B 3 C 32: A MIGHT BIT MITE HULKING

I’m fairly much in tatters, my body isn’t really up for another trip through the lava. I wonder if Lord Agni’s shifting has left room between his back and the planet’s crust all the way to the volcano. If so, I can fly back up the tunnel up there. The problem is it’s going to be a few days’ journey as injured as I am, even if I move nonstop without sleep. Should I just sit on his nose and perform self-actualization transformation until I create as much new muscle, bone, and flesh as I possibly can? Then if I sleep, I could probably handle another trip through the lava.

I suppose I could combine the two ideas. I have to hope that I can limp along Lord Agni’s back all the way to the volcano. It’s a few dozen miles, but my wings are pretty much disintegrated, so I’ll have to walk on my broken legs. If I’m transforming and dropping my tether repeatedly as I try to morph my bones back into position, while generating new wing-leather, and a new hand, eventually I’ll pass out from exhaustion as I walk towards the volcano. After I’ve slept, at least my legs should recover down to only being fractured.

Who has the comm stone? I have one, that’s good. Laomati must have the other. Do I tell her that I met the god of fire? How much of this information can I shove in a single message? Lao can get a message to Brastley, Brastley can contact Szintoc, Szintoc might be able to send a party to the remaining chameleons. With Mataalii dealt with, for now at least, I think maybe the Nagas’ city might be the safest location for everyone. A secret underground temple that has some sort of mystical powers could possibly accommodate everyone, maybe.

Then again, when TQ wasn’t administering tests, the rooms were incredibly small and barren. Maybe the tests were illusions, or some kind of spatial-temporal distortion. Hm, I guess we can try to get as much information as possible into one message. I’m going to need to practice this. I’ve only got about five seconds, I need to know exactly what I’m going to say. I’ll have to cut out like adverbs or adjectives or adnouns or whatever, those descriptive parts of speech. Heavens, what’s important to know? Do I tell her about Mat? About Luni leaving the family? Oh my heart, oh gods, my Lu. Lu, no.

I crumple along Lord Agni’s crown where I’ve been walking and weep for what seems like an eternity while clutching my chest. I wail in anguish, railing against the heavens so far above ground, those that are supposedly perpetually expanding. I equally rail against the hell of fiery death that I’m seated atop, the destruction that Lord Agni could bring. I mostly wail in hatred of myself for driving Luni to do this.

My heart and lungs feel so tightly pinched in my chest that I’d swear they were in a pneumatic press. I have to continue on, I finally have hope, there might be a solution that prevents the world from ending. It’s slightly scarier, because there’s four gods to deal with, not just one, but at least they don’t necessarily want to destroy us all. As long as we can prevent their meeting, we might be able to eke out a life somewhere on the continent, or perhaps somewhere across the seas. I don’t think we’d be able to successfully navigate the journey twixt this continent and another though, not with Leviathan possessed.

Maybe Tenith Grayl, the Sky Unending could be convinced to help us create a city in the sky, or to transport the survivors of this continent somewhere else before the convergence. Hm, Laputa, in order to save everyone, I could see attempting that. Could we combine enough magics, either at once, or in shifts, to keep an entire citadel flying? Would Tenith Grayl, the Sky Unending offer her aid in order for us to maintain it? Would she offer some kind of blessing? The divine twins, Lluxop and Rastoc supposedly had her blessing, since the Nagas spoke of Quetzalcoatl.

I distracted myself from heartache after heartache, trying to fill my heart instead with hope. Good job me, distractible brain coming in handy. I wonder what the others are up to. Oh wait, I need to compose a message to Laomati. This is important. Crap, let’s practice a few different variations, once we decide what to tell her. What do I even say?

I imagine saying something like, “Hey Lao, went to the Fairies, got the book quest started, gained lightning powers, killed kraken, accidentally let Mat wake God of Fire that’s going to be controlled into meeting his three siblings. When that happens, the world might end. Tell Brastley to share this info with Szintoc, to tell Szintoc to share it with chameleons. Oh by the way, Mat killed most of the Nagas, and sent Dehlia into a coma, and he may have killed most of the chameleons. Also, I’m on death’s door, standing on top of Lord Agni, the Pure and Desolate, God of Fire.”

I could add, “Don’t worry, I’m alive, and I can talk to gods, so we still have a chance as soon as I tunnel out of here with my broken body.” I guess that might fit in the timespan of a comm stone call. It sounds so flippant though. Maybe I should have Linti try to talk to the gods, hm, no. Leviathan, the Storm of the Endless River would kill her instantly, her lightning based travel-power short circuits if she tries to use it in or near water, it shuts off her heart or stops her breathing, or both. She can’t fly under her own power, so she doesn’t stand a great chance of speaking with Tenith Grayl, the Sky Unending. We don’t know where the last one is, I didn’t get a chance to learn the last sibling’s name from Lord Agni.

Blurgh, it seems like it’s up to me again. Lil or Teuila could maybe get to the gods, but as far as I know, unless they want their brains flooded with deadly levels of lightning, water, lava, or whatever element, they can’t communicate with the gods. When Lord Agni spoke to me, during my panic attack, when I wasn’t using my electro-pathy, he boiled my ear canals with lava, scarring them all the way down to my brain. I bet it’s like that for any of the elemental gods to speak. It’s a fluke that Linti and I developed this communication method that happens to allow safe communication with them. Hm, or is it? Everything that happens in this timeline was carefully plotted, more or less.

But, was it plotted by me, or by Luni? I’ve always trusted the implication that I was the one that sent her back in time with the messages. Could I have been wrong about everything? No, no, definitely not. Without Luni, many of our family would already have been dead several times over. Without Lu, we wouldn’t have Lucky, and everyone would have died on the Night of All Burn. Well, everyone other than me and Lil.

