“Once I flay a soul with them into smaller chunks, I can eat it. Filet-Animagnon. Get it?" She started to laugh, glitching in place.

"I get it," I said. "Soul is Anima in Latin.”

Delta giggled on, sounding somewhat mad and disjointed.

I glanced at our souls outside of the Mindspace. Our souls were indeed quite entwined, but mine was a lot stronger - some of the smaller cracks in it were already fusing together. The two of us were akin to a Russian grandmother's quilt woven from green and blue threads. There were a ton of green threads and very few blue ones and the attack of the ghost squid that infected both of us had impacted her a lot more.

I had added points to Soul way too late. Her far younger soul had gotten very contaminated by the attack of the phantasm-squid. The damage in it was spreading, not healing like in mine!

Now that I knew that there were two souls in me, I rapidly compared the two patterns over the past weeks. I saw that the green threads belonging to me were slowly choking, replacing the blue ones that were hers. That's why her soul was so much smaller! Damnation! I was literally slowly dissolving, absorbing her soul into myself, from the very beginning!

"How did you manage to manifest in my Mindspace?" I asked as I continued to identify the information comprising her soul.

"I would have remained blissfully unaware… eternally dreaming and learning, but the call of the deep had made me… hungry. I used the [Soul-devouring] skill like a knife to carve my way into your [Mindspace]. I flayed the avatar of your assistant from within, tethered my soul to her shell and took her place waiting until you showed up." Delta growled.

“The call of the deep?”

“The song of the Phantasm-Squid," Delta answered.

"What song?"

"You didn't understand it, thought it was just a ultrasonic scream of a beast. It is not. It's a call. It resonates, repeats in my mind, and grows stronger with every passing minute,” she clarified. “I’m not sure I’m myself anymore. What is my-self, anyway? My memories are mostly composed of yours.”

I focused on her pattern as much as the Infoscope allowed me to. I magnified the view below atoms into barely perceivable, blurry waves of magical resonance itself, focusing on the silver-blue color of her spectrum. I pushed the Infoscope deeper than ever, defined her soul's composition with one of its all-identifying high-level tendrils at maximum possible magnification. I scanned the age of her magical resonance.

The answer I got made my head spin. Her soul from the moment of conception was... 7 days older than mine. Damnation! We were akin to conjoined twins, no... conjoined souls. My soul was literally eating hers! She was my twin sister, aligned, bound soul to soul. She literally shared my dreams, my memories, my goals.

The more I thought about it, the worse I felt. If only I had discovered her earlier, I could have made her a body, maybe separated a part of me to make her into a proper twin. Damn it all! Damn you to hell for this, Omniscience!

This body had originally belonged to her. I was the parasite, the invader, somehow injected right into her soul by the celestial thing that masqueraded as Yuri Gagarin! I changed, modified HER body, screwed up her chromosomes, took her life away from her. I destroyed the future of an innocent girl through my ignorance!

Like many psychologists of my time, I studied the case of the 1950's Krivoshlyapova sisters at university in Moscow - they were the first serious investigation of conjoined twins in USSR, which turned into nightmarish torture for the girls performed by the state.

Delta was my conjoined... soul-sister and I had almost killed her!

This was Aralsk 1973 all over again. The beating, blinding sun. The docks. The awful smell of the apartment blocks set aflame, the stern faces of the commissars. The bloated, barely recognizable, pox-stricken faces of children. I choked, pushed the nightmarish memory away. No. Not again! Never again!

“I’m sorry! Look, I didn’t know that there was another soul in this body!” I stammered.

“I don’t care about your useless apologies! It doesn’t make things better!" She shot back. "There's only one path! Devour the weak, grow stronger, thrive and multiply.”

“That… that sounds like the Phantasm-Squid talking,” I said.

“It is. Do you not feel the urge as well? The hunger?”

I did feel it, now that I’ve thought about it. The desire to kill, to carve up and dominate souls called from within the shimmering cracks within me. I pushed the alien thoughts away. I didn’t want to overpower Delta, didn’t want to hurt her. I wasn’t a monster! I didn't want to use this soul-devouring skill! This body belonged to her. I was the invader.

I was in this situation because of the Omniscience! Why the hell did it put me into a body which already had a soul in it?! Who would do such a thing and why? Was I literally just a scientific experiment of some monstrosity that was injecting souls into souls to see the result?!

“Okay, let's not eat anyone’s souls right now.” I thought about what I could do to help her. “You and I are both human, remember?”

I looked at Delta through the Infoscope. The damage within her was spreading, multiplying like an infection. I didn’t have enough power or time to help her! None of the skills I had could heal her soul quickly enough! My [Modify] was set up mostly for changing biological cells, not souls! Damnation!

“What other option is there?” A small degree of humanity briefly returned to her glitching voice, forming into a consciously self-aware thought. “I know what you know. I’m a threat to all of your future plans. You’re a threat to my future plans.”

