Astral Threads, Ch 39: Shrouded Stalker (Patreon)

Three teams of the assassins headed toward Sam with their strange, liquid speed. This time, all but two of them were at the Second Evolution, their levels ranging from 202 to 211. Their classes were similar to before. A mix of Dark Hunter, Wild Assassin, and Shadow Mage ones stood out to him, but he didn’t have time to focus on all the details.

The distance to him disappeared as the bellisagi’s feet crushed the new grass growing in the crater. They seemed unbothered by the fact that he was floating in the air, although it wasn’t clear what they were going to do when they reached him.

He grimaced as he pulled a scroll from his belt and activated it, sending an Ice Storm ahead of them as a delaying tactic. His wounds were aching and his essence was nearly drained from calling the storm, which meant his options were limited. The spell roared into existence with impressive speed, but by the time it was at full force and covered the area, the bellisagi were already halfway across the crater. Four of them at the sides managed to escape it, sprinting around the howling winds that coated their path in ice.

Sam ignored them as he pulled four of his best auras from his storage and began to combust them. His meridians could handle it, but they were already starting to ache. At the same time, he sent a command to the Sky Guard who were high above. He wasn’t in good shape for this fight, but at least the golems were.

As the bellisagi closed in, he continued his delaying tactics as he teleported away, disappearing in a wash of crystal flame. In his place, eight Sky Guard slammed into the ground, their wings outlined in silver flames as their spears stabbed forward.

The bellisagi bent, their four arms weaving through odd but intricate patterns for balance as they pushed away from the spears. He could feel a thread of Wind and Water in their abilities. Three of them were successful, but their speed was only a little faster than the golems. The one in the center was too slow. Three dark crystal spears ripped through his chest with blades of dark energy. As the golems retracted their weapons, his body was torn apart and all that was left behind was pieces.

The remaining two golems landed near where the elementals had been, but there was no sign of them. A moment later, a strange head lifted from the sand, followed by its emaciated body that coalesced in weaving streams of liquid sand. He’d forgotten about them temporarily, but they’d apparently hidden underground from the storm. It was good that none of them had been fused into glass by the lightning.

Others appeared around it a moment later, but Sam only glanced at them before he told one of the golems to leave them and join the fight. With the Sersans dead, the elementals shouldn’t be able to cause too much trouble. The final golem could follow them if they tried to leave. He doubted their ability to hide underground would stop it from tracking them.

The fourth aura combusted in his hand, refilling his essence almost to full, but at the same time, the Ice Storm finally proved ineffective as the remaining four sprinted out of the frozen clouds. Their red eyes gleamed and hoarfrost was still stuck to their stretched skin.

The golems were surrounding the three in the lead now, forcing them to contort themselves into awkward positions as they tried to retreat, but it shouldn’t take them too long to pin them down. Until then, he would just have to stay out of the way. He was exhausted, but he had some confidence that he could teleport around and let the golems handle it.

That belief lasted for half of a breath as he worked to replenish his essence. Then, a new figure appeared at the edge of the crater. This one was nothing like rest.

Bellisagi Chieftain. Whispering Assassin--Shrouded Stalker. Level 304.

A curse spilled from Sam’s lips as he saw the chieftain’s level. The thing was almost on par with Uncle Snake! As soon as he saw him, his plan to let the golems handle everything was shattered to dust.

However the assassins had tracked him, they had known exactly where he was with enough time to call in their leader. He had to wonder if this was the chieftain who was sending all of the bellisagi after him or if there was another one behind it.

The first idea that came to mind at that moment was to run. In his current state, however, it wouldn’t go so well. Even if he flew at top speed with the help of the golems, the bellisagi were fast enough that they would follow and eventually catch up. His essence regeneration was high enough that he could fly indefinitely, but the question was where to go. He’d probably only end up facing them while even more tired.

More importantly, there were the remains of the gateway below him that might still be a threat, the corpses of the Outsiders to search for artifacts, and the experience that they had. It might not be the wisest decision, but there was no way he was letting the bellisagi take this place away from him. It was his by right of battle.

An adamant stubbornness rose up in him like the earth itself, or perhaps of the stars that hung in the void. It was a choice between running and standing, and he refused to be chased. He had improved a lot since he’d faced Uncle Snake in that duel.

It was time to find out how much.

