Pine needles and small branches quietly slid along the flat underside of Hantal’s 1.5-meter-wide chitin carapace. Words could not describe the ambivalent feelings and thoughts running through his mind at his current state. He honestly couldn’t decide what was worse. The fact that he was a two-meter insectile vermin or that he was mortal.

Take your pick… The former Chaotic viciously pricked himself with his own miserable thoughts. Still, my path of salvation out of both is guaranteed. He quieted his frustrations with the reassurance that his trials of mortality and being a giant cockroach were almost over.

The Clone had brought him to a large, forested region inside a massive transport—perhaps one of the Ark ships that even he had been aware of as a mortal.

All the blue fractalized Clone had said at the time was. “Be ready. Senyak and Joshua Elias Tanner will be through here soon.”

He hadn’t been wrong. Immediately after Hantal had taken cover, both of his prey arrived. And, like Hantal himself, they each had the single Spherical Attunement of Earth.

The Chaotic had considered attacking them both right there and then as they became absorbed in the digital playback of a video for some reason. Without doubt, Hantal had the advantage here. Of the three of them, he was an experienced cultivator, having gone through Spherical to Icosahedral levels of cultivation before. Hantal knew that Senyak’s capabilities here being born an Immortal would be essentially nil. On top of this, Joshua Tanner was a completely brand-new cultivator. There was no way he knew how to utilize it to any significance. Hantal could enhance his massive body to crush both of them easily… But a two-on-one fight was less uneven than Hantal was willing to risk. They had to be here for some purpose. Perhaps they will get wounded making my victory that much easier?

If they didn’t, he could attack from surprise at any time, if it came to that. So, he waited and followed the pair in their rush from the airlock kiosk to a region several hundred kilometers away and presently infested by a rather hearty group of internally gestating parasitic life forms.

Once there, Hantal had once again been proven the genius he always knew he was. During their meaningless slaughter of all the creatures they had both been critically wounded. Tanner had a gaping hole in his chest and Senyak was missing an arm. They obviously didn’t know how to cycle their Essence as effectively as they could… or they would have started some type of healing. Instead, they had run back the way they had come even faster than the first time carrying an injured mortal. Then, just as unexpectedly, they had stopped to do the most ridiculous of things.

They were both sitting over the wounded mortal in some kind of attempt to communicate or save her. It wasn’t completely clear. Which didn’t matter. Neither of them was trying to heal their wounds.

Hantal could only classify their actions as absolute and complete insanity. But I like it!

This was exactly the situation he had hoped for, and he took full advantage of it as he began to silently crawl through the underbrush toward their unprotected backs.

Perhaps Karma is once again smiling down on me for the unjust suffering forced upon me because of Senyak’s familial connections?

A blind and hate filled rage almost consumed Hantal’s mind at his own mental remembrance of his death. Struck down from behind by the most powerful Immortal in Existence because I defeated his good-for-nothing grandson and then reincarnated him as mortal vermin. The injustice filled him with uncontrolled frustrations, and he screamed in his own mind.

I have been brought back to suffer mortality… Again!

How can I be mortal again!

The millions of standard solar rotations spent rising through mortal cultivation. Along with the hundreds of thousands of Ka Nexus rotations I committed laboring for my Immortal cultivation…

All taken from me in one instant!!

I am superior to that privileged idiot Senyak! He has been given everything advantage and still knows nothing! I defeated him because I am smarter than he will ever be! But where is my recognition for that?! Where!?!

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

All of Hantal’s coherent thinking had collapsed under the strain of his tirade. His own internal inferno of resentment, abhorrence, and self-pity so overwhelmed him that he almost forgot the great need for stealth while his segmented legs continued to slowly move his bulk through toward Senyak and Joshua Tanner.

On the edge of committing a full charge fueled by his hate, Hantal was pulled back from the precipice by an unbidden and abstract thought that penetrated his consciousness.

There is definitely something wrong with the mind of the creature you have been reincarnated in. It is not functioning properly at all… And a large part of Hantal’s awareness agreed. He did not know of any mortal insect species that had ever attained sapience – Arachnids certainly, but not insects. They lacked the internal circulation and necessary gray matter.

No, I have been put in this body and given this handicap as a personal insult. That is certain–

It doesn’t matter! The largest conscious part of Hantal screamed in his own bug head before he unhinged totally.

Hantal froze and took several quiet, steadying breaths through his nares. Bit by bit he pulled his thinking back from the yawning black cavern of the looming mental breakdown he was suffering.

Yes… It doesn’t matter. I can get it all back! There is only twenty meters to go. I will tear Senyak’s body in half, drain his core and then devour him. And for dessert I will do the same exact things to that human insect Tanner! I will win, and they will lose. It is that simple!

