Miniature Hunter

[Ultimatedaywriter]

Vergil had never felt so small and insignificant until he saw a toddler the size of a mountain staring at him. Its hand rested beside a towering book that could put skyscrapers to shame hung halfway in a corner covered in a fine layer of dust. His head pounded from something called a hunter packet burned into his mind like a brand. Information filled his mind about things he never wanted to know and couldn't resist. Staring into the eyes with flecks of green larger than him made knowing things like cultivation seem insignificant.

The feeling of smallness continued; Vergil tried to look beyond the toddler and only saw the expanse of air. He looked around and saw people he would rather not be with. A decade of dropped contact with the people around him hadn't been enough.

Sitting down in a six-inch layer of dust was the guy Vergil had hated since high school Dante Fair, the guy who made it. Vergil hated that Dante had lived in his headspace for too long and would be competing again. But, like before Dante got his head in the game first and started cultivating immediately, he was also here long before Vergil or obscenely talented.

Vergil sneezed but managed to choke down a breath long enough to cultivate heaven and earth's vast spiritual energy. Doing so was the only way he would get anywhere before they were off to who knows where.

He took a step back and tripped when the back of his legs hit something. Dante started laughing, and Clay ran over to slap the lawyer's hand.

"Come on, Vergil, it's all in good fun; if you can't laugh at your own expense, then what can you laugh at," Dante said and stood up.

This scene had happened twice, once over a decade ago in the locker room and again on the shelf of a giant Toddler. Unfortunately, it had cost him the precious time needed to attempt to move from mortal into the initial stage of the prenatal realm of ki cultivation.

He knew that a mistake like that could have caused ki deviation and killed him if he wasn't careful. After getting that information branded into his mind, he was also aware that Dante knew that. It was an attempt to decrease the competition and attack before Vergil got his bearings. Dante was always the tactician and only held back from murder, but Vergil hadn't known Dante for over a decade.

A black vortex opened, and reality turned into rainbow pixels and moved away from a man dressed in a 3 piece suit wearing a top hat with a massive mustache. The suit was black with racecar flames along the sleeves that changed styles every time Vergil looked away.

"Allow me to introduce myself; my name is Mandela, and I am your demiurge this evening. I speak for the supreme being you see behind me. Think of me as an intermediate between yourselves and the divine." Mandela said.

"Can I ask why god is a toddler?" Clay asked.

Mandela's face went from calm to unsightly in an instant. Then, a terrible rage entered his eyes before he lifted his hand and snapped.

Vergil blinked, and Clay exploded. Screams echoed all around him as Vergil wiped the blood from his face. He could feel a line of intestines wrapped around his shoulder, warm sticky blood clung to his skin, and he could feel a piece of bone in his shoe. Slowly Vergil walked away from the blast zone even if it wouldn't do him any good.

He hated Clay but didn't want to see him dead. Still, that didn't matter; nothing mattered before the power he saw. Cultivation meant they could waste all of them with thought and summon a new batch. The only real question was, why summon them at all?

"The supreme being is over 2 million years old and deserves your respect. He is so great and mighty that imparting the wisdom of the cosmos upon all of you is needed for all of you to begin to be useful. But, unfortunately, even after giving you such a great boon, it won't be enough; many of you will die." Mandela smiled, and Vergil noticed the man's feet never touched the ground. He didn't have legs.

The suit perpetually moved as he gazed at the being, never stopping. Vergil blinked, and the dark shade of black had become a dark purple. He remembered it was black before, and the suit's flames were flowers.

"The bottom line is simple the supreme being is so great that he can't enter lower worlds and needs agents that can't be tracked back to him. So, all of you will go on a treasure hunt for the supreme being. I know what you're thinking, what is in it for me. Perhaps it is too soon for the gifts given to you to really sink in enough for you to be thankful. So we are going to play a game. I will have an agent observe you and assign points to your actions. Whoever contributes the most will get the most points, and after the first hunt, I will allow you to exchange these points for prizes. Maybe one of the prizes will even be your freedom." The fiend said.

An image of their objective seared itself into his mind. They were after a sarcophagus with a head covered in tentacles on it. Dark iron chains with markings faded with age wrapped around the coffin keeping whatever was sealed inside. A cold light seeped from its lid, whispering dreaded secrets mortal minds weren't meant to know.

Vergil tried cultivating the energy in the air because it was the best for ki refiners. However, it was difficult to cultivate with his eyes open and ears listening.

"Don't nod off; it's rude." He looked behind him to see someone cultivating before they exploded into gore." His heart raced until his chest hurt as he struggled to cultivate with his eyes open.

He felt his body fading away from the supreme being's room. Mandela raised a hand covered in tentacles instead of fingers and waved his hand.

"Don't forget this is a competition. Whoever does the best will get the most points; everyone should try and get the top spot. If someone is dragging you, you down, throw them away like the trash they are."

Dante looked at him, and Silas knew what the man was thinking well ahead of time. But, of course, there were problems with fighting Dante. The guy trained at an MMA gym and hit like a truck in high school. Vergil had gone from an athlete to a bookish shortly after leaving school. He hadn't been in a fight in years and worked in a supermarket. Unlike Dante, Vergil never had the killer instinct the lawyer had.

…

When he came to, he tasted grime on his teeth and felt pain crawl up his legs from chafed feet. There were no memories of another life, only a body that wasn't his own with what little ki he managed to cultivate. He was in a cell submerged up to his shins with red light pouring in through a barred window 30ft over his head.

Dante was on a bench, one of the few dry spots with others around him. No one watched over Vergil or paid him much attention. Before they had really gotten started, Vergil was behind.

Being behind forced him to do something he shouldn't, and he decided to take a risk.

He felt a buzzing sensation at the edge of his senses; it wasn't ki, but they had more than one cultivation technique seared into their brains medium well. Of the myriad of techniques aflush in his mind, the Ostrich Oscillation wasn't something most would consider practicing.

Techniques were the bread and butter for ki users to project power. It was the mechanism to transform ki into something usable. At the initial stage of the prenatal realm, he could get one technique running, but it wouldn't leave any room for others. Performing a technique acclimatizes the body to it. Once he performed one in the initial stage of the prenatal realm, he couldn't just swap techniques. So should he gamble on the Ostrich Oscillation? That technique would allow him to detect energy in all forms, like an advanced ki sense gained from the initial realm.

"Wow, Dante, you are a freak of nature." Joseph, one of Vergil's former friend's said.

Vergil knew why an instant later. Dante's cultivation suddenly increased from the advanced to peak in the prenatal realm. That put him a half step away from being a natal realm cultivator. In essence, he would evolve from trash to trash in the eyes of Mandela, but compared to Vergil, Dante would become a demigod.

That was how these things worked. Cultivation was separated by stages and realms, with barriers between each realm that needed to be overcome to move into them. It seemed the first barrier for prenatal was knowledge and the needed energy.

Regarding knowledge, they all had information seared into their minds, or at least that was how Vergil felt. The energy was another barrier; without enough spirit energy, cultivating ki was counterproductive. Body cultivation was an option if they had something like a sci-fi healing pod. It took a lot of beatings and recovery in special mixtures to get anywhere in body cultivation. Vergil knew the mixtures and variations from prenatal to Naraka, over 9 realms and numerous stages and sub-realms divided the beginning from the end.

Of course, some locations could benefit body cultivation to get around the need for special herbs; maybe the water rolling into his shins had that effect. The problem was ki sense didn't tell him a thing, and it only advanced into true ki sense at the natal realm. Dante wouldn't know dick about the water either, which brought him back to Ostrich Oscillation.

Strategically speaking, it would be beneficial in the long run to know what energy is best to cultivate where. It would allow him to use the knowledge seared into his brain to the best of his ability. Of course, tactically speaking, it would be best to gain a movement technique like Spider Hands to climb up the wall and get out of the cell or telekinesis to pick the lock keeping them in the cell. The latter was only available after cultivating the mind, which was only available when certain types of energies were available.

He tried to calm down until a rusty door opened and closed. "A show of hands who are in the advanced stage," Dante said.

"No," Vergil said, and Dante smiled.

About a quarter of the group raised their hands, and Dante smiled.

Vergil sighed. "Next, you will say, show of hands who are in the intermediate realm," Vergil said, and about half raised their hands.

There were no splashing sounds, but he could feel several ki signatures moving closer to their location, stopping every few heartbeats.

Vergil stared at Dante, and the red light made the blonde man's eyes look demonically red. "A show of hands; how many are in the beginner ranks," Dante said, and all but himself raised their hands.

"It looks like I am the weakest member of the group," Vergil said.

"Don't look at it that way. I think you're more like the most expendable. Whatever is coming for us, you're going first. That way, no real loss if you die and we have to fight our way out. It's for the good of the group; why don't you show everyone how stoic you are." Dante said.

He activated the Ostrich Oscillation technique and felt an overabundance of psychic energy. There were sources of energy spilling out everywhere; all he had to do was cultivate at one of them. Massive wells of that same energy approached their cell, and then Dante had his arms.

Tentacles slithered into the cell, and Dante pushed him into them. He felt them quickly slither around his body, cold to the touch and grasping his head.

"I want this one." A feminine voice cried into his skull. Again, it was an effect of the Ostrich Oscillation he could intercept signals. In this case, he intercepted psionic communication. The information seared into his head translated into something besides shrieking that made his brain want to hemorrhage.

The door slid open, and he turned his head to see a floating 6ft tall squid girl with large black eyes, tentacles on her head that could be mistaken for hair, and a pink spot on her face that almost made up for a lack of nose. Her head was large and took up a lot of her body mass while her body was thin.

 

[Ultimatedaywriter]

Vergil stopped when his new owner Gwen pulled him outside on a telekinetic leash. The sight above froze him in place as sprays of seawater sprinkled on his face. A vast city towered above the lips of a vast swirling whirlpool of and above the moon half devoured by a tentacled monstrosity with innumerable eyes looked down at the world. Vergil could feel it like a storm on the horizon to his Ostrich Oscillation. Psychic energy expanded from it in waves blasting the ground and creating the phenomenon around him with its presence alone. The moon had turned red, with numerous crisscrossing tentacles stretching across its surface.

Even though he knew it wasn't his moon and this wasn't his earth, it hurt him to see the sight before him. His mind threatened to shut down, and it was worse than the toddler or even Mandela. Vergil started hyperventilating at the alien sight until a cold tentacle slithered over his eyes, blocking his vision.

He heard a strange crooning sound. "Don't look at it, little one. Follow me, and everything will be alright." The voice said.

Her words blasted his mind with a frequency of psychic energy threatening to shatter his psyche. It was too much too powerful for a mere human mind to withstand.

Vergil also realized there was power in it, the same psionic power he needed to cultivate the mind. Slowly he went through the motions while her tentacle covered his eyes. A string connected to his mind formed from ki and began rotating. Like a line of sticky silk, it captured the high radioactive particles like flies in a resin trap. The technique used qi to process the dangerous energy into something his brain could use. He slowly cultivated it while focusing on the image.

Some of the pain receded while whatever was in his stomach lurched up. He vomited his guts out on the ground. The alien creature waited calmly while he finished. He followed it over a bridge between skyscrapers on an upper level of a city stretching high in the air. Below there were other bridges and darkness; he couldn't see the streets below, even under the moon.

Another of the creatures walked by, followed by humans dressed in white with glazed-over eyes. They moved in unison in the monster's direction while the lights were on; no one was home. It was from the alien's communication. Every transmission contained mind-shattering psychic energy that destroyed the human mind. There weren't memories in the bodies because they had long since been destroyed.

"I can't believe I managed to find a resistant. My name is Gwen cutey. Can you say, Gwen?" The transmission declared while he struggled to cultivate the psychic attack.

"Don't tease the animal, Gwen; even resistant ones can't transmit their thoughts and eventually go serene. Your cousin had one since she was bronze rank and kept from destroying its mind until gold. Its mind was one of the most delicious she had ever eaten." A powerful voice said.

"I don't want to eat him; he's a pet," Gwen said.

At this point, he wasn't surprised. They were basically humanoid Illithids or mind flayers. He wasn't sure if they could read his thoughts or didn't bother to because he was that unworthy. Either way, it was good that they thought so little of him while he was too weak.

Vergil cycled his cultivation quickly and felt his head throb. He was already nearing his cultivation limit for the day, and he barely started. He needed to meditate and consolidate the energy if he wanted to survive.

They arrived at a vast building covered in statues made of gold of various mind flayers. Vergil could feel the wealth and opulence roll out of the room as he was led out of the lobby into a vast room covered in posters of different mind flayers, a holographic computer in the corner with various levels to the room along with an aquarium filled with various strange fish.

She stripped, bathed, and covered him in powder before pulling out a large pillow that was supposed to be his bed. Then she poured diced sponges all over the floor around him before patting his head with a tentacle. Afterward, she floated up, turned on a holographic computer, and started playing a game, leaving him in the corner of her room.

He had never felt more like a dog, but it was convenient for him. So Vergil sat on the pillow that he supposed would make a comfortable enough bed and closed his eyes.

Time flowed by while he consolidated his gains from a few transmissions from the creatures. He took the energy they shoved at him in communication and refined it. Slowly the energy stuck to the string he set to rotate around his mind began to drain away, and he felt his mental strength grow. He became more aware of the sheer information in the brand. He began reviewing techniques while his mental consolidation continued slowly.

After hours he felt his mind fully transform, and what felt like a bolt of electricity traveled through his system. Suddenly he entered the initial stage of the mind prenatal realm. He worked slowly with his ki and produced a second thread for mind cultivation.

…

His first week with Gwen was dull except for the occasional transmissions and mind-shattering information. The creatures called themselves Psions as far as translating their mental signals into something humans understood went. There were pockets of human resistance in places called the under city where gangs of wild humans roamed with Psion experiments, mutated animals, and mad Psions who abandoned the ways. The squids invaded the earth, and all human governments were destroyed. What little remained of human society had been subverted by the Psions or was too weak to bother destroying.

"I can't believe I finally have a human to listen to music with. A shame you can't tell me what it says." Gwen said as they listened to some classic rock together while he reviewed what mind techniques would prove the most beneficial.

At this point, with two threads of cultivation, her transmissions weren't harmful. But they weren't very effective for cultivation. A week of her transmissions wasn't enough to bring Vergil's mind cultivation from initial to intermediate.

She had also forgotten to feed him numerous times. Vergil's initial prenatal ki cultivation had barely kept him alive, and he was forced to cultivate spirit energy to keep himself alive. As a result, he lost weight, and what she did feed him wasn't exactly 5 stars. She fed him one protein bar every 4 days and sometimes remembered that he needed water. Rarely did she remember he needed fresh water and often gave him saltwater.

