The golden Neuma within my core was much, much brighter than before. More notably, it felt enraged. It railed at the Dark neuma it shared my core with, like a stormy sea crashing against the rocks. But the Dark Neuma couldn’t contain the violence against it, and was slowly being pushed out.

Without giving it much thought, I attempted to calm and contain the golden Neuma. To wrestle it back in any way I could and stop it from its incessant expulsion of Dark Neuma.

Something I’d wanted for so long. Something I once prayed for desperately. Now tha it was actually happening, it was the last damn thing I wanted. Of that much, I was sure. There was no doubt in my mind that the darkness was part of me now, but the light Neuma super charged by the Nephilim Evolution seemed to be oblivious to my desires, and the takeover continued.

I turned my focus instead to the dark and attempted to fight back from its perspective rather than the light. I quickly discovered despite the considerable strength of the Baatazu evolution; it was no match.

As it was finally pushed from my core in its entirety, I brought Ethereal energy into the mix, using it to reinforce the Dark Neuma, not mixing them but bolstering it. The effect was immediate, and the enforced exodus came to a halt. That wasn’t the end of the problem as I had to consciously hold the position in each of the main Meridians leading to my legs and left arm.

The only positive thing was that, as the pain from the internal struggle lessened with my control, I could finally focus on the problem a little more clearly. What I needed was a way to anchor it as the Triumvirate and then the dwarves had managed to achieve. However, this was inside of me, messing with forces still beyond my full understanding and I could see no feasible way without potentially causing irreparable damage to my core and meridians.

As I mulled over the problem, the fear of not being present with my people after such an insane event played heavily too. Darkness could already be massing troops to wipe us out and I probably should have just let the darkness be purged from me, so I could help with whatever was coming. But I couldn’t let go.

Devotion's voice snapped me back to reality.

“What is happening, Clive? Your body appears completely healthy, but I can sense your inner energies are in turmoil.”

“Yeah that sounds about right. Bloody Nephilim Evolution. I never thought about it at the time, but it had the words Prime Evolution in the notification. I’m pretty sure that means it doesn’t want to share my body with darkness because it’s trying to evict it. I don’t think that’s a good idea for me. I want to keep a hold of it and keep the balance so I’m trying to anchor it with my Ethereal energy.

“You are putting Ethereal Energy within your core?” She asked, sounding a little concerned.

“Too late for that. I’m trying to hold it at bay within my meridians.”

“You should let it go and take the full Nephilim form, Clive. The troops of Darkness are returning. Your people have managed to prevent a portal within the town so far, but their troops are gathering outside of your walls and they can still portal.”

“Shit already? How did they stop the portals?”

“You’ve been unconscious for over an hour. I have only just been able to reach you. As for blocking the portals, Joel has building runes. They are weak and they do not cover everywhere, but they are able to prevent intrusions of Dark energy.”

“Fuck, I didn’t know he had the power to do that and I feel like I’ve only been out a few minutes. Can you help me?”

“Not as much as I would like. Darkness alerted me to his move on you and warned me to either stay out of it, or assist him. It seems he intends to push you all the way if you do not fall in line. You should make the transformation and deal with the consequences later. Your people need you and you need not to be unconscious right now.”

“Agreed. What about you? I know Mal and the troops in Far Reach helped out there, but will Malatia stand with us or Darkness?”

“Foolish, Clive. We are bound. That means something to me. Our armies are ready, and we have a strong presence along the border. But, I will not commit to a war we cannot win with Darkness. Not until he plays his hand fully against you.”

“So why the hell did you join with me and agree to this, if you don’t think we can win?

“Because I am old and wise and I know in my heart that Darkness is coming for Malatia and my place on Onnekus. Whether I would like it to be so or not is irrelevant. I have therefore chosen the path that I can at least see a glimmer of hope upon. It is faint, but it is there.”

“Can I still make the Immortal Shell without the Dark Neuma? Why isn’t the light trying to kick out the Ethereal as well?”

“Ethereal is on a different plane, and Immortal shell will still be accessible with only light Neuma and Ethereal.”

“Sounds iffy. How can you be sure?”

She laughed, despite the tenseness of the situation. “Because I once developed an Immortal Shell of my own, of course.”

“Ah shit, yeah, that makes sense. But you’re a god of light. I’m still not sold that it’s a good idea. There has to be a way for me to do this. I can’t just let it go.”

“I have a solution for you, but it is risky and I do not know if it will work, but you must move fast.”

“Do I keep the Dark Neuma?”

“You will, but in a different way.”

“Then shoot. Let’s get this show on the road.”

“It is not your body that won’t hold the Dark Energy you possess, it is your core and Meridians. They are incompatible with each other at the best of times, but now, the Nephilim in you refuses to share the territory. To retain the dark Neuma, you would have to create a second core and conceal it from the light within you.”

“How the fuck am I gonna do that?”

“Use your Ethereal energy to create the vessel.”

