"Damn, no wonder Trak warned me about Legendary classes…" Lee said, "though, technically, my Class is not Legendary anymore… I should ask him if it still counts. One sec." Lee vanished from the Soul Fortress, and Stanley waited for him while wondering what his brother was talking about.

He passed the time by studying the glowing symbols Lee had been messing with while they talked. "Doesn't look like anything to me," Stanley thought. Other than that, they looked pretty. That was about as far as he could go in making sense of them.

Lee reappeared, seeming thoughtful. "Trak said that it feels different… even Sith didn't notice anything, other than the Source, that is."

"What?" Stanley was still not following.

Then Lee told him what Trak had said about Legendary Classes, presumably including beyond Legendary, which Mythic sounded like it would be, and how just having such a Class could attract attention from some monsters or aliens.

"What about Legendary Skills?" Stanley asked, and Lee vanished again… He was gone slightly longer this time, but Stanley didn't mind since he was simultaneously talking with the others back in the truck while trying to think what his [Mind Over All] Skill would look like if it evolved to Mythic.

"Did you get burned by the Source?" Stanley asked while eyeing Zeke's white hair.

"Yea… I may have gone overboard when I first used it."

"I might know what that's like," Stanley said, thinking back to his near-death experience, "but how did Eve end up with…"

"She was using the energy before you gave me the Tether," Zeke said quickly, "Absorbing it with her devices and firing it from her gun… trying to stop… that thing." Zeke shivered from the memory, and Daryl looked up from his training game with Princess at the mention.

The two were fighting a mock battle with tiny illusory figures across the trailer floor. Each combatant was exquisitely detailed and complete with weapons they wielded to block or attack, even throwing in the occasional spell as they fought their fake war. Princess took ruthless advantage of Daryl's distraction and devastated his miniature army when he looked away.

"It doesn't seem fair that we had to fight those monsters," Daryl said to Zeke, only then noticing his defeat at the fox's hands, or rather, paws.

"If everyone had fought to get stronger and then joined together," Stanley mused, "with a better defensive fortification, it might have gone better. As it was, too many people were just dead weight."

"Yea, I think Nate has the right idea," Zeke replied, "making sure that more people are strong and then being able to fight anything they can't handle by himself."

Meanwhile, Lee returned to the Soul Fortress. "Skills don't matter," he said immediately after appearing, "since there is no guarantee that someone will drop a Skill Shard if you kill them, and apparently, the higher-ranked Skills usually come with a lot of restrictions. Something that Humans don't have to worry about, aside from people like us, I guess… which, of course, is why so many fuckers wanna enslave us."

"So…" Stanley decided to change the subject to something else that had caught his attention, "did your Class evolve above Legendary?"

"Not exactly… It's labeled as Unique now. I asked them about it, and Unique is actually what it sounds like, one of a kind. The ratings on everything supposedly come from how it was used in the past, so if it's brand new, then the System doesn't rate it until later, if ever."

"Our Twin-Soul was called Unique…" Stanley mused, "I'd just assumed that it was something every identical twin would have."

"Right?" Lee nodded slowly in agreement, but not for long. "Though, we definitely did some crazy shit to our Soul way back. All the memory loss… and Caffeine was involved somehow."

"I'm pretty sure he is the reason we survived," Stanley said while looking fondly at the glowing white pug in front of him. His hands, or Soul-projection hands, had been giving the Slumbering pug gentle pets all this time, almost out of habit at this point.

Lee sat down across from Caffeine's Soul and joined in the petting. "I miss him." There was no indication that Caffeine even noticed the attention, but they both hoped he did, somehow, and given how sensitive he was to Soul attacks, Caffeine presumably could feel it. Of course, back in the truck, Stanley gave the also sleeping but physically present pug all the belly rubs he wanted.

"Okay," Lee said, his attention drawn to something that Stanley couldn't see, "Trak brought the bottle. Ready for me to try it?"

"Sure," Stanley told him after a quick scan around the moving truck.

Lee disappeared again, and Stanley waited in not quite nervous anticipation, probably because he was meditating with two split minds at the moment.

Shortly after Lee vanished, Caffeine's bright Soul stirred ever so slightly in his slumber, and Stanley felt… something.

Twin-Soul(Source) is Burning your Body and Mind. -.01 All Base Attributes per One Second

Then Caffeine settled once again, and nothing else happened.

"Well," Lee said upon his return, "the bad news is that even my weakest Rune still sucks up some Source. On the other hand, it only took one from all of my stats, and I think I just made that potion bottle immortal." Lee had chosen to experiment with the glass bottles because they still lacked someone who could make new ones, and apparently, metal, the next best option, didn't react well with the potions.

Stanley told Lee what he'd lost, or at least what the Notification said because his Status was still showing only whole numbers.

"It was ten to one when you used it before," Lee mused, "so it looks like it goes the same both ways?"

Stanley could only shrug, and his twin looked thoughtful before nodding decisively. "I can burn a few more Attributes for science. Just let me know if it's too much on your end since one of the perks of killing an entire army is that I got a lot of Cores…" Stanley nodded his agreement, both to using a bit more Source and the benefits of wholesale slaughter, and Lee left.

What followed was a few more repeats of the sensation from before, including the stirring from Caffeine's Soul and the Notifications about losing fractions of a point from his attributes.

Meanwhile, in the truck, "...if you can't use your usual chop chop power, then I can teach you to fight like Nate taught me," Zeke was saying. "I even got a Skill for Unarmed combat from his teaching. It's how I fight all the time now."

"I may have given myself a massive handicap in the more physical side of things…" Stanley said, thinking of his -90% to Physical Attributes.

"Everyone gets a little adjustment from their Classes or Skills," Zeke said, waving away Stanley's objections. Until Stanley told him exactly what his adjustment was. "Okay… yea, that is… usual. But," Zeke brightened again, "I bet you'll still be able to gain decent attribute gains just from the training!"

"I'll consider it," Stanley finally said. After all, he did need all the stats he could get, and as much as Stanley didn't like working up a sweat, he wasn't really in a position to be picky now. "Not just yet, though." Stanley didn't want to kick Caffeine out of his lap, and he was also hesitant to stop his meditation…

While Lee kept burning tiny bits of Source, Stanley felt the truck slow and stop as Eve spoke through a spider, "We got a problem."

Stanley figured out what the issue was before he actually laid eyes on it.

He'd pulled in his mental touch as she drove, the information coming from it not nearly intelligible enough to be helpful, and instead relied on Eve's flying drone, as well as his diminished Soul Awareness, to watch for danger. But as soon as Stanley felt Eve slowing down, his mind spread out again and hit an impassable wall ahead of them. His Soul Awareness also had a significant void of even the tiniest of Souls in that direction…

Stanley joined the others outside to see it for himself right before he remembered that he was supposed to be hiding inside… "Too late now." He did double-check his Soul Shield, just in case.

