Blood sprayed into the air, and without conscious movement, what was reflected in a pair of green eyes continuously shifted, from the crowd in front scrambling away from the veritable fountain of blood, to the sky still slightly orange from the sunrise, to the gaudy facades decorating a row of market stalls, then the cobblestones paving the street approaching at a high speed, a brief instant of blackness, and then the stones, which had begun to take on a reddish color, were shown receding for a moment. Then, the gaze finally stopped on a headless corpse falling to the ground, and to the side, a masked man sheathing a bloodstained saber that bore a line of circles formed from three connected silver droplets along its dark blade. Screams rang throughout the chilly morning air, but those barely registered to one particular individual, who was talking with his cat.

 

[How many times has this been? Four?]

[Seven - well, four times you’ve had your neck cut in some fashion. This is only the second time you were completely beheaded, but it’s been seven times that you’ve died walking these streets]

[Oh be quiet... I know... but that... circular symbol... looks... familiar...]

[One of them was on the sleeve of the se-]

 

I couldn’t hear the rest, I’d finished dying right around then. However, from what I heard from Leon later, the guards showed up pretty soon after, and one of them seemed to recognize me as the corpse from three days earlier. Nevertheless, they shoved my body and head into one large bag, and dumped said body bag in front of the side entrance to the association. The poor worker who opened up the bag shrieked in fright when he saw the top half of my head roll out, while the bottom half had already dissolved and been regrown. He kicked the rest of my head back in, closed it up, and bolted. Not too long after, I had fully healed, and woke up to Mia opening the bag.

 

“Well hello there. That was... unpleasant, to say the least”

“Of course the body bag contains... well, you. Why did I expect anything else when I heard about a corpse wearing an alchemist’s robes stuffed into a bag and left outside our gates?”

“Because you heard ‘corpse’, not ‘unresponsive person’. I’ve only shown up as a corpse twice now”

“That’s still two times out of the three corpses we’ve received in the last five months, which is two times too many. Please stop dying, I’d rather that be the reason why I stop saying I congratulate you, you’re still alive than the alternative reason”

 

I would if I could, but it’s not like I’ve got much of a choice. You think I could just hold up a sign that says “hey, blood shadows, stop killing me plz”? Maybe throw on some of those puppy eyes humans seem to find irresistibly cute for whatever unfathomable reason? I don’t think that’d work.

 

[I bet at least one of them would’ve thought twice about killing you if you shifted back to your normal form and purred while rubbing up against their legs like a cute kitten]

[Oh, plenty of them would’ve, they’d assume I was at least level 40 and GTFOed, but then I’d be swarmed by people who could kill level 40s and get no useful information]

[I mean, you already are...]

[Fair enough. But, uh, I ought to respond to Mia’s request]

 

I noticed she’d been looking at me while I held a short mental conversation with the (big) cat only I could hear, and so her asking me to stop dying was, to her, met with a prolonged awkward silence.

 

“Well... Each death is one death closer... to a peaceful life of no more deaths”

“I hate that that sentence has meaning. I really do”

“I’m used to it. To me, death is... a painful nap. That’s really all it is to me”

 

As I spoke, I pulled a notebook out of my spirit realm, and wrote down what I’d been able to learn about that blood shadow. I then flipped through the other pages, each filled with some amount of information gleaned through other deaths or near-death experiences. The current tally of deaths is two beheadings from behind, one throat slit from behind, one frontal attack with a one handed sword and a dagger that ended up with his dagger buried in my neck (and one of mine cutting his right hand clean off), one poisoned blow dart, one knife in the back, and one poisoned sword. For unsuccessful assassinations - well, all of them have been unsuccessful, but for the ones that didn’t kill me - there’s a lot.

Seven archers (though there were three using unpoisoned arrows, so they could be the same person, but the other four used four different poisons), nine different people attacking from the front with various weapons a total of eleven times, three ranged attacks using weapons other than arrows, fourteen sneak attacks from behind or above, and a total of eight different poisons across all of those. 

However, one rather obscure poison was unusually common, having killed me once and been used against me by at least nine others (I say ‘at least’ because there were a few people whose blades didn’t manage to injure me, so I have no idea what poison might have been on those blades). I suspect that the Bloodrot Scorpion’s venom was provided by their employer, as it’s rather unlikely for so many to use the same poison when it’s that rare and expensive.

Also, I have to wonder how high the bounty on me is, given that I’ve gone through 42 assassination attempts by at least 35 different people, in just the 31 days since I signed on with Tilly. I managed to kill one and capture another pretty early on, and one of the three blood shadows who had enough balls to try something inside the Association got captured too. However, both captives didn’t know who their employer was, and said that the bounty on my head has been increasing every time someone failed. The latter of them, blood shadow number 19, said the bounty had reached 41,500 spirit stones when he last saw.

 

“Wait, that many times? What the hell?! How did you - who did you piss off, and what did you do to piss him off that much?! Why do you keep going out?!”

“Can you please not look over my shoulder? It’s kinda rude”

 

Outside of the people who were in the room when I worked out the plan with Tilly, the only ones who know what I’m doing are Grandmasters White and Miles, as well as Master Chen. So, Mia’s kinda out of the loop, and I intend to keep her that way.

 

“Sorry, but... it’s not really something you ought to know. For your safety as much as anything else”

“Hey, I’m strong! I can handle myself! Let me hel-”

“Here. Page 22”

 

Page 22, by the way, detailed the 34th blood shadow, a level 40-something guy who left me alive only because he ran from a group of guards who happened to show up right after he turned half of my body into a stain on the ground and wall with a single hit of his giant club. Mia, on the other hand, is level 27 - or at least her spirit companion is, I haven’t asked what her level is. Even if she’s level 30, she still wouldn’t stand a chance against number 34, nor would she be able to survive a lot of the others. Number 26 hit me with a dart containing a poison that damages the soul, which I’m mostly immune to but she almost certainly wouldn’t have been. 

And that’s ignoring the fact that the common poison bears some semblance to the venom of the Phantom God Viper which I developed a resistance to, so while it was able to cause some debilitating pain and sluggish movement for a few hours, as well as some degree of oxygen deprivation, I wouldn’t die from my blood vessels swelling to thrice their normal size. However, by that point, most people would’ve died in a similar fashion to how I had when the pinecone prince poisoned me, unless they got an appropriate antidote, which isn’t TOO hard to get if you’re prepared, it’s just uncommon enough that few people would carry it on them, or even recognize what antidote they needed.

 

“That doesn’t mention the poisons... which you wouldn’t easily be able to deal with. There’re several. And often nobody sees who it was... because I got hit by an arrow or dart. You’d be of no help at all then... besides corpse retrieval. Please give up on that idea, okay?”

 

She pouted, but relented... somewhat.

 

“Mou... fine. Just come back in one piece, you hear me?”

 

Oh great, now she’s like a worrying mother, or wife, or whatever. I mean, better that than dead, but it’ll be annoying.

 

“I’m undying, not unhearing”

“Oh shut up, it’s a metaphor”

“It’s an idiom, actually. Hey Tama. What were you talking about with my lovely disciple?”

 

Wait, Master Mia is Grandmaster Miles’s disciple? That’s news to me.

 

“Without knowing why I’m doing it... she asked to go with me on my bait walks”

“Absolutely not. Nope. No way, nuh uh. You’re more of a son to me than my own son, I’m not letting you throw away your life like that”

“But... I’m a woman. I’d be like a daughter, no?”

“Ehhh... nope”

“Come here, you. What part of me isn’t ladylike, huh?”

“Laddy-like is closer, judging from these actions - OW! Not the humerus...”

 

I couldn’t help myself, I began laughing way too hard as Mia grabbed Miles by the elbow and dragged him away while trying to proclaim her femininity in just about the most unfeminine way imaginable. A bit later, still laughing, I began to walk away, only to trip and spectacularly plant my face in the stone tiles, because my feet got tangled in the body bag I had been standing in. Thankfully, nobody was around to witness the extremely rare sight of a cat not landing on its feet.

