older
brother was the curious one.”
Fred chuckled. “It’s been nice talking to you, but I should
probably go back to sleep. Humans aren’t supposed to be up at
night.”
“Oh, alright. In case you ever feel angry at your Core again,
you know where to find me. It’s my favorite part of the patrol
route,” the vampire chirped.
Fred’s smile widened, and he went straight to bed after say‐
ing goodbye. “I still don’t trust Kayla, but… maybe being here’s not
all that bad. At least tonight I’ll be able to sleep soundly.”
With the sisters, Yasmine was asleep, and Kayla had gotten
out of bed to pace around the room. By her expression and body
language, one could tell she was extremely stressed. She had a
hand over the wound she’d received a few days before this; she
216
hadn’t been sure at first, but now it was quite obvious that it
would definitely leave a scar.
“Come on, I need to drag it out more… Just a little longer…
I can’t call on Drake so soon, we need to take down the Gate‐
keepers first…”
Her muttering caused Yasmine to stir awake. “Sis…? Kayla,
what in Luna’s name are you doing awake? Come back to bed,
we need to be well‐rested for our corporeal bodies to work
properly.”
Kayla stopped her pacing and looked back at her mate, bit‐
ing her lip. “... Yazzy… I’m sorry.”
It seemed like Kayla was about to say something, but she bit
her tongue and shook her head, smiling. “It’s nothing. You’re
sleepy, don’t wake yourself up for this.”
Sleepy Yasmine pouted childishly and swayed her hand to
the side. Kayla yelped and fell through a portal onto the bed.
Her younger sister then laid down right on top of her, almost
subconsciously careful to avoid the stomach wound. “You’re go‐
ing to stop worrying about whatever that is and sleep. Your
mind is cloudy and I can tell. You need rest. We can talk tomor‐
row, honey.”
The wrath spirit stayed silent for a few seconds, then put an
arm over her sister’s back and sighed in defeat, closing her eyes.
“... fine, fine. You win.”
217
Day 2
The next morning, Brandon woke up hearing some kind of
very heavy thuds. He looked out the window and screamed,
waking Fred up.
“Why are you yelling…? It’s still early…” the younger hu‐
man asked.
“You oughta see this, Freddie,” said Brandon, beckoning his
brother toward the window.
Outside, golems as tall as skyscrapers were marching off to
one side of the island. Most of the offense troops seemed to be
following the golems, while only a few units were heading the
opposite way. The human siblings exchanged looks and quickly
dashed out to check on the situation.
His waving eventually got her attention, so she teleported
down to them. “Oh good, you’re here! I need your help.”
“About that… Alpha sort of spazzed out during this morn‐
ing’s war council, and I think she and Yasmine had a fight, and‐”
“Whoa, speak slower. If those two had an argument, it
must’ve been for a good reason, but it doesn’t explain why so
many soldiers are leaving the base.”
218
“Yes, that’s the other thing. Kayla called for action, now. She
said we need to strike as soon as possible. Yasmine’s supposed
to help with transport, but it was physically painful for us to be
around them when they’ve just had a fight, so we separated
them. That’s why most of our forces are heading west to Yas‐
mine’s portals and a few elite ones are going east with Kayla to
find the first Gatekeeper. Three of the other generals moved out
as well,” Fran spewed.
“Already?” Brandon asked, surprised.
“Yes indeed, first Gate is just east of this place!” yelled Fran.
“You know what the plan is, right?”
“I have a general idea. Take down the Gatekeepers, burst
the Gates open, then use the part of our forces gathering at the
portals to pummel through Purgatory and march into the Great
Council at the top of Crystal Bridges to yell at the realm mas‐
ters,” Brandon listed.
“... you make it sound a lot more simple than it actually is,
but yes,” said the poltergeist‐god, making sparks jump when
she snapped her fingers. “Now go, you kids!”
“Yes ma’am,” said the elder human.
“Wait, where are we‐”
Fred got interrupted by his brother dragging him eastward.
“And tell me if you find Jeremy! I’m worried about him!”
called the spirit‐god.
219
“I know!”
“Oh, right. Sorry, sorry. We’re gonna go see Kayla.”
“What?” said Fred, outraged. “Being near that vicious woman
is the last thing I want!”
“... heard you,” they heard a male voice say when they got
to the clearing Kayla was waiting at.
A bird of some sort flew over their heads and perched on
the ghost’s shoulder, chirping something to her. “I see… Thank
you. Tell the remaining teams to go ahead of me, then you can
go back to your mistress.”
“Yo, General!” Brandon called, waving to get her attention.
Kayla turned to face them as the bird flew away, oddly se‐
rious. “Kids, you’re supposed to go to the portals.”
“For the twelfth time, I’m going with you,” said the black‐
haired human. “Also, we came here because we thought Yazz
would be here. Fran told us you two had a fight this morning.
What happened?”
Kayla avoided the humans’ eyes, staring right at the grass.
“... I was sick of lying and couldn’t bear it anymore. I’m still
waiting for her to slap me, really. I’d never had such a feeling of
hypocrisy.”
220
thing, and so did you. You two need to compromise never to do
that again, though. It doesn’t usually end well for… anyone.”
“... I… don’t think our lies hold the same weight. I mean,
how would you react if you‐”
Kayla was cut off by Fred groaning loudly. “Seriously, what
is this!? I’ve been feeling really weird around you lately, ever
since my Core was shattered.”
“Your Core got shattered!?” Brandon yelled. “When!?”
Fred pointed at Kayla, barely noticing how his chest started
to glow red. “Why don’t you ask the one responsible? See, she
doesn’t look surprised at all, does she?”
“... Freddie, Kayla’s not a ghoul. Death said that whatever
attacked you while you slept was a ghoul,” Brandon replied
with a pacifying gesture, fearing that his brother would lose con‐
trol again.
“No! You’re on her side. Think about it; according to Yas‐
mine’s verdict, there were several spirit variants involved, and
all of them except the ghoul align with the ones in our street.”
Brandon frowned, confused. “What…? What verdict?”
221
did it to protect my family and my pack. I wasn’t even conscious
when it happened. Still, I’m sorry.”
Kayla offered a guilty smile and spread out her hands. One
twisted and surrounded itself with the same energy as a
haunter’s when preparing to use their grasp ability, and the
other turned into a blade. A rock was lifted up near them by
what the brothers had learned to recognize as telekinesis, some‐
thing only poltergeist variants should be capable of. With a look
at her teeth, they saw that they’d also sharpened and slowly
turned into a ghoul’s.
“I knew it! You’re a monster!” Fred accused.
Brandon quieted, trying to overcome his shock.
The spirit spread out her arms, leaving herself vulnerable.
“So come at me. I won’t fight back…”
222
The younger human caught him midair and threw him to
the side with inhuman strength. This was a clear indicator that
Fred was no longer himself. Brandon struggled not to faint, and
instead made one last effort to help by cutting his forearm with
a nearby sharp stone, drawing plenty of blood. Blood loss didn’t
help him stay awake longer, but he’d know he had succeeded
when the moon moved to cover the sun.
Meanwhile, Kayla was busy trying not to shriek her lungs
out. Whatever bindings Fred had thrown at her, they hurt. The
kind of deep, searing pain that can only be caused by blood
magic. “I’m sorry, this’ll probably scare you, but… I can’t let you
share this pain with me.”
While writhing in pain but still standing, Kayla had magi‐
cally regurgitated part of Fred’s missing shards, which the hu‐
man gladly put back into his glowing chest. His slow advance
was slightly concerning, but brought to a halt when the eclipse
happened.
223
Almost immediately after, something hit Fred in the back,
so hard that the blow cracked his spine in two and sent him fly‐
ing into a rock, crushing his ribs and part of his face. How he
was still alive was a wonder only explainable by magic.
The something, Kayla realized due to recovering her ability
to form coherent thoughts, had been her sister, now panting on
the floor beside her. “What… did that little demon do? This is a
blood curse…”
“Death bonds happen whether you want it or not, you can’t
choose to have them or not.”
“... but… why did you come…?”
Yasmine winced in pain, but smiled through it and leaned
her forehead against Kayla’s, taking her hand. “Because I love
you, dummy.”
They were interrupted by a loud screech and a hiss. Though
they could barely move, they managed to turn enough to see
what was happening.
“Yes, Brandon heeded my advice. I told him that if there
was ever an emergency anywhere in the island, he could use
blood to attract our vampire sentinels… even during the day.”
“I thought you didn’t know Ronan could do this,” Kayla men‐
tally replied, switching to telepathy to save energy.
224
“Of course I do. I read a lot more than just ‘human news’, Kay.
Vampire mages, only born once every million years… Gifted with a
major part of Lunaris’ power. He’s so young, he doesn’t even have his
horns yet…”
They watched the battle between contortionist bloodstained
Fred and the fierce white‐haired vampire, whose skin was cov‐
ered in purplish blue lunar runes. Behind them, the rest of vam‐
pires were taking Brandon to the healers and the mages were
attempting to break the curses Fred had casted.
In an instant, the human seemed to gain advantage, making
Ronan stride back with a small ray of sunlight.
Kayla squirmed in dull pain. “Oh boy, now he’s done it. If I
know little Ronan, and I trained him for three decades, this is more
than triggering enough to warrant‐”
The vampire let out a piercing cry, activating a magic circle
beneath him; one so powerful it blew his cloak off. With this, he
spread out large wings feathered a dark purple and took off,
preparing for the final blow. Fred growled and shot blood at Ro‐
nan’s tail, trying to destabilize his flight.
His opponent dodged and knocked him out with a kick to
the head, landing next to him. “... I feel oddly guilty about this.”
Kayla and Yasmine, now with the blood bindings broken
thanks to the caster being out cold, both approached the vam‐
pire mage.
“You did great, Ronan!” Kayla congratulated. “I’m glad to
see you’re not rusty after so long.”
225
“Oh, not at all. Teacher, if I sparred with you as I am now, I
wouldn’t even last ten seconds,” he replied. “I was only able to
win because he was already badly hurt.”
“Don’t underestimate yourself. Did you know him?” Yas‐
mine asked, curious.
Ronan nodded. “We met a few hours ago.”
“Huh, must’ve taken a nightly stroll… Could you and your
mages do something about his Blood Core?” Kayla requested.
“It’s too unstable, and at this rate Brandon will end up brain‐
dead.”
“Potentially. Maybe. For now, we should restrain him. Hav‐
ing a broken Core amps his instability up to eleven,” said the
curse expert. “Give me time and I might be able to help him. But
as a family exorcist, he can’t stop unless…”
“... I know. I know how it works. Thanks, Ronan. Please take
good care of them both. We’re moving out.”
Ronan saluted. “I wish you luck, General Kayla.”
It took them about half an hour to wrap everything up
and join up with their respective teams, but as they all knew…
this was it. They could not delay, even if they weren’t able to
strike at full force.
