"Take good care of them." Amelia said to her past friends, before everything around her changed back to her present timeline. She stumbled a bit from the aftermath of her frequent travel, her mind initially cloudy but quickly clearing. She looked up, and her foggy vision became much clearer and the ringing in her ears was quickly vanishing. She saw Triton, standing in front of Kiara's ashes. She quickly activated her soul eyes and was scanning the area, but to her shock, was unable to detect Calliope's soul.
"What happened here?" she asked, while being on the edge.
"What do you think, happened here?" he countered.
"Wasn't you bad with water sorcery?"
"Now that you mentioned it." Triton lifted his left hand and around 100 ounces of water levitated as a puddle in front of him. "This body is outstanding!" He laughed maniacally. "It is strong, resistant and is good with water sorcery."
"It's not yours. Give her back!"
"Oh? And who's going to make me?" Triton activated his full-body blood mode, while taking his fighting stance. Amelia summoned her gun in her left hand and her scythe in her right hand.
"What the…", Triton said confused, before shielding his face from the gun shots with his left arm. The electricity went through his body, paralyzing him a bit. Amelia dashed forward, putting her gun away and holding her scythe with both of her hands. As she was about to strike with a swing from her right, her opponent regained control and caught the blade with his left hand. He pulled her weapon and thus Amelia closer to him, while thrusting his trident towards her face. The time traveler let go of her scythe and jumped backwards. In midair, she summoned both of her guns in each of her hands. When she aimed at him, he vanished from her sight. She immediately crossed her hands around her waist and shot her guns through her coat, hitting the shark girl behind her. While turning around, both of her guns were engulfed with an orange flame and her weapons changed to a sniper rifle. She put its muzzle at his abdomen and shot at the startled Triton. The force of the shot destroyed the barrel of her rifle and sent the screaming Atlantean flying. He managed to regain his footing on the ground and looked at his stomach. There was a big black dot with the bullet in the center, which shortly after detached from his body and fell to the ground. While his wound was healing, he looked up and saw as Amelia threw her broken rifle away and wound up her right fist, without approaching him.
"Solar…!" Amelia screamed, which made Triton raise both of his arms in front of his head, putting himself in a defensive position. To his surprise, Amelia vanished into thin air. He quickly turned around, anticipating a surprise attack from behind. But nobody was there. He instead felt a muzzle of a pistol on his right side and an electricity shock went through his body. He screamed before Amelia kicked him with her right leg in his face. Now Amelia screamed, as she hurt her leg. She covered over her hurt limb, while holding it with her right hand and still holding her gun in her left hand. It took her a few moments before she realized the dangerous shark girl standing right in front of her.
"That's getting annoying!" he said furiously. When Amelia was trying to aim at him, he quickly kicked the gun out of her hand. When he was about to grab her neck, she quickly put her left hand into her pocket, before vanishing again. He gave a couple of sniffs before locating her on his left side. He quickly deflected the incoming bullets with trident, before dashing towards her. Unfortunately for Amelia, she was slower than Triton, who seemed to have been teleported in front of her and stabbed her left hand with his trident and slapped her other gun out of her right hand.
"You seem to only teleport", Triton said to Amelia. "with the device in your left pocket, am I right?" She summoned orange flames in her right hand, which changed into a sword and swung it at his abdomen. He was unfazed by that attack. He then proceeded to stab Amelia's other hand with his trident and locking her on the ground, letting her face upward.
"Now." Triton said calmly. "I would love to kill you right here, right now. But I have questions for you guys. So many questions. Like who the frick are you? But let's start with this: Why do you guys think, it's a great idea to mortally wound your friend's body?"
"Kiara is a phoenix." the confused time traveler tried to explain with a perplexed face. "She can heal us from any wounds, as long as we are alive. And in the worst case, we also have few hyper-regen-shots."
"Huh. Yeah, that makes sense. All right then, who are you? Like really, I remember you from the past, but you are far too different. Are you, perhaps, one of the queens, the phoenix brat mentioned…?" A sudden burst of a strong gust blew the off guard shark girl and his weapon away from Amelia. After the gust, the time traveler got up and looked to her right side, at the source of the wind gust. There was a closing purple portal and Ina'nis' body was standing in front of it.
"Get away from her, Triton!" Malphas shouted.
