Everything smelled of sulfur.

The terrain around them exploded as Ryu slammed his massive, fiery broadsword upon the floor. It wasn’t made of metal, but a conjuration of pure flame willed into shape, capable of scorching anything with but a touch. Ryu’s raw strength was only matched by his superlative technique and instinct. The veteran warrior certainly lived up to Solana’s initial description, and no matter what he did, Lukas wasn’t able to force him into a defensive position.

“Aguilar!” the kasha snapped, wiping a smidgen of blood from his lips. “You are mimicking my style well, but that's all. Even after all this time spent getting cut, pounded to the ground, muscles pulled, and bones broken…you still do not understand what I am trying to teach you.”

“Well, I did smash my fist against your chin a second ago,” Lukas retorted. It was really difficult to know how much time had passed, but if he had to wager a guess, he’d say a week. Every day, he received instruction from the veteran combatant, and after it was over, dragged himself back to his quarters and let Prophylaxis fix him up. Every day, Ryu found new and inventive ways to torture him.

And all Inanna would do was laugh.

“Do you not know by now, mortal? It is my nature to find bliss in others’ sufferings. Especially when said suffering is brought about by their own actions.”

Not helping! Lukas snapped.

“That was a fluke,” Ryu growled. “You will not get that chance again.”

“Then I’ll come up with a new way to kick your ass each time,” Lukas hollered back, raising his right hand and propelling a sphere of blazing hellfire. At the same time, his left hand leveled a single finger at Ryu’s chest. Psychologically, it could be described as a manipulation of long-term memory—especially procedural memory—to create “false” memories that allowed for unconscious, reflexive behaviors. For Lukas, all that meant was that he was using Quonnan’s skill at Fire Manipulation, now his own, to shoot fire bullets out of his fingers.

A single loud crack erupted from the other side of the battlefield as red blood spurted out of Ryu’s chest. A small, dark stain formed on his chest, while he casually flicked away the fireball from earlier.

Ryu shot Lukas an annoyed look.

“…What?” Lukas defended. “You’re the veteran warrior. I need to improvise or get my ass kicked.”

“That was not improvising. That was dirty fighting!”

“Right, because using tactics you taught me is clearly the best way to beat you.”

Ryu snickered. “You’ve been learning fire shaping for a week, and you think you already stand a chance against me?” A dark smile formed on his face. “Allow me to correct your misconception.”

The kasha blurred into motion, and an instant later, Lukas found himself fending off a furious assault that bordered on lethal. His combat instincts had matured to a level that let him see a faint, preemptive shadow of the next attack an instant before it was executed. It was great, since he needed all the advantage it provided when he fought Ryu.

Lukas conjured a barrier between his arms, just in time to avoid being decapitated by the greatsword that Ryu swung from above. The second it hit the barrier, every speck of its momentum was drained away, leaving behind just the heat for Lukas to deal with.

It bought him a fraction of a second of respite at best.

Ryu didn’t push ahead with the attack, having had enough experience with Lukas’s barriers over the last week of grilling training. Instead, he simply raised the sword back and came slashing from the left. Then the right. Then left, right, up, up, right, down—constant hammering against invisible barriers in lightning-fast jabs, sounding like a lunatic woodchipper, with Lukas barely able to keep up with the constant barrage of attacks against him.

“FIGHT!” snarled Ryu, slamming his sword against his defenses. “FIGHT LIKE YOUR LIFE DEPENDS ON IT! BEING DEFENSIVE WILL NOT SAVE YOU, BOY!”

“Easy for you to say,” Lukas yelled back, pushing a little lifeforce into his legs as he leaped back out of Ryu’s reach.

Or so he thought.

Before he knew it, the kasha had already closed the gap. Lukas barely managed to halt the sword’s motion, but even his senses failed to register the crushing knee that Ryu had delivered to his abdomen. Tears ran unbidden down his face at the beating he had taken, before another superheated blow from Ryu’s open palm sent him bruising across the ground, half of his face charred from the heat.

Ryu walked up to him. “Every single time you fail in countering me, but why? You can perceive my movements when you pay attention. Your barriers can drain the momentum of my blows away, regardless of how hard I try. Your healing abilities are way more profound than any Metamancy I could conjure. If only I had the option of possessing your body and your skills, I could have matched the Leader in combat.”

