There was uncharacteristic hesitancy in Eli when it came to Bethany, the fight he had with her double was still fresh in his mind as he walked up to her and gently put his hands on either side of her head. He stared into her eyes and she looked deep into the universe that existed inside his. A long moment stretched where his feelings of worry warred with her feelings of support, love, and trust until they both smiled at each other and he slipped his mind into her soul. She didn’t have a will skill so he was just floating in nothing with a strong light in the distance in front of him. Behind him was the purplish vortex that represented his access into her soul as well as their connection.

  He exerted his will and moved closer to the light, then he pulled her consciousness into the metaphorical space as herself floating next to him.

  “Wow, what is this place?” Bethany asked with eyes wide.

  “This is the inside of your soul,” he explained.

  “Its kind of empty in here,” she said as she looked around spotting the spot of light and the vortex in the distance as the only objects.

  “Well, if you are up for it, I plan on helping with that.”

  “You know I’m up for it, anything with you or for you, but why am I naked in here? Are you naked in yours? What does yours look like?” She was getting excited, the absolute absence of hesitation on her part was a nice feeling, but it worried Eli a little. He was going to have to keep an eye out and make sure she doesn’t become too dependent on him.

  “I’ll show you mine in time, I need to get this done so we can get out of this dungeon.”

  “Ok so, you brought me in here cause you need my help, what do I need to do.”

  “You don’t have your will skill yet, we need to fix that before I can provide you with a second link to me so you can follow me above level 100.”

  “How do we do that?” She asked.

  “Well we have three options. Option one is we make a copy of mine but more suited for you.” Eli was counting on his fingers while speaking. “Option two is we make one for you together. Option three is you make one by yourself after I tell you how. It’s up to you, this is a very personal thing so the choice needs to be one that is true to the very core of who you are, just like the skill creation will be.”

  Bethany thought for a while, tapping her chin with a smirk on her lips. “I want to do it myself, but I don’t want you to tell me anything about it. I want to go on instinct. Something tells me that's going to give me the strongest skill possible.”

  Eli had a big smile on his face, one of pride, of love, and of excitement. “Do your thing,” he said as he smacked her on the butt.

  Bethany stuck her tongue out at him and floated toward the light. She had chosen to do this herself since she felt a flicker of hope from Eli when he had said that option. Not knowing why, but still trusting him, she changed the option since this was something her instincts were telling her would make her more powerful and give her greater insight into herself. First she got close enough to the light that she could see the fist sized misshapen ball that was its source. It was fantastically bright but she could see it clearly, and when she placed her hand on it, she could feel that size wasn’t to scale, this object under her hand was massive. She concentrated and shrank her body so that she was walking on it like it was as big as a building.

  Bethany walked on the surface, memorizing every single flaw, scratch, and bump on its surface. She was getting a feeling for it all, what everything meant and represented, and how those things changed the surface she stood on. It felt like hours were going by as she essentially familiarized herself with herself. She felt the bad and the good, getting a hint that most of this was temporary and would change over time, but some was just who she was and won’t change no matter what happens. She was drawn to power, sex, and excitement, a fun loving thrill chaser with a bad mouth and a need for approval. She was getting a better sense of why she had been chasing powerful married men and promotions before the world ended. Also why she was so unbelievably satisfied and happy with Eli.

  After gaining her understanding, she grew big enough to hold it in her hand again and started drawing with her finger in the empty space around it with her other hand. The light slowly drained out of it and into the lines she was drawing, when she was finished it looked like a calligraphy letter ‘A’, sharp at the top but wide at the bottom. When she finished, the ball of light was gone and her skill rune flared to life. Bethany backed away and admired her work, she knew what it did before she started on it and she wanted to show it off to Eli. the moment she had that thought he appeared next to her.

  “That is some good work, mine is crude compared to this artistry,” Eli commented.

  “I love it, I can’t wait to try it out.” Bethany said excitedly.

  “Ok, are you tired or can we keep going?” Eli asked.

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  “Keep going, I want more!” She was literally vibrating with anticipation.

  Eli looked at her will skill rune, then, with Goshen's help, pulled a rune out of his chest and placed it next to it.

  “You need to pass magic into it to activate it, essentially it's another bond to me that makes me your realm creature so you can pass 100.”

  Bethany touched it and it activated with magic pouring in, her will skill rune grew larger and brighter and stars appeared in the void around them, not a lot of them, but a good amount. They were both quiet as the magic filled the space, just enjoying the moment together, something that was happening more often than either of them expected, like the universe was going out of its way to give them time to bond and grow closer.

