The Grand Weave

The skill demanded form, but as I tried to provide it, it refused. I shirked its denial and forced it to comply, letting my intentions guide me.

But again, it refused.

Why?!

And the skill answered.

Thoughts that weren't my own melded with mine, creating a whirlwind of memories—cores, adventurers, the joy of creation, the misery of loss. And then came the chains, the anger and revulsion. They cascaded through my own, creating a single thought that dominated the others.

Create the vessel!

My skill pushed against me and nudged my will. It guided me, asked me questions, and evoked emotions that dwarfed the gremlin inside its cage.

I needed a form to take control, but it couldn't be my own. That was the nature of the bond I borrowed power from. My soul empowered Xena, but her skills were bound to law.

Then, I will create me.

It started with my legs. They formed normally, perfect copies of my real ones—but it wasn't enough; I needed more. The other consciousness inside my head bent them backward, creating digitigrade limbs.

Next came the torso. I broadened the shoulders, and Xena widened the ribs. We narrowed the waist but reinforced the bones.

And my head... I formed myself but knew it was wrong. It wasn't enough. I created the skull and extended the jaw. She sharpened the teeth and created more when there wasn't enough. My tongue elongated and sharpened. To top it off, my horns grew from my forehead and continued until they curved high like blades. There were no facial features, just skin made of energy and a maw fit for nightmares.

But we weren't done.

This time, neither I nor Xena controlled the process. Instead, the gremlin pushed us aside and took over.

My arms extended past my legs and formed claws longer than my hands. From my tailbone, bones formed and reinforced themselves with sinew. The whip-like appendage ended with a dangerous scimitar that sliced through the nonexistent space.

The vessel was ready.

I pushed inside and inserted myself into the suit. My consciousness expanded, and I instinctively understood how to move. My tail lashed the ground, and I sliced through the temple stone as if it were made of butter.

My skin pushed away the darkness and lit up the room. Its form was ethereal rather than physical. It connected to my bones and entwined around my core. The core wasn't just a metaphor but a physical object bound in place by pink threads.

"Not yet. Still incomplete." Xena's voice bled through.

I didn't understand. I felt whole; I felt right. What was I missing?

From my back, an intense heat built and exploded near my shoulder blades. I arched my spine and observed the wings made of obsidian.

Shadowy substance seeped out, creating a wet mist.

And around my head, the obsidian crystal sprouted from my skull and separated into a floating halo.

"Now we are complete."

I wasn't wasn't constricted to what I physically saw. It was as if my mana sense had evolved into finer detail, relaying a bubble of information that extended ten feet out.

And I saw the red triquetra in my eyes, its symbol upside down and blazing with energy.

I flexed my fingers and compressed the air.

This is amazing.

But then, a stabbing pain exploded from my chest, and I desperately grasped my core. It pulsed a wave of agony that faded as the energy settled. With my new senses, I could tell that a thread had snapped.

"What's happening?" I demanded.

"Rejection. This is too much for your soul; it can't handle the pressure. You're not ready to bond with a dungeon fairy. But you have. And now we are on limited time. If we do not separate before the threads are destroyed, your soul will shatter."

No. I refused to let that happen. I had too much to do.

My tail cracked the ground in an explosion of marble. "Where are we?"

I looked around, and my eyes widened. In the corner, the remains of a tentacled monster were crushed under a fountain of rubble. A single hand burst through the stone and exploded with mana.

The wind whipped at my skin, but I barely felt it. Panasia dropped to the floor as she saw me. Her legs tensed, and mana exploded from the balls of her feet.

She rocketed toward my face, a single punch extended with a black blade of compressed air. I raised my hand, and a barrier formed.

"Panasia! Stop!"

The guildmaster ignored me and kicked my hand away. It pushed my arm back, but I instinctively caught her with my tail. Before she could react, knowledge flowed through my head, and the energy that made up my skin formed into threads. The threads twisted into a pattern and a crystal dome.

She sank like a rock, looking like a bug frozen in amber.

The crystal cracked, but hellfire burned my gut, and I hunched over.

"Panasia! Stop! It's me, Cyrus!"

A whirlwind of blank shredded the crystal and ground it to dust, but the guildmaster didn't attack. She stared at me with narrowed eyes and a glowing ball of mana building atop her palms.

"How the fuck are you that felkin? Prove it to me!"

This time, I created a scroll, which dropped to the ground and unraveled under her feet. She read the messages and gaped.

"What in Ammanas' tits did you do to yourself?"

I grunted and forced myself up. It wasn't straight; my new form had a natural hunch, but I easily towered over the guildmaster.

"Lots to explain, not enough time. The enemy has woken up. We have to fight," I said.

My voice came out like a screaming cacophony, and Panasia covered her ears and shook her head.

"Don't speak. It's like you're talking to me inside my mind, but not. It fucking hurts!"

I grunted and stayed silent.

