The music reached a crescendo, quickly becoming faster and louder with each beat. The sounds of battle were now faint, almost an afterthought. Subsumed but not gone. The clang of blades and the pounding of flesh kept time with the rhythm, while the cracks of gunfire faded into gentle susurrus even as they increased in frequency. It was a frantic kind of harmony. The violence and the cacophony of battle blended together to make something beautiful and lasting –order from chaos.

In addition to refreshing my stamina, the melody calmed my mind, giving me clarity and focus. Dozens of status updates and alerts had popped up showing my gains from the fight, cluttering my view. New skills, skill levels, feats - I scanned and then dismissed them all. None of them would help me with what I needed to do next.

I had to use what he had given me.

The eldritch energy swarmed around me like a cyclone, heavy and viscid. I could feel it pouring into me, and into my allies. It bled from the slain. It nourished my skills, causing them to grow larger and to gain new clarity. This allowed me to make out vague outlines of runes and arcane symbols from the tightly bound sphere in my chest. I could see the thick energy flow in, then be filtered into something lighter and more homogenous. It was weaker yet lacked the chaotic specks and pollutants that made up the rawer form of the energy.

The greatest share of the dark energy swarming into me avoided this sphere, instead aiming for an object secured in an inner pocket of my leather jacket. I could feel the item nearly overflowing with power as it sucked dry the energy around it. It felt like it could burst at any moment, like a pocket-sized nuclear reactor.

I reached into my jacket, ripping loose the threads that I had used to sew the pocket shut. With a shaking hand, I pulled out a long and narrow crystal. Its numerous facets sparkled in the fading light. It was as clear as glass but at its center was a tiny raging storm of black clouds and red, forking lightning.

The Fisher Man, my dark companion, had called it a catalyst. It was like a seed, or a cocoon, from which could grow potential, possibilities. Power.

The gem had gorged and grown large on the XP and energy that poured into me from the slain monsters. The crystal ate with glee and gluttony, never satiated. I could feel it pulling at me, at the energy around me. It needed to be unleashed, lest it consumes itself and all around me.

This would be my greatest leap of faith yet. It could give me a class, grant me strength. All I had to do was trust. Trust the bit of madness left behind in my mind by an ancient and unknowable evil. I had given blood, and I would need to give more if the contract was to be fulfilled.

It was an impossible trust to give, and yet what choice did I have? The barricade would quickly be overrun, and my friends and allies would die. I was useless, and crippled – one foot held together only by torn ligament and bloodied flesh. I needed to survive, to become more powerful. I still needed to find my family - my mother, Liv, and Troy at the very least.

I was willing to take the risk. I had to trust that what remained of me would be enough.

In addition to the two feats and two skills required by Soul Forging, the catalyst required a sacrifice. This ability would make up the core of my new class, though changed and flavored by the other skills and feats I would need to contribute. The sacrifice would be the defining characteristic of what I would become.

It wasn’t a hard decision, what feat to choose to represent the heart of my future power. The Reactive Adaptability feat sounded great on paper, and yet it was erratic and hard to trigger. My past experience convinced me that the feat would only activate if I had been brought to the brink of death. It was a safety net, useless unless I had already failed.

“Fisher,” I said. “Do it now!”

I called out to the companion as I willed the crystal to consume the feat, to take it as its core. Through our bond, I could feel the Fisher light up with glee. I glimpsed a mental image of the bird. It hummed with joy as it crushed an eye, still bloody and trailing a thick cord of optic nerves, between its beak.

The catalyst floated up above me, seeming to stare down at me as I lay helpless on the hood of an old, rusted car. The crystal hovered for a moment, then faster than my eye could track it plunged into my chest. No wound was left behind, but I could feel the crystal slide through flesh and divide bone. It hummed and began to grow warm. The catalyst had found the heart of the strange sphere of energy in my chest, and it called out for more.

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I willed it to consume Eldritch Manipulation and Reactive Learning, the Fisher aiding me unseen. One feat, one skill: one of each to go. The gem began to rotate within me, its gravitational force increasing. I felt as if I would implode, and my ribs were bent inward.

The chosen feats and skills took on physical forms like glowing runes and began to rotate within and around the crystal, matching its pace and expanding outward. I felt them explode outward in a burst of light, before being drawn back in. There were two competing energies pushing the abilities together and pulling them apart.

Something wanted me to fail.

