Chương 3: R&R Ch. 3 — Grandma Cuts up Souls

Jasmine lay in bed playing on her phone, periodically glancing towards her computer, which was tracking the aether in the city. Since this morning it had been rising, and she knew what that meant. Nicholas was going to break through soon, and he was going to be strong. The aether levels and concentration were already far past what any normal super got when they broke into the first stage. Her family had already approved of her plans when they found out Nicholas was going to break through on his own.

But with his levels reaching this high, not even her grandmother could truly complain. On some level, Jasmine was pissed that she was going to be ranked second for potential. She had spent her whole life working for this, and this random upstart was going to be ranked higher than her. But most of all, she was thrilled. She had spent her whole life being trained for this and having resources poured down her throat, and now she would have the peer to prove that she deserved it.

The necklace she was wearing glowed with an amber light while heating enough to grab her attention.

"I am coming, you don't need to burn me!" Jasmine shouted, pausing her game and tossing her phone to the side. Jasmine bounced down the stairs to find her mother once again sitting at the table with the disapproving look she always wore.

"So how was work, Mom?" Jasmine asked, hopping into her seat and leaning back just far enough to maximize the annoyance of her mother.

"Ignis's kid got his powers last week. Of the newest generation of Pinnacle descendants, you're last." Her mom said coldly.

"I'm not last. Ben's kid is three." Jasmine said, being pedantic. Ben's kid was three. The problem being that Ben was the youngest Pinnacle, having reached it a few years before Jasmine was born, making him part of her age group in the eyes of the immortals. But it was technically correct, which was her favorite kind.

"Ben is your generation. The best you can ask for is being second." Jasmine's mother said with a sniff.

"I don't know, dear old grandmamama said it was cool to wait, so I am just following her command like a good descendant should. Or should I listen to you instead of our pinnacle and source of all of our power?" Jasmine asked, deciding to skip steps and just go for the jugular.

"She hates silly nicknames; don't disrespect her."

"I don't know, Grandma- sScary- as- sShit- and- Aancient- as- fFuck hasn't smote me yet. Have you, Darlene!" Jasmine shouted just to get extra attention. Pinnacles could feel when they were being focused on. But the yelling would gather extra attention. Jasmine waited a moment. Nope, no smites. Jasmine gave her mom a blinding smile.

"Your grandmother said it was okay to wait because we thought you would just pick your little girl friends and give them powers with our resources. A sidekick doesn't need to be strong, just able to witness your ascension." Jasmine's mother continued getting a key fact wrong. Jasmine wasn't looking for someone to witness her. She wanted people to walk alongside. Nicholas was like that in a way that she hadn't dreamed of when she made the deal with her grandmother.

"Well, we can always call Gigi Darlene to see what she thinks about whether I am following the spirit of the deal or not?" Jasmine asked, grinning. Before Jasmine could call the family matriarch or her mom could stop her, a shimmering amber portal formed in their living room. And out strode one of the eleven Pinnacles and one of the nine strongest beings in the world, Darlene. Or as most of the world knew her, Brynhild, the one-woman army. Jasmine just thought of her as her grandmother.

"Dear grande olde mamaw, we hadn't even gotten heated yet!" Jasmine said, rolling out of her chair to give her a hug.

"I wasn't aware you two were arguing again." Darlene said, hugging her several greats granddaughter before looking over to Jasmine's mother.

"Illia, what were you two arguing about again?" Jasmine blew a raspberry at her mother as she had zero interest in being graceful about her win.

"Something about being the family shame and failure because I'm waiting for Nicholas to finish breaking through." Darlene looked at Jasmine, ignoring her other descendant. She had been truthful; she hadn't come here to deal with her descendants' petty squabbling. She doted on Jasmine, but until Jasmine at least broke through to the fourth tier, she wasn't likely to succeed her and didn't warrant too much attention.

"Is Nicholas the one you are waiting on?" She asked, her attention still miles away where a conflux of power was reaching its peak.

"Yup, he said he's going to be my partner once we both have powers so long as I can keep up with him," Jasmine said, thrilled at the prospect. Illia and Darlene had nearly opposite reactions. Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Darlene was grinning like the Cheshire cat, changing her plans. With the new information came opportunity. And she wanted to find her successor.

She wouldn't help the duo, but opportunity came from risk, and risk could be easily added. It was likely to break Jasmine if Darlene was being honest. Like all her descendants, they were born with a silver spoon, and that often caused them to reach their peak too soon to ever be in consideration. She would rather her successor be of her blood, but if he married in, it wouldn't be a problem. She would not put all her eggs in one basket. More likely than near zero was, after all, still near zero.

Illia was staring at her daughter as if she had just denounced their family legacy and had thrown away everything that had been given to her.

"Partner!" Illia screeched, running towards her daughter.

"You are waiting for him to be a partner, not just a sidekick. Did I teach you nothing!" Darlene shifted Jasmine to the side as she stared off in the distance.

"Jasmine, use the key now."

"Wait, why? I thought I could wait?" Jasmine asked, panicking that her goals were falling apart around her without her being able to stop them.

"He's breaking through now, so if you want to go together, do the same," Darlene whispered.

"Is he going to be okay?" Jasmine asked, pulling the key necklace off as the key expanded, eager to fulfill its ultimate purpose.