But first, he needed every advantage he could get and there was a lot of it scattered on the lightning-struck soil. His orders to the golems changed in a flash as he teleported above the center of the crater, into the middle where all the corpses were lying. His left hand was pressed to his side to stem the bleeding from his abdomen, which even the healing scroll hadn’t fully halted, but his right hand slashed through the air as he reached out for what was his.

What he refused to allow to disappear.

Unfortunately, he didn’t have time to grab it. Before he could do more than connect with the essence in the corpses, the bellisagi chieftain teleported across the crater to him. He could feel the structure of the ability, something to with the assassin’s classes, which he’d never managed with Uncle Snake, but that didn’t help as two fists came around from the bellisagi’s right side and slammed into him, hurling him through the air.

Somehow, the bellisagi was also flying, or at least floating enough that it didn’t matter. The chieftain wasn’t using any weapons, but the strikes were as hard as iron pillars. He was already wounded on that side and he felt his ribs crack as the blows landed. He flew through the air for thirty feet before he caught himself on the wind. The bellisagi chieftain waited, floating in the same position, as if he were toying with him.

The golems were doing their best to kill the smaller bellisagi below one by one, ganging up on them as they pinned them down, but the chieftain didn’t seem inclined to help. His attention was locked on Sam.

“My lord does not tolerate the presence of his rivals in this world and so you will die.” The chieftain’s words echoed out across the crater in a gravelly and abrasive rumble. He spoke matter of factly, as if everything he said would happen without fail. “But I have always been curious as to what he considers a true opponent. I have never qualified for such an honor.” He examined Sam with indifferent scorn, his features an unmoving mask beneath his red eyes. The only emotion was in his voice.

“You are the very first he’s ever called an opponent, but I fail to see what he finds threatening about you. Perhaps as a courtesy, you will enlighten me before your death, so that your slayer will rest in peace. At least this way, you will go to your fate knowing that you were worth something to the world.”

While the chieftain was talking, Sam had time to slap another healing scroll on his side, which helped to stem the bleeding that had just gotten worse, but he was soaked in his own blood. The impacts from the thing’s fists were incredible. His Strength had to be at least 900 to do damage like that, and probably a good bit higher, but his attributes were no doubt like Snake’s, with Agility as the highest. Sam’s Constitution, even with his battle aura boosting it, was 727.

“And who is your lord?” Sam’s response was half growl and half cough as he turned his head to the side and spit out a mouthful of blood. It was dark silver this time, a mark of the damage. The question was a delay while he let his body stabilize and looked for options, but he also wanted to know the answer.

The corpses were behind the chieftain now and the likelihood of reaching them was slim. He needed a few moments to gather the essence and he doubted the bellisagi would give it to him. Across the field, the golems were methodically isolating one bellisagi after another. Three were dead now.

“You should know your own kind, demon, or you will die without realizing the difference between you and him.” It wasn’t an answer, but it was clear that the chieftain thought Sam was an Outsider. “You are a weak excuse for a lord of destruction. If my ancestors had followed you, they would have died long ago.”

The bellisagi shook his head as he looked over to where his assassins were being killed.

“Useless clan trash! You can’t even deal with these constructs?!” He became furious as he saw what was going on. He teleported away in a blink and reappeared next to two of the Sky Guard that were flanking an assassin. His right fists slammed into the closest one with two cracks like thunder.

For a moment, Sam hoped that the golem would stand firm, but that hope was dashed as the golem went flying a hundred feet through the air. Its wings snapped out like crystal blades as it kept itself from crashing into the earth. Two large impact points on its chest and side were a spiderweb of silvery lines.

The chieftain hadn’t managed to destroy it, but he’d definitely left a mark. Before the golem could return, he kicked the other Sky Guard, hurling it down to the earth where it struck the soil of the crater with a booming echo.

The next few moments were a blur as the chieftain shifted around the field, hurling the Sky Guard away from his clansmen with kicks and punches. Unlike the other bellisagi, he didn’t use any weapons. His class was apparently a brawler.

The golems were about as fast as the regular assassins, but they couldn’t keep up with the chieftain. They were sent flying in shattering impact after another. Their black crystal armor was dented as threads of silver flowed through it, but it also proved its worth. Instead of breaking under the assault like a regular golem might have, the armor held.

It was covered with webs of silver damage wherever the bellisagi’s attacks landed, but it held.

