Inhaling deeply, I turned back to my patient. Yulfric lay on the table, unconscious, his skin ghostly pale beneath the eerie light cast by the luminescent crystals in the infirmary. The steady pulse of his heartbeat echoed through my System, a stark contrast to the eerie silence enveloping the room... and the silent undulation of the distant swarm of insects made it even worse.

With a renewed sense of urgency, I focused back on the task at hand. My System had registered Yulfric's declining health; time was slipping away. Turning to Tetra, I repeated my instructions, "Please, just watch those insects. I need to concentrate."

Her eyes flickered to me, uncertainty warring with determination in her gaze. But she nodded, clasping her hands tightly and stepping to the side of the room where she could keep both Yulfric and the swarm in her line of sight.

My attention shifted back to Yulfric. I began to probe his qi container with my own energy, attempting to examine the intricate interplay of cultivation energy and life force within him. The appearance of the ants was a shocking distraction, but the dire urgency of Yulfric's condition remained unchanged.

My underlying plan hadn't changed: Find out what was wrong with him, then figure out a way to fix it. The first step was done - my original diagnosis had been largely confirmed by my System. His organs were failing him due to the deep puncture wounds in his torso, and blood loss was only making the situation worse.

Whatever alternate form I chose for him, it would need to be one that could sustain the damage he had taken. My mind raced as I considered the possibilities, trying to weigh the pros and cons of different transformations.

But first, I still wanted to understand Yulfric's condition on a deeper level. I needed to see what was happening to him from the inside out, a view that transcended the physical. I began another comprehensive scan, my System recording details that I had no way to interpret or understand (the incomprehensible amount of data contained in someone's cellular structure was well beyond my ability to parse), but that I could hopefully use to determine how successful my experiment was by comparing the before and after scans.

I paused. There it was again - the mark on Yulfric's soul that mirrored the mark in my System. It was a profound realization that sent a jolt of unease and curiosity through me. The implications of this discovery were staggering, but this wasn't the time to ponder.

A rush of energy from Yulfric's body snapped me out of my thoughts, and I saw that he had somehow lost nearly an entire CP! His qi container had begun to fluctuate, and I could feel his flagging life force being temporarily bolstered by an incredible amount of cultivation energy in a futile attempt to prolong his life, but the undirected energy did nothing to solve his underlying condition.

The urgency of the situation pressed down on me like a weight, and I knew I had to act fast. Without hesitation, I closed my eyes and focused on Yulfric's entry in my System. I laid my hands gently upon his chest, and the connection between us strengthened.

Quickly, I chose the least expensive alternate form I had previously designed, "Body of Iron", and started removing the costlier components of the transformation, reducing the price from 240 CP to 60. Lowering the cost so much required turning what was meant to be an unstoppable walking tank into something that amounted to little more than a barely animated iron statue, but the key components were all that mattered: Immunity to Metabolic Hazards, and Homogeneous.

The former could be seen as both a blessing and a curse, as a metabolism was what allowed living things to move and grow, but it also meant that if something went wrong we ceased to function. My fix was, in simple terms, to create a cold-fusion-based system that slowly converted mass into energy at a steady rate. It sounded a lot better than it was, and the downsides were extensive - for instance, as it was now Yulfric would steadily shrink until I re-added the ability to absorb (ie, eat) iron to replace lost mass (that, and many other features, had been too expensive for his 66 remaining CP).

The latter, Homogeneous, was more of a straight upgrade, and accounted for the majority of the cultivation energy required... and it was also one of the features that worried me the most. It quite literally solved the issue of 'organ damage' by removing them entirely, including his lungs, heart, and brain. The blueprint for all those things was saved, of course, and stored as a distributed energy pattern throughout his body alongside his consciousness.

Not exactly something I wanted to test on myself until I was relatively convinced that it would actually work...

Finally, I modified the alternate form power to activate autonomously once the bearer was unconscious, since, otherwise, all would be for naught. I held my breath as the table began to creak, and Yulfric's skin darkened as his breath stilled. Had it worked, or had I just killed one of my best friends? Wait... something seemed off about that last thought...

Suddenly, Tetra's warning yanked me out of my thoughts. "Heller, they're moving again!" she cried out. The ant swarm had begun to stir, their tiny bodies undulating like a monstrous, living carpet. They were edging closer to us, their purpose unclear.

"Tetra, back away, slowly," I ordered, never taking my eyes off the swarm.

