by Ivan Kal
His launcher he loaded with a smoke canister and then he stood up, looking down. He felt like he had done as much as he could to prepare. But then, he decided to put a few healing potions in his satchel. The vials were enchanted to be stronger, but they could still burst if he landed on them with enough force, so he usually kept them in his storage. Now, however, he knew that he needed to have them at hand so that he could use them quickly if he needed to. Finally, he put his new dice in one of the pockets as well.
Armed and ready, Morgan walked through a wall, and exited into a street. He looked around, flashing his sense to make sure that there were no monsters around and then switched to his Night Eye Form. He decided not to risk the roofs again, and go instead with skulking through the streets.
He got low and headed toward his destination, flashing his sense from time to time, but not keeping it active all the time, since he wasn’t sure if some of the monsters might detect it. He relied on his eyes and their heat vision.
A couple of times he saw the heat signature of monsters before they could see him and phased into buildings, waiting for them to pass. So far, the most common monsters he encountered were packs of lammergeiers. But he saw a few more of the behemoths. More often than not, the two monster types would be engaged in conflict, which allowed Morgan to avoid them with less difficulty. It appeared that the lammergeiers could take down the behemoths when they had enough numbers, as he saw just as many packs feasting on behemoth corpses as he saw behemoths eating the lammergeiers.
After about half a day of heading toward the tower, he noticed that it was getting bigger, meaning that he had gained some ground. It wasn’t that far, relatively speaking, but his pace was atrocious, with him having to avoid monsters constantly.
Then, as he flashed his Nature Seismic Sense, Morgan felt something strange: soft vibrations somewhere up ahead, but contained to a single place. Something that wasn’t moving much. His curiosity got the better of him and he changed his direction. Quickly he reached a medium-sized square, then hid behind a collapsed building before peeking out.
He blinked at what he saw. In the center of the square were corpses of monsters, a few lammergeiers and one behemoth, of the smaller variant. But the strange thing were two beings standing over the behemoth’s corpse.
They wore dark robes, with pouches made out of some kind of hide at their hips. Both were of the same race, a kind of lizard-folk, similar to Jelara, except that these looked even more reptilian with green scales, and were shorter. What was interesting was that he couldn’t see anything above them, no name—which would imply that they weren’t monsters. For a moment he thought that they might be other ascended. He knew that on the first three floors at least, different raid groups couldn’t interact with one another. But perhaps the rules were different on this floor?
They could be the tower guardians; he had seen that they could be of different races on the first three floors. He wondered if he should walk out and try to speak with them, try to find out who they were. But then he decided that he could try and use Inspect on them. He doubted that he would see anything if they were guardians, but if they were ascended he would get at least their names. He knew that it was considered rude, but he figured that apologizing after the fact would be enough.
He focused his eyes on them and used his skill. Immediately, large red letters appeared in front of his eyes.
Race: Rzan | Allegiance: Chaos and Order | Disposition: Hostile | Probable occupation: Warlock | Recommendation: Immediate elimination |
Sending report… Error, failed to send report.
Assuming direct control…
—Morgan, run!—
Morgan blinked at the text, and then reached the last line and his blood froze. The two beings turned around looked straight at him. Then they started speaking in a strange language that he didn’t understand. Morgan raised his hands as he backed away.
“Hey, guys. I have no idea what—”
One of them put his hand inside his pouch, then started speaking in a chant-like manner as he pulled it out covered in red liquid that looked suspiciously like blood. A moment later that blood flashed and he swung with his hand. Morgan didn’t even have a chance to react as a whip of crackling red energy reached for him and wrapped around his torso and arms. The whip burned through his clothes and he screamed, his mind filling with pain. He tried to focus on phasing but he couldn’t concentrate. The being, the Rzan, pulled the whip back and Morgan flew toward it.
His head was filled with agony, but he managed to focus enough to trigger his ability. Phase Dash activated, and the pain disappeared, along with everything else. The ability ended and Morgan found himself landing on the ground in front of the two beings. The first one raised his hand, pulling the whip back for another swing while the other chanted as he put his hand in his own pouch.
Morgan realized that whoever these two were, they did not intend on letting him leave here peacefully. The whip snapped forward, and Morgan dodged to the side, rolling on the ground as his hand reached for his belt. He grabbed an explosive bomb and threw it at the whip-wielding Rzan. It raised its other hand as the whip disappeared and that hand sunk back into the pouch that seemed to be filled with blood. Then a shimmering shield formed in front of it, and Morgan’s bomb exploded against it. The explosion gave him a moment when the two couldn’t see him and he used Mind Space. Time stopped, and he looked at his situation.
The last message he read had to have been from Sabila. He knew that she could act in special circumstances, and the fact that she had acted now told him that this was an incredibly serious situation. He didn’t know who these two were, but they apparently wanted to harm him. If what he had seen with his inspect was true, they would probably try to kill him and he should try to do the same. He had never seen the red letters before, nor that kind of information when he inspected someone. He didn’t know what it meant, nor did he have the time to dwell on it.
