[Arya]

 

"The last day has been pretty wild." I say looking at Taleah, "How have things been on your end though, and if it wouldn't hurt, could we get something to eat?"

 

"I should've just let your meal burn. Do you need three or just the one I made?" Taleah says, only for me to shrug in response.

 

"One for now, I don’t think we need multiple meals for all three of us. Just one should suffice for us." I hear to my left, seeing Stella and Dawn who is currently holding a small dog in her arms who is strangely familiar. 

 

Stella wasn't lying I guess, "Is that Rosco?" I ask.

 

"Yes, and her name is Rosa now. From what she told me and I could understand, I think she died on Earth and in the time it took for us to get to this world, her soul joined us? I’m not too sure on the details really, I’m just glad she’s back." Dawn says with a smile. 

 

"Well glad to have you with us Rosa." I say, walking over to give a few pets to her, leaving me equally surprised at the fact I can touch her and also to how soft her fur is.  "How can I touch you?, aren't you just a soul at the moment?" 

 

"Why wouldn’t you be able to touch her? While she is my friend now, it doesn’t mean you can’t touch her."  She says with her tail wagging happily behind her. “She’s actually bigger than this, she’s able to control her size so I can still hold her like when she was younger.”

 

"Wait, does that mean she can get to the size of Turgis?" I quickly ask, excited from the idea of having Rosa smother me with her soft fur.

 

"That big wolf pack leader? I don’t see why not." Dawn says as she reaches out and pats me on the head. As she turns to face Taleah I notice her face losing any sign of a smile as her eyes grow cold. "Anyways. . . why am I out here?" 

 

"We, well Taleah, needs you to explain what happened to the arcane focus we grabbed, the red stone that we absorbed." I say, putting my staffs onto the ground. "I'll have to repeat everything you say, unless you want to take over for now and tell them yourself." 

 

"Ehhh that'll work." She says before taking over, letting Rosa onto the ground as the staffs quickly fuse back together, turning back into the ax. 

 

"That felt weird, can we do that again?" Rosa asks fidgeting around in her arms.

 

"Silly you should be able to do it yourself." She says, laughing quietly. "Anyways Taleah, if you're asking for the sunstone then I have to break it to you, but I can't give it up." 

 

Taleah tilts her head. "You say so, but how would you know for sure?" 

 

Almost instantly, Dawn grabs hold of her ax with her hand as it ignites. "Dawn it's fine, she isn't going to do anything." I called out.

 

"And how do you know that, you've known her what, two weeks now? Don't you think you're being a bit too trustful?" She looks at me, suspicion in her eyes, "Give me a reason."

 

"Because she would have already done something if she wanted to." I say, hoping Dawn would calm down. “She is a lot stronger than you believe.”

 

"Not good enough." Saying so, she gets ready to leave before Taleah calls out.

 

"Wait, I didn't mean to threaten you in any way. Please I was only asking as I needed the focus to finish a ritual to banish a creature of evil." She says, getting a reaction as Dawn ears twitch. "I also believe I haven't heard your name from your sisters."

 

"Dawn, and don't get any funny ideas anyways, you wouldn't have succeeded anyways." Dawn says, completely sure of herself.

 

"Why is that?" Taleah questioned.

 

"Because the merge is soul deep, all I know is that the previous owner explained to me that the stone had chosen us." Dawn says.

 

"Explained to you? Dawn, you never mentioned this earlier." I ask.

 

It's a little weird that she says she talked with someone inside our soul but we haven’t seen anyone else. Are they still in our soul? I feel myself shiver a little thinking about there being a peeping tom in our soul. Even if we haven't done anything there besides sleep and talk. Did Dawn not question it all, actually, no she probably did.

 

"I forgot. . ." Dawn mumbles, lowering the ax.

 

I didn't quite catch that, "What was that? I couldn't hear you." 

 

"I said I forgot!" She yells back. 

 

"Eh?" I said.

 

"Hahaha!" Stella is bent over grabbing her stomach as she laughs at Dawn. Taleah looks lost in her own world watching our display.

 

Dawn rolls her eyes before continuing, "Whatever, the guy called himself Saladeen and that the organization he led fought against these creatures that look to consume everything that is matter in the world. Which in my opinion is a stupid fucking idea as the only thing that can do that is antimatter but only when the destruction of matter happens and besides, that stuff doesn't even have a set form. The idea that someone could handle antimatter or use it to recreate themselves is stupidity to the highest degree." 

 

"Wh-what?" I said, holding my head while Taleah is staring off into space, confused from what’s happening. "How do you know these things?"

 

"Well how else would I know about it? Science, at least the bare minimum knowledge from my world, I read about it for a little while when it got brought up in a research paper I was reading about space." Dawn says, looking at Taleah like she missed the point. "Besides, I bet your gods, if they’re real, would die if they were caught within an explosion created by antimatter. Hell, scientists believe that just a gram or so of the stuff would cause the size of nuclear explosions easily." 

 

Eventually Taleah regains herself as she clears her throat, catching Dawn’s attention. “If you follow me, we can get back on track. Since you said you absorbed the focus, maybe you can do something about the creature.

 

Dawn just shrugs her shoulders. "Lead the way, if you wanted the sunstone, then it probably has something to do with the invaders anyways. So much for him saying I have time to gain strength."

