A step was taken by Nicko, revealing the charred ground behind him; every step he took revealed the heat from the last. One by one, he sped up, with each step he took, as his middle eye would pulse a red light. No one was sure what had happened, but it was the group's ace in the hole.

Muspel tried to discourage Nicko by creating a being that looked exactly Kaloko to attack him. It had worked last time, but Muspel had no idea that Nicko was not like himself. The fungi clone gained speed on Nicko and tried to stop his advance. Tears welled up in Kaloko's eyes, who was only a metre away from Nicko. Unfortunately, it didn't work, as the body burnt to a crisp right in front of him.

"Impossible, even in his rage, he should've seen his old companion, so why doesn't he stop advancing?" Muspel examined "ANSWER ME!"

Nicko howled which split the ground and lay his gaze on Muspel, finally running at him.

Muspel formed a shining green blade from his arm and came hurling at Nicko. As they clashed swords he looked directly into Nicko's eyes and saw that it was no longer the [Dragon-Kin] in control, he saw something different, fierce, but he knew he could not dwell, as he saw Nicko charging an attack.

Jumping back, Nicko's [Chaos Column] met with the ground and made it shudder, creating a hole of where it met the earth, fire spurting out of it at least ten metres high. Muspel then began to sweat for some reason he was scared, very scared, so he did the only thing he knew how he started to run for his life.

He climbed up the walls of the forest, hoping to get away, but Nicko didn't care. Running to where the fungus was, Nicko did half a frontflip, his head pointing to the ground, and he opened his mouth, where a bright light bloomed. The fire exploded and sent Nicko higher into the air, to where Muspel looked at him surprised.

The black rocky substance on Nicko's shoulders began to change, growing larger, showing an orange circle in the middle of it. Behind his shoulder, lights began to appear, and they concentrated, and Nicko flew towards Muspel.

Seeing it at the last moment, Muspel dodged and looked at Nicko from behind, seeing that the lights were in fact fire propelling Nicko forward, like a rocket. Locking onto the enemy again, Nicko then used the same move repeatedly to try and get towards Muspel.

Faster and faster became the game of cat and mouse between the two, until they were only zig-zagging blurs towards the rest of the group. Enar had woken up and saw the damage of what was happening, she quickly grabbed Atogin and tried to protect him, running back into the entrance, as it was the most protected area.

Muspel then made his way back onto the ground, and so did Nicko, him still going at speed the others couldn't see. Finally, he slowed down panting, there Muspel laughed as if he had won something.

"I knew that your body would soon fail and look at this! One cut and you're DEAD!!" A white blade of air flicked from Muspel and hit Nicko at the same speed they were chasing, creating an uproar of dust which clouded Muspel's vision. And in the dust cloud, a voice was heard.

"[Activating Hosts Skill: Dragon Rage]" It sounded like Harrian, but more robotic, unlike himself. In the middle of the dust cloud, a pillar of fire appeared, making all the dust clouds reach the canopy of the trees, revealing Nicko in front of the pillar, his two normal eyes turning into a pure glowing watered red.

Black smoke was coming all from Nicko, creating a threatening haze around the floor. Bracing his legs, Nicko looked at Muspel and appeared in front of him, faster than the [Elf] could react, creating a cross behind him, before they began to tear the ground around him, as the two of them became an orange blur, tearing up the ground where Nicko carried him.

All the healing Muspel did was useless, as it would burn up as soon as it was beginning, although he wasn't being burnt to a crisp. Nicko put Muspel towards the wall and then began to quickly drag him up the wall creating a path of cracked flagstones and blood until they hit the canopy of the trees around them.

There Nicko let go of the charred Muspel, and crossed the two [Chaos Columns] and landed the finishing blow.

"[Dragonic Chaos Blade Art:]!" A massive cross appeared behind Nicko, as he made contact with Muspel "[Executioner's CROSS]!!!"

Muspel screamed as every inch of his being began to vaporise into nothingness, and a massive bang was heard, and Nicko fell towards the ground.

Muspel was defeated, but the group couldn't celebrate yet. As a cloaked figure in mid-air appeared on Nicko's back and he screamed in pain. There, as Nicko created a dust cloud on impact, a wounded Enar and Atogin had their arms up for battle.

The cloaked figure stood up, showing on its mouth and spoke quietly. Enar then sheathed her blade and nodded, as the cloaked figure jumped back into the trees and disappeared.

"Enar! What was that?" Atogin screamed at her. "Why did you sheathe your blade!"

"Relax, that thing was no foe I think it saved Nicko's life,"

"Hold on, you're right! Nicko! And Harrian!"

Atogin quickly went to Nicko's side to see something on his back. Two slit's, roughly five centimetres wide, had appeared on his back. Taking a massive gulp, Atogin looked closer to the right one and was surprised by what he saw. A black orb was inside the slit, and Atogin pulled it out, using [Analyze] on the mysterious ball.

[Harrian's Slime Core]

[The being known as 'Harrian Stave' essence lives in here]

[Eliminating this item would destroy the [Player]]

"Holy Shit!" Atogin freaked out, delving his right arm into the left slit and pulled out an eye, recognising it as the [Eye of Elements]. Freaking out, Atogin looked behind himself while Enar was bringing a large black skull where she placed it on the ground.

