Chapter Eighteen.

I have made a horrible mistake. Not riding the Kaiju-thing, that's going awesome so far. No, my mistake was absent-mindedly singing half remembered bits of "under the sea" from the little mermaid as we sped through the depths.

It turns out this is the first time the [Blightlings] had ever heard of music, and so they faithfully memorized my butchered lyrics before bursting forth in their own rapturous melody. Combining all the worst aspects of a kindergarten chorus with a yowling like someone trying to skin a live cat, I've no doubt it would've driven our passenger to suicide if I hadn't convinced them to keep it to the link for "safety" reasons.

Speaking of the passenger, he's… not doing well. Drifting in and out of consciousness, fever, delirious mumblings, the works. I've been using my aura to filter water and pass him some bits of fish but if I can't find a way to get him some real help then I'm not sure he'll make it.

Of course there's also the fact that anyone likely to help him is currently trying to kill us, but that's a problem for future me.

A deafening grumble from the dragon-turtle distracts me from my depressing thoughts and I quickly peek outside to see what’s up. Our turtle steed is a bit on the scrappy side as it turns out, having gotten into three fights with other massive entities of the deep in the last two days. I’d taken advantage of the huge chunks of meat (along with thousands of other scavengers) floating in the aftermath to scrounge some food for us to replenish our depleted reserves.

The wandering kaiju in the undersea have formed an entire ecosystem around their continuous combat, with the beasts themselves acting as a floating (angry) coral reef sheltering numerous creatures like myself who wouldn’t stand a chance in open water. Anything big enough to threaten me was big enough for Mr Kaiju to eat, with plentiful schools of fish and crustaceans all having the same idea. The downside is when the actual fighting happens there’s a small risk of being instantly pulverized.

Eyeing a broken bone spire close by, I shuddered at a close call from the last fight where an immense claw had come within a few meters of bisecting us, carving a shallow trench dozens of meters long down the shell.

Obviously not a long-term survival solution, but for now…

I used shapeshifting to take the form of a tentacle-faced eel-thing (don’t ask) and swam out. A pair of hulking shapes clung to the worm's shell, startling me for a second while my brain caught up to Itchy and Theo's latest transformation.

Attention.

Minion [Blightling Warrior] has evolved to a new type.

Type: [Blightguard]

A highly evolved form specialized in extreme combat supremacy. Drastically increased armor and offensive capability. Utilizes minor shapeshifting to affect regenerative repairs on armor, resulting in radically increased staying power so long as energy is available. Can be summoned directly for increased cost if requirements met.

An unbreakable bastion of the Blight, the [Blightguard] will protect their family until their dying breaths. Given the difficulty in causing them any lasting damage, that’s saying something.

Note: Adult form. Additional evolutions possible, but at greatly increased cost.

The two had quadrupled in size to just over two meters and looked like someone tried to cross a lobster, a crocodile and a xenomorph. It would normally be super intimidating, but—

“UNDER THE SEAAAAA!!”

I sighed defeatedly to myself as my monstrous minions continued to sing their new favorite song, doing a shuffling dance in place as they kept guard. What did I do to deserve this?

More grumbling from the dragon-turtle brought me back to reality but I couldn’t see any sign of another beast picking a fight. The water around us slowly grew less turbulent and I realized we were slowing down. I was confused for a bit until the shell shook and we came to a rumbling halt. A few minutes later and a regular grumbling sound reverberated through the water around us.

Is it… sleeping?

Darting forward, I swam around the kaiju’s body and saw a huge rocky overhang it had embedded itself under, wedging itself into the stone and curling up (much as it could, anyway) for a nap. I felt myself getting excited as I looked at stone walls stretching up and down into the distance.

Land!!

I hurried back to the worm and gathered up the [Blightlings] before we carefully uncurled from the bone spire that had been our anchor for the last couple days. Trying not to disturb the beast as much as possible, we made our way to the rocks. I don’t know if it was actually safer, but just having some real land close by as a barrier made me feel so much better. It felt good to have a direction I could mentally mark as ‘safe from attack’.

