Cael could sort of tell where the Swarm was around him. The cacophony of dozens of heavy metal objects slamming into the ground more or less gave away their positions.

Honestly, they were all a bit too close for comfort, but the gradual receding of the noise was a good sign.

“Change of plans. Turn around, I think I have an idea for clearing the dungeon and getting you out of here.”

Cael turned his bike around and waited for Ava to elaborate, but she didn’t say any more even as he slowly left the Swarm behind. Neither did she tell him to turn, so he continued to move in a straight line. Slowly though. He didn’t want to crash into a wall by accident and he had no clue what lay at the end of this path.

Well, kind of.

While the steadily growing red glow was certainly foreboding, it was also comforting in a way after the long stretch of time he had spent in the dark. He didn’t think it was unreasonable to want to see the monsters that were going to eat him.

‘Cael. [Mana Sight].’ Tar reminded him.

“Sorry.” He apologized and activated the skill.

‘Don’t worry about it.’ Tar assured him as the world lit up around him.

Long lines of red stretched out from the end of the hall, pulsating softly like an ethereal heartbeat. They swayed lightly in the air but didn’t deviate for longer than a few seconds before they flowed back into place. And there, at the end of it all was the heart itself.

He flicked [Mana Sight] off for a moment to check, but the object at the center of the red web continued to glow.

“... Ava, is that, like, an actual heart?” Creepily enough, his own heart had begun to throb in time with the pulsing mana.

“It is.” She responded.

‘That’s cool, where’d you get it?’ Tar, for his part, wasn’t at all discouraged by the disembodied heart.

“My maker gave it to me.”

“Wait-” Cael had a bad feeling about this.

“We’re going to blow it up!” She interrupted cheerily.

The changeling groaned. “Ava, I can see the energy coming off that thing without even touching [Mana Sight]. That will kill me.”

‘Cael, I doubt she brought us all this way to just blow us all up.’

“Correct. You’re here for a couple of other reasons.”

“Such as?” He asked.

“I don’t want to die here?”

“Of course. What’s your plan?”

“Well, first I have to figure out how to swap souls around. I already have an idea, I just need a willing volunteer.”

‘Hopefully not one of us.’

“No.”

“Then one of the elementals?” Cael guessed.

Ava sent him a thought that felt like confirmation as a fist-sized elemental crawled out of the floor in front of him.

“Is this moral?” He asked as it tapped his leg.

[Bond Contract] has been initiated by Lesser Metal Elemental (Bridge Repairs- 5).

Lesser Metal Elemental (Bridge Repairs- 5) proposes a contract.

In exchange for companionship, Lesser Metal Elemental (Bridge Repairs- 5) requests absolute autonomy.

“Probably not, but this elemental isn’t powerful enough to gain intelligence.” Ava reasoned.

“Tar had intelligence at that level.” He shot back.

‘No, she’s right. I only have intelligent thoughts because I was at a higher level from the beginning.’

Well, if Tar thought so too…

Cael accepted the contract's terms. He was half sure he’d just condemned the little elemental to die in a fiery explosion, but that was probably fine. It wasn’t like he really knew them anyway.

Congratulations, you have gained a [Skill].

[Steel Soul] has been added to your [General Skills List]

“System?” He asked aloud.

[Steel Soul] (Active, Passive)

A metal elemental can be summoned. When the metal elemental familiar exists in the material plane, metal magic affinity is increased by 1%.

“It’s a bit different from [Spirit of Darkness].” he noted.

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‘Not nearly as good.’ Tar added with a hint of pride.

“It is the standard. If [Spirit of Darkness] has more benefits, then it will be harder for you both to cut ties.” She wasn’t paying attention again. Cael wondered if Ava knew how obvious it was to him.

‘That’s alright. I plan to stick around.’

Cael couldn’t help the bright smile that lit up his face at Tar’s idle declaration.

‘You’re like a puppy with abandonment issues.’ Tar observed.

“And you’re a kitten with attachment issues.” Cael retorted. “It’s like we’re made for each other.”

Ava interrupted before Tar could sass him back, but based on the emotions he was picking up through the bond, it would have been scathing.

“Wonderful. I think I have it figured out. Cael, if anything goes wrong, you will die horribly. Whether it be from dehydration, the Swarm’s claws, or incineration by an imploding god-heart, your fate is sealed in the event of a mistake.” She paused, and Cael felt it was for dramatic effect. “Of course, I don’t make mistakes. Are you ready?”

“For sure.”

‘No, he’s not. Ava, how much of this process would you say is based on [Luck]?’ Tar mentally flicked Cael for his recklessness.

“Oh, just a little. In a dozen simulations, factoring Cael’s egregious [Luck], I would estimate we have a fifty-fifty chance of success. Give or take fifty. Who knows how the System calculates probability with a factor like Cael involved.” Ava reported with an admirable amount of hope.

‘So you have no idea?’ Tar summed up.

“Not even a clue!” The glowing heart visibly skipped a beat before it returned to its steady beating with increased fervor that made Cael’s chest ache. He took that to mean she was agitated. Hopefully, it hadn’t meant she’d initiated the self-destruct sequence.

“Ava,” He hesitated. “I’m really sorry about all of this.”

