Melissa stirred awake. She pushed open her eyes to find herself lying in a bed, a sunbeam coming through a window. She sat up and frowned, confused at the lack of a reflexive escape she would normally have made. Instead of an enervating force that sapped her strength and warped her mind, the sunlight was a soft and welcoming warmth on her skin.
“I feel strange,” she muttered to herself.
“Do you?” Asano asked.
She looked around the room, finding it to be spacious and luxuriously furnished. She was in a huge four-poster bed, and Asano was in a plush armchair. He smiled as her gaze fixed on him.
“What you might be finding,” he said, “is that it’s been so long since you experienced normal that you’re no longer used to it.”
“I don’t know if there is such a thing as normal anymore.”
“I know that feeling. Being an essence user is all about transforming ourselves. Creating a new normal, over and over.”
“I’m not an essence user anymore.”
He made a flicking gesture, and something appeared in front of her face. It was a system window, something she hadn’t seen since being turned as a vampire.
The [Quilido Process] has excised [Curse of the Vampire].
Access to essences has been restored.
Your body is undead. You have died.
[Aeora] has used [Breath of Life]. You have been resurrected.
[System Administrator] has designated all system messages as pending.
You have 67 system messages waiting to be viewed.
“I thought it was best to not have you inundated with messages,” Asano told her. “Give you a chance to get your bearings. You went through a lot.”
Melissa was barely listening, trailing her fingers over her skin. Being a vampire, she assessed flesh and blood, and the energy flowing through them, as potential food. Even her own body had not been able to escape that pervasive instinct. Now, there was just the warmth of the sun, the gentle touch of her fingers on skin. No panic, no hunger. Just simple, pleasant sensations.
“It was touch and go for a bit,” Asano continued. “There was no guarantee that Aeora’s magic would even work. It seems to be tuned to dead souls, now, but it got you up just fine. Apparently all that stolen life force that vampires carry around helped.”
She looked up at him, unsure of what to say.
“Aeora was also the one who changed your clothes, in case you’re wondering,” he said.
She looked down at her clothes, a long night shift.
“I don’t understand what’s happening,” she said.
He chuckled and pushed himself out of his chair.
“Yeah, that’s basically going to be your day. I’d start with the system messages and go from there. There’s some clothes in the dresser. I’m going to go wipe out an undead city, but I’ll be back before dark. I imagine you’ll have some questions.”
***
Dawn had forgotten how ritualistic everything was when she was acting as princess of the Imperium. As First Daughter of the World-Phoenix, decorum had meant little more than that when she ordered, others obeyed. Practicality had always taken precedence over formality. Even that had been left behind decades ago as she took the solitary road to transcendence. She pictured Jason tearing through the Imperial Court like an impolite tornado and a smile played across her lips.
“Daughter,” her father murmured and she schooled her expression.
She wasn’t even sure what this particular ceremony was for. She only had to stand there and look impassive, so it didn’t especially matter. Team Biscuit had managed to hold at least a basic level of decorum in public, itself a small miracle made possible by Jason’s absence.
The moment the ceremony was over and she was out of the grand hall, her ceremonial robes and the ridiculous tall hat combusted into flames. Those flames danced around her before turning into a comfortable yellow dress and sandals.
“While I do like to see you more relaxed these days,” her mother said, “do you have to do that in the hallway?”
“I’m going to see to my guests,” Dawn said, dodging the question.
***
In their only meeting in years, Dawn had explained to Jason his part in Knowledge’s plan, the involvement of the World-Phoenix and why she’d been forced to keep things from him. Even then, she had only been allowed to tell him under strict conditions, including his keeping that information from his own prime avatar. Still, they had been able to make plans, starting with Jason preparing the Earth for invasion, without knowing exactly why.
Another step in the plan was preparing for the later stages of the war. As it stood, the Earth was off-limits to diamond-rankers. Once he was diamond-rank himself, the moment his power touched the Earth, that restriction would vanish. The goddess would flood the planet with every diamond-ranker she could muster and try to close out her conquest of the planet.
