Game of Monsters - 190

Damage Done to My Soul

[Joshua Davis]

“Outside…” Valerie mumbled, barely responsive, by the looks of it. He tried his best to get a read on her but she seemed… Very wrong. Not physically, nor mentally, contrary to what one would assume. Her soul though, it was all sorts of broken. It was frayed at the seams, just like his own had been the first time he’d channeled the Egyptians more than he should have, but also worse. Where that time he’d been stretched more than he should have and torn here and there, Valerie almost looked like someone had deliberately cut off pieces of her soul.

‘What the fuck?’ he thought to himself, gulping and calmly taking a step in the girl’s direction. She didn’t react to that. Hardly seemed to notice, really. ‘She’s barely here, if at all,’ he noted to himself.

“Outside,” he confirmed outwardly. Inwardly, he made a call. ‘Friday,’ he sent through their bond and the living spell reached across it to settle inside him. Immediately, she expressed worry for all that she’d picked up through the bond far away as she’d been, but also at the state of his soul, which she could sense through his spells and their connection.

His soul would be fine though, but the same couldn’t be said about Valerie’s.

‘Help me with this, girl,’ he said.

He’d made Friday with the hopes that he’d get a more adaptable spell array, one that could out-develop Annihilation Maker. She was too much of a young soul for him to pit her against Khaos Brigade though, too child-like for him to be comfortable with that, much like Morag’s case after her evolution. So, he’d avoided pulling her into the battlefield.

Now though, this was something she could definitely help with. Adapting his soul related spells from helping him to helping Valerie would require time, but between the two of them? That time was reduced dramatically. Joshua brought up his spells, making the changes he felt comfortable making on the fly and Friday looked at them, ran a model and decided which changes applied and which ones didn’t. She also made her own attempts at changes based on Joshua’s ideas that he looked over in turn.

She wasn’t quite able to come up with her own tries, but she learned ridiculously fast. Perks of being a pure magic creature, one that was very closely related to the spells that they were modifying. She’d be a better ward, hex and boon spellcrafter than him in no time, Joshua was sure. For the moment though, she had to settle on playing assistant, maybe partner.

“I can go outside?” Valerie asked, her voice detached as if the words were alien to her. Idly, Joshua wondered if that was because the concept of being let out was impossible to her after so long or if she was just out of it enough that she literally couldn’t string thoughts together well enough. He honestly couldn’t tell, even with all his sensing aids. ‘She’s deteriorating,’ he noticed with growing concern, feeling her already precarious condition getting worse.

Whatever Khaos had done to her clearly hadn’t been that long ago, if she was spiraling like that. Either that or they’d arrived right before a very bad crash of some sort. Hell, it could be something else entirely, maybe even something related to their attack on the Tepes. One way or another though, Joshua couldn’t let her continue as she was.

Slowly, he set up spells to hold her soul together as best he could, soothing the metaphorical burns and trying to nudge her in a good direction, any good direction. Friday and him were kind of two blind people stumbling in the dark, but they had some idea of what they were looking for and what to do, especially as they continued working. Every spell and every little result, they started figuring out what worked, what didn’t and what they might want to try next time.

“You can,” he whispered, getting a little closer and leaving spells in his wake. Eventually, he sat down in front of her. He was no Kuroka, let alone Yasaka, but he was delving into the realm of Senjutsu. Had been for some time, actually and while most of what he’d done was working on his own life energy to boost himself in combat and such, he could help others too, if only a bit.

[Life Healing - 11/100

Determines the user’s ability to heal the target’s body with life energy.

Increases the efficacy of Life Healing by 11%.]

‘Wish I had worked harder on that,’ he lamented, but he knew there wasn’t much he could have actually done. His time was almost entirely dedicated to getting better on other things. He couldn’t work on everything. So, as it was, it would have to be enough.

And it seemed to be. Between Friday’s and his efforts, they had managed something that stopped Valerie’s condition – whatever it was – from getting worse. She was still very messed up though and he wasn’t in a condition to continue going on for much longer. Joshua himself wasn’t doing so hot soul-wise, but he was pushing through. He needed to stabilize the girl and go from there.

“Thanks, Kuroka,” he mumbled, just loud enough to be heard, when he noticed the nekoshou support his attempts to sooth Valerie, much like she had with him, from all the way at the door of the “room”. He didn’t spare the group outside any more mind than that though, casting a few more spells and letting a long breath out.

