After a few seconds of silence, I pointed to the new door that was there, starting to walk towards it “I didn’t do this room, this wasn’t my idea, but, he’s in here” Once I was in front of the door, I opened it. James was still hanging on and unconscious on the ropes, swinging around a bit.

“Holy shit… who did this?” Martha said this as she turned her head to see James

“Martel… she did it while I was unconscious from last mission, I swear that when I saw that I was about to-” As I was finishing my sentence, Dee cut me off almost immedieately.

“Wait, did you just say Martel?” He said this in a surprised tone, almost as if…

“Yes? Why?”

“I swear I’ve heard that name before… from our boss…”

“I mean, it would make sense, our groups are enemies after all” Martha said this with a calm tone, shrugging a bit

“I mean, yeah, but, she said it in a happy tone, as if she was talking to her as a friend”

“... are… are you sure about what you’re saying?” I said this in a calm manner, but was starting to freak out “What were they talking about?”

“I don’t know, she was far along the hallway when I heard her name. In fact, the room she was closest to was… James’s room” After that, we all stood there in silence, before quickly running into the new room, closing the door behind us and locking it

Now everyone had a reason for waking up James. We wanted to know what Anima’s boss was talking about, we wanted to know why she mentioned Martel.

“So, how do we wake him up?” Martha said this in a calm manner, but clearly on edge.

“Let me do something I used to do a lot, might even spark a memory” I said this as I got close to James, quickly lighting an ethereal flame on my right index finger and putting it right up to his nose, but, right before I got to him, James kicked me right in the gut, pushing me right back into the wall, making a small crater in it.

“So, you finally come in and decide to talk with your prey huh? I’ve been waiting here for almost 3 hours to finally kill you” James said this in an angry tone, his eyes flaming with rage “Now let me go so I can send you straight to-” After saying that, he turned his head to the side, noticing that Dee was there. His expression quickly went from rage to fear at his sight “Wha… what are you doing here?! How did you get here?!”

“I came here on my own volition. The person you just kicked defeated me fair and square and I promised to help him out” Dee said this with a calm but condescending tone, walking back to help me get up

“So what, you’re planning on betraying Goddess Tabatha?! Do you have any idea how stupid that sounds?!” James’s kept saying that with an increasing scared tone, starting to struggle to get out of the chains.

“We will probably be teleported soon when she finds out we’re not coming back. But at least I want to give hope to him before we are forcefully teleported… and…” Dee stopped talking after that, clearly scared, but shrugged it off, lifting me up and walking me back to James

“Hope?! HOPE IN WHAT WAY?! We’re all just playing a silly game over some deities feud! Nothing good will ever come out of us!” James just said this, with despair in his eyes, as he got one hand out of one of the chains

“What do you mean by that?” I asked this as soon as he finished talking. We needed to know what that talk was, and he clearly did hear it.

“Oh what do you care you little shit. This doesn’t involve you” James answered me in a condescending tone “Leave this to the strong ones”

That phrase… it was very similar to one he used to say a lot to me, he used to tell me “Let the grown ups handle this” (Just to clarify, he was about 3 to 4 years older than me). It always drove me mad that he’d use it… but, at this point in time…

“Oh, so you’re leaving out the member of this team that defeated your goddamn leader? One of the strong ones!?” I said this with a tone of anger as I jumped to cut the last of the chains that was holding him.

He was dumbfounded by what I said, but as soon as he was let go and before I landed, he punched me once again, but I got to activate Ghastly Illusion quickly enough to avoid it and just stood there, avoiding all of his attacks.

“Oh, you’re saying you’re strong and yet choose to be a pussy and avoid my attacks?” He kept attacking as he said this.

“Sometimes strength isn’t directly physical… James” As soon as his name came out of my mouth, he stopped. His expression changed from one of anger to one of serenity, while still in the same pose.

“What… what did you just call me?” He said this in a melancholic tone, almost as if something inside of him just came back. I didn’t do anything, nor return his soul nor say anything else.

“I called you by your name. That’s who you are. Accept it or deny it, it’s the truth” I said this with a calm tone, slowly deactivating Ghastly Illusion. I didn’t feel threatened at all now.

“Wh-...Who are you?” James said this while slowly walking back, putting his hands by his side.

