His face was tight as blood dripped down the crystal, staining it black. The crystal was barely wider than my kindjal. It didn’t look like a killing move — and nowhere near the magnitude of when he was stabbed by the Scorpionman — but it still must have hurt.

“Kesstel!” I gasped. It was shocking to see him so blatantly injured, never mind being stabbed in the stomach twice in one day. It was a testament to the difficulty of the opponents we were facing. And the likelihood of not being able to walk away from it.

I swung my kindjal and broke the crystal stabbing into Kesstel. Small pieces fell from the broken edge and shattered against larger crystals that continued to reach for us. With a swing of my arms, the two swords in my hands and the two floating swords broke all the crystals around us.

Kesstel grunted and gripped the stub of crystal that was sticking out of his stomach. His eyes narrowed as he pulled the sharp shard out of his body. With a look of disgust, he threw the blackened piece away. He didn’t even watch as it shattered in pieces ten feet away.

“Are you okay?” I asked. I only had time to spare a quick glance at him before I had to focus on the assaulting crystals. They never seemed to stop. Then again, I was on the body of a parasitic planet that could control monsters. Why wouldn’t it want to kill me?

“I’m okay,” Kesstel said, though his face was still wrinkled in annoyance. “If only these were monsters.” He glared at the crystals. “Then I’d actually be helpful.” He glanced at me. “Let’s get this over with.”

I nodded. With him following behind, I cut through the crystals and raced toward the heart of the planet again.

Angle to the right, Goddess suggested. You’re off course.

I immediately followed her instructions. You can tell which way to go?

With the crystals growing higher and higher, and them being all the same color and mostly the same shape, I was starting to second guess the direction I needed to go. I had a faint feeling, like one direction was more dangerous than the other. An instinct that I shouldn’t go that way — so of course that was the way I was going. The most dangerous place, the heart of the parasitic planet, that’s where I wanted to go. Only that feeling was vague enough with all the action going on around me, it was hard to focus on it and go in the right direction.

Yes, Goddess said.

Guide me, I said and swung my swords. The crystals around me shattered in thousands of pieces in a dangerous, yet dazzling, display as the light from inside the planet reflected off the millions of surfaces, causing them to flash bright blue lights. The small shards bounced off the barrier that I put up around me and Kesstel. It didn’t do squat for the stabbing crystals, but it kept the pieces that I broke away. I didn’t want to risk getting an energy crystal in me. Even a tiny sliver could be dangerous.

While we ran, I kept an eye on Kesstel. In theory, being stabbed by an energy crystal shouldn’t affect him. He was already a monster, so he couldn’t change into one again. Still, the fact that his wound was leaking black blood was concerning. Kesstel’s healing ability was normally really good.

“We’re almost there.” Fatigue from constantly breaking the crystals was starting to wear into my voice, making my words breathy.

After we get to the heart crystals, I just need to stab the kindjal in them. From there, Goddess can take over. I didn’t know what was going to happen after, but for now I was just going to focus on what I did know. I needed to get the heart of the parasitic planet.

Behind! Goddess yelled at the same time I felt the attack aiming at my back.

I twisted around, my kindjals automatically reaching out to block the attack.

Sparks flew as blue and silver patterned steel smashed into the misty crystal blade. My arms shook from the force of the attack, but that wasn’t the thing that blew my mind.

“Kesstel?” I whispered in shock, eyes wide.

As much my mind instantly rejected the idea, it didn’t change the fact that what I was seeing was real. The pressure that tried to overpower me against my blades was real. It really was Kesstel that attacked me. But … not a Kesstel I knew.

His handsome face was blank. Not the normal, apathetic stone face that he shows to everyone else, but truly blank. As if there wasn’t anything in his mind. His arms shook, like mine, as he gripped his sword with both hands and pressed against me. From the angle, if I hadn’t blocked him, he would have cut my head off. His irises were glowing neon blue, bright enough to put the glow from the planet to shame.

But what surprised and horrified me the most was the second glowing spot on his left torso, right under the original glow of his energy crystal. There was a second energy crystal inside him.

“Kesstel!” I yelled, trying to get him to react to me. Goddess’s power stored in my body had always been able to wake him before. It should work now, right?

I was wrong. His only reaction was to break the hold I had on his sword and attack again. He slashed at me with deadly intensity at the same time several crystals stabbed at me. Instinct took over my body. The floating kindjals broke the crystals as my right blade directed his blade to the side. My left blade flicked out at him, counterattacking.

The crystal blade cut through his breastplate like butter, slashing diagonally across his chest. Black blood gushed out of the long, shallow cut and spattered on the blue crystals growing around us. From the gap in his breastplate, I could see the edges of his skin around the cut start to turn black. Just like the Red Orcs. That had never happened before.

