It burns.

The unleashed wave of power rages through him. The inky blackness stains his mind like a curse. His life is ephemeral compared to the surrounding eternity.

It’s not there.

She’s not there.

Who’s She?

His vision is painted black. How is he able to perceive?

His torso — what happened to it? Melted down? Probably.

He does not feel. He does not see. He does not hear. All he does is say—

“In—a—nn—a—”

He’s trapped. A plague of insects is trying to devour him all at once. Or is it the heat?

He recalls the Ghol. Or was it the bat? It seems like something from another life.

⸻⸺It burns.

The heat melts his mind. The power is great. Slow. Fast. Terrible. Impossible. The tide crashes against him, shattering him.

Yet he reforms.

He’s remade.

He’s destroyed.

Remade.

Destroyed.

The cycle continues forever.

⸻It’s burning.

⸻It’s burning.

⸻It’s burning so much that he might just ⸻

⸻ “You cannot die, mortal. If you do, you’ll break your word.” ⸻

It’s ⸻

He remembers the voice. Does he?

Yes, he does. But then, why can’t he remember her name?

Her?

He knows it. He knows it. HeKnowsItHeKnowsItHeKnowsIt⸻

If he can remember the name, everything will be fine. Everything will be fine. Everything will be ⸻

But he doesn’t. He cannot recall her name. But he has to do it. He has to.

⸻ “Be the Invader,”⸻

He has to call her. Else she will disappear. He knows this, and he wants her to stay from the bottom of his heart, for she is ⸻

⸻ “Be the Conqueror,”⸻

He needs to reach her. He can’t reach her.

He hears her voice. But she is going far.

He can’t see her. He wants to see nothing else.

He can—

Light.

He can see the Light.

She is disappearing into it.

⸻ “Be the Tyrant, and don’t forget, you made a promise,”⸻

A promise.

He raises his hand. It touches empty air.

There is nothing left in him. There is more energy than he can use in a hundred lifetimes.

The dichotomy is tearing his reality. Mortal, yet divine. Fragmented yet whole. Human, yet Anomaly. He’s — he is changing.

Changing. Becoming. More.

He has knowledge that isn’t his.

He has memories that aren’t his.

He has skills that aren’t his.

“I ⸻”

His heart burns, but the pain does not lessen. He stands, his body scorching in his light, created and destroyed in every fraction of every second.

He takes a step forward.

The power slams into him.

Another step.

Then another.

And another.

The light — he has to reach it.

His hand stretches out and he yells—

“INA⸻”

…

…

…

“NNAAAAA⸻”

Lukas thrashed himself awake, screaming a scratchy, hollow scream that made little more noise than a whimper. Breathing hurt, yet all he could do was sob.

He lay there, naked, undone, his right fist stretched upwards, trying to grab the emptiness above him. Breathing came first, and he forced himself to control it, to stop the racking sobs, and to draw in slow, steady breaths. Next came the terror. The pain. The realization of what had happened. What he had lost. He craved to crawl into a hole and pull it after him. He wanted to be not.

But he wasn’t. He hurt too much. He was painfully, acutely, very much alive.

He was lying on the fabric. Soft fabric.

He was in bed.

Wait.

How did he get on the bed? When was it he had slept…? He couldn’t remember. He couldn’t even recall where he was sleeping, or the last time he ate either.

His throat was tight and burning, as if someone had made him swallow an entire mug of boiling coffee, legs like someone had switched them for dense lead bricks. He had the same arms, but less of them. He twisted his belly as if he had been working out for a long time.

It was almost a surprise he hadn’t started crying again. But he just didn’t want to die. Or find himself back in that darkness.

“Ah,” came a familiar voice, “You’re awake.”

He lifted an arm and rubbed his coarse, gummy eyes. Something was odd. Like there should have been a baby elephant sitting on his chest but wasn’t.

Weird.

Lukas opened his eyes.

He pushed himself up and glanced around the room. It was… large and empty. Light pink seemed like the default color scheme. Pink curtains, pink rug, pink furniture, even the beds, and lights. The bed he was in was big enough to fit four people. King’s size? Queen? He didn’t know. A second bed lay next to his, with neatly arranged pillows and covers. A large ornate mirror hung on the opposite wall, next to an equally ostentatious dressing table and a lavish wardrobe.

