My body had been wrung dry by the Blessing, leaving me without any Mana and with the vicious seeds of a hangover. Seeing the ugly sword I had carved hit the ground and explode, wiping away my foe but also my two companions, only intensified my panic. In addition to all those issues, my animating array was teetering on the brink of collapse. The process likely would have been incredibly painful, if not for issue 1: my lack of current Mana stalled out my impending collapse.
In addition to all those frantic details, I also noted one glaring omission-- I hadn’t received a notification that Gymellicka was defeated.
Those thoughts, along with fifteen points of Health, were knocked out of me as I hit the hardened clay of the ground.
For almost a ridiculous amount of time, I lay with my flesh trembling. My animating array crackled, the gathered Mana creating an almost electromagnetic rejection between flesh and energy. A part of me wanted to snap open like a horrible reverse mouse trap.
Needless to say, I would not survive that development.
This is not leisurely. I groaned as I forced my flesh to move. Although the tremors lingered, my new reliable beaver thighs kept me upright. Yet if anything, my panic only worsened. It might be a muffling effect of the heavy layers of clay, but-
I couldn’t feel any jelly vibrations from my siblings. I teetered on the edge of that same bleak gulf of grief.
Your Skill (Earned) Detection has grown to Level 25(+34).
My first order of business: scoping out the aftermath. I shuffled up to the base of the mound of mud about twice my height, centering on where Gymellicka had been standing. Most of the ‘runoff’ from that initial impact went back to the left and right from the impact. Her shields had held for a second, then crumbled, so clay was able to blast her back and slide in every direction-
A head popped up out of the mud.
Three more followed, in quick succession.
“Nightshade,” I breathed out a gush of relief as my brother shook off a beaver head and blinked at me.
“‘Ware, Tallum,” Nightshade growled.
Your Skill (Earned) Innate Mana Attunement has grown to Level 25(+4).
My Skills gave me a brief warning, but then the clay directly beneath my feet exploded. I flailed back, slapping around with my armored beaver tail. The armor sizzled and burned as it smacked three of Gymellicka’s Seven Jewels.
But then those remainders pivoted and shot toward me-
Your Skill (Earned) Body Manipulation has grown to Level 25(+28).
I dodged two. Once spiked through my gut, taking 31 Health with it.
How many of those did Sage endure…? My mind short-circuited for a moment.
Gymellicka leveraging her own form out of the clay did a lot to put a halt to that ominous math. Her right arm was twisted and held close to her ribcage, likely fractured from the sheer mass of the clay sword I had unleashed on her. Also, the back side of her toad lower body gushed out blood onto the clay. Riverlets twined their way down and trickled against my beaver toes.
I dropped tentacles down to touch the blood, even as my gaze didn’t wander from the powerful being beyond the Second Growth Threshold.
You have successfully Absorbed Anima! Anima +35.
Your Skill (Species) Absorb Anima has grown to Level 47.
You have successfully Absorbed Anima! Anima +28.
You have successfully Absorbed Anima! Anima +33.
Your Skill (Temp) Mana Feed has triggered! Restoring 22 Health and 11 Mana over the next 30 seconds.
You have successfully Absorbed Anima! Anima +41.
Your Skill (Species) Absorb Anima has grown to Level 48.
I quashed the euphoric rush from my instincts and ignored the notifications; even weakened, I could not underestimate the Seven-Crowned Toad Lady.
“Now I understand my mistake,” Gymellicka said slowly, her gaze drifting from Nightshade to me and then back again. “Your twisted influence… how could its source be anything but selfish? You care not for the damage you cause, for the side effects, positive and negative. In the end, you are impure beings of Necrotic energy and blight. You-”
My mood darkened with each second that passed without Sage responding to our frantic jelly pulses. The bleak gulf inside of me opened so wide that half of my existence seemed like a hole to a howling pit of pain. Yet I was beaten to the punch.
“You owe a debt of endless torment,” Nightshade growled. He had experienced an extinction event in this fight: he was down to two beaver heads and his heron head, after sacrificing the squirrel head pillar to hold down Gymellicka. “Your coin of suffering will be spent endlessly, never nearing the value required for forgiveness; escaping the toll is beyond you. Ah, but I am weak…! An oath sworn, now discarded, because these hands prove unsuited for anything else.”
Nightshade’s jelly began to boil. The intimidating response was enough to stall out my own grief, as I witnessed it consume my brother. I stood transfixed for a moment, experiencing a strange catharsis as he raged with the very emotions I wanted to allow it to consume me.
“Listen, existence! In this second chance, I wished for a different path. Yet it seems I still covet power. My tongue remains the forked appendage of a devil. For vengeance, I will beckon into the darkness and welcome whatever crawls from the abyss. For I am the Beast, from which all lessers must flee.”