The lava on that night was insane. It encircled Shellcracker pond almost instantly, and tried to flow back uphill along the south edge. I ran myself ragged, freezing a border around our home and pond, mostly along the north and east edges where the flow was strongest, but it kept coming even from the south and west. Teuila could have maybe carried one or two of us as she leapt away, but if she tried to leap back to save more of us, she may have had nowhere to land. Teuila would have died if she was trying to take multiple trips to rescue us all. Te and the last few of us that didn’t make the first couple of trips would be dead if I tried that route. Tunneling with Lucky meant I could keep the tunnel walls and ceiling reinforced with FFS magic, as well as keep the lava to our rear completely frozen. Hm, I guess I just keep trusting her. Somehow, some way, all of this will make sense in the end. I just hope the end isn’t literally the end of the world.

Have I been sitting here bawling my eyes out without realizing it? I suppose so. The sting of betrayal still lingers, but it’s Lu. This needed to happen, I guess. I wonder how poor Luna is doing. Lil said she went nuts around the time that Lord Agni began to stir, and that she has been lonely without Luni or me around. I’m getting distracted, because I really, truly do not want to have to share this information with Laomati.

I practice saying, “Hey Lao, went to the Fairies, got the book quest started, gained lightning powers, killed kraken, accidentally let Mat wake God of Fire. At first I thought this enormous Lord Agni was going to kill us all, but he’s not. Instead he’s going to be controlled into meeting his three siblings. When that happens, the world might end. Tell Brastley to share this info with Szintoc, to tell Szintoc to share it with chameleons. Oh by the way, Mat killed most of the Nagas, and sent Dehlia into a coma, and he may have killed most of the chameleons. That last part you could probably guess from our party interface. Also, I’m on death’s door, standing on top of Lord Agni, the Pure and Desolate, God of Fire. Don’t worry, I’m alive, and I can talk to gods, so we still have a chance as soon as I tunnel out of here with my broken body.”

Good lord, there has to be a better way to share this than cramming all that into the few seconds of comm stone magic. Some day, I need to develop either long range communication, or long range teleportation magic. I was going to try to learn enchanting from the Nagas, but with most of them dead, and bombs having gone off in their crafting/industrial sectors, I doubt I’ll ever get a chance to learn. At least I doubt I’ll get a chance before dealing with this whole four gods situation.

Grr, how cool would it be to be able to duplicate magic equipment? I’d really like a copy of the soap stone right now. Luni has the only one. I’d give everyone one of those, and I’d give everyone a compass orb as well. I’d give the most trustworthy among us copies of Lil’s magic gear, the invisible goggles, and the cloak that makes displaced illusions. I’d see if Sugar and Spice’s construction equipment was magical or enchanted in some way, if so, I’d duplicate those tools as well.

I’d definitely try to learn to craft magic scrolls. I only know of the identification ones, but I bet I could figure out how to put spells into scrolls for a single use. Maybe I could put the lightning communication spell into a scroll. It’d only be good enough for a single back and forth message per scroll, but I could make almost endless copies of the scrolls if I get this enchantment duplication to work. I could maybe get a little crazy and put my space magic duplication abilities into a scroll, allowing someone to duplicate a single item, or their entire inventory. I don’t think I’d trust handing that out to others though. I definitely wouldn’t trust handing out spell scrolls of the internal timed lightning detonation spells.

Oh, right, contact Laomati. Come on Reggie, get up, keep walking. You’re getting way too distracted. I think the air is pretty thin down here with how hot and stuffy it is standing on top of the literal god of the element of fire. I’m pretty close to his brain. Do you think I should try to, well, destroy him? He wasn’t evil, but he’s going to be forced to meet his siblings. Sooner or later he will awaken and join them, against his will. Gosh, even if I could, should I do something like that? What if there are consequences to a deity going missing? I mean, if nothing else, the mass beneath the crust of Fire Biome will change, and there will be cataclysmic consequences if he suddenly derezzes. Do you think he’d instantly destroy me for this line of thoughts?

Stop! Getting! Distracted! Right, right right right, contact Laomati.

I gulp as I pull out the comm stone, as I agonizingly amble along Lord Agni’s skull. I speak into it, “Lao, started book quest. Mat woke up God of Fire, thought world was doomed. God of Fire not bad, but going to be controlled. If he meets his siblings, possible end of world. Tell Brastley to tell Szintoc all of this, and to tell Szintoc to send party to check on chameleons, many of them missing from party interface, maybe dead. Many Nagas dead, Mat killed them. Dehlia in coma from Mat. I’m on death’s door, standing on top of Lord Agni, the Pure and Desolate. That’s the God of Fire. Not a bad guy, but panic entity is here. I can talk to gods, might be able to convince siblings to not meet when I get out of here.”

Laomati begins to reply, “Dearest one! How on–”

The magic of the comm stone cuts out and I curse under my breath. Gorram limitations on magic. Still, I suppose if everyone had unlimited potential on their magic and their magic items, the world would probably already be wiped out from various hostile forces battling one another with chaotic tides of unrestrained magic.

I’m pretty certain it’s a bit after midnight, which means Laomati wouldn’t risk contacting me again until near midnight. Since each comm stone only opens the communication line once per day for a few seconds, she knows to save its magic in case of something dire that requires me to abandon everything else to return to the family. Still, it was good to hear her voice. Lil said she had a proposal for Agwai, I wonder if that means Lao and Ag are going to get married in the human style. That could be really cute. I wonder if they’ll both wear bridal dresses? Ag has never identified with any gendered nouns or pronouns, but they could maybe pull off a curvy dress due to certain things. On the other hand, a finely cut suit would be fetching as well.

Reggie, get moving. Stop playing dressup with your tribal elders in your mind. What? It’s cute, and I’m all broken. Even doing this tethering up and down doesn’t take much of my brain processing. I nearly have my wrist back already. Well, okay, I have some of my forearm back, I’m getting close to my wrist. My wings have a few more millimeters of leather, and some of my scales are no longer completely disintegrated.

Is something moving down here? Hm, I’m still mostly blinded to normal sight, but the aura sight is going strong at the moment. Everything is red though because of the enormity of Lord Agni’s soul. I swear I heard a scuttling sound however. I am not in the mood to fight off some super-god-dragon-mites or whatever nonsense. I was thinking of napping soon, too. I could nap in an Umbral object, but if I make it airtight, I’ll obviously die from lack of oxygen. If I don’t make it airtight, the creature that’s out there, if it has ranged magic, or spits acid or something, it could kill me in my sleep. Blargh.

