Chương 99: The Great Act III

"Beware, oh heroes of the world, for it is I, the Evil Queen — ackbthh!" A bunch of leaves hit me in the face. I spat them out, only to catch an entire branch this time.

"Goddang stupid weather manipulation bullshit!" Trust had created a tornado hundreds of feet tall and wide, making approaching him in the epicenter where he was floating impossible. Curiously, the tornado wasn't damaging much property, nor was it hurting the many teddy bears that it picked up. I watched dozens of them in various colors swirl around in an endless cycle until they were funneled straight towards Trust, who obliterated them with his mind once they got in range of his telekinesis.

It reminded me of a vacuum cleaner, except the journey ended in a magical blender instead of a bag. I hopped off the building, where Addy was waiting with a barely hidden grin.

"The defeated villainness returns, heroically deciding to delay victory for another day."

"I need your help, Addy."

"What? You can't beat the level 100 Custodian on your own? Nooo." I winced. She was sorta right. I pulled the trigger early on this idea, but worse, I didn't bother to add Addy into it.

"Forget beating him, I couldn't even get his attention without being blown away." I sagged my many shoulders, giving Addy a puppydog stare.

"Can we do the thing?"

"Hm. I dunno." Addy was on another smug streak.

"There was this thing I wanted to try with rope…"

"Uhuh."

"On you."

"Oh." I paused. Mulled it over. Suffered through a bout of hemming and hawing.

"Okay. Later. Promise." Addy grinned." Arachnid form: Soul!" Light, music, yadda yadda, I was now a glowing lightbulb Samantha, ready to share joy and kick ass. Addy's hands entwined with mine. Nothing happened. I tried to push the issue further, but instead of a fusion, we were rewarded with a hefty zap.

"Ow!" I rubbed my hands.

"Addy, did you just reject me?" Addy was staring at her own hands in equal confusion, confusion that quickly made way for understanding.

"Is it… try that again." I grabbed her hands, and this time there was no electric rejection. Also no fusion, but hey, progress was progress.

"You figured something out?" I asked, to which Addy nodded.

"Hug me."

"Uh." I embraced her with four of my six arms, the others ready in case something was about to ambush us.

"Hold me." I lifted her off her feet, feeling her legs lock around my hips.

"Addy, I'm not sure now's the time for—""It's joy. I need to feel joy on a level with yours for the fusion to work. No fear, anger, doubt, guilt — nothing. Just joy." She stared me in the eyes with those big yellow doors to her soul.

"I'm not going to ask you to be less happy, so this is the workaround."

"Oh." That… actually made a lot of sense.

"I don't think just holding you is enough."

"Hm." She didn't sound unhappy about it.

"You promise getting Trust's attention will help save the world?"

"God, I hope it does." Trust was the last champion I needed to convince so we could boycott the whole envoys-fighting-eachother thing and get to actually working together instead of pulling ourselves apart. Addy gently put her forehead to mine and whispered.

"... You're my world, my everything. I can see you trying your best, but I won't allow you to blow yourself up for the world again. Understood?"

"Wait, what — mmh?" Addy pulled at my collar and pressed her lips into mine, leaning over onto me such that I had no choice but to stumble backwards. I hit the wall, and her kiss redoubled in intensity. For a brief moment, all the joy wafting off of me whirled to focus on her eyes, the feeling of her tongue exploring my mouth, focusing on her entire existence and her alone. My eyes fluttered shut. When they opened again, Addy was gone. I'd gained height, power, and I was still wearing my villainous fae dress."

I wanted to kiss you more…" her voice echoed inside our head. She sounded so disappointed.

"We can continue where we left off afterwards."" Mhm. I'd like that alot."

"Good. Now, beware oh Custodians, for it is I, Evil Queen Arachniaaa—" Trust was floating above us, staring at us with a heretofore unseen intensity. The storm hadn't moved, but here he was.

"Goddammit Addy, I knew we were going to get caught some day," I squeak whispered.

"What was that?" he asked.

"Nothing! Nothing." I laughed a nervous laugh, taking a few instinctive leaps back before slamming into, then through a brick wall. An automatic door opened with a shwoop while I was still busy dusting myself off. Trust floated down to eye-height, close enough that I felt the fizz of his shield bubble crackle against mine.

