Stomping into the room, one haggard looking demoness with a much less pristine looking dress growled with each step. Her hands were balled into tight fists, so much so there was the smallest trickle of blood coming from them.

  She didn’t waste a second the moment she saw us. The demoness flicked her arm and threw a wave of ice towards us. I shoved Killa away as I dove to the other side. The ice slammed into the stone, shaking the room.

  Killa threw a pair of blue tentacles at the entity that had made its life’s purpose to hunt me down. She threw her other arm up, and a wall of ice intercepted the spell. The magic clashed, and the wall of ice shattered into a cloud of dust and ice shards. I ducked while covering my face with my arm. I heard more than I felt the ice hit me.

  “Again you get in my way. I’m over all these distractions.” She flapped her wings and glided back while sending another wave of ice towards Killa.

  At the same time, the demoness sweeped a wing towards me. Along the ground rose a path of frozen ground that icy spears reached towards me. I went to step out of the way, but the path curved to follow me. My attempt to get out of the way ended when I crashed into the wall.

  A wall of icy spears cut off my path and spread towards me. Just before they skewered me, Bark jumped in the path of them. Across his body, several icy penetrations struck him. His body was turned to face me. His eyes were closed and his face was expressionless. But the ice halted the moment it struck him.

  A notification above my shards told me I received eighteen thousand four-hundred and thirty-two shards and five stat points.

  I killed him? That’s impossible. Why did the system just give me the credit for his death?

  Because the nanites in his body still belonged to the host. The system sees them as nothing more than a tool. The host’s tool was the cause of his death.

  Orange, stop! He was alive, I saw him breathing. He was just moving. Those icicles hit him. I didn’t do anything.

  If the host studies the wounds closer, they will see that the ice shards didn’t strike any vital areas. Those were nonleathal. The shaylip was dead before they struck. Moving in the way the shaylip did they ended their own life. Following the predicted trajectory, the icicles would’ve struck more vial areas on the host. They spared the host from significant damage.

  He did that for me? How is that possible? He was so close to death that moving any amount killed him while he walked. And it just so happened that he died right in the way of the demoness’s attack. That doesn’t seem possible. People just don’t die that quickly. I can’t be the one who killed him. I just can’t. He knew I would heal if the attack hit me. He didn’t have to do that. Maybe we could find a way to save him.

  The evidence is presented to the host and they deny it? That’s illogical. The host is in shock right now. This is a bad time for an emotional breakdown. There is the option that the shaylip knew they were going to die and chose to do something with thier last breath rather than just lie on the ground and perish.

  He has a name, Orange. Use it. He isn’t just some shaylip, his name is Bark.

  This fight will be challenging for the host, and—Bark—likely knew that. So Bark attempted to save you.

  He really was sorry then. It was stupid for him to do it in the first place.

  The host has no power to change the past. And if they do not wish to suffer a similar resolution, they best concentrate on the fight.

  Right. She still wants to kill me. If Bark wanted me to live, then I’ll have to fight.

  “Well, that’s one less annoyance.” The demoness squinted but coated her hand in ice before throwing a spiked ball at Killa who twisted her body to avoid it.

  I took the chance to push off the wall, up and over the spikes and Bark’s corpse, to circle around and shoot at the demon’s back. The bullet fired off, but with a swift twist of her body, she deflected the bullet using a shield of ice she created. Her smile sent a chill down my spine.

  She raised a wall of ice between her and Killa. The wall blocked both her and Gary away from me. “Now that there are no more distractions, I’m going to enjoy hearing you scream. You’ve made me chase you all over this dark, dank, dungeon. You just kept running. But guess what? There’s no more running.”

  I glanced at the entrance and saw that the doorway was blocked by another wall of ice. Trapped. I don’t have a golem to break me out this time.

  Her face twisted into a sadistic grin as she clenched her fist. “After I kill you, I’ll make that slime suffer as a just dessert for myself. After all, I’ve got to remove everyone who remembers you.”

  She glanced at Bark's corpse. “And it looks like I have one less to take care of.”

  A hard layer of ice covered her body like armor. What now? I fired the gun several times, and expectantly each bullet bounced off her icy armor harmlessly. The temperature dropped even further, and I felt the saliva in my mouth crystallizing. Killa’s tentacles lashed out, trying to break through the ice wall that the demoness had summoned. Her attempt barely cracked it.

  With a swift flick of her hand, the demoness sent a hail of ice shards hurtling towards me. I threw myself to the ground, feeling the shards whizzing above me. A giant blade of ice manifested and attempted to cut me in half. By tucking my legs and rolling forward, I saved myself. The blade bit into the stone and shattered from the impact.

  I could feel my nanites healing my skin. It must be so cold that I’m developing frostbite.

  It is.

  My movements felt sluggish, but I could still move fast enough. She’s relentless. Another blade swiped as the demoness laughed. I jumped over it and shot her again. The bullets ricocheted off her armor, but I could see cracks developing over all of it, not just where I hit it.

