I blinked into consciousness or at least I hoped I did. Trying to orient myself, I was momentarily confused by a seamless pitch black vista in every direction. "Crap. I’m dead aren’t I? And who would have thought, death looks like… endless darkness. How original."

  Looking down, I discovered my body had reverted to its pre-monster state. My scuffed white Nikes, those Target clearance khakis I'd convinced myself were "business casual," and that perpetually wrinkled button-up I'd worn to death, were all back in their mediocre glory.

  "Awesome. Not only am I dead, but I'm dead in my sad cubicle warrior outfit. Couldn't the afterlife at least upgrade me to a pristine all white outfit or something?" I muttered, kicking at nothing. "One measly day in a fantasy realm with a beautiful magic wielding warrior elf princess, and I spend most of it either unconscious or watching her be unconscious. The universe sure likes to kick a guy while he’s down."

  I spun around trying to find any sign of something other than infinite nothing but found nothing. Though I did notice my enhanced senses were still active. I could tell because I could smell myself with excruciating detail. I twisted at the waist, swinging my arms back and forth. Still strong and flexible. No claws though, I thought looking down at my hands.

  I pinched my arm. Nothing. Slapped my face. Still nothing. "So... I’m in some kind of metaphysical waiting room? Maybe I'm just having a stroke." I paced three steps forward, then back, then forward again. "Nyxora’s magic took over my body before. Maybe it's happening again?" I waited for something, anything, to appear. Minutes stretched into what felt like hours.

  "Hello? Anybody? Even a demonic tour guide would be nice right now!" My voice didn't even echo. Just...nothing.

  I picked a random direction and started walking. The invisible floor beneath me might as well have been a treadmill. Was I even moving? Wait, had I been walking in circles? "Jesus, Garber, can't you even walk in a straight line correctly?" I absentmindedly checked my pockets. For what I wasn’t really sure. My phone? I’d left it, dead, in the Caravan, not that it would do me any good in this place.

  Lyren was probably bleeding out right now. Those chimera things tearing her apart while I’m stuck in whatever this is. "You absolute fucking idiot," I muttered, kicking at nothing. "You couldn't just accept what was happening, could you? I had to play the skeptic. Sure shit got terrifying for a while but you made it out of that cave with magic powers and a gorgeous woman who seemed to be warming up to you. Now she's probably dying and you're...here. Useless. Again. Always useless when it matters."

  Just as I was getting really into beating myself up, a strange glowing crack appeared in the distance. How distant? Who knows. But there was nothing else to do in this place, so I started walking in that direction. At least having a goal kept me from focusing on all of my failures.

  “Glad I’m wearing comfortable shoes,” I said after walking for some time toward the crack, which had only gotten marginally larger in my vision. But when I looked down, my shoes were gone, as were most of my pant legs, the material shredded. My legs were muscular and pale, as were my arms and bare upper body, just as they had been when I died.

  “What the hell is going on?” I said.

  When I looked back up, the crack in the sky was inexplicably closer. In fact, it was near enough now that I could see that the light coming from beyond the thin rift wasn’t consistent in its color. Behind the opening, intense clashes of searing white and violent purple flashed like strobe lights at one of those techno dance clubs I used to pick people up from, in downtown Omaha.

  "Might not be totally dead after all, Garber," I muttered, allowing myself the smallest flicker of hope. I narrowed my eyes, straining to make out details through the narrow fissure. A strange impulse came over me. I reached out and, somehow, my clawed fingers grasped the edges of the seemingly distant fissure.

  “Whoa,” I said, doing my best Keanu impression. “That was some serious M.C. Escher physics right there.”

  I tightened my grip on the edges of reality itself and pulled. The resistance lasted only a moment before the entire void shattered like black glass, fragments dissolving into nothingness. I stood exposed beneath a vast celestial panorama, countless stars scattered across infinity, rivers of luminescence flowing between constellations I'd never seen before.

  However, it wasn’t the unimaginable beauty of that glitter-dusted sky that held my attention. As if it had stepped from the void itself, a colossal black wolf the size of a skyscraper dominated the horizon, fangs dripping with liquid shadow and violet eyes burning like twin supernovas. Purple lightning crackled through its bristled fur as it snarled, a sound that shook the air, reverberating through every bone in my body.

  Opposite it flew a gleaming white owl of truly leviathan scale, its wingspan blotting out a good portion of the sky. Each white feather on its wings was edged in blazing golden light. Its intelligent crystal-blue eyes were focused intensely and unblinking at the wolf as it hovered in that soundless way that owls move. Somehow, I felt deep in my core that it was watching me as well, despite its huge eyes never looking in my direction. Even though it felt like the creature was thousands of miles away, the wind from its wings still buffeted me, forcing me to brace myself.

  These are definitely some kind of manifestations of my powers, I thought, shielding my face from the wind. Now that I recognized that fact, I realized that all of this must be going on inside my head or my soul, or maybe both. It was all magic, so who knew what the rules were? At least this verified that I wasn’t dead. Yet.

  Was this what had become of my soul space after I completed my transformation?

  Sure enough, I turned and spotted it, a lavender sphere hanging in space like some impossible moon, pulsing with my essence. My true soul.

