Should Have Let Me Die

The veil that covered the cave was gone, so I stepped back from everyone once we got outside. The transformation began the moment I was ready and desired it. 

Slowly at first, my body started to pull apart at the hairline cracks. My skin became plates that seemed to infinitely fold out and connect with other sections.

The color of the plates all began turning black as they created my new body. Once my Dragon Armor was complete, I looked like a monolithic Black Knight without a weapon.

All the Dwarves and Gnomes knew what to do, and loaded up into the outside of my left foot. Now it was time to go home for a bit, I was starting to understand why I did things the way I did.

"Set me a course for the ship, Eva."

"The ship? Aren't you going to do the challenge?" Eva asked in confusion.

"I will, but we are going back to the ship first. I want to see what Titania is doing," I said.

"Sure, course tracked."

I looked at the map and then took off. Moving in the Dragon Armor at top speed was fast. It only took moments, and one almost crash to make it to the breach.

This speed was good, but it still wasn't enough to protect everyone if the portals started to open up. I still needed to get the rest of the world under my banner, but I was… still here.

"Eva, how can I unload everyone?" I asked as we neared the rectangular metal box that was our ship.

"I scanned the motor home in the shed, and you should be able to transform into that. Once you have done that they should be able to use the door into it as a door was out of that world. I don't think they will all want to go through," Eva told me. 

"That's okay, I am not asking, and I will talk to them all after everyone is out, including Kyra," I said as I let my body change into the loaded image of my parent's RV. 

"Wait, why do you want me out?" Kyra asked over the intercom.

"We will talk after, go see our daughter, I will come after everyone is out," I told her without saying anything else. 

Others from the ship were outside already, including Titania, Tamika, and Violet. The girls were all watching me with bug eyes and slack jaws hanging open.

I couldn't wait to see them all rush in to see all the new bells I had, but I had to do some things first. I hated to have to be like this, but it seemed like it was getting to the point where I needed to nip the problem.

Once I was done changing, everyone started to unload and the girls outside began to come and look over my fancy RV body. I waited until everyone was out and then I made the door close and I locked it.

I put my exterior body in a meditative state, but to anyone watching, I was a parked car. I stepped into myself, and then walked into my house, the place feeling empty without everyone.

I had been keeping my thoughts guarded against Eva. While in this state where we were both in bodies and on the same plane, I was sure she couldn't hear my thoughts unless I allowed it.

Previously, I had never seen fit to have my thoughts guarded, but since the veil was lifted for me, I had been noticing things. Nothing big or malicious, but the game seemed to be taking longer than it should.

Maybe it was just my imagination, but I wasn't going to take any chances with there being a problem. Eva was new, like a fresh player in the game, and if there was even the slightest chance that there could be something wrong with the girls, I wanted to get Eva one-hundred percent on my side.

The idea that there could be something that wrong with the girls felt preposterous, but Reborn was no place for that kind of attitude. Reginold had been here, but he had got me when I got into the game, and who said I was really all me?

Fuck this game was hard on the mental thought process. If he was able to get me, then why is it so hard to think that he could have done the same to them?

The only thing that I could do for now was to distance myself from the girls for a bit. I needed to make sure that Eva was with me all the way.

I pushed open the door to my father's study/library and Eva was sitting at the table waiting for me. The room was dimmer and now there were two large chairs by a new fireplace that wasn't there before.

"I changed it, I hope that is okay?" Eva asked standing as I closed the door. 

She wore a white dress with banded straps, and it belled out at the bottom. It was a good look to go with her light blue skin and dark blue hair.

"Yes, I look great, let's go take a seat over there and talk," I said gesturing to the chairs, and walking over.

Eva silently walked over and took a seat, looking a bit worried. I didn't want to worry her, she wasn't in trouble. 

"Eva, first, I am not mad, and you are not in trouble of any kind," I explained to her, and some of the tension left her, so I continued. "We just need to talk about some things, and what is going to be happening, going forward."

"Why, did something happen? Your thoughts have been very quiet since the cave, is there something bothering you?" Eva asked me.

"Yes, but that stuff isn't as important right now. I need to make sure that we are on the same page with things. Right now, we share everything, not limited to my thoughts," I explained.

"Yes, and I am sorry that I have been telling Krya those things, but this is very convincing with her reasoning," Eva explained.

"Yes I know, and that is a whole other issue in itself, and will be discussed later. What I am more concerned about is the effect it is having on your development as an individual." 

"I think I understand what you mean. As a 'person' who is trying to create my own self-image, I could be picking up bad habits. This would be counterproductive to our shared partnership as a whole," Eva explained to me, and I knew that she understood what I was trying to say.

The new upgrade was doing wonders for her core speed and reasoning. I just needed to mold her into an Autobot and not let her get pulled into the grips of the Decepticons.

"Good, now, as you can see, we can travel extremely fast, and we can transform into anything we can design or think up. Yet, we have still not completed this damn island. Can you see where I am going with this?" I asked in frustration, now that we had the other stuff out of the way.

"It's true, Krya has delayed us, but what she did wasn't wrong. Just not the way you wanted to do it. Also, the way she used the intercom to talk over you wasn't helpful, sorry," Eva apologized, but I waved it off, spilled milk now.

"I can see past those things in the past, let's just work on being a team so we can defeat this world. I need a partner that I can trust without question, and that's what I am asking you to do. So, from now on, it will only be you and me for the rest of these Islands."

"I understand, I need to remember that you are the main body owner and I am just a person along for the ride," Eva said while looking into the fire.

"Not, true, once we are done here, I will create a body for you and you can use it. After that, I will do this on my own, but I need you to teach me how to use all the systems first," I explained.

"What? You would do that for me? Wait, I am infused, can you even do that?" Eva asked, turning from the fire back to look at me in confusion.

"This isn't your job, it's mine. Once I fully merge with the Dragon Armor, you will be released. When that happens, I will create you a body, but that means I need to learn how to control everything and kill enough things. We can't do this by collecting monsters," I explained.

"I see why you have been getting so frustrated," Eva said while nodding her head. 

"Also, these side quests are a bunch of poo poo ka ka! Basically got some rocks, and a summer gun, none of which were useful! What is the point of a side quest if it gives you all crap? At least Dave Easter Egg was good," I said rubbing my hand down my face.

"Well, you haven't completed it yet so I don't think you should make assumptions. The Heatray woke the giant up, so maybe the rocks you got are important? We can go back and try, and now you should be able to handle it with the way you can transform into almost anything," Eva told me.

"I guess that is fair. I need to go talk to the others now and deal with Kyra. I will be back in a little bit," I said to Eva as I stood.

"Thank you for coming to actually talk to me," Eva said with a smile as I left the room, and headed back out to deal with the shit storm to come.