9.

My death started like most terrible things in my life did. With a freak accident. I'd been travelling back to my favourite bar in the known dimensions when an ancient creatures skeleton had slammed into my boat, completely out of nowhere, in a dimension where nothing was supposed to exist.

It'd put a massive dent in my hauler as we were flying along, smashing a hole in my stern and nearly causing the ship to snap in half, but I'd kept them anyway.

Most traders would have just cursed and thrown them overboard, but I like to make the best of a bad situation, so we pulled in at a local city which I remembered having visited before when I was younger, and I went to the library and then the administrative office in the centre of the city.

After two hours in said library, I made out that they were the ancient bones of an offshoot evolution of a Leviathan that was floating in the abyss.

I paid off one of the officials who had the contacts of every licensed sorceror in the city, I wasn't looking for mages, too poor. On that list had been a fairly well-established Necromancer and a local Constable, powerful but not enough to be a problem if the trading went bad which it so often did on lower dimensions like these.

Thankfully, the mage was power-hungry enough to ignore the fact they were rotting bones, close to collapse, and rich enough that I was now a rich man, even by my standards. I'd wanted to see if I still had any friends on the faculty at the University, I remembered some of my colleagues at the guild might have started working there just before I left, some 70 years ago or so, and if I could swing by and tempt them out of their dusty lecture halls and into the streets, by way of full bottles and heavy pockets. But as I was strolling along, I ran into someone who promised a good time beyond that of listening to drunken academians.

One of my old employers, Bart, with some friends of his, maybe a new mercenary crew some of which I recognized, some I didn't. He'd seen me at a glance, recognising me almost 80 years later than the last time we'd met. He must have been more than 150 by now.

Back then he ran a group of guards, who were escorting merchants along a new trade route, somewhere in this dimension and he'd needed a sorceror to deal with some undead who appeared along a certain section.

I was a terrible sorceror at the time, but I'd made do with some overcharged first level spells, and some bottles of oil. I'd really needed the money at the time, so I ran with him for a couple of years, before going on to become a trader of my own. It was a happy part of my life and I had fond memories of my time with him.

I'd smelled alcohol on his breath, but I also smelled a good time, and like he could smell the money on me he asked me to buy them a round, for old times sake. Drinking with mercenaries was more fun than scholars that had weak heads and even worse stomachs so I thought, why not?

They brought me to a bar, I thought I recognised one of the barmaids, but it was in the shadier part of the city, so I thought probably not. My old employer leaned in and spoke in what he probably thought was a whisper, but stopped just sort of a yell.

"So, I nowsh this guy yeah?"

"Yeah?"

"He goesh exploring, as a side thing, on the ... the Deep Warrensh, but don't spread it around yeah?"

Probably outlawed, but I didn't care about most things this south of the Tree anyway and nodded him on.

"He found this ruin, a couple days in. It had markings, going back to the Old age he reckonsh! So they make their way inside and they find an egg, as tall as him."

"Oh?"

"He reckonsh it's an Ancient Dragon Egg!"

I waved him down hurriedly to shush him, while smiling nonchalantly at other curious patrons who were looking over at us.

"That's impossible. Your friends probably just found a normal dragon egg. The Ancient Dragons are gods, immortal and unkillable. They've existed long before us and will go on long after us. If one of them laid an egg, I'd have heard about it. But ... I think I'd like to meet your friend anyway."

Bart raised an eyebrow, at least I think he tried but he just raised both so he looked shocked.

"Thought you said he was full of shit?"

"He is. But an egg that big might hatch something incredible, and dragon eggs are still very valuable, if not my usual merchandise, I'm still fairly familiar with that kind of good and I'll give you a good price."

I got up off my seat with a leap.

"Come on, the beers like piss here anyway."

"Now?"

Bart got up with a shrug and a sigh, and the rest of his crew left the bar with us as the owners threw us dirty looks until I threw them a gold one, might have been the wrong currency but it was so gold so they probably won't mind.

"You should think about retiring Bart, you've been playing this game for ... for a long time."

"Maybe ... Someday, for sure." He left a strange silence behind after he spoke, where neither of us spoke. He wasn't quite a father figure for me, I didn't respect him or anyone enough for that. But his hair was white now, and he carried a massive bow on his back. Someday soon he was going to pull that string and it wouldn't move. The world would probably be a better place with him gone though. I let that thought linger in the air before waiting for him to continue.

I spoke first, my curiosity ignited slightly.

"So where is this 'guy' anyway."

"Not far, a warehouse in the slums."

"Let's,-"

A sword went through my chest, and my body changed to a fiery ash briefly before exploding.

My fire clone artifact activated from sensing danger, propelling me upwards into the air, and leaving a golem made of ash and fire in my place.

The black steel greatsword sliced through it like butter, releasing a shockwave, atomising something which could take a level 3 spell and survive or a lightning bolt, instantly and releasing a shockwave which blasted Bart and his crew back, destroying the surrounding road and shattering some nearby windows.

I conjured some wisps of under my feet to let me hover in the air, while taking out my largest lamp, a glass ball with a brightly lit ember inside and uncorked it.

A huge bear came out, body made of a blistering fire as it flickered into existence before burning with a ferocity which destroyed the rest of the road, razing the ground underneath black and flattened a few surrounding houses. It grew to a height of 6 meters, while remaining on all fours. It stood up and slammed it's paws against its chest, before opening its mouth to roar.

It's roar was deafening, knocking some nearby passerbys to the ground, unconscious. I looked towards where the sword came from and spotted a man in the sky far above me.

I fired up the flames beneath my feet, propelling me upwards quickly so I was at eye level with the man, leaving a gap of 50 meters between us.