Nothing for it at the moment but to continue marching and transforming. If it doesn’t attack, it doesn’t attack. If it does, let’s just hope it does so before I pass out from transformation-over-exertion. I hear whatever is near scuttling around, seemingly keeping its distance. Or maybe their distances. Huh, I hope it attacks soon, walking on these broken legs is excruciating, and I could use something to vent on. Not only that, but I can’t even open my eyelids. Not that I’d get much use out of opening them right now, but between the migraine, and exhaustion, I’m ready to pass out. Not to mention the lava-boiled brain from Lord Agni speaking directly into my mind. I’m kind of surprised I survived that.

Lord Agni could boil everyone’s brains inside out just by speaking. Is there any way I could at least take that power away from him? I could maybe redact his own memories with electrical pulsation in the right corners of his mind. It could hide his own powers from himself. I doubt that would be viewed favorably in the end though.

Oh, oh my legs aren’t willing to move further. Whoops, I’m falling onto my face. That’s not good. Yep, the scuttling is getting closer again. Okay Reggie, if you’re going to pass out, do it for only a little bit. Actually, transform down to cherubic reggie, maybe a less threatening form won’t be attacked. If nothing else, whatever it is can’t rip out my wings if I don’t have my wings.

Ah, unconsciousness. Normally a welcome reprieve from pain. You’ve picked an awkward time for a visit, my old friend.

Ah, yes, now I’m screaming in pain. Something like a giant pair of scissors is trying to remove my left leg at the knee. Well, I’m awake now. Time to, whoops, now I’m being flung in the air and slammed back and forth as this claw tears my leg apart. Now I’m at least free of its grasp. Why? Because now I’m missing another half of a limb. I test out breathing fire in the direction of the creature, it doesn’t seem bothered. Of course not, it lives on the back of the literal god of fire. I doubt frost will do anything either, but I may as well try. I swap my fire breath into frost breath, also to no effect. I could trap it in an umbral object for about five minutes. Is that enough to hop away on one leg?

Let’s just try to kill it. I should have been armored up, I was naked from swimming in lava. Hopefully a full set of Valkyrie gear can help me against this thing. Wow that’s a fast snap! Ow. It pinched so hard that it sent air cascading at me like a bullet. I’m lucky we’re not in a liquid medium. That thing probably fires lava bullets normally. It knocked me on my arse, but thankfully my helmet protected me. Okay, no screwing around with this thing, just end it. I can’t even attempt any mana saving fighting styles on this thing when I’m missing an arm and a leg. Oh, wait, when the heck did I lose my entire left arm!? There’s two of them!

There could quite possibly be a lot more than that. What the heck should I do? They definitely have ranged attacks. So I can't create a shelter to sleep in. They could definitely hit me through any ventilation holes, worse they’re probably strong enough to destroy Umbral duplicates. Do I have anything that can help me in this situation?

My danger wrap tells me its physical appearance is something like some kind of gorilla-crab chimera. Essentially some sort of bipedal creature with a spiky exoskeleton and large forearms that end in claws. It has some kind of whiskered mandibular maw though. I think the whiskers are probably how it senses prey underground. It likely hears or feels the tiniest vibration with them, like breathing or a heartbeat.

I doubt playing dead would help, since these things seem to want to devour my limbs. Alright, fire doesn’t work, cold doesn’t work, my lightning magic is still weak. I get maybe two and a half percent faster reaction speed from my electro-enhanced sensory transmission. I should just fire off a swath of Umbral Shot spears. Crap, I took too long, they’re alternating firing air bullets at me, continuously knocking me back and forth. I don’t have my limbs or balance that I’m used to to react to my danger wrap senses, and because it’s not physical attacks, my danger sense isn’t quite as good at telling me exactly how to dodge anyway.

Hlrk. Are you kidding me!? My right lung, again! I need to wear like three layers of armor over my stupid right torso area. Maybe I should grow a second rib cage, or an exoskeleton.

Huff, huff. Okay, what was I going to do? My brain is addled now. Ah, no you don’t, let go of my right arm you crusty crustacean crap snacker! I fire a wall of umbral spears into it, angled through it to where I think the other one is. Bad news is, my Umbral Shots don’t penetrate its shell in a single hit. Good news is I didn’t just fire a single hit. I’ve blown off its arm that it had gripped my arm with. I claim that whole arm and pincer before it derezzes. This could be an interesting tool. Okay, now I’m pumped. I want more parts of these creatures. They can resist some of my most powerful abilities.

I hop up and down on one foot, trying to get my bearings. The one that I just attacked is missing at least two limbs now as well, but I really want to peel its entire exoskeleton off. Gosh that’s gruesome. When did I get so gory and violent? Hm, its missing limbs leave weak spots that I can capitalize on. Thank you Space skill magic. I angle some Umbral Shots into its armpit from several directions.

Sure enough, a time dilation hits, and I try to claim as much of the creature as my magic will allow me to grab before it can become polygons to derez. These aren’t even boss classification creatures down here. When I joked about being super-dragon-god-mites, that seems to be pretty much their place in the ecosystem. There are several more. I don’t have the mana to take all of them out though, especially not as wounded as I am. If I still had all my limbs, I’d probably try to take a few out with my sword.

I wonder if I can hold the left arm of the creature that I stole in place of my left arm. If I hold it there, can I self-actualize attaching it to my arm with my tether transformations? Eugh, do I want to? It might give me an edge, or at least help even things out. Here goes nothing I guess.

Oh, oh hlrk, ugh, glrglrlgl. It works, sort of. It’s like this thing has some kind of alien biology that my body is rejecting, but it’s fighting to take hold. I at least have a limb now, a limb that can fire air bullets to help keep these things off balance. Oh heavens, ugh. I’m going to be sick. Oh wow. I just threw up all over Lord Agni. I really hope he never notices that. I mean, it’s less than a sweat droplet compared to his enormous size, he probably won’t notice, right? I don’t notice or count every single bead of sweat, or check to see if any bead of sweat is vomit from an insect.