The first Gate was out in the ocean, and fortunately they
found a big enough rock to stand on not too far from it. Kayla
sighed in relief, seeing almost all of her units transform and
jump into the water. “Teacher… thank you so much for lending me
some of your tanuki. With their ability to shapeshift, we should be fine
no matter where the Gates are.”
226
“Master, do we have to?” Lily asked, as far from the water
as possible.
Kayla shrugged. “I know you don’t like it, so you’re going
to stay up here with Alex. Their team is back at the island in case
we get attacked, helping Fran with the defenses, so you’ll be un‐
der their command.”
Alex smiled awkwardly and waved their hand.
“But they’re just a‐”
“Don’t talk back!” she yelled at Lily, turning to Alex and
softening her voice. “Get along, you two. Your job is to prevent
this Guardian from leaving the water,” Kayla told them.
Lily nodded, trembling. Her eyes lit up a purple‐pink and
she rose her hands. “The barriers are up, Master. Whoever this
death god is, they won’t even think about leaving the area.”
“Good girl. Now I just need to wait for the others’ signal…”
“Hey.”
The three yelped, looking around themselves.
“Wow, you guys are really paranoid. Anyway, I’m here be‐
cause my cousin got her wings stuck in a tunnel and couldn’t
come. Iʹm supposed to give you this.”
Out of nowhere, some shadows brought a dagger to Kayla,
who carefully took it by the handle, examining the blade. “Is
this…?”
“Yup. Be careful with that thing. It doesn’t have that much
power, from our point of view, but I’m sure you know what a
single cut can do.”
227
Kayla gulped and put the dagger in a sheath full of runes,
hiding it. “Thank you. I didn’t know the intruder had an affilia‐
tion with Argemonia…”
The voice groaned. “Only for now, until my master’s ties
to one of the rulers are severed. Good luck killing death gods,
I’ll be watching.”
They felt the presence vanish, but now knew it was still
there. Alex took a step backwards, disturbed. “Grandma, that
dagger…”
“I’ll give it back after we’re done. It’s not my place to have
such a lethal weapon.”
They saw a blue pillar of light shoot up from the depths of
the ocean and the water inside it vanish. That was the entrance.
Kayla flew there easily and dropped down, swiftly finding
her shapeshifters in front of a large double door. “Is this it?”
“Yes, ma’am. All Gates have some sort of room prior to the
actual Gate,” one of the older tanuki answered.
The spirit took a deep breath and prepared for the upcom‐
ing battle. “Alright. Bring it down.”
Past it was a single man with a scythe. “What!? Intruders!?”
The shapeshifters flooded the room and turned into all sorts
of mythical venomous animals, such as multi‐headed snakes,
cockatrices and train‐sized scorpions. While the death god was
228
busy trying not to get stung or bitten, Kayla flew up somewhere
he couldn’t see her, trying to find a blind spot.
The moment one of the drakes bit him, the Guardian fell on
his knees, paralyzed from the waist down. “W‐what in the‐ This
is ridiculous! You can’t kill me! Leave this place at once or I will
be forced to‐”
Before he finished, he felt something sharp plunge into his
heart from behind. “... it’s nothing personal, I promise.”
Whatever he’d been stabbed by was ripped out of him,
making him fall to the ground. The last thing he felt was a bite,
flesh getting torn away from his body, and someone taking his
heart and Core.
The next Guardian went down similarly, in the middle of a
western desert. And the next at the North Pole, and then the next
at the South Pole. The fact that they’d all been equally easy to
kill was kind of sad.
Kayla sent everyone to rest when they got back to the island,
but walked off on her own after washing the blood of the Guard‐
ians away. Brandon and Yasmine found her at the edge of a cliff,
halfway to the top of a mountain.
“Whoa, you really can track each other,” said the human.
“Brandon? Yazzy? What are you two doing here?” Kayla
asked, hiding something behind her back.
“Well, we came to find you. Ohh, your eyes look scary. Must
be the dragon pupils… How’d you do that?” Brandon continued.
“I… don’t know. It probably just happened somewhere
along the way…”
229
Yasmine frowned and quickly snatched up what her sister
was hiding, which turned out to be the dagger everyone had
been warned about. “What were you doing out here with this?”
“Nothing,” the elder one defensively answered, taking the
blade back and sheathing it. “Enough waiting around, I have to
open the human world.”
Brandon stepped away, but Yasmine stood her ground and
grabbed Kayla by the shoulders. “You’re lying. It’s been a long
time, shall we settle this with a spirit duel?”
“What? I‐I’m not lying… and a spirit duel? Right now?”
“Kay. We need to work on our synergy, in case the opposi‐
tion is stronger than we expect. As we are now, we won’t be able
to stand up to multiple realm masters without resorting to that.”
“... why do you always manage to convince me to do
things?”
Yasmine shrugged.
“... I’ll just… go back to my room,” said Brandon, not want‐
ing to be there for the battle.
“It won’t take long, see you at lunch,” Kayla said.
Yasmine rose an eyebrow. “Are you saying I’ll be quick to
beat?”
“Most likely. Especially if we count the four elite death gods
I went and swallowed today. It’s a considerable power boost.”
“... we’ll see about that.”
230
“What is this cliffhanger?
Does that mean we get to bet on who wins?”
“I… don’t know, boss.
When do I get my power back from that dagger?”
“Wow, you’re more anxious about that
than I thought you would be.”
“What is the lie?”
“Hm?”
“What did Kayla lie about?”
“Ah, the worrying part is that she was considering permanent
suicide, but she doesn’t wanna hurt Yasmine, so she’s not planning
anything harmful to herself. Did I tell you she used to ‘punish’ herself
before she died?”
“What? No. You always investigate a little too much, boss…
Why would she do that, though?”
“Eh, she felt guilty about a lot of things, she probably still does, and
she blames herself for most bad things that their father used to do to
her sister. That’s another one, you have no idea the suffering
catholicism caused those two.”
“I imagine they’d be conflicted about the whole… loving someone of
your same gender in a romantic way thing. Nowadays it’s not that
bad, but I can see how they could’ve had a hard time.”
231
“Good! Let’s see if I can convince the author to make the next
interlude about that, somehow.”
“… I don’t think it’ll be long enough to satisfy you, but try to settle
for a peek into the past and it should work.”
232
Interlude 6
Even longer ago than last time,
when the sisters were alive…
It was nighttime, and two horses walked one behind the
other along a dirt road. On the horses were three people, a
young boy on the light brown one, and two slightly younger
girls on the white one.
The light brown horse trotted up to the white one. “So hey,
you’re not scared?”
Kayla sighed. “No, Brent. I’m going to tell uncle about this.”
“Awww, come on, it was just a little prank! Father doesn’t
need to find out.”
His blue‐eyed cousin turned her head to glare at him with
the rage of a thousand suns. “You almost killed us all! And let’s
not talk about what Yasmine must’ve suffered before I got
there.”
“I was only trying to scare you…”
“Don’t. Not at the cost of our safety. If you have any objec‐
tions, we can decide with a duel.ʺ
Brent gulped and pulled his horse back to walk behind his
cousin, aware of her controversial proficiency with swords.
“Why are you so protective of her anyway? She’s not that much
younger than us, so she should be able to look after herself just
fine, considering how you came out.”
233
Kayla pointedly looked away to hide her face from Brent’s
sight. “... she’s my little sister, that’s why I’m protective of her.
You are supposed to be her future husband, as arranged by our
parents, so you of all people should at least look out for her in‐
stead of tossing a snake at her. Now shut up, we still have an‐
other two hours to go and if I keep hearing your voice I’ll want
to run my sword through your chest.”
“We’ll have to quicken the pace if we want to get to my fam‐
ily’s estate by sunrise.”
“Aw man… Look, I’m sorry, I admit I messed up.”
“Just like everyone in this damn family… We can only rely
on each other, the rest of you are all just like hungry beasts,”
Kayla spitefully growled, shifting Yasmine’s weight to better ac‐
commodate her unconscious body on the horse.
Fortunately, they got to the mansion a little before the sun
was up, left the horses at the stable, and went their separate
ways. Kayla laid her sibling on her bed, concerned about the
snake bite she’d received thanks to their cousin’s prank. She
called their two personal maids, who then contacted the family
doctor. Then, the girl offered him the two pieces of the snake.
“I see… This looks like an asp viper. Young lady, what hap‐
pened?”
“Yazzy went to take a walk with Brent, but it was getting
late and she hadn’t returned, so I went out to find them. When I
234
did, this snake had just bitten her, and my cousin would’ve been
next if I hadn’t cut it in half.”
The doctor hummed. “We cannot be sure, but she will most
likely survive. Let us pray for her soul.”
“… survive with what side effects?”
“Well, again, we cannot be sure, but her eyesight will prob‐
ably never be the same again, among a few other things that
could happen,” the man said, running his hand along his beard.
“I’ll stay by her side and call you if anything happens,” the
younger girl decided.
The doctor nodded and the maids bowed, leaving the room.
235
Day 1
“You must be Brandon,” said Ronan, holding out his hand.
The human shook it firmly. “Yeah. I’m here to see Fred.”
“I assumed you would be… We have much to discuss. My
name is Ronan, captain of the Purple Nightingale unit, and I will
be in charge of your brother’s recovery.”
“Recovery?”
Ronan nodded and gestured for Brandon to follow him. The
next room was very large, and filled to the brim with cages. They
varied in size, but they all held chained people inside them. Some
reacted badly to them passing by, yelling and trying to attack
them through the bars, while others simply shrunk into a ball.
“What is this place…?”
“Keep walking. Fred’s in a different room, since he’s a spe‐
cial case. If you must know, this is where my mages and I work,
237
for the most part. We hope to one day break the curses that tor‐
ment each of these people, but it’s a slow process. Some cases
are sent to the Syndicate of Magic for more powerful experts to
look into, but the great majority stay here,” Ronan explained. “If
we determine that a person cannot be healed, they are either sent
to their family or to the Beast Realm, depending on the severity
of the curse and what their family, if they have one, says.”
“Oh…”
The vampire mage summoned a purple key and put it into
the lock of another door, which opened without further prompt.
“Come on. This is his cell. Be very quiet, my mages just managed
to put him to sleep.”
“I thought he’d still be comatose from your fight. It’s been a
couple hours tops.”
“You’d be surprised… It’s magic sleep, though, so he prob‐
ably won’t wake up even if we speak normally.”
Within the torch‐lit room, which looked like a castle dun‐
geon, Fred was sleeping on a mat, down on the floor, and
chained to the wall.
“Is all of that really necessary…?” Brandon asked, feeling
bad for his brother.
“Unfortunately, yes. We also cuffed him, in case he breaks
through those,” Ronan informed.