This was a girl’s room.

No, a girl’s bedroom.

“Do you like it?”

Language Identified — Ualbesh

Replicating…

Lukas blinked and turned towards the source of the sound.

It was a girl. Beautiful. Close to his own age, yet one of the lovelier women he had laid eyes on. High cheekbones that gave her an aristocratic look, with exotic, almond-shaped blue eyes. Silvery blonde hair pulled back into a single ponytail, and she wore a boy’s shirt.

He recognized her.

“You…” Lukas croaked, his voice rough and hardly human-like, “You’re—”

“Tanya,” she said, pointing a single digit at herself. “And you are…?”

“Lukas,” he automatically responded. Tanya. He remembered the name. Tanya. Blonde. Frost. White. Tanya. Promise. Tanya. Asukan. Wind —

“I remember you. You—” Lukas broke into a coughing fit. “You — you tried to murder me.”

The blonde sported an amused smile. “Yes. You tried to murder me, too.”

“You — you tried to kill —”

“Yes, yes,” she nonchalantly waved it off as she sat down on his bed. “We’ve tried to kill each other multiple times in the past, but we’ve also fought together to destroy the anomaly.”

Anomaly?

Crypt of Fiendish Worms

Now he remembered.

“You—” he tried speaking again, but the word was too much. Lukas fell into another coughing fit.

She laughed and stood up to fetch a cup of water. “You do this every time. Drink something first to wet your throat,” she said, pushing it towards his trembling lips. “Speaking will be easier.”

He supported it with his shaky hands and drank from the cup.

— Don’t overexert yourself, mortal —

The cup slipped from his grips.

“Shit!” Tanya exclaimed, waving her hand to lift the water off him.

Lukas didn’t care. For that voice — was she — was she?

Inanna?

He called out into the void that was his mind.

Inanna?

Nothing responded. No quip. No condescending response. Nothing. Only cold, brazen emptiness.

“Any better?”

He slowly nodded. “I remember you.”

“That’s what you’ve been telling me every morning for the past two weeks.”

“No,” he groaned. There was a growing headache around the corner. “No, I mean I remember you. You’re Tanya.”

She smiled. “Yes, I introduced myself. Just now.”

“No, no,” He swayed his head. “I recognize you.”

“And that’s what you’ve been telling me for the last four days.”

Lukas shook his head and gulped some more water.

“Do you remember what happened to you?”

A frown rose to his lips. “I did something to the Anomaly. I think I was dead? I was—”

“What else do you remember?” Tanya asked, curiosity clear in her voice.

“Empty. I recall feeling… hollow.”

⸻I will find you ⸻

His last words. To Inanna. A big promise, but ultimately meaningless. She was gone. He had lost her. Their once chance to get things right had failed spectacularly. He was alone in this alien world. His all-knowing, all-powerful goddess was gone.

⸻No matter the consequences ⸻

Lukas gave a pain-filled groan as he grabbed at the sides of his head. It brought him a momentary respite against the sense of acute loss drowning him.

“Guess you’re still healing,” she sighed. “Lie down for now.”

He complied. Easily.

“Where am I?”

“You’re at Zuken’s mansion. Well, one of them anyway. It’s difficult to tell with that guy,” she answered with the slightest bit of exasperation in her voice, taking the cup from his hands and placing it on the dresser. “We thought you were dead and suddenly, after a month, you breathe.”

A month. He was dead for a month? Why did that sound so familiar?

Instinctively, his fingers found their way to the pendant.

“Ah, that thing,” Tanya gave it an intrigued look. “I don’t think I noticed it on you when we first met.”

An ice cold shiver ran down his spine.

“...you can see it?”

Tanya arched an eyebrow. “Was I not supposed to?”

Damnit. Damnit. Damnit. The shiver went down his throat, spreading through his chest, and made his heart quiver. Tanya could see the pendant. As could the others. That meant the Veil of Ignorance was no longer there. Inanna had cast that spell, and with her gone, it had faded. How long before the translation stopped?

“...kas?”

