The surrounding space was washed with mist, damp and foggy and covering the terrain as far as the eye could see. The pale, dirty-white shade made it impossible to even peer through it. Lukas squinted his eyes, pumping lifeforce into his system and—

The hell?

The layers suddenly became a bright shade of neon pink. Confused, he looked to his right and found himself staring at a particularly dark shade of chocolate, giving a curtain-like appearance to the entire area. He returned to look at the original place and found it now changed into a light shade of teal.

Lukas froze. What the hell was going on? Before he could reach a conclusion, a metallic blue line shot out of nowhere straight towards him. He stepped back, but instead of finding ground, his left foot dug deeper.

Into water.

Or something that felt like water. But how? Was he standing in a pool? His right leg definitely didn’t feel wet, yet his left—

Something rippled beneath his feet.

I— I’m not standing in a pool. I’m standing— He looked down, but found nothing but greenish mist— I’m standing on water. Walking on it. But… how?

Tanya chortled beside him.

Lukas whirled towards her. "What’s so funny?"

"Nothing, nothing," she chuckled a bit more. "You remind me of myself when I first navigated these mists."

That was yet another surprise— he could see her. Her face, her eyes, even the little buttons on her overcoat. Everything was perfectly visible to him even though there was no real light in this place. It was as if the multicolored mists only cared about occluding him from the rest of the environment.

Lukas looked around, but couldn’t find anyone else, including the Collector. However, a quick check informed him that she was standing within his Scan radius.

Strange.

Was he able to see her because of her nature? Or was something else at play here?

He looked down at Tanya’s hand, still tightly grasped around his own.

As if to prove a point, she let his hand go, and it was instantly swallowed by the mists. Even though he knew she was there, standing right beside him, he couldn't spot anything beyond a particularly vicious shade of lavender. Immediately, her hand appeared out of nowhere and grasped his wrist a second time.

And there she was again. Back in his vision. As if she’d never left.

What kind of spectral illusion was this? Some kind of thrall playing upon his mind?

Lukas focused on his Protection Against Mental Encroachment skill, but still, nothing changed. If anything, the mists seemed to turn denser.

"Care to explain?" he demanded of Tanya, feeling both flustered and a little uncomfortable.

"Sure," she shrugged. "There are only like fifty-six different things you need to know about this world, but let's start with the basic three. The fundamentals, as they say."

"I'm listening."

"Number one. This realm isn't a physical one. There is no geography, no weather patterns, and so on. It’s a shadow world. A magical realm whose substance is as mutable as thought."

"If it has no geography, then how do you mine for metals?"

She glared at him.

"Right," he quickly backpedaled. "I’ll just listen for now then."

“Hold,” came the svartalfar’s voice. There was surprise in her tone. “Is this your first time here?”

"Pretty awesome, right?" Lukas grinned back.

He could hear the collector sigh and mutter something along the lines of ‘doomed’.

"Second," Tanya went on, "physical senses mean nothing here. We can still use them to communicate with each other, but for anything else, you’re better off not using them. But don’t take my word for it. We can revisit this point after you’ve spent your first week circling the same zone."

"Thank you Miss Condescension," Lukas growled, "but that doesn't explain why I see these different colored mists."

"It's an illusion. Where you see colors, I see a snowy white plain. Someone may even see a cave or a forest. The realm is skilled at disrupting physical senses. If you use Lifeforce to augment them, it will only fortify your perception of it."

No lifeforce too. This was only getting better and better. "And third?"

"Lastly, this is a world of the Other. Creatures that do not have physical existences. You cannot hunt them down through physical means. You need to sense their mana. How good are you at mana-sensing?"

Not a bad question. Time to find out.

Accessing Monster Prototype Array…

Inanna had always encouraged him to practice reshaping his mindscape. It had taken him a while, doing nothing but sitting on his bed and concentrating on himself, but he’d eventually done it. Layers upon layers of mahogany bookshelves formed around him filled with countless books, each one representing a particular monster prototype.

Each had its own story. Its own skills, instincts, thoughts, emotions.

They were all their own personalities.

And they were all a part of him.

I…. Am… Anomaly.

The fundamental realization rippled across his mindscape like a drop of water in a serene pond. Here, in a world where the lines between fantasy and reality thinned at every corner, that was the one immutable truth he could hold onto like an anchor.

He was Lukas Aguilar. And he was Anomaly.

The Prototype Array had expanded. No longer were they merely a list of information he had to parse through. Now, he could sense them. The Array was no more or less ‘complete’ than before, but at the same time, it could be said that there was more to it than there had been earlier.

