A serene red tint stains the horizon past the drowned fields and pastures. Swollen corpses bob along the glistening reflective red water, submerged homes scream back up at me. It’s a tragically beautiful day, the last beautiful day I remember.

A person cradles a pale child, screaming as others above the ramparts beg and scramble to retrieve them. I spare myself the incendiary thoughts to come and turn away from the scene, warping the thick smog of Blood Orange red around me to a new landscape— Reais.

What ought to be hell is my new comfort. Trapped in my Soul Crystal alongside every memory of my past life is more torture than I can bear. It’s only been a couple of hours since King switched places with me— or maybe she’s outright stolen my body, I’m not sure but I’d rather be hopeful.

In here the sky is the crystal, fragmented into clean hexagonal patterns that thrum with power— my power. To think I’d reach Blood Orange and not even be the first to try out the new Tier of strength.

King isn’t far from me, not at all. Though her soul found some way to reside within mine and even usurp it for power, I know we’re equals, I know there’s a way out of here, a way back to my body and back to Reais. It’s rare I find a chance to speak out into her mind and since coming in here memories a thousand years old have bombarded me ceaselessly.

Strolling through the savage sandstorm ripping through my fictional Desert Divide my mind find calm once again, at least a slice of it. Within the Soul Crystal I can simulate any environment I’ve been to before, including the ones I see through King’s borrowed eyes— if I don’t control the constant flux of thoughts and memories this place boils with I’ll have trouble understanding the images King sees in the real world.

Seeing through King is a passive effect I can’t turn off, I can get distract with memories and let whatever she sees and experiences out there fade to the background. But that’s not what I want.

Sitting in the eye of the storm I shut my eyes and focus on the sensory input from King. The whirling and howling sands turn to quiet bird chirps, the crinkle of dry leaves and dirt tossed around by feet. I figure this is how she managed to spy on my every move in Reais, she let go of her senses in the Soul Crystal in favour of mine. I still haven’t figured how she managed to switch places with me but for now I’ve got to find out what she’s up to.

Tall, wide buildings made of cobble and wood scatter across my new vision. Stalls of fruits and vegetables, stray animals trot across the thin strip of dirt that paves out a street. She’s taken us to some village or town. Taking a breath, I deepen my connection and the shape and balance of my body begins to form in my head— she’s taken liberties with my shapeshifting abilities, even more so with my body.

Disgruntled I make my presence known, “When you said we’d be gods I didn’t think we’d be sharing the same body and godhood.”

“Ah! Nil, it’s good to hear your voice.”

“Is it?”

“Of course it is! I thought you’d gotten paralyzed in your memories.”

“Did that happen to you?”

She shrugs and kicks a pebble, “Once or twice. I had an eternity of suffering and the long decades your dearest Valery kept us under.”

Understanding how awful the swarm of memories can be I share some sympathy with King. “I thought the Wall was torture but…seeing how good things were, how good things could’ve been if only I focused. Understanding the reason behind the tragedy is a tragedy in itself. I’m sick of it, I want my body back, King.”

“I’m a lady you know, shouldn’t you be the chivalrous Knight I ordained you to be and volunteer your body to me? I shouldn’t have to be so devious to get what I want from my right hand.”

“We both know Knighthood and chivalry means nothing to you.”

“Maybe not but I am still King.”

“Of an Empire that no longer exists.” I scoff, “You’re delusional if you think that title means anything still.”

“And you’re delusional if you think it doesn’t.”

The anger in her voice tells me a lot, and though I’m without my powers and can’t read her thoughts I know she’s fussed that I’m now untouchable. “You can’t force me to do or believe in anything here, King, not anymore.”

“Force you? Ha, that’s rich. You’re on a same quest I am, end those bastard deities and create a new, better world for a better species. All that time you spent in Reais, your spite at the gods fuelled your survival, it fuelled your growth. I haven’t forced you into anything you don’t already want.”

“On that note you’re right, but I do have a couple memories that say otherwise.” She sighs, knowing exactly what I’m talking about.

“What monarch doesn’t have a favourite subordinate? You were mine and now we’re inseparable thanks to Reinmer. Let bygones be bygones and let’s focus on the task ahead.”

“And what is that? Where are you taking us now?” Through the Soul Crystal I can sense what powers and spells she’s using and since I formed a connection to her [Minor Illusion] has been active and in greater range and magnitude than I’m usually capable of.

I figure it could be because I’m a Blood Orange tier now, but it’s more likely to do with King’s proficiency with magic. It’s how she carved her Empire into a continent and lead several wars all at once, back when she was the strongest monarch known.

The entire town of elves and humans— those daring enough to occupy the same space as elves this close to the Hescarian capital— are fast asleep in her illusion. I haven’t the slightest clue what the victims see in their heads as King carries us through the town but there aren’t any screams so it couldn’t be too bad.

“I’m taking us to the future, the next logical step.”

“The next step? We haven’t even finished step one.”

“And what’s step one?”

“Helping end the war? You said-”

“Oh, no, that’s a necessary distraction and one that would have happened with or without our interference.”