Lukas wasn’t sure whether to be surprised at Ryu’s wistful tone or alarmed by what he had just said. Even by kasha standards, Ryu was a monster, and that guy thought that he needed Kinetomancy and Prophylaxis to match Solana in combat.

It was a humbling realization that made Lukas realize that, anomaly or not, his immunity against possession or not, he was hopelessly, hilariously outgunned by the beings around him.

“Good,” Inanna commented. “That is the approach you must follow if you wish to achieve your goals. The key to victory is climbing uphill while also realizing that there is always someone that outshines you in strength, dexterity, and skill.”

That’s great and all, but it tells me nothing about keeping up with this monster. I can’t win if I cannot perceive his movements.

“Like always, you listen but you do not understand. It is possible to uplift one’s mental perception by magnitudes through lifeforce, far greater than what you can do. But given your proficiency in making things difficult for yourself, your mind would collapse in the process.”

Then teach me.

“And what do you offer in return?”

You aren’t getting my undying loyalty, but it’ll make my job easier. As you said, I’m sure to fry my brain rather than achieve this…whatever it is.

Inanna laughed. “Is that your attempt at persuading me?”

Is it working?

That made her laugh even harder. “I suppose there is no harm in adding an incentive once in a while. Even in Akkad, it was the policy to award slaves with delicacies after a good day’s work.”

I’m not your pack mule!

“You are what I make of you,” the goddess replied. “But I will not break my own rules, mortal. If you want something, you must be willing to give something in exchange.”

Not again—

“Surely it wouldn’t harm you to listen to my offer?”

Lukas sighed.

“This is what I propose. I shall endeavor to impart the mind arts to you. It will allow you to elevate your thought, your perception, and your clarity in battle.”

And in return?

“In return, you must channel the power you gain after harvesting the omphalos of this crypt to the pendant.”

Isn’t that a tall order? I don’t even know if I can get to the core in the first place.

“Well then,” the goddess replied, amused, “it is in my best interests to ensure you are sufficiently prepared. Do we have an accord?”

As far as deals went, it was as good as it could get. He was already bound to attempt destroying or assimilating the core. The amount of energy he’d acquire could be substantially high, maybe even greater than the reserves he currently boasted, but did he really need it? Even with his expanding skill set, there was enough power to last him an entire lifetime.

The opportunity of being taught something new by the goddess herself was also too rare to miss out on.

We have an accord.

“Good. Now focus. You have a battle to win.”

“If you’re this impaired from just one blow, you are even weaker than I thought,” Ryu scoffed. “You cannot even scratch me without your tricks.”

Lukas squinted his eyes and gave his opponent a glance-over. He staggered a bit and tried to regain his balance. “Not even a scratch, you say. Let’s see if I can make one then.”

Ryu reshaped his broadsword to extend its tip outward on either side, forming a battle ax.

Show-off. Lukas scoffed and focused inward. This would be the first time he’d attempt this, but it was now or never. One did not throw away an opportunity for learning something from Inanna. No matter the risk, the rewards would always be greater.

He knew that from experience.

Activate Alpha Condition.

ALPHA CONDITION Activated

Accessing Monster Prototype Array

RACE

ENERGY CORE

SOUL SIZE

Yurei

Mana (Ether)

1050

Reiki

Mana (Ether)

1550

Kasha

Mana (Fire)

2100

He took a deep breath.

Activate Kasha.

MONSTER PROTOTYPE: KASHA

SKILLS

LEVEL

SOUL CAP CONSUMED

Possession

2

500

Conjuration

2

500

Fire Creation

2

500

Fire Manipulation

2

500

Temperature Modulation

1

50

Activating Monster Prototype Kasha…

Initiating Consciousness Shift…

Enact.

Space splits.

Or is it his senses? They feel everywhere. He senses himself. His body. Human. Mortal. Hu–mortal? Mor-human? Or is it Lost Belt Earth? Omphalos?

Memories. Events. Impressions. Inanna. Memories of a goddess. Memories of a human. Memories of a lostbelt. Anomaly. Singularity. Realm. Lostbelt. Orig—

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

His mind devolves.

