I awoke dried up like a mummy. My throat felt as if filled with sand, lips not moving even as I tried to breathe.

  But I was in bed, a comfortable one too. A lot better than a casket or a dissection table.

  With a grunt, I sat up in the bed, looking for water.

  I found a prepared water bottle, set on a small, mobile table next to me. As I reached for it, a shadow passed over me.

  I glanced at the source and spotted Isabella.

  She sat in the window, wearing her usual suit, hair straight and falling down like a waterfall, expression uncharacteristically grim.

  With a slight turn of her head, she glared at me. “How alive are you?”

  I grabbed the water bottle, opened it, and drank. Like a divine blessing of the Gods, the water rehydrated my mouth and throat. So good. The water ran out, so I put the bottle back down. “Yeah, I think I’m fine.”

  “Try moving all the limbs.”

  That made a chill run up my spine. I moved both arms. Good. I moved my right leg, fine, and the left leg. Also fine. I stretched my whole body on the bed. While a dull ache filled my muscles, my skin burned just a bit. Nothing hurt too badly though. I tensed my muscles down and braced myself for getting up. “Everything aches, but I can move just fine.”

  Isabella barely moved, only turning her gaze to the window, again. She didn’t lash after me, didn’t shout to get the fuck out of the bed since I was fine, she didn’t clamp a collar around my neck, nothing from what I expected. “Did the jap offer you to use his portal?”

  This was the most serious I’ve ever heard her. Even when she talked with my mother, she didn’t sound nearly this serious. “He did,” I admitted.

  “Why did you refuse?”

  I shrugged. Yeah, why did I? She had almost killed me at least three times, so why did I return to her? “I didn’t see the need to. Even with all the whipping and antics, I can see that you are power levelling me. Ever since you came, I’ve been getting at least one level per day, usually more. That’s not a coincidence, and if you are helping me become stronger, then you aren’t going to harm me.”

  “Until you hit a wall.” A gust of wind blew in through the window and stirred her hair as if it were a curtain. “For me to justify letting you live, you’ll have to become strong enough to be of value. You’re really far away from that, and if you ever get stuck and stop improving, it will be a major issue.”

  I froze. That did not occur to me at all, but it was obvious now that she said it. Maybe I should have gone with Takezo. Then again, if I did, I would have probably died, because they likely weren’t prepared to deal with the radiation. “What level do I need to reach to be of value?”

  “Seventy-five. No matter how I test you, you show no talent outside of combat, so you don’t have any. The vast majority of mages find their place in the world through their non-combat skills. Like Simon and Marge, who are actually smart and educated on top of being not-shit at magic. But you have nothing outside of the ability to fight.”

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  Seventy-five? That was the minimum? There must have been something I had missed in the skill tree, because I didn’t remember seeing anything too special at that level. Sure, it unlocked the final skill of a specialization, if one spent most skill points into it, but those didn’t seem to be all that crucial. “Why that level?”

  “It’s where you unlock the Nova release and you finish a specialization. It’s a massive boost in power, so anyone at a lower level is essentially fodder. And fodder isn’t worth me not upholding the rules.”

  “Well, I’ve been leveling fast, so I’m sure I’ll make it there.”

  Isabella snorted and jumped from the window frame into the room. She stepped towards my bed. While she was barely four-nine, the heels added murder, and her presence devoured all the air in the room. “You owe me your life, Peter, twice now. And I will enjoy collecting the debt.” A smile spread over her face, all teeth, no warmth.

  I gulped dryly, lost for words.

  As she walked to me, her aura pressed me down into the bed, until I lay straight, and she stood above me. With lazy grace, she placed her hand on my chest. No pressure, just presence. Enough presence for it to feel as if a thousand-ton weight lay on me. “You will suffer for your whole life, and then you will die a miserable death.”

  She ran her fingers up my neck and into my hair. The touch chilled me to the bone, as if death itself felt the life it was about to reap. “And yet in the moment of your death, you will want nothing more than to live for a few more years.”

  Isabella withdrew her hand and walked to the door. “Dress up and meet me in the garage. We’re going out for dinner.”

  She walked out of the room, and the door closed behind her.

  I gasped for air, finally able to breathe.

  What was that about?

  Once my breathing stabilized, I got out of bed and searched the nearby wardrobe for clothes. Only when I opened the wardrobe did I realize I was in my room in her mid-rise.

  I may have been here yesterday, but it felt like a lifetime ago. Shadow?

  Shadow appeared, and everything around me froze.

  “Can we talk without the time freeze?” I asked myself.

  My hand moved, together with time itself. I started dressing up. “Do you know Isabella?”

  “I do.”

  “What’s her problem?”

  “Lack of good sex.”

  I spat out, turning red. “You can’t be serious.”

  He shrugged. “Don’t ask questions you don’t want to know the answers to.”

  “That’s not the answer.”

  “Then ask her yourself. Or, put points into a skill that will let you divine it.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Might as well ask her myself.”

  With a vicious smirk, Shadow pointed at me with both hands and vanished.

  Right.

  I dressed up in a fresh suit, and it didn’t even hurt much. Yeah, my skin felt a bit burnt, but I got used to it by the time I finished.

  When I straightened my tie in front of a mirror, I paused.

  I didn’t look like I did a week ago.

  A part of it was the suit, but something about me felt different, much more adult. My anemic beard now looked kind of rough, as did my face. My body proportions looked the same, but for the first time since I could remember, I felt good seeing myself in the mirror.

  What did Isabella tell me?

  Bit by bit, I will whip the weakness out of you.

  She was actually doing that.

  And now, I even have two extra reasons to go along with Isabella’s theatrics and schemes. I had to get Francesca out of the future, and I had to help prevent the demonic invasion.

  Funny… I never really had any goals in life.

  I entered Secret Societies to search for my father, but that was more of an excuse than anything meaningful.

  There was another thing that Isabella told me. You’ve got about a thousandth of your parents’ magical talent.

  She didn’t mean my mother, did she?

  Because I wasn’t doing bad at all. Yes, I’ve just been surviving and leveling up through the early levels, but still, I participated in things that kept someone like Isabella fully engaged and focused. She wouldn’t be wasting her time on low-level stuff.

  If this wasn’t even one thousandth of my father’s talent, then he was either dead or perfectly fine. In either case, I could look for him later.

  First, Francesca, then Tokyo, and only afterwards, my father.

  I headed out and took the elevator to the garage.