It was too bad the armor didn’t help with the fight itself. It only took the chieftain two heartbeats to toss all of the golems away. He was a whirlwind of strikes hurling them in every direction.

While he was distracted, Sam didn’t waste the time. He teleported into the center of the field and reached out for the essence in the corpses, calling it to him.

His attention was shattered when a series of two punches and a kick landed on his uninjured side and hurled him away. The impacts sent him spinning and he crashed into a Sky Guard that was trying to stand, sending them both rolling across the earth.

He spat out some dirt with a growl as he forced himself to his feet again. He could feel that three ribs had shattered on his right side with that hit. It had been even harder than the last one. As he looked across the crater, his hopes of killing the bellisagi and then ganging up on the chieftain were dashed.

The golems were recovering with admirable durability, their wings and a glow of the astral energy that powered them bringing them back to their feet, but every time they flew back to continue the attack, the chieftain did it again. Even if the other bellisagi died, he was still more than they could handle.

The only saving grace was that the bellisagi didn’t have the strength to destroy them outright. Assassin classes weren’t designed with pure strength in mind, so while he had the advantage in speed and could clearly knock them around, their armor was mostly absorbing the blows.

Despite that, the damage was accumulating. If it kept on like this, then before long the golems would be more silver than black, and if their energy ran out, it was possible that their defenses would collapse as well. They were powered by a huge amount of astral energy, which normally lasted for quite a while, and they were able to restore themselves from moonlight, but that didn’t mean their supply would last forever. The more damage they took, the more energy they would lose.

He had to do something while they were still able to fight. Without them, there was only one end to this scenario. The thoughts flashed through his mind in an instant and he frowned as he took stock of what he had available. Even as he searched, he didn’t stand idle.

A scroll and an aura appeared in his hands and he began infusing one into the other, along with over a hundred points of essence. When the scroll was ready, he unleashed it. Like most of his scrolls, it was based on Ice, since he had an advantage to that element with his blessing. This one was a scroll of Ice Rending, a powerful damage spell for single targets.

The scroll dissolved into motes of brilliant icy light that swirled around his hand and then it expanded, becoming a hundred feet wide as the power in it reached out to the world and coalesced. The storm of ice began to spiral as it condensed to a single point and then sharp-edged bolts fell in a chain of destruction on the bellisagi chieftain.

There were a hundred of them, one after the other in an explosive cycle. The earth exploded as enormous spears of ice stabbed into it, piercing a dozen feet deep. At the center, the chieftain dodged, dancing with that liquid grace that all of them seemed to have, his four arms moving to keep his balance, but even with his speed, the area the storm covered was large and it was locked onto his aura.

He shattered a spear of ice as he teleported away and appeared outside the range of the storm, but the spell shifted to follow him. A Epic-tier direct target scroll wasn’t so simple as to lose its advantage like that. Half of the energy was already expended, but the rest of it realigned on the chieftain and another rain of icy spears hurtled toward him.

The chieftain looked annoyed as he blurred, kicking one out of the way and punching another to redirect it, and then he vanished again. This time, he reappeared in front of Sam, looking angrier than ever as he kicked out. Before Sam could dodge, he was flying through the air, his hip nearly shattered.

He crashed into the floor of the crater in an explosion of earth that fountained ten feet high.

As he pulled himself together and rose back into the air, the bellisagi chieftain didn’t chase him. Instead, the assassin floated where he’d appeared, scowling. He was coated in frost and while he was mostly uninjured, there were clear impact points from the spears across his body. They’d left a mark, even if it was only a bruise, and he looked annoyed. Behind him, the golems were returning, their attention still locked on their task as they headed to surround one of the lesser assassins.

Two things stood out to Sam at that moment. One, he was closer to the Sersans and their essence than he had been. Two, the bellisagi’s mana was clearly lower. At that moment, he realized another feature of Assassin classes, which was that they weren’t known for their mana reserves.

A dangerous glint appeared in his eye as he assessed his injuries and how much time he needed to get to the essence in front of him. That last kick had broken his hip and a sharp, screaming pain was tearing through his body in awareness of it. If he’d been on the ground, he wouldn’t have been able to walk.

“My patience for your answer is limited. Your death is approaching,” the chieftain declared as he folded his lower arms in front of him. His words were sharp and demanding. “What makes you of any interest to the Lord of Wind and Water? Why would he search for you?”

