"PRAMN IT, I WAS SO CLOSE."

Socks' mocking laugh rang and dissipated from my head as I froze in place. I didn't hear anything from the basement anymore. Nadwe's heavy gasps for air were suddenly muted. Laff's incoming footsteps faded out of earshot. The darkness of the musty, cement basement became a dark, cornflower blue, as if it were about five in the morning and the sun was about to rise. I thought,

What is happening here?

Cautious, I blinked and looked around. I saw the dusty dirt beneath my feet, and two pairs of boots on either side of mine, meanwhile my brain subconsciously shrugged off the fact that my feet were now covered in scales instead of assorted colors of fabric. Looking ahead, I could only see about three feet ahead of me before the world would fade into black. I grew concerned when I thought,

They didn't find the tearglass somehow, right?

Nervous, I looked down at my hands. Blaze-orange scales replaced white gloves, as if I were a teenager. I felt my breathing quicken as I saw two human hands grab onto my shoulders, again. My own, young thoughts echoed through my mind, word for word:

"This can't be how we go down. Not like this. We said we would be together, and happy. Not dead."

I started panicking. I couldn't help it.

No, no, no- not again, please. Please, no, not again.

Before the new world flashed into view, I heard a voice I hadn't heard in centuries. Once again, word for word:

"Please, if you kill us, just don't let Blaze watch. He doesn't need to see his own parents get killed."

I felt my eyes well up with warm tears that stung me with any attempt to hold them back. My breathing became ragged, and my palms began to sweat. Suddenly, the darkness retreated despite my hope that I wouldn't have to see.

There they were right in front of me, against the Grand Survivor, bleeding with tears in both of their eyes. I tried to close my eyes, but I physically couldn't manage to squint. I watched in horror as tears streamed down my face, for the second time. The human soldiers quickly pulled out their spears and aimed, for the second time. My parents, Victoria and Boroan, looked at me, for the last time. I whispered under my breath as I sobbed,

"Please.. don't kill my parents."

Before they both were going to be stabbed and skewered through the torso with spears, I heard Nadwe mutter,

"Meme.."

I was suddenly snapped back to my current mind, instead of living in the past. I suddenly didn't care whether this was reality or not. This was our deal. Gasping for air through my sobs, I ripped out of the grip of the humans, just in time for—

"Gul- DRULVIC? WHAT THE HELL?"

Socks' voice screamed through my mind, shooting a pain throughout my entire head. It felt like the screeching of nails on a chalkboard were stabbing into my skull. Finally getting oriented with my surroundings again, I realized that while I had run out of the 'grip' around my shoulders, I ran out of the "boiler room" that I had nearly killed Tbh, Nadwe, and Blaza in.

Clumsily passing Ryzo and slamming my head into the wall opposite of the boiler room, along with two of my tentacles, an acidic, nauseating feeling crawled up my throat. My mind suddenly went blank, my only focus being to try and hold down a bunch of black, stress-induced puke. I turned left and bolted forward, which was not a wise decision. I felt like a drunk: lightheaded, not being able to walk straight, and vomiting black sludge onto the wall in front of me. The back of my eyes ached afterward, as black waterfalls burst out of them and splashed onto the floor like they were hoses as well. It was called "waterfall syndrome".

Socks, seeing my weak self, seized the opportunity to gain control. This was the one time I was glad he did. Mentally, I backed away from Socks and sat down, recouping from the sudden Drulvic phase. Placing down my tentacles against the floor at around a sixty-degree angle allowed me to lean against them like I was in a chair, and that's what I did. I took deep breaths, letting myself relax for just a few minutes. It felt like I just had twenty gallons of water sucked out of me. I hadn't actually gotten sick in eight-hundred and seven years.

Looking back at Socks, he was standing in the "screw-room", or the room with the shelves and nails. Physically, he looked at Ryzo, terrified. After a few more seconds of silence, Ryzo slowly walked to Socks with a helpful intent. Socks took a few steps back, shakily breathing in as he did. All Ryzo did was hug him. Nothing else.

I let my face drop a little from its stern expression, as no one was paying attention. I felt a little bad, in all honesty. Noticing myself becoming soft, I told myself,

I can't stop now. Not after everything. I need to satisfy the deal.

I resettled my position so my right leg was tucked beneath my left knee, which was bent upward to make the point of a triangle. Intertwining my fingers and resting my left wrist on my leg, I looked away from Socks and down at the pink floor of his mind, more black slowly dripping down my cheeks. I sternly told myself, hiding all doubts in the back of my mind,

I can't stop. I won't stop. I need them.

Suddenly, thoughts that weren't even my own started to throw themselves back and forth, quicker than my heartbeat. My eyes narrowed as I focused on them, trying to decipher where they were coming from. They chanted:

You can't stop. You won't stop. You have no choice.

My eyes locked against the floor as I silently panicked, my pupils shrinking and my expression communicating my unnerved emotions to no one but myself. I didn't feel like doing anything remotely "bad" at the moment.

