Res stared at Adrian for several seconds, who tried his best to look the other way. Finally, Res pushed himself over the net and pulled him into a bear-hug. “Adrian, I thought you would never come around.”

Adrian reddened and mumbled: “It wasn’t because of you, I only felt like it.”

The announcer strolled over and said while slyly looking at his fingernails. “Technically, you won Res, so I cannot give Adrian anything.”

Adrian whirled around to him and pointed an accusing finger at him: “You knew that, you liar!”

Jason chimed in: “Bro, you are a fucking actor mid-way in the film. You can tell the director to fuck himself and do what you want else you are not going to do your job.”

Res gave a mental nod to Jason and said out loud: “Both of us won. You may think me ignorant, but I can say lots of fancy swearwords. Imagine me saying ‘Cunt, Wanker, Motherfucker’ every ten seconds.”

The Gamemaster flinched at that. “Ohhh, that would be unfortunate. Fine, you can have your compass charge, but that is the only time I am making an exception.”

Before Adrian could recover from his shock, Res gave Adrian another hug as if they were best buddies. “Look, I told you everything will be all right.”

Adrian looked shell-shocked by all the body contact, which was exactly what Res had intended. Now, he could finally … Jason pushed him violently to the side. Res already wanted to curse at him when he heard an affronted cry. When he turned, he saw Xenia lying on the ground where he had stood a moment ago.

“Bro, thank me later.”

Yet, Res could feel Xenia’s physical and mental pain. When his eyes locked on her barely covered up form lying hurt on the floor, he nearly pushed himself towards her to help her up. Xenia realized the effect this had on him and writhed on the floor. A deep part of his mind added: “Hey, that would be too much trouble.”

Looking at Xenia through that lens turned her into somewhat of a nuisance. He dodged Xenia without sparing a glance at her appearance and pushed himself to the other side of the clearing. He needed some time to think and cultivate. Sinking back into aether sight calmed his roiling emotions and pulled in aether. During his cultivation, he had put up a short-term goal – Make things right with Serafina.

When his extremities were restored, he pushed himself into the air. The time to cultivate had cleared up his head. He couldn’t leave Serafina alone for all the bad he had done, but he also couldn’t marry her. If he didn’t make that clear now, there would be a lot of hurt later. He spotted Serafina watching him from behind the Gamemaster’s tent. With a determined gaze, he pushed himself towards her. Before he had even touched down, Serafina was already clinging to him. He had to harden his skin as not to be crushed by her new strength.

He felt wetness on his chest and Serafina sobbed out: “Tell me truthfully, how difficult is it for you to deny her?”

Res chuckled softly. “Nearly impossible.”

She wept even harder, but Res stroked her beautiful brown hair. “Serafina, I have to tell you something. I don’t ...”

Jason usually savored every moment with the ghost, the feral girl in Serafina’s sword. This time Jason surfaced from their dream world.

“Bro, can you please touch Serafina’s sword? I need to clear some stuff up with Layana.”

Res gave Jason a mental nod and met her gaze. “Can I touch your sword? My ghost has fallen in love with the ghost in the sword and they want to talk or something.”

Serafina looked at him strangely but pulled her sword out of her sheath. Jason put his hand on the blade and felt something push out from his hand – Ghost plasma. When the plasma touched it, the sword rippled like it was alive and scales and fur began to sprout from every inch of the blade. Finally, the fur and scales receded. When Res turned in shock to Serafina, he only saw the whites of her eyes. He barely had time to catch her before she toppled to the ground like a sack of potatoes.

Inwardly, Res screamed in anger and fear: “Jason, what have you done?”

“Calm down. Nothing serious. They are having a cozy talk. I have talked with Layana a lot in the last few days. There once was a race on our continent that had scales instead of skin. Layana was one of them, and she was killed as a five-year-old for that. She had lived in isolation for all that while, but she isn’t dumb. Most importantly, she likes the way you and I are buddies. She has been bugging me about telling me how to possess a human and work side by side since we first met. When Serafina transformed thanks to the new organs, Layana felt like she and Serafina were destined to be together. Despite growing up alone, she is fucking smart, man. Do you know how she got me to tell her how to do it?”

Res realized why Jason was dragging this all out as Serafina had stopped breathing. Res asked with apparent frustration in his voice: “Jameeeesssss?”

“Ahhh, it is nothing. If the possession fails, only the ghost dies.”

Now Res was boiling with rage. “Are you serious right now!!!?”

“Bro, I will be honest with you. She promised me she didn’t want to do it before we are finished with the tournament. Yet, I couldn’t refuse her when she wanted to talk to Serafina so badly. By the way, she likes you and all your ‘Hey look, I am better than you and tolerate everyone’s stuff. It gets annoying if I have to tell her about you when we are on a date.”

Res tried to calm down and ordered his thoughts. “What is happening to her and how can I help?”

”Bro, she has already talked with Serafina, and judging by the state she is in, she has already agreed to live side by side. I want to make one thing clear: I didn’t do it impulsively. Well, a bit … But you have to know that when I touched her vessel, I made myself completely vulnerable to her. If she overtakes the body, we will only need to banish the ghost.”

“How would you do that?”

