The pool where the evolving sand devil slept was surrounded by strange instruments. Tall metal poles with crystals at their tops surrounded the acrid, poison-tainted waters. Pipes snaked through the water, connected to lumps of tissue like artificial hearts.

“It’s not impossible to gain further Warforms, or even evolve your base form again within the E-Class. All you need to do is consume other’s evolutions. No easy task, since they’ll naturally seek safe and secluded spaces before entering the Bloodline Sea, but this one is ripe for the taking.”

Nic nodded. He strode into the pool, toxic chemical stinging his legs as he waded forward. Redjaw unfurled from his arm at his mental prodding, slithering down. “Defend me.” Nic commanded, and he reached for the golden chrysalis of transforming light that surrounded the sleeping devil.

As soon as his hand made contact with the shadow of the fetal devil within, he saw the Bloodline Sea once more.

It was very different to experiencing it firsthand. Instead of being submerged within the endless red abyss, Nic perceived the world of the ancient sea as if he was floating far above. From this godly view, he could see the sand devil desperately struggling, trying to cling to a Bloodline Spark that glowed with a sickly and heretical light.

Huge black chains manifested in the waters like the reaching arms of a kraken. They were covered in System-runes, and Nic guessed that they were the manifestation of an angered System, trying to hold back this heretic creature from advancing. But the sand devil wasn’t defenseless either.

Angry, warped runes floated in the air around it, forming a shield that held back the crushing chains. Nic grinned. The heretic had defended his creations from this trial-

But would those defenses hold up to Nic?

Lifting the arm of his spirit form, he concentrated aura into something like a spear and flung it with all his mental strength. It shot through the water and exploded against the runic shield, scattering blazing red letters in all directions. Instantly cracks formed across the barrier and the chains clamped down.

The devil panicked. It thrashed, releasing the Bloodline Spark- and flung its arm up to throw a clumsy wave of force at Nic.

With a swipe of his hand Nic deflected the weak attack, and conjured another spear. This time the barrier couldn’t hold. The piercing light smashed through the heretic’s preparations, sliced away a portion of the devil’s vaguely defined spirit body, and carried down into the deep.

As the runes broke apart, the chains wrapped around the devil and pulled it screaming into the depths.

The Bloodline Sea began to fade, but Nic could feel the power flowing into him already. The blood essence the devil’s body had accumulated to try and break through was pouring into Nic instead, claimed by the victor-

As his vision snapped back to reality the golden glow of the chrysalis surrounding the devil was flooding into Nic, filling him with a warm, gentle strength. As for the devil, nothing was left but a mass of black slime floating in the pool. Nic stuck out his tongue in disgust.

Behind him, Redjaw hissed.

Nic snapped around to see the centipede expanded into his Lindwurm form, hunched over, ready to pounce. Standing in the archway of the bathhouse was a small elven woman, her skin unmarked with tattoos, her feet bare.

She held up her hands in surrender. “Call off your beast!”

Nic paused. Something was off. His danger sense could read a subdued threat from the girl, even though she carried no weapons and had no scars or muscle to show she was a warrior.

Was she the Heretic?

“Redjaw, don’t attack. Not yet. But don’t let your guard down.” He said, lifting himself out of the pool. “You- who are you?”

“I don’t have a name, if that’s what you want. I am…” She paused, slowly considering her words. “A servant of this place’s maker.”

Something clicked in Nic’s mind. Under his breath, he whispered, “Archive Recall.”

Elf-Tainted Sand Devil. F-Class (Ascended) // Sapient. This creature, born an aberration blind to the System’s guiding light, used heretical means to awaken its spark and become a cultivator. Tracing its lineage to lowly insects infected by the chemical wastes and flickering radiation of Logos’ weapons, this breed of insect-devil is far too strong to be allowed to exist under the same sky as civilized races. It can only cultivate by consuming, only grow stronger by devouring.

“You can drop the disguise.” Nic said, lifting his axe. “I didn’t know you things could talk.”

“We can’t normally.” The devil didn’t change forms. She just stared at him with green-gold eyes. The lack of tattoos was a giveaway, but the pale tone of her skin was another. Sula’s people had labored beneath the sun for generations. She’d never been above ground. “One of the Shards I devoured gave me the power to change shapes.”

That…

That was horrifying. If the Ascended devils couldn’t just consume Shards to cultivate, but actually gained the powers in those Shards…

They were the apex among creatures Nic met. Able to fight above their Class, able to grow by cultivation, able to exceed the normal limits on Shards.

“And how many people did you kill for that Shard?” He asked. It seemed the chance to talk this through was slipping away, moment by moment.

“At the time I didn’t understand they were people. Until my transformation, I only understood that there were people within the hive, and threats without.” She walked slowly, circling him. She had no weapon but Nic knew firsthand how deadly an Ascended devil could be without one. “Why? Do you imagine humans will be any kinder when they stumble upon this nest? Or will they kill us, consume our powers, as you have? A monster should understand what I mean.”

