This is just getting weirder and weirder.

The Outsider-that-looked-like-a-bremetan had stripped to his waist, removing the thick layer of slime skin he’d used to cover his upper half. Tanya curiously observed the scar tissue all over his shoulders and back. They made for interesting patterns whenever they criss-crossed his skin.

Truthfully, she was still at odds about calling him an Outsider. For all he knew, he was just some ignorant nomad from the fringe territories along the edge of the world, far from the reaches of the Asukan Empire. It was entirely possible that some place existed, maybe under the protection of some old, forgotten god, where bremetans grew up and called themselves hue-moans.

California, he’d called his homeland. An odd name, but not impossibly weird.

Even his name— Lukas Aguilar —was weird, but not weirder than some of the other ones she’d come across over the years. If anything, it sounded closer to bremetan origin than elvish, or worse, the dwarves of Svartalfheim. Tanya would’ve thrown a fit if she’d have had to call him something like Khel Gorhh’ak or Dnedre D’aht Farzao.

But this man had described himself to be from a different world.

Not land. Not country. But world.

It was the very definition of an Outsider. And yet, he could communicate with her in all the languages she knew. Was he simply mocking her? Spinning an elaborate lie because she had no way of confirming the truth?

That, of course, begged the question of why someone with such great physical and magical prowess would go out of his way to lie. He was clearly capable of pyromancy and boasted at least some psionic abilities. More importantly, he was skilled enough to throw her identification spell haywire.

But why? To hide his strength? Maybe he’d been telling the truth about being displaced from his homeland to this anomaly. Accidents could happen, and they often tended to be weird. She’d know.

So why?

Unless… She shivered as a very uncomfortable thought came to her. Unless he’s like me? Having something that could get him killed if others knew about it?

They were still lurking inside the strange chamber, with tons of broken crystals in the vicinity emanating a creepy bluish light, and Tanya still felt completely lost. She began by trying to escape the man, but in each attempt, she’d been overcome by an overwhelming sense of doom. She then considered killing him, but had shot down every single idea to accomplish that with extreme prejudice. Instead, she was now stuck there, with an irresistible need to answer everything he wanted to know.

She supposed it wasn’t all bad. She was alone, defeated, and lost in this anomaly, surrounded by monsters baying for her blood. Staying around this strong warrior would help keep her alive. It was not utterly insane. The Outsider was hardly responsible for her sufferings.

Ice rushed through her veins, constantly bombarding her psyche with impressions that were definitely non-bremetan. Initially, it had wanted to tear him to shreds like prey, to drink from his blood and take his power as its own. But now, it wanted him in a different way.

And it had a rather indecent, cavewoman-esque approach to doing so.

Especially after the number of times she’d caught him staring at her ass.

Meanwhile, said Outsider was systematically checking out the monster corpses with the air of a diligent critic. Occasionally, he’d stop, bend over, pry the jaw of some dead body open, and pluck out a fang or two right off the jawbone. Other times, he’d use his impressively sharp set of daggers to tear out long seams of dermal tissue and tie them together into a bundle. Tanya watched on with confusion and slight wonder as he stacked all of his requisitioned goods over the thick skin he’d laid, bound them in places, and entwined the entire thing around his waist like a belt.

Finally, he took one of the remaining flaps of monster fur and hung it over his shoulders, like a cloak.

“No, don’t—” Tanya practically gasped, before shutting up and groaning inwardly. Between his athletic figure, cute looks, her own erratic emotions, and the constant stirring of hunger in the Ice rushing through her, it was almost painful to watch him stand there half-naked. His pants were tattered, with the slime skin holding it up like a second belt, and the scars on his skin only added character, reminding her of how easily he’d defeated her. Even when the Ice was in control.

“What?” the self-proclaimed Outsider— Lukas —asked, shaking her out of her mental tangents. He grabbed at the makeshift cloak and frowned. “Something wrong with this?”

