The object continued getting larger and larger, causing Theo’s Supernality sense to go crazy. He could see flames and the star’s corona expand throughout space. The shapeshifter continued running as quickly as he could away from where his companions were, turning into a cheetah and sprinting at supersonic speeds. He dared to look at the sky, where the image of the star began to get distorted, as it was in the proximity of the black hole. Strips of fire and plasma separated from the object and joined the accretion disk, stripping the star bare naked. Theo saw how the light and heat from the object diminished immensely, but it didn’t get absorbed entirely.
“Woah, you’re so cooked,” Saul remarked.
Theo used his enhanced vision, which was comparable to a small telescope, to see a large ball of plasma directing itself toward him. His internal calculations told him that the projectile had a volume of around one cubic kilometer, too small for even a core of the smallest stars ever recorded: it wasn’t a true celestial object as he had feared. Still, if that’s hot plasma like I think it is, it must weigh billions of tons.
The object finally entered the atmosphere, where it lit up the sky in a way that Theo had never witnessed in this world. It was as if the Sun had appeared. The shapeshifter continued sprinting at incredible speeds, keeping an eye on the falling object. It was clearly changing its route to hit him specifically. Preparing for the impact, Theo stopped, as he realized he was far away enough, and began using his cellular knowledge to the best of his abilities.
First, he had accumulated a lot of biomass on his way, which was all in his inventory, so he used it to create an outer layer around his body made of silicon carbide, a hard material that acted well in high temperatures. Reaching tier-four allowed him to use some inorganic substances for his cells. Theo rolled his body in the shape of a sphere and made the protective layer as thick as possible, which was around one meter and a half thick before he ran out of biomass.
Medium-rank shapeshifting leveled up to lvl 5!
The object, which he had assumed was something like a star’s core, but not really, continued falling even more, at one point occupying the entire sky above the shapeshifter.
“Haha, you’re so fucked!” Saul exclaimed.
“SHUT UP AND HELP ME!” Prometheus shouted in return, using his Influence to create an additional layer of [Enhancement] all around his spherical body, which he willed as much as he could to be thermally isolating. His surroundings began to burn, with leaves of grass perishing in the intense heat. The air itself began distorting, providing an unreliable look at the environment.
The plasma was right on top of Theo, less than a hundred meters now. Even the rocks and gravel began to burn, and his [Enhancement] layer struggled against the anomalous star. He had ignored the wrongness sense, as it was too intense currently to be of any use.
His Soul began shouting, excitedly, “Woo, let’s go!”
Theo mentally gritted his teeth as the plasma made contact with his shell. It didn’t matter at all. Plasma wasn’t some sort of gaseous substance, it was the state of matter where ionized atoms were all jumbled together, and in the case of stars, they were incredibly dense. Theo’s [Enhancement] broke immediately, and his silicon carbide resisted for half a second before imploding inwards from the billions of tons of weight. The force of the core hitting the ground was aking to a god slamming its fist on a planet, destroying everything in its path.
Prometheus was pushed deep underground from the impact, as a massive crater was created, with an inferno of flames and plasma raging everywhere. The hot plasma began to slowly eat away at the silicon carbide of Theo’s shell, which had somehow compressed from the pressure but was still receiving the effects of the tens of thousands of degrees Celsius. He was pushing his skills and using [Cellular Surge] to their limit, to regenerate the damage, but it was still too slow.
Medium-ranked Shapeshifting ranked up and became High-ranked Shapeshifting!
Shit, I’m on a timer here!
It was only a matter of time until the plasma reached his Core, and he knew that it would be enough to end his life. His Core was strong, but not enough to survive this. He needed a way out. As his mind continued to propose possible avenues of escape, a terrible realization dawned upon him.
Am I…am I dead?