The dhampir’s situation seemed to have reached some sort of balance, shaky as it was. So, with a moment to spare, he calmed his nerves and allowed himself a moment to focus on his own situation and what was going on around him other than Valerie. Fortunately, Khaos hadn’t decided to make an appearance, seemingly truly leaving the place, for whatever reason.

Joshua wasn’t going to complain if that was really the case.

“Stay here with her. Kuroka, keep an eye on her and alert me if something happens,” he said, his voice barely even through his exhaustion. “Everyone else, just stand by in case Khaos makes a move, but I rather doubt that. I’ll send a message when you can follow me. We’re leaving… Actually, Raynare, when we leave, go and join Ravel in case she needs some extra oomph to her presence, and send Asia and Morag back home.”

There were several positive responses and with that, he teleported away.

[}-o-{]

“Things went well then?” was the first thing that was asked as soon as he appeared back home. It was Serafall, who had been on stand by all throughout. He couldn’t very well let her cause an even bigger interfaction mess by participating in the attack. It was a little odd, how his partners weren’t included in his own actions – to an extent, but the differentiations were so blurry it wasn’t even funny –, but he was happy to have some freedom of action without making things complicated for everyone around him.

“Not quite,” Yasaka said immediately afterwards, eyes narrowed. Evidently, she had noticed right away that he was worn in a way that he’d only once been. “You had to channel the Egyptians.”

“Just Set,” he replied wearily, taking a deep breath in. As he cracked his neck. Joshua directed Friday to start setting up spells much like the ones they had used to stabilize Valerie. His own spell were already helping him. It helped that long established arrays were much better than something improvised. Still not quite enough, but Friday was also casting spells that he’d adapted on the fly over at the vampire’s territory. “They brought back Grendel and I had to end the fight quickly. Khaos was right outside my defenses.”

“... I see,” Serafall mumbled, evidently taking a moment to process the fact that he’d just dropped on them. Not every day that an Evil Dragon was brought back to life, he supposed. She was also very clearly not pleased, lips pursed and jaw set. “Other than that?” she pressed and he moved to sit at the table.

“Maybe we shouldn’t ask too many questions while Joshua isn’t at his best?” Gabriel asked, the absolute saint that she was. God, Joshua could have kissed her if he weren’t feeling like he wanted to sleep for a week. “Joshua, anything we can do?”

“We won the battle,” he started with, deciding to give them the highlights anyway, just so that they could know what happened. “Grendel… fuck,” he thought, taking a moment to send a message to Cheshire. His feline familiar was already on it, reliable as always. “Jeanne, Meredith, keep Grendel company until we can move him to the cells, would you?”

“Sure thing.”

“Of course, Professor Davis.”

“So, Grendel is down, Khaos fled and there was a dhampir imprisoned in Tepes territory,” he continued explaining, resolutely ignoring the looks he was getting from all three women at the table. “She has a Longinus, Sephiroth Graal, if I had to bet. They probably used that to bring back Grendel, I’m guessing. The Tepes vampires were also affected by the Gear. I’d guess that’s how they suppressed the Carmilla. Lots of soul information to analyze from them, I bet, maybe I can even-”

“Joshua?” Gabriel asked softly, reaching towards his hand and giving it a squeeze. “What about the dhampir?” she said and he noticed that he’d gone on a bit of a tangent there.

“Right,” he mumbled, blinking down at the table when he noticed there was a cup of tea right there. Had that always been there or was he worse off than he thought? Idly, he noticed Friday pointing out how things that he’d kind of patched with spells were starting to get out of hand for him to handle. Yeah, that tracked. “I left everyone guarding her. I don’t know what they did to her, but her soul is… they tore it apart. Friday and I barely managed to stabilize her. Friday is setting up the arrays here to move her. And… Ravel is handling Carmilla too, Raynare is keeping her company… did I forget anything?” he finished his rambling with as if the three of them could answer that.

“Joshua, take a moment. Check on yourself, would you?” Serafall asked then, looking and sounding concerned. Which was funny, because she was the one that wanted more information, right? But now that he was giving it…

Yasaka’s Senjutsu wrapped itself around him like a warm blanket and he almost sighed. Focusing on his spells, he tried to patch himself up as best he could. He didn’t trust himself with trying to come up with more than he already had over at the vampire factions’ territories. His mind wasn’t all there.

