“Ahhhh!” I screamed and screamed. My head felt like it was melting. Why? Oh god the pain. I could barely focus. I needed to keep moving. Move.

Dammit, the second trap. It was too late to stop it. I coughed out blood. Blood was coming from my eyes and nose. This didn’t make sense.

Summons didn’t have feedback like hybrids. So why? The tether was gone, so why was the pain still there? I needed to study this. I needed time.

Champion Michael was rushing at my real trap with his companions. I was barely able to cut the tether to my hybrids in time as he cut them down. I couldn’t focus mental attacks on him. Also, they weren’t that useful anymore.

My second mimic spun around with the preparation candidate in hand. I knew Michael would just rush in and try to kill me. I was ready to cut the tether to the mimic. The pain from the last one was still hurting my head. My entire body felt like it was melting. It was a horrible feeling.

Still, I needed to try and win this. No matter what I felt, I wasn’t about to give up. Champion Michael was going to die. “Champion Michael, we meet face to face again.”

“Hopefully for the last time Ritualist.” A sentiment I agreed with. “When I melt you and listen to your screams.”

“Ah, but that is where you are mistaken. I am an unparalleled genius while you are an unparalleled brute.” I was going to end his madness and tyranny. I would let him gloat and then I would finish him and his hubris.

“What is your trap now? Using that woman to summon some kind of monster to fight me, which I will kill. Unless you have a level 4 monster hidden somewhere? No?” He was awfully cavalier. Still, this was my masterpiece.

“A summoning like no other. A four part summon, combining the best of the best. Enough to rival a level 4 monster.” I pushed the woman forward and triggered the primed hybridization. A combination of techniques, a superior technique.

She was only able to scream before she became something far superior. Energies ripped her old form apart, forming up my greatest creation.

“Behold, the Juggernaut mark one.” My answer to Champion Michael’s decision to rush forward. I had my mimic back up as green poison gas came off the super hybrid. The nearby grass died. The powerful mental attack slammed into Michael who stumbled backwards.

He launched a single ball of acid at my super hybrid. It collapsed to the ground, quickly dying. How?!

“That is a level 3 at best. Your vine monster was more impressive Ritualist.” I cut the tether to my mimic before he stabbed it. The connection persisted. Pain wracked me.

“AHHHHHHH!” I screamed. The monster turned to dust, but the pain persisted. Quickly, I needed to get out of here. My scorpions quickly pulled my cart back to my city.

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It was impossible to focus through the pain. To have the mimics take my form, I had to impart a large amount of my energy. But there was no flow? Why was I still connected? It made no sense.

“Ack!” I coughed out blood. I needed a regeneration right away. It was a struggle just to breath, even though I wasn’t moving. My entire body was shaking from the pain.

Curse Michael, he had to have upgraded his skill in some way. That was why this was happening. He had waited until just the right moment to strike and cripple me, when he was sure it would stick.

“Ack! Ack! Urrrg.” I coughed out more blood and let out a groan. The pain, I needed to stay awake. I needed to get back to Heaven. I would think of a new plan then.

This was my loss. I had lost. Michael had returned in time and completely crushed my forces. Even without him, the people managed to survive. Now here I was, critically wounded in a way I didn’t even understand.

“Ack!” The pain, oh god the pain. My eyeballs were going to explode out of my skull. My flesh was ripping itself apart. Faster, pull me faster. I needed a regeneration now.

Beyond the physical pain was the emotional pain of losing. I didn’t lose! I killed my enemies. Curse you, Michael. Damn you and whatever you did to me. The level of hate I felt was unimaginable, only matched by the pain I was in.

“Ack! Ack!” Coughing hurt. I could barely stop myself from coughing more. My lungs felt like they wanted to rip themselves out of my throat. My eyes were closed shut, so I could focus on the sight from my summons pulling the cart and clearing my path.

I needed to stay awake to keep my summons moving and clearing. It was hard. So hard. I just wanted to rest but resting meant death. I couldn’t stop running.

Twice I passed out and awoke as pain coursed through me, to keep moving again. When I made it back to Heaven, I didn’t know what day it was. I had my werewolves lift me up and put my hands on the pillar.

It cost 37,581 points for a restoration. I had that and more saved up. I knew better than to let my emergency healing fund get low after getting a sword in the shoulder. I paid for the regeneration.

Relief coursed through me, and I opened my eyes. “Ahh!” I let out a startled scream and collapsed to the ground. Pain ran through me. What?! A regeneration was supposed to fix everything. Stage four cancer, missing organs. It fixed everything. Why?

I coughed out blood and pain struck me again. I focused my mind and senses. My energy was off. That shouldn’t be possible. The mimics, it only happened with the mimics. But why was it happening?

I summoned them like any other monster. I used their crystal and dust made from their crystal as well. There was better synergy when done like that. To get the mimics to match my appearance it wasn’t just having them transform.

I had thought I had found a work around. I had put in more of my energy into the summons. My energy allowed them to take my form easily. Energy was information. “Ack! Ack!” I coughed up more blood.

Energy was information, it conveyed information. The first mimic had been melted. Was I still feeling the residual effects of that? That made no sense. Wait. Hybrids sent back their pain when they died. Why did that happen and not with summons? I had thought about it but had been more focused on a work around for the battle.

There was the tether. The tether was transmitting information between me and my hybrids and summons. Only summons drew energy as well. Did they not have pain receptors or a real body to begin with?

The mimic had vocal cords and breathed air. It was basically a brain-dead clone. Was it replicating the pain and sending it back? But when the hybrids were killed it had never affected me physically like this.

I was missing something. Something critical, which was why damage had come back to me. What was this type of damage. I climbed back up and grabbed the pillar with both hands. It cost 487 points for a regeneration.

The damage was ongoing! Impossible. I was dead. I purchased another regeneration. My point total going lower. I just needed to hang on. Enough regenerations should counter whatever had happened to me. Just needed to hang on.