Seo-yeon was in her right senses, at least for now. There were times when she hadn’t been, but she would rather not think about that now.
For the past six weeks, she had morphed into a myriad number of humans and creatures, changing character so regularly that she had nearly lost herself in between. Regardless of whether she had been in her right senses or not, she had stayed true to her mission, and in only six weeks, she had killed a total of 32 Ragnarok soldiers, a much larger number than she had initially planned to.
She had planned to take things slow, and for the first two weeks, she had done just that, driving the camp to insanity with each slow kill. She had caused an untold amount of chaos with the murder of Lieutenant Colonel Hadjen, but it wasn’t until she had killed two more lieutenants from different war camps that true panic had set in.
Seo-yeon had felt so high on the feeling of chaos and power that her mental conditioning had cracked, but it wasn’t until she killed her first Colonel, a tier 76 telekinetic, that she had really begun to lose control.
Her military training and discipline helped to anchor her mind, but it wasn’t enough. Seo-yeon was no prude when it came to murder. She had served actively in the war after all, but something about watching, waiting, and stalking her prey for hours before finally taking their life filled her with so much adrenaline and dopamine that it was a chore to keep herself in control.
Seo-yeon knew she was spiraling and accumulating bad karma at a terribly fast rate, but her mission had been to destabilize Ragnarok’s military, and she was succeeding on that front. Not as much success as she would have had had the leaders of Ragnarok valued the life of their citizens as much as Sunstone did, but certainly enough to put the fear of the Ascendants into their hearts.
Beating her moth wings, Seo-yeon perched atop the pole of a small tent, following her latest prey, Major Velen Shadowspire, as he moved about his daily activities. She had been watching him for the past few hours now, and already Seo-yeon could feel the dopamine bubbling in her chest. This hunt, this cold planning and stalking! It was definitely bad for her mental health, but Seo-yeon just couldn’t bring herself to care about that anymore. She wanted to kill and enjoy the chaos that came after.
Initially, she had chosen her targets by how important a role they played in the military, but now… now she just chose randomly, too impatient to sit down and plan when she could be stalking her prey for the day. It was becoming her favorite pastime, but that was a problem for another day.
She beat her wings tirelessly, following the confident major as he moved about the camp, assuring his comrades and encouraging them to be strong. After nearly two hours of stalking the major, the role he played within the camp soon became obvious, and Seo-yeon decided she had made the right decision to kill him.
The major was encouraging people and restoring order to the chaos her actions had created. He moved from checkpoint to checkpoint, those insidious machines, to get his job done. If there was one thing Seo-yeon had learned about the Ragnarians, it was that they depended too much on their filthy technology.
Fortunately, Sunstone had managed to force the Council of Lords into banning the ‘plague wraith,’ stating the use of a calamity’s essence in its creation was against the rules of war. The ban of those terrible machines had brought relief to Sunstone, but from the rumors swirling around the camp, Seo-yeon knew it was only a matter of time before they came with another dangerous amalgamation of metal and magic.
A squad of patrollers neared her perch spot, and Seo-yeon batted her wings in annoyance before flying away to hide beneath a waving flag. The patrol squad was an annoyance, one she would have gladly gotten rid of, but when she had found out that the champions were watching over each squad, she had decided that the best course of action was to avoid them. Even in her current state, Seo-yeon wasn’t so delirious as to think she could take on the Mirror, or the Witch of Selia, or even worse, Artemis Valerion alone. She might have a fighting chance with Zero, but she would rather not risk it and draw attention to herself.
After the patrol left, Seo-yeon crawled out of her hiding place and resumed her stalking, following the clueless major all over the camp until, finally, at the height of noon, she got him alone.
***
Major Velen Shadowspire was a man of honor. He was also the 7th and last son of his father, Viscount Shadowspire, in the 6th sector, so aside from a few platinum coins in his trust fund, Velen had been considered an unimportant noble. A spare of the spare that was so far removed from the line of succession, he might as well not even exist.
Fortunately for him, he had managed to carve a place of importance for himself in the military, working tirelessly to help fill the holes that kept opening up with each murder.
Things were tense within the camp, and although he put up a brave face to encourage his comrades, he was just as scared and panicked as they were. He needed a break from being so confident and encouraging. He needed a break from smiling so he could panic in peace. So, when his clock struck noon, Velen made his way to his tent in the southwest area of the Sigma 25-50 war camp and shut the tent flap firmly behind him.
The tent was bare, completely bereft of anything that the changeling could transform into except it turned into the very air, and Velen doubted that was possible. In the darkness of the tent, Velen Shadowspire let himself panic. His heartbeat thundered in his ears, and he let out a silent scream.
