A flurry of panic flooded Seraphina’s body.

  “No, no, no!” she cried out. She got down on her knees next to her, and put her hands on Viola’s shoulders. She turned Viola around so Viola’s unconscious face was facing her. “Wake up! Wake up!”

  I activated [Sacrificial Mana Transfer] as she shook Viola like a rag doll. Technically, she was a human sized rag doll.

  Viola gasped awake as mana left Seraphina’s body.

  “Huh?” Viola asked, blinking her eyes rapidly. She pushed herself up to a sitting position, rubbing the back of her head. “What happened?”

  Seraphina slumped against her bed, letting out a breath she’d been holding. “You passed out. You tried to ‘sync’ with me, and then you just collapsed.”

  Viola tilted her head, her short blue bob swaying. The purple lights at her ankles flickered. “Passed out? That’s… new. I’ve never passed out before.”

  “Maybe… we shouldn’t do this,” Seraphina said, her voice trembling. “Have you tested with other Unbound?”

  “I’ve only tested it on normal humans back at headquarters,” Viola mused, tapping her chin. “And the simulations, obviously. Maybe that was just a fluke? Or maybe I just got too excited and pushed the connection too fast.”

  “I’m not sure,” Seraphina said, looking away.

  “Come on, let’s try it again,” Viola said, walking around until Seraphina could see her.

  Seraphina hugged her knees to her chest. “I don’t want you to get hurt because of me.”

  “I won’t,” Viola beamed, her optimism apparently strictly hard-coded into her brain. “I’m Tesseract! I’m literally intangible. Passing out was probably just a fluke. A circuit breaker tripping because the power was too awesome.”

  Seraphina furrowed her brows. “That doesn’t even make any sense. Unless… you are telling me you are a robot?”

  “Nope!” she shook her head. “I’m just really good at metaphors.”

  “She’s persistent,” I noted. “And annoying.”

  “She’s just trying to help,” Samsara countered.

  “Still, I'm not sure about this,” Seraphina said, uncertainty dripping from her voice. “I don’t want to kill you.”

  "Kill me?" Viola let out a bright, bubbly laugh that sounded entirely too cheerful for someone who had just face-planted into the floor. “I don’t even think I am killable—I can become intangible whenever I want. All I need is to practice with you. Your mana is a… lot spicier than regular humans.”

  “Spicier?” Samsara asked in my mind. “Is that a technical term?”

  “I think she just means Seraphina has way more juice than a regular person,” I replied. “Which makes sense. They have some remnants of the Aberration Cores inside them.

  Viola floated closer, hovering just inches off the carpet. “Come on, Archangel. One more try? I promise I’ll go slower this time. I bet with our combined powers we could take on a Tier 3 Kaiju.”

  Seraphina’s eyes lit up as Viola said that. A moment later, she looked back down at her own hands.

  I smirked. She probably thought Viola would give her the power to kill me and then realized I could just stop her with my will.

  Seraphina looked at Viola, then at her own hands. I could feel the butterflies in her stomach. Metaphorically of course. Unless Seraphina’s power actually made her spawn butterflies in her stomach. I wouldn’t be surprised.

  “Fine,” Seraphina whispered. “One more time. But if you faint again, we stop.”

  “Deal!” Viola chirped.

  She held out her hand again. The violet light pulsed, steady and inviting.

  Seraphina reached out. Her fingers trembled, but she didn’t pull back.

  “Should we stop them this time?” Samsara asked. “I’m a bit worried that something bad might happen to Viola since she had only tested on regular humans before.”

  “No,” I decided. “They should be fine for this ‘sync’.” In fact, they should be fine for any other sync.

  Worse comes to worst, Viola perishes because her power can’t actually work with Seraphina’s. I’ll lose a few souls because of Viola wasting away, but it’s so minuscule I can afford to lose them.

  “That’s kind of… messed up to just ignore Viola,” Samsara echoed her disappointment.

