Absolute agony.

That was the only thing that registered through the violent red mist that dominated Lukas Aguilar’s mind. Whatever his prey— Tanya —had done to him, it drove him mad. The sheer numbness from the supernatural cold gnawed at his spirit as the pain from his bones freezing overwhelmed him.

Pain, he could fight. Injuries, he could repair and recover from.

But freezing? The hardening of bones and cartilage wasn’t normal, but it wasn’t an injury either, as far as his mind was concerned.

And what wasn’t broken couldn’t be fixed.

“WHAT'S HAPPENING?!?!”

Lukas screamed as he pulled away from his prey. Tiny slivers of frost grew on his skin, the shards of silvery white hoarfrost spreading all over the skin of his right hand. He lifted it up to eye level, staring as he felt the cold slowly freeze his subdermal tissue, making it as hard as rock and as brittle as—

He slammed his frozen hand against the wall.

His bones shattered—

Lukas cried out in pain.

—And then grew right back.

…

But so too did the frost.

What was this? What was this? WHAT THE HELL WAS—

He slammed his fist against the floor. Against the walls. Against himself. His mouth opened, and screams of agony— both human and khorkhoi —tore out out his vocal cords. His prey was long forgotten. His feast was but a memory. Everything was now just a blur, a hazy blur filled with nothing other than frost and pain and a constant, gnawing cold—

SNAP!

His arm broke again. Then it was reformed.

As was the Frost.

“STOP THIS RIGHT NOW!!”

Extreme Degeneration of Body Tissue Detected.

[Renascence] non-functional.

Analysis of Monster Prototype List for Possible Countermeasures.

Lukas didn’t know why, but he let out a furious roar. This wasn’t going to happen. It simply shouldn’t. There was absolutely no bloody way in which he-KHORKHOI wasn’t adequate—

SCRRREEEECHHHH!

“SCREECHHHCHECHHHHH!!!!”

Monster Prototype Chosen.

Kasha.

Spiritual Mana Forge Activated.

Type: WILDFIRE

The next box was in an alarming shade of red.

WARNING!

Physiological Constitution not Compatible with Monster Prototype.

Predicted Physiological damage > 41%.

The khorkhoi in him protested and screamed. It didn’t— it wouldn’t leave. It wanted to destroy. It wanted to ravage. It wanted to tear everything apart, even at the cost of—

Analysis Complete. Processing Complete.

Minimizing physiological morphs.

Monster Prototype Switch.

Enact.

A guttural screech escaped his throat as his world became bathed in flames.

Tanya looked on in pity. It was unfortunate that it had to come to this.

Lukas Aguilar howled like a mad hound as he cradled his Everfrost-consumed right arm. For a creature who was so used to throwing lifeforce around like it was the solution to all of life’s problems, Everfrost was practically the bane of his existence. No matter how many times he smashed his arm against the floor, no matter how many times he regenerated his limb, the frost never yielded.

There was only one way for it to stop.

Amputating the arm itself, right at the shoulder. Before the Everfrost could spread that far.

Tanya had seen the Outsider perform more than a handful of outstanding feats. But regrowing an entire arm from nothing? That would’ve really frightened her. Besides, it was clear that he, for better or worse, was running on bestial instinct at this point.

She wondered if the toxic sludge was somehow responsible for his state of mind, somehow sealing away his rational, witty self. If so, she needed to shake her acquaintance free of the clutches of his madness.

But before she could contemplate on the how, the unthinkable happened.

The howls stopped.

Tanya looked towards Lukas, who stood half-crouched on the ground. His breaths came out ragged, his body trembled uncontrollably, and his frost-covered arm was—

Tanya rubbed her eyes disbelievingly.

No, she wasn’t seeing things. Strange, searing points of intense red light appeared on his still-frozen hand, with waves of shimmering heat around it. It was— it was almost like—

Tanya shrieked, tilting her head to the side as an orb of searing white heat came smashing towards her. Her spine flooded with pain from the sudden, jerky movement, but it had been well worth it. She turned around, only to see the wall where her face had been mere moments ago singed black. Hell, even a few strands of her hair fell to the ground, burnt to a crisp.

Tanya openly scowled. Outsider or not, Lukas Aguilar should know not to mess with a girl’s hair.

She wouldn’t allow him to get away with this. Sludge-induced insanity or not, there was only so much she could overlook.

And shitting on her extravagant cosmetic bills was one of them.

“ASSANTIUS!”

It was a variant of her Wind Shear spell, one that focused the entire power of the original spell onto a more localized target. A physical wall of force emerged out of her and hit Lukas with overwhelming force. Picked up and tossed mid-air, his body hit the wall several dozen feet away, dropping to the ground like a useless sack of flesh.

Tanya’s jaw dropped.

She had not been expecting that.

Unsure of what just transpired, she continued to sit where she was. And waited. And waited.

And waited.

But Lukas didn’t budge.

Is he—?

Doubt began to overwhelm her mind. Was he really… dead? Would that mean—

A soft, audible groan was heard, and Tanya felt her uneasiness immediately bleed away.

As if he’d let himself die so easily.