Ahead, an opaque, blue wall completely blocked the road just in front of the truck and spread into the sky as well as in either direction to the left and right, fading away as it went until it appeared as if it was only blocking a small area that just so happened to be in front of them.

An Invasion.

It was something Stanley had expected to get in his way, yet something he had initially planned to simply fly around. He could still do that, but carrying the truck with him would be… suboptimal. Also, the wall looked really flat…

"How far do you think it goes…" Stanley said as another Notification popped up.

Twin-Soul(Source) is Burning your Body and Mind. -.01 All Base Attributes per One Second

Stanley checked and saw that he had finally lost one point in each attribute.

"Stanley," Eve's voice was calm, but her Soul belied said calmness, "what's going on?"

"Oh, my brother was just testing…"

"You realize that every time you do that, it sends out a beacon to anything nearby?" Her voice was still mostly calm.

"I… thought the Soul Shield would…" Stanley held up the wrist with her metal contraption around it. "This doesn't absorb it?"

Stanley thought she would explode for a moment, and he was keeping every split mind busy to avoid unintentionally speaking his thoughts… while also telling Lee not to do anything else for the moment and sharing what Eve was saying with his twin.

"Stanley…" Eve sighed, and the anger drained out of her leaving behind only weariness, "no, it doesn't. In fact, you're probably damaging it." She stalked over to him and pulled the band from his wrist. "You know there is a reason I planned to stick you inside a fully enclosed space, and that was just for the aura. When you actively use it… you just destroy my shit."

"I found out that no one outside of Three could detect the Source earlier…" Lee said inside their Soul, then added more quietly, "which means it wasn't strictly necessary to slaughter all of them…"

"They came after you," Stanley reassured Lee, "so fuck 'em!" He was happy to hear that Lee's building could protect him from discovery since that meant one less thing to worry about. It also gave Stanley another idea… "Eve, could you make the entire trailer into an absorber if I ever need to use the Source without giving us away?"

Eve stopped tinkering with the metal and glared at Stanley before looking away with another sigh. "I could," she said, finally, "but it won't work as well as you're probably thinking. I need to find a way to improve my metal, and more importantly, I would need more Soul…"

"I could try teaching you…"

"No," Eve interrupted.

"I could try lowering my Soul Shield and see if you can leech…"

"Fuck no!"

It was Stanley's turn to sigh. "I'll think of something…" And on that note, he should really be working on growing his Soul strength using [Soul Awareness]. One split on meditation, one for the shield, and one for the Soul, which, luckily, he could do while talking with Lee and, in the process, maybe teach his twin to do the same. That left one split mind to carry him around and give affection to a small pug.

"In the meantime," Eve said and pointed toward the invasion barrier, "what are we doing here?"

"Go around it?" Stanley suggested but hesitated as he looked at the dense vegetation down both sides of the 'road' they were on. "Any chance we passed another road?"

"I saw what might have been another interstate before, heading south, and… it looked much more overrun. So it might not run all the way through."

"We'll need to go south eventually…" Stanley thought aloud, and after hearing no objections, Eve shrugged and headed back to the truck.

"Just need to get turned around," she muttered while looking at the relatively narrow space available.

"Let me," Stanley said, "I want to see what it might cost to carry us in an emergency."

Eve spun on him. "I just fucking told you…"

"I already left a trail, right?" Stanley said, "So what's a little more?"

Eve deflated and turned away. "Fine. It's your funeral." She stopped just outside the trailer. "Wait, it's gonna be all of our funerals when they fucking come for you!"

Zeke put an arm around her shoulders before she went off again. "It'll be okay, Eve. Come on."

Stanley let everyone go back in and then followed them. If he was going to test this, he might as well do it right. Lee gave him the green light, and Stanley turned the truck around in midair.

Twin-Soul(Source) is Burning your Body and Mind. -1 All Base Attributes per One Second

Moving everything didn't feel difficult or even much different from the times he'd carried crowds of people before. In fact, it felt a lot easier, effortless even. It was just that at some point in the process, the Source helped him along with no intention on his part.

Stanley almost completed the turn in only two seconds but lost a few extra when he nearly smashed the front end into a tree and had to jackknife it around to fit.

A few more points were lost out of nine hundred and change. It seemed minor, but Stanley had a feeling it might start to add up… especially if he tried to move the truck any faster than the slow speed he just used. All that was left to test now was killing some monsters.

Eve took her place in the driver seat again, and Stanley asked Walter something that was bothering him. "Walter, um… why do you still look old?" The question sounded worse out loud, and Stanley rushed to clarify, "I mean because I got young again after gaining C Rank…"

Walter didn't seem to mind the question. "I do not know, Sir. However, I assure you that I have never felt stronger. I will not slow any of you down."

"I didn't mean anything like that," Stanley said, "I was just curious… and on that note…" Stanley looked around at everyone in turn. "Does anyone else want a Source Tether? I don't think it hurts me if you use the Tether, though we should test that too… Zeke would know the costs of using it better than me, I think." He felt the expected explosion coming from Eve, but it never emerged. Meanwhile, the rest of them were all hesitant, and not because they didn't want it, but because they were afraid.

"I am afraid," Walter said into the silence, and before Stanley could kick himself for speaking his thoughts aloud, "I fear the day that I am required to wield such power… and if such a day comes, I fear not having it in equal measure."

"You want it, you got it," Stanley said and then looked at Zeke, "So… what did it do to you? Burn up your Attributes?" Zeke did look older to Stanley, but he wasn't sure if that was just six months of aging… or just the white hair. "Did it make you older?"

Zeke cleared his throat, "Stanley? There is something I haven't heard you mention, but how strong is your Soul?" Everyone perked up once again at the young man's question as he continued, "You used so much Source, but if it burns up your Soul…"

"What?" Stanley blinked at him. "Burns my Soul? It doesn't… wait, does it burn your Soul too!?"

Zeke nodded.

"Forget it then!" Stanley said, almost reflexively, before asking, "Is it a lot?"

"The Notification said that the Source was burning my Body, Mind, and Soul. I lost almost thirty Attributes from each when I used it…" Zeke said quietly, and Stanley could tell from the seething Soul in the driver seat that Eve had probably experienced a similar effect. Which did explain some of her anger… and the lengths she was willing to go to.

"For me, it says that my Soul is burning my body and mind…" Stanley told Zeke before addressing the others. "I think I told all of you what happened to me and my twin, right? I mean, before the system." Everyone but Daryl nodded, and Stanley realized that Walter must not have shared the things he'd likely overheard from the talk sessions with Marie. Stanley told Daryl what he'd missed, which was all Stanley could remember and, in retrospect, was practically nothing. Basically, something happened that we can't remember, and it involved the Source and, very, very likely, our Soul…

"Our Twin-Soul…" Stanley trailed off and then whispered, "our Unique Twin-Soul." He still remembered the reactions from Eve, Nate, and Zeke when they had seen his Soul.

