My Mana Sensitivity gave me an almost too-exact fix on the location of the three-eyed monster. That strange absence, sitting on the heron’s forehead, burned against my energy aura quite like a spot could get seared into a cornea by staring too long at the sun.

From my observations from the Kami, I could understand at least a little bit of the principle behind the heron’s power; it hosted a drain on energy, but all that flowing energy passed through its body to vanish into whatever void was connected to Corruption. I could see Mana empowered the monster, at least for the brief moment of contact, before it flowed onto the great beyond.

Your Skill (Earned) Mana Sensitivity has grown to Level 25(+11).

Exactly because I could compare the power I sensed there against my own, and the power wielded both by To and Fro the River Wanders and Old Oak Grasps Upward, I worried about Nightshade.

Yet Sage gave me a meaningful glance.

I get it. Let him handle this one. I felt slightly stifled but set that feeling aside. After all, I am not the protagonist of this story; we are three siblings surviving together. Sage and I have had our time at the forefront, so now it's Nightshade’s turn.

But he is one of my two important anchors. My second chance, to not let a beautiful relationship simply fade, as I did with Mimi.

My gaze shifted from the Heron, to Nightshade, to the thin branches of the bare tree in the bayou, and then to the small cage and the gecko within. It was a strangely sour feeling, to hold back. I reminded myself this… was not my stage. So I watched, gathering as much information as I could.

My worries swelled as the Three-eyed monster scythed forward, the heron’s near-skeletal wings carrying it alarmingly fast. Yet with just as much vigor, Nightshade swam to meet the monster. He splashed water in every direction as he lashed out with his squirrel-head arm. The totem of murder twitched as he attacked, the heads pivoting around to see vulnerable flesh.

The heron beat its wings. Its long legs hung almost loose beneath its body as it swerved to the side. Nightshade moved quickly, sending ripples out in every direction, as he brought a venom mantis head out of the water to bite at one of the long limbs.

This time, the heron didn’t bother to swerve. The leg blurred. Rather than dodge, it had simply stomped.

The skull of the venom mantis head burst.

“Are you disposable riffraff?” The gecko rapidly flicked its tail against the cage, an annoying tap-tap-tap that caused its woven cage to swing. “If you are going to expire quickly, flail in the direction of my cage. I’ll give you an excellent eulogy as I escape. Something tasteful yet inspiring. Perhaps a brief poem?”

The Corrupted Bog Heron made minute adjustments with its wide wings and its body seemed to slither through the air like a greased serpent. It coiled back around as Nightshade’s broken arm leaked fluid into the nearby water. The monster lowered its beak and pecked at the back of Nightshade’s central head.

I wanted to move as my worry spiked, but I remembered Sage’s words. So long as I didn’t worry, neither would Nightshade.

I flexed my squirrel fingers. Am I seriously also responsible for our morale? Haaah…

“But also…” My annoyance intensified as the tap-tap-tap of tail on cage continued. Shouldn’t it be fine if I just shut the gecko up?

At the last moment, Nightshade jerked to the side to avoid the peck. And simultaneously another snake head popped up out of the water and bit at the heron’s beak. Yet it was a canny monster, avoiding the counter-blow and ascending with a beat of its wings.

Even as the Heron swooped in the opposite direction, Nightshade gathered himself. He kept the floppy squirrel head arm above the water and I could see the flesh of the limb growing a deeper blue; soon, he would activate his special Species Skill to even the score.

But we are still talking about physical problems. The greatest threat of the monster is its Corruption and the Mana that it provides.

Meanwhile, our contingent of fae squirrel followers had circled around to the far shore. The squirrels chittered excitedly, splashing around in the shallows as they watched the confrontation. At their back swaggered the bear kami, waving its paw excitedly. “Yes! Take a bite out of the bastard! For the glittering wood!”

Corpse desecration is definitely a much more forgivable offense, in this world. How quickly they’ve become fans-

Tap-tap-tap.

“Sage, can you…?” I said, barely suppressing my annoyance.

She was already pivoting. “Scaled cretin. Cease your jittery affectations.”

If anything, the gecko perked up at being addressed directly. “How dare you speak to a princess-”

“Call yourself a princess in front of me again and I’ll stuff a tail down your throat and rearrange your organs,” Sage said pleasantly. The gecko released an annoyed hiss but didn’t speak further.

