“About damn time you fixed her!!” Wrath yelled in Ford’s head, waking her.

Ford jumped up and looked around; they were still in the bland room, and several hours had passed since they entered. Then she was hit by the freight train that is Gimble’s hug. “Oh, ugh. Gimble, too tight!” she managed to choke out.

Gimble let go and stepped back, “Sorry,” he said, “just happy.”

Ford looked up at him; seeing his pearly blue eyes, she smiled, “I can SEE why.”

“Enough with the bad puns,” Max complained.

Ford looked over to the rest of them and saw Lilly, her eyes back where they belonged. “Not a chance,” Ford said, still smiling, “I’m just glad everyone’s alright.”

Everyone mumbled their agreement, “Yeah, but you have all the food, and we’re staving,” Benet complained.

“Agreed,” Kii and Mizu said.

“Me too, I haven’t eaten yet either,” a voice sounded like Wrath, and hers said from behind her. Ford scowled and turned around, seeing Wrath standing next to another version of her with green eyes and red Fox ears.

Ford rubbed the bridge of her nose, “Why do you have fox ears?” she asked.

The Fox-eared version bowed and said, “Hello, nice to finally meet you. I am Greed. And the better question is, why don’t you have fox ears?”

“Who are you talking to?” Max asked.

“I think she’s talkin’ to Wrath again,” Lilly guessed.

“No,” Ford said, “I now have another personality. Greed.”

“And Greed has fox ears?” Farah asked.

“Yes, she does,” for the first time, Ford heard Farah laugh. It sounded disturbingly normal, “Are you laughing at me?!” Ford asked.

“I just imagined you with fox ears! Hahaha!”

Everyone else looked at Ford and stared at her intently, making Ford uncomfortable. Then a roar of laughter left everyone’s lips, except for Ace, who didn’t get it, and Lilly, who mumbled, “I think it’s a li’le cu’e,” She blushed and looked away as Ford’s eyes locked onto hers.

Ford didn’t hear what Lilly said but knew she mumbled something. Then Greed walked into view, “Ah, don’t listen to them. They’re just jealous. Anyways, there are some things I need if I’m going to stay here-”

“You won’t get them. She’s very unreasonable,” Wrath interrupted Greed.

“You nearly killed the entire team. What do you want, Greed?”

“You’ve got to be kidding me!”

“I want so many things. Where to begin…”

“Start with reasonable things.”

“I want occasional control of the body.”

“No, we either share the body and work together or no deal.”

Greed tapped a finger on her chin as she thought, then Wrath stepped into view, “Can I have that sort of deal?”

“Maybe.”

“I’ll take it. anything to let lose just a little bit.”

“I’ll accept it as well. Under the condition to get a couple of max-level skills for me.”

“What skills?”

“Energy pulse from the CQB and Snatch from the thief.”

Ford opened her Yggdras system and went into the skill tree. Select Class: Labor, Assassin, Mage, Archer, Beast-master, Warrior, Sin, Angelic. Warrior selected. Select class: CQB, Paladin, Knight. CQB selected. Select route: agent, DPS. DPS selected. Skills: knife combat, hand-to-hand combat, anatomy.

Skill: energy pulse: use a preferred essence to launch attacks at enemies with your hands or weapons within two meters; requirements: AGI: fifteen, END: fifteen, INT: twenty, skill: hand-to-hand combat; cost: one hundred mana peruse; level: zero of five.

Ford put five points into energy pulse and hand-to-hand combat and read the new descriptions. Skill: energy pulse: use any preferred essence or essence combo to launch attacks at enemies with your hands or weapons within ten meters; requirements: AGI: twenty, END: twenty, INT: twenty-five, skill: hand-to-hand combat; cost: fifty mana per-use; level: five of five.

Skill: hand-to-hand combat: master how to fight hand-to-hand; level: five of five.

She then left the CQB class and went into the Thief class. Select Class: Labor, Assassin, Mage, Archer, Beast-master, Warrior, Sin, Angelic. Assassin selected. Select class: Thief, Spy, Killer, Shadow. Thief selected. Select route; Master, Grifter. ‘Uhm…’ Master selected. New skills acquired. Ford skipped over most of the skills in the class till she found the one she was looking for, fifteen skills down.

Skill: snatch: take an object from a person without them knowing; the object can be no more than five kilograms; requirements: AGI: thirty, PER: twenty-five; cost: one-hundred mana; level: zero of five.