It was the Necromancer I'd had dealings with before, not six hours ago, a black rift in space closed slowly next to him. He was evidently much more powerful than I'd originally assumed. Maybe the bones I'd given him were faulty?

"Was there a problem with the remains? I don't do refunds. I apologize."

"You should know that consorting with a known criminal, and aiding and abetting said criminal is punishable by death within the Eternal Empire."

"Criminal? ... Ah, Bart." I always thought that some of the stuff you could get sentenced to death for was really not that bad.

"Bartholomew Meistet is a criminal who is being charged with several counts of murder and numerous fraud charges, in this empire and others. By preventing that blade from eliminating said criminal, you will face the same charges." Ignoring the fact that blade was clearly aimed for me, this Necromancer was clearly after that large amount of money he'd just given me. He could lawfully do this though, the law was on his side.

"So this has nothing to do with the fact that I'm currently carrying a small fortune of yours on me?"

I was rewarded with a smile and an honest answer.

"You'll also make a lovely Lich."

"A Necromancer who's also a Constable, that seems to be a conflict of interest?"

"The higher-ups don't care how many powerful foreigners I kill, just as long as I keep the order."

"This is order?" I swept my hand over the destroyed buildings and road beneath us.

"Order to the higher-ups, just means no one of nobility dies."

I personally didn't care why he was trying to kill me, I was just trying to stall for time as I had a very limited mana capacity, having poor early training, being quite a stupid and lazy child, so I had to be very efficient with how I used it.

Unfortunately, I was facing off against a Necromancer, who got more dangerous the longer I fought with him, similar to my own style. We were both making discreet hand signs while talking, marshalling our forces and preparing spells as we spoke.

"So I suppose that means, -"

I spun abruptly, serpents of fire rolling off of me like torrential rain and expanding in the air, before shooting towards the man like comets, leaving blinding red streaks in the air.

He cut off whatever spell was holding him up with a flourish and fell rapidly while chanting, the serpents streaking after him and merging together, growing into a massive one hundreds of meters long and a few meters wide snake. He finished his spell with a shout and a black crack appeared below him, a bone dragon crawling out and carrying him away from the snake.

As it flew, hundreds of small cracks appeared in the air behind its wings as tiny wraiths flew out, balls of translucent energy with two red balls of red energy for eyes. They covered all of the visible ground below and rushed up towards me. As they approached the snake they would swell up briefly before exploding with a scream, bombarding my snake. It hissed, rolling around in pain.

I didn't try to make it eat them, they would just explode once inside and shred my spell, choosing to instead make a quick hand sign. The snake swelled up, breathing out a river of flame around itself, disintegrating the wraiths as they were blasted from existence with a shrill wail. The wraiths were destroyed, but the magic in the snake was used up and it was greatly diminished in size.

I closed my fist in front of me then brought it slowly up to my cheek and then behind my head before opening my hand, like releasing an imaginary arrow. The snake swelled again briefly before contorting into an arrow and shooting towards the bone dragon, a circle of air surrounding it

Meanwhile, the Necromancer waved his hands and yelled something and above him two cracks in space appeared as another two bone dragons crawled out. Before they'd fully crawled out the arrow had reached them. I released a shout and the arrow swelled again, changing to a blinding blue colour. It exploded, blinding my vision temporarily and igniting several houses roofs far below. A wall of air hit me, blasting me back several meters.

When my vision returned to me and I had realigned myself in the sky, I looked up to see that there were that two bone dragons that had made it halfway towards me. A tattered shield fell out of the air in front of the Necromancer, as he panted, probably having to forgo the chant due to my sudden attack and tiring himself out.

I mimicked the Necromancer earlier and blasted downwards, quickly outpacing them. I landed on the ground and made sure to uncork any other elementals I had on me, releasing several tens of creatures into the city around me, hoping that I could divide the Necromancer's attention between killing me and defending the city. Bart and his crew had also recovered from the initial shockwave earlier and with a salvo of magic and arrows, they took down one of the dragons fast approaching.

Around me, the dead townspeople from when I'd summoned my bear-shaped fire elemental earlier, came to life, their hate and the Necromancers magic in the air giving them a brief chance to partially come back. Another annoying thing about fighting Necromancers, once they started weakening the Barrier, things would try to force their way through, effectively giving them spells for free.

As one they rose up, hate in their eyes and black clouds of magic flickering around them, granting them the strength they never had while alive. I clicked my heels together, activating another artifact and a ring of fire sprung up around me in a protective circle, devouring any approaching undead with ease.

Bart and his crew had to join that fight as the undead seemed mindless, attacking anything around them. They were struggling as the younger members were torn apart in an instant, the black mist around the undead behaving erratically and not in line with the undead attacks, darting around the group's shields and armors, cutting through their flesh like butter before the older members had a chance to step in to protect them.

Eventually, a sorceror set up a pretty good fire circle, pressing back the black clouds so they were less active and the group could start purifying them.

Two of my bird elementals were fighting the remaining bone dragon. I fed them a little of my mana, causing their flames to burn blue they flew into the inside of the dragon, burning away the Necromancer's magic and causing the skeleton to fall from the sky, finishing off the dragon instantly.

I tried to throw out a prepared Gate, which I carried in my bag always in case of emergencies, but the Necromancer had sealed this space, probably before he first attacked me, disallowing any Gates but his own.

No matter, my first instinct was to run from a fight with a Necromancer, they just had way too many tricks they could throw at you, but I was confident I could finish off this brat. I called my elementals towards me, they had rampaged through the city while feeding off my emotions of rage and fear, turning the city into a burning blaze. The Necromancer had ignored them and let them rampage freely, clever but cruel.

I looked up, full of fighting spirit, eyes aflame.

I felt a ringing sound go out loud enough that I felt my body and the world around me vibrate in time with the note. It echoed through my mind and soul, making my vision go blurry and the magic on my fingertips fizzle out. The sensation sent me to the ground as I looked up.

