We were the fever dreams of my dying world. Fungal spikes thirty feet tall breathed from within the transfigured forests, casting spores onto the wind. Impossible creatures lumbered between the flexing mushroom woods. Bodies had been sown across the land, from the Expressway and the highways below it to the once cypressed hills that rolled into the distance. Copses grew up from the corpses.

But the real drama was playing out overhead.

There was so much motion, and just as many questions. I almost considered asking &alon if she knew anything about them. As the thought crossed my mind, &alon's presence scooted closer to me, palpably brimming with hope and excitement, but I quickly wrapped myself in pain and disgust, and rebuffed her.

I wasn't gonna let her make a fool out of me a second time. Whatever there was to be figured out here, I was going to figure it out on my own, without &alon's "help".

"Genneth, never forget: you're not alone."

Mr. Himichi?

My perceptions doubled as I bifurcated my consciousness. I saw the outside world alongside the placid waters of my Main Menu.

And I wasn't alone.

"You guys…"

I started to choke up. It was a fight to hold back tears.

Standing in my Main Menu, I was greeted by a gaggle of ghosts: Suisei, Mr. Himichi, Yuta and Ichigo, Lark, Ileene, Nurse Kaylin, Dr. B'zool.

Even Vernon was there.

Ileene crossed her arms. "I always suspected there was something off about Andalon,"

I shook my head. "Please, don't try to assuage my guilt. I…" I clenched my fist. "This is…" But then I chuckled. "Hey, at least I now have a topic for my sonata's finale!"

Nobody laughed.

With a groan, I conjured up a large stone table and a matching set of chairs, and then sat down and invited the others to join me. Most of them did, though Vernon and Ichigo chose to stand, instead.

I could have synchronized our awareness, and thereby granted myself access to all their thoughts, but I didn't. I wasn't really in the mood to bear my emotional turmoil to them in that way, and I didn't think it was fair for me to have direct, unfettered access to the essence of who they were without giving them the same access to me.

So, I guess we were doing this the old fashioned way.

I let my arms come to rest on the smooth, polished tabletop. "Does anyone mind telling me why you're all here? Here here, I mean, right now."

Gosh, that was awkward.

I cleared my throat; it did not help.

"Does the sun need a reason to rise each morning?" Yuta said. "No, and I don't need a reason to want to help a friend, either."

Lark narrowed her eyebrows at me, which brought attention to the subtle layer of mascara she'd padded around her eyes. It contrasted nicely with her red dress.

"Not gonna lie," she said, "a lot of us in the ghost community are kinda freaking out. Everyone was all gung-ho for Team Andalon, but now… eh, let's just say it ain't pretty."

Ileene shook her head. "My mother is livid."

"I can imagine." And I meant it. Various subsidiary branches of my awareness were working overtime in my many mind-offices to deal with all the hubbub. I'd decoupled from the dopplegangers who I'd assigned to work on it. This was for our mutual benefit (meaning all of my selves). Though I was getting better at handling all the different mes simultaneously, it could be challenging in emotionally fraught situations. By letting myself do my own thing, I wouldn't have to bear the stress of dealing with the fallout among my spirits right now, and my extra selves would be cut off from new revelations that would only intensify their/our anguish.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

But, man oh man, once I finally got around to fully recoupling myself, I was gonna have the mother of all headaches.

Mr. Himichi straightened his black beret and then clasped his hands together on the tabletop and cleared his throat.

"Genneth," he said, glancing at Suisei, "it was Dr. Horosha and I who set this in motion."

Suisei nodded. "We've been discussing matters."

"And?" I said.

With a wave of his hand, Mr. Himichi brought up recordings and stills of what I'd seen of the strange vessels in our skies.

Suisei interweaved his fingers. "I'll be blunt: this is an alien invasion."

"A what?" He couldn't have been talking about immigrants.

"Extraterrestrials," Mr. Himichi said. "It's a fascinating concept. I'd considered the possibility of life on other worlds when writing Cat. As you know, Genneth, in manga, those worlds were planes of existence beyond our own. But, in Dr. Horosha's world…"

Suisei nodded. "Our sun is far from the only star to have planets wandering around it. Though my world never found any definitive proof one way or the other, it is possible, perhaps even probable, that some of those worlds have life-forms of their own, and among those that did, a small number would develop into thinking beings like ourselves."

