(Almost to the end. There will be further content after this week, but this week will resolve a lot of things.)
Kai paced at the edge of the battlefield, his fingers flexing into claws almost subconsciously. He knew that he couldn't simply throw himself into battle recklessly, not against an omega-ranked threat like the Abhorroid, but he hated waiting while others were fighting.
The elites were doing well for themselves, but it was the most they could do to slow the Abhorroid down by battering it with ranged attacks. Kai had seen a few of them be struck by crimson beams and need to be evacuated, and that would only continue as it managed to regenerate more eyes. They were running out of time and he still had no idea what was going on across the continent.
"We're running out of time." Enalanis appeared next to them through one of Gunjin's portals, echoing Kai's thoughts. "Hantron City is mostly evacuated, but not entirely. If this continues, soon we'll be choosing between elites dying or civilians dying."
"This is what we prepare to avoid every incursion." Gunjin rubbed his forehead and glanced to Kai. "Can you take it on?"
"I'm recovered enough," Kai said, "but I'd only be slowing it down. We need to win."
"What about Omilaena?" Enalanis asked.
Gunjin shook his head. "Seen fighting Fodajix in the wasteland, but she hasn't been able to finish him."
"Then we are in a difficult position. I can return, but..."
Kai continued to pace, trying to consider alternate angles. If he went up against the Abhorroid again, this would probably be his last chance to change his monstrous essence. The problem was that to fight such a threat he needed to use basically all of his passive abilities, which left him with fewer skills, and even then he'd already tried most of them.
When a cultivator streaked from the north Kai automatically turned, assuming that something had gone horribly wrong and he'd need to fight yet another opponent. He realized a moment later that it was Zae Zin Nim: something in her soul had shifted, but it was definitely her.
She cut a wide circle around the battle, then landed beside them, holding Cragrila's spear beside her. It trembled with power, almost as if it was going to explode.
"Is Cragrila...?" he asked.
"She's fine." Zae Zin Nim leveled the spear at his chest. "Yangix is dead and this is all of his qi. I can't cultivate it, but I think you can consume it." She swung the spear sideways to the elites. "You need to buy him some more time."
"You mean it's time for me to break through?" Kai supposed that he shouldn't be surprised.
While the elites made final battle plans, Zae Zin Nim walked closer. When she got in range he reached out and squeezed her shoulder, and her hand rose to touch his, but that quiet smile was the only affection they had time for. She urged him to sit down, then placed the spear across his legs.
"Your cultivation has always been a little different," she explained. "And the weaknesses are real. But when I was treating you like an ordinary cultivator, we weren't playing to your strengths. You need to take a step off the main path onto another one."
"Is that what you did?" he asked.
"I would be happy to tell you about that later, but for now I need to use what I learned on you." Zae Zin Nim set down several pills in front of him, including one that seethed with red energy, and more Heavenly Qi than he expected. "The pill is from Lostwreck. It would damage the dantian of anyone else, but I think you can overcome it. The thing is, we aren't going to just get you enough qi, we're going to overload you. Your cultivation needs far higher quantities to show its true potential."
"Hence the spear." Kai gripped it with both hands and took a deep breath. "I'm ready."
He went through his usual cycle, trying not to think about the elites fighting to buy him time, and then followed Zae Zin Nim's instructions. She ordered him not to cycle his qi normally but to reach for more, stepping over lines that he usually remained within, seeking more.
Something yawned within him, and he felt his dantian begin to shake... it would have collapsed on itself, but that was when he began draining the phased qi in the spear. It felt wrong, distorted, but he used his monstrous nature to consume it, transforming it from cultivation into raw power. Phased energy should have overwhelmed his soul, yet to his surprise his dantian grew to meet it, drinking hungrily.
"Now you need to add monstrous essence as well!" Zae Zin Nim urged him. "You still have qi from the Heavenly Mountains and Lakes, right? Fuse it all together!"
That went against his instincts, but Kai's hunger would consume anything. He pulled the Sacred Dragon's Qi and Coiling Island Qi into himself, then swallowed the seething red pill. The combination caused a surge of pain through his body, and he was braced for an ordeal, but as soon as he began drawing in Heavenly Qi, everything came together. This felt right in a way he hadn't expected, his dantian solidifying in a cavernous form.
