[...] Mary could not make her reply, as what she had just heard broke her understanding of the Sect of the Divine Mechanism and the soul wide open. She believed that the item was similar to an infant -that it needed to be nurtured in one way or another to gain a personality- but the Machine God had a personality. It had just spoken to her in a normal male voice tinged with sadness. She was completely baffled by it.

Despite her lack of response, the Machine God, Abe, continued talking, [I’m sorry. I couldn’t control myself. You look almost identical to a friend of mine who passed away. It brought back bad memories and… I don’t know, this thing, this body I suppose, acted on its own. I… feel awful about doing this to you.]

She stood silent for a while, staring at the wall in front of her blankly in shock. She calmed down soon after and pondered what he had said. She was surprised to hear that a friend of this god died and that they looked so much like her. She unconsciously muttered aloud, “The friend of a god… dead?”

Before she could realize what she had said, the being in her chest let out a sad chuckle that rang through her mind. It was familiar to her, the same type of chuckle she let out herself when the grief about her father’s death became too much to bear. [I am no god. Far from it honestly] he stated simply. He followed up with, [I’ll keep quiet for now. You need time, I think.]

She could feel it fading away, isolating itself. She called out aloud, “Wait!” She had so many questions to ask, so many things to think about, but she needed the thing there to ask them or to work through them. She finally let the fact that her body was not entirely her own sink in. It was so shocking, so out of her consideration, that she had no clue what to think.

The being in her chest stopped fading, saying [What do you need?] The thing seemed calm to her, but hearing its voice closer she felt an edge in its voice. She could feel some nervousness from the voice, one that she did not expect.

She collected herself for a while, trying to figure out what to say first. At last in a weak voice she asked, “Why me?”

[You look like a good friend I had. My mind was a bit torn from grief then. Not just from her but from… well, them.] She got the sense that if the voice had arms of its own, then it would gesture to the bodies strewn around her. She gazed at the charred corpses of the last holdout of the Sect of the Divine Mechanism, hearing the voice continue, [I saw them raising that knife. I… remembered the moments before she was whisked away to the hospital. It all came back at once, and I didn’t want to relive it. I don’t know what happened, nor why this body of mine lashed out and killed all of them like this. I may have saved you, but I don’t think that many would want a person that just murdered hundreds lodged in their chest. That’s why I said sorry.]

She followed along, feeling saddened by the story. When she heard the part about its regret over the slaughter she became baffled. “These are not the types that deserve life.” she said aloud coldly, “They slaughter the innocent for little reason other than to further their psychotic religion. I have killed half a dozen of them and I would have killed more were it not for how tough they were.”

The being was dumbstruck for a moment, [That’s true, but… that’s cold. They are people, the same as us.]

“Yes, they are people who chose to do things like slaughter innocents on an altar to their god. They deserve no mercy.” She said, voice heating with hateful fervor. She calmed down, soon saying, “Do you mind… sharing your name? If you have one of course. Sorry… this is all getting to me. It feels weird having you in my chest.”

The thing sighed, [I’m truly sorry about that. Can just repeat what I said before, but it would be a waste of time. Anyway, I’m Abe. What’s your name?]

“I’m Mary. Mary Grant. So… who or what are you? As far as I knew, you were a god that this cult created, but you say you aren’t. If you’re a soul that was just created, you should have no memories. So what are you, and what do you plan to do with me?” She asked. After hearing how mild mannered and apologetic Abe was, she had gained some of her confidence back, so she was willing to speak to him as an equal.

Abe was silent for a moment, [I was human] he said, [I died and found myself here. I am pretty sure that this thing is a soul storage device, not an artificial god. From what I know from getting drowned with knowledge, this thing stores the sentient energy from a person, making this their vessel. If I’m correct I’m also from another world, but it could just be time travel or something else like that. I came from a planet called Earth, as opposed to Outinamia, the name of this world. I’ll start from the beginning…] Abe proceeded to explain his upbringing, some things about Earth, and his last moments. He felt that it was the least he could do for the woman he had just fused with.

Mary, for her part, soon became enthralled with the wondrous tales of a world without mana. She found its more peaceful atmosphere interesting, especially with the violence that had become common in the last month. She was also stunned by the fact that the being in her chest, the one that had accidentally invaded her body, was a man not too much older than her. She was at least thankful that the man was not hundreds of years old like some of the more powerful mana users could reach, but still felt a bit angry at how her privacy was now eternally ruined. When he finished his story, she said, “So you lived in a world without mana and died to a lightning strike after being forced to work in a storm? That’s a terrible way to go, huh? Ugh, but now that I know that you're a man it’s… a bit infuriating, to say the least.” She tried to be understanding of the situation. It was an accident, granted it was a massive one. She had never been too mindful about boundaries, mostly because she never thought about it and put her effort into training, but she was still angry at her body being invaded by another consciousness.

Abe would have shifted uncomfortably if he could, [Yeah… it’s kinda awkward. And before you ask, I already checked if we can separate. We can’t. Your body is already too synchronized with mine.]

She looked to her chest and sighed, “Does it have to do with how I feel so much more powerful now?”

[Essentially, yes. I am no doctor, but based on what I can see here your body has, in a way, handed the burden of living off onto me, leaving the resources needed to maintain your life to be used to make you stronger.]

She hummed with interest, “Well that’s at least some good news.” She shifted to look at the exit, “So where do we go from here? I have my goals and I know that they won't be achieved through peaceful means.”

