I forced Aisling to speak.

  “I… I can’t believe I’m alive,” Aisling stammered. Her voice was deep, guttural, and raspy, sounding nothing like the chirpy turtle girl from before. Did the Kaiju Core affect her voice? “And I’m glad to see you.”

  Samsara’s panic bled into my mind. “This isn’t right, Ramona. We’re lying to her face. Shouldn’t we tell them the truth?”

  “Well, do you want to tell them that we failed to bring Aisling back?” I asked her. “Do you want us to say that actually ‘We are puppeting Aisling’s body since she’s currently a feral Kaiju.’ And that we have no way of fixing her brain?”

  Samsara hesitated. Guilt rose inside of her. “No, I don’t want to tell her that.”

  “See?” I mentally smirked. “You should trust me more. I know what’s best for everyone.”

  “Ironically, you’re talking about trust after lying to them,” Samsara pointed out.

  “Technically, I haven’t lied at all,” I said. “I haven’t said anything about saving Aisling. If anything, Aisling is the one lying.”

  “But you’re making her lie,” Samsara said.

  “And you should be fine with that,” I said. “Otherwise, you would make Nara extremely upset. Unless you want to do that?” I didn’t really care about Nara’s feelings.

  However, I did want to test if I could control Aisling’s ability to speak even though she was feral. And it turned out that I could make her talk! So count that experiment as a success.

  Nara wiped tears from her eyes, looking up at Aisling, who towered over her. She let out a happy giggle. “Your voice is so different now! I guess that makes sense since you are a Kaiju. But you’re still you. I… I wish you could hug me, but I think you’d crush me.”

  Actually, I think she wants to eat you. I was battling the feral instinct in Aisling. She really wanted to grab Nara and shove her in her mouth. I was half-tempted to let it happen, given how funny it would be.

  “Ramona!” Samsara called out to me in my mind. “You can’t let her eat Nara.”

  “I’m glad that you agree that we should control Aisling,” I said.

  “Ugh. I wish it didn’t have to be this way,” Samsara replied.

  I manipulated Aisling’s arm. It moved stiffly.

  “I’ll just pat your head instead,” I forced Aisling to say.

  Her right hand descended slowly upon Nara’s minuscule form. I could feel Aisling’s will still trying to fight me, but I made sure that her body was as careful as possible.

  Pat. Pat.

  Aisling’s palm gently tapped Nara’s head. Nara leaned into the touch, closing her eyes, utterly unaware that Aisling wanted to gobble her up. After a few pats, I had Aisling put her hand on her lap.

  “This does complicate our sleeping arrangements, doesn’t it?” Nara laughed, looking up at Aisling. “We can’t exactly cuddle and share a bed in the house anymore.”

  Wait a minute. Cuddle in bed?

  I put the pieces together. These two were definitely a couple.

  I forced Aisling’s jaw to move again. “We’ll just need to build a giant bed out here for both of us.”

  Nara flushed a darker shade of green. “Oh! That sounds… nice.”

  I was starting to have fun with this. It felt exactly like controlling characters in that old mobile RPG I used to play on my phone to pass the time while waiting for the garbage truck shift. Aisling was like the main character I controlled, while Nara was an NPC.

  “You’re enjoying this way too much,” Samsara noted, her tone judgmental. “You shouldn’t have fun puppeting Aisling’s corpse.”

  “She’s alive, technically,” I corrected. “And would you prefer to be in control? Do you want to be the one holding back her urge to eat her girlfriend?”

  Samsara recoiled from the idea immediately. “No.”

  “Here, let’s compromise then,” I said. “I’ll keep things rolling as smoothly as possible with Aisling. And then on your side, you’ll just tolerate this and my thoughts. Maybe we’ll eventually even find a cure for her condition.”

  “Ugh, I wish you wouldn’t think of them that way,” Samsara pouted. “But sure, I’ll begrudgingly accept this ‘compromise’.”

  Good.

  “Why do you have a copy of yourself dangling from your forehead?” Nara asked.

  The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  “I think it’s because it was one of the mutations the Kaiju Core had,” I conjectured. “It must have overridden Aisling’s mutations.”

  “That makes sense,” Aisling agreed. I forced her to nod her head.

  I split my attention briefly to the soul link connecting us to the others. Up on the mountain, I could sense Irene descending the path toward us. Nilo, Atgo, and Kanes were staying behind. Through my connection of their senses, I saw Atgo and Kanes inspecting the wires and servos they had stripped from the wreckage of Mech Sparkles. Kanes seemed particularly interested in some cables. Maybe they could make power out of it? I had no idea what they were doing, honestly. They didn't teach advanced electrical engineering when I was enrolled at the academy.

  My head turned away from Aisling as I heard three figures approach.

  Irene, Eivor, and Halinka arrived at the base of the valley. They stopped dead, craning their necks to look up at the massive, reptilian form of Aisling.

  “By the Demiurges,” Eivor breathed, clutching her chest. “She… she is alive.”

  By the Demiurges? What a weird phrase. Was Eivor secretly religious? She should worship Samsara and me then.

  Halinka just stared, her fox ears dropping down.

  I decided to lighten the mood. Or rather, assert dominance through humor.

  “I guess you can’t really punish me anymore,” I made Aisling smugly say.