"You kissed a girl, melded together with her, then became a lot more powerful." He tilted his head.

"Do you always do that?" I spluttered.

"I, er… of course I do! I have an infinite harem of magical girls at my beck and call, for I am Evil Queen Arachnia! Prepare for double, and make it trouble — no wait, I got a better one. Better duck or I'll blow you up!"

"Joycasters are weird." A clump of teddy bears flew past his face, exploding with barely a twirl of his wand.

"I like the getup. Reminds me of the evil witch Magatha from Magical Pure-Pure Perfection."

"I, er, took some inspiration." This was an unexpected line of conversation. Focus, I was here for a reason.

"Now square up, bucko." The lime-green colored gem on his chest felt like a third eye as he stared at me for a moment.

"Let me guess: Now that you've powered up, you're going to defeat me before extending a hand in friendship at the last moment. An invitation to the dark side. Truly, a plan only an evil witch could come up with."

"... maybe." Steadily, step by step, I crawled back on all eight limbs like a reverse spider fleeing prom.

"It's a bad plan. You can never beat me. You know this."

"Oh, of course. I could never beat you in a straight fight, and I would never want to fight you in the first place. You're not evil enough." She huffed.

"You're no Goku and I'm no Frieza."

"Yeah. Which is why instead imma steal all your kills."

"What?" A chubby blue teddy bear came sailing past a couple hundred feet above, caught in the tornado. With a burst of [Arms & Arms Proficiency] and a quick draw of my Lucky 7, I exploded it straight out of Trust's trap. He did not like that.

"Stop that."

"Nope." Addy took control of my legs, leaping back with an [Overcharged Pounce].

"For I am the Evil Queen Arachnia! The spider in the corner of your room! The web that tickles your nose until you sneeze! I am mildly inconvenient, I am inevitable. And what more:" I got into a pose, head slightly tilted, resting against the backside of my first pair of hands, making a giant heart-shape with my second pair, and doing jazz hands with the third.

"I look cuter on camera." His left eye twitched.

"You do not."

"Cuter and better. I bet Addy and I can get more soulcoins than you from this convergence event." This time his huff turned into a short chuckle.

"Really? You are level 72. How exactly are you going to achieve that?"

"Easy." One of my body doubles snuck up on her, jumping behind her and whispering in her ear.

"I'm gonna fold you in half." He obliterated the double easily enough, but the moment of distraction was enough. When he turned to me, I already had a new little weapon pointed straight at his flustered face. Sub-folder Need your laundry folded? Too many loose documents saved right to your mom's desktop? Well, look no further than the Sub-folder for an answer. This household tool fixes all your folding-related problems with a Zap. Price: 150 Soulcoins.

I'd bought this gun in a bout of laziness while dealing with Free Poker League stuff a few months back, and never stopped using it since. It was intended for making housework more bearable, but a funny thing happened when you used this on clothes people were already wearing. I pulled the trigger, and the thing zapped his skirt. Immediately, the flowy, showy mesh of frills and ribbons folded itself around him with an 'eep'.

The now-cocooned Trust — my spider instincts approved — rotated helplessly in place for a moment before he caught himself. He turned to me with a glare.

"Tee hee." Inevitably, a chase ensued, one which we couldn't lose. Trust could fly, yes, and he was decently fast, but his build helped him maneuver more than it made him fast in a straight line. If I had to guess, his faster flight was a channeled spell, and he was currently busy channeling that giant tornado. Since nobody could channel two spells at once, he was unable to keep up. And add to that that Addy and my stats were combined, well…

With bouncy steps, we stayed ahead, catching enough airtime for a couple sick trickshots against teddybears being sucked up by his tornado. City terrain was exactly where I felt most at home. With [Arms & Arms Proficiency] and Addy's [Shadow Step], we were a surgical device. On the flipside, Trust couldn't scoop up entire houses just to crunch the odd invader. He was a storm, we were a scalpel.

"He's got pretty bad Sense if my double can just sneak up on him like that," I muttered." Just so you know, I am going to punish you for pretending to flirt with him." Addy's voice was teasing.

