Dan's Hands

"Ha, whatever. If you aren't going to leave, I have something else to show you. This video here," she held out an orb on a pole that showed the two demons fighting Zeeth and destroying the town, "this is you."

"Why are you showing this?"

"Just to confirm. That is all you can do."

"We can do much more."

"Liar. You've shown all your cards in that video. Which has spread to the entire school, by the way."

"Do you recognize this?" a third purple and black arm appeared from Zeeth's back. In the middle of the palm was a raging ball of darkness with bubbles growing and popping on it.

Sieda stepped back, raising an arm in front of her in defense.

"This is why I've been taking the backseat. With this, you can't do anything to me."

"You," she wheezed, "you made it again."

"A product of cleaning the impurities out of someone. Something you could never do."

"Is that why? I thought it was just to help."

"It was both for you and me. I am proud, it was a difficult decision."

Sieda continued backing away. "How did you make one so large?"

"I told you, this is why I took the backseat. I spent all my time, energy, and focus on making this, barely straying from it. I've perfected the skill. I don't want to use this here. You best leave and not give me a reason to."

When she left, she whispered, "We both know it won't work on my pets."

'Black, what was that?'

'It's her only weakness and my only advantage against her. We both know that at the moment, I'm weaker than her. She has had decades to connect with her host so she is naturally more coordinated. But that ball, the byproduct of cleaning impurities that only I can create, can separate her and her host, killing the girl and rendering her useless. But it only works on her, any pets she sends to us won't be affected other than blindness.'

'Why didn't you use it on her just now?'

'If I missed, what would you have done? We would've died, it's a challenge to war. The first and only time I used it, she managed to deflect it with her arm and survived with half a dead body. She can definitely dodge it now, it's not that fast. We need to set her up in a closed room with no one else and no way to run.'

'That's Linda's exact ability. And I just called her.'

'Yes, I'm aware. Very opportune timing.'

The black bud buzzed almost like he was summoning her by saying her name. He created a ball of water around it and said, "Waterlog."

A distorted voice abruptly said, "Del, meet me outside."

He lifted his window all the way so his stomach could fit and hopped out the second floor, quietly landing and bouncing back up. Linda was far away, drawing something on the floor. When she saw him, she tapped one of the circles with a magic staff, making the floor a conveyer that brought him to her. "Lead him out here and I will take care of the rest. Your mission will end there."

"You got it. Just one issue regarding the payment-"

"Later! This is serious!"

"I just want to stay a bit longer and borrow your ability."

"What? Fine, just hurry up."

Zeeth hopped back into his window, sneaking around the place and carefully opening the window. 'So how do we do this?'

'Deprive him of all his senses and drag him over.'

'Can you do that from a distance? If he's so sneaky, I'm sure he can find us as well.'

'If those stats are accurate, Dirt is nothing. Either that or God's Eye doesn't do as much as you want.'

'No, I think that might be his talent. The ability to copy anyone and their stats. I don't know if he can still use his skills when he is in this state though.'

'I doubt it.'

They appeared at the door of the twins. He flicked his finger, causing a small golden spider to come crawling out. He clicked it opens and began playing it on his palm, speeding it towards the final few hours. The spider watched them sleeping, doing their usual things, throwing up, and going back to sleep. In the final moments, just as the spider crawled out the door, he saw Krem looking at the spider crawling away. It tried to hide but Krem already saw him.

Zeeth looked at the door just as it opened, with a hand reaching from the darkness to grab his face. He turned his neck into water, tilting his head impossibly to the side. He locked his arm together, Black created a head that swallowed Krem's head and locked it in. Zeeth warped his head back into position, dragging Krem along, keeping a hand over his mouth to keep him quiet, and slowly wrapping his body in water to lift him out. He ran back to his room, leaping out the window and landing heavily against the ground, carrying a man in the water he controlled.

They were pulled by the ground like a moving platform into Linda's box. But neither of them saw Grem jump out the same window and grab Krem by the foot, pulling all three into the rapidly closing box.

"What are you doing to my brother?!" Grem cried. His yell alerted Dan, who had a special living situation to living near the Special students in case an emergency ever occurred.

He angrily opened his eyes, grumbling, "I wish this job wasn't my best option. I hate this job." but he jumped out of his metal bed.

From the library, Hetio watched out a window with glowing glass so he could zoom in, slow down and replay things, the entire thing went down. Weld leaping out a window with Krem in tow, Grem followed shortly and was thrown into a box that closed all around them.

"What do you think is going on?"

Beside him stood a shorter, hidden person. The glow of the window reflected around and revealed her face, Deger, the little girl that shook his hand.

"Meh, he's probably fine."

"Yeah. I could smell a faint trace of Afir around him."

"Oh. I had no clue. Then he's gonna be fine. Afir chooses well."

Krem thrashed against the binds but Linda swung her hand, locking the twins against the box. She hit Grem on the head, knocking him out, and asked Krem, "where is the other one?"

"Wha- How did you know?"

"You don't need to know. Just tell me where the other student is."

"Never!"

'I can pull the memories out of his mind.'

'You can do that?'

'My abilities rival Linda's when we have the same amount of mana but I've been weakened. When she gave me a bit of her power to heal us, I regained some of my powers. This is one of my best ones. Don't expect much, I can only use it a few times. The prep and charging time takes forever.'

'Let's try it.'

Linda held his face, trying to pry the suit off, and Krem bit the skin to keep it on. She held her small white bead in front of him with Clafrif and Jithin talking to him. Zeeth tapped her shoulder and said, "I can find out."

'Touch your forehead to his head. I will do the rest.'

