“This is…”

The entire tunnel was empty. Gone were the thousands of crystal bushes digging their way out of the rocky terrain like raised coffins. Gone were the signs of absolute devastation that had danced across the crystal plain. Everything seemed to have been reabsorbed back into the very ground it had arisen from. The scant few that remained hung from the rock, emanating its familiar bluish emanation. Hell, even the aqāru that formed an entire reservoir on the floor was nowhere to be seen.

Lukas stared flabbergasted at the changes around him. This… this was the place where he had first gotten his pet cat-slime. Where he had first learnt to voluntarily add monster prototypes within his Anomaly Array, where he had—

He glanced towards Tanya, his gaze reluctant.

—Where she had first tried to enthrall him.

It was all gone.

Wiped out.

Clean.

As if sensing the turbulent emotions churning in his mind, his pet sauntered up to him and rubbed its head against his leg. As Lukas pulled it off the floor and into his arms, the cat shifted further, coiling itself around his shoulder in a way only a cat could. How this little thing could turn into a vicious, murdering beast in the blink of an eye was something that still baffled him.

“That is because you are looking at it from the wrong perspective.”

And what, pray tell, is the right one?

“It is not merely your ‘pet’, mortal. It is an extension of your awareness, a monster of your own making. Just as the creatures residing in the anomaly fight and kill to protect it, so too does this… insipid creation of yours.”

You’re telling me it thinks I’m its mom?

“Crudely put. But yes.”

Lukas stared at his aqāru-cat-slime hybrid pet. Strange motivations aside, it was still for the best to have someone look out for him—

“It’s here.”

Lukas turned sharply towards Elena. “What did you say?”

The changeling repeated herself.

“That’s not possible,” he asserted. “I spent weeks here vandalizing this place.”

“Vandalizing?” Burger asked.

“Running around breaking shit. You know, the usual.”

Ignoring the odd looks he garnered from the others, Lukas began looking around. “This place was a monster-free zone until I started wrecking those crystals.”

“So why,” Zuken began, his tone exasperated, “would you do that?”

“…Because I knew the monsters would come for me?”

“And knowing that,” his tone became even more exasperated, “why would you do that?”

Wasn’t that a loaded question. Why would he shatter those crystals? Was it because he wanted the Monster Prototypes for himself? Was it because he was a human-anomaly freak after his home planet’s Omphalos decided it would be funny to fuse with him, and now he was collecting creatures whose powers he could use at will?

It was all of the above. Not that he wanted to reveal any of it.

“Well?” Zuken demanded.

“Well what?” Lukas arched his eyebrow. “You actually expect me to answer your question? I’m an Outsider, remember? My secrets are mine to keep.”

“Shattering random crystals is a part of your super-secret Outsider powers?”

Lukas had to admit, it did sound lame when he put it like that. “Look, it doesn’t matter. Let’s just say I did it because I was bored and leave it at that.”

Tanya muttered something under her breath that sounded suspiciously like ‘men’.

“And you’re confident this place can’t be where the anomaly’s core is?”

Lukas gave it some thought. His Scan and Analyze skills had pretty much alerted him to every non-inert thing in his vicinity. So far, moss and monsters fit the bill, but would the same apply to an anomaly or an Omphalos? They acted sentient, but did they classify as prey?

“‘Confident’ is a strong word,” he hesitantly replied. He turned towards Elena. “What can you sense about those crystals?”

The half-elf shrugged. “Nothing.”

Lukas blinked. Nothing, huh? He turned his powers towards a random crystal.

ANALYZE [LEVEL 2]

Bapranor Crystals — Sentient metal outgrowth. Indicative of stored information. Past Analysis suggests 99.2% possibility of Monster Prototype containment within.

Huh. That was new.

So his Analyze skill wasn’t just read-and-forget. It actually ‘analyzed’ the data to create future inferences. It made him wonder what other tidbits the anomaly in him had filed away.

On instinct, Lukas walked ahead, and slammed his knee into it.

The crystal shattered.

Soul Siphon Complete

Devoured Soul Prototype : Kirin

A faint, flickering image of a twisted hybrid between a stag and snake came to mind. For a moment, he pictured white manes rising out of sleek black fur and a long, jagged horn, before the image dissipated, leaving nothing but shattered crystal in its wake.

“Why did you do that?” Tanya questioned.

But Lukas only had eyes for Elena, who looked… shaken.

“Did you sense something this time?”

“You— that— you—” The changeling looked like she was on the verge of an aneurysm. “You just— you—”

Lukas sensed the spiked interest from his resident goddess. “What did I just do?”

“You— you ate it!”

Both eyebrows went up at that. So she could see the Soul Siphon in action, could she?

“I suggest you keep that one alive, my Host. First a Frost-wielder with a shredded Truth in her, and now a prize like this? You certainly do not do things by halves.”

I’m lucky, huh?

“That you are, mortal.” He did his best to ignore the hunger in her voice. “That you are.”

“Lukas, tell us the truth,” Tanya pressed. “What did you just do? And why does Elena look like she’s about to throw up?”

He looked back at her incredulously. Did she really expect him to give away personal information like that? Just because she asked?

“I… did what I do.”

“That’s not an answer,” Burger retorted.

“Look, clearly you guys don’t understand. My powers are my own. What I do, how I do it, is my business. It’s got nothing to do with our deal.”

But Tanya wasn’t deterred by that. “Has this got something to do with your… shifts?”

Shifts? Is that what we’re calling them now?

He shrugged, feigning indifference. “It could be.”