The plasma had already eaten through the external layer and was making its way to the Core’s roots. The ground below him was too tough to dig through, and he couldn’t risk exposing his body out of the half-melted layer. He would need to find another solution. While many possibilities sprung up in his mind, his Soul began talking,
“I think this is it, dumbass. Shouldn’t have stayed up at night.”
Theo snickered internally.
“Maybe you’re right. What even am I against the powers of the universe?”
Using his Soul ability was useless. The only available ones were the cards one and the floating weapons one. Um, maybe I’ll get lucky with the cards?
As a last resort, he used his Cards ability, which conjured the USB stick in his hand. Unfortunately, before he could insert it, plasma burst through to his internal body and destroyed the ability’s stick.
Fuck!
Not finding other solutions, he thought of Earth and its concepts to invoke a Tribulation, hoping it would help. One second passed. Nothing happened. Two passed. Nothing happened once again.
What?
Nothing was happening, and desperation appeared in Theo’s attempts to dig downwards, through the tough rock. He could only make slow incisions, nowhere near enough to escape. Realizing his predicament, he stopped struggling and relaxed.
I guess I’m done here. I tried my best, so I have nothing to regret!
Theo was ready to turn off his mind and pass away peacefully, licks of regret began flooding his mind.
“Dude. Arthur and the children could be killed at any moment, and you’re ever here giving up like a loser? That’s not like you, Theo.”
“Yeah, so?!” Replied Theo much louder than he had intended, before continuing, “So what!? I can’t do shit over here!”
Saul sighed and shook its ethereal head.
“That’s not the point, but I’m not your dad. Do whatever you want.”
The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
New feelings assaulted Theo’s mind. He felt as If his stomach was contracting, and a heat began developing inside his Core. It felt deeply unpleasant. He couldn’t understand what it was.
I give up.
Small tremors from deep below him caught his attention, but he dismissed them. It’s probably some kind of geological event from the impact. The tremors got closer and stronger, which Theo found strange. Accompanying them were two signals that made Theo question his Core’s integrity.
Two Souls.
The ground beneath him liquified, but not from heat. A large, circular mouth, grabbed the underside of Theo’s mangled body and pulled him downwards, while a jet of water sprayed at him, releasing steam all over. Theo was finally pulled underground, and a mental communication between the other two connected to him as well, allowing him to hear,
“Did you grab him?!” Sayuri shouted, desperately holding onto Zilch’s side with her legs white spraying water from her sword.
“Yes, but he’s barely alive! We need to get out!” Replied Zilch, holding onto Theo’s body with impressive strength and burrowing away. Theo could barely form a thought, so he removed all the most damaged cells of his body and put them into his inventory, to become lighter and easier for Zilch to carry him. He could see the large deathworm, burns adorning every part of his exterior, which occasionally hissed in high pitch.
Sayuri wasn’t any better, as many licks of fire were ravaging her plant body, forcing her to spray water over herself as well. Wait… Theo thought to himself, as he didn’t have the energy to send a thought through the technique, Where’s her other arm?
Zilch continued burrowing for half an hour, during which Theo had felt an anomaly appear behind them and disappear, thankfully. The large worm finally burrowed out of the ground, and dropped Theo from his mouth, while quickly circling around him.
“Theo? Theo?!” Zilch said while slowly pushing Theo’s body.
Prometheus had all of his roots fried, which acted as nerves, so he couldn’t move until he regenerated them.
“I’m fine.” He replied mentally.
Both of his companions slumped down on the ground, sighing loudly.
Sayuri marched up to him and sprayed water over and over, steam wafting from where the water touched him. She continued doing that until the water stopped evaporating, after which she kneeled down and lifted Theo’s Core, which was exposed, close to her face.
“Don’t you dare even think of dying after all the effort me and Zilch put in to find and save you, Prometheus.” Her voice was slow and she accentuated every word.
“Why?” was all he could say.
Zilch and Sayuri looked at each other.
“Why what?” They asked at the same time.
“Why did you save me?”