"Ina?" Amelia asked confused. She picked up her nearest gun and approached her friend. "What are you doing here? Wait. WAIT! Malphas? Don't tell me, it's actually you in her body."
"Surprised you knew. Now, with my help, we should be able to constrain…" Amelia suddenly grabbed his shoulder.
"What did you do?" she shouted, while shaking him vigorously. "Why would you do this? WHY?"
"I don't see a problem. Ina should be fine with this…"
"NO, SHE ISN'T!" A sudden realization hit her. "No, we aren't. We're not ready yet." She let him go and repeatedly mumbled to herself: "What should we do?"
"Wait, why is this a problem? What is going to happen?"
"Yeah, what is happening?" Triton asked, as he was approaching them. "More characters arriving in this scene, which are making less and less sense."
"Stop!" Malphas demanded. "Just stop this unnecessary fighting, Triton."
"Why? Or better question: Who's going to stop me? You, little girl?"
"Do not make fun of my daughter!" Malphas conjured a fireball in his right palm.
"Magic, huh. That's going to be annoying." Triton took his fighting stance.
"Stop, Triton, you brainless air breather!" The shark girl stopped.
"Malphas?!" the Atlantean asked and began to laugh. "What are the chances, that we are both trapped in little girls' body?"
"Want to free yourself from that body?" the demon lord asked.
"Nope. I grew to love my new body."
"IT'S NOT YOUR BODY!" Amelia screamed and fired another round of bullets at Triton. He appeared in front of her while dodging all her bullets.
"This is getting old." the annoyed Triton said. When he was about to punch her, a shield appeared between them, which stopped his punch.
"Stop!" Malphas commanded.
"Make me." Triton countered and vanished. A bubble barrier surrounded Amelia, and small shield barriers appeared and disappeared periodically around Malphas. Fire, water, electricity, and wind balls got conjured and were sent flying all over the place, occasionally hitting the Atlantean warrior. After a dozen of those blows were exchanged in a span of a few seconds, Triton appeared behind Malphas and threw his trident at him. The weapon broke through the barrier and Malphas caught the trident with his left hand. However, his rampage of magic spells stopped. He put a gravity spell on the trident, pushing it on the ground, while trying to defend himself from the incoming jabs from Triton with his right arm. Overwhelmed, he quickly conjured a big burst of wind, pushing the shark girl away from him. When the Atalntean vanished again, Malphas threw a large stream of fire to his right. The stream was split in half, as Triton, covered in water, dashed through and landed a successful punch at his core, which made the demon lord fall on his knees. However, the Atlantean screamed in pain, as electricity was engulfing Malphas' body and now paralyzed Triton's body. The hand of Malphas was engulfed in a black flames, and he grabbed the paralyzed Triton's face.
"Give her back, you damn brainless air breather!" the demon lord commanded. The flame spread over the Atlantean's head and he screamed. However, Malphas had visible difficulties in his expression. Amelia suddenly appeared behind the shark girl and pulled out the can with the soul softener solution. Triton noticed the time traveler and knew, he had to act quickly. The surrounding water began moving up and formed into a thousand needles. Then they flew towards the group. The attack made Malphas scream from the pain and let the Atlantean go, while the needle splashed on contact with Gura's body. Amelia quickly let the can disappear with her orange flames, before getting hit in the face by his knee. Triton, who was about to follow up his attack, suddenly sunk to the ground, as the gravitational force around him began to become heavier. He turned around and saw the demon lord, who was on his right knee, struggling to keep his right arm up, while his bloody wounds began to heal.
"Give up, old man." Triton said, as he was slowly losing his respect for Malphas.
"Shut up! I won't give up just like…" The trident suddenly pierced the demon lord from his back. He let his right arm fall and spout blood out of Ina'nis' mouth, while the Atlantean slowly got up and approached him.
"So he really did exist." Triton mocked the badly wounded demon lord, as the trident pulled itself out of his body and returned to its owner's right hand. "The legendary demon coward, hiding in his domain."
"YOU BRAINLESS AIR BREATHER!" Triton quickly chanted his soul spell and Malphas screamed from the pain, as the water from the previous attack turned into the strange symbols and began to glow inside his body.