"Oh come on, Addy, that's not fair." At that moment, Mochi popped into realspace beside me. The envoy glitched in place only once.

"W-w-wowza, I felt that happiness all the way up to orbit, what fun stuff are you — oh my god, are you stealing Trust's stuff? For me? Oh, S-s-sammy, be more ambitious." A quest interface popped up in front of my eyes. [Envoy mission: Duel of the Fates] Assumed difficulty: Champion Primary objective: Earn more soulcoins than your opponents by the time the timer has finished ticking down. Dying prematurely means you lose. Primary reward: Hugs, kisses, the eternal adoration of ya girl, Mochi.

Also, like, 1000 soulcoins and 1 ivory, I guess.

"The bet's two percent, so get to killing my happiest mur-mur-murdermachine." Mochi cackled and with a poof, disappeared. I swore under my breath.

"This is even more unfair. Everyone wants a piece of me, dangit." The change in the air was near instant. Trust stopped following me, instead swerving to the edge of the tornado, where the teddy bears would be delivered straight to him. It was a giant storm of lime-green trust, with a denser knot swirling around the champion himself. So, his deadly power is close-ish-range. I see. Rather, I don't. What's up with that? There was magic in the air, and I could feel Addy twitching with eagerness to dissect it.

"Addy, do you think we can use our fusion's body at the same time?"" I, uh… maybe?" I let my lower pair of hands go slack. Within moments, they resuscitated, moving by Addy's will instead of mine." This is… freaky.

"I cored a flying teddybear with my Spab 4, then ducked under its tendril, nearly punching myself in the face." Stop moving so much!"

"Sorry, sorry." Simultaneous movement was not going to work.

"Maybe we just do a full control switch as needed?"

"Like… swapping controllers?"

"A videogame analogy! Yes, exactly like that." I wanted to hug her, but couldn't. The only downside of this form. Addy snorted." You're ranged and I'm melee. Now, let's beat this prideful little rat." I bounced in affirmation, feeling like gravity couldn't hold me down. With a leap, I was across the nearest house, quick-swapping through guns in the air faster than Moe or I could reload them.

My Spab 4 kicked like a mule while Pricklers popped bears or set them alight, and the Lucky 7 always found an application for each of its seven emotionally loaded bullets.

Plasma globs flew and melted through leathery skin and wire-and-fluff filling alike. A group of commandos had grabbed hold of paragliders from somewhere, diving down on us like a wing of fighter planes. Their sharp turns and high-speed divebombing runs were cut short with anger-seeking bazooka rounds and a rain of air-burst missiles from my shoulder-mounted missile pod. The warcrimers saw no action, mainly because the one thing they weren't good at was avoiding collateral damage.

The sky was awash with explosions and cackling glee, carving a territory in joyous yellow out of a reality that trusted that this storm would last forever. I felt giddy, and in a gambling mood as I summoned my huge Thunker. The 30mm autocannon had served me well, scratched and scarred, and it would serve me even better going forward.

"You deserve better, o' loyal weapon of mine!" I shouted as I slammed an ivory soulcoin on it. It glowed briefly, going through its own magical girl transformation, growing and shifting along the barrel. [Rolling attributes] [Major Balanced attribute: Another Barrel - It's another barrel. Proportionally increased fire rate, ammo consumption, weight, and recoil. Prolonged use has a small chance to induce manic glee.]" That's pretty alright. Let's stop here and—"Another one!"

[Rolling attributes] [Major Balanced attribute: Another Barrel - It's another barrel. Proportionally increased fire rate, ammo consumption, weight, and recoil. Prolonged use has a small chance to induce manic glee.]" Twice in a row? Sam, do you know how statistically unlikely—""Another one!" [Rolling attributes] [Major Balanced attribute: Another Barrel - It's another barrel. Proportionally increased fire rate, ammo consumption, weight, and recoil. Prolonged use has a small chance to induce manic glee.] [Ivory Soulcoins: 0]"Another — awww, I'm out of ivory."" Sam, please." Addy pleaded." Don't gamble all your ivory on one weapon unless you really, really like it."