 

"An invader?" I ask, getting Dawn's attention.

 

"It's what Saladeen call the things." Dawn says, "I don't know if that's the actual name."

 

~~~~~

 

We find ourselves further into the cave than before, taking a side pathway within that diverged from the path we originally took to Taleah's house. Eventually we find ourselves in a large open area, runes can be seen etched in the floor and walls around the place, either connecting to each other or entirely separate from the rest. As I stare at the work, I can see it creating intricate lines and patterns I can't wrap my head around.

 

In the center of the room, we see an enlarged version of the swarm controller we saw back at the ruins. Just this time the size is much larger. I see faint glowing lines covering the swarm that look like a net. Taking the time to inspect it with my skill, it shows the name of the creature and a thing called a challenge rating?

 

"Hey Dawn, can you ask Taleah what does challenge rating mean?" I say.

 

"Challenge rating" Stella says, "The gods gave a sort of difficulty identifier for people with the inspect skill. I forgot you have that skill."

 

"Yeah I need to get in the habit of using it. It seems like it would be handy in a lot of cases." I say

 

"More than handy, just based on the name we could find out what type of creature something is, weaknesses, places it would choose for habitats, what it eats, etc." Stella replied. "What did it tell you about the thing in the center?"

 

I send the system box to Stella, "Here."

 

 

Stella flinches when she sees the information, "We aren't strong enough for that I hope you know. Even with it weakened, I don't know if we could fight it should it escape."

 

"Thankfully it's sealed in here." I say, only for Stella to nod in affirmation.

 

"Do you have any idea on how to handle this Dawn?" Taleah asks. "Since I don't have the focus to use, I'm out of ideas currently until I can get a new focus.”

 

"Can it be affected outside of the seal?" Dawn asked.

 

"Yes, but I don't have anything that could completely destroy it. The moment its core fractures, it somehow puts itself back together. I've already tested to see if it was manipulating time but that was proven false." Taleah said.

 

"Use fire Dawn, we fought smaller ones back in the ruins and they visibly recoiled whenever I used it against them." Stella says to Dawn.

 

“Have you tried fire? Stella says that they fought smaller ones in the ruins and that they retreated whenever fire was used.” Dawn told her.

 

"You fought them in the ruins? How many of them were there? Did any escape?" She asked before pacing around and starting to think out loud, "But wait, fire magic huh, I used it on the thing but I never noticed any changes on it.." 

 

"Calm down." Dawn says, giving Taleah a light bonk on her head. “With it weakened and sealed I should have no problem with dealing with it.”

 

Raising the ax overhead as flames start to crawl up the handle towards the ax head, she calls out to Taleah, "Now, this won't rebound my attack will it? I'm free to just smack it and be done with it, correct?" 

 

She just stares at Dawn. 

 

"I'll take that silence as a yes." Dawn says.

 

"Think she broke her already." I say, resting my head on top of Stella's.

 

"What do you mean?" Stella says.

 

Dawn, who had her ax readied, quickly swung it causing a loud impact to sound out within the room. Immediately the controller starts screeching as if a bunch of cicadas are being burned, she covers her ears in pain, Rosa also seemed to be jolted out of her sleep as well as she raised her head.

 

The strike made a crack into the controller, but not deep enough to kill it. After a minute she prepares her ax again, with a frown on her face. The flames grow stronger as Dawn puts more mana into the ax. Probably from having to go through the pain of creating a loud noise again. 

 

The next strike seemed to be even stronger, cleanly going through it and reaching the ground underneath it. The flames start to consume the fragments that fall off, leaving nothing behind as it burns the creature to ash.

 

"There, all done." She says, lowering her ax. "I'll give back control to you now Arya, I'm gonna go take a nap now since those two attacks drained more of my mana than I expected.”

 

"Okay then, enjoy your sleep. I'll join you later once we finish up here." I say. 

 

She nods before giving control up and disappearing for now, leaving me and Stella with Taleah who was talking to herself. “She actually killed it, I mean it was only a test but what is the whole deal with the weapon and change in their flow of mana?” 

 

“What’s the matter with her?” Stella asked.

 

“Dunno.” I say before I catch what Taleah said. “Wait, what do you mean by a test?”

 

“Oh, well, I know that I am supposed to help you out and all, if I go by what my goddess says but even they’re prone to make mistakes.” As she says that, I notice Taleah flinching as if she was shocked by something. “Geez, can’t even take a joke. I wanted to test you two, three now, and see how you do. I wasn’t lying about wanting the arcane focus.”

 

“Wanting?” Stella points out.

 

“So you don’t need the focus?” I ask.

 

Taleah scoffs, “A wizard of my capabilities doesn’t need a focus. They help, yes, but they’re not needed.” 

 

“Then why did we go there?” I replied.

 

“I said it already, did I not? A test.” Taleah confirms again. “Now, let's head back to my office for now so I can ask you about everything you learned in the ruins. I would also like to talk about your sudden change with your fire affinity.” 

 

“If this is going to be just a bunch of back and forth again I’m just going to join Dawn then.” Stella says, clearly bored as she rotates slowly in the air.

 

“Have fun.” I tell her before following Taleah back to her office.