I sat up in bed and rubbed at my eyes, wanting to go back to sleep but knowing that I couldn’t. Last night had been filled with dreams, though none of them were visitations from Maelyne. I was sure that if she was still around, she would have visited me again after I’d beat Pfath. The fact that she didn’t was proof that she really was gone. There was a cold hard lump in my stomach at that thought.

A minute later, I grudgingly climbed out of bed, threw on my bathrobe, then stumbled down the hallway towards the bathroom. Apparently, being a demi-goddess didn’t make mornings any easier. I absently wondered if there was a god or goddess of mornings, and decided that if there was, they had to be with the bad guys.

Once I reached the bathroom, I did my business then washed my hands and splashed some cold water on my face. That helped me to wake up a little, but looking into the mirror gave me a bit of a start and helped wake me up the rest of the way.

It wasn’t that my reflection had changed at all last night, but the simple fact that a part of me still expected to see a guy staring back from the mirror, especially when I was half-asleep. Every time I looked into the mirror, there was at least some disorientation, though it was getting less and less with every day. Who knows, maybe one day I’d look into the mirror and not think that there was anything strange about it at all.

“Not likely,” I said.

Of course, the fact that my body and face continued to subtly change nearly every time I acquired some new attribute points, only made this a little more jarring. It was hard to get used to a new self when that new self was still changing.

I ran my fingers over my face, feeling the smooth skin and tracing the features. This wasn’t Heather’s face, not anymore. A few extra points in charisma had made some changes since she’d last worn it, and it seemed to be picking up a bit of my own character as well. Not my old physical features of course, but more the fact that my own expressions were a little different than hers had been, at least that was what Lauren and Cassandra said. Slowly but surely, this was becoming MY face, in spite of the fact that I was sometimes still surprised to see it staring back from the mirror.

I turned my attention to the rest of my body and examined it with my usual mixture of feelings. There was appreciation, pride, gratitude, embarrassment, and shame. The last two were fading away, but they were still there, echoed by the same remnants of the old Jerry that was continually surprised by my reflection. The fact that this voice was fading provided its own mixed emotions, both relief and concern.

“There is no doubt,” I said with a sigh. “You are one totally messed up chick.”

That was way better than the alternatives, and Maelyne had saved me from those twice. In spite of how weird this whole situation was, I was still thankful to have this chance. I was thankful to still be alive, even if it meant that I had to become someone else.

“I appreciate what you gave me,” I said to Maelyne, wherever she was. And I gave a silent thanks to Heather as well. She might not have given this body and life to me intentionally, but I still owed her my appreciation at the very least.

Ever since I’d ended up in this body, I’d been worried about losing my old self, and wondered who it was I was becoming. Just when I started to get an idea of who Jeri was, this whole ‘divine spark’ thing occurred, and I had absolutely no idea of what that meant for me or who I would become. It meant that I was having to ask those same questions all over again.

After I was done examining myself, along with shaking off this self-reflective mood, I turned my attention to the practical matter of taking a shower. I wasn’t in the mood for a nice long soak in the tub this morning, but a hot shower still hit the spot.

Then came the almost zenlike act of brushing and drying my hair. My hair was silky smooth, without any knots or split ends. And as I brushed it, it seemed to fall right into place with very little effort. In fact, now that I thought about it, I hadn’t really had any ‘bad hair days’, at least not since I’d first ended up in this body, when I had much more important things to be concerned about.

“The charisma,” I said in realization. This was just one of the benefits of having high charisma stats. “That and a good complexion.”

Every stat increase came with benefits, and not just the obvious ones. Strength came with more muscle mass and definition, which improved how you looked and felt, as well as how other people saw you. Endurance came with increased height and overall body mass, which had similar social effects. I still wasn’t sure about what divinity did beyond increasing all my other stats, but I knew there was more to it than that.

As soon as I was finished getting dried and dressed, I went down to the kitchen to get something to eat. Lauren was already up and sitting at the breakfast nook with a couple books open in front of her.

“So, how do you like being a companion so far?” I asked her wryly.

Lauren looked up from the book she was reading. “It’s…strange. I mean, yesterday was absolutely terrifying, but these benefits…”

“They are pretty good,” I agreed.

