[Valerianne Yul]

I woke up feeling absolutely horrid. Everything inside me felt broken, twisted, somehow screwed up. I guessed that falling from the sky into a river would do that. As I became more aware of my surroundings, I realized that I was holding onto the body of a foxkin girl.

It was June. She felt limp and cold in my arms. I suddenly noticed that the air itself was hot and dry, far hotter than I had ever felt on Europa. The sky was blindingly bright. I waited for my eyes to stop watering and looked up. I was in a cage filled with bodies. The cage stood on a stone platform and all around it was… an ocean of sparkling, white sand. This was not Europa. Fuck.

There was a weight on my neck and every girl in the cage was bearing the Sextant slave collar. Double fuck.

How did I even find June? I remembered hitting the water and then nothing.

Ah. Nox must have taken over my body when I lost consciousness… right.

"Quests." I whispered.

Quest:

Listen up human moron! If you hurt my June any further with your moronism, I will not hesitate to destroy everyone you love. I will not hesitate to make them suffer for a thousand lifetimes.

She means a lot to me, do you understand, you stupid human girl?!

Okay... that was a bit harsh, but I went to sleep in my warship next to my June, surrounded by my crew and found myself alone and underwater and I can only assume you somehow screwed everything up. Do I need to bind my arms and legs together for whenever you take over? How are you so bad at existing?

Seriously, your staggering incompetence is beyond my divine comprehension.

You're a healer, get to a higher level and for our sake learn how to cast sleep so that you give yourself a nap when you're in a situation too tough for a human idiot to handle.

Reward: 0 points.

Quest:

Do not let June freaking die!!!!!! Reward - Infinity points. Don't even fucking care what systems assigns this. Fuck you System for judging my June. June is priceless. Shit, she’s still not breathing. This isn’t good.

Reward: 0 points

Quest:

Please, don't tell June that I care about her if I manage to bring her back. This is really embarrassing.

Reward: 0 points.

Quest:

Pls June. Don't die on me. I'm so tired and I killed so many Sextants. More than one eighty seven Sextants. What am I even doing?

Wait. Ignore this Quest, I was going to send it to June but I messed up.

Reward: 0 points.

The Quests went on like this for a while bouncing between threats, demands and polite requests, descending into incomprehensible, unreadable gibberish.

I gulped as I read them. Holy shit! Nox actually cared for someone. Not in a good way though. She sounded unhinged, nearly psychotic. Freaking great.

A Sextant chavalier knocked on the cage, unlocking the door. "Wakey wakey. Those of you who were lucky enough to survive the journey, congratulations! Up and out, line up for me!"

One by one the girls stood up, forced by the collar command, emerging out of the cage. I lagged behind, as I realized that I didn't actually feel the compulsion to obey. How the hell did Nox break the slave collar?

I reached for June and then her eyes snapped open. They weren’t yellow anymore. They were... purple.

“I’m going to murder you.” She growled.

I gulped. She was mad that I threw her overboard.

The Sextant chavalier spared us a glance. All of the girls were looking quite broken and confused. June simply stared me down as if I was a mere insect. I joined the line, standing next to June. She looked… different. She was inexplicably taller, curvier and looked far more imposing. She didn’t look broken or depressed like the rest of the crowd.

“Do you know why you deserve to die?” She asked me with a sneer.

"I'm sorry that I made you fall overboard," I spoke, lowering my head. "I just wanted to try to delay the Sextant invasion."

"...and did you delay the Sextant invasion?" She parroted me. She didn't sound like June. She sounded like a grouchier version of me.

"No." I sighed.

"What a cretin," she said. "Way to lose my ship for no logical reason. Is there something wrong with you? Why are you so stupid? No, calling you stupid is an insult to stupid people. There's no human word strong enough to express exactly how dumb you are!"

I frowned at her. "Sorry about the ship."

"I don't give a shit about the ship!" June growled.

"So then… Why are you so angry?" I asked.

"Why?! Because your moronism killed June, you sick, incompetent, human bastard! It’s your fault that she’s dead!”

“Wait, what?” I blinked. “But… hang on… if June is dead then who are…?”

Was this a different foxkin or something? June’s older sister maybe?

“I’m Nox, you infernal imbecile!” The foxkin growled, her teeth glinting with absolute malice.

“But… you were inside of me… I thought that I was your domain! How?”

“What? You're not my domain, you dunderhead! I'm a God! I can go wherever I please in my Apostles!"