"What's there not to like with a big, automatic cannon? Watch." I thunked it onto the ground, jumped into the windy whirlwind sky, and summoned it back into my hands.

"Sin, firing solution" <<marking baddies>> A hundred-odd teddy-bear-shaped targets appeared on my system interface, complete with tiny updating notepads on distance, relative speed, size, and teddy bear types. There were huggers and abductors, commandos and tanks, fusers and reflectors, and a single three-star teddybear general. That one was still secured in a warehouse together with a whole slew of teddy bear forces. Stolen story; please report. The generals are always a problem.

They buff nearby teddy bears, and they've usually got a handful of magic users slaved to their wires. But without an army, a general is useless. Teddy bears, as far as theory goes, were magical constructs once designed as a highly advanced entertainment-slash-protection suite for a post-scarcity civilization — in literature described as Civilization B — that had long since emigrated from their husk of a planet to live among a chain of space stations in close orbit with a dyson swarm around their local star.

Over time, the people of Civilization B became estranged from what it meant to be a person, letting machines think and make decisions for them, allowing them to slowly expand the intake of resources for their ever-growing homes in space across their star system, and eventually beyond.

The teddy bears entertained their kids because the parents couldn't be bothered to, catered to their every need until generation by generation, the people turned from adults to manchildren to living vegetables, their minds forever sunk in joy-mazes within virtual reality. They couldn't even form a thought that would have them leave their safe constructed realities, because in truth space was harsh and empty, and the bears were made to protect them from even the fear of an imperfect world.

Slowly, their numbers dwindled, and they died out. Or, perhaps, members of Civilization B still existed to this day, kept forever alive in suspended animation so that the teddy bears would never fail their duty. Nobody from any race that ever traveled through a portal to the world of Civilization B found anything but a world stripped of all resources and life. And anyone who ventured beyond its polycarbon atmosphere disappeared, never to be seen again. It was worthy of a campfire horror story.

The scariest thing about the teddy bears wasn't that they saw other races as primitive, child-like variations of their protector species, or even as pets. They rarely killed, oftentimes ignoring large concentrations of civilians entirely where the lizards would have slaughtered or abducted them to join their pain pits at home. No, the scary thing was that the teddy bears being sent through the portals were the nice ones. They only focused on individuals with high magical potential.

Members of a civilization that predated the fae must have had a ginormous amount of magic, which the bears on the other side could likely use with their parasitic wiring. Hence why they abducted instead of killed. To prevent any abduction one had to eradicate the top-line teddy bears first before they could create a return portal. Which they could apparently do in three separate ways. Way to flex on all us 21st century newbies to the technological arms race, bears.

The general could open a small portal at any time, which it usually did to escape a potentially lethal situation or evade capture. The reflector bears could form a circle, reflecting neutrinos between them in a way that ripped open a hole in space-time after an extended period of time. It sorta had the same effect as a mimic-sacrifice ritual, but used an entirely different class of physics and metaphysics. And fusers, well, they could fuse with any teddy bear including their own type to form bigger, hybrid bears.

They were limited to one non-fuser type within any completed fusion, but could combine with as many fusers as they liked. This was how they created their own kaijus with varying power sets, made up of dozens to hundreds of fusers and one other bear as a locus of power. No kaijus so far. Trust has been mainly picking off their foot soldiers as well. He seems rather unbothered by efficiency. I suppose if he continues flying around like this, he'll get them all eventually.

One moment had passed, enough to sort thoughts and targets. The easy ones first. My now four-barreled Thunker let out a stream of 30mm incendiary rounds in small brrts, shaking my entire being and turning the teddy bears already on their way to Trust into so much ash. Holy recoil. We've got over 800 in Body but I can still feel that in my bones. Their burning forms briefly lit the eastern side of the tornado in reds and oranges.

Another few brrts below met a series of tanks, the big chubby teddy bears having assembled to try and toss a couple huggers at me. The tiny huggers were more rabbit-like than their bigger counterparts, and they were the only ones that couldn't take over an entire body with their internal wiring. They did have enough to take over a limb or two if they managed to hug you, hence their name. The recoil kept me floating in the air for a couple more seconds. The Thunker had gotten heavy to the point of being unwieldy.