Okay, next goal is to get a left leg. Should I go for the whole leg, or just the segment up to the knee? Ugh, should I remove my other limbs and just go whole hog? That’s so gruesome. I’m such a mess, mentally and physically. How could anyone ever rely on me? Eugh, every moment I’m connected to this limb feels like it’s releasing waves of parasitic cells that intentionally seek out my stomach to flip it and rotate it until it spills more sick. My sick can stay in my stomach. Thank you very much.

At least it’s a mana-free attack I can use at the moment. Their air bullets aren’t exactly deadly to me, even if they hurt like heck. The same goes for them though. I think the speed of the snap of these claws, though, should be able to sever their limbs. Wait, why am I wasting time with this nonsense? I have the greatest heat source on the planet, possibly the universe below me. I siphon atomic heat into mana from Lord Agni, and begin raining Umbral Shots down into every location that I hear scuttling coming from. I specifically try to sever a few limbs that I can dash in and claim before things derez. As I’m able to claim more and more parts of these creatures, I am able to draw a better mental image of exactly what they look like as I see their limbs and body parts in my inventory. They’re some kind of hulking things that dwell here in the umber.

I wonder if Lord Agni notices or cares that I’m utilizing him as a mana battery? Gosh, what I could accomplish if I traveled along with Lord Agni for months. Hm. I can definitely take advantage of this. It’s time to get some serious training done. After all, I’m going to be going up against gods and whatever creatures live on their backs starting soon.

So, my skills climb faster when I’m able to cast spells worth more mana with them in rapid succession, and my maximum mana climbs more quickly at the same time. Go ahead, come at me you hulking monstrosities. Here’s a maximum mana lightning bolt for you. Top off my mana from Lord Agni, and now one for you, I top off my mana again, and another one for you. Let’s try to create chain lightning, shall we? Yes, here we go. He is a limitless well of heat, and for me, that is a limitless pool of mana. The lightning isn’t doing anything to them, but it’s fantastic practice.

Look out world, here Reggie Shellcracker comes, with a vengeance. Ice breath, fire breath, lightning breath, firebolts, ice spears, lightning reflexes, Umbral Shots, crafting and alchemy. I can practice it all at once, and make leaps and bounds of progress. I’m pretty sure I’m pissing off this community of mite-hulks, whatever they are. Hopefully Lord Agni doesn’t need them in some sort of symbiosis. Still, the materials I’m getting from them are becoming higher and higher in quality. I think I’m drawing out more and more powerful mites with all the noise I’m making.

Oh, I should probably be a little more careful, they might have a queen or something. I really don’t need that kind of hassle right now. Awe hell, why’d I have to think of that. There’s some sort of pulsating sac-butted version of these things in the distance with a massive aura of a sickening ocher, or maybe umber. I’m wearing one of their arms, and half of one of their legs, and it is ridiculously lopsided to try to wander around and battle like this. Ugh, I’m going to have to commit. Reggie, this is crazy. Don’t do this. This is super weird. Do you feel these limbs? They’re literally making you sick.

But I’m all lopsided! I can’t even walk around anymore. Maybe if I’m balanced, the limbs will stop fighting to make me sick? I need to be making progress towards the shaft I drilled from the volcano caldera. Oh yeah? What are you going to do when you get there right now? Well, right now, nothing, because my limbs can’t handle JT movement, and my wings are utterly destroyed. If I have two of these legs though, they’re incredibly impact resistant. I could JT around with them pretty handily. Hm, you’re starting to convince me. But still, it’s pretty gross, also gruesome. Yeah, true, but like, cool snappy limbs. I feel like they could snap into solid rock and I could climb out even if I can’t fly out.

Alright Reggie, no need to convince me, I am you after all, it’s not like I was ever going to be able to stop you, since you had your mind made up to do it. True, true. Wow I am really losing it. I wonder if I should redact these logs. Or maybe I should ask the humans if they have invented psychiatry and psychotherapy as fields yet. I could probably benefit from a therapist.

Oh, self-distraction. Well, that solves that issue. I’m being quartered. Oh holy hell, oh gods, oh this hurts. Hlrk. Focus up Reggie, these hulks are even more powerful, their limbs were able to delimb me in an instant. Take these, make them your own. Fight through the pain. Dull your pain receptors with lightning. There we go. We have plenty of mana to fight off the pain. Heck, we can stop the flood of signals of sickness from my stomach as well. Wow, electro-kinesis without restrictions on mana is amazing! I feel great! I can probably trick my adrenal glands or serotonin or dopamine production centers, or even just their receptors. Wait, wait, focus Reggie. Can you trick yourself into focusing? I think so.

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I grin wickedly as I JT myself out of the dangerous situation where I was being quartered. I may be missing all my limbs at the moment, but that won’t last long. Now I use Umbral Shot buzzsaw Valkyrie daggers to delimb the strongest hulking mite. Strongest according to my danger wrap senses anyway, it provides some numerical feedback after all. Now let’s claim those. Yes, here we go. Oh balance, it’s so good to have you back. I can move around. Let’s also kill this one and claim the rest of its torso and body before it derezzes.

I shout, “Now then, who wants some?!”

I’m sure none of them can understand me, but it has the intended effect of infuriating everything within sounding distance. Wow, this electro-kinesis induced confidence is making me way too cocky. Backed up by infinite mana though, it’s almost fun to be this cocky. I’d better not get used to it though. I could leave now, these limbs can probably handle sonic speed JT movements. I’d probably need to reinforce my hips a little bit. I can probably wear an entire exoskeleton of one of these things honestly, that would distribute the striking force across the whole exoskeleton instead of into my hips and soft flesh where the mite’s exoskeleton meets my actual body.

Sure, I could leave, but what’s the fun in that? When will I ever get a chance like this again? The other gods aren’t gods of fire, I’d probably cause tiny useless ice patches that don’t even bother them, I wouldn’t get limitless mana from walking around on their backs. Ooo! I wonder if I can lightning-leap now. Shall we see?