He needed to take Sabila’s advice and run. He made a decision and then a plan. Time sped up, and Morgan turned, heading toward the closest street. His Phase Dash would be on cooldown for a few seconds more, but after he could lose them by running into a wall. As he got close, red lightning smashed in front of him from above, a barrage that collapsed the building and cut his way off as well as nearly struck him. His Lightning Reflexes was the only thing that saved him, as he managed to throw himself to the side and evade again.
As soon as he came out of his roll he got up and turned toward the enemy, in time to see the whip snap back into existence and wrap around him. Again, the red crackling energy sent surge of pain through him, and the Rzan pulled him toward himself as his other hand went to the pouch on his other hip and then the blood elongated and formed into a spear made out of blood. Morgan grimaced in pain, but just as the Rzan threw the spear at his flying form, he felt his cooldown end. Phased Dash activated and he knew that he was flying closer to the enemy. When the ability ended, he was almost right on top of him. The Rzan was forming another spear, and Morgan triggered his sword form and activated Iron Skin.
The Rzan stabbed, and Morgan did the same even as he tried to grab the spear with his free hand. He managed to touch it and move it a bit, of course, so instead of stabbing him through the heart it punched through his shoulder. His momentum carried him forward, impaling him, but his sword reached the enemy too. Morgan roared as he stabbed it forward, the enemy looking surprised as the sword finished forming on his arm and stabbed through the being’s eye, straight through its head.
He fell on top of the dead Rzan, and quickly raised his head, looking at the other one who was standing next to the corpse of the behemoth. Morgan noticed it chanting, its hands creating strange hand gestures. But there was a red cloud above the behemoth, and what looked like blood was raining down on it, soaking it.
And then Morgan blinked as he saw the blood hardening and becoming crystalline. The corpse twitched started moving, its flesh tearing and red crystal shining beneath. Its e
yes opened and shone with red crackling energy and Morgan looked up at it. It was mutilated, the red crystallized blood was growing out of its skin, as if it had been impaled. One of its arms ripped open and red crystal showed beneath torn skin as the arm elongated. Its claws were covered with red crystals and crackled with energy.
Raising the dead with blood! Cool, cool, cool, right, of course this is a thing. Morgan moved, trying to get away, but the monster roared and jumped over his head and landed in front of him, cutting off his way out. His Phase Dash was on cooldown, and the residual pain from the whip made it hard to concentrate on his skills. But instead of trying, Morgan turned and ran straight for the remaining Rzan. Perhaps if I kill the master, I won’t need to deal with the monster.
The Rzan chanted more as one hand went to its pouch and then it pointed its arm at him. Red fire manifested out of the blood hand, and Morgan dove as he heard the monster stomping after him from behind. He doubted that it even worried about the fire. Morgan came out of his roll close to the Rzan, and he went for a sword swing, only to hit a magical shield. He grimaced as he saw it preparing to cast something else, but then the monster behind him caught up. Morgan twisted around just in time to see it on top of him. He tried to evade, but it was too fast, its mutilated arm snapped forward and caught him by the shoulder, its claws biting into his right side deeply and the familiar pain, like the one from the whip hit him. Morgan screamed and stabbed forward with his sword, pushing it into the monster’s eye. But then its other hand rose, caught his arm and started to pull. He could feel his arms being ripped from his body and he screamed.
In the back of his mind he realized that both the monster and the Rzan behind him were in close range around him, and he furiously reached for one of his mental triggers. Then his most powerful ability activated. Phased Gravitic Stomp roared all around him as he was plunged into darkness.
A couple of moments later, the ability ended and he dropped to the floor. His feet hit the stone and he immediately crumbled to his knees. He felt lightheaded, and looked down only to see both of his arms ripped off. Fuck. Quickly, he tried to focus on Klyn, even through the pain. It was slow, but his left wound closed on its own, but blood was still leaking from his right. He looked around himself, seeing the last Rzan on the stone floor with his body shattered and blood spilling everywhere. I killed him.
And then he heard a shuffle and turned back forward only to see the resurrected monster trying to get up from the floor. Its body was cracked, the crystals shattered, but it was still moving. Morgan through about what he could do, but he was getting lightheaded from the blood loss, and he had no arms. He had no mass to change Klyn into any of its forms, and he couldn’t change the rest because most of what was left was his heart and eyes.
The monster rose, its crumpled head turning in his direction shakily, and Morgan resigned himself to death.
And then, it toppled over to the ground. Morgan followed after it, falling on his back and looking up at the crystals above. He was dying, and he didn’t know what to do. He had no hands to grab a healing potion, and he didn’t even know if the ones in his satchel had survived the fight. His hands were ripped off so he couldn’t use his spatial storage ring, nor could he use his bracelet to give Klyn mass. He couldn’t change what he had into a tendril because that would compromise his heart.