  “Well, it’s the souls and the utility that matter to me the most,” I said. “If she can boost Seraphina, then I have a powerful fighter I can control. If she can’t, then she’s not really worth it, is she?”

  “Still, that’s pretty cruel,” Samsara countered. “And pretty unnecessary.”

  “Don’t forget she is working with the enemy,” I pointed out. Her disapproval dripped into my mind. I gave her a hug, causing her to be less upset at me. “Also, it’s more likely that nothing is wrong with Viola syncing with Seraphina. It’s better to just observe.”

  Their palms connected.

  The purple light flared, filling the room. Seraphina arched her back, a gasp tearing from her throat. A sudden, overwhelming surge of energy that made her muscles taut and her senses sharpen.

  "Whoa," Seraphina whispered. She blinked, and I saw through the soul link that her vision had shifted.

  Everything was sharper, tinted with a violet hue. When she looked in the mirror, her golden irises were now glowing purple.

  Hovering in front of her face was the purple cube. It spun slowly.

  “See?” The cube rotated, bringing a face with a mouth to the front. The lips moved, animated by the purple energy. “I told you I wouldn’t fail! We’re stable!”

  “That is incredibly… weird,” I thought, staring at the disembodied mouth on the cube.

  “Agreed,” Samsara mentally nodded.

  "I feel..." Seraphina flexed her fingers. Purple lights covered them as if they were gloves. "Heavy. But powerful. Like I'm holding a storm inside my chest."

  "Hey, that’s a metaphor!" Viola snickered. "Anyways, that’s the effect of the sync. I'm boosting your powers and enhancing your mana flow. Plus, I become a cool floating cool cube."

  "What does the cube do?" Seraphina asked, turning her head to look at the geometric shape hovering loyally in front of her.

  “It’s me!” Viola said. “I think my mind is somehow inside this thing. Thankfully, it’s completely intangible. Try grabbing it.”

  Seraphina reached out with a hand, slowly approaching Viola’s new form. Her fingers phased right through the side where the mouth was. Almost immediately, Seraphina backed her hand out of there.

  “Plus, you do feel that our senses are shared, right?” Viola questioned. “It was the same way for the humans I tested with.”

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  “Mhm,” Seraphina nodded. “It felt pretty weird, so I didn’t want to bring it up. But I can definitely hear and see out of that cube. It’s like I have double vision or something, but without the headaches.”

  Oh. I hadn’t noticed that before since I was too busy trying to test [Sacrificial Soul Transfer]. And now, I had a soul link with Viola, so I shared her senses too. I was glad I didn’t get any weird double sensation side effects.

  “Can we…test this?” Seraphina asked, looking at the window. “I feel like I need to test my powers.”

  "Way ahead of you," Viola said, her cube form floating towards the door. “Let’s head outside.”

  Seraphina opened the window of her apartment. The cool air filled her lungs. She flexed her wings, and shot into the sky.

  The speed was incredible. Before, Seraphina’s flight was graceful yet fast. Now, it felt like she was rushing against the air at nearly three times the speed. A purple streak against the clouds. The cube hovered in front of her perfectly, matching her velocity without lag.

  I focused on her back. Seraphina’s wings had transformed completely. The delicate golden feathers were now tipped with glowing violet energy, and the wingspan had nearly doubled in size, soaring against the updrafts. They stayed steady even as Seraphina ascended, making it clear that Seraphina didn’t need them to fly.

  "There's nothing out here," Seraphina shouted over the roar of the wind, scanning the ground far below. "We aren't near the Wild Lands, so I can't find any monster girls to test this on."

  “Good,” Samsara commented.

  "Just hit the trees!" Viola’s voice projected clearly from the cube, cutting through the atmospheric noise.

  Seraphina banked sharply to the left diving toward a grove of completely normal trees. Unlike Collum Trees, these trees were nowhere near 1000 meters tall, maybe only 10 meters tall at max. Seraphina slowed her descent.

  Seraphina’s wings detached from her body and floated around her. The white eyes had now had a violet hue. And each of them flashed.