"What happened, Malphas? When did you get this weak?" Triton asked, as his breath became noticeable heavier. The scream from the demon lord changed its tone, as the soul of Malphas left its host, leaving a very hurt and scared Ina'nis behind. When she realized the predicament, she was in, tears of terror came flooding out of her eyes and she tried to crawl backwards, away from the scary shark girl. However, the wound in her back, made her fall down and she whimpered in pain, as she tried her best to heal her back. Meanwhile, without anyone realizing it, a black portal appeared.
"That's your daughter?" Triton asked in disbelief. "How low can you fall, Malphas Nighstright? And would you finally stop?" He turned around and held up his right palm. A puddle of water collected in front of him, which caught two bullets. "I won't give this body ba…" A furious Calliope came through the portal, which was to Triton's right side, and swung her new scythe, engulfed with black soul flames, at the caught off guard Triton from her right. He could only raise his left arm to block the physical attack. The flame spread to his lower-left arm, and he started to lose his feeling in his left arm. With the last strength left, Triton pushed the scythe a bit away and tried to thrust the reaper with his trident in his right hand towards her gut. She let go of her scythe, jumped upward, and grabbed the pole of the trident with her left hand. With a decent support, Calliope stomped both of her legs into Triton's cutting board. He got pushed back slightly and let go of his weapon, which made the reaper fall. The shark girl opened his mouth wide open, revealing his sharp teeth and was about to take a big bite of the reaper's leg, when he suddenly screamed, as a short electric current went through his body, buying Calliope enough time to disengage.
"Would you please stop that already!" Triton shouted to his left and threw his trident in that direction. It, however, hit nothing, as Amelia teleported to the reaper's left side.
"Where is Kiara?" Calliope asked without leaving Triton out of her sight. She formed a right fist.
"To our left, the pile of ashes. She was like this, when I returned here." The reaper nodded.
"Also, can you please tell me, where the heck you were." Amelia was shocked to hear the apprentice's upset and angry voice.
"Sorry, but I had to travel through time to gather more information."
"Really?" Calliope sighed in relief, without closing her eyes. She looked at her right fist, which was finally slowly engulfed in soul flames. She summoned her scythe in her left hand, and the blade immediately was engulfed by soul flames.
"Why can't I engulf my body with those flames so quickly?" she mumbled to herself, before asking: "So what's the plan, Ame?"
"Buying time for Kiara, protect Ina and…"
"Wait, Ina? Why is she here?"
"…and restraining him, so I can release a gas on him to loosen up his soul from Gura's body."
"Then let us protect Ina first."
"Right, can you distract him for a few moments? I'll teleport Ina into safety.!"
"All right!" Calliope shouted and immediately dashed towards Triton. Amelia was stunned for a moment by her reaper's sudden action, but dashed towards Ina shortly after. She put her left hand into her pocket, while stretching out her right hand towards her human friend. As soon as she got a firm grip on her shoulder, they both vanished. Triton used the time to regain his senses back into his left arm and calling his trident back. Calliope engulfed her scythe with soul flames. Triton began his furry of trident thrusts at the reaper, who could only defensively deflect most of his attacks. She bit through the pain as small parts of her cloth and flesh got torn away with every successful hit by Triton. The shark girl suddenly disappeared, which made the reaper jump up and ram the pole part of her scythe to the ground, pushing her body more upwards. The trident pushed the pole away, which made the reaper fall. She rotated midair and swung at him. He stepped aside, to dodge the attack, and kicked in her guts, which sent her flying up a few inches. When she fell down from the apex, she noticed the approaching trident. She deflected it with her scythe and managed to land rather safely on the ground. But soon after, a right leg hit her face, which sent her flying backwards. She managed to get her blade part of her scythe, which lost its flame aura, behind his neck, breaking her momentum. She then threw a left punch to his face. He was unfazed by it.
"Seriously?" the Atlantean asked. He suddenly felt her fist getting warmer and instinctively wanted to jump back. However, with the blade still behind his neck, he wasn't able to go far away. The reaper began to throw some jabs with her left hand, which was slowly engulfing itself with soul flames, while holding her scythe with her right hand. Triton defended himself from the jabs by carefully pushing her lower arm to the side. When he tried to disappear, by dashing behind or to his side or was trying to duck, Calliope pulled her scythe a bit. This move pulled his face closer to her fiery fist, which forced him to parry the attack. The soul flames engulfed her fist and her jabs became more furious. Suddenly, the trident pierced her lower left arm and pushed her down. She lost her balance, which Triton used to get out of the hold and pushed her head down. He raised his hand and little water drops above him began to form into symbols. However, the collected water quickly formed into a shield and defended its master on his left from gun shots from Amelia, who just went through a door. She quickly shut the door and moved towards them with a gun in her right hand and a sword in her left. Triton removed his weapon from the reaper and disappeared from the time traveler's eyes. The water shield exploded and Triton appeared in front of Amelia, with his left hand pressing against her sword, which she held up in defense. He moved her sword aside and thrust his trident towards her gut. She let go of her sword and immediately shot a bullet. The paralyze effect made him scratch her stomach, barely missing her vital parts. He was also unable to move his body properly.
