The belt Nil received from Symbiotech fit snugly. After finishing at Symbiotech, he returned to the scrapyard. Andrew and Susan joined him a moment later. Neither told him where the secret base of their operations was. It wasn’t that they didn’t trust him. Instead, the pair worried about Shina tailing him or Katherine accidentally reading his mind during sex. Nil often felt a deep link with her while in the throes of passion. It heightened their pleasure, but he frequently saw flashes of whatever was going through Katherine’s mind and was almost sure she got the same. There was always a chance of her finding out about their plans, and everyone worried she’d prioritize the Metropolitan Police over the Nexus’s quest.

“Even if our sabotage fails, I bet your caseworker will be ecstatic about all the intelligence we gather,” Andrew stated. Unintelligible data scrolled on the aetherscreen in front of him. “It will take me a while to decrypt everything, but look at this.”

The screen changed to show the Symbiotech headquarters wards, laboratories, and containment rooms.

“You infiltrated their security system.” Nil’s eyes widened. He leaned over Andrew’s shoulder, closely studying the shifting camera feeds.

“Give me some time, and I’ll do a lot more than that.”

“Isn’t it dangerous viewing this at home? Couldn’t they trace you?”

Andrew shook his head. “Don’t worry about it. Digging will lead them to New Delhi and then to Hang Zhou. Trust me. It's improbable they’ll find me here. It is only dangerous when I actively poke around in their system or try to extract data.”

“And he’ll be doing none of that from here,” Susan added.

“So, it looks like the wards with the children are directly above the Cursed Energy containment,” Nil said, comparing the blueprints and security feeds. “We can’t just blow things up. There’s got to be another way.”

“Don’t rush things,” Susan said, leaning against Andrew with an elbow on his shoulder. “Take a week or two, decrypt what you can. Study all you have. Then, come up with something concrete. It's important to do this as safely and quietly as possible. We all need plausible deniability. Even if Symbiotech are assholes and breaking laws, so are our methods. Doing the right thing is not good enough a defense.”

“I’m aware.” Nil sighed. “We can get away by throwing ourselves into a quest and asking the Nexus to minimize our time on Earth, but Andrew has no such protection.”

“I have the means to disappear too,” Andrew said, waving at the pair dismissively. “Working with the Pits’ organizers and selling cannibalized aethertech has made me more than enough friends. Let's not forget my awesome skillset. I can get a ride across the pond tonight if I’d like and get decent work somewhere in North America.”

“Losing your business, everything you’ve built, and all you’ve had would be just that easy for you?” Susan asked, moving away from her new partner, an eyebrow raised.

Andrew shrugged. “It's just things. I have enough money stashed away in offshore accounts to survive and start afresh. When you deal with an illegal situation, it's smart to have an escape plan. I only stick around for the connections I’ve made.” He smiled, focusing on Susan and squeezing her hand. “That includes the two of you. And I suppose out of laziness.”

“I think that’s Andy’s cute little way of saying he loves you,” Nil teased, winning a glare from his friend and a laugh from Susan.

“Well, I guess you twice over then,” Susan said, kissing her boyfriend’s left cheek. “Firstly, to save my life and then introduce me to this handsome criminal genius.”

“We’re even on the life front, Susan.”

“No. We were teammates, and keeping each other alive was our job. When you saved me, I was nothing but a stranger. You risked your own hide for my sake, and I doubt there will ever be a way to repay that.”

“How about we forget the whole repaying and evening things out bit, then?” Nil smiled. “I got a good friend out of it, and that’s all that matters.”

“I can agree to that.”

“Ugh. Emotions.” Andrew grimaced. “Take that shit elsewhere. I’m trying to work.”

“I’ll see myself out,” Nil said. He liked Susan. She was good company. However, he felt like a third wheel when she was around without Katherine. “Let me know if anything comes up. I need to get back to training and ensure the next match won’t be as close as the last.”

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“Good luck.” Susan hugged him goodbye and kissed him on the cheek. “Don’t overwork yourself. It's important to rest before these things.”

“Don’t worry. My new training regime involves a lot of rest.”

Nil took the Body Pill the following morning. The initial burst of energy was like someone had injected caffeine and a furnace directly into his heart. He had spent the previous evening practicing the cultivation exercises and used the gained knowledge to circulate the magic around his body, passing through his solar plexus and below his navel as often as possible.