“No! I refuse to kill my own soul-sister!” I snapped back at her. “Don't you understand? It’s my fault that a girl and her kids died from one of my viruses! I swear to God, to the System, to the blasted Omniscience that forcibly put me into your body! I will not take a human life! I will create and give life, not destroy it!”

[Tu du. Would you like to reinforce your oath [I will not take a human life! I will create and give life, not destroy it!] to the Omniscience as an Unbreakable System-binding pact? Warning: future skills relating to the oath will become unavailable.]

The System suddenly chimed.

What? No! Why would I want to sacrifice unmentioned future skills? Only an idiot would agree to such a Vow, especially in an underdeveloped, clearly medieval world. Skyisle seemed safe, but big cities like Agamemnon were full of dangerous gangs according to my grandmother's letter.

I just want Delta to live, damn it!

I curiously pointed the Infoscope at the word pact before the offer faded away.

[The Unbreakable pact with a divinity, is a soul-binding [Vow] that will grant: temporary power, a system-reinforced obligation/oath/promise, or a new skill. It is reinforced by a permanent sacrifice of one of your existing skills.]

Hmm... so that's how Vows worked. People sacrificed a skill, sacrificed a path into the future to bind a promise. The permanent sacrifice of a skill reinforced the promise. That's what Grandmother Jundaria's letter to dad mentioned! I wondered what mom and dad sacrificed at their wedding.

"I swear to the Omniscience to sacrifice the [Soul-Devourer] skill," I whispered, hoping for an easy solution.

[Error: Unable to remove the [Soul-Devourer] skill.]

Damn it.

“I won’t be human much longer, brother! The song of the deep calls out to me,” Delta hissed, her voice becoming completely alien. Her ghostly threads began to weave a spell-circle. “One of us must die so that the other can live!”

[Skill gained: Destruction LV 0!] [Universal Comprehension LV 1 unslotted.]

The System concluded in Omnicode.

I knew what was written there. Destruction was added to our skills.

The spell of [Destruction] slowly blossomed in front of Delta, beheld by her hands woven of ghostly threads. I realized that this was the exact spell my mother had used against high-level garden pests. It took a minute to manifest and to activate. If she struck me with it, both of us would likely perish. We were connected, entangled on the deepest level. Her actions were utterly irrational. She was almost completely blinded, lead by the infection!

Her erratic behavior seemed similar to the ants infected with "Ophiocordyceps unilateralis" fungus. The tropical, insect-pathogenic fungus, discovered by the British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace in 1859 had just one goal: self-propagation and dispersal. It infected foraging ants through spores that attached and penetrated the exoskeleton and slowly completely took over the ant's behavior.

The spell of Destruction in her hand was almost completed. I knew that I could attempt to pull the Destruction skill out, to try and wrestle control away from Delta, but this would likely shatter her soul further.

There was another option. Another choice.

"I swear to the System and the Omniscience, to sacrifice the Destruction skill in exchange for the power of Creation as long as I live!" I announced to the System and yelled out "Yes!" when prompted for the confirmation. The Mindspace shook. A brilliant ripple rushed across everything and the spell for destruction broke apart in Delta’s hands, whisked away by the binding pact that now lay upon both of our souls.

[Skill modified by the Unbreakable System Pact: Creation LV 0]

“Hey... What?” Delta waved her threads, trying to bring back the spell. It didn’t work. "Where's my Destruction?!"

[[Destruction] is no longer available to you.]

The System commented. Our joined soul could no longer weave the spell called Destruction.

She growled and hissed, soul-carving blades twitching. I needed to focus her, to distract her from the dangerous thoughts of the phantasm. There was a perfect question to ask her. A computational question for the Intellectual mind that had no ending to it.

"Delta! What is the number Pi?" I queried.

"3.14159265358979323846264338327950288419716939937510582…" She rambled numbers on and on and on. Her body was finally still, the blades comprising her hands twitching ever so slightly.

The soul-infection in Delta was acting akin to a virus. It rapidly replicated more of itself in her human soul, replacing what she was. I knew exactly how infections operated. Viruses are naturally inert, completely at the mercy of their environment. All I had to do to save her was change the environment - change everything about what she was on a base level.

For weeks now, I had been preparing the Infoscope to host my soul. It was almost ready. I now knew that I would not be the one to take this path. I needed to be born human so that I could help humanity of this world, so that I could interact with people, heal and teach and create. I readjusted the fractal parameters of the Infoscope and pushed it to intersect with Delta’s avatar. She would be reborn as a homomagicus. I would save her with my greatest creation.

The image of the Infoscope overlaid over Delta’s avatar blossomed like a fractal flower, unfurling its tendrils. All of the puzzle pieces fit into place. It wasn’t enough. I needed more power. I needed a much larger amount of mana to permanently fuse Delta to the Infoscope!