  Large, pulsating purple orbs materialized from the feathers. They hummed with unstable energy, distorting the air around them with static. Seraphina put her hands on her hips as each of the orbs dashed.

  They didn’t travel in a straight line. Instead, they zipped and zigzagged through the air, changing their course until they each slammed into six separate trees.

  The orbs didn’t explode into sparks. Upon impact, they expanded rapidly into spheres of roughly five meters in diameter. Inside the spheres, arcs of purple lightning violently lashed out, striking the trunk and branches repeatedly. The lightning obliterated the wood upon contact, causing the trees to fall. More wood and leaves were annihilated upon contact.

  Seraphina fired another salvo of orbs. But this time, she focused on them as they made contact with the tree trunks. This time, the purple sparks went over the barks of the tree, and into the ground. The violet lightning spread for hundreds of meters before fizzling out.

  "Whoa," Seraphina breathed, hovering in the air as she watched the lightning persist for several long seconds before fading. "That is… intense."

  "Stun field!" Viola cheered. "Duration looks to be about ten seconds. Anyone in or nearby that is going to have a very bad time."

  “That is useful,” I noted to Samsara. “If she can stun a Kaiju or mech for ten seconds, that gives us enough time to make a killing blow.”

  “It’s incredible,” Samsara agreed, though I felt a flicker of intimidation from her. “If they used that on us, we’d be in trouble.”

  “Good thing I control her then,” I replied.

  After a few more minutes of flying and shooting trees, Seraphina’s excitement began to wane as the physical toll of channeling that much magic set in.

  "Let's head back," Seraphina said, turning toward the outpost towers. "I need to lie down."

  “Yeah, sleep and rest are important,” Viola agreed.

  As Seraphina landed on her balcony, a purple light flashed from her body. In an instant, Viola reappeared right next to her. She gave Seraphina a hug. Warmth spread through Seraphina’s body, and she reluctantly returned the embrace.

  “Why do humans always work in pairs?” Samsara asked suddenly.

  I turned to face her. “What do you mean?”

  “Think about it,” Samsara continued. “The mechs always have two pilots. The Unbound seem to be assigned in pairs, like Seraphina and Azar, and now Seraphina and Viola. Even planes, helicopters, and airships have two human pilots.”

  “It’s redundancy,” I speculated. “Two heads are better than one. If one pilot gets hurt or killed, the other can maybe still fly the mech or the aircraft. It’s a backup system. Not sure how that ties into the Unbound though. Maybe they just did it subconsciously?”

  “That makes sense,” Samsara mused. “I guess we are lucky we are fused together. We can protect each other if we get knocked out.”

  Memories of our first fight against an Aberration rose up in our mind. I was completely and utterly helpless to protect Samsara. I would make sure that would never happen again.

  Samsara and I decided to go out hunting. Aisling decided to stay behind with Nara, leaving only us two. The only other monster girls were Irene and the others. I could only keep tabs on Irene since I had a soul link with her. The rest of the monster girls that joined her had split off to explore the world on their own.

  Irene was soaring through the blue skies, the sun warming her back. Unlike Seraphina’s wings that didn’t actually flap, Irene’s flight was rhythmic and natural. Her brown falcon wings beat steadily, carrying her over the vast, grassy plains of the Wild Lands.

  It was so cool. I had never flown before—we didn’t have wings—so experiencing it through Irene was the closest I would ever get.

  The world looked like a map from up here, the rivers turning into flowing threads and the trees becoming tiny specks against the green.

  According to my internal map, based on the direction and distance she had traveled from Lateo, she was approaching the forest just west of Utlond. This was the dense region where the Collum trees grew.

  Irene banked, drifting over the edge of the forest.

  Below her, the canopy changed. The normal trees were swiftly replaced by their colossal brethren. The Collum trees towered into the sky, their massive trunks incredibly wide and their branches sweeping wide into the air, forcing Irene to ascend closer to the sparse clouds.