A huge black rift had opened up in the sky widening as I watched, several hundreds of meters wide and growing. Black hands of bone, hundreds of meters long reached out clawing at the edges and forcing the rift wider. The being forcing its way through, even though it wasn't fully in our world yet, it's sheer presence pressed me kneeling to the ground as blood streamed from my orifices, head pounding as that ringing sound echoed within my mind.

I was one of the better off ones, some of the remaining undead and some weaker members of Barts gang were disintegrated by the appearance of those massive skeletal hands,

This was ... this motherfucker summoned a fucking death god! Was he insane? You can't control a god! This thing would wipe out the entire empire if unmanaged. This Necromancer was better than I'd thought, he was way above a Constable, or even a City Lord. He was at the Regional Lord level at least to pull something of this magnitude off.

His disregard for life and self preservation was stronger than mine. I had to admire the balls on him for trying to pull this off.

He was probably hoping he could blame the city's destruction on me, and praying the higher-ups would take the god down before it caused any further collateral damage.

Fuck him, I wasn't dying here. I reached out to my prostrated bear-shaped fire elemental, whimpering with its limbs shaking as it struggled to get off the ground. It was the first elemental I ever contracted. With no hesitation, I reached deep inside it, to the spark of true fire I'd put inside it long ago. I took hold of it while removing the seal I'd spent several fortunes on researching and creating when I first found the spark.

It merged with me quickly, needing a host to survive outside of the seal I'd placed it in, before devouring my body as the closest available source of fuel, swelling in size quickly as the spark of true fire in my body was strong, having practiced fire magic for over a hundred years.

It left only a me-shaped pile of ash behind which quickly blew away after the spark flew out of my body, and out of which rose a large ball of fire. I reached out to my elementals mentally and commanded them to charge at me.

As they neared me and entered my range of influence they were sucked in leaving nothing behind, letting that flame that was my new body grow quickly into a roaring pillar of fire several meters high. Around me things were sucked inwards as I focused on absorbing everything around me, to grow stronger and to prevent the true fire from destroying my consciousness, which it would if it ran out of other forms of fuel. The host of fire elementals which I'd grown and contracted over several years were quickly absorbed into me. The maelstrom of ash and fire which was me grew ever larger as the burning red gradually grew hotter and larger.

Their bodies and other objects around, including the wreckage of the city collapsed into ash as a spark of light flew out of all of them and into me, feeding my fire, it was the spark of life inherent in all things that was attracted to me. The ground, the remains of the bone dragons around me and then, uncontrollably Bart and his crew wearing fear and surprise on their faces even as they blew away into ash. I would have liked them to survive, but I would need their power to defeat this god. They each had quite large sparks, having lived as powerful mercenaries which made me swell in size as I devoured them all.

I grew and grew, my fire burning brighter and stronger growing in size from a tiny pillar to a column of fire that towered into the sky. People hundreds of meters away who were cowering in their basements, the ground, animals, I took it all. They all collapsed into ash which was blown away as the number of sparks I absorbed turned into rivers of light which snaked their way into my colossal body.

After absorbing an entire city, the true fire within me seemed to be satiated temporarily, providing me with enormous amounts of pure power in response to my sacrifices. My fire grew, growing into a towering humanoid hundreds of meters tall made of a roaring, shifting fire, which burned to look at. I made myself a face before bellowing defiantly at the being in the sky. The Necromancer miles away up in the sky was crying tears of blood etched into his face with a shrivelled up body from the effort of his spell. He finally slumped over on the back of his bone dragon which flew him far away as he looked upon me.

My entire being was focused on the death god emerging from the sky, however. Its head was visible now, a skeleton head, perfectly round black and ugly, with an endless void for a mouth and red fires burning in its eyes, which dimmed as I looked at them. It was holding a chain within the darkness of whatever lay on the other side. The chain was connected to a massive bell which it was pulling along. Every time the bell rang, my head throbbed in response, getting more painful the closer it pulled the bell.

I saw it release the chain, it seemed to hurt to pull it like the bell was too strong for it to handle using. I reached up, elongating my arms as easily as breathing in my new body. I grabbed it's exposed bald head, pulling its body through the crack in space. Once it was pulled through, the crack in space sealed itself up, leaving the bell behind.

It came crashing down, a gigantic black skeleton twice as tall as a cathedral. It smashed into the ground, leaving a massive crater in the ground where the city used to be. I reached out for it again only to see my hand going black and withering away. A black haze lit up the air around it, it's aura of death much more potent than I expected to be able to override even the power of the spark of life.

My fire burned up again in anger, going blazing white briefly, scorching lands for miles around and my hand quickly restored itself. I conjured chains that sprung up around it, tying to the ground, and making the ground crumble into dust from the touch of its body to the ground, and raising up a massive dust cloud which just made my fire burn brighter. My chains quickly went from blazing red to grey and finally crumbled into nothing as the god's aura destroyed them.

It got up off the ground, jaw moving as a deep guttural sound emerged from deep within it. The airwaves formed a physical impact against me but just made me burn brighter briefly. It was laughing at me. It went on the offensive, it's aura pressing in on my skin of fire.

It was laughing! My fire burned white-hot with rage as an aura of fire burst into life around me. I hadn't attempted this before as it would accelerate my destruction, and I had trusted in the power of the sparks. It pushed forward against the death god's own, pushing it back, sending it stumbling back and soon after to its knees. I pushed it's own aura back right to the edge of its bones.

I slowly pushed forward, my fire frantically burning brightly with anger and hate, my own and the people I'd absorbed, it was a hate of death, which forced the death god's aura back relentlessly. I slowly pushed my aura into its body, each of its bones crumbling away into dust, one by one. Finally, only it's skull remained jaw agape as it stared at me, trapped in my hands as it was.