“E‐earthquake!” Brandon yelled, looking for cover.
238
“... and isn’t an earthquake much more likely?”
“They don’t feel the same, so no. Luckily, judging by the
waves of energy, they’re fixing their issues.”
Brandon rose an eyebrow, unsure about what Ronan meant.
“What I’m saying is… It’s not gonna look like they just
fought each other with all their might, it’s gonna look like they
just came back from a spa date.”
“How?”
“Transfer? What do you mean by that?”
“Well… Fred doesn’t exactly have a sickness or something
easy to cure like that. It’s an origin curse, the most complex and
powerful kind of curse anyone could throw at you. Death gods
have one, and so do the humans of this world. Gods technically
have one too. It changes a lot of things.”
239
“So? Can’t you heal him here?”
“Maybe not. As a being with a Core, he breathes with diffi‐
culty in a world where the majority of living beings don’t have
one. It hurts him to be near creatures with no Core for extended
periods of time, too.”
“... that’s why he was always so reclusive… You’re saying
you have to take him elsewhere?”
“It would be for the best. When the revolution succeeds,
you’ll be able to visit him there, so don’t worry about it.”
Ronan bowed his head. “Thank you. I truly believe I’ll be
able to better care for him in a different environment. That and
keeping him in a dungeon makes me feel bad. I’ll see if I can
convince General Kayla to talk to the empress for me… With her
help, Fred would be stable and normal throughout the entire
healing process. Which will most likely take place in a convent.”
“Which empress? Where are you taking him? You haven’t
told me yet.”
“But you can probably guess, can’t you?”
“Argemonia?”
“Yes. The eastern country. The other four aren’t all that
good for cursed folks, to be honest. I guess that one tiny sixth
country could count, although I just found out it existed last
week.”
“And Kayla knows the empress of the east?”
240
Brandon gawked for a second. “... I can’t be as impressed as
I would be if I was more familiar with that place and its so‐called
‘greatness’, you know.”
“You’ll visit it soon enough. We can delay Fred’s transfer a
couple days, then you could come with us.”
The human smiled and waved him off. “Thanks, but I want
what’s best for my little brother. And if anything were to go
wrong, I don’t want him to get caught in the crossfire.”
Surprised, Ronan nodded. “... he’ll be safe and sound by the
time our forces reach Crystal Bridges.”
“Won’t it be quicker if you ask Yasmine to make a portal
there?”
“As far as I know, interdimensional portals are out of her
reach.”
Brandon shrugged. “Doesn’t hurt to try. Let’s ask her at
lunch.”
The vampire squirmed. “No thanks, I prefer not to die by
sunlight.”
“Oh. Right. I’ll ask her in your stead.”
“You have my gratitude,” said Ronan, bowing slightly with
his hands together.
At lunch, Brandon was led to sit with his ancestors.
“Aw, come on~” he heard Kayla say.
241
“Nope, I’m keeping my laser tag record,” Yasmine playfully
replied, booping her sister on the nose.
“Hey, how’d it go?” Brandon asked, sitting down in front
of them to wait for the food. “Why’s Kayla pouting?”
“After the battle, we played a few rounds of laser tag. She’s
grouchy because she never wins.”
The human poured some water for himself. “Which of your
made‐up modalities was it?”
“Hide and seek.”
“Oh. Well, it was obvious Yazz would win that one,” Bran‐
don told Kayla.
“Yeah, ‘cause she’s a cheater!”
“Maybe I am, maybe I’m not, but you’re the one who con‐
trols the entire terrain,” said Yasmine.
Offended, Kayla opened her mouth and rose her finger to say
something, but then crossed her arms and leaned back, huffing.
“I sense a request coming. What is it?”
“Without you‐know‐what?” Kayla asked, astonished.
242
“Yes. I feel like it’d work.”
The elder sister shrugged. “If you say so.”
“... O~k that was slightly creepy… but thanks.”
After lunch, one of the other generals rang a bell and sent
everyone to where they had to be for what was essentially a
coup.
Kayla brought them all to a large open area, where she sum‐
moned a gate bigger than any Brandon had ever seen. Still mak‐
ing use of the power absorbed from the death gods, she smashed
the door wide open and called for the army to go forth.
The place beyond looked similar to outer space, with huge
translucent bridges. Nobody seemed surprised, so the human
felt the need to communicate his emotions.
“Are these made of glass!?” Brandon asked, alarmed.
“No, it’s not glass. We don’t know what it is exactly, but we
can tell you it’s much sturdier than glass,” Yasmine hurriedly
answered, pushing him along to the side.
“Where are we going? Everyone else is heading to the wider
path.”
“Yes, but we are going in through the back. We might have
to fight, but I trust that you’re well‐trained enough to survive,”
Kayla informed.
“Oh great…”
243
After much walking, they got to the back of a large palace‐
like building. And next to the first door they found was Anna.
All four stood in tense quietness.
“... babe, what are you doing here?” Brandon asked his girl‐
friend, not fond of the silence.
“Lilith is up ahead. The protection layers for this summit
are Heaven and Hell,” Anna explained. “She said I’m not
ready to help her guard the entrance yet… Go ahead, I won’t
stop you.”
Yasmine and Kayla shared looks. The younger one rose an
eyebrow in disbelief. “Really…?”
The girl shrugged. “She and dad both said I’m not ready.
Thus, I’m not a guardian, so it’s not my job to stop you. Why
would I prevent my boyfriend and the couple in charge of my
street from entering a random building?”
Brandon smiled. “Thanks.”
Anna nodded and walked out of the way.
“Where the hell…?” the human of the group asked, con‐
fused.
“Exactly. Hell. Or, well, Lilith’s barrier, which works almost
exactly like her home. This feels more like the ‘fire and brim‐
stone’ part of Hell, aka the one your religion probably taught
you about.”
“And what are we supposed to do about it?”
244
“Find her first, then we’ll see,” Kayla continued.
As if on cue, a fireball grazed their feet. “Who goes there!?”
“... thank the blood pact for working its magic, that thing
was aiming for our legs,” Yasmine muttered in relief.
Lilith floated down to them.
“We’re coming through,” Kayla stated.
The princess of Hell stared at her friend for a few seconds,
then sighed and sat down on a nearby rock, crossing her arms.
“... fine. The other realm masters are going to kill me, but it’s not
as if I had a choice.”
“Hey, at least your dad will understand.”
“Thanks for the encouragement, Kay. Exit’s to the west of
here. I’m pretty sure Drake told you the password already…”
Lilith puffed.
“Thanks, Lith!” said Kayla, gesturing for the other two to
follow her.
They came out of a door that led to a hallway with only one
double door.
“Is that it?” Brandon asked, suddenly nervous.
She swiped her hand over Brandon’s head and watched a
soft blue glow envelop him.
245
“There. That’ll prevent them from harming you. Um, unless
they attack you physically that is.”
Once in front of the door, Kayla stopped to take a deep
breath, gripping the handle of the dagger she’d been given.
“... are you ready?” Yasmine tenderly asked her sister, put‐
ting a hand on her shoulder.
Brandon stayed silent during the exchange, though he took
out a cylinder.
“Is that the halberd you chose for training?” Yasmine ques‐
tioned.
The human held the cylinder farther from his body and
willed it to unfold. “Yes…?”
The elder sister hummed in approval. “Good. If you know
how to use it, you should be fine.”
They all turned to face the door, counted down from three,
and struck it open. Surprisingly, the room was completely
246
“W‐what is this!? How did you know we’d be coming!?”
Kayla yelled.
The leader of their white‐hooded aggressors responded in a
fierce voice. “We are the Peace Guard, and we won’t allow your
coup to succeed! Stand down and drop your weapons!”
Kayla rolled away, switching to defensive combat. Dodging
would be easier than trying to fight even a simple captain of this
monstrously powerful organization. “Crap… The Argemonian
Peace Guard found out… We can’t beat these guys on our own, Yazzy.”
“Not sure he was fighting seriously though… and he was retired.”
“For the love of all things you consider holy, just do it,” the
intruder’s voice spoke into their minds.
“... how are you inside our mental link?”
“Telepathy is not that hard. Seriously though, I’ve seen that
it scares you and all the other stuff, but I don’t think you have
a choice. You either lose here or win and break into the room
ahead of this one. Also they apprehended Brandon.”
247
Thirty minutes later, the human was being escorted some‐
where alongside a young woman that looked like both Yasmine
and Kayla, with dark blonde hair, a purple eye, and a blue one.
They had been restrained and were being gripped tightly. Hold‐
ing onto Brandon was the captain of the unit they’d fought, al‐
beit badly hurt from the battle. The rest of his unit had perished
during the later stage of the fight.
“I cannot believe you never told us you could fuse,” he
sighed.
“I’m sorry, they don’t like it because fusion works weird.”
“Ok, question,” said the fusion. “Why are we not arrested,
O leader of the Peace Guard?”
“Well… my brother and I got a tip about this whole uprising
of yours, so we examined your situation and decided to give
both sides a little nudge.”
“... nudge how?” asked Brandon.
One of the white‐clad guards to the side pushed a pair of
double doors open. The next room was the actual meeting spot,
apparently, but all realm masters were flanked by Peace Guards
and chained to their chairs, as well as the table.
248
“Sister, thank you for bringing them,” spoke a young man,
the only one with his hood down. “I didn’t know you two could
fuse… the one who told us about you didn’t mention that.”
The twins both had black hair down to their shoulders and
bright blue eyes. Non‐humans and their wacky eye colors stood
out to Brandon, but these two wore white armor and had wings.
Which made them easier to distinguish, because the sister had
silver wings and the brother’s consisted majorly of orange, red
and yellow feathers, although also blue, green and violet ones.
Unless he focused, they almost looked fully white; the two pairs
of wings emitted a soft light, so he assumed that was the reason.
“And who told you?” the human asked, not fully grasping
the situation thanks to being mesmerized by the twins’ strange
wings.
“We wouldn’t reveal a tipper’s identity unless specifically
asked to,” the brother said. “Now, sit down on those free chairs
over there. You know what will happen if you refuse to cooper‐
ate.”
“No, you don’t. And you can just call me Zenith, it’s what
the gurus at the last private conference thing kept calling me,”
she answered, as if reading his mind.
“Ohh, our names also start with Z,” the female leader of the
Peace Guard commented.
249
“I see you picked that up from your teacher,” the male one
said to the fusion, glaring at a woman with a monkey tail for a
moment.
Zenith shrugged, sitting on one of the chairs next to the
leader of the Minor Gods Network, who had most likely been
captured before them. “Not really, my mind reading is rather
limited and easily resisted.”
Brandon hurried to the only free chair remaining, and the
two siblings went to both ends of the long table. The brother
took a deep breath and put his hands on the table. “You all
should know exactly why we detained you. It’s technically not
part of our duties to make sure things are fair for everyone, but
let’s be honest, the Avatars are good people and were bound to
ask us to come fix it eventually. Besides, if everything was fair,
we’d have less rebellions to deal with, which would be nice.”