What would happen to him? Without the ability to speak or understand this world’s languages, he’d be stuck.

“..ring me?”

They had his body for an entire month. Inanna was gone, and now—

“LUKAS?”

Her raised voice halted his inner panic. “... Yeah?”

“You have this, I don’t know, this strange, angry look on your face.”

He schooled his features quickly. “Sorry. It seems the spell on it faded when I was, you know, unconscious.”

“That doesn’t surprise me,” she replied. “There are some serious enchantments on it. We tried everything we could, but it wouldn’t come off. Olfric burnt his hand, trying to remove it from you. We stopped trying after that.”

Anger surged through him like a hungry tide, as if the very notion of someone ‘touching’ the pendant was a sin worthy of a gruesome death from his perspective.

“Uh—” Tanya pushed herself back, if only by a bit.

Lukas’s lips twitched. Obviously, his expressions had given away his innermost thoughts. Wordlessly, he composed his expression. Hastiness would not get him anywhere. Inanna had used her divine powers to dominate Tanya back then. If nothing else, that was one card he had in his favor. There was no point in making a mess of things with Tanya.

Inhale, he told himself. Inhale and Exhale.

Inhale and Exhale.

Slowly, he moved his right hand and rubbed his thumb across the surface of the pendant. The familiar azure sheen had faded, now replaced by a dull blue. And yet, the translation spell was active. How else would he be able to understand what Tanya was saying?

But for how long?

He met Tanya’s eyes. “I’m… recalling more. You fed me every morning with… soup, I think.”

Tanya’s eyes sparkled like diamonds. “Well, that’s a first. Perhaps you are regaining your focus.” She hesitated. “Tell me, Lukas Aguilar, where are you from?”

“What?” he challenged. “You don’t know?”

Tanya smiled but remained silent.

“From Earth.”

“And that is a different world?”

“Yes.” He paused. “At least, I think it is. It looks a lot similar to here, but there are some differences.”

Differences like how people on Earth didn’t have Potential. Or Screens. Or monsters roaming around — unless you lived in Australia, from what he’d heard.

“What did you ‌do back there?”

“I was a student. Of the law.”

“Are you here to kill me?”

Lukas stared at her.

“Are you here to kill me?” She repeated.

“No. No, I’m not.”

“What was the spell you cast back in the anomaly?”

He looked away. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Why not?”

“Because I don’t.”

The words that left his lips sounded way sharper than they did in his head. He saw a certain stiffness come into Tanya’s posture. After several tense seconds, she spoke again.

“Ugh, fine. For the record, we brought you back with us to Haviskali.”

Haviskali? Llaisy Kingdom. His mind supplied. Haviskali was the town existing on the western end of the Llaisy Kingdom, bordering the Desert of Namzuuhuu. A town in a different world. People that looked like humans but weren’t. Where magic existed, as did monsters and gods. He had wondered what he’d try to make of himself in this world, apart from gaining strength and trying to figure a way to fulfill his bargain with Inanna. Did this world have practicing lawyers too?

So many questions. It was finally time to get all those answers. He should have been all hyped up.

Instead, he just felt cold.

Tanya rose from the bed. “I should let the others know that you’ve woken up and remembered.” She flashed him a bright grin. “Are you hungry? I can—”

“Leave me alone.” The words left his mouth without consulting with the rest of him. He tried to do damage-control, but found Tanya staring at him, stiff like a statue, with absolutely nothing on her face.

“I mean, I have a lot to process. Why don’t you give me some time before bringing the others?”

Tanya folded her hands in her lap and pursed her lips. It was a completely calm and lovely expression, but Lukas had the sudden instinct that she was concealing unease. It reminded him of their first interaction back in the Crypt.

“Did something bad happen back there?”

He knew about what she was talking about.

“Yes.”

“You look like someone that’s lost, someone precious.”

Lukas lowered his eyes. “I did.”

Tanya stiffened. “I thought—” She paused, as if reconsidering her words gravely, “I thought you were all alone here, and there was always a chance that you’d—”

“Have to stay, yes,” Lukas replied. “I didn’t plan on things ending like that.”

“And who’s she?”

Lukas stiffened and stared up at Tanya, unblinking. “What?”