The likelihood of Earth’s home-grown essence users being able to match that was nil, so other plans had been put in place. Jason and his group had not been the only dimensional travellers to depart the Earth, just the ones drawing all the attention. The cosmic pirate who had sworn himself into Jason’s service had taken his ship and headed for Pallimustus.
Soramir Rimaros had been picked up on the way, plucked from his own cosmic adventures. He recruited every gold-ranker he could find in Pallimustus willing to aid Jason and even a couple of diamond-rankers willing to sign on. There was no keeping these activities from Knowledge, but there was also little she could do to stop it. While the other gods might have tolerated her expansionism into another world, on Pallimustus she was still the goddess of Knowledge. On that world, activities outside of her remit would not be tolerated.
Dawn had guided these recruits to her world, awaiting the arrival of Jason’s team. Together, they would train up to diamond-rank or, in some cases, improve their aptitudes at that rank. After staying at the palace until Team Biscuit’s arrival, they had been moved to a domed district with a private training area.
Dawn’s avatar took the form of a winged fire spider and flew over the edge of the city, the might of the sun blazing beneath her. On reaching another section of the city she approached the dome containing the training facility. Dome security were profoundly respectful, but did not skimp on their duties, scanning her personal crest carefully before allowing her access.
This district mimicked a pleasant terrestrial setting, the dome above creating a replica of a clear blue sky. There were even artfully crafted breezes that carried the scents from trees planted around the district. The streets were wide and the buildings low, with simple architecture that favoured white and red colours.
Dawn made her way through the streets swiftly and quietly, masking her presence. She slipped unnoticed through a gate into a walled-in garden, bigger than most town squares, complete with winding creeks and a massive pond. In an area of clear lawn, the people from Pallimustus were seated in rows. They were all in meditative stances under the watchful eye of Imperial instructors.
Over, in, and around the pond, a host of familiars were playing around. By far the largest of them was a pair of long-tongued leaping hydras. Their brightly coloured skin and powerful-looking legs had the look of tropical frogs. The only difference between the pair was that one had an absurd moustache on each of its seven heads.
Dawn waited in silence, watching over the quiet meditations of the adventurers. It would not be easy, training people from such a remote, isolated planet. Their entire world found gold-rank a struggle, and they had no programs to train diamond-rankers at all. Many would need to unlearn bad habits and unhelpful modes of thought before they could move forward.
There were three diamond-rankers in the group already. Soramir Rimaros was mediocre by cosmic standards, but he had managed to transcend his world. He would never be amazing, but had the least work to do. Allayeth was an interesting one, held back by self-doubt as much as anything. She would need to stop thinking of herself as small before her true potential could be unleashed.
Victor Volaire, the man once called the Mirror King, would be the most difficult case. After joining a confrontation between the gods and diamond-rankers of his world, the choice of one of his many children had brought his mind into conflict. Where his son had chosen to risk everything to fight a goddess, Victor had compromised to avoid facing her. Confronted with the boldness of his child, it had brought his own unwillingness to risk a true sacrifice into stark relief. Plagued with uncertainty, he had passed the throne and the Mirror King title to his son Lucian, and chosen to join the fight against Knowledge.
The gold-rankers were, if Dawn was honest in her assessment, more interesting than promising. Team Biscuit itself held startling promise, especially given their home world, but the rest were a mixed bag. Especially the pair that had been raised on monster cores, only having had that taint removed recently with a process developed on Earth. They had, without question, the least potential of anyone granted elite Imperial training. From what she understood, they had both started out as thugs in a place that, even for their world, was a rustic backwater. Jason had faced and spared both, setting them on a road that none could have imagined leading here. Neither were the kind of people Dawn would have chosen for the fight ahead, but she knew that they were exactly who Jason would want.
After the group broke up and went off for individual training, Dawn revealed herself to the head instructor. He was a man who looked to be a well-preserved fifty, despite his diamond-rank agelessness.
“Your Highness,” he greeted, offering a deep bow.
“What do you make of them, August?”
“You’ve given me rough clay, Princess. Full of rocks and dirt and not much actual clay at all. While some of them have striking, if uneven talents, only Wexler and Remore are at a standard I would say belongs here. Some of the others are adequate, but most… I don’t understand why they’re here.”