"I'm about to cultivate in the Far family ancestral leviathan vein. Do you want to come with me?" She held a protein bar over his head. "Jump up and down if you want to," Gwen said.

When he saw the bar, all thought of anything but getting the food he desperately needed left him. Vergil jumped and reached for it. She glowed in what he assumed was her version of chuckling and raised a hand. "Alright, stop, and I will give you the bar." Vergil stopped what he was doing.

She gave him the bar, and he bit into it furiously. "I think it's so funny you eat with the mouth on your face," Gwen said.

He finished the bar and wanted more. Vergil could see his ribs poking out and knew he was starving. She held up a silver helmet and placed it over his head. "Now keep that on; it will protect you from the leviathan vein's power.

…

A week later, he followed her into the Far clan building. Various Psions flew about, leading humans around while a group of Psions waited to meet with Gwen. They were the Far family, from what he understood, or representatives of the group. Psions with various different colorations stood in solidarity.

"Why are we letting her into our leviathan vein?" One of the younger Psions asked.

"She is that old General's grandniece. He pulled some strings for her because her family was too poor to have their own Leviathan vein. It's not like we were saving a spot for the Su clan and their lovely heiress. Did you hear Su Courtney was spawned in the bronze rank?"

"That is the kind of genius we need to offer our leviathan vein to not this trash from clan out of favor. They would be no better than a merchant-class clan if not for the General. I heard she searched for that human herself and even found a resistant."

"I heard if you grow them with transmission and devour them when you reach gold, it will ease your cultivation into the Diamond realm. Not like Feng Gwen will reach silver in a century with her talent. Maybe we can offer her extra time in the leviathan vein for him."

Vergil didn't like the gossip even as he greedily cultivated the energy from the transmissions. Two strings allowed him to subvert twice as many transmissions, even in the clunky silver helmet. As a result, he could actively investigate packets of energy moving back and forth between Psions.

He felt that a little more would bring him into the intermediate stage of the prenatal realm of mind cultivation.

"It is customary when offered a great boon like another family's Leviathan vein to offer a gift in return. Nothing too valuable like the human at your side." One of the voices said.

"Far Fang, I already brought a gift of equivalent value to a human." From a ring on one of her fingers, Gwen pulled a bag of clinking stones and tossed it at the feet of the Far family representatives. "20 deep pearls would buy you 20 humans that gives you a 0.02% chance to find a resistant," Gwen said.

"Oh, you are too kind. Is this all you have left after purchasing humans? What number did you start with, 21?" One of the representatives said.

Vergil collected every scrap of psychic energy he could manage.

"I am favored by fortune; perhaps you will be so lucky," Gwen said as she slid a tentacle from below her waist around his neck to rest on his shoulder.

A gasp of transmissions ran through the representatives as what Vergil could only assume was a scandalous act. He had to question if the act was sexual in nature or a social mistake, like eating with the wrong fork at a fancy party.

Vergil felt his two threads of cultivation fill up completely from the transmissions, and a rumbling echoed through his mind.

He cultivated quickly, bringing himself from the initial stage to the intermediate. That meant he could hold two mind techniques. Then, all he had to do was focus on what he needed to extend his cultivation because, apparently, they were about to enter closed-door cultivation in something called a leviathan vein.

They were led to a room with 20 humans with glazed-over eyes. Nothing was going on upstairs, and he understood something horrible was about to happen. Gwen glowed before looking at him.

"If you can understand me, please turn around and cover your ears. I don't want you to see what I'm about to do. Trust me, you don't want to see it either. But it is my nature." Gwen said.

What did he think was going to happen? He knew what she was the entire time, but knowing and seeing it were two different things. When he turned around, he felt her release the transmission equivalent of a sigh.

Even when his eyes weren't facing her, his ki sense filled in the picture for his intermediate prenatal mind. The more he cultivated his mind, his ki sense expanded, and information came in more clearly. Even without seeing what was happening with his own two eyes, he could see it in his mind and piece the image into an approximation of reality. Ostrich Oscillation improved the image with its ability to cycle through various energy frequencies and return information.

Vergil covered his ears but failed to block out the sounds of dozens of tentacles below Gwen's waist, wrapping around a man and bringing his shaved head to the beak in the center of lower tentacles. The hard beak opened wide and bit through the skull of Gwen's first victim. It at least happened fast. Her tongue slurped up the brains of the first victim before dropping the flailing body. After the first victim, the look on her face was rapturous. Then she moved on to the others.

Ultimately they were two very different creatures, and relying on her might not be a good idea.

 

[Ultimatedaywriter]

Vergil lacked the killer instinct Dante possessed.

He felt that more than ever when he cowered as Gwen consumed victim after victim. He always shrugged his shoulders when hearing about tragedies and tried to act stoically. They were distant, and he couldn't really affect it one way or the other. But, being in the room, listening, and feeling it was different.

She was beautiful in a way, a horrifying predator wrapping her tentacles around her victims before ripping them apart with her beak. Each tendril was coordinated to apply the right amount of pressure before her beak delivered a death blow. Then a long prehensile tongue scooped the brains out of her victim before dropping the corpse to spasm.

His stomach flipped, and his latest protein bar fell on the floor. Vergil didn't have a weak stomach, or he could have ignored things. Ki sense stole his leaving him with an awareness that wouldn't go away.

Worse, he understood the brand that seared his mind also gave him terrible knowledge of cultivation. There was no better filter to search through techniques than to witness one.

Seeing her do the things she did and understanding it was a mind freak. Vergil saw it for what it was a body cultivation technique. The brains contained the vital energy from the bodies that Gwen and other psions used to strengthen themselves for further cultivation.

While it was biological, the act had a purpose that he couldn't hide away from in ignorance. Vergil knew exactly why she did it and couldn't hate her for it. But, on the other hand, knowing the uncomfortable truth was hell.

The 20 people in the room were brain dead. It was a requirement for the specific technique she was using to strengthen her body. Whoever set it up had skimped out on the bodies. 20 was insufficient to give her the vital energy needed to cultivate much further. In other words, their lives were spent for almost no reason. Someone was playing a cruel prank on Gwen, giving her only enough resources to skirt the line of cultivation in the Leviathan vein.

He hated knowing the brand wouldn't let him wallow in ignorance of cultivation. It was filled with endless techniques, languages, and lore with barely a filter until he encountered something. The powerful tool branded to his brain did its job well enough to make him sympathize with the monster eating the brains of his fellow humans.

"Don't hate me for what I must do," Gwen said.

It wasn't quite an order; he could practically taste the slightly greater power in those psychic transmissions. This transmission had a lighter tone meant to soothe him with its graceful frequency. After living with Gwen for a month, he felt no hatred for her.

At first, he tried to feel angry at how she treated him, but her minders used humans as dumb labor and snacks. He had seen humans take out the corpses to be recycled often enough. Vergil also learned something interesting. The parental units were Silver rank and living off of Gwen's wealth.

Otherwise, Gwen should have been able to afford far more human sacrifices than 20 in preparation for cultivation in a leviathan vein.

Vergil took hold of his psychic power and thought about it. He needed to take what he learned from watching her and the information the brand gave him to streamline his cultivation. In other words, he needed to body cultivate. Only body cultivation was difficult in worlds suited to the act. Psychic techniques might not be very suited for helping body cultivation.

Psychic techniques followed two categories Communication and Manifestation. Those two categories could extend into many subcategories; they either used psychic energy to communicate in some way or used it to affect the greater world.

There was a subcategory that blended the two called Avatar. In a sense, he would communicate to a higher being and offer it his psychic power to perform an action. Knowing what he needed, narrowed down the techniques from millions to tens of thousands. He also needed a technique to produce a substance that could help his body refine. That narrowed the list of techniques down to the hundreds. Then he needed a technique that he could use at his current intermediate stage prenatal mind cultivation. That left three, and then he needed something that wouldn't be noticed. And that left him with Black Goat's Embryo. It took up one of the two slots he had for psychic techniques after reaching the intermediate stage of mind cultivation.

For the second skill, he chose something to damage his body enough for the Black Goat's Embryo to help him. He selected Burst, a technique that needed to drill tiny apertures in the body for psi or psychic energy to flow through him to enhance body telekinesis.

Gwen placed her tentacles on his shoulders, and their eyes met. Galaxies spanned her eyes made of tiny blown flex amid a sea of green. She rubbed his shoulders with her head tentacles and brought him closer to her face.

"You must be careful when we enter the leviathan vein. Any of your actions could anger a powerful member of the Far Clan. They won't hesitate to eat you." Gwen said.

"Like you care," Vergil said through transmission.

She pushed him away for a second in shock.

"You can talk. I thought humans could only make grunts with their mouths. Not true communication like one of the people. There have been many experiments for hundreds of years in our history. Before we colonized the planet, we made sure you were only non-psionic animals." Gwen said, and she didn't seem okay at all with what she had just learned.

Suddenly it seemed that they weren't quite as monstrous as he originally feared, and that opened so many cans of worms.

"I don't think anyone else can," Vergil said.

It was to make her feel better. Anyone who came over could cultivate the mind if they decided to. Knowing how to cultivate and taking on the techniques needed to make it viable to mind cultivate from psychic transmissions were two different things. There were only so many slots open for valuable techniques.

Vergil had chosen the one he had for adaptability. It wasn't the strongest animal that survived, but the one that could adapt to most environments. So case and point, Vergil adapted to cultivate the mind easier and learned techniques to body cultivate and streamline mind cultivation since they were entering into a leviathan vein. It was basically an ore in the ground that radiated psychic energy.

"Resistance, of course, must have been the first step to evolve for cultivation. And we have been eating your kind to make leaping into the diamond realm easier. I think I'm going to be sick." Gwen said.

She twisted her lower tentacles into a corkscrew giving him an idea for his cultivation set aside for later.

"So about the leviathan vein," Vergil said.

Gwent straightened up and relaxed her tentacles slowly.

"We spent a week together, and I've told you private things that no one should know," Gwen said and puffed up to make herself seem more threatening.

"The conversations between friends aren't for the ears of others," Vergil said.

She pointed a tentacle at him before shrinking back.

Vergil coughed into his hand after disarming that bomb.

"Human grunts are so weird; why don't you sing everything? Like in some of the colorful moving pictures, people sing, and it's beautiful. Then you ruin it with grunting the rest of the show." Gwen said.

Her observations felt entirely too hurtful to him, but he could work with her.

Did she only watch musicals?

"When we get back to my room, you are transmitting what those songs mean," Gwen said.

He didn't like being told what to do. It made him feel like being rebellious no matter what Gwen said. But, of course, there were still bodies on the floor, and he was alone with a very dangerous alien. His only way out of this place was to find the sarcophagus; he had no idea where to begin searching for it. Except Gwen was a resource.

She had enough standing to get close to the Far family's Leviathan vein. While he didn't have much of a handle on what being wealthy meant to psions, leviathan veins seemed to be an indicator.

Gwen captured her bearing and straightened up. "Do you have a cultivation technique?" She started spinning around in the air. "Of course, you don't; that was insensitive of me. You're a burgeoning psychic from a race that communicated through grunting. No matter how advanced your tools, the lack of basic mind-to-mind communication made you animals. Sapient life must at least be able to communicate through mental communication to be considered above animals. I can't give you my technique because it isn't built for a human psychic. My human anatomy isn't great, but how many brains do humans have." Gwen asked.

"One, but it is powerful," Vergil said.

"I'm sure it is, dear, but I have 31 specialized brains, three managerial brains, and a central brain directing everything. So my cultivation technique will not work for you." Gwen said.

Her tone was incredibly condescending but not wrong; her kind had multiple minds for their various tentacles.

"I have something that has worked so far," Vergil said.

She patted him on the shoulder and pulled him closer to her body.

"What do you know of the leviathan vein?" Gwen asked.

"Isn't it a rock that irradiates psi?" Vergil said.

He didn't bother to feign ignorance. After trusting her far enough to communicate, he might as well go for broke.

"Yes, but not what I meant. Do you know where they're located?" Vergil shook his head.

He assumed the Far clan stored them in a room somewhere. That would make sense since they were treasures.

"They are in pocket dimensions created by the generation of their psychic power. Eldritch horrors would quickly overrun the planet if they were stored in the clan. So instead, we tie them to pocket dimensions to safely store their valuable energies in places we can access that aren't disastrous to our civilization. Along with the veins, there are often other precious treasures like herbs, stones, and eldritch abominations with rare abilities. Unfortunately, we are about to spend 6 months there, and I have no allies." Gwen said.

"You have me," Vergil said.

"Do I after what I've just shown you?" Gwen said.

Vergil gave the bodies a good look. Men and women were shaved bald and brought out like cows to the slaughter to be food. Some still twitching their skulls were open cans with their contents sucked out. It was evil; if he could call anything that, then it was the callous death of 20 humans as cultivation aids. Worse, they were insufficient to do much more than enhance her chances of a breakthrough by 15% from what his brand told him. It was a waste, and he should hate her.

"Yes," he lacked Dante's killer instinct, but she clearly didn't. So maybe he needed a callous predator on his side. From her, maybe he could change and adopt her killer instinct.

She wrapped him in her tentacles and hugged him tightly while gliding. "What are you doing?" Vergil asked.

"This is how a senior holds a junior. You're so warm, and your heartbeat is weird. Do you only have one?" Gwen asked.

"Yes," Vergil said.

"What about in your gills? I've noticed you don't refresh yourself in oxygenated water often. I assumed humans were like us and only needed to wet their gills every 30 to 40 hours." Gwen said.

He gave her a horrified look. Did the psions not care about their human servants that much? Humans studied everything they could about dogs and cows for comparison to better keep them healthy.

"I am joking, mostly. I know humans have lungs; they are semi-aquatic and use tools to travel in environments they are ill-equipped to handle. It's why your kind prefers the wet depths of the undercity." Gwen said.

"Let's get to that leviathan vein and cultivate. I would rather not discuss how wrong you are." Vergil said.

Gwen looked at the bodies and used her body to block the sight. "Well, no time like the present. I only ask that you act like a resistant for now unless you want to expose yourself and see where the moons lay." Gwen said.

Vergil decided to follow her lead.

"Gwen, I thought you were only going to cultivate for a month," Vergil said.

"Time flows six times faster in the Leviathan Vein dimension. It's why I brought 24 protein bars for you." Gwen said.