“What are you even talking about?” I groan, “I’ve got a pact with Lumina and though you’ve run off I can bet you Valery and Lumina will be looking for me, for us!”

“Of course they will, we’re their secret weapon, well, metaphorically speaking since the Princeling is heading back to report on our existence. They will have precautions against demons, Nil so if we want to survive up here then we need to prepare against those precautions.”

King exits the town and journeys out into a forested hill, head whipping out all around in search. “What are you looking for?”

“Remnants of my Empire, I’d call it ours but you’ve not been cooperative of late.”

“I don’t need vestiges of the past.” I hiss as she clambers up through the shrubbery, the Seeker Blade slices and dices leaves and branches in the way.

“Haha! And what would I be then, what would you be? What would our quest be based off if not memories older than even the nations that stand today? You really ought to pause and think about what you say, Nil, else you’ll end up sounding like a hypocrite a lot of the time.”

I growl but she’s not done— with my memories of the past returned I recognize the tune in her voice as the very one she enters when lecturing.

“Valery, Lumina, the entirety of Hescaria is nothing but a secondary task to us Nil. If we want to do this right, then you have to recognize this fact.”

“I can’t recognize anything if you don’t let me in on what your plan is. You know that full well.”

“Yes but…I wondering if I should bother letting you in at all, after all you can just watch from in there and give me a round of applause once we’re gods and Reinmer and his pantheon are dead.”

“You don’t want to underestimate me, King, I’ll figure out a way out of here. It only took you a thousand years to make your presence known and escape and it’s taken me a single day to do the same, it won’t be long till I figure out how to escape.”

“Two days if we’re being technical, but you make a good point, I’ll think about it.”

She continues up a rough path, Seeker clearing the way ahead for hours long after the sun sets. The critters of the night sing their songs and chitter all around the forested hill, making sure to avoid crossing our path. The night is dimly lit by the round, swollen white moon hanging in the sky. King curses at it and the deity it represents.

The moon shifts through the sky to sit at its peak before King finally comes upon something in all her cursing and searching in the bushes of the hill. I feel the smile smear across her face as she stares down the dark hole in the ground, I can’t help the compulsion.

“That’s where you kept the remnants of your Empire? Really?”

“Back again to nag me are you, Nil? Well, I think you’ve come at the right time, you’ll need to see this should you ever take back your body.”

“See what?” I squint down the thing but for my tries I can’t see what’s so special.

“Oh, guess you can’t see it from within the Soul Crystal. It’s enchanted, Nil, down this well is one of many bases I had built.”

“When…when did you have time to build them? And without me knowing?”

“Hahah, just because we slept together then doesn’t mean I’d spill all my secrets into your ears, I’m sure you have a couple secrets of your own.”

When I don’t answer she shrugs and pulls on mana from the atmosphere, coating a single slender finger as she squats over the well and draws over it. Stuck behind the Soul Crystal I can’t see what she’s drawing, but I can sense it— she isn’t drawing.

One by one she picks apart the enchantment cast over the well, rising as she goes one dismantling her own spellcasting until—

“Hey! King or Nil or whatever you call yourself now demon, stop whatever you’re doing there and come back. Now!”

I’d recognize that gruff, disturbed voice anywhere even if I don’t want to. Valery.

“What now, King? Have a master plan for this you’re not cluing me on, hm?”

“Oh shut up, Nil.”

King goes on doing what she’s been doing, but she deigns Valery with a glance over the shoulder and an answer, “It’s King and I can’t stop now, not until I’ve finished.”

“You’ll stop when I tell you to.” Valery sneers, she’s flanked by several armoured and equipped elves— they’ve come expecting a fight.

“Don’t fight them, King. If you kill Valery-”

“I know what happens if I kill Valery and I won’t, doesn’t mean I won’t hurt her if she doesn’t change that tune.”

“I can calm her down if you let me talk to her.”

“Nice try but we both know she hates you a lot more than me, in fact, a lot of that hatred is directed unfairly at me.”

Welp, I had to try.

“You have to the count of three, demon. Step away from that well and return to Lumina with us, honour your end of the pact or else.” She raises her hand, fingers getting ready to curl into a fist and command the full force of whatever elves she’s brought against us.

Still, King doesn’t stop she continues picking apart the enchantment. The Seeker Blade twirls defensively behind us, keeping watch for the first of Valery’s sacrifices.

“If I stop now then the disenchantment will falter and I won’t have control-”

“Times up!” She says something else in carnal and King buckles under the binding weight of her power as the our summoner. The well shatters, bursting out a geyser of steaming water as King crumples beside it.

The elves and Valery stand confused, but she doesn’t let up her use of carnal, speaking the words over and over.

Within the Soul Crystal my world trembles, and a brand new opening— a connection otherwise lost to me cracks through the barrier keeping me out of King’s mind.

The water begins to swirl, taking on a life of its own, King picks herself up and commands Seeker into the throat of one of Valery’s elves— Valery seethes and doubles down but she’s got other problems to deal with— the water snaps at the blood spurting elf, enveloping his body and dissolving it in a matter of seconds. With King under Valery’s foot and that monster dissolving Valery’s men, I’ve got the best opportunity to turn things around.