Source & Soul: A Deckbuilding LitRPG

She appeared out of nowhere on the arena floor in front of me, looking startled. Seems the Twins hadn't trusted her to take the tunnel route the rest of us used; they'd unceremoniously plucked her out of her comfy spectator's spot and dropped her onto the field. I couldn't suppress a grim smile. It wasn't often I got to see surprise on that smooth, glib face.

It didn't last long. "You had the tourney in the bag, son," she chided, slipping easily into a bored, I-know-better-than-you nonchalance. "You beat old Aaxes down to nothing – with a substantial bit of help from me, in case you need reminding – and instead of walking away with the win and a hefty soul elevation or some such prize, you drag your dear mother onto the boards. It's rank ingratitude, Hull. You ought to be ashamed."

"You would have never let us be," I said, feeling the exhaustion in my bones. The fight against the Primarch had been a long slog, and I could still feel the ache and wrongness of my consumed Night Terror along with my missing soul card Mother had in her possession. I needed to shake it off. None of that mattered until and unless she was defeated. "Now or ten years from now, you'd be back trying to twist me into knots and break us down."

"Not unless I really need to," she protested, looking innocent and injured.

"You'll always need to. It's who you are. I'm half tempted to believe that you engineered the entire war on Treledyne in the hopes of getting rid of the Primarch."

"It might be over generous to say you're half right, but at the very least you're not entirely wrong," she said with a smirk. "A girl's got to lay a good number of lines in the water if she hopes to catch such a big fish."

I'd received the Primarch's Legendary card as I'd waited for her to appear, but in those few frantic moments of rearranging my Mind Home I'd decided not to include him.

He was an amazing damage soak, and the ability the Twins had forced onto him in death was very impressive, but I knew in my gut he'd be nigh-impossible to control. He'd resist me at every turn and likely try to turn his ability against me. That was no good when facing the craftiest opponent I'd ever seen and likely ever would, especially if it meant losing the use of my Sucking Void. At least the Twins had seen fit to refresh my Mind Home. Otherwise I'd have had no hope at all in this fight I'd picked.

"Any other time I'd applaud you for pulling this kind of surprise," Mother said. "As it stands, your timing is even worse than your judgment. You've made both of our lives harder. My Flee card won't work, and you've promised the Twins a juicy familial conflict. They won't let us out of it. It will grieve me to strike you down, but if you think I'm going to let motherly sentiment overcome my better sense, you're about to be gravely disappointed."

"Motherly sentiment," I laughed. "That's rich."

She grinned back at me, unashamed. "Thought you might appreciate that one."

Our soul cards flashed overhead, followed by the ante. I only had eyes for the one that came from Mother.

I felt a pang in the torn spot inside myself. It was strange now that I'd merged with little Hull. I no longer felt as if I were about to die, but still, everything was subtly wrong, a little off. Seeing myself up there, I needed that card back like I needed air. It didn't matter that it was only an Uncommon and now I was Mythic; it was me. I'd have taken it over any Legendary offered me. Not only did I need to defeat Mother for good of us all, I had to get my soul card. I had to. I'd cut off my own fingers, if that was what it took. If she beat me, I'd force her to kill me before I gave up on it.

Mother would come out of the gate with a shitload of direct damage spells. It was her go-to. Not that she didn't have any Souls – as evidenced by the Fae bait-and-switch she pulled on the Primarch – but she preferred to keep her hands clean and her opponent at a distance. If I was to have any chance against her, I needed my Sucking Void at the earliest opportunity. I wished I had one of those Resist 4 medallions of Xemris's, but if I wished in one hand and shat in the other…

My heart eased when my mulligan brought the Sucking Void to my hand. We both played Nether in the opening gambit, and the roll of the dice went my way, but instead of immediately summoning the Spell, I jumped in to attack with my bare hands. I wanted my Nether free to reflect any damage from whatever trick she might play. She could shapeshift at a moment's notice and I might find myself facing literally anything. Even without a shift, she'd do 5 damage herself, and I'd want to reflect that. If I could land my 4 damage and reflect 10 from her return hit, I'd strip a good number of cards and have her halfway beaten on turn one. I knew I needed to make this fast. A long fight meant more chances for her to do something tricky.

"Ugh, you're really going to make me do this, aren't you?" she griped. A card shimmered into play from her hand.

"You can't hold me off forever," I growled.

"Don't need to," she said breezily. "I just have to have enough damage coming from enough different places that you run out of Nether and can't use that pesky ability your younger self made into such a nuisance when you elevated him. I really didn't think you'd be able to sweet-talk him into reuniting with you. He always resisted my efforts on that front."