Tanya just spluttered, completely flustered by the question. What was she supposed to say? That she was suddenly feeling physically attracted to him and wanted him to roam around bare-bodied? No, she had to come up with a good excuse.

“Those things…” she slowly said, “those things can cause itching.”

She wanted to crawl into a hole and die of embarrassment.

Lukas carefully peeled it away from himself, tossing it aside. “Well, it doesn’t feel that way, but no point in taking chances I suppose.”

Tanya approved of the decision. Or, at least, everything south of her upper lip did— way more than she should have, really. It wasn’t like he was using some kind of spell on her— she’d gone on alert the moment she’d seen him. It must have been the effect of using her Frost powers too much, resulting in her robust, perfectly normal libido suddenly acting out.

Yes. It was all perfectly normal.

“Either way, I’m done!” Lukas exclaimed. Standing up. Slowly, his gaze panned around the cavern before meeting her own. “Grab my dagger for me?”

Tanya gulped.

“Uh,” he flushed, “I meant my literal dagger.” He pointed to a spot on the floor behind her, at a lone piece of brown metal.

“Oh.”

Picking it up, Tanya gave it a quick once-over. The weapon could hardly be classified as a dagger. If anything, it was just a jagged blade with one end wrapped in slime skin. Deciding not to comment on her new acquaintance’s obsession with those, she shrugged and tossed it towards him.

But before he could catch it, something else did.

The weird metallic slime-cat-thing— a horrible attempt at naming, even by her own terrible standards —extended a thin, tubular part of itself into the air. The upper part then transformed into a rudimentary shape of a cat’s paw, snatching the thrown dagger out of the air before retracting back into itself. Slowly pushing it towards Lukas, it then turned around and glared at her with a challenging growl.

“What the hell was that for?” she gaped, taken aback by the slime’s aggressive reaction.

“It doesn’t fully trust you to be in my presence,” the Outsider answered, absently sticking the dagger into his makeshift belt. “It’ll continue to display defensive behavior towards you until it no longer deems you a threat to me.”

“Right,” she snorted, placing her hands on her waist. “So it’ll keep acting like a guard dog till then while pretending to be a cat?”

Lukas reached down and fondly patted the creature on its head. The slime instantly entwined itself around his leg, forgetting all about her as it raised its head, purring softly.

“It looks like a clear-cut case of psychological nature versus innate function at work. It’s supposed to be a cat, so it acts like one. But because of the nature of our bond, it tends to—” He paused, probably realizing he’d spoken too much. “Look, let’s be frank. You don’t know me, I don’t know you. And not too long ago, we were fighting. It’s possible you’re hostile to me and haven’t made another attempt at hurting me because you’re out of juice. Basically, it doesn’t trust you because I don’t fully trust you.”

Tanya wondered if her face successfully portrayed how stunned she was. There was being blunt, then there was being this blunt. Hell, even Elena could take pointers from this guy.

“If it helps,” he went on, “I do believe our conversations have been quite civil so far.”

“Thanks,” she replied with all the dryness of the desert above her.

“You’re welcome.”

And then, his expression changed. His shoulders eased into relaxation, his eyes became distant and unfocused, and he stared right at her for several moments, but not quite at her. His breathing slowed and his eyes darted left to right and back, as if speed reading a book. It was almost as if he—

She froze.

No, it can’t be…

It was impossible. He couldn’t be one of those entities, the ones that brought carnage and devastation to wherever they went. She’d had the great misfortune of encountering one of them back in Baramunz, when she was still under Wuodan’s tutelage.

Calling it an awful experience was putting it mildly.

But what was she thinking? Those monsters would have forced themselves upon her, ravaged her until she was nothing more than a mortal shell, and then killed her in the most horrific way possible. They wouldn’t have just sat around, playing with slime-cats and making dull conversation.

No, she was just overthinking things. Maybe a little rest and relaxation would take care of her situation.

Yeah. That was all there was to it.