He could see Sayuri’s eyes blink slowly, followed by a brief pause. She dropped Theo on the ground and sheathed her katana.
“The city is still one day away, correct?” she asked.
Theo nodded through the mental connection.
“Then we rest tonight and tomorrow we’ll depart.”
With that, the three monsters went to sleep, which Theo used to repair his body and return to his Golden Ant form. On the horizon, right before he fell asleep, Theo saw how truly devastating the anomaly had been, with wildfires spreading everywhere.
- - -
The shapeshifter was the first to wake up, upon which, a notification interrupted him;
Skill rank-up tokens will expire in 29 hours!
Right, forgot about those. They look like normal coins to me. I guess they escaped my eyes, hidden away inside the inventory. They sound like they can rank up skills, but how do they work?
Theo tried holding one while thinking about his shapeshifting skill, and a new notification appeared;
Do you wish to rank up the High-rank Shapeshifting skill? Using a mental framework for the upgrade will yield better results.
Mental framework… I guess I want something that I can’t normally do. Shapeshifting into water and fire would be cool.
Prometheus accepted mentally, watching as the coin in his hand disappeared without a trace. Another second passed, and a new notification appeared in his vision,
High-rank Shapeshifting has ranked up and became Multi-phase Elemental Shapeshifting!
What? Multi-phase?
His instinct told him that the rank-up had been revolutionary, so he tried it out. Holding an ant foreleg in front of his eyes, he flexed his shapeshifting skill, and his limb liquefied into crystal-clear water. He waved it around, and the water-limb followed his body without issue. He did the same with steam, and it worked just as well.
Holy shit, I have elemental cells now!
Prometheus experimented with his new skill, trying to find its limits. Okay, so liquids and whatnot aren’t the best if I get a limb cut off, as I can’t recover the biomass. But fire seems so amazing. He could shapeshift into many non-sensical elements, such as fire, water, gasses, rock, ice, and even light and plasma! But not heavy metals. None of that made any sense, naturally, but it was incredibly overpowered. The downside was that his Core’s materials couldn’t be changed, so an enemy could attack through Theo’s body made of gas and hit his Core, which wasn’t something he wanted to happen. And also that he couldn’t use most elements for more than ten minutes without getting tired.
Waking up his two friends, he showed them his new skill, to which they both seemed impressed by, but not unreasonably so. The group of three monsters continued their travel to Iron Feather, with only a handful of conversations springing up.
“Why did you stay up yesterday?” Zilch had asked him.
“Well, I wanted to see some cool anomalies. I got a title that makes me stronger with each anomaly that I capture and safely store.”
“Isn’t that…incredibly dangerous? Like that mountain of fire?”
“Listen, I know what you’re saying, but I came out alive and well, so what’s the problem?”
“The fact that you would have died without us, that’s the problem,” Sayuri interjected.
“Those are minor details, I would have found a way out myself…probably…”
Theo’s mind wandered back to those excruciating minutes, when he was still under all that plasma, crushed, melting alive. He remembered how it felt for his body to be burned and crushed at the same time while he couldn’t do anything about it, and how it felt thinking that he wouldn’t be able to explore the world anymore or save his family.
“Um…I wanted to tell you…” he said, whispering, “Thanks,”
Both Zilch and Sayuri whipped their heads at him. Sayuri nodded, while Zilch straightened up and added, “You’re welcome! You don’t have to thank us!”
The shapeshifter grumbled and continued walking, deciding with the others not to move too quickly now that they had almost reached their destination. Prometheus decided on how to use the other tokens, which seemed incredibly powerful.
I wonder what another rank-up on the shapeshifting skill will even do. Should I do that?
He contemplated and decided to go for the other skills first. I still have four tokens, so I can use one later if I feel like it. What should I upgrade first? The choice is only between Genetic Manipulation, Perfected Manufacturing, and Inventory. The others aren’t useful enough to use such an item on. Genetic manipulation has helped me with making people around me stronger, but it wasn’t the most useful tool I’ve had at my disposal. Perfected Manufacturing could be interesting. I think I’ll upgrade Inventory, as I use it pretty much everyday.