  The realization had barely formed when the wolf lunged, its maw gaping wide enough to devour mountains whole. The owl's response was immediate, talons extending like polished scimitars, golden beak flashing with divine radiance.

  Their collision sent shockwaves across reality itself. The ground beneath me buckled, throwing me flat on my back. But worse than the physical impact was the internal devastation, each blow between them felt like someone tearing my insides apart.

  The moment I felt that chaos inside I knew the two entities had not just appeared. These things have been waging war in my core since I first awakened in that blood-soaked grotto, those flashes of violet and white I'd glimpsed through the rift were proof that they hadn’t just appeared out of nowhere.

  No wonder my senses have been in chaos since leaving the cave. How am I even functioning while these damn monsters go all kaiju in my soul space?

  I knew the white power, represented by the owl, had intervened when Nyxora's gift, the wolf, tried to consume me, but clearly it lacked the strength to subdue her power completely.

  My fragile soul, that lavender orb, trembled with each clash. Hairline fractures spread across its surface like spiderwebs on glass. These colossal forces were battling for ownership of me as if I were nothing but territory to be claimed.

  Frustration and rage boiled up from deep inside me.

  I don't give a shit if that damn owl is trying to help me or not; these two are going to demolish everything. I need to stop this. But my screams of protest were swallowed by the thunderous collisions of the titans.

  Useless. Completely useless. If I get myself pulverized between those behemoths, it won’t matter much who wins the battle. I won’t be around to see who gets control of my body.

  If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  I slumped, arms hanging dead at my sides.

  What a cosmic joke. I'm so goddamn tired of being the chess piece everyone else moves around. Like my needs are footnotes in someone else's story. Since my parents' funeral, I've been living in free-fall, grabbing at anything solid to anchor myself but nothing sticks. I just keep careening from one epic catastrophe to the next like a pinball in fate’s shitty arcade games.

  I just wish things could have gone differently. Maybe I could have been happy with her. Maybe she and I could've found something real.

  Lyren materialized in my mind, that smile she rarely showed, eyes like summer leaves. The sound of her laughter that made my pulse stutter. This elven princess from a realm of spells and nightmares, I barely knew her, yet something in me recognized something in her. Through our bond, I'd glimpsed fragments of her past: the wounds, the struggles, the stubborn hope that tomorrow might be kinder.

  In this chaos of cosmic titans and fractured realities, I found only one truth worth holding: the memory of standing between Lyren and danger, holding her when the pain became too much.

  I don’t even give a shit what happens to me anymore; I just need to make sure Lyren is safe. She is worth sacrificing everything for.

  Warmth bloomed in my chest, familiar yet different from the emotional echoes that had leaked through our bond before. This wasn't just companionship or playful connection, this was a tsunami of tenderness, concern, and grief crashing through me.

  Here, in this soul-space, her feelings manifested as actual power, rippling through me in waves of tangible energy. Some cynical part of me wanted to roll my eyes at the cliché, emotions as literal strength, but I crushed that impulse without mercy. If even the slimmest chance existed to return to her side, I'd seize it without hesitation.

  No more half-measures. No more retreat. I'd found something worth fighting for, and I'd defend it with every atom of my being. Nothing would stand in my way, not even these primal forces of magic.

  I drew a deep breath, clenched my fists, and raised my face toward the battling behemoths that were tearing my essence apart. A massive thud, like the beat of an immense heart, shuddered through my core, followed by another. The rhythm pulsed from my chest into my true soul.

  The colossal beasts continued their apocalyptic dance in the distance, oblivious to the transformation occurring within my true soul.

  It wasn’t the heat of desire or even the purity of love that suddenly filled my heart with the fire I needed to stand up for myself. It was the feeling of belonging that came with the bond Lyren and I now shared, and the all-consuming rage I felt at the thought of someone taking that from me.

  "ENOUGH!" The word tore from my throat, no longer swallowed by the void but amplified by it. My voice became thunder, became law. The wolf's massive form careened sideways, pulverizing a mountain range upon impact. The owl's magnificent wingspan crumpled as it slammed into the endless plains of my inner landscape.

  “This is ‘MY’ soul!” I shouted, empowering the words with every bit of my new found power.

  The behemoths lurched backward as though struck by physical force. The wolf's paws scrambled against the rocky hillside, gouging deep chasms in the stone, while the owl's massive wings folded awkwardly as it tumbled end over end across the plains, shedding luminous plumage in its wake.

  When they came to a stop, the creatures focused on me with a sudden, jarring intensity. Something fundamental had shifted. I was no longer just territory to be claimed. The lavender sphere pulsed with a power neither of them had granted me, and I felt their uncertainty ripple through the void. The wolf's hackles rose at a prey it couldn't devour; the owl's golden eyes narrowed at a radiance it couldn't bend to its will.

  I turned away from their scrutiny and reached toward my true soul, that fragile amethyst orb suspended in the endless sky of my inner world. The energy I'd unleashed began to throb like a massive heartbeat, each pulse stronger than the last. The sphere began to rotate, slowly at first, then faster, generating a gravitational force that tugged at everything around it.