Zeeth flipped Krem around, facing away, and leaned his head onto his. From his forehead, a black eye opened and connected with his black hair, blending in. Linda tried to look into it, checking if he was whispering something or trying to help him out. So far, there didn't seem to be any kind of trickery but it was something her bosses worried about.

Jithin whispered earlier, "make sure to trap Zeeth as well. Dirt might've won him over and they could be colluding against us."

She knew to keep that in mind. "Dirt's a master spy, many of his missions included extorting information from uptight, highly secured people, and only by winning them over could he succeed. He's a very smooth talker. Almost too smooth."

Zeeth followed Black in their journey through his mind. It reminded him of when Afir did the same thing to him, they were the only two he remembered who had ever done this.

But Linda was even more impressed by Zeeth. The position he was in was clearly the skill Memory Dive. When did he learn that? He's an attack mage with minions, how could he possibly have memory skills?

Black dove through the memories but he didn't see any memories of Dirt. All he saw was Krem going about his life, and then it ended after three years. It was like he was spawned into existence three years ago, acting like Krem. His skin sagged off with Zeeth's extra force on his head pressing it down.

When he began moving, Zeeth jumped out of it and watched it unfold. The skin pooled near the growth like gelatin. The inside was revealed as nothing but a collection of glass shards pieced together like a perfect puzzle into the shape of Krem.

'What the heck is that?'

'Memory Mosaics. They're shards of intense memories made solid by mana. When enough of them are created they can collect together and try to live their own lives, replacing the person that the memories came from. They're quite rare but not valuable and only as strong as the person they create. But the important thing is that-'

"That's not Dirt," Clarif said.

"I'm aware."

"I was told-"

"You didn't know it wasn't him either. I saw his skin move from his body and thought that nothing else could do that."

"Fine. but this is your one warning. Don't mess up again."

For some reason, his words ticked Zeeth off. He silently strode towards the white bead, held his mouth near it, and said with silent rage, "or what?"

"Or we won't pay you."

"Then I'll destroy you. And then steal it."

Linda took the bead back and let the box go, flopping the shards and Grem to the ground.

Hetio raised an eyebrow when he saw through the window, "Oh man, look at that. A Memory Mosaic."

"Oh man, I made a Greed Contract with him. It was all a waste."

"You can make as many of those as you want."

"I know, but he had it for years. I leveled it up so much and he had no clue. Look at all those shards. That must've existed for at least three years."

"Man, look at his twin brother. He's going to be so devastated."

Deger peeked at him, "does this bring back bad memories?"

"Not as much as the facial scar."

"Yeah. Don't worry, I'll never betray you."

"I know. I'm too valuable for the God of Greed."

"Haha! I wish I could say there was more to it than that."

"But you'd be lying."

"I would be."

"Maybe if you lied, you could've accessed my riches by now."

"Maybe. But that's not my style. I will prove that I am worth it. Anyways, your teacher friend is arriving."

Dan burst from the door, waving a wand and casting a black ball. The ball was aimed at Zeeth but he hopped aside, allowing the ball to hit Linda. The ball shot out chains, locking her in place.

Zeeth wanted him to stop and explain but Dan didn't seem like stopping, waving the wand around while chanting. He flicked his hands up, shooting mud up from the ground and trapping the wand and his hand. Dan yanked his hand back, letting go of the wand and scraping his hand against the rocks inside the mud. Instead of blood, his skin tore off and revealed pure darkness. It sucked in light, reminding Zeeth of his Chaos sword.

Hetio remarked, "uh, oh. He's in trouble now. Maybe you should help."

"Psh, you want me to go instead of doing it yourself?"

"You know I would never leave the library."

"You should also know that I have almost nothing to gain from this. If you don't go, I won't go."

"Fine. I guess he's dying."

Dan swiped his hand rapidly, swinging off the skin on his hands. Beneath it was a hand with no details, it was only pitch black.

Zeeth lifted a boulder and chucked it at Dan, who dived to the side. Behind the boulder was a collection of water that shot at him like arrows, forcing Dan to summon a tall, earth wall to block them. But the water soaked through the rocks, turning it muddy, and got through anyway, forcing Dan to grab some with his black hand. Anything that touched his hand entered and never came out, exactly like his sword. Dan pointed his other hand at Zeeth releasing the muddy water spikes through his skin. The pellets tore through, ruining that glove as well, and showed a pure white hand.

Dan ran in, both hands at his side, digging up dirt with his black hand and shooting it from his white one. Zeeth tried to slow him down by turning the floor into sand and mud but nothing worked, his shoes created solid wood to run on. Instead, Zeeth propelled himself backward and rapidly yanked out a piece of paper with a circle on it, activated it, and reached his hand into the portal, pulling out his giant sword. Dan had done the same thing, destroying his paper and narrowly missing the sword.

"Dan, let's talk!"

But he didn't listen. As they fell through the air, he saw Dan's white hand reaching for his arm. Just before it closed in, he turned it into water and tried to move it aside, but the suit wasn't part of him and he couldn't move it aside.

Dan crushed his arm, spurting water everywhere. His arm whipped out in a torrent of water, hitting Dan in the face. They both landed on the ground, kicking up a bunch of dirt as they stared intensely at each other. Zeeth shot water at him from three different angles, dodging two and sucking up the third one to shoot back.

Dan bounced back, holding his hand like a claw and swinging at Zeeth's face. He bent himself backward, turning his torso into water to fold in half. But Dan changed the trajectory of his arm slightly and grazed his shoulder. It only tore apart his suit but the entire thing leaked water from the hole. The suit was made to be incredibly resilient but it could do nothing against a teleporting hand.

As he bent back, he saw Doctress and Wistiga rushing out of the school, looking at them.