Magical Engineering

“Is everyone okay?” I yelled as I dismissed the notifications. I wasn’t entirely sure what to make of the new messages yet. And while I planned to discuss it with everyone, I already knew they’d have very little to add.

We had already been in uncharted water as far as their experience with soul magic went, and the soul realm had pushed it well beyond that. Now we had leveled it up somehow. But the important thing was that Connie was cured and alive. We had again beaten the jesters.

“No, what the hell was that?” Karlinovo asked, still lying on the floor. Several coughs escaped his lips halfway through his question.

“Soul reflection, I think,” I replied, not really having a better answer.

“Mine sure as hell wasn’t like that.” Karlinovo pushed himself to his feet, his coughs finally dying with his complaint.

“Had to have something to do with how close the jester was to taking over Connie,” I said, looking back down at the Dwarf. She had shown no real outward changes other than during the fight. If her soul had already looked that bad, was it possible the jester could have taken her over entirely, but kept her form?

Would we have been able to tell if that had happened? That thought triggered a cascade of others, including a worrying realization. How many people within the Spiral were entirely under their control already? To what level had the jesters infested the factions?

We had just assumed the soul knots allowed them to take control during an attack. But what if they had actual agents acting entirely for the benefit of the jesters, not just during moments of jester influence?

“Karlinovo, what do you think it would look like if Korl had fought off a jester trying to infect him? Would his mimic abilities be able to kill the infection?” I asked, more of this worry cementing itself in my mind.

“Probably exactly like what just happened here. Damn. They’ve infested the whole Spiral, then.”

“I agree with both the curse and the conclusion. This is a problem far beyond us, Dave, and I’m not sure what to do about it,” Elody added.

“Connie, how are you…” My words were cut off by a loud boom, immediately followed by the sound of something shattered.

“We have a problem!” Cecile yelled.

One of the shark-like creatures had crashed through the protection over the nearby hub, and while it looked worse for having done so, it was still whipping its body around in what I worried was a feeding frenzy. We needed to stop it and somehow patch what it had done before we had more of them in here. There was also only one way I knew of to strengthen this place, and that was going to need to be done while we fought off the intruder.

“Elody, you need to go deal with your soul reflection. Chip get the platform safe for her to cross. Karlinovo, watch Connie. Everyone else we’ve gotta fight that thing,” I yelled as I ran across the bridge toward it.

The energy building around us as it stared across the bridge confirmed it had already spotted us. Soul detection told me it was some mix of soul energy and something else, but interestingly, the creature itself didn’t have a soul so much as it was entirely made up of soul energy. Was this why they were able to interfere with soul reflections?

I wished Otis were still here. He was the only one who seemed to have any clue how this all worked, even if he wasn’t so willing to part with the knowledge. I preferred the wink and the nod to nothing.

“So, what are you anyway?” I asked, keeping my eyes focused on the monster in front of me. I didn’t expect it to answer, but it hadn’t attacked anyone yet, so I had to give it the chance. I wouldn’t kill an innocent creature out of misplaced fear.

The only answer I got was it lunging forward, sharp teeth crashing into my shield. I flared what soul energy I could spare into the shield, which, after what we had just gone through, was much less than I’d have liked. The shield held, but the cracking and my inability to absorb the damage back to my core meant it wouldn’t for long.

Elody and Chip had made it to her platform. A loud debate, one voice, Elody, the other a strange imitation, had started. I couldn’t split my focus enough to make out the words, but I hoped once she had her platform under control, it would help with sealing this place back up.

Several chat notifications swam into view, but the monster in front of me wasn’t willing to give me time to check them. It took several powerful lunges at my shield, each one weakening it further.

I hit the monster back with soul drain, trying to latch onto its energy. The howl of pain told me I had done something. As I triggered soul absorption, planning to reinforce my shield, the creature decided that discretion was the better part of valor.

It rocketed back through the hole in the top of the dome it had created. Its howling had only increased as it fled, and I had a very bad feeling about what that would attract. The lack of experience notification told me we hadn’t killed it, which left us with a hurt monster that knew how to get back into the soul realm.

“Elody, how are things going over there?” I yelled. She was no longer in debate. Both she and her reflection were trading books between each other.

“We are done. We’ve agreed to share the platform. She will act as a knowledge repository in the soul realm for us,” Elody answered. Both she and the reflection turned to smile at me.

Before I could ask if that would count toward whatever the exact requirements needed were, the platform lit up the same as any other had once we were finished. Had I made a mistake in dealing with my own reflection? It seemed plausible, considering what Elody had potentially gained here.

Though considering Otis had been the one to push that path, I doubted it had been the wrong choice. We had also leveled up the soul realm. Was it possible that Elody had just created the first soul structure?

The continued pinging of chat notifications told me I had to see what was happening.