His vision was darkening and he knew that he needed to act if he didn’t want to die. He focused all of his willpower on Klyn and had the part that was his chest move and consume. He consumed through his chest around his lungs and toward the wound on his right hand. Once he consumed the wound, he stopped and it closed. He was no longer losing blood, but he had lost enough. He had sacrificed a part of his newly consumed shoulder to manufacture blood and as his blood supply rose, he started breathing better, and his vision started coming back.
Fuck it all, Morgan said to himself. Again, he’d nearly died. And he wasn’t even mad about it. It was the life he chose. But now, seeing how having Klyn had saved his life, again, he realized how stupid he had been. He had power at his fingertips—something that no one else had. Something that he himself had created, that his mind had concocted and bred in a garden laboratory. It was his alone. He had traits that told him that it was a part of himself, and still he hesitated. Well, no fucking more. He did not want to get this close to death ever again. He turned his head and looked at the corpse of the lizard-being. He pushed himself with his legs over until he was close enough that his shoulder was touching the corpse, and then he ordered his body to consume it. Tendrils rose out of his shoulder and started consuming the corpse, clothes, blood and all. He filled his body with mass, becoming dense enough that he could grow new arms and replace everything that he lost. He then focused inward, into his own body.
Consume.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
The better, more powerful part of his body started eating his weaker flesh. The first thing to go was the skin, going all the way around his entire body. Then the muscles, tendons, nerves. Following that, he moved onto organs, one by one, and replaced them. He felt his core being drained of energy as he did so, but there was also something else: a sense of things clicking into place, as if this was what he was meant to do all along. Even the pain he welcomed. There was a heat, and a pulling, a feeling of something attaching itself to someplace inside of him.
He didn’t focus on such things. He finished with the organs in his body, and then turned to his bones and consumed them all. Everything that he replaced, he had made in the image of his original body. But he was denser, heavier, with the extra mass he had taken from the Rzan corpse. With the bone done, the only thing that was left of his old self was his brain, and that he didn’t know if he wanted to mess with.
He truly believed that he was the soul, that his memories while probably being in his body, existed somewhere else as well. Otherwise, how could’ve he remembered the life he had on Earth? His old body was still there, dead and probably buried. In the end he made a decision. He didn’t know if it was the pain, or almost dying, but he didn’t feel like doing things halfway anymore. He ordered his body to consume and replicate in the exact same image.
And then everything went black. For a moment, his thoughts felt sluggish, as if he were floating somewhere. A sensation that he was familiar with. It was how he had felt when he died the first time. But then, the moment was gone, and light returned. He looked through his eyes, and he could think again.
The corner of his eye was flashing with notifications, but Morgan ignored them for now. He tried moving, and his body obeyed. Morgan stood up, and looked down on himself. He still had the same proportions, the same body, really. He knew that it was, exactly the same down to the genetics, but now he also knew that he could change that as long as he expended energy and will. He stood up, and looked at his bare arms, the sleeves of his outfit had been ripped apart as well. He looked around the square, scanning for dangers. He activated his Night Eye Form and looked in the shadows of the buildings surrounding him, seeing no signs of monsters. He walked over to his arms, feeling unbalanced, and then he realized that it was the extra density. He grimaced but then knelt and focused on expelling the extra mass. He returned himself back to his usual weight and felt much better.
Morgan knelt next to his former regular arm and picked it up, pulling the rings off of it, as well as his bracelet. He put the bracelet on his hand and then consumed the hand before putting the mass into the bracelet. He didn’t want to leave something of himself here. The shifting parts of him that had been his arm had already turned to a blob of undetermined matter. Morgan knew that he needed to go someplace else, somewhere safe to check his notifications and explore his new reality, but he also had an idea. He went over to the corpse of the first Rzan and put it into his storage. He had enough room for it, as the climb over the first three floors had been profitable in many ways. A bigger storage had been one of the things he had acquired. But with him having consumed the other one, removing the second body mig
ht be smart. He didn’t know if these Rzan had allies here.
Then he went over to the behemoth abomination and put it into the storage as well. It barely fit, but he managed it. Then he left the square, searching for a hidden place away from the battlefield.
***
He ran as far as he could into the direction of his ultimate destination, and found a ruin which seemed to have open space deep inside. He phased through and finally sighed. He had noticed some changes as he ran over. His body didn’t get tired, but there was a faint sense that he was using energy—not enough that it was real big drain on him, but his regeneration seemed lowered. He probably had a constant drain now, but his regeneration was still greater than that drain. He wondered if the body would require more energy the more he used it. He also felt like his core had gotten another upgrade, so he felt like he should be fine.
Seeing as he was finally safe, Morgan turned to his notifications and started pulling them up.
Core breakthrough! Your core has undergone a change. Your energy supplies are greater, and that energy is more effective.
Body breakthrough! You have forged your body. You lose the ability to increase physical attribute points through ascension; your physical attributes now depend on the power of the body you are using.
Morgan blinked at that, but then continued reading. There were more notifications.
Klyn, Heart and Will removed.
New trait gained! Forged Body: Ever-Changing Body of Klyn.