Many of the realm masters looked away, preferring to stare
at corners or walls. The sister then continued. “We got a tip from
someone else about a revolution brewing in the human world.
We sent our spies to investigate, and boy were we alarmed to
find out that it was actually a threat.”
Zenith put the deadly dagger on the table. “Fine, here you
go.”
250
“I don’t think I need to explain what that dagger can do. It’s
merely imbued with the power of life and death, however,” the
brother explained, moving his hand in a pattern.
Some kind of blue energy trickled out of the weapon,
swirled around for a few seconds, and disappeared off to find
its master.
“Aren’t you going to track it down?” Brandon asked, still
not understanding that he wasn’t supposed to talk.
“... we know exactly who it belongs to, but they are exempt
from the rules of the reality we live in.”
Her brother facepalmed, hearing the gasps of the crowd. “...
Zoe, you’re not supposed to say that in public…”
“Ah, right. Sorry Zach.”
“... anyway,” the male leader of the Peace Guard continued.
“None of you will move from their seat until the two sides of
this conflict reach an agreement. Just talk.”
“What!?” one realm master said, slamming his fists on the
table. “I refuse to talk to these, these insurgents! They are lowly
creatures that do not even deserve a second glance!”
Zach swirled his finger in the air and brought it down, caus‐
ing the realm master’s head to bump into the table, though not
hard enough to hurt. “We won’t allow that kind of comments
during the meeting either.”
251
Zoe giggled. “I’ll personally take care of that, brother.”
252
Day 12
Zenith screamed, exhausted, and let her body fall on the
couch. “I’m dead. Never thought hearing the words ‘court ad‐
journed’ would make me so happy…”
“You come from two spirits, I’m pretty sure you’re already
dead,” said Brandon, plopping down next to her with bags un‐
der his eyes. “That table is not good for sleeping.”
“Being the only human there, it must’ve been hard to act as
a representative for your entire species. You did pretty good.”
Brandon sighed and brushed his hair away. “I don’t even
know what I’m going to tell mom…”
That’s when they heard something smack against the door‐
frame and looked up at the door.
“Mom!?”
The middle‐aged woman straightened up and rubbed the
back of her head, sighing in defeat as she walked closer to the
couch. “I’m very sorry that I never told you. I wanted to wait
until we won.”
253
“Pff, thank Yazz and Kay for that. I really only woke up
once or twice before now,” said the fusion, waving her off.
“Mostly because panic‐fusing happens.”
“... I’m going to go process this, write down all of my ques‐
tions, and then I will ask them all over dinner,” Brandon said,
standing up on wobbly legs. “... after I sleep on my comfy bed
for a couple days.”
They watched him drag himself up the stairs, ignoring the
ball of three people that rolled down said stairs at the same time.
“Death, come on, put the children to sleep,” the mother
said.
“Oh, is that Zenith? If you’re back, that means I should go
see how Lilith’s doing,” Death said, standing up with Ursula in
her arms. “This kid has a lot of energy, you know. If you want
my reports for the past few days, they’re piled up on your desk.
Can I take the other kid?”
“The street’s future security chief?” Zenith asked, looking
at the child Kayla had chosen several weeks ago to bear her
blessing, who was hiding behind Death. “I mean, if you think
he’s not ready yet, sure I guess, you are his coach. Check with
Yasmine and Kayla tomorrow.”
“As a prism variant, probably. I don’t know how, though.
Neither do my halves, if you were wondering. This is like Kayla
having no idea how to use her incredibly overpowered ability,”
Zenith answered.
254
“And how exactly are you planning to change things now
that there’s an agreement?” the child asked. “Will I be able to
learn magic?”
Zenith smiled and stroked Ursula’s hair. “Of course, kiddo.
The plan is to discharge and have you tell my halves to fuse
again. It’s not always me that wakes up. Everything depends on
the people fusing, it’s not going to be the same when their wave‐
lengths align and they’re in synch than when they’re scared or
when they’ve recently had a bad fight they still haven’t recov‐
ered from. I’m the stable version, we need to awaken the chaotic
version. Only she knows how to manipulate reality properly.
The hacker, programmer, coder, we’ve used many names to re‐
fer to that specific personality. It may be slightly difficult to con‐
vince her to help, but it should work if my halves manage to
wake me up at the same time. Three against one will win in a
mental battle, even if one isn’t as familiar with mental battles.”
Ursula hummed. “Is awakening two fusions a thing?”
“It happened once.”
The young girl hummed again, changing the topic. “I think
humans will react… badly.”
“Yeah, so do I. Which is why I’m glad the Peace Guard is
helping. Hey, what do you think about a family vacation to
Argemonia when things calm down a bit? Oriens owns some
great islands to the south‐east. Occidens has a bunch of awe‐
some tropical ones north‐west, those have the best beaches.”
Ursula gasped and grinned. “Beach holidays? Yes!”
“By the way, where’s your owl?”
255
“Oh, he’s still asleep. I can’t wait until I can go to a nocturnal
school…” yawned the girl.
“Soon, don’t worry.”
From a hidden pocket in space, two brown‐hooded figures
were watching them. Their clothes made any features com‐
pletely indistinguishable.
One of them spoke first with the voice that they’d learned
to identify as ‘the intruder’. “Master… I apologize for speaking
out of turn, but I still don’t really understand why you made it
easier for them.”
“Well, if I said I want the author to focus on other worlds of
this universe before the geography document grows into its own
book, you wouldn’t understand it either,” said the other one in
a female voice. “This section, or our entire presence, may not
even make it into the final product. That’s why I sent you specif‐
ically to watch the KPs, I knew you’d mess with them and cause
more conflict.”
“... I will refrain from asking for explanations in the future.”
“I’ll take my omnipresence back now, go see if your cousin
needs help with paperwork.”
256
The intruder sighed. “Yes, Master.”
“Additionally, see if you can recruit one of the empress’
mind readers, we have none and it’s bothering me. Kayla better
not be left alone for long… dangerous thoughts start popping
up when she’s alone. It’s her spirit type talking.”
“What do you mean? Sin spirits outside of Hell are usually
good‐hearted people.”
“You said it yourself; ‘usually’. She has two different types
of dangerous thoughts. Since we don’t have a mind reader, I’ll
give you and the others tasks to prevent those thoughts from
ever becoming a reality. First off, we’ll need to make sure she
never finds a way to tamper with her death bond. Second would
be keeping her from turning into the spirit version of Napoleon.
I almost can’t believe someone’s good side is causing just as
much trouble as their evil side…”
The intruder bowed her head. “I will do as you command,
Master. Just don’t ask me to be her therapist, please.”
257
Day 34
Kayla slammed her head on her desk. “Why must I be in
charge of so much stuff… It’s not like I’m the queen or any‐
thing…”
Yasmine put down a cup of tea for each of them. “Still trying
to figure out what Zenith did?”
“Yep… I’ve documented most of the changes, I think, but
Thalia and the others haven’t stopped sending me new reports
yet.”
“Sis, you’ve been working nonstop for five days. Our solid
bodies are only partially divine. You can’t just stay awake for
days anymore…” said Yasmine, frowning in concern.
“Hey, don’t worry about me. You go shopping and help
with almost every single household chore now that things are
public and we have rights. Aren’t you overworked?”
“... to be honest, yes. I expected you to try other ways of
doing that, not just to literally try to pull me off the chair.”
258
practically everything in my body hurts. My neck and shoulders
are so stiff that I’m not sure I can move them at all.”
“I’ll take care of that,” said Yasmine. “My hands are skilled
at something other than what you expected.”
“When do you keep learning these random abilities? Like
repairing cars and stuff, just when do you learn those?” asked
Kayla, puzzled.
“While you’re off doing things.”
“Things that aren’t you?”
Yasmine put a hand over her face. “... I’m gonna go get a
futon and some firm cushions from our travel closet. When I
come back, I want you naked on the floor.”
“Yes, ma’am~”
“And don’t try anything while I’m still massaging you, un‐
less you want me to smack you.”
“I’m not opposed to trying BDSM.”
Yasmine went red, even more than before. “Kayla!”
Meanwhile, Brandon was looking for Ursula. He found her
meditating on a rock in the middle of the park. “Uh. What are
you doing?”
“I heard the new mage family that moved next door say
meditation is good for magic students.”
259
“That’s probably because they’re stressed out all the time. I
went to an academy a couple days ago, to see if I could learn
even without a Core, and that’s exactly what it looked like.”
“I came to invite you along to try and see if I can get a Core
prosthesis or something. The vampire mage mentioned that a
country in Argemonia might have what I’m looking for. And
maybe we can visit Fred.”
“Of course I wanna go! Is Anna coming?” the young girl
asked, jumping off the rock.
“Ah, no… things are still a bit awkward after we broke up.
We agreed to be friends instead, but…”
“You’re not much of a smooth talker, are you, big brother?”
The trip to the portal was a long one, because for some rea‐
son that Ursula couldn’t understand, Brandon decided not to go
ask Yasmine to make one for them. They had specific ID cards
to access the portals.
“I guess public portals are still a bit far off,” the elder
brother commented.
“I’m just happy we have valid IDs,” said Ursula. “So lucky
to be descended from two of the generals~”
260
Brandon shuddered at the cold of Crystal Bridges post‐tele‐
portation. “... I’m technically still a soldier, and so is mom. You
do remember that, right?”
“Yes! It’s fun to have Death as a babysitter.”
“That line would be concerning if I didn’t know her person‐
ally…”
They got to what looked slightly like a bus stop and sat
down to wait. There was nobody else.
“The human side is kinda empty… Wonder if we’ll have
our own tiny village at some point,” seeing his sister’s confu‐
sion, Brandon clarified. “It’d mean shorter waits for the ray‐
lines.”
“That’d be awesome, it takes so long for them to get here.
But don’t astral mages raise them?”
“Them, and every other creature out here. We shouldn’t get
our hopes up, astral mages are few and far between,” reacting
to Ursula’s sadness, Brandon added something else. “But, the
good news is that we’re going to their country of origin.”
“Really!?”
“Yeah. And even if the country’s tiny in their map, Kayla
told me that Argemonia is at least fifty times bigger than Earth,
so… I don’t think our definitions of ‘tiny’ would be alike.”
They heard a whale‐like noise and saw a gigantic glowing
manta ray, with cosmic patterns on its flesh, soaring above them.
The ray stopped next to where they were sitting and lowered
261
itself almost to the ground. The siblings rode on its back, once
again amazed at its sheer size.
“That was quick… Argemonia, please,” Brandon asked the
manta ray.