"Oh." I said.

"I moved into June’s body, because I was trying to fix her. I failed. She died.”

“So you are inhabiting a dead body…?”

“No… I did bring her back to life, rebuilt her failing organs... but I was far too late. She’s experienced severe brain damage. A lot of her mental pattern is gone. The temporal lobe is fried. I’m still working on reconnecting what’s left of her.”

“Oh. I’m sorry.” I whispered, feeling quite bad. It was my fault that June fell from the ship.

“Oh... you’ll be extra sorry when I kill you.” She hissed.

“Welcome to the continent Magra!” The Sextant chavalier announced as all of the slaves finally formed into a line in front of him. “Consider yourself lucky - you have been chosen to join our essential labour of dungeon-clearing division.”

“Magraterra…?” Nox muttered. “Damn it! Of all the places? Fucking hell.”

“Do you know something?” I whispered.

“This is a moon I created six and a half thousand years ago for weapons testing. This place is extremely inhospitable and radioactive. You see that glassy sand? I wouldn't lick it. Although, I suppose it’s been six thousand years so it might be okay...” She mused. “Either way there’s probably a lot of very dangerous shit here.”

I gulped again. The Sextant chavalier started to separate people into groups of two and three.

“Please don’t kill me.” I whispered. “It wasn’t my fault you’ve lost everything. It was the Oggberry wine you drank earlier. It’s a dryad-made luck-potion. It provides the user with amazing luck and charisma and causes incredible misfortune after. It would not have mattered what I did or didn't do. Grave misfortune would have befallen us regardless."

“Hrrm.” Nox squinted at me. “The dryads? That dumb forest bitch didn’t even recognize me.”

“I’m telling you, the dryads are to blame for everything! They designed me to host you. Dryad Lyrria was testing you!”

The chavalier reached us. “You two look quite spry.” He commented. “Looks like you’re able to bear the heat. I’m assigning you to mech 17.”

“A what?” I asked.

“A magitek walking machine. The wildlife around these parts is... nasty. You’ll be on extermination duties.” He pointed at something in the distance. I squinted. A freakish, huge, somewhat squished, oversized armor composed from rusted iron spheres and pipes stood there, its feet sunk deep in the white sand.

“It’s relatively easy to use. Foxy will be the gunner and you’ll be the walker. Board the mech and put on the control rings on your limbs. It’s not hard. Get going.”

Nox glared at the man, but could do nothing but start walking towards the mech. I followed.

“Damnable control collar.” Nox hissed as I walked behind her, my feet burning as they sunk into the hot, white sand.

“I didn’t ask for this! The Dryads tricked me, directed me, shoved me into the Void dungeon where you slept. They wanted us… you to destroy the Convent of the Light, to break the dominion of Virtue over Europa.” I said.

“I don’t care! My only friend in this shitty world is dead.” She snapped.

“This isn’t my fault, damn it!” I replied. Why was I even apologizing to her? It was hard to stop seeing her as June. She wasn’t June. This was Nox. An egomaniac monster, a spirit of the Void wearing foxkin flesh. Just because she liked June for some reason didn’t unmake the evil she had done. “You were the one to destroy the Convent of the Light! What the hell did you think was going to happen?! The Convent powered the Judgement Dome, protecting the mainland of Europa! It’s your fault that June’s dead, not mine!”

“What?” She glared at me.

“This is all your own fault!” I yelled. “You poisoned my body with Oggberry wine by drinking an entire bottle like a clueless nitwit! For an immortal spirit you sure are unwise!”

Nox’s purple-eye glare intensified.

“I simply channeled the incredible disadvantage of the bad luck curse into something that was already doomed to fail, thus actually reducing the negative effect of the wine. I couldn't even rescue a single person or help a single soul in Kleinburg. I was doomed, set up to fail, all because of your actions. Had I tried to fly away - all the crewmembers on the ship would undoubtedly be dead and the ship would be destroyed. I simply failed to stop the invasion armada. Nicodemus and Tamara who volunteered to come with me got fried to ashes by the Sextant archmage. If June was on the ship with me - she would have gotten utterly vaporised too! If anything I’ve helped her to stay alive longer by throwing her off the ship. I’m not a bad person and I’m not an idiot. I made the best choice possible,” I tried to explain myself to her.

“Go fuck yourself, Yul.” She growled.

As first meetings and conversations went, this one could have gone better but then again I was probably still cursed… how much worse could things really get?