“My memory is a lot better,” she said, gesturing to the book. “Which is really helping with the homework and studying. And this healing ability…”

“Perfect for a doctor,” I said.

Lauren nodded agreement. “Definitely.” Then she frowned. “But I am worried…”

I nodded at that. “Yeah. I wouldn’t have brought you into this if I’d had another choice…”

“I know,” she responded with a wry smile. “And trust me, I appreciate it.” She glanced around for a moment before adding, “And now I understand what Cassandra is going through a bit better. We’ve been friends for years, but then she became a champion and… Well, I’m thankful that I wasn’t pulled into all that, but at the same time, I kind of felt left out. I mean, my best friend was going into life and death battles, and I couldn’t do anything to help.”

Lauren let out a sigh and then stared off into space, or at least, that was what it would have looked to anyone else. I could see her checking out her screen, obviously still amazed at being able to have it.

While Lauren was doing that, I went and poured her a cup of coffee while I made myself some tea and a couple slices of toast. By the time I was done, Lauren had shaken herself out of it a bit.

“It must have been pretty hard,” I said, giving her a sympathetic look. “I mean, Cassandra got those awesome abilities and kept getting those stat improvements.”

“Yeah,” Lauren agreed, looking a little guilty for that.

“And with Heather going through that too,” I added, feeling a bit sorry for Lauren. “You must have really felt left out.”

Lauren hesitated a moment before admitting. “A bit. I did feel left out, but I was also thankful that I wasn’t part of all that…”

“Well, you’re a part of it now,” I said with a sigh.

“And I’m still not sure what to think about that,” Lauren grumbled. She closed her eyes for a moment and let out a sigh. When she opened them up again, she looked at me. “I didn’t meet Heather until after this all started. Cassandra met her right after they’d both been chosen, and their patrons told them to work together. She was pretty nice at first, but it started going to her head at the end…”

“It must be really hard having me around,” I commented, feeling a little guilty.

“Not really,” Lauren assured me. “I mean, it was at first, but when I look at you, I don’t see Heather anymore. Sure, you have the same face and voice, but you use them differently…if that makes sense. I mean, you talk differently and have different body language. It makes a BIG difference.”

I chuckled at that since Lauren’s words echoed my own thoughts from a little earlier. It was nice to know that this wasn’t all in my head, and that other people could see the differences too. That made me a little better about it.

Just then, Cassandra’s voice called out from the top of the stairs. “I’m coming down, so someone had better have my coffee ready…”

I rolled my eyes but went and poured some coffee while Lauren snickered. I noticed that she made sure to get a firm grip on her own cup, just in case Cassandra decided it was easier to snatch hers.

Cassandra came down the stairs, still looking more than half-asleep. She came straight to the breakfast nook where I placed her coffee in front of her. None of said a word until she’d emptied nearly half the cup.

“I had another talk with Armestia last night,” Cassandra said.

“Did you talk about anything interesting?” I asked curiously, feeling a tiny stab of jealousy.

“A little,” Cassandra admitted, taking another sip of coffee, then reaching over and snatching a piece of my toast. “She told me where to find those fuckwits.”

I stared at her in surprise. “You know where Kr’aethar and Arakthiel are?” When she nodded, I demanded, “Where?”

Cassandra smirked. “How do you feel about zombies?”

--------------------

I was nervous. I was excited. I was apprehensive and terrified.

The idea of intentionally confronting Arakthiel and Kr’aethar simultaneously filled me with a cold dread and a fierce determination. I’d seen what those two could do, both in their host bodies and in their real ones. They’d killed multiple champions…and gods.

I had no illusions that I might somehow be immune to their powers, or that I was invulnerable. I didn’t want to die again, nor did I want to see any of my friends hurt or killed. However, I also knew that they were monsters who had to be stopped. In the end, the only way to protect my friends from those bastards, was to put them down for good.

I looked around the living room where the five of us were gathered. Cassandra was sitting next to me while Lauren was close to Matt. Teri was by herself, though she’d positioned herself to be close to her big brother, without being too close.