Speaking the word carved the letters into flesh. I didn’t even sense Mana in the process. Flesh cracked and parted, baked and torn. Rotten blood dribbled out of the etchings. Meanwhile, their eyes began to glow with an inner red light.
The Mana, plus all the life energy, in the environment began going haywire.
Your Skill (Earned) Innate Mana Attunement has grown to Level 25(+5).
Nightshade cracked the drying clay as he bull-rushed Gymellicka. He started at only a fourth of her size, yet the two heads with the carved word ‘Beast’ began rapidly growing. Even worse, they began breathing out a sickened purple cloud through their dead mouths; the energy of that discharge was worse than necrotic energy. Mana hissed in distaste, but the life energy actively died in the area.
Maou, I shivered in recognition for the role Nightshade had played in his past life. But then I hurried forward, suppressing the discomfort in my animating array, because my brother needed me.
Gymellicka conjured another Seven Stars. The blasts of energy rushed for Nightshade, but he pulled up a beastly beaver head and belched out purple radiation. The lances of light sputtered and died.
Hissing, the Toad Lady stepped forward and kicked with her good leg. The long limb slammed into Nightshade’s beaver head-
The impact pulped the bottom of its jaw and slammed against Nightshade’s body. He grunted, paused, but then pushed forward.
The ripped flesh of the beaver began to bubble. The word Beast seemed to grow larger. The redness of the eyes brightened. The bottom part of the beaver jaw morphed and regrew in an instant… with double as many teeth, and these very obviously sharpened.
Before Gymellicka could pull the leg back, the new head chomped down onto her leg. The breath of the Beast corroded the weakened Mana Field. As the Toad Lady screeched, I moved.
My high Wisdom and Mana Feed meant that the first few points of Mana had regenerated, and already the static in my barely restrained array had spat off discharge that burned my inner flesh. So I used those points to seep out poison, coated my Stained Fang, and drove the fang into the gored wound on Gymellicka’s back.
Notifications flashed up, but I kept ignoring them. I kicked back as Gymellicka twisted and swiped at me with her good arm. Then she pivoted, whipping her leg around at Nightshade-
The other Beast head swelled and gnashed its teeth. When the Beast Beaver head tried to bite the same way that the first had, Gymellicka halted her kick, twisted the leg, and then slammed her heel on top of the second head. While it was stunned, she smashed it directly in the face, crunching most of the skull-
I dashed back forward, ramming the Stained Fang again into Gymellicka’s back. Her movements faltered.
“Why must you indulge your darkest impulses?! Can you not see the benefits you could accomplish, should you discard your self-centered nature? Together, we would remake this world!”
“We are not just a vehicle for necrotic corrosion,” I grunted out the words as I twisted the Stained Fang. More blood gushed onto my limbs. “We will remake the world. Just not the version you wish to see.”
“Keh- Seven Stars!”
The lances of light drifted up from Gymellicka’s crown, but they were noticeably dimmer than they had been thus far. The attacks shot down toward Nightshade, but the second head had reformed enough to breathe out that horrid purple smoke. The projectiles died.
I felt slightly chilled as I noticed the reeds in the surrounding area began to droop and turn yellow. But it was an issue for later.
Gymellicka swiped again and I was a hair too slow. Her long fingers carved into my flesh-
Warning! Your Body Part Focused Eyes of the Unlucky Albino Python Baron have taken extreme damage! You have lost access to this body part. -7 Perception.
Warning! Your Perception is now 0. You have lost access to the Stat (Temp) Perception.
In an unfortunate twist of fate, this time, my eyes were the ones carved out of my flesh at the 11th hour. I stumbled backward, panic and grief and worry all exacerbating the sudden cessation of my vision. My beaver feet slipped on mud and I face planted.
Although I was dirtied, at least this bit of stillness reminded me of my energy sonar. And with Innate Mana Attunement, I had more than enough awareness to still function.
Immediately, I sensed the situation with Nightshade’s first head. My skin crawled to detect its shifting movement, the energy rippling through its flesh. I wasn’t sure what it looked like, but it sure as hell felt like a second set of jaws, larger than the first, grew out of the top and bottom of the head, so while the first set held Gymellicka’s leg still, this larger second set could bite down and chew on an even larger portion-
Crunch.
I shivered. Yup, that’s exactly what’s happening. Wow, Maou’s are no joke.
Gymellicka screamed. “You are a cruse! You breathe and make the land and air barren. If I had known-”
She twisted, but couldn’t escape Nightshade’s Beast head. And as she tried to tear her way free, she overbalanced and fell backward. She landed on top of me, driving me further into the clay. I twisted around, stabbing as best I could with my Stained Fang. Mana Feed triggered again as I was drenched in blood, pushing my Health up from dangerous areas.