“If it’s separate, what does that mean? Would I still have the Demon parts? Would I still have the Demon Skills? Like Claw of Rending Salvation and Path of Dark flame?”

“No. You would become a Nephilim. The Dark will be of no use to you whatsoever until you find an alternative, but you asked for a solution and that is all I can think of.”

“Shit. I’m gonna be small again, in my normal form aren’t I?”

“I would imagine so.”

“Sania’s going to be close to twice my bloody height. Though I take it she goes to a human height when she evolves, like the other Nanooks and Amaroks, right?”

“How wise of you to take such things into consideration when your town is about to be torn down around you.”

“Real funny. So what do I do?”

“Keep the Light Neuma blocked, and create a new meridian from each of your three major Dark Meridians. Bring those three together and create a core at that point, then pull as much of your Dark Neuma as is possible into the new core.”

While I listened carefully to instructions, they were pretty damn vague on the details. “And how the hell do I do that?”

“You are the future god of Creation. Use your instincts, otherwise I imagine you will make a very poor one.”

As much as I hated to admit it, she made a fair point. After all, only I could do this, so I would just have to trust myself. I focused on creating what she described, carefully bringing the other meridians from my arms and legs together in my lower abdomen using Ethereal energy to create a kind of wall around them. As the new core began to grow, I brushed away a brief thought of future impotence with its location and focused on drawing the energy from those Meridians. As I began to pull the last of the energy from them, starting with my fingertips, I quickly learnt that I couldn’t remove everything as the fingers began to die.

“Clive! You must hurry! Darkness’s troops are back inside Far Reach and in great numbers.”

“Ah fuck! Gimme a minute,” I replied. Looking at the spindly branches supplying enough energy for basic function only. I accepted I’d done all I could and let the golden neuma flow free, to accept my new evolution. It tore down the weakened meridians like lightning. My body was wracked with pain once more, as it contorted and changed. The last vestiges of Dark Neuma were scoured from my body and I had to quickly cut off the paths that led to the newly formed core I’d created to protect it.

Thinking I was done, I watched in horror as those paths began to reform back toward the core I had severed them from and that did not look like a good sign. Refocusing on the Ethereal energy protecting the dark core, I basically begged it to hide the dark’s presence from the light.

The pain continued, for a moment longer and everything went fuzzy to the point I may even have passed out again. It was so hard to be certain, but when my internal vision cleared, I could see all of the changes were complete, and the swirling dark core in my abdomen was intact and unmolested.

You have Evolved to Nephilim.

+100 to Internal Connection

+30 to Intelligence

Due to change in Physiology, Demonic attributes have been lost. -8 to all physical stats.

Resistance to Dark and Fire have been lost

Regeneration ability Lost.

You have reached level 96. You have 160 Stat Points to assign.

I grumbled to myself at the unfairness of it all. Losing all the physical enhancements sucked massively. Part of me wanted to put all the points into Constitution to cover for the lack of regeneration, but I couldn’t keep dismissing those other Physical stats. Stilbraker had been way stronger than me, despite being a quarter of my size, and that was not a good feeling and went to show that if anything happened to my powers I was weak as piss. Now I was back to my human size again. That was not a risk I wanted to take.

I brought Constitution up to 250, then brought all other Physical statistics up to 100 apart from Dexterity in which I put the remaining points.

Physical statistics:

Strength: 100

The capacity to exert and resist force.

Dexterity: 58

Skill and ease in hand-based activity.

Agility: 100

How effectively the body can move into a range of different positions.

Speed: 100

Rate at which the body can move.

Stamina: 100

Period over which the body can effectively sustain prolonged activity.

Constitution: 250

The ability to withstand physical punishment.

Mental Statistics:

Intelligence: 130

Knowledge and its application

Charisma: 35

Charm, coerce, inspire.

Perception: 63

Awareness of surroundings

Spiritual Statistics:

Ethereal Awareness: 0

Attunement with the Gods and spirits of Gulithea. (Necessary for Ethereally supplied magical ability.)

Internal Connection: 200

Attunement with oneself. (Necessary for cultivation of one’s own inner power)

Singularity: 57

Innate understanding of universal essence (Neuma). Will increase with personal level. (Cannot be leveled by other means.)

World sense: 8.9% Knowledge of Gulithea.

Experience Points to next level: 1570/4800

Satisfied, I then opened my eyes. But they had different ideas. I wondered briefly if I was still physically unconscious. I attempted to come around, with a force of will. Nothing. Trying to stay calm I searched for the bond to Devotion and spoke along it. “Hey, Devotion. What the hell is wrong with me?”

There was no answer, but then I wouldn’t expect there to be seeing as the message didn’t go anywhere. The bond was there, but there was some kind of block in the way.

That made me feel very uncomfortable. I tried Sania next. The same thing again. I was definitely being blocked.

With my increase in Intelligence from the evolution, the panic I felt was fleeting as my logical mind took over. If I couldn’t use Neuma, I had the protectorate skill to see what was going on around me.