Rachel and Rebecca appeared side by side five floors down from their previous position.
Rachel's eyes glowed in alternating patterns and shades of colors. She spoke calmly as she moved forward. The purple spirit form of Marce materialized like someone was drawing him in real time beside her. As soon as he was fully formed the pink blob appeared beside him.
"Stay here. Observe and protect." Rachel's voice was ethereal and the language she spoke was of the dead. An ancient language that had divided itself into millions of different languages, that spread across the known universe, eons ago.
Rebecca knew she was speaking to Marce. She didn't speak but merely kept an eye on the pink blob. She began to wonder if this thing was safe. She was not feeling safe around it at all. It gave off the feel of a maniacal entity too powerful to be comprehended.
"Do you want to observe to ensure that you get good aspects?"
Rebecca smiled "Nope. I want to see you "tame" it. You know who that thing used to be. Watching you tame it could definitely give me hints to improving my techniques."
Rachel nodded. She knew Rebecca was not there due to the aspects. She was just making sure that Rebecca didn't think that she should help in anyway.
"You know when she was sane she said that I would be the one to kill her. She made me promise to utilize her seer and traveler abilities and said the rest was up to me."
Rebecca contemplated on her friend's words. She smiled. She hated being greedy while simultaneously she embraced being greedy.
Rachel had caused the abomination, formally her grandmother, to stop on this particular floor. As she walked toward it she thought about how powerful her grandmother was. It always humbled her to think about someone she felt was indestructible being, not destroyed, but fundamentally changed and essentially incapacitated.
Her grandmother had control over more than half of the rainbow, something unprecedented until Rachel came along of course, and she was extremely powerful. She only fell because she became corrupted after venturing into an uncharted realm. She made it back to Trannisa but the corruption had already invaded two thirds of her soul being and she could not be completely purified.
Rachel was twelve years old at the time. Everyone knew that if she was older she would have saved the older woman. But she wasn't and she didn't.
But she did watch her grandmother change and she was the one to seal her here on the continent of Sibba.
Her grandmother's soul well was strong so it took some time and she was tortured throughout the process. The corruption had actually been a bit insidious. It corrupted her soul being so quickly and ignored her soul well until it had a good hold. This allowed it to work undetected.
Once her soul well became infected all the spirit beings she contained become infected as well. They were infected but the always remained loyal to the body. As the corruption continued to change her body the spirit beings within her began to manifest as heads that protruded from the body. Her body began to increase size to accommodate the many spirit beings and in the end Rachel's grandmother was bigger than a house and had over a hundred heads dotting her body like an odd pin cushion.
The abomination that was once her grandmother trembled before them. She knew it wanted to strike out at them but it couldn't because Rachel would not allow it.
When Rebecca saw it her eyes widened. She immediately saw that one of its many heads still held the face of Lancey of Trannisa, Rachel's grandmother, and it watched them with smug contempt and quiet curiosity.
It was enormous, so much so it seemed impossible that it could even be before them inside the building. Its heads populated multicolored mounds dotting the body sporadically. But, within its upper most region in a depression positioned in the center of the being there were nine heads that seemed to have dominated the others. All the heads were different colors and all of them were different species with her grandmother's face, in the central position of that central depression, being the only human representative on the huge creature. It had two massive arms that protruded from slightly below its chest. It was covered by grotesque mounds that oozed viscous fluids in muted colors. From these mounds sprouted numerous thinner appendages that ended in sharp spikes, lances, or scythes. It stood on two thick legs.
The creature quivered and its skin rippled as if worms squirmed just below the surface. All of its eyes gazed at Rachel and Rebecca with unfathomable hatred: all except the dulled rainbow eyes of Lancey. They looked upon Rachel as if trying to recall something important.
Rachel side and closed her eyes. She stepped forward and slowly opened them again. As her eyes sparkled with distant rainbows she lifted her arm and quickly slashed down vertically countless times. She worked hard not to cut any of the heads. She was not sure what would damage the spirits of these beings.
All of the heads roared at the same time. The building trembled with that roar and they heard several windows shatter. The creature redoubled its efforts to brake free of Rachel's hold and her eyes went wide. It was going to break the bonds. She brought her hand up and around her in a angled circle and magic flowed forth creating an arc of brilliant colors.
She continued circling her arm and the colors continued to strengthen. The power from the circle saturated the room. Rebecca found herself backing away from the spectacle before her and she wondered why she was there and she was excited to be there, both at the same. She frowned and decided to stop thinking for a while.
A head to the right of her grandmother's opened its mouth and Rachel instantly understood what this spirit was about to do. She began to recite a quick micro incantation to counter it. The spell flew forth in a rush of light, intent, and power, and it stuffed itself deep into the spirit being's mouth.
It made a muffled gasping sound then coughed out a puff of dark grey smoke. Rachel knew she needed to finish this now. She allowed the magic she was generating to go forth and it engulfed her grandmother.
All stilled and became eerily quiet.
A single voice broken the silence with an earsplitting wail and then there was an odd pop and nothing more. Rachel quickly raised a barrier around them and waited. Something bounced out of the smoke and rolled toward them. They both knew what it was even before the head came to a stop before them.
The smoke cleared and a huge pile of heads rose before them, all of them looking blankly. All except for Lanncey's head. Her eyes were bright and her smile was wide.
"You really did purify my soul little rose bud. You know that means you can't use me but I will rejoin the Milana soul. Use my denizens well. I love you."
Even as her grandmother's ethereal voice her head disintegrated into magic rainbow sparks and entered into Rachel's abdomen. She nodded in satisfaction. She had not wanted to keep her grandmother as an underlying.
Rachel was actually surprised it had gone so easily. She thought it would take more effort. Externally she was calm and methodical.
She walked to the mound of heads and extended her hand forward, palm facing the heads and they all trembled as her knowledge magic went forth and examined them all.
Rachel paused as if within thought and then turned her head to Rebecca "You still do not possess any comrades with spirit abilities right?"
Rebecca was looking forward in a slight daze. She shook her head and looked blankly "Umm… No… No I don't."
Rachel simply turned back to her task and lowered two fingers. Three of the heads separated, one with the black head of a serpent type creature, another with the purple and yellow face of a beetle type creature, and the third an odd mix of feline and canine, half its face jet black the other half a calico patter.
All three of these lifted and moved toward Rebecca whose eyes instantly lit up.