Like a pot of oil, her blood simmered. Bubbles rose and popped, spreading the puddle with each splash. Occasionally, a droplet would reach too far, and burst into smoke before it could land.

Nix only stared. This shouldn’t be possible. The corruption around Still Tower was minimal at most. Not nearly enough for anything besides wisp spawn to appear, but those were difficult to notice in the first place. Wisps couldn’t boil blood.

Only something bigger. Something far more dangerous.

Blood was one of the best natural medium for gods and monsters to manifest. Only beaten by sacrifice and genocide. But it wasn’t so effective that they could do so spontaneously. Not unless the area was already seeped in corruption.

Her fingers pressed into the metal platform as she slowly edged towards the next ladder. As far as Nix could see, the area hadn’t suddenly been drowned in an overflow of corruption. Still Tower was just as structurally consistent as it had always been. Nothing was off. Nothing besides the affected blood below.

A bestial hand snapped out of the roiling pool of blood. It breached the surface with a splash, tossing crimson liquid outward, spreading it further. Instead of sliding down the limb and returning to widening puddle, the blood clung to it. Blood bubbled and sloshed along its long, bony fingers. The viscous liquid coagulated around each digit, forming into a disgusting reddish-black flesh.

The fingers stretched; each splayed outward far too unnaturally to even resemble a human’s.

Bubbling flesh pulsed, like the arm itself had become a heart. The pulsing grew strong enough to overpower the boiling flesh, and it solidified. In moments, the hardened blood lost its colour. It bleached pale, taking on a sickly shade worse than Nix’s own. The beating flesh continued bulge the newly formed skin, but with each second, it slowed and settled.

The arm crashed down into the pool of blood. Waves rocked outward, as if there wasn’t only a few litres in the puddle. It continued to expand. Nix watched on as the crimson liquid lapped at the hard ground and reached ten times its original width.

As wide as a true pool now, the blood splashed back and forth as if a storm rocked it. The limb pressed down on the surface of the blood — not dropping even a hair below, despite the rough waves — and pushed. Out from the sea of carmine, the rest of the monster showed itself.

It was a weird, headless thing. A torso like a dog, with four humanoid arms strapped on in unnatural directions. Like a child took a doll, and nailed the arms to the only places there weren’t any sockets.

An Amalgamation.

A completely random assortment of flesh that never should see the light of day. The endless, thoughtless spawn of gods. Their appearance should be impossible here, this close to the safe zone.

Blood dribbled from its body, but like the already formed arm, it coagulated and twisted into flesh around bone. When its skin turned pale, and the thumping of its flesh stilled, what was left was a creature that appeared unnervingly perfect despite how wrong it was.

Its skin held no blemishes. The joints between arms and torso fit well, despite the mismatching species and illogical angles. And those fingers — bony and twice as long as any man’s — held the strength to lift its body.

Once fully formed, the creature simply stood there on its four inhuman hands. Not a sound. Not a twitch of a muscle. Only the flow of the blood beneath its fingers let it sway over the ground.

Was this her punishment for trying something new? Was this what she got for trying an ever so slight retaliation against K’tan? She couldn’t fight off a monster. A few ladders had nearly been the end of her, and now there was a flesh and blood amalgamation waiting below?

Nix held her breath, but it was as if the intent to keep herself hidden was what attracted it. The monster tripped over itself as it scrambled towards the nearest structural pillar of Still Tower. Landing on its back, it didn’t reorient. It simply took that as its new up, twisting its arms around to push against the ground.

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The creature continued to stumble over itself like a newborn foal, but it never seemed to notice when it fell; it only kept moving.

Panic rose rapidly in Nix’s chest now that it had not wandered off. She’d hoped it wouldn’t notice, or care for her. If it wandered off into the city, then the harbingers could deal with it, and she could clamber back down and run home to the wards. It was coming for her. There was no other reason it would move for one of Still Tower’s legs.

The only relief to her dread, was that each time the creature grabbed the alloy beams of the tower, it’s lack of control over its own body sent it right back to the bottom. It would try to dig its fingers into the metal as if it had claws. It would try to pull itself up, only to forget to hold on. For now, the creature found it impossible to climb.

