Darkness.

The STATE of the anomaly was damaged. Laceration of body tissue, entry of foreign materials, decrease in optimum quantity of bodily fluids. Multiple issues detected, but none enough to classify as PROBLEMS. Anomaly Host Body already discharging copious amounts of LIFEFORCE into circulation, rejuvenation rate elevated to optimum amount to counter loss of bodily fluids.

The remaining issue was MENTAL STATE.

It was an added attribute that came with its own share of benefits and concerns. The Omphalos could work with a living tissue-based Anomaly Host Body, but the extra baggage of Anomaly Host Mind was a problem.

Especially with MENTAL STATE maintained at a default HUMAN setting.

How… BORING.

The Omphalos reached deeper. Vital statistics showed the situation was bordering on [human adjective] IRKSOME. Any further decrease in MENTAL STATE to unacceptable levels of shock carried the potential to push the matter to [human adjective] AGGRAVATING.

Unacceptable.

The Omphalos acted.

Activating Intensive Repair… CANCEL! Path Reset.

Activate Auto-Scan, Auto-Analyze

A spherical wave burst from the Anomaly Host Body, invisible to all but Omphalos-kind. The Omphalos sensed the GREATER Anomaly outside the Anomaly Host Body. Identity: CRYPT OF FIENDISH WORMS. It was larger in size, but younger. It had an immense number of MONSTER HOSTS but they were primitive beings. Larger area encompassed, but equipped with rudimentary functions at best.

ANALYSIS

ANOMALY HOST BODY has wandered into a contradiction.

Probable cause— PRIMITIVE state of ANOMALY HOST MIND.

Recommended re-activation of Baby Monitor Protocol for Safety of ANOMALY HOST BODY.

Tempting recommendation. But re-activation would depend on the Anomaly Host Mind. The Omphalos had sensed the [human adjective] AUDACIOUS nature of Anomaly Host Mind when it had forcefully triggered activation of LEGACY PROTOCOL by artificial trigger of SOUL SIPHON functionality.

Filed for Later.

Scan and Analyze results were complete.

ANALYZE (LEVEL 2)

RACE— ??

This was [human adjective] CONFUSING.

Anomaly Host Mind was slowly encroaching upon the Omphalos’s own perspective. Such a taint could become a PROBLEM.

Filed for Later.

Further action required further information. Whatever the predator was, it did not belong in the GREATER Anomaly CRYPT OF FIENDISH WORMS. Outsider meant Foreign Material.

A Foreign Material entering into a foreign contradictory Anomaly where Anomaly Host Body had wandered into. If the Omphalos had a head, it would have sighed.

The connection with the CRYPT OF FIENDISH WORMS upon consumption of Netopyr had allowed the Omphalos to scan through CRYPT’s soul architecture database. The CRYPT was too contradictorily young to notice such an intrusion and thus Anomaly Host Body had survived from being viciously attacked and consumed by monsters of the CRYPT.

However, the forceful trigger of SOUL SIPHON mangled the connection. Good thing the data records had been instantly copied and saved when the initial Scan had begun.

Recommended re-activation of Baby Monitor Protocol for Safety.

...Filed for Later.

The acquisition of information was paramount. While the LOST BELT’s soul architecture was still within the Omphalos’s reach, forceful activation could lead to POTENTIAL DISASTER, including but not limited to the absolute annihilation of Anomaly Host Mind and damage beyond repair to Anomaly Host Body.

Anomaly Host Body had the capacity to be healed back to usable levels through lifeforce circulation, but Anomaly Host Mind was more difficult to resuscitate. A healthy and working presence of Anomaly Host Mind improved the functioning of Anomaly Host Body in general. Removal or damage of Anomaly Host Mind would decrease Functional Efficiency by 68%.

Unacceptable. One option left.

SAFETY OFF

OVERCLOCK SET

Every organism with a schematic was tied to its Progenitor. Access to Progenitor Records would help in identification, providing more information. Thus, the Omphalos’s Scan wave inundated into the ENEMIES hungrily.

Information was paramount.

ANALYZE (LEVEL 2)

RACE— KASHA

Bipedal felines with 79% physical similarity with the TIGER species of LOSTBELT.

Nature of discharge— Mana.

Type— WILDFIRE

Analyzed affinity— 62%

Acceptable SOUL PROTOTYPE for SOUL SIPHON

ANALYZE (LEVEL 2)

RACE— BREMETAN

Bipedal humanoid with 99% physical similarity with the HUMAN species of LOSTBELT.

Nature of discharge— Lifeforce.

Type— Internal Lifeforce Manipulation, Burst

Analyzed affinity— 49%

Acceptable SOUL PROTOTYPE for SOUL SIPHON

One ISSUE remained.

Anomaly Host Mind was paralyzed from shock. HOST unable to function.

Identification Of Optimum Soul Prototypes For Backup

Found — KHORKHOI

Auto-activate. Fight-process Calculated. Intercept Routines.

ENACT.

Anomaly Host Body responded. Eyes opened.

Ocular and Auditory Processes became functional.

Base Focus Medium Chosen.

The eyes glowed. Epidermal cells began to proliferate. Intensive-repair kicked in as RENASCENCE activated.

