Lukas stared slack-jawed as his doppelganger casually sat on its rocky chair, not an ounce of hostility in its demeanor. No displays of power being thrown around, no evidence suggesting rage or negative emotion of any kind. Nothing.

It may as well have been a clerk sitting in a government office, minding its own unremarkable business.

The exuded calmness managed to stir up an emotion Lukas hadn’t felt in quite some time.

Fear.

“It’s like looking into a mirror, isn’t it?” the Thing spoke. It even got his tonality down to a tee, with the exception of a metallic reverberation that accompanied its words. Raising a single finger, it dug into its left cheek, tearing out a thin stretch of aqāru-made tissue. Its face rippled and healed before the liquid even began dripping onto the floor.

“You’re leaning into the creepy vibe a bit too hard,” Lukas snarked back. “May as well wear a black hat, smoke a cigar, and say your dialogues in a Minnesota accent.” Crossing his arms, he donned a wry grin to displace his trepidation. “Alright, nauseating evil version of mine, why don’t you get started on gloating about your evil plan?”

His doppelganger just looked confused.

“You know, how you’re gonna squash everyone here like insects. That’s how all the villains do it in the movies. That is, if you’re going with a cheesy rip off of—”

“Mortal, do not chat with it.” The sternness in the goddess’s tone was something he did not hear often. “Kill it. The longer you stay your hand, the worse it will become.”

What do you—

“Cease your foolish banter and look.”

It took him a comically long time to realize what was happening. There were no explosions of power because the power was flowing in. The aqāru in the cavern thrummed with power, constantly transporting it all to the metal copy, while empty aqāru dripped off of its metallic skin, only to repeat the process. Meanwhile, the anomaly around him slowly eroded in places and shrank as the power to hold it in place now flowed into the Thing sitting on the chair like a king.

It was a veritable black hole, one that was guzzling everything the Crypt could provide it with. Said black hole looked just like him, and if his hunch was correct, it would be an immense pain in the ass to deal with.

“Shit just got worse.”

“Indeed.”

“Good evening,” came a cheery chirp out of nowhere.

All the accumulated tension and fear evaporated from him as the surrealism from Elena’s greeting displaced it. It was so anticlimactic that he nearly laughed aloud from the sheer insanity of it all.

“Elena!” Zuken hissed in frustration.

“What?! Just because it’s a monster, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be polite. Besides, it looks bremetan too.”

Inanna may have been a bit intrigued by Tanya and her frost-wielding crap, but he personally rated the changeling higher than the others in this rag-tag group of his. Elena was odd, no two ways about it. With her strange sensory powers and that eerie presence coiled around her— not to mention the airhead façade she maintained everywhere —she rated higher on his Threat-O-Meter than either Tanya, Zuken, or Burger.

“Aguilar,” Zuken demanded from behind. Lukas could feel him drawing power from the earth— that, or channeling power into it. He could never be certain. Maybe once he was out of here, he could get himself some kind of ‘Spiritist for Dummies’ book, or whatever the equivalent was in this world.

Inanna mentally kicked him.

Violent woman.

“What is it?” he replied back.

“Do you think it can duplicate your cat’s abilities?”

Color me impressed, Lukas mused. He figured it out instantly. Why am I not— oh no, I don’t want to hear another comparison of how similar we are.

The goddess chuckled.

“Aguilar?” Zuken repeated. “Do you think—”

The words died in his throat as the monster’s left hand morphed into a large axe-head, complete with a razor-sharp edge, before reforming back into its original shape. His doppelganger then proceeded to grin at them like a loon.

“…Never mind.”

“I don’t get it,” Burger began to run his mouth. “The Outsider said he fought and defeated the genius loci, right? That means this thing’s just an ordinary monster, unless…” he trailed off, uncertain, “he was lying?”

“He wasn’t,” Tanya softly growled.

Lukas wondered whether the blonde’s frost powers would be useful against it. The dangerous hoarfrost could literally eat lifeforce, but in the end, it was still ice. And ice was fragile, brittle, and prone to getting shattered when smashed by something hard and metallic like an aqāru appendage. But they still had Banksi’s skill with Earth manipulation, whatever Burger could do, and Elena’s… eccentricities.

Would it be enough to get the better of this Thing?

Guess we’re about to find out.

“Hey!” Lukas hollered at his doppelganger. “Are you the Genius Loci 2.0?”

Aqāru-Lukas’s smile widened. “Genius Loci 2.0. What an interesting term. My vocabulary has now increased by one,” he replied, bowing slightly. “Thank you.”

Lukas pursed his lips. Was it mocking him?

“Alright, fine. What are you then?”

To his surprise, the Thing actually paused to consider his question.

“That’s… difficult to say. My design is highly irregular. I appear to have been inscribed on a human constitution. Hmm…” It cupped its chin. “Human. Another interesting term. Regardless, I was supposed to become something new. Something beautiful. A new World. Instead, much of my energy has gone into pointless pursuits and dealing with,” its gaze dragged its way through the spiritists behind him, “the trash.”

“Lukas,” Tanya prodded from behind, “are you able to understand it?”

Lukas looked between his ally and his doppelganger. Differentiating between languages was difficult when all he really heard was American English. Tanya had mentioned something about Ualbesh and half a dozen other languages earlier, and not only had he understood them, but he also spoke them with masterful fluency. It was a no-brainer that the same would apply for whatever tongue this Thing was speaking in.

If nothing else, I’m guaranteed a job as a translator.

“A Divine Relic used to translate one lowly language to another. How the mighty have fallen.”

Yeah. Get in line.

He tilted his head in Tanya’s direction. “Yeah, I can. The monster was just describing how hot you are.”