For a question like that, it should have been jealousy that inspired it, but there was no trace of that emotion on the chieftain’s face. Instead, it looked as if he were insulted. He still thought nothing of Sam and seemed to believe it was beneath him to be sent here. He acted like it wasn’t worth his time, which was why he was toying with him for answers instead of trying to kill him immediately. It was his own arrogance that demanded he make this job worthwhile.

He’d also mentioned the Lord of Wind and Water, and that was a name Sam filed away for later. Asking the bellisagi for more information was pointless, but if he had the opportunity, he was going to beat it out of him.

He was fairly level-headed these days, mostly due to his massive amount of Charisma, which made it harder for him to be bothered by irrelevant things, but the bellisagi’s nonchalance was starting to get under his skin, especially after those attacks. To have so many broken bones and to have the Sky Guard thrown around like toys was reminding him of his early life in the village at the far end of the Storm Plains. He’d been disregarded there too as the son of a poor laborer with a broken class.

He’d come a long way since then. It was one reason he worked so hard. The blood pouring down his body, which was glowing with a touch of astral light, was proof enough of that. Another difference was that the anger rising in him now was practically a physical thing, surging in waves of scorching heat that roared out from his skin like solar flares.

It resonated from his essence constellation as the stars responded, sending a swelling surge of energy into his muscles and crackling bolts of essence along his bones. His height expanded as he gained another foot and he felt his essence compacting, becoming denser and more powerful.

His essence constellation began to spin on its own, faster than ever before as it drew more energy from the world, and he felt heat like a volcano pour through his veins, sending him flying forward to attack.

In some corner of the Void that still remembered who the Titans were, he was sure they had a saying: Beware the Titan’s Wrath.

He could have held it back, but he didn’t. His fist was nearly as large as the chieftain’s head as it landed on the creature’s bony face, making it rock back. There was a moment of stunned shock, as if the chieftain didn’t believe what had just happened.

Then he opened his mouth and let out a rasping laugh. It sounded like a coffin being shoved across a gravel yard. The return kick sent Sam spiraling through the air as his left leg broke with a thunderous snap.

Sam’s expression was focused as he flew across the crater. A few twists of Wind sent him spiraling toward his target as he used the elemental to adjust his trajectory. When he crashed into the earth this time, it was thirty feet away from the Sersan gateway.

Titan’s Wrath was a valuable ability, but he’d known it wouldn’t work even as he felt it happen. It added 25% to his Strength, but it lowered his Agility by just as much. Fortunately, his Charisma let him stay focused even in the midst of it. He’d used it as a distraction so the bellisagi would kick him where he wanted to go.

As soon as he hit the ground, he ignored the sharp explosion of pain and reached out to the essence around him. He did it as quickly as he could, and this time he focused on his elemental domain for the stars as well as his innate ability to Call Essence, doing everything he could to speed it up. His aura flooded the area.

“Stars of the fallen, come to me!” The words tumbled from his lips as loudly as the tide crashing against a cliff. As soon as his aura touched the essence, it began to stir, rising up from the Outsiders in a storm of bright green sparks as if it had only been waiting for his demand. This time, it only took a moment.

“You want to know why your lord should fear me? This is why!” A thread of anger was still there and he turned to the chieftain as he shouted.

The essence swirled, its color glinting in the sun. He could feel the connection forming with it as it adhered to his aura. It was violent life and destruction, burning explosions and a sharp blade cutting through the battlefield. It was primal, the essence of the universe itself formed from the explosion of stars in the Void.

It also didn’t stop. The stars tore free from the corpses in less than a second, stimulated by his call. Spark followed spark surging into the air in torrents of power from every corpse, thousands of them from every Outsider. When Sam saw how much was rising from the corpses, his eyes widened in shock, and even the chieftain turned to look at it, stunned by the sudden appearance.

It kept going until tens upon tens of thousands of stars floated above the crater’s base like a green sea of power. It was so large that it rippled with its own internal waves.

It was at that moment that Sam realized this was the first time he’d ever killed a Level 200 Outsider, and he hadn’t killed just one here, but eight. Even the Level 150 and 160 Sersans were stronger than any Outsider he’d fought before. He'd been fighting well over his level range due to his bracers and his doubled attributes, not to mention the help of the Sky Guard. He should have expected this.