And yet… [Soulcoins: 2713->2741] [Soulcoins: 2741->2768] [Soulcoins: 2768->2810] A line of spidersilk caught on a tall building, and I was swinging around like a carousel, propelled by thousands of spent bullets a minute.

"Ahahaha! Ahahaha!" Teddy bears exploded, fluff went up in flames. The world was a wash of color, enemies were everywhere, and yet it was a good day because the numbers just kept on going up and up. On and on and on, to the next target, the next coin, the next kill. More, more, more!

"Sam. Sam!" Addy slapped my cheek with my own hand." Get a grip. You've been laughing like a maniac for two whole minutes!"

"Wuh — woah." I blinked, looked around.

"Huh. So that's what manic glee does. Sorta like an emotion inducer. I couldn't charge a spell at all during that."

"And you were making us a huge target. It's a wonder nobody shot us." Of course, the teddy bears used just that moment to shoot at us. A laser beam about two me's wide cut through the side of the building I was hanging from, glass exploding and office supplies catching fire as it refracted off of my Type 97 bubble shield. The shield held for just long enough for us to duck partially out of the way and behind the entire building.

But my torso was red, black in parts, singed and burnt and oozing lifeblood—" I'll be fine." Addy chanted, shunting both of our injuries away.

"Don't worry. I'll be fine." Within moments, the injury was gone.

"That's, uh, wow. Kinda amazing." Addy didn't comment, but I could feel our heart skip a giddy beat.

"It came from the east side of their base. The reflectors can reflect more particles than just the kind used for making portals."

"What're the chances Trust saw that and is about to tear them apart from head to butt?"

"High. Which means if we're quick about it, we can take apart the main base."

"We're using her as a distraction." I paused.

"Don't know how I like that."

"Call it involuntary teamwork. Now, do you want to win this or not?"

"... I'll take a win, but I will bitch and moan all the way." I didn't challenge Trust to make this all about her envoy's shares and mine. We watched Trust zoop on by, straight towards the source of the large laser. As he was meticulously tearing apart the car shop they were hiding in without even shattering the glass windows, Addy and I made our move.

We approached the compound the general was using as his bunker with sneaky steps, body morphing all the way with [Of Many Colors] like a chameleon with an identity crisis. Seriously, having over 1200 Soul made the color change near instant. In the visible spectrum, I was damn near invisible. Unfortunately, super advanced teddy bear constructs didn't just perceive the visible spectrum.

While the lumbering tanks taking shelter from the storm in garages were created with suboptimal senses, the huggers had a second usecase: they were highly acute scouts. One of them peeked out from behind a car. A second one dangled from a traffic light. I froze, but both of their eyes remained fixed on my position as they slowly crept closer. One of them touched the tip of my combat boot. Out of reflex, I kicked it half a block away. And from there, everything devolved into chaos.

I jumped, ran, scaled a wall, tossed a toothpick grenade behind me. The moment my feet touched the roof, panels and corrugated metal sheets tore off of it, speeding towards me as if attracted by a powerful magnet. They also were on fire, glowing an ominous red in parts and crackling with lightning. The general was close. And he was using the magic of those slaved to him. I tried to jump, but couldn't get a good footing as my foot bent the steel girder beneath me.

And then I was falling, and suddenly everywhere I looked there were teddybears, large, small, buttons and grinning mouths stitched in misshapen rows, bodies colored in every garish color, all staring at me, waiting for me to hit the ground. Shit, shit, shit." Switch!" A blade emerged from the heart-shaped pattern on the tank bear above me. It flipped, cut upwards through leather and wire and fluff. It emerged again from a hugger's face, cutting it clean in two before neatly dissecting the surrounding bears.

Addy pulled her sword from our shadow, parrying a whirling metal sheet flying towards us like a frisbee. There were a dozen more, all hitting the ground as we sunk into the shadow and emerged on one of the two still intact girders, light as a feather. <<Holy shit, I thought they had us, >> I texted her, not wanting to give our position away. <<We've got too much Body and Soul to have our bodies taken over by any of them, besides maybe the general. >> Her gaze swerved around. <<I don't see him.