 

[Ultimatedaywriter]

It was important to remember that the objective was the sarcophagus and not the leviathan vein.

Together they entered a swirling portal with groups of psions with legions of human slaves, the two of them against the world. But unfortunately, Gwen didn't have anyone among the nobles to rely on, leaving Vergil to help pick up the slack.

One at a time, a transmission was called, bringing a group through with them at the back.

"Remember, when they send the transmission, don't respond. I will move forward and send a transmission to you. Don't send any transmissions yourself until we are through the gate and out of sight of the golds and diamonds of the Far clan.

Vergil understood he really did. Revealing his existence as a potential psychic could unbalance the current state of psion society. They were a people with morals and ethics and certain lines they didn't like to cross without very good reasons. Their republic of Neptune was named after the Roman god of the sea to honor the human societies they destroyed. Even if humans were considered animals to them, humans were at least highly sophisticated animals.

If he hadn't seen Gwen go through 20 humans like a bunch of happy meals, he might even believe it. But, unfortunately, reality didn't care about ethics or ideals, and people with power made up excuses to keep it all the time. So if he wanted to survive, he needed to lay low and grind out his cultivation.

As their name was called, he turned his head and saw Tyson, the powerlifting state champion, back in high school. The man looked good and terrible at the same time. Vergil could see the lights in the man's eyes dying out, but his body remained incredibly powerful. 10 years out of high school, the man looked like he could bench press a car, and with cultivation, he probably could.

Tyson hadn't helped or pushed Vergil towards the gate when Gwen came. Vergil was thankful for being out of there and away from his past. It was why he left and never returned, but somehow, it all returned to him.

For old times' sake, Dante and Clay played a little prank on him, giving him flashbacks to the past. He couldn't let it go; if he didn't reconcile it, it would become an inner demon.

Clay was dead, so that left Dante.

Tyson was also someone he had a past with if more cordial. He wanted to apologize for not keeping in touch and being a friend. Letting friendships die on the vine was something he had done too often in life. Maybe he could help Tyson protect his mind if it wasn't too late. Only the gold and diamond rank psions would notice if he sent a transmission.

Vergil gave Tyson a look and decided he could last a bit longer. Once Tyson was himself again, Vergil would hit him for not helping.

He couldn't help but wonder if Dante was still in the cell or if he had escaped somehow. Peak prenatal was strong, but he didn't know how much punishment a psion could take.

"That's us; let's go through and head west. If my map is correct, that should lead us to a system of caves in the more dangerous side of the dimension. All the safe veins will have already been claimed by the Far and Su clan members that went through before us." Gwen said.

Gwen floated forward, and he followed her, careful to keep close and avoid the tentacles of hungry gold or diamond psions. Vergil saw them stretching dozens of feet with tentacles almost grazing the ground. He saw one brain-dead slave get taken and couldn't risk that happening to him.

They shot through the portal, and Vergil had no idea which direction was west but followed Gwen. He could feel her unique psi signature. His Ostrich Oscillation skill continued to pay dividends. But that wasn't all; there were vital energy sources all over the place.

Gwen grabbed him with her lower tentacles, and he nearly freaked out before her hands grabbed him. "We will find a cave and quickly set up a base of operations. Don't stray far from my side; there are many predators in the area." Gwen said.

The second she said that a 6ft tall chimp with three eyes, silver fur, and tentacles flowing from its back climbed up from a rocky alcove. Vergil heard the rush of water down below as it hit the tide before the ape screamed and rushed on all fours. Chimps were 4 to 5 times stronger than the average human and could rip a man's face off, and they bite.

That very important information flew through his mind as the chimp leaped at him, arms grasping forward, and Gwen flew out of reach.

He tried to feel what was going on with her, but there was only panic. Vergil activated burst on instinct since the technique had been learned and felt his psychic energy burn little holes in his skin, and he punched out.

Vergil was already leaning back away from the blow when he swung, and Vergil's punch only had enough power to move the animal's head back a little. He hit the ground, and it bit into his shoulder. Vergil's initial punch knocked off the animal's aim slightly.

He swung with all his might; pain from the bite, the technique, and fear had brought out more strength than he would normally have. The ape tumbled back, ripping a chunk out of Vergil's chest while the cultivator screamed.

"Dante, I hate you." He screamed the words in his mind before transmitting them to the beast.

It stumbled back from the sudden transmission. Vergil poured more power into it. "I hate you," Vergil screamed from his mind, and the ape cringed like it had been struck before he threw a running punch.

Blood spurted from his wound with his heartbeat, but Vergil hadn't let go of the Burst technique, and the pain and blood loss was making him crazy. That's why he punched the monkey in the face. It stumbled back half a step and looked more bewildered that Vergil had punched it than anything.

"Hate," Vergil yelled as he delivered a second blow.

The chimp's head barely moved before it swiped with its hand. Vergil felt a tooth crack and went sprawling. It laughed at him while it ran up and slapped him again. Vergil grabbed a rock as he fell from the latest slap and smashed it against the ape's face repeatedly with everything he had.

It struggled at first while he bashed it with the really hard rock.

Vergil stumbled back from the gore he left behind and put pressure on the wound in his chest before focusing on the image to activate the Black Goat's Embryo technique. As it drained what remained of his psi away, he felt slime cover his body and fill the new apertures covering his body.

As the warm liquid manifested on his skin from the summoning, he felt better. The method of body refinement he chose was a little unorthodox, but it felt like he might survive thanks to it.

"I'm sorry," Gwen said.

"Everyone gets scared. Did you see that guy?" Vergil said.

"If I had fought him, you wouldn't have been hurt," Gwen said.

Vergil felt the warm liquid sink inside him while he cultivated vital energy. It felt almost like a warm shower.

He stood up, took off the remnants of his shirt, and tossed it aside. While the confrontation hadn't gotten him to the initial realm, it was in the right direction. There were ki techniques to turn the corpses of defeated enemies into pills, but he needed to reach the natal realm before he had access to them. But there was something he could take from the monster. So he reached into the blood and gore and pulled out a tiny black stone.

"A Void Pearl contains mysterious energy needed for cultivating gold rank psions to diamond. One of them is worth 100 deep pearls." Gwen said.

"Then why aren't the golds hunting them to extinction?" Vergil asked.

"Dimensions that hold leviathan veins have restrictions to keep monsters stronger than silver at bay. Unfortunately, those same restrictions also limit a gold's power. So while they could kill a few apes, it is more efficient to trade deep pearls for them than to come here themselves. There is also the risk of dying from the ape's fangs." She used two sticks to lift a pair of pitch-black fangs. "If this had bitten me, I would have died slowly and withered away. You seem fine even though humans should take a bite even worse than my kind, and why are you wet." Gwen said.

"I have a body refinement technique that also heals my body," Vergil said. "Can't you project a shield or something to protect yourself from the fangs?"

"Are you secretly from a human cultivation clan? Never mind, don't answer that. Very few clans have access to those techniques, and they guard them jealously," Gwen said.

Vergil searched for a good mental technique that she could use that would protect her whole body and transmitted it.

"Here, guard it jealously, and don't let any of those Far clan assholes get it," Vergil said.

She went still before pulling him into a hug with lots of tentacles. He spat out a mouthful of blood and realized his ribs were still a little on the cracked side.

"Sorry, where did you get it. This technique will work for me; all I have to do is mirror it to one of my managerial brains, and it will connect it to activate automatically with my sub-brains. It looks simple but efficient. While I have psi, those apes won't be able to hurt me." Gwen said.

Vergil coughed out another mouthful of blood when she squeezed him harder.

"If you like it so much, then do me a favor and find us someplace to rest for the night," Vergil said.

"Is that really all you want. Somehow I thought you would want to kiss me or play with my tentacles." Gwen said.

When he searched the void pearl with his technique, he found a tiny trace of spirit energy. Even a tiny amount could help his ki cultivation. However, if he wanted to get really strong, he needed hundreds of them. He needed to cultivate his body and ki up to the peak stage to get the most out of a leviathan vein. That would allow him to jump to the natal realm and give him room for more techniques. Every stage gave him room for techniques, but only mind cultivation would allow Vergil to get the most out of the brand.

"Are there any other items like these that golds need?" Vergil said.

"We are here to cultivate, not search for treasure. Cultivating by a Leviathan vein is worth hundreds of years of cultivation in the outside world. Vergil, I'm silver; my foster parents are silver; only my uncle managed to break through the bottleneck." Gwen said.

This was about her family's honor. Vergil didn't understand, but he could help her out. Before they found a vein, he needed to hunt the apes and grind away at his cultivation.

After a lot of searching, they found a defensible cave with a high ceiling for her. When they entered, she immediately went to work pushing her tentacles through each and every crack in search for a hint of a leviathan vein.

Vergil cycled Ostrich Oscillation and found what he thought was one of the veins. It felt like a nuclear power plant dumping constant bursts of psi into the air. Unfortunately, the energy it outputted wasn't close enough to use his ki strings to cultivate. His three strings reached out but couldn't quite get to it.

Between them and the geyser of psychic energy were nasty creatures with what he could call cores of spiritual energy. They were tiny powerful things that he desperately needed if only his body wasn't in rough shape. Of course, he would have to finish healing before going hunting.

 

[Ultimatedaywriter]

Vergil hovered slowly towards Gwen's waiting tentacles while Hank Williams Jr played in the background. It was a tradeoff; she taught him to use basic telekinesis to hover while he translated the song.

He lost control of his levitation and hit his head on a rock as he dropped 6ft. He hated translating songs; because there were too many questions.

Pain had become his friend in the hours before dawn while he tried to sneak in body refinement. Vergil felt that if he managed to get to the initial realm, then his strength could match up easier against the ape.

What would have killed him not long ago only gave him a headache. Vergil used Black Goat's Embryo while lying on the ground, letting the soothing liquid treat his wounds. It was his most used technique besides Ostrich Oscillation. If he continued using it, the technique would naturally evolve with his cultivation. Eventually, he might be able to manifest a portion of the Black Goat Shub-Niggurath as an avatar. It was a summoning technique that was considered almost castle-like in its abilities.

"Why do humans drink this whisky? Does it improve body cultivation?" Gwen asked.

She liked to compare what he translated to her own people's values. If an action wasn't beneficial for cultivation, it was considered bad by the elders of her society. A fascination with humanity's preconquest culture made Gwen a Hippy.

It honestly made her feel like less of a brain-devouring monster.

"I'm not dead, thanks for asking," Vergil said.

"Oh, is whisky a taboo subject to discuss with outsiders. Then why is it in your music?" Gwen asked.

"I could be hurt," Vergil said.

"The steady frequency of your transmissions who evidence of the opposite. But is your noggin ok? Do you want me to kiss it like human parental units do in films?" Gwen asked.

He imagined her beak smashing his skull open in an attempt to kiss him and shook his head.

"I'm not hurt. Why don't you keep searching for a leviathan vein while I hunt something to eat?" Vergil said.

"Those apes roam in troops, and we have only been here for a few days; what's the rush? There is music to listen to. I'm making progress in my understanding of human culture." Gwen said.

"Whisky is something humans drink to get drunk or forget about emotional pain," Vergil said.

"So it's recreational and medicine," Gwen said.

"No, I wouldn't call it medicine," Vergil said and licked the crack in his tooth. It had gotten worse and needed to come out. His mouth felt like a mess; he didn't know if he wanted to tangle with the apes again.

Last time he barely survived one, and while he could talk a good game with Gwen, he still had flashbacks of the fight. The night before, he had a nightmare about it, and Gwen decided to hold him all night. It was emasculating.

The apertures made by his Burst technique still hurt even as he used his healing technique to soothe them. Raw pain still shot through his body when he moved the wrong way. He probably needed days to heal fully from them at his current rate. So instead, he decided to jump off the cliff and hope there weren't too many rocks on the bottom.

Initial stage prenatal ki cultivation and intermediate stage mind cultivation had increased his strength to a ridiculous degree. Each type of cultivation built off the other, drastically improving his body over time. If he waited and let time and steady progress in cultivation work its crazy magic, he would be ridiculously powerful in no time. But like the leviathan veins, there was a resource he absolutely needed.

Void pearls increased his ki cultivation. Holding one in his hand gave a 25% increase in the spirit energy of heaven and earth he could cultivate. So, what if he had hundreds or thousands. Like the leviathan vein with mind cultivation, a large number of void pearls could give him hundreds of times his normal progress.

He left the cave and headed to the smallest source of the void pearls. Three apes lounged around a campfire roasting a fish. He followed their void pearls like a moth to a flame. He coveted them for the power they promised when he gathered enough of them.

Burst activated, and he felt a rush of psychic power increase his physical strength. At the same time, more apertures were drilled through his body. He floated a few inches off the ground in his approach. It's hard to hear his footsteps when there are none.

This time the rock was already in his hand. He planned to kill the first one before laying into the other two. Then, he would eat the fish before cultivating with their void pearls.

He could scarcely imagine a 100% increase in his ki cultivation speed. It was a shame that after 6 hours, the pearls he used to cultivate would dissolve.

Vergil got in close and smashed the rock down on the ape's head once, and the others screamed before the second blow crushed bone. He threw the dead ape at the other before the third ape tackled him in the side.

He couldn't allow the monster to put him on his stomach. That would take away all his offense and put him squarely on defense. But, on the other hand, it would have also protected his vital organs. Fortunately, he didn't let go of the rock.

The chunk of granite in his hand bashed against the ape's ear with the power of his trinity of cultivations. It stumbled before opening its mouth and lunching with its massive black canines. Vergil threw his arm in the path of the bite as the other one rushed him. He threw the rock with all his might hitting the ape in the face as pain lanced up his arm. It gripped his arm with both hands and shook its face delivering a savage bite.

Vergil grabbed the side of its head to stop it from doing more damage and ruptured its eye with his thumb. Then he poked in deep, stabbing into the ape's brain. That's when he felt the rock he threw smash into his face. Four of his front teeth broke along with his nose.

He managed to move the stunned ape on top of him into the second swing to shield himself. However, the hit pushed his thumb well into the ape's brain, sending it into death throws. The other ape dropped the rock, grabbed Vergil's hand hanging out of the dying ape's mouth, and bit one of Vergil's fingers.

The bone split before he lost it in the ape's mouth. He saw the ape swallow it before Vergil removed his hand from the dead ape's eye socket and found the ape's balls. It howled and tried to pry Vergil off them while Vergil threw off the dead ape's bite. Then, with a second hand free, he pulled down on the ape and used his elbow to get up to a knee.