Just like that, he'd broken through. Kai eagerly looked to his soul and was surprised by what he saw.
<
Name: Kai Clanless
Total Power: 1772
Monstrous Hunger - XVIII (sigma)
Cultivation: Gluttonous Soul 0% (600)
Savage Heart: 51 (512)
Physique Level: B-8 (540)
Beggar King's Robes: +4 (20)
Soul Level: 10 (100)
Dragon's Might - V (epsilon)
Behemoth's Heart - XIII (nu)
Thunderbird's Wings - XII (mu)
Tyrant's Claw - XIII (nu)
Manticore's Spine - VII (eta)
Baleful Breath - IX (iota)
Abyss Maw - I (alpha)
-
Void Gaze - X (kappa)
Famished World - VII (eta)
Mutefang's Stealth - XVI (pi)
Sahagin's Soul - XV (omicron)
Greatshark's Presence - III (gamma)
Monstrous Tail - VIII (theta)
Legion Bite - VI (zeta)
Wallcrawler's Feet - V (epsilon)
Abominalgum - III (gamma)
Slime's Immortality - II (beta)
Bloodtail's Armor - VII (zeta)
Voidshell Essence - VII (zeta)
Colossus Essence - I (alpha)
>
His cultivation hadn't reached Earth Soul, it said "Gluttonous Soul" and it granted him an unprecedented 600 Power. That brought his total to 1772, and his hunger was raging again, seeking more essence to fill itself.
"Incredible." Zae Zin Nim was standing nearby, smiling fondly, but he wasn't done.
Kai sank into his soul and began working with his monstrous essence, daring to try things that would have been impossible before. He had needed armor for a while, and he now had an excellent base for it: the Colossus. It might be an Insanity, but he had eaten the creature's core, so surely his soul could contain it now that it had the space.
Fortunately, he had been saving up other essence for a while: Bloodtail's Armor and Voidshell Essence were both prepared and ready, even developed over the course of his previous battles. Kai drew all three abilities into the center of his being, letting them consume one another to form a true armor technique...
Almost immediately he realized that something was wrong. Bloodtail's Armor was perfectly matched to the others in nature, but it was weaker than a country destroyer and an Insanity. It risked being consumed by the others as pure energy, not contributing its real potency, and that would make the resulting fusion unstable. But it was too late to back out now, not with so little time...
Kai desperately looked through his monstrous essences for something else, but he had cleared out so much in this final rush. He even considered sacrificing a secondary ability to it... and then he saw what he needed: Wallcrawler's Feet.
He hadn't even intended to absorb that ability, it had just been from one of the monsters he ate during the first incursion. It had remained in his soul ever since, useless except for occasional silly applications. The ability might not be strong, but the essence had saturated in his soul for years... Kai fed it into Bloodtail's Armor and the fusion balanced itself out.
Then it was done. His soul was much emptier, but it had one shining new ability.
Shifting this new Void Colossus Armor into his soul was top priority, but he had to be strategic about his choices now. The Abhorroid was still an immense threat, plus Fodajix was out there, and he wasn't convinced fate wouldn't throw something else at him.
"Are you ready?" Zae Zin Nim asked quietly. She watched without fear as he made his final decisions and transformed one more time.
<
Dragon's Might - V (epsilon)
Behemoth's Heart - XIII (nu)
Void Colossus Armor - I (alpha)
Thunderbird's Wings - XII (mu)
Famished World - VII (eta)
Tyrant's Claw - XIII (nu)
Abyss Maw - II (beta)
>
These seven abilities, forged through so many battles, would be those he used for the final fight. The end of the invaders, and in a strange way the end of the incursion. If he was going to defeat the trap that fate had set for him, it had to be with this.
"Tell the elites to retreat," he said to Zae Zin Nim, "then go find Omilaena. Be ready for anything."
He launched himself into battle, sailing through the air toward the ominous sphere one last time. The Abhorroid turned on him, preparing an attack, but Kai struck it with his full force, and for the first time the monster shuddered.