I nodded in understanding. "Like Brand's ammonia world…" I turned to Suisei. "Or the Erboss-Tor."

Vernon adjusted his brown utility cap. "The what?"

"It's a long story," Mr. Himichi said.

"If these aliens developed intelligence, technology, and civilization, they might have discovered a way to travel across the vast expanse of space."

"But Genneth's skies are empty," Yuta said.

"Yes," Suisei said, "though we can't be certain if that's because the starless skies are empty, or if the other matter in this universe is either too dim to observe, or too far away."

"They might also be from a different reality altogether," Mr. Himichi told Yuta, "much like Dr Horosha and yourself."

"Okay," I said, "but… what do they want?"

Ichigo snorted. "Revenge, obviously."

I suppose he had a point there.

"I second that opinion," Vernon said.

Nurse Kaylin narrowed her eyes at the young oni.

"Pardon me asking, everybody, but why the fuck does he look like that?" she said, pointing at Ichigo. "Isn't it like, inappropriate, or something? We're in a meeting."

Ichigo opened his mouth and, with a growl, flashed his fangs, only to lower his head in shame after Yuta glared at him.

The young man cleared his throat. "Sorry. I… well, I like being like this."

"Enough!" I yelled, making an X motion with my hands. "Anyone can be whatever they want to be, as long as it's reasonable. We have more important things to worry about right now!"

"Sorry, sir," Ichigo said.

I sighed. "I'm sorry, too, I shouldn't have yelled." I ran my fingers through my hair as I leaned more deeply onto the table. "This is a difficult time for us all. Let's focus on what we know and what we have in common, okay?" I bit my lip, and then sat up straight in my chair. "When I first found &alon in a dream, she was seriously injured. Later, she told me she'd been attacked, and that the perpetrators had been and still were pursuing her."

"Yes," Suisei said, "I recall you telling me as much."

"Okay, so… they're hunting her, because she's a world-destroying menace," I said, thinking aloud.

"Yeah, duh," Lark said. "Who wouldn't?"

"But… how does this help us?" I asked. "Generally, when people meet in councils like this, it's to formulate a plan. So… what's our plan of action? Let me tell you, I sure as heck don't know what to do!"

"Considering Dr. Horosha here told you the location of an artifact of God," Nurse Kaylin said, "I'm pretty fuckin' sure you need to go get the fuckin' Sword of the Angel."

Vernon's eyes widened. He roared. "What the hell did you just say? The Sword of the Angel?!"

"You didn't hear?" Nurse Kaylin asked.

"And you did?"

"I heard it on the grapevine," Nurse Kaylin said.

Groaning, I snapped my fingers as I willed all of them to know all of the things I'd learned. Vernon and Dr. B'zool were the most affected; they shook their heads and blinked their eyes a couple times as they adjusted to their new paradigm.

"Well… shit," Vernon said. "I think I will take a seat now."

I made one appear for him.

"Does anyone have any other complaints?" I asked. "Or can we get on with this?"

No one said anything, so I continued. "Okay, so, getting the Sword of the Angel, I agree that should be on the table. But, once we do that… then what?"

Yuta turned to Suisei. "Is there any possibility the Sword can be used to defeat &alon, or perhaps disable her?"

"You know as much as I do about it," Suisei said. "Though, at this point, I suppose anything is possible." He nodded in my direction. "Considering the stakes of what would happen if &alon were allowed to spread further, I think certainly it's worth trying."

"But the Sword is dying," Dr. B'zool said. "Azon is dead."

"I do not know how much power is left in it. It might be enough; it might not be. Still, knowing how much power Genneth will have as a fully transformed wyrm, even if the Sword's power is mostly spent, he should be able to accomplish a lot with it in hand."

"But what if destroying &alon destroys the wyrms?" I said. "You aren't the only victims here. We all are."

"It will be up to the wyrms to decide whether or not that is a sacrifice worth making," Suisei said.

"Is there any chance you can get &alon to, just, you know… stop?" Ileene asked. "I mean, I know how you feel about her, but, she adores you. Maybe you could exploit that to get her to change her mind."

I jumped to my feet. "You think I don't know that? You think I didn't try?" I snapped.

"You could always try again," Lark said.

"Yeah, and I'll have plenty of opportunities to do so," I replied. "Wyrms live forever, don'tcha know?"

Then, with a wave of my arm, I dismissed all the spirits back to their afterlives.

I could apologize for it later.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.