Interconnected: Spliced Souls

“Finally... I thought the plan would never begin.” The Rhinokin’s tone was totally different. It was cold and devoid of the pleasant friendliness he had previously shown. He flicked his wrist and forced his weapon’s jagged, terrifying edge sideways, beheading the undead revenant. His head went flying, landing against some woman holding her young son close to her chest. The two of them were prisoners—trapped bodies they couldn’t hope to move—forced to witness everything around them.    

“Patience was never your strong suit,” said Sissy. She had thrown away the kindness embedded behind her voice for something more sinister. “I thought you’d have it in spades by this point. Ugh, I can’t stand the undead.”  

“Hey, there it is! I guess you still harbor a little feeling from the Wytchguard Covenant.” Gerld flourished his spear and violently jabbed it into Albert’s undead heart. He needed to destroy it. “Those two necromancers should be arriving soon. Man, I hope those headhunters don’t find us. Heresy of the highest degree… Our execution won’t be pleasant or quick. I can’t believe we even worked with their spider and skeleton captain. I wished they would’ve told us about it. I wonder why little Albert was so fine with it?”  

“Don’t remind me, you jackass. The only thing I hate more than the undead is an undead pretending to be a shitty human. Ugh, they disgust me. Good riddance, you piece of shit.” Sissy spat on Albert’s bloody corpse.  

“...” Suusa remained quiet. He averted his gaze and stared at the destroyed gate.   

Momo couldn’t speak. She was frozen solid from shock and fright as she dropped to her knees. Her mind couldn’t process what she had witnessed because it didn’t make sense.   

Did she not save their lives from that golem?  

Did she not fight together with them?  

Did she not share meals with them? Adventure with them?  

Weren’t they…friends?  

Friends wouldn’t do this.   

Companions wouldn’t turn their spear on a child and stab them in the back! Even if they knew Albert was a revenant, he still looked like a little boy!  

Gerld turned Momo’s way and approached. “Seems like we broke her.”  

“Isn’t that normal?” inquired Sissy. “Think about what we just did. Only a freak wouldn’t react.”  

“Eh… Sure. Whatever. Suusa, make some rope, won’t you?” Gerld grabbed Momo’s shoulder, but…   

Was she glowing? It was faint, but he observed a faint pink light gathering around her body. The mysterious energy coalesced around her ears and tail, making them seem taller and fluffier. It was so translucent he thought he was imagining it until Sissy shouted his name. The Rhinokin immediately stepped back, but Momo instantly drew her sword, swift as a raging river, nearly severing the Rhinokin’s arm as he jumped away a hair before disaster struck.   

Undeterred, he regained his footing and hurled his spear with fluid grace. Still, Momo anticipated his move, effortlessly sidestepping and deflecting it with a deft parry of her own blade, sending it clattering into the rubble of a nearby building.   

“Oh? I guess you’re not completely zoned out. Consider me surprised, although that was a little too close. I could’ve lost my arm, you know.”   

Momo didn’t reply—almost like she couldn’t speak, but her eyes... They trembled with a mix of anger and disbelief.   

“Momo? Come on... You gotta talk to us... No? Hello? Are you even in there? I know you’re pissed, but communication is the cornerstone to solving the world’s problems.”  

“Wait.” Suusa finally interjected, stepping in front of Gerld. “Something’s different about her. Look at how she’s holding her sword. Her stance differs from how she usually stands. Observe her ears and tail.”  

Gerld disagreed, but the ogre’s assessment was correct after Sissy examined the singi’s form. She had spent all their time together scouring over every detail and putting together the perfect plan. The one they saw didn’t reinforce what the witch had learned during her observation.    

The Momo they knew was still encased in an inescapable abyss of shock that rendered her immobile and helpless.  

But how was she moving?  

Those aware of the lookalike inside Momo’s soul knew what was happening. The fox-like woman understood the sacrifices involved. This ‘bodily takeover’ had its limits—it couldn’t be performed more than once since its activation heralded her death—and it required Momo to be in peril.    

In less than twenty-four hours, the lookalike wouldn’t exist.   

Furthermore, the same fate would befall Momo unless the blood of the Primordial Goddess graced her tongue to complete the evolutionary ritual the lookalike had started to counteract the immense pressure on her body and soul. This power came at a great cost. A singi could not channel it without risk.   