From the suspicious looks they were shooting him, he doubted they’d drop this anytime soon. But what alternative did he have? There was no point in revealing his less-known abilities to the others. He knew Tanya was aware of two of his prototypes— or Shifts as she called them —but not the particulars. And he preferred to keep it that way.

Tanya and her gang were four people. He was one. He didn’t want to fight, but if it ever came down to one, he needed all the advantages he could get.

“Don’t fight all of them,” Inanna whispered in his ears. “Fight one. Take away their psychological advantage of numbers.”

Was Inanna, the goddess of murder and battle, telling him to play it smart? What was the world coming to?

A smile broke out on his face as he heard her scoff in his mind.

“It… has something to do with our original encounter.”

And just like that, the conversation’s momentum was his again as Tanya became as still as a rock.

“She said you ate it. Ate what?”

Lukas shrugged. “Ask your changeling. I’m only obliged to help you survive this anomaly and destroy the core. Nothing more.”

Elena peered at him with unblinking eyes. “Just— just how many did you eat?”

“About… half the crystals here? Though the anomaly seems to have cleared things out pretty well.”

Frankly, the dance of destruction between Tanya’s icy self and Inanna had done the greatest damage. His own contribution was far, far less. But there was no way he was going to try and explain that.

“You’re a monster,” Elena spat.

“And you’re a sensor. Nobody’s perfect.”

“Look sharp, mortal,” Inanna rebuked. “Your attempt at levity will not change the course.”

Lukas frowned inwardly. What are you trying to say?

“What you apparently are too blind to see, despite everything.”

Dumb it down for me then.

He received a resigned sigh from the goddess. “You are an anomaly, mortal. An anomaly. A sentient force manifested into physical form, one with the power of Creation. All this time, you have that familiar of yours strutting around, yet you do not recognize the simple truth?”

Let’s say I don’t.

“You gave birth to it.”

Every ‘mother’ does.

“You created something from nothing. It was aqāru. Just aqāru. You made it alive.”

The bottom fell out of his stomach.

“I— I—”

“And this female just witnessed you devour a soul. It may have been stored in a rock, but it was a complete soul, not unlike what they have in their bodies.”

Oh.

Oh.

“Yes. Oh.”

Lukas looked around at the quartet. There was no saying whether they would just start attacking him right then and there. Tanya, he could understand, possibly even gauge to an extent. Burger was Burger. Zuken could use terrain against him in spectacular ways, and Elena was an unknown quantity.

Fighting against them one-on-one was one thing, but all of them, especially with the anomaly geared against him at this stage…

Nope. Bad idea.

It was time for a distraction.

“Tell me Elena,” he replied, keeping his voice as casual as possible. “Where would you say the core of this anomaly actually is?”

The changeling seemed a bit conflicted, as if trying not to get distracted by his question. He could see the warring desires— focusing on their goal and focusing on the present threat —in her eyes. The presence around her thrummed dangerously.

Lukas wondered whether he could devour this presence. It certainly seemed dangerous enough.

An idea for another time.

“It’s… it’s weird. It feels like it’s coming from above and falling down into the ground. But that can’t be right, can it?” She looked at Zuken in confusion. “You told me it’s a chamber.” Her features contorted into even more confusion. “It’s a chamber, right?”

“Shatter the floor. The Omphalos must be beneath you.”

Huh? How can you—

“It is a Crypt.”

…Fair enough.

“Everyone, let’s try digging underground,” Lukas proclaimed.

“Why?” Burger sneered.

“Because I said so.”

“That’s not an answer!”

Lukas sighed. “Look, we can either sit here and continue our pissing contest, which I’ll probably win by the way, or we can go ahead and do something useful for a change.”

“But why underground?” Zuken curiously asked.

“Call it a hunch.”

The Earth-type spiritist muttered something unflattering under his breath. His armbands glowed a bright brown as he laid his hands out.

“Gift of the Shifting Sands.”

Almost immediately, the ground beneath them began to contort and shift around like quicksand.

Wow, they have rhyming incantations. How Harry Potter-esque!

“What does that mean?”

It’s a cultural reference.

“A waste of my time, then.”

Imagine my surprise.

“You know me well.”

One of my many shortcomings, yes.

The goddess rolled her eyes.

The entire floor beneath their feet slowly descended, as if the contents beneath them seeped away and allowed the floor to sink beneath the floors. Lukas wondered whether they would just fall through, but instead it was almost like they levitated downwards, the platform holding steady until they had reached the bottom.

“We’re here,” Elena whispered.

Lukas cursed, staring at the place around them. This… this was nothing like the caverns he had been in so far. Extending into the depths of the earth like a serpent’s tongue, the inner sanctuary of the anomaly was larger than some of the cathedrals he’d seen in his life. To a degree, it even resembled one. Lights played in soft colors on the walls, mostly shifting rosy hues. The cave was of living rock, and the walls had all been shaped by water into organic-looking curves and swirls. Aqāru ran all along the floor in exquisitely-carved furrows to produce a pattern too sophisticated and perfect to be a mere coincidence. At the center, where the furrows formed a sink, an enormous bone-white stone jutted from the ground. And seated on top of it was—

Lukas blinked.

Then blinked again.

Seated on the chair, as if born to it, was himself.

It was a perfect doppelganger crafted purely out of aqāru, all of which constantly ebbed and flowed within him, causing ripples across his metallic form. The liquid metal had even crafted a fair approximation of his trousers and slime-membrane armor, adding uneven textures to his body. Two long jagged daggers stood stabbed on two legs of the chair, within reach of his metallic hands.

“What. The. Fu—”

“Welcome, Lukas Aguilar,” his doppelganger grinned, not an ounce of maliciousness in his expression. “I have been waiting for you.”