Looking to the sky, I saw that it was only noon, and figured I might as well try again. I pulled a spare set of white robes out and exchanged them for the ones I’d been wearing, which had picked up a red collar at some point in time - no points for guessing what could’ve caused that to happen - and went right back to the markets. Over the last month, I’d obtained a few useful items in the market, most recently about a dozen spatial rings, which were extremely cheap because they had a small storage capacity, but at least they had an expensive looking exterior. Nice to have if I need to give someone a large amount of items without showing them openly. I also got my hands into a pair of gloves that were thin and flexible, yet quite sturdy, which had prevented my hands from being cut in a fight more than once.

Before I’d even made it to the markets, however, my path through a shortcut alleyway was blocked by two men in gray clothes, and when I looked back, one more in black cut off my path of retreat. At a glance, all of them were on the upper edge of tier two, the one in black having just broken into tier three. One of the ones in front was holding a double bladed hand axe, the other two were holding short swords, and all three bore some sort of creepy grin on their scar-riddled faces.

 

“Now, laddie, y’know yer stuck here. I’m sure, being an alchemist, ye’ve got some pricey pills in that there ring. Why don’t ya just hand it over and we’ll not kill ya, okay?”

“I don’t leave my room... with all my valuables in my ring... that’s only common sense, right? I’ve gone through enough of these... sorts of situations... I’ve got little left to take. I nearly got killed a few days ago... because my ring is basically empty... save a few healing pills and an antitoxin pill”

“We’ll be the judge o’ that. Hand it o’er, an’ siddown while we see if that’s enough t’ let ye live”

“Yea, yer on razor’s edge, and I ‘old the knife”

“You’re the only one of us not holding a knife, numbskull”

 

As I spoke to the two in front (and listened to their inane banter), they crept closer to me, as did their compatriot behind me. In response, I slowly moved both of my hands into the opposite sleeve while bending slightly forwards and bending my knees to lower my center of gravity, looking not unlike a monk pressing his palms together in prayer.

 

“How about... no?”

 

With that, I drew my daggers, the one in my left hand sending an arc of flame towards the swordsman in black, while the one on the right expanded into a stone club that smashed the other swordsman, who’d crept a bit too close, into the wall. He, caught completely unawares, dropped his weapon and slid down the wall, seemingly knocked out cold.

 

“You little shit!”

 

As he let out a curse, the swordsman in black dodged the flames by just jumping over the narrow slash, which wasn’t that surprising given that it was released from waist height on me, and my already short stature was lowered further by my stance. Taking all that into account, it’s not too hard for a level 30 with some degree of martial arts training to jump not even three feet into the air. 

Still, I was hoping it’d delay him enough that I could break past his lower-leveled companion and into the open markets barely visible at the end of the alley. Unfortunately, he burst with inhuman speed and caught up to me in a scant few seconds after he landed, agilely maneuvering through the clutter in the alley in a manner reminiscent of a monkey, a notion only enhanced by the monkey-like screech that came from his mouth and the thin tail that sprouted from his back. 

In other words, unless I didn’t notice a pair of large ears indicative of a monkling - a person of the species that is, appearance-wise, somewhere between a human and a monkey - this is a partial possession by his companion beast, combining the best attributes of each and allowing him to use its skills with more freedom. That wasn’t something I could do, because Leon’s power would blow me apart before I could so much as move a muscle. That’s the unfortunate issue with having a companion beast 30 levels above my own. I couldn’t summon him either, the alley was too narrow for him to be able to turn around.

 

“Oh fu- gyahh”

 

Barely after I’d even processed his speed, he’d reached out and slashed in my direction from several feet away, but his blade lengthened to several times its original size, enough to bridge the gap, cut through my robe and into my back, parting flesh to reveal my left shoulder blade. The force of that cut disrupted the stab I’d directed at his axe-wielding friend, so instead of my blade incinerating his heart and lung from the inside, I only sliced his left bicep, with the wound being cauterized before even a drop of blood was shed. Despite that severely hampering his ability to move his left arm, his fighting strength wasn’t lowered much at all, as he still was able to bring his axe down onto my arm with just his right hand.

I pulled my arm back enough that he only hit the dagger I held in my left hand, but even that was enough to knock me completely off balance because of my unsteady stance due to the prior cut. As such, I fell. In the process, however, I put my weight behind a downwards thrust of the stone club in my right hand, and forced out a word as it struck the ground.

 

“Burst!”

 

It did exactly that, the stones turning most of that downwards compressive force into horizontal propulsion, shooting out from the now bare wooden dagger, and embedding themselves deep into the walls all around. The few that hit scattered debris or the flesh of us four people did not deviate in the slightest, they ripped a hole straight through the right leg of the axe-user, my dangling left forearm, and the head of the swordsman slumped against the wall, as well as carving two chunks out of my right leg and one from the monkey swordsman’s left leg.

Unfortunately, that was my last gasp, as the monkey swordsman reached me as I hit the ground, and cut off both of my legs in one quick motion. I don’t know what his sword was made out of, but it was incredibly sharp, I barely felt the cuts until blood began to irritate my newly exposed tissues. 

I sheathed my daggers, hoping that neither of the surviving muggers would be able to draw them and thus would disregard them as worthless, leaving them with me. I then turned my attention inwards, to my spirit realm, so I could decide what to put into my ring to give it enough value that they might be willing to leave me without killing or torturing me for the rest, so that they could be overlooked by the guards as “not a threat to human lives”, but not so much that they’d think I’ve got a backer that they should fear me siccing on their tail, should they let me live.

 

[Let’s see... a few dozen healing pills, an antitoxin pill, a spare set of robes and a set of semi-ragged street clothes... eh?]

 

That last bit was when I felt a weird sensation, like my perception of my body dulled to the extreme, while the rest of my perspective expanded outwards. I tried to control my body, but nothing happened. I couldn’t open my eyes, I couldn’t move my arm, nothing. I then explored by sending some of my spirit out and seeing what it enveloped, and found that I’d been decapitated once again. Strangely, however, I was still conscious despite being dead, though I felt more like an external observer mostly stuck in my spirit realm.

I could “see” anything in an area centered around any of my body parts, seemingly no matter how small. I could investigate an area the size of an apple around a drop of blood that fell on the ground when my shoulder was cut, and a little bit from the stain left on his sword, which must have been a pretty good spirit tool, as he didn’t put it into his spatial ring. One of them tried to unsheathe Fives, but failed, so he just left them strapped to my arms and walked away cursing.

 

I barely noticed time passing, but eventually I could detect some streams of something similar to spirit, but not quite the same, coming from each of my body parts and converging into my torso. I tried messing with one of them, and found that I could stop that stream if I wished. 

I tried redirecting another to my right leg, and they all began to stream into that leg, including a new stream from my torso. In real time - or, maybe not, who knows if my perception of time has changed in this state - I saw my leg begin to heal the chunks taken out of it, and at the same time, it got a bit longer. Not long after, I watched a new torso begin to take form on top of it, as though my body was fading in in waves radiating from my leg. At the same time, the parts from which those streams of pseudo-spirit came from slowly disintegrated, without leaving any residue behind.

 

[So... I can control which part becomes the core that I regenerate from... hm?]

 

At that time, I noticed someone coming down the alley towards my corpse when he stepped on one of the bits of blood from which I’d stopped the stream while experimenting. I quickly cut the streams so he didn’t notice my body healing, and in the process, discovered one coming from far, far away. I followed it to its source, but couldn’t see anything of note from it, nothing to tell me where it was. I sent a stream from my leg to that bit of myself, so it’d grow enough for me to probe its surroundings.

Unfortunately, the first useful image I got was the bottom of a boot. Not long after, I was kicked to the side a bit, and found that I could explore a somewhat bigger area around that part. Turns out, a little bit of my nose must have been scraped off when I did a faceplant out of the bag my newly-regenerated nose got kicked over to. So, that was in the Association. If I regenerated fully from that bit - assuming I could - it’d be kinda like teleportation, no?