Inventory has ranked up and became Bottomless Inventory!
Using his Inventory sense, he noticed that it had become massively larger, with now a capacity of around forty meters cubed. It would be enough to hold everything he would ever need, and more. Fortunately, he still had three other tokens, so he spent another one on the inventory skill, while mentally focusing on wanting something to keep anomalies in place.
Bottomless Inventory has ranked up and became Anti-Anomaly Inventory!
Perfect.
As soon as he had upgraded the Inventory, the warping brick in it had become much less active. It did try to teleport every now and then, but much less often. He still had two other tokens, so he decided to spend one on Perfected Manufacturing.
Perfected Manufacturing has ranked up and became Imaginative Manufacturing!
Raising an eyebrow at the name, he wondered about what it did. I just thought about a skill that would make me create impossible things. When I’m back to the base, I’ll try it out. For now, I have a last token to use. Prometheus decided to ask Saul the Soul for its opinion, as the Soul knew Theo better than anyone else.
“Is that even a question?” Saul asked.
“Yes? I asked what I should do with the token, I’m pretty sure it’s a question.”
“Uff, for being such an advanced AI you’re quite obtuse. Listen, what are you?”
Prometheus thought about it and replied, “I'm Prometheus, a morphogene-“
“Cut the fancy-ass crap, you’re a shapeshifter, simple as that. Why would you upgrade anything other than your primary weapon? I don’t even know why you didn’t straight up use all five on the shapeshifting skill!”
“I wanted some variety,” Theo replied with a lower tone, as if to convince himself.
“Whatever. Just use it on shapeshifting, I wanna see what comes out!”
Prometheus used the last token, and for the mental framework, he simply thought about ‘Shapeshifting without any hassle. Naturally, that was incredibly uncreative, but he was tired of the need to always use the technique to transform even somewhat quickly, so he hoped the rank-up would help with that.
Multi-phase Elemental Shapeshifting has ranked up and became Effortless Elemental Shapeshifting!
Prometheus clicked his mandibles with jitters of excitement. He immediately tried it out, noticing how, even without a technique, he was able to shapeshift completely in a matter of seconds. He would finally be able to transform mid-battle without any slowdowns. He also kept the elemental transformations, and they also became a lot easier to maintain.
Looking at his two companions, he thought of how they went out of their way, risking their lives, to save him. And they succeeded in doing so, even without all the crazy abilities he had. I’m proud of having such amazing friends. He would never admit it to them, as their egos might inflate too much.
- - -
The trio finally closed on to the city, and as planned, Zilch burrowed underground with his earth golems, while Theo and Sayuri pretended to be normal human passersby intending on spectating the famous ‘Iron Tournament’ in the Iron Arena. Theo took on his Golden Warrior form, which he took in less than five seconds, and took the Soul-masking pills, which his companions had already taken.
Sayuri covered herself with a long robe that hid all of her details, except for her sword and sunhat. Hopefully, they won’t ask her to remove it.
The two monsters entered a dirt road, which Theo knew would allow them to reach the city. Walking for another half an hour, they reached the city entrance, where a guard was attentively examining the products on a carriage driven by an old man and a much younger girl. Theo and Sayuri waited in line, his companion standing out with her two-meter-tall, lanky frame.
When it was their turn, the guard held her hand forward, speaking, “Halt, travelers. New protocols need us to perform a Soul scan on you. Sir, please remove that cloak.” The guard said, looking at Sayuri.
Theo sighed, preparing to take out the Multi-weapon, when Sayuri stopped him with a mental nudge. She then created a mental communication spell between the three of them, saying, “Miss, please do not panic when I reveal myself. My ability forced me to have a plant-like body, which took away my ability to speak. My human Soul will prove my innocence.”
Nice one!