Nightmare Realm Summoner-Chapter 212 - 210: Round 2

Alex didn't waste time batting the soul flames around. He took all the magic and Riftwarped Qi that he had gathered within himself, letting it flow down his arms and build into a thick, crackling mist around his fingers.

He felt the pressure emanating from the flames before him. Princess, the Mutated Chimera Field Boss, and the Gorgonaga's magic pressed against each other. The Soul Flames weren't going to go together easily.

Alex didn't need them to. There was no fun in easy.

With a roar, he clapped his hands together. He drove every force of both physical and magical might he had into his palms. The Soul Flames fought back for a brief instant, but the sudden intensity of his movement paired with all the power gathered within him overwhelmed their resistance.

A brilliant flash split through Alex's Mind Palace. He swore and stumbled back, reflexively pulling his hands back and raising them before his face as stars danced in his vision.

Pressure drove into his chest like a bomb had gone off right in front of him. It sent heavy waves slamming against his legs and the sides of the structures rising throughout the dark lake of his soul.

Magic stung Alex's skin and bit at his eyes as he forced them back open. He squinted through splayed fingers as a twisting ball of furious energy pulsated in the air before him. The three Soul Flames were one. All that remained was a pulsating mass where they had been.

Come on. You can do this, Princess.

Waves slammed harder still against Alex's legs. They did their best to bowl him over, sending him staggering every few moments as they rolled out from around the somehow still-brightening orb.

Alex gritted his teeth.

A buzzing roar filled the air. Arcs of Riftwarped energy tore through the burning light like purple fractures in reality. The pressure grew stronger still. It intensified, the ball of energy starting to grow larger and larger—

A grinding crunch tore through the air. It was like a boat running aground. The wave beneath Alex's feet rippled. Every single wave abruptly crashed back down to the surface of the lake as it went still.

All the light pouring out from the ball shattered. Fragments of it spun back on themselves, sucked like slurped spaghetti, to where a large glowing form occupied the space where the Soul Flames had been moments before.

The being within the light was considerably larger than Princess had been. A large portion of that was due to its body just being physically bigger. Even with the details obscured by the light trying to burn out Alex's eyes, he could tell that the monster had retained Princess' blobby, murky outline and two massive arms.

But that was where the details of her silhouette stopped matching what she had once been. Rising up from her top were three swaying necks, curled like massive fingers. Each of them was nearly as thick as Alex's torso and twitched with occasional rapid movements as if something was scurrying within them.

The light slowly faded away from the newly formed monster and finally gave Alex his first proper look at his creation.

Despite himself, he nearly choked.

Riftwarped Mirematron (Initiate 9)

Princess' porcelain mask had multiplied. Where there had once only been one, there were now three. They'd affixed themselves to the ends of the swaying, sludgy necks writhing in a hypnotic pattern.

The mask in the center of the monster was the very same one that Princess had previously worn. However, the one to its left was curled down into an agonized sob. Even as flat and relatively plain as the pure white porcelain was, Alex could practically swear it was sobbing. The third mask was on the exact opposite end of the spectrum. Its lips were curled upward, eyes arched in sheer joyous ecstasy.

But Princess' changes hadn't stopped there. Glimpses of what seemed to almost resemble rough, thick stitching were just barely visible beneath the sludge that made up her roiling body. Her fingers now ended in jagged white porcelain claws that seemed to have similarly been stitched into her goopy form as if by Dr. Frankenstein himself.

Even the arms made of centipede legs that protruded from her back had been affected. Amidst the sea of twitching bug-flesh grew glistening porcelain. Hands of purest white, like they had been polished to perfection, swayed in the sea of the grasping dead limbs around them.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

The abstract contrast between the dark sludge and twitching insect legs making up Princess' body and the clean porcelain emerging from beneath it was too stark to ignore. Alex couldn't tell if she was beautiful or horrendous. There was really only one thing he did know for certain.

She looked fucking awesome.

A grin split across his lips as he walked in a circle around Princess. The neck bearing the weeping mask moved to follow him, rotating perfectly on point like that of an owl. It took him several seconds to make the full loop around the monster, but Alex was more than satisfied.

I've got a low bar for success, at least when it comes to appearance. If my monster looks cooler after the combination, it means I did something right. Now, is she actually stronger than she was before?

All this porcelain doesn't exactly ring of being a tank. Her masks shatter if you look at the damn things wrong, and now she's got three of them. But all the monsters I tossed in here were pretty tanky.