 

[It’s too slow. You could walk there and back a dozen times in the time that “teleportation” would take] (Leon)

[But, if we increase the distance...]

[Would that affect the time your regeneration takes?]

[That... requires testing, I guess]

 

The person in the alley left, so I resumed the process of reassembling my body, and after an indeterminate amount of time passed, there were no streams of pseudo-spirit left, no remaining body parts, and only some bloodstains - from the blood plasma and red blood cells - were there to show my presence... well, besides the clothing I wasn’t wearing. Yeah, that’s an issue with regenerating using something other than my torso as the starting point.

Almost immediately after, I felt a strange kind of shift, almost like something snapped back into place, and I, well, felt the world around me again. I had a sensory link to my body once more, and could move around as I pleased... though, I was still stuck with my consciousness in my spirit realm for some reason. I was both there and not, a very unusual sensation.

 

The first thing I did was to put on some real clothing, gather my previous garments and toss them into the spatial ring I pulled out of my spirit realm, and secure Fives. Once they were back on my forearms, I left the alley and went back to the Association under the dim orange sunlight. I didn’t manage to buy anything or get more info about the first prince’s hired Blood Shadows, but discovering this quirk of my immortality more than made up for that.

 

“Still... I think I’ve learned a good amount... so, tomorrow... I’ll go over to her place to give Tilly... the info I’ve gathered, and some pills... to deal with the frequent poisons”

 

Three steps after crossing the threshold of the Association, I stumbled and fell, because whatever restrained my consciousness suddenly let go, and I fully snapped back to my body. Twice in one day, I fell flat on my face by the gate, and both times it hurt more than I’d’ve liked. And this time, someone did witness a cat not landing on its feet.

 

“Are you okay, Master Tama? Can you stand?”

“Have you ever tried getting up... with a bruised dignity?”

 

I said that, but I still got to my feet with no issues. I wiped a bit of blood off of my upper lip, smiled, and finished my trek to my room - which was only room seven, because I’d been slacking the previous round. On a different note, my red robes now had three black stripes, because my contributions had piled up to the point it was almost impossible to justify me not being that high. 

In reality, quite a few people were pushing for me to be promoted to a Pill Grandmaster, but they were already bending the rules by letting someone who’d been with the Association for under a year be a Pill Master, let alone a Grandmaster, which normally required five years. Of course, these minimums almost never came into play, because few people could rise to the level of a Master in under five years, let alone one. So, only those who’d trained outside, the loose alchemists, would realistically encounter that hurdle.

I suppose I fall into that category, but only when it comes to theoretical knowledge. Speaking of, it’s time to put that knowledge to use in designing a completely brand-new formula, so I can give Tilly a pill that’ll work on most, if not all, of the poisons I know are in use. That way, she won’t have to figure out which poison it is before taking the pill. 

 

I wish I had a pre-prepared formula for that, but I don’t... well, I do have one such formula, but I doubt I could get my hands on all of the materials, and it’d be kinda a waste to use the Greater Foreign Entity Deletion pill on these kinds of poisons. In theory, it’d work on a Traceless Phantom God Viper’s poison, although you’d have maybe three seconds to notice the poison entering your body (likely by feeling the bite) decide to use the pill, pull it out, and consume it. Hence the “in theory” portion of that statement. Hell, it’s been used to kill a tier 9, because his means of transport was to get inside of his “mount” and thus he was a foreign entity for the pill to delete. Against the right issues, it’s basically a cheat, almost like a deus ex machina. Otherwise, it’s just a really good (and almost impossible to make) antitoxin pill. Three counts of nope on that idea.

So, theorycrafting it is. I went through about a dozen iterations, each time realizing a conflict between materials, or just a plain infeasibility in preparation methods, such as one concoction that needed to be flash frozen in the middle while a certain material was added. That formula I wrote down, however, as an alchemist with an iceseed would be able to pull it off, and it had quite a bit more versatility than most other antitoxin pills.

I eventually landed on a formula involving seven materials and only five steps beyond initial preparation. However, that one was quickly nixed because both of the main materials were not just “unavailable at the moment”, not even “unobtainable except by luck”, but downright unheard of in the first place. So, after quickly reading over the list of materials the Association could reliably obtain in large quantities, I went through another round of theorycrafting, mental simulations, redesigning, and eventually a few test refinements.

 

Finally, an hour or so after sunrise, I had a formula I could work with. It wasn’t great, I could tell it had some serious flaws that made it significantly more difficult to produce, but it was good enough for the moment. Seventeen materials - all easy to get with no restrictions for Pill Adepts and above - six steps, and one long, high-risk step near the end, where it needed half an hour of constant micro-adjustments in pressure from a few different angles to let the materials blend and bind together as it cooled, without the bonds being broken under excess pressure, or quite literally exploding under insufficient pressure. Each batch got one shot, failure would result in either a blob of goo with little to no effect or a furnace explosion.

In that one success, I ended up with three satisfactory pills, two I would give to Tilly, one I handed in along with the formula for testing and approval. Should it pass review by the Grandmasters, it’d become yet another source of passive income for me, as well as maybe assisting in getting me up another stripe. Maybe. Again, me being this rank is already against the rules.

 

“A more general-use antitoxin pill, huh? I doubt it’d be bought much...”

“It’s actually slightly more narrow in use, but... It’s targeted towards poisons commonly used by assassins”

“A smaller market, but those who it’d help generally have a lot of money and a burning desire to buy anything that’d help, no matter the price. Interesting. Well, we’ll see how hard it is to produce, work out a price based on that, and then evaluate what this formula is worth. Come see us in a week or two - or sooner, if you’ve got another formula for us. That’s always welcome”

 

With that done, I set out for Tilly’s place in the northern district, on the outer edge of the border between the outer and middle rings. As the Association is in the northwest of the middle ring, I began by heading east until I hit the Northroad. Walking north along it, I came to the middle wall, and sitting against the wall, adjacent to the gate, was a dark building.

 

“The Shadows Guild’s external hub, huh? So that’s what it looks like. Pretty plain, excluding the black stone facade”

[You want to take a look inside?]

“That’s just suicide right now, is it not?”

[Nah, there aren’t many blood shadows who visit the external hub, right? It’s mostly just clients and the rare shadows who’re interested in a long-term partnership with one of those clients]

“Hmm... maybe next time”

 

Passing the gate wasn’t a problem, but I did notice someone jump from the wall to the roof of a building as I passed. They weren’t very good at hiding while following me, so I wasn’t surprised when a small person dressed in black jumped down at me, daggers unsheathed and poised to rip my back open. I just dodged with a small step and a half turn, as my own dagger was held where his sternum would be, with both edges and the tip clad in white-hot flame - and it pierced through flesh and bone, sizzling as it did.

 

“Idiot”

 

I flipped the dead assassin’s hood off, revealing a pair of orange cat ears in addition to normal human ears, and vertically slitted, reflective eyes. Tugging off his gloves, I found his nails missing, and in their place was a set of retractable claws. I didn’t remove his boots, but I assumed the same was true there. Glancing at his slightly open mouth, I found his canines to be elongated into fangs. Overall, a human with some additional catlike features - a half-tabaxi. Honestly what I’d probably prefer in my own human-ish form, but it’s not like I can change how I look, I think.

 

[No, I think you could. You may not have noticed, but each time you die and reconstruct your body, as well as each time you shift between cat and human, you change a bit. Your hair’s gotten shorter, despite not cutting it. The mole on your right shoulder is now on your left shoulder. Early on while practicing this form, you had your heart right in the middle of your chest. The silvery white tuft of hair moves a bit. There was one time you made a body without any capillaries when rebuilding under the effects of the Phantom God Viper venom. So, if you can change your internal structure like that, why wouldn’t you be able to change how your teeth and nails work, or give yourself some cat ears, eyes, and a tail?]