Blood didn't pour out of his arm; thanks to taking the embedded canine with him, it still spurted out of his finger stump. Vergil let go of the ape's testicles after crushing them into gore and clapped the ape's ears. Then, while it was dazed, Vergil found the rock and began beating the monster to death.

Once the ape was dead, he ripped open its throat, grabbed its esophagus, and began pulling out its innards while using sharp rocks to cut when needed. Vergil felt around the ape's stomach and found the finger.

All the while, he kept burst going for the pain and anger. He needed it so he wouldn't panic over losing a finger. Vergil didn't want to know what he looked like at this point. Five teeth were broken, his nose was crooked, and he lost a finger. The fight couldn't have lasted longer than a minute or two, but it felt like more.

He found its finger and pressed it against his still bleeding stump before dropping burst and activating Black Goat's Embryo.

Vergil felt the finger stick to his stump and held it in place while he stared at the fish still on the spit over the fire. His stomach rumbled, and he felt the vital energy in the fish. Eating it would definitely help his body refinement.

He felt himself charge toward the initial stage of prenatal body refinement. After getting his ass handed to him in most of the fight, he started recovering. An odd sensation passed through his finger before the feeling began to return. Vergil let go of the digit, moved to the cooked fish, and took a bite.

After weeks of protein bars, it was the sweetest thing he had ever tasted. Vital energy flooded his veins, and it felt like a weight he always carried but never noticed lightened by a tiny fraction. Strength surged to his limbs as he crossed the first barrier into the initial stage.

It was the fight.

That much was obvious in retrospect. It was the deciding factor that let Vergil reach the initial stage of the prenatal realm.

He lifted his hand, snapped his nose back into place, and felt tears roll down the corners of his eyes. Then, after eating every bite of fish, he removed the void pearls from the bodies and moved on; there were more monsters to fight.

If he ever wanted to see his home again, he had to get strong and search the entire world for the sarcophagus.

With his increased strength, he was able to hunt the apes easier. He started using his mind more than as a punching bag for the apes that got a lucky swipe in. Vergil hovered a little over a group and threw a rock to get one to separate from the others. Once they were apart, he beat them to death with his rock before hovering over their heads and attacking those who investigated. Sometimes he wiped out troops of 10 or more like that.

Vergil rested and recovered his psi when he knew no apes were around. His energy detection technique proved invaluable time and time again. He wouldn't risk taking a rest out in the open without knowing where the enemy was.

Before sundown, he returned to the cave, but Gwen was gone. With her cultivation at the silver rank and shield technique, there shouldn't be anything that could hurt her. So, he cultivated with 150 for 6 hours and barely edged into the intermediate stage of the prenatal realm. Of course, he wouldn't have made it that far without the sheer number of void pearls. In a sense, he spent the equivalent of 15000 human lives for a little more than 9 days' worth of constant cultivation.

Cultivating on the giant's shelf for 10 minutes was worth all the concentrated cultivation with the pearls. That was without using void pearls there to accelerate cultivation even more. He didn't know how much time Dante and the others had to cultivate, but it couldn't have been long. That meant Vergil was much further behind than he thought.

With two of his three forms of cultivation in the intermediate stage of the prenatal realm, he felt much better. In addition, two technique slots were available, and he felt comfortable enough to advance his mind cultivation into the advanced stage of the prenatal realm.

This comfort only lasted until he opened his eyes and didn't see Gwen. It was starting to get dark, and she wasn't back yet. So instead, Vergil concentrated on his Ostrich Oscillation and felt its range stretch further after increasing his cultivation by a stage. He felt the familiar aura of her silver-ranked psi next to three other psions, dozens of humans, and Tyson.

She wasn't moving, which was odd, and she was near a Leviathan vein but not close enough to cultivate. That meant she was trying to bargain for its use or was captured for some reason. Vergil couldn't help but wonder if he could kill one of them with a rock.

 

[Ultimatedaywriter]

What was the killer instinct Vergil wanted? Was it the will to move forward or the ambition to see his will done? Or was it an excuse he gave for his lack of progress toward his dreams? Fighting had begun to help him understand that someone was holding him back in life, but it wasn't Dante.

Returning home might be a distant dream, but it was all he had to grasp, so he would hold it with both hands.

Before he could dive into that, he had to get Gwen back. To that end, he left the safety of their hideout and walked toward the leviathan vein he had sensed before. Many were in the dimension from what he could sense with Ostrich Oscillation. However, he only knew their general direction by how much diamond-rank psi they radiated.

Finding Gwen wasn't hard; she left traces of her psi everywhere she passed. Like chemtrails from a jet, he could clearly follow her trail. Vergil followed her into a valley between cave systems. Lightning crackled all around the area, blasting rocks apart. Heavy, angry stars lit magenta overhead, filling a dark world with enough light to see. Shadows danced over barren rocks; there was no vegetation outside the local saltwater lakes.

Behind the thunder, Vergil listened to the steady rhythm of drum beats. They were the kind used to keep a marching army in line, and suddenly he felt alert and awake.

Rain fell, and he opened his mouth up at the sky and tried to get a drink before spitting on the ground. Saltwater, it seemed he needed to find alternate ways to slake his thirst. It had been a while since he had a drop of fresh water. If not for his cultivation, he would be in a much worse state.

Vergil followed Gwen's trail across a valley to a distant cave. It was the path he needed to take to get to her. If he was right leviathan veins were at the end of the cave system.

Before he could make much headway, three of the largest troops of apes he had ever seen rushed down into the valley wielding clubs and dressed in makeshift armor. There were hundreds of them, perhaps thousands.

Vergil stood tall with his hands at his side, ready for anything. The storage ring Gwen gave him itched to be filled on his finger.

After reaching the initial stage of body cultivation, he was taller than the 6ft tall apes. So body cultivation increased height, which was the best thing ever; if it also increased dick size, he could go into business.

The fake penis enlargement pill business was a multi-million dollar industry he could control with a little fight club and body cultivation. He could sell the liquid produced from Black Goat's Embryo as a wonder drug and make a fortune.

Vergil let the business idea slip by him as he cleared his mind for the fight ahead. His strategy was to reach the cave on the other side of the valley. It was something to look forward to when he made it out.

He held his smashing rock in his right hand and shot toward the closest group. After reaching the initial stage of the prenatal realm in body refinement, he had become much tougher. He hit the first ape-like a wrecking ball, plowing through their numbers for once stronger than them individually.

Burst was held in his back pocket; he would get hurt enough in the fight to further his body refinement. Moreover, the technique would sap his limited psi, and he would need it all for healing.

Once the moment of his charge stalled, Vergil crushed the skull of the nearest ape with his rock before taking the club out of its hand. Vergil threw himself back from the rushing troops and gripped the club with both hands. With mind and ki cultivation in the intermediate, his body cultivation was lagging behind, and he needed to kill them all quickly.

Gwen needed him, so he moved quickly, smashing apes even as he got as much as he gave. Clubs broke his ribs, bruised his muscles, and slowed him down. Black Goat's Embryo worked overtime even as he fought, keeping him in the action as he waged war on an army.

He swung his club, tore the head off one ape, punched a hole through another's throat, and caved in another skull with a return stroke. Vergil fought, never staying in one place for more than a heartbeat before moving to dismantle more of the apes.

Bodies of the apes piled up 20 high before he lost movement in one of his arms. The muscles in his arm had become so warn they he couldn't lift it anymore. His other arm wasn't much better, and he could barely lift a club anymore. Popped blisters covered his feet while he struggled to move against an army of hundreds of apes.

The psi he relied on to power the Black Goat's Embryo was running out, giving him a chronic headache. Even his ki was running low after he figured out channeling would increase damage from his blows. All his resources were tapped, and he was on the decline.

Blood covered his body from head to toe from numerous injuries. Hundreds of scars from lucky hits, scratches, and bites pulled at his skin painfully. Vergil, weakened, wounded, and surrounded, came to a realization.

He felt alive.

A horde of apes taller and stronger than the others charged over the pile of corpses rushing him.

Vergil tried to smile, but it hurt too much, even through the adrenaline shooting through his system. He shot forward, leaped in the air, and stepped on the ape's head. He jumped high in the air and used levitation to float like how Gwen taught him.

The apes quickly threw their clubs at him, but he had already reached a height they couldn't hit. Levitation was an important technique to have. It allowed Vergil to make a strategic retreat. He looked in the storage ring Gwen gave him and found around 500 Void Pearls. It wasn't a bad hall.

Using his Ostrich Oscillation, he picked out a cave nearby and rested there. His body and ki cultivation each had empty slots for techniques. So far, he had techniques for detection, recovery, and increased damage.

Gwen was still in danger, so it would be best to take measures to get close enough to help her.

He looked through body refinement techniques and chose one that went with his eldritch horror theme he had going on with Black Goat's Embryo. Nyarlathotep's Flesh boasted the greatest shapeshifting ability for himself and others at higher cultivation realms. It was ideal for infiltration and a little bit of fun.

Vergil chose the technique over the ki technique transformation, face of clay, or mask of many faces. The best part was that he had already summoned a part of what he needed. After he drew the needed symbols with a rock and dumped 100 void pearls in its center, the rest was easy. They vanished before his eyes, and a tiny dark speck of flesh appeared in its place.

While healing and infiltration didn't have much to do with each other besides the eldritch theme, at later levels, he could become something like a shapeshifting healing tank. Of course, cultivation didn't really care about builds, except it did unless the mc was concerned.

It was meta to think about, but there were hundreds of trillions of different builds from his technique lists alone, with 12 techniques available in every realm. While that sounded like a lot to keep up with, there were bound to be techniques he wouldn't use very often. Those he didn't use wouldn't be as powerful as those he did. But an MC always ended up as a sword-wielding Daoist. Clearly, he wasn't an MC.

Vergil touched the speck of flesh and felt it melt into his skin. The bonding process was seamless when he thought it would be extremely painful.

A moment after the black flesh entered his body, he started screaming. The pain wasn't in the flesh; that would be too easy; he could feel the eyes of a great beast looking at him. It was like before he wasn't a speck of dust to the great being until suddenly he had its full attention. Vergil tried to scream, and his mouth vanished.

His bones vanished following his mouth, and he slumped into a pile of organs and skin. A tall being seemed to stand over him, at first simply a man and then a mass of tentacles and hunger. Eyes and teeth were mixed in with them as far as his limited human eyes could see.

"Why so limited?"

Suddenly, he thought of needing more eyes, and he could see everything. The entire world entered his field of view while his flesh rose in a column while every nerve screamed. Maggots erupted from his flesh and scurried off of him into the dirt. They were him, and suddenly he was everywhere. If he could do that, he could spread himself and become more. Vergil could spread until the world was only an entire ecosystem of himself.

"No," Vergil transmitted to the being.

The being looked intrigued, and suddenly his flesh changed, growing brains until he resembled a psion. A terrible beak opened below his tentacles, hungry to crack open skulls and feast on the brains of his prey. Powerful waves of psychic energy erupted from his body. In contrast, his flesh erupted into long thick tentacles lined with hooked suckers. With this form, he could leave his humanity behind and become one of the psions free.

"No," Vergil transmitted to the being.

His body changed, growing larger, stronger, and filled with vitality. Vergil felt his body tower into the heavens as a monster unlike any other crafted by Nyarlathotep. Soon he would devour the world's core and grow ever stronger, and then he would journey among the star existing forever. Vergil would leave everything behind and become a great old one.

"No," Vergil transmitted.

The being became fed up with him and glared with its uncountable eyes. After learning from the being, Vergil reformed his body in the shape of his former self, if a bit idealized. His teeth were a little whiter than before, maybe his nose was a little hawkish, and his eyes were bluer, but what else was shapeshifting for.

He stood on his own two feet and took pride in his humanity. However, the being argued that his form was limited; it had few eyes, no tentacles, and only a single brain.

Vergil wouldn't have it any other way.

Sanity returned to him in the cave. While he hadn't broken into the intermediate stage of the prenatal realm in body refinement, he was close. Thanks to the technique, he had what he needed to infiltrate the cave where Gwen was kept.

After recovering from the battle, he followed Gwen's psi trail through a cave system.

 

[Ultimatedaywriter]

Far Sway hovered and used a percentage of her concentration to keep the weak silver rank bound. At the same time, she focused a fraction on leading the drones and the greatest amount to impress Far Ao. The beautiful blue male psion floated above all, as was his place, while the drones scurried about. His own resistant stood at attention, armed with a human repeater.

Occasionally, she looped a green tentacle around the male's blue, making her advances clear. Dao partners, all she had to do was keep that Gwen trash subdued, and it was a done deal. Far Sway, a mere servant, would marry into the main family and gain access to many resources.

She saw a drone enter, looking dull and glassy-eyed like any other. It moved toward the trash, and she paid little attention to it.

"Haven't you heard the gossip?" Gwen transmitted.

"Shut up, trash. He can have more than one Dao Partner." Far Sway said.

She felt something tap her tentacle and automatically reached out for the drone. Far Ao wouldn't mind it if she only ate one. Clearly, that's what he wanted if it bumped her tentacles.

"Ah, you have no shield." Suddenly a powerful force gripped her tentacles and yanked them. Pain she had never felt before shot through her, and she felt a rip. Far Sway ordered the other drones to stop it.

The drones were too slow to react when she felt bullets cut through her body. As a result, several of her lower brains were damaged and would take months to heal. But the drone hadn't stopped; it continued to yank her down after ripping off her tentacles; it grabbed two and hauled her to the ground, and fired on her body.

She threw her tentacles at him, hoping to cut him into ribbons with her many hooked suckers, but he flowed like liquid. Its flesh seemed to ripple away from her assault as it aimed its shot.

Before the drone pulled the trigger, she got off a transmission. "Are you betraying me, Far Ao?"

The male floated away, carrying Gwen as blood gushed from Far Sway's body. "If you can't care for a rogue drone, what good are you." Far Ao said as he floated away with Gwen.

"What do you see in Su Charity?" Far Sway said as more rounds impacted her body.

Drones didn't go rogue. So why did he betray her?

Far Sway saw her favored drone and transmitted it to get close and protect her. It obediently obeyed. She looked around, and the rogue drone had vanished. She realized that a servant of the Far family wasn't the target. The rouge drone only wanted her out of the way so it could go after Far Ao.

She opened her arms and hugged her favorite drone, a rugged-looking human muscled to her liking. She had him since he was a young, shivering cub and raised him well.

"I wish you could talk with me. Brian, it hurts, and I don't know if I will make it."

"Don't worry, you won't." A strange transmission said.

