[Valerianne Yul]

As soon as I came to, I felt unbearable bliss as per usual ever since I had acquired a body-mate. I groaned in annoyance and started to fire healing spells at myself and at June who was basically draped over me, barely breathing. The spells were working far better than expected as my numerous injuries slowly repaired themselves. I looked around. After waking up nearly dead enough times it was probably a good idea to make sure there weren’t any immediate threats nearby. I was inside the mech. It was very dark, only a few of the interior rings were on now, flickering annoyingly. The cabin smelled of ozone and brimstone, there was smoke wafting in the air. What did I miss? Did Nox defeat Maggie with the explosive magic? We were shaping up to be the most murderous healer in existence at this rate.

“Status,” I murmured as soon as I felt like I could move and think again.

Valerianne Yul

[Race]: Human

[Level]: [5] Tolerable Weakling [Healer]

[Progression to next level]: 64%

Stats:

[Mana] : 7 [Void]

[HP] : 6/16

[Affinity] :

[Aura] : 100% White

“Oh damn, what did I just kill?” I slapped my forehead with my palm. “Heal!” and then my eyes lost their focus as my broken ribs rearranged themselves back into place subjecting me to throes of pleasure.

“Nox blew up the crystal mountain.” June mewled, sliding off me. “There were thousands of crystal creatures there. I had an ongoing Quest to murder enemies. I have a headache from that damn Quest complete sound and dismissing the thousands of notifications. Not to mention my annoyance at that condescending bitch congratulating me on becoming less worthless. I must have contributed by controlling the mech. I shot up to Level 37. I still can’t believe that I’m so high level.”

“Seriously? A whole mountain?! Like, completely?” I took a deep breath to calm myself, this wouldn’t be the most outrageous thing I heard today. Best not to get too worked up over it.

She nodded. “I’ve never seen anything so crazy. So many monsters on fire and melting. If hell exists it must be like that. Can’t see anything now though. Our windows are totally gone.” She pointed at the rusty, scratched up metal frames.

I got back on my feet, wobbling precariously as my body continued to heal, feeling somewhat like a glorified medkit that existed entirely for the shenanigans of a wildly destructive entity that was Nox.

The [Healer] option in my Status blinked. I already knew what it meant. Focusing on it gave me two new spells.

[Spell available] - [Antidote]

[Spell available] - [Sleep]

“Here we go, a solution to the Oggberry poisoning and something that should allow us to work together better,” I said, shooting the Antidote spell at myself. I followed that up with a quick Diagnosis, confirming that the poisoning was gone. A sense of relief cascaded through me as the hangover, and the pleasure I was feeling from it, vanished. Our vast streak of misfortune was over. We could start working towards… uhh... I wasn’t really sure what exactly we were trying to do.

Taking on the Sextant camp? Me? No thanks. What was I even thinking? There was a huge Sextant warship hovering over their camp. It would definitely obliterate us... if the mech was still functional. It didn’t look like it was. Sparks rained from the ceiling. Steam hissed from bent pipes.

My encounter with Maggie had terrified me beyond measure. Suffocating me to talk with Nox? Who does that? I processed what little the Queen of the crystals had told me and it brought me nothing but worry.

The dryads had rules and purpose. They wanted to grow trees, flowers and shrubs. River spirits wanted to keep their rivers clean. Maggie didn’t make any fucking sense. It seemed like she existed just to murder people. What the hell was her purpose even? How did she come to be? Why? Even the Void Goddess inside me wasn’t this dreadful and abhorrent!

Maggie was Nox magnified a million times. Nox with an army of crystal monsters and secret agents all over the world. How many creatures and people were under Maggie’s control? Did she even have a limit? What even prevented something like her from taking over everything? Were there others out there just as controlling if not worse, to balance out her immeasurable, pure evil? Was there even a point in me doing anything?

Despair overwhelmed me further. How could I fight, knowing what I did now? How could I ever win against God-like, eldritch progenitors like Maggie who had no rules, no weaknesses? Malice ruled the world, I was certain of it now. Evil and absolute power had won. Europa had fallen. How could I break free of control, when I was just a little puppet constantly strung along by ancient abominations? How many more progenitors were out there?