I froze, shocked all over again. My chest squeezed painfully, until my lungs burned for air and my heart ached. Oh my god, I cut Kesstel. Badly. In all the time I’ve been with him, I’d never hurt him before. I didn’t mean to. I really didn’t. It was just a reflex I developed when fighting something that wanted to kill me.

“Kesstel!” I gasped. “Wake up!”

The second energy crystal. Is that why he was acting this way? If I took it out, would he go back to normal? I glanced at it. It was so close to his original crystal. Would I be able to take it out without affecting his other one? He was so much stronger than me, could I take it out while he was trying to kill me?

The light in his eyes flashed bright, then the glowing blue light spread from his irises until his whole eyes glowed blue. Just like Bosses that the parasite took over. Kesstel’s face was still blank, but a sneer pulled across his lips.

“I told you.” Kesstel’s familiar voice was flat and cold, unlike I’d ever heard before. If I hadn’t watched his lips move, I wouldn’t have believed it was Kesstel talking. “I created him. I can have him back whenever I want.”

Moving too fast for the normal eyes to see, he moved from in front of me and attacked at my side. I blocked his attack, but as soon as I moved to counterattack, I hesitated. I … couldn’t bring myself to make Kesstel bleed like that again. It didn’t show on his face, but I knew it hurt. I watched his HP drop from the strike.

My fraction of a second hesitation was just long enough for Kesstel to sweep out his leg between the two kindjals that floated around me. His foot caught me squarely in the stomach. Hard.

Nauseous pain vibrated from my core down my legs to my toes and up to the roots of my hair. I grunted and fell back five feet. Just before I hit the sharp crystals that stabbed at me, I Merged into the mist around me and reappeared over Kesstel’s head. The moving crystals were slower now. Probably because the planet’s consciousness had shifted. It made it easier for me now that they were slower, but I absolutely hated the reason why.

It was hard to tell which one hurt more, my stomach or my heart. Either way, I glared down at him as I Floated ten feet above. “Get out of Kesstel’s body!”

He cocked his head to the side, making Kesstel’s white-blond bangs fall into his face. “I don’t actually enjoy being crammed inside such a small body. It’s very restricting. And being forced to use a verbal language is too limited. All the more reason why you should bow down and accept your place in the food chain.” He rotated his weapon's shoulder as if he was testing out the limbs. “Now that you ruined my last chosen body, I need a new one.” He leveled me with a dead look, a mean smile on his face. “Might as well use the body that would cause the most damage.”

My eyes widened. Since we killed the Scorpionman, the parasitic planet purposefully targeted Kesstel? My teeth ground together painfully. “Get out!”

He laughed in my face. “Although annoyingly tiny, this body has more power than the last one. And—” He lifted Kesstel’s sword. Blue magic flared from his hand and spread up until the whole blade was encased in it. “Its advantages at the moment are amazing. He’s going to feel every pain you inflict on him. So, Warrior of Mist, what are you going to do?”

He swung his sword, the magic on it like a blue blur. I dodged out of the way. On and on, he chased me as I jumped, slipped and twisted out of the way. My four blades did a lot of damage to the sharp crystals around me as I moved through them, but not once did I attack Kesstel.

I just … couldn’t.

I couldn’t hurt him. Not again. If I could get to the heart of the planet, I wouldn’t have to. I could stab Her Will into the heart, and then hopefully the parasite would become injured enough to let go of Kesstel.

You’re getting farther away from the heart, Goddess warned.

I already knew that. The possessed Kesstel had put himself between me and the heart. I was fast enough to keep from getting hurt, but all the while he was driving me away.

Jyn, you have to do something. You can’t just dodge. You have to attack back. Force your way through, Goddess urged.

The blue magic flashed as it swung past my shoulder, so close that I felt the afterburn of the magic. I winced and sidestepped another attack. I won’t hurt him, I argued back. Kesstel was my partner, my … my most important person. He didn’t want to hurt me. It was only because of the second energy crystal that he was acting like this.

You have to do something, Goddess reasoned. We’re so close, you can’t give up now. Earth will collapse if you do. Your family will die or turn into monsters. The more energy you burn on fighting him, the less I’ll have to deal with the parasite. It’s true that I’ve kept some power in reserve, but that’s because I absolutely need it. If you use it to fight the Kartharian, I might be powerless to kill the parasite.

Kesstel swung his sword and sent a tidal wave of magic at me. Desperately, I Warped out of the way. I wasn’t able to go far. The atmosphere here rejected my mist, so I wasn’t able to create a large pool to move freely in. I dodged the attack, but the mist that was in the way disappeared, making my cloud that much smaller.

I understand what this man means to you, Goddess said. But there’s never been a monster with two energy crystals before. It’s possible that his consciousness is already gone and the parasite is just moving his empty shell.