The white spherical pill sat on the dirty cobblestones of the street and shimmered with subtle light as Verus’s fingers closed around it. Unaware, the nearby criminals continued their battle. The pill was cool to the touch at first, but it quickly warmed up. With his prize in hand, Verus then quickly tried to scramble back out of sight behind the barrels. However, the pill continued to grow hotter until it was actually painful, causing him to wince. Surprised, he opened his fingers to stare at his shinning prize and was relieved to see that his flesh wasn’t burned. Perhaps holding a potent unknown pill with his bare hands had been a bad idea.

There was a scream as another cultist fell, leaving only their masked leader still standing. He cursed and retreated. The veiled Telhri and the robed demi-human moved to follow, but then the pill Verus was holding let out a burst of ki. The young disciple flinched in horror as the energy washed over the fighters, causing them to all stop and look in his direction. Uh oh.

Verus stared back at them, frozen in place. His horror only grew deeper as the pill in his hand suddenly shifted and squirmed. Writhing like something alive, the white sphere elongated into a maggot-like shape and then dug into his hand. A moment later, it was gone, having burrowed into his flesh without leaving a wound. Yet, Verus could feel it slip into his ki channels and began tunneling down his arm toward his core. It hurt a lot, making his muscles lock up in agony. Things had just gone from very bad to doomed.

The last cultist gazed at Verus for a moment from behind his smiling mask, which totally hid his thoughts and intentions, before taking advantage of his foe’s distraction to disappear. His body simply dispersed in a burst of dark energy, leaving no trace.

The robed demi-human growled furiously but let him go. Instead, his shadowed face stayed focused on Verus and he began shuffling toward the young disciple.

“You! What have you done? No one as weak as you could have approached unseen and absorbed the seed! Who are you?” the robed figure hissed as it descended upon Verus. The veiled Telhri was right behind him.

Verus was still frozen in fear and could only stare back slack-jawed. Not only was he facing two dangerous and murderous cultivators with terrifying powers, but he was expecting the thing that had just burrowed into his core to kill him at any moment. Even running wasn’t an option. His entire ki system was spasming and useless, since the thing that had drilled into him was still moving around through his core, digging deeper. It hurt a lot, like a burning iron in his chest, and as a result, his legs were too weak to let him stand. What was happening to his core? Was this some sort of spiritual parasite? That seemed like the most likely possibility.

Verus was absolutely certain he was about to die. The robed demi-human was like the specter of death itself. He could only watch in wide-eyed horror as the creature reached for him with its inhuman grey hands. There was no escape. The slightest touch from a cultivator at its level was far more than enough to kill him. Jagged black fingernails closed in on his face. It seemed like he’d be reuniting with Warin soon. Hopefully, the Lightbringers weren’t full of shit and Heaven was real. That would be nice.

Verus blinked in surprise as the demi-human suddenly jumped backwards away from him. What?

Boom. The cobblestones in front of Verus exploded as something slammed into them from above, throwing him back. There was a blast of wind and a glint of bright bronze catching the light. Then, a figure stood up from the impact site and turned to face the demi-human. Large bronze wings unfolded from its back, making its identity plain. A Seraphim. Hope rekindled within Verus as he gritted his teeth and pulled himself up onto his knees. It was possible he was going to live, although his core could still explode at any time. It certainly hurt like it was about to.

The new arrival and the demi-human sized each other up. Both were almost impossible to read. One wore a tattered grey cloak that was full of shadows and the other was clad in heavy bronze plate. The Seraphim’s helmet had a mask that completely covered its face and was shaped to resemble a stern yet handsome human face.

Then, a gravelly voice issued forth from the Seraphim’s mask. “All imperial citizens are to retreat from the area immediately. Dangerous foreign presences have been detected. This is now a combat zone.”

“Bloody fates,” the Telhri tribesman cursed. “It must have detected that ki pulse.”

“No matter. This mutilated puppet won’t stand between me and the Splinterseed now that it is right before my eyes,” the robed figure growled as it summoned several orbs of dark water and threw them.

The bronze Seraphim raised its hands and its gauntlets grew to become long gleaming claws. Using them, it slashed one of the water orbs into pieces and dodged another with a flap of its metallic wings. However, the last orb convulsed, and three long tentacles emerged to grab the Seraphim’s arm. It turned to cut itself free with its other claw, but that was when the demi-human struck. It vanished, only to reappear in the Seraphim’s blind spot, and proceeded to stab the Seraphim in the neck with a long, curved dagger.

The black blade slipped past the Seraphim’s armor and sank several inches into its neck, but that didn’t seem to matter. The Seraphim didn’t even react. Instead, it ignored the wound and spun around to claw at the demi-human’s face. The attack missed as the demi-human jumped back, but the claws caught its hood and ripped it off, revealing the creature’s face.

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Verus gagged in disgust and fear. The demi-human had large saucer like eyes that were completely white and filmy, almost as if it was blind. All of its skin was the same dark grey as its fingers, and it had a slimy sheen to it. The demi-human also had no nose, only two thin slits for it to breathe through. It looked like some sort of horrible mutant fish, and the look was completed by the sharp needle-like teeth that its hateful snarl revealed.

The Seraphim stepped forward to attack again, but the fish demi-human raised a hand and made a series of complex gestures. Immediately, the Seraphim froze and began shivering as black puss began oozing from its wound. A moment later, there was a loud metallic screech as Verus’s protector collapsed onto the ground.