Thinking about all of this was making my head spin. Pleasure was dancing all over my insides as internal bleeding ceased here and there, distracting me immensely.

“A solution to what now?” June slowly inquired, clearly also struggling with existing as she healed. “Work together how?”

“I’ve got an antidote and a sleep spell. Want to hang out with Nox? I’m really not enjoying being awake while all of my insides are unnaturally rearranging themselves.” I shuddered as another bone slid back into place, ligaments returning back into position, wiggling like giant worms within me. But worst of all, was my brain telling me that I enjoyed it. I wanted to throw up. I needed to relax, needed to get away from the inescapable feeling of panic and freakishness.

“Okay, sure.” June nodded.

“Pass along a message for me, too. If she can manage it, I would like to wake up at least once without pleasure racking my broken body,” I pointed a hand at myself and cast sleep.

[-=Nox=-]

June was looking at me curiously. Both of our bodies were in the ongoing process of being repaired. Yul is a quality medkit! My solar plexus fused back together and I couldn’t stop myself from moaning. I take it back, Yul is a mediocre medkit. I’m a Goddess, damnit! I shouldn’t be making noises like that!

“June?” I looked at my foxkin.

“That’s my name, don’t wear it out. Nox, right?” June asked.

“Yes. I am Nox. How do you feel about me?” I asked with a pitch of trepidation. Why was I so concerned? Even if our [Pact] was broken she still aided me. Wait… what if she was aiding Yul? What if she didn’t care about me one bit? No. I wouldn't give up again. I would set the world on fire, if only to get my June back. As long as her body was… mostly intact, I had a chance to fix her shattered soul.

“I saw you blow up a mountain. That was pretty nuts.” She finally spoke.

“That doesn't answer my question.”

“You’re cool and real. As real as a ghost gets... I guess? I’m still kind of unnerved about how nice you guys smell. It’s unnaturally nice. I don’t trust either of you weirdos, yet.” She squinted at me.

“Not the best answer but I can work with this.” I miffed. “What’d I miss after I blew up Maggie?”

“Yul healed herself and me and learned an antidote and a sleep spell,” June said. “Who’s Maggie?”

“The avatar of this place. Moon Magraterra. Her avatar is a humanoid female made entirely from radioactive glass. She nearly killed Yul just so she could talk to me. She’s dangerously unhinged and wants to exterminate all organic life.”

“She wants to kill everyone? The fuck did we do to her?” June blinked.

“Hell if I know. She’s mental. She also thinks that she’s my daughter.”

“Is she?”

“Kind of.” I shrugged.

“You’ve got some whack family then.”

“I don’t even know what I have in regards to a family. I slept for six thousand years. Lots of my projects went outside of my control a long time ago. Really need to get around more.”

“Me too. Lost waaaay too many memories, it seems like.”

“You and me both, June,” I stretched my repaired limbs. I felt that the one mech arm still connected to me barely worked. The mech only had the tiniest bit of power left. I limped towards the door and pulled it open with the arm, emerging onto the desert outside. The door had ripped right off its hinges, as they had melted from the heat.

I climbed out, looking at the smoking crystal mountain. It was reforming and slowly moving towards us.

“Fucking hell.” I uttered. The mech didn’t have enough mana left to stop this primordial monstrosity. Would I even stop her if I destroyed this mountain? Nope. The crystal mountain, no... the moon had far too much HP. What was a moon to a memory of God trapped in a tiny human?

Maggie wasn’t giving up. A crystal girl formed in front of the mountain of glass, walking towards the smoldering sphere atop which I stood.

“You can’t leave me, mom! There’s literally nowhere for you to run on my surface! You can’t possibly hurt me with your tiny, laughable explosions. I’m far bigger than this puny mountain set. I can form, bring hundreds like it to the surface, if need be.”

I frowned a bit, knowing that she was right. There wasn’t much I could do to hurt an entire moon.

“Don’t worry! I know exactly what to do now! I’m going to torture that little fox of yours, slicing her apart millimeter by millimeter until you activate me!” Maggie smiled maliciously, the crystal mountain behind her advancing toward us. “Checkmate, mommy.”

I gulped.