I lashed out with all the effort I could, kicking with my beaver legs to cause pain when my Stained Fang got briefly caught in muscle fibers. I secreted more venom as soon as I had the Mana for it.
Distantly, I could still feel the struggle between devilish beaver head and Gymellicka. She wriggled on top of me, bringing her free leg around and smashing Nightshade again. However, the Beast head clearly grew stronger every second. It somehow endured the attack from the being past the Second Growth Threshold, flesh forming into armor on its forehead. Then the surrounding flesh wriggled again, and another, even larger third pair of jaws began to form.
In response, Gymellicka gathered the last dregs of her Mana, but this time in her hands, not her crown. I had a horrible sinking sensation: did she have another Blessing?
But before it could activate, I felt a flare of energy so close to me that I flinched in surprise.
Malignance had activated. From the inside out, poisonous flames raced through the Toad Lady’s flesh.
Gymellicka shuddered. Then she began to scream. The Mana died on her fingertips as her Health drained away. The pain must have been excruciating as she twisted, likely breaking the leg held fast in Nightshade’s jaws, to get away from me. I released a sigh and scrambled out of the way so I wasn’t smashed down again. Yet the flames were already on her, so she could only writhe in agony as they ate away more and more of her flesh.
Her fingers sharpened as survival instincts finally kicked in. She twisted around to carve away the offending flesh, but by now Nightshade’s second Beast head had reformed enough to bite her good arm and keep it from working.
“I curse you!” Gymellicka hacked out the words, spite and blood and poisoned blood dribbling from her lips. “With every ounce of my being, I curse you Chimera Core. Heed my words: you cannot escape what you are. The more you try to run, the larger the swathe of destruction you will create. All you touch with your tentacles will corrode and die. Every dream you attempt to build-”
“Do you know why you are mistaken?” I interrupted Gymellicka. She paused in her maddened tirade and looked at me. Poisonous flames ripped through her. Her flesh sagged as the being collapsed. I honestly couldn’t believe how much Health she had, that she managed to survive to this point. I huffed out a breath. “Because we are the choices we make, not the materials from which we are born. And our choices-- We three are survivors. No more, no less. And we will not be running from that truth.”
“Survivors? Three? Heh.” Gymellicka spat out her words. The poisonous flames had spread just from her lower body, now beginning to flicker up and warp the flesh of the humanoid form on top of the toad. “Yet are you not already reduced to two?”
“We are not,” I said, bluffing but wanting so much to believe. I tried to ignore the gulf of grief and believed in my sister, who was the strongest, the most ridiculous, the most unreasonable. I hid my tremors in my flesh, so Nightshade couldn’t sense my grief in my jelly. “We are still three.”
Gymellicka cackled. Her lower body collapsed, but she ripped her arm out of Nightshade’s second beaver head. With a few quick swipes, she carved up the ground. With those fingers, even as the poisonous flames finally made it to the arm, she dug up a pile of flesh and shook it at us. “Three? Ha! Survivors, you are not, blightspawn.”
For a split second, I felt confused. Without eyes, with only Innate Mana Attunement honing my natural energy sonar, I couldn’t know what the inert gunk Gymellicka proffered before us. But then I felt Nightshade’s internal wail of pain.
My focus narrowed. I fell. I fell and fell, and fell. It was a thousand times worse than Mimi, intubated, because even in that bleak tableau there had been the smallest glimmer of hope. That so long as the monitor kept twitching with the struggles of her heart, there was the chance for a miracle. For the doctors to be wrong.
But this-
There was nothing but the howling. I saw the sword again, the sword I had thrown together in panic. Weirdly, its color had shifted back from brown to black.
If I had a sword like that- My jelly curdled. I would-
“Hmph, Tallum, you always ruin my dramatic reveal.” Sage’s voice hummed against my skin. I gasped, ripped up from my dark musings like a deep sea divert dragged to the surface. Mental bubbles kept me from understanding. “What is a body, but the ugliest and fattest of the tails? This is a lesson for all: being a Nine-Tailed Fox is a point of a pride, but never assume that because we are so named… we can only have nine tails.”
My energy sonar fixated on the source of the voice. Two dragonfly wings fluttered, tails that had been ripped away earlier, connected by the smallest bit of goopy tissue. To my immense horror, that connective substance was Sage’s jelly. It was completely exposed.
But her gamble had clearly paid off because it was her flesh torso, the distraction tail, which had been turned into a pincushion by Gymellicka’s last Seven Stars.
For a split second, Gymellicka stared. Then, as her whole body was finally consumed by the poisonous flames, she collapsed. Notifications filled my awareness, but I set them aside for now.