Together, the five of us had defeated Pfath, and that should have filled me with confidence, but it didn’t. Pfath had been by herself, but Arakthiel and Kr’aethar wouldn’t be. However, what was even more important was that we’d caught Pfath by surprise. She’d had no idea that I actually had the ability to hurt her, but that was an advantage we no longer had. I had no doubt that once we sent Pfath back home with her tail between her legs, that she…or he since that was his real gender…would have warned his allies.

“Let the Council of Elrond begin,” Matt announced in a somber tone.

Lauren elbowed him in the side. “A little late for that. We’ve already been talking for the last hour.”

“You are SUCH a nerd,” Teri said in exasperation.

“Bite me,” Matt responded to his sister, flipping her off. “I don’t need to hear it from the dumb jock.”

Since ‘dumb jock’ no longer quite worked for me, he’d begun using it for Teri instead. Admittedly, she now looked the part a bit more than I did.

As Lauren said, we’d all been here for the last hour, trying to come up with a plan for defeating Kr’aethar and Arakthiel. We’d done some brainstorming and had come up with a few ideas, though nothing really solid. Unfortunately, we were quickly running out of time. We knew where they were at the moment, but there was no guaranteeing that they’d stay there for very long.

This was just like waiting for a competition, except that instead of watching the timer on our screens, we were watching the clock. After all, we weren’t the only ones involved in this particular mission. According to Cassandra, Armestia had arranged transportation for us, and that transportation was scheduled to arrive in just half an hour.

“I still think we need to get a bunch of machine guns,” Teri announced. “That would be so cool…” She stood up and them made a show of shooting some imaginary guns.

“Do YOU know where we could find some?” Matt asked his sister with a skeptical look. “Because I sure don’t.”

“Or how to use them?” Lauren added with a skeptical look of her own.

“I don’t think it would even work, anyway,” Cassandra pointed out. She gestured to Lauren. “Lauren shot Pfath a couple times, and she shrugged that off as easily as she did my arrows.” Then she nodded to me. “Jeri is the only one who can really hurt them…or at least…make those asshole STAY hurt.”

“And I’m still not even sure how I did it,” I admitted self-consciously. “I think I charged my divine power into my spear when I attacked, but it was more instinctive than anything else.”

“Well, whatever you did worked,” Cassandra told me with a smirk, “so just do that again.”

We continued talking about this for a bit longer, until our time was nearly over, then we all got ready by summoning our armor and weapons. Lauren looked especially uncomfortable with hers, though she insisted that she was going to come along anyway. And though I was a little worried about her, I was also thankful to have another healer along.

My eyes went to Cassandra, and I was startled to notice that her armor was different than usual. Her armor had changed about as much as mine had, after I’d used that upgrade on it.

“Armestia gave me an upgrade of my own last night,” Cassandra explained with a smirk, gesturing down at her armor as she did so. “So I wouldn’t be left out. She said that she couldn’t spare much power, but she gave me what she could.”

“Every little bit helps,” I said, nodding in approval.

It was just a minute after this that a portal opened up in the air and the Cleaner stepped out. He looked around the room at each of us, pausing at Lauren since she was a new addition to our group. Then he nodded.

“Emnyle said that you would require transportation,” the Cleaner said with a faint smile. “Along with a few other things.”

“If you could provide us with more time to plan and prepare, that would be great,” Matt commented.

The Cleaner chuckled. “Sorry, but temporal manipulation is beyond my abilities.”

“Too bad,” I responded.

With that, the Cleaner stood aside and gestured to the portal, clearly indicating that we should go through.

“Come, Fellowship,” Matt announced in a dramatic tone. “To Mordor…”

Matt went through the portal first. Cassandra and I looked at each other, then I shrugged and said, “What a nerd,” before following.

We arrived in the familiar location of an oversized parking garage. The place looked almost identical to the last time that I’d been there, except that all the bodies were gone. It looked like the Cleaner had probably taken care of that, the same way he did everything else.

What really surprised me though, was the fact that we weren’t alone. The few champions that remained after that last big fight, were already there waiting.

Spear Chick and Axe Guy stood side by side. Spear Chick…Marissa gave me a nod of acknowledgement and a friendly smile, while Axe Guy just stood there with his arms crossed, trying to look tough. He came off as trying just a little too hard.