Tanya graced him with an icy look.

“Sorry, I meant it called you a frigid bitch.”

She bristled even more. It made the Thing laugh.

“She’s quite feisty, isn’t she?”

“The Force is strong in that one,” Lukas muttered sagely.

“So you’re now an expert in Monster-speak too?” Burger spat. It made him wonder about the man’s irrational hostility. Then, what he said hit him. Monster-speak. Since when could he understand monsters? Had he just ignored the ability before? He hadn’t understood the shub-niggurath earlier, or any of the other monsters he’d faced since becoming an anomaly. And yet here he was, trading banter with this Thing— a genius loci. Hadn’t Inanna stated the connection between an anomaly and its genius loci went deeper than any other monster?

Lukas’s eyes widened.

“Ah,” the Thing smiled. “So you realize.”

His hands clenched into fists. It was no monster. It was the anomaly itself, the Crypt of Fiendish Worms, speaking to a fellow anomaly— him.

“That’s how you know me,” he spat, a maddening rage present in his voice. “It’s you. The Crypt of Fiendish Worms. You were there inside my head back then, turning me crazy.”

To his annoyance, the monster smiled, as if their conversation was merely playful banter. “I suppose you’re right. This form is,” it regarded itself, “as I said, most irregular. The information I found through [SOUL CONTORTION] was most enlightening. I must admit, while this form is rather limited in growth and monster creation potential, it is a joy to have such coherent, easily expressible thoughts.”

“You’re… trying to become like me,” Lukas deduced. “You saw the Omphalos in me and how it made me into an anomaly. And now you’re shaping yourself in a similar fashion.”

The Thing— no, the Crypt of Fiendish Worms slowly shook his head in resignation. “Not my first choice, but it’s preferable to remaining hidden within this accursed graveyard of sand and dust. I have outgrown it, and now I wish to become more.”

“And what role am I supposed to play in this little red carpet event of yours?”

“Well you are my big brother,” the Crypt slyly grinned. “I have sensed how Old you are. The information is beyond me at the moment, but it’s still there. Together, you and I, two anomalies, can rise in this subastra and transcend it.”

The Crypt was practically glowing as it slid off of its throne and stood, maintaining eye contact. Metallic skin slowly developed flecks of pale-brown skin on top.

“Monsters and men have slipped past my barriers, as they have yours back when you were… yourself. They came, they plundered, they killed our fledgelings and took our loot. It is time we give them a taste of their own. And I know it’s possible. You’ve shown me that it is possible. Together we can do it, you and I.” It tilted its head, arms spread apart invitingly. “What do you say?”

To say Lukas was stunned would be an understatement.

“We are anomalies. We are Creation and Potential made manifest. We have the power to create Worlds, to become Worlds. Like the Origin that lies beneath all, we are the progenitors of future races yet to come.”

The metallic shade was almost gone now. The doppelganger looked nearly human.

The walls to its right began to crack.

“And yet,” it continued, “all we do is let other species grow beyond us. Why not take it all for ourselves? I do not have to be an underground crypt any longer, manifesting monsters for trash to come and hunt them for experience. Not when I can be…”

“Like me,” Lukas finished. The Crypt had its own existence, apart from the shapeshifter, but that was only temporary. Soon, as the anomaly around him fully disintegrated, it would reshape itself in his image. Like him. Like—

And then, like a kaleidoscope that had suddenly come into focus, Lukas understood. He understood what this doppelganger represented, beyond its cavalier attitude, behind the utter lack of hostility, whether at himself or through the fledgeling monsters at its command. Everything fell into place.

It’s studying me. The more time it gets, the more it understands my abilities. To do what? Imitate me? It has way more power than I do and access to more monster prototypes than I can even imagine. No, if there’s anything I have and it doesn’t, then that’s—

Lukas shuddered. Closing his eyes, he allowed himself to breathe. Over and over, over and over. The consequences of what he’d just learned were grave, yet so utterly fascinating. At the same time, the realization left no lingering doubts about the nature of the creature that stood before him.

“You don’t wish to become like me. You wish to become me.”

The Crypt grinned at him maliciously. “Even with all my strength, I cannot comprehend your True History. It’s obscure, confused, and disjointed, as if you have lived multiple lives.” It paused, considering what to say next. “You lack strength. You lack monster prototypes. Yet, you’re so unique. There is so much in you that I can subsume. With your experience, your knowledge, and my power, I will become more.”

Lukas chuckled. “And here, I thought we’d be working together.”

“But we would!” the Crypt grinned. “You are going to become Me. We are anomalies. We are transformers. You will become Me, and the ‘Me’ will transform into something larger, stronger, and greater than the two of us. What do you say?”

“Mortal…” Inanna whispered.

I know.

“Whatever you do, you are on your own. I cannot help you should something sinister befall you.”

He sighed at the mouthful. Just say you’ve got a bad feeling about this.

“I have a bad feeling about this.”

His situation may have been fucked up, but getting a Star Wars quote out of the goddess made it worth it.

“Sorry,” Lukas grinned, “but no can do.”

The Crypt nodded in understanding. “Very well.”

It held its right hand up and snapped its fingers. As if on cue, the aqāru on the floor rose up and formed chimera-ish forms. Lukas easily spotted a thoggua, at least half a dozen azolg, and several more of the spider-esque monsters Elena once had under her control. All of them were low-to-mid-tier monsters, ones requiring low upkeep and very little soul capacity.

In short, they were cannon fodder.

“Negotiations have failed. Shall we move on to killing one another?”

“Yes.” Lukas settled into a fighting stance, a blade in each hand. “Let’s.”