She felt a warm hand touch her head in an action she hadn't ordered. Then blows rained down on her, and everything went black.

…

Far Ao had eaten Brian a while ago and had been joking about it to a Su Charity not far away. It was well known that Far Sway held a particular drone in high regard. Far Ao had eaten the drone for fun. He was the type who enjoyed leading on servant girls like Far Sway only to dash her hopes and dreams.

Vergil felt bad for the Far Sway. The green psion wasn't the worst psion around, so the kindest thing he could do was kill her as quickly as possible.

He yanked a gun from one of the drones and pointed it at the psion's main brain before pulling the trigger. As Far Sway died, a wave of psychic energy blasted forth, and he rotated 4 strings of ki, struggling to absorb it all.

He felt a rumbling shake through his mind from the sudden influx of psi and felt himself enter the advanced stage of the prenatal realm. Vergil made a 5th​ string form and absorbed the dregs of her psi before taking the storage ring off her finger.

After killing hundreds of apes, killing a psion was the next logical step. The second storage ring fit on his middle finger, and he quickly loaded it full of guns and ammo. When he looked inside, it was filled with even more guns and cases of ammunition. Far Sway seemed to be the supplier for the drone's arms.

He looked at the cave above and floated up before charging through it. A bright blue light appeared in the tunnel as he charged down it, and he dodged before a laser of psionic energy fired. He pushed himself faster as his muscles filled with thicker vital energy.

Slowly he changed his appearance back from Brian to his true self. Of course, he settled on 6'1" instead of the former 6ft tall. His vital energy had increased again, filling his muscles with new strength. It wouldn't take much to reach the intermediate stage of prenatal body refinement.

Ostrich Oscillation helped him sense when the attack was at its full charge allowing him to dodge before it fired. Adaptation still showed itself to be the right way to go.

Vergil launched himself close to Far Ao and kicked the blue psion in the head, blasting it against the cave wall. He saw Tyson in the new chamber but ignored him in favor of finishing off Far Ao

That was a mistake; he felt a bullet lodge in his chest before the bang went off, nearly deafening him in the cave. He spun before plummeting at Tyson's feet. He recognized the Jordans.

"Hello, Vergil; it's been too long; you don't call, text, or stalk my Facebook. I would think we weren't friends if I didn't know better." Tyson said.

Tentacles flew down from above and wrapped around his arms and legs. He stared down the barrel of the rifle in Tyson's hands. While there wasn't a bit of psi or vital energy flowing off of Tyson, his ki was in the advanced stage of prenatal.

"I'm guessing you aren't quite as affected by the transmissions as I thought," Vergil said.

Tyson sighed before pulling out a cigar and lighting it with a flame hovering above his thumb. After taking a long drag, he blew a long stream of smoke in Vergil's face.

"I expected you to cough your lungs out; how is that Asma treating you," Tyson said.

"What is this about? We were friends in high school, but people grow apart. That isn't my fault."

"I had three heart surgeries, and Dante called me before and after each one. That man is a true friend. When I got in trouble with the law for some green in my trunk, that guy helped get me off. So when he said to send you in first because you're the weakest, I didn't bat an eye. You are the weakest." Tyson said and pushed his lit cigar into Vergil's open wound.

He groaned as he heard his blood sizzle. "You aren't a team player, and that's fine. But don't dare expect my support; I saw the way you looked at me. If you're going to work with us, then know we aren't friends, and I am in charge. Do you understand?" Tyson said.

Vergil nodded, and Far Ao let go of him.

"What's going on? How is he controlling Far Ao?" Gwen asked.

"I have some guesses, but I'm not sure," Vergil said.

Tyson bent his cigar and tossed it on the ground.

"You're at the intermediate, so you should have two techniques; what are they?" Tyson asked.

Vergil raised an eyebrow before dodging Far Ao's tentacles. The fire had to have something to do with one technique, but Tyson had two more, one of which allowed him to control psions.

"Probably a movement technique and a strengthening one. So nothing useful; let me show you what I can do." Tyson said, and his hand started glowing.

When Tyson took a step towards Gwen, Vergil moved.

He pulled an automatic rifle from his stolen storage ring and fired. Tentacles covered in shields flashed, blocking the bullets. When his gun clicked empty, he replaced it with another fully loaded assault rifle.

"One of my techniques completely counters anything you can do. What will you do against my second one?"

A blue glow surrounded Far Ao, and suddenly he was much stronger. He flashed forward, and Vergil activated Burst. Vergil could feel his body scream as more apertures opened across his body from psychic energy. He shot forward faster than ever and traded blows with an amped psion of the advanced silver rank. A blue light glowed as it powered up its laser attack, and Vergil flashed past the psion and punched Tyson.

Vergil's fist impacted a blue barrier surrounding Tyson. By the psi rolling off it, Far Ao was the source of the protection. His strength increased as bleeding apertures opened all along his body from his psychic power. With each one opened, a world of potential strength emerged hungrily, bursting with psi.

The barrier cracked under Vergil's blow.

"What are you going to do against the next hundred?" Vergil said.

A flurry of blows erupted, shattering the barrier as tentacles shot out and wrapped around his arms. Its silver psi output felt weaker after the barrier broke, except the tentacle grip was like iron chains.

"Numbers matter, Vergil," Tyson said.

The numerous tentacles holding him in place tightened their grip. Vergil was made to stand still and take a beating. Tyson punched Vergil in the face and followed it with a hard knee to the chest while Vergil felt Far Ao charge its beam attack slowly.

Vergil let Tyson pound him like hamburger meat. His eyes swelled shut, and mouthfuls of blood shot out of his mouth from the blows. The pain from the hits was only matched by the pain from Vergil's burst technique.

He moved when he felt Far Ao's attack was at full power and Tyson was close. He slammed his head into Tyson's face, grabbed the man, and flipped backward. Then, he felt Tyson's feet leave the ground, and suddenly Tyson was in the way of the firing beam.

A barrier appeared around Tyson briefly before the laser cut through it and through Tyson. Then it blasted Vergil in the chest. He felt it burn his body and struggled to fight it off with his vital energy.

When the beam finally depleted its energy, a hole had been half burnt through his chest. He looked down to see Tyson somehow still alive. Suddenly Far Ao grabbed the cultivator and fled while Vergil stumbled forward. He used Black Goat's Embryo immediately and felt his flesh slowly put itself back together.

Vergil would have certainly liked to have chased after Tyson and Far Ao but didn't have the strength. The psionic spell that held Gwen back faded, and she floated next to him and pulled him into her tentacles. His wounds were healing quickly, but it could be days before he regained normal strength.

She pulled him through a cave system to a glowing purple vein in the ground. Waves of powerful psi energy erupted from it. Slowly he cultivated to replenish his Black Goat's Embryo technique.

He had more than enough psi to use more energy than he would previously dare. A small shell grew around his body while more of the healing liquid gushed over his body. Tiny bristles of flesh grew outside the bubble of protection, and he felt his wound healing quicker. Soon there was no air in the bubble, but Nyarlathotep's flesh had changed his biology enough where that wasn't a problem. He could run off psi if needed.

With Tyson driven away, the others would go against him. Tyson was always popular and everyone's friend. So Vergil could expect nothing but trouble from them in the future. Dante would probably fight the apes or use others to do it for him and collect void pearls if the guy was in this place. Then he would reach the initial stage of the natal realm and become a true cultivator.

Suddenly he felt a flood of vital energy blast through his body, and his recovery increased. Vergil had entered the intermediate stage of the body refinement prenatal realm. Power like he's never felt before rushed through every cell of his body while he rapidly cultivated psi. Soon he could reach the peak stage in the prenatal realm thanks to an improved foundation from his intermediate body refinement.

By cultivating the body, mind, and ki, he found it easier to make breakthroughs. However, while focusing on one type sounded easier, there were limitations to choosing that direction. One loss from that was the number of possible techniques. But on the other hand, Dante might be stronger.

Whether that was old fear from their high school days or something else, he didn't know.

"Are you better now?" Gwen asked.

"Yea," Vergil said.

"Then let's cultivate and leave those losers behind," Gwen said.

"I like the sound of that," Vergil said.

They were the ones behind Gwen's capture and needed to pay. But, unfortunately, they were alone.

"Do you have any techniques for mind control like the one the other human possessed?" Gwen asked.

This was getting into dangerous territory. That technique had been ki based and was highly effective against those with low ki. Gwen was all about the mind, so it wasn't an option. Mind control techniques that worked off of psi wouldn't be effective against the creatures in the local ecosystem. Giving her his ki cultivation technique was asking to lose an important advantage. Even if he liked Gwen, there were limits to his charity. He had technique slots open for ki, mind, and body.

Vergil thought about the problem and tried to control the brand, using his need for Gwen's loyalty as a filter. With the brand, a lack of techniques was never an issue; it was finding what he was looking for in a sea of thousands. He never really knew what was around him or what was useful until he needed it. Using his wants as an artificial filter helped him narrow things down, but when there were thousands of techniques, they all sounded like static.

 

[Ultimatedaywriter]

No matter how things changed in the new world, one fact remained. Vergil was here for the sarcophagus and nothing else. Mandela was still an active threat that judged all of them by their progress towards getting the treasured item.

So to that end, Vergil planned to use Gwen to get what he needed. In return, he would help her in any way he could.

While they were still in the cave cultivating near the leviathan vein, a purple glowing crack in the ground, he couldn't quite focus. His vital energy raged in his body a bit more than he expected. As he moved between techniques in search of something to give his build some offense, his mind kept finding its way to the gutter.

To the tune of Hank Williams Jr A Country Boy Can Survive, he approached his psion friend carefully. She was in a mood he hadn't seen before. A few of her tentacles latched onto his arms and swirled around while she stared at a hologram.

"Why do humans touch beaks?" Gwen asked.

Her tentacles swirled around him opening to reveal the hard black beak between the inner light pink flesh of her feeding tentacles. Vergil felt a little nervous when she slowly wrapped more tentacles around his body, leading him to the space in her center.

"It's to show affection. We kiss those we like of the opposite sex." Vergil said.

Gwen paused, but her tentacles continued to move across his body, wiggling over his chest and exploring him. Each had a mind of their own, and they clung to him, careful not to attach a hook-filled sucker to him.

"We haven't been doing that. I am of the opposite sex, and I think you like me. Could we kiss?" Gwen asked.

She lifted him up and caught him in her arms. Gwen's green eyes sparkled like emeralds as her hair tentacles quickly stretched out to cling to his shoulders. The psion pressed her lipless face to his lips, and he kissed her.

He felt her silky smooth midriff and the soft fabric of her white leotard press against his naked chest as more of her tentacles wrapped around him.

Vergil thought about how little he touched her and how she was always initiating contact.

"There is a technique I could learn to make you feel good. But if I learn it, there are skills I won't be able to learn in its place." Vergil said.

"Don't learn it then. You don't have to make me feel good." Gwen said. "If you want, I could purchase and control a human woman. There are techniques I could learn to link myself to her nervous system. Then, anything you did to her, I would feel." Gwen said.

Vergil slid his ruff hand over her pink hair tentacles and leaned in to kiss her face. There were no lips or even much he could consider human. Gwen was someone he was beginning to think of as a friend, but there was a barrier between them he couldn't surmount.

Well, that wasn't true. Vergil could shapeshift into a psion once he reached the Foundation realm, but that was far away.

He had rejected fully altering his form in favor of keeping his humanity. It would take time to cultivate Nyarlathotep's Flesh.

"No, there is an answer to both our problems. I can give you my ki cultivation technique and trust simultaneously. All I need is a drop of your blood." Vergil said and sent her the familiar technique.

It answered all his problems but would require some trust from her.

"This technique will give me a human form. But you will have power over me." Gwen said. "Just because I like your culture doesn't mean I want to be human."

It would take up a slot and break down the barrier between them. Then, while Gwen would still be herself, a human form would allow her to cultivate, and they could grow closer. After they found the sarcophagus, she would leave the world with him as his familiar.

That was something he hadn't told her about.

"It's like becoming Dao partners. How can we do that when you're too scared to kiss me?" Gwen said.

"I kissed you," Vergil said and gave her an odd look.

She lowered him beneath her waist and spread her tentacles. From the center of her tentacles, he saw her beak, and it was large. She hid it behind two closed, moist lips. While the lips didn't look uninviting, he knew what the beak could do.

"Even when I hide my beak between the lips of my folds, you are petrified. My Dao partner can't be afraid of me." Gwen said.

Vergil pushed himself forward, determined to prove her wrong. But, instead, she floated up and released him from her tentacles.

"I am not afraid," Vergil said.

This wasn't a random psion; it was his Gwen. She wouldn't hurt him. Even if he feared her beak, Vergil was confident of her integrity.

"I know you're brave, but it isn't real if you don't do it on your own in the moment. When the moment arrives and you kiss me, I want to feel like your future Dao partner.

A Dao Partner was like a wife but more. They had to travel on a similar path to be Dao partners. If he was scared of her beak, then their relationship wouldn't last.

"How about we start with something small?" Vergil said.

Gwen hovered closer to him, and he reached out slowly. Her tentacles slowly wrapped around his body like before.

"What do you have in mind?" Gwen asked.

"Well, I could touch your beak with my hand," Vergil said.

She moved and quickly wrapped her tentacles around him before stopping herself and releasing him. Vergil concluded it was a quick hug.

"Be careful my beak is sensitive," Gwen said.

He imagined that their versions of sensitivity were vastly different. If he touched it, would Gwen snap a finger off by mistake? Vergil imagined sticking his face there, and the reaction would be like a beartrap had gotten ahold of him. No, that wasn't something he wanted to happen.

Still, she gave him her trust. Losing a finger or two was worth her trust. So he reached forward between her mass of tentacles from her dark pink colored ends to the lighter colored pink of her body. Her cool tentacles squeezed around his fingers, bumpy in places but welcoming.

His heart hammered in his chest as he committed and reached between her tentacles. Suddenly her tentacles wrapped around his arm in a vice grip.

"Sorry, let me pull you in the rest of the way," Gwen said, and he felt her slowly pull his fingers toward her beak.

At first, he touched her lips, a closed orifice that held her beak. The soft flesh quickly parted, and he stiffened.

Her body wiggled in the air, and Vergil's fingers tickled her closed beak. It was smooth in places and rough in others. But, most of all, it was smaller than he imagined it.

Gwen loosened her grip on his arm, and he continued exploring it for hours.

If he had a system or was in a game, he would have gotten points in his relationship with Gwen. While she didn't accept becoming Vergil's familiar, it felt like it was only a matter of time with how they were going.