Alejandra was with Randal, which surprised me a bit. The last time I’d seen Randal, he hadn’t been moving at all, so I’d thought he was dead. For once, I was happy to see I was wrong.

Becky, the magical girl, gave us an exaggerated bow. Her staff and armor didn’t look quite the same as before, so it looked like her gear had been upgraded the same way mine had been. I gave her a polite nod and a smile, while she waved back.

Don was noticeably absent from the gathering, which only reminded me of his death. I felt a knot in my stomach at that memory, which also reminded me of Maelyne. Those bastards had killed too many people, and I couldn’t let them continue.

Alejandra was the one who spoke first, announcing, “Vr’iel told me that if I wanted another chance at those bastards, I should come with the Cleaner.”

Marissa looked around and said, “My patron told me that Jaeri had a way of taking these guys down.” She scowled for a moment before asking, “Now, who the hell is Jaeri?”

“That would be me,” I said, stepping forward. “Maelyne decided to give me a new nickname.”

Of course, my situation was a bit more complicated than that, but these guys didn’t need to know all the details. Just the ones that were relevant.

“So, Sievers has a way of taking down three gods?” Axe Guy asked, looking more than a little skeptical of that.

“We only need to worry about two of them,” Cassandra said. “We took Pfath down yesterday…for good.”

There were some mutterings and skeptical looks at that, but the Cleaner announced, “She speaks the truth. Pfath’s host body was permanently destroyed. I cleaned up the scene myself.”

Now there were some looks of shock, and everyone was staring at me, trying to figure out how I could have done something that nobody else could. They wanted…needed an explanation. They needed to know that it really was possible to beat our enemies.

“Maelyne…my patron…is dead,” I announced, standing up straight and cranking up my charisma as hard as I could. “I was there. I watched Arakthiel kill her with my own eyes…”

There were more gasps and mutterings, but I’d expected no less. I’d just told them that our enemies were capable of killing our patrons…of killing gods. If they had that kind of power, then what hope did any of us have? However, they needed to know this. They needed the perspective.

“I was in their world,” I continued. “I was in the land of the gods. I saw them with my own eyes. I saw their city…and I saw them fighting. I saw Pfath, Arakthiel, and Kr’aethar in their real bodies, and I could feel how powerful they are. And I watched as they destroyed their own city…and as they murdered other gods. I saw the devastation, so believe me when I tell you, that if they come to Earth, then our world will burn. If they’d destroy their own world so easily, then there is no telling what they’d do to ours.”

Everyone was staring at me, giving me their full attention. I looked around at each of the champions and companions, meeting their eyes. I silently impressed on them how serious this was, and I showed them my own determination.

“Maelyne died while saving my life,” I said. “And my soul. The very last thing she did was to give me a new ability…one that can hurt these bastards. One that can destroy their host bodies and keep them from regenerating. I used this ability on Pfath and won, but now, I need help with the remaining two. I might have the ability to hurt them, but I can’t defeat them alone. I need your help.”

“That’s why we’re here,” Becky exclaimed and everyone else quickly bust out in agreement.

“Good job,” Cassandra told me, putting a reassuring hand on my shoulder.

“So, where are these guys?” Axe Guy asked with a deep scowl.

“They are currently located near the top of the building above us,” the Cleaner stated. “Near the final stage of the competition.”

“Then why didn’t you just transport us straight there?” Randal asked in annoyance.

“Because I cannot,” the Cleaner admitted. “They took precautions against another assault, which prevents me from opening a portal too close to them. I believe that they chose this location because this pocket world was created by the Coordinator and his patron, and cannot be accessed by just anyone. The competition it was created for was never completed, so they are guarded by numerous threats and challenges.”

“So, what does that mean?” Becky asked with a look of impatience.

I stepped forward and looked towards the start of the competition where I’d previously taken a brief peek. I knew what was ahead of us, at least in general, and I was ready to face it.

“It means,” Cassandra announced, “that If we want to take these fuckers down, we’re gonna have to work for it.”

“Oh, they’re going down,” I said, already walking towards the real start of the competition. “Even if I have to go through a whole freaking zombie apocalypse to do it.”