His words broke my heart. The tears I’ve been fighting off as hard as his relentless attacks pooled in my eyes. My tired hands shook as I reached out to his tortured face. His sweaty hair was a mess, he was covered in blood, and his eyes were glowing like a demon, but he was still so annoyingly bred-to-be handsome. All I wanted to do was soothe all the pain away. Heal all of his wounds and reassure his insecurities away until he never thought of them again.

But I couldn’t.

My hands touched on the cocoon barrier around me. I could easily push through it, but I didn’t. No matter how much I loved him, I couldn’t help him right now.

“If you put that crystal in me, I’ll die,” I tried to reason. It was the only thing I could think of right now, since I couldn’t break the barrier. Not with the sharp crystals pressing up below and behind. I glanced at the foot-long crystal spear in Kesstel’s hand, the one that he was trying to push through my barrier into my stomach. “If that goes in me, if I don’t die, I’ll turn into a monster. Then you’ll be all alone again.”

I hated using his insecurities against him, but I needed to do something for him to let up enough for me to move. I could already feel my mist shield start to slip. It wasn’t going to hold on much longer. I had to do something soon.

Kesstel shook his head wildly, like a vicious beast instead of the noble gentlemen he usually was. “No. You won’t die. I won’t let you. We’ll be Bosses together, concurring wherever we go. If you go insane, I can control you until your mind comes back. You’re strong enough, you won’t be out of control forever. Then I won’t be repelled by your magic anymore.” He pressed harder on the crystal, his arms shaking from the effort. It slipped another faction of an inch into the barrier. His bright eyes bore into mine, pleading. “Then I won’t be alone anymore, and you’ll never have to know how it feels to be lonely.”

Oh god. I thought my heart couldn’t hurt more. I was wrong. “You’re wrong, Kesstel,” I said slowly, as if a throbbing, painful hole wasn’t burning my brain from the crystal being pushing through my mist. “If that thing touches me, I’ll die. With the way my magic is, there’s no way I’d turn into a monster. I’ll instantly die. Then the parasite will win. You’re worked for so long to get revenge. Are you going to throw it away now?”

“No. No!” he insisted. “You won’t … I won’t …” He paused, as if confused, like a blind man desperately groping for a hand in the dark.

That pause was all I needed. I Merged into mist and lifted up to the top of the oval barrier. The instant my full attention was taken off the barrier, Kesstel broke through. The sharp, blue energy crystal stabbed forward with enough force to cause sparks to fly and the shard to break when it hit the larger crystals on the other side. Luckily, I was incorporeal enough that the stab went right through my body. There was still a burning sting that knocked a couple hundred HP out where the crystal touched the mist that was my body, but it was nothing compared to what turning into a monster would feel like.

I zoomed up until I wasn’t trapped anymore. If I could spread my mist out more, I could Warp to a safe place every time I was in a jam, but I couldn’t force out more than a ten-foot circle. The atmosphere in this awful place was too strong. If I put more effort into it, I might be able to force a wider radius, but concentrating on Kesstel was much more important from a staying alive perspective.

As a mist cloud just barely above the growing crystals, I turned and finally located the heart of the planet. As soon as I locked onto it, I rushed to it, leaving Kesstel in the crystals. I needed to get there, needed to destroy this parasite. For Kesstel, for my family, for Goddess, and for Earth.

A tidal wave of bright blue magic spilled through the crystals and rushed toward me from the side. Startled, I converged into a human and jumped back just in time to escape the attack. The magic attack crushed the crystals into each other and they exploded, shrapnel flying everywhere. My hand thrust out and created a barrier a split second before the fragments hit me. They thudded against the solid mist and fell to the depths below. Even with the barrier, the repercussions of the magical attack was enough to affect my HP.

“Well, did you find it enlightening?” Kesstel’s dead voice asked, the tone so bland for a man who was closing in on me like an arrow. The glow in Kesstel’s eyes had spread until it consumed his whole eyes again, indicating that the parasite was in control. He’d replaced the broken crystal with a new one, glowing and ready to stab me. Great.

My teeth gritted together, conflicted with no place to vent. I hated the parasite to a whole new level. It never occurred to me that I would fight against my loved ones. But I couldn’t hate Kesstel, just the being controlling his body. Since it was Kesstel’s body, I couldn’t take my hate out on him even though that was the current cause of my anguish. And breaking the crystals didn’t seem to make me feel better. Nor was it giving me any energy or EXP.

“Not that it matters anymore,” the parasite controlling Kesstel said before I could respond. “In the end, you and that weakling Goddess cowering inside you will return to me.” He swung his sword at me.