Yasmine had expressed that to her, it was always rather bor‐
ing to make long trips through Crystal Bridges, but to Brandon
and Ursula, it was awe‐inspiring. Perhaps because they hadn’t
had the time to get tired of it.
“It’s a long trip. We might want to take a nap,” Brandon in‐
formed, having been to their destination once before.
The manta ray glid elegantly through the space around the
bridges, and its gentle rocking movements soon caused the sib‐
lings to fall into a restful sleep.
A few hours later, the manta ray woke them up with its
somewhat whale‐like noise.
Ursula grabbed onto their transport. “W‐whoa, we’re head‐
ing up pretty steeply…”
“Yes, well, the place is pretty high up,” Brandon replied.
“It’s probably the highest out of all realms. Our ray might have
even switched us over to another one, because not all of them
can reach the top.”
“Wow… is that it?” Ursula asked, pointing up.
From below, they could only see a chunk of land, sur‐
rounded by some kind of barely visible force field. This ‘chunk
of land’ stretched on for as far as their eyes could see.
262
“You got it,” said Brandon, grinning in excitement. “North‐
east entrance, please.”
The manta ray clicked and turned slightly, but otherwise re‐
mained on its original path.
The younger one held onto her brother, trying not to fall
from their transport. “What’s the bubble around it? I’ve seen it
around every realm, except ours… It feels like a powerful spell.”
“It is. Guess Yazz and Kayla omitted this part when telling
you stories. Jeremy told me that all realms put up a force field
around themselves when they split during the later stages of
Oblivion. They vary in strength, and this one is the most power‐
ful to date. Which makes sense considering its magical history.”
The manta ray then reached the top and swam into the bub‐
ble. Ursula’s eyes widened in awe at the vast land and its great
variety. After another hour, their transport started to glide
down. They knew they’d arrived at the docks when it started
going down in small circles.
“It feels kinda weird to touch solid ground after so long on
one of those,” Ursula commented upon stepping on the docks.
A man with fox ears and a tail walked up to them, smiling
kindly and dressed in robes. “You two must be Fred’s siblings.
Brother Ronan sent me to get you.”
“Ah, um, excuse my sister. It’s her first time here, and I
don’t think she’s ever seen a beast person before…” said Bran‐
don, pulling the young girl away from the man’s tail.
263
“It is fine, I can understand that. I will now take you to the
monastery, please follow me.”
“He lives in a monastery now?” Ursula asked, feeling lucky
to have learned what that was in school.
The fox man led them to the back of a building at the top of
a mountain.
“It does explain why animals are huge and people are taller
here, though… Come on, hold onto my wing and we can rest for
a while,” said Ronan, stretching out one of his dark purple
wings that he normally hid under a cloak.
Fred himself was wearing robes similar to the monks’, and
had a bird on his shoulder.
“Brother Ronan, Fred’s siblings are here,” the fox man in‐
formed.
“Brandon, Ursula!” the middle brother called, a little wor‐
ried as he leaned into Ronan, partially to hide behind him. “I‐I
didn’t know you’d both be coming…”
264
“I saw you when you were asleep and Kayla was showing
me around. Urs said she wanted to come, so we took the ray
here,” Brandon explained.
Fred came out of hiding to raise an eyebrow at them. “And
why didn’t you just ask Yasmine to make a portal here?”
“Uh huh… I’m still trying to see if my brain accepts that re‐
lationship, but ok.”
“Fred, what’s this country’s policy?” Ronan asked him, as if
to remind him.
The human rolled his eyes. “As long as it’s not hurting an‐
yone, it’s fine.”
“... that’s a very simplified version, but yes. Anyway, back
to the recovery process.”
“How is he doing?” Brandon asked.
Ronan grinned. “We’re supposed to pick up his bracelet to‐
day. After that, he should slowly return to stability. And he’ll
stop needing that bird on his shoulder.”
“It prevents suicide,” Ronan casually answered.
This was scary to Ursula and outrageous to Brandon, who
externalized it. “It WHAT!?”
265
“So after a few attempts that I had to rescue him from, I flew
over to the eastern country and asked for one of these. It’s tem‐
porary, but it’s been helping out a lot,” Ronan explained. “Also,
your brother really cannot meditate under a waterfall for long.”
“... you’re making him meditate under a waterfall?” Bran‐
don asked.
Ronan shrugged in response. “Normal meditation doesn’t
usually cut it anymore. Some of his Core’s contents bled out into
the rest of his body when it broke, and normal meditation isn’t
enough to purge it. The monks here recommended using the
waterfall for a faster purification process.”
“Isn’t that… torture?” Ursula asked, unable to imagine how
someone could sit or stand under a waterfall.
Fred hummed, putting his hand under his chin in thought.
“I find it pretty soothing after the initial rush. Certainly drowns
out both internal and external noise…”
“He has a new outlook on a bunch of things thanks to train‐
ing with the monks since he first got his bird,” said Ronan, pat‐
ting Fred on the back.
“Oh, that’s great, would you like to try and hit Kayla some‐
day?” Brandon asked. “I’ve never been able to. And I’m begin‐
ning to doubt it’s possible.”
“No thanks. Her sister kicked my spine into two and gener‐
ally broke me so much that I needed several professional healers
of the highest levels available.”
266
“Ok, I’m sure you guys have a lot to catch up on, and we
were just about to get lunch,” Ronan said. “Come with us and
try some Argemonian cuisine.”
“Gladly,” Brandon replied.
Ursula jumped, thrilled. “Yaay, field trip extended!”
267
Day 38
“Quick question,” said Brandon. “Why are we standing in
the middle of Purgatory’s realm master’s garden?”
“I told my son I’d visit him after we won, and that I might
take a while if I had work to do,” said Kayla. “It’s been months
and I feel bad for not coming, so I left Yazzy home to wrap up
what little work we have left. She’ll drop by after she’s done.”
“Wait, YOUR SON?”
“Ok, ok… So this one is adopted too.”
“No.”
“... you gave birth to him?”
“Technically, yes.”
“... I thought you and Yasmine were together.”
“We are.”
“Then is she the father? Somehow?”
“No.”
Brandon tried to resist the urge to pull his hair out and in‐
stead followed his ancestor around the interior of the large man‐
sion.
“Look, he was born from my soul. The process was painful.
I wasn’t going through a very good stage of my unlife at that
moment, and it reflected in my turbulent soul. Because of my
268
variant, it ended up like this. Prism variant spirits can birth
gods, usually powerful ones. After that happened, my emotions
calmed down significantly. I didn’t really know what to do with
a newborn, so I told Yasmine and we asked some old souls what
we should do. To be honest, he kept us in Purgatory for far
longer than we planned.”
Brandon was surprised to hear this. “You two stayed in Pur‐
gatory, too? I thought you already spent quite a while in the
Beast Realm.”
“We’ve stayed in more places other than our home,” Kayla
explained. “I remind you that we’re from an era where every‐
thing was different. And that we both used to be devout catho‐
lics, believe it or not. So we stayed in Purgatory for an embar‐
rassingly long amount of time. The rest of places were Hell and
Heaven, the Beast Realm and Argemonia. In that order, I recall.
Do not ask me about my time in Hell or Yazzy’s time in Heaven,
it was terrible.”
“So you’ve raised a total of like… three kids?”
“More or less, if you only count the two humans and the
god. The Peace Guard still got us, though…”
“... I’m scared to ask, so I’m not gonna.”
“You don’t need to, we’re here,” said Kayla, gesturing to a
bigger door.
Brandon curiously looked over Kayla’s shoulder and into
the new room. It was the perfect place to do nothing, with a fire‐
place, many pillows of different shapes and sizes, a number of
piled up books.
269
“Mom!” smiled an enthusiastic middle‐aged man on one of
the pillow stacks, sitting up. “I’m glad you could make it. How’d
it go?”
“Have you not woken up ever since we attacked…? Drake,
what’d I tell you about sleeping too much?” said Kayla, frown‐
ing and crossing her arms. “You have duties to attend as the god
of souls and realm master of Purgatory.”
“Ok, ok, I’m sorry mom, I know I enjoy sleeping more than
I should. You two, come take a seat near the fire. Purgatory’s
usually freezing cold around this time of the year.”
“He doesn’t like long names,” Kayla whispered to Brandon.
Drake rose an eyebrow, taking three glasses and a bottle of
wine from… somewhere within the pillows.
“Ah, I don’t drink,” Brandon interjected.
270
Purgatory’s realm master gave him a short nod, tucked one
of the glasses into the pillows, and looked back at his mother.
“What happened, then?”
“... the Peace Guard happened.”
The god of souls gawked and dropped both the bottle and
the glass he’d been filling, but fortunately Kayla stopped them
from hitting the floor via poltergeist telekinesis, levitating them
back to Drake’s hands.
The older man breathed in and breathed out, trying to calm
himself. “I would’ve never expected them to appear… Let’s just
hope their leaders don’t find out.”
“Oh they found out alright. They came in person. To tell you
the truth, Zoe’s pretty amicable, but Zach is considerably
stiffer.”
Drake’s eyes once again widened in shock. “A‐and you sur‐
vived that encounter?”
Kayla shrugged, taking the glass of wine her son was offer‐
ing. “Zenith did. From putting together what little we con‐
sciously remember, Yasmine and I discovered that the leaders
of the Peace Guard are indeed beyond life and death.”
Drake now seemed worried. “Big sis Zen? She didn’t get
hurt, did she?”
“Wait, if Zenith is a combination or fusion of Yasmine and
Kayla, how is she your big sister?” Brandon asked.
Drake and Kayla stared at him. Then, the god answered
him. “... the logic was kind of that we both come from the same
271
person. Or something… Besides, Zenith is a different person. I
call her big sister, but she’s technically younger than me, since
when she first woke up, I was about eight or nine years old.”
“A similar logic applies to the rest of fusion results,” Kayla
completed. “As vastly different as they are.”
“Please no, I’m not sure Brandon should see Yasmine and I
being a pair of overly catholic parents. There are so many seals
placed on the album drawer at home that not even I can open
it,” said Kayla, trying to avoid embarrassment.
“Aww… That’s sad, but I guess we have an eternity to fig‐
ure things out,” Drake responded, shrugging.
After a couple hours, the two visitors started making their
way back to their homeworld. Since the sisters were so far apart,
Kayla couldn’t reach into Yasmine’s space manipulation pow‐
ers, therefore they had to take either a manta ray or the tunnels.
Since the tunnels would mean passing by the Judge, they chose
the manta ray.
“Welcome back. How’d the talk go?” Yasmine asked.
272
The younger sister gave a sigh of relief and leaned against
Kayla, who put an arm around her waist to support her. “Thank
goodness… I’m still worried about him, though…”
“Hey, it’s ok, we’ll go see him again tomorrow, when he has
the energy to receive visits,” Kayla reassured. “Thanks for eve‐
rything you do, Yazzy.”
