Chapter 30:

27 Days After Spring’s Beginning

289 Days After The Ra’tok Attack Amia Village

Rua Desert, Rhia Territory

Astral Conversion Center 035

My eyes flicker open, and the smell of coppery blood fills my nostrils. I look around, and my eyes widen at what I see.

“What… what is this?” I murmur in disbelief.

Before me lays a sea of bodies, piled high. Rivulets of blood flow from the corpses, forming into crimson rivers. Expressions twisted in pain, agony and fear.

I stand up, the ground beneath me squishing.

Looking down, I stumble back in horror. I stand on a mound of corpses, their faces indistinct and fuzzy, but clearly twisted in fear.

In my hand, is an indistinct and bloody spear, crimson staining my armor. As I watch, Gray mist condenses, forming a spear made of bleached bone and steel, gold filigree covering its surface.

My armor is a mixture of bone and metal, embossed with golden runes that lay dormant.

I bring my hand up to my face, and the claws of my gauntlet clink on steel. I can feel sharp teeth covering where my mouth is. My fingers travel up my cheek and to my temple, where I feel a long object sticking out of my forehead. I tug on it, and my head moves with it, almost like it is attached. A helmet.

Suddenly, I feel claustrophobic. I drop the spear in my hand, and listen to it clatter on the bloody armor of those under me.

I feel around my jawline and neck, trying desperately to pry the helmet from my head, but I cannot. My fingers slip into a small crack, and I try to lever my helmet off, but it is firmly stuck to my head. Almost like it is my head.

I give up, my breathing getting faster as I look at the carnage that surrounds me. I’ve been here before.

Images of a landscape much like this flash through my mind, of a man kneeling on a hill in a puddle of blood, his armor coated in gore and crimson.

What am I doing here?

I look down at my blood stained armor. Things have changed… the armor didn’t look like this.

Or did it? The memory is fuzzy.

A voice says from behind me, “Some say fate in unavoidable, and others say that it doesn’t exist.”

I whip around, and stare at who stares back at me. It is a man in my exact same armor, coated in blood. Gray katra pulses in his eyes.

He folds his arms, the bone segments of his armor clicking quietly as he shifts. The helmet he wears is made of bone, metal and gold filigree. Black horns come out from his helmet, flowing back and up from his head like a crown.

“Who are you?” I ask, preparing to fight. Last time I saw someone with my armor, he wanted to kill me.

The man looks like some kind of devil, the twisted and grinning helmet with its sharp pointed teeth making his visage grisly. He walks to the left, saying, “Some say fate can be changed. But those are the ones who usually end up dead.” He stops and stares right into my eyes, “Though, this proves fate can change.” He holds up a clawed hand, blood dripping down his fingers.

The grin on his mask widens, the bone shifting in tiny grooves and cracks to form a wider, vicious smile. He puts down his hand, turning to the right on his heel and walking a few steps with his arms behind his back, “I once thought of myself as one of those who could change fate.” The armored man looks wistfully up at the dark and cloudy sky.

My brow wrinkles in confusion, “What are you talking about?”

The man looks at me from the side, bouncing on the balls of his feet. “Fate. You should have died in that Jungle, yet you didn’t. You should have died before you ever stepped foot in it.”

He points a bloody, clawed finger, turning to look at me. “Yet, even the self -proclaimed Gods cannot foresee the infinitesimal possibilities that make up the grand weave of the multiverse, or what we call Fate.”

What is going on? Who is this guy? And what is he talking about?

The man lets out a deep, throaty chuckle, refolding his hands. He turns with his back facing me, looking out into the distance thoughtfully. “Yes, who are we in the scheme of things? What defines our tiny existence in this multiverse. Before, you were told not continue down this path, Warned many times, in fact.

“Yet, you persisted, and here you stand. On the precipice that shall define what you are. Who you are. Who you will be. And most importantly,” The man turns to face me, holding out his right clawed hand, droplets of blood dripping down from his fingers, “Will you change your Fate?”

I blink, watching as the color drains from the man and he starts Graying. He turns into Gray mist and is blown away on the breeze. The bodies that he was standing on start to become bleached Gray, it swiftly spreads, the world dissolving from out under my feet.

I watch in horror as my own body dissipates quickly into a fine, Gray mist. It spirals into a churning vortex and I scream a soundless scream, my ears filled with colossal roaring.

I sit up with a jolt, screaming and flailing about. Large arms restrain me, holding me down and a rumbling voice speaking, but I don’t hear it clearly in my panic.

My hand collides with flesh, and I punch at it. Then my hands are grabbed and restrained and I yell, trying to yank them out of the iron grip that holds them.

“Kardin! Calm down!” A deep voice breaks through.

My struggles quickly cease, and I blink my eyes, the world coming into focus. Looking up into a concerned simian face, I ask, “Kamar?”

The asper nods, “Its me. Calm down, it’s dead.”