  Killa fired several small red tentacles from her hands at the wall, melting a foot-wide hole. It was wide enough for her to slip through and come out the other side, shooting more red tentacles at the demon. Steam and smoke billowed off her tentacle magic. The demon used her ice-covered wing as a shield. The impact released more steam, turning the room hazy. But there was the sound of shattering glass.

  The demoness’s icy armor cracked and fell to the ground in a million shards. She glared at Killa, furious. A giant clawed ice hand grabbed her magic red tentacles and crushed them. The hand then reached for her. I fired at the hand until I emptied my gun. Several large cracks had formed on it, and Killa threw up another barrier. Before summoning yellow tentacles to grab the icy construct and pin it to the ground. Killa’s tentacles pulled the hand apart, but then a swirl of ice shards started whipping through the air.

  They started cutting me, and I ran for Killa’s wall as she shaped it to deflect them. She held out a hand to pull me in as I felt hundreds of tiny cuts all over my body. I let my nanites go to work, but I ached everywhere. My clothes were torn and soaked in blood.

  I swallowed hard as I barely saw the demoness throwing her arms around through the deadly blizzard. “How is she so much more powerful than us? What level is she? She has to be exhausted from chasing me from before.”

  Killa gave me a worried look. “She might not be that much higher than us, but instead put all her points into her arcane. It’ll give her plenty of mana regeneration. But that means all of her other stats are likely lower. We just need to exploit that.”

  “How?” I reloaded my gun. “This thing hasn’t been doing anything to her.”

  Killa gave me a wink. “Then you’ll need a stronger weapon.” She held out her hand, and a large yellow crystal appeared.

  Something about the crystal felt familiar, but I couldn’t remember why. “What’s that for?”

  “I have faith you’ll figure it out.” She shoved the crystal into my chest. There was a slight pressure on my chest, and then I watched as my shard total skyrocketed. She gave me sixty-five thousand five hundred and four shards. “Let’s call it an investment.”

  She just gave me all her money. There’s no other reason why it’s such a random number. She wants me to use my system to find a way to augment myself. Well, Orange, I need a weapon. Something strong and something I can afford.

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  Clawed hands upgrade available:

  Cost: 75,000 shards.

  Garotte bay upgrade available:

  Cost: 92,250 shards.

  Arm blade upgrade available:

  Cost: 85,000 shards.

  Spiked epidermal plating upgrade available:

  Cost: 66,000 shards.

  Clawed feet upgrade available:

  Cost: 68,800 shards.

  Power fists upgrade available:

  Cost: 91,300 shards.

  Claws? Uh, no way. I need a weapon. What does garotte even mean? Whatever, I need to just keep it simple. Arm blade, like a sword? Yeah, if it’s stronger than my gun, I’ll take that. I don’t have time to be picky.

  The bones in my right forearm cracked and started shifting under my skin. I let out a grunt of pain as I grabbed my wrist, as the pain was only beginning. Why do these things always have to hurt so much?

  Growing bones isn’t simple. Accelerated growth leads to minor damage to the nerves, muscles, and skin.

  Killa’s barrier was full of cracks, and some ice shards were even getting in. Thankfully, they missed us, but Killa’s defense wasn’t going to hold, and we both knew it. But my upgrades take time to complete—time I didn’t have.

  Killa brushed my disheveled hair behind my ears. “Don’t worry, kiddo. I’ll distract her. Just don’t disappoint me.”

  I nodded. I wanted to say “be careful,” but it was taking everything I had to not scream. She created another, smaller barrier around me just before her barrier shattered. An uncountable number of ice shards sliced through Killa’s body, each one taking a tiny piece of her with it. Killa’s hand glowed blue as one massive tentacle stretched out. She sprinted out as she spun around.

  I heard the impact of the demon being slammed into a wall.

  The blizzard subsided, revealing Killa’s figure. Her body was barely holding itself together. No! Hurry up.

  The process is nearing completion.

  My bones had mostly reformed, but there was something new. I could feel something cutting through the muscle of my arm and pushing against the inside of the metal plates covering it. Everything seemed to slow down as my forearm grew a blade that slid out of the space between the plates on my arm.

  A long metallic blade started from the middle of my forearm and extended out two and a half feet past my hand. I could feel the nanites slowing down and eventually stopping. I pulled up my status and analyzed the new upgrade. I also quickly put my stat points into my quickness, since that was going to be my advantage over the demon.

  Arm blade (right):

  The host’s right forearm bones have been fused with the addition of another bone grown out to act as a natural weapon. Since the host has the epidermal plating (arms) level 1 augment, the bone is coated in the same metal as their arm. This alters the blade’s offensive capabilities and causes it to scale with epidermal plating’s toughness rather than the host’s power.

  Stat bonus: +7 Power.

  That’s good, right? But is it going to be better than my gun?

  Yes. The attack power of the arm blade is two-hundred and sixty. The greater mass of the arm blade will allow for more potent attacks compared to the host’s mana gun.

  The demoness stumbled from a crater in the wall. Her wings were bending at angles and places they hadn’t before. Even one of her horns was chipped at the tip. Killa was right. She probably has low defense. Her mission is to kill me. So everything she does is about how to kill me. She doesn’t care about her body.

  “If you want to die first so badly,” the demoness growled. She glared at Killa as she regained her composure. “Then so be it.”

