I watched the small army of agents between me and the portal, a few of them kept an eye on me, but weren’t suspicious since this was a residential area and a random person walking by was out of the question. But I still felt the palms of my hands turn sweaty, then the next moment I turned around and didn’t look back.

  “Hey, what are you doing,” I heard Bug Jacob say.

  “I can’t do this.”

  “Please calm down and elaborate.”

  “Why don’t you read my memories, you can do that right.”

  “Yes, but I don’t know what you're feeling or thinking, it’s like watching a recording. So please take a seat and take a couple breaths.”

  “I don’t-”

  “Do it.”

  I grumbled but followed their instruction

  “So,” they said, “what’s wrong?”

  "Weren't you watching.”

  “I was asleep.”

  “You can sleep?”

  “Why wouldn’t I.”

  “Well, your Moth body doesn’t, so I assumed.”

  “That was when we were only a Moth, now that our soul is split between two bodies we’re half and half. So we just need a couple hours of sleep.”

  “Is that why I've had trouble sleeping? And how do you even know that stuff, you got a manual or something?”

  “That’s just why my instinct are telling me, I’ve already told you thing, now stop avoiding my question.”

  I rolled my eyes, “Fine, I was going to the portal and decided not to.”

  “Going back into the The Great Debate, is that why you were having a panic attack?”

  I tensed my jaw, “I wasn’t having a panic attack.”

  “Ok, then why did you decide to come here in the first place, this feels very spontaneous, even for you.”

  “It just didn’t feel right not going. I have things I need to do, and things feel… unresolved.”

  “Ok, seems like there’s a simple solution.”

  I didn’t answer, but he still continued.

  “Just go in there, it might be rash, but I don’t think you can do much else to survive.”

  “Supplies, bring other people, a million other things,” I said, not really meaning it.

  “Then don’t.”

  There was a moment of silence before I stood up and walked towards the fence, a weird feeling coming over me. It wasn’t calm, though, maybe more like acceptance or finality. I activated Stealth, climbing over the fence, watching as some people in suites walk past me.

  Then I was at the entrance to the portal again, and I took a deep breath before I walked in, the hair on the back of my neck rising in a weirdly comforting way. The trunks of pines like giant legs surrounding me, above an ocean of evergreen needles waving in the wind. A few dozen yards to the side of me I saw seven human skeletons, their clothing in tatters, but from what I could tell of their torn uniforms, some of them were soldiers. And in the middle of the bodies was a pile of guns bent and pressed into a ball, their inner mechanisms pouring out of them like intestines.

  I grimaced, but walked towards them, keeping my senses sharp in case whatever did this was still around.

  “Jesus,” Bug Jacob exclaimed quietly.

  I walked up to one of the piles of bones, nudging them lightly with a foot, “Why are they just skeletons?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I’m pretty sure these are humans from Earth, and three days ain’t long enough to decompose to this point.”

  “Wibly wobbly timey whimy shenanigans, or something picked them clean.”

  Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  “Probably the second, but then why would they leave the bones? It’s not like whatever did this couldn’t get to the marrow, the ball of guns is proof enough.”

  “Could be it's not in their diet, too hard to digest and stuff.”

  “We should figure out what did this.”

  “Yeah, hope it isn’t too strong.”

  Bug Jacob sighed, “Why do you have to tempt fate?”

  I grinned, “Because I’m bored.”

  Then the system announced something.

  Bug Jacob glared at me and said, “Welp, we’re all gonna die.”

  “System Announcement, Jacob Davidson has been given a quest.”

  Kill the Tree Octopi who killed the scout team: 0/4

  “Error”

  “Quest Amendment has been manually made by an Operator.”

  “Waiting”

  “Waiting”

  “System Announcement, Jacob Davidson has been removed from quest.”

  “Huh?” Bug Jacob, and I said simultaneously.