"Reconstruct!" Calliope shouted, while getting up and dashed towards them. Amelia continued to shoot in periodic interval at the shark, to keep him paralyzed.
"STOP IT!" Triton shouted, which both of his adversaries ignored. Calliope tried to engulf her right fist, but noticed that it would take too long. She instead summoned her scythe, engulfed the blade and swung wide. However, the ammo ran out. The time traveler quickly threw her empty gun away and thrust her summoned dagger in her right hand toward the shark girl. Triton's left hand shattered her blade on contact and grabbed her hand. He turned around and held Amelia as his meat shield in front of him. The reaper twisted her body, which made her blade rotate 90 degrees and hit both of them with the blunt side of the blade. Both of them went flying, and the reaper followed them. The shark girl let go of his now useless meat shield and broke his fall. He looked up and saw a flying scythe moving towards him. When he was about to parry the attack, the scythe dissolved into black flames, obstructing his vision. He instinctively jumped back, as the scythe in Calliope's hands cut through the small smoke. Triton smiled, as he dashed forward and grabbed the reaper's neck with his right hand.
"Bye, bye." he said as the grip around her neck began to tighten. Suddenly, the shark girl felt a kick on his left side. He let go of the apprentice and got pushed away. Calliope coughed a bit and gasped for air.
"Thank you, Ame." she said.
"No problem." her master replied, which surprised her.
"Sensi?! What are you doing here?"
"To save you, dummy."
"No need." Calliope replied, as she was slowly standing up. "We reapers are…"
"…not immortal." This information shook Calliope.
"Wait, didn't you say, that…"
"I know what I said, ok? It is easier, to explain it that way, as the only beings, capable of harming us, are those with mastery of soul sorcery. Which meant only reapers. And there's a ban on fighting between reapers, as you know. So we should be practically immortal." There was a bit of silence, as Amelia and Triton slowly got up.
"Why not telling me that earlier?"
"And risking you finding a way to kill yourself? I know you're hurt from your past, and I'm afraid that you won't find a reason to keep on living. That is why I lied. And I'm sorry."
"Apology Accepted. Now, tell me. How can I die? I want to prevent my death."
"Because Daiestro pulled your dying soul at the last moment away from your immanent death, your soul is now fractured and unstable. Thus, leaving your body in any kind of way will shatter your soul, which thus results in your permanent death."
"Meaning, when my body sustains too much damage, I would die like a mortal, right?"
"Correct." Calliope took a deep breath. She got up and punched her right fist into her left palm.
"Please help us, sensei.", the apprentice asked for help.
"My pleasure." the grim reaper answered.
"Are you done, chatting?" Triton asked impatiently. "I find it rather rude, for you people to add more characters to this fight."
"Then give us Gura back!" Amelia shouted, as she picked up the other gun and began to shoot at him. His trident came flying to the trajectory of the bullets and blocked the attack for its master. Then the shark girl appeared in front of her.
"Weaklings should stay out!" he said and was about to stab his right hand through her torso, when a pair of hands came out of the ashes, which was to the right side of Amelia, and pushed the attack away from its target. Amelia raised her gun and pointed at his face. He opened his mouth and was about to bite off her hands when Styrgian suddenly kicked his side. The shark girl got pushed a few yards away, ripping Kiara's arms with his left hand in the process. He looked with his furious eyes at the grim reaper.
