Suuri stopped in front of the mirror of their office. They stared at it, noticing a few imperfections that were not here before, shades of purple, red and gray barely visible beyond the void they took great care to coat themselves with.

Mortals care a great deal about appearances, both for social and cultural reasons, and in a way, spirits were no different, even if many would argue against it. Spirits will carelessly copy fauna and flora features, not as a way to fit in but as a way to cement their existence. A bird would be in the sky, a worm in the earth, a fish in the sea, by taking these shapes, the universe is most likely to recognize their existence as 'correct'.

Suuri dispels the black mist around their face to reveal what's underneath. A head not too unlike a rabbit, stitched up eyes, long ears that form a toothless crocodile maw, bleeding what seems to be grey mucus. These shapes used to be more coherent, once, Suuri used to look like something. Something simple, something that wasn't a horrible amalgamation of the many spirits they killed to reach their goal.

...

Suuri failed, they were very much aware of that. Perhaps one day, they could try again, under other circumstances, but their enemy was prepared now, they were expecting it, and they knew no one would be willing to take their side. Could the war be an opportunity? Times are changing in more ways than one, but would that be enough to turn the tides?

Suuri missed the days where its purpose was already fulfilled. When entropy progressed as it should, but now...

Now all that could be felt was M's attempt to keep the world spinning forevermore.

---

You've managed to convince the human to join your side to arrest that crazy guy with the anti-magic birds, but you could use more on your side. The next best option is a bodyguard, specifically one that protected caravans. You read up on their profile a bit more and you realize the bodyguard profession might be more serious than you expected.

Their job expects a lot of Life spell usage to boost yourself, which as you’ve been warned, tends to have drawbacks, especially when overused. Now, as a student who tends to use weaker Life spells meant for beginners also under the supervision of your teachers, you haven’t suffered many side effects, but this bodyguard wasn’t as lucky. The spells they used were fine in the short term, but with repeated use, slowly started eroding their mind and body. Past a certain point, they were more danger to the one they protected than anything else, and had to retire. Their conditions worsened, and the only ‘cure’ that was found was to reset both their mind and body, so now they’re suffering amnesia with very little memories of their time as a bodyguard.