[Because... I don’t have any control over that?]

[Here’s a lesson you need to learn: what you have even once done without external assistance or tools, even if it was by accident, can be reproduced and turned into a skill you can use at will. Always. If you run from something in a panic and find that you ran much faster than normal, there’s a way for you to run faster than normal, as long as you can figure out that way, you can do it whenever you want. It’s how I learned Feline Flight, which later became the level 30 ability you got from me. My level 30 ability was different, I got the ability to create metal wings to glide with. Couldn’t freely fly, but I could glide quite nicely]

 

I’ll have to look into that later, and upon doing so, use that changed form to look into the Shadows Guild. I’ll see if I can make those wings too, that sounds useful.

 

[Also sounds less plausible. Maybe if you condense a metalseed - speaking of which, your spirit ponds are so large and dense, you could probably blow one up to make an elemental seed if you wanted to]

[Wouldn’t I drop a level due to that?]

[Yeah, but you’ve got eternity to cultivate, and it wouldn’t be that hard to remake one you’ve lost. Meanwhile, an elemental seed could give you a decent boost to survivability, or aid your alchemy technique a good amount, or increase your offensive power, depending on what element you pick. Maybe all of the above or some other ability, if it’s a rare element]

[You have some rare affinity stronger than your fire affinity, that’s for sure. Otherwise, you couldn’t wield us]

[What makes you say my fire affinity in particular? Couldn’t, say, my water affinity be stronger than fire?]

[You’re an alchemist]

[Oh yeah...]

 

While my daggers and spirit companion were laughing at me, I continued onwards to Tilly’s address... which turned out to be a rather large and well fortified mansion. There wasn’t anyone on the outside of the gates, nor was there any obvious building or guard post for me to request entry from, so I... knocked. Nothing. It was tall, maybe 12 feet of wrought-iron-looking metal - but still a metal that definitely isn’t wrought iron. Pretty, but easy enough for someone really, REALLY slender to slip through, and not hard to climb for others.

Upon landing on the floor head-first, I realized it was easy to climb if you didn't have to care about the runic arrays. Unfortunately, I kinda do. I’ve not learnt much about them though I can read some simple ones, and I’m able to lay out most of the basic array types, and a few complex ones, but I haven't delved into arrays much, master pretty much only taught the ones that would be useful to an alchemist. As such, the most complex I have is the seven-rune, single split-and-mend array for extended fire cone¹| Linharit (receive spirit) - Darip (slow release reservoir) - Ignos (fire transformation) - Poinen (directional point release) < Torsæl (hollow cone) {made from Tors (ring) and Wesæl (spread) hooked to one another and to one of the hooks on each of the other two runes on the side} > Shogth (release fire) | which I use to heat up my furnaces easily and consistently.

On the other hand, I couldn’t see how many arrays there were, nor could I understand half of the runes in a single array. Best I got was one array that authenticates the spirit someone sends into it, then uses that spirit to trigger another array, though which one of the eight connected arrays it sent it to depended on something I couldn’t understand.

So, I shifted into my cat form and just slipped through the bars unhindered, before shifting back to inspect the runes some more. Unfortunately, while I was inspecting the arrays on the inside of the gate, a pair of patrolling guards found me. One super handsome man, one incredibly beautiful girl, and both at least level 40 holding above-average spears.

 

“Who are you, to dare intrude upon this land, defended by my very hand? Remove yourself, that's a command. I am my lady's first line of defense, and I just can't let you through”

 

With just those few words, he stabbed at me with his spear, its tip bursting into flame, and I dodged. Once, twice, and the third time I dodged I followed it up with a flaming dagger that sucked out all of his spear’s flames. Surprised, he pulled away and I sheathed my dagger again.

 

“You intrude at my loved one's expense, so now what am I to do?”

“Nothing, for I come at my own expense. Not yours, not anyone else’s. I come bearing no ill will. I was asked to report to Ti- Lady Tilly, so here I am. Getting accosted by guards was not part of the... process Mike described to me when they requested my help”

 

With those words, and my actions showing I had the power to put up a fight, without the desire to, they backed off too, but still remained wary. 

 

“I assume that, no matter what I say... you won’t let me see her directly right now. So, instead, pass on a message saying that... the young alchemist who saved her life is waiting for her summons. End of message. I’ll sit down here, and not move for a few days at least. She’ll call me in right after... she gets that message”

“You have to leave, suspicious intruder. If she wanted to see you, you’d be on the schedule”

 

I groaned, but relented... somewhat.

 

“If you kick me out now, I’ll be dead in minutes. I come bearing valuable information on the assassins... who are after her life as well as mine. I also have countermeasures. I just killed one such assassin on my way here... but there were at least three more watching me enter. They already know we’re tied together... and some will be waiting for my departure to kill me. I will sit in the corner somewhere... or wherever you wish to keep an eye on me... and just cultivate. If she receives the message and doesn’t call for me... by noon the next day, I’ll leave. Okay?”

“We’ll put you in the dungeon for now. Don’t complain, you’re free to request to leave at any time. But, so long as you are there, you’ll have to wear these locked cuffs that prevent external spirit usage. I’ll leave the key with you, but as soon as you put the key in the lock, we’ll know and be there to escort you out”

 

What did I expect? Oh yeah, to be treated as a respected business partner, not a criminal suspect. It’ll be fine. At worst, I can wait until they’re not looking and shift back into my real form, the cuffs would fall off, and I’d be able to waltz right out. Next time, however, I’ll just cat-sneak straight to her room or something.

 

“Oh yeah, who are you two? You’re pretty strong”

“I’m Yuri, he’s Ra, and we’re two of her highness’s five remaining Guardian Angels. It sounds like you’ve met Mike as well, so that leaves Gabe and Luce. Anyways, follow me, I’ll take you to the dungeon cell you’ll be staying in for the time being”

“Sounds like fake names... no, nicknames”

“Very astute. Each of us has taken a new name somewhat similar to our real names, but not similar enough you could identify us or our families using it”

“Yuri, you’re not supposed to say that to outsiders”

“I can’t resist a cute girl, okay?”

 

The three of us looked at me in unison, then back at her, then back to me and my chest, then to her again.

 

“Cute, I’ll take, but... I’m male”

“AAAWWWWWW... Damnit, not again. Just when I thought I’d found another cute girl to make my own, she turns out to be a stupid boy”

“Ignore her, she’s... weird”

“I can tell”

 

A few minutes of walking later, Ra had brought me down two sets of stone staircases to an underground prison-like structure, with a small window near the ceiling of each cell showing the outside, and opposite those windows was a set of bars with a door. The cells looked a bit cramped, but not too cramped to be relatively comfortable. At least the bed was soft, and had a sunbeam on it when I got there around noon. Perfect.

 

“Oh, before you cuff me, can I write a small sign first?”

“Uhh... sure”

 

I pulled out a bit of parchment and some ink, then wrote “Breaking through, do not disturb. If it has been at least 1 day since Lady Tilly’s first attempt at contacting me, you may ignore this sign. If she is injured or poisoned, the same applies, and I will do my best to aid her. - Signed, 3 Stripe Pill Master Tama” and hung it on the door.

I then stuck my arms out, got some bulky iron cuffs clamped around my wrists and ankles, which I could tell were at least mid-grade spirit tools. When the last one was clamped on around my abdomen, Ra placed the key on my nightstand and closed the cell door.

I sat down on the bed and tried to remove some pills from my spatial ring, but realized it was inaccessible to me, because I couldn’t project my spirit even a bit out of my body. I couldn’t bring things in or out of my spirit realm either, because I had to be able to envelop them in spirit to take them in, and to take them out needed me to connect that space with my spirit too.