"What about now?" I asked telepathically. "Is this too loud?"

Panasia glared. "No, it's not. But I dislike you being able to enter my thoughts like that."

"Doesn't matter. Limited time. I can't maintain this form for long. Are you ready?"

This time, she grinned with murder in her eyes. "Oh yeah. Thanks for the potion. I'm not entirely healed, but it'll do."

I wrapped my tail around her, mindful of the blade-like tip, and closed my eyes. Xena's instructions bled through the link, and I connected my mana to her as she formed the threads. With a thought, we shifted deeper into the dungeon.

Our feet touched the ground, and I released Panasia. She rubbed her head and backed away.

"That was unpleasant. Do you need me to kick down the door?" she complained as she pointed toward the chained door.

We were back in the ether obelisk room. In the collapse of the dungeon, only a couple of rooms survived. One was a seperated space that contained the saved people and my friends.

The other was the obelisk room and the sealed one connected to it.

The chains on the massive doorway stood out as glowing red in my eyesight. Runes that weren't there before blazed with pink fire.

"Xena?"

"Of course, it's in there. Whatever you do, do not break the core!"

"What's in there?"

"It's the core room, the most protected room in the entire dungeon. That's where Weldrammornorpelus is. Don't hurt him!"

"I won't. How do we open the door?"

"Place your hand on the chains and channel your mana."

I did as she directed, feeling the mana spiral outward and sink into the metal. The runes slowly burst until the metal links shattered and dropped to the floor.

"Ready?" I asked Panasia.

Her body became a tornado, her limbs covered in black streaks that rapidly circled around her muscles.

"I am!"

I pushed the doors apart and was met with a crushing presence that sought to squish me beneath its will.

"Submit!" a foreign voice demanded

I pushed it away and flared my mana. The bubble of awareness around my body sharpened into a spike and impaled the mental chain that wrapped around my neck.

I did the same for Panasia, and she rushed into the room like a bullet. My legs bent, and I jumped, turning into a living missile that caught up to the guildmaster as my wings fanned out.

A massive tentacle smashed me into the far wall. Panasia dodged, but her body froze in midair and a force flung her into the ceiling.

I used my claws to shred the tentacle, but it retracted and regrew the chunks of flesh.

Damn regeneration. Where the hell is the enemy?

It was a massive chamber made of pitch-black marble with a gold pyramid toward the back. Above the pyramid rested a core the size of a bus, its golden glass pulsed with black chains.

In the center, a mindeater with red skin raised its hand. Along its arms, thicker black tentacles connected to a pulsating mass embedded into the wall.

That's... a brain. What the fuck?

"I am the instrument of my god's will. I demand you submit!"

I grasped the mental intrusion and shattered the ghostly chains that shot from the mindeater's palm.

Panasia burst from the ceiling and launched several kicks that became wind scythes. They whistled as they cut through the air, but the mindeater waved its arm, and a stone wall snapped into existence.

"Destroy it!"

The fire raged through my core, and the threads began to snap, but I jumped. A stone wall appeared before me, but my tail punched forward.

The wall crumbled, and I continued my ascent, but the mindeater shifted his focus and bore down on me with golden eyes.

"Halt!"

I froze midair and could feel my mana erupt, pushing back. But the mindeater raised a second hand. It balled its fingers into a fist, and Panasia screamed behind me.

"No!" I roared.

My mana weaved into threads, and Xena let her fury rage. It chucked away the squirming chains, and I snapped my arm forward. A massive spike of obsidian shot out, and I regained control of my body.

I landed and looked up; the spike had stopped an inch away. My tail smashed aside another wall that tried to crush me as the spike shattered.

Fine. If it wanted to play, then, so be it.

Threads formed a pattern, and spike after spike appeared. They shot out, even as my core cracked. I dropped to my knees and pushed myself up. My wings flapped, carrying me into the air.

I didn't stop, the crystal forming and rocketing toward the monster.

It knocked them aside with mental fists. A wave of tentacles protected it. Crystal sliced through rubbery flesh and shattered into shrapnel. The flesh regenerated and the mindeater clapped.

Danger!

The warning stabbed into my spine, and I whipped around. I crouched and threw my arms over my face.

Flames rolled across my body, and pushed me into the wall. Stone crumbled, and my fingers broke. A second explosion pressed me deeper.

My arm snapped.

I roared as a tentacle smashed me into the floor.

I shredded it with my claws and bit with serrated teeth. Pink flames surged forth and burned the meat away, leaving behind black dust that coated the floor.

A wall appeared and my tail hacked it apart.

"Fuck you!"

But my body spasmed, and my vision split into two. I couldn't move even as a mass of tentacles converged above and spiked downward.

Fu-

A tornado shredded the meat apart, and Panasia hit the floor, bouncing once, twice as she coughed up blood.

Her eyes met mine, and she grinned with a bloody smile. "Get up."