Yes! It’s not as far, or as fast as Linti, but I can subsume my entire form with lightning and move around. Sadly I mostly bounce off of these hulking monstrosities, I don’t have much impactful force, nor a solid path into their internals to melt their insides. My lightning form isn’t quite that good yet. I can’t even find a path to their internals at all with timed detonation lightning sparks.

Defeating most of them boils down to sawing through their limbs with Umbral Shots, then filling their newly opened carapaces with spears or lightning or daggers. Oh whoops! That sac-butted ochre-souled or umbral-souled queen thing has more than just the ability to spawn more of these things. She can lob acid. It doesn’t seem to harm the exoskeletons of her own creatures though. Well then, I guess we know what we have to do. Most of my transformations required me to eke out the transformation cell by cell, inch by inch. Connecting body parts to myself allowed me to bypass a lot of that.

I don’t think I’m willing to cover my face or head in the cranium of one of these things. I do not want to have new alien thought processes in my head. Still, here goes nothing Reggie, let’s connect a torso between these limbs. Self-actualize and tether up and down to set this as a new base form. Hahaha, I must look ridiculous. I’m a head, I’m me, with my head, but on the body of one of these hulking mite things, the biggest one in fact. Me and my tiny cherubic Reggie head. Actually, let’s fix that. Wait, no, can’t risk going draconic form yet, no idea where my wings would end up. They might get lopped off by apparating partially through the exoskeleton. Or if they bust out of the exoskeleton, attached to my weird insectoid muscle structure underneath, they might just be melted away by this queen anyway. Nothing for it but to continue the fight. I’ll just keep swapping out Valkyrie helmets as the acid destroys them. I have quite a few dozen at this point.

Wow, I’m glad my danger wrap senses told me this one was the strongest among them, I can’t even feel their air bullets anymore. The acid splashes bounce off of my chest and arms. I’m able to block and fight in a way that might even be better than my normal form. If these things are mite hulks, then I’m a mite hulk buster. Wait, the body inside of these things. It looks close to the form I took in the cragbeast warren. Is that why I’m somewhat compatible and able to do this? It’s eerily similar, especially this large one that was so much more muscular. They’re very humanoid underneath the exoskeleton, minus a few extra tendons that connect to parts of the skeleton itself, and their faces, whiskers, and giant scything mandibles. It’s so easy to grab and snap their mandibles with these arms though.

Oh hey, it’s even easier to spear them with their own mandible once I’ve broken them off! That makes it easier to send timed detonations into their internals. Break off this thing’s sharp pointy jaw, stab it into that one with a tiny flicker of electricity traveling along it, rip off that one’s jaw, stab it into this one with electricity glinting along its edge, then walk away and don’t look back as they explode internally. That was so cocky. Hehe, it was really fun though.

I wonder if that queen thing is one of a kind, or if she’ll respawn. Can my danger wrap tell me if I make my way to her? Let’s go ahead and use thermokinesis rocket thrusters from my hands and feet to blast off at the speed of sound to find out as I skim by her. Hoohoo wheee! It’s easy enough to shoulder bash and bounce off of one of her extended arms, she has a lot of them. Hm, that was a lot of information to take in. I can definitely get acid generation from her if I keep letting her attack me. Somehow my cells are adapting as a whole to being near acid, and their various mitochondrial functions are instructed by the nuclei and cytoplasm. They’re passing down the memories of the makeup of acid down to their next generation of mitosis-created children. I guess that’s the best way to put it. She will also respawn, because she has some sort of cellular regeneration from nothing function. Basically her acid powers are so strong that she could be a tiny droplet of acid somewhere that’s a proteinated cell that contains her entire being as a genetic legacy. One cell, the nearest to her spawn point will be absorbed by the region, and that will generate another.

At least I don’t have to worry about genocide of an ecosystem. Still, let’s wrap this up, shall we? Lluxop and Rastoc were able to focus lightning until it burned holes in even gemlike draconic scales, with the intention of passing a single spark underneath, to detonate my internals.

Let’s keep a constant stream of lightning at my highest level of mana consumption going outward, while siphoning Lord Agni’s endless atomic heat. Slowly burn holes into all these mite-hulks, and implant detonating sparks. I let acid continuously splash against the back of my borrowed exoskeleton. Hm, no, it’s no longer borrowed. It’s one of my transformations now. I feel like it has been assimilated into the forms that I can return to. Yes, it is definitely a part of me now. Oh! I can create a dome helmet that buckles into the chitinous plates of my exoskeleton. An umbral copy that fits perfectly, and just has slight slits for air and vision. Now even this feels like a part of me.

I’m going to stand in this queen’s attacks until I gain acid conjuration. She has a pool of mana that is unbelievably vast. It feels like these mite-hulks are getting stronger and stronger the longer she continues to spawn them. Oh! Her spawning skill is probably increasing! This is sort of dangerous, but I’m exceedingly tempted to derp around here for a long time to see just how powerful her spawnlings can eventually become. If I can face off against an even more powerful mite-hulk, adding its body to my suite of transformations may be worthwhile. I don’t think many other creatures would work. The fact that these have exoskeletons, and body similarity to my weird Umbral Valkyrie density-knight form, is probably the only reason it works. Honestly their exoskeletons bear some vague resemblance to the armor from that form as well.

Okay, as much as I do really want to dink around and train almost endlessly here, not only is it getting dangerous, but I’m not making progress towards my main goal, preventing the apocalypse. Well, not direct progress towards returning to my family to continue my quest to rail against the gods anyway. I haven’t really been hostile to the queen before now, but I suppose I should take her out on the way out. Sorry queenie.

Holy crap where’d this one come from? It’s like it spawned in when I turned my hostile intent to the queen. Oh, Hulk-Mite-King. It’s fast! And bulky! It seems to be her defender. She has power, finesse, and range, but she’s stationary. The king is her mobile shield. The king also looks the absolutely most similar to my Umbral Valkyrie form at the end when I had grown massively. I want to carefully dismantle him to take that body for my newest form. He actually has hands beneath his pistol-claws pincers.

