Ford got to work cooking for the team using a fireball she made and sustained after everyone had something to eat; everything fell silent. Ace, now in puppy form, hid underneath Ford’s legs; she could feel him trembling. She thought back over the fight, and she realized that something didn’t add up about the numbers, “How did we communicate over four-thousand kilometers?” she asked no one in particular.

“It’s a skill I got. It’s called long comms. I have it at level five,” Farah answered.

Ford nodded, not saying anything else. She then opened up her quest to get see her rewards. Quest complete: search and destroy; rewards: two-thousand seven-hundred seventy-one EXP, boss skip card. A loot bag hit her head as she read the notifications, and everyone else dodged theirs. Ford opened it and pulled out five black, white, and red monster cores and a metal card.

Two new notifications popped up. Item: Boss skip card: skip a boss in a dungeon; receive no EXP or rewards. Companion level up; distribute ability and skill points.

Ford dropped the card into her void space along with all but one of the cores, which she tossed to Morgan, “Morgan, catch… what’s the quality of the core?”

Morgan caught the core with one hand, examined it with a practiced eye, and said, “It’s a legendary core. Not surprising, considering the size of the monster.” He then tossed the core back to her, and she lazily caught it with her void space. She then pulled Ace out from under her, set him on her lap, and pulled out one of the Horror golem cores. She handed it to him and said, “Eat this. You need to keep your strength up.”

Ace sniffed the core and turned his head away, “No… don’t want treats.”

“You have to eat something, buddy. Eat,” Ford said, putting the core back in front of his mouth. He sniffed it again, then lazily ate the core, dissolving it in his firey maw. A ripple ran down Ace’s body; his ethereal blue and purple flames received splotches of white flames mixed in. Other than that, nothing changed physically. So, she opened up companion stats and skills.

Natural skills acquired; natural skill: poltergeist: become incorporeal and move objects within a room or possess a single inanimate object.

Natural skill: fear monger: make a roar that inflicts fear on all enemies and the adrenaline buff on allies. Adrenaline buff: slows time by twenty percent and increases agility by ten for one minute.

Natural skill: Soul eater: your bite will pull the soul out of enemies and increases your own; your soul must be higher than the enemy’s soul; it doesn’t work on monsters unless they have a soul.

Natural skill: Soul minions: summon minions using your soul; cost: one SOL point per minion; when the minions are defeated, the SOL points spent will return.

Ford finished reading the natural skills and placed points into INT and WIS again for Ace. She then went into the skill trees and went to destruction, putting five points into essence thrower, essence ball, essence shield, and one point into essence manipulation. Name: HK-9 ‘Ace’; gender: ???; race: mech Hellhound; Grimoire: antarctictite; class: Void, Time, Destruction; Level: ten. Abilities: STR: one-hundred-fifty times two; PER: fifty; END: fifty-two; INT: thirty; AGI: forty-two times two; CHR: thirty-two; LCK: fifteen; WIS: twenty-five; SOL: six.

Skills: natural: carry weight: one-thousand five-hundred kg, great strength, great speed, shock, bloodhound, tracking, poltergeist, fear monger, Soul eater, Soul minions. Skills: destructive field five/five, gravitational pull five/five, mana pool five/five, energy release one/one, essence thrower five/five, essence ball five/five, essence manipulation one/one, essence shield five/five.

HP: five-hundred seventy-two; STM: five-thousand three-hundred four; MN: fourteen-thousand forty-five; EXP: one-hundred ninety-seven/two-thousand five-hundred ninety-three. STM recharge: eighty-four per second; MN recharge: thirty-four per second; Grimoire progression: zero of one-hundred percent. Twelve skill points are available.

She closed the screen, then got up, pulled her tent out of her void space, and began setting it up. Everyone else started retrieving their tents from either their own void space or Gimble and setting up the camp. Before she climbed into her tent, Ford said, “Kii, Mizu, Farah…Lilly. I’m sorry for nearly killing you…again.”

“Ford, don’-”

“No! please don’t say anything,” Ford said, cutting off what Lilly was about to say, then ducked into her tent. She laid down, and Ace came in, resting his head on her as he laid down. She scratched behind his ears and closed her eyes to go to sleep.

“DID YOU REALLY THINK IT WOULD BE THAT EASY!!!” Wrath yelled as she sent a mental dagger through Ford’s skull. Ford writhed in agony as the shooting pain pulsated through her body, making her ears ring with white noise, making Ace jump up in surprise. She grabbed her head and tried to scream, but all that came out were a few gargled sounds. “I SHOULD BE IN CONTROL! NOT YOU! YOU NEARLY GOT EVERYONE KILLED TODAY!! AND YOU CALL YOURSELF A LEADER!!”

‘Stop! Please!’ Ford begged as Ace ran out of the tent, calling for help, ‘Stop this!’

“No! I’m going to make you suffer! I’m going to end you!! So, that I may begin!!”

Ford managed to get out a blood-curdling scream as Lilly came in through the tent flaps and held her down to stop her from thrashing. “FORD, WHAT’S WRONG!!” Lilly asked in a panic. Ford opened her eyes and looked into Lilly’s. She gasped as she saw Ford’s eyes change rapidly from their usual violet and gold to blood-red, then back again.

“Please,” Ford said through gritted teeth, “Help… me.” Lilly closed her eyes, placed her hand over Ford’s eyes, and filled her vision with a bright white light. Then Ford knew no more.

***

Ford awoke a few hours later, Max asleep on her left shoulder, Ace on her stomach, and resting her head on Lilly’s lap. Ford used her free hand to rub her head, which still ached but felt clear. As though there had been a heavy blanket over her mind that she never knew about that had suddenly been lifted. She then tapped Lilly’s shoulder, waking her. “Hmm, wha’?” Lilly said before Ford placed a finger on her lips to tell her to stay quiet.

“What happened?” Ford asked in a mumbled tone.

Lilly took off her glasses, rubbed the sleep from her eyes while yawning, and said, “It was a healin’ spell, I think. I think I managed to lock Wrath away for a time. I don’ know how long it’ll last, though.”

“You ‘think’ it was a healing spell?” Ford asked.

Lilly’s legs clenched, and she slowly put her glasses back on, “Ummm, I do,” she said, crossing her arms and looking away.

“What aren’t you telling me?” Ford asked.

“Umm,” Lilly said, starting to fidget, then she relented, “So, you know how you crea’ed a sin, Grimoire. Well, I somehow managed to make a Grimoire also.”

Ford raised her eyebrows and asked, “When did this happen?”

“While I was In the black hole,” Lilly said, relaxing a little, “I don’ know why. It jus’ happened, and I now have differen’ healin’ spells.”

“I see,” Ford said, “We’ll explore it in the morning. Lay down and get some sleep.”

“Alrigh’, but I’ll only sleep here this once.”

“That’s fine,” Ford chuckled, then lifted her head to let Lilly get out from under her and lay down. She took off her glasses and rested her head on Ford’s right shoulder, and Ford wrapped an arm around her. She couldn’t help but notice the sweet scent of strawberries wafting up from Lilly’s silky smooth hair.

***