And it really was. Hantal had a fundamental and inviolable Karmic agreement with the Clone. He had bound himself to Karma of his own free will. On top of Hantal’s restored Immortality, the UV-shielded replicant had promised Hantal unfettered freedom. All Hantal had to accomplish was what he most wanted to do in all the iterations. Kill and devour Senyak and his pet human Joshua Tanner. What could be simpler?

Hantal restarted his forward movement with a new purpose. Only ten meters to go and neither Senyak’s nor Tanner’s backs had moved in response to Hantal’s quasi-meltdown. Obviously still consumed with the dying mortal.

Good!

Did they think they could heal her? Hantal’s wandering mind couldn’t help but wonder. It had been a very long time since Hantal had been a mortal cultivator, but he was still certain that such cultivation feats at the level of Spherical Cultivation would be limited to geniuses that were much closer to their Tetrahedral core…

But that fact was truly irrelevant. Just as irrelevant and unimportant as whatever the actual purpose was for the Clone’s sick and twisted game in wanting Hantal to kill Senyak – his original’s own progeny? He had thought about why the Clone would want it… but had failed to find a legitimate reason…

But this didn’t matter either, given the Clone’s Karmically binding oath. Though Hantal was sure of one thing, The Marztanak Hegemony’s Game of Thrones had freakish filicidal issues they needed to work through. Hantal mentally chuckled as the distance shortened.

Very soon, Senyak will be eaten and then dead! Yes, that is definitely the proper order! Hantal’s wide mandibles spread in a way that only he would ever know was a vicious grin.

The distance shortened to two meters, and Hantal’s anterior segment rose and loomed over Senyak’s still and defenseless form. He enhanced his entire three-meter exoskeleton and moved to slam down and cleave Senyak into largish, smashed chunks with his splayed mandibles.

* * * * *

Lifting his eyes to the heavens, Josh pleaded with anyone who would hear him...

“This girl cannot die! I don’t know how, but Karma is using her as some kind of stand-in for my child... Some kind of test or trial to see if I’m worthy of having a shot to save my daughter... For this moment, all that matters is that Alysa is Sophie... and Sophie is her! Their fates are locked together in some way that I don’t understand and can't stop. I have no idea what will happen to Sophie if I fail Alysa... I just know that I can’t lose either of them!”

You know all that you need to save her. She is simply a spiritual being like you.

The gentle voice had risen from where Alysa lay. Hearing it allowed Josh to notice for the first time the soft, wispy lines of a… Ghost?… An apparition … A spirit? that was overlying Alysa’s deteriorating body. Its face seemed to smile at him with the confidence of the ages. For the briefest of moments, its expression solidified into a look that told Josh in no uncertain terms that everything was going to be alright.

He couldn’t identify the voice or the wavy, translucent lines of the spirit’s form… The small pessimistic side of him spoke to his greatest fear. Maybe it's just my sanity finally shattering as my mind breaks down under the strain…

But the words were filled with such hope that Josh’s panic-filled heart grabbed onto them in a psychic stranglehold.

As if on instinct, he held his hand over her core and infused her with his Essence... He sent half of his free Essence into her and saw the spirit form momentarily come into clear focus then fade out again as his Essence ran through like water through a sieve. Almost like there was not a core there… at least not a functioning one–

You are correct, the damage to her core is too great… It needs to be replaced… but one is coming… Replace her core and you can then join me to my sister with your Essence.

Who are you?!

Where did you come from?!

Why are you doing this?!

How are you doing this?!

Josh had a thousand questions, but he only asked the one that mattered. “Will it save Sophie and Alysa?”

Yes …

Came the reply, but the spirit’s presence was obviously weakening.

Josh became laser-focused on the possibility of saving Sophie and Alysa and on the fact that the spirit’s weakening meant this was a limited-time offer.

But now there were two important questions, and he had to ask them both if he was going to do it.

The important one first.

“Where is this core?”

Your Karmically Bonded brother knows …

Josh barely whispered the next question as he feared the answer, “If we fail…will you all die…?”

There was no verbal answer…but the spirit’s head nodded minutely once.

The stakes just went up. Time to double down.

But it didn’t… it couldn’t matter. Josh had no idea who this spirit was or why it was helping them. If it was willing to lay itself in front of the train alongside him and Senyak in order to save his daughters, Josh was going to slide over and give it all the space it needed on the tracks. He immediately moved forward with the plan.

“SENNN!!!!” Josh roared like an enraged animal over his shoulder. “I NEED A CORE!!!!”

Sen spoke through their Bond in response. ~Don’t worry, brother. I was just on my way to get one... But stay here and shield them while I do it.~

Sen’s spoke immediately before he leapt from where he crouched behind Josh into a leg-spinning back flip. A kick-flip that Josh noted sent a seven-foot cockroach that had been looming over them, spinning up and away. Josh also couldn’t help but notice that this was a seven-foot cockroach, which, to that very moment, he had absolutely no idea was about to eat them…