Simultaneously, completing this requirement would grant an amnesiac goddess the right to undergo [Goddess Manifestation]—something she desperately desired—at the cost of everything around her.   

It was imperative to choose the correct location. The many specific criteria prevented the lookalike from assuming control, but fate had forced her hand if she wanted to ensure the safety of the one who shared her soul.  

 It was up to her to remain headfast until her host’s best friend arrived—the same friend who shared a soul with someone the lookalike cherished with all her heart.    

They were linked, after all—forever bound to a horrible fate by a harsh curse.   

Once again... I’m destined to be taken away...from the one I love... And yet again... I’m forbidden from speaking with them... How long has it been since I last spoke? The Curse of Silence...is so very cruel... Servi’s odd device remains in my pocket, but even it cannot overcome this terrible separation.    

“Your plan didn’t account for this. Do you think she harbors a spirit like that Dogkin from a few months ago?”  

“No,” Sissy answered Gerld. “It could be...another facet of her psyche manifesting in response to what she just endured? Maybe it’s imparted by her god or goddess? But does it matter? It’s three against one. Momo’s still only Momo even if her appearance has slightly altered.”  

“That doesn’t mean it’ll be easy. I’m...feeling uncomfortable. Something about this isn’t natural.”  

“That’s rich coming from you, Suusa. You’re even more unnatural than that lich. Let’s hope our little plan’s slowing her down. I want to return to the hideout before those two arrive and ravage the city. We won’t be involved in that.” Gerld raised his arm and opened his hand. ‘Momo’ sensed movement and ducked low to the ground as the violent spear nearly impaled her from behind as it returned to its master.   

It was a cute trick the Rhinokin had kept hidden.    

“Don’t just stand there! Suusa, do something. Sissy, get your wands out. Keep an eye on the revenant. He shouldn’t revive, but I want your holy magic ready.”  

“Understood!”  

“Got it!”  

The sudden shift in the traitors' demeanor was palpable. Gone was Gerld's jovial facade, replaced by a steely resolve that mirrored the seriousness of the situation. The air shivered with tension, but they weren’t just fighting against Momo.   

They were fighting against a woman belonging to a species that had been erased in all timelines, worlds, and alternate realities.   

The vixarian—a name so foreign that it couldn’t be found in even the most ancient texts from the oldest of kingdoms—had once again taken the field of battle. Most of the vixarian’s capabilities were restricted to Momo’s skills and abilities, but the powerful guardian had her own tricks. She raised one hand and silently called forth the beaming icon of all vixarians—  

The mirror.  

It was beautiful and regal—and then it wasn’t. Momo’s body couldn’t handle the full brunt of the vixarian’s true power, and the mirror shrunk to a mere 1/10th of its size.   

But it was enough. Just the allure of the unknown put a severe nail in whatever plans these filthy traitors had in mind.   

Even then, the vixarian didn’t have to win—she could—and she knew she would. But she knew Servi had witnessed the chaos and felt the ground cry and rumble. No doubt she was hurrying back. If nothing else, Albert’s untimely death had returned him to Servi’s ring, and he had, presumably, already informed them of what was happening.    

The vixarian controlling Momo’s body had no qualms about fighting to kill—the direct opposite of the singi herself, who would’ve found herself hesitating when it came to dealing the fatal blow—mistakes like that were lethal and couldn’t be made—especially not now.    

And she wasted no time. It was a battle that benefited her since she had the element of surprise. The woman in Momo’s body kicked off and dashed towards her enemies—aiming to kill them sooner rather than later. Gerld twirled his spear and met her sword with his weapon, parrying it away, but the woman spun on her heel and kicked him in the chest, knocking him away. He slid on his back, and before she could end his life, the ground softened beneath her feet.   

Momo’s body immediately dodged to the left, preventing jagged spikes from skewing her feet. She recovered into a roll and directed her floating mirror at the ogre. Suusa could cast without speaking—a wielder of [Voiceless Incantation]-- an ability many thought to be the pinnacle of spell casting. 

But he wasn’t alone.    

Any vixarian worth their salt innately knew the technique. The woman unleashed a barrage of [Acid Arrow] that erupted from the mirror. It was much more condensed than anything Momo could’ve mustered. Sissy acted fast and grabbed his robe, pulling him out of harm’s way, but he wasn’t free from danger. He tripped over her and recovered, using an earth spell to propel him up, but the vixarian had been waiting for this. 