“Well, I don’t really know … ”

Serafina’s eyeballs rolled forward to their natural position, and she coughed violently. Res stooped down to support her, only for Serafina to throw up black goo on him. While Res tried to clear his vision, Jason shouted: “It worked! Holy shit, it actually worked”

The black goo stunk like hell, but Res held Serafina steady. Jason had also ejected all the impurities in the aether channels when he had possessed him, but he didn’t cough it up. A clear, female voice resounded through his head. “Hello, Res. Can you hear me? Res? Res? Res?”

The voice jumped up and down and Res remembered the feral girl back in Jason’s dimension. Tentatively, he answered: “Hello? Are you Layana?”

The voice seemed exhilarated at that: “You know my name!”

“Yes.”

Jason barreled in. “I told him your name.”

Res’s belief in Jason’s ability to charm woman shrank, but Layana didn’t share his opinion: “Really? Wow, that is so nice Jason.”

Res thought for a moment that this was sarcasm on a whole other level, but remembered that she hadn’t had social interactions for a long time. “I am glad that you and Serafina came to an agreement and I hope that we can work great together as a team.”

Layana giggled. “Yes, yes. I would love to be a team with Jason and Res. You and Serafina will be excellent mates and you will make healthy babies. Jason and I sadly cannot do babies, but I would love to see your babies.”

Res gulped down the lump in his throat and tried to explain: “Ahh. Look Layana …”

A faint and exhausted voice reached out to them: “Res?”

Somehow, Jason could grip that voice and pull it towards them. Layana conveyed the sounds of clapping. “Wow, everyone is here. Res, Jason, Serafina, and me. We will be a great team with lots of babies.”

Jason isolated him from the conversation for a moment and whispered to Res: “I have to admit that the baby thing she is always talking about is my fault. Their kind lives ages and only reproduces seldom. They spend their entire life trying to reproduce. When she asked me how many children I had, I told her the truth and said that I have about one thousand children. In her culture, with one thousand children, she would not only turn queen. Not only that, but she would also go down in history as the most famous dragon-kin.”

Serafina wearily reached out to him. “Res?”

He grasped her fumbling mind. “How are you, Serafina?”

She paused for a moment, maybe in distress, then she said shyly. “What do you think?”

“About what?”

“About being possessed by a ghost too, dummy.”

Res froze - He was treading on thin ice. “I have to admit that Jason hadn’t told me. The procedure is dangerous, but now that you made it through, I love you for that bravery.”

Res could hear her breaths quicken. “What do you think about the other thing?”

“What other thing?”

“You know what I mean? Are you such a meanie to force me to say it out loud?”

Somehow Res felt that something had gone on behind his back. “I don’t know what you are talking about, but I may have a talk with Jason right about now.”

She held his consciousness back and whispered conspiratorially. “The forbidden dual cultivation.”

Layana as a five-year-old dragonkin couldn’t have such a technique. When the words ‘forbidden’ and ‘Jason’ were mentioned, Res knew that he wouldn’t like what he was about to hear. Yet, he still asked. “I am clueless. Tell me what Jason has brewed up this time.”

Serafina pulled his consciousness even closer and began. “So, have you … done that thing already with someone?”

“What …”

“Sex!”, Serafina shouted frustratedly. For several moments, both of them remained dead silent. Then Serafina began to babble, but Res waved her away.

“No, I haven’t.”

She returned to her whispering tone. “I haven’t too. Layana said that there is a forbidden technique that bonds each other tighter than no other bond. It involves …”

Res interrupted her. “I can imagine how it works. Why is it forbidden?”

“You can’t break the bond. Never. You can track down your partner from anywhere and you feel what he feels from anywhere. Blood magic is a pale imitation in comparison.”

Res gulped when he heard the last sentence. “I will think about it. Definitely. I will have to talk to Jason first.”

Jason pulled out of this weird dimension and returned to his body. When he opened his eyes, he stood up and stumbled into Akeem’s broad frame. Akeem shoved him away, but he didn’t mind. “Jason, what do you have to say to defend yourself?”

Res could feel Jason shifting about: “Bro, this isn’t as bad as it seems, but I overstepped my bounds a little.”

“A LITTLE? You paired the two of them together and they don’t know the consequences of their actions! She is five-years-old and only thinks about making babies.”

“Hey, that isn’t true. She is 1038 years old. She could be my grandmother. If you had spoken to her at length, you would have realized that she is intelligent as fuck. My handbook had a chapter about evaluating intelligence and she ticks all the right boxes.”

“It doesn’t work like that, but fine I will give you that. What about the dual cultivation? Jason, I have too many enemies to count already, it would not only endanger me but most importantly her.”

Jason replied in a corny tone while imitating his voice. “Love overcomes all obstacles. Besides, she will get half of your power anyway, so she will hardly be defenseless.”

Res froze. “Repeat that again.”

Now, Jason only mumbled: “She will get half of your power.”

Res laughed wildly and listed off the cons. “I will be bound to a woman forever. It will bind me to a mentally underdeveloped ghost. I will endanger that woman. I will endanger my sanity. I will share my power. Why should I do it? Is there anything else I should know?”

“Love? Besides, you will grow in power faster after that. You will lose power first until both of you are on the same level. Then you will gain half of the aether capacity your partner gains every time you improve. Look at it in the long run.”

Res thought intently for a moment, realized the scope of the problem, and shoved it in the procrastination corner of his mind. It was time to put Jason’s tactics against Jason and distract from the topic. “I will think about it.”