Yeah, this chapter really shows the problem of half improvising and half planning out my plot from the beginning. Things can kind of come out of nowhere sometimes. Rest assured, I'm working on a full edited version where this is far less of a problem, but it's a bit late to do anything now

Over the next few days, more and more magical disasters began occurring. Cities were brought to ruins, with all their citizens turned into spiritless. Forests set on fire, forcing any firefighting services to be stretched thin. Government bases completely destroyed, not a trace of anybody who was there to be found. Of course, the base Rex and his friends were staying at wasn’t going to be targeted. That might kill them, and if Steven killed them, then they wouldn’t be able to be tortured like Steven wanted to.

Dan had alsos put in a request from the human village in the canyon, and managed to get the spirit goggles, so now everybody could freely see spirits, instead of only Rex being able to see them, and only when he and Timothy did their spirit fusion. It wasn’t much, but any advantage that they could leverage would help them in the fight against Steven.

They had finally begun to discern at least some pattern in the attacks. They were not completely sure, but they had an idea of where the next attack would occur. They were preparing to head out, when Rex got a text from Sam. Rex hadn’t spent much time with her in months, and of course she had to text him now of all times.

“Rex. That dumb magical anomaly is attacking the college. If I don’t make it out, I’m sorry we couldn’t hang out more. The anomaly calls itself Steven. I think there’s something strange going on here. Something someone doesn't want us to know. Be careful, Rex.” Rex went pale as soon as he saw Sam’s message.

“Guys. We have to go back to university. Sam just texted me. Steven is attacking. There was no waiting around to prepare, and no gathering of supplies. As soon as they heard the news. Rex and his friends were off, with only whatever they had on them at the time. Saving Sam and the rest of their friends was more important. They didn’t even have time to grab the fancy spirit viewing goggles Dan had gotten for them.

When they got to the university, they immediately rushed to the largest group of people they could find. If Steven was going to attack anybody, it would be them. If Rex and his friends were in the group however, Steven would have to think twice about attacking the group. Things seemed to be okay there, but Rex hadn’t fully seen the campus. Steven could have easily damaged somewhere else, and the people did seem to be at least in somewhat of a panic, or at the very least worried. Rex also heard an alarm in the distance, which could have easily been triggered by Steven. His mind racing, Rex called out. “Sam? Sam? Are you there? Where are you?”

“Rex! I’m over here!” shouted Sam, waving her arm above the crowd. Rex and his friends ran over to her.

“Sam! What seems to be the problem! We’ve come to help!” shouted Rex, pushing his way through the crowd of people to get to her. Follow me, this way!”

“Where are we going?” asked Rex.

“One of the lecture halls. This spirit, Steven I think he called himself, has set up a sort of base of operations in there. He seems to be magically controlling people to go in or something. All I see in there now though are a bunch of bodies. Hopefully just spiritless, not dead like I fear.” She began to lead the way.

“Also, who’s your deer friend there? I don’t believe we’ve met.”

“It’s uh… Dan,” he said, blushing. She extended her hand, to shake. Despite it being his cybernetic arm, Dan felt that he didn’t have any choice but to shake her hand back. Despite only having a sweatshirt to hide his cybernetic parts, Sam either didn’t notice them, or she didn’t care.

“What do you say you and me hang out after this is all over, assuming that we both survive, of course.”

“Uh..m..maybe,” Dan managed to sputter out before backing away nervously. He couldn’t exactly be socializing, or dating for that matter, it would break his cover.

“It’s just over here,” said Sam, opening the door to one of the largest lecture halls on the campus. There was nothing inside.

“Sam? What’s going on? I… I don’t understand. There’s nothing here. Timothy? Get ready for spirit fusion,” said Rex.

“Oh, no no no. That won’t be necessary,” said Sam, her eyes beginning to glow a familiar and terrifying green color. “I can take care of you in the physical realm just fine.”

“No,” said Rex. “No!”

“Oh yes, yes, in fact,” said Sam, her eyes turning fully green. “Guess who it is? It’s your favorite villain, dedicated to making your life hell, and making the world heaven, give it up for Steven!” Steven then attempted to mimic applause, as Rex and his friends were not willing to play along for his bit.

“What did you do with Sam!” Shouted Rex.

“I stole her spirit. I need the extra power. Sam is gone. She’s just part of the collective power that is my spirit. I’ll let her go when I’m done of course, but that’s going to be a while.”

“But.. but how? Why?”

“I suppose I can give you a monologue. I have to put on a good show, after all. Well you see, back after you investigated the town and I forced Dan to come painfully close to reconnecting with loved ones he’ll never truly be with again, I started thinking about how to traumatize the rest of you. So I figured why not start striking at your friends instead. So I did some digging and found Sam, your closest mutual friend. I then stole her spirit, same as I did with everybody in that stupid little town. Same as I did with Dan’s parents. You want to see them Dan?”

“Hi Dan,” said a male voice, which was disconcerting coming out of Sam’s mouth

“We still love you,” said a female voice.