"How?"

I ignored it's desperate attempts to stall for time and pushed onwards, desperate to survive, crushing its skull between my firey palms, fingers pushing in deep inside, to its core. At the last second, when I thought it was dead, and I relaxed my pressure slightly, it opened a rift. It easily ignored the Spatial lock the Necromancer had placed on the surrounding space, escaping with a wisp of its power remaining, but staying alive all the same.

My palms came together with a crash, the death god escaped alive.

I stood there in the burned out remnants of the city, ground burned black and barren by my aura.

I forgot its name already. It was unimportant, however, as I had bigger problems to worry about.

Suddenly I collapsed in on my self, shrinking rapidly as the true fire fragment within me sought fuel and used my body, I'd briefly used my rage, but that was short-lived and I'd consumed everything even slightly powerful nearby.

I painfully reached inwards, attempting to reconstruct the seal which had been around it when I'd found it. It was complex, and I could feel my humongous body of fire shrinking rapidly. As I shrunk to a hundred meters of height I finished the seal effectively allowing me to link up its consumption with the power it produced so it no longer consumed everything around it.

I continued to shrink slowly however, this was borrowed power and so would leave me slowly but surely. I collapsed on the ground, my mind exhausted and coming apart at the seams, like that Necromancer. I painstakingly performed a series of hand seals I'd memorised a long time ago, just in case.

My shrinkage stopped briefly before continuing at a rapid speed and then stopping at a much smaller size. The body of fire persisted briefly before fading away, leaving me with a normal, human body.

My mind was very close to collapse so I started up my mana recovery and then got up slowly.

Even with my limited brainpower, I still noticed.

"Huh ... I'm a woman now."

I put my head back and laughed. I'd just wiped out a city and survived an encounter with a death god, who would likely be back for revenge, but I was annoyed that my gender had changed. I chuckled to my self as I staggered away with my new body. I needed to leave this area, powerful people would turn up soon to ask why there was no longer a city here.

My new body was a fresh start, this could be the opportunity I needed to get away from my bad reputation.

I was going to need money though and more familiars, and-.

I looked down in surprise at the huge black sword sticking out of my stomach and chest. I staggered around to stare at my attacker. It was the Necromancer standing next to a black hole in space which was slowly closing. He was bloody and shaking while close to collapse, but still very much alive.

He smiled and made a quick hand sign. My body collapsed into dust from the swords shockwave as my vision went dark.

#

I was Alive.

And then I wasn't.

I felt the very space around me reject me, this world had laws, laws which I had broken time and time again and my punishment was due. My new body felt like a cold, clammy cage, but it was still MINE. I could feel the air around me trying to eject me, and my new sense of self disoriented me enough that when the pressure increased, my new grip on my body slipped.

I left my body almost instantly, being thrown out into the void as I felt the small string connecting to my body stretch to terrifying lengths as I was thrown from my world forcefully, before snapping. The broken end of the string, a piece of my soul, whipped back into me forcefully, sending me twisting and spinning through the cold reaches of space.

It took some time for me to come back to myself, to learn how to move in this new vessel, to stop spinning and just come back to myself. I did though. Once I was still and floating silently in the void I took a moment.

I truly felt myself then, a ball of light, a free soul drifting in the void. It was ... different. I was expecting howling voices and chains. Alright, maybe not that but something! I deserved that at the very least. Anything would be better than this ... nothingness.

I screamed soundlessly, with no physical form, the only sound I heard was the ones I imagined, my own voice reflecting back at me. It was an old man's voice I heard, full of rage and loneliness.

But even that faded, and not long after that my thoughts left with it until I was just left with the weight of my existence on my mind.

#

I felt it then. A pulling, on every part of my body, on my everything. Then, as the light slowly faded from my awareness, as I drifted further away from the stars, with the air around me growing cold with every breath I didn't take, that's when I heard that 'sensation' calling to me.

It spoke to me using my own voice, from deep within. First a faint echo, then as time went on an echoing voice growing louder with every intonation. Its words were nonsensical but it communicated all the same, it spoke to me of a place.

I place I belonged, that I deserved.

It went on and on, growing from a voice to a physical sensation, pressing in on my not-body.

I just lay there feeling the cold, dormant mana well up from inside me, it was responding to the voice, cold and lethargic as it was after being dormant for so long, even as I felt the voice press in from the surroundings. It was there I drifted, my thoughts slow and heavy for a time, simply existing.

I thought of my future, of the life I'd lost, of the life I'd taken. I imagined drifting in the void for a greater period than the one I was existing through currently, this voice hounding me for eternity.

The thought sickened me. Did I really choose pain over loneliness?

So I said Yes.

Then I was gone, away from death gods, from the memory of the ash of the living on my lips, on to whatever awaited me next.

I moved then, shifting through space to something new.

Around me, I felt the air pressing in on me, heavy with heat and emotion, even though I had no form.

Red as the sky, I felt the screams reverberate through me, as I looked on in horror. People being torn apart, souls like me flickering with a pale blue light, reduced to scraps before being consumed mercilessly by the monsters all around. My mouth widened, tears half forming in fright at the carnage in front.

"No ... I, ... not this! I didn't want this!" But I felt that feeling again, coming from deep caverns all around, both a voice and a sensation.

'But you did deserve this.' I felt that voice emanating from my surroundings. The voice was my surroundings I realized with growing horror.

Slowly, monsters, all shiny new-formed flesh with wicked appendages sticking out from several parts, became aware of the new arrival, shiny and blue-white I was a beacon in this red hellscape, though far away I could see other souls also arriving slowly. They gathered around, blocking all avenues of sight until all I saw was a wall of writhing flesh, with teeth.