Breaking out of my trance and looking forwards once again, I saw that Socks didn't hug Ryzo back, but began sobbing into him instead. Must've been because of Drulvic's influence. As I waited for him to wrap it up, I saw Blaza, Tbh, and Woolf in the doorway. I sharply gasped and shut my eyes as a strike of pain suddenly stabbed into my jugular. Opening my eyes again, I realized that it wasn't just some 'random' strike of pain, but an electric blue spirit-spear.

Familiar red strings that matched my eyes faded into view, being wrapped and tied around my wrists, ankles, torso, and neck. My gaze crawled upward, staring into eyes that were as white as snow with long, white eyelashes, surrounded by purple and indigo ectoplasma. She lifted me up, using the spear through my neck that never actually stabbed through, but rather phased through.

Through my failed attempts at grabbing the spear, I grunted as she threw me off of the spear, onto the ground of Socks' mind as if I were a bug. Startling me as I sat up, Petrona flew face to face with me. Wearing a scowl instead of her usual creepy smile, meanwhile feeling a smile slowly spread across my own, she ordered in a dark, venomous voice,

"Kill them now."
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-Socks POV-

I'm not an emetophobe, but after Drulvic puked, my brain went into hyper-speed. My body was as scatterbrained as my head, confused about why I was supposedly sick. My head throbbed with a pain I hadn't felt since the day I was possessed, which made it worse. Drulvic had never gotten that bad before.

Wanting to run away from everything, I ran into the storage room. I gradually started feeling lightheaded once again, almost like I was about to faint. I paused, trying to calm myself, but failed as I heard Laff's boots thumping against the concrete on the floor. Wiping Gulvic's vomit off of my face, easily staining my gloves black, I slowly turned around and stared down Ryzo. The silence from both the real world and my mind was heavy.

Too heavy.

Ryzo, wanting to help, took a few steps forward, showing he wasn't scared. I knew he wanted to help, of course, but I didn't want Gulvic to hurt him in the process. Despite my uneasiness, I didn't stop Ryzo from walking to me and wrapping his arms around me in a hug. Suddenly, my vision became blurry as transparent, black tears rolled down my cheeks. It was like a switch flipped in my mind, and I couldn't stop sobbing no matter what I did. I wasn't even that sad or scared to be crying this much.

Looking up through the doorway in my misery, my heart skipped a terrified beat as I saw Tbh and Blaza appear. As a cold shiver was sent down my spine, I pushed myself away from Ryzo. Wiping away my tears, I gasped as I felt the sensation of slime running down my face. I quickly slipped off my visor and looked into the orange plastic's reflection. My left eye was black with a white oval, overflowing with black ink. I involuntarily grimaced, disgusted at the reflection, then seeing my teeth begin to be covered in black. Staring at it, I watched as it hardened into white crystal, flawlessly matching with my original teeth as if they've always appeared sharp. Oddly enough, I was amazed.

Catching myself in the trance, I looked back at Blaza and Tbh. Tbh held a golden ring in his claw, which had an indigo-blue crystal strung in the middle with what seemed to be wire. My eyes widened as my mind rumbled with the sound of Gulvic's growling. Seeing how the situation was going to end, I nervously begged,

"Walk.. away."

The two looked at each other nervously, and out of the corner of my eye I saw Ryzo raise his tentacles slightly out of defense.
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-Tbh POV-

"Walk.. away."

That made my legs go numb. Gulvic obviously knew just as well as Ryzo what the tearglass was, so he was probably on edge. I looked up at Blaza, and he looked down at me. We silently understood what each of us were thinking. I asked through my gaze if I should go for it, and quinting slightly, Blaza's look agreed. I stepped forward, which clearly made Socks more uneasy. I heard Blaza's boots as he silently followed, which I wasn't expecting, but my eyes were unwilling to lose eye contact with Socks.

The more steps we took, the more Socks grew terrified. I could tell. The longer I stared at the white oval for his pupil, it became slimmer and gained more of a red tint every single second. I slowly began to raise the tearglass and aimed, taking a deep breath in before I began to recite the hybrodeic incantation. It was as if I were facing a lion; you didn't know when, where, or if it would strike.

Well, he did.

Before I could mutter a word, tentacles sprouted from Socks' back as a simple, yet intimidating smile spread across his face, holding the usual knife blades for teeth in place. The red slits in both of Gulvic's eyes quickly rounded out once again into small, hollow, blood-red circles, showing it was Browlvic. Stepping back, I watched as his eyes locked on Blaza. Neither of us had enough time to react before–

SHKLUNK!

The sound of a tentacle hitting a barrier echoed in the room. Shaking, I stared at the ground, debating whether or not my stomach would be able to bear the sight. Grasping the golden ring around the tearglass, I looked up, straightening my spine vertebrae by vertebrae, undoing the defensive position I had set myself in. I looked at Blaza. My guts twisted into a knot, not out of horror, but instead out of being pleasantly surprised.

Blaza stood unharmed. A tentacle tip that barely touched his torso was frozen still. About a foot back from the tip was a green ring of a pulsing aura that seemed to be the thing keeping Browlvic from stabbing through. I heard an audible, low growl from his throat, annoyed that he had failed. I watched in fear as he pulled the tentacle away from Blaza once again, glowering. Blaza, being in his current position, quickly looked around for some kind of explanation of why he wasn't dead, but quickly focused on Browlvic. The parasitic demon winded up to stab both of us at the same time, but was instead wrapped in tentacles by the hybrid in a lab coat. As me and Blaza watched Ryzo throw Browlvic across the room into the corner, he yelled,

"What are you skin-bags going to do? Just stand there?"