  But I didn’t think much of it as I spread my senses out to find any threats in the vicinity, quickly discovering four things that were in the vague shape of an Octopus swinging through the branches. I summoned my minions and probed the souls of creatures to glean anything, then… accidentally crushed their souls with a brief touch of my Domain.

  ‘Oh…’

  When I retracted my Domain Bug Jacob frantically said, “What's happening?!”

  “Don’t worry, just quickly took care of those Octopi, sorry for activating my domain without asking.”

  “Don’t worry, I know why you did it.”

  “You sure?”

  “It’s fine,” they said more firmly.

  I didn’t push and continued with, “Any way, now that I got some minions I’m willing to throw away, why don’t I try and put Urg and Seconds soul into those bodies.”

  “Ok, but let's separate our core so I don’t go under, also take my body out of Slip Away, I wanna move around.”

  I did as they asked, watching them prance around and hiss in a way I found adorable. Then we separated our core, and I turned my attention inward, finding the souls of Second. Then I pushed it into the body of the Octopi. It took a couple of attempts, but I eventually got it, a burst of energy radiating out when I succeeded.

  Then the mass of tentacles started squirming around like an alien had taken over a human's body and was trying to figure out how the limbs worked. After waiting for a few moments for them to reorient themself I said through the Lunar Scale connection.

  “Hey, buddy, how’re you doing?”

  All I got back was a cripling impression of pain and fear, and hatred for me killing them.

  I winced, then gave a half hearted laugh, “Yeah, I said you wouldn’t like it, I had to find some way of tricking the System though.”

  I got another blast of emotions, along with a ‘coherent’ message, “You you yOu Yuo yoU…. IT’S YOU. Why. Why. Why. Why did you- Why. Why. ahhahhhhhhhhhhhh. Jacob, why?”

  Then the Octopus went limp, and another burst of energy radiated out from it. I turned my attention back towards the nonphysical plane and saw Seconds' soul floating in the void, dissolving. I hastily grabbed it, but it tried to bite me, so I played hot potato with it as I scrambled ot put it back into Slip Away, letting out a sigh of relief when I succeeded.

  Then I felt something tap my shin. I looked down and saw Bug Jacob offering a strand of Moon Silk. I took it and heard.

  “What happened?”

  “I don’t know, they just screamed at me incoherently, then their soul separated from the body.”

  “That’s weird, their core must’ve been damaged if they can’t even properly communicate.”

  “Their core?”

  “Yeah… did you forget to grab that part of them.”

  “...Maybe.”

  Bug Jacob gave me a disapproving glare.

  “What, it’s just like their body, we can replace it. right..? Right? RIGHT?”

  “Let me put this in a way you’ll understand, each piece of a person is like a computer part meant to specifically fit with each other. The body is the case, the soul is the RAM, and the core is the CPU, you can’t just replace one with the other.”

  “Well, then how did the gods put us into monster bodies, that means there’s got to be a way.”

  “I don’t know,” Bug Jacob moved their wings up and down in a shrug, “They’re gods, there’s a reason they’re called that and we’re not.”

  “What if we find their bodies and put their souls into them?”

  “It’s been three days, that’s a long time for something to go and eat their catatonic bodies.”

  “But if we find them?”

  “It should work,” Bug Jacob acquiesced begrudgingly.

  “Then that’s what we’re doing.”

  “We have no idea where they are, it could take days.”

  “Where there’s a will there’s a way.”

  “Will you do something for me then?”

  I nodded

  “Take out one of their souls and observe it for a couple moments.”

  I did, but struggled when it kept on struggling to get out of my grasp. So I sat so I didn't fall if I focused to much on it, then I notised something when I moved. It wasn’t randomly struggling to get out, but pulled in one direction like a compass.

  “Now, tell me anything you noticed.”

  “It's pulling over there,” I pointed.

  “Now, if you noticed it pulling, that means it’s still connected to its core and trying to reunite with it, but since you don’t- Wait what?”