Pain Breaker

I lifted my staff and pointed at Noelle.

All Wounds Must Be Repaired
“Pain Breaker!”

Admittedly, it was more of a hunch than a sure thing. However, if it was possible that the method by which powers connected and manifested with a cape were a type of contract, something that Rule Breaker could shatter, then it should be equally possible that an effect such as this that resulted in a mutated body would count as a curse, would it not?

There were still other options available, if not, but if it did…

The effects were immediate. The mass of flesh began to boil and evaporate, rising off of her like steam and vanishing into the air. It flaked away like ash, lifting off in tiny bits, even as the main mass continued to roil and writhe, steadily shrinking.

It took less than a minute to finish, and when it was over, a skinny teenage girl was standing where the monster had once been. All that was left of “Echidna” was a pasty film that girl was standing in.

Noelle looked down, stupefied, at her legs.

“I’m me, again?” she asked.

She poked her thigh, then pinched it and winced, and then she smiled.

“I’m me, again!” she said giddily. “I…I’m back to normal! I’m…!”

She stopped, flushed, and pressed her hands over her front, shrieking, “I’m naked!”

I gritted my teeth. “It’s not done, yet.”


She looked back to me, startled. “Wh-what?”

“I just fixed your current problem,” I told her grimly. “If we just leave it be, your —” what did Khepri call it? “— passenger will just reconnect and start this whole thing all over again.”

Noelle just stared at me, ashen-faced. “You mean…I’m not fixed.”

“Not permanently,” I said. “Not yet.”

Admittedly, it was mostly more guesswork, in the end. But it was guesswork that made sense. After all, if gaining powers was like a contract, a geis, and geasa could be forced on you…

“Maybe you should…”

I turned to look at Lisa, whose mouth snapped shut immediately. She scowled. “Fine. You want to fuck yourself up even more, I guess I can’t stop you. You’re right, by the way,” she added sourly. “She will relapse, later, if you don’t fix it, now.”