But it was learning.

With each tumble, the amalgamation became accustomed to its body. With each fall, its motions grew more structured and intentional. Where it used only one hand to hold it steady before, it now climbed two arms at a time.

It wouldn’t be long before it reached her.

Nix’s eyes darted between the creature that — instead of running off and ruining someone else’s day — came for her, and the ladder. Could she climb down while it was working its way up the metal beams? Or would it throw itself down after her the moment she tried?

Her mind raced for an answer. She couldn’t go up; she’d make it a single ladder at most before her body gave out on her. Again. And coughing up more blood was unlikely to be much help.

Shakily, she rose to her feet on the narrow platform. Her hand unconsciously fell to her side and fingered the budding feather. For the first time ever, she wished her mutations would come faster. They’d been clipped before they could grow, but she was pretty sure the limbs growing from the lower half of her ribs were wings. And how great would wings be right now; she could fly off and leave this monster to something that could actually fight back.

Glancing over the rail, she found the amalgamation losing its grip far less often. It had yet to pass a single storey high, but as soon as it figured climbing out, the distance between them would mean nothing.

The situation was dangerous. And yet, despite that, she found herself idly noting how the only noise coming from the creature was the light patter of fingers against metal and the thump when it fell. It didn’t growl. There was no scratch of claws against metal. It simply moved, and that was all it did.

If Nix was to look for the benefits of her situation — or at least the aspects that sucked the least — she could focus on how the amalgamation was probably the least lethal she could have happened across. Without fangs or claws, or any of the other more worrying parts she’d heard an amalgamation could have, at least it wouldn’t kill her quickly. Though… maybe that was not such a great thing.

She finally snapped her gaze from the creature, and tried to focus on something else. She was desperate, and had no ideas how she might survive.

The floating eye was watching the creature, but seemed to find no interest in it. Seemingly noticing her gaze, it turned her way. Upon making eye contact, she spun away. She couldn’t be reinforcing her figments, especially at a time like this. Who knew if it would take the form of an amalgamation because of the fear she showed towards it, and suddenly couldn’t know which was which.

“There is no need to fear an ant.” Static filled her ears, and she twisted back to the amalgamation, as if it the beast could possibly hear her imagination. “Something so insignificant could never pose a threat.”

Her efforts to pretend like she hadn’t seen it were in vain.

For a creation of my own mind, you are surprisingly arrogant, huh? A little god in my own head.

Well, her chances of surviving against an amalgamation were slim at best. What did it matter if her imagination decided to make it twice as difficult?

The creature’s movements were becoming terrifyingly consistent now. Instead of flailing about and hoping something worked, its motions were smooth. Only momentary mistakes sent it sprawling back to the earth below.

It never hesitated to throw itself back into the climb. It was a mindless desire, but not an unintelligent one. Each time it failed, it didn’t even consider giving up or taking an easier path.

The creature below reflected a perfect opposite of Nix’s attitude in the past years. Where she had been cowardly, fearful, and hopeful of what was to come without ever putting the effort in, this beast held no thought. It only strove to achieve what it desired. It didn’t care for any failures on its path to what it wanted.

Maybe it was strange to take inspiration from the amalgamation that was coming to kill her. No, it certainly was. But it perfectly encapsulated how she needed to act with this second chance of hers. She couldn’t be complacent. She couldn’t give up just because her lungs decided there wasn’t enough blood in them. Just because some monster decided to climb out of her blood. She couldn’t accept death.

She had to fight for her own survival.

It had been a long, long time since she’d lost any expectation for a hero to come rescue her from the captivity of the cults. And now was no different. She could scream for help, but nobody would come. If she wanted to live — both now, and when she took on the cults — she would have to do so with her own power.

Nix may not yet have any power of her own, but she was hardly about to lay down and let an amalgamation climb up and kill her. Not when she’d survived an Eidolon God.

She was done being on the receiving end of fate’s lash.