It had been fucked up, or so they said. Hell, Stanley had seen himself firsthand when he first entered their Soul space. It no longer bothered him to see what they must have done to themselves, maybe because he had seen worse or perhaps just because it seemed a small price to pay for survival. But even beyond that, their Soul had been folded, or contorted, and then wrapped around Caffeine's Soul. Through all that, it somehow served to contain the Source within their and Caffeine's Soul.

"Honestly," Lee whispered within the Soul Fortress, and in response to his voiced thoughts, "I think our Soul looks fine. It looks more than fine when holding a RuneScape together. It looks beautiful!"

Stanley smiled. "It has grown on me. Our Ruthless, Unbreaking, and Undying Soul." Though, it was a problem if the Source burned other people's Souls.

"I will still give any of you a Tether…" Stanley finally said, inside the truck, and to the people looking back and forth between him and Caffeine, "a last resort if nothing else. But I would really prefer that none of you kill yourselves using something I gave you…"

Walter was the first to speak, and Stanley wasn't surprised at all by the man being willing to risk his life. "I am willing to accept this burden, Sir. I will endeavor to keep it hidden away for none but the most dire of circumstances."

Source Tether Granted to (Walter Wingates)

Stanley paid more attention to the forming connection this time. Little more than a tiny strand of Soul Energy coming from Walter and threading deep inside Stanley's own Soul, all the way to the Slumbering pug… and that was it. Nothing flashy or significant, just a fragile connection that Stanley knew he could cut off at any time with no effort on his part.

"Thank you, Sir."

"Don't die on me, Walter."

Daryl was staring at the fiery egg and resting a hand on it as he decided. "I'll take one too."

Source Tether Granted to (Daryl Mathers)

"Thanks." Daryl was sober as he felt out his newly acquired option.

Stanley just hoped that they didn't die because of this… "What about you, Adam? It's yours if you want it." He didn't look directly at the young man. He knew Adam didn't like that but saw him shake his head. "Fair enough." Stanley already knew that Eve didn't want it. In fact, he was pretty sure that she wanted him to take it away from Zeke as well, but he still asked.

"No!" Eve shouted but calmed down as she continued, "just… no thanks. I'll… I am already working on ways to use the power that I've absorbed. Careful, non-burning ways!"

"She just doesn't want to get old," Zeke supplied with a big smile and entirely without prompting from anyone.

"Zeke," Eve growled, and then her brother stumbled into a wall when Eve swerved aggressively onto the road heading south. Stanley immediately noticed how much closer the trees were on either side of them now. There would be no easy turning around on this road… not without flying above the treetops, and they seemed much taller than they should be.

He didn't offer the Source to the wolves. Not because he thought they wouldn't understand the consequences, Stanley was sure that they were nearly as smart as himself, if not more intelligent, but rather because they had a hefty amount of subservience towards him. Well, more toward Caffeine than him, but he was included in their reverence, probably because he was Caffeine's 'Dearest Human.' Stanley felt that an offer from him would be taken more as a command on their part, and he didn't want to force it on them.

But it did remind him of something…

"Can Princess communicate with the wolves?"

Daryl nodded while keeping his attention on the latest mock battle he was having with the fox. "Somewhat," he said with a tentative hand gesture.

"Does she know why they wanted to come with us and why they left their pack behind?" That last part bothered Stanley, and it felt like he had broken up a family.

Daryl must have communicated the question to Princess because she glanced over at the wolves while making some yipping, growling sounds. This time, Daryl took advantage of her distraction to win the illusory battle, and she growled at the laughing man when she looked back.

Daryl pulled her close for some pets as she 'talked' with the wolves, and he translated for everyone else. "They are grateful for something Caffeine did… and they split up because… something about survival of the pack and not being all in one place?"

"Maybe they understand the Invasions?" Stanley wondered, and then his attention was drawn in the direction they were traveling. "Eve, I'm sensing a lot of Souls ahead."

"Are you sure? I'm not seeing anything." Eve called back.

"Very!" Stanley shouted, alarm rising sufficiently to override his meditation-enforced calm. Hundreds… maybe thousands of Souls were entering into his Soul detection range as Eve finally started to slow down.

It was too late as the Souls moved en masse toward the truck.

"Shit!" Eve saw them now, moments before Stanley was able to 'feel' the first one entering into his mental field.

It was a bug, or at least it felt like one, all spindly with too many legs and a pair of wings. Then a dozen more entered his range, followed by a hundred more…

"I gotta go," Stanley told Lee inside the Soul Fortress, "you might get burned a bit."

"Don't worry about me," Lee assured him, "I've got plenty of Cores set aside just in case. Also, you're not going to believe what I just found…"

Then Stanley had all of his split minds back in the real world, and he immediately pushed three of them into his new meditation Skill. Everything slowed down around him, and Stanley started testing the limits of his power. He had a feeling that he couldn't sit this one out…

You have attracted the attention of [The Bloodthirsty Swarm]

New Quest Issued!

Quest Objective: Survive!

"There are more quests!?" Stanley thought but didn't have time to see what that was about before battle was joined. The attackers were bugs, so Stanley did to them what one usually does. He squished them.

The D ranks died with little effort and no reaction from the Slumbering pug in their Soul. The C ranks, however…

Twin-Soul(Source) is Burning your Body and Mind. -1 All Base Attributes per One Second

One attribute, or rather six, to kill one monster. If it dropped a good Core, that would be at least a fair trade, if still not an actual gain. Stanley dropped one of the meditating minds and tasked that one with grabbing the Cores from every monster that died. However, he didn't have much hope for strong Cores from such small and weak monsters.

Eve's cannons joined the fight a moment later as she gave up on stopping and hammered down on the speed. Her weapons were also highly effective, the white-hot beams killing everything in a straight line as they burned through multiple enemies before fading away.

Then Caffeine moved…

Stanley was extremely grateful to see Caffeine kick off the floor rather than his lap, especially when his jump sent the entire trailer careening over as he shot out the door. Stanley managed to halt the impending rollover and pushed the trailer back upright just before they would have collided with a passing tree… which cost him a few fractions from all his attributes.

The wolves followed Caffeine, one out the door and the other vanishing into the floor. Adam followed them, but only to the doorway. He stayed there and was joined shortly after by Princess and Daryl as they all tried to peek out the door simultaneously.

Stanley gave up on the Cores after the first one only gave him one strength and redirected his attention to hovering around Caffeine. He knew the pug was extraordinarily powerful, but Caffeine was still only D rank, and there were a lot of C ranks out there…

Stanley tried a new tactic as the slow-motion world around him gave him plenty of time to choose his targets more carefully. He aimed for the wings of the next bug diving toward Caffeine. The thin membrane of the wings proved more durable than expected, costing Stanley three attributes in total to break off the wing. The results were acceptable, however, as it sent the monster in an out-of-control spiral into the ground, where the stampeding Caffeine ripped through it a moment later.

