Thankfully for my sanity, the scream wasn't one of the two gentlemen accompanying me on this adventure. It was one of the mooks who'd been looking down in the elevator shaft when we suddenly turned the whole underground structure into a potato gun.

Speaking of which, Viktor's new favorite spud propellent had been very effective, as there were flames spewing out of the entrance under such force that they were making whistling noises. I could feel the searing heat from where I was, and the poor guy who'd suffered the torso dislocation was probably approaching well-done at this point.

I was quite concerned about Viktor and István, but I shouldn't have been. Viktor looked a little disoriented, but otherwise fine, as you'd expect from a tank made of meat. István had been in a BeetleMech, and all of those looked intact, so I think we were good there.

Well, that and I noticed that one BeetleMech was aggressively defending the other stationary forms from anyone trying to get into them. Not sure how I had forgotten that we'd effectively brought the presents to the birthday party, but at least István remembered and was using them to round up baddies as they came over to try and make use of the vehicles we'd tactically acquired.

A somewhat frazzled-looking face popped over the rock next to me, and took just enough time looking at me sitting on top of his coworker for me to pop him in the side of the head with my foot, leading to him joining his friend.

I was debating what to do with them when Viktor came by and solved the problem for me.

"If they are down, make sure they stay that way," he told me, "The Umbral Veil would kill a child without batting an eye."

Sometimes it was great to just have someone who operated on a simple spectrum sort out any moral quandaries for you. Viktor's moral compass seemed to comprise of "punchable" or "not-punchable", and I could get behind that.

"Yes sir," I said, looking very serious about it. That seemed to be enough for him, and he headed towards István's location, undoubtedly thinking that the ratio of punchable things was superior in that direction.

In interest of regrouping, I chased after him. Just as I was leaving my jerry-rigged landing strip, however, I felt that tug on my soul, again.

By now it was less mysterious and more annoying. I decided to find it and take care of it, one way or another. It seemed to only happen when no one else was looking at me, so it was clear that whatever was doing it wanted me on my own.

Getting angry must lower my IQ, because I was more than happy to give them what they wanted. A second tug confirmed the direction, and I took off running that way.

Only to come to a screeching halt seconds later when the direction changed entirely. What on earth? I looked around, trying to figure out what was leading me by the soul-nose. I couldn't see a damn thing, and it was pissing me off.

More off, anyway. Offerer?

This happened twice more before I kinda lost it and forcibly turned my special vision on, which hurt, then sent a flood of Nebula out of my body in every direction, which, ditto.

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Self-sabotage, maybe, but it worked. In the sea of Nebula 'fog' I'd made, I could see a place where it wasn't remaining stationary, but slowly drifting in a specific direction. I followed that direction. I manipulated the whole cloud of it to subtly move that way as well, a draining task, but I didn't care. I wanted whatever kept toying with me gone, as permanently as the two goons from earlier.

I marched towards the area I saw the Nebula disappearing to, increasing the concentration of energy swimming around me as I went. Beads of sweat popped out on my forehead, one of the first times I'd had that happen since I gained my core.

I could feel the rush of the Streams through my body, almost to the point where they became audible. I had a vague thought about when a Stream becomes a River, or even if there was any such thing, before my singular focus on eliminating this overwhelming frustration snapped every stray voice in my head back into place.

The more I thought about it the angrier I got. Why did it think it could mess with my soul? The invasiveness of such an act was grating and driving my rage. My switch was definitely flipped by this thing, and it was going to die as the penalty for doing so. The transgression had morphed in my head from a mere tug at my soul to it trying to wrest my very self from me, regardless of what reality had to say about it.

Nebula had grown around me to the point it was almost tangible, and the sound of the Streams was now all I could hear, a cacophony drowning out all other noise. Ahead of me, the point where the energy was being absorbed had stopped. It was so close.

I held out my hands palms forward and with that, the mass of Nebula around me moved with a singular vision, a tidal wave of force moving forward to vanquish my foes. It rushed over and around the obstacles in my path, creating an airtight cage to trap my enemy.

Under my control, I could use this force to perceive the contours of the other being. It was trying to absorb my energy, but quickly reached a limit. I felt the pull stop, replaced by a rising panic as it failed to keep up with the unending supply. I felt an odd sort of vindication that it was feeling some of the emotions I had been when it wouldn't stop toying with me before. That uncertainty, uneasiness, the fear of the unknown. I wanted it to feel them back.

The footsteps made the Nebula thrum as I marched forward, only a few meters away. My eyes hurt from maintaining the vision, but I kept it up anyway, this bastard was not escaping now. Not when I was so close to it.

My control over the power became a vise, trapping it in place as I moved around the rock it had been using as cover.

A peal, a plaintive cry, broke the air, a mournful, sad sound. I leapt forward, using both the physical and metaphysical forces at my hands to capture my prey.

It was… soft?

I dropped my vision, the bright light in front of me obscuring any semblance of what was under it. With a whooshing noise, the Nebula I had brought to heel scattered away, blasting away the sand and even some loose scrub bushes in a radius around me as the power sought a return to equilibrium with the environment.

In my clutches was an ethereal creature, with large, dark eyes that seemed to have a universe of tiny lights in them. They took up nearly its entire head, but were somehow still dwarfed by the huge ears that were on top of that noggin. They swirled around, looking comically overlarge, each as tall if not taller than the entire head of the thing.

My anger was completely gone now; it was hard to stare such a cute, fluffy thing in the face and be still be upset. I could feel it tugging on my soul again, but with the context it felt more like a curious pet. Had I really misunderstood the whole interaction?

"Ka-kow?" It said, giant eyes staring at me. It was tiny, and so was its voice.

"Uh, hello?" I replied, not entirely sure what was going on here. It seemed to be the right answer as it made a peal of small, chittering noises. Noises which were accompanied by a flutter in my core I could now tell was it telepathically communicating its feelings directly to me. I felt a wave of relief at solving the mystery, and collapsed down to the hot sand, exhausted. I was still holding the critter in my hands, although it felt a little less substantial than it had when I'd first caught it. Still super soft, though.

I had my answer, but what the fox was I going to do with it?

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