“I’m a remnant of your past that’s here to help you in any way it can” I said this with an increasingly hopeful tone, turning around to stare at him. Behind us, Martha and Dee were simply looking at the exchange, trying to make heads and tails of what was happening, with a clearly confused look on their faces.

“How can you help me? There’s nothing I can do to help myself… all I can do is play by this stupid game between two goddesses. Nothing more, nothing else. And I’m pretty sure not even you, if you truly are who you say you are, can help me” A tear started to fall down his face, almost as if seeing my face triggered a memory in him

“Are you sure there’s nothing he can do? I mean, he does have something that belongs to you” Martha said this, but, in a weird way… her voice had a slight distortion on it, almost as a double voice. Along with the fact the even though I never told her, she knew that my second soul was James’s soul.

“Oh really, and what would that be Ms. I-Don’t-Have-Anything-to-do-with-this”

“Your soul” I said this in a soft voice, not loud enough to be understood, but enough to be heard.

“...What did you just say?” James said this while turning his head back towards me, taking his focus off Martha.

“I said, I have your soul…” I said this loud enough to be understood and heard by everyone in the room, before pulling my hand out and starting to materialize his soul in my hand.

“ Hey, what are you doing?” Jame’s voice inside my head said this, trying to stop me from pulling him out “ My body isn’t ready”

“Well, I have to prove to him that I do have it, even if it means losing access to my strongest asset” As soon as I said this inside of my mind, I quickly manifested his soul in sphere form in my right hand, extending it out to James.

As soon as James saw it, his eyes lit up, and, almost out of character, slowly walked towards the soul, not uttering a single word. But, as he was about to touch it, the glimmer in his eyes disappeared, as a dark cloud began to cover him, his eyes starting to water a bit

“No… No, not yet, please! Don’t make me go back!” As soon as he said that, he disappeared, not leaving anything behind.

“I guess our time here is up” Dee said this right behind of us, making us both turn towards him. The same cloud of darkness was enveloping him, making him disappear from the bottom up

“What’s happening to you?! Where did James go!?” I shouted this as I started to run towards him, trying to grab him

“We’re going to the torture chamber. We’ll probably not remember any of this happening… but, I will not let myself go without doing one more thing” He seemed to be struggling as he attempted to stay in place. “His incomplete soul was broken during the torture, that’s why he doesn’t think straight. Return the rest of his soul, and he’ll be back to normal.” He seemed to know what he was talking about, but it was still way to random. Torture? Broken soul? Lost memories? “And, you deserve a reward for defeating me, so here, have this” As soon as he said this, a light aura covered him, which then quickly passed onto me. I felt my insides burn as that light passed on to me, making me fall to the fall, gasping for air as I turned my head up towards Dee

“What are you doing to me?!” I shouted this while still gasping, trying to stay conscious. Dee just smiled, as he finally let himself go.

“Use the Fire Witch wisely” And then, he disappeared into the wind, leaving no trace behind. As soon as he disappeared, Martha went to my side and picked me up, carrying me on her shoulder

“Oh fuck, you’re burning up” Martha said this in a worried tone as she quickly started to walk me towards my bed.

“I feel like every single thing in my body is burning” I struggled to say this, my vision going blurry from the pain, not being able to see how far away we were from my bed

Martha quickly set me down on it, to then quickly go to my fridge to take out some ice, grabbing a shirt from one of my drawers and enveloping the ice with it, putting it on my head. Even though it helped, I still felt the rest of my body burning up. Still, Martha stayed there with me for a few hours as we tried to reduce my body temperature. She kept changing the ice, and it did seem to help, little by little. We were probably there for around 3 hours before my temperature finally calmed down.

“Are you feeling okay Colin?” Martha said this with a heart warming tone, almost motherly

“Y-yeah, I’m fine… don’t worry. But, it doesn’t feel like he actually intended to hurt me”

“But, he mouthed an attack name, what could it even be?”

“Well, I guess I’ll test it out soon… but, first, I need to rest for a bit… I still feel a bit like shit…” I said this while laughing a bit, closing my eyes slightly.

“Oh… alright then” Martha said this in a calm manner, standing up and walking towards the door.

END OF CHAPTER 17