For the next one, Stanley went with his old favorite method of dealing with problems.

cut

He tried to put the bare minimum of effort necessary into his attack. However, in the end, he was still imposing his own version of reality on the world and, more importantly, over another living thing. Stanley bisected the bug but at the expected cost…

Twin-Soul(Source) is Burning your Body and Mind. -1 All Base Attributes per One Second

So he only cut off a single wing on the next one.

Twin-Soul(Source) is Burning your Body and Mind. -.03 All Base Attributes per One Second

That was better. It didn't kill it, but these creatures seemed far more agile in the air than they did on the ground. Between the wolves and Caffeine, they died quickly once grounded. The wolves paced beside the pug, keeping their sizes more normal and making Stanley much more comfortable with their C rank strength watching Caffeine's back.

Stanley kept testing his powers, feeling as closely as he could at the monsters in an attempt to find the tiniest possible target that he could bring them down with. The heads were an obvious choice, but something about going directly for the kill like that increased the cost in power to break through—likely something about every living thing's innate will to survive. Maybe even akin to his own reflexive blocking whenever he was attacked.

Throughout this time, Stanley had been distracted from his immediate surroundings by concentrating too intently on Caffeine and was only reminded of his oversight when the monsters came knocking. There was also something nagging at him about these monsters… something that finally became clear when a half dozen of them shot through the trailer's open door. Or tried to.

Adam redirected a handful of them to instead slam into the ground outside, and Walter caught the two that made it inside. That was when Stanley got to see what was attacking with his own eyes and what had been nagging at him but hadn't clicked into place until just now. They were mosquitos… giant fucking mosquitos. Which unfortunately explained the quest calling it the bloodthirsty swarm…

Walter dealt with the intruders by smashing their heads together and throwing the headless bodies through the doorway to collide with more approaching bugs. The growing roar of buzzing wings outside was deafening… and quickly drowning out all other sounds.

Stanley took all of this in while still watching over Caffeine. Being able to think many times faster than before definitely had some benefits. He also noticed that more cannons were firing off beams from the truck than there had been earlier, and it took until he saw the extra dozen wolves running in formation around the truck, all of them carrying Princess's Soul, that he realized Daryl was creating the additional cannons. It was clever, building on what the others were doing, and highly effective. Stanley couldn't see any difference in damage between the real and fake guns. He couldn't even pick out either version without looking for which Soul's energy was present in the weapons.

With the newly gained information about what was attacking them, Stanley changed his tactics. He started cutting off their long pointy mouths. No stabby, no sucky, no threat. The downside being that it took a half point off all of his attributes for each one. Maybe something about their mouths being an essential part of the body… Stanley made up for this by carefully picking his targets and only attacking those who might have a shot at Caffeine. He also resumed collecting the Cores from the dead bugs in exchange for losing a bit of his slow-motion advantage. Scooping up Cores was something Stanley had plenty of practice with from his adventures in the Lairs before, made only slightly more challenging by the fact that he was not stationary now but instead racing down the road in the back of a trailer.

Unfortunately, the Swarm was endless… Stanley couldn't even accurately guess how many Souls were congregating around them, with more coming in all the time. He knew that he was probably leaving a trail of Source radiation, but it couldn't be helped. The only consolation Stanley had was that he knew Lee would only take a tenth of the losses he did, and he was making up some of his own losses with the Cores of the dead.

Pointy mosquito mouths occasionally impaled through the armored side of the trailer as the swarm thickened, and Walter even moved Stanley away from the wall at one point to put him further out of reach. Of course, every bug that entered Walter's domain was instantly crushed, and even sticking their proboscis inside was a death sentence for the creatures.

The gray wolf, at one point, tried to go huge, and the swarm that enveloped her quickly sent her back to a smaller size. Her mate didn't attack much, leaving the fighting to the others as he mainly contributed by moving them through the shadows when the swarm closed in too much. Caffeine was barking large swaths of the insects into splatters on the trees and chowing down on others, but Stanley could tell that the pug wouldn't be able to keep it up. Caffeine was already punching above his weight class, and the sheer number of enemies was too much, even for him.

Stanley was watching and waiting to drag Caffeine back when he slowed down too much, but the black wolf was way ahead of him. Caffeine stumbled one too many times and vanished into a shadow. He emerged within the trailer and looked around for an instant before zeroing in on Stanley. The pug took one step and then gave himself a mighty shake… liberally splattering the front half of the trailer’s interior with mosquito gore.

Stanley had a moment to take in all of the goo coating Eve's fancy camper, and then the now clean Caffeine was in his lap and attacking his face with a very happy and enthusiastic tongue-lashing. "Eve is going to be pissed…" Though, maybe Walter would be able to help him out.

Stanley stopped his attacks as the real wolves moved closer and joined up with the fake ones around the truck, now numbering in the dozens. Daryl likewise had kept adding cannons to the truck, and together with Eve, they were blasting a path through the ever-darkening world outside… Stanley had looked through the door, and it was indeed getting darker as the sheer biomass of the creatures blocked out the sky. Eve might very well have the right idea just to keep charging ahead, and Stanley was considering assisting in that area with another super speed boost when he felt the new Soul enter his range.

It was ahead of them, near the ground, if not already standing on it, and it felt more potent than anything Stanley had seen to date. Other than whatever had been trying to invade Nate's kingdom… and its Soul felt very similar to the swarming mosquitoes. "Of course," Stanley thought, "a swarm like this must have a leader." He sent his free split mind racing ahead, reaching out to find what was waiting for them. "Got a boss or something ahead of us," Stanley said aloud as he stretched toward the threat.

Stanley found it.

It stood in the middle of the road as if blocking their path. From what Stanley could feel, it had a body similar to the army around them, though it stood upright on two legs while the other four limbs appeared more like arms. Its mouth was much shorter than the others as well, and it…

The creature's giant bulging eyes flashed with light… and fire seared into Stanley's brain as his split mind recoiled.

Debuff gained: [Mind Crush]

Stanley flinched violently away from the attack as his split mind went dark… and cold… crushing, horrible, darkness and… Stanley felt utter helplessness and despair, but only in part of his mind. The other two splits that had been busy meditating were protected…

[Mind Crush] Resisted.

Skill [Twin-Soul Mental Fortress] Level Up.

"Ow! Fuck! It has some kind of mind magic!" Stanley shouted, clutching at his head as he frantically pulled his split minds back inside his Soul and the Fortress therein. The darkness that had consumed his divided mind was abruptly gone as he pulled the splits back. But that had really hurt, and it was still so far away… Stanley realized that no one was listening.

Walter was down on one knee with blood leaking from his eyes, nose, and ears. Daryl and Princess were both frozen mid-scream. The burning egg nearby was covered in furiously dancing flames, and they licked directly toward the frozen Daryl.

Adam was flickering in and almost out of place as he tried to escape, while Zeke was just staring off into space where he stood, though his usual golden aura was still glowing slightly.

All in all, shit was bad.