Oogh, oof, he’s fast, and strong. That fractured my exoskeleton slightly with that strike. Okay, don’t think like a brick, think like Reggie. Incoming attack towards left shoulder, pivot counterclockwise, lead the strike with my offhand, gripping the wrist, roll my shoulder and throw. He is incredibly heavy, I was barely able to complete that toss, and he derezzed several of the regular hulk-mites on landing. What I really need to do though is carefully take him out and, ow! Agh that’s right, my exoskeleton is fractured, the acid’s starting to get in now. Well, that definitely speeds up the acid resistance training process. Oh, now she’s getting creative . Maybe I should disable her acid sac. Whoops, king sensed my intent and interposed himself with thunderous air-pistol blasts aimed at my face.

I barely got my left claw up in time to protect my face from the blasts. They cracked my forearm’s exoskeleton and managed to bowl me over completely. Hm, there’s a familiar fury growing under my skin. Well, the weird extremely-humanoid insectoid flesh under my exoskeleton is bubbling with a rage that’s hard to contain. There’s a fiery pain attempting to explode from my shoulder blades. Do I relent, and let it? Luni isn’t here to anchor me. Is this the edge I need to be able to convince Tenith, the Sky Unending, to stay far away from our continent?

Hm, no. I remember how heartbroken Luni was when I nearly accepted the fate of this transformation. In the cragbeast warren, when the queen gripped me by the throat in one of her tendrils, I contemplated giving in to the bubbling fury and pain. I know I wouldn’t be me anymore if I let it happen. Whoops, pay attention Reggie, kick your electrokinetically enhanced senses into high gear. Queen is starting to spawn a layer of just trap claws instead of full hulk-mites. It’s like she’s laying down turrets as a trap in a video game, symmetrically in concentric rings. They’re all firing now, and chipping away at the cracks in my exoskeleton. Crap, she’s spawning several of the stronger variations behind me, and they’re now holding me in a nelson lock.

Oh, wait, haha, easy way to get out of this one. I tether myself up, and down to forms that have no limbs, slipping out easily, laughing maniacally as the intense pain hits me from these broken forms. I resume my mite-hulk-buster form, chipped and damaged though it is. I’m limiting myself slightly to try not to damage the king’s carapace. I can do this. Let’s enhance my exoskeletal crack density by using FFS to draw and condense molecules around to protect the fractured areas. King is bringing down a double hammerstrike aimed at both of my shoulders. If I slip in under his range I can get past his guard now, yes, I’ve got him tripped, and now I’m trapping him with umbral copies of carapace plating.

Phew, okay, I bought myself half a second of breather. Now to get to his front, and lance his cranium with Umbral Shots until his brain is exposed. Oof, there’s that queen and her acid again. Now it’s like she’s launching solidified acid spears that first jab into and crack my carapace, then deliver their flesh-melting payload. Agh, that is terribly painful. Right, finish this, quick. All of you trap cannons and regular mite-hulks can eat dirt. Umbral Shot Valkyrie daggers to all of you, and an unending barrage of them into king’s cranium. Block the acid spears with Umbral Shot copies of Valkyrie shields, since now they’re too deadly to keep trying to gain acid manipulation. Hm, I am up to negative one. It’s so tempting. Maybe Jaz will help me finish unlocking it. I hope she’s okay along with Dream and the rest of my family.

Right, let’s finish this. I jam my right claw into the king’s cracked cranium with the fiercest SIP I can manage. I feel it buckle just enough. I unleash a seemingly unending torrent of timed detonations lightning sparks within his skull cavity. One by one his thirteen health bars deplete, and I don’t give him an opportunity to enter any sort of enraged super-powered last-ditch effort mode. I claim my prize, his basically pristine form, as well as the few things he dropped. Now for the queen. Oh come on. Okay, so she can just spawn a new king if I kill one without killing her first

Fine, fine fine fine. This one I’m not going to screw around with. Wall of Umbral Shots aimed towards the both of them, go, keep siphoning atomic heat for more mana to keep summoning more walls of Umbral Shots. Uh oh. It’s chinking away at their health, that is not the desired effect. Blargh, yep, I’ve triggered some sort of rampage. The king is glowing yellow, but that yellow glow is tethered to the queen. In fact, the king is growing, taking on a new form. Nope, nope, I’ve played enough video games to know where this is going. Wait, when have I played video games? Those broken memories are of a fake world. It doesn’t exist. Computer age doesn’t exist. It doesn’t matter, he’s in an invulnerability phase, take her out quickly before the transformation finishes! Right, right right.

I use a combined JT rocket thrust blast myself to her side and just summon every attack I can think of point blank into the queen’s cranium, while exhaling a tri-elemental blast of breath into her face, laced with timed-detonation sparks. Come on, come on, die already! The King is starting to look nebulous, like some sort of being made of galactic space, with glittering galaxies that shine through the vast empty darkness that makes up his silhouette.

What do I have left? Oh, steam. I jam my claw into her throat, expel water from my inventory, air-pistol fire it further into her throat and superheat it. Well, that had the desired effect. Hm, where’s the king? I didn’t hear a derezzing sound. I really hope that doesn’t come back to haunt me. Interesting loot, we’ll look at it all later.

I take my copy of the first king’s exoskeleton, and begin fusing with it with tethering up and down. The process is a bit slow and a bit messy, since I don’t want to basically chop off everything below my neck. Still, what an impressive, powerful form. I wonder if it has that weird galactic form as a sort of evolutionary stage that I could access. Hm, we’ll look into that later. For now, let’s pound pavement as the saying goes. That’s probably really disrespectful to Lord Agni, since he would be the pavement in that equation. Future me, do not snicker at that accidental implication.

I glance around, making certain I don’t have any more mites to deal with, and also that no floating embodiments of my future self are waiting around to laugh at my mental narration. My whole point is that I should get going. Now that I can sustain the electrokinetically enhanced nerve suppression, and sensation enhancement, as well as rocket thrusting, and JT motion of supersonic levels, it’s easy enough to blast my way all the way to the volcano base that is the dorsal ridge of Lord Agni. It’s even easier to plow through an empty lava chute towards the tunnel that I’d drilled down to his hip.