Balance Reality Foundation.

AEGIS kicked in next. The outer layer of the Anomaly Host Body became as thick as armor. Able to dig through rock. Lifeforce Production reached the maximum limit. Anomaly Host Body’s skin darkened. Anomaly Host Mind slowly receded to allow KHORKHOI in control. The mouth opened, vocal cords strained, and the Anomaly Host Body let out a vicious monstrous screech no human could ever produce.

Deleting All Safeties

The KHORKHOI roared.

The only sense working when he first woke up was his hearing. The high-pitched clang of metal on metal rang in his eardrums, nearly shattering them as he held a palm to his forehead.

Once his mind gained enough coherence to understand he was awake, the pain kicked in. There wasn’t a single part of his body that was spared. His head throbbed, his neck ached, and he could feel the left side of his face burning. His legs felt like they’d been through a tenderizer, and his ribs screamed with every breath. His arms felt so heavy he could barely move them.

And then there was this odd feeling of being drenched in some sort of liquid.

With more effort than it took to shatter a wall, Lukas raised his right hand and looked at the appendage.

Blood, he slowly realized. His arm was covered in blood.

The memories came flooding in.

Something had hit him— no, stabbed him. In the chest. He instinctively brought his other hand over his chest, anxiety rushing through his system as ran his fingers over—

Skin.

Wet. Cold. Drenched with blood, no doubt, but it was skin. Even his coarse chest hairs were still there. As the pain faded, he pushed himself off the ground and looked at himself.

Nothing seemed to be out of order.

Lukas then glanced around at his surroundings, and—

His thoughts screeched to a halt as he registered the scene.

Blood. So much blood. And it was everywhere.

Red-stained hands flew over his mouth as a wave of nausea washed over him. The entire place looked like a massive warzone. Large craters dotted the floor, with boulders smashed against the walls, trapping what seemed to be body tissue between them and pillars of stone. Fire— pale and angry crimson alike —still burned in some places, its flickering tongues feeding on the moss outgrowths in the wall crevices. And in the middle of it all were a pile of—

Bodies.

If they could even be called that anymore. The overall shapes were barely still recognizable, and even the largest among them had less than a quarter of its face remaining. The rest had been brutally hacked apart. He could spot a somewhat feline creature among the dead, its decapitated head snugly decorating the other side of the floor.

His gaze followed a thin stream of blood to a single eyeball that had rolled away from its body, now resting against his own thigh. Dark red blood was pooling around the area, darkening his tattered pant fabric.

Panicking, Lukas kicked the eye away from him and scuttled back against the wall. He nearly slipped on all the nearby blood as he tried to push himself upward.

“What—” he gasped, “what the fuck happened here—”

“The khorkhoi.”

Some part of him realized that this was, in fact, the very first time the goddess had referred to the creature by its actual name and not generically as monster. The rest of him was still overwhelmed at the carnage that decorated his surroundings.

He glanced down at his hands. Little chunks of tissue— from those bodies —clung to his skin. And worst of all, there was a rough, haphazard trail of blood that seemed to come all the way from the darkness of the tunnel up ahead to where he was currently standing.

“It— I—”

Lukas tried his best to form words, but the sheer terror and absurdity of the situation reduced his speech to meaningless warbles. The image of the vicious khorkhoi, its dozens of tails destroying everything in the mental world, came to mind. And not for the first time, Lukas felt its awesome, devastating power attempt to crush his courage, overwhelming him into a mere puppet to carry out its wrath. His fingers clenched into the skin of his palm.

“You were right,” he finally bit out.

Inanna remained silent.

“The power of the khorkhoi, the power trapped in me… This thing isn’t a weapon. It’s a savage monster that only knows how to destroy and kill.”

“And yet, it is exactly the sort of weapon you require.”

“To save your true form?” he spat.

“To save yourself.” If the goddess was annoyed by his unsubtle insinuations, she didn’t show it. “The hallowed guardian of this anomaly is coming after you, and already you have been struck from behind. If not for the khorkhoi, you’d have been killed.”

“I should’ve—” Lukas paused. “I was dead. I felt myself dying, and then—”

“Exterminating a world-shaper isn’t an easy task,” Inanna assuaged, “as I have told you on multiple occasions. The rats were the scouts. These are the dogs of war. And the ones that you truly need to fear still lie in wait.”

“Just what kinds of monsters are they?” Lukas wondered, half-fascinated and half-terrified. The ones he had faced were animal-esque, but these new ones? They were almost…

Human.

But there couldn’t be any humans inside this anomaly. Not even human-like creatures.

Unless they were from outside the anomaly. Which meant outside of this crypt, he could find people. And more importantly, there might even be more people inside this place.

Lukas’s eyes widened.

People. There were real people, and they had just attacked him. Impaled him through the chest.

They had tried to kill him.

“It does seem like a troublesome situation. Why don’t you go ahead and check the list?”

“The… list?”

“The list,” she patiently repeated.

He did just that.

MONSTER PROTOTYPE LIST

Khorkhoi

Kasha

Bremetan

Lukas stared at the list for a long second.

“What?”