When the stream of memories finally finished, Sage realized he had no idea what was going on at present. He was still surrounded by those spirits that he now knew were representative of the creatures he had merged with. The spirit behind him released his shoulders and stood beside him, the others still surrounding him in a loose circle. The butterfly wings started to flap and a cloud of silver dust gusted out, sprinkling over each of the spirits. As they were coated they started to glow, all but one of them. The one that looked like a naga.

Sage looked to the butterfly spirit and it looked back at him. Lifting a hand it pointed at the naga spirit and then gave a very vicious nod. Sage wasn’t sure, but he started to move towards the naga. At first the naga stared him down, glaring with those vertical pupils and starting to hiss. As Sage moved closer, the naga started to coil up like a snake preparing for a strike, putting up its most intimidating front, even baring its fangs. For some reason, Sage felt no fear and continued closer. The spirit started to waver, seeming even more fearful.

It suddenly struck, lashing out with lightning speed with both claws and fangs. The claws bounced off of him and the fangs couldn’t sink in. The naga only ended up with his face pressed up against Sage’s neck without any damage caused whatsoever. Sage’s spirit form was completely intact and unharmed.

Ahh, I think I understand.

He reached out and grabbed the naga by the back of the neck, holding it effortlessly. The naga writhed and slithered, trying to escape his hold. It was just too weak. Sage wasn’t sure what or why, but somehow his instincts guided him. He smashed his fist into the naga’s stomach, shattering it to pieces. Little particles of light flaked away and floated into the air. Sage opened his mouth and the tiny particles flew in.

Hah, I still know how to use Anima Devour.

The beating didn’t let up, Sage smashed the naga into little bits and devoured them all. Grinding that spirit into dust. The butterfly flapped its wings and the glow from another one of the spirits faded away.

“So it’s you, Mr. Toad.”

He flew towards that anthropomorphic toad spirit and kicked it in the face, rushing forward to continue pummeling it before it could escape. His own speed and strength seemed many times greater than the spirit he was punishing. Things progressed rapidly, feeling himself strengthening after each of the spirits he devoured. The butterfly helped him to defeat each of them one by one until it was the only one remaining. Looking at the butterfly spirit, he couldn’t help but to feel uneasy. Did he now have to consume the only one that helped him? The butterfly seemed to know what he was thinking and it nodded to him, opening its arms and inviting the last step.

I know this has to happen, but it feels unkind.

Mercifully, the butterfly shattered into a cloud of dust with only one strike, flowing into Sage’s mouth and joining the rest of the spirits as part of a single whole. Looking down, Sage noticed that he still looked human. Was this not his soul? Why didn’t it look like a naga, or a huge mess like before? With perfect timing the world of darkness around him faded, light returning and illuminating the world. The seas stretched out beneath him and the skies expanded above. There was no longer an area illuminated by the Seed of Life, but the rest of the spiritual sea and skies were far brighter than they used to be.

He realized he wasn’t trapped anymore and moved his consciousness out into the rest of his body. The state of things was completely unusual. His body felt… undecided. Like a pile of unmolded clay, or a vat of molten metal. Nothing was set in stone, a mass of unbridled potential that needed guidance. Checking his dantian, thankfully his foundation was still intact, that nebula of energy was still slowly orbiting the collection of unusual objects.

“Use the Insect Immortal Index. You will have control with ‘Mutate’.”

A voice spoke directly to his consciousness, suddenly providing guidance at this most important moment. He wasn’t sure where it came from, but most likely it was from the great ancestor and after a quick test, it seemed to speak true. Sage began to experiment. When he looked closely, his body still had the configuration of the beast from before, merely smaller. Some of its size had been lost, the energy expended to enter this state he was in now.

Interesting. There seems to be some sort of correlation between a monster’s size and its power level. Wait… it’s also related to the concentration, or quality of the power.

He tried to make a few changes before making that discovery. His guess was that some of the creatures bloodlines he contained were of much lower quality and purity than others. When he tried to use their traits they were… larger. When he tried to make those traits more powerful he’d end up growing larger at rates far faster than what other traits caused. At first it seemed random, but he finally came to this hypothesis by using a trait many of the creatures shared.

Venom.

The Twin Ringed Soul Serpent, the Steel Silk Centipede, and the Thorn Cloud Hornet all had a form of venom. With experimentation he learned that despite seeming powerful the Steel Silk Centipede had an even weaker venom than that of the Thorn Cloud Hornet. It just happened to be much larger of a beast and worked even upon inanimate objects, which made it seem very powerful. The Soul Serpent’s venom was of the highest purity, as it seemed were most of its other traits. Sage had been looking for creatures with higher level bloodlines, but he’d been merged with one the whole time.

He’d now come to an impasse. He knew that right now, he could return himself to the shape of a regular person. He could pick and choose his new body from the soup of genetic material that he was now. It would be easy to go back to his human body. He could even mix in the hidden traits from his many bloodlines, getting the mental powers of the toad, the soul powers of the serpent, the pheromones of the lance beetle, even the strongest flesh and bones from among them all… he could have it all and still appear human.

I can truly be normal again.

The chrysalis began to crack, growing brittle and peeling apart. Just as he had shed his skin to reveal the pupae beneath, the pupae would be shed to reveal his new body from within. He had no idea how long this process had taken for him, nor did he know how long he had spent as ‘The Beast’. The top of the chrysalis cracked open, slowly sloughing off him, the pieces of it snapping free and falling into the cocoon of silk that shielded him. Slowly stretching his limbs, his body fragile, still needing some time before his new shape reached completion. Glistening in the dim light of the tomb, the bodily fluids from his rebirth still had to drip off and dry up. It certainly wasn’t the most elegant of transformations. At least there was the tightly woven silken shell to contain the mess and shield him from interference at this most vulnerable of times.