 

“Slow-speed cultivation it is... or I could try to blow one of my spirit ponds to form an elemental seed. Yeah, let’s go with that”

 

Hopefully, I’ll be able to get a lifeseed, or if not, a fireseed. Maybe wood. Of course, space or time would be great too, as would devour, those three are at the peak of the list of powerful elements. However, of the top 20, the only ones I think I might get are life, death, or time, not including the freebie that is any one of the five elements.

Remembering what Master had told me, the first step is to pick a spirit lake that is close to bursting... well, oversized spirit pond for me, but... and then... push it from all sides, compress it to the size of a puddle - probably the size of a pond for me - and it’ll pop. When it does... uh huh... right, got it. Let’s do this!

 

I cast my consciousness inwards, looking at my two spirit ponds floating in my void spirit realm, just revolving around a central point, always directly opposite one another. I moved closer to one, finding it to be just begging to be split to make a new pond. Unfortunately, that’s not what fate had in store for it. Using some spirit from the other pond, I wrapped it in a bubble and just tightened the space. The previously hemispherical pond was gathered into a sphere, and then the sphere slowly shrank a bit... then a bit more... and once it reached the size of a newborn pond, I couldn’t tighten it anymore. So, I gave it a shock - and by that, I mean I slammed a bit more spirit into it. 

Suddenly, a fountain of multicolored wisps burst into the air - err, into the void, there’s no atmosphere to speak of in here. Besides a few rare colors and shapes, I mostly saw red ones looking like little sparks, every now and then fading like a fire burning out. Black ones, like little patches of mist, thinned and disappeared. Green ones, like little shoots of grass, shriveling up and shrinking into nothing. Yellow ones, like a bit of dust, separated, scattered, and vanished. White ones, gleaming like metal filaments, were... also vanishing? They lost their shine and then turned transparent, to the point that I couldn’t see them at all. I knew they were supposed to vanish over time, but this fast? Uhhh....

 

[Quick, gather them as fast as you can, at this rate, nothing will have enough wisps to make a seed and you’ll have wasted your efforts entirely... well, even the initial amount might have been nearly impossible to make a seed out of, I guess we overestimated the density of your spirit... damn, this is my fault, you’ve dropped a level for nothing, sorry... well, I know sorry doesn’t cut it, but it’s all I’ve got]

 

Ignoring his mumblings, I did as Leon initially suggested, only to discover that it felt like I was moving far more than what I could see.

 

[There’s something else there, something we can’t see. I’ll bet that’s something more conceptual, or really powerful. Maybe it’s stealth, or invisibility, or wind, who knows? I’m gonna try it]

 

Instead of pulling everything together, I focused on pulling patches without any visible wisps - which still took enough effort that I knew I was pulling a decent amount of those invisible wisps. Several minutes passed - or maybe some number of hours, I don’t know - and I’d gathered what felt like a large amount of those invisible wisps, even as the others vanished all around. So, I tried making them into a seed - compressing them, infusing them with my spirit and trying to bind them to me. It didn’t feel like quite enough, so I pulled in more, and more, and eventually... I felt a shift, sudden and dramatic. Not, like, I moved, but that the way I perceived the world around me changed in an instant, like a new sensory organ popped into existence.

I looked around, and could see the wisps I couldn’t see before. They were a bright silvery-grey, translucent, and almost perfectly spherical, with little tendrils poking out and then retracting all the way into the sphere at random intervals. Most had been gathered into the seed I’d just made, but a few were drifting about. I noticed one on its way to collide with a green wisp - the wood element, probably - and watched it carefully. As soon as they touched, the green wisp shriveled and shrank, before turning that same silvery-grey color, and not too long after, its shape changed to match the original sphere with tendrils.

 

[What are you... I’ve never heard of such an element. It’s not corruption, that’s black, and doesn’t completely convert what it corrupts into itself, it just changes them somewhat. Devour... what it devours, does not exist any further, in any way besides as fuel for the thing devouring it. Huh]

[What can you do with it? Besides create more of it, of course]

[Uhh... hmm... let’s see]

 

I channeled some of my spirit through the seed, to produce spirit that had the same silvery-grey tint. Leaving my spirit realm, I pulled out a tiny bit, and then remembered I couldn’t project any spirit outside of my body... or so I thought, but this stuff just passed right on through the barrier like nothing was in the way. In addition, everywhere it went, a trail of... uh, this... stuff... what do I call it?

 

“Hmm... for now, let’s call it the mystery element”

 

As I was saying, it left a trail of something similar to the mystery element in its path, but the amount I controlled stayed the same. It seemingly converted the air into more of itself, but that trail didn’t seem to be propagating much at all, and was slightly darker in color. I guided the initial bit around further, and it ate through the stone floor without much resistance.

 

“Seems like it can eat through almost anything... well, I’m not sure how it does... against magic tools and spirit tools... or living beings. Can’t test it either... wait, yes I can...”

 

I, very hesitantly, moved the small blob of mystery element closer to myself, concerned that it would essentially eat me if I came in contact with it, and then let it graze the shackle on one ankle.

 

“What the - shit, nonon- oh... huh... I’m fine?”

 

Turns out, when it touches a spirit tool, the stuff it converts it into is also willing to convert more stuff into itself, so, yeah, chain reaction, the whole shackle turned into that same mystery element... which didn’t affect me, though my sock got eaten as well. The shackle shape was maintained quite well, until I moved my leg forwards. The part behind my leg stayed in place, but the part in front disintegrated, turning into a spray of, well, almost droplets of the stuff, which left trails of the inactive mystery element for a while, before becoming inactive itself... though it still moved farther, without a trail. 

On the other hand, my leg felt no resistance whatsoever. No weight, no viscosity, it was like moving through air. Makes sense, the trail in the air just hung in place, slowly dispersing, so it must be almost exactly as buoyant as air. I wanted to try to compress it, but that was something I’d have to do by hand, as compressing it with anything else would just cause it to eat the container.

 

[You could try compressing the inactive version, you know]

“... I’m an idiot, you’re right, I could”

 

I reached out for the trail hanging in the air, but the shackles - or rather, the normal chains - binding my hands to one another and to my right leg prevented me from reaching very far.

 

“Wait, I destroyed one of the shackles... shouldn’t they have noticed that?”

[Maybe the function that’d send out that message was destroyed before it could do so?]

“Maybe... oh, how am I gonna explain it at all. They’ll notice when they’re releasing me... after Tilly gets my message. Why haven’t they come yet, actually?”

 

There was no use worrying about that, so I just decided to move closer to that trail... and upon making that decision, the inactive stuff moved closer to me. I was surprised, but tried controlling it - not with spirit, just thoughts, as that’s all I’d inadvertently used before - and it moved. Pulling it all to me, I made it compress, and it managed to shrink from the size of a watermelon to a marble. 

That marble was interesting, as I could touch it and feel it... in a way. It had no texture I could comprehend, it wasn’t smooth or rough, it was neither sticky nor slippery, but there was resistance when I tried squeezing it. It weighed nothing in my hand - because it didn't fall due to gravity - but moving it required about as much force as moving a piece of iron of similar size. In other words, it had inertial mass, but no gravitational weight. And unlike the almost gaseous form it had originally, this was solid, and held its shape and size when pushed, squeezed, and hit.

Finer modifications of its shape were harder, I managed to make a palm-sized, almost circular disk, but its thickness ranged from the width of my finger to the thickness of my forearm, and the edge was just... atrocious. It was jagged in places and rounded elsewhere, with one section cut flat. A cube was a bit easier, but it was still somewhat warped and lopsided.

 

[Practice will probably make perfect, you’ve only been working with this stuff for maybe an hour]

“I know, I know, it’s just annoying... I pride myself on spirit control, but here... this stuff listens about as well as a cat”

[Coming from anyone other than you, I’d take that as an insult, but you have the right to say it. Err... are you listening?]

“I can’t not hear you, you know. You speak directly to my consciousness, after all”

[Quiet you]

“Hey, that’s my line”

“Who’re you talking to?”

 

Ah frick. I didn’t expect to be overheard. But hey, that’s Tilly’s voice, meaning she’s come for me at last.