Stanley gathered his thoughts, shaking off the lingering effects of the last attack, and prepared to reach out and touch somebody, and not in a good way. Only this time, Stanley changed things up slightly.

Being on the receiving end of a mental attack had brought to light the fact that he had been doing some things wrong. His [Twin-Soul Mental Fortress] was extremely powerful and should have prevented the bug's attack from even touching him, but Stanley had been using it wrong. It protected him, yes, but as he used it now, it only protected his mind when he wasn't spreading it all around or stretching it into the distance.

Stanley had been reaching outside of his Fortress, and for no reason. It was a part of him, Mind and Soul, and it would shelter him even when he reached outside himself. All Stanley needed was a bit more mental effort, and just like that, the Fortress expanded with his mind. It didn't matter if his mind was spread out into the distance, it was still his mind, and the Fortress would just have to grow with it. Stanley had been too stuck on the image of his Fortress being literally inside his Soul and then somehow equating that to being only inside his body.

Stanley reached out again, and Caffeine Growled once in his lap. Everyone stuttered as the leader's concentration was interrupted, letting out screams and groans, but only for an instant before they froze up again. The powerful C rank ahead of them was too strong to be stopped for long by the tired pug, and Caffeine was panting heavily as he struggled to climb free of Stanley's lap.

Stanley held onto him and didn’t let Caffeine go charging off. "I'll handle this one, Caff."

As his mind spread out, Stanley found the wolves still outside and no longer surrounded by the illusory pack. They were still moving but stumbling and falling behind. The only good thing was that the mental attack seemed to have also hit the smaller mosquitos, and it opened up a brief respite from the Swarm.

Up front, Eve was still moving… at least half of her was. Blood leaked from one side of her slack face, while a silvery eye above a snarling upturned lip illuminated the other half. She was glaring out into the distance with her silver eye, and it looked like only a single arm was working as she used it to steer the slowing truck in a slightly swerving path toward the monster. Every single one of her guns was blasting at a singular target now, straight toward the leader of the swarm.

Stanley again laid eyes… well, mental eyes, on the creature. Eve's cannons were bombarding it but to little effect. It effortlessly danced around the incoming fire on buzzing wings, and two of its arms held up a glowing barrier against the few shots that did land.

Stanley felt it notice him somehow and felt the surprise from its Soul right before its eyes flashed again.

Stanley didn't even get a notification this time, as the bright light of its eyes crashed into mental walls of unyielding stone and glowing symbols that outshined it by magnitudes.

Cut

Twin-Soul(Source) is Burning your Body and Mind. -1 All Base Attributes per One Second

Stanley had an instant to wonder why it cost so little to kill… before he saw one of the regular swarming mosquitoes get bisected by his power where the leader had been. The monster hadn't gone far, and Stanley found the leader a heartbeat after it reappeared.

Cut

Twin-Soul(Source) is Burning your Body and Mind. -10 All Base Attributes per One Second

It blasted out a blinding white… something. It didn't hurt Stanley, but it did block out his mental vision for an instant. When he could again perceive the mosquito, it was still alive and only missing a couple of arms… and flying as fast as it could away from him. "I don't think so," Stanley thought with a growl and grabbed on.

Twin-Soul(Source) is Burning your Body and Mind. -10 All Base Attributes per One Second

Immediately, Stanley felt the Source burning him as he fought to hold the creature immobilized and felt something else as well. A mind was actively fighting against him. Not the passive resistance that everything had, but a powerful Will that clashed with his own and rejected the reality that Stanley was trying to impose.

Stanley realized that this creature very likely had a Class or power similar to his own. It had attacked with a mental ability, after all… It was a strange sensation. Rather than a certain amount of resistance to simply be overcome, the bastard felt squirmy or slippery, and Stanley knew that it was trying to use the swapping trick again.

So rather than divide his attention or devote more split minds to help, Stanley focused entirely on rejecting its power. He denied the monster any reality in which escape was an option and held it in place with the unyielding power of his own Will.

Stanley didn't need to do anything else, as he had backup.

Eve’s tracer-like beams of white fire tracked closer and closer to the immobilized mosquito, and Stanley kept holding it as the beams started searing holes into its wings and back.

The monster was strong, high up in C rank for sure, but it had a fatal flaw. Much like Stanley, this monster had gone all in on one power, its mind, and in doing so, it left its physical body helpless. Now faced with someone immune to its most potent attack, the monster was fucked, and it knew it.

Shields appeared around and behind it a few times, but they were weak and broke after taking only a handful of shots, and great gouts of blood started to spray from the deepening holes being burned into the thing's body.

Back inside the trailer, Walter was still on one knee and still bleeding, but the others were rousing as the older man forced the mental attack out of his Domain.

The golden light flaring from Zeke once he started to snap out of it sped up the recovery process even more.

Stanley let Eve finish the monster as its strength waned and the cost for him to restrain it lessened. Until finally…

Quest Completed!

You have Slain the Swarm Leader and Broken the Swarm.

Objective: Survive! …Completed.

Contributions Calculated. Assigning Rewards:

Title: [Swarm Hunters I]

+100 All Base Attributes

Passive Skill: [Mental Resistance I]... Skill Inferior to Current Skill [Twin-Soul Mental Fortress] Merging…

Skill [Twin-Soul Mental Fortress] Level Up.

He hoped for a moment that Caffeine would also earn the same reward, especially a hundred C-rank attributes, which would push him straight to the next rank. But nothing happened… maybe Caffeine got less since he'd only killed the minions and not the boss? Apart from that, Stanley could guess what the Title would do.

The oddity of a Quest Notification aside, Stanley knew it was over because the previously swarming mosquitoes dispersed in every direction. He would have liked to kill all of them and take the Cores, but at best, he would only come out even, and at worst, it would be a net loss. Other people could hunt those things now that the insane boss was dead. Without its help, the rest would be easy kills.

"What the fuck was that!" Daryl broke the fresh silence. He didn’t appear injured, unlike some of the other people who had been actively fighting the effects of the boss's Skill. Though his Soul still felt like it was screaming in pain…

But Stanley was mostly focused on Zeke as the young man suddenly surged with the Source when he spotted Eve staggering back into the trailer. Stanley let Zeke send out a single pulse of the supercharged healing light, just in case anyone was more injured than he thought, and then cut off Zeke’s access to the Source.

Stanley half expected that he would have to take back the Tether to stop him, but it was as easy as pinching a drinking straw closed.

Stanley also caught Eve when she collapsed and levitated her to a couch… before changing his mind at the last second when he saw the mess Caffeine had left there. Walter came to the rescue by blinking to a cupboard and pulling out a clean fur.

Stanley set the fully unconscious Eve down, and Zeke almost collapsed next to her as he poured his healing light out. Then Stanley lifted the two struggling wolves inside, and Adam blinked to them as all three dropped on the floor.

Daryl was on his knees, with both arms around Princess as they both trembled, and Stanley saw tears on the man's face. Walter went to him, and Daryl pulled the man into their hug. Walter tried to get up a few times, saying things about preparing something to eat or drink, but Daryl refused to let him go.