Keep an eye out while I draw him out. >> Addy dropped and landed like thunder, punching straight through a tank from head to toe. She got to work, blending and blurring the lines between us and the innards of our enemies. An abductor, who unfurled into a nightmarish tangle of steel wires ready to burrow into our body and hijack or replace our nervous system was left as a pile of scrap in moments.

One of the few reflectors present lasered Addy across the thigh — rather, it would have, but [One Moment] triggered automatically via [Trigger], confusing her for a moment until she found what she had to dodge. Even then, there was too much to evade. Ducking under a laser meant allowing a hand-sized piece of glass to hit us in the back, leaping away from a second abductor meant to not get entangled in steel wire meant getting boxed in by a pair of tanks and a swarm of electrified metal sheets.

Should I cast a spell? Addy's fast, but at this rate, we'll get bogged down. <<Give me a trigger, >> Addy mentally texted." Trigger?"" I'll be fine," Addy muttered, just as a piece of steel rebar punched through our back and out the front. The wound closed right after. Automatic healing. Addy just found a way to automatically heal ourselves. And if I focused on charging that spell, I could create one charge every few seconds. We were unstoppable.

We broke through yet another wall of disposable bears — and suddenly, we were missing an arm, a bloodied steel sheet flying through a wake of blood. One moment! That piece of metal cut through us like butter even though we had a Body of 800. Magic, it has to be. The general is making his move. I snagged our arm and slapped it onto the stump just as Addy's [I'll be fine] triggered, fusing it right back into place." Addy, there's—""I know."

Our eyes wandered around, searching the unchanging faces of stuffed teddy bears.

"There!" Addy leapt through a tank, tearing it apart with two hands. At the far end of the warehouse stood a short teddy bear with a beret and three metal bear skulls on his chest. A trio of voodoo dolls hung from his neck. There was no sign of any wires siphoning off the magic of living creatures. Unless…" Don't harm those dolls. I think they're miniaturized people."

"Anything else?" A pair of tanks intercepted us. Addy tore through them in moments.

"An aperitif, a coffee maybe?"" I'll have one Addy for dessert, with plenty of cream." Addy snorted as the entire building tore itself apart and a truly ludicrous number of objects started flying straight towards us.

"You'll have to work for it." Way ahead of you." Echo: Arms & Arms proficiency!" I yelled and the grin on Addy's face couldn't have stretched wider." Sense trade," she barked, and suddenly every cell in our body felt like steel. Addy parried, deflected, and cut through with her sword or deflected with a palm strike two hundred separate objects flying at us in under ten seconds.

The strain in every joint and ligament was a warm burn, an aching sensation, but it also felt like we were finally getting to run at full power. We were left gasping, and still, when Addy slashed the ground to cut the general's legs off, it just teleported away. Because of course it could teleport. Where is it — there! It was above us, one arm moving to shape a girder into a giant sword. The squealing sound as pounds of metal were bent and shaved off to form a perfect edge was ear-rending.

Midway through, the bear seized up. And from behind it, a familiar lime green magical girl appeared floating above us.

"There you are." Trust squeezed the general with some ephemeral force. It couldn't teleport away, or it would have long ago. Some part of her power? Immediately, I texted Addy. <<What spell is he using? There are finger-like prints on the general's body. Is he using some sort of super-invisible hands? >> <<Time to find out, >> she texted back, already smearing more of that eyeliner stuff under our eyes." Addy, I don't think that's going to…"" Sense trade."

Hundreds of points in Sense suddenly rushed back into us, combining with the eyeliner to reveal the secrets of the world.

"Woah." The sky was full of people. The giant tornado was an unfathomable thousand or so ghosts whirling in a circle, cloaked by Trust's spell. A number of old and young men and women were grasping the teddy bear general with ethereal hands, and further ghosts swirled around Trust like a school of fish. Ghosts didn't interact with matter normally, and yet there was some mechanic here that made it possible. The air was thick with trust.

"It was a good showing," Trust said, his dress thoroughly unfolded.

"But you never stood a chance."" I can see that now," I said." It was never two on one. More like, two on five thousand. Except, there is way more trust in the air than even you could produce. And the ghosts, where the heck are you getting so many from? Are you…"

"You're using the afterlife," Addy said in disbelief.

