Rather than venture above or below, however, Reed turned back around to once again find himself amidst the “leather” books. He grabbed one of the many fallen tomes and quickly began to flip through the rubbery pages. The writing was of course still in the local language that he stood no chance of deciphering, but such a thing wasn’t his goal in the first place. He skimmed through book after book, throwing them into a growing pile in the middle of the floor in his search for pictures. Anything that might provide even the smallest hint of information about this world.

Whereas the other research building, that he had taken to using as a safe haven whilst training, was filled with books of architecture and weaponry as well as the tools and materials used in such. The books he was currently flipping through were filled with detailed illustrations of living creatures, or rather the parts making up the variety of alien lifeforms depicted. Reed saw all manner of arms, legs, torsos, heads, wings, fur, shells, teeth, eyes, and every other conceivable variety of organic features.

By the time he grew tired of gleaning nothing of value from the endless pictures of body parts, the pile of skimmed books had grown to a veritable mountain. He stopped randomly grabbing books off the floor and instead began to search the library for anything that could be of actual value to him. There was nothing.

Reed found himself once again standing before the stairwells leading above and below, and after only a moment's hesitation, he leaped a fair distance into the air and onto the intact upper half of the stairway leading to the floor above. He would rather explore the upper floor, where he at least had some idea of what would be there, before delving underneath the building.

With just a few steps up the broken staircase suspended within the air, he found himself staring up into the room of great height. A large circular window was embedded high upon one of the walls, through which the cathedral that rose far higher than even this building could be seen piercing into the flesh-colored sky. It was nearly the same room as the one in which Reed had spent so much time honing his powers. There was, however, no platform suspended underneath the window, nor were the tables scattered across the room of the same design.

Rather than simple stone furniture adorned with tools of construction and partially completed weaponry, the tables were fashioned of the bone material he seemed to encounter so often. Although, he was only capable of discerning such a thing by looking at the tables’ legs, as the surface of each one was entirely stained with blood. The smell of rotting corpses permeated the air, which Reed had long grown accustomed to, and alerted him to the bodies fastened against several of the tables.

Of all the crimson-covered tables arrayed throughout the room, only two held bodies. They were fastened to the surface, face down, and shackled through the use of curving ivory bars that pinned down the corpses' limbs and looped through premade holes within the table itself. Sprouting from either denizens’ back was a pair of wings.

Both pairs of wings varied in their structure. One resembled that of the winged denizen he had killed earlier, with the mechanisms for flight stretched between its arms and sides, although far more elaborate in design. The other had an entirely new set of limbs stretching out of its back, from which large wings reminiscent to those of a gargoyle’s extended.

Standing a fair distance away from the bodies, a long needle of bone shot from Reed’s hand. It stabbed into the head of one before pulling back and doing the same to the other. Despite the lack of movement and emanating smell, he wouldn’t be taking any chances. The attack didn’t elicit any movement from the corpses, however, which satisfied him enough to search the room.

There was nothing of interest besides several more books, one of which depicted the wings attached to the corpses, and a plethora of what he could only assume to be surgical equipment. It was with pleasure that Reed left the vile room that was clearly used for the purpose of experimentation. With a light hop off of the broken end of the staircase, he landed in front of the descending stairwell.

The steps plunged deep underground, to such an extent that the fleshly glow that seemed to infect every nook and cranny of this world and city gradually faded away. Reed was forced to place his hand against one of the stone stairwell walls as he slowly allowed his feet to shuffle over and down each step. He felt his hand slide into something protruding from the wall, and with an examination of touch, he realized that it was a torch. Unlit of course, as he stood within sheer darkness.

His feet continued to carefully shuffle down step after step until unexpectedly he stumbled. Expecting his foot to drop down upon the following step, he had lost his balance when instead coming into contact with the flat continuation of a floor. Reed stayed glued to the right side wall, his hand dragging along it as he proceeded forward.

Suddenly, his hand swept into open air. He tried taking a step back the way in which he had come, but the flailing of his hands found no purchase on walls of any sort. On all sides, he was surrounded by pitch black, unknowing of what lay around him or how to escape. Panic began to set in.

Reed tried to keep a calm mind and retrace the steps he had taken in his head, but couldn’t remember the path for all his effort. He didn’t want to make use of his powers by sweeping the area for the entrance through which he’d come, lest he make too much noise or accidentally come into contact with anything that might be down here, but at this point, it was his only option. Or at least it was until a soft red glow began emanating a fair distance away from him.

The light was incredibly faint, but in the unwavering black he found himself in, it stood out like a full moon in the night sky. The red glow gradually grew brighter and brighter, however, it wasn’t getting any closer to Reed. Suddenly, as if a curtain had been pulled back, the red light changed from a dull glow to the piercing radiance of a miniature star. He recognized the source immediately as one of the gemstones which he had encountered atop the mountain.

The red luminescence didn’t do much to illuminate the area, but it did reveal the appearance of whatever was carrying the stone. It was another robe-donning inhabitant. The denizen’s robe differed from the typical colors of gray and white, instead exhibiting a tone of pure crimson. Its eyes, reflecting the light of the gemstone which sat embedded within its chest, shone straight in Reed’s direction, even though he was not cast within the stone’s illumination.

Thin tendrils of flesh shot out from all over the denizen’s body and hurtled towards Reed. As the tube-like extensions of its body stretched further and further away from the denizen, he began to lose track of them as they escaped the gemstone’s illumination and joined him in darkness.

Shards of bone shot out Reed’s fingertips forming long, sharp claws. He took off in a sprint to get within range of the denizen so he might see his surroundings. Hoping the tendrils wouldn’t curve in their path towards him, he took note of the locations from which they protruded and selected an area filled with the least amount. He mustered what strength he could and lept just before he thought the tubes of flesh would reach him. Reed angled his body horizontally as he dove through the air and wildly slashed his claws in front of himself.

He felt the bone claws tear through several pieces of flesh, but unfortunately, he had been incorrect in his assumption about the tendrils changing direction. One of the tubes latched onto his right leg whilst he was still in the air. Immediately, Reed felt a strange sensation within the contacted body part. His leg began to transform as if he had been using his powers, however, he was doing no such thing.

Before Reed could even think of employing his own powers to combat the foreign force, his leg had been turned into an unrecognizable and unusable mass as the influence traveled up into his torso. It was at this point he finally made use of his bodily magic. He controlled his powers in healing and maintaining the parts of his body through which the denizen’s magic was wreaking havoc. The rapid mutations of his body slowed down, but failed to stop.

Reed’s healing wasn’t fast enough to outpace the robed denizen’s ability, therefore he continued to lose control of his body as it transformed into an unsightly mess. His right arm had been lost along with half his torso, all while he still flew through the air. In a last-ditch effort, Reed ceased in his attempts at stalling the onslaught of foreign power and concentrated wholly on the claw extending from his index finger. The shard of bone grew several feet instantly as the uncontested rampaging power consumed the rest of his torso. His remaining arm flashed across his body, the extended claw slicing through the tendril attached to his leg.

Reed felt the foreign power vanish the moment he severed the tube of flesh. He finally hit the ground and, although still unable to see his body in the dark, knew from the lack of agency he held over it that it must have been bad. Sensation rapidly returned to him as he employed his powers to heal his deformed body just in time to feel the multitude of tendrils attach themselves all over him.