Meanwhile, Stanley collected every Core he could find as he watched over the others.

He didn't know precisely what he had resisted, the brief touch on his split mind had sucked and sucked ass, but it appeared that whatever else that Skill did, it hit hard… and everyone was mercifully asleep before he finished gathering all of the Cores. They all felt… okay, if a bit wounded and tired. That, along with Zeke's healing light, which kept glowing faintly even after he fell asleep, meant Stanley didn't worry too much.

The biggest Core was not, as Stanley expected, from the boss. Instead, that monster dropped something more exciting and potentially even more useful. Stanley held onto that Core as he amassed a pile of Attribute Cores and then started feeding Caffeine the smaller ones. Of course, that just led to Caffeine dumping stats right back into him… and even a few got sent over to Lee.

Stanley didn’t want to use up all the Cores on himself. The others had contributed as much or more than he did, at least until the leader had shown up. But getting Caffeine into C rank was probably the most beneficial use he could think of for these Cores. Especially because Caffeine should be getting ten times more from the C rank cores, and there were a lot of those… and they were all useless. Caffeine just kept dumping his attributes.

Luckily, or maybe brilliantly, Lee offered up a suggestion, and Stanley tried it. Unfortunately, it required food, and Stanley didn't have any. Fortunately, he was surrounded by dead monsters, mosquito monsters, but still meat… probably. Stanley started with the juiciest one of all, the boss. The thing was practically cooked already, thanks to Eve, and Stanley found that its body was much more susceptible to his power now that it was dead.

Stanley went so far as to throw some of the mosquito chunks into the pan on the stove and make cooking motions, with plenty of mentions about how hungry he was and how delicious it looked while Caffeine watched him with rapt attention. Then he started 'dropping' the occasional piece, all of which never touched the ground. Cores were 'dropped' as well, in between the meat chunks, and Stanley kept the flow moving fast. Fast enough that he hoped Caffeine would never get a moment to stop and think…

He kept up a count of the attributes going into the pug, and as the number got higher and higher, Stanley started feeding him the four biggest ones. Plus ten to all attributes, which for Caffeine would be a hundred each. Stanley was still worried Caffeine would dump them back on him, but it didn't happen this time. The distraction of food seemed to work, and Caffeine ate everything up, a full thousand points of Attributes, and Stanley scooped him up in his lap while still keeping the meat coming.

Throughout the process, Stanley saw the wolves watching him, but only in shifts. It seemed that while they were tired from the attack, they still took turns sleeping. Neither moved, curled around Adam as the young man slept and recovered from his ordeal.

Stanley knew that beasts gained power from eating other creatures, and considering how much power went into a Core versus how much had been within the living monster, it made sense that there was something to be gained from the meat. Very likely how cook classes created food Buffs. So to that end, Stanley did save some of the leader for those two, but for later, he didn't dare feed them now for fear that he would remind Caffeine about the joys of sharing.

When the meat ran out, Stanley immediately flipped Caffeine over and started rubbing his belly with his best and most practiced two-handed belly rub techniques. All the while, he spoke in a soft voice, trying to lull the pug into his usual post-dinner nap… and Caffeine drifted off…

Stanley felt a big smile on his face as he watched Caffeine finally sleep and, in doing so, begin to rank up. "I can't imagine how strong he'll be after this!"

It was a slightly selfish thought, seeing as how Stanley would be safer for it, but it was also a selfish thought because his most precious little guardian would be better able to protect himself against all the evils of this world, and Stanley really wanted Caffeine to be safe.

Stanley kept watch the entire time, not just on his companions but on as large an area around them as he could maintain. Now, with the most important task completed, there was just one other thing to take care of, get them all the hell out of this place.

On the one hand, the Swarm of mosquitoes had killed everything else in the area, so there was no danger on that front. The only Souls Stanley could feel were a handful of mosquitoes that had settled near the edges of his Soul perception. None stayed within range of his mental touch.

On the other hand, Stanley had used a lot of Source here, and if the aliens could detect it… well, better to get moving.

That was how Stanley found himself in the driver's seat of his, or rather Eve's, truck. She had kept the controls basically the same, so Stanley didn't have much trouble, especially since he remembered which lever Eve used to release the brakes. After that, it was as simple as it gets, one pedal to go and one to stop. Stanley didn't even need to actually sit in the driver's seat, but he did anyway. It just felt wrong not to… Though, he sat in a cross-legged meditating posture while using his mind to handle the controls.

It felt like a throwback to the good old days of driving down the road, only this time, he wasn't pushing the truck, well, just a little. So little, in fact, that Stanley wasn't sure it was having any effect. While doing that, he did wonder about how before the system, he'd been able to push the semi down the road without too much effort, yet now it took… well, it still was effortless, but he couldn't do it without burning himself.

In the end, Stanley chalked it up to something to do with the world itself changing. He'd been pushing an F-rank, or lower, truck through an F-rank world. Now it would be pushing a very likely C-rank truck through a C-rank world. Stanley had a feeling that the him from back then wouldn't be able to even budge this truck… everything had become… more. Human bodies couldn't move as his could now, not to mention someone like Nate. Caffeine shouldn't be able to kick off from a wooden, or even metal, floor. Not when he was moving faster than the speed of sound. Of course, what did laws of physics matter when you could explain anything with one word, Magic.

He did take it slow, however. Partly because he wasn't sure how much charge was still in the battery and also to be a bit more cautious of potential threats waiting ahead. They were in no way ready for another fight like that.

Stanley didn't know how long the others needed to rest, but between his resistance to the attack and his ongoing meditation, he figured that he was good to go for a long time.

Stanley did make a solid effort to clean up Caffeine's mess in the back as he drove, but it was drying up and practically glued into the furs by now. He would have to find some new ones…

Meanwhile, Lee had popped in and out of the Soul Fortress, either in response to the loss of stats or in response to the regaining of stats from Caffeine. Regardless, he was there when Stanley sent one split mind back after feeding the beast, and his brother turned away from the Runes he was working on. "How'd it go?"

"Great idea," Stanley said and told his twin what had happened with Caffeine. At the end of his tale, Stanley told him about the Skill Shard that the leader had dropped.

Skill Shard(C Rank)

[Mind Crush(Initiate)](Epic)

Crush the Minds of your Enemies! Leave them Incapable of Anything but Despair!

Attacks the Target's Mind Directly. Dependent on Target's Defenses, it May cause Loss of Bodily Control, Paralysis, Unconsciousness, or in Weaker Targets, Death.

Can be Used on a Single Target or in an Area with Reduced Effect.

Targets must have a Centralized Nervous System or Brain to be Fully Affected.

Requirements:

Extremely High Mental Affinity: (Requirement Met)

Mental or Related Class: (Requirement Met)

And there it was… Stanley wasn't sure what to think. It did sound powerful. Hell, it might have let him slaughter that entire Swarm. But the critical factor, and the reason Stanley was most interested, was that he hoped it would give him a weapon that didn't cost him attributes to use. That was the hope, at least.

