My arm twitched again. I frowned as it kept distracting me. Even in the dark travel container, the eyes on the arm darted about, giving me a headache as they tried to see. I had a secondary supply cache, but the loss of the main one hurt. I had gotten a blanket and covered my deformed arm. It had helped a bit, but it was an issue.

I felt power flooding my veins. My brain itched. My breathing heavy. It was taking my full concentration to keep a grip on my army and try to manage the energy inside of me. It kept surging in weird ways, or trying to tie itself into knots inside of my body. My energy was me. Obey me!

For the first time I was truly worried. I had no idea how to fix the mess I found myself in. My left shoulder itched, where the old flesh met the metal puppet arm with eyes. The ten fingers on the hand kept gripping and ungripping, and it was all I could do to keep the movement steady and consistent. I couldn’t stop.

I let out a low moan of pain and frustration. “Imbue Reform.” I used my only skill once again. It provided a temporary balm to ease my suffering before it started again. I was hybridizing. There was no question about it. The process had gone too far and it couldn’t be stopped.

I didn’t realize taking damage would cause the crystals to expend their energy to regenerate me. I hadn’t really tested hybridization and healing. Well, I knew it healed the subjects up once the process was done, but it had always been instant.

The system store would no longer work, and I wouldn’t be able to get a restoration. I had been getting them regularly to ensure I didn’t go too far with my consumption and then the crystals. The hope was that the energy of the level 4 crystals would slowly bleed into me and eventually disappear, leaving behind the skills and knowledge of the monsters they had come from.

I had made a mistake. Someone help me, I begged in my mind. But no one came. Tears leaked from my face and arm. My emotions were blurring as well. The psychoactive properties of the crystals were bleeding into me, too much. That was sad to think about. I just wanted to lie here, since no one liked me. I was going to die all alone and even worse, forgotten.

I was meant for greatness. Now I was no longer going to reach my potential. Life was so unfair. More tears escaped me. I felt some of my monsters shift around, but I couldn’t let my army escape me. They were my purpose, my power. I knew I was being affected but even with my emotions changing, it wasn’t important.

“Help me,” I softly cried out. But my pleas went unheard. Champion Michael was poking his head out again. I unleashed more beam attacks in his direction, and he ducked back on top of the wall. My anger cut through the haze clouding my mind.

“I am the Ritualist. I bend to no one and nothing! You bend to me!” I screamed, channeling my rage. My deformed arm twitched, but I ruthlessly suppressed it as well. I reached over with my right arm and began to punch my left arm.

I felt the pain, but this sharp pain cleared my mind as I brought my energy under my full control. No monster, no person, and no system were ever going to control or contain me. I decided my own fate. Instead of rejecting the foreign energy, I embraced it.

It was mine. The shift in thought allowed me to take a deep breath. Everything became easier. I flexed each of my ten puppet fingers. I closed the eyes on my arm. I channeled the power of my flesh into me, I channeled my power back into the flesh. We were one and the same. Nothing was different.

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The weak thoughts that had plagued me were banished without a secondary consideration. Just like I would excise the weak human flesh from my body. I would excise the weak human thoughts from my mind.

I would crack the city open and kill everyone or turn them into my minions. For nothing could hurt me now. Even if I was wounded, I would just come stronger than ever before. Embracing the change, and managing it was the way forward.

I open the eyes one my one, channeling my energy through my arm. I could feel the currents of energy around me. I twisted my hand and a null shield formed in the air above my fox. I twitched my fingers and my control over my monsters was better than ever before. I let tears fall from the eyes and projected the emotions outwards.

All of these things cost minute amounts of energy. But that didn’t matter. A minor cost in the grand scream of things. I felt the energy in the air and drew it into my arm, slowly but surely. A cycle of power. I continued experimenting, probing the limits of my new abilities.

Soon, I would kill everything. That was not a question, it was only a matter of time. I flexed my ten-finger puppet hand and unbound tethers shot off towards the city. I just needed to keep my focus. My tethers retracted as no one was in range for me to manipulate them. Only Champion Michael remained on the wall and pitiful summons high above, surveying the battlefield.

I needed to turn my attention to this war. I was exhausted. The fighting, injuries, and now my transformation had put a great strain on me. I retreated with my main body for the night. But my skill was great enough that I began tying off instructions into each of my monsters.

To respond to threats, to prevent people from leaving and chase them down, and to not enter the city. My forces spread away from the walls. I would sleep and then make a decision on what to do about the city tomorrow. It was already getting dark.

It was hard to believe so much time had passed, but I needed all my energy and focus for the battles to come. I had no doubt that Champion Michael would push me at every turn, attempting to hurt me. I set up one of my aerial monsters to track him and my ranged monsters to continually fire in his direction.

That way there would be no way he could approach during the night without running into an overwhelming response. Beams of energy lanced through the darkness striking the wall. If only I could get rid of the need to rest, then everything would be perfect. Unfortunately, I hadn’t reached that point yet.

I carefully set up my layers of personal defenses. My personal worm, The World Eater sheltered my physical body. I had named it personally. The fact it had been barely wounded from Michael’s bombs proved that my choices in making it had been correct.

I had slowly imbued the worm’s body with energy to enhance its size and regeneration. Each scale had been infused with nullification crystals. The power of Imbue Reform was quite great. My success with the World Eater had been what led me to putting crystals into my own body to enhance myself. I hadn’t expected just drastic results. Maybe some knowledge and stat boosts.

Letting out a sigh as I settled in for the night. The stress of the day had been getting to me. Tomorrow I would have to figure a way to crack the city. The forces I had sent towards the plaza had been defeated. I had lost my vast reserves of crystals for summonings to bombard the city.

I seriously considered retreating. But no. If I retreated, then that would be admitting defeat. After all I had suffered, I couldn’t afford to turn back now. If I did then Champion Michael would harass me until I died a slow and painful death.

Whoever won would have the advantage over the other person and be able to pressure them to death. I knew that neither myself nor Champion Michael wanted to be hunted down like a rabid dog. The only option was to fight and win, here and now.

As I drifted off to an uneasy sleep, I thought of how I would defeat Champion Michael and kill him once and for all. No one would remember his name once I was done and only remember mine.