Instinct arises. Instincts of a human. Instincts of anomaly. Instincts from skills. Instincts from monster prototypes. Instincts from—

There is no pain. The cognition of pain no longer matters. He is swallowed by injury. By his senses. By information. By Anomaly. By Power. By Mind. By—

He falls into a swirling maelstrom of pain.

He doesn’t know where he is.

He doesn’t know who he is.

He doesn’t know what it means.

It doesn’t matter.

He sees it now. Like a large integrated circuit. What is a circuit? How does it integrate? What is seeing? Information? Information assimilation? Where would that be? Why would that be? What does—

The complexities increase. They twist. They bend. They form shapes that shouldn’t exist. Shapes he knows have always existed. Three-dimensional. Ten-dimensional. Matrices. Lattices.

His vision narrows. What is vision?

The world expands.

He concentrates on random, arbitrary thoughts. Why? He knows he will split in half otherwise. How does he know?

Unnecessary.

The world is too big for this small body. The monster prototypes are too large for this soul. The Spiritual Presence is too grand to be hidden within this shell.

Yet the world fits. Yet the prototypes exist in segregation. Yet the Presence stays hidden. Bound. Forged. Fused.

He is being repelled. He can’t be repelled.

He is reaching it. He can’t reach it.

He shouldn’t reach it. Not reaching it will be unforgivable.

He is reaching out.

He is reaching out.

He is REACHING OUT.

His eyes burn. His brain burns. He extends his arms and they extend and extend and extend—

GRHRAAAAA—

GET THERE—

GET THERE—

GET THERE RIGHT NOW—

“Ha—agh—gag!”

His eyes are focused now. They are dripping blood.

Right and wrong. Black and white. Colorful and grayscale.

He is opening his eyes. He is human. He is monster. Not human. Monster. His perceptions blur. Dim and bright. Pitch-black darkness and bloodred.

His tail extends. A second pair of eyes open. His claws retract and extend. Raw power flares within his body. His ears block all reception. He has no extra eyes. He has no tail. He has no claws. He is no spirit.

He is.

He isn’t.

He is and he isn’t. And yet, he manifests his—██████████████████ █████████—and uses it with great efficiency.

He is awake. He is fire. Fire that never surrenders. If it cannot burn, it will burn everything around it. Block its path and it will ignite the air, and begin its blaze along a newer path. Fire will find a way.

It always does.

He always does.

Power cloaks him. Unbridled. Chaos in flesh and blood. Rage without restraint. Force without balance.

He sees it. The kasha. He understands it. He has become it. Human is monster. Monster is human. Lukas is kasha and—

An unholy roar emerges from his throat.

—Kasha is Lukas.

Fire lashed out from Lukas’s left hand—not a gout of flame like he could normally call up, but a slender whip of fire so bright that it hurt the eyes to see. With a proficiency he did not possess, Lukas slashed it against Ryu, who had but a moment to register the sudden shift in the battle and leap backward, using the ax to deflect the attack from slicing him into half, while throwing a burst of flames in Lukas’s direction.

Lukas let the whip vanish and caught the incoming blast of flames in a grip of invisible power and hurled it around him in a perfect circle before sending it back at Ryu. He was a creature of fire. This opponent, another kasha or not, would not get the better of him using flames.

He leaped forward and slammed a punch of pure, smoldering heat at him. But in a manner that Lukas could not comprehend, Ryu grabbed the heat from his punches and dissipated it out into the air, while grabbing Lukas’s fist within his own and twisting it. Suppressing the urge to let out a furious howl, he twisted his body and sent a blast of pure force at Ryu’s face before turning around and kicking him in the temples with his knee, now enveloped with flames. Ryu was sent staggering back. Taking advantage of his loss of balance, Lukas coated his palm with fire and stabbed the veteran head-on.

Right through the stomach.

He then spun around, giving himself a momentum boost to pound a hammer-heavy blow of pure force at Ryu’s head. A lance of pure fire formed in his other palm, and he swung it down, streaking it through the air, ready to decapitate the kasha and—

Stopped.

Just like that.

Lukas tried to push farther, but invisible hands held him back. He would not be denied his prey. He would decapitate this thing and burn its body to shreds until there was—

“Enough.”