Nightshade, as usual, beat me to the punch. Even dragging Gymellicka’s corpse behind him with the transformed beaver heads, he arrived before Sage. “You… you are alive? Unharmed.”
“Ah, Nightshade,” Sage shook her wings in distaste. “How can you look at the current me and say I am ‘unharmed’? All but two of my tails have been sacrificed, to slay such a minor character! If you had not wailed so piteously for me, I could not find it in my heart to forgive your foolishness.”
“You are alive,” Nightshade sagged in relief.
While I felt a somewhat similar shaky sense of relief, I tried to stay practical. I poked Nightshade in the side. “Ahem. Should you really keep ahold of the toad? That poisonous fire will spread to you soon…”
“It is for the best,” Nightshade recovered his usual stoicism. He looked at his beaver heads. “The taboo techniques I utilized for power… they have consequences. If these heads do not perish now, their Beast marks will grow stronger until they turn on me.”
Even as he spoke, as the purple poisonous flames spread to the beaver heads, I saw the eyes of both heads pivot and look at the main body with clear malice in their burning red depths. Only when the flesh had begun to rot underneath the purple flames did Nightshade use his heron head to cleanly sever the limbs. As those Beast-marked beaver heads withered, they didn’t flinch. They simply stared at Nightshade, from the depths of those flames, until they disintegrated.
Uwah. Being a Maou is no joke. Hopefully, his earlier prophecy about my evil doppelgangers has been satisfied now that he dealt with it…
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“Now, as is tradition…” Sage stretched the dragonfly tails. She almost looked like a butterfly currently, with just those two wings as tails and some goo in between.
I couldn’t help but laugh, even as my heart felt so twisted and stretched over the past few hours that the process of laughter felt unfamiliar. I was bruised and bent emotionally, but warmth surged through me. Nightshade wriggled closer, now reduced to his own unique look, a fat serpent with an extremely thin heron head.
We Chimera Core Siblings executed the dance of our people, the victorious wiggle of jelly.
We probably frolicked and danced in the mud for almost five minutes, exhausted but exuberant and triumphant. Finally, a change in the air gave us pause. Our Kami, To and Fro, appeared at the edge of the destroyed mud field.
The left head looked at me with distaste. “If you had recovered our Mantles, why have you delayed in returning them?!?”
Right head clacked its beak. “The delay was short. No harm has been done.”
The central head remained silent, even as I awkwardly opened up my flesh and passed back the Mantles the Gecko princess had stolen. I looked around; the geckos had fled, but I hoped that the Queen Gecko had kept her promise to restrain her daughter in the chaos.
The Kami waved a wing and the Mantles vanished. It pivoted and turned away. To my great surprise, it was the left head that spoke as the Kami began walking away. “It is a notable accomplish… to survive when this world delights in cruelty. Well done.”
My jaw dropped. Did it just… compliment me?
“Heh, after our fateful melee, have not we accomplished everything?” Nightshade almost sounded smug. Then his joyful humming jelly fell somewhat. “However… my oath… unsealing the devil’s tongue in this second life was something I had staked my life upon-”
“Don’t be so dramatic,” Sage waved a tail (dragonfly wing). “All, even proud Skyrages, make mistakes. Besides, your choice gave you the power to resist that ugly toad. Obviously, I had plotted a dramatic ambush, yet it might have taken longer than would have been safe to arrange.”
As Nightshade considered this, Sage began some bubbling of her own. “Besides, should not our attention be turned toward the future? Heheh, I, for one, am looking forward to our own crossing of this next Threshold. And with the Mantles returned, the environment will be ideal!”
Cross this next threshold…? I wondered what she meant for a split second, then looked again at the notifications I had been ignoring.
You have slain a Seven Crowned Toad Lady Lvl 27.
You have Leveled Up! Health +5, Mana +3, Free Stat +1. Please select which Stat will receive the free point.
Warning! You have passed the Maximum Mana Limit on your Core Array! Instability has increased.
You have Leveled Up! Health +5, Mana +3, Free Stat +1. Please select which Stat will receive the free point.
Warning! You have passed the Maximum Mana Limit on your Core Array! Instability has increased. Energy mutations and damage to surrounding flesh have become more likely.
You have Leveled Up! Health +5, Mana +3, Free Stat +1. Please select which Stat will receive the free point. Evolutions available
A Notable Achievement: For slaying a higher Level foe before the Second Growth Threshold, +25 Health, +5 Free Stats.
An Epic Achievement: For slaying a foe beyond the Second Growth Threshold before you’ve crossed it, +10 Insight, +10 Wisdom.
Due to Exalted’s Due, +2 Insight, +2 Wisdom.