"Ok," he said with anger in his voice. "this is getting really annoying. More and more of you fish fodder keep joining in. That is just so unfair!" He threw away the burning arms and then slapped his face to keep himself a bit calm. "Time to reduce your numbers." He then vanished, which was followed by Styrgian disappearance. The sound of the scythe of a trained grim reaper and the trident of the ancient Atlantean champion, hitting each other, echoed throughout the building, followed with occasional sparks and rough images of the two combatants. Amelia tried to follow their movements with her eyes, but was too slow to perceive their movements. Suddenly, something hit her on her right shoulder, then her left side, then her back. She screamed a bit from the pain and put herself in a cowering position. Calliope dashed towards her friend, with her scythe in her right hand, and occasionally deflected the invisible attacks. When she reached her destination, she stood in front of her and deflected all incoming attack towards them. Her eyes moved quickly in all direction, as she was able to follow the action. After a few moments of felling no more hits, Amelia looked up and saw her reaper friend, trying her best, to protect both of them. She then looked over to the mountain of ashes and noticed that it was also being attacked. Kiara had a rough time, regenerating and wasn't able to rejoin the fight. Amelia summoned a gun, which looked similar to Calliope's limb laser gun, and shot twice at the ashes, which began to burst into flames. The flames then getting absorbed, and a rough body began to form.
"NOOO!" Calliope shouted and dashed towards her phoenix friend, when the shark girl stomped on Kiara's head and pierced with his trident through the torso.
"That's two." Triton said with a smile on his face, but with an audible exhaustion in his voice. Calliope threw her weapon at him, which he dodged by slightly tilting to his right side. He threw a bit of ashes with his trident towards her face. She put up her right lower arm and wanted to push the ashes away with her flame, but her flames didn't come out in time. Blinded by the dust, she backed off and heard her master voice screaming:
"Harrowing…" She quickly summoned her scythe and shouted "SHIELD!" Black flames began to form around her weapon and move beyond the body of her scythe, forming a circular soul flame shield. Meanwhile, Styrgian emitted a huge amount of soul flames, which quickly moved towards his opponent, who dashed towards him, to disrupt his sorcery. Triton thrust his trident towards the grim reaper, who moved slightly to his right and grabbed the trident. After a short pause, he finished his soul sorcery with "…Prison." All the flames tried to encase Triton, who let go of his weapon and quickly dashed away. Then, there was a scream, which made the Atlantean look in that direction, but found a grim reaper instead, who followed him, as did his flames. Styrgian swung his scythe, which was not engulfed with soul flames, at the Atlantean, who managed to block the attack with his full-blood right arm, but got pushed back, into the huge mass of soul flames. Suddenly, a large amount of water formed around Gura's body, temporarily protecting its master from the flames. The sphere of soul flames began to glow in a black color and began to shrink.
"DON'T KILL HER!" the apprentice shouted with a short of breath, as the shield flames vanished from the scythe. But to her dismay, her master, who also panted slightly, answered:
"Sorry, but that's not an option. She's just too powerful."
"But…" Calliope tried to negotiate, when she heard a loud curse from Amelia. She turned around and saw her time traveling friend desperately shooting her laser gun at Kiara's ashes, but no laser came out of it. Calliope suddenly remembered vaguely about her left leg, which Triton had severed from her previous body. She looked around and spotted her separated limb. She quickly grabbed it and tossed it to Amelia, who was confused by her reaper's action.
"It should have a charge left." she shouted, to which Amelia nodded as a confirmation. She pulled on a few wires, which transformed the limb into a laser gun. She aimed at the ashes and with the pull of another wire, a laser was shot and after a few seconds, Kiara finally emerged from the ashes. The phoenix quickly looked around her, while in a defensive position, searching for Triton.
"Where is…" she was about to ask, when Styrgian shouted:
"Everyone, brace yourselves!" The trident, which the grim reaper tried to hold on as firmly as possible, managed to escape his grasp and flew through the harrowing prison. Triton held on to his weapon, when he escaped the prison. Small burn marks were visible throughout his body. The brightness of flames from the prison dimmed down and began chasing after its fugitive. Gura's body instinctively created another water barrier around her body.
"Thank lord, for the auto-water barrier." Triton said with a smile, as he threw the water towards the incoming flames. About a tenth of the fire got extinguished. The shark girl threw his trident towards the flame and then turned around, to block the incoming swing from Styrgian's scythe with his crossed full-blood arms. The grim reaper managed to, once again, push his opponent towards his prison. However, the trident turned around and Triton grabbed his flying weapon, to break his course towards the flames. The grim reaper dashed towards the Atlantean, who let go of his weapon and stepped to his left side and his trident moving to his right side. Then he and his weapon began to launch a volley of attacks on two different angles at Styrgian. The reaper was visibly overwhelmed, but didn't want to give up his position, as he tried his best to maintain it, by occasionally stepping back.