  The colossal wolf whimpered as its paws scraped uselessly against the ground, its massive body sliding inexorably toward the spinning orb. Violet lightning crackled across its fur, peeling away in luminous strips that spiraled into my core. Across the plain, the owl's radiant feathers tore free, swirling through the void before vanishing into the sphere's hungry light. Before my eyes, the spiderweb of cracks across my soul's surface sealed themselves, leaving the orb whole and unblemished.

  I closed my eyes as the power surged through me like an electrical current. No more riding shotgun in my own life. I might not be wearing the crown in this cosmic chess match, but I'd never again be moved across the board without consent. The man I used to be, that shadow of Garber who'd spent years ducking his head, hiding from his own reflection, making himself small enough to disappear, dissolved like morning mist under the heat of my newfound resolve.

  When my avatar's eyes snapped open, the right blazed with white radiance while the left pulsed violet.

  "This ends now," I declared, each syllable resonating through the star-flecked void until the very fabric of this inner cosmos trembled. "My soul, my rules. Consider yourselves permanent residents who've just had their landlord rights revoked. Coexistence is your only option. Try and take control of me again without permission and I’ll bury you so deep in this place that you’ll wish I had a way to kill you."

  I extended a hand, the gesture steady and demanding. The wolf, a nightmare of skyscraper proportions, lowered its wet, shadow-slicked snout to the ground. It let out a low, sub-bass rumble of compliance that shook my very atoms.

  Across the expanse, the colossal owl steadied itself. Its wings beat once, twice, each movement generating hurricane winds, before falling still. Those crystalline eyes, ancient as the stars themselves, lowered in reluctant deference.

  Their forms unraveled like smoke caught in crosswinds, dissolving into currents of raw power that scattered across my inner cosmos. The owl's essence painted the void with golden light, coalescing into a brilliant constellation that outshone all else. The wolf's violet energy, surprisingly, mirrored this transformation, forming its own stellar pattern, distinct yet equally radiant.

  The constellations pulsed with familiar geometry, similar to the runes I’d seen of Lyren’s enchanted staff. I had no idea what the purpose of these constellations were but I could feel that they were integrating with my soul, becoming channels through which magic could now flow, like my other meridians.

  One cord was brighter than all the others, but wasn’t connected to any of the others. Instead the crystal like thread radiated warmth as it seemed to pierce straight through the sky itself. It pulsed with Lyren’s unmistakable presence.

  I reached out with my senses to touch the bond and found intense feelings of fear and distress vibrating through the cord. "Hold on," I whispered, and surrendered my ethereal form.

  The impossible sky began to fold in on itself, collapsing into a single, blinding point of amethyst light.

  Then, my eyes, one glowing purple and one glowing white, snapped open in the Glimmerwood where my head lay in Lyren’s lap. She didn’t notice I’d woken as she desperately fired wind blasts to keep the three remaining chimera’s away.

  In her arms, I didn't feel the ache of my broken body or the damp cold of the forest floor. All I felt was her fierce determination to protect me even if it cost her life. Something ignited within, power surging through newly formed channels, flowing through the wolf's constellation etched within my soul. Violet radiance spilled from my skin, washing across the forest floor in pulsing waves.

  The chimeras skittered backward on their segmented legs, mandibles clicking nervously at the violet radiance washing over the forest floor. They paused at a distance, realizing the light posed no immediate threat.

  "Myles?" Lyren's voice trembled above me, her tear-bright eyes widening as she found mine open, one violet, one white. "By the Aine’s grace, you're alive!"

  I reached up, touching her face gently. “I’m sorry I worried you, and I’m sorry I didn’t listen. But I’m going to make it up to you right now.”

  She leaned her cheek into my hand, then froze. Her fingers traced my chest where moments before blackened flesh had been rotting away from the chimera's venom. "The wounds," she breathed, "they've vanished completely."

  “I’m ok now. Everything is going to be ok.” I stood up, offering her a hand. Lyren's disheveled red braid framed a face etched with exhaustion, though I noticed she moved with surprising ease despite our ordeal. Questions for later.

  “Do me a favor and just wait here ok?” I gave her hand a squeeze. “I’m just going to take out a little aggression real quick.”

  Her lips parted to protest, but I smiled as our eyes locked. I pushed calm certainty through our soul bond. "Trust me. I’ve got this."

  Those emerald eyes still harbored doubt, but she released my hand with a nod. I faced the approaching chimeras, their mandibles clicking in cautious anticipation.

  My body began to stretch with a series of sickening pops as joints dislocated and reformed. Corded muscle expanded beneath alabaster skin that pulled taut like canvas over a frame, veins pulsing with violet light beneath the surface. The creatures paused again, mandibles clicking frantically as suddenly even the largest chimera had to look up to meet my gaze.

  I uncurled my clenched fists with deliberate slowness, savoring the moment. The claws that tipped my fingers lengthened with a sound like knives being unsheathed, growing until each obsidian blade gleamed in the dappled forest light, curved and wicked, nearly as long as short swords.

  “I finally figured out the rules of this game. You all had your turn. Now it’s mine.”