Dan took a deep breath. “No. I’ve been through years of emotional torture as a subject of the government’s experiment. I’m not going to let you, of all people, get to me!” In his mind, Steven was in fact getting to Dan, and hearing his parents’ voices only brought back the sting he had felt when he looked at their bodies a few days ago. He wasn’t going to give Steven the satisfaction of knowing that, though.

“You could maybe at least react,” said Steven. I know I have to have hit something. I could see a twinge on your face. You may be good enough to hide your emotions from the government, but you’re not going to hide your emotions from me. I love it.”

“And now, for the rest of you,” said Steven. “I have a close friend to all four of you right here. She is mine now. Check out what I can do!” said Steven, twisting her neck all the way around with a sickening crunch. “She’s dead now.”

“Sam!” shouted Rex, but his cries came out to nobody but his friends. “You monster!!”

“Oh my god!” shouted Thrasher, who had to turn away, as he was unable to bear looking at his friend’s dead body.

Timothy gasped.

“Oh, that’s it,” said James, who immediately began to lunge towards Steven, who lifted Sam’s body out of the way at the last minute.

“Really, shark? Can’t even show restraint for one minute? How pathetic.” Steven laughed, before bringing the corpse back down. “Go ahead though. Beat up her body if it will make you feel better.” James stepped back.

“Didn’t think so. Not even brave enough to follow through. A shame really. You could have been good in the fight against the government, but alas, you’ve chosen to align yourself with the wrong side of history.”
“Says the person who’s willing to murder just for some sort of petty revenge!” shouted Timothy.

“You’ve done all this, and you still think of yourself as a hero? Why? How?” asked Rex.

“Sacrifices must be made for the greater good.”

“The greater good of what?! What good does torturing us do? What good do you get out of killing my friend?”

“Simple,” said Steven. “For protection. Sam’s spirit is now part of mine. She’s still alive somewhere in here. I can bring her out now, like with Dan’s parents, if you’d like.”

“That’s… that’s okay,” said Timothy.

“Good. I didn’t really feel like making the effort anyway. Besides. While her spirit is a part of me, she stays alive, in at least some capacity. As soon as I’m defeated, as soon as all these spirits unfuse, her timer is ticking. She’s a goner. Killing me will kill Sam. There’s nothing you can do for her now. Are you willing to make that sacrifice? Are you willing to let your friend die?”

Rex didn’t know what to say. He couldn’t find the words. Deep down though, he knew that he would have to. Sam was as good as dead, and Rex knew it. They all knew it. He had to admit, steven had a good plan though. Rex wanted to hurt steven more than ever before, he wanted to find some horrible way to punish Steven’s spirit for all eternity, but he couldn’t. Not if that meant hurting Sam.

“Hah,” said Steven. “Your faces say it all. Oh we can’t hurt him. Not when he has our friend. But did you think about that before? You were coming here today to try to find a way to kill me, right? You didn’t care about the spirits then, but when I had your friend, I’ve suddenly gone too far. I know you saw the town. I know that you know that people’s bodies died there, too. What about them, huh? Did you give them a second thought? I think not.”

He was right. Rex hadn’t even considered it before now. Not even with the factor of Dan’s parents. “I… I... “ Rex was still at a loss for words

“Don’t let him get to you,” said Dan. “He’s trying to attack your emotions. Don’t give his arguments thoughts.”

“So, what,” said Steven. “Are you really going to listen to that psychopathic hypocrite. He’s been abused by the government so much, but he still continues to fight for them. You all have your reasons to hate the government. Join me, help me take down the government, and I promise you that all the spirits I have taken will be released. Except Sam. I’ll keep her around, so that she can stay alive.”

“Hey guys? You hear that,” said Timothy. “Do we even really need to discuss our options?” Rex and his friends shook their heads. “I thought not.”

“Oh good. So we can finally stop this fighting and work against our common enemy.”

“What? No!” said James. “You just killed our friend, and you ask us to join you? Why the hell would we join you?! We’re going to stop you! We’re going to save this society from your own twisted world! And there’s nothing you or anybody can do to stop us! We’ll find a way to save Sam;s spirit, and then we’ll destory yours.” James hurled a desk at Sam’s body, knocking it to the ground.

“So, finally got the guts to fight back, eh? Good. It’ll be more interesting this way.” Steven rushed Sam’s body towards James, plunging her sharp beak into his arm. James cried out in pain, before tearing her beak out of his arm, and throwing her body to the ground.

“Wrong move,” said James. “Sam wouldn’t want her body to hurt us. That means I’m fully in the right to kick your ass, even if you are using her body!” James looked at the wound in his arm. It was a pretty deep onoe, and it was bleeding heavily, but it was nothing Thrasher wouldn’t be able to patch up when he was done.

“James! Be careful! Don’t do anything stupid! And try to keep it so she can have an open casket funeral!” shouted Timothy.

Knocking James to the ground, Steven managed to get himself up, and blasted the desk that had been thrown at him with magic, breaking it into sharp shards of wood and metal. He grabbed one of the shards of metal, and thrust it down at James’ chest. James tried to roll out of the way, but wasn;t able to fully escape, and winced as he felt the metal pierce through his right arm.