He was spiraling, deteriorating, just like Valerie had. Not quite as bad on account of all the measures he’d created for the dhampir, but he could see signs of the same effect. ‘Good to know,’ he mused to himself, asking Friday to remind him of that later when he could properly process the information.

“So, Grendel, the dhampir. We need to deal with those,” he said, his voice barely above a whisper. With shaky hands, he brought the cup of tea to his lips. The liquid barely tasted like nothing at all, but there was a hint of the calm it usually brought him, or maybe it was all in his mind. Either way, he appreciated that. “Could you-?”

“We’ll take care of both of those,” Yasaka answered before he could even finish the question. Idly, he noticed how the three women traded looks before nodding to each other. A moment later, both Gabriel and Serafall had teleported away. “Come on, you need to rest now.”

“It’s not as bad as last time,” he chimed without the youkai saying anything. Her first response was to smile at him exasperatedly. Then she continued with actual words.

“Not as bad, no, but you’re far from fine,” she pointed out and he chuckled weakly. Although, it might have been more of a sigh, really. Everything was a struggle, but at least he was awake and functioning. That was something, right?

Better than last time, if barely.

“Soul stuff is harder than I thought.”

“Who’d have thought, huh?” Yasaka asked him and he could see the raised eyebrow without looking at her.

“The sarcasm wasn’t necessary.”

“I think it was,” she replied drily, but there was a softness to her expression, to her look, that made Joshua smile like an idiot. She – and Serafall and Gabriel, for that matter – had been getting that reaction from him a lot those days. He didn’t think there was any particular change to their relationship or anything of the sort, but he just… felt happier with it all.

‘Weird, isn’t this kind of thing supposed to calm down after some time instead of the opposite?’ he mused to himself, taking another sip from his tea to calm himself down. Alas, no such luck, because something else popped up for him to pay attention too. Something decidedly less pleasant than Yasaka.

[Quest Complete: Help the Carmilla faction defeat the Tepes faction.

Rewards:

+ 15 levels to Strength

+ 15 levels to Speed

+ 15 levels to Dexterity

+ 15 levels to Vitality

+ New Skill Acquired: Draconic Resistance

+ 20 levels to Draconic Resistance

+ New Title: Dragonslayer]

‘... Interesting,’ he mused, blinking at the screen wearily while processing the new information. Draconic resistance was interesting, because he hadn’t gotten it the normal way, when withstanding the effects of that particular “element”. Instead, it had been a quest reward. Then there was the title, which was fairly straightforward.

[Dragonslayer

Attacks against Dragons inflict a 25% of Dragon Slaying effect.

Draconic attacks deal 25% less draconic effect.]

‘Now this, these are proper rewards, Game,’ he thought to himself, allowing a small smile hidden in his cup of tea. A good stat boost, a good skill and a good title, all things he could be happy with. Even more considering Joshua thought the chances of coming across another Evil Dragon or Vali were fairly good.

Much better than what he’d gotten from Friday’s creation. He had deliberately tried not to think about it too much, but he was still salty about that. The Magic stat boost and Spell Modification being maxed were both great things, for sure, but the special rewards were always the best, in his opinion. Except, that one time…

[??? - Lvl ???/???

Determines the user’s ability to understand ???.]

A whole lot of nothing, that’s what he’d gotten. The only clue as to what the skill even did was the fact that it was a Language subskill. He wasn’t sure what that’d even mean for him or if it’d be useful, but he had to assume it would be. No way creating a sapient spell wasn't going to award something great, right? Except, it had been a while and Joshua didn’t think he was any closer to figuring that out.

“Joshua?” Yasaka called and he blinked, dismissing the screens and looking up at the woman. “Maybe you should lie down?” she asked, clearly still a little concerned. For his part, Joshua considered that for a long moment. Ultimately…

“I shouldn’t. The dhampir will be here soon and I need to make sure I’m around in case I need to stabilize her… Hell, I should work on something for myself, but I’m… It might take a little bit to make sure I don’t mess up. Sleeping isn’t going to fix my soul fast enough to matter… from what I know,” he explained as best he could, picking his words carefully and considering everything as much as he could without taking forever.