That left him with other problems, like filling up slots. In addition, his mind cultivation was about to hit the peak stage of the prenatal realm, and he didn't have any attacking options.

Vergil thought about adding a beam, but that didn't end well for Far Ao. From the charge-up time and the power output, it wouldn't work well on Vergil. However, adding a speed technique wasn't the worst plan. He could choose another technique to add to his collection at peak, but he wanted something he would use.

A barrier technique came to mind, but the sheer psi consumption made one unfeasible. However, if Vergil had the option, he would go for something too close quarters. So he searched a few eldritch techniques in the mind refinement category. Nothing caught his eye, so he floated off the ground and practiced levitation.

It hit him after that; Vergil had been wrong about techniques. He could learn as many as he could personally handle, but he could only personally learn 12 per realm from the brand. After all, levitation and basic telekinesis worked fine. His makeshift ki enhancement didn't take up any mental technique slots. That made things easier and much more complicated.

Techniques learned from the brand the official way were instant. Gwen had to learn the technique he gave her, but silver-rank mind cultivation was no joke. What was given could easily be taken away.

After he somehow manages to bring back the sarcophagus, what then. Would he be allowed to go home, or would they give him more missions? If they let him go home, would they take away the brand and cultivation in the process? It was something to think about.

Vergil took his time to go over cultivation techniques with the eldritch theme until he found something interesting.

Lord of Terror – Those capable of bringing great fear will gain the power of terror.

Mechanically the technique was like summoning a mix of communication and manifestation; only this one stores energy and refines itself from causing terror. From what he could tell, it wasn't something he could pass up and would even improve his build.

After he was sure he had it right, he left the cave for some hunting.

He found a group of apes as the light in the grey dimension faded. Vergil moved in and killed one of the sentry apes before tossing its body into the camp. Young apes panicked immediately upon seeing the corpse, and Vergil felt a trickle of something. A dark shadowy substance rose from the terrified young apes before the troop leader calmed them down.

That's when Vergil picked up a rock and tossed it hard. The leader's head exploded like a ripe melon all over the other apes, and they reached the very edge of breaking. While the little apes panicked, the larger ones held their positions while Vergil grabbed another rock.

Willingly bringing fear to his enemies to increase his strength felt right, and it was simple. Fear was a pure instinct at the end of the day, and every living creature knew it in some form or another. It was survival, making it a powerful source of psychic energy. Even as the brave apes shouted and charged at the darkness, Vergil moved like a thief in the night.

Before he advanced in mind cultivation, the apes were less of a threat to him and more like the mobs in a dynasty warrior game. With his current strength, they were only valuable as a grinding resource. He killed them as they raged into the darkness, giving them only enough chance to yell out before he snapped their necks and ripped out their void pearls.

Ostrich Oscillation and Lord of Terror went hand in hand, helping him predict enemy movements and attack when the fear crop was the fattest.

Vergil held up his hand and watched a dark blade made of smokey fear extend a few inches. He was sure it would become something powerful with a bit more training.

Once he killed off the troop's bravest protectors, he left them alone to spread this tale to the other troops. He could feel the energy flow towards him because he owned it.

That was something he hadn't expected. Yet, somehow, he had a stamp of ownership from the fear produced by his technique.

Vergil left his little experiment behind and returned to the cave. He gained a constant if a small stream of fear emotion throughout the night and felt his new technique refine further. By mourning, he could produce a 10-inch shadowy blade. It was so beneficial that he decided to try it every night.

 

[Ultimatedaywriter]

Vergil was interrupted on the cusp of advancing into the peek stage of prenatal mind refinement. Who would so brazenly step into his field of detection but a former friend with expectations? After a month of blessed silence, tormenting apes, and getting closer to Gwen, a familiar ki entered his range. Placing a name to the half-familiar ki was easier with his current cultivation. Higher stages of mind cultivation made it harder to forget his past. Ironically it made it harder to let go of even the slightest slight he remembered.

Before he met the man outside, he heard a drop of water hit the cave floor. Curious, he let a few drops fall on his hand before tasting them. He had found fresh water for the first time since coming to the new world. What better way to express his friendship than to share a rare resource?

Vergil invited the trespasser into the room within the cave with water.

On the outside, humans were given a carefully calculated ration of water that never seemed to quench their thirst.

Friends shouldn't stare terrified while they wait for the water jug to fill to an acceptable level.

Stalactites dripped the only freshwater possibly in the entire subdimension. Vergil held a rock-carved jug he stole from an ape under the slow dripping water until it was full and rejoiced. Never had he been happier than when he acquired a whole jug of fresh water. He stared at the wavy surface of the jug as drop after drop fell. Once it was relatively full, he traded out the jug and poured some cool water for his guest.

"Why are you acting like you need water? Everyone knows you no longer need water once you reach the intermediate stage of the prenatal realm." Jacob said.

That wasn't specifically informed by the brand. So Vergil chose not to believe it and took everything Jacob said with a pinch of salt.

There were three Jacobs in the group, and the others chose the one Vergil knew the best. Jacob Thompson was a friend until he had to move. They were as thick as thieves and constantly hanging out at one time. Vergil relied on Jacob for friendship for a long time but let the relationship wilt on the vine when Jacob moved away to the coast. It wasn't his job to keep in contact.

When Vergil closed his eyes, he could picture the scene. The ratty old seat of his first truck, his sticky, worn steering wheel, and how could he forget the smell of french fries. He was told by their mutual friend that Jacob was back in town and had stood up his girlfriend for the chance to see his friend again. He pulled into the parking lot, got out, and walked toward his youth group. Gravel crunched under his feet as he walked fast to see his friend again. The memories of old times fishing, exploring the woods, and hanging out after football practice were all treasured and dearly missed experiences. He had felt alone without his friend for his final years of high school. Then, Jacob grabbed and held him in place in front of everyone. Vergil tried to resist, but Jacob had been in the gym for two years while Vergil atrophied. Then Jacob threw him on the ground before everyone and stepped forward to talk to the others. Vergil remembered seeing Jacob slip back into their youth group like he had never left, and Vergil called out but was ignored. Vergil turned around, returned to his truck, and left. That was the last time he saw Jacob until they were taken.

Jacob hadn't done anything horrible to him, but the memory remained. Vergil couldn't let it go and felt it needed to be resolved.

It was his own fault for letting the relationship die on the vine in the first place. But the feeling of helplessness when Jacob showed himself stronger and left him behind. Even if he pretended it didn't matter, Vergil hadn't forgotten it. That was the last time he saw Jacob Thompson until the man walked into his cave after over a decade.

"You don't have to drink it," Vergil said, sipping the cool fresh water. It was probably filled with alien bacteria and parasites, but the cool taste was delicious. His body wasn't very human anymore, anyway.

"I see you got braces and fixed those teeth of yours," Jacob said.

Vergil had refused braces until the bitter end, and his mother eventually gave up on them. It was a poor choice on his part after seeing the misery of others. Honestly, he blamed Disney, but he had always been gullible.

He wanted to ask Jacob why he abandoned him for the more popular crowd of older boys in their church youth group. It's what he felt, but Vergil, too, had abandoned Jacob when he moved. They were good friends, but sometimes it felt like it was of convenience.

Like Tyson, Jacob hadn't stood up when Vergil was forced into the front.

"How are the kids?" Vergil asked.

Any goodwill from Jacob died then. Jacob was a father taken from his children. The odds were good; he wouldn't see them again. While the situation wasn't too bad for Vergil, it was Jacob's nightmare. Vergil thought the odds were good; his wife would remarry before they made it back.

It really showed Jacob's investment in finding the sarcophagus.

"I need your leviathan vein," Jacob said through grinding teeth.

Had he taken to mind refinement?

That was one of the main advantages Vergil had over the others. Ostrich Oscillation opened the door to mind and body refinement allowing him to use the brand to broaden his horizon. In addition, knowing the different energy sources allowed him to filter easier for the relevant cultivation techniques.

He couldn't sense any sign of mind cultivation from Jacob. So, why ask for the leviathan vein?

"You have a lot of nerve coming here and making demands," Vergil said.

Jacob tossed him a void pearl. "I doubt you know its value. Well, let me clue you in, use it to cultivate, and for 6 hours, you will have 25% better results. I think it's a good trade, something that you can't even use for a precious cultivation material." Jacob said.

Vergil glanced at one of the rings on his fingers. He kept around 1000 void pearls in reserve and used the rest. They were money, after all; through Gwen, he could use that money to buy information like inquiries about a sarcophagus.

"You want to use another leviathan vein to boost Tyson's psions," Vergil said and tossed the pearl back to Jacob. "I'm not dumb enough to help my enemies, so no deal."

Jacob sighed and slipped into a fighting stance. "Let me show you why going against us is a bad idea."

Vergil sighed and pointed two fully loaded automatic rifles at Jacob. "I thought you wanted to get home to your kids."

Jacob froze, and Vergil opened fire and didn't stop until the guns clicked empty. Except the bullets passed through Jacob like a ghost.

He pushed his senses to their limit and noticed a discrepancy in Jacob.

"You aren't really here; this is an astral projection. Did you think you were intimidating? We aren't teenagers anymore." Vergil said.

Jacob's eyes were wide as saucers. He didn't seem to be able to answer Vergil's questions. Instead, Vergil raised a hand and struck out with his ki. The astral projection flickered for a moment, and Vergil felt some resistance.

"You would have shot me," Jacob said.

Jacob was more surprised than he had any right to be. Of course, Vergil would shoot him. There was no way he could allow Jacob to take the leviathan vein. The drones attempting to sneak in and mine the thing were already being dealt with by Gwen and the other drones. It was disappointing that Jacob had decided to waste his time.

If he wanted to play sneak around and fuck with people, then Vergil was game. However, his fellow cultivators had already gone against the grain by taking over psions. What would they do if he exposed their actions?

A curious, psion young master like Su Charity could ruin their day. While they were duking it out, Vergil could take some of the mining equipment the drones were lugging around and mine the other leviathan vein. If one fount of diamond-rank psi was a boon, then two would be even better.

"We're done talking," Vergil said.

"Wait, don't you want to know about our lead? Give up your leviathan vein, and we'll let you in as a junior gang member. You're only at the intermediate stage, right?" Jacob said.

The fact that they found a lead didn't matter to him. Vergil had less than five months to cultivate bitterly, and they wanted to steal one of his resources. Fair was fair; he should remove one of their own. The question was how to convince a psion to trust his transmission.

Vergil pressed his hand against Jacob's face as his ki wore down the projection. Then, like tossing a block of wood into a wood chipper, Jacob's body shattered into pieces.

It felt good, better than it had any right to feel. Of course, he shouldn't care; it was over a decade ago, but they were friends, and he felt betrayed. It was a small betrayal, but when Jacob was new and needed a friend, Vergil was there and didn't like him at first. It felt like Jacob used him as a placeholder until he found better friends but never quite jumped until he returned.

After the incident with Jacob, he never had another close friend. Of course, he could have had great friends at times, but something always held him back.

Gwen's tentacles wrapped around him.

"You're breathing heavy, and your heart is racing," Gwen said.

"Have you ever had a friend betray you?" Vergil asked.

It wasn't betrayal, not really. Vergil lost his friend, and his friend showed that their friendship was long over.

Other friends had had less than his best interest, and some had become enemies, but Jacob was a festered wound he thought had healed long ago, but it was still filled with puss. It's why he didn't go to any high school reunions. Vergil was the kind of guy who always thought he would make something of himself. Unfortunately, he failed because he lacked the killer instinct to drive himself forward.

"Yes, when my great uncle was a favored general, my family was on the rise. Su Charity respected me as a young miss of the rising Yin Clan. Then my great uncle was marked a traitor, a generation of my Yin clan was put to death, and imperial minders were made my parental units. Growing up, they spent the wealth of my Yin clan until I was of a clan in name only. I had a chance to get into a powerful school that could have seen the revival of my clan if only Su Charity had spoken with her elders. All I needed was a recommendation. Neptune Academy would have been such a lovely place. It would have gotten me and the remainder of my clan's wealth away from the imperial minders. Instead, Su Charity laughed me out of her clan house." Gwen said.

"Do you want revenge?" Vergil asked.

"If we move in here and fail, the consequences will be severe," Gwen said.

"Could we ask for help from her and claim some humans have a method to control psions, and they tried to get you?" Vergil asked.

"None of what you said was a lie, but why would she help us."

"I will think of something," Vergil said.

 

[Ultimatedaywriter]

The plan to trick Su Charity into fighting Far Ao with an edited transmission of events wouldn't work. While the idea had some merits, Yin Gwen wasn't considered a very reputable source of her humanaphilia. Not that there was anything wrong with that; as a human, Vergil was very touched by her love for human culture and collection of country music.

So, his plan changed when he made his way to Su Charity's cave system filled with legions of drones, a regime of psion servants, 12 Su clan bodyguards in the silver rank, and a familiar face.

Vergil punched a hole through a boulder and dropped one of the drones inside before taking on its appearance. With the sad grey clothes they normally wore, he looked the part. Maybe his muscles were a little larger and his body somewhat taller, but he appeared a drone. He was bald with dead eyes, which was the most important part of the disguise.

After he filled the hole, he debated killing Tyson before the man managed to infiltrate the psion inner circle and take over Su Charity. Gwen was back at the immortal cave cultivating a ki technique he managed to scavenge from the brand. While it wasn't quite as effective as his own technique, it would do the job and work better for her. With Tyson in Su Charity's court, Vergil didn't have to worry about him taking over Gwen.

Jacob wasn't getting through easily with the number of guns in their cave system. Prenatal ki cultivation wouldn't stop a bullet. That was something he was very confident in. Jacob certainly didn't want to risk it.

If Jacob was in the advanced stage of prenatal ki cultivation with Tyson, while neither was a match for Vergil alone, together was another story. Intermediate stage body refinement, peak stage mind refinement, and intermediate stage ki cultivation all prenatal gave him multiple options.

Vergil crossed into a crowd of drones and took on their dull gaze while Tyson stood out like a sore thumb. He thought about stabbing the guy but had a better idea. Far Ao hovered overhead.

"Far Ao, I didn't know you would come to visit our mistress. Isn't the Su's young mistress out of the reach of the 6th​ son of the Far Clan head? Or do you think a mere resistance would entice our lady?" A Su clan member said.

Vergil watched a Su clan servant leave by himself. It was most likely leaving to inform the lady that Far Ao was here to see her. In other words, warning the Su clan was a waste of time.