"You're taking people from up above and using their emotions to power a giant ritual spell to create the tornado."

"It's an ethical use of magic," he said.

"I only call those willing to do their part, who are sick of being stuck in the sky unable to act, unable to change. Once the energy of their souls is used up, they can rest, eternally."" Where they feed the magic of our planet." He nodded.

"Once, the act of invoking spirits was a common thing. I am simply returning it to the people." I froze." So that's your envoy's plan. It wants to give this kind of power to everyone." The pause, the slight twitch of Trust's eyes, was confirmation enough. Oh. That is much better than what I was thinking. Glad he's not into magical girl manslaughter.

"The dead are all-too willing to help the living. Custodians prove that day after day. If we let things continue as they are, soon anybody will able to call down ghosts of the emotional alignment to cast any given spell." His voice was clear but his mind sounded as if it was far away. Unbelievable. A world of wizards. I should be afraid, given my experiences with the brim and pointy-hatted type, but… magic for everyone sounds good. Very good.

Now why do I feel like there are a million holes just waiting to be poked into this idea?

"Why can you see them?" he asked.

"Teamwork. That, and seasnail slime." Is that what's on our face? Ugh. Trust raised a brow.

"I thought the toxic effects would cloud your mind too much to benefit from it."

"It's only toxic while you have under 300 Body. But yes, most people use it to cast Tenezzar's Mark."

"Or Bookmark on a book they've read." Trust perked up ever so slightly.

"You know ritual magic?

"I dabble. And nobody uses Bookmark anymore ever since Sazza the sand-witch discovered…" I watched from the backseat as they jabbered on until eventually my transformation and therefore our fusion fell away. What is happening, why are these two geeking out over stuff I barely understand? His eyes widened.

"You… you really were two different people. I thought you fused with one of your doubles." I… huh. I suppose I could do that?

"I'm her girlfriend," Addy said, raising her chin.

"Got a problem with that?"

"I don't… I guess it can work that way. Leela and Hibiki did pull that off in Magical Shoot-Shoot-em' up after a thorough heart-to-heart." He was muttering to himself, the faintest hint of a blush coloring his cheeks.

"But why does it work in real life? Fusion should be a trust spell, not joy."

"Guess we don't know everything about magic." I shrugged.

"So, if everyone can call ghosts to do their bidding… how many are we talking about?" He clasped his necklace and the jewel that hung from it.

"When the afterlife becomes available to everybody, the average person won't be able to summon this many. But it should be enough for a small cantrip or a fireball for most people." Of course, he was a level 100 Custodian with what looked to be a classic mage build, focusing on Soul, then Mind and Sense in that order. His ECC-efficiency was probably hundreds of times higher than that of the average person. Still, a dozen or so ghosts lending their power to cast a spell was…

enough for self defense against the unnatural, huh? It was a better plan than that of RANCOR, though that wasn't a high bar to clear. Spells were more versatile than a laser pistol and didn't have to be used exclusively to blow your enemies up. They could be used for good, for making pistachio ice cream, or for keeping perishable goods suspended in time. His ghosts didn't look all that unhappy either. They were serene, swimming through the air like schools of fish.

Addy looked like she wanted to ask more questions, but I stopped her with a handwave.

"So, that's your ideal world. Everyone gets magic, and when they die, they become a battery for future generations?"

"No. Not a battery." He nearly spat that word.

"We are friends. We all help each other."

"Sure, if you say so. But that's just your own case. Do you really think people across the world will follow your example?" Addy asked.

"That's why I'm streaming, yes." Building trust so when this becomes Earth's native magic, his fans will be prepared to pull from the same afterlife he is. Or that when they die, they join Trust's afterlife right away.

"Great, er, well… not everyone's going to use it that way. It's hard to mow your lawn with an anger spell, right?"

"And beyond that," Addy added, "most of the magic is bound in the soul, and if those keep going into low earth orbit…"

"Nothing goes to the earth, meaning the trend of fewer and fewer people born with magic will continue," said Trust, his face entirely blank.