Ford placed five points into the skill. Then the screen glitched. Parameters met. Ten skill points refunded. New skill acquired. Skill: siphon: take a portion of the enemy’s HP, MN, and STM and add it to your HP, MN, and STM temporarily; siphon time: one minute of direct contact; requirements: AGI: twenty; cost: twenty mana; level: five of five.

She read the new skill created and nodded approvingly, then went back in and put five points into hand-to-hand combat and energy pulse. “Was that what you wanted?” Ford asked.

“Yes, it was. Now, allocate those ability points of yours. They’re driving me crazy.”

“Ford! We’re starving!” Benet whined again, “And you’ve been talking to yourself for ten minutes!”

“Fine, I’ll feed you, ya big baby,” she responded.

Before she could pull out any of her cooking supplies, a cold, feminine voice spoke from some hidden space in the room, “You’ve been in my room for hours now, and you dare even consider making food before fighting me!?”

“I think now is a time we work together,” Wrath said.

“Yeah, no shit,” Ford said, half answering Wrath and the mysterious voice.

“The absolute gall! You should have entered this room, begged for my forgiveness, and revered me for the queen I am. But no, you instead come in here, bloody my walls, and now you intend on making it into a kitchen! This fight starts now!”

“Big talk from someone we can’t see!” Ford yelled back, “Come on out and show yourself!”

“Do you think it’s wise to anger someone we can’t see?” Morgan asked over comms as he pulled out his hammer and shield.

“No, but at least we’ll know what to do,” Ford answered.

“Fine! I’ll show you what you’re up against,” the voice said; then, a health bar with the name subject seven eight one four appeared. The room shook and cracked and split open into twenty or so floating pieces that then spaced themselves out between each other. Everyone stumbled and staggered onto their own floating piece of stone. The space outside the stone box revealed empty blackness with floating blue lights scattered about, illuminating the area.

Ford was lifted ten meters up and back from where she originally stood, and the central circle didn’t move from its original spot. Then an Elf woman materialized into the center circle. She had violet shoulder-length curled hair and violet eyes; she wore a green sleeveless tunic and tight-fitting pants, and her skinny and lithe body looked no bigger than Ford. She had animals and weapons tattooed on her arms, giving her full sleeves of tattoos.

“So, subject seven eight one four. Do you have an actual name?” Ford asked after sizing her up a moment.

“None that you have the right to speak.”

“Wha’s the plan, Ford?” Lilly asked over comms.

Before Ford could speak, her linchpin skill activated, and words scrolled across her vision, “One vee one. We got this. Everyone else, sit back and watch.”

“Who’s we?” Farah asked skeptically.

“Me, myself, and I,” Ford said, and she felt a grin spread across her face as Wrath, Greed, and herself occupied the same body. The feeling that rushed through Ford couldn’t be described as anything else than pure delight. And it felt so good! She began to laugh as her eyes changed from violet and gold to violet with specs of green and gold with specks of red.

“WHAT’S SO FUNNY!?” subject seven eight one four yelled angrily.

Ford didn’t answer but instead stopped laughing and felt her body move. She pulled the small blade on her bleeder gauntlet, created a small dagger, then pulled out her Willfull dagger and jumped after activating embracing pain and essence enforcement; ten seconds. She arrived at the Elf in less than a second and swiped her two blades downward; nine seconds. The Elf raised her arms in defense, and her tattoos created a pair of daggers to match, blocking the attack from Ford. Ford then let go of her Willful dagger and punched the Elf in the stomach with an electrically charged fist, using four-point one two five tons of force, sending her flying into a floating wall; eight seconds. Ford’s arm shattered on impact with the Elf’s abdomen, and she used embracing pain again; ten seconds.

Subject seven eight one four growled as she pulled herself free from the wall, and her body morphed; nine seconds. Arms sprouted from her sides, a pair sprouted from her back, and blades came out of her forearms and short swords from the palms of her hands; eight seconds. Ford couldn’t waste any more time, and she leaped at the Elf, blood dagger in hand; seven seconds. She stabbed at the Elf, impacting the wall where subject seven eight one four once was, shattering the wall, and felt four blades impale her left side for two-hundred HP. Ford screamed and cast blood controller on the weapons holding them in place and activating embracing pain again; ten seconds.