But she couldn’t press the advantage. She parried Gerld’s thrown spear, and it returned to him when he was already upon her. The vixarian fended him off, twirling away before aiming a wide kick at his knee, sending him to the ground. She turned the ogre and aimed her wrist-mounted crossbow with calculated precision.  

The vixarian’s gaze was cold as she unleashed the electrified bolt from an enchanted device crafted by a goddess. She intended to strike Suusa dead between the eyes, but…  

“What the hell are you doing?!” Gerld’s voice boomed as he leapt to the forefront, swatting away the incoming spell with his spear. The Rhinokin was stubborn—he never stayed down. 

But before he could react further, the woman was upon them, her onslaught relentless. She attacked with ferocity, aiming to cleave heads and sever limbs, her speed increasing with each blow. Sparks flew as the Rhinokin clashed with her, but it was evident that he had underestimated the true athletic prowess of the singi. Amidst the chaos, the woman skillfully alternated between melee combat and launching [Acid Arrow] and [Arcane Bolt]-- the upgraded [Magic Missile] Momo had learned in Waveret— at the vulnerable witch via her mysterious mirror. Suusa focused on creating protective barriers to shield Sissy, leaving their other ally vulnerable and isolated in the heat of battle.  

But the paltry walls… They couldn’t stand against the vixarian’s might.    

Gerld quickly found himself overwhelmed by the never-ending assault, his defenses crumbling under the unexpected offensive. He never knew so much raw strength was packed inside Momo’s petite frame. Electric jolts of pain surge through his bones every time her heavy strikes battered his spear’s shaft.  

But she fought like that of a rabid fox. Nothing was off-limits—including her hands, arms, and legs—and it took everything to remain standing. The fearful sweat drenching his collar…wasn’t something he had experienced in years.    

He was only granted a moment of reprieve when Suusa intercepted a hailstorm of mirror-strengthened spells aimed at Sissy with his body while using his magic to create two towering snakes of earth and rock to stem the tide of their adversary’s onslaught.   

The serpents roared to life, and the vixarian instantly ran to where there weren’t any people. She didn’t want the chaos of her fight to result in the needless deaths of innocents caught up in a terrible scheme.   

The slithering serpentines burrowed behind her and traveled hard and fast underground before emerging like an erupting volcano near her. The vixarian momentarily lost her balance, but her mirror soared near her. She latched onto it with her free hand and pulled herself up, jumping at the very last second as a hidden third snake almost devoured her leg with a mouth large enough to swallow a kobold whole.    

Her mirror was destroyed, but she quickly manifested another after turning around. From a distance, she saw Gerld slip away. He ran to his companions and reconvened. No doubt, they were hastily discussing a way out of this. The vixarian’s existence had ruined their carefully laid plans, but she would handle them soon enough. Now? She needed to deal with the serpents staring her down.   

These snakes proved one thing, though, and that was the hidden truth behind Suusa’s spectacular magic.   

But that could come later—all secrets would be revealed once Servi had claimed the ogre’s soul and harnessed the forbidden skill it harbored within.   

The left-most snake reared and roared, unleashing a hailstorm of chunky rocks that rained from the skies. The vixarian took off running and headed out of the city. The ground rumbled from the falling chunks of heavily compacted dirt, and it felt like the rampaging speed of the borrowed snakes would split apart the earth.   

She avoided certain death with the utmost ease and recovered in a roll as her mirror constantly emitted a barrage of deadly, compressed acid as fast as it could that carved deep chunks from the non-alive sentient beasts.     

She effectively cut them down to size—and she had to do it away from the city because she didn’t want any innocents to suffer from any wayward acid splash.  

But it was so easy to slaughter what should’ve been a severe threat. The time limit was the same, no matter how hard or fierce the vixarian fought. After watching the last snake crumble lifelessly, the woman hurried back to where she left those traitors.   

It happened right after she made it past the gate. The vixarian felt a subtle shift in the skill energy once her eyes spotted a familiar witch she hated with all her heart. Sissy wanted to seize the opportunity. With precision, Sissy carefully wielded a jet-black wand enchanted with [Shadow Piercer]. She held it with both hands as skill energy surged around her. The air vibrated out of caution and unknown trepidation.  