When the lesser bellisagi saw the massive current of power that was rising, they hesitated as well, something very uncharacteristic for the hard-edged race, and the golems managed to isolate the one they were focused on, pinning it down as their spears tore through its chest.

The sea shifted on an unseen breeze, its color changing to sapphire blue on the edge closest to Sam. The effect flowed through the rest of it like a freezing ripple from one side to the other, and then it shot toward him, twisting into a spiral as it headed for his chest. It was a thousand times larger than him and it felt like a hurricane was pouring into his bloodstream. His body crackled under the force, shifting and expanding as new stars were added to his essence constellation.

There were eight Sersans at the Second Evolution and another thirty at the First. He didn’t have time to calculate how much rose from each one, but his essence constellation spun ferociously as new stars formed.

The fifth layer was a massive spiral above the foundation that the first four had created, forming a rune so intricate that he had no idea what it meant. All he knew was that every line was pure power. It roared as the stars filled it.

It also quickly became apparent that the amount of essence that was pouring in was an ocean trying to fill a teacup. The first ten thousand stars fell into place and ignited, followed by another ten thousand, and then thirty thousand, forty thousand, and another hundred thousand and more. At that point, the essence constellation was full and he had only absorbed a little over a third of the sea.

The roar of stars igniting in a conflagration to sear the heavens filled his mind as the essence constellation came to life, glowing with astral energy. Above him, he felt the heavens rotating in the Void as power from beyond the sky answered a call from his essence.

A silver flare like a star descending to earth appeared in the sky and headed in a streak toward Sam, connecting him to a conduit of pure astral energy that led to the closest star in the Void. Some of the essence in his body roared upward to sustain it, but there was so much around him at that moment that it was restored instantly.

It was like being connected to a source of unlimited potential and he felt his body crackling. If he hadn’t been a Titan, he would have exploded, but instead he began to change under the force of it, growing taller. It felt like the history of a universe was pouring into his bones.

Outside the column of astral energy, he could see the bellisagi chieftain staring. The assassin tried to rush forward, but he was blasted backward by an arc of stellar energy that hurled him across the crater. He might be able to attack again after it fell, but he was not allowed to interfere with what was taking place. At that moment, the World Core’s voice echoed in Sam’s mind, its tone the most serious he’d ever heard.

Congratulations, Astral Hunter. You have met the requirements to Evolve your Race.

As this is happening on Aster Fall, what was once called the Nexus of the Gods, it is unavoidable that you will gain attention from those who watch. This world was the favored garden of many powerful beings, some of whom reached Ascension here.

Their auras remain, observing the events of the world. Before, you were not strong enough to attract their attention, but now your aura signature is unmistakable. For good or ill, they will mark the rise of a new power, especially an Astral Titan. Enemies you do not recognize will find you.

“Why do they care the most about Astral Titans?” Sam tried to ask, but the only thing he got in return was a demand for 300 Marks. It seemed even when the World Core was being helpful, it still followed its rules.

Your Racial Evolution is predetermined by your Race and the essence type you have gathered. Congratulations on achieving early adulthood as an Astral Titan. Commencing Evolution.

Under the force of the astral energy flooding him, Sam’s body grew taller again, breaking past twenty feet and reaching twenty five. His muscles writhed as they tore and reformed, and then did it again to fit his new physique. His nerves came to life like bolts of lightning crawling beneath his skin and his bones lengthened and hardened to support his new height.

His attributes rose, his shoulders broadened until it felt like he could hold up the sky, his skin became more durable, and his muscles filled with explosive strength. His heart hammered in his chest like a pulsing star, beating out a tattoo that sent waves echoing through the air around him, and his blood roared like an ocean. The air shuddered, wavering from the force of his presence.

Racial Evolution Path: Astral Titan.

Evolution Stage 3: Astral Titan (Young Adult).

Racial Ability Identified: Astral Titan Physique: +100 to All Attributes.

Racial Essence: Path of the Elements.

Racial Ability: Elemental Manipulation evolves to Elemental Mastery (Special).

Recalculating attributes with essence gains. Incorporating Evolution.

The World Core’s voice was flat now and efficient as it wrapped up its work. All through his limbs, he could feel a terrifying new strength. It felt like he could crush a mountain to powder by bringing his palms together. His status sheet sprang into view, starting with his essence level. The entire sea had poured into his body while he’d been evolving.