Lukas reached a hand towards a shelf, and dozens of books blinked in and out of position at his fingertips. For anyone else, it was too fast to even perceive. But for him, he could touch them all, look into their souls, and make judgment. Over a hundred prototypes passed his inspection in less than a second, but none of them met his requirements.

He needed something unique. Something capable of mana-sensing? Easy. Something capable of mana-sensing and useful to him at the same time? Preferably one that could also work seamlessly in tandem with Tanya?

That made it a bit trickier.

His thoughts immediately flashed to Kirin. The steed of winter. Calm, ruthless, experienced. It would fit right in with Tanya, who had the power of tundra at her fingertips. But Kirin was a physical being, a creature of speed. Ordinarily, it would be an ideal choice, but here in the land of the ethereal, it would be useless.

He discarded the tome and moved on.

Neothelid came next, a slippery, eel-like creature with powers of lightning. Terribly powerful, if a bit clumsy. Lightning was a good offense in almost any circumstance. It might even be worth his consideration if he found nothing else. Kasha was another good option, with fire as its primary mode of attack. It was a spiritual creature, perhaps, but also a manifestation of extreme anger. Loss of clarity and rationality wasn’t something he could afford right now.

Flipping through a few more options, Lukas’s eyes soon fell on a particular prototype. But this one…

Hadn’t he discarded it just a moment ago? Then why—

Lukas paused, giving it a deeper look. It took him a few moments to recognize what he was seeing, and a few more to register its potential. Another second was spent delving into its properties.

…

Yes, this he could work with.

Space splits.

Cracks appear. Cracks diffuse. Cracks get larger. Brighter. Cracks converge. Diverge. Shatter. Reform.

His mind devolves.

Human instincts get dulled. Stratim instincts arise.

His perceptions are different. No longer human, but avian. He doesn’t have wings, but what use are wings when the wind is your tool? Yours to wield, yours to mold, yours to call upon.

His sight vanishes, and a world of colorful mana enters into his vision. The woman beside him reappears in a whirling mess of white and blue. There is also red and black, and they mean so much to him. He can sense her, sense the being inside her. He can sense everything.

His mouth elongates. His hands devolve, his legs are limbs. He does not need eyes, but can see the world from all angles.

His breath is the breeze.

His skin is ice water.

The beating of his wings is the Wind.

His cry is the storm.

He was there when Stribog ruled the currents. He was there when everything bowed down to the power of the maelstrom.

He wants to screech.

He wants to soar.

He wants to devour everything. His beak opens as he lets out an angry screeeeeechhhhhh—

Tanya watched on with surreal fascination as Lukas Aguilar just… cracked. It was like the very foundation of what he was had been undone. Living in the Asukan Empire, in the domain of gods, had always inhibited her yokai heritage. She’d mostly been able to keep it restrained, using her Asukan heritage to bind it away.

That was, until she left the Empire and entered different anomalies, places foreign to the Empire. Miniature worlds that did not come under the influence of Amaterasu’s power.

That was when her yokai instincts rose sharply. It was why she always lost control.

But no longer. Whatever Lukas Aguilar had done, she could now use both sides of her heritage without having to suppress the other. And here in the Other World, her instincts flared high. Instincts that currently screamed at her that the person standing next to her was not Lukas Aguilar.

“Yes,” she heard him speak.

"What?"

His face was overtaken by an utterly alien expression. “I can sense mana. You. The earthwalker. This—” he spread his arms. “I can sense everything.”

Tanya narrowed her eyes. How odd. Lukas had always been a creature with lifeforce blazing through his body like a tidal wave. But now, it was reduced to a paltry trickle, a dying stream. And in its place was—

Mana.

It wasn’t elemental energy, like how Ezzeron converted for her own use.

It wasn’t something like Everfrost either.

Raw, unfiltered mana twisted round him, caressing him almost like a lover. Currents of wind circled around him not unlike her own Wind Shear spell, only far more controlled and subtle. Ezzeron was not a creature of control, admittedly, but this?

This was—

She took a wary step back. If she didn’t know any better, she’d have thought she was sensing her own father. The Wind King.

Only, Lukas wasn’t churning out wind. The pulsing mana within him was forming points of incredible pressure and density at particular places, and the mana of the World reacted to it. And what was more prone to be drawn to pressure points than wind?

First that raging monster with unending lifeforce. Then, a being made of wildfire. And now… this?

Her throat went dry as she contemplated the ramifications.

Just how many forms do you have at your command, Lukas Aguilar? And how?

What is your secret?