Dylan shifted uncomfortably at the ice in my voice. The blade in his gut might’ve added to that discomfort, but it was mostly my tone. Definitely.

“Okay, okay; no need to get violent.” Dylan chuckled defensively. “Well, more violent, I guess. You’ve already got the violence–”

“Quiet.” I demanded. I needed to get the most out of this chosen in the least amount of time. Scalovera had to know something was happening. “How many people did Scalovera ask you to wipe?”

“I don’t know. A dozen? Two dozen?” Dylan tried to shrug. “I didn’t keep count. He’s got them all locked up in jail for some reason, even though they can’t do much of anything any more.”

Fuck. That was exactly what I didn’t want to hear. “Can you undo what you did?”

Something in my voice caused Dylan to flinch. Fucking good. “Um, no? You can’t un-skin a deer. Well, you can taxidermize it, but it’s still dead.”

I closed my eyes and felt my stomach twist into knots. Thorn was going to get thrown in jail with the still-breathing corpses of all his friends and family. Jun and Ambus wouldn’t rescue anyone. What would that do to these people? I’d lost so many friends in my old life, and I’d changed so much because of it. But to lose everyone you loved in one fell swoop… I couldn’t even imagine it. I had to hope the Staura were more callous than humans.

My fingers closed around Dylan’s neck. He argued. He begged. I knew I had more questions. I knew I should’ve tried to get Scalovera’s plans, and who he was working with out of the fucking scum I had under my blade. I watched as Dylan struggled. It didn’t feel good. It wasn’t cathartic.

It was cold. And empty.

“Who is Scalovera working with?” I quietly asked.

“I don’t know! More plant fuckers!” Dylan cried in desperation. He tried to activate his core, but his battery was in a state of equilibrium. It wouldn’t divert battery from life-preserving functions to combat functions. “No, wait, I remember! Everduous! Wiltloam! And, and, and… Antirrhi and Belliscorn! Those were the people he mentioned by name!”

I pulled my sword from Dylan’s gut. He sighed in relief and went limp on the ground.

//CREATION HAS ACTIVATED.

//COPIED CORE GRANTED TO [SEBASTIAN CORMIER PERSEPHONIA].

Dylan’s head rolled away from his body. I didn’t spare him anything more than a hateful glance, and after a brief grisly search, I found the real version of his core. The crystallized experience and everything in his inventory found its way into mine, save for the purple armor that I left him with. Scalovera needed to know what he’d wrought.

{I know it's a longshot, but is there any way I can undo what Dylan did to those Staura?} I asked The End as I slowly walked to the pile of barely moving Staura guards. I held a sliver of hope that the purple controlling veins weren’t the same thing as the mind-wiping function.

I knelt down next to one of the guards who looked to be in the best shape, gently removed her helmet, and inspected her head. There weren’t many visible injuries, but something in the colour of her ‘skin’ was just… wrong. Unless that was her natural colour, it looked like she’d been frostbitten.

//THERE IS ALWAYS A CHANCE.

//BUT THE SOLUTION WILL NOT BE AS SIMPLE AS CONSUMING THE CORE THAT INFLICTED THE FUNCTION.

//YOU WILL NEED ANOTHER CORE WHOSE FUNCTION CAN REWIND, OR COMPLETELY UNDO, ANY INJURIES.

//THAT, OR SIMPLY PUT THE STAURA IN QUESTION’S ARMOR BACK ON THEM.

//IT SHOULD UNDO THE DAMAGE.

“Oh. Right.” I said sheepishly, quickly replacing the guard’s helmet. Then another thought came to me. “What if they can’t summon their armor? How long would it take for the change to become permanent?”

//…THAT IS A VERY GOOD POINT.

//IF THIS ‘SCALOVERA’ TRULY WANTED TO DESTROY THOSE STAURA, HE WOULD’VE REMOVED THEIR ARMOR.

//AS FOR THE TIME, THERE ARE NOT MANY REPORTS OF THOSE CHANGES TAKING ROOT.

//OKERIA MAY HAVE MORE INFORMATION, SEEING AS HE HAS ALREADY UNDERGONE A SIMILAR CHANGE.

That was a good point. I pushed myself back to my feet with a grunt, waiting amidst the Staura guards as they slowly started making sounds once again. That was a good sign for how to ‘cure’ all the Staura Scalovera had, but a good sign didn’t matter if they were unarmored.

“What just… did I die?” The guard at my feet groaned, trying to push herself up on unsteady limbs.

“Whoah, there. Stay down.” I said gently, unsummoning my sword to show that I was unarmed. “You’re fine. The guy that did this to you is feeding the worms now.”