Ford placed her palm on the Elf’s chest, cupping a nice-sized breast, and summoned her Willful dagger. The dagger flew to her hand and impaled the Elf within less than a second and into her hand; nine seconds. Subject seven eight one four screamed as the blade went through her chest, then they began to fall. The Elf’s screaming annoyed her, so she stabbed the knife into the Elf’s neck to silence her for good; eight seconds. Subject seven eight one four brought her other blades down and cut Ford’s arm off at the shoulder for one-hundred-fifty HP. Ford regenerated her arm instantly, pulled herself off the Elf’s blades, and willed them to cut off subject seven eight one four’s other arms, then sever the arms the blades were attached to; six seconds.

They quickly fell into darkness as the lights far above dimmed, and the only source of light being Ford herself. Ford’s HP promptly refilled, and she re-summoned her dagger, cast gravity manipulation on it for one thousand mana a second, and threw it at the Elf. With the change in gravity, subject seven eight one four slowed and was impaled by the dagger that tore through her with four tons of force and then pulled her even faster down into the darkness; five seconds. Ford also fell in the direction of the dagger and summoned it back to her, and again she impaled subject seven eight one four; four seconds. The Elf flew at Ford at a tremendous speed and stopped as Ford canceled the gravity spell and was grabbed by her.

Ford then unleashed a flurry of electrified punches, burning her face with energy to the point she looked unrecognizable; three, two, one, zero. Ford then cast gravity manipulation on her blood dagger for two-thousand four-hundred mana and threw it back to the floating rocks far above. The drastic change in gravity pulled her and subject seven eight one four back in the direction of the floating stones at a breakneck speed. Ford held the Elf woman in front of her as they impacted the central stone, and she quickly changed the amount of mana she was using from two-thousand four-hundred to nine-hundred fifty; near-normal gravity. She then grabbed the limp Elf, pulled her onto the other side of the stone slab, and canceled the gravity change.

She looked up at the HP bar and saw it had fallen to one percent. Subject seven eight one four coughed up blood as a weak laugh escaped her lungs full of blood. Ford knelt and asked, “So, do you want to tell us your name now?”

Subject seven eight one four nodded weakly and coughed up more blood as she answered, “I guess… you’ve earned that much. My name was Boaa, but everyone called me Gator.”

“Well, Gator, that was a good fight.”

“Don’t make…me laugh,” Gator coughed, “That wasn’t a fight. It was…an execution.”

Ford stood over Gator and looked down on her with a wide gleeful smile, “True,” she said, then summoned Smite and decapitated Gator in one strike, “but you deserved some respect after what you must have gone through at the hands of Tanashi.” Ford looked around and spoke over comms, “Is everyone alright?”

“Yeah,” Morgan groaned.

“Next time,” one of the Twins yelled.

“Give us some warning that you’re changing gravity,” the other Twin yelled.

“Agreed,” Max said.

“Yes, it was quite unpleasant,” the soft whispering female voice said.

Ford turned around and looked at Wrath and Greed, “Did one of you two say that?”

“No.”

“No,” Wrath and Greed said one after the other.

“Then who did?” Ford asked.

The room began to put itself back together, and Lilly heard Ford ask the question, “Who did wha’?” Lilly asked.

Sunny flew out of Ford’s head and floated in front of her face, “I am the one who spoke,” Sunny said.

Ford realized who said this and said, “Oh, it was you. I Forgot I could talk to animals and monsters, and you’re technically one of the two. And it would explain why no one else could hear you.”

“Who are you talking to?” Gimble asked.

Ford looked at the big guy and said, “Sunny.”

“Okay, great, you’re talking to a bug. Can we get food now?” Benet said grumpily.

Sunny flew over to Benet and flashed him. As he rolled on the ground, blinded, Sunny said, “That was most satisfying. But yes, you should all eat.”

“I’ll get to cooking now. Lilly, did you get your old healing and destruction spells back?”

“I-I did,” Lilly said, then knelt to heal Benet. Though before she did, Lilly hesitated a moment before casting the spell.

Ford noticed this as she pulled out her cooking supplies, ‘You didn’t hurt her too badly, did you Wrath?’ Ford asked.

“I never attacked. My mire presence hurt her. She’s not as resilient as you. I did all I could to keep the pain to a minimum.”

‘Good,’ Ford said as she began cooking.

***

“So,” Finn said smugly, “if my fight was lame, what was that?”

Tanashi took a shaking sip of water from his jug and said, “A sign that I’m going to easy on them.”

“Yeah, it took Ford twenty seconds to beat the test subject solo,” Shurma said.

“There about, give or take a few seconds,” Drake added.

“How does that make you feel?” Samael asked smugly.

“Like I can’t let her become a God,” Tanashi said as he quickly opened up a screen and began making a new monster.