Lukas hadn’t even begun to register who or what said it when a force of a hundred anvils smashed against him from all sides. The flames disintegrated into motes of crimson dust as he gasped like a landed fish, struggling to move, but he couldn’t so much as lift a single finger. He poured in lifeforce, with the idea of deflecting some of whatever force was being thrown at him, but it was to no avail.

He could no more escape its grip or force it away than could an insect stop a shoe from descending.

In the instant that realization came upon him, the force vanished, evaporating the bloodlust with it as if it had never been there in the first place. And with that came a sudden and surprising sensation that Lukas hadn’t been able to feel before.

He could sense it.

He didn’t quite understand the details, but he knew intuitively that the kasha was the reason behind this sudden bloodlust. It was the thing that was enabling him to think and perceive the world in a vastly alien format that would otherwise be incomputable to his human mind. And now, Lukas realized he had wanted to kill Ryu. To give in to homicidal rage and cut this creature down in cold blood.

He knew that if it had succeeded, it would win. And he would be lost to a fate he didn’t understand except that it was somehow worse than death.

He forced himself to calm down. From somewhere deep within himself, he could almost hear a howl of impotent fury as it receded into the lowest, most primal depths of his mind to hide once more.

Monster Prototype Kasha Deactivated

Reverting Consciousness Shift to Base Host

Enact

And just like that, it was over.

Lukas took repeated breaths, uncaring of Solana’s calculating gaze upon his person. He was now down upon his knees, barely a foot away from Ryu, who was down on his knees too, exhaling softly as the tissues around the wound began to self-cauterize and bind together.

Metamancy at work.

“Your potential as an anomaly is limitless, mortal,” Inanna chided him, “but it will turn you into a mindless beast should you let it control you.”

You pulled me out.

It wasn’t an accusation. Just a confirmation of a fact.

“Who else would it be?”

Lukas couldn’t help himself. He grinned.

Suddenly, notifications started popping up.

URGENT!!!

REGISTERED SKILL

UPGRADE

SOUL CAPACITY

ISSUE

Fire Manipulation

LEVEL 2

+450

Requires confirmation for assimilation.

Host Body requires calibration!

Show me my Soul Capacity.

Soul Capacity Consumed

1629/2379

Lukas frowned. A part of him did not want to spend yet another large chunk of whatever Soul Capacity he had since it would once again limit him from gaining other skills he might just come across. Another part of him pointed out the sheer irony that here he was, choosing not to assimilate a skill when he had the capacity for it, while just some weeks ago, he would have bent backward to gain a single one.

“The ability to siphon souls has spoiled you for choices,” Inanna replied fondly. “Most people would jump to acquire the skill regardless of all else.”

Her words had merit. Both Solana and Ryu had seen him operate on a far superior level than he had presented for the entire duration of his training montage with the latter. Returning to a subpar level would raise unnecessary questions he didn’t want to entertain at the moment.

Besides, he reasoned wistfully, the whip and fire lance were kind of cool.

He came to a decision.

Assimilate it.

Skill Assimilation Successful

Utilized Soul Capacity

2079/2379

SKILL ATTRIBUTES

SKILL

LEVEL

CONSUMED SOUL CAP

Raw Lifeforce Manipulation

1

50

Momentum Manipulation

1

50

Friction Modulation

1

50

Pressure Modulation

1

50

Kinetomancy (FRAGMENTED)

APEX

1279

Fire Creation

1

50

Fire Manipulation

2

500

Temperature Modulation

1

50

Lukas glanced at Ryu, who was, surprisingly enough, grinning at him like a loon. Solana, on the other hand—

Shit!

“That stance…” the leader of the yokai mused. “That was all Quonnan. You were drawing from her memories.”

Technically, she was only half right. It wasn’t her memories he was drawing from, but her skills. Her instincts. And being a creature of fire whose very nature embodied the element she represented, just using her skills drew on her instincts without consciously trying.

It was both an enlightening and frightening prospect that could have terrible repercussions if he didn’t pay attention.

Solana took a step forward. “You absorbed Quonnan’s soul, but she is still there in memory, uncorrupted. Not only that, but you also knew when the change would happen. Perhaps I would even be correct in saying you engineered said change yourself.”