Carefully taking Harrians eye and core, Enar placed them into the skull's eye sockets, making sure the eye was in the right socket. After waiting a while, the eye began to look around, looking at the two scythes around Nicko's still body.

The two weapons seemed to crawl across the ground towards the skull, one of them changing into a pick slime and covering the skull. It then bounced towards where Nicko had hit the wall and looked down, seeing many other black bones.

One by one, the slime engulfed the bones, but it did not absorb it. Instead, the slime began to piece the bones together, making it grow taller, and become less transparent. When it stopped growing, pink hair and clothes began to cover it, as well the core disappearing and being replaced with a blue eye.

With a giant yawn, stretch and a tophat appearing on its head, Harrian had appeared again, finally calling [Chaos Column] which rocketed towards him like a magnet. The scythe then was absorbed into Harrian's hand as well, and he walked up to Nicko, squatting down, examining him.

"Wow, I did a number on him, might as well help out." Harrian placed his right hand onto Nicko's back, and his fingers began to grow longer, sealing the slits and healing Nicko's skin, as it was extremely damaged.

Separating the extra scales that had appeared during the fight, and absorbing it, Nicko began to return to normal. His body slightly shrunk, hair and teeth returning to normal. Harrian then turned Nicko over, and his left hand became a sizeable pink blob which forced its way down Nicko's throat. Before Harrian pulled it out, he revealed his black bones towards Atogin and Enar, which were quickly covered with the pink slime which turned into his normal hand.

Harrian got up and began to nudge Nicko with his right foot, not long afterwards, the [Dragon-Kin] woke up. Very slowly, he got up, although failing, so Atogin helped him get up on his two feet. Nicko grunted, and asked for water, Atogin obliged by giving him his water pouch to drink out of.

After a ten-second gulp of water, Nicko then began to freak out.

"W-what happened?" Nicko asked the group, rubbing his head "I remember everything up to when I collided with the wall, and… wait! Where's Muspel!"

"Incinerated by you, don't you remember that?" Atogin asked.

"Remember what?"

"Nicko if you could excuse me, I can answer your question," Harrian put his right hand onto Nicko's face. "[Primal: Gain Skill: Memory Transfer: Deduct Three points]" Nicko's eyes went ballistic before calming down and looking at Harrian.

"What the hell did you use on me!? Taking over my body and fighting!"

"Easy now," Harrian stepped back a few steps. "I needed your strength. Otherwise, I wouldn't have been able to defeat Muspel," Harrian began to rub the back of his head.

"Harrian, what do you mean by that?" Atogin asked.

"My [Taboo Skill], I should explain it right now."

Everyone stood in silence for a moment, waiting for Harrian to begin speaking.

"[Primal], a perfect match for a [Slime] which I am now, it allows me to gain and use aspects or [Skills] and natural aspects that other [Species] other than my own, although it comes at a cost…"

"What is that?" Nicko asked, intrigued.

"Something called [Primal Points], which label my sanity in a sense, the more I use it, the more I become a [Monster] for a while, although I do gain them back after a while, if I use more [Primal Points] than I have, I become what I did when facing Marchosias, a beast that isn't afraid to destroy everything,"

"Harrian, that doesn't make any sense," Enar was rubbing in between her eyes "You were in that state, but you spoke to us to run,"

"And that cost [20 Primal Points], the more I move around, the less I can get, I needed to rest to regain them,"

"How long do the [Primal Points] last?" Atogin questioned Harrian.

"I don't know; it can be from a minute to a month, it depends on how far I go farther away from my starting [Species], which are [Slimes] and [Arachnids], and those bladed tentacles didn't cost anything, since as a [Slime], I can manipulate my matter at will to an extent,"

"One more question, but not about [Primal]," Enar quickly said.

"And what is that?"

"Your skeleton? What was that? It was black! The same black as your sytche,"

"Those [Guardians] at the [Dungeon] were made of [Black Mythril], which has changed to what [Chaos Column] is, [Growing Black Mythril], which grows with power with me, Tifian melted down the [Guardians] and turned them into an endoskeleton, a way to keep myself human without using [Primal],"

"Let's go, I'm not sure what that was, but Muspel may be only one of many enemies we will face, so we need to get a move on, away," Enar commanded the rest of the group, and they walked deeper into the forest of Grandage.

And not so far from where the group was, laid the town of Limral, a small town for people to go sightseeing and experience the ancient country of Grandage. The residents carved their homes into the trees, which are still living, giving them what they need, and the residents return the favour. On one such rooftop, the cloaked figure appeared, in the town centre where a wooden tower lay. Very cautiously, the cloaked character then uncovered its hood, revealing who was inside.

A girl with a pure white face looked over Limral, seeing the torment of what was happening. She looked at her right arm, taking off a long glove and looking at it, seeing it as almost insect-like. Putting the glove and hood back on, the girl then snapped her fingers, and in a blink of the eye, disappeared.