Abe stopped for a moment, pondering her declaration. He still felt disgusted by murder on a intelectual level, but he now knew that he had lost the insctintual aversion to it that he had in the past. It was likely lost when he gained his metallic body but fusing with Mary, a person who had no qualms about killing another, may have made it worse, he believed. He then thought about his situation, and the total lack of freedom of movement he had. He realized that he may have come out just as bad as she had, but he still felt guilty that it was him who did it. [Are you sure we’re all good about the whole body invasion thing? I was never the most guarded person in the world, but I would be very angry if someone invaded my body. Also, no matter what you do, I can’t exactly leave without killing you, so… I’m kinda stuck here.]

“We’re all good.” She chuckled, “I never had a boyfriend, nor am I a maiden deep in love.” Her voice became a bit saddened, “But… yeah I just realized that you’re pretty much stuck there and you’re too nice to kill me to leave. Hmm… looks like we both have some downsides in this.” Her voice soon became more chipper, “But, if you’re willing to stick with me for this little revenge thing then I guess we’ll-” When she was about to finish her sentence, she used her newly enhanced hearing to catch the sounds of boots thumping against the ground from the hallway behind the door to the altar room. Soon a group of armed soldiers kicked the door open and rushed in. The men wore black suits of armor made of a hard plastic and a full face mask. They fanned out while pointing their mana-enhanced firearms at Mary. They were using submachine guns with improvements made to its power and reliability, making it more powerful than an average sniper bullet that could be sold in the city.

They advanced and soon stopped a dozen feet away from her. The closest one shouted, “By the orders of the Purity Union and the city state of Olsvania you are under arrest for disrupting the purity of the public! Put your hands up and turn around or we will be forced to open fire!” They aimed their guns at her and held their fingers on the trigger, ready to shoot at a moment’s notice. While they were keeping a professional front, Mary saw how they all had taken quick glances at the sea of dead cultists and how they could only turn away by using all of their willpower.

Before Mary could respond or make a move, arcs of electricity surged from her chest and focused in on the soldier who had yelled the warning. The arcs were powerful, but the soldier’s protective mana shield was top of its line; they were elites after all. Despite that, the shield could only last a second under the intense focus of the onslaught. Once the shield broke, the man began to seize under his full body armor. The rest of the group, 8 in all, returned fire. Thinking quickly, Mary jumped up to the ceiling by reinforcing her legs with mana. The men’s fire chased her, quickly climbing up to the ceiling. She did not let the gunfire reach her, as she kicked off from the ceiling and crashed into the closest man. She took the standard issue sword from his waist and reinforced it with mana, letting her deflect the shots by using her sped up perception brought by the fusion. Soon the men ran out of ammo and switched to their pistols. Mary did not let them make a move, as she dashed from one man to the next, slashing their chests, stabbing them, and decapitating them until all seven men lay dead on the ground.

She stood atop the body of her last foe, now one head less than a man. She sighed, saying, “Ahh… That’s that then. Alright, we need to-” A gunshot rang out as the man she had taken the sword from shot her with his sidearm. He had thought that he could actually finish her off and took the shot. The bullet soared at extreme speeds, soon reaching its mark.

Before it could hit Mary, though, it suddenly stopped in midair. The man heard a voice that he could have sworn was death itself, [Like I’ll let you do that.] The bullet suddenly flipped around and aimed at the soldier. It sped up in an instant, drilling into the man’s head and ending his life.

Once the last of the enemies died, Abe spoke up, [Yeah, we need to move. You’ve got a destination, I assume.]

She exhaled the breath she was unknowingly holding and nervously chuckled, “Yeah, I do. Thanks for the save by the way.”

[Not a problem. I’d suggest taking a sheath for the sword, but leave the guns; the database those cultists had said that they put trackers into any advanced firearms.]

“Alright, thanks.” She picked up the sheath from the now-dead soldier, “Let’s move.” The two made their way through the rest of the Sect of the Divine Mechanism, taking a secret escape route that was in the database. They finally saw the pitch black sky filled with the light of the city and found themselves near the center of the slums. Mary wasted no time by charging to her destination. She soon stopped, however, as she suddenly felt something eerie lash out in the city. It was faint, something only possible to feel due to her uniquely strengthened body, but it crashed up against her like a wave. But it left just as suddenly as it came, leaving her standing atop a building in silence.

[I vote that we stay away from whatever that was. Chasing that just feels like asking for trouble.] Abe said. Mary silently nodded, continuing on her path.

*=====*

In a back alleyway in the center of the city, everything was quiet. What little trash there held nothing but a few flies, as the area was one of the richest parts of the city. Suddenly, a tear ripped itself open in the middle of the air, quivering. In the tear was the scene of a destroyed church of some unknown civilization. The walls were almost all flattened and the roof had long since fallen. The sky there was a foggy blue that one could see through for hundreds of miles. In the church, a monster hundreds of feet long with one giant black eye chased two figures into the tear. They fell forward onto the pavement and as the claw of the creature reached for them, the man with red hair and blue skin grabbed hold of the tear and forcefully closed it. The tear closed, leaving nothing to be seen but normal air. The man fell backward once he confirmed that the monster had no way of following them. He turned to the second figure, a young girl wrapped in a grey cloak, and hugged her, bringing her into his cloak made of an identical material. He rubbed her head, saying, “It’s all right, everything is fine. It can’t get us now.” The hood of the cloak fell, revealing a girl who had scarlet red hair like the man, and had large bunny ears instead of normal ears. She silently cried into his chest, sobbing as blood poured from a violent gash on her arm.