I’m worried about using these forms without his limitless heat providing me an endless well of mana, so I’d better make some fortifications here, and spend a couple of days regrowing my limbs. I’m glad I was able to pick them up after finishing the mites off. It’s still super gruesome to see my own limbs floating in my inventory. Yeesh. Alright, so, Umbral copies of clay and stone shaped into walls around me, I should be fairly safe’ish. I need to do this, despite how gross it is. Okay, tether up, and back down into, yep, poor cherubic Reggie. Alright, just reattach all these by tethering up and down several times. Okay, there we go, now I’m only missing my left hand. Back to draconian Reggie we go to start regenerating that hand and my wings.

Okay, even though I have infinite mana to accelerate the process by probably hundreds of times, this is exhausting. I’m going to pass out for a while. Hopefully that also helps regenerate some of my missing flesh and muscles. I would not be able to function without suppressing my pain receptors via electrokinesis, and I could not afford the massive mana sink to keep them suppressed without Lord Agni.

Alright, it’s been another day or so, or has it been two or three? Or maybe just a few hours. I know I’ve slept several times, and I’m mostly back to normal functionality in my draconian form, except my left hand is still in the process of being recreated, and my limb reattachment points are in utter agony as the bones knit where they were sheared. I’m not patient enough to keep working on that when the world is at stake. Everything else I needed to be able to safely move once I lose access to infinite mana. As much as I love these mite-hulk-busting forms, their weird alien biology might try to take me over or sicken me if I don’t have the endless well of mana to suppress all their odd activities. I really wish I could trust the forms when outside of the range of Lord Agni, but at least I have them as aces up my sleeves in extreme circumstances. They’re virtually acid immune, thermal immune, incredibly resistant to physical harm, and just so utterly strong and well-built.

I exhale a breath through puffed cheeks. Phew, okay, let’s reunite with my inner circle at the Nagas’ city, then let’s get them to the Faeries’ city if the Nagas don’t know where I can find their Quetzalcoatl. Hopefully one city or the other has some idea where to find Tenith Grayl the Sky Unending.

Alright, JT motion up through the tunnel I’d carved into Lord Agni’s back. I’m surprised he didn’t quip about it, but then again, it was mostly through cooled magma and stone, not his actual carapace or scales. It’s more like he’s wearing a volcano as a hat for his butt than it’s actually some biological dorsal ridge.

Finally, free again, and oh boy, is that the roc and the phoenix? Please please please don’t be possessed.

“You’re still a funny one, an entirely new form too, little old soul.”

Oh dear lord, um, I apologize for my impropriety, majestic lords of the sky. Would either of you happen to know the location of Tenith Grayl, the Sky Unending?

“You’ll meet her soon enough, if you’ve just come from where I think you have. The fact that you even know her true name speaks volumes.”

Um, yes, my apologies for my, uh, brazen action in seeking out and speaking with Lord Agni. I thought he would destroy the world, or at least our continent. It turns out to be better and worse than that. He won’t intentionally do it, but he and his siblings have been roused by the entity. You know the one. The entity is currently fighting its way deeply into his psyche and subconscious, I don’t know how long we have until Lord Agni is compelled to follow through on his destiny of meeting his siblings.

“Troubling news indeed. You do know, I told you to never return, don’t you?”

I’m so sorry! I was trying to leave Lord Agni’s presence without dying by swimming back through the same vein of lava! I was physically much worse off when I began my exit journey.

The phoenix lets out a chuckle that would char the flesh off an elephant. It penetrates much of my thermal resistance, but mine has been growing steadily, incredibly high. It mostly only chars my scales in this form, though the edges of my wings are crispy and losing some scaled leather.

“I’m not going to take back my gift, not at the moment. It seems you’re embroiled in something that would be a hassle even to the likes of us. Your life that is, Your life was the gift. In case that wasn’t clear.”

I gulp. Yes, yes it was perfectly clear.

“My mate and I have one request of you, consider it also a present. This egg is never due to hatch. Perhaps through some oddness that is your constant series of misadventures, one day you may bring our child forth, barring that, perhaps it will be of some use on your misadventures. Yes we are both men, No that does not prevent us from, never mind, I can see you aren’t one to question such things. I’m a tad defensive on the subject.”

Believe me, I completely empathize. I have memories of some weird human society where gender and orientation are all very strict and odd. I haven’t been able to figure out what I identify as personally. I’m not even limited by biology and I still can’t decide. Oh goodness, I’m chatting with a godly living flame as if we were just schoolmates having a chinwag. I’m so sorry, please forgive me.

The phoenix lets out another laugh that is a burst of flame that sends me tumbling, to the point that I have to pump my wings to regain my altitude. The roc swoops in to nuzzle his partner. The roc nods at me as if just acknowledging my arrival.

My life is crazy, my life is absolutely crazy. Jokes about cryptozoology be darned, I’m a cryptozoologist, and I’d be the envy of every other cryptozoologist in history with the myriad of wonderful, beautiful creatures I’ve had the honor to gaze upon.

“That is the level of flattery I’ve come to expect from you. Please meet us at our nest.”

I swoop down towards the ledge that contains the phoenix nest. The oviraptor swarm seems to be making its way up, but the phoenix simply barks a laugh in their direction and instantly incinerates all of them. How am I surviving this godly beast’s laughter!? He must be regulating his destructive energies. He must have been minimizing his powers and flames when he was forced to attack me so long ago. I’m so honored, and lucky.

“Yes, now be honored and take this egg here, this one. I’d tell you to be careful as it’s hot, but you’re your funny little self, and you have your inventory magic. Good luck, little old soul. If you’d please leave now.”

Yes, yes of course! Um, please have a wonderful, um, forever, lifetime, eternity together. Please excuse me, thank you so much, your majesticalnesses. Oh heavens, that’s not a word, I’m sorry, I’m leaving.

I fly away with as high of a JT velocity as I can safely muster. Now that I’m away from them, I’ll take a deep breath before I crack and break out into hysterical laughter of fear.