"What's wrong?" Triton mocked the grim reaper. "Unable to use your soul flames?" Styrgian clinched his teeth, as he fell for the taunt. His body and weapon began to be engulfed with black flames, with the drawback of the flames of the harrowing prison disappearing. When he swung at the shark girl, Triton disappeared, with a surprised apprentice suddenly appearing in front of her master, throwing in soul flame engulfed punch towards the grim reaper. Styrgian's blade almost touched Calliope when its master dismissed the scythe. He pretended to slash his student with an imaginary scythe. While turning around, he re-summoned his weapon and pushed the trident into the ground, locking it in place. Calliope couldn't break her course and bumped into her master's back, while holding back her punch.
"You ok?" Styrgian asked and noticed her nodding through his back. Meanwhile, Triton moved towards the time traveler and phoenix. Kiara managed to block his incoming punch with her shield, but got pushed back, leaving Amelia alone against Triton. The time traveler managed to summon a shield on her right arm and blocked his attempt to bite her. Before she was able to do anything else, Triton threw a punch at her shield, breaking it in the process. Before his fist could reach her vital organs, Styrgian managed to grab the Atlantean in a bear hug position and shouted:
"Harrow…" But before he could finish his incantation, Triton hit his back of his head against the grim reaper's face, pushed his both of his elbows into his stomach and stomped both of his soles onto the reaper's feet. Styrgian lost control of his body and his spell. While the freed Atlantean quickly disengaged from him, Calliope summoned her soul flame shield, Kiara moved to the nearest cover and Amelia teleported away, while soul flames emerged from Styrgian body. Then suddenly, a lot of black streams of soul flames got shot out, destroying most things in their path with an unpredictable amount of force behind each attack. After a few seconds, the attack stopped and the flames dissipated, leaving only their destruction and an exhausted grim reaper behind. He looked up and noticed Triton standing roughly a few yards in front of him. The shark girl was panting rather heavily, with his left arm and right arm drained from the soul flame attacks. Styrgian screamed to muster his remaining energy and dashed towards his opponent. To his dismay, Triton's ‚lost' limbs quickly regained their color and was about to counter, when the shark girl suddenly heard a gun shot behind him. His movement was restrained, as the electric current went through his body and he screamed from the pain. The grim reaper planted his fist into Triton's face and pushed the upper body of the Atlantean to the ground.
"Get away from him!" Styrgian shouted to Amelia, who answered to him with a simple:
"No!" She fired another paralyzing shot. The grim, frustrated by the time traveler decision, was about to grab her, when his apprentice and her phoenix friend arrived, who both hold down Triton's legs. Amelia fired another shot, but no bullet came out. With that realization, Triton screamed, whaling his arms around and tried his best to get up. Styrgian punched him again in the face, pushing him down, while Kiara let go of his right leg and pierced with her just now summoned sword into his right hand, locking it into the ground. Meanwhile, Amelia placed a coin behind the Atlantean's head, with the depicted arrow pointing towards him.
"Restrain him, and we'll get Gura back!" Amelia shouted. Styrgian put his weight on Triton's left hand. Kiara went back, restraining his right leg, while Amelia held on to her phoenix friend's sword. The shark girl growled and screamed in desperation, when a metal can appeared in his mouth, which he instinctively bit through. Purple gas shot out of the container.
"Hold your breath!" Amelia shouted, which everyone listened to. Even Triton tried to follow her command, but the can in his mouth made it rather difficult for him. He managed to spit out the metal, but he had already inhaled too much from the gas. He began to cough heavily, which resulted in him inhaling more of the gas. When two thirds of the gas evaporated, Amelia began to shout:
"INA, NOW!" Shortly after, Ina'nis appeared on top of that coin, which Amelia placed behind Triton. She was in a kneeling position, placing both of her hand on Triton's forehead.
"…a realm of thoughts, a connection beyond." Ina'nis continued her incantation and Triton desperately trying to break free from his restraints. "Between the stars, where consciousness gleams,"
"STOP!" the shark girl screamed.
"Minds entangled in ethereal streams. Mind Space."