Then whatever was keeping that hell around me at bay fell away, and the ravenous creatures surrounding me from every angle possible moved as one. I screamed and fought but I was taken apart mercilessly, dissected and torn apart.

The pain was beyond anything I'd ever felt before, every touch from these strange creatures, like knives dancing on my nerve endings, leaving me vibrating with the pain. I was torn apart quickly, they took me apart like I was made of clay. I saw a column of insect-like creatures take me apart from the feet up, carrying off my body in so many pieces it looked like a swarm of bright blue fireflies, which was then attacked by other nearby creatures.

My head was torn off from my shoulders, so I barely had time to comprehend the pain of having my body torn apart before I lost all feeling below my neck, and watched my body be torn apart, lips halfway there to a scream.

My lips were forced apart as I gagged while my eyes went blurry. The pain quickly receded, the pain of losing my body, an echoing pain which throbbed like a large drum, evaporated, allowing me to lie there and observe the situation passively. A tiny creature, its entire body taken up by a large bulbous eyeball, flapped its tiny black wings furiously as it outpaced the rest of the horde. Its eye had split apart revealing jagged teeth, out of which slithered a grey slimy tongue forcing its way into my mouth before splitting and tunneling into every part of my head, shutting off the pain. My vision was going grey, as even the sensation of my mouth being inflated to uncomfortable proportions was diminished.

It was taking something from me, I realized. My options here were zero though, so that piece of information was the last thing I registered before my vision went black.

#

Heat.

I ignored it. I was having a pleasant dream.

Heat. Screams, howls.

I pushed back, lashing out. I was having a good dream! With that dealt with I got back to my-

Pain.

Anger. I wanted to sleep! Leave me alone! Properly angry this time, I pulled myself awake and lashed out at the offender. I was in this strange black treacle, strange ropes around me. I tore them away, swimming towards the only light source I could see. I built up speed, bursting through the surface with a roar.

As the heavy and oppressive heat settled around me, I looked around in confusion while being still waist-deep in the black treacle. Where was the person who wouldn't let me sleep?

The black treacle around me lurched, suddenly tough as steel, trapped my waist so I couldn't move but dragging me with it, as a roar which I felt rather than heard as it vibrated through me. I looked around in surprise, above me sat a colossal eye, which had a massive jet black body, one which I couldn't see the end of, a body I realized I was stuck in. The massive body was on the side of a roughly carved rock pillar, wide enough the creature didn't cover even half of it. I could barely see that ahead the pillar met the rock ceiling, but below, the thick heated air obscured my vision of what was down below.

The creature's eye split open and a wall of grey flesh sprang out, whipping out with enough force to destroy a nearby rock pillar, but the tiny creature which it struck just shook itself out of the rubble before sprinting towards the creature again.

The skin around me shook as the creature also fought something equally as large above it with its enormous legs, which I couldn't properly measure the size of, only seeing the occasional tentacle. I felt that I shouldn't go back into the creature, that I should try to leave and get back down to the ground, it was like a thought that told me what to do, and I agreed with it. It was me but had different thoughts to me. Who is me then? The roars made my thoughts leave like the hot wind howling around me.

I seized the surrounding skin around me and with a heave pulled myself free with a 'squelch'. As I pulled myself free a black hand briefly stretched out, grabbing hold of my ankle, but I swatted it away quickly and it fell back into the skin as it closed up quickly. Another roar shook the air, forcing me to dig my claws deep into the skin.

I was hurled all over as I dug my claws deep.

I wanted to let go but my other thoughts said that was a bad idea. The ground looked very tiny below me. The skin around me was shaken up by a large impact, making my claws slip.

I felt funny, as my limbs moved in the air reaching for something to grab. I spun in the air, the air against my skin felt good and as I fell I saw all the creatures fighting. Inside me, I felt my other thoughts screaming, and yelling. That was annoying so I just watched the red clouds of blood mist circling around the pillars. It looked nice.

Quickly the haze dispersed. I could see spiky rock far below me, getting bigger as I got closer. Those other thoughts were getting a lot louder now, much harder to ignore. Just as the rocks got really close, I felt my vision getting blurry and my ... thoughts ...

#

Dancer pushed the idiot's mind down while throwing his body to the side. He reached out, desperately trying to soften the ground, pushing more mana into it as the-

'Crunch'

#

I got up and winced as my arm hurt. I poked it. It wobbled. I tried to move it but it just flopped around. I could feel my other thoughts screaming at me to hold it straight and stop moving it around. I could feel my thoughts were unhappy, angry at me.

I just lay there, enjoying the red clouds which obscured my vision of the roof of the cavern. Eventually, my arm stopped hurting and went back to being un-floppy.

I looked around, my body was getting tired as my head hurt. You need to eat, my other thoughts said to me. I looked for something to eat. My own thoughts said I couldn't eat rocks, so I wondered what I could eat. My vision blurred, maybe I took too long, and now I was going to die of hunger?

#

My nostrils were filled with the scent of blood, and my mouth was filled with meat. I assumed from the headless corpse in front of me.

I was confused. How did I get here? Who's neck is this? Why does it taste soooo good?

It tasted ... I don't have the words for how good it tasted. It tasted of plums, I think. It filled me up, like warm liquid and made every part of my body ache in pleasure. Maybe I got a little bigger as well?

The corpse had a body similar to mine, but grey, and from the waist down there was just a lot of green tentacles. I tried one but preferred the torso part of the body. I kept eating until I ran out of non-green meat. I wanted to just lie there and sleep for a while, but my body was full of energy. I couldn't sit still, my eyes darting around, looking for some more meat.

I marched on, clenching and unclenching my claws, cutting holes in my palms repeatedly. Now that I'd gotten a taste of that flavor, of that feeling, I couldn't wait until I tried it again. I wanted to head to one of those huge pillars, there was a large number of monsters there when I was last there.