“They are no peaceful race.” Her eyes flashed with dangerous intent.

“I got things in the opposite order you did. Human, then monster. I’ve yet to meet anyone who could claim the moral high ground.” He followed her with his eyes, with his danger sense, waiting for the moment a subtle twitch of her hand or change of stance broadcasted the first attack. “The difference is, humans can at least choose whether they’re going to kill or not. From what I’ve seen, your hive are just rabid animals unless they luck into the right Shards…”

“I can’t deny that.” She smiled. “But I can give them the time they need to grow by stopping you now.”

And then she attacked.

One powerful kick sent her rocketing towards Nic, a blur of motion. Midway across the room she transformed, shedding her human skin and becoming insect-like.

She had shining blue armor and clawed hands, with luminous stripes layered along her chest and long, dusty moth wings extending behind her in a cape of white and black. Her head extended into a single long beetle horn over one eye.

But the strangest thing was she was still partially human. The features were there, under the armored carapace. Eyes, nose, lips. She had been changed entirely by the Shard she’d attuned to, not given the ability to swap between two binary forms.

But Nic had no time to figure out what that meant.

Nic had no time at all.

Redjaw flung himself into her path, spitting out a cloud of poisonous rot. She vaulted over his head, landing for a moment to claw a brutal strike across one eye before leaping, heading for Nic-

He met her head on, rotating energy through the Internal-Sacrifice Cauldron to meet her strength for strength. His axe plunged towards her skull as her hand reached to tear out his heart. It was a trade of blows.

And the devil blinked first.

She tried to flinch back, rolling her weight into the impact of his axe and giving up her own attack to avoid being split in half between the eyes. Instead, the blade ripped down across her skull in a shallow arc, spilling one of her eyes into a spray of gore.

Nic grinned ferociously.

She had become more human alright. She’d learned the instinct for self-preservation, and it had cost her first blood. She was forced back, and Redjaw attacked from her blind spot, sweeping down with one brutal claw.

The devil tried to dart away, but Nic raised his hand and a wave of mud shot outwards from the pool. The chemical sludge and the slop of dissolved bodies had left plenty of muck and mire for his Shard to weaponize, and it swept outwards, latching onto her leg.

With a shout she swung her hand down, and a wave of glass erupted from the floor. It scythed through the tendril of mud and cut it away so she could escape, using a pillar of hardened glass to launch herself back in time to evade Redjaw.

The clumsy brute smashed his claw down where she’d been, and with a squeeze of her fist, she made the glass explode into a spray of deadly shrapnel. The sheer force cleaved through Redjaw’s thick, gummy flesh, tearing deep wounds until he was forced to drop back into centipede form.

Nic ducked low and scooped him up, letting the injured beast slip back into tattoo form as he ran after the devil. He’d managed to escape the worst of the blast using the severed half of the mud-tendril, shaping it into a shield that protected his soft flesh.

She was on the defensive now; that first reckless trade of blows had made her blink, and now she realized she wouldn’t take him head-on. Instead, she formed spiked clusters of glass from the pillars of archways and detonated them in precisely timed bursts, sending razor-sharp shards flying towards Nic.

He drew in a breath and sprayed out a diluted, expansive burst of ghost-white mists. They filled the chamber in moments, covering him, and the stealthy gift of the ring of Night-Into-Day made him vanish into the fog instantly.

Nic saw her eyes widen in fear.

He moved like a wraith in the mist, weaving as she threw out clumsy, probing blasts, hoping to hit him by sheer luck. Each time she managed to retreat out of the mist, Nic would appear for a blink of an eye and unleash a new wave of weak mists, sacrificing killing power to blanket the room.

And this was where he discovered a new benefit of his strange and deadly Primordial Mist.

Each time she fired off a wave of glass, continuously leaping and vaulting to stay ahead, Nic felt a shiver run through his spirit. He could sense the attacks coming, and see ghostly versions of them moving through the mist instants before the real ones shot past. It was as if, inside the mist, time was split into two and he could see a split instant into the future.

So Nic got a moment of warning-

An image of the future-

As a scything blade of energy ripped down the hallway and cut off his future self’s outstretched arm.

He slammed his foot down, halting his momentum. The blade erupted past his face, a wall of thin, cutting energy that ripped into the stone pillars and arches. As cracks radiated across the ceiling, the blow parted the mist enough for Nic to see.

A second Ascended devil had arrived. It had a scorpion’s lower body, but instead of a sting, a long curved blade grew from its tail. Painted across its chest was a red insignia in the shape of a glaring face, akin to the false eyes that patterned the wings of certain butterflies.

His danger-sense twinged, and a third point of threat dropped from above. It was a huge, hulking devil, four-armed with a pair of pincer-horns atop its blank, slab-flat face. Fine white fur covered its entire body..

Within the swirling mist, Nic faced three deadly enemies.