"He will be fine, and if you wish, you can say you were called by the hospital when he's admitted because your phone number is on his hand." Darlene said, watching as your youngest granddaughter pressed the key to her sternum.

"Wait, what?" Jasmine asked, confused.

"As we discussed, you'll be able to go to one of the other's territory for your little games for the first tiers. Enjoy the freedom while you can," Darlene warned Jasmine as Jasmine then flickered out of existence. Jasmine was ecstatic. She had been waiting for this moment since she could walk. She was literally born for this. When Jasmine came to, her body was no longer where she had left it in her home but in a familiar clearing. She was once again in Grandma Darlene's pocket dimension.

Specifically, the first one she ever made with her own power.

"Ugh, do we have to do this right now, Granny?" Jasmine complained. She was looking forward to a lot of things about being a super. This was not one of them.

"Yes, we do. Your power is at its strongest right after advancing, and we need you to get the soul space made now," Darlene said, crossing her arms. With an effort of will, Jasmine focused on her soul and imagined some of the floaty, swirly bits that surrounded it compressing and forming into a knife. One of the biggest problems with her power would be that souls didn't like giving up pieces of themselves for her to make items. So she would need something to carve chunks of soul.

So what's better than a carving knife for that? In her mind's eye, she shaped the knife as she did the same with her hands, and since it was her soul carving knife, she made it green because Jasmine was pretty sure her soul had green vibes. And because she would use it for her whole life, she made it pretty. Why would she want to use an ugly soul knife? Even that little bit of effort left her gasping.

She had made the knife, severing a piece of her soul to construct it and more than a little of her power to finalize what it could do. She just wanted to rest. Soul damage was a bitch, and Jasmine knew she was in for a way worse dose in about a minute. Jasmine took the drink offered to her, downing it in one go as she brandished her soul-carving knife.

"Twenty percent right?" She asked, wishing she were wrong.

"Twenty percent and do it quickly, you know what to do afterwards," Grandma Darlene said, gesturing to the construct in the center of the pocket dimension. It was a blueprint. Jasmine was a long way from being able to actually make a linked soul space pocket dimension on her own, but cutting off a huge chunk of her soul and doing a paint by numbers? That was within her ability. All she had to do was cut off a fifth of what her soul should be since she had already used all the floaty bits to make her knife.

"Quit dawdling; I don't have all day, Jasmine."

"Yes, Nonna," Jasmine said, rolling her eyes and thinking very unkind things towards her grandma. Just because she was super important and in charge of protecting one eleventh of the world, and her just being here doing this put cities at risk, didn't mean she had an excuse to be a bitch. Jasmine realized that maybe her grandma did, but she was still thinking unkind thoughts.

Even as prepared as she was for what she was going to do, Jasmine was sobbing by the time she had finished sawing off twenty percent of her soul with the carving knife. It was made for small cuts that she would heal relatively quickly, not rip off massive chunks of her soul. Which made the already tortuous even worse as she had to do it slowly. Even if she knew that her soul was going to recover so long as she went through the proper motions, she felt like a piece of glass shattering. What made her, her, was gone.

At least some of it. Her hands trembled and tears continued to streak down her face as she worked the soul fragment following the template her grandma gave her. It was almost like a paint by numbers. Jasmine just had to do it while her soul was shattering. The process took her hours, but she finished the construct of soul energy, and her power just floated there.

Jasmine wasn't sure how, but her grandma must have kept Jasmine's power full the whole time since even making the knife had practically wiped her power out.

"You never told me what to do at this part. What now?" Jasmine asked, managing to sound mostly normal.

"Attach it to your body," Darlene said dismissively. Jasmine, following her instincts, brought the protruding bit of the construct to her sternum, where she had used the key. Like a key clicking into a lock, it slotted into place, and she could feel her own pocket dimension forming. It would be her forge, her storage, and her home. Even if right now it was the testament of her ripping her soul apart.

Jasmine blinked, and she was sitting in a hospital room, a mug of hot chocolate in her hands and a blanket in her lap. When she looked around, she only got more confused because Nicholas was asleep in the bed.

"What's going on?" Jasmine asked, the words falling heavily.

"You have suffered extreme soul damage, so you need to go through the motions of fixing it. He's your teammate, right?" Darlene asked, gesturing to the sleeping super.

"When he wakes up, someone will come to greet you both and welcome you."

"And we'll be going somewhere else?" Jasmine asked, eyes narrowed. She didn't want her grandma to pull a fast one on her while she was suffering from soul damage. Darlene rolled her eyes.

"Yes, your training will happen in another pinnacle's territory. Till C Rank, I won't meddle any more than I would with any other talent from my domain."

"Bye, Grandmamama," Jasmine said before turning away to sip her hot chocolate. She and Nicholas weren't friends yet, which meant he wouldn't be a great help in soothing her soul, but the fact she was finally tasting her dream was good. And the hot chocolate must have been made with some soul-restorative something; it was helping immensely.

"Don't use your spirit space for at least a week." Grandma Darlene said before vanishing. Even though she had wanted her grandma to go, Jasmine was bored. Waiting for someone who was practically a stranger to wake up was boring. Nicholas was interesting, but only when he was doing things. But no, he had to pass out from power overuse that came from overdrawing. So she sipped her hot chocolate, waiting as she wondered just what kind of ability her partner would have.

Hopefully, it wouldn't be her ability she didn't want to be that team.