I thought I'd been thrown further than I originally guessed, as I couldn't see that big monster with the big eyeball. What would that one taste like? I kept walking until the ground shook under me.

I was thrown into the air and I felt dizzy again as my other thoughts got louder all of a sudden. I shrugged it off and looked at the creature which had landed in front of me and caused the ground to shake. It was grey and had weird skin, fur I think it was called? It had a weird head, kind of triangular. It was also a lot bigger than me, and when it opened its mouth, I thought that if I curled up really tight I could probably hop in there.

Maybe if I got inside it I could cut it open from the inside? That seemed like a great idea! My other thoughts were screaming at me to 'run from the giant rat' but I didn't want to do that so I screamed back. Also, what's a rat?

"Aaaaagh." That didn't sound quite right to me, but the creature got confused and roared back anyway. I seized my chance and jumped at it. I curled my body up, but the monster bit down on me when I was almost through. I caught its teeth with my hands, but they burst open and black liquid went everywhere.

I thought that its teeth looked very big and wished I had teeth like that, or teeth at all actually, and my mouth itched in response. My hands fell off, but I managed to hold it back with my stumps. Those seemed to work better than my hands anyway, and with a grunt and a push, I forced its mouth open long enough to hop in.

There was a lot of empty space in there, but it was very pink, warm and wet. I thought it was maybe too warm.

My other thoughts were making a lot of noise again, something about 'digestion'.

I looked around in puzzlement, there was a lot more space in here than I was expecting, the 'rat' was bigger than me but not this big. The skin under me lurched, and liquid started coming out of the walls. I was thrown to my knees, and where my skin met the liquid it burned with a hiss. It was cool how the black skin just disappeared leaving grey muscles and shiny black bone beneath it.

My other thoughts screamed at me some more, leaving my ears ringing, I tried to ignore them again but their volume just built up like pressure behind my eyes, and when the skin around me lurched again, I had a revelation, the rat was moving! I felt very proud of myself for figuring that out but my thoughts faded as my vision went black.

#

Dancer howled his frustrations into the void, as the idiot continued to ignore him. He just watched his hand dissolve with curiosity! Even Dancer could feel hints of the pain, but the idiot just sat there with his strange grin. He was seriously wondering which god he'd pissed off this much to be sharing a body with this idiot.

He took his chance when the rat moved and the idiot was thrown into the air, taking advantage of when he lowered his steely guard, pushing him aside.

He savored the rush of sensation as he took over briefly before using his non-affected hand which had quickly grown back from the stump it was earlier, to cut off the other hand at the wrist. The smoking stump fell away into the stomach acid. His feet could now regenerate fast enough to keep up with the acid, now that he wasn't over-taxing his regeneration.

He steadied himself by stabbing his arm into the wall of flesh to his side, which shook in pain in response. Depths, this idiot was so stupid! Attacking a demon from the inside out was much more difficult than from the outside in, and especially in the Pit. Dancer shook his head, pondering his options.

His Reserve was quickly growing smaller, his regeneration would fail before long and when that happened he would be screwed. He couldn't reach out to any of the surrounding ground through the demon, it would just cut off his connection easily. No connections to any Sigils that he could tell. No weapons, no artifacts, and external flesh-magic really wasn't his thing. If he could overpower its mind then he wouldn't be in this situation in the first place. Fuck!

Nothing else for it then. He cut off the strands his legs had to his Reserve, and the acid quickly tore through his feet. He grew out both of his arms, tipping them with sharp, black claws and advanced onto the stomach wall with a flourish from his arms. The skin parted easily, but he advanced forward slicing off strips quickly and flicking them into his mouth. At least the idiot had gotten one thing right and given himself teeth.

He advanced forward, commanding his arms to move faster, and strengthening them slightly with the little Reserve he had left. They moved into a dark blur, delivering an almost constant stream of pink flesh into his mouth. He'd moved a considerable distance forward, but there was seemingly no end to the stomach. He internally grimaced, too busy eating with his actual mouth. This demon could manipulate its internal space with considerable skill it seemed. Shit.

Behind him, the opening in the wall of flesh that he'd cut open behind him closed shut. He continued onward, as the ground changed to spikes beneath him, briefly impaling one of his feet, before he cut it off and regrew a tougher one in its place. He winced at the sharp drop in his Reserve, being so close to nothing was dangerous.

Dancer continued onward at a manic pace, strengthening his body with every scrap of his Reserve that he managed to harvest. He grew his body at a rapid pace, toughening and increasing his size with every step, but keeping the same foundation, any monumental changes would be dangerous and consuming time he didn't have, no matter how effective they could be.

He could feel the muscle he was cutting into shake as the demon realized it was losing. He shaped his claws into scoops, cutting off large chunks instead of thin strips. He sacrificed uniformity for speed and with one particularly large thrust into the pink flesh, the red light of the Pit broke through. The hole closed up quick enough, but with renewed determination Dancer strode forward.

Desperate now, the demon knew it would have no chance against him once he broke free to the surface, he'd more than doubled in strength by feeding off of its Reserve, after all, and so the flesh around him bit at him, more acid streamed from the walls, the pink flesh he was hacking into turned grey briefly as he hardened it.

The mouths bounced ineffectually off of his toughened skin, and his skin which he'd created with the purpose of warding off the effects of acid worked. He saw the faintest shimmers of smoke. His shovel hands bounced off the toughened skin though.

His Reserve had grown considerably in his time here though and so he simply formed his fists into dense pointed blocks of shiny black flesh, and with a heave shattered the grey skin. He threw himself out of the hole in a triumphant leap. The hot wind of the Pit felt cool on his skin compared to the oppressive heat of the rat's stomach.