“Hm, but you can take a break, can’t you?” Yasaka suggested with a fond smile as she stood up, only to sit down by his side. Then she gently pulled him down to rest his head on her lap. “There, Kunou should be back from her classes soon, but I can tell Fuyuko to look after her. Asia and Morag won’t mind taking over once they get back, I’m sure.”

“Hm, maybe,” he mused, trying and failing not to close his eyes. It was so comfortable… It was truly a shame that he couldn’t fall asleep, but then again, remaining awake was pretty nice too. “I need to stay awake, but I can’t really do much. Do you think I’m too out of it to spend time with her?”

“Not at all. I’m sure she’ll be happy to take care of you,” Yasaka replied, amusement in her tone. Right. Kunou taking care of him. The girl thought taking care of people meant doing things she liked, because clearly those were fun for everyone. Although, to be fair, he did share many of his hobbies with her. Joshua would have zero issues brainstorming illusion ideas for her to work on, that was for sure.

Anything too complicated and it might be pushing things though.

Not because he couldn’t manage, but because he thought what little brain power he had available was better left for something serious. Not that he didn’t think spending time with Kunou was important, but there was a time and place… unfortunately. He’d have to leave the proper spoiling for some other time.

“If you’re sure,” he mumbled, getting a hum from Yasaka as the woman started running her fingers through his hair. If she was trying to help him stay awake, she was doing a terrible job at it. Sadly, Joshua was pretty sure she was just trying to help him relax, which had high chances of him falling asleep. She probably wasn’t very concerned with that possibility either, he imagined.

“I am,” Yasaka reassured and even her voice was lulling him to sleep. Was she using her senjutsu for that too? “Sleep, Joshua. We’ll call you if you’re needed, won’t we, Friday?” the youkai leader told him before speaking up at the room’s ceiling. His living spell of a familiar replied very earnestly, which only made her seem adorable.

With a smile, Joshua chuckled weakly.

“I didn’t stand a chance, did I?”

“Not really, no. Even if you’re better than last time, there’s no immediate threat. Take a moment to recover, Joshua,” Yasaka told him and he hummed lowly before closing his eyes. With a deep breath in, he already felt like his consciousness was slipping away from him.

Some rest sounded heavenly.

[}-o-{]

“For the record, I still think I shouldn’t have slept,” Joshua said, taking a deep breath in and checking on Valerie, who had been given a room in one of the many spaces in Yasaka’s place. The youkai leader had far from a normal house, after all. It was why Joshua had been able to move in with Jeanne and Asia without issue.

Still, he’d have sent her to his house, with Raynare and Kuroka, but he preferred to have her closer by. Her condition hadn’t gotten worse, but it was also not getting better. Even Joshua himself could already see the beginnings of recovery in his own soul. Barely there at all, but there were signs that he was getting better, if he looked close enough.

Not Valerie though. Where his metaphorical wounds were like cuts, slowly closing and healing, hers were like… amputations. Like someone had taken an axe to her soul and hacked pieces of it off. It was… disturbing, nauseating. The life and afterlife gods of the Egyptian pantheon were particularly enraged by the sight of it. Osiris in particular was reminding Joshua of Set, which was very concerning.

‘We’ll get them,’ he thought, because he himself wanted an extra piece of Khaos Brigade after witnessing that. The gathering of deities seconded that statement with such force that Joshua felt his already fragile soul shake a little. They’d hold him to that. Souls were sacred, after all.

‘Speaking of sacred,’ Joshua thought, focusing on Valerie through his senses once more. ‘I have a good idea why they did that to her,’ he mused. Because, if Khaos hadn’t done something to her in relation to Sephiroth Graal, then he wasn’t a magician.

“... Joshua?” a voice said, making him blink and return to the world outside his mind. Apparently, soul damage made him even more absentminded. “I said that you could believe whatever you wanted,” Gabriel commented, apparently very amused, if fondly so.

It took him a moment to remember that yeah, he’d said something about not needing to sleep, right?

“Fine,” he decided to admit, because being stubborn would just be silly. “So, I’m not at my best right now,” he mumbled, resolutely ignoring the way Gabriel seemed more amused with that. “My reasons for wanting to stay awake are sound though.”