“Kayla’s a really sweet partner, and a good person in gen‐
eral, but yeah, I also noticed. I’m happy for them, it looks like
the treaty took a big load off their shoulders,” Ursula replied.
“Now help me get my owl unstuck!”
She all but dragged Brandon away, leaving the two sisters
on their own in front of the house.
“What’s up with her?” Kayla asked.
“I… Frankly, I have no idea. Her owl is not stuck, that I
know of.”
“Huh. Weird. Anyway, you deserve a break, so take the
rest of the day off. I’ll cook dinner and wash the dishes to‐
night. Actually, I’ll do all your chores for the next month, on
top of my own.”
“But‐”
Right then and there, her older sister picked her up, making
Yasmine yelp and hold onto her tighter. “I told you I’d carry you
to bed and bind you to it if you tried to overwork yourself again,
remember?”
273
“23rd February 1892… Ok, fine, I’m not going to struggle
any longer.”
“Should I put you down, then?”
“... not unless you want to.”
While being carried to their room, Yasmine thought about
two major things. She decided to get the more objectively im‐
portant one off her chest first. “Kay, can things really get better?
The situation is way rockier than we expected… Humans are on
the edge of a third World War, and almost every country is…
well, divided. Will it improve?”
The elder sister hummed. “I think it will, but not without
our grain of sand. They have no choice but to adapt and over‐
come, but we can choose whether to help them do so or not. Hu‐
mans and spirits must learn to get along, supporting each other,
because in truth… We are two sides of the same coin. I talked to
the queen about it. The other leaders of the spirit countries seem
to agree. After the Peace Guard stamped their seal on the new
laws, everyone was awfully quick to get on board…”
“Knowing the queen, she’ll keep that in mind. We can ex‐
pect better treatment because of our involvement prior to those
new laws.”
Kayla set her mate down on their bed, putting up a light
binding spell. “Are you ok?”
“... I will be… It’s just that this has been a stressful month.”
274
“Yup… and now that it’s over, I… have something to ask
you.”
Yasmine sat up. It was uncharacteristic of Kayla to be this
kind of nervous. “What is it?”
The older spirit stood, hugging herself with her back to her
sister. “I feel like this is long overdue, but I couldn’t figure out a
good way to go about it… I wasn’t sure I was even allowed to.”
The younger one sat on the edge of the bed, feeling her heart
begin to pound. She didn’t know if it was from stress, exhaus‐
tion or nervousness, but she had to force herself to remain still.
“Sis?”
Kayla took a deep breath, turned around, got down on one
knee, and showed her sister a ring. “Yasmine Barnet, will you
marry me?”
275
“Aww, that was so cute.”
“It was a nice story. Those two are adorable and I hope you don’t de‐
cide to screw them over again in the future, boss.”
“You ought to admit they have more chemistry
than Brandon and Anna.”
“I kinda feel bad for Brandon though.”
“Don’t worry, he’s a good man. He might suffer a little bit, since he’s
still more naive than I would recommend, but he’ll pull through.”
“There are like eight of us here right now, is anyone writing down the
events? We’re supposed to keep track of them! Get moving, all of you!
Ah well… Now, on to the epilogue!”
276
EPILOGUE
Slice of Death
I heard my alarm clock beeping and rolled on my side to
turn it off.
“Too hot…” Lilith muttered, half‐asleep.
“Come on, it’s morning already. I have work and so do
you,” I told her, standing up to get dressed.
“Do I have to?”
“I’m not going back to bed. I’ll close the flower shop at
noon; we told Kayla we’d attend Ursula’s memorial ceremony,
remember?”
Lilith groaned. “Ayaaaa…”
I shuddered, feeling the hairs on the back on my neck stand
on end. “Don’t do that.”
“Fine, Mary.”
“... Get up and put some clothes on, I’m gonna go make
breakfast. Black coffee?” I presumed.
277
“Yeah… I’ll be down in a sec…” said my girlfriend, throw‐
ing the bedsheets off her body. “Now I understand how you feel
when I get food in the middle of the night and it’s winter.”
Almost a century had passed since the Rebellion managed
to secure a sort of victory, and humans… hadn’t reacted very
well. Many things happened after the human side met the spirit
side. The Syndicate of Magic had also gone public, but it was
surprisingly well‐received.
“The first couple of decades were so filled with death… I
hope nobody finds out that the immortality period was my do‐
ing… At least humans are dying less now than they did before
the revolution. I’m glad to see people grow. Maybe that woman
wasn’t just being cruel…”
“Remember the group who put an end to Oblivion? Their
leader,” I clarified.
“The psychopath?”
“No, the witch. Sit down, coffee’s ready.”
When we finished breakfast and piled everything on the sink
to clean up later, we headed out. The flower shop was relatively
278
close to our house, but we used my motorbike anyway, since
we’d have to go all the way out to the countryside later.
It was Sunday, and we didn’t have many customers, so I
spent most of my time making flower arrangements and taking
care of the various plants around the shop.
From the counter, Lilith expressed her boredom by groan‐
ing loudly. “Not even the elderly folks that always come here
are around today. Did you really drag me out of bed for this?”
“You sound like Kayla.”
I smiled, remembering the first time I met my good friend.
“Yeah. We have similar ideals. I’m pretty sure that’s why we hit
it off so quickly when we first met.”
We heard the door close and saw one of our regulars, an old
lady with a basket full of groceries.
“Oh, it’s so good to see you both… Thank you dearie, you’re
always so kind. Carnations, orchids and chrysanthemums,
please.”
“I’ll throw in a rose and some peace lilies, if you don’t mind.
On the house.”
The old lady tried to convince me that it wasn’t necessary,
but I knew how important his birthday was for her. In the end,
279
she left having paid only for the three types of flowers she’d
asked for, as planned.
“... why do you do that?” Lilith asked me, reminding me of
the time she almost yelled about how ironic my job was in the
middle of the shop. “It’s not just Mrs. Black, you do this relatively
often. What about last week’s teenage boy? He looked kinda de‐
pressed, sure, but is that really enough of a reason to give him the
flowers for free? They were more expensive than he expected, so
he should’ve just come back later with the money.”
“... Lilith, he was getting flowers for his sister’s funeral. He
didn’t explicitly say so, but if you run this kind of business for
long enough, you learn to recognize what people came here for
and why,” I responded. “People come here for different reasons,
it’s usually either a very happy one or a gloomy one. Human
lives are much shorter than ours. They normally don’t live past
a century. For them, a best friend they knew for ten years might
as well have been part of their soul. Young people are especially
affected by the grief of losing someone dear to them. While el‐
ders more or less already expect it, younger generations haven’t
yet accepted that they’re going to die, and of course, they never
expect someone their age to face death so soon. Life is as beauti‐
ful as it is cruel. It’s fragile and precious… so the strong must
help and protect the weak.”
My girlfriend stared at me, with her mouth open, probably
searching for something to say. “I… I don’t know why I’m sur‐
prised.”
I looked at my watch and realized it was almost time to
close up shop. “Oh, time to go. That was short…”
280
While driving, I chose to ignore the chaos around me. High‐
ways were never as calm as they used to be, and motorbikes
were easy to lose control of if something distracted me.
Taking this route would be a little riskier, since it was a hot
spot for bandits. As if on cue, only a couple miles away from the
highway, a scorpion beast jumped in front of us and tried to
sting us. I was forced to skid to a halt to dodge.
“Give us everything you have!” the female scorpion yelled.
I glanced around, trying to assess the situation. I could see
a veteran‐looking armadillo man, a spider girl, and several
hedgehog boys. They’re all kids… Ok, not a problem.
I took a deep breath. “... I don’t think you want to mess with
us.”
“I think we do,” the scorpion said, gesturing something.
The spider launched a large web at us, but it burned up be‐
fore reaching us. I sighed and got off my bike. “Thanks, Lith. I’ll
do the rest myself.”
Lilith nodded and prepared to watch. I don’t usually fight
people, so she must really want me to kick these bandits out of
the way. It’s not like they’re stepping over the line according to
the duties I took upon myself, though.
281
“Hey, who do you think you are!?” the scorpion called, bar‐
ing her stinger.
The other bandits got into battle position. The only thing
that I might have been worried about was the hedgehogs. “I
don’t know, why don’t you try to guess?”
I summoned my scythe and released part of my aura. The
bandits immediately fell on their knees and gasped for air. I felt
slightly bad, since the younger ones may or may not have other
damages to their souls and bodies after this.
“Oh come on, seriously?” said Lilith, almost offended.
“You’re not satisfied? I can let out a bit more of my aura and
see if you end up like them,” I said, pointing at the group with
my scythe. That was when I realized the leader was trying to
speak. “Hm? Wait, lemme adjust this…”
I reabsorbed a bit of my aura, and the scorpion looked up at
me. “D‐Death! We didn’t know you were Death, promise…
Please, at least spare my friends…”
My eyes gleamed green for a second. I think I saw this in a
vision… That witch and the prophetic dreams she ‘gifted’ me
are a pain.
I sighed, took back the rest of my aura, and dropped a bag
in front of the scorpion. “Use that to get a job. You can still lead
a good and honest life. Stick together and strive to be the best
version of yourselves.”
282
the house to go anywhere without something happening on the
way, could I?
“You’re too nice,” Lilith solemnly told me, after a long si‐
lence on our way back to the main route.
“... I know,” I replied.
We both stayed silent until we got to our friends’ town. Spe‐
cifically, to the graveyard. Around the outskirts, we found Yas‐
mine and Kayla.
“Mary, Lilith!” called Kayla, hugging each of us. “Glad you
could make it.”
“Eh, there was a bird fight in the highway and some bandits
assaulted us, but Mary took care of it~” my girlfriend explained,
linking arms with me.
“You make it sound like I killed them,” I said in return.
Lilith shrugged. “You disposed of them. In a peaceful way.”
“I just hope they can start from scratch with what I gave
them…” I said. “Anyway, where’s little Ursula?”
“Trying to find her formal sorceress gown,” Kayla an‐
swered. “She never sells old clothes or throws them away, so
now that there’s only three of us in the house… She has the space
to fuel her hoarding habits.”
“Yes, yesterday I think I even saw the dress she wore at our
wedding,” Yasmine told her sister.
“Really?” Lilith asked, raising an eyebrow. “I mean, I’d un‐
derstand hoarding her clothes after she reached her age cap, but
from before?”
283
Kayla shrugged. “She says they have sentimental value.”
“Hey, while we wait for her… Is it me or are you two a lot
more… godly, than usual? I thought Yazz only ate two gods,
and they weren’t even major ones,” I said, finding their auras a
bit confusing.
“Ah, yes, about that… Because of our roles in everything
that happened, and our current ones, people believe in us. We
haven’t become gods, but we’ve unlocked the ‘divine spirit’ part
of our prism variancy, basically,” Kayla explained. “So we’re di‐
vine spirits instead of ghosts.”