Your Skill (Earned) Exalted’s Due has grown to Level 21.
Warning! Your Health will begin to degrade at the rate of 1 per second until the instability of your animating array is solved!
Would you like to discover evolution options? Prior to Evolution, Skills will be assessed. Please allocate free Stats before discovery, in order to obtain better options.
My vision spun through the dense haze of notifications. I felt a flutter of excitement. I slapped my flesh with my squirrel hands, reminding myself to be reasonable. Yes, evolving would put us Chimera Cores firmly as a powerhouse in our wetland area… however.
I’m losing one Health per second, I winced as I looked at the top part of my Status Screen.
Health: 180/345
My natural Recovery ameliorated the decrease, plus I had two Mana Feeds triggered from the last bit of struggle against Gymellicka. In addition to all that… I consumed all the extra Anima I had accumulated, gulping down the Toad Lady’s blood. Just like that, 90 more Health appeared in my pool. But even after all those steps…
I probably had only five minutes until my crackling array tore itself away from my flesh and my second chance at life ended.
I, because I was leisurely, resisted panic.
Instead, I began hyperventilating.
“Your jubilation manifests in the strangest ways, brother Tallum,” Butterfly Sage said, fluttering over to me. When she alighted on my armored spine, she seemed to realize her mistake. “...is there a problem? Ah, have you seen your evolution options… and they all seem too similar to the creature that Brother Nightshade has become? I have… similar worries. Can I really endure another stretch as such a base being?”
“Hah,” I coughed out a laugh. Yet just that spike of humor was enough to refocus me. My next jelly pulse was much more controlled. “No I… I have too much Mana, even before the evolution. I don’t know… the previous evolution was so painful. If I go through it like this-”
An option occurred to me. One I didn’t like, in the least.
As I trudged through the mud to the far side of the field, Nightshade rumbled in distaste. “Is that not the way of existence? The brighter the star, the more the nearby celestial bodies covet its light. Brother Tallum, should existence reject you, reject existence!”
Easy for you to say, when you can speak in the devil’s language, I thought. I stopped in the mud and reached down. I picked up the Stained River Opal. I looked at it, the necrotic seed I had discarded, been absorbed by Gymellicka’s child, and had now come back to me in a refined and empowered state.
Because I knew one method of stabilizing my array. Hammering a spike of energy, connecting array to flesh for a while longer.
Yet the option felt ugly. Because I had repeatedly repudiated the Kami and Gymellicka’s accusations of simply being a spawn of necrotic energy. In my siblings and the zombies, I had witnessed the dangerous reactions when flesh experienced the touch of necrotic energy.
After all that… can I just… reincorporate this?
Isn’t that… backsliding?
“Tallum, you have altogether too much fondness for thinking,” Sage sighed. “If your array can’t handle the Mana, simply solve the issue. Have I not demonstrated how flexible dancing can be?”
My energy sonar wavered slightly; could it really be that easy?
First, just for the extra boost, I put all the 8 Free Stats I had earned in the notifications toward Wisdom. Then, with my focused senses, I brought my attention within my body to the crackling discharge of my animating array.
I winced; rumors of my demise had not been greatly exaggerated.
The constant depletions in Health were caused by my animating array stubbornly tearing itself away from my flesh, due to the natural rejection between the dense energy and mundane body. A lot like the Toad Lady’s natural Mana rind, which weakened attacks that tried to pierce forward.
But considering the behavior is the same… I pondered, then decided to try and follow Sage’s advice.
Your Skill (Earned) Innate Mana Attunement has grown to Level 25(+6).
The process felt extremely strange: because the problem was Maximum Mana, which manifested as the energy field pushing array and flesh apart. However, I could only affect the actual Mana. Currently, that gave me 11 points of Mana to work with.
I reached out, took that Mana, and then began to create a current of Mana. If I could somehow use the Mana current to bind my array and flesh together-
I earned a notification as soon as the current came into existence.
Warning! Aggravation to the core array detected! Health loss increased to 2 Health per second.
I hastily scattered the wisps of energy before I expired. Luckily, the Health loss fell back to its previous levels. With a heavy heart, I looked again at the Stained River Opal in my hand. I didn’t want this option, but if it was the only way to survive.
Is it worth continuing like this, if I need to rely on necrotic energy to do it? I thought.
Then I started; I had clearly been spending too much time with Sage and Nightshade if this fatalistic attitude had penetrated so deeply into my soul. Their ridiculously was infectious.
And yet-
I steadied myself. I remembered the lessons I had learned, thriving in this life. I looked at my situation. I watched the heavy energy field created by my maximum Mana. Within that area, I saw the crackling war between my two [Redacted]’s, layered on top of affecting that field and leaking out of my skin. Okay, so life energy, or at least whatever energy this is, isn’t a problem my Mana is. But why?