“Dead?” I turn my head to look to the left, and I can see the hulking corpse of the monster. Dark blood leaks out in a puddle from it, but the puddle doesn’t cover up the now brightly glowing golden runes, stopping at their edges.

A message materializes into my vision, and I focus on it, making it clearer.

Warning!

One of your adaptations has become permanent. The chance of permanency has now risen to .05%.

[Versatile Adaption] has permanently raised your innate agility and balance with the addition of a Tail.

The chance has risen? A tail?

The message disappears after I am down reading it.

I sit up groggily, Kamar slowly letting go of me. Rubbing my head, I look around.

I’m still in the petrified mansion.

There is a strange coldness and sensation, and I look down. My eyes focus on the new addition to my anatomy.

It is a long, thin structure covered in my skin. I would say it is whip like, but there is a tuft of gray hair on the end. The whole tail is about four to three feet long.

It curls on the floor as I stare at my tail. What…?

With a thought, it slaps the floor and the sensation travels up my spine.

I grabbing the thing, I look at it closely. This is so strange.

Images from my fight with the umber hulk flash through my mind, and I distinctly remember adapting a tail, and it being covered in bone with a spear like point at the end.

This is definitely not the most dignified thing I could have adapted. I groan a little at the sight of it. I should have made it look more deadly!

There is a sharp pain in my back, and I feel along my spine. There are bruises and I wince, retracting my hand. At least my spine isn’t broken.

Kamar offers a large hand to me, and I take it. Climbing to my feet painfully slow, I feel my tail whip around behind me, throwing my balance off for a second.

Catching myself, I stand upright, my tail stilling behind me. This might take some getting used too.

With a thought, my tail coiling around my waist like a belt, and I look down at it, poking it. Hairs on the back of my neck raise slightly, and another shiver runs up my spine. Am I even human anymore?

It’s a question that has been lingering on the edges of my conscious for a while. With the world inside me, and all these new powers. The fact I can change my body at will with the Versatile Adaption ability makes me think that I may no longer be completely human.

I look at the circle which is a few feet away, the umber hulk’s corpse sprawled near the center.

“How are you feeling, Kardin?” Kamar looks at me with concern, his eyes settling on my new tail.

“Not great,” I look down at the addition to my anatomy. Looking back up at Kamar, I smile tiredly, “I don’t think I can call myself human anymore.”

Kamar nods slowly, then puts both his smaller pairs of arms on my shoulder, looking me in the eyes. He stares for a few seconds, then says, “Thank you, you saved my life.”

One of my eyebrows raises. This is probably the first time Kamar has thanked me. He seems sincere too.

I tilt my head to him, “We still have a lot to do.”

My back aches, and I focus on the message I got when we entered the foyer.

23:07 Minutes estimated till backup power online...

Still got some time till whatever this thing is starts up.

I look at the gold runes, and I can’t help but think they look similar to the ones I had seen on my armor in the nightmare. They have to be connected somehow.

A shiver runs up my spine at the memory of that strange nightmare. Whoever that was, he seemed almost excited and amused. What he spoke about also has me worried. The precipice of what? What did he mean?

I look at Kamar, who is also watching the runes, next to me. “I see some kind of system message. Like when I got my abilities, its counting down to something.”

He frowns, “Does it say what?”

I read the message again, it now says 22 minutes, but thats all that has changed. “Some kind of backup power coming online?”

The asper rubs his chin, staring intently at the golden runes with a frown. “Do you think it might be harmful?”

So far the system has been rather helpful…

I shake my head, “No, I don’t think it posses any direct harm to us. Though…”

Kamar turns to look at me, “Though?”

“I think we should wait and see what is going to happen,” I say firmly.

The asper lumbers off to the petrified staircase, “Then we wait.”

He sits down, opening the bag and starts rummaging through it.

I take a step towards him, and nearly trip as my balance is thrown off. Sighing, I uncoil my new appendage from around my waist, letting it dangle behind me.

Taking a step, I sway the tail a little and my balance returns to normal. This is going to take a while to get used too.

I walk over to the stairs, my tail swaying in the air behind me. Sitting down, I get into a more comfortable position, my tail making it a bit awkward. I let it rest in my lap, as I stare at the golden circle.

I look down at my tail, and touch it. There are tiny hairs over it, much like my normal skin. A shiver runs up my spine when I touch it. So strange. I don’t like it.

I’m not sure how to feel about this thing. It was a chance in a million that this would happen. It’s just my luck, isn’t it?

Though, that chance has risen, not by much, but still it is higher. I’m going to have to think more carefully about what adaptations I need. I don’t want to end up with gills and have to stay permanently in water.

I feel the tuft of hair on the end of the tail, and I can tell that my tail end in a curved point. Wish I had thought to make it a spike or something.

I stop myself from grumbling more, and close my eyes, shifting my mind inwards. I need to check on Amia and see if anything has changed with this new ability becoming unlocked.