“So you can teach them to fight a god.”
“I can’t fight a god.”
“Well, they’re going to do it anyway, so do your best. Given where they are from, the fact that any would reach your standards is amazing.”
“And where are they from?”
“A planet where astral magic was deliberately stunted to avoid the residents from joining the cosmic community.”
“And they want to fight gods?”
“No, they want to drink and have barbecues. But sometimes there are things you have to do, impossible or not.”
August raised his eyebrows in a sceptical expression.
“At the risk of offending royalty, Your Highness, you’ve gone a little odd since leaving my tutelage.”
She leaned in to kiss his cheek.
“And you, August, remain a treasure.”
***
Melissa found Jason atop the castle, leaning on a balustrade as he watched the sun drop below the distant mountains. He was silhouetted against a sky flowing from teal through gold and orange into umber, a few dark clouds dancing along the horizon.
“You were right,” she told him. “I have questions.”
He turned to face her, his shape still dark with the light behind him. Only his glowing eyes showed any colour, their blue and orange almost looking a part of the sunset.
“All those system windows answered a lot of them,” she said. “Reading between the lines answered more. What kind of aura ability lets you rewrite reality?”
“I honestly think it wouldn’t do most people much good, despite how it sounds. I just happen to have a lot of practise. As to why I have that much experience, it’s a long story that begins—”
“I don’t care why or how you can do it. Why did you do it to me, instead of what you did to Kinsey?”
“It wasn’t hard to see what he was. Or you. Perhaps he could have become more than what he was, but there’s only so much mercy I have time for.”
“What am I now?”
“A person. Beyond that, it’s up to you.”
“Is it? One of those windows said that you changed me.”
“It should have been more than one. You know you’re not a vampire anymore, right?”
“But you didn’t turn me back into what I was. Not completely.”
“You mean this,” he said and flicked at the air. A system window appeared between them.”
You have been granted [Blessing of The System].
[Human Ambition] has evolved into [Cosmic Child].
“You made me human again,” she said, “but not entirely. You took something human in me and changed it.”
“Technically, I offered you a change. On some level you accepted it, even unconsciously. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have happened.”
“Why?”
“Bringing you back from vampirism happened under less-than-ideal circumstances. I know how to do it, but normally the guy who developed the process takes the lead. It also usually happens in one of my places of power. Instead, I was winging it with my new aura power in a corrupted afterlife, with added complications on top. Normally, the process uses the life force a vampire has hoarded to restore their body to life. It’s straightforward, as resurrections go, as the soul is already in there. The thing is, I removed my ability to resurrect people a while back now. Had to get Aeora to use resurrection magic on you instead.”
“That doesn’t explain why you changed me.”
“The other complication is that you aren’t meant to be here. Umber had you shaped into a very specific variant of vampire to allow your presence. Removing your vampirism also removed your permission to stay. I don’t know if you would have been annihilated, or tossed out into the astral and then annihilated, but annihilation was very much on the table. I offered you something that would let you stay here. It’s not something I’ve ever done before, and I had no idea if it would even work. Sorry.”
“You forced a human gift evolution.”
“Again, offered, not forced. Admittedly, the alternative was annihilation, so not much of a choice. I imagine that’s why your subconscious accepted. That blessing will let you go places others can’t.”
“If you permit it.”
“If I permit it, yes. Neither of us should be in this place, but I have some circumstances that give me permission. The blessing allows me to extend that permission to you. It also gives you dimensional affinity, so you won’t get that moment of disorientation after teleporting.”
“I know about blessings and gift evolutions. They come from great astral beings.”
“Yeah.”
“You’re a great astral being. Like the Reaper.”
“Yeah.”
“That’s madness.”
He let out a chuckle.
“Yeah.”
Melissa let out a sigh and her shoulders slumped.
“It feels like each new thing that happens to me is more insane than the last.”
“I can sympathise.”
“What am I even meant to do now? I’m stuck in an afterlife, and I don’t think the people that brought me here will take me back.”
“I’ll take you, once I leave this place?”
“Which will be when?”
“I don’t know.”
“So, what do I do until then? Run around as your sidekick?”
“If you want. And if you can keep up.”