I skimmed through my Skill list. My attention snagged on Monstrous Array Knowledge. My squirrel fingers twinkled through hand seals. …can it really be that simple?
My Monstrous Array Knowledge gave me the tools to make a dispersal array. In the long term, it didn’t seem exactly healthy… but could I just expand the energy field created by my Mana Pool? The density would decrease, but that would mean the rejection between array and physical form wouldn’t be as strong.
Plus, I had seen what the result could look like; Gymellicka had a Mana Field that extended beyond the edges of her flesh. Perhaps it was usually a result of passing the Second Growth Threshold, but I doubted my shaky foundation could endure the evolution in its current state.
The downside is… I probably won’t possess the near-forcefield that Gymellicka had, even after an evolution… I wavered for a few seconds. I looked again at my Status Screen. The continued trickle away of my Health convinced me it was at least worth a try.
After the stressful last few hours, all of the tension in me had been released. The pressure of my headache stopped just short of being a fault line running through my cerebral cortex (figurative, due to my lack of brain). Yet I would myself back up. My focus narrowed. Because I needed to get this right and I didn’t have much time to waste.
My squirrel hands tingled. I remembered Mimi, laughing at me while I was in college. “Tallum, you know, you don’t always need to wait to the last minute. People finish things early all the time!”
“Ah, but do they truly live? Impending deadlines are the spice of life,” I had quipped in response.
In the present, I snorted. You always were right.
I gathered up the little amount of Mana I had regenerated and created a giant array node, covering my whole body. I felt my flesh stretch and shiver slightly; I didn’t pull my focus away but knew that mobilizing the Mana meant my Health would be falling even more quickly.
Don’t flinch now, Tallum. My jelly hummed. Around me, not quite following my struggle but still supportive, my two siblings hummed back. For this second life you’ve worked so hard to protect… for your principles, for the ability to be more than the monster you reincarnated as…!
Your Skill (Species) Monstrous Array Knowledge has grown to Level 10.
Your Skill (Earned) Innate Mana Attunement has grown to Level 25(+7).
Your Skill (Species) Monstrous Array Knowledge has grown to Level 11.
Arrays consisted of thin barriers centered on connected node points. The effect of the barrier, concentration or dispersal, depended on those nodes. Although they were the smallest piece of the array, they were the whole engine. At least, at my current understanding.
Besides, I couldn’t create a barrier for this particular array. I wanted to be inside the barrier, rather than surrounded by it. So I could only be a single node, sized up to include the whole of me.
Your Skill (Species) Monstrous Array Knowledge has grown to Level 12.
Wisp my wisp, Mana returned to my body. Focused as I was on creating the hoops for the array node, I almost intuited the process of Mana regeneration. For lack of a better term…an expectation hung within the scope of my Mana pool. A Mana Field, which expected to soon be full. It was the polarization I noticed, when observing the energy-cycle of Old Oak. As my polarization had grown stronger, I pulled Mana out of the energy-rich air more quickly.
Yet I couldn’t deny that the polarization is part of the strength and density of my Mana Field, the very thing now tearing me apart. Therefore:
Is part of what is killing me… my high Wisdom? Talk about curiosity killing the cat…
Your Skill (Earned) Monster’s Wisdom has grown to Level 25(+39).
Your Skill (Earned) Innate Mana Attunement has grown to Level 25(+8).
The System, as always, wasn’t as funny as it thought it was.
With Mana, I made the hoops; for a dispersal array, two stacked hopes, the small spun essence rotating away from each other. Energy would be pushed out. Yet I struggled for several seconds. To cover the whole of my flesh, I needed to make the hoops large. They needed to be big enough to have the node essentially pressing up against the inside of my Mana Field’s limits. So when the dispersal node activated, it pushed the limits of the field outward.
Mana wriggled in my grasp as I tried to create the rings and keep the sizes even. The effects would be severely diminished if the rings weren’t exactly equal. Old Oak had told me that, during one of his rambling explanations. My array ached, my flesh beginning to tear slightly as the powerful repulsion gradually pried those crystalized spikes of energy from my flesh. I tried not to observe this process too closely.
Your Skill (Species) Monstrous Array Knowledge has grown to Level 13.
Unfortunately, the typical size of the node appeared to function off some natural law; when you wove the rings, you created what amounted to the smallest possible thinness of Mana thread. Here, sized up…
Focus, Tallum. The humming of my jelly rose higher in pitch. My siblings followed with my lead, their jelly joining mine in a chorus of denials. We hummed for a life where we could escape the fates we were born with. We reached for a second life on our terms, not suffering the whims of an uncaring world.