Slowly and painfully, she pushed herself against the wall, jolts of agony crawling down her spine with every movement.

Fuck! Must be the ribs.

Still, she was able to glean something interesting from it. Previously, Lukas breezed through Wind Shear like it was nothing, but Assantius tossed him around like a rag doll stuck in a hurricane. Did that mean his skill with lifeforce and fire were somehow mutually exclusive?

It… it made no sense.

Then again, an Outsider’s frame of common sense didn’t necessarily need to fit in with her own. No matter how bremetan he looked.

Her gaze lowered to his right hand.

The Everfrost was completely gone now, replaced by a limb completely covered in flames. A part of her was glad that her frenemy didn’t have to amputate it, but it was still, well, burning. The rancid odor of burning flesh dug into her nostrils? How was he still silent? It was like he was impervious to the pain. That or his pain receptors were already burnt out.

Lukas Aguilar tried to stand, but every attempt ended with him falling back down onto the ground.

The sight made Tanya wince. Had she really hit him that hard?

“Stay down, final warning!” she commanded, pouring authority into her voice. It wasn’t a trait she was familiar with— any and all arrogance she possessed as a teen had been beaten out of her by Wuodan’s gruesome training regimen. “If you attack, I will strike back with lethal force.”

He was on his knees now, growling under his breath as he tried to stand up.

On a whim, she sent an icicle spear straight at him.

It met its end with a quick fireball.

“Why do I even try,” Tanya sighed, though she couldn’t help but marvel at the twisted situation they were in. When Lukas used lifeforce, he was practically playing around with her wind-based attacks, only being defeated with Everfost at close range. But now, he was practically immune to the frost, yet her wind-spells were kicking the crap out of him.

The dichotomy couldn’t have been more obvious if it kicked her in the face.

The real question was… What had caused the change in him, from an affable bremetan look-alike to a maddened beast of fury?

“You can’t hurt me,” Tanya replied, her voice low. “Return to your senses and then we’ll talk. I don’t want to hurt you, but if this keeps going on—”

A bout of angry flames rushed towards her.

It was deflected by her wind-shield.

“I WAS TALKING!”

The mindless monstrosity that was Lukas Aguilar paused, as if interested in what she had to say.

Huh. Apparently, you could teach a mad beast new tricks.

“Okay, listen to me. That black sludge back there is messing with your mind. But you’re stronger than that. Smarter than that. You’re Lukas Aguilar, and you won't succumb to it!”

Yes, that was it. Finally, there might actually be a peaceful way out of this. All she needed to do was to not attack and just smile as he—

Lukas succumbed to it. Letting out a maddening howl, his form became engulfed in a small inferno, his glowing red eyes blazing with fury. He firmly planted his feet and inhaled, the flames around him suddenly blazing a low, ugly shade of purple.

The smell of sulfur filled the air around her.

And a lance of pure wildfire came roaring towards her.

With a resigned sigh, Tanya lifted her hands.

Here we go again.

Opening a portal through a rocky wall was more difficult than it sounded. Despite what amateurs believed, the redistribution of mass was difficult and time-consuming, especially when one had to keep the center of gravity unmoving and perfectly in balance with the altering surroundings. That was doubly difficult when operating underground. One small miscalculation, and the portal would immediately become a burial ground instead.

And lay-bremetans wondered why there were so few aspirants in Earth-type spirit manipulation.

“Alright now. Be ready for anything.”

The wall slowly writhed, stones and rocks literally twisting and turning as a gateway opened for them. The place they entered looked like a massive warzone, with destroyed walls and dust and debris all over. Several surfaces were encased in what seemed like ice crystals while others burned with smoldering flames.

After the two monsters, Zuken walked through the contorted gateway first, ready to raise an earthen shield at a moment’s notice as Elena and Olfric followed behind. He stepped out onto the other side—

—And found himself looking at the strangest of sights.

To the left was a man that looked more savage than bremetan, with his right arm completely on fire. Bright, crimson mist surrounded him as torrents of flame poured out of his inflamed palm. On the other side was Tanya, her back to the wall and a beam of pure winter shooting out of her palms. Fire and frost met midway, covering the entire clearing in a light mist.

Zuken blinked.

Nope. Reality was still broken.

The stranger poured fire out of him like his hands were literal hoses, and Tanya countered with her own hose-hands, only she had incredibly cold hoarfrost instead. The entire arena between them was divided between an inferno and an arctic tundra, with chunks of burned, blackened, half-frozen boulders littering the ground.

“TANYA!” Elena yelled from behind.

That broke the spell. Which, in hindsight, may not have been the best idea.

The fire-belching stranger looked confused, and Zuken felt an overwhelming need to apologize for their sudden intrusion, feeling as if he’d stepped into something personal.

Then, the man with the burning hand let out a ghoulish howl and broke off his stalemate with Tanya. Instead, he rushed towards them, an orb of concentrated, spiraling flame in his hand.

“Hey,” Elena whispered, “I think he spotted us.”

“You don’t say,” Zuken drawled out, readying himself for yet another fight. His eyes leapt from Tanya and the frost surrounding her, to the missile of heat coming their way. “Alright, you two. Let’s do this!”