At this stage of maturity, your race identifies your essence level in terms of Stars. You have currently achieved the state of a Single Star.

Essence Constellation (Single Star): 422,692 / 2,000,000

It meant there had been 368,022 essence from the Outsiders. It was nearly seven times what he’d had before. As the ocean of essence continued to pour into his blood, however, his eyes widened in sudden realization as a horrifying thought struck him. He’d made a terrible mistake.

He didn’t have enough Charisma to handle all of that essence.

It was nowhere near enough.

He’d drastically underestimated how much essence he would gain from this battle and that it could go well over the 200,000 he’d been planning on. His attributes sprang into his mind an instant later. He only looked at the base values, ignoring everything else.

STR: 1,515

CON: 1,699

AGI: 528

WIS: 396

INT: 2,568

AUR: 2,568

CHA: 358

He was four to five times stronger and faster than he’d been before. The attribute difference was staggering, but even with the boost from the evolution, his Charisma was barely half of what he needed to balance that amount of essence.

He needed 642.

His mind still felt clear, but there was something strange in his awareness, like he was floating in the clouds and there was a tumult of rushing emotions in his heart. All around him, the silver threads of the Void stretched out to the stars, leaping into view as soon as he thought about them. They were already pulling at his attention. He found himself staring at them, his spirit resonating with the energy there, and he couldn’t stop himself. He tried to drag his eyes away, but he only found another thread growing larger in his vision.

It wasn’t the crushing loss of mind and self that had happened when he was a Voidborn, and his Charisma still had some effect, but the thoughts of his family and friends seemed minor now compared to the silver paths in front of him.

There was power in them, a bright and shining brilliance that pulled at his soul. Promises of runes and spells, whispers of distant places, the secrets of the Void and the history of the Astral Titans were all in them. Thoughts of where they led sprang into his mind, like will-o-the-wisps tempting him to follow into the dark. A shiver of potential brushed across him as he reached out for one.

A sharp strike against his hip brought him back to the present, even though it was a small thing. Fortunately, his curiosity was piqued. It wasn’t just the astral threads that he found interesting. Whatever this was would do too, even if it didn’t have the same sense of secrets to it, and it was already here.

It was the bellisagi chieftain, who looked like a tiny child now from Sam’s vantage point. He barely came up to his thigh. Both of them were floating in the air at the center of the crater. A strange grin spread across Sam’s face as he began to chuckle, unable to stop himself. A loud guffaw followed.

His usual presence of mind was scattered, fragmented into a thousand different whims that pulled on him with equal weight and made it difficult to choose. This one grabbed his attention for now.

“You’re very tiny, little bellisagi!” Now he roared with laughter that he couldn’t contain, nearly doubling over as he held his stomach. “You look like a doll for a child to play with."

He almost mentioned his sister, since she used to play with dolls, but some trace of self-control held him back. A sharp kick on his chin only made him laugh harder as his head bounced back a few inches. The bellisagi’s strength had crushed his bones before, but now it was unable to damage him. Somewhere in the evolution, his bones had healed, and that was the funniest of all.

“All of your efforts to hunt me, and this is what you’ve accomplished?" He chuckled as he reached out and grabbed the bellisagi by its upper arms, taking one in each of his hands. His hands were so large they wrapped completely around the bellisagi’s biceps. “Lord of Wind and Water, you said? You should tell him that you have helped me."

The rush of humor was fading now as he stared at the bellisagi, remembering how dangerous he had been a moment before. His eyes narrowed as his hands began to tighten and he wondered how much force it would take to rip the chieftain limb from limb.

“So this is why he saw some danger in you.” The chieftain stared up at Sam with narrow eyes, even as he was raised into the air. There was no fear in him. Instead, his voice sharpened with interest. “I cannot calculate your strength, but it is far greater than before. What are you and how have you accomplished this? What magic did you use on this field of battle to take its power for your own? It seems clear that you have lost your mind.”

“I am an Astral Titan,” Sam chuckled, freely admitting the words that he’d always held back before. The secret no longer seemed so serious. Why did the World Core care about it anyway? “I just needed the essence to evolve.”

He shook the bellisagi in the air, yanking him left and right like a doll, which was entertaining for a moment until something else stole his attention away and a sharp curiosity hit him.