“It’s amazing the amount of perks it offers. It’s our new de‐
fault,” her wife completed.
“I’m here!” yelled Ursula, teleporting next to her ancestors.
“Sorry I’m late, I couldn’t find anything to wear.”
I hadn’t seen this kid in a very long time… She looked
like a young adult already, and her eyes had turned silver.
Wait… That’s from the first vision, isn’t it? But it can’t be Ur‐
sula… If the Moon Sorceress has awoken, could the Sun Sor‐
cerer already be…?
“Earth to Mary,” Lilith called, snapping me out of my
thoughts. “Everyone’s already inside. If we take too long, we’ll
miss the whole ceremony.”
We hurried to the heart of the graveyard, where the rest of
the crowd was. This ceremony was held every year since the
revolution to remember all the people who had passed on and
returned to nature. The humans had taken a pair of decades to
join, but it ended up being more important to them than it was
284
to the spirits and gods who first started it. Lilith and I were only
attending this one because it would be Ursula’s first time pre‐
siding it.
It actually felt kind of intrusive for us to be here, though
they insisted. Then I remembered seeing my mother’s list of new
recruits for the guardians of Heaven. “Isn’t Brandon a Heavenly
Guard?”
“Yeah, but I’ve been so busy I haven’t had the chance to go
up there yet,” said Ursula, pouting.
“I still haven’t gotten her to tell me what materials she
used,” I told Yasmine, slightly ticked off about it. “It looks like
platinum, but something tells me she would go much further
for you.”
“Are you two still competing to see who proposes best
first?” she asked.
“Yes,” Lilith and I answered in unison.
285
Kayla snorted and giggled. “You do you. Speaking from ex‐
perience, because I too spent over a hundred years mulling over
how to go about it… Sometimes, simple is best. You will still feel
nervous to a torturous extent though, no matter what.”
“Thanks I guess…?” said Lilith.
“Alright, we’ll take Ursula to Heaven. It’ll give me a chance
to visit my mother, too,” I said.
Kayla stared at me. “And your bazillion daughters.”
“... I have six. Within the universal religion, that’s perfectly
normal,” I justified.
Lilith tapped my arm. “And hey, since the eldest is an angel
of death, it’s actually much better than a normal set of kids. Plus,
Heaven benefits from having five resident death gods. Less so
now that it has two angels and an angel of death, but still.”
“I didn’t know Mary had kids,” said Ursula.
“And I don’t know how to describe any of the relationships
that led to this situation,” I replied. “I’m just lucky my girlfriend
doesn’t mind them.”
Soon after that, we headed out to Heaven. The guards let us
pass without making us go through the usual border control, but
were careful not to say my title. They knew I hated it.
We found my mother at the luminous heavenly palace, fix‐
ing her robes and feathers in front of a large mirror.
“Hey mom,” I greeted, bracing for the rib‐crushing embrace
that I knew was coming.
286
She was surprised to hear my voice at first, though her hap‐
piness to see me was conveyed by her tackle‐hug. Thank my bi‐
ological parents for being mega tall and sturdy. “Thrilled to re‐
ceive a visit from you, Mary. Have you gotten taller?”
“You’ve been saying that since I first passed your height,” I
replied.
“My name is Ursula Barnet, a sorceress,” the human intro‐
duced herself with a courteous bow. “Thank you for having me,
my lady.”
“Ah, a relative of Yasmine’s? She used to be in the virtue
corps of our armed forces,” my mother commented. “Either
way, welcome to Heaven. I believe we have one of your relatives
working as a guard here.”
“That’s why I brought her here. He died only a couple years
ago, and she hasn’t had the chance to talk to him yet,” I ex‐
plained. “Lilith will stay with you and I’ll take Ursula to see her
brother. After that, I promise to come back and spend some time
with you and the kids.”
“That sounds reasonable…” my mother said. “I hope you
know the Mist might’ve gotten to him…”
Lilith put her hands on her hips and leaned back slightly.
“Fine, I’ll stay here, but they better not try anything.”
287
The realm master smiled amicably and rose her hand. “An‐
gel promise.”
I was the first to speak. “So you chose your middle‐aged
look for this?”
“Mary, you’re here too? Did something happen?”
“No, idiot. Your sister missed you and couldn’t come find
you until now,” I said, rolling my eyes. Brandon tended to as‐
sume there was always trouble. “Ask for permits during the hol‐
idays, please. It’s what most spirits of virtue here do to stay in
touch with their still living relatives. And to avoid the Mist com‐
pletely erasing all memory of their life.”
“Yes, princess.”
I squirmed. “Please don’t call me that,”
Brandon and Ursula parted. The younger human sat beside
her brother to see what he’d been looking at. “Is this a map?”
“Yeah. I’m trying to find my wife,” he revealed. “I asked
Anna if she knew anything, considering her position, and she
said she was either up here or in Purgatory. I planned to go visit
Drake on my next free day and ask him.”
288
“... Don. Remember that I was her reaper?” I said, wonder‐
ing if he had forgotten that extremely important detail. “I could
just tell you where the Judge sent her.”
“Really!? Man, I’m an idiot… I forgot death gods did that…
Where is she?”
“The Judge said Purgatory. She had no objections. I could
give you her address too, if you want. I visit some of the people
I’ve reaped occasionally,” I said.
“Of course. Thank you so much,” he then turned to face Ur‐
sula. “Now, we have a lot to catch up on.”
I stretched and prepared to leave. “Great, I have a mom and
six kids that want to see me. I also left my girlfriend in a cursed
environment, so I should really get going.”
“Thanks for everything, Mary,” Ursula called.
A few days later, I returned to Lansbury Street on my own.
Kayla had called saying she was concerned about Erio, so as his
guardian, there I was to see what was wrong. The Alpha had
redirected me to the back of the art gallery, where a young man
was fighting Erio with elemental wind attacks, but Erio only re‐
sponded by blocking.
I slipped under the young man and broke his stance, throw‐
ing him to the ground. “Ok, what’s going on here?”
289
“Why?” I asked the minor spirit.
“He cannot be allowed to be near Master Klimt!” the leaflet
claimed, standing back up.
“Yeah no, this has an easy solution. You, don’t attack my
pupil. And you, stop giving your boyfriend the cold shoulder all
the time,” I said.
The leaflet growled, but knowing who I was, simply saluted
and flew off as a paper plane. Erio sighed and sat down.
Erio stretched one of them in front of him and touched the
glowing bright blue tissue that filled the spaces between his
wings’ bones. “Functional… The leaflet is right, teacher. I feel
like all I’m doing by staying here is hurting Klimt. I… I think I
should go back to the tribe.”
I closed my eyes and hummed. “Maybe you should.”
“W‐what?” my fellow death god answered, astonished. “I
thought you would tell me to stay.”
“I can’t tell you how to live your life. I’m your teacher, not
your master. If you think you’d benefit from staying with that
tribe for another while, go ahead. Just remember that someone
in this street really cares about you. Think things through before
you do them,” I advised.
“... I will.”
290
Slice of Life
I yawned and pushed my empty mug of hot chocolate to‐
wards Jeremy, laying my arms on the counter.
“Bad day, Thalia?” the bartender asked me.
I sighed. “Some criminal tried to kidnap me last night. I
ended up chasing him all the way to the city and taking down
the entire organization. Wasn’t very big, but could’ve become
a threat.”
“You gods sure have busy lives…”
“What about you, Jeremy? Are you done with the prepara‐
tions?”
“Oh please, I helped plan two spirit weddings.”
“Not sure why Fran let you plan your wedding entirely on
your own…”
“But yes, to answer the question, I am done. Now let’s hope
everyone remains civil. I don’t trust the face Kayla made when I
asked how she was going to get Fred to attend this meeting…”
I stretched and hopped off, heading towards an area with
four large sofas. “Wow, this is a lot of space… How many guests
are we expecting again?”
“Supposedly, about a dozen. Brandon, Fran, Kayla, Yas‐
mine, Zoe, Fred, Ronan, Lily, Erio and Ursula,” the blind
man listed. “They’ll be here for different reasons, but I’m de‐
cently sure that they’ll merge into one as soon as the groups
see each other.”
291
“Everyone else I get, but how exactly do they plan to make
Fred and Erio show up?”
Jeremy shrugged at me, so I sat on one of the sofas, waiting
for everyone else.
Brandon was the first to arrive, in a beacon of light. “Am I
late?”
“No, the opposite. Sit down,” I reassured.
“So where’s everyone else?” he asked me.
“Dunno. You’re the first to arrive. How’s your search for
your wife going?”
“Oh, I actually found her decades ago! Mary came up to
Heaven with Urs and told me where she was. I’d forgotten she’d
been her reaper…”
He seemed happy about that much. “And your crystal? You
haven’t been visiting as often as you used to, according to Ur‐
sula.”
“Ah… about that. The queen needs us up there. There’s
been a revolution lately, because of the Mist. Some of the new
292
angels rallied younger souls to fight us. Our military was dis‐
banded after the treaty with Hell, so she could only rely on the
Heavenly Guard and herself.”
“Sounds intense,” I responded.
“Yeah… But the crystal’s been a huge help! Hey… I know
he looks like the bad guy to most of you, but Fred was the one
who got me this crystal. Without it, I probably wouldn’t remem‐
ber most of my life. I think I’d maybe recognize my family, and
that’s about it.”
“Hey guys!” called Kayla, appearing out of nowhere.
“Whoa, you’re here early,” I replied, smiling knowingly.
“Where’s Yazz?” Brandon asked her.
The spirit sighed deeply and plopped down on the sofa
in front of me, next to Brandon. “Busy with the kid. He’s a
real piece of work… I thought it would be easier after having
raised several other kids, but no, of course not, he had to get
the ‘best’ genes in the pool… Oh well, parenthood again. It’s
worth it in the end.”
“Neither of them have been able to take much care of them‐
selves after he was born,” I told Brandon.
“Ok… I can’t offer myself in my current circumstances, but
may I suggest leaving him to Drake or Alex every once in a
while?” Brandon said.
“Alex is in Argemonia for work and Drake has post‐trau‐
matic stress disorder caused by my son. The little bugger is
293
“I… see… He must’ve changed since the last time I saw
him,” said the black‐haired spirit. “But then again, he did little
other than sleep back then…”
“Oh, trust me, toddlers are a handful,” I told him.
At that point, Jeremy walked up to us. “Hey, Fran just called
to say she’s gonna take Lily on a camping trip to some robot is‐
land far away from here. Should we expect them back for the
meeting?”
Kayla hummed and closed her eyes, trying to locate them.
“Probably not… I sense they’re really far away already. They
just left the human world.”
Brandon perked up. “So hey, I haven’t asked, but how are
you all doing?”
