“Okay, so you want me to believe that while my body was being eviscerated and pulled across the cosmos, the soul of my future trainer’s wife just so happened to be hanging out, hopped inside, and now you’re living in the UI the gods gave me as a catch up mechanism?” Greg slowly nodded. “That doesn’t sound insane at all.”

  “It’s not strictly accurate either. I wasn’t just hanging about, I was waiting for the next summoned. Also, I had to wait for them to start putting you together again before fusing my soul with your interface. Otherwise, I would have been separated and captured.” Despite not having any substantial form, her annoyance was evident. “It really required quite precise timing.”

  “What do you mean captured?” Greg asked, rubbing his temples.

  “Souls aren’t strictly allowed to loiter in the astral plane. How long I’d been waiting really depends on what measurement you’re using, but I’d been out there a long time.”

  “Okay, what are souls supposed to do?” Greg pulled up one of the boxes he’d dismissed earlier to start reading, but it immediately faded again.

  “I would appreciate if you paid attention while we are speaking. There will be time enough to go over your new abilities.” Isabella admonished him. “Strictly speaking, there aren’t rules for souls, so much as guidelines. What is supposed to happen is the soul passes through the physical realm and into the Fields of Atonement, where a god claims them and brings them to their afterlife.”

  “And you decided that the afterlife was overrated, so hung out until some poor schmuck came ripping through to cling on to?”

  “Seems a crude way of putting it, but essentially yes.”

  Greg pressed against his eyes. “Okay,” he said after massaging them for a moment. “I’m not dumb enough to think you’re here just to help me, but I’ll pretend for the time being. Do you know why I was summoned?”

  “No,” Bella admitted. “I can venture a guess though.”

  “By all means, speculate.”

  “The powers that be have been complacent on Ashoria for a long time. Since assisting the Etosians with overthrowing the Vilrut Empire, the Thirteen have become…rather lax. Let me show you.” Isabella paused, and boxes started appearing in his vision.

  They were no longer just blocks of text. An image of what had once been a human popped up, only its arms and legs had been replaced with thick tentacles covered in eyes and mouths. Then a thirty-second clip of two men filmed from above, one of them wreathed in flame and the other conjuring and throwing hammers, pushing through a horde of undead toward a dark tower.

  “I believe you’re here to pick up where I failed.” Her self-assured tone faultered. “To right the wrongs that I could not. There’s a force that is prodding Etheon. A necromancer here, a tentacle monster there…a new drug that turns normal humans into Gifted hunters?”

  “The frost? I don’t understand how it’s such a problem. I know there aren’t a lot of Gifted, but it seems like if they all focused on it they’d knock it out in a couple days.” Greg said.

  “In an ideal world, sure. Even if the Gifted were the end all be all of power, not all of us are on the same side.” Isabella explained.

  “What’s more powerful than us? I mean, I know I’m nothing right now, but it’s hard to believe someone is more powerful than Brannoc or Doran.”

  “Your new friend Seraphae for instance.” Greg could almost hear her roll her eyes. “She’s a celestial. God spawn.”

  “Like Heracles?” Greg grimaced. “Can gods just…do that?”

  “Where do you think the stories came from?” Isabella asked. “Gods have been absent from Earth for a long time, but they were once as active as Etheon’s gods are now. Celestials, dragonkin, demon spawn. All naturally more powerful than the Gifted. Not to mention magical beasts and monsters. I hate to break it to you dollface, but the baby kraken and the swarm mother are small fish in a very large pond.”

  Greg rolled over, planted his face into his pillow, and let out a low muffled growl. It had been three months of utter nonsense; twelve-hour days of sparring, working on how and when to use his abilities, hunting giant rats, and fighting for his life. Now Brannoc’s dead wife was in his head, telling him it was only going to get worse from here. The door opened to his right, but he didn’t move.

  “You alright?” Maeve asked, her voice quiet. Concerned. “Sounded like you were talking to yourself.”

  Greg snorted a laugh into the pillow before cutting it short. He couldn’t help it. Hearing her say it just made it sound all the more ridiculous. He lifted his head up to say something, but when he opened his mouth, he just laughed again. And again. It kept coming until Maeve started to walk slowly up to the bed and sat down beside him, placing a hand on his shoulder. He dug his face into the pillow again, laughter turning into a deep sob.

  “I understand that this is overwhelming.” Isabella did her best to comfort him. “It’s important you’re prepared. And whatever you do, do not tell anyone I’m in your head. Not yet.”

  Maeve rubbed his back as weeks of pent-up frustration, fear, and grief poured into the pillow with tears and screams. He was just a guy. Not even an exceptional one. Now he was expected to what? Save the city from magic drug dealers? Figure out who was behind them and take them down? How far did it go? How far could he push it before he stopped getting lucky and ended up dead?

  Sleep washed over him, and with it the nightmares that often accompanied it. In the past, his unconscious mind used the UI as a tool to enhance the terrible dreams. For better or worse, Isabella was not going to allow that to happen.