“Now it is your turn to answer a question,” he said as he glared down at the chieftain. “How did you track me here? What sort of food do your people eat with that weird face? Have you always had four arms?"

He was intensely curious. Had they always existed like this or had someone smashed together two of them at one point? No, that wouldn’t make sense, since then they would have four legs and two heads too...unless someone had ripped those off. Thoughts for an experiment on bellisagi floated through his mind. If he could capture a couple of the ones here, he might be able to find out.

“So you are a madman now?” The chieftain growled as he kicked out at Sam’s hand, but his strength was insufficient to break free. It made Sam chuckle again. “My race has the innate ability to track any living being we can sense. It is why the Lord selected us so long ago. He sent us a stone that held your energy on it, and from there you were easy to follow. Only the flying gave us some trouble, but you were not very fast.

“But enough of this game.” The chieftain looked angry now as his lower hands folded into his vest and came out with two darkly glowing bone daggers. The blades were nearly two feet long and they shimmered with grey smoke along the surface that looked like it was trapped inside. “I did not come here unprepared for a real fight.”

His blades slashed out at Sam’s hands, slicing inches deep into the flesh as he drew blood. Sam’s Constitution was massive now, but whatever those daggers were made from ignored it.

Sam let out a pained roar as he hurled the bellisagi away from him, throwing him across the crater.

Strangely, the pain focused his mind to crystal clarity, bringing him back to the present, and many of the wandering thoughts disappeared.

In that instant, he gathered himself together and threw up an Essence Shield between him and the chieftain. A moment later, a Void Moon formed in his hand and he hurled it after him. The spell formed more quickly than ever, its structure coalescing in under two seconds. It was also twice as large as the last time he’d created it.

He ignored the result as he turned toward the Outsiders that were still scattered on the field. The silver threads were cutting across them, so close it felt like he would stumble into one any instant.

There were only two things he could think of that might help. First, he poured hundreds of points of essence into his Starforged Bracer as he activated its Dimensional Anchor ability, letting it sink its roots deep into this layer of Aster Fall. Hopefully, that would keep him in place from any accidental wandering, but he knew that any moment he might just deactivate it and disappear.

The second thing was even more important. He needed to get as much Charisma as possible, and that meant gathering the experience here. Hopefully, it would be enough to Evolve. He just had to focus on that and keep it as the main thing on his mind. He felt a surge of excitement as he looked around at all of the waiting experience.

The chieftain was trying to escape from the Void Moon, which was drawing in everything nearby as it prepared to unleash a wave of devastation, and that should keep him busy for a moment.

Sam ignored all propriety as he lunged across the field, using his height to good advantage to step quickly from one corpse to the next as he slapped his hands on them. Threads of silver experience unfurled, pouring toward him in a chain. Fortunately, most of the corpses were close by.

A few moments later, he heard the World Core’s voice echoing in his mind. His attention was already wobbling and it brought him back to clarity again. There was an amazing amount of energy in each word, like runes forming in his mind, and he began to study them curiously as he listened to it.

Aster Fall thanks you for your efforts, Chaos Smith. You have gained four Marks for defeating the Outsider invasion here and isolating their artifact. You have earned bonus experience for defeating a threat to the world.

You have gained 7,728,500 Class experience.

You have gained 27 Class Levels and 27 General Levels. You are now a Level 100 Chaos Smith and General Level 200.

Excess experience for this battle is lost. It will be diverted to the local defenses.

You gain 54 Strength, 54 Wisdom, 54 Intelligence, 54 Aura and you have 108 free attribute points to assign.

You have earned two Ability upgrades, one for defeating the Outsider threat and one for isolating the artifact.

Make your choices now.

He had several abilities that weren’t at Epic, from Combust Aura to Aura Regeneration, Modify Aura, and Spell Forging, as well as Crystal Passage, but his mind was wandering and he simply picked the first two in the list, which happened to be Combust Aura and Aura Regeneration.

The familiar whirlwind of power began to spiral around him as he felt his abilities shifting, but the splitting pain of it was dull as his attention was distracted by the World Core’s voice.

Congratulations, Chaos Smith. You now meet the requirements for your Second Evolution. Do you wish to accept the assistance of the World Core?

Make your choice in the next ten minutes or the opportunity will be lost.

That was what he’d been waiting for, and a surge of overwhelming hope exploded in his chest as he shouted his answer.

“I accept!”