Upon entering his own soul space, Garfield immediately spotted the unpaid tenant.
Pandora, who never paid rent, never explained herself, and never behaved, was squatting on a stone step.
In front of her lay a massive pile of sand, writhing and tumbling like an overfed maggot.
She poked at it idly.
The sand shifted.
Cubes.
Strips.
Cats. Dogs. Mice. Elephants.
Finally, it flattened into a neat rectangle, complete with an illusion of someone eating chicken inside, before collapsing into the shape of a sealed box.
Garfield stared for a long moment, utterly lost.
"…Godzilla." He asked cautiously, using the nickname out of habit, "What exactly are you doing?"
Pandora answered by pulling out a mace and throwing it directly into his face.
Wham!
Garfield was sent flying more than ten meters, tumbling across the soul space before crashing to a stop.
"I carefully examined the weapon I was making," Pandora said calmly, "but I couldn't decide what it should look like."
Groaning, Garfield rubbed his rapidly swelling cheek and glared at her.
"So this is what happens when your IQ isn't high enough." He sneered.
"You can't decide between humanoid weapons, semi-humanoids, aircraft, or tanks?"
Pandora's face twisted in irritation.
"The mechanical structure isn't suitable. The fully human form lacks aggression." She muttered.
"But a humanoid shape… that might work."
Garfield's mind drifted, unbidden, to a familiar memory.
"…What about that one-eared brother I met a while back?" He suggested. "Anubis. A god of death should be scary enough to bluff people."
Pandora rubbed her chin. She thought for less than a second.
"Typical." She said suddenly. "A cat's memory only lasts a few days. Forget it. I can just use what One-Ear gave you. That'll do."
Garfield blinked. "…What did One-Ear give me?"
He genuinely couldn't remember. Maybe it was mixed in with the pile of strange junk still sitting inside the oasis pyramid in his stomach.
Pandora responded by throwing another mace at his head.
Buzz!
A cartoonish ringing sound echoed as Garfield's vision spun.
He calmly pulled out a bandage, wrapped it around his head, and staggered back to his feet.
"What is it?" He demanded desperately. "Godzilla, please explain properly! Don't solve everything with violence! I only have so many heads—"
Pandora ignored him completely.
She raised both hands and swept them through the air.
The sand surged upward, flowing and sculpting itself into a towering figure over two meters tall.
Its body was etched with intricate, glowing lines. A wolf's head crowned the form, one ear intact, the other conspicuously missing.
Anubis.
Pandora examined her work with satisfaction, then pressed her palm against its left side. She grabbed Garfield's paw and slapped it on the right.
Two marks remained.
Next, Pandora spat out a marble-sized orb of light and tossed it casually into the statue's chest.
The orb sank into the glowing lines.
One by one, the markings lit up.
Finally…
The eyes flashed.
The wolf-headed figure twitched. Its head turned left, then right.
Then it looked directly at Garfield and Pandora.
"Cease." It said in a deep, steady voice. "One-Ear is no longer my name."
"My master is the great Lord Pandora, Dark Sovereign of All. And my mount is Garfield."
Garfield immediately bristled, teeth bared, ready to bite.
Pandora nodded in satisfaction, completely ignoring him.
"Not bad." She said. "It retains fragments of memory, but executes commands perfectly."
She crossed her arms proudly. "This monarch truly is the smartest being in the world."
Her voice rose as she laughed wildly. "Those scum who once bullied me, wait! One day, this Dark Lord will return!"
"I will bring an army and crush your thrones beneath my feet! The entire dark world will belong to me! Ho ho ho!"
"…" Garfield watched her manic laughter in silence, then leaned toward the towering figure and whispered cautiously:
"…Are you really One-Ear, brother?"
The Anubis construct nodded. "Brother Orange Cat," It replied. "I am, you know… and yet, not truly me."
Garfield understood.
This wasn't the real One-Ear, only a magical puppet carrying fragments of memory. It could think, communicate, and adapt, but its loyalty and purpose were absolute.
Exactly as Pandora had said.
Acting on the sacred principle of staying alive, Garfield leaned toward One-Ear and whispered carefully,
"Brother One-Ear… your master isn't an idiot, right?"
Snap.
A mace whistled through the air.
Garfield was sent flying more than ten meters, spinning like a thrown rag doll.
He landed, rolled, sprang back to his feet with practiced ease, and dusted himself off as if nothing had happened.
Walking straight back to Pandora, he snorted. "Hmph. A good cat doesn't fight Godzilla."
Pandora rolled her eyes so hard they nearly disappeared into her skull.
With a proud tilt of her chin, she gestured at One-Ear's perfected body.
"Go." She ordered coolly. "Test your new vessel."
"Yes, Master," One-Ear replied without hesitation.
Before Garfield left the soul space, Pandora casually handed him authority over One-Ear.
Garfield paused, puzzled.
"…This power." He said slowly, "Was something One-Ear gave me before he left. Why was it in your hands?"
Pandora scoffed, looking at him like he'd just asked whether fire was hot.
"You really think you're invincible just because you learned a few tricks from the Ancient One?" She sneered.
"That one-eared thing claimed it was 'giving you strength.' In truth, it was anchoring its own independent soul and godhead inside your body."
She crossed her arms.
"The plan was simple, stabilize itself, then swallow your soul, seize your body, and complete its reincarnation."
Garfield's pupils shrank.
Pandora continued mercilessly. "It underestimated one thing, me."
"How would it know that you're not only a stupid orange cat, but the royal mount of the great Dark Lord Pandora?"
She lifted her head proudly.
"This monarch allowed that low-grade scrap to keep running around for a while. Then I crushed its consciousness, erased it completely, and kept the memories for practical use."
Pandora stood there, chin high, posture screaming Aren't I amazing? Praise me.
Garfield understood immediately. Cold sweat soaked his fur.
So that's how it was.
Before dying, that One-Ear bastard had acted like a good brother, yet his stomach had been full of poison.
Compared to Pandora, who had survived the dark world for countless years, Garfield suddenly felt painfully inexperienced.
He raised a paw.
"…Thumbs up," Garfield said sincerely. "I respect you as a person."
"Hmph." Pandora waved dismissively.
"A cat can't spit ivory from its mouth. Enough talking, go test One-Ear."
…
Garfield snapped back into the real world.
Though it felt like a long conversation, not even a second had passed outside.
Blue spiritual bullets were still hammering uselessly against the shop's defenses.
"Everyone, get out of the way! I'm summoning my subordinate!"
The shout startled everyone, including old cowboy Roy Pulsipher.
Roy, Kumatarō, Kumajirō, Rin, Lilith, and Vivienne all dove behind the nearest table, peeking out with wide eyes as Garfield raised his paw.
The shop fell silent.
"Appear." Garfield declared, voice full of confidence, "Shinigami~Anubis!"
He swung his fat orange paw dramatically.
A golden summoning circle bloomed in the air, ancient symbols rotating as deathly power surged outward.
A towering figure over two meters tall emerged slowly from the light.
Wolf-headed with one ear.
Garfield even generously supplied the classic Digimon-style transformation call.
The pressure of death made Roy's knees wobble, and Garfield quickly adjusted One-Ear's output, retracting the intimidation field around the old cowboy.
Then Garfield pointed out the window at the ghosts still firing uselessly at the shop.
"Go on." He ordered calmly.
"One-Ear Anubis, teach them a lesson."
꧁𓊈𒆜༺⚜༻𒆜𓊉꧂
PhantomDream