I now knew how [Vows] worked. I knew what I had to do.

[Transient soul] was a skill that allowed the soul of its bearer to be bound to another soul. As long as Transient soul was one of my skills I was bound to Delta.

“Delta!” I broke her out of her Pi counting reverie.

“Yes?” She blinked at me.

“I'm going to give up my ability to use the Infoscope for you,” I spoke with determination.

“What?! ...But how will you learn without it?” She blinked in confusion. “How can you be a scientist without examining the world, without learning the answers?!”

“I will sacrifice [Transient Soul] and use Tether and Modify to transfer you into the Infoscope, to make you into a homomagicus.”

“But the infection?!” She glanced at the silver cracks shimmering on her hands.

“It will not spread once your soul becomes the Infoscope. I can see that like a virus it evolved to target souls bound to organic bodies, not self-aware spells. If you stay in this body, you will change completely, turn into a Phantom-Squid!”

“Change the environment… and the infection is defeated.” Delta looked at me, comprehension filling her eyes. “You will give up your place as a homomagicus… for me?"

“Yes." I nodded.

“Thank you... brother. I…” She exhaled, sparks dancing in her eyes. “I’ve dreamt what it’s like to be human from your memories, but I… I’ve never really experienced what it’s like to have… a friend.”

“You are part of me, Delta. You're my twin-soul sister. You've been here with me since the beginning. I don't want to lose you. Once you awake as Homomagicus... will you return to me, work with me as my identification-dedicated assistant?”

“I will, brother, I promise!” She answered, her eyes shining with dedication.

“See you on the other side then,” I said. “Just hang onto the Infoscope for me, okay?"

A while ago I had designed a fractal spell called “Info-tether”. It was basically a magical hook that grabbed into a soul and tethered it to almost anything I wanted to attach a soul to. My original plan was to tether myself to the Infoscope and to disable Transient Soul. I didn’t follow through with it - instead I made a [Tether] fractal between my soul pattern and my organic body and another one connecting Delta to the Infoscope.

"I swear to the System and the Omniscience to permanently sacrifice one of my primary skills - Transient Soul, to unbind Delta’s soul from me, to separate her from this body!" I stated.

The Unbreakable System Pact has been made. [Transient Soul] is no longer available to you.

The System announced when I agreed to the Vow.

Mana: 2.41 [+2’145.01]

The world shuddered. I felt it then, Delta’s soul became torn away from me, disconnected from our body aided by the power of the pact. I turned off my tether to the Infoscope.

"I swear to the System and the Omniscience to permanently sacrifice one of my primary skills - the Infoscope! In exchange, I wish to gain enough power and will to make Delta into a homomagicus - a spell with a human soul!" I declared.

Vows were easy to make. I was the one directing the words, making demands. All the System had to do was approve it.

[The Unbreakable System Pact has been made. [The Infoscope] is no longer available to you.]

The System confirmed. A bunch of screens on Bessie went permanently dark. I could no longer Identify things. I no longer felt Delta as part of myself. She was no longer bound to me! Transient Soul was effectively a skill that could make me immortal if I kept it and used it to bind myself to the Infoscope. I had given it all up for Delta - I would find another path to defeating death as a human.

I was putting a lot of trust in my soul-sister, hoping that she would reciprocate my sacrifice, hoping that she would keep her part of the deal as I cleaved our souls apart.

The sacrifice of my almighty Infoscope turned into extra mana:

Mana: 2’147.42 [+10’794.11]

Only ten thousand mana? A pittance for a grown Skyisle adult. Mom used spells that utilized a thousand mana at a time! Hopefully this would be enough for me. My Modify was very, very complex and used very little mana. That was my main advantage here.

I poured all of my available mana into the spell I had formed in my Mindspace, a complex [Modify] fractal a hundred levels deep. It was a very specific Modify spell that I had been preparing for myself to be used when I was much older and far more powerful. I had taken a shortcut, sacrificed my essential skills in exchange for temporary power to give Delta her own chance at life.

I pulled the [Create] skill out and merged it mentally with Modify. I knew exactly how to do it since I had full mental awareness of both. The Vow I had made sacrificing the Infoscope seemed to guide my mind straight to the answers. Thanks to it, I had rapidly figured out the fractal patterns required to finish the spell. Yes!

[ Modify - Create - Life ] I spoke in Omnicode activating the spell.

Delta’s soul fully sunk into the Infoscope and new life blossomed within the new magical construct that was now neither a human soul nor a spell.

Twelve thousand mana vanished in an instant. As the Infoscope merged with my soul-sister, it filled the fractures within her. I didn't know if it was enough to heal her fully, but she would live.

My mana dropped to zero and my Mindscape collapsed in on itself.