Sheryl sighed and picked a piece of herself up off the ground. She placed the chunk against her torso and waited. A few seconds later, the pebble merged with her body as if it were glued on. She sighed again and picked up another piece of herself. “How is it, Vur? Can you move yet?”

“Nope.” Vur was still on the table in Stella’s dungeon, red chains sticking out of his body. “Nothing’s changed.”

“That’s odd,” Sheryl said. “Chompy already ate the chimera queen. If this is a part of it, how come it’s still sticking around?”

Vur clicked his tongue. “Why would I know?”

“Right.” Sheryl bit her lower lip. “You’re probably the one who’s most annoyed at that. Sorry.”

Zilphy sighed from beside Vur. “I hope Deedee’s alright.”

***

Ralph stared at the dragon that wasn’t quite a dragon. It was in the center of the army, separated from him by over a million men, but there was no doubt that it’d be his turn soon enough. Maybe. The creature was weakening. At first, it was slaughtering hundreds of men a second, but now, it took a minute to do the same. Its claws, ankles, and shins were filled with red spears, and its wings were peppered with arrows. It seemed like a few hours had passed since it killed Lord Briffault, but Ralph wasn’t too sure. He wasn’t revived with his watch after all.

“What are you doing, men!?” a voice shouted above the din. “It’s clearly weakening! Instead of dying after stabbing it once, try to stab it twice! No, try to stab it three times! If each of us can take one scale off of this creature with our deaths, then we’ll have stripped it before even half of us are dead. What are you scared of? A little bit of pain? It doesn’t matter if we die since we’re already dead!”

Ralph nodded. The commander had a good point. They were already dead, so it didn’t matter if they died again. And there wasn’t any food left, so there wasn’t a point in sticking around any longer. Not like there would’ve been a point if there were, but still. No wonder why Zyocuh sent so many of them to subdue a single soul. This soul housed a dragon, and it didn’t help that they lost a quarter of their men before the fight even started. But it seemed like this fight was in the bag. No matter how many soldiers were eaten or died to claws or dragon breaths, there was always more of them. Ralph almost felt bad for the dragon. A mighty titan, taken down by ants. What a sad end to a majestic creature’s life.

Someone nudged Ralph from behind. The soldiers in front of him had moved up again, and he forgot to fill in the empty space while lost in thought. He shuffled forward, closing the gap, and waited some more. Would the fight be over before it was even his turn? That wouldn’t be a bad thing, but it’d be pretty boring, having waited for so long to do nothing.

A blood-curdling scream came from behind, and Ralph flinched at the sound. What was that? There was a ton of shouting up ahead, but that scream pierced through all of it. Another scream filled the air, and Ralph turned around. The soldiers behind him had their heads facing the back as well. His brow furrowed, and he tapped the shoulder of the soldier next to him. “Any idea what that was?”

“No idea.”

There was another scream, followed by shouts. The line moved up again as more soldiers died to the dragon, but Ralph wasn’t sure if he should fill in the gap or wait. Was it possible that there were even more dangerous things inside of this soul? It would’ve been a close call to take out the dragon, but if another creature was added into the mix, then it was possible for them to lose. It wasn’t as if a loss mattered to them since they were already dead, but it’d hurt Zyocuh’s plan, and who knows what kind of torture that man would subject them to if they failed?

Ralph stroked his chin. Why weren’t there any commands telling them what to do? Was it possible they had the situation under control back there? Or did whatever was causing those screams take out the commanders first? His brow furrowed even more before relaxing. Well, he was a soldier. All he had to do was follow orders, and until he received new ones, his current orders were to stab the dragon three times and then die. Sometimes it was nice being a soldier. He didn’t have to think for himself, and if somehow things went wrong, none of the blame would be on him. He shrugged and turned back around, ignoring the screams from behind, and filled up the gap leading to the dragon.

***

Tafel peered at the light extending out of Vur’s bellybutton. The golden portion that was holding the red back had long since disappeared, and the black portion had shrunk considerably. She chewed on her lower lip while clenching the sheets of the bed that Vur was lying on. “Is it working? Why isn’t it working?”

“Well, you chose a slow-acting soul,” Grimmy said from beside her. Though they were inside the palace, Grimmy could fit because the walls and ceiling had been destroyed a while ago by Mary’s clash with Tafel. “I told you it wouldn’t be as quick as the others.”

“Well, the others were all women!” Tafel glared at Grimmy. “How could I let another woman enter Vur’s soul? Stella is already enough! And you said this soul was guaranteed to get the job done, so I trusted you.”

“Where’d that trust go?” Grimmy asked and yawned. “Just wait a few more hours and you’ll see that I was right. Probably. This isn’t an exact science, you know?”

“In a few hours, the black portion that represents Vur’s soul will be completely gone!” Tafel’s hands clenched even tighter around the sheets. “Can’t you do something? Like add another soul?”

Grimmy shook his head. “If we add another soul, then there’s a possibility that Vur will be too weak to defeat them both. Remember, we’re using an invader to kill another invader, but they’re both invaders. We’re hoping the poisons neutralize each other without killing Vur.”

Tafel’s expression darkened. “Why are you so relaxed when Vur’s soul is at stake?”

“I’m not relaxed, you’re just too strung up,” Grimmy said and snorted. His eyes lit up and he pointed at the beam of light. “See, look. It’s starting.”

Tafel returned her attention to Vur’s stomach. The top portion of the red light was turning purple, then blue, but the black portion at the bottom near his bellybutton was still shrinking. Tafel bit her lower lip. Even if all the red was devoured, what would happen when the blue reached the black?