He felt a dull impact on his waist and his vision lurched as he was moved to the floor by the impact of the rat's tail. His head hit the ground and he-

#

The rat lurched and suddenly I was outside again.

I was inside the ground a little bit. That was strange. I decided that I preferred to be on the ground rather than inside it.

I tried moving, but only my arms responded so I pulled myself out of the hole with a grunt, were my arms bigger than before? Why were my fists so big and chunky?

In the hole that I was in previously, a large wall of grey fur leaped in, right where I was just lying. I wanted to stand up but my legs looked funny and didn't move when I wanted. As I watched though, they slowly moved back to the right shape. Nice.

They weren't moving quick enough though and the 'rat' picked its head out of the hole and threw itself at me. I tried to roll out of the way but felt a dull impact on my arm as the rat caught it and bit down. My arm only leaked a little bit of black liquid this time. That was strange. I liked having both of my arms free though so I swung down hard on its head with my fist made of a blocky material.

Its eyes went blurry briefly after I hit its head, so I hit it again. And again. And again. I kept going until it stopped moving, and then kept going because it didn't let go of my arm. I stopped when I could finally pull my arm out of the red mess that was its head.

I sat down and just breathed. Strangely I wasn't that hungry anymore. After a while, though the hunger returned and I started eating the rat. My vision faded away quickly though and soon I was standing in front of dusty ground, the rat consumed in its entirety.

A warmth spread through me as I walked onwards, and I stumbled a few times as my body parts seemed to get bigger without warning, eventually, I think I got twice as big but it was hard to tell. Also halfway through the growth, I got annoyed at constantly falling over and just watched the big monsters in the distance fight.

After the warmth faded away though, I got up off of the rocky ground and headed towards the nearest pillar reaching towards the sky. I thought I'd probably find more food if I headed towards them, and my other thoughts seemed to agree with me.

I also thought my hands were too big and heavy, sharper hands would be more useful. By the time I ran into my next monster, the blocks had split apart and lengthened into shiny fingers each tipped by a sharp claw, the tips of which almost dragged on the ground.

The thing was four-legged and barely half my height, with a round rocky face. It ran around me, trying to bite into me, but its teeth just broke off in the process. It was small but much faster than me, and it was annoying how my claws missed it every time I swung at it. My other thoughts suggested I pretend to fall over, I thought that sounded stupid but I tried it anyway.

I leaped at it, trying to pretend to fall before actually tripping on a bit of rock I could have sworn wasn't there before. The creature jumped at my face, but when it got close enough to my eye it instinctively split open, and I took a chomp out of the things face.

The rest of its body twitched slightly when it landed on the ground, but I stabbed my claws deep into it which caused it to stop moving.

I continued on, throwing parts of it into my mouth as I walked onwards. It tasted crunchy, it reminded me of something. My thoughts were distracted by a bright blue flash that lit up the sky, far to my left. I turned towards that flash instinctually, I felt that anything which was that bright blue had to taste really good.

My other thoughts got quite loud all of a sudden. They said I shouldn't go over there, that I might get eaten by something much bigger than me.

I really wanted to go see what was making that blue light but my other thoughts were right before, and they were probably right now.

I continued onwards, almost all of the monsters I fought from that point forwards were smaller than me, and even those that were bigger, still couldn't break through my skin.

#

Dancer watched the idiot.

He was growing concerned.

With his advice, the idiot was getting better at fighting, and after a certain point, he no longer needed his help, any of the limited advice he could have given about hand to hand combat he could contribute was already being done. He was slightly worried, even if he was an idiot, he was still the main part of this body, the Controller.

Dancer was worried that he might be absorbed if the idiot no longer needed him. He made an attempt at teaching him magic but gave up after the idiot asked him what mana was. In addition, he didn't even need any help with managing his Reserve, after his fight with the rock dog, he improved his foundational speed, and all of the changes he'd made against the rat were just being compounded on, to the point where the idiot hadn't bled in days.

#

I looked up.

The pillar stretched far into the sky.

My other thoughts, strangely silent for an extended period of time, which I was fine with, were telling me something interesting.

I lifted my leg and placed my foot flat against the surface of the pillar. I raised my other leg and placed the foot in front of the other one.

The world spun, the floor shifted to become a wall behind me, and the pillar became my new floor. I shifted from foot to foot. Jumped a few times. Interesting. I walked onwards, and within a few moments, was attacked.

From then on I barely had time to eat, before throwing myself into the next fight, or having something interrupt me while eating. I started to get hurt again, and whenever that would happen I would just walk around the outside of the pillar while focusing on getting tougher, which was advice from my other thoughts.

I'd keep going until I stopped getting hurt, and monsters claws started bouncing off of my skin with a ringing sound. I quite enjoyed the sound, sometimes just letting a unique monster hit me several times before I finished it off, so I could enjoy the unique sounds briefly. I'd briefly tried to make sounds on my own skin, but they hurt my head, and when I did, it would attract monsters from all over. I thought that was a good thing at first but I quickly realized that they were far more than I could handle. They seemed to be angry and furious at me for some reason, mouths wide and white, hard liquid coming out of their mouths (my other thoughts told me it was 'froth'). They were even going so far as to gang up on me in order to defeat me.

Most of the monsters I fought had hairy skin, and while it was weak, it was apparently easy to make and meant they were light and fast. They surrounded me and leaped at me once they had the numbers. I lashed out with my tongue, forcing large numbers of them back as I swung it around in a circle.

I felt a dull impact on my back, and my tongue shrank back rapidly into my head as the ground rose up to meet me.