 

“I, uh... it’s complicated”

“Well, we all have our secrets. Come on, let’s get you out of those chains”

 

She unlocked the cell door and moved to walk in, but was stopped by Ra, who came in first, as well as another handsome man I didn’t recognize. Grabbing the key off the table, he knelt down to unlock my ankle shackles, only to discover one was missing.

 

“What happened to that one? Hmm?”

“So, funny thing... my breakthrough was successful, and in testing out my new strength... well, I kinda disintegrated that shackle on accident”

“That’s not something that can be broken on accident, let alone without us noticing. Is this cut on the floor also an accident, or are you gonna say that was always there?”

“That was the intentional test. Turns out, this stuff eats through stone no problem”

 

If looks could kill, I’d be mincemeat given Ra’s glare. Tilly, on the other hand, looked intrigued more than anything else.

 

“What... stuff is able to eat through stone? Can you elaborate?”

“Yeah, it’s this right here... can you not see it?”

“Your hand?”

“No, the misshapen disk in my hand. Hmm... can you touch it? Wait, no. Don’t try. I’m not sure it wouldn’t do to you... what it did to the shackle. It’s worse than acid, I think. Maybe it doesn’t affect living flesh, or maybe... it just doesn’t affect me. Better to not take the risk”

“What is it called? I might know more about it than you, I’ve got access to knowledge held in books only the imperial family can read”

“I have no idea. I’m calling it the mystery element. It’s not like anything I’ve heard of despite my living for cen - uhh... I mean with someone who had lived for centuries”

 

Fuck, did I expose my age? Or do they think of it as a simple slip of the tongue, like I tried to pass it off as.

 

“Well, how did you acquire it? Surely the one who gave it to you could enlighten you as to its name, origin, and usage... or if you just found it, the area it was in could have some clues”

“Its... well, my new elemental seed”

 

Three pairs of eyes looked at me, three mouths agape. 

 

“Uhhh... what level are you really?”

“12 - well, 11 now, I blew up a full pond to make the seed”

“And that worked? H-how? And why?”

 

Tilly was quite surprised at both my level and my obtaining an elemental seed, which, again, normally happens around level 30~40.

 

“As you said, we all have our secrets. I just have more than most”

“Princess, are you sure we can trust this kid?”

“Luce, if he wanted me dead, he wouldn’t have saved my life. If he wanted me dead, he’d’ve used that stuff to cut my throat like he cut the floor. And he has genuine hatred of my brother”

“But-”

 

When the new guy - Luce - opened his mouth to protest further, I raised my hand - well, both hands, they were still chained together at this point in time - to request an opportunity to speak.

 

“If I may, I have intel. However, I can’t pull it out at the moment... given my inability to access my spatial ring. Could someone unlock these chains?”

“Ah, right. Ra, either do it now or give me the key and I’ll do it. After that, let’s head back to my study, it’s far too dank for comfort down here”

 

With some grumbling, Ra unlocked my chains, but still escorted me with his short spear poised to strike should I make any strange movements. A short walk and three flights of stairs later, Tilly was seated at a desk, Yuri and Mike standing on either side of her, with Luce and Ra beside me as I stood about ten feet away from the desk.

 

“So. What do you have for me?”

“Two things. First, this book has the essential notes about what characteristics... all of the assassins I’ve encountered had. Something to note, however, is the common poison I suspect was supplied by Jcerniv... which might tell you about a strong supporter of his. It’s rare, so there’s probably only one region that produces it... in any sort of significant quantity. As such, that could be somewhere to strike... or not, your choice. It’s Bloodrot Scorpion venom”

“Eh? Those only live in the Crimson Desert... Luce, you’re from there, who exports that stuff? Err, I know, it’s in this book... Cribera, Crijule, ah, here we are, Crimson Desert. A small region in the northwestern part of the Lucephrous territory bordering the main city, and one... directly managed by its lord... Luce... Lucifer el Lucephiroth IV, you and Ra are the newest of the Guardian Angels. I trust you a lot, but not as much as Yuri or Mike. I know this exposes your identity, but you are the de facto heir to the house of Lucephiroth, and so I have to ask you to say everything you know about this matter. Yuri, truesight, please”

“Well, this blows”

 

Luce - Lucifer - looked quite annoyed, and drew himself up while his aura shifted, going from peaceful to domineering in seconds. As he did, I did my best to have my movements not be noticed as I slid towards him, my hands going to the daggers in my sleeves. Lucifer looked at Ra, and such that only Ra - alongside the shorty standing between them - could see it, he raised an eyebrow, as if asking a silent question. Then, he broke the silence with a sonorous chant.

 

“Follow me to fall from grace, the spells that I've accrued are my chains...”

 

Shining through his clothing, one could see crisp, clear red lines running all across his body in the shape of chains, each link holding a different sigil within. At the same time, identical chains bound Tilly to her desk, their sanguine glow lighting her in bloody relief as she froze, her face bearing an expression showing shock, rage, and a bit of sadness.

 

“Though you're far enough astray for salvation reaching out to fade...”

 

Mike lunged towards him, spear outstretched, but as a pair of sigils on his palms lit up, the distance between the two of them - and in fact, between any and every pair of people in the room - seemed to expand tenfold, causing that lunge to get nowhere close to hitting him.

 

“I'm no guardian angel! Fatal flames burn into my eyes!”

 

A sigil on his glabella lit up, and dark grey flames began to burn around his eyes as he trained his gaze upon the unmoving Tilly. Yuri was running towards her, Mike was still charging at Lucifer, while Ra sat there dumbfounded.

 

“I'm no guardian angel! Little one, are you ready to die?”

 

The flames around his eyes expanded in an instant, then drew together as an arrow took shape in the middle, before shooting directly at Tilly. Mike, Yuri, and Ra were all still too far away to do anything, but as I’d moved towards him before he began chanting, I was still right next to him.

 

“Eh?”

 

Instead of doing, well, anything they might have expected, be it attacking Lucifer or running away, I jumped in front of the flame arrow, causing it to pierce into my shoulder and... just disappear, not emerging from the other side.

 

“I may be blinded by my own flames, and I might be about to die, but I know that you are as good as dead too! There’s nothing you can do, those flames will burn your soul to ashes over the next few hours, little princess, and your body will burn soon after! Ah, my lord, my liege, I dare say I have served you well, even in death!”

“Nope. You didn’t hit your target, it got blocked”

 

Even in the face of the truth and despite being about to die, he still tipped his head back and laughed heartily.

 

“Ha, good one. You lie, for the only thing that could block the ashen flames of gehenna is a soul, and one solid enough to completely block this arrow has to be ancient or powerful. One of the guardian angels could, but none were close enough. You weren’t either, but you... heh, your soul wouldn’t even be able to blunt that arrow’s powers one bit”

“Are your senses really that dull? How come you, a tier 5, didn’t notice I was still beside you... even after you manipulated the space inside this room?”

 

I mocked him without fear, after all, either I’d get some satisfaction in or he’d kill me, but I’m already gonna die to those flames... probably... so, like, it doesn’t matter if he kills me or not, nothing would change. Still, it’s quite impressive that he was unaware of my presence, given how much he outleveled me.

 

[You’re innately able to slip peoples’ notice by virtue of being a cat, and you tried to be sneaky on top of that. You really think he’d have the time to pay attention to what an insignificant level 11 kid was doing while improvising a plan after his cover was blown?]

 

While that makes sense, that insignificant kid could’ve thrown a wrench into his plans, exactly as I did - oh, right, he thought I couldn’t, so he just disregarded me.

 

“You know what, fine. See you in the next life, fuckwads!”

 

With that, every sigil on his body began to glow, and the spirit concentration in the room spiked and then plummeted as it all was funneled into his body. I knew I had to do something, but figuring out what I had to do was another matter. There didn’t seem to be much I could do to a guy four times my level putting everything he had, including his life, into a self-destructive blast.