He hadn't absorbed the Skill yet, though, partly because it felt like he was stealing all the loot while the others slept. To be fair, Stanley had killed the monster that dropped it, but still…

Of course, if something showed up looking for a fight, Stanley would use it. But so far, the land felt barren. The only Souls he detected were tiny birds and rodents that probably hadn't been worth the Swarm's time.

Other than that, Stanley and Lee didn't talk much. Instead, each working on their own projects in companionable silence, Lee his Runes, and Stanley, their Soul.

Everyone stayed asleep, apart from the wolves, and Stanley had suspicions that Walter may have woken a few times, if only to check on things before dozing off again. All in all, it was a nice drive as the sun slowly sank into the western horizon. Caffeine eventually woke up, still in his lap, and as expected, Stanley couldn't feel any difference from the pug other than maybe a bit more solidity… if that made sense. Along the way, he looked at the quest Notification from before.

Quest: [The Bloodthirsty Swarm]

You have Attracted the attention of the Bloodthirsty Swarm.

All who have encountered this Swarm have fallen before it. Run or fight. The choice is yours.

Objective: Survive.

Rewards:

Survival.

Variable, depending on Contributions.

"Good riddance."

Stanley wasn't sure how far he'd driven when the others started waking up. Not very far, considering how slow he'd been going, but hopefully far enough. Eve woke up first, just in time, because Stanley couldn't figure out how to turn on the headlights, assuming she had installed them. Not that he explicitly required headlights… but it just felt wrong to drive in the dark.

Of course, his eyes had been vastly improved since before the system, and he could see clearly with only starlight. The strange, and just a bit worrying part, was that the shadows under the trees seemed to defy even his new and improved eyesight. As if the darkness was darker than it used to be.

Regardless, Eve's awakening brought with it light. Not just headlights but light throughout the entire truck and trailer. Then she joined him up front, more subdued than Stanley could ever remember seeing her, and didn't immediately kick him out of the driver seat, a testament to how tired she must be. She instead sat quietly in the passenger seat for a while with her knees pulled up to her chest.

"It died then?" she finally asked.

"Yea," Stanley replied, "do you not remember? You fucked it up real good."

Eve smiled, but it turned into a grimace. "That was some fucked up shit, and the last bit is kinda hazy… how are you still okay after that?"

"I… resisted most of it," Stanley said, and felt a bit of anger from her when he did, and then she just sighed.

"Lucky."

"What did it do?" Stanley asked, curious. He didn't think Caffeine had been affected, very likely protected by Stanley's own Mental Fortress, if not just immune on account of him not wanting to be affected. The wolves likewise had seemed to resist at least some of the effects, which Stanley was sure involved Caffeine somehow.

"It…" Eve started to say, and then shook her head, "I don't want to talk about it."

"Fair enough," Stanley nodded. He understood her reaction very well, if not the cause of it, and changed the subject. "Get anything good from the quest?"

"Stats, a Skill, and a Title," Eve said and sighed. "Honestly, it doesn't feel worth it for that shit show."

"There are all the Cores too," Stanley suggested, "though… I gave most of them to Caffeine, sorry."

"I can tell. Finally got him to rank up?"

Stanley nodded with a smile. "Yep, does he seem different? I can't really tell."

"Oh yea," Eve said, eyeing the pug, "it's very obvious. How can you not… never mind." She slouched lower in the seat and closed her eyes, clearly not back to a hundred percent yet.

"I've never really been able to sense his strength," Stanley supplied, "I can always feel him, almost like he is part of me, but that's about all I can tell."

Eve only nodded, and Stanley let her sit quietly as he drove.

"It was so dark," Eve said after some time, voice soft and her Soul trembling, "I was buried alive and being slowly crushed…" Stanley stayed quiet and waited for her to continue, which she did, eventually. "I was alone… so cold… and dark… it felt like I was dead." Then some of her usual anger rose. "Fuck that fucker!"

"It looked like you were resisting pretty well," Stanley said softly.

Eve looked at him for a bit and then started chuckling. The laughter was not very humorous as it stopped and started a few times before she finally spoke again, "I never told you about what I got the first time I saw you."

Stanley shook his head but didn't say anything.

"I got a fucking Cheated Death Trait!" She laughed darkly and continued, "It said that I should have died, and yet somehow I didn't, and for that, I got the ability to cheat death again!" Eve was staring at him, but Stanley kept his eyes on the road and waited for more that he knew was coming. "You were there," Eve whispered, "when I lost to the Undead… when I died."

"You didn't…" Stanley started.

"I died!" Eve yelled at him, and Stanley saw Zeke stirring in the trailer. "It said that I died…" Eve said, whispering again, "and then it gave me a choice."

"I remember," Stanley said quietly, and he did remember seeing her Soul teetering on the edge…

"I was so tired…" Eve's voice cracked, "I just wanted it to stop… I wanted to leave it all behind, the pain, the fear… Zeke was dying, and I… I wanted to abandon him!" Tears were running down her face now.

Stanley could see that Zeke was awake now, and he was uncertain whether Eve was aware of that fact or not. But what he did know was that Eve was carrying more demons than he'd suspected. Stanley had thought she was just her usual grumpy self, and he'd been wrong. This had been eating at her for some time, from the looks of it, and enduring that mental attack had been the breaking point.

"I wanted to give up," Eve said through the tears, "I was going to… give up… and then you were there. You fucking psycho fuck! You! Telling me to keep fighting!" She broke then and started sobbing, her arms wrapped around her knees as she huddled in on herself.

Stanley did the only thing he could think of to help and nudged Caffeine off his lap. The pug was already sitting up and staring at Eve, and the nudge was all it took for him to go over and begin searching for an opening to get at her face. Being the unstoppable Beast Lord that he was, Caffeine fought past her defenses with sad whines and an unrelentingly persistent nose that found a crack to wedge his way through.

Stanley just kept driving as Caffeine claimed her lap and, in exchange for hugs, did his best to clean her tear-stained face by covering it with slobber.

After some time, Walter extricated himself from Daryl's sleeping form in the trailer. Princess was awake as well, but she only watched him go as she curled closer to Daryl. Adam remained asleep, though the wolves curled up with him were awake and watching. Walter went to the stove and did some magic to make a fire, at least as far as Stanley could tell, and then pulled a tea kettle full of water out of thin air.

Zeke was also awake but still lying on the couch, and Stanley could see the tears spilling from behind his closed eyelids. He was not crying for himself but for his sister as he struggled against the desire to rush to her side.

Stanley stayed quiet as he drove, going so far as to hold his jaw shut with [Mind Over All] to avoid accidentally saying something stupid.