I could feel the energy rebelling, the abilities were fighting against being consumed. The sphere was holding on to them, trying to exert its own force to repel the consumption of the gem. It was successful for a moment, the shapes that represented my abilities gradually slowed their descent and even reversed course for the briefest of moments.

I felt the Fisher in my mind and coldness came over my body, seeping deep into the growing heat in my chest.

The crystal reversed the direction of its rotation, moving even faster. A whirlwind of black and crimson energy coursed throughout my body. I could feel my skin crack and my eyes become dry and irritated. I bled from my nose and ears. Each cell seemed to be under stress as if I was being torn apart. Disintegrated.

I willed the abilities into the crystal, hoping to expedite the process. My efforts proved to cause even more pain as my entire body spasmed. It was enough, however, as the skills plunged into the crystal, causing the storm to settle and solidify into black and red speck surrounded by four glowing runes.

The crystal expanded until it was an oblong sphere of dark grey, black mist and red lighting swirling around it. It was nearly as large as the original sphere that held my skills and feats. If it consumed more it would become a perfect sphere that was larger and surrounded the original globe of energy.

The arcane symbols began to twist once more, faster this time. I could feel my chest begin to pull inward again and my ribs began to crack. I screamed almost giving into the pain. My body was quickly losing strength. My vision became blurry and began to narrow.

I almost lost to pain and despair, but a voice pulled me back. It was pure and loud, it spoke of fighting against the world, of independence, and rejecting those who tried to oppress you. It called out to fight the world just for the chance to be yourself.

It was a song sung without care, reveling in itself because it could. It pulled me back, and with a final push of effort I called out for the catalyst to take the final two abilities. It was Madness.

The catalyst began to draw in Autodidact and Mana Manipulation. As the abilities were tearing free, slowly being drug down into the crystal – I could feel the excitement and anticipation of my dark companion, the Fisher.

The image of the companion, still in kingfisher form, invaded my mind. It was attacking a creature made up of thousands of eyes hidden between folds of thick rubbery skin. Tentacles, each with a cluster of eyes at the end, struck out wildly but the bird was too fast and was constantly pecking out eyes and eating them, even as it tore through tentacle and flesh with its talons.

It wanted me to create this class, I could feel its anticipation and joy. These were the abilities it had suggested to me, the skills, and feats it had sworn would give me a powerful class. It was also the class that would further whatever game my companion was playing. It had called me bait, admitted to me that I was a pawn in its game. A lure to catch some otherworldly prey.

Rachel’s voice sang out, once more repeating the chorus and filling my mind with powerful images of rebellion and independence. I wouldn’t play the game of others, I would make at least a small part of this class my own. Perhaps it would make no difference, but it would at least be my own choice.

With energy and concentration born of rage, I reached into my chest, pulling back the skills I almost sacrificed. In their place, I pressed Analyze and Dark Companion. I would take more control over this creature, make it a core part of me. Perhaps we would merge, or one of us would become subservient. Either way, I would understand it. Know what it wanted, what it cared about.

I didn’t know what would happen, but I could sense the panic and outrage of the creature. It called out to me, it demanded and begged. It pleaded for me to stop, warned me of the danger of this course of action. I stayed my course, a momentary impulse causing me to rebel and filling me with a need to create something of my own.

The bird should have been proud, for what greater Madness was there than rebellion born fear and lack of trust?

The abilities quickly coalesced within the gem, causing it to grow larger. The facets quickly smoothed and grew more round, until the gem had only a single side. An unblemished ball of grey-red crystal. Within the crystal shell swam the sphere of energy that made up the skills, stats, and feats given to me by the system - no longer packed as tightly.

This new crystal shell contained them, but also defined them and protected them by creating a barrier. The whole thing looked vaguely like a galaxy contained within a glass jar. An internal universe full of potential and under my control.

I could feel the dark companion scream out in rage. I now had a sense of the creature in the back of my mind. I could feel its immediate intentions, its emotions. I could see what it saw, though not yet know what it was thinking. It was part of me now, perhaps it always had been. I had imagined it as an alien invader, a parasite. That was only part of the truth.

Another, greater truth also spoke out in my mind. The truth of what I was, what I could become. The class I had forged from blood, the power I had gained on the cusp of death and betrayal. I accepted it, and it settled around me like a mantle.

From this day forward, I was the Hierophant of the Elder Ones- Seer of the Unseen Infinite, Paladin of Madness.