“Not weak,” I said and deflected his attack, trying to make his own inertia take him to the side. It worked, except he lashed out with the energy crystal, aiming at my side. I twisted, the crystal missing me by centimeters, and kicked his back to make him go past. “Just waiting,” I finished as Kesstel landed on a crystal ten feet away. Despite the casual way he was standing, I knew my kick hadn’t been a love tap. “Waiting for the right time to kill you, you disgusting parasite.”

I glared at him, acting like my body wasn’t on the verge of collapse. In my vision, my HP was flashing red and my MP was pretty low. I knew that Kesstel wasn’t that much better, but the parasite wouldn’t care about the state of the body it possessed. This fight was going on too long; at this point we both could die up here.

Throughout the whole fight, I’d been aware of the rip in space above the planet, been loosely noticing how it was getting bigger and how Earth on the other side was getting closer. I could only imagine how much damage Earth was taking while Kesstel and I fought.

The realization hurt my heart. Because I knew that I needed to end this fight. No matter how it ended.

All four of my kindjals came out. In a flash, I lunged at Kesstel, trying to beat some sense into him. If I didn’t stop him soon, I’d have to try and kill him.

“Kesstel, you have to wake up,” I half begged. “You’re strong enough to beat that monster out of your mind.”

My right kindjal slashed at his chest, always hatefully aiming for the left side. He blocked it with his sword. Quick as a flash, I lashed out with my left hand. He used the crystal shard to block that attack, but he didn’t have enough hands to stop the floating kindjal that flew by and caught him across his back.

His body shook in obvious pain, but the being that controlled it didn’t so much as grunt. The growing crystals exploded around us, trying to stab me. The sword that caught mine twisted, leaving a long cut all down my right arm before I could stop it.

I hissed in pain as another wound was added to the long list of injuries I sported at the moment. With no time to rest and recover. Still, I kept fighting, because my life depended on it. Neither of us stopped, our moves going so fast they’d be a blur to outside eyes. Every time my kindjal struck Kesstel’s glowing blue sword, a bright flash would spark off as the two magicks resisted each other.

With a flick of his wrist, Kesstel knocked the kindjal out of my almost numb right hand. I gasped, suddenly knocked off balance and vulnerable. A gasping yell was ripped from me as Kesstel’s sword sank into my unprotected right side in an explosion of searing pain. The blue magic that coated the sword instantly attacked my insides, trying to ruin my body from the inside out. I was in so much pain, my body froze.

A System message popped up in the corner of my graying vision, obviously an automatic command coded into the structure. [Your HP has dropped dangerously low. Please seek medical assistance immediately.]

JYN! Goddess screamed.

The growing crystals lunged at me, trying to take advantage of my situation to stab me too. The floating kindjals that I didn’t have control of at that moment reacted, spinning like a tornado around me and shattering anything that came near.

From the small space in the back of my mind where Goddess resided and hid her extra magic, a rush of power spread out. The power that Goddess had set aside to overpower and poison the parasite with. Its warm strength filled my body, soothing the mind-numbing pain. The kindjal still in my left hand lifted up, directing my whole arm with it, and prevented Kesstel’s crystal shard from stabbing my shoulder. Feeling started to come back to my body and mind, and I took over my weapons again.

That extra power was held back for a reason. I was grateful for Goddess using it on me, but if I used too much of it, how was Goddess going to kill the parasite?

Kesstel prepared to jerk the sword from my side. Instead, I grabbed his hand and kept it in place. When he jerked back, trying to loosen it, I lunged forward with his movement, keeping a death grip on his hand. He was caught off balance and fell back. At the same time, the two floating kindjals shot in from each side. I felt the air move as they brushed by both of my sides, all angling in. Kesstel was so distracted by my strange grappling moves, he didn’t notice.

Until the two kindjals stabbed both of his sides like they were shot by guns. I let go of his hand and pushed him with all my might at the same time. The combined force threw Kesstel backwards, ripping his sword painfully out of my body. His back smashed into a dense cluster of tall crystals and the kindjals stabbed right through his stomach and into the glowing blue energy crystals, effectively nailing him in place.

I followed after, a breath behind. The right kindjal appeared in my hand as I thrust it into his left side, right where the second energy crystal glowed.

Kesstel lifted his sword up, he was a half a step too slow to block me.

The misty blade sank into his side, gliding through the openings where I’d previously cut. Four inches in, there was a slight resistance as I hit the second energy crystal.

Kesstel’s eyes widened as his mouth gaped open in obvious agony.

The second energy crystal shattered and the kindjal stabbed the rest of the way through his body until it embedded itself into the crystal behind.

Kesstel slumped like a broken puppet, his barely open eyes glossy and blank.

*****