Eventually, Eve was ready to talk again as she wiped her face with a sleeve and stared down at the pug in her lap. "That was when I got the Evolution," Eve said, continuing her story, "It made half of my brain into… metal, which apparently allowed me to keep fighting today… but I couldn't really remember anything in the fight, I could barely think. All I knew, all I could understand, was that… that thing had attacked me… and I wanted it dead!"

"I've been there," Stanley said softly, his mind pulling up memories of darkness and despair, blunted slightly by his meditation, "I wish I could say it gets better, but it doesn't really. You can kind of get used to the pain, and it shocks you less… but it still hurts."

Eve only nodded slightly, but Stanley knew that she didn't regret her choices at this moment. Despite everything, she would do it all again if necessary, just like Stanley… He sat in the calm silence with her as the trees outside continued sliding past.

Eventually, Eve asked him something else.

When it was clear that she was finished, Stanley said, "For what it's worth, I'm glad you made the choice you did. I would have really missed having your kind words and warm demeanor around." He risked a glance at her.

Eve smiled as she flipped him off. "You know I just keep you around for your dog, right?"

"Story of my life," Stanley said, nodding sadly in agreement, "and I'm sorry if my experiments brought that monster to us, especially since it only hurt everyone except me…"

Eve took a deep breath with only a tiny hitch in her throat. "I… I think it was a good thing if only to see that fuck dead. We even came out ahead… I think."

"I fed its body to Caff and the wolves," Stanley said, which earned him a small smile and earned Caffeine some extra pets.

"Is that why there are mosquito guts all over my trailer?"

"No idea how that happened," Stanley said.

"You're a terrible liar…"

Stanley only smiled as Zeke's soothing light filled the truck, lighting it up even more right before Walter brought both of them cups of tea that smelled and tasted delicious. Stanley wasn't even a tea person…

Zeke made his rounds, starting with Eve, where Stanley studiously ignored the whispered words that brought fresh tears from the woman. Then Zeke moved on, checking everyone's health and giving them each an extra dose of his healing, along with hugs all around. Stanley broke his meditation long enough to return the hug, unsure whether Zeke was trying to comfort them or himself. Either way was fine, and only Adam escaped from a hug, and then only by teleporting to hide behind the wolves.

Throughout it all, Stanley could feel the same exhausted and drained fatigue in Zeke as everyone else, but bubbling up beneath was his irrepressible optimism. It was refreshing, and even Eve was cheered up.

Eve eventually took a break from petting Caffeine and drinking her tea to ask Stanley something else, "Is there a reason that you're trying to crush everyone with your Soul right now?"

"Huh?"

"I woke up to your Soul smothering me while you were up here talking to yourself." The strangest part of her statement was that she wasn't upset about it. Instead, she'd… enjoyed it? Of course, that was when Stanley spoke his thoughts aloud…

"Get over yourself… it was just a 'devil you know' type thing…" Eve looked away, actually blushing slightly. "You were happy… It was a nice change."

Stanley smiled at the metal spider on the dashboard that was facing his way and made an effort of Will to pull his Mental Fortress back within himself. "Did that change anything?"

Eve nodded as she turned back. "Training something?"

"Not exactly," Stanley said, his mind already on the expected culprit for what she'd been feeling. His Mental Fortress was technically his [Twin-Soul Mental Fortress]. This meant that if his mind was protected, then his Soul would be surrounding his mind… and so touching everything his mind did. "Could you feel the Source or just my Soul?"

"No Source that I could tell."

That was a relief, but it meant that his days of sneakily touching everything to see around himself were over, at least if he wanted to keep his mind protected from Mental attacks… "and I wasn't talking to myself. I was talking to my brother."

"The voice in your head that no one else can see or hear?"

"Touche." Stanley decided that Eve had calmed down enough and tossed over the Skill Shard. "The leader dropped that."

Eve looked at it for a long moment, cursed, then rolled down the passenger window and threw it outside. The Core flew right back in before she could close the window, and she sighed. "Just don't use that on me."

"I'm guessing you don't want it?" Stanley asked, and after she shook her head, sent it around for the others to see. No one wanted it, not that Stanley expected them to, and he absorbed it.

New Skill Gained: [Mind Crush(Initiate I)](Epic)

"I won't use it on any of you," Stanley said, loud enough that he knew they could all hear him, "but maybe after some testing, you might want to think about having me use it on you." Eve bristled, but Stanley continued before she could work herself up. "That attack just rolled off me like it was nothing." Or at least it had once he used his Fortress correctly. "I'm assuming you all got the Skill for mental resistance? I already had one, and probably a stronger one, but more importantly, I suspect that mine is a much higher level."

Stanley felt the understanding dawn in them and said more quietly, "I leveled it by enduring…" Memories of fighting the Soul binding slave collar burned in his mind, despite the meditation. "...no pain, no gain," was all he said.

"I would be amenable to some testing, Sir," Walter said, "but… later."

"Obviously," Stanley replied.

"Are you sure, Walter?" Daryl asked, horror creeping into his voice.

"I am ashamed to admit that I was quite helpless against that foe," Walter said to Daryl, "I was even unable to draw upon the Source that Master Stanley only just gave me."

"Really?" Stanley was surprised. It came too easily to him…

"I could feel it," Walter said, "yet it was as if it was just out of my reach, and I could not summon the strength to take it. No matter how I tried… So yes, this is a weakness that cannot be allowed and must be addressed."

"Hardcore," Eve whispered, but Stanley could tell that she was coming around to the idea as well. At least until she remembered what it had been like. "Psychos."

Stanley smiled and told them about his idea of using Zeke's light to hopefully make it less traumatic as he drove slowly on through the night.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Miles to the north of Stanley, a small rabbit with a single horn sticking out of its forehead was looking perplexed at the wall that had appeared in front of it. Before it could decide whether to attack the obstacle or go in a different direction, the wall vanished.

The rabbit's nose twitched as it regarded the puddle of water hanging in the air and the large hill now visible behind it. Then the puddle pounced, and the rabbit found itself ripped apart with merciful speed within the blob of the water-like substance before slowly dissolving away to nothing.

When the liquid appeared clear again, it splashed down onto the dirt and gravel road. There it flowed up to and then through the tire tracks that stopped near where the wall used to be. More liquid followed behind until the tracks filled and overflowed. The liquid kept coming and slowly climbed higher on itself in a way that was impossible for any regular liquid to do. It rose higher and higher until it stood as tall as a human. Then it thinned and reformed into a new shape, a human shape. Features sharpened and refined slowly and ultimately revealed a young-looking human male, albeit somewhat see-through at the moment.

All but where the Human's eyes should be. There, twin lights glowed in its head, and they brightened as the figure turned south. It stood in place, motionless for a time, and then splashed back to the ground and flowed away in the direction it had come from.

In the starlight shining down from a moonless sky, the large hill in the distance began to sink. It fell lower and lower until ruined structures were revealed beneath it, their skeletal remains stabbing up at the stars in silent reproach.

Eventually, the liquid hill was gone, drained into the river and disappearing within the currents before running south, leaving behind the dead city.