  Halinka flinched, looking at the building-sized legs and the massive shell. She swallowed hard. “No. I suppose not.”

  “Are you going to revise the village’s anti-Kaiju rules?” Aisling asked, leaning forward slightly.

  Halinka stammered, stepping back behind Eivor. “I… I will have to. I don’t think I could force you out if I wanted to.”

  “Good,” Aisling said. “We should also worship Ramona and Samsara for saving me.”

  Nara looked up, nodding enthusiastically. “Yes! They saved you. It’s the least we can do.”

  “I’m in,” Irene said, joining them.

  Nara and Irene of them knelt. I exerted my will over Aisling’s legs. Slowly, I forced the feral Kaiju to get up from her cross-legged sitting position. Then, with a heavy thud that vibrated through the valley floor, she dropped to one knee. Eivor and Halinka hesitated, standing awkwardly to the side, but I ignored them for the moment.

  “I worship Ramona and Samsara,” Nara and Irene each said first. Warmth spread throughout our bodies. It felt good.

  “I worship Ramona and Samsara,” Aisling said next. The sensation hit us instantly. It was a deluge of pure, unfiltered pleasure. Our Cores hummed, vibrating with the influx of energy. It felt like they were bouncing around inside of us. Samsara let out a long hum of contentment, her body relaxing against mine.

  That felt so fucking good.

  I quickly [Tracked] my mana. It was still 20,000 out of 20,000. Our excess mana was still 10,000. Damn. I wished worship could give us excess mana, because right now, it was only making us feel good. Actually, does this mean we could have constant pleasure by having them constantly worship us?

  “Devotio,” I mentally called out. “Can we get our worshipers to pray for us continuously?”

  A red flash split blinded vision. Devotio appeared, superimposed over the kneeling figures of Nara and Aisling. Its single eye focused on me.

  [The effect of worship on soul regeneration and Demiurge experience is limited to once per diurnal cycle per worshiper,] Devotio intoned. [Continuous prayer will not yield additional benefits. You may decrease the worship time limit by increasing your Influence Level.]

  Wait what? What did Deovio mean by diurnal and Influence Level?

  [Sorry, sometimes I forget to calibrate my diction to appropriate levels,] Devotio said. Even though their voice was monotone, I could still feel sadness in it. [Essentially, you are limited to the benefits of worship once per day for each worshiper. The Influence Level is determined by how many worshipers you have. Right now, you are at Level 1. To reach the next Level, you must obtain at least 100 worshippers.]

  “You should really be more proactive in giving us this information,” I scolded the entity. “I feel like I’m stumbling around in the dark here.” Ironically, it was daytime when I was saying this.

  [I apologize,] Deovotio said. [My previous interactions with others had indicated that I had spent too much time explaining. Let me add more information about Influence Levels. In addition to increasing the benefits of worship, you will also gain and upgrade specific Demiurge abilities.]

  Hmm. Well, I would know if Devotio rambled for too long. Still, it was better that Devotio told us essential information rather than withholding it. A red flash blinded us again, and Devotio was gone.

  I think it’s a great time to take over the village.

  We could level up quickly and get access to those Demiurge abilities. Before Samsara could protest, I acted.

  I lashed out with two of my hair tentacles. They shot across the gap faster than a normal human eye could follow, wrapping around Halinka and Eivor’s waists.

  “Hey!” Halinka yelped as I yanked them toward me.

  I pulled them into the air, bringing them face-to-face with me. Or rather, face-to-eyeball since they were so small. They struggled, but were powerless against me.

  “Ramona?” Samsara asked. “What are you doing?”

  “I am just making sure we are keeping tabs on these two,” I said.

  I [Focused] on the [Sacrificial Soul Transfer] [Incantation]. Samsara and I winced as I completed the spell, causing a sharp spike of pain in our Cores. Halinka and Eivor went limp. I then revived them with [Sacrificial Mana Transfer].

  “What?” Halinka gasped awake.

  “Huh?” Eivor slurred. “Wait, why are you holding us?”

  “I think we should be the ones in charge,” I said. “Don’t you agree, Aisling?”

  “Ramona and Samsara have done so much for this village,” I forced Aisling to say. “They saved me from the Monster Purifiers, and they [Enlightened] us with magic. I think they are more worthy of leading us than you. And they have never threatened to punish me.”

  “You… you can’t just—” Halinka started to say.

  “We just did,” I interrupted. “Here’s how it is going to work. You are going to tell the rest of Lateo to worship Samsara and me. And that you are stepping down as village elders since we will be the ones in charge.”

  “Understood?” I asked.

  “What if… what if we refused?” Halinka stuttered. Her fox ears seemed to droop even more.

  “Trust me, you don’t want to,” I threatened.

  “I don’t like this,” Samsara said, her thoughts heavy with disappointment.

  “We need to get stronger, Samsara,” I told her firmly. “We need worshippers. Devotio told us what would happen if we got more worshipers. We would have more abilities. Therefore, we would be stronger. If we had been stronger, we could have stopped the humans before they took Aisling. If we are stronger, we can prevent anything like what happened to Aisling from ever happening again.”

  Samsara remained quiet.

  “Don’t you want that?” I asked. “Safety? Power to protect them?” I know I wanted power to protect Samsara. She should feel the same way about other people.

  Samsara responded in my mind.

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