“Feeding the…” The woman muttered, craning her head to look behind her. She gasped at the sight of Dylan’s body, then went completely limp. “Did you kill him?”

I smiled even though the guard couldn’t see it and nodded. This was the test to see if they’d been brainwashed or not.

She blew out a long, relieved sigh. “Oh, thank the gods he’s gone. Did Okeria send you?”

“It’s a little more complicated than that, but the short answer is yes.” I confirmed. The other guards were starting to stir with grunts of pain and confusion, and I made my next words out to all of them. “Scalovera’s gotta know Dylan’s dead. So none of you are safe from whoever he hired to terrorize this city. The second that all of you can walk, I’m taking you to one of our safehouses.”

“Abyss below, he managed to kill Dylan?” One of the guards murmured in awe.

“We don’t have to work under him any more.” Another said in disbelief.

“I want to go home.” Yet another whimpered, and I identified them right away. I’d have to tell Okeria to make sure that one was safe.

The shield Dylan had planted in the ground still called to me, and I walked over to it with purpose. I put my hands on the strange rectangle and pulled it into my inventory, finalizing Dylan’s death in my mind. The temptation to check what it was right away paled in comparison to the urge to ensure these Staura made it home safe.

“Open up! I’ve got people!”

I slammed my fist repeatedly on the safehouse door I’d left earlier that day, an entire platoon of city guards standing at attention behind me. It was somehow more inconspicuous to be completely conspicuous, as it was known the guards were supposed to be out today. I waited a moment before I heard something click on the other side of the door, and a pulse of static electricity told me it was Okeria on the other side.

I jabbed a thumb over my shoulder. “I’ve got the guards. And some really horrible news that I didn’t want to risk being overheard.”

The door trembled for a second, then whipped open to reveal an empty room behind it. The guards murmured in confusion and anticipation, but followed me without pause as I gestured for them to move. I didn’t risk a single important word until I was safely underground, though not as far down as the cavern, and I saw Okeria standing before a map that had gotten a few more marks on it since I’d last seen it.

“Sebastian. Please tell me you’ve got at least some good news.” Okeria’s voice was full of exhaustion and weariness, so much more so than just a few hours earlier. “Juniper and Ambus just got back an hour or so ago. It… Ambus and Gloriosa ain’t in the kinda state for doing much of anything at the moment.”

He didn’t mention Jun’s state. “What about Jun?”

Okeria gestured off to the right at a closed door. “Working with her core and some items I gave her. She ain’t shaken, which is saying a lot, but she’s angry beyond imagining. Oh, and she told me ta send ya in the second you’re free.”

I nodded in cold understanding and gestured for the guards to spread out and relax. Somehow, they got the message. “Some human named Dylan had a core that could wipe Staura. He was a chosen, and worked with Scalovera. There’s a… a good chance anyone in jail is in the same state as Ambus and Gloriosa’s loved ones.”

“Drown me.” Okeria whispered. “...Ya said was? Is that the permanent ‘was’?”

“As permanent as possible.” I confirmed. I reached into my inventory and placed both of Dylan’s cores down on the table. “Here’s the proof. I also stole everything I could from his corpse, and I got the names of some people Scalovera hired. Everduous, Wiltloam, Antirrhi, and Belliscorn.”

Okeria held up a finger for me to stop, then swiped his hand through the air. “Can ya repeat that, please?”

I did, and Okeria recorded the names in his interface. He stared at empty space for a good few moments, then sighed and shook his head.

“Don’t recognize any of ‘em as too important. I’ll run ‘em by Ambus and Gloriosa when I get the chance.” He said. “How about Thorn? Did this ‘Dylan’ get him too?”

My answer was to give Okeria back his drone. He tilted his head to the side, then summoned just his helmet.

“I found that where Dylan attacked me. Thorn isn’t wiped, but I don’t know how good of a shape he’s in. Especially if Scalovera puts him in a cell with… well… you know.”

“Yeah. Ya don’t gotta say it.” Okeria removed his helmet and stuffed the drone in his inventory. “Ya said the human was a chosen? I’m guessin’ he wasn’t Endurance’s?”

I shook my head. “He said he was Abandonment’s chosen. So I just made myself the enemy of a second Embodiment.”

Okeria shrugged. “Sometimes ya gotta do what ya gotta do. And ya had ta do this. If Abandonment comes after ya, I’ll be right there with ya ta fight it. But who knows? There’ve been cases of Embodiments regretting who they chose. Maybe Abandonment sent ‘Dylan’ as far away as possible ta make sure he didn’t do any damage ta a budding humanity.”

I crossed my arms and snorted. “Yeah, right. I’m going to go see Jun. Tell me when we have another plan, or if you need help coming up with another plan.”