“—anya? Tanya?”

“Yes?”

It was only as she observed Lukas’s restless, antsy behavior that she realized her own hands were tightly clenched into fists, barely short of drawing blood.

“I’m going to ask you a question,” he went on, “and I’d really appreciate the truth.”

Translation— tell me what I want to hear, or I’ll make your fear of me being a depraved fiend come true.

She straightened, readying herself for anything. She could feel the Ice at the edge of her conscious mind, thought it almost felt… reticent about fighting him again. In that case, Ezzeron was her only option in lasting against him. But that was probably unnecessary, since this could just be a false alarm.

“Sure, Lukas,” she calmly replied.

“What are you really doing in this anomaly?”

Tanya sharply inhaled.

Darkness.

Its STATE was damaged beyond repair. Multiple wreckages of constructed terrain was consuming large quantities of ANOMALOUS ENERGY. Sudden spike in Monster Soul Prototype influx was alarming. Whatever intruder had invaded past its defenses, the Crypt of Fiendish Worms was finding it difficult to put it down.

This could be a MAJOR PROBLEM.

Invaders were a non-issue. NORMAL Invader Activity was essential to constant survival. Information from the Watchers indicated the presence of a He-Who-Consumes-Within. Conflicting observation, since no foreign ANOMALOUS ENERGY was traced.

The Crypt of Fiendish Worms extended its awareness outwards. EXTERNAL ALTERATIONS negative, as usual. The land was soaked in ANTI-LIFE concepts.

Not consumable. Rejected.

The Crypt of Fiendish Worms turned its gaze inwards. Vital statistics showed the INNER LAYER bordering on NEARLY DESTROYED. Intruder He-Who-Consumes-Within REMOVED Monster Prototype KHORKHOI from Soul Crypt.

Intruder He-Who-Consumes-Within REMOVED Monster Prototype NEOTHELID from SOUL CRYPT.

Intruder He-Who-Consumes-Within REMOVED Monster Prototype OROCORAN from SOUL CRYPT.

Intruder He-Who-Consumes-Within REMOVED Monster Prototype SEUGATHI from SOUL CRYPT.

Intruder He-Who-Consumes-Within REMOVED Monster Prototype EOCHALD from SOUL CRYPT.

…

The list went on and on. This was OUTRAGEOUS.

He-Who-Consumes-Within was CONSUMING Monster Prototypes from ITSELF, and the Crypt of Fiendish Worms was doing NULL. It could do NULL about it.

Unacceptable.

A wave of ANOMALOUS ENERGY expanded outward from ITSELF, radiating from the crystals of the SOUL CRYPT.

Anomalous Energy Reflected

Anomalous Energy Absorbed

ANALYZE

Anomalous Energy Radiation = 0

ANALYSIS : Neonate Anomaly.

Anomalous Energy Reflection = 100%

ANALYSIS : Invader with ALIEN TRUTH

Strength > SELF

Anomalous Energy Reflection = 0%

ANALYSIS : He-Who-Consumes-Within

Anomaly Strength > SELF

Destruction of SOUL CRYPT = 47%

ANALYSIS : Total Invader Strength > Crypt of Fiendish Worms

INFERENCE

He-Who-Consumes-Within is a CONTRADICTION.

Invader with ALIEN TRUTH is an AGGRAVATION.

Recommended: INSTANT-TERMINATION of both Species

Tempting recommendation. But INSTANT-TERMINATION of AGGRAVATION and CONTRADICTION would require forceful trigger of GENIUS LOCI. Not recommended.

But… NECESSARY.

SOUL CRYPT contraction was underway. Smaller monsters were running away. All ANOMALOUS EXPANSIONS were being put on hold.

It was time for INSTANT-TERMINATION.

Safety Off!

Initiate CLEAN SLATE PROTOCOL.

The gargantuan DRANZITHL sleeping at the bottom was waking up.

Initiate… Extermination.