The manuals called them the two most essential meridians. Nil wasn’t quite sure what that meant, but he didn’t question it. He kept it going during his warm-up and through breakfast before throwing himself into six solid hours of working out, obstacle courses, sparring, and catching Isabella’s little cannonballs. Sweat and grime leaked through his pores, and his lungs occasionally struggled to keep up. However, circulating the energy became easier as the hours passed. It felt as if his channels had widened, approaching the width of a standard cocktail straw. Forcing the viscous Qi through them was still a challenge, but considerably less than before.

Meanwhile, Meatball pestered him to play. Earlier in the day, when Nil woke up in the morning, he found the little whelp sleeping on his chest, spikes retracted so as not to hurt him. He had gently tossed her into the mulch-filled trough before getting ready for the day. Meatball seemed to love the feeling of being thrown. Occasionally, she would roll over to Nil and repeatedly bump into his foot, chirping.

At first, he wasn’t sure what she wanted and tried feeding her. Somehow, the whelp communicated her desires with animated squeaks and bouncing around. Nil wasn’t quite sure whether he was right, so he tossed her across the room. Meatball rolled into a tight spear midair and then bounced around a few times, changing direction and adding power to them with her spikes before speeding around the room as a ball, making happy sounds. The repeated requests interrupted his flow, but Nil didn’t mind. He considered keeping his new spirit companion happy and bonding with her to be essential to their future together as partners.

Meatball didn’t just bounce and roll. She unfurled her carapace a few times, separating them into woody tentacles, and used them to push off surfaces or climb. She fell a few times, and her armor cracked or chipped, but she flared emerald energy and rapidly healed the damage. The visage watched Meatball from a distance, looking curious and amazed.

After ignoring the visage for months, it felt strange to pay attention to it again. The thing was born of Cursed Energy, and even though it had never done him any harm—besides devastating his mental health for a long time—he wanted it gone. Nil hoped solving the quest would win him enough favor from the Control Worlds to do just that. He didn’t know whether getting rid of existing feats was possible.

I’ll settle for the means to contain her.

There was no denying it. The visage had its uses. It noticed Cursed Energy sources and presences that he didn’t. Nil could see it proving invaluable in quests that involved seeking out Cursed Ones, Agents of the Scourge, or Champions of the Dark Worlds. It wouldn’t be the worst thing if his soul weapon gave him the power to contain the visage and call it out whenever he needed it. Nil had soured on Katherine, but he knew to treat it as another tool in his arsenal, thanks to her.

Nil was in the fifth hour of the recommended training meant to accompany the Body Pill when things got significantly easier. It happened when the image in his mind’s eye changed. It wasn’t entirely voluntary. He no longer saw honey moving through straws. Instead, it was akin to a tiger swimming through a narrow channel. Except reeds often tangled its limbs and neck, and the beast needed to fight through and free of them, slowing its progression.

At first, the tiger struggled so much that drowning seemed imminent. Then, it grew more careful, gaining fluidity and moving with care. The beast took it slowly, weaving through the underwater foliage and occasionally ripping away the obstacles, making its progress easier.

Nil had read through Cultivation In A Barren Realm by Helgla Lydon. It spoke of several circulation and cultivation methods, and one resonated with Nil the most. He guessed it was the source of the imagery. Mangrove Tiger Refinement Technique’s name alone resonated with him. When he was still a little boy, Udit would often tell stories of growing up in the Indian state of West Bengal. His first job involved managing a tiger-prawn fishery in the Sundarban forest—the natural habitat of the Royal Bengal Tiger. The man had several tales of sighting the beasts or seeing the aftermath of their work.

The thought of emulating a tiger’s ferocity and power excited Nil. An Indian restaurant manager would often call him Tiger when he commanded the pass at Misdirection and expedited food too. It fit him.

Much to Nil’s surprise, Meatball’s interruptions didn’t get in the way of his cultivation. For the first time in quite some time, he enjoyed a Might increase.

Might has progressed to Iron 3!

It wasn’t a Finesse increase as Nil had hoped, but it was still welcome. Supercharging strength or durability would now give him greater returns.

Later in the day, after Nil finished cultivating and exercising, he finally responded to Katherine's message. She wanted to meet him for dinner and perhaps spend the night together afterward. He agreed.

When Nil tried returning Meatball to his core, the whelp resisted. She sped around his room, bouncing off the walls. The spikes scratched the wallpaper and left gouges on the floor. In the end, he settled for leaving her alone in the trough. Meatball happily dug around and made little mounds of mulch. The levels had decreased as she played around, so Nil added another bag of mulch to the container before his shower. By the time it was time for him to leave, she had settled in a new hole. The spikes covering her body retracted and extended from her body as she slept.