Just… make a miracle.
Okay, framing it that way makes it sound impossible. It’s not a miracle. It’s-
Sage hummed out her answer. -Unreasonable.
But inevitable, Nightshade chimed in.
Your Skill (Species) Monstrous Array Knowledge has grown to Level 14.
Your Skill (Species) Monstrous Array Knowledge has grown to Level 15.
I wove two hoops of Mana right inside the edges of my Mana Field; actually, the physical presence of Nightshade and Sage helped. My Mana responded to their own Mana Fields, as foreign entities, in a way it did not with my own. Because they were right beside me, it gave me a natural stop. So I just wove the hoops to press up against them. As quickly as I could, I created the two and paired them. They were not identity, but pretty damn close.
The hoops rotated, a dispersal array created as a single giant node.
Your Skill (Species) Monstrous Array Knowledge has grown to Level 16.
My focus pulled back from my inner area. With my squirrel hands, I gestured for my siblings to move back. They squelched away in the mud. And as they retreated… just slightly, but the edges of my Mana Field began to wander out away from the edges of my flesh.
Warning! Instability remains in your animating array.
Warning! Your Health will begin to degrade at the rate of 1 per 2 seconds until the instability of your animating array is solved!
I offered the world a lazy grin. My focus narrowed again. I created another set of hoops. Not for a separate array, but to just stack on top of the two hoops already created. A slightly larger set, rotating in the same manner, one going in each direction to intensify the effect.
Your Skill (Earned) Innate Mana Attunement has grown to Level 25(+9).
Your Skill (Species) Monstrous Array Knowledge has grown to Level 17.
When that second set of hoops wasn’t quite enough, I added a third.
Your Skill (Species) Monstrous Array Knowledge has grown to Level 18.
Animating Array has stabilized.
A Mundane Achievement: You have avoided a catastrophe of your own making. +1 Max Mana.
“Brother Tallum, is it just me, or is your abundant spiritual generosity… manifesting in the surrounding space?” Sage sniffed.
Nightshade nodded. “Tallum, I too have traveled down this path. The confines of meaty coils chafe.”
I shook my head. “Sometimes, it is difficult for me to relate to you two…”
“You are not a fox,” Sage nodded, as though her mouth produced pearls of wisdom instead of unrelated nonsense.
I paused as a new sensation tugged at me. Because my attention wandered when the pressure of my array had decreased to the point I wasn’t losing Health. Yet my Mana Field continued to spread out and fill the surrounding space. And in the space inside my self-made node, Mana had decreased to being almost absent. Had this been a scientific facility, I might have called what I created an energy vacuum.
…to the point I felt a creeping condensation growing across my interior.
Blight? I was baffled when I recognized the energy-inert white substance caking itself across my interior. Isn’t this caused by Necrotic energy? Why is blight forming now? In an energy vacuum, no less.
“Now that catastrophe has been averted…” Sage pulled me back to the present. Her wings fluttered. “Is it time? As one, shall we ascend to our next forms?”
She didn’t wait for an answer; Sage fluttered her wings and her flesh began to glow with a potent wave of Mana.
Nightshade chuckled. “Sister Sage leads the way. It would be impolite to keep her waiting.”
Nightshade slithered a little further away in the mud and then initiated the process himself.
I hesitated for a bit longer, as the energy radiating off my two siblings grew stronger and stronger. I observed my inner area. The blight thickened across my array… and essentially created a seal, around the spikes of energy and through the lines of the animating array itself. I felt the constant rejection falling away.
Did I really just… solve the problem? I almost couldn’t believe it. My paranoia remained strong. Or have I just created some new issue for myself down the line?
To my immense surprise, I didn’t receive a Level in Monster’s Wisdom. If anything, that just made me more suspicious.
“Chosen Tallum,” Violala fluttered from the edges of the destroyed area and landed nearby. Her foreleg cut through the air. “Congratulations are in order; you and your siblings have reached the Second Growth Threshold. Do not worry about safety. I will stand guard as you evolve into your next form.”
“...are you not concerned?” I asked. When the venom mantis tilted her head to the side, I tried to explain. “We fought and overcame Gymellicka. An ally. So… I just… do you not perceive Chimera Cores as a threat?”
Violala shrugged. “Is not strife inevitable? Only one direction may be chosen for our development. Indeed, you Chimera Cores are leading us down an unfamiliar Path. Yet that does not mean it will lead to an unfortunate end. I am willing to put my faith in the generosity you have demonstrated.”