After all, not all princesses are created equal.

The fight once more became our focus.

Sage and I drifted around toward the squirrels, while Nightshade faced off against the monster. The heron swooped closer, the legs still deceptively relaxed. They swayed like bands of rubber, rather than tools of murder. But perhaps most alarmingly, I felt a shift in the monster. For lack of a better term… the eye of corruption held by the Bog Heron ‘opened’.

Mana began surging wildly in the air above the bayou. To the point that the hunched, leafless tree shivered. The gecko’s cage rattled, but no longer because of its own actions.

Nightshade bobbed up and down in the water. The color of his skin continued to deepen. I could almost feel the intensity of the collision as his focus and the opened eye of corruption met. The air between them became heavy.

Am I just inserting anime cliches, or are they based on real phenomena…?

…control yourself Tallum. You are letting the fantasy setting corrupt you…

Mana infused the Corrupted Heron’s body. Even to my senses, the monster’s movements shifted to possess an extra sharpness. A leg flipped down, splashing the water up to screen Nightshade’s view. Meanwhile, the other leg swept horizontally, hiding under the lip of the wave.

I opened a maw to shout a warning but remembered Sage’s words. For a moment I teetered, but ultimately closed my mouth.

Yes, I could not bear to lose you, Nightshade. But… I also trust you.

Your Skill (Earned) Monster’s Wisdom has grown to Level 25(+20)

I generously decided not to read too much impending success in the notification timing.

“Oy, hydra thing-y,” The gecko finally worked up the nerve to speak again. “Don’t dodge. Losing a head here will empower you, yes?”

Next to me, I felt Sage’s ooze vibrations become positively glacial.

Nightshade broke the plane of the wave first, a serpent head erupting forward. From the minute adjustment of the Heron’s wings, I saw that even the monster was taken by surprise; Nightshade must have blasted forward as soon as the splash was between them. Because of that, the Heron hooked its scything leg upward, simply cutting off the serpent head. Fluids pumped out of the decapitated arm into the dirty water.

The Heron stayed low, bringing the first leg back around for a thrust-

The flesh at the end of the severed serpent head rippled. Then, all at once, three smaller serpent heads erupted out of the stump, mouths wide and fangs extended.

For the first time, the Heron moved its wings in more than a small adjustment. It unleashed a powerful beat, pushing its body almost a foot upward in a split second. But the serpent heads extended and followed. Nightshade used the heads created by his strange Skill to bite into the Heron’s legs, dragging it back down before it could escape.

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Nightshade surged out of the depths of the water, climbing the extended limb like a rope. But as he raised its squirrel head arm to inflict some real damage, Mana began to arrange itself along the Corrupted Heron’s body in a new pattern. This was more than empowerment; The edges of the monstrous bird’s feathers began to glitter.

“Those of Corruption stand in stark opposition to the glorious Kamis,” Our teddy bear Kami called from the edge of the bayou. As far as I could tell, the bastard would take even this opportunity to lecture and monologue. “They are called Curses, rather than Blessings, but still the effects can seem similar to the untrained eye. This three-eyed monster… possesses two curses. The first… the Curse of the Steel Feathers.”

Your Skill (Earned) Mana Sensitivity has grown to Level 25(+12).

“Kami’s are so petty,” The gecko observed. “Why call them Curses instead of Blessings if they behave the same?”

“You!” The teddy bear turned and glared at the cage. “How can a life-giving Kami be compared to that glorified leach beyond the veil?”

“Didn’t you just make the comparison?” The gecko observed. For several seconds, the Kami's jaw worked soundlessly.

Definitely, getting it to shut up can be considered impressive...

The Curse (or Blessing) activated. Mana made it impossible for me to follow the Heron’s movements. Energy begot light, releasing a blinding radiance of power as Mana rushed along its body. When my vision cleared, the Heron had snapped its wings to its body and dropped toward Nightshade. The first wing swept sideways, feathers severing the three spawned secondary heads. Immediately, Nightshade’s serpent neck that had produced the extended heads began to wither and die, spent by the Skill.

The other wing swung down, aiming to bisect Nightshade entirely now that my sibling had left the relative safety of the water.

