Ever had one of those days when you realize nothing’s going to go as pnned? Yeah, I call those Bullshit Days—trademark pending.

  My fight couldn’t have gone aer if I’d p myself—which, of course, I hadn’t. I’m a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants kind of girl. That approae through my st life, and look at me now—I died, got reinated (well, had my soul summoned) into a monster. Oh, and I’ve turned into a bit of a ibalistic bitch—the bitch part is a carryover. Pretty sure my ADHD hitched a ride into this new life, too. But all things sidered, improvising just works for me.

  “I call forth the rage of the gods, Death Bolt!” Puppy Chow bellowed, snapping my attention to the mutt-looking bastard of the group.

  A vibrant purple lightning bolt surged from his hand, whizzing at me with devastating force. My first thought?

  What’s with the intation shit?

  It makes them sound like idiots!

  —I knht!

  Sigh.

  “I really o stop chatting up a storm with myself in my own head. It makes me seem crazier,” I groaned, just as the bolt struck me—ter fug mass!

  My undead goblin snack had ceased struggling, as though the magiding it to unlife had simply given up when the big green orc’s head tumbled off—typical. I do enjoy it when they squirm. heless, I was all too eager to devour it, but just my luck, it disied to ash in my grip as I was smmed by that purple attack.

  I was catapulted from the ceiling, where I had been standing upside down, into a dizzying cartwheel through the air. I crashed into the wall with a siing spt, my body reverting to bck ooze upon impact. Arouhe chamber began to colpse—stones groaning and dust billowing like the budget special effects in a cheap knock-off Indiana Jones film.

  Perhaps a smidge of pnning wouldn’t have beeirely pointless for this fight after all.

  A system popup fshed before my mind just as my world dissolved into darkness...

  V:\Assion>SAFE_MODE

  StatusAlert

  [Null] Status Detected    [SD]

  Resist Status: None     [Inactive]

  Affli: [Null]

  Effects Applied:

  - All Immuemporarily Nullified.

  - All Resistaemporarily Nullified.

  - All Passive Buffs Temporarily Nullified.

  V:\>

  Did—Didn’t they say something about status effeot showing up from other users, or some... something like… that...?

  “Hi!” A cheerful little girl’s voice echoed from the darkness, rousing me from sleep.

  I blinked several times, only to find myself sprawled on my back, staring up at a forest opy while snowfkes pyed their silent symphony around me. Groaning, I sat up and noticed I was decked out in a pid skirt and my old I Decapitate Teddy Bears t-shirt—all signs of my gooey flesh were gone. I was back to being human—my past self! I looked around, a vague sense nition washing over me.

  Was—was I sleeping?

  “Would you like to py with me?”

  Whirling toward the voice, I was jolted to see a meadow, lush and vibrant, as though captured iernal spring, plete with a storybook cottage perched on a hill. There, in this too-perfect se, stood a skeleton the size of a kindergartener, her bck eye sockets shining with sheer delight. Her long hair cascaded from her skull in deep purple, nearly bck at the roots, fading tht blue at the tips. She bounced eically on her bo, her bones king melodically beh her yellow dress, clearly eager for my response.

  A talking skeleton—sure, why not? I’ve seen stranger shit.

  “Where am I?” I asked, my breath visible in the brisk forest air. “Why does all this look so familiar?”

  “You’re in the Realm of Dreams—or Dream Realm, same thing,” she shrugged. The skeleton leaned forward as if to whisper, careful not to cross the visible lihat separated the lush green meadow from the snow-covered forest. “Though if you ask me, it feels more like purgatory. Big Sis only do so much by herself, especially with all the new souls from outside realms being brought over—or kidnapped?” She tapped her finger against her jaw, the bones king. “Apparently, they ’t visit this p their dreams—something about the mana of their souls being off. Yet, that doesn’t stop them from crowding this p death. Seriously, it feels like it’s going to burst from overcrowding, all due to the broken cycles of reination. Big Sis should really build a wall and make Magic pay for it. Still, I’m really excited to see a dreamer here! So, do you want to py with me?”