It was clearly going to be the deciding attack.   

But then the vixarian picked up a faint sensation. She looked up and saw rocky birds flying down fast. They had been carved as sharp as a knife, and she effortlessly avoided their paltry dive-bomb attack.   

“Got you!” Suusa shouted, emerging from the ground in a layer of rocky armor. He slammed his hands on the dirty pavement and created a dozen vines as durable as iron. They curled around the vixarian’s legs and tightly pinned her arms to her chest. Ten more branched from the primary restraint and latched onto that mysterious mirror before slamming it into the ground.    

Sissy finished her prep. She didn’t even try to keep her hat steady as that thin, destructive beam of black shadow viciously flew towards her target’s heart.   

But…  

“No…” Sissy dropped to her knees as a distant explosion filled the starry skies with back haze and darkened remains of something she didn’t think possible.    

Her attack came close…before suddenly slamming into a brand-new mirror, reflecting the incredible force skyward. It naturally exploded, wasting the energy Sissy had poured into it. Her arms and legs were too heavy to lift. Exhaustion naturally occupied her sweaty face.   

“Shit!!!” Suusa cursed and sank into the ground, reappearing near Sissy. Gerld was there. The vixarian didn’t know where he had been, but she didn’t care.   

The woman didn’t speak, but her gaze dripped with disdain while disapprovingly shaking her head.    

Suusa immediately dropped to one knee and clutched his body, screaming away the pain he had suffered from the vixarian’s prior attacks. Gerld cut away his friend’s robe and revealed the acidic burns scorching his torso. The fabric had melted with the skin—the brown flesh suffering greatly. The agony must’ve been intense—but you couldn’t find a shred of pity within the vixarian’s crystal blue eyes.   

Her enemies were talking—silently speaking without using their voices by reading each other’s lips. The panic in their eyes… The traitorous fools didn’t know what to do. They had bitten off far more than they could chew. The world’s best preparation wouldn’t have readied anyone for the secret Momo harbored within her soul.    

Even saying her race’s name would’ve numbed the speaker’s tongue for how unnatural it was.    

But the vixarian knew what she had to do. She could either run into the city and hide amongst the rubble, but that risked the traitors going mad and attacking the city with wild abandon to make her come out.   

Or she could finish them off. The witch and Rhinokin could die—their souls weren’t that important. But the ogre had to live. His life must be ended by the hands of a goddess to absorb the secret his essence harbored. She would need it for the inevitable clash that awaited her in the far future.    

The vixarian readied her sword and mirror and approached, the reflective surface bubbling green with a charged [Acid Arrow]. But hesitation froze her feet when she picked up the quiet echo of familiar footsteps.    

She turned around and saw an apothecary wearing a blood-stained coat with her hands in her pockets. That aged, wrinkled face carried a grimace—those lips harbored yet another unhealthy cigarette as smoke erupted from her nostrils.  

Cassidy was a friendly face!  

The vixarian sensed movement and saw Sissy reaching for a wand. She couldn't let the witch kill Cassidy, but before she could unleash the spell charged within her mirror…  

“Sorry about this, Momo.”  

What?!

  

The vixarian jerked her head and sharply turned around as Cassidy removed her hands from her pockets, revealing two glass vials. One was filled with a green gas—much like that noxious verdant they had seen erupt into the sky a few minutes ago that felt like an eternity. The other was purple.   

It was another betrayal, and the lookalike couldn't react quickly enough. Cassidy tossed the green bottle at Momo’s feet. Instantly, the compressed cloud within shot towards the skies and rained thick, fat drops of grassy-colored liquid that quickly evaporated into the paralyzing mist that had taken the town hostage. The vixarian’s strength was sapped away as the haze infiltrated the pores on her legs.  

Standing became a chore and too much to bear a second later. She dropped to one knee and fought with all her strength to stand, but it felt like her legs had turned into iron.   

The vixarian’s control over her mirror vanished. It fell, shattering like glass after slamming against the cold, darkened ground. The moonlit fragments would’ve been considered beautiful in any other situation. But then the purple bottle came. Cassidy approached the vixarian and tossed it against her chest, walking past her to get to the witch and her allies without even giving the vixarian a second glance. The haze infiltrated her nostrils, and she tried so desperately hard to fight against the encroaching drowsiness, but it came and conquered her like a rampaging bandit. Her eyelids were as heavy as solid stone.   