“Bumbling incompetence,” The gecko groaned. “I’m fucking doomed. This is what I get for being the hottest piece of scale on this hideous stretch of mud…”

In that moment of danger, the strangest thing happened; I saw Nightshade look at me. I was so frozen with worry, I didn’t even have the opportunity to respond.

Seeing my stillness, I felt a smirking vibration from Nightshade’s jelly. Indeed, brother. Watch, and I’ll construct an edifice of triumph from corpses.

I blinked. “Uh-”

Nightshade had climbed up out of the water on the front right of his heads, a serpent head, which now disintegrated. He came out swinging with his front left limb, the squirrel head arm. He had two other head limbs remaining, a serpent one and a venom mantis one, aside from his central head. The venom mantis gnashed its mandibles at the Heron, while the final serpent head remained stretched down within the water.

The wing of the heron cut through the air. My brother didn’t flinch, swinging his squirrel head arm to meet the attack. My senses remained fixated on the sheer amount of Mana coursing through the Corrupted Heron’s body.

I couldn’t bear to watch.

I couldn’t look away.

Like he had hit the end of a bungee jump, Nightshade halted and snapped back down as he flexed his serpent head, which must have slithered down and bitten into the ground beneath the water. The Heron’s wing ripped through the space he had just vacated.

Nightshade pivoted his body and the longer squirrel head arm twisted around, bringing the lead head near the Heron’s other leg. As I watched, squirrel teeth snapped shut and ripped away a chunk of the Heron’s long limb.

“Behold! The glory of the glittering wood!” The Kami cheered. The surrounding Bloodthirsty chitterers saw blood leaking out of the three-eyed monster and went wild.

Your Skill (Earned) Detection has grown to Level 25(+6).

I glanced behind me as the Skill activated, expecting another threat. Yet instead, an adolescent bloodthirsty squirrel, half the size of a member of the patrol that had come on the expedition with us, hopped out. It clambered on top of one of its fellows, making tiny squirrel fists and gesticulating wildly in triumph.

The child must have secretly followed after the patrol, wanting either to protect its Kami or to witness the battle against the Three-eyed Monster. And now, this young one’s eyes burned with awe and zeal as it looked at Nightshade. It looked-

Are those the sort of eyes you want me to make, Nightshade? A little bit of understanding clicked into place as I pivoted back to face my brother. Well… maybe not so filled with zeal. But… You just want me to be proud of you, don’t you?

I had spent a lifetime following in Mimi’s shadow. In retrospect, I hadn’t handled it well. Her successes… I mean, I was always proud of Mimi’s natural talents. But I also resented her, because I could never live up to the standard she set. My relationship in this life with Nightshade was very different; in a way, I realized that we had very different areas of expertise. So I felt responsibility, and perhaps a little pity for him, more than anything.

My jelly hummed. When it comes to bullishness… no one can rival you, brother. Not even me.

I felt Nightshade’s joyous pulse of response as he received my acknowledgment.

Simultaneously, the Corrupted Heron moved. It unleashed a shriek of pain as its leg bled. All the Mana concentrated in its feathers… exploded out in every direction. Jagged daggers of energy spiked through the water, but a fair amount of the Mana concentrated on Nightshade’s body. More fluids spurted out as the projectiles sank into his flesh. Several of the heads on his squirrel arm were bisected and shredded.

I shifted to the side to avoid a feather but belatedly realized that some would pass over my head and aim for the shore behind me. I twitched, thinking of that small squirrel. My tail flicked upward and shattered the Mana feather.

Warning! You have lost 22 Health!

Warning! Your Reliable Tail of the Unlucky Python Baron has been damaged! Please prevent further damage so the body part will not be destroyed.

I felt a mental drop of sweat head form. Ah, if I hadn’t gotten the extra Constitution and Defense… I would have lost a body part, just like that.

“Fucking blight!” The gecko yelped as a feather blitzed past its cage and impacted the branch holding it. The cage bounced around but ultimately held. Which felt oddly aggravating to me-

“What a blessing,” Sage spoke next to me, completely deadpan. Her eyes briefly flicked to the cage. “It would have been a tragedy if that cage fell into the bayou… and that poor pretender was unable to escape its bindings and drowned.”

Sage… Once more, I said a quiet prayer of thanks that I had become siblings so early with this former monster. Her frigid attitude toward those who gave us even the smallest slight could be quite vicious.