The spirit stretched. “Well, Ursula’s due to become a teacher
at the town’s magic academy soonish, if she passes the exam.
Yazzy’s been a very authoritarian wife since she recovered from
that delivery, as you might know… and she made me check on
every single child I’ve ever been responsible for… which took
me nine years to do… But I’m doing fine, could use some help
juggling all my duties though.”
“... just how many kids are you ‘responsible for’...?” asked
Brandon, baffled.
294
“I… You told me that when I asked you what to do about
my son’s bizarre aspirations, I think…” the man replied.
“Can’t visit him in Hell very often, though… Things are still
rather tense even after the peace treaty. What about you, Jer‐
emy and Thalia?”
My life was just slightly more stressful than an average
god’s. “I’m supposed to help manage all the minor gods around
Kayla’s territory and represent them in the monthly council. As
well as in the biyearly meetings with the council of middle gods,
and then the yearly one with the big shots.”
“Whoa. Lots of politics, then?” Brandon assumed.
“Yep.”
“As for me, I’ve simply been taking care of the business my
mother left for me. And trying to keep my daughter from break‐
ing the more fragile machinery on accident,” Jeremy said.
“I thought she got better at not zapping things?” his black‐
haired cousin asked.
The barista sighed. “She did, thanks to Alex’s coaching, but
whenever her emotions take over, well. You can tell who her
mother is.”
295
The vampire mage groaned and sat up. “Did you have to?”
“You weren’t cooperating. Apologies if I hurt you, though
any light from me should be moonlight, not sunlight…”
“For fuck’s sake!” Fred yelled, standing up. “Shit, I said I
didn’t want to come for a reason…!”
“... what a foul mouth. I see you’ve gotten no better since
the last time I saw you,” Erio commented, rubbing his head
while he sat up.
I observed their placement. Fred was in the middle, Ronan
to his right and Erio to his left. Ok, they needed to be separated
at once.
“Zoe, can you please do something so that they won’t try to
strangle each other?” I asked her.
“A futile attempt…” Erio spat. “Not even the goddess of life
and death would be able to kill me.”
“You do know that she’s watching, right? And that de‐
pending on her mood she might just decide to smite you, of
course.”
We all flinched or jumped in place in some way after hear‐
ing that voice. How was the intruder still here?
296
Kayla clapped her hands, probably trying to defuse the sit‐
uation before a fight broke out. “Ok! Who else do we need to
start the meeting?”
“That would be Ursula, but I can already tell you that
she’s not coming. She got distracted and ended up lost in a
realm to the south‐west of here. Unfortunately, it’s my job to
fix any holes or tears in space‐time, so she’ll pop back here
eventually.”
“You…! Is she ok?” Brandon asked.
“Yeah, yeah. That world is peaceful, I’m sure she’ll be
fine. At worst, she’ll just rack up a huge debt and be persecuted by an
interdimensional mafia. Now please start the meeting. You
wouldn’t want to bore your spectators, would you?”
The spirit of virtue was still confused. “What…?”
“Doesn’t matter, she’s right. We’re kind of putting it off as
much as possible,” Zoe agreed.
Jeremy took out a checklist. “Let me see… We have Bran‐
don, Kayla, Zoe, Thalia, Ronan, Fred and Erio… About half a
dozen, in the end. Should I count you, Miss Intruder?”
“No. Just ignore me.”
“Ok, do you three remember why you’re here?” Zoe asked
the trio she’d dragged here.
“The invitation we rejected?” Ronan adventured.
297
Now this, I wouldn’t stand for. “How can you ignore your
family like this? Ursula misses you, you refused to go to Bran‐
don’s funeral, and you even refused going to your mother’s fu‐
neral when her time came. I could kind of excuse the weddings
and even the celebrations whenever someone in your family had
a kid, but the funerals, Fred?”
The converted human rose his fist to show me the red brace‐
let around his wrist, made from shards of his broken Core. “I
can’t risk going anywhere that is far from my new home. I don’t
even plan on ever going to Occidens or Austellus, just in case this
thing malfunctions or something else happens.”
“But it’s different now,” I insisted. “Now, we’re all aware of
your circumstances. Ursula’s gotten really powerful, Brandon is
a mighty spirit of virtue of the Heavenly Guard. Everyone is
strong enough to resist whatever you do if you have a fit. That’s
not counting everything Yasmine and Kayla can do with their
newfound stability.”
“... you guys are not the only ones who have gotten
stronger, you know. And this bracelet… I’m starting to think it
might be more powerful than a Core, somehow,” Fred said, trac‐
ing the pattern. “Its whole shtick is balance, but I don’t exactly
have a history of ‘balance’, if you get what I mean.”
298
“So you’re just going to sulk under the moonlight forever,
basking in the fact that you won’t ever physically hurt your fam‐
ily again?” I said. “What makes you think this isn’t hurting them
more than whatever going to see them would?”
Fred hissed at me, standing up. “Look, I don’t even know if
this damn quick fix bracelet will work outside Argemonia.”
I stayed quiet. This man had missed, at the very least, four
weddings, a divorce, and four funerals. Perhaps he just wasn’t
that family‐oriented, but they were still important events and he
should’ve at least shown up at the funerals. Well, he hadn’t met
Ursula’s first husband, but with the exception of that funeral…
“... I’m sure Brandon would’ve liked you to meet your nephew,
at least. That kid is just like his father, though. He’s never
blamed you for anything.”
“Um, Thalia, it’s ok...” Brandon tried to appease.
This time, it was Fred’s turn to keep silent. I huffed and
crossed my arms, glad he was in another sofa far away from me.
Zoe glanced between me and Fred. “… alright, as the neu‐
tral party here, I think we should move on to the next item, if
nobody else wants to say anything.”
“And what would that be?” Erio asked.
“Item 2: Klimt is so depressed he won’t even leave his paint‐
ing,” Zoe said, half‐glaring at Erio, who flinched and looked
away.
“Death refused to tell us anything about you, saying some‐
thing about respecting your privacy. And Klimt refused to come
299
here because he didn’t want you to feel bad,” Zoe exposed.
“That’s about as much as we know.”
Erio straightened in his seat, guarded. “Ask away, then.”
“Ok first off, what’s up with your wings?” Brandon started.
“I thought Yazz cut them off in one of her psychotic breaks.”
The death god groaned. “You had to ask that, didn’t you…
Long story short, Death found me, healed my wounds, and told
me I might be able to fly again. After a very long and hard ad‐
venture, an old dragon in the Beast Realm gifted me these new
wings. They hurt a lot when they sprouted. If it weren’t for
Death, I would’ve probably died or been crippled forever. At
first, the moment I could walk relatively well, I crawled all the
way to the Judge, but… I don’t think I need to say that my peers
did not help.”
“An unbound death god, just like my valued teacher. Of
course, I’m nowhere near her when it comes to power level,
that’s just a given.”
“… ok, now that the mystery of your new wings is settled,
for the important questions, please,” Zoe said. “I have a limited
amount of free time, you know.”
Erio sighed. “You want to discuss Klimt, don’t you?”
“As his Alpha, you must understand that this is part of my
duty,” Kayla told him. “I’ve tried the nice, diplomatic approach,
but it failed, so I had to drag you here to talk instead.”
300
“Great… What exactly do you want from me?”
“I want you and Klimt to talk about your baggage. He
blames himself for everything that happened between you two.
I think you know just how much emotions can affect a spirit. I’ll
describe a recent incident to you so you understand how bad it
is; a human mage recently forced a possession and broke the en‐
tire south wing of the gallery, leaving every minor spirit in the
area gravely injured. Thank Lunaris that exorcists were repur‐
posed for these cases… had Anna gotten there any later, the
mage’s abuse of Klimt’s soul might’ve shattered him.”
After Kayla’s explanation, we could all see Erio go pale. “I…
I never meant for this to happen… I just wanted to keep my dis‐
tance… I didn’t want to hurt him.”
“If you really want what’s best for him, talk to him. He
could use something positive in his unlife right now. He hasn’t
been showing up to practice for a couple years, so his theater
troupe is also worried about him. It seems he gets worse and
worse with each passing day,” Kayla said.
Erio looked down, placing a hand on the side of his head.
“I… I’ll talk to him. It might take me some time to work up the
courage to face him again, but not longer than a week, I promise.”
“I’ll hold you to that,” Kayla said, dipping her head slightly.
“So! What agreements have we come to today?” Zoe asked,
trying to wrap up the meeting. “Fred, Ronan?”
The vampire couple glanced up at the rest of us, and Fred
sighed. “We’ll see. I guess I can reply to your letters and give
you our address so you can visit, for now.”
301
“Oh no you don’t, I was asked to make sure everyone follows
through on these agreements,” said Zoe, conjuring a couple of
scrolls and quills out of nowhere. “Sign these, Fred and Erio.”
Fred skimmed the text, finding it to simply say what he had
just conceded to doing. He rolled his eyes and signed. Erio saw
the same in his scroll and quickly signed it. The scrolls rolled up
and disappeared.
“… is that it?” the death god asked.
“Yep! Now it’s physically impossible for you two to violate
these terms. You’re welcome, Kay,” said Zoe, teleporting away.
“Hey, wait! Now how are we supposed to go home!?” Fred
yelled.
“Well, I plan to shadow travel. You can take a ray back to
Argemonia, I suppose,” Erio answered, not as hostile as he’d
been at the start of the meeting. He left almost immediately after
that.
“But man, I didn’t expect you to send the leader of the Peace
Guard after us…” Ronan told Kayla, who shrugged in response.
“I know a lot of people. Turns out Yazzy and I get along
really well with those twins.”
Everyone else in the room laughed, including me. That was
ridiculous, of course. “Anyway, this meeting went a lot better
than I thought it would.”
302
“It was thanks to you two and Zoe, I’m sure,” said Brandon.
“I should get going… my team will worry if I’m not on time for
the midnight patrol. Until next time, everyone.”
“It’s almost like they’re asking for it to happen… At least for Kayla,
I can foresee several bad endings. And in most of them, she takes
Cosmos down with her. Heck, have you seen where that Halloween
Special took place?”
“Master, can’t you choose one of the good ones and be done with it?”
“No. This is a different reality, Bella. It’s not under my complete con‐
trol. Its master is someone else… Perhaps it’s Kayla, maybe it’s those
twins. We’ll wait and see which way destiny chooses to go. I won’t
tamper with it this time around, so I can only pray for a good en‐
ding…”
“A good ending that we won’t be here to see. I can hear the soldiers
coming for our heads.”
“Already? Aww. Well, what’s next…?”
“How are you two so calm!?”
“Hey, hey, don’t panic. So guys, do you want a world within
Cosmos next, or outside?”
“… Master, I think we should lay low for a while.”
“Outside it is, then. Let’s go.”
303