  “Alright, I need to do this with Alora next, I’m going to hop out, but you should be able to come here whenever you want now that you know how to get here.” Eli said, then he vanished from the place and returned to his body. He laid her down and turned to Alora.

  “Alright, it's your turn, are you ready for me to keep my promise?”

  “Which promise?” Alora asked.

  “To show you the wonders of our new magical world.” he said then gently put his hands on either side of her head. Just as with Bethany he entered her metaphorical soul place, but was immediately shocked when her solar system was different. Bethany had only had her soul as the sun and an orbiting vortex that was her connection to him. Eli’s own soul had a few more things orbiting his much larger soul, he had a system spy, a universe bit that symbolized his transcendence that kept changing shape, and several connections to others each represented by a vortex of purple-ish smoke. The background on Eli’s soul was absolutely filled with stars and distant galaxies with virtually no black space at all.

  Alora’s metaphorical soul place was vastly different, it was a perfectly flat, low-cut grass land going off to infinity in every direction with a cartoonishly blue sky with tiny puffs of cloud floating by. Coming out of her connection to him was walking out of an archway made of white marble on the ground about a half mile from her sun, but there wasn’t one, there were two slowly rotating around each other. Eli had two possibilities in his mind for this vast difference, either her soul was like this because it was a different kind of soul, or because it hadn’t been touched by the cosmic whatever that he and others around him had.

  No matter the reason, he reached with his will and pulled Alora in, which took significantly less effort than with Bethany. It was like she was just on the edge of falling into this place and he just had to poke her and she fell in. When Eli had entered her soul to make changes and make their connection, it was like he was doing it from the outside, like he was holding her hand, guiding her, but she was making the changes herself. This was different, with her inside with him, everything felt a bit more rigid and permanent. The power disparity meant he could still change things while inside but it would take great effort and would probably cause her harm.

  Alora looked around, spending more time inspecting Eli than anything else, like the surroundings were already familiar. “You’re different here,” she said.

  Eli crossed his arms in fake offense, “How so?”

  “Only your soul is in here, or at least a projection of it, it lets me see it more clearly. You are the good man I thought you were, you truly do want to keep your humanity and not be corrupted by your own power. More than that, you wish to save the weak from the strong.” She inspected him a bit with narrowed eyes. “You do seem to be enjoying all the female attention you’ve been getting a bit more than I would like though. Do you plan on making me a part of your harem?”

  Eli was on guard since this was not how Alora had ever acted before, too cold and calculating, not a hint of her free spirit, wonder-seeking behavior from before. “I’m still adjusting to it, like everything else. I don’t know how our relationship will change over time.”

  He suddenly felt Goshen’s presence in his head. “Be wary, she is a twin soul, it’s very dangerous to be in here, even for you.”

  “A true enough answer. You’ve noticed already, haven’t you. I’m not Alora, or at least not the one you usually interact with. However, I am the one who you enjoy conversing with.”

  “Don’t start lying to me now, you are Alora, you’re just not all of her, have you always been separated like this or did it just happen when the world changed?”

  “First, I wasn’t lying,” She said with a bit of an attitude. “Second, not in this current form but yes, there have always been two of us in here since we were very little. I prefer to be considered my own person who makes up Alora, instead of half a person.”

  “Well I need both of you to make this work, where is the other part of you… of Alora?” Eli said, quickly correcting himself.

  She narrowed her eyes at him but didn’t bring up the mistake, “In here I can suppress her, just as outside she can suppress me, I will let her out but you need to promise me something first.” Eli nodded, “Don’t indulge her, she can get carried away, but thanks to our new connection she will listen to you more than she ever has me.”

  “I will do my best, and I want you to know that I care about you both, now that I know there are two of you, I will do my best to respect that.”

  “If you say so,” She said, completely disregarding his attempt at being nice to her. She waved her hand at the two orbiting lights and another Alora appeared and ran up to Eli all bouncy and full of energy. With both of them in front of him he could tell that they were almost complete opposites when it came to personality except a few similarities which he could feel but couldn’t quite put his finger on what they were.

  “Hello Eli, it’s so great to meet you,” she hugged him for an awkwardly long time. Eli glanced over and saw the first Alora glaring at him and tapping her foot.

  He pulled away, “What is your name?”

  The two women looked at each other in confusion then looked back at him and said at the same time, “Alora.”

  “Ok, can we get started, we need to form your will skill first, then I will make another connection to me so that you can go past level 99.”

  The two twins nodded and the three of them walked toward her orbiting suns.