The ants advanced in a coordinated pattern, their movements oddly synchronized. It wasn't like any natural behavior I'd ever seen in insects. It was as if they were sentient; like they had a common purpose.

Regardless of their intent, Yulfric remained my priority. My eyes flitted over to Tetra, who stood her ground despite her visible fear. "Tetra, you need to leave. Now."

"But what about Yulfric?" she protested, her eyes darting between the ants and the unconscious figure on the table.

"I'll take care of him, but you need to go!" I said urgently.

Between my [Ion Shield] and Yulfric's resilient new form, it was doubtful that the tiny creatures could even harm us, but Tetra was in a different situation entirely. She hesitated for a moment, then nodded and began to back away slowly.

I turned back to Yulfric, my heart racing with fear and adrenaline. His body was nearly unrecognizable, now nothing more than a motionless iron statue. The transformation was complete, but I had no way of knowing if it had worked.

As the door creaked shut behind me, the behavior of the swarm abruptly shifted again. They piled on top of each other in an odd vertical column, and I wondered for a moment if they were trying to reach the ceiling, but then the exterior layer fell off in waves to reveal a small vaguely humanoid figure within.

My jaw dropped in shock at the sight before me. The figure was made entirely out of ants, their tiny bodies wriggling and squirming together in a grotesque mimicry of a human form. But even more disturbingly, the figure seemed to be wearing clothing - insects strung together that somehow gave the impression of loose scraps of fabric wrapping its torso and hips, forming a crude robe that revealed a distinctly feminine form.

I watched in morbid fascination as the creature stepped forward, its movements jerky and unnatural at first, but quickly gaining in coordination and grace. It was at that point I realized exactly how short the figure was; even though it was clearly proportioned as an adult female, it was barely half my height.

The ants forming its "face" shifted and rearranged, crafting a disturbing caricature that managed to convey both anger and curiosity, with raised eyebrows over insect-filled eye sockets, a furrowed 'brow', and a mouth set in a snarling grimace that seemed to ask "Why!?".

I took a step back, allowing the electricity to fade from my fingertips as the figure stopped advancing. I had seen some strange things in my time, but this was definitely a new one. The ant-woman stood there, its composite eyes fixed on me, and I was trying to figure out what I should say - or if I should say anything at all - when it convulsed unexpectedly and glanced towards the western wall of the infirmary.

Without further warning, the ants collapsed back into a uniform swarm and began to scatter, moving swiftly in all directions except towards myself or Yulfric. I had almost begun blasting again at the sudden change, but held myself back at the last moment as I anxiously watched the tiny creatures disperse throughout the room.

"Bloody beast, wha-" I muttered to myself, cutting off abruptly as I felt the floor under me vibrate once, then again just a few seconds later.

Then a third impact hit, stronger than the previous two, and I nearly turned and fled. Only concern over Yulfric's safety kept me from giving into fear.

I turned my attention back to Yulfric's still figure, his iron form was quiet and motionless, no sign of the living being he once was. I knew the transformation was extreme and there were numerous risks involved, but there was no other choice.

Fear and uncertainty gnawed at me, the unknowns of the situation weighing heavily, and I felt an immense pressure that came not only from the gravity of the situation but also from the unknown threat that was causing the tremors.

With the ants dispersed, the room was much less menacing than it had been, but the feeling of unease had not lessened. I decided to put the peculiar insect swarm out of my mind for now, focusing instead on the situation at hand.

Feeling a fourth shockwave course through the room, the most powerful yet, I glanced at the infirmary's western wall, my gaze unconsciously following the same path the ant-woman's had. The wall remained steady, but I could now hear a distant rumble growing louder with every passing moment. Something was approaching, and it was-

*BA-BOOM*

The wall exploded outwards as I watched, shards of stone flinging everywhere as dust billowed into the room accompanied by a single distant scream. I was pushed backward by the blast, dozens of impacts hitting my shield hard enough to cause injury, and Yulfric's table outright collapsed as a chunk of stone struck it.

An unnatural blast of wind dispersed the dust, revealing the figure of a short, dirty old man who was already several steps into the infirmary. His clothing was in much better shape than the last time I saw him, and as an involuntary shriek forced itself out of me I recognized the colors of House Spiritwind.

Before I could even react, The Merrik was standing directly in front of me. My mind was blank, except for the thought that, if I survived this, I would tell Wolfram that Spiritwind-blues don't match the complexion of an angry demigod.