The action calmed him greatly, and when his panic finally subsided, he let out a deep breath and closed his eyes, hoping for this nightmare to be over so he could see his wife and children again.
Little did he know that the next dozen breaths he would be taking would be his last.
While Major Velen took deep breaths to calm his nerves, an eight-legged ant crawled into the tent and began making its way towards him. It was unusually fast for an ant, but with his eyes closed, Velen didn’t even notice, not that he would have cared even if he did. What was more inconspicuous than an ant crawling through sand?
The ant crawled onwards, but when it reached Velen, it suddenly transformed into an amalgamation of teeth and sharp spikes, large enough to swallow him whole. The transformation was so quick that Velen barely had a moment to blink before the creature swallowed him and ripped him to shreds. He managed a small cry of pain before the creature’s sharp canines crunched down on his rib cage, pierced his heart, and tore it to pieces.
The world turned black, and as his life slowly winked out, an alarm blared loudly, causing another wave of chaos and panic to ripple across the camp.
***
{MY SPACE; MY RULES: NO BEING SHALL MOVE WITHIN THIS SPACE}
As soon as Artemis uttered those words, reality warped violently, and the natural laws of physics were overturned and replaced by another. A massive wave of spatial essence and willpower washed over the entire camp, and all of a sudden, Aodhán felt completely incapable of making any movement.
The only part of him still capable of movement was his eyeballs, which darted from left to right as he witnessed firsthand the scale of Artemis’s power. His awed observation was abruptly cut short when Artemis groaned. “Do it now, kid. I can’t hold this spatial lock forever. She’s fighting it.”
Aodhán snapped back to attention and immediately tapped into his seal. This was a one-shot opportunity to catch the changeling, and Aodhán couldn’t afford to miss it. His reputation was on the line here, and he was certain that if he failed, the little respect the champions had accorded him would disappear in an instant.
Maybe that shouldn’t have been the fear driving him, but Aodhán would rather fry his pathways than let one stupid mistake taint his reputation and career forever. Throwing caution to the wind, Aodhán decided to go a step further and harness an entire seal instead. If he was going all out, then he better make it count.
Pure, luminescent, golden electricity surged into his pathways, much more than he’d ever channeled all at once before, and had he been able to move, Aodhán would have let out an agonized scream as burning, hot pain trailed after the golden lightning as it raced for his core.
The instant the golden lightning surged into his core, Aodhán spread out his core sense, and the world instantly turned white. His core sense expanded so wide that Aodhán suspected that it engulfed half the entire sector. More information than he could handle bombarded his senses as a million cores suddenly blazed in his mind's eye, ready to reveal all of their secrets if he so much as focused on them for more than a second.
Aodhán’s mind shuddered from the overwhelming influx of information, and he knew his mind would most likely explode if this continued for much longer. Leveraging a shit ton of willpower, Aodhán narrowed his core sense until it was only about a mile in diameter. The influx of information was still too much, but it wasn’t overwhelming, and without further delay, Aodhán began his search.
Artemis groaned again, uttering something unintelligible and draining himself of another bout of willpower, but Aodhán barely heard him, completely lost in the thousands of cores that surrounded him.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
His senses swept the area, searching for any core that blazed with change essence, but with the seal amplifying his senses this much, everything was all that much clearer and muddied at the same time. Natural essence obstructed his search, so intertwined and mixed that it was like a dense bank of fog that muddied his senses. Aodhán wasn’t deterred, though, and with a flex of willpower, he deepened his search, pushing his ability to the very limit.
“Be quick, Aodhán, I can’t hold on for much longer. Her Affinity is literally the opposite of a stagnant space.”
“You should have thought of that earlier.” Aodhán shouted in his mind since he couldn’t speak, and with a mental groan, he hastened his search, discarding cores one after the other and shrinking the range core sense accordingly.
After nearly ten minutes of fruitless searching, Aodhán began to feel hints of panic. He had stopped shrinking his core sense to ensure he didn’t lose the changeling; however, Artemis was nearing his limit, and Aodhán was no closer to finding the changeling than he was five minutes ago.
Artemis groaned again as he fought both reality and the changeling to keep the lock in place, and Aodhán decided it was time to utilize his last card. If this didn’t work, then there was nothing else he could do.
Aodhán opened his spirit up to the origin plane of storm, and as chaos surged into his spirit, Aodhán pushed deeper on his ability than he had ever done before. Something shuddered within him, and the ding of a notification suddenly resounded in his mind as a line of golden text crawled across his vision.
Core Sense >>>>> Evolved Core Sense.