“I said who’s she?” Tanya clarified, “The person you lost.”

“I never said it’s a woman.”

“You did actually,” she replied, the hard lines on her otherwise smooth face slowly easing, “Over the last week, you’ve been constantly murmuring about ‘finding her’ and ‘getting her back.’ Also, something about ‘promises’ and ‘bargains’. I thought you were dreaming about our deal, but I guess I now know better.”

Lukas ‌carefully did not move or answer.

“So who’s she?” Tanya tried again. “Must be someone pretty close to incite such a reaction from you.”

She sounded jealous. Almost.

There was another moment of stillness, before she spoke in a bare whisper, “I know how it is to lose someone precious to you, too. So if you want to stay alone for a bit, I understand.”

She stood a little straighter. “I’ll get you something to eat. You must be hungry.” She turned around and started walking towards the exit. She had barely crossed the threshold when Lukas surprised himself by speaking out.

“Do you know anything about resurrecting gods?”

He met her eyes in time to see a growing wariness returning to her features. She didn’t move for several heartbeats. Finally, a false smile appeared on her face, and her shoulders tensed.

“... Excuse me?”

His brain started gibbering and running in circles as he struggled to think of an appropriate response. It was reckless and stupid of him to say that aloud.

“...Lukas?”

“...sorry,” He looked away, “It’s nothing. Forget it.”

Tanya didn’t buy it for a moment, but consented, anyway. “Sure. I’ll inform the kitchens you need your meals.”

Translation — She was going to go inform Zuken about his latest slip-up.

Lukas returned a tentative smile. “... Sure.”

He needed to get up. Nothing would come out of sitting and moping around. He had to get Inanna back. Preferably before his ‘provisional’ allies acted against him, or worse, come after him like Solana and her ilk probably would.

Tanya spun around and walked towards the door, closing it behind her. He heard her footsteps slowly vanish. This was time for action.

One.

Two.

Three.

Lukas threw the covers off him and jumped off the bed —

— And promptly hit the ground face-first. Pain invaded his entire skull, reverberating with the power of a hundred hammers.

“Oww!”

“Oh,” came Tanya’s voice from the doorway, utterly amused, “I forgot to mention. You also attempt that every morning, and end up on the floor.”

His face burning in a mix of shame and embarrassment, Lukas turned over and rested on his back, spotting the strange heavy presence on his legs, no doubt placed there to wound his pride.

Gods. He hated himself sometimes.

Tanya laughed with a lot of bellies in it. His deepening scowl only increased her amusement.

“Sorry, sorry, it’s incredibly hilarious. You try that every single day. I thought today might be different.”

A growl escaped his throat. “What is that on my—”

He paused and stared at the offending piece of garment on his legs. It looked like a band, dark-gray‌, and placed right above his ankles, covering his knees. There was something incredibly familiar about it. Cautiously, Lukas forced himself up and touched the bands with his arms and—

Snap!

The band blurred into motion and literally jumped off him, condensing and contorting into dozens of metallic tendrils, frothing as it took shape. It shot up into the air, contorting itself mid-flight, into a strange blob-like figure. Its outer metallic surface shone malevolently as two shiny tendrils rose, ready to pierce him at the slightest display of hostility.

Lukas pushed himself back, fascinated and alarmed, ‌watching the still-morphing blob swaying back and forth in the air, before dropping to the floor in a loud splat. A slime? Not that slimes were weak or anything. Given their ability to shape-shift and monstrous strength, they were ‌frankly nightmarish to face in combat.

But this wasn’t like the ones he’d encountered. This wasn’t a humanoid monster of a worm.

It was a blob.

A metallic, shiny, blob.

He tried to extend his finger.

“No, don’t,” Tanya began, but it was too late.

The blob had shifted again. But instead of positioning itself to strike, it rolled onto its back almost… lazily? Tiny tentacles wiggled out of its end, and Lukas scrambled backward, fearing retaliation.

It never came. Instead, a mouth tore itself open across its blob-face. And with nothing short of utter malevolence, it opened its newly created maw, a lazy, dark tongue slithering out and sweeping across the floor, and spoke its first words.

“MEOOOOOW?”