“James!” shouted Thrasher, running towards him to tend to his wounds.

“Oh no you don’t,” said Steven. “This fight is between me and the shark.” With a ritual of just a few words, Steven had managed to create a magical barrier so strong not even the combined efforts of the rest could break through it.

James tried to get up, but the metal in his arm was pinning him to the ground. It seemed that it had gone all the way through his arm, and pinned itself to the ground below. James tried to tear his arm away, but it was too far in the middle. He couldn’t generate enough force to escape. He was, for all intents and purposes, stuck.

“You know, I thought leaving you alive would be fun, but you’ve become a bit too much of a pain in my side. At least you had the guts to fight back though, not like the rest of those cowards. You can at least die happy, knowing that you were the only one out of your dumb little gang that was actually willing to fight for change. Come another time, we could have been great allies. Sorry it had to turn out like this. Any last words?”

“Fuck you.”

“Well that’s just rude!”

“Well then don’t put me on the spot like that asshole. Can I have some time to think about it or something then?”

“Of course,” said Steven. “But only because I like you.”

James began to concentrate. He was stuck, and there was no way that he was getting away while his arm was still pinned to the ground like that. He didn’t want to do this, but he had no choice. It was either his arm, or his life. James began to concentrate. He felt a warmth in right arm. The warmth turned into a burning, which in turn turned into the worst pain that he had ever experienced. He began to scream.

“Interesting last words, I have to say,” said Steven, before he was telekinetically thrown across the room, into the magic barrier he had erected just moments before, shattering it. James looked over to his right arm, the one the metal had pierced through. There was now a large hole in his arm where the metal rod used to be, with a layer of ashes coating the bottom

“James, don’t move!” said Thrasher. “I’ll get you some first aid! Dan! Call the hospital. Probably will have to be a government one, given the circumstances. Rex, Timothy, you two take care of Steven.” Thrasher ran over to James, looking at the bloody wound where James’ right arm used to be.

“James, that was brilliant!” said Thrasher. “Utterly utterly reckless and stupid, but utterly brilliant.”

James couldn’t hear Thrasher’s compliment, as he was lying unconscious on the ground. Part of that was from the shock of burning a giant hole through his arm, but most of it was because he had used all his energy to force Steven into the barrier.

“Rex,” asked Timothy “could you please explain what the hell just happened?!”

“Thrasher summed it up. He made a brilliant, and yet incredibly stupid move. Channel enough magic that you can’t support it with your energy alone, and it’ll start to burn whatever part of your body you channel it from. It’s incredibly painful, but that was a damn smart move on James’ part”

“Right,: said Timothy. Let’s not let it go to waste. He and Rex approached Sam’s body, in time to see a purple and green mist rising from it, along with the laughter of steven echoing in their heads.

“Did you forget,” said Steven. “I’m the spirit. You can’t kill me that easily. All you managed to do today was beat up the corpse of your dead friend.

Timothy hurled a fireball at the mist.

“Oh, someone else is getting feisty now, are they? Well, I’d love to stay and chat, but you did manage to actually hurt me a bit. I’ve gotta go rest up, can’t be fixing the world if I’m dead, now can I?” With a bright flash, the mist that was steven had disappeared, leaving Rex and his friends alone in the room with the broken and bloody corpse of their friend.

“So that’s it then,” said Dan. “We’re back to square one, and with nothing to show for it but a dead body and James’ messed up arm.”

“Not exactly,” said Rex. “He said that he wanted to kill James. He wouldn’t have fled and left without doing so if he hadn’t been in actual danger. I don’t know why or how, but we may be able to fight him, even in his spiritual form. Furthermore, when his spirit was leaving Sam’s body, instead of the normal purple mist, it was purple and green. The corruption may be taking hold, given that he seemed to have a few more screws loose today than the last time we fought him. If this is true, than the corruption that gave him so much power could be his downfall. When it fully takes him over, he won’t be able to control himself, he’ll be deranged on fighting and destroying the world. Then all we have to do is fight him. Once he’s down, we use the purification ritual to get rid of the corruption, then a standard diffusion ritual to split out the spirits. Then we beat Steven, and save the world.”

“What?!” said Timothy. “So you expect us to just let Steven go on his rampage of destruction until he becomes as destructive as possible, and then you want to fight him?”

“What other choice do we have?” asked Rex. “As long as he keeps fleeing before we can get any real damage done, fighting him is just going to result in more pain and grief. We can try to stop him from dealing any more damage, sure. But in the end, we have to stop him, and that’s not going to be possible until he’s too dumb to try to run away.”

“I guess you’re right,” said Timothy. “We should probably go get the instructions for the purification ritual, and a bunch of leftover magic crystals as soon as we can. Let’s get going. We probably don’t want to be around when the cops arrive and find the body. If they see the security footage first, it should be enough to get us off the hook though.”

Rex and his friends agreed, and decided to get out as soon as possible. Rex took one last look at his now dead friend, and closed the door behind him.