Aodhán was shocked. He hadn’t realized he could evolve his innate ability at all. He would have jubilated for joy if he could move his body, but he couldn’t, and from the way Artemis was groaning, Aodhán estimated he only had a few minutes left before Artemis gave up.
An instinctual understanding of the evolution of core sense filled his mind, and without hesitation, Aodhán focused his senses on the thousands of cores surrounding him.
Change.
As soon as he thought of the affinity he was searching for, the world blurred, the blazing cores dimmed, and his senses honed in on two blazing cores of change essence. The first was far, located outside the camp itself, while the second blazed directly beneath him.
Aodhán focused on the second core, hastily memorizing its energy signature, and the moment he did, Artemis’s rule shattered.
Reality forced its way back in, and Artemis nearly tumbled from the air as his rule was forcefully revoked, unleashing another wave of spatial essence that washed over the entire camp with a bang.
The changeling ran, and Aodhán shouted. “Catch that fucking white chicken!”
****
Geneva, Zero, and Matharanatha floated just outside the Artemis spatial lock, ready to spring into action the moment the forced reality was lifted. Geneva already had a complex array of pseud-elder runes swirling around her, while Zero twirled a dagger of null essence between his fingers. Matharantha had no visible preparation, yet despite the swirling wind, her reaper's cape remained completely still.
“The moment Artemis’s rule cracks, we attack.” Geneva spoke, assuming the position of team leader in Artemis’s absence. Zero and Matharantha nodded, and when the forced reality eventually shattered, they attacked.
“Catch that fucking white chicken!”
Geneva didn’t hesitate. She dashed forward, and with a wave of her hand, the swirling runes fanned out. The runes didn’t lock down space as Artemis had done; instead, they acted as a barrier that prevented anything from leaving the space, whether living or non-living.
The chicken squawked in panic, and Geneva sneered. “There’s no way out, you fucking changeling. You either fight us and die or you surrender and die!”
***
Seo-yeon’s chicken heart thudded loudly in panic. Things had gone south pretty fast. Too fast. Immediately after the alarm rang, Seo-yeon had transformed back into an ant, hoping to escape the murder scene as fast as possible.
She had done this exact same thing for the last six weeks, albeit in different forms. However, she had barely crawled more than a few steps out of the tent when Artemis arrived in all his spatial glory and shut down space with a rule.
Seo-yeon’s rules were all internal due to her affinity focusing more on her body than the laws of reality, so she had been forced to fight back against Artemis’s spatial rule with her willpower alone, hoping that the clash between the essence of change and the stagnant space would be enough to overwhelm him.
She pushed against the rule with all her determination, and when it finally shattered, Seo-yeon fled, morphing into a chicken—a pretty common sight within the camp—and hoping to exit the crime scene before the squad patrol arrived.
She had thought she had escaped until someone shouted. “Catch that fucking white chicken!”
Seo-yeon turned and squawked in outrage as she remembered the boy. He was the evolved awakened who had bonded a familiar only a few months ago. What was he doing in the camp? And more importantly, how had he identified her in her current form?
She rushed forward, intent on leaving the boy’s line of sight, and as soon as she did, she morphed again, this time into a hawk. With panic driving her, she flew for her life, but all of a sudden, red runes appeared in the sky, and Seo-yeon found herself trapped within the space.
She squawked, eyes wide in panic as the Witch of Selia rushed towards her, a cyclone of runes swirling around her.
“There’s no way out, you fucking changeling. You either fight us and die or you surrender and die!”
Seo-yeon weighed her options hastily and decided it was better to fight and die than surrender. Her decision gave her courage up until the moment that three other champions teleported into the barricaded space.
Seo-yeon squawked in distress, wondering how she was going to get herself out of this mess. The witch alone was a threat, but all four of them together? Seo-yeon knew she didn’t stand a chance.
That didn’t mean she was going down easy, though. She was a champion after all, a representative of the greatest kingdom in Lutia. If she was going down, then she would go honorably.
With a squawk of determination, Seo-yeon activated her newest skill, {Chimera Morph}.
The skill pulled from her memories and transformed each part of her body into that of a creature she had morphed into in that last month. The change was grotesque and ghastly, but this would be her last fight, and Seo-yeon was determined to go out in a blaze.
Her legs disappeared, replaced by the wriggling body of a worm. Feathers sprouted from her stomach, and claws replaced her fingers. Serpentine scales covered her arms, and metallic Kanima horns jutted out of her head. Her eyes turned owlish, large mandibles jutted out of her jaws, and her mouth transformed into a large beak filled with rows of sharp teeth.