I talked to the literal God of Fire, and then to two of the most important mythological figures. Well, I thought with my internal monologue, and they read my thoughts, and spoke into my mind. Okay Reggie, get it together, you don’t need to be laughing in fear all the way back to the Nagas’ settlement. I should ask Laomati if she was able to get Brastley to deliver the message, and if he got any reply.

I start out, “Lao, I’m okay, I’m worried about the family but I’m finally aboveground. Did you get the messages sent? Any replies? How are you?”

Laomati immediately replies, “My dearest one, your message was so frightening, the wind serpent fellow sent your message along, but we haven’t yet heard a reply. We know the recipient is well, Brastley and Szintoc that is, they are, they’re both in our party display obviously. Oh I’m sorry, I’m just so flustered. I’m so grateful you’re okay. Fawn, please, one moment, I have to tell Reggie that–”

Argh! Are you kidding me?! Haha, hahaha. As if I didn’t already have enough reason for hysterical laughter. It’s okay. It’s okay, Fawn was there, and she was in a playful mood, so nothing too life threatening is happening, or Laomati would call back immediately.

Alright, back to the Nagas, our Umbral giant billiard ball at sonic speeds should get us there fairly quickly. I really want to try out those hulking forms out here, without the cranked electro senses and numbing, but we’ll wait until after we’re in a recuperatable area.

I have a phoenix egg! What the heck!? I know I was trying to not freak out about it, and it doesn’t have a normal timer, but wow! Okay, breathe Reggie, breathe. Actually, this may be a roc egg, or some sort of hybrid. Has a rocnix or phoeroc ever existed before? What would they be like? Would they want to return to their parents right away? Would they spawn with memories and knowledge like most critterkin?

A few glides at subsonic speed, coupled with some time spent in supersonic Umbral sphere gets me to the Nagas’ city quite handily. TQ is waiting for me at the top of the temple. It’s caved in. That’s going to make getting to the temple of time annoying if we ever reunite the six book owners.

TQ gives me a message from Luni, “Your Anchor left me with instructions for you. Why she thought I of all people would deliver them, I have no idea, but it does serve the greater purpose for you to know. You have to go back to the Fairies and begin building what she said you’d help build. You won’t be seeing Lil or Lucky for quite some time. The Nagas won’t join right away, don’t try to convince them or tell them about anything, not yet. Most of them won’t make it if you try to convince them to leave now. It’s your choice. Lastly, if you want any chance of seeing Linti after all of this is over, she can help get more of them to the sanctuary when it’s finally time to move. In that option, you won’t see her for a very long time. Or she can stay and fight with us, and in the end, you will never, ever see her again. Regardless, leave the Nagas’ city without interfering with anything they’re doing right now, don’t take any of their time up at all.”

I crumple to my knees in front of TQ. Luni, she, she’s talking to me. Sort of. She hasn’t forsaken us. My-Anchor. I love you. Whatever you’re doing, whyever you’re gone, I trust you. I’m flooded with relief from having a message from Luni, but flooded with panic at knowing that I’ll have to choose Linti’s destiny, or put the choice in her hands. I know what she would pick if given the choice. I don’t think I could stand the idea of never ever seeing her again. Is it right to not tell her though? No, it’s not. But I can try to convince her that the other option is just as necessary.

I’m a little worried that I technically already had Brastley send the message, and Lu said not to tell them yet. The Nagas don’t seem to be acting like people that know the world could be ending. Instead they’re rebuilding the temple mostly. Many of the Nagas left don’t have strong magics, or any magics. They were ones that were protected by Lluxop and Rastoc, or in their homes during the attack, or fortuitously brought from the industrial sector to help tend the wounded just before the bombs went off in their workplaces. My aura-toxin-induced blindness is mostly wearing off, I guess my body isn’t going to adjust to it permanently. I do still have a few vials of the toxin yet though. I wonder if I can manage to alter my biology for my eyes to have the toxin naturally produced at the lowest level. I’d probably need toxin conjuration as a skill, in which case I could just make more vials of the toxin.

Alright, regardless, I can be back with my family in short order. But why won’t I see Lucky or Lil? Wait, are they staying here to tunnel out the temple? Hm, I guess that makes sense. I could probably just melt our way down to it if I get Jaz to finish helping me bring my acid generation skill above zero.

As I arrive at the Miracle Oak that houses the Faeries’ settlement, most of my family is present, though the Lavaborn Alliance is still miles behind. It seems my family came ahead to begin setting up the settlement as best they can. They seem to be digging a ditch around the Miracle Oak, as well as a segment that heads off east, towards the coast? Do they want a canal? I suppose that’s the best way to ensure that we have fish spawns, if our lake is technically connected to the ocean where they occur naturally.

Things might just work out. I just need to convince one of the three other gods to avoid or fight off the entity’s influence.

Lao meets me as I land, and she gasps at my stump of a hand. I had better never tell her how many limbs I lost over the last few days.

Lao exclaims, “We haven’t heard from Lil or Luni, Lucky is missing, Teuila only stopped by momentarily a day or two ago without exchanging many words, we’re getting frightfully worried!”

Oh, whew, I mean, normally Lao’s news would be catastrophic and heartbreaking for me, but I know where at least three of them are.

I respond, “It’s okay, it’s okay. Lil and Lucky are with the Nagas, I think they’re underground, hard working and busy, because the Naga society was damaged. Lil is looking after two of their sweethearts, Dehlia and Dehlia. Dehlia’s in a coma. Luni though.”

I heave a sigh, “Luni needed time away from the family when I killed Mataalii. She went west. Out west I saw another family of otters, and one of them I swear was Penina. I know it would be cruel to plant false hopes, but I swear on my life that the pearlescent coat and vibrant violet eyes and even the shell were the same.”

Lao drops to her knees, “You, you what? You’re sure? Both of those things?” She grips at my clothing, tugging on my top feebly, fighting back tears of mixed emotions.

I embrace Lao as best I’m able to in my current position and condition. We have a lot of catching up to do. I apparently have to finish some things around here before I seek out Tenith Grayl, the Sky Unending.