Remembering what I came down into the basement for, I looked at Blaza and sternly told him,

"Run upstairs where it's safe."

Blaza looked at me like I was insane, but his and my own sight shot back to Gulvic and Ryzo, who were actively trying to knock each other out with repetitively missed punches. I felt like I had to be the responsible one for once and stop the two infecteds before they do physical damage to each other's hosts. Looking back at Blaza, I shot him a glare, which he understood and ran back into the hall we came.
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-Meme POV-

I met Woolf and Muffin in the basement just as Gulvic took control of Socks. Muffin floated between Blaza and Tbh, Woolf floated behind Gulvic, and I glided in as a witness. I maneuvered my plasma to be next to Ryzo, unsure what to do. I was confused. Gulvic's eyes were red circles, not slits. Even weirder yet, was that it was like he couldn't see us. He obviously could, I knew that for sure because of Wulvic after my death over a week ago. Therefore, it was either he suddenly couldn't see us, or he was very good at ignoring us.

Gulvic, clearly angry, suddenly shot a tentacle at Blaza. Before it could hit, Muffin's eyes glowed a bright green as he dashed in front of the tentacle. I was bewildered that the tentacle was stopped in its tracks as if it were never moving. Gulvic pulled back the tentacle, glaring at Muffin. He got ready to stab both Tbh and Blaza again, but that's when Ryzo wrapped him in tentacles and threw him into the corner. Me and Woolf stared at each other, unsure what to do. Simultaneously, we looked at Muffin like he was an alien. Muffin asked as if it were nothing,

"What?"

I asked,

"How did you do that?"

Muffin only shrugged, looking back at Ryzo and Gulvic. Woolf pointed out,

"You know you just saved Blaza's life, correct?"

Muffin simply responded,

"Yeah."

Woolf snickered, and ended the conversation by himself:

"Okay then."

With the three of us looking back at the physicals, Ryzo had managed to keep Gulvic cornered and slumped against the wall. Gulvic looked like an annoyed kid that didn't get to go to a friend's house, and now won't stop being angry about it. Woolf ripped his gaze away from Gulvic and said,

"Socks is keeping him from moving anywhere. It should be oka-"

Muffin, being impulsive, interrupted and whispered to us three,

"Can't we pull Gulvic out of Socks just like Meme did when I was possessing Tbh?"

I perked up, glancing back at Gulvic. He glared back at me and growled. I breathed in and looked back at Muffin and Woolf, only to find them both not there. Concerned, I looked back at Gulvic, who looked ready to kill someone again from how angry he was. Tbh, aiming the tearglass, breathed in to talk. Ryzo gave into a relaxed position, glowering at Gulvic. Tbh started,

"Hrakinak o' nedor-"

Ryzo winced as the words were spoken out loud and the crystal in the center of the artifact began to glow an eerie indigo. I looked back at the corner in the wall, seeing muffin's hand peering out and waving at me from inside the concrete. My false heartbeat quickened as my face dropped. Tbh continued,

"Ja jho han hamen."

Gulvic, still glaring at me, slowly lifted the hard gaze as he realized the same thing as me. His pupils shrunk in eagerness. Ryzo shut his eyes as he tried to stop himself from reliving the past. Woolf's hand reached out of the wall and phased through Socks, searching for Gulvic's spirit. Tbh continued as the tearglass glowed brighter,

"Zjo o zja,"

Tbh burned a stare of determination through Gulvic's now relaxed silt-eyes. I dashed to Muffin and Woolf, grabbing their shoulders and failing to pull them away from Socks' body, but only helping their mistake instead. Ryzo stared at the ground, with the expression of someone who's just lied to the police. The tearglass got blindingly bright as Tbh recited the last of the incantation,

"O wron uf won."

Gulvic shot a sly smile to Ryzo, who looked back at him confused. As Tbh demolished his own fears, the tearglass warmed up to shoot. I fell backward, as Muffin and Woolf pulled a blaze-orange spirit out of Socks' body. The orange figure stared at the three of us with black eyes and the same smile he had before. I barely saw the figure before the tearglass fired a blinding beam of energy directly at Socks. I gasped, grabbed Woolf and Muffin, and pulled them back away from the shot.

The orange figure was gone.

I stayed silent and so did the other two ghosts. Cautious, I dragged them out of the wall to look around. I stopped once I was between Socks, Tbh, and Ryzo. Ryzo stared at Socks, who started to open his eyes as if he had fainted. Tbh quietly asked,

"Are you okay-?"

Socks, taking a deep breath, sighed,

"I feel normal- I think?"

Ryzo looked around and reassured,

"I don't see him anywhere."

Tbh and Socks looked at each other, their eyes filled with a startled kind of relief. Ryzo smiled and concluded,

"Freedom at last, eh?"
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AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA CHAPTER 30