  She flew for nearly ten minutes, the wind rushing past her ears. There were no monster girls in sight, which was strange for such a dense forest, but maybe the local wildlife knew better than to be out in the open. The only sound was the flapping of her feathers and the whistle of the high-altitude air.

  Irene spotted a clearing nestled between three gargantuan Collum trees and decided to land. She angled her wings, spiraling down until her taloned feet touched the soft, mossy earth.

  She folded her wings, looking up. The trees were so tall that they blocked out most of the sun, creating a twilight gloom at the forest floor.

  An explosion shattered the silence.

  Irene yelped, her feathers puffing up in panic. She didn’t wait to see what it was. She immediately kicked off the ground, flapping hard to gain altitude.

  Several more explosions followed, vibrating through the air and rattling her hollow bones.

  She rose above the lower canopy, hovering near the mid-section of the Collum trees. In the distance, thick plumes of black smoke were rising into the sky, staining the blue horizon.

  I could feel curiosity warring with fear inside of her mind. Against her better judgement, she decided to get closer.

  “I wouldn’t do that if I were her,” I commented to Samsara. “She’s small. Those explosions sound loud. Probably a Kaiju or a mech making them.”

  “Should we intervene?” Samsara asked, her anxiety spiking.

  “We’re several hundred kilometers away,” I pointed out. “Even though we are Kaijus, by the time we ran there, whatever was happening would be over. Maybe some Kaijus are fighting and Irene will get the bright idea to turn away.”

  Irene glided toward the smoke, keeping close to the massive trunks of the Collum Trees for cover. The smell of burning wood and chemical accelerants grew stronger, stinging her eyes. Still, she kept flying.

  Irene found a large Collum tree branch to land on. The sound of machinery and heavy stomps echoed in the distance. Irene walked up to the trunk of the Collum tree and took a peek.

  Her breath hitched.

  Below, cutting a swath of destruction through the ancient forest, was an army.

  A line of mechs advanced in a rigid formation, their metal footsteps shaking the earth. They were painted in the gray and blue colors of the Monster Purifiers, but I had never seen so many before.

  Flying humans in multicolored neon outfits hovered beside the mechs’ heads. Some of them had wings. Others had jetpacks. They were accompanied by humans in full body blue armor, each equipped with a beam gun.

  Irene squinted her eyes and nearly gasped as she saw what was behind the mech.

  In the gaps between the towering machines were low, wide vehicles that looked like tanks. Each one mounted a turret barrel that extended far past its chassis, though not quite long enough to reach the mechs' knees. Attached to the back of each turret was a massive, metallic pill-shaped tank, gleaming ominously in the firelight.

  One of the tanks fired.

  A long coherent stream of liquid fire erupted from the barrel. It shot forward like a solid beam, traveling hundreds of meters past the mechs before coating an innocent Collum tree in an inferno. The fire quickly chewed through the bark, spreading to other trees.

  To the sides of these flamethrower tanks, juggernauts rolled over the burnt debris,

  “Why are they burning down the forest?” Samsara asked, horrified.

  “They aren't just burning it,” I realized. “They are clearing it. They are removing the cover so they can find the Kaijus.” After we had destroyed that outpost, the Monster Purifiers must have gotten the idea to try and send as many mechs and Unbound at us. Meanwhile, their juggernauts would pick up any stray monster girls on the way.

  Irene stared, paralyzed by the scale of the destruction.

  Suddenly, one of the armored-clad flyers stopped mid-air. The figure turned its helmeted head directly toward Irene’s hiding spot. Well, it wasn’t much of a hiding spot.

  Blue streaks of light zipped toward her.

  Irene shrieked and tried to turn, desperate to put the Collum Tree between her and the army. The trunk absorbed the shot.

  She dived into the air, and banked hard as her wings beat frantically.

  A beam of blue light slammed into her back.

  Her muscles seized instantly, and she began to fall. More blue beams hit her on the way down. Irene blacked out, and I could no longer see through her eyes.