Still, he couldn't help but look at Tyson. The man had a hole through the chest the last time he saw him and was up like nothing had happened. Vergil had some interesting techniques. Still, Tyson only worked with opponents with great processors instead of good hardware or up-to-date virus protection. So the insane cordyceps nonsense he could get away with had to be limited to two techniques, and someone else had healing abilities. That was one of the advantages of working in a group.

Vergil would have to wait and see before he made a decision. A member of the other side likely could specialize completely in recovery.

"Out of my reach. Whose clan owns this pocket dimension?" Far Ao asked.

"Our clan paid for using this establishment, but it wasn't with the young lady. A void pearl each bought our entrance because the Far clan couldn't ask for more and maintain their reputation as one of the 4 great clans. Well, 3 in a few years since your clan continues to lose out to us. I was sorry to hear about your second uncle. Didn't he fall exploring the Alayah ruins in the Tiamat Trench? He was one of the last Platinum rank experts you had left. When will another genius appear in your family capable of reaching such a height? Better spawn with many females, but I'm afraid you can't afford our Su clan. A dowry for her would bankrupt your whole clan." The Su clan member said.

Far Ao remained serene instead of defending his clan's reputation. Vergil wasn't sure what Tyson's plan was, but it didn't seem to involve getting Far Ao laid.

"Of the ruins, there is a rumor that Su Charity's reverent Uncle Su Vast discovered something interesting in ruins. There are appraisers traveling in and out of the Su estate, with no one able to identify it. Didn't my second uncle fall helping Su Vast secure the treasure, and yet there is no word about a cut of the treasure. It seems Su Vast is ungrateful to his fallen comrades." Far Ao said.

Vergil sucked on his teeth. There was a good chance he wouldn't have to do anything to send them after Tyson and the others. Asking dangerous questions with a half-controlled psion seemed to do the trick in implicating them. Just the same Vergil planned to help them along.

He started by killing another drone while the others were out of sight and taking on its identity. The reason was simple, he needed to change owners to the Su Clan servant.

Changing his shape became easier the more he did it. Unfortunately, there were many limitations, mostly based on his vital energy. In his current state, he had enough to transform 10 times into shapes that resembled his own. For instance, he couldn't turn into a donkey but could become an ape if needed. However, becoming a psion was beyond him with his current vital energy, familiarity with psion anatomy, and practice with the technique.

That was ok because it wasn't long before the Su clan member found an isolated location to feed on a drone. The bastard chose Vergil and moved swiftly. He didn't notice Vergil's hand pointing up or the black and yellow blade flowing from Vergil's fingertips.

Shock and then terror filled the psion as Vergil turned his hand. Tentacles flew off after his blade sliced through the beak. Even if the psion knew a shielding technique, it was too late.

During feeding, it let down its guard. Its body slumped to the ground, and Vergil slowly carved a third eye on its forehead with wings. The eye was to throw them off and make them think it was the apes, while the wings looked cool. Then, for fun, he added the torso of a man and took a step back from his work. His Lord of terror blade painted the carving yellow.

Afterward, Vergil cultivated the psi released from the Su servant and hung out with the other drones. Why should he flee when he had the perfect disguise? Being seen skulking about away from the other drones would look suspicious, like Tyson no doubt appeared. Tyson had hair and still wore blue jeans from their home world.

Another Su clan member didn't take long to find the body and quickly transmit the news.

"This symbol is like the eye of the apes. But they aren't intelligent enough to produce this symbol. Look at the wings and torso; it reminds me of that old human state. The last of their resistance ended 300 years ago."

"Distribute his drones amongst the others and,"

Vergil chose that moment to use the gathered psi from the downed servant to show Tyson with his palm glowing, about to touch another psion.
"I just received a delayed transmission, but it's fragmented and strange. The resistant with fur on its head had a hand that glowed. But what does it mean."

Vergil cultivated the rest of the psi taken from his victim. Tyson was implemented as a possible murderer, and Vergil retained his cover. That's when Vergil felt Tyson use his power; it felt like when Tyson tried to use it on Gwen.

He was unfamiliar with the psi signatures of the psions around him and couldn't pinpoint whose signature was whose. By causing this situation, he had allowed Tyson to pick off one of the psions and take control of him. That was a major setback.

"Check the drones' for any sign of a human with hair. It may not be a resistant at all but an ape wearing human skin."

After the psions looked over each drone, they divided the drones and left. Vergil lucked out and went with a Su Clan member instead of a servant.

She took them to a clean antechamber among the cave system carved out by telekinesis or possibly lasers. If that wasn't worrying enough, she closed a stone door behind them covered in strange hieroglyphs that made his brain throb

The psion moved about, lighting candles that smelled like lavender before flipping through a holographic interface before deciding. An orchestra started playing.

Once those preparations were complete, she descended to lounge on an expensive-looking bed before resting her head on her hand. Lighter green round skin showed beneath her black leotard while her tentacles fluttered about lazily. Clearly, she wasn't bothered by the death of the Su clan servant.

"Hello, drones, my name is Su Lily, and we will be best friends. Now strip for me." Su Lily said once they were alone.

 

[Ultimatedaywriter]

While his goal was to get the sarcophagus, there was always time to bust a nut; he needed the post-nut clarity.

Snuggling with Lily wasn't bad, but it didn't have the closeness he had with Gwen. His relationship with Gwen was slow but stable. He at least knew a thing or two about her. Lily was a fling to soak up some psion fear from his mark and wait for an opportunity.

Lily also liked to talk and half-listened while he searched through a sea of techniques for something usable. He needed some defense, but none of the techniques spoke to him. A few eldritch techniques could help him by giving him psychic barriers, blood shields, and liquid metal sweat, but they weren't what he wanted for his build.

At the peak stage of prenatal mind cultivation, he felt that if he wanted to learn how to shield himself, he could learn it from the psions. How hard could it be to generate a psychic barrier? Telekinesis and personal levitation were already second nature.

"I could move your sperm out of my holding stomach, into my oviduct, and let them fertilize my eggs," Lily said.

Vergil felt his eyes widen, and he jumped out of Lily's tentacles.

"I knew that would get your attention," Lily said.

"Were you joking?" Vergil asked.

He was sure they were incompatible, but she displayed some human attributes. Lily slowly pushed her black leotard over her round giggly green breasts. It was a shame to see the soft green nipples go, but maybe he would see them again soon.

Cultivation bullshit might not care about incompatibility. On the other hand, Vergil had blasted her beak full of his load, and he wouldn't think about that any longer.

She started vibrating. "The look on your face. How could anyone believe you were a drone?" Lily said.

Vergil rolled his eyes. Su Lily seemed to be the playful type.

"There are things I need to know," Vergil said.

"Don't reveal your sapience to Su Charity; she'll crack open and slurp out your brain in a heartbeat. One of the elders will eat me next to keep it quiet."

Vergil sighed and learned the familiar technique. He already knew the Sarcophagus's suspected location, so the game was all but over. All he had to do from this point was ruin the chances of the others. The best way to do that was simple.

"She won't be a problem much longer; I'm not the only one," Vergil said.

He let his hair grow out and gave the familiar technique a read. It was called Monstergirl Slayer. After giving it a thorough read, he felt confident. Each cultivation type, mind, body, and ki allowed him to take a single familiar in every realm. All he needed was a drop of blood to make it work. Unfortunately, while Lily was sweet, he shouldn't make her his familiar.

"The dark-skinned one, most thought he was resistant. Do the Far family already know?" Lily asked.

"No, Tyson is controlling Far Ao with a technique," Vergil said.

"Did they also kill Su Rudra?" Lily asked.

That was Vergil's doing, but he didn't want to fess up to it or lie.

"They used his death as an opportunity to control another clan member. It's only a matter of time before they have enough members to rush Su Charity and take control of her." Vergil said.

Lily went very still.

"Am I next? Are you going to take control of me like we do drones?"

He shook his head. "I planned to offer you a way out. That door looks solid; why don't you stay behind it for the rest of this trip. Five months shouldn't be impossible with plenty of supplies. I don't need the drones outside; you can have them. There is just one thing I need from you." Vergil said.

Lily looked adorable with the way her light pink eyes stared at him. Maybe he hadn't been thinking straight when he decided not to take her as one of his monster girls. They would be gone from this world if everything went as planned.

"I need a drop of your blood to prove your loyalty," Vergil said.

She held out a tentacle to him. "You'll have to collect it yourself; don't bite too hard," Lily said.

He bit her just enough to draw blood and felt a drop of psion blood touch his tongue. Vergil's flesh suddenly felt like he was dying of thirst, and he had his first drop of water in days. A few more drops than necessary passed down his throat before he pulled away.

Vergil felt like his cells had come alive in the flickering candles of Lily's cave. The strange symbols on the door didn't hurt his head as badly.

All his techniques had their own names and unique abilities to them. Nyarlathotep's flesh was literally the summoned flesh of the outer being. From what he could tell, drinking the blood of other beings energized his flesh. A transformation was underway, but he needed more blood and flesh to facilitate it.

He activated monster girl slayer and felt his qi rush into Lily. Suddenly her body was swallowed in purple light as more of his ki flooded her. Vergil was forced to drop to the ground and cultivate with void pearls to keep from drying out on the spot.

Fortunately, he had a few thousand after his nightly hunts. He burned through 400 on the spot and cultivated quickly.

At roughly 100x normal cultivation speed, and began equaling her draw on his ki and surpassed it. Her black hole of a transformation acted as an anchor allowing him to up his 100 times cultivation speed by a few times. Over six hours, he felt himself reach the barrier of the advanced prenatal stage. He picked up a hundred more void pearls and crushed them before forcefully absorbing them. Thanks to Lily, most of the power wasn't lost.

The barrier cracked.

Vergil poured all his considerable will against the door between himself and the advanced stage of the prenatal realm of ki refinement. His reasons were simple and easy to understand.

These less than 5 months were when he would have to get strong enough to take the sarcophagus. He might not have dared to invade the Su clan if he didn't break through into the natal realm with all three refinement techniques.

Of course, there was always the chance the sarcophagus was moved or sold off to some other city. That would change everything.

It wasn't enough to be a part of getting the sarcophagus; he wanted to beat everyone. Vergil wanted the power to make their numbers and specialties mean nothing.

As he cultivated the overflowing spiritual energy of heaven and earth, the cracks grew until he felt the barrier shatter. New denser ki congealed within his body and flowed out through his body; he felt his spiritual energy grow by leaps and bounds, making the impossible only a suggestion. As his spirit moved into the advanced stage, he felt closer to breaking through his limits and becoming a true cultivator.

"What have you done to me?"

A soft voice sang out from the light as it finally vanished, revealing a green-skinned beauty naked with long dark green hair, gloriously deep cheery blossom eyes, and large green breasts. Lily's leotard no longer fit her right since she developed her human form.

Lily tried to take a step and fell over.

"Congratulations, you are now my familiar," Vergil said.

He decided he liked the aesthetic, if nothing else. Lily was green with pink eyes, and Gwen was pink with green eyes. They would look good together.

"Focus on returning to your natural form." She narrowed her new green eyebrows in concentration. Slowly the psi and ki density in the room increased as she transformed into a larger version of her psion form. Her breasts were larger, her tentacles seemed to glow with power, and the power of her transmissions had doubled.

"This feels amazing. I'm so much stronger; it feels like I could become a gold anytime." Lily said.

She quickly spread her tentacles and exposed her beak. "Let's celebrate," Lily said.

"Not so fast. As my familiar, you have some duties in exchange for this power." Vergil said.

He felt the connection to her, almost like their minds were only separated by a sheet of drywall. To call him in control was pushing it. Instead, it felt like they were connected.

"I understand while I was joking before about letting your sperm fertilize my eggs with my human form, it's possible. Could you give me time to prepare? I'm not sure about carrying life within me for 9 months? If I give birth, won't I have to feed our young from my body? How will I obtain nutrients myself faster than it drains my own, or is that your role? Most nesting mothers require several human brains or a grey matter substitute with equivalent nutritional value; drones are expensive we need to start by purchasing you from Yin Gwen. I won't let her eat your brain to make getting to Diamond easier." Lily said.

"Lily, breathe. Did you put the hieroglyphs on that door to block the sound?" Vergil asked.

"Yes, I had to figure it out, or else other clan members would figure out my activities. We, enchanters, don't call them hieroglyphs anymore; they are just glyphs. Do you like them?" Lily asked.

Vergil rubbed his head. It was still bald, so he grew a nice head of anime hair. He made it white and spiked it. Was it a blatant rip-off of his namesake? Yes, and he didn't care; the look was iconic. His style of combat was the complete opposite of Vergil, unfortunately.

"Could you make the gravity in a cave 10 times that of what it is normally with glyphs?" Vergil asked.

That would put a massive strain on his body, and if he trained under it, Vergil knew he would reach the advanced and peak stage of body refinement quickly. His Black Goat's Embryo would see to it.

"Theoretically, I have all the knowledge I need to do the job, but half a cave antechamber would suffice instead of a whole cave. That should be good enough if you plan to use it to trap Far Ao. Fortunately, not many psions are well read in ancient glyphs." Lily said.

Before, she was just a cute slutty psion that wanted to have interspecies relations. Her glyphs and an in into the Su clan had changed her into someone useful to help him power up.

His opponents were the platinum-ranked psions in the Su clan guarding their clan treasures. So he didn't feel right holding himself back instead of powering up.

Vergil opened the door to the rest of the cave.

"What are you doing?" Lily asked.

With the door open, he could clearly sense Tyson with multiple psions with him. They were about to be in for a bad time. But even if his body was ready, his mind wasn't quite there. Tyson had genuine grievances with him, which could get ugly when they hashed things out. On the other hand, Lily was directly in with her clan, so he wasn't worried as long as she survived.

"I'm going on a little rampage and kill my way to the controller. So you stay here and work on that glyph array for half an antechamber of 10 times gravity. Once I'm done here, be ready to move after I dig up the leviathan vein. The odds are good; the other groups may notice our movements. Not to mention that moving a vein may attract more local wildlife." Vergil said.

"Why must my clan members die?" Lily asked.

That was not what he expected to hear. Lily didn't seem too loyal to her clan to him, but if she cared about them, that added another problem. Killing them wasn't much of an option if he didn't want to see his new waifu cry.

"I won't kill them if I can help it, but I will knock them around a little." Just like that, her beak had turned his intentions from murder to knocking some psions around on his way to his real target.

It was just as well. Vergil figured that it would look weird if there was only one survivor. So he would use burst, endure the pain, and pummel his way to Tyson. Lord of Terror would be kept as a trump card.