  I hate kids.

  I shook my head a few times, trying to process all that the pint-sized skeleton had just word-vomited.

  “Big Sis?” I asked, still disoriented.

  “Well… she cims I’m older, but I don’t have any memories of that,” she shrugged. “Something about our souls sharing a siher—you know, humanity from Earth. Apparently, we’re all reted—our souls, not by blood but deeper. Could you imagine if it was by blood—talk about i—yuck! But we’re not reted to those huymies or whatever they call them here. Well, they’re ly from here, but not from Earth either. You know what I mean, right?”

  No!

  “Though,” she tinued, rambling on, “they do look a lot like Earthlings. I don’t really get it. I guess it’s like how there are tons of elf variations from all sorts of realms. Snow elves. Blood elves. High elves. Dark elves. You’re from Earth too, aren’t you? I tell! But really, the elves all look amazing! I mean, have you seen a crystal elf—talk about Twilight sparkly vibes! I wish my soul had been summoned into the body of an elf instead of Yua aher. So jealous! I got stuck as a huymie—or is it huyman? But Big Sis often looks like an old e—don’t tell her I said that!” she added, her voice rising to a squeak before shrugging. “Though she won’t get mad. She’s super nice! I know Big Sis is trying her best to protect us from various pyers—you know, like fake gods and stuff like that—from finding out about us. But she’s rather limited in what she do. Supposedly, her aunt—or our aunt? You know, since you, I, and she are all sisters—is being rather sneaky about something.” Her tone and demeanor quickly jumped back to excitement. “So, want to py?!”

  “What? Hold on.” I held out my hands to slow her down. Not sure where to begin, I started with, “Sisters?”

  The skeleton girl cocked her head to the side, still boung ooes. “You know, since our souls all share a same mother.”

  “Don’t you mean, the same mother?”

  The pint-sized skeleton looked like she was smiling, eager to expin. She took a long, deep breath, her rib cage expandih her yellow dress as she went for another mad word-vomit.

  “Nope. Big Sis has two mothers, Life ah. But all of humanity was only created by Life. Big Sis likes to call us Titans, which I think is a bit silly. Apparently, our souls, along with Life and nearly all of the gods, were banished from this realm a long, long time ago—we’re talking eons—during a big war against the Eldritch. So you wouldn’t believe how shocked Big Sis was when she found out about us being summoned here. Supposedly, only three gods and two Primordials were all that remained after the war, and they didn’t know where we were bao, so there was no way to get us back. They never imagi would be within a mana-less void of a dead realm—I meah, what a shithole, am I right?”

  Holy fuck, this damn kid talk.

  “Death didn’t take the loss of her love and children very well—gods, not Titans (humanity)—and has been in self-imposed exile ever since destroying the Eldritd scattering their remains across the realm. Magic has been stealiire worlds from random realms, repoputing this one as she searches for her sister. Still, without Life, birthrates and reination are practically zero—I mean, it might happen occasionally, every hundred years or so, but it’s so broken.

  “At least with Death on aended vacation, nobody is dying from old age. Though, if you ask me, I think Magic feels guilty since she’s the one who created the Eldritch. Big Sis says Magic was jealous of her sister’s creations and started pying outside her domain, which led to the creation of soulless monsters and the Eldritch. As a result, some of those that used to have high fertility rates in their old realms—we’re talking about doing it like they do on the Discovery el—often give birth to soulless children y-nine point nine nine nine nine nine nine nine pert of the time.”

  Her skull suddenly lowered, her long purple and blue hair draping over her boures as if cloaked in sorrow. “Sadly, soulless offspring are more like feral beasts than people. It mostly affects goblins, orcs, and a few others, such as trolls, even some types of elves. Have you seen what a feral abyssal dwarf do to someoh their bare hands? I’ve only glimpsed a few repys from the nightmares of lost souls—it’s terrifying!