Nightshade’s current state drew back my attention; he tanked five of those powerful feathers. After releasing the attack, the Heron pivoted around and now swooped low in Nightshade’s direction. While bleeding, my brother thrashed backward. The venom mantis head swelled and rushed forward to meet the attack, to buy Nightshade some time.

I would have moved then, overcome with anxiety, discarding my brother’s pride to help him, if I hadn’t sensed the state of his jelly-- despite the dangerous situation, he hadn’t wavered in the slightest.

So I paused and had faith in my sibling. The color of Nightshade’s skin had darkened, as he activated another Skill.

This time, the Heron jabbed its beak forward. It easily avoided the mandibles of the venom mantis head and snipped entirely through the limb. The head tumbled midair, slowly stiffening. Nightshade thrashed in the water, moving backward. The Heron swooped closer and closer-

The water beneath the heron stirred.

“These two,” The gecko clicked its tongue. “Aren’t they just luring each other into ambushes over and over?”

Privately, I couldn’t help but agree. But when it was Nightshade’s turn for an ambush, excitement flooded through my every limb.

A snake head erupted out of the water, swollen to five times its normal size under the cover of the dirty liquid. The snakehead had become so large that it barely seemed to be a snake any longer, but had a closer resemblance to a sea serpent. I had no idea how Nightshade managed to improve his size-increase Skill to this point, but also he regularly wandered far afield at night to practice.

You’ve worked tirelessly, haven’t you, in dark places far from your siblings. I realized. Not because you wanted to take us by surprise… but because that’s how you invest in the present, how you change your lot in life.

You don’t only work when it's convenient or when others will notice and reward you. But you work constantly, because your resolve doesn’t waver.

…definitely, brother. I admire you.

The snakehead was enormous as it shot upward with its jaws wide. Large enough that as the Heron frantically beat its wings, the mouth spread wide enough to engulf the entire Corrupted beast. Before the three-eyed monster could escape, the jaws snapped shut. Massive, snake fangs sunk into the heron’s body.

For a second I felt a flash of triumph as the bird screeched. But whereas I had thought the eye of Corruption had opened before, now it waxed fully. Mana roared through the air.

“The second Curse,” The Kami whispered. “A Solitary Sky.”

I could feel the Mana gather beneath the Corrupted Bog Heron. The energy acted as a rocket booster, accelerating it upward with such force even the massively empowered snake head ripped and tore. The shredded flesh of Nightshade tumbled down and splashed in the water as the Heron dominated the sky above the bayou. Even wispy clouds were forced away.

Two deep wounds in its torso sluiced blood, but it looked down at us with baleful eyes.

“Not like this!” The gecko screeched. Belatedly, I realized that a hunk of Nightshade’s swollen snake head and smacked against the branch holding the cage. Already weakened by the previous feather, the cage and the ‘princess’ contained within now tumbled toward the water.

The Corruption the heron housed manifested physically, above its head. An inky drop of the void opened. More and more Mana poured into its body-

A bit of flesh on the Heron’s back stirred. I felt the pulse of Mana from Nightshade, precipitating the change. The severed venom mantis head, which had tumbled forgotten as the much more pressing serpent head revealed itself, now activated with the first skill Nightshade had demonstrated. The head must have landed secretly upon the monster’s back in the chaos.

Even though the body had been parted, the strange System of this world could bridge the gap. The flesh began to wither and die, but three heads erupted from the remnants of the one.

Before the heron could react, those three heads stretched and wrapped around its neck. The sharp mandibles of the venom mantis ripped through the flesh of its neck. More and more blood poured out of the monster’s body, even while the used flesh withered and disintegrated.

But those bites were enough.

The Corrupted Bog Heron raised its sharp beak and unleashed a piercing cry. The mass of Mana it possessed reverberated out, pushing away the surrounding clouds in an even larger area. It promised vengeance and doom toward those who harmed it. Then the bit of the void faded as the Corruption vanished.

Three seconds later, the corpse of the Bog Heron hit the Bayou.

Bobbing in the water, three Chimera Cores hid in the depths of their flesh while executing the jelly wiggles of victory.

After our individual struggles in the battles of the last two days, doing the dance of our people felt like coming home.