Fortunately, that was when two more Seraphim landed on the edge of a nearby roof. One was a familiar bronze color, but the other was a shining silver and held a long sword. Their identical stylized metal masks looked down at the demi-human without emotion, but they were clearly ready to spring into action.

“Surrender or be destroyed,” the silver one announced coldly in the same gravelly voice as the first.

The veiled Telhri turned to the demi-human. “We have to go! If the Seraphim are here, the guard will already be moving to encircle the area.”

The fish monster glanced at Verus and hesitated, clearly tempted to try and grab him. His mind was made up for him when another bronze Seraphim landed right between him and the young disciple, and it was at this exact moment that Verus’s core stopped roiling. Gasping in relief, he climbed to his feet and began running away as fast as he could. He didn’t look back. He simply dashed away as fast as he could down the street. His core system was still disabled, but enough strength had returned to his legs to let him move.

Stumbling into an alley to try to evade pursuit, Verus gritted his teeth against the pain and forced himself to keep running. He had to get to safety. Regardless of everything else, he knew he didn’t want to fall into the clutches of that twisted fishman with its soulless eyes. That would be a fate worse than death.

An explosion went off somewhere in the distance, but it wasn’t nearby, so Verus simply kept running. Soon, he reached an occupied street and slipped out of the alley to join the crowd. Some people stopped to look in the direction of the blast, but most of the citizens ignored it and kept going about their business. Panting in exhaustion and with ruffled and dirty robes, Verus got a few looks, but no one tried to stop him. There also didn’t seem to be any sign of pursuit, from either the criminals or the guard. Thus, Verus’s heart began to slow its frantic pounding. He still felt weak and lightheaded, but he tried to consider his options as he began walking toward the main temple of the Great Wind Sect. Despite his earlier reluctance to go back, he’d feel much safer there than anywhere else.

As he walked, a flash of color blinded him for a moment before vanishing. Verus lurched to a stop and looked around, but he quickly realized the flash had been in his mind and not real light, so he kept moving. Staying still wasn’t safe.

Briefly, he considered reporting to the guard, but he quickly discarded that idea. He wasn’t sure he trusted the authorities after everything that had happened, and he had no idea what the thing that had burrowed into his core was. He just knew it was connected to cultists, dark spirits, and demi-humans. It was quite possible the authorities would overreact or punish him for getting involved with such things. The empire came down hard on anything they considered… tainted.

Another flash of colors hit Verus as his core suddenly shifted. What now? The seed was apparently still doing something.

“Fear is an illusion. The unbound soul seeks balance,” Verus mumbled as he tried to clear his head. He felt detached from his body. Was he really so tired? He needed to fight it and keep moving.

Medical attention would be great, but Verus quickly decided against visiting the infirmary. He’d already decided to gamble his life for power. They’d have too many questions, and if he passed out, who knew what he’d wake up to? No, if this was a parasite spirit of some kind, he could find a way to remove it at the sect or at a devotary when he was feeling better. They did that sort of thing all the time, and such parasites never killed quickly. There was also the possibility that it actually was some sort of cultivation aide. He’d heard tales of some very odd ones, and it hadn’t killed him yet. From the reaction of the demi-human, the pill did seem to be valuable. Had he called it a Splinterseed? He’d have to look that term up, but quietly. If the seed was valuable, someone might try to steal it.

As Verus made his way back to the sect, extreme exhaustion washed over him. The feeling was more than physical. He could swear his very soul had grown weary. From inside his core, he could feel a subtle shifting sensation. It was a part of him he’d never really felt before, but now something had torn into it, making it ache. Had the seed actually gone through his core to reach his soul? On one hand, that was good because parasite spirits didn’t do that. On the other, the idea of something altering his soul was terrifying. Souls were supposed to be nearly invulnerable. Normally, only the most powerful beings and artifacts could even detect them.

The one thing that reassured Verus was the Warrior. It had started to buzz within him, strengthening his resolve, even if it didn’t seem to be struggling against anything in particular. Rather, it was just there in the back of his mind, slowly rising in strength and steadying him. Verus was certain it would be reacting differently if he was dying or truly still in danger. Something like this was to be expected after taking a strange cultivation resource.

More flashes of color assailed Verus as he walked through the sect’s gate as normally as he could. The two guards on duty gave him a look but let him pass without comment. The flashes seemed to be triggered by the movements in his core, almost like they were being unearthed from within him. Something inside him was being changed. It felt like parts of his very being was being rotated and twisted around. It felt weird and unsettling. Each flash brought waves of muddled emotion with them now. Verus swore there were images and scenes hidden in the colors, like distorted fragments of dreams that he couldn’t make sense of. If this was an effect of the Splinterseed, then it definitely wasn’t a parasite spirit.

Hurrying to the outer disciple dormitory, Verus stumbled into his room and collapsed onto his bed. He was deathly tired now and feeling quite disoriented. Thinking had become difficult as the flashes of color and emotion had started becoming more frequent. It was mostly meaningless chaos, but Verus felt hints of something more. Like pieces of a puzzle being thrown together again and again until they fit. He didn’t understand it, but he sensed broken connections being reforged.

As soon as his back hit the bed, Verus felt darkness close in on him. The last thing he experienced before falling unconscious was a sudden series of visions of strange people and places, while the Warrior’s buzz grew louder.