Despite the many changes, the transformation had occurred in an instant, and with an eldritch wail, Seo-yeon opened her spirit to the origin plane of change, activated all of her boons, harnessed her seal, and gathered her willpower, all in one attack.
It was the greatest attack she had ever mounted in her life, yet as her body prepared to move, Seo-yeon knew it wouldn’t be enough. She was a single champion standing against four seasoned champions, two of whom were nearly half a dozen tiers above her. She was outmatched and overpowered in every way, but Seo-yeon refused to surrender.
With panic, anger, and pain swirling violently in her gut, Seo-yeon charged forward, intent on at least taking one champion along with her. However, she was barely halfway across the space when Zero unleashed his aura, a much denser version than she’d imagined him capable of.
The cloud of null essence rushed forward, and when it tried to seal her core, Seo-yeon gathered her willpower to fight against it.
She lost, and as soon as her core dimmed, her skill regressed.
Seo-yeon screamed as panic and anger threatened to overwhelm her, and in a blind rage, she lunged towards the nearest person and punched. The attack connected with a boom and an explosion of air that should have sent her victim flying backwards; instead, the attack was reflected and amplified, throwing her back into the hands of one of her greatest fears.
“No, please!” She wailed, but Geneva only grinned, and before Seo-yeon could do anything, Geneva pressed an array of null runes into her stomach.
The runes burned their way into her spirit, and Seo-yeon screamed as null chains severed her pathways and wrapped themselves tightly around her core. They sapped her of her physical strength and extinguished the wild flames of willpower still burning within her.
In an instant, Seo-yeon was reduced from a fearful champion to a pitiful sleeper.
Her shoulders sank in despair, and when Geneva let her go, Seo-yeon prayed that she would fall to the ground and smash her skull against the concrete. That way, she would at least die with a little dignity.
But Aeloria didn’t hear her prayers, and Seo-yeon sobbed when someone caught her by the neck and raised her head up. “You’ve caused us so much trouble, little changeling. How can we possibly kill you without making a show out of it?”
“No, please!”
“Oh yes.” Artemis grinned. “I wonder how Sunstone will react to this.”
***
Aodhán watched the battle from below, eyes darting back and forth as flashes of colorful essence exploded within the barricaded space. Tyrus had come to stand beside him at one point, and together, they watched their champions completely subjugate the changeling in seconds.
Aodhán watched the sky with a newfound respect for the champions, even Artemis, whom he didn’t really like; however, Geneva Ryntharion was still the star of the battle in his opinion. By ascendants! He wanted her affinity so bad and would gladly trade his affinity for hers if it were possible.
The battle had barely lasted a minute, but it had been exhilarating to watch, and standing amidst hundreds of other soldiers, Aodhán felt an emotion he couldn’t describe. It bubbled in his chest, a mixture of admiration, awe, and longing, and when the soldiers started shouting and jubilating, Aodhán found himself shouting along with them.
The champions emerged from the barricaded space a moment later, and hundreds of soldiers cheered. They shouted and jubilated even as some hurled curses at the changeling who hung limply in Artemis’s hand.
Artemis and the other champions smiled, soaking in the admiration of hundreds of soldiers. After a minute, though, Artemis waved his hand for calm, and when the camp quieted, he spoke. “For the past six weeks we have lived in fear of this woman, this changeling, but no more! Today is the day that she dies!”
Another cheer rose from the soldiers, including Tyrus and Aodhán, who couldn’t help but chuckle at their enthusiasm. Artemis waved a hand again, and when the camp quieted, he continued. “We couldn’t have done this without a certain someone, and we certainly can’t take all the glory for it either.” He looked down at Aodhán, locating him with ease, and with a voice infused with willpower, he gestured for Aodhán to fly up and announced. “I present to you, Aodhán Ashoka-Brystion, first-year student of the fifth academy and future champion.”
Another cheer rose up, and Aodhán laughed. Without hesitation, he created a platform, pulled Tyrus onto it, and flew up to stand side by side with the champions.
The soldiers roared his name, their admiration pouring into him almost like a physical thing, and Aodhán felt his chest ache with pride. Cheers and shouts erupted from every corner of the camp until Artemis waved his hand again and said. “Let this be a warning to Sunstone that we will not give up and that we will triumph regardless of what they do. We will fight our way through blood and viscera if only to avenge the ones we have lost, the ones this changeling killed.”
Another roar erupted out from the gathered soldiers, but this time Artemis didn’t ask them to quiet down. Instead, he raised the changeling up with his two hands and simply tore her in two, drenching the soldiers below in a spray of blood and viscera. He threw both halves of the changeling to the soldiers below and smiled. “You can now rest easy, brothers; the changeling is dead.”
Aodhán puked.