She sighed, which made the heart’s glow hazy and less solid for a moment. “No hard feelings. I’m aware that you are likely also the only reason I am getting this chance in the first place.”

“Well, I’m pretty much fine with anything. Are you ready?” She was also somewhat screwed if anything went wrong.

“As ready as I can be.”

‘Alright! Let’s blow this popsicle stand!’ Cael guessed Tar was ready too.

“That doesn’t translate as well, but I’ll take that to mean we are all prepared.”

Cael sensed a bit of anticipation as she activated whatever she’d been working on.

The glowing heart went nuclear. It was pretty interesting to see the entire room flash a blinding red for a second, but much less so when it began to flash brighter with each beat of the heart.

Cael groaned. His heart continued to match the erratic pace of Ava’s increasingly volatile core.

‘Is Cael going to pop when this thing blows?’

“Don’t even joke about that,” Cael groaned, “You’re going to manifest it.”

He turned around the heavy bike and rolled toward the door. It was the only entrance or exit to Ava’s core room and his only route of escape from the sympathetic palpitations throbbing through his chest.

‘Ava? That was a genuine question.’ Tar prodded at Ava’s consciousness but received no response.

There was, however, an alarming feeling of absolute terror and pain from within his soul. He knew it wasn’t Tar, but- oh. The metal elemental. This was feeling a whole lot less moral all of a sudden.

Congratulations, [Steel Soul] has forcibly evolved into [Automaton Heart].

[Steel Soul] cannot be regained.

“Ava, did you just eat the metal elemental?” That had been somewhat horrific.

‘She is reconstituting.’ Tar reported.

“What?” Cael paused by the door to the core room. He was much less willing to brave the dark without Ava to guide him.

‘Her soul is here, but it appears diminished. It will be some time before she finds herself again.’

“How do you figure that?” Cael inquired.

‘The same happened to me.’

“I don’t remember that.”

‘Well, you were also a bit out of it at the time.’

Cael shrugged as Ava’s core passed some threshold and began whistling. Naturally, it was also accompanied by a heavy pulse in his chest that he swore he could feel across his whole body.

‘Oh. I feel it now. Uh, usually I’m all for spending time in the dark, but maybe we should move away from the ominous hallway.’ Tar suggested.

Cael eyed the heart, which had grown larger than his head. “Are you sure that’s a good idea?”

‘If I can feel it, then the Swarm might be able to as well.’

“Now why did you say that? What did I just say about jinxing?” Cael said, completely unreasonably.

‘I just felt like I should warn you about a possible danger.’ Tar said.

“Sorry, I know. I just don’t want you to be right about this one.” He sighed and wheeled back toward the core, where it physically hurt to be.

‘Well, if the swarm shows up, you can blame me. Does that make you feel better?’

“... A bit.” Cael admitted.

As if on cue, Cael picked up the horrifically familiar sound of Swarm claws tapping rhythmically toward him.

It charged into the room and paused, seeming to consider Cael for a long moment.

He hadn’t really had the chance to see the other Swarm creature, but now that he could, he wished he hadn’t.

Bathed in the red light of the core, it looked like death itself.

This was not the Swarm Lancer that had chased him before. This creature could never have fit inside that tunnel. It barely fit in the large hallway as it was, effectively blocking any chance of Cael escaping with the large chitinous blades at the ends of each of its four arms.

He couldn’t even see its legs past the thick segments of its armored chest.

Like the world’s ugliest praying mantis.

Cael laughed. A single bark of hysterical panic bubbled up past his lips. It wasn’t even funny. He was about to be dismembered by this ugly bug.

And that laugh broke whatever weird stalemate they seemed to have had going on. The monster was across the room in an instant, throwing itself forward recklessly now that it had been given a real target.

Cael threw himself off of the bicycle, but he’d never stood a chance against a monster so much stronger than him. Before he even hit the ground, he was slammed into the wall and pinned there by four blades as thick as his arms.

He hung from the wall, not even able to breathe around the shock and agony that burned through his entire torso.

His heart still thundered with the beat of Ava’s core, and with each pulse, he could feel the parts of him that were no longer there. Aching voids that were filled instead by the Swarm creature's blades.

Two searing rods of fiery pain under his ribs on either side, another buried deep in the right side of his chest, and the last lodged in his left shoulder.

Cael idly wondered how many of his ribs were broken now, but he didn’t really want to know, and it didn’t matter anyway.

The Swarm monster withdrew its heavy blades and left Cael to crumple to the ground.

As he wheezed shallowly on the floor, he was distantly aware that his right lung wasn’t inflating properly. Outside of himself, he couldn’t really say. Already he had lost track of the Swarm creature.

He felt teleportation magic wash over him and he wondered if he could even throw up in his state. Cael’s heart, now that it was no longer being supported by the power of Ava’s core, began to rapidly weaken.

That alone was nauseating in its own way, but he couldn’t even move an inch.

Could barely string together his own thoughts, his mind growing hazy with the rest of his body.

Cael whimpered quietly for Tar. Not even a real noise, but Tar would still hear.

‘I know. you're not alone, Cael.’ Tar sounded unnaturally quiet and far away, even from inside his own head. ‘I'm here with you.’

Cael closed his eyes and everything went away.