"Yes, that is true. There might eventually be no magically inclined humans. No wizards, no witches, nothing. But the magic will still be there when you need it, no matter who you are, no matter where you are born, or how disfigured you might be. It is the ultimate expression of human free will."

"We'll also never grow many magical plants natively," Addy noted.

"Most larger magical spells require reagents. We'll be dependent on imports, and when those inevitably aren't enough—" I gasped.

"We'll be forced to raid the sister worlds." After a moment's pause, Trust replied.

"I have thought about this. And I see it as inevitable." Was it? There was always something a planet lacked. Machineworld required raw resources for its industry, Lizardworld required prisoners to extract pain and magic from, Mimicworld required new blueprints, and so on. And Earth would fit right in among them as the world of emotions and soulstealers.

But surely there would be innovation, surely the smart people of the world would find ways to compensate for circumstance, for the bad luck of living on a planet everybody wanted a piece of. There was still injustice today even without magical issues, but things were getting better. Right? Surely the chance to do better wasn't so small as to make it worth throwing away the future of our world's magic, of the potential to become something besides another raiding, parasitic planet in this cold universe of ours.

It had to be. I stared Trust in the eye, tried to get a read on him, and failed utterly.

"That's the world you want to see?"

"That's the world I can make," he shot back, annoyed.

"Better this than to cut ourselves off from magic forever. Better this, than to give everyone a friggin magical gun. Better this, than a pile of rubble, than being enslaved to the fae, or worse. We are running out of time, and our options are ever limited. I don't want to give the next Genghis Khan the ability to explode things with his mind, but they will be born regardless of how the world looks, as long as the world is still around. We are supposed to save the world. That is all that matters."

"Okay."

"Okay?" Addy asked.

"Okay, as in, I see your point. And it's valid. This feels like the best one so far. You've got a proof of concept, it's mostly implemented… it just might work." I took a deep breath.

"I just object to the methods."

"Ghosts aren't scary," he said, the whorl of undead growing a tight knot around his body, ready to lash out at a moment's notice.

"They're downright friendly, as long as you don't anger them." As if that's what I'm afraid of.

"Are violence and competition the only ways we know how to solve problems? Is this all we Custodians are?" I took a deep breath.

"You're reasonable. You've given this a lot of thought. But for someone called the champion of trust, you sure haven't put a lot into anyone but yourself." If there was something in that wide-eyed stare I could read, it was an intense scrutiny, shock, and what might go for yearning.

"You're just like her."

"What?"

"Just like Momo. The former champion of sadness." He took a deep breath.

"She hated fighting, had the same idea of talking it all out. I told her she was just afraid, that she just needed to level a bit to become more confident. And when I got too busy for even a quick chat, she left for the Cauldron before she was ready. Maybe she thought she needed to earn my… friendship? Approval?" He seemed to be recalling something far away in the past.

"She died her final death during a murderbot ambush two years ago." Emotion wafted off of him in waves, buffeting my being. Every hair on my body stood on end, every cell readying in confusion for fight or flight.

"I killed her. In doing nothing, her blood is on my hands. I must be the worst magical girl in history." His gaze turned to his hands, which were now clenched.

"That is why I have to succeed. I must." Or her sacrifice would have been for nothing. I get that. I truly do. I've walked through most of my life with the guilt of not being good enough.

"Redemption comes not from the hand, but the heart," I shot back.

"A quote from Magical Girl Shoot-Shoot 'em up. That's not fair." He smirked, the barest emotion crafting a dimple on his cheek.

"Would talking even work, this late in the game?"

"Not if you don't try." I smiled, turning off the bubble shield around me and extending a hand.

"You said it yourself. We're running out of options. I know I'm asking a lot. But trust me, and take the plunge." For the longest moment, he just stared at my extended hand.

"You really don't care much about winning, do you?"

"I don't have to make someone else lose to win something." I shrugged.

"We can all win together. Isn't that sort of in line with the spirit of trust?" He pondered for a moment before his bubble shield dropped as well.

"It is." I smiled, he smiled, Addy grumped, muttering to herself in disbelief that 'she did it again'. We both frowned at the tiny red dot that had suddenly appeared on Trust's forehead. And then his head exploded.