  “I would never say something so rash.” Isabella’s voice sounded through the dream sequence, and the box to the left of Autumn’s face broke like a hand was batting away a cloud. “You’re not this man anymore, Greg. You can’t let this haunt you.” Even with her encouragement, it continued.

  When his eyes opened again, he’d been tucked into bed. Maeve had left the room, so he must have slept for some time. A low grumble escaped his throat as he rolled over and flung his legs off the side of the bed. He wished it had all just been a part of the dream, but the blinking notifications in the corner of his vision told him it wasn’t, even with his passenger’s sudden silence.

  He pushed his fingers through his messy dark hair a few times in a hopeless attempt to tame it, before pulling up the first notification.

  Resonance Strike Abilities Evolved

  Flame Strike (E)

  Level 1: 55 of 100

  Enhance a melee attack with demonic fire. Any physical damage dealt will be matched with equal fire damage.

  Increase Demonic Resonance by 3 (changed from 2)

  Increase Volatility by 2

  Decrease Divine Resonance by 1 (changed from 2)

  Radiant Strike (E)

  Level 1: 10 of 1000

  Enhance a melee attack with divine light. Any physical damage dealt will be matched with equal radiant damage. Now applies Mark of the Hallowed Eye status to target. As long as Mark of the Hallow Eye remains and the target remains within one mile of you, you may track the target through any terrain.

  Increase Divine Resonance by 3 (changed from 2)

  Increase Volatility by 2

  Decrease Demonic Resonance by 1 (changed from 2)

  Greg opened his mouth to comment to himself before slowly closing his lips into a frown. He would never be alone again. No more openly monologuing to himself. If his other abilities didn’t offer some solution to that, he’d have to talk to Brannac about new strategies to employ. Instead of lingering on the thought of his mentor’s dead wife playing piggyback on his soul, he opened up the next notification.

  New Ability

  Volatile Step

  Level 1: 0 of 100

  Upon reaching thirty volatility, you may purge some to teleport instantly to a visible location within range.

  Decrease volatility by 15

  Range 15 ft.

  Greg’s eyebrows rose, and the corners of his mouth twitched into a grin. “Fucking what?” He whispered to himself.

  “I know, right?” Isabella piped up finally, having a hard time holding back her own excitement. “I mean, I could technically fly, but you can teleport. It’s very cool…Sorry, you were having a moment. Pretend I’m not here.”

  Greg let out a slow sigh then pulled up another box.

  Ruin Edict has evolved

  Ruin Edict

  Level 1: 23 of 100

  Execute the will of the gods at any cost

  After eclipsing forty resonance, you may choose to convert all resonance into volatility after a delay. This will heal any non-lethal wounds and temporarily double your strength, dexterity, constitution, and luck for a limited time. Dominant resonance at the time of using Ruin Edict determines additional effects.

  Divine Activation:

  -Wounds freeze over with crystalline ice

  -Radiate bright light

  -Immunity to fear and charm effects

  Demonic activation:

  -Wounds cauterize with infernal fire

  -Radiate oppressive heat and shadow

  -Attacks apply burning effect

  Decrease all Resonance to 0

  Lasts 1 minute per 10 resonance

  After the effect ends, increase volatility by half the total purged resonance.

  Statistic Growth Per Level

  Upon level up, you will now gain the following stats.

  Dexterity +3

  Constitution +2

  Luck +2

  Free Points +3

  3 free points currently unassigned

  “If this is going to be a thing, we need to set some boundaries.” Greg rubbed the back of his neck and dismissed the windows. “Do you know what I’m thinking? How much privacy do I actually have?”

  After a moment of silence, Isabella answered. “I can’t decipher exactly what you think, more like intentions or feelings. Your actual thoughts aren’t available to me, and if they were, I wouldn’t be comfortable peaking in on them.”

  “That’s a little comfort at least,” Greg said with a nod. “Anything else is free game though? Not like you can turn off your consciousness.”

  “I understand how uncomfortable that will likely become, especially as you continue to ingratiate yourself with your new reality, but that’s correct.” Isabella didn’t sound like she enjoyed the thought anymore than he did. “When you get stronger, we can explore ways of remedying that, but for now, keeping you alive is priority number one.”

  “You’re a soul inhabiting my body? What are we going to do? Bring you back to life?” Greg scoffed, but when Isabella didn’t respond for several seconds he stiffened. “Wait…are we going to bring you back to life? Does Brannoc know you can do that?”

  “We aren’t going to be able to do anything if you’re dead, Greg.” She corrected him. “This is why it’s important that no one knows I’m in your head. If the wrong people found out you were carrying an extra soul around, things will become even worse for you.”

  “And that includes your husband?”

  “Especially my husband. He’s developed a bit of a soft spot for you, to be certain, but if you stood in the way of him getting me back…” Isabella trailed off.

  “I see.” Greg nodded. “So in the meantime, I get stronger and tone down the…self love.”

  “That would be ideal.”

  “Alright, let’s go find out how badass it is to teleport.” Greg grinned.