I'm also not seeing any traces of the magic reflecting scales that the Gorgonaga had. Hm. Well, suppose the meal's all cooked up. I can't exactly take it back out of the oven.

Mirematron, huh?

Whatever Princess had become, she'd been pushed all the way up to Initiate 9. That, of course, didn't mean he was about to go and try to evolve her. Getting her 100% over the limit of Initiate 9 before pushing to the next level would ensure he got the best results possible.

But Princess had already gotten a strong boost. Alex wasn't about to leave his other monsters behind — particularly, Glint. The Glasmir was still going to be his most reliable damage dealer.

On top of that, he'd been a specially selected monster by the System. Something about Glint was rare. That had been what the System promised, at least. It would have been stupid to leave him in the dust.

Something prickled against the back of Alex's mind. It was a sense of unease, almost like a building dread settling over his shoulders like a cloak. His lips twitched into a frown. Princess was creepy, but she wasn't that creepy.

Some kind of magical effect? I — no. I shouldn't go testing stuff now. I need to get back to the Mirrorlands. I'll look into it later.

Alex banished Princess back to her Spatial Mirror. He called Glint out with another thought, watching as the Glasmir cut his way into reality to stand before him.

"You ready to snack, buddy?" Alex asked, summoning a Soul Flame to his hand. "You better be. You're going to be eating these until you're ready to burst."

Glint, as usual, didn't respond.

That was fine with Alex. He had a hell of a lot of Soul Flames to feed to his Initiate 1 ranked monster. And, by the time he was done with them, he had high hopes that Glint might be nearing his next evolution.

***

Alex's hopes were close to home. By the time he'd fed Glint just about every single soul within his Spatial Mirrors, the Glasmir had long since advanced to Initiate 9. The option to evolve Glint had appeared some time ago. He, of course, had ignored it.

There was no way he'd be evolving Glint any time before he was 100% over the limit. He fed the monster until the only Soul Flame remaining in his Spatial Mirror belonged to Aubrey, where he was finally forced to stop.

Hers was one soul he wouldn't be feeding anyone.

Glint had grown from Alex's efforts. The changes were more subtle than many of the earlier ones. His mirrors couldn't exactly appear any sharper, but they certainly felt a little brighter. It was like the Glasmir was doing his best to prepare to ascend to the heavens themselves.

The only true way to see how much stronger Glint had gotten would be to get him a good battle to put his skills to the test — and Alex had every plan of doing just that. Both Glint and Princess deserved a chance to show off their newly improved strength. He could barely wait.

Sorry for taking so long, Claire. It'll be worth it. I promise.

Alex let his eyes close. He let his Mind Palace fall away from around him as his consciousness rose back to return to his waiting body back in the Mirrorlands. His eyes snapped open, a grin still lingering on his lips.

"Took your time," Claire said as Alex shifted from his spot against the wall.

"Sorry. I tried to do things as quickly as I could. How long?" The unease he'd felt back in his Mind Palace lingered for a second longer. Then it pulled away, slipping from his mind.

"I'm just pulling your leg. It's only been a bit over an hour," Claire replied. "You made good time. Guess you didn't meditate yourself."

Alex shook his head. "Didn't have enough energy to make a significant difference right now. Bummer. I guess neither of us quite managed to hit Adept before we made it to the Cracked Steps. And you still don't have your Partial Soul Manifestation. You're down, what — two Aspect Gems?"

"One."

Alex's brow furrowed. "One? But—"

Claire grinned. "One."

He glared at her. "Of course. More secrets. One, then. Don't suppose you've got a third stuffed somewhere?"

"Unfortunately not. Maybe we'll find one in the Cracked Steps."

"That's optimistic."

Claire shrugged in response. "Can't hurt."

"Fair enough." Alex pushed himself to his feet and brushed the dirt off his pants. "Then let's get moving. The Cracked Steps await. I've been looking forward to this."

"Let's do it," Claire said as the two of them set off. "I'm curious to see what changes you've put your creatures through. Glint isn't the hedgehog he used to be, you know. Who was it this time? Princess?"

Alex grinned. "You'll have to wait and see."

"Figured you'd say that," Claire grumbled.

They slipped off down the warped streets of Valley Ford's reflection.

Neither of them noticed the unnaturally long shadow rising above the building next to them, nor did they spot the hungry smoldering crystal blue eyes within it… or the blood-red letters obscured by the churning mists of the Mirrorlands that twisted through the air over its head.

Forsaken Revenant (???)