"It's almost," I said dryly, "as if he suspected you didn't have his best interests in mind."

"Such a rude mouth you've gotten," she sniffed. "I liked you better when you were little." She summoned a Soul.

Damn. I'd never seen her run a cheap Nether Soul like that before. Had she suspected she'd have to face me? Had she reconfigured her deck? I could easily believe that she was crafty enough to have worried about it and changed up her decklist just in case. If she could overwhelm me with lots of little damage sources, like she'd said, I'd run out of Nether for my ability and she could overwhelm me. For now, she held the Imp back and casually tossed a card out of hand to absorb the Arrival damage.

I needed to get in there and whittle her down before she could do that. No pussyfooting around – it was time for my big Spell.

"If I knew who let that card slip into Treledyne without my approval, I'd have him castrated," she said with a frown as the starlight skin formed on me.

"Can't have your little boy gaining power unless it comes from your hand with strings attached, is that it?" I growled as I leapt in to attack.

"I'm glad you understand," she replied, sending her Imp to block me. "You're a rabid dog, my boy, and you always have been. I'll not apologize for wanting to keep a leash on you."

The Imp turned to sparkling dust under my hands. "You can't throw Souls in the way forever, Mother."

"Not forever," she agreed. "Just long enough for me to draw the right ones. Like this." Another Soul misted into being.

The Spell Drinker bounded toward me and took in a great, sucking breath. I felt the starlight armor of my Spell stretch and pull away from me, tearing like a cobweb.

"Hey!" I yelled, clutching at the starlight stuff as it streamed away into nothing. "That's not what that card is supposed to do!"

"You're not the only one to elevate your cards with specific ends in mind, dearest," she said sweetly. "I've no desire to let you whack away at me for five turns with impunity, thank you very much."

I cursed, knowing there was nothing much I could do about it now that the Spell was gone. At the very least, I could play my own copy of the damn creature before she started pounding me with Spells.

The stalemate brought on by the two Spell Drinkers didn't last long. She used hers to block my next attack, apparently content to let it go once it had worked its devastating Arrival effect. She attacked in turn once she could, rushing in with her bare hands. I'd used the most of the rest of my Nether on my previous turn to put on my Iron Maiden Plate, and since I was focused from my attack, I couldn't devote my final available Nether on her turn to reflect her damage if I took the blow. That was all right – I decided I'd rather take the 2 damage that her hit would inflict beyond what my Plate could absorb and protect my Spell Drinker. If she tried to blast him with a Spell, I'd still be able to focus my final Nether to activate his ability.

Just as we came to grips, she shapeshifted.

Her blow hit a lot harder than I'd expected, forcing me to discard not just my Ravening Hatchlings, which would return to hand, but also my Marauder and Root Imp. "You tricky pain in the ass," I grunted.

"Compliments will not save you, Hull." It was deeply weird to hear my mother's mocking, coquettish words in the basso voice of the muscular, whip-wielding demon.

I had to be more careful; any time I came into contact with her I could find myself facing that brute again, or something even worse. I shrugged off the surprise and kept my head in the match. She was angry at the continued presence of my Spell Drinker, I knew, and that meant I wanted to keep him around as long as I could.

I wondered whether I could still make that tenuous connection to my Uncommon soul card to use its ability like I'd done back in the throne room in order to Intervene for my Soul should she find a way to target him. When I quested inside myself, though, I felt nothing despite knowing she had my card somewhere on her person. Either the Twins didn't want me pulling that kind of fast one – which would be pretty hypocritical, in my eye, given what they'd let Mother get away with so far – or else merging with my Mythic self had crowded out the tenuous link I'd had to my newer soul card. Either way, I was out of luck on that count.

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I got my Talisman on the next turn and Yveda the Endless the turn after that. Once again, the doubling demon let me turn the tide, and I was able to send in copies to chip away at her cards and health without exposing myself to more damage. The Spell Drinker was keeping her direct damage out of play, and I made sure not to attack, leaving both myself and my Nether able to devote on her turn so I could respond to any big swings that came out of nowhere. The Talisman started dinging her immediately as well.

"I saw the little trick you pulled, stealing the cards out of our competitor's space," she said, sounding a touch breathless. "It was a smart move, even if just to deny their use to your enemies. But I have one final lesson to teach you, Hull: if you're going to steal, make sure you steal the best."

She shifted from the Demon Overseer form into the human woman I'd first seen her as all those months ago during War Camp. Suddenly several of her Nether Sources were Order instead – some ability of this woman's card, apparently – and she fished a diamond-bordered card out of her pocket, slipping it into her Mind Home. She must have been nearly bare of cards, because she drew the same card immediately and summoned it.