“They are,” the angel acknowledged and that went a long way to him relaxing and further admitting that resting sounded amazing. Alas, he couldn’t afford to. Not that he wanted to avoid sleep forever, but Khaos could still come back for the Carmilla and Valerie could still start crashing once more.

So, he’d rather stay somewhat alert just in case. If it came to that, he’d channel the Egyptians some more. It’d put him right back on top condition and more, even if it’d further damage and strain his soul.

“For how long do you plan to stay awake, however?” Gabriel asked and he had to acknowledge that point with a grimace. Because he didn’t, in fact, know the answer to that. He’d probably relax about Khaos after a day or two, but Valerie? She could get worse at any point and he was starting to doubt she’d ever get better, with or without his help. And he’d need to get better himself if he wanted to be able to offer that doubtfully useful help.

“I know you all are right, okay?”

“Do you?” It wasn’t Gabriel that asked that, but Kunou, who had been dutifully working through her homework to Joshua’s side. Yasaka had left her with Joshua and Gabriel while she, Serafall and Ravel talked about the vampire business. Apparently, the youkai and the devils had some useful history with those factions that they could apply now that they were more… neutrally oriented, if not outright allies.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You complain a lot for someone that knows he’s wrong,” his daughter answered with and he just stared at her with slightly narrowed eyes. She replied to that with her best – and most useless – innocent look. “Don’t you think, dad?”

“Yes, don’t you think so, Joshua?” Gabriel tacked in and he felt his eye twitch.

“It’s not enough that you gang up on me with your mom?” he asked Kunou, who somehow doubled down on her innocent look.

“Well, Gabriel is with you, isn’t she? And you’re with mom,” his daughter started reasoning and he already didn’t like where she was going. Nervously, he glanced towards the angel on his other side, but the woman didn’t seem to react to what Kunou was saying, even though she likely had figured it out before he did. “So, doesn’t that mean she’d be like… my step-mom, if things go well?”

Now, how to answer that without stepping in one of the thousand mines that he could think of?

Easier said than done.

“... If things go well is the key part there, Kunou,” he started with, picking his words as carefully as he could without taking forever. “And since there’s that uncertainty, I don’t know how good an idea is to bring that kind of thing up,” he added, mostly trying to let her know that she wasn’t wrong to think so, but to say it. Hopefully she’d understand. She was a smart girl. Although, to be fair to her, Joshua himself wasn’t sure how to address that whole situation. Not only was he not socially skilled enough, but it wasn’t like he could have known, considering he came from a world where his relationship situation was very much not normal. “As it is, saying that kind of thing can make people feel awkward about it if they hadn’t considered that or if they aren’t very certain about things.”

“Aren’t you?”

Was his daughter trying to kill him?

She did know that he sucked at social stuff, right?

Wasn’t it enough that his soul was frayed, but he had to deal with this too?

… Maybe he should have let Set wreck his soul a little more.

“I am,” he replied, deciding that honesty was never a wrong approach to things, even if it could cause trouble. “My relationship with Gabriel is complicated for a number of reasons though, so-”

“And I appreciate you being careful because of that,” the aforementioned angel interrupted with, making him turn towards her and seeing a light pink dusting on her cheeks, her eyes looking at nothing in particular, but in Kunou and his general direction. “But I’d appreciate it if you were a little less careful, Joshua. I don’t want you to walk on eggshells around me… And I don’t mind Kunou thinking about things the way she said.”

“Neat!” his daughter eloquently said.

Joshua, for his part, smiled widely at the angel, getting a shy one in return from her.

Crisis averted, he enjoyed the rather comfortable atmosphere around the room. The situation outside could be a little shaky here and there, but over all, things were good then and there. Joshua decided to appreciate that and be happy for the moment.

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How’s it going?

I hesitate to call this an aftermath chapter. I feel like it’s a post-battle chapter, but not really true aftermath. More like a winding down? Am I making any sense here? I feel like I’m not…

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this… whatever chapter.

Discord Link: discord.gg/UTDransjJZ

Random Question: Do you play anything on your phone? It’s funny that I play two phone games on my computer instead of my phone (those are Arknights and Backpack Brawl). I do play Brotato on my phone though. I have it on my computer, but it’s a weirdly fitting game for phone, not gonna lie.

See you.