I looked at Violala for a long time. But I cleared my throat before I accepted her promise of protection at her word. “Lady Violala… I just want to stress that an ambush on me, right as I go through the process of evolution-”
“Chosen Tallum, do I look like a fool?” Violala clacked her mandibles, almost in irritation. “Even freshly evolved, you will still exist beyond the Second Growth Threshold. No, it is better to wait until I too cross this barrier, so you will not accidentally slaughter me.”
I guess that’s… reassuring…? I was too exhausted to think too deeply about monster logic. Instead, I opened up the blinking notification and told the System to discover my evolution options.
Prior to Evolution, Skills will be assessed.
(Species) Absorb Anima Lvl 48, (Species) Integrate Body Part Lvl 38, (Species) Interstitial Body Structure Lvl 39, (Species) Contemplate Flesh Lvl 17, (Species) Monstrous Array Knowledge Lvl 13
[10/10] (Earned) Innate Mana Attunement Lvl 25, (Earned) Detection Lvl 25, (Earned) Body Manipulation Lvl 25, (Earned) Monster’s Wisdom Lvl 25, (Earned) Mutinous Grit Lvl 25, (Earned) Field Butchery Lvl 25, (Earned) Short-Term Prediction Lvl 25, (Earned) Unnatural Adrenaline Rush Lvl 25, (Earned) Minor Realm Step Lvl 23, (Earned) Exalted’s Due Lvl 21
(Temp) Mana Feed Lvl 23, (Temp) Weak Secretions Lvl 25, (Temp) Armored Deflection Lvl 15
(Language) Bestial Comprehension Lvl MAX(+5)
All (+’s) consumed. Calculating…
Assessment finished. For a single Skill reaching Quantity [60] you have received an Epic Achievement. For two Skills reaching Quantity [50] you have received two Notable Achievements. For eight Skills reaching Quantity [30] you have received eight Mundane Achievements.
Calculating base Achievements… you possess 23 Mundane Achievements, 16 Interesting Achievements, 15 Notable Achievements, and 3 Epic Achievements.
21 Mundane Achievements become 7 Interesting Achievements!
21 Interesting Achievements become 7 Notable Achievements!
20 Notable Achievements become 4 Epic Achievements!
5 Epic Achievements become 1 Wondrous Achievement!
Achievements for Evolution: 2 Mundane, 2 Interesting, 2 Notable, 2 Epic, 1 Wondrous.
So many more Achievements this time… but tsk, if they had all been 2’s…
Achievements have been consumed!
As an Experimental Chimera Core, You may evolve into: [1] Unstable Chimera, [2] Vampiric Chimera Core, [*3*] Erratic Mana Chimera Core, [**4**] Blight Nucleus Chimera Core
Unstable Chimera: A choice to discard the dangerous animating array invented by the Necromancer Raccain and instead focus on the powerful flesh available to Chimeras. Many of the current Skills will be restructured or restricted to suit the new form. Body part absorption will become more difficult. Recovery from limb loss will become more difficult. Will obtain Species Skills upon Evolution, based on body parts. Will obtain access to the Stats: Strength, Constitution, Agility, Attack, and Defense.
Vampiric Chimera Core: Smaller issues in the Chimera Array will be solved by increasing the energy consumption. Please note- this will require much larger amounts of Anima absorption to become stable. Will become more sensitive to certain forms of energy. Will obtain a few new Species Skills, as well as a greatly improved version of Absorb Anima that can be activated even from a distance. Will obtain access to the Stats: Constitution, Dexterity, Intelligence, Insight, Wisdom, and Perception.
Erratic Mana Chimera Core: The core formations of Raccain’s array innovations have been completely transformed by the influx of vast amounts of Mana. However, similar advantages to Experimental Chimera Core are present. All species Skills will be strengthened. It is possible to observe and absorb the Blessings of consumed victims. Instabilities persist in this new array. Mana will continue to increase. Will obtain Access to the Stats: Wisdom, Insight, and Heresy.
Blight Nucleus Chimera Core: Please Note, Option [**4**] is just a theoretical estimation. No specimens have been observed.
I sat and observed my options for several long seconds.
An evolution to a stable but more fixed form.
A strengthening of my Anima Absorption properties but also my dependence on Anima.
Also a continuation of my current evolution line, which would likely involve more Mana antics.
But it was… difficult to tear my eyes from the glittering notification regarding option 4. And despite the warning-
Perhaps its the exhaust, but I hope for- I paused. Not a miracle. Just something unreasonable… but inevitable. If no specimens have been observed yet… I suppose I’ll be the first.
Maybe I was a fool. But the trust I had put into Sage in an impossible situation had paid off. I made another gamble and clicked on option four.
You have chosen to Evolve into a Blight Nucleus Chimera Core! Dispersal Array strengthened. Dispersal Array strengthened again.
Condensing Blight Nucleus…