#

Dancer took control with a sigh as the idiot shrank back from the reigns. He hastily ducked back from the leviathan barreling past him which was the idiot's soul, he really didn't want to get accidentally absorbed, not after all his hard work. He fled away from the conflict, retreating far into the depths of his soul space, maybe subconsciously trusting Dancer to take care of it.

He cursed the idiot even as he took control, he'd been growing on scraps while the idiot took the lions share from the kills. Even if he was a complete moron, he had all the right instincts of a young demon, courtesy of the Pit, and so left little leftovers when claiming his kills.

Awareness sprang into being, and he enjoyed sensation for a brief moment, before casually reaching out with this bodies mana into the ground. There was a slight resistance as he was using tougher ground, they were getting close to a Mouth after all. He didn't quite know why the idiot was so afraid, not one of the monsters currently knawing on him had actually managed to draw blood, he'd toughened his body up to a ridiculous level, further proof that he was dealing with a child, as he suspected. Children didn't like pain after all.

Chiding himself for wasting time, Dancer used Earth Spike, and even without a Sigil, he had ridiculous familiarity with this spell. Like the mouth of an Earth Worm, the ground in a hundred-meter radius rumbled as spires of rock shot out of the ground, impaling all those in its area. For the bigger and tougher ones, he shot through with several spikes, cutting into their limbs to lift them off of the ground. Several flying monsters managed to avoid the initial burst with a leap off of the ground, curiously still affected by the Pillars gravity change.

Most fled, but Dancer finished off the brave ones with precisely aimed Earth Spikes, far too much power behind them for them to dodge in time. He quickly reached out, wary of wasting more time, and forming a vortex with his own soul, leaving him nauseated but allowing him to pull in nearby souls very efficiently. He could feel the idiot drawing closer, and quickly pulled the mana out of the earth spikes, collapsing his art, he needed the idiot to think that he'd killed the monsters himself. He desperately took the last few souls into himself, before fleeing the controls or risking being absorbed.

He was satisfied however, he'd swelled in size several times, with the idiot no longer looking quite so huge to him. He was getting closer.

#

That was weird.

I was somewhere else? I didn't want to be there anymore though. I also felt like there wasn't any danger anymore? I wanted to come back, and I did.

Where was I? Was there someone else there with me?

'Eat them before other monsters show up'

I looked around at the dead monsters surrounding me again. Why did I keep waking up with dead monsters surrounding me?

I stopped, a corpse raised halfway to my mouth.

And why did my other thoughts suddenly have a voice?

'Hello.'

I didn't hear a voice, had I heard voices before? Stop getting distracted! I'd noticed myself doing that a lot, I would start thinking about something important and then I'd sort of half remember something, making me lose my thoughts. Dammit, I did it again!

Anyway, it wasn't a voice, more like words appearing in my brain, but I was imagining a voice to go with them because you couldn't have words without speaking them. Was that right? That didn't seem right.

"WHoeeeeee?" No. That wasn't right. I was trying to make words come out of my mouth just like they came out of my mind. But it wasn't supposed to do that. The sound. It was supposed to be different.

Unconsciously I raised the dropped corpse to my head, and then my mouth before beginning to chew through it slowly and carefully. I took hold of that warm feeling I had afterward and ... stopped.

What was I trying to do? I wanted to ... speak. How did I do that though? How did I change my body to make it speak?

When I wanted to make my skin tougher, I made it tougher, when I wanted sharper hands, I made them sharper. This was different though, I was adding something completely new, this would be more difficult than anything I'd done before, I could just feel that if I just tried to make my body do what I wanted it to do, like how I willed myself to be stronger, it wouldn't end well for me. I felt sick at the thought of trying it. My insides moved around like I was being thrown through the air again. I moved my attention back to the warm feeling inside me.

But the warmth from my food was quickly fading, and in the process making my body stronger, my skin tougher and my claws sharper.

Why though? Why did food turn to that warmth inside me, which made me stronger, taller, tougher?

It was following my intentions. Yes. This was true, it had happened before when I hadn't thought about it, but when I did think about it, it happened more.

But I hadn't thought about becoming stronger just now, and it had happened anyway. A while back I'd realized that if I wanted my skin to be tougher it would become tougher. I wanted to have longer arms, I grew longer arms. Why was this any different? I could feel my other thoughts rolling around in the back of my head, but I was dimly aware of them, I got the feeling this was much more important.

I sat down. Something told me that was a good idea.

I had a feeling that I should be doing these things like this, not my other thoughts, but more like a half memory. I had the memory that I was supposed to do this in this way, but not why or how.

It was easier once I sat down, like eating it was automatic, and as soon as I thought about wanting to know more about that warm sensation, my vision shifted, not to black but to blue. And gold. And green, as well as pink, brown, silver. As well as so much red. It was me, I got that quickly, but it was a mess, a beautiful mess with parts of me constantly breaking off and flying away, it was like looking at a leaking ball of blood (I'd fought one of those earlier), with tens of holes.

At its core was a ball of blue and red flecks, tightly meshed together, and feeding into it was a massive ball of energy which surrounded it like a ball of yarn (I was learning to stop questioning everything strange I talked about, otherwise I was permanently getting sidetracked, dammit did it again.) The yarn was almost every color, but red was the main one. Small strands of the energy were being slowly sucked into the ball in the middle which was slowly growing in size, increasing the number of blue flecks, but more was being sucked into the surroundings than being absorbed. I hesitated to change anything, I didn't want to break anything permanently.

This was me. I knew that. But I could also tell that this wasn't what I wanted to see.

I pushed away from the bright colors, feeling my instinct guide me onwards.

Suddenly a feeling settled over me like nothing I'd ever known before. Random pieces of knowledge started to pour into my head, strange lines that had meanings associated.

Through it all, however, there was this one thing which was at the center of my mind, a piece of information being pushed into my brain.

'Your name is Dorzath'

Just kidding!