Making the decision to prioritize getting the passenger somewhere safer-ish, we made our way steadily up the wall before we suddenly were lit up by a bright blue glow. Freezing on the spot, I looked back to find one of the Dragon-Turtle’s four enormous eyes open and locked on to us.

A weight settled on my consciousness and spread through the link. I felt us being weighed and measured, unable to even twitch under the regard of something that I just now realized hadn’t been as ignorant of our presence as I’d thought. After what felt like hours but likely wasn’t more than seconds the weight lifted, a sense of dry amusement flickering through as the eye closed again and we were released.

Without a backwards glance we bolted for the surface, hurtling recklessly through the water as fast as we could.

We broke through onto a rocky beach, and I found we were on an outcropping of an immense column of stone, surrounded on all sides by dark water. Exiting the worm, I made my way to the water’s edge and just stared for a bit.

I keep thinking I’ve learned to stop making assumptions about this place… then I keep getting proven wrong.

Standing up, I realized I had legs. Oh no… Whether by accident from taking care of the passenger or just my subconscious working against me, I’d shapeshifted into a human.

The form had the same marks of all my shapeshifting, with matte onyx skin and eyes like orbs of polished obsidian. It felt so familiar and yet utterly alien to me.

The face… wasn't mine. I'd never seen what the man I'd killed looked like under his armor, but I assumed this was it. Trying to shift features back to my old human face not only failed to make anything resembling human, it gave me a brand new source of anxiety.

I couldn't remember what I looked like.

The broad strokes came easily enough, but with every layer of detail things got more wrong. Each change distorting the whole until I looked like a revolting caricature of a person.

Rage bubbled up inside me for a split second until it broke under a wave of pure exhaustion. Cradling my head in my hands, I sank back to my seat.

I don't know if I can keep doing this.

The chase, the undersea, the quest to find the Achorai and somehow reach the surface… now this. It was too much—too overwhelming. I'd been going at a breakneck pace for weeks and I was tired. Which was the perfect moment for a huge pair of jaws to snatch me right off the water’s edge.

Disoriented and shocked, I was half-way down the creature’s throat before I even realized what was happening. Then the rage was back. I roared from dozens of mouths as my shapeshifting went wild, tendrils shot out into the creature’s throat—tearing through flesh and bone.

In a fountain of gore and viscera I ripped off its head from the inside, still howling as my tendrils kept pulling it to pieces. Even that wasn’t enough for my mounting wrath. Cosmos answered my call, the black spiderwebs of pure destruction layering themselves over my stretching tendrils. With every cut, every move I made the creature—once some kind of crocodile—was annihilated from existence until there was nothing left.

A flicker of movement had me lashing out again, only to just barely stop as I recognized Theo’s hulking body flinching back from me in the water.

What have I—damn it.

As fast as it had come, the anger was gone, leaving me feeling hollowed out physically and drained magically. Instead of victorious I just felt more defeated than before, just another reminder that I was one step farther from being human every day.

A tiny spark of defiance lit up in me. No. In a world where the upper limit on personal power had been removed, the definition of human had to change with it. I was strong now—ridiculously so compared to my old life—and if I had to keep changing to survive then so be it. But I wouldn't allow that to dictate my actions, starting with something I'd been putting off for too long now.

Swimming back to shore, I transformed back to a human and had the worm puke up our passenger. Catching him before he hit the ground I was surprised at how light he felt to me.

Just another mark of change, I guess.

Marching back up the coastline I found a small cave far enough back (and up) from the water that it should work. I laid him out as gently as I could and grabbed a small pouch off his belt before leaving. Pollo and Gnaw then webbed up the cave entrance with resin at my order while I went through the pouch.

Sure enough, I pulled out another small metallic cylinder just like the one the first party had used to call the hunters down on me. It took me a few minutes to figure out the mechanism, but eventually with a twist and an injection of magic from my aura another bright red flare shot up from the tube and pulsed ominously in the air above.

I tossed the cylinder through a gap in the resin barricade and quietly wished the poor guy good luck. There was nothing more I could do for him now that wouldn't get me killed.

Getting back in the worm we dove back into the water (on the opposite side of the pillar from the kaiju, thanks) and began following the column of stone down. Ever deeper, knowing we couldn't stop now until we found answers.

Or died trying.