“Hey, that monster’s gonna be out, right? Please say that shit’s working overtime!” Gerld’s panicked voice demanded an answer.    

“Ten seconds. Maybe fifteen. Depends on Momo's willpower,” came a casual reply from the traitorous apothecary.   

But the vixarian couldn’t...let it end here...  

Not now...  

Not when Servi hadn’t arrived!  

The goddess’s blood was vital for ensuring the evolution went off without a hitch!  

The vixarian didn’t know what would happen. It was faint, but she picked up musings of some hideout in the distant mountains. How would she get that information to Servi? Logic dictated that she was about to be taken there—and no doubt Cassidy was informing those dirty traitors about Servi's whereabouts and the powers she displayed in her fight.  

No... There’s...something... I’m not...alone... They’re facing my back…  

It was a great struggle, but the vixarian reached inside her pockets and barely grasped Servi’s phone and a little crystal with numbed fingers. 

Merka was her hope.    

She knew his past and story, but Merka didn't need to fight this battle. She needed him to pass on information, but she couldn’t communicate with him like this. Even if the vixarian didn’t have the Curse of Silence preventing all manners of communication, she couldn't leave a message in her current state. That would be like asking an ant to lift the world.  

She eyed a piece of rubble a few feet away and wanted to roll his crystal to it, but all feeling in her left arm vanished. The vixarian watched with horror as it barely bounced a few inches, but then she smiled when it slowly burrowed into the ground like an animal searching for camouflage. 

Momo’s beloved longsword slipped through her grip simultaneously. The clattering clanking of hard steel against cold pavement obscured the crystal’s noise, hiding it in plain sight. Even the most attentive detective wouldn’t think twice about investigating because a warrior dropping her armament from paralysis and sleeping toxins was a foregone conclusion from happenstance.    

That was one thing, but there was something else she could do if the vixarian acted fast enough.    

It was a gamble—she knew that eating a chunk of solid blood crystal wouldn’t do much—the liquid ambrosia of a particular Primordial Goddess had to touch Momo’s tongue for the evolutionary process to finish.   

But what if...she swallowed a device primarily used for communication? The ability of a blood crystal heavily depended on what form it was chiseled into. While she wasn’t knowledgeable about phones, the vixarian realized it was a powerful device that enabled communication over impossibly large distances.   

Was it such a stretch to think that the Primordial Goddess could track it? She considered it a backup plan if it could somehow circumvent the Curse of Silence.  

If Suusa was somehow involved in crafting Merka’s golem shell, couldn’t he trace the skill energy? But her mind threw away that theory since the opposite should’ve been true—Suusa should’ve known about Merka from the beginning, but he wasn’t actively searching for the buried crystal.    

The vixarian felt her stamina slipping—she had two or three seconds left.  Even now, she couldn’t see more than a few feet as darkness filled her vision. Filling her lungs took more effort than running a dozen marathons. She couldn’t feel anything from the neck down.    

She didn’t even know if she still held the phone, but relief flooded her mind once something rectangular brushed her dried lips.  

It was one last hurrah—one final focusing of strength that wasn’t there anymore as she opened her mouth just a little bit...and bit as hard as she could. The large fragments dissolved like butter on her numb tongue, and as her consciousness left her, she collapsed to the cold, hard ground. She twisted to fall on her back while throwing the phone as hard as she could…merely to make one last statement—that she wasn’t giving up even when things looked dire and unwinnable.   

She just had that much faith in her special someone.    

And the vixarian hoped it was enough as a deep, abyssal void consumed her awareness.    

The vixarian wasn’t a stranger to this darkness... She had...become intimate with it throughout the eons, but Momo was a different story.  

The vixarian’s spirit soared through the abyssal void until it came across a tiny spark of pink light that flicked in and out of existence.   

Momo’s mind was in a fragile state. The trauma from a past she never wanted to admit blocked out everything else and became all she could think about, and the vixarian was there for her.   

She wouldn’t always be there for her—her bodily takeover and the illusory overlay of the vixarian's core characteristics proved her time was running out. The vixarian would spend her final moments with the one bestowed with a terrible curse to correct a wrong that had been instilled upon the world before this one was even created.