 

“Screw it, I hope this works!”

 

I could only rely on the mystery element, and rely on it I did. I poured all the spirit I could muster into my elemental seed, then flung the resulting mystery element, dense enough to act somewhat like a liquid, at Lucifer. If the first bit I’d made was the size of a large grape in a liquid state, this was more like the size of my head, about a bucketful. It spread a bit as it moved towards him, and then... it enveloped him. Because he was drawing in all the spirit he could, the mystery element-attributed spirit was instantly sucked into his body, and... then there was nothing to suck it into. One second he was fine, the next he’d turned that same silvery-gray color... and then...

 

“Ooohhhh FUCK, RUN!”

 

Like a balloon, he popped. Everything behind him was instantly dyed grey as a veritable tidal wave of the stuff surged out in mostly that one direction.

 

“Come back, return, stop, no!”

 

I don’t know if it was my words or my will, but the wave froze, then retracted in onto itself and flowed back to me, before rushing into my spirit realm. I didn’t know what to do, there was so much more than I’d let out. I pushed it through my elemental seed once more, and it lost that color, returning to more or less pure spirit, which I used to regain my lost pond (expanding its borders a bit in the process)... but there was still so much more. I wanted to put it through my elemental seed another time, hoping to reduce its berserk nature further, but my seed looked like it had lost some of its luster, so I didn’t want to risk it. 

 

[What the hell did you do? This much spirit... it’s like you absorbed everything from a tier 6 cultivator and then some! Aren’t you afraid of exploding, or at the very least completely destroying your meridians? Because this is how you turn into a bomb]

[It’s what he was trying to do... I guess this mystery element has an almost perfect conversion efficiency]

 

As I mentally conversed with Leon, I didn’t realize two things, mostly because I was entirely focused on what was happening inside my spirit realm while curled up on the floor in pain. The first thing I was unaware of was that there was now a lot of sunlight in the previously windowless room. The second was that that sunlight wasn’t even the main source of illumination in that room, I was. My body was shining, the spirit flowing through my meridians so dense it was visible to the naked eye - or rather, it was effectively invisible due to blinding any naked eyes that looked directly at me. I, meanwhile, was essentially catatonic, watching the flames in my body being suppressed by the overflowing spirit, yet also being strengthened by it, and trying to figure out how to use this huge amount of spirit to advance further.

 

[Leon, could you help me for a minute or two? Just keep this excess from interfering with what I’m doing too much, that’s all I need]

[I can give you two minutes. Beyond that is... I don’t know]

[And if I can take hold of it again, would you be able to handle a lesser amount for a similar amount of time, perhaps after a short rest?]

[Probably could, if it’s noticeably less and I get some time to rest]

[Okay then, get ready, I’ll leave it to you in about half a minute]

 

I poured even more of the free spirit into both of my ponds, until they were each ready to burst. When it wasn’t mixing properly, I threw in a little bit of the mystery element, which seemed to homogenize it enough to leave a lasting boost to my level.

 

[Okay, Leon, take it!]

[Got it! Hurry up, I ain’t got that long]

 

The next step was normally supposed to be easy, all that was needed was about a third of the spirit from both ponds to be pulled out and turned into a third. However, because there was the issue of the semi-berserk spirit from Lucifer (even after being refined by my elemental seed and homogenized by the mystery element on top of that) being a large portion of my second pond, it was somewhat harder. Took me over a minute and a half to form the embryonic form of a new pond, and then I had to speed up its growth into a full one, which I did by taking more spirit from my first two ponds - mostly the first pond, actually, due to that one’s centuries-old (on average) spirit having more of a connection to me.

 

[I can’t hold it much longer! You’ve got ten seconds! 9! 8! 7!]

 

It was starting to stretch and spin, taking the shape of a fully fledged spirit pond.

 

[6! 5! 4!]

 

The spinning slowed down, the surface getting smooth, and I stopped feeding my spirit into it.

 

[3! 2!]

[‘kay, hand it over]

 

I held onto that extremely enormous amount of spirit, Leon started panting like a dog, despite there being no air to inhale and none to take heat away from him through evaporating his saliva, if he even has saliva here in the first place... or any heat to take away. I slowly, very slowly, refilled all three of my ponds with the berserk spirit, each one bigger than the previous one, and bigger than they had been before. Just that much had cut it down by almost half, so when I was starting to tire of restraining it, I asked Leon to take it once more.

 

[I can only buy you maybe 80 seconds this time]

[That’s plenty good enough. Like last time, in a little bit, I’ll hand it all to you]

 

I repeated the process I’d just gone through: fill all three ponds to bursting, then take a quarter off of each of them to form my fourth embryonic pond. From there, nurture it with my own spirit, the more attuned to me, the better. After it stabilizes as a fully-formed pond, feed the four ponds to full (but not bursting) with the rest of the berserk spirit. Like before, all of them were larger than they’d been before I made them split a quarter off. In fact, their “full” capacity was roughly equal to their prior “about to burst” level.

 

[It’s a very, VERY risky method. If you end up not being able to subdue the berserk stuff, it’ll eventually ruin your ponds, and you’ll have to start over from... heavens know where you’d have to start from]

[It worked, though. Each time spirit is eaten by my mystery element and then goes through my elemental seed to turn back into raw spirit, it becomes closer to the spirit I produce myself. I’ve got plenty of time to do that slowly, now that I’m not having to deal with a huge amount of berserk spirit]

 

There was still some running rampant in my meridians, but that I left because, while painful, it was suppressing the ashen flames I could sense burning and spreading inside of my body, though only a little bit.

 

“Ugghhh... that was... I do not want to do that again. Nyaver ever ever again. Well, not until I can handle that much spirit...”

“Tama... maybe look up?”

 

I did as Tilly suggested, and saw... that half of the top floor of the mansion was gone, completely evaporated, as though cut with a blade... maybe more like a shovel or spoon, given the curve?

 

“Oh... fuck. I don’t have to pay for that, right?”

“If he’d managed to blow himself up, there’d be a lot more missing than just part of this mansion. The blast probably would’ve leveled almost everything between here and the middle district wall, and there’s no doubt I’d’ve lost my life too. Honestly, I’m impressed you managed to stop him. How’d you do that? Or is that another one of those secrets you can’t tell?”

“It was that mystery element again. I blasted him with as much as I could make... which was about a bucketful once condensed into a liquid. Barely managed to cover him, but...”

 

She looked at the hole in the wall and ceiling again, meeting the gaze of a butler in a cream-colored suit on the floor below.

 

“Don’t worry, the threat is gone, and I’m unharmed!”

 

After yelling that to the butler who looked like he was about to try to climb the wall to get to his mistress faster, she turned back to me while just waving her hand in the general direction of the structural deletion.

 

“But that happened?”

“Unexpectedly, yes. See, he was pulling in all the spirit around him... which included the mystery element attributed spirit I’d thrown at him. That mixed with the massive quantity of spirit he’d absorbed... and what he’d emptied his spirit realm to put into the blast. Then, it converted some of that into more of itself... and all of that did so again... and again... and over and over and over again... until, after a second or two, everything had been converted... and it began to consume his physical body too. Once it did so completely, it burst out, keeping the same vector I’d thrown it at... hence the wave of annihilation directed behind him”

“Then, why did it stop?”

“I made it stop, and reabsorbed it all. Big mistake, I could’ve - and, by all rights, I should have - blown up like he was trying to, but... I only realized that after the fact. How I didn’t is... yet another secret, so don’t ask”

 

I could tell she really wanted to ask, even despite my telling her not to, but she managed to do something very uncatlike... she restrained her curiosity. I pulled out a copy of my journal with some portions relating to myself removed as well as a bottle of pills and handed both items to Tilly when I passed her on my way to the hole.