  “Heck, most of those who get turned by vampires often end up feral. The only silver lining is that whatever species of feral, they won’t attack those with souls of the same race, so goblins live alongside feral goblins and such. I think that’s why so many kingdoms try to eradicate them.”

  Well, this little chatterbox is an encyclopedia of doom and gloom—and oh, so useful information. It’s a bit tough to keep up with her whirlwind of info, but hey, she’s painting a pretty vivid—if bleak—picture of this mess. I mean, feral children, broken reination, aire worlds filled with fantasy races being stolen. And now I’m what—a long-lost Titan?

  Not with my slimy curves, I’m not.

  “ we py now?” she excimed with a bounce.

  “What do you mean with all this stuff about gods and Titans and us being siblings?”

  She took a huff, as if annoyed, “I thought I already expined all that,” her shoulders slumping i. “Life created Titans, which caught the attention of Death or something like that, and they fell in love and made babies together, which were the gods. The end.”

  “And what’s the differeween a Titan and a god?”

  “Oh! Big Sis expihat oo me,” she perked up, eager to expin something new. “Titans manipute the ambient mana all around them to do their bidding. Gods are pretty much the same thing, but they also turn themselves into mana. That’s how Big Sis move betweehereal Pne and the Natural Phey also have specialized domains, like how Big Sis is the Goddess of Dreams.”

  Ah-ha! The Natural Pne.

  “Wait—Big Sis is a goddess?”

  “Mhmm,” she nodded. “So… we py now?”

  “And the Goddess of Life created humanity or Titans?”

  “No,” she plopped down on the ground i. “The Primordial of Life created the Titans. Think much more powerful and grahan a god, and there’s only ever been three, Life, Death, and Magic. Apparently, there’s a whole story to it, but Big Sis didn’t go into detail on that portio. She likes having story nights—they’re fun, you should e sometime.”

  “Okay, so all the souls oh were created by this Primordial of Life, and we’re siblings to the gods?”

  “Well, I’m pretty sure some humans oh are gods, but most are Titans. But, yeah, we’re half-siblings with them. Though, supposedly, some souls are like identical twins, separated at creation, like real soulmates destio need ah one another,” she sighed almost wistfully. “Isn’t that romantic?”

  “Sounds like io me,” I grumbled.

  “Not when we’re talking about souls!” She huffed and cmbered back to her feet, fists on her hips. “ we py now or not?”

  “Just a few more questions—”

  A man’s voice rippled from deep within the forest, a cry that sent a shiver through my soul. “Aislinn!” I snapped my head in the dire, ready to sprint toward it.

  “No,” she squeaked in fear, her bones rattling. “You shouldn’t go any further into the forest. That’s where the nightmares live. You’ll relive all your past pains of all your lives the deeper you go,” she took a step back from the lihat separated the forest from the meadow.

  Her words pyed in my mind as I gazed in the dire I had heard the man cry out, memories of a woman dying in the snow, her lifeless eyes gazing into my own.

  “Sophia, supper time!” a woman called out. I gnced back to see a young-looking woman standing by the cottage on the hill. “We have a brother who just showed up. e and greet Rob!”

  “ing, Duskara!” the skeleton yelled back.

  “Sophia?” I gnced down at the little skeleton.

  She shrugged at me, “Looks like we ’t py this time. Shame really, I so love to go and torment Jason’s dreams,” she waved before running off toward the cottage.

  I was torn. I wao head toward the cottage to seek more answers.

  “Aislinn!” the man cried again, his voice eg through the forest as if it were my own.

  Ign the cottage, I felt an undeniable pull in the opposite dire—a deep desire to find something that’s been missing, something I’ve craved for lohan I’ve been alive in any lifetime. pelled by this longing, I took a step toward the man’s voice.

  “There you are,” came a woman’s voiy side. “What must I do to keep you from this pce?” I gnced over, only to see a glowing blue hand with pink wisps poke me in the forehead before everything faded to nothingness.