I wasn't ready to see that face. I staggered back, speechless. Hestorus turned his eyes to me, expressionless.

"What are you doing?" I yelled at him. "Why are you here?"

The Order-wielding version of Mother turned into a sallow-faced human man, who smiled grimly and disappeared from view. She'd swapped to her Stealth disguise. She intended to let my father do her dirty work and save herself the trouble.

"Say something, you son of a bitch!" I cried. My heart was hammering. She'd stolen his card out of the throne room even as we'd been fighting to start the apotheosis. That slippery bitch. Looked like I'd have to face dear old dad after all.

But wait… Hestorus's soul was wandering out in the Twins' soul city somewhere. He'd come knocking on the door to Afi's Mind Home not all that long ago to tell us how to do the very thing we were doing now. How could he be out there and in here at the same time?

"I summoned the feral girl that you sent after the Orc general," I ventured. "My sister. Did you treat her as bad as you treated me?"

He said nothing. His face might as well have been stone.

My laboring heart eased the barest bit. Hestorus never missed the chance to hold forth at length about preparing humanity to elevate or say how disappointing we all were.This wasn't really him. It was his card, yes, but his self had separated from it somehow. This was an empty shell of the man.

Well, I always wanted a chance to kill my dad. This is the best I'm going to get. I mentally hiked up my sleeves and readied myself to dive back into the fight I'd thought was nearly done. Before I could do anything, another Soul misted into being below where he hung in the air.

The arrival effect brought four massive elementals onto the field as well. I gaped. Hestorus's card was summoning its own cards. This was no normal Soul card. It was like facing a second opponent, and it looked like his deck was packed with all the storied heroes that had helped to found Treledyne. I suddenly wished Basil had called forth more than just his own ancestor Dallon when he'd fished the Herald out of my father's card to start the apotheosis. It would have meant fewer Legendaries for me to face.

I scrambled to react. Yveda the Endless had worked up a goodly number of copies, and that saved my ass, as bunches of them moved to block the sudden influx of fighters. The dueling space was a crowded, chaotic mess. I had the presence of mind to let the Earth Elemental's strike reach me, and I reflected the damage back on it, shattering the thing with the doubled damage. All the others took three or four Yvedas apiece due to Harane's Aura. Harane himself hung back, as did Hestorus. I was able to send my end-of-turn Plate damage at Hestorus, but it wasn't enough to kill him. That would take several turns unless I was able to get to him sooner.

Then, out of nowhere, a Spell hit me.

I looked around and realized my Spell Drinker was gone. Mother must have slipped out of her Stealth, killed the Soul, and then hidden herself again while I was struggling to handle the sudden onslaught of Hestorus and his minions. Now she was flinging Spells at me. I had just enough time to devote a Nether to reflect the damage back… and nothing happened. Somehow the Stealth kept my ability from working right. Not only did I end up shedding cards from my Mind Home, but the other bolt from the Shared Punishment had felled the last remaining Yveda I'd been trying to protect.

You're in deep shit, Hull. I tried to keep all the pieces of the fight ordered in my mind, but Mother was a true wild card, what with her ability to shapeshift, hit me with whatever she pleased, and then pop away using her Stealth card. First things first. I had to take Hestorus out of commission. He'd already summoned another hero.

Mother was doing exactly what she'd said she would: overwhelm me with a thousand cuts from different directions so I couldn't reflect it all. I felt a cold pit forming in my stomach. I wasn't going to be able to pull this off. Stop it. Do what's in front of you. The mounted Horse Riders were nearly on top of me. I had to cut the flow of Souls at the fountainhead. Time for my tried-and-true direct damage.

The bolt was enough to send the flying Hestorus into motes of light, but his ability sent the damage back at me. I promptly devoted a Nether to bounce it right back at him with double interest. It was how Mother had killed him the first time using little Hull, and it worked every bit as well now. When he went, so did the rest of his summons. Mother, though, hadn't been idle. Two more Bog Imps and a Ravening Broodmother were out for blood as well.

I couldn't afford to take any more hits. I was frighteningly low on cards. I had to clear the field before they came for me. Risking the full devote of the rest of my Nether, I popped a double Wildfire combo.

Using both was overkill on the Imps, but I wanted to get rid of that Broodmother, too. Reflecting the Wildfire damage I should have taken using the Talisman was enough to finish it off. Now, to get back on top of this fight.