 

[Ultimatedaywriter]

Promises to women were the bane of men. It was illogical to promise he wouldn't kill every Su clan member he saw.

A chunk of rock bounced off his head after a stray round hit a rock a little too close for comfort.

Bullets fired overhead as he hovered behind a thick stalactite while he reloaded his full auto rifle.

Every firefight was getting easier, and the equipment felt more comfortable. If Vergil kept it up, he would be a professional with rifles after the mission ended.

He flashed out of cover and pulled the trigger using his superior speed, strength, and levitation to keep each bullet on target. He cleared the room's drones in one clip before hiding behind a hanging stalactite. A laser blasted into the rock behind him.

Vergil felt the stone heat behind him when he dropped to the ground. He leaped out as crescent psychic blades fired off from tentacles one after the other.

Purple glowing Blades of death flew overhead, blasting the air with psionic sparks. A hair's breadth was too close to the psychic blade techniques. One ripped through the air with a heavy tentacle bolstered by tactile telekinesis and crushed the rock beneath its falling shadow.

Vergil barely endured with his own telekinesis and felt blood shoot out of his mouth. While he withstood the attack better than the ground, vibrations shot through his body and damaged his organs; blood was in his lungs. Vergil's hand moved to form his terror blade but stopped at the last minute.

Burst erupted across his body, stronger than ever, and he moved. His fist impacted the head of the first psion and squished deep into the creature. After a breath of time, it blasted away from his fist, impacting the nearby rock wall. He flew into the psion sneaking in his peripheral, and delivered a devastating elbow.

Ki gathered in his palm before he struck a third psion blasting it down to crumple against the already cratered ground. While he didn't have any ki-based offensive techniques adding ki to his physical attacks increased the reach of his blows and their impact.

As he fought with his ki, he could feel the amount of ki he possessed refine, thicken, and become malleable. So clearly, there was more to ki cultivation than mere cultivation techniques.

Using his ki seemed to purify it, increasing its impact; however, that didn't increase the amount he had. Gathering ki was like dumping random water in a pool while combat, or any use of the ki, was like running that pool water through a filter. Only there didn't seem to be an upper limit for purification.

"Stop resisting," a loud transmission rumbled after him while he charged into an ambush. Fortunately, a mere transmission given by a silver rank wasn't enough to affect him.

The room had seven psions; some were servants, others were Su Clan, young masters, or mistresses.

Memories of seeing people fight flashed through his mind, and slowly he adapted his stance to better fit those men. While it wouldn't be one-to-one in stance or output, he slowly adapted to the fight. If he didn't have peak mind refinement, using past fragmented memories like he did wouldn't have been possible.

He shot into them as a blade of psychic energy caught him in the shoulder before he threw a punch that smacked two psions together. One reached out with its tentacles, and Vergil slapped them away with his bare hands. Then, Vergil levitated and shot forward to deliver a punch to a male psion.

Burst was painful and damaged his body as much as it empowered him, but in short bursts, it was ideal for changing up his tempo on his opponents.

Once one grew complacent, forcing Vergil to dodge psionic blades, it was time to accelerate and shake things up. He shot out and delivered several powerful blows knocking the psions around before they collapsed.

So far, it was surprising that he managed to keep his promise. None of the Su clan servants or young masters had died by his hand. He could already feel the power-ups from his own gravity chamber. Su charity was in the leviathan vein room, while outside, it was Tyson, Far Ao, and another Su clan member.

While it would be three against one, Vergil liked his odds of winning.

He found a mirror in one of the knocked-out Su clan member's storage rings. After giving himself a once over, he restored his features to a heroic rendition of his most teenage appearance. While his body's ki, vital energy, and psi hadn't changed, he looked young and powerful. He let his hair turn into its former grey, blond, and brown mess and removed his facial hair. He used to be completely clean-shaven.

Liquid dripped down his body while he used Black Goat's Embryo to heal himself. A dark wooden womb of thorns wrapped around his body as a thin membrane. The technique had reached a new form after repeated use. Techniques had realms, and stages like cultivation did. There were nine in total going from Mortal Killer, Earth Erupting, Immortal Slaying, Underworld Erupting, Devil Destroyer, Heaven Defying, God Shaking, Universe Breaking, and Almighty Anathema. As for the stages, they were low, mid, high, and peak, practically the same as stages in cultivation realms.

His Black Goat's Embryo had reached the mid-stage. However, unlike Lord of Terror, Black Goat's Embryo increased with use and will from his patron. The reason for that was simple it was a summoning-type technique that borrowed the manifested power from an outer being.

At the mid-stage, his wounds healed much faster; even his lungs somewhat recovered after 15 minutes under the technique's care. That was a great boon; he needed all the strength he could get for the confrontation.

He broke free from the womb and let it dissolve into motes of psi. Then, once he felt comfortable with his slight increase in vital energy, he entered the antechamber to see Tyson waiting for him.

"You just won't die or get out of our way. Even Jacob couldn't convince you to join us. So what are you even after? I know you don't want to return to your miserable life, so why don't you find a nice slave girl and disappear while the people who matter take care of business." Tyson said.

Vergil eyed the two psions and estimated the length of his terror blade. They were only a little out of reach of a lethal attack. Revealing his blade early was only asking for trouble.

"Do you think advancing into the advanced stage of the prenatal realm matters? Dante is already in the intermediate natal realm. The things he can do you can't compare with your weak speed and strength. What did you waste your third slot on? Was it flight? Tell me it was flight." Tyson said.

He would need to keep his Terror blade in reserve until Tyson revealed his final technique. While it was most likely fire, that could have been a red herring by using a sleight of hand. Then again, what was fire but a little friction and oxygen for fuel. With enough ki control, making sparks or even open flames might be possible. Odds were fair, Tyson showed his hand, but it was just as likely that it was not the case. Controlling fire was a good reliable skill to have. Tyson was a straightforward guy when Vergil knew him, but that was over a decade ago.

Vergil estimated that with his vital energy, he had the physical strength of around 4 horses without taking ki or psi into account. Add ki, which multiplied to around 24 horses; if he went all out, then with psi, it went up to around 192 horses. That was if he devoted all his resources into a single blow. Afterward, all his ki, vita, and psi would be spent, and he wouldn't have any strength left to do anything. It was safer to say he had around the strength of 30 to 90 horses at any given time. Burst increased that in short bursts to around 100 to 150 at its current low stage. Burst used a unique application of psi to facilitate the increase, so it wasn't as taxing as going all out.

He hovered in the air showing the hand Tyson thought he had and playing into his past of gullibility. "So, what if it was."

This was the final test to see if the psions could actively share information with Tyson or if they were companion NPCs like in Skyrim. Knowing how the connection worked was an important part of his deception. The psions should be able to tell he was using levitation, a psion technique.

Ki sense and Ostrich Oscillation were two very different techniques. One was the sight from a person's eyes, and the other was a research team with all their equipment. Psi wasn't in the spectrum of ki sense, and neither was vital energy.

It was a feature of the brand. Only knowledge sought after could be searched, and what information was found had to be filtered. The difference between peek stage prenatal realm mind cultivation and a normal human brain was insurmountable.

"Then you wasted your time trying to be superman, and I thought you always preferred the hulk," Tyson said.

Vergil let himself settle back on the ground. Memories of conversations with Tyson flashed as he walked down memory lane and saw the sights.

"I thought the steroids damaged your heart, not your brain," Vergil said.

"What do you care? It's not like it matters anymore, not for me or you. Was this what you wanted to gain power by becoming the slave of a demon and a toddler?" Tyson

Vergil studied Tyson and the psions under the man's control. They were weaker than they had been. He hadn't noticed it before. Psions were wells of psi normally, but his relativity to them had changed after reaching the peak stage in the prenatal realm. It wasn't by much, but the psions were losing a small amount of their psi permanently. By his estimation, the Su clan member had a month before it fell from mid to low-stage silver rank. That power was going to Tyson.

At the same time, the guy wasn't cultivating any mind techniques.

Unless he was hiding his mind cultivation. Even if that were true, Vergil should have felt it in Tyson's strength.

"I'm tired of your holier-than-thou attitude. So you had some heart surgeries, so what? I'm sick of being the one who has to maintain contact. It's not my responsibility to hold your hand through life. You could have asked for my number and tried to stay in touch, but you didn't. So I don't owe you anything. You made that clear you all made it clear."

He activated burst, but there wasn't any pain anymore. After digging deep apertures through his body, the psi ran smoothly. Instead of ripping him apart, it felt like his psi was a 5-gallon bucket, and he quickly poured it out.

An aura of soft blue psionic energy gathered around his body as the skill finished ripping holes in his body. He struggled to hold power in while the psions rushed him.

He dropped burst to 3% and dodged through Far Ao and the other psion's tentacles.

Tyson laughed as Vergil moved between attacks before knocking one of the psions hurtling into a nearby wall. Golden energy gathered around Tyson, and Vergil felt ki explode off the guy. Vergil upped burst to 10%, and it felt like his muscles were tearing apart, and his psi was draining faster than ever. He was scooping a full cup of water at a time out of his bucket for the ten seconds he held a 10% burst.

"You're weak. I was the power-lifting champion, and you quit," Tyson yelled, and Vergil ducked under the man's punch. Tentacles shot out in Vergil's direction, and Vergil caught one. He stepped forward and yanked hard on the psion. Its body shot forward like a wrecking ball until Tyson punched it.

Golden flames shot across the psion's body, cooking it on the spot.

Vergil felt its psi erupt from its death. He quickly cultivated it recovering his 5-gallon bucket of psi for the fight. He began trading blows with Tyson but found his strength matched, and the smile on Tyson's face hadn't gone away. The room was heating up.

"What do you know?" Vergil said.

Vergil had embraced the leviathan vein dimension by killing with his hands, rocks, and fear. The psion smelled deliciously cooked, even if it clung to life. While Tyson laughed like a madman, Vergil thought about eating the psion after the fight. It seemed they were both affected by their techniques.

 

[Ultimatedaywriter]

Blows fell by their dozens in a heartbeat. Whatever technique Tyson used didn't just increase heat; it also raised Tyson's physical strength, speed, and reaction time. He asked the brand about it, but it reported that the information was undefined. It led him to ask why they would have different techniques, and he gained a lot of information about brands.

"Victory in 27 moves," Vergil said, already envisioning how to end the fight. Tyson used a predictable, if powerful, boxing style. That would be great if he didn't take time to laugh. 10,000 lumens of golden light gathered around Tyson, and his laughter filled the air. In less than 27 moves, Tyson, in between gouts of Tyson's laughter, Vergil would point his fingers at Tyson's face and unleash his terror blade.

"Good luck with that," Tyson said.

Vergil flicked a finger and slammed Tyson into a nearby wall.

The laughing gold glowing man looked stunned.

Vergil lifted a finger and pointed it down. Tyson didn't have telekinesis resistance and slammed back to the cave floor hard.

Of course, he didn't. Tyson may have stored psi but didn't know how to use it or even look into his brand to inform himself.

Psions didn't use telekinesis on each other because they had natural defenses. Vergil doubted they used it even on humans. It was mainly for utility.

"Any enemy can be defeated with the right approach. However, resisting telekinesis with ki is difficult when you haven't practiced it." Vergil said.

Tyson struggled against Vergil's telekinesis after expending vast amounts of ki for his technique. It took time and cultivation to restore ki. By using it up to power up, his technique Tyson was using up a valuable resource.

"There was a reason why I used those psions." The mass of psi Tyson had stored was quickly turned into ki.

Vergil sighed and pointed down harder.

Tyson was pushed further into the rock wall.

"More ki won't help you, but it was a good effort," Vergil said.

At the end of the day, Tyson wasn't that strong. So he practiced only ki cultivation, making himself a gas engine with no car or driver. He was missing whole dimensions of power.

Vergil was more surprised he didn't have to use his terror bade than anything. Tyson had been defeated by basic telekinesis that the weakest psion could have thrown off. Gwen would have considered his attempts to use telekinesis cute, if anything.

He felt all the ki flow into Tyson's technique. The man started laughing uncontrollably, and his skin turned from brown to gold.

Vergil tried to use telekinesis again to no effect. Tyson's new state protected him from direct psionic manifestations or possibly only Vergil's weak telekinesis.

"How long can you hold that up?" Vergil said.

Golden Tyson continued to laugh uncontrollably. The heat in the room shot up rapidly. The psions in the room blacked and curled in on themselves like ticks under a match.

Vergil struck first, smashing golden Tyson into the cave wall. Molten rock was left where Tyson stood.

He felt the skin of his knuckles melt and pop from the sheer heat rolling off of Tyson.

Vergil shot off using levitation towards the tunnel leading out of the cave. Golden Tyson followed him, flying with jets of gold under his feet.

He dodged punches and clawed as golden eagle talons leaped from Golden Tyson's form and sliced at Vergil between punches. Burns littered Vergil's body as they flew out of the cave system.
Out of the cave, Vergil landed, devoted all his telekinesis to protection, and picked up two rocks.

"What are you going to do with rocks?" Golden Tyson mocked.

Vergil shot forward and hit him in the face with the first rock. Golden Tyson fell back into the second rock.

After he ripped more rocks from the ground, he went in for another wave of attacks. With every blow, Vergil upped the power of his attacks a little. Even after suffering the damage, Vergil was confident he would survive. On the other hand, Golden Tyson wasn't looking good; he looked like Rocky after his first fight with Apollo.

Vergil, on the other hand, looked like a half-melted man. But that was ok; he would survive and grow even stronger.

He turned his head to the side and saw Jacob. But, unfortunately, the man wasn't here in the flesh; otherwise, he would be melting.

A quick blow from Jacob disabused Vergil of that notion. His head turned to the side before he punched out at Jacob. His blow passed through Jacob's body then another blow hit him. Fortunately, the attacks were relatively weak; otherwise, he might not be ok.

"You can't beat us, Vergil; you're by yourself." At that moment, Golden Tyson fell out of his golden form. He fell on his ass and puked his guts out.

"I think it's only two, maybe three of you, and the others are off doing their own things," Vergil said, picked up a rock, and tossed it at Tyson. A hole opened on the man's shoulder, large enough to pass two fingers through without touching the sides.

Blood poured out of him and evaporated in the still-hot air. Jacob quickly moved and glowed green before healing him. There was no specialized healer, only Jacob, or he was a scout with healing techniques.

As he stared at him, he felt good knowing that the main group had split.

"So, was the sarcophagus really in the