Kale stood still, unsure of what was happening. I’d warned him that I was going to try something, but I’m sure he had no idea what was going on. But even as confused by my actions as he seemed to be, he still let my arms wrap around him, allowing me to embrace him lovingly.

  

  The confusion on Kale’s face grew more and more visible. His arms raised as if he were about to hug me back, but the way they faltered and never actually made it there spoke volumes about how unsure of everything he was. Honestly, even if it wasn’t really me in there at the moment, it still kind of hurt to watch…

  Thankfully, the sound of the dregs cmbering outside of the barrier interrupted the awkward moment. They were getting more lively and making a lot of odd noises in what I could only guess was excitement; Probably because they could feel the barrier that had been keeping them out all night losing strength.

  <...It’s those detestable monsters again, isn’t it? I suppose they’re here to finish what they started.>

  The coldness that ced my voice was something that I’d never heard before, especially not from myself. So far everything that she’d made me say had all been in a strange inflection that I don’t ever really use, but this one was even more different than that, like somehow everything else had been an affectation, and now Inaiah’s real voice was finally coming out.

  Well, I say that, but in the end it’s still my voice, isn’t it?

  That means there’s a way that I could sound like she just did too, which… I’m not really a big fan of.

  

  She nuzzled my cheek affectionately against Kale’s, which elicited an even more troubled look from him than all the hugging had, and then let him go and turned away to face the wave of monsters. And as she stared them down with an icy gre, somehow everything began to glitter and glow, like little sparkles were condensing all around me. …Or maybe I just think that because I’m seeing through my own eyes? Maybe it was actually my eyes that were beginning to fill with light, and not everything around me. Yeah, that certainly could be the case from the way that I could feel them rapidly heating up, as if they would melt right out of my skull.

  As she raised my hands, the sparkles quickly began to spread, now not just filling my eyes, but finding their way around every crack and exit that you could possibly catch a glimpse of the dregs through, as if seeking them out. And when she finally spoke and put a name to the magic she’d been channeling out, it almost felt like I was breathing out sparks of fire.

  <[Consecration].>

  The shimmering sparkles quickly condensed themselves, forming a translucent, almost invisible wall around the building. And as Inaiah began to gesture and close her suddenly shining hands, the wall began to wrap and bend around, encasing and surrounding the dregs, pulling them away from the building. It was like she was using the wall to sso all the dregs into one pce, forcing them all to pile up and push together, squeezing their odd, sack-like bodies together until they wailed in agony from the force of it all. I could even see a few of the ones at the edges popping, unable to keep the gas inside of their bodies under all the pressure, which I guess must not have been a hit with Inaiah.

  <...Dirty disgusting creatures. I didn’t want to have to see such ugly things like you, and let Rolic do all the work… I was so zy and pampered that I didn’t bother to get rid of such easily kilble things, and let Rolic get hurt instead.>

  Inaiah gave one st squeeze with her hands, as if locking the field solidly in pce, eliciting a few more gross sounding pops from the massive pile of dregs. And then, when she was certain that the wall was holding them all perfectly in pce, she began slowly making her way towards them.

  

  Once more she raised her hands, and as she finally got closer to her destination, they began to light on fire, the beautiful shining fire that enveloped them giving off a golden, holy hue.

  <-First, you have to get out of the way. [Righteous Holy Fire]!>

  The fire from my hands spread all across my body, and rge motes of fme seemed to repeatedly break off from me and seek out their targets completely on their own, flying again and again at the stacked mass of dregs. The dregs, for their part, seemed to be wailing in both joy and agony at the same time, causing a cacophony of noise as the brilliantly colored fmes burned through them, melting them away into nothing.

  And yet, even though what she was doing seemed to be working, Inaiah just kept pouring in fme after fme, as if the pile of ugly dregs wasn’t disappearing fast enough.

  Honestly this all makes me wonder how she’s able to pump out all this energy. I know she’s at least 10 levels higher than me, but I still doubt I’d be able to do what she’s doing even once I made it there... Just what she did with the [Consecration] shield alone would have been insane for me to even attempt; I doubt it’s still just the ft energy rate for using it when you manipute it so finely like that. I wouldn’t be surprised if just that alone cost over 5k, and it only took her about a minute to do! And this [Righteous Holy Fire] that she’s btantly overusing… I remember not choosing it because it seemed like it would get dangerous and costly really easily, right? Is it alright that she’s basically using it like a fmethrower right now? Will I be so OP that I can just use skills all willy-nilly like she is when I’m that level too?

  Hey wait, she’s dead, so where is all of this energy even coming from…?

  It can’t possibly be from me!

  As I pondered over everything, Inaiah finally burned down the very st dreg, watching as it pitifully writhed in both joy and anguish as she burned it away, all with a bnk expression. And then, once she decided that she was satisfactorily finished, she patted my hands together as if she’d been touching something disgusting and took a deep breath, and then turned around and smiled like she was the happiest person in the world.

  

  But before she could finish her words, she staggered, and my body colpsed to the ground.

  <...What? What’s happening? I->

  Suddenly my body began to rapidly cool down, like a fme that had been doused with water. Inaiah, who’d been possessing me, was sucked back deep inside of me out of nowhere, leaving me feeling cold and tired, as if all of the heat had just left the room. I could still feel a pinprick of heat somewhere though, hidden deep inside of me. Perhaps that spot is where I keep my little remnant of her until I need her again. I wonder if maybe, just maybe, it might be a piece of her soul…

  “Saintess!”

  “Agh, Kale!”

  I tried to get up when I saw him running to me, but for some reason my body wouldn’t cooperate, even though I was finally back in control of it. Even when Kale wrapped his arms around me to pick me up, I still couldn’t do much but mutter out a few slurred words.

  Why is my body being like this?! Is it some kind of after effect of getting my body back from it being possessed? Or is Inaiah maybe trying to take it back from me since she was suddenly kicked out? Or-

  Oh, duh, right, it’s just energy exhaustion. I’m literally at 0/2900 energy right now, so my body’s shutting itself down. No wonder everything suddenly felt so cold…

  I guess this is what I get for getting too wrapped up in everything and forgetting that that incarnation skill costs 1k energy a minute, huh?

  “Kale, I’m sorry… I’m going to die again…”

  “What? Saintess, no! I’ll-”

  “It’s fine, I promise that… I’ll come back. Just… take us… go to… go… go back to…”

  And that’s all I could manage to choke out before the energy exhaustion completely took me away.

  ~~~

  Hmm, okay, I’m getting used to this. It’s subtle, really, but I can feel the difference between how this pce makes me feel versus when I’m actually awake and alive.

  Yeah, for sure I’m back in the Goddess’s weird little realm again.

  …Dunno why it’s so crazy dark right now, though.

  Usually there’d be some minor amount of illumination by now, either off in the distance or coming off of me, you know? But um… Yeah no, it’s pitch bck right now no matter where I look. And for some reason I don’t seem to be able to move very much? It’s almost like I’m in some kind of dome made out of darkness, or like-