 

“Well, it’s been fun, but I ought to get going. Before I do, however, you should take this. As I said before, I’ve explained the tools and tactics of... a lot of assassins in these pages. In this bottle, there’re a few pills I designed... specifically to counter the poisons suited to assassinations... making sure to include the Bloodrot Scorpion venom as a use case... though, that’s less needed now that the supplier is gone, isn’t it?”

“Oh, come now, you can stay longer, right? If you leave now, you might be linked to the destruction of this place. Stay the night, and you’ll have fewer eyes on you”

“I’ll also be a pile of ashes. I’ve heard of the ashen flames of gehenna. Unless one of your guardian angels is a flame cultivator... I’m toast if I stay here. Maybe one of the grandmasters could remove them... so, I’d better return. Besides, I’ve got my means to hide”

 

I had absolutely no intention of getting the grandmasters to try removing the flames, none of them was even a high tier 5 cultivator, let alone the tier 6 that would probably be needed to remove it safely. But, while it could reduce me to ashes, I’ve been turned into a bloody mist before, I’ll come back with a bit of time. In fact, I tend to come back in record time from total or partial disintegration, and with what I know of those “pseudo-spirit streams”, I think that they could all agglomerate into their correct spots due to there not being anything to use as a core, instead, using a framework constructed by my soul, thus drastically cutting down the amount of time spent waiting for the previous piece to form so this one could take its correct spot. While ashes wouldn’t completely be the same, I still feel like I’d be assembling, attaching, and reverting any damage done to myself in the process, rather than regenerating lost body parts bit by bit.

 

“Oh, right, I might send my pet cat over to you... to deliver items inconspicuously. The spatial ring will be hanging off of his collar, take the contents but leave the ring. If there’s a request I have for you, he’ll deliver that note as well... and if there’s something you wish to tell me... you can either write it down and hand it to him, or just tell him directly... I can communicate with him telepathically. If you need to give me something, put it in the spatial ring on his collar... and if you need to talk to me directly, talk to the cat... I’ll show up within half an hour, most likely”

“What’s his name, and how can I identify it’s your cat?”

“He’s also named Tama - long story - and he’ll have a star-shaped white patch on his forehead. And if you’ll excuse me, I’ll leave now... so I don’t have to leave in a literal blaze of glory”

 

I could feel the flames were almost completely done taking root in every corner of my body, and would soon begin to burn outwards, starting from my bones. It hurt like hell, an apt grammatical intensifier given that the flames had some hellfire-like properties and origins. To outsiders, the Major Realm of Darkness seems to be designed to torture them and kill them, but most visitors only visit because they die and their souls are taken to the yellow springs there to complete the standard cycle of reincarnation. That’s a long bit of mythology, I’ll spare you the details for now.

I walked to the edge of the hole I’d made in the wall, turned around and looked up. Locking eyes on my target, I bent my legs and... leapt. I hooked my fingers, tipped in some of that active mystery element to just drill right into the reinforced wood, then used those handholds to fling myself onto the roof. Having had several months to get used to this human form, I had become able to display the same agility and acrobatic feats many cats are famed for, just as I could in my original form. Landing on the roof, I checked around for spying eyes and remote observation techniques, found none focused on one side of the chimney near me, and shifted under its cover. From there, I jumped down and bolted out, all the way back to my room in the Association under the cover of the sun as it made its way along the final portion of its descent to the horizon.

Once there, I shifted back, put on some old casual clothing, and sat on a metal stool, not anything wooden or fabric. After all, I was about to, from the perspective of an outside observer, spontaneously combust. Fives got placed far to the side, alongside anything valuable I normally kept on my body like my spatial rings and alchemist ID, and a sign was put on the door saying not to disturb. From then on, I stayed half-in my spirit realm for more practice, and... ooh boy did that hurt when I pulled the last remnants of the berserk spirit back into my spirit realm from my meridians so I could purify it repeatedly. That wasn’t the painful part, what was was the flames suddenly losing their suppressive forces, and thus instantly flaring up, the intensity rising almost thirtyfold. I didn’t really even have time to scream, I just turned into a human-shaped collection of ashes, that slowly collapsed into a pile with no real organized form.

 

“Well, let’s see... yeah, I’m being assembled like a jigsaw puzzle, as I thought”

 

Not starting from one central node, but adding pieces to other ones they fit, and eventually those dyads, triads, and so on would merge into larger sections, and those larger bits would combine to form a bone or an organ, a muscle or a patch of skin. Those would then hover in the approximate location they ought to be in, and when there’re two adjacent bones, the connective tissue would be prioritized in assembly and attachment. 

It was incredible to watch my venous system floating there, awaiting connections to things like my lungs and other tissues and organs. My nervous system was the same, my spinal column and brain were reassembled before my skull finished being patched together, and the same goes for the eyes and optic nerve being completely exposed... until the skin of my face covered it up - at least for the most part. Once my skull was completed, my head quickly disassembled itself to fit it in. The same thing happened to my torso whenever a new organ was finished, quite a disgusting process if I do say so myself - which I do, otherwise you wouldn’t be hearing me say it. Seriously, what’s up with that phrase? 

Before the time by which the light from the sun had completely faded from the sky, I was able to open my eyes and control my body again, though it wasn’t completely integrated with my consciousness, so that had to stay in my spirit realm for a bit. I put on some normal red robes, swept up the ashes that were the only remnants of the old clothing I’d had on when I burned to death, and left for some food. Surprisingly, I wasn’t the only person at the Masters’ table, despite it being well after normal dinner hours, but long before time for the standard midnight snack a lot of alchemists would often partake in.

 

“Uhh... Tama? You smell... charred. What happened?”

 

I didn’t notice the charred smell myself, and I had no real explanation, as Master Antonius wasn’t on the list of people I wanted to have know about my deal with Tilly. I didn’t want to implicate him if anything happened, and he was as bad as Mia when it came to insisting on helping when his help isn’t needed, wanted, or even helpful in the first place.

 

“Ummm... Furnace explosion?”

“Happens to the best of us. What were you trying to make?”

“I wanted to improve a formula I came up with recently. It’s that new antitoxin pill that’s kinda hard to make... so I’m trying to make it easier”

“Sounds like you made it harder this time”

 

I got up, in part to get myself more food, but also because I wanted to hint that the conversation was over. I couldn’t keep up that kind of farce without any planning, so... better to just end it there and move on. When I returned, I began a new conversation to distract from the previous one.

 

“Oh, in other news... I may have utterly shattered a record today”

“This’d be, what, your 784th? 1241st?”

“Shaddup. Lowest leveled cultivator to form an elemental seed... excluding innate seeds”

 

I fluidly ducked under the table to avoid getting sprayed by a mouthful of chowder coming from my dining partner, a motion well practiced and often used.

 

“You’re kidding... no, you don’t joke around with this kind of thing. What level are you, how did you do it, and what seed did you get?”

“I dropped down to 11 after making it, I did so by blowing up an entire pond, and I don’t know, respectively”

“You don’t know? How do you not know?”

“It’s not like any of the known elements. Closest would be devour or corruption, but it’s very much not either of those two”

 

He set down his spoon, put his hand on his chin, and thought for a bit.

 

“Besides those two, I can’t think of any element that’s similar to both of those at once. You might well be right that you got one that’s pretty much unknown... what exactly can it do?”

 

As he inhaled the rest of his food at record speeds, I gave a simple summary of what I knew of the mystery element, except for the part about it consuming Lucifer in an instant, instead, I said I had no idea if it’d work on living beings, and that the only data point I had for that was that it didn’t affect me.

 

“Damn, now I’m really curious. I’ll go look in the library, but I doubt I’ll find anything. Knowing me, I won’t be able to sleep until I either figure it out or am convinced that I won’t be able to in a reasonable amount of time, so if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got some books to read”

 

And I’ve got some pills to make, to help me stabilize the semi-berserk spirit and my spirit ponds. Ah, but first, fiiiiiish. I smell citrus, I smell melted butter, I smell garlic, there’s gonna be garlic lemon buttered fish and I want seven... -ty five.

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