I never got the chance. Mother appeared out of the shadows as the sallow-faced Stealth man and immediately became the hulking Overseer. She came at me with a roar.

I screamed in anger. I'd devoted all my Source. I couldn't reflect her damage. All I had left in hand was a single Neutral Relic, useless for blocking. There was nothing I could do but take the hit and hope she was as close to empty as I was.

The whip took me in the chest as my fist connected with the horned face, and we both went flying. I felt a sickening crunch and a blinding pain inside my chest as ribs shattered. My breath sounded wet, and I tasted blood. The last of my cards fluttered down in tatters around me. I was done. The next hit would kill me. Had I brought her down?

I had not. A shadow loomed over me. Mother shifted back into herself. She looked almost sad. "I told you I wouldn't hold back, son. You brought this on yourself."

"Back atcha," I whispered through bloody lips. "Best tricks… work twice."

Screaming at the pain, I pulled a card from my pocket and slapped it behind my ear, summoning immediately.

I had left my Mind Home at 19 cards at the start of the match. She'd done the same thing with Hestorus, which had caught me by surprise, but I was counting on the fact she wouldn't bother to count how many cards she'd stripped from me once I was down. It had been a move I'd hoped I wouldn't need. It was desperate. A fool's hope.

Thankfully, looking like a fool was nothing a gutter kid cared about. "Get 'er," I said to the Soul as it materialized directly behind her.

The Orc, grinning hugely, wrapped his arms around her middle and pinioned her tightly.

"Hull!" Mother shrilled. "Stop him!"

"No," I wheezed, clambering painfully to my feet. I summoned the last card in my hand.

"Don't do this, Hull," she said, voice quaking. "I concede. I concede!" She bucked and writhed in Targu'Thal's arms. Her words came out as a shriek. "Please! I concede!"

"You think they care?" the Orc whispered in her ear. "You've run out of tricks at last, and it was me that got to do it. Revenge is sweet, Yveda. So sweet."

"Shut up, both of you," I said wetly, and plunged the sword into her guts.

The shreds of two measly cards puffed out of her, and the blade bit deeply into her. She screamed long and loud. I felt strength and health surge back into me from the Lifesap. I nodded to Targu'Thal, who let her slump to the ground. She lay there clutching the bloody gash in her belly and weeping.

It sickened me. I hated her so much, but still some little boy part of me wept and wrung his hands to see mommy bleeding and alone. She deserves it. Kill her. You have to.

But I didn't want to.

"I've won!" I yelled to the Twins overhead. "You heard her concede."

END IT, came the mighty, twinned voice. IT IS WHAT YOU ASKED.

"Well, I ask for shitty things sometimes," I said.

SHE CANNOT REMAIN. SHE IS AS MUCH A DANGER TO US AND OUR PLANS AS THE OTHER WAS, IN HER OWN WAY.

The words rang true. I'd said them myself, hadn't I? If I let her crawl off and lick her wounds, she'd just steal more cards and come back with a vengeance once she was better. She'd never let me rest now that I'd beaten her.

"Another boon, then," I said. "Give me her Soul card the way she took mine."

WE APPROVE.

Mother screamed again, a despairing sound, and a green-bordered card ripped itself out of her chest, floating into my hand.

I knelt over her, dismissing my Blade and Targu'Thal, leaving us alone. Her hands clutched at her chest, and tears leaked from her eyes.

"Look at me, Mother," I said quietly.

She did. Her face was a mask of fear, disbelief, and pain.

"Now you know how it feels," I said. "Now you know what you've done to so many people."

"I'm sorry," she sobbed. "Please, make it stop. It hurts so badly. I'll never do it again."

I sat on my heels. It hurt to do this, but it was a hurt like cutting off a rotting finger. "That's not true, Mother. You'd do it again. So long as you have power, you'll always do it again." I pulled in all the Nether I could hold. "It has to be done."

I set her card on the ground and brought my Nether-infused fist down right on top of it with all the strength of my soul. It shattered with a mighty crack, and she screamed one last time before going limp. She'd fainted.

I stood. She might die without her card, but I didn't think so. The cussedness and the hate that had kept me alive ran through her veins too. But maybe if she had to build back from nothing she could build something better next time.

And if not, I'd keep an eye on her. I'd never let her get this powerful again.

Another card floated up from her pocket. It was my soul card.

The second my hand touched it, it melded into me in a rush of power. A rightness, a vigor, and a sense of joy I'd never known I had all settled on me.

Every piece of me was back together. I was whole. I was fully me in a way I didn't think I'd ever been before. I closed my eyes and reveled in it as I looked at my complete soul card.

"It's about fucking time," I said.