  Killa responded with a flurry of magical tentacles. But the demoness ignored them and, with a massive effort, sent a lance of ice hurtling towards Killa. Killa raised a transparent wall of tentacles, but the lance struck the wall, pierced through, and impaled her.

  “No!” I held out my hand as she flew through the air as the icy lance pinned her to a wall.

  Ice started crystalizing Killa’s body, spreading from the spear. She screamed as she reached for me. I ran to her and slashed at the lance with my new weapon. It cut through the ice effortlessly, but it didn’t stop the progression of the ice. Crystals covered most of her torso and all of her legs.

  I grabbed her hand as she reached for me. But she felt cold—so cold that the bones in my hands hurt. Reflexively, I let her hand go. The ice encased her completely, freezing the pain on her face and her hand reaching for me. Tears started falling and freezing as they touched my cheeks.

  “This game has gone on long enough.” The demon sounded winded. I turned and saw that she was, in fact, looking exhausted. “You aren’t allowed to exist and need to die.”

  “Why? Why do I have to die?” I held out my arms as I took a step towards her. “What have I done to deserve this? I haven’t caused any trouble. You could just leave me alone, and everything would have been fine.”

  She clenched her teeth. “I told you, it’s not my call to make, and neither is it yours.”

  “Then at least tell me who sent you to kill me?” I tensed my muscles to get ready to sprint towards her. I’ve got one chance. This will have to work, or I’m dead. For good this time. “What do you get out of this? Why chase me this long? Am I really worth all this trouble?” If she likes to talk, I’ll keep her talking.

  “You are, and I’ll chase you until you are destroyed.” She straightened up and took a deep breath. “I don’t know who sent me. I’m not allowed to know. Secrecy was my client’s main concern. And I respect that. If someone sees an artificial soul, then they may believe the ban on artificial souls has been lifted. That’ll never happen. We can’t have that. There’s a reason there’s a ban. The last time someone created artificial souls, they caused so much chaos. Entire universes needed to be annihilated because there were more artificial souls than natural souls.”

  She held up her hand to clench it into a fist. “Septillions of souls snuffed out with no afterlife. For something that was never their fault. Your existence can cause that kind of pandemonium. To prevent that, I was sent to nip the problem before it can bud. I have to deal with you. It’s for the greater good. So stop being selfish and die!”

  I carefully inched closer, trying not to draw attention to myself as the demoness monologued. I wasn’t paying attention to what she was saying. Whatever she was saying was possibly blowing things out of proportion or some cosmic propaganda. Nothing was going to keep me from living.

  “And you can thank that old man for trapping me here with you.”

  She said something that caught my attention. Old man? “Who?” I asked.

  She waved her hand. “The one who helped you. He seems to think you can defeat me. I’m supposed to be some challenge for you. But no, we’re done. You were never going to win. I’ll just keep coming back in a new body every time you kill me. So it is simply a war of attrition.” She paused, then pointed at my arm blade. “But that’s new. You didn’t have that earlier. How did you do that? What have you done?”

  She’s onto me. It’s now or never.

  I bolted. My muscles snapped faster than they ever had before. Everything blurred as I charged her. I raised my arm blade and prepared to stab her in the chest. She jumped at my movement, but she seemed to be moving through molasses. Her body moved so slowly compared to mine. She summoned an ice shield just before my arm blade reached her. My sword slid through the shield like a hot knife through butter.

  It was almost surreal how easily I stabbed through the shield and into her. I slammed into the shield, and my blade punctured her chest. As we tumbled to the ground, the shield shattered.

  The demoness looked down with horror and shock.

  “You killed my friend. I’m going to kill you!” I pulled out and stabbed her again. This time, I think I got closer to her heart and stabbed all the way through until the stone stopped me.

  She grabbed my head. I could feel the cold biting into me as it got harder to think, but I could see fine until the frost started coating my eyes. My blade was stuck when I tried to pull it out, so I punched her face. There was a crack as something gave. Her hands released my head, and my nanites rushed to repair the damage.

  Her jaw hung loose as light blue blood started flowing from the corners of her mouth. She reached for my head again, so I punched her a second time. I broke her nose, and blood sprayed out. But she was still moving, so I punched again, and again, and again.

  Again, again, again, again, again, and again.

  I lost sight of what I was doing as I kept punching her face. Over and over, I didn’t stop. I couldn’t stop. Even when in the corner of my vision, I received ten stats and forty-two thousand seven hundred and seven shards. Killa is gone, and it’s her fault. I took my pain out on her until her face was nothing more than an unrecognizable mess of broken bones, blood, splattered brain, and mangled flesh.

  I started feeling tired and struggled to remove my blade from her chest. But after I did, I cried as I sat next to her. The only time I stopped crying was when a shadow crawled from what was left of her mouth. The shadow reached for me, only to be pulled into a hole in the wall as it vanished with a pop.

  It’ll be back. It’ll keep coming back. And each time it does, it can kill the friends I make. This thing is my problem. I can’t let anyone suffer and die by its hands. It’s right. This needs to end, and I’ll be the one ending it.

  Somehow.

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