Lukas schooled his features. Solana was getting dangerously close to the truth. “Right…well, keep up the guesswork,” he replied. “Now, can we take a break? Fighting so hard can be taxing for Outsiders like me.”

Solana eyed him hungrily. For a moment, he thought she would attack him.

“Sure.” She shrugged. “I don’t think Ryu will be able to train you anymore today.”

Lukas gave her a serious nod, and turned away, just in time for—

“I do not understand you, Outsider. But one thing is certain…we are never letting you go.”

Language Identified—Eusmian

Replicate?

Lukas didn’t pause, not in the slightest. He took another step forward, then another, one foot in front of the other, and kept on walking. It was only after he reached his room and slammed the door shut behind him that he allowed himself to take a deep, relieved breath.

Every time he spoke to Solana, it was like she peeled layers off of him like an onion, tearing his secrets out of him one at a time and figuring out precisely how he ticked. The longer he was among the yokai, the more he could feel the heat of the magnifying glass looming above him.

Huffing, Lukas shook his head. Now wasn’t the time to worry about that.

Inanna had been willing to teach him for once, and he was excited.

Sitting cross-legged in the middle of his room, he slowly let himself go. Entering the mindscape was no longer the utterly alien experience it used to be. Now, it was just three steps.

The first was ensuring his body was safe. Despite his misgivings about being among the yokai, he was relatively safe in his room since the yokai were ordered to maintain a distance from him by Solana.

The second was taking long, deep breaths, allowing the increased oxygen to stimulate his brain.

But the third step was still tricky.

The moment he stepped in, the outer world was shed like a second skin. All physical sensations were left at the door, leaving him at the mercy of the world around him. There may not have been any monsters around at the moment, but if some ill-intentioned yokai attacked him, he wouldn’t realize it until it was too late. Luckily, he had just the thing to help prevent that.

The Screen.

Each time he stepped into his mind, Scan and Analyze activated by themselves, remaining in play until he was back in the physical world. The moment something came near, the Screen triggered a message and Inanna sent him rushing “back” to deal with the problem.

So far, it had happened a grand total of two times. And rapidly being flung out of his mind felt like a rollercoaster ride.

Exhilarating, but absolutely nauseating.

“Welcome to your first class on how to become a monster.”

“Hilarious,” Lukas sarcastically retorted, looking toward where the voice came from and—

Whoa…

Inanna wore white like a second skin. The silken robe flowed from just above her bountiful breasts all the way to her knees, emphasizing her generous assets quite beautifully. She was mere inches shorter than him, but with her semi-transparent heels and her figure, she looked a tad taller. Her shining skin and glossy black hair falling down to her waist only added to her beauty, unmarred by the casually arrogant expression on her face.

This was no person.

This was—she was—

It was at this point that Lukas realized he was openly staring, and he tried to look away.

…

He found the task a monumental effort.

“There is no sin in appreciating beauty, mortal. Even if it is far beyond one’s reach.”

No wisecracks came out of his mouth this time around.

Inanna’s lips twisted into a beaming smile.

“Shall we continue?”

“About that ‘speeding up my mind’ thing?”

Inanna frowned at him, or perhaps, at his crude description. Or maybe both. It was difficult to tell with her.

“The mind arts are an intricate and dangerous field of study. The mortal mind is body-bound. That in itself limits what you can think, feel and act. But the moment you delve into psionics, you irrevocably shatter those limitations.”

“And…that’s a bad thing?”

“Imagine waking up as your five-year-old self. Would that be comfortable for you?”

Lukas shook his head, understanding her point. When he had first leveled up, he’d suffered from a lack of coordination with his body. It took him a while to get used to his improved anatomy and not fall flat on his face with every step he took.

For something as complex as the mind, the problem would be exponentially greater.

“I guess I’d better use it correctly then. Is it… Do you think it’s within my abilities to learn it?”

“One cannot be sure unless they have tried. Though, given your past performances, I may as well talk about ascension to a pebble.”

He had a slight suspicion that he had annoyed her recently. She seemed to take more potshots at him than usual. And that was saying something.

“—start from the basics or the basics of the basics. Shouldn’t be harder than teaching a rodent.”

Lukas snorted. He could almost picture her holding a book with a title like that: The Many Similarities in Training Rats and Mortals.

A moment later, said book sat inconspicuously on the chair beside him, its bright orange cover too glaring to be missed by human eyes.

“Perhaps you will show promise after a month, but that requires an unrealistic level of optimism.”

“Alright, alright, too many low blows at once.” He coughed.

“This is not a jest, mortal. Psionics is a difficult art, even for the most brilliant of minds. You are far from that. Your progress will be slow, terribly in fact, in the beginning. Only the most fortuitous progress beyond the very basics without severely damaging their mind.”

“No pressure then.”

The goddess smirked.

Never one to shy away from hard work, Lukas returned her a brief nod. “So…what does this skill entail?”

Inanna cocked her head slightly backward. “Psionics isn’t a singular skill, mortal, but a cluster of closely related skill sets, the most infamous of which is the enthrallment of another. It is important you understand, because the creature you call Solana is rather proficient in that art.”

Lukas wiped his hand across his face as he sought to process this. He remembered his interactions with Solana, about how she had all but forced him to speak in Ualbesh—an unsuccessful attempt since he couldn’t until Inanna had activated the pendant’s function.

Solana was the most dangerous creature in this anomaly thus far. Lukas knew it by heart and soul. And yet, he had been strangely at ease around her, while being on edge near every other yokai in this place.

A nasty thought entered his mind.

“…Do you think she’s controlling me?”

“Impossible. Your Alpha Condition function grants you some degree of resistance, which is also the underlying reason behind your relative immunity against possession. And even if she could bypass it, the creature’s paltry abilities cannot bypass one such as myself.”

It was at times like this that Lukas could appreciate her self-confidence.

“That being said, possessing your body and affecting your mind are entirely different, at least from the omphalos’s perspective.”

Lukas physically winced at her words. The omphalos considered his body to be its anomaly. His human mind was simply an added attribute that suited the circumstances better than anything else. An attack on the body would be repelled with extreme prejudice, which was why the omphalos had reacted so heavily to possession. The fact that the yokai were so little attuned to his body only exacerbated the reaction.

But his mind? His mind was his own. And he had always acted out as he wished. Even if Solana could subliminally influence him, would the omphalos register that as a threat?

At the same time, a part of him couldn’t help but point out that Inanna was only mentioning this because being under Solana’s influence would mean resistance to her own plans. Even when she was helping him, she was using him.

Still, he needed to learn. He needed to grow. The activation of the new omphalos functions would accelerate his growth, and his strength and finesse would rise with experience.

“What are you going to teach me first then?”

A chair appeared behind her as Inanna sat down, legs crossed, and stared back at him. “In my era, it was tradition to learn how to dilute one’s subjective awareness to the flow of time. It allowed you to study your surroundings more thoroughly and make better decisions.” She paused for a second. “I shall endeavor to impart the same lesson onto you.”

Lukas could almost visualize it as the goddess described it to him.

“With little effort, one could perceive a speeding arrow as if it were dragging through the air. A sword’s trajectory could be calculated mid-swing. In your case, it would allow you greater leeway to fall into your many mental tangents mid-battle.”

That got a laugh out of him.

Seemingly pleased with herself, Inanna continued. “This skill is called Shensivueh. Nine out of ten aspirants perish in their attempts to master this technique. But take heed, mortal, it bears its own share of troubles. If you maintain this altered mental state for more than what your heart can keep up with, you risk a complete breakdown of your brain functions. I believe the human word for it is…aneurysm.”

“Wait a second,” Lukas blurted out. “I know what that is.”

A sudden increase in one’s perception of time, marked by an increased heart rate and sometimes followed by cardiac arrest or brain aneurysm. He’d heard of this phenomenon. He’d studied it. This wasn’t some fancy technique—it was a psychological condition that resulted in an extremely high dilation of perception. “This ‘sensivu’ or whatever you call it, I’ve seen happen. Back on Earth, we call it—”

An image of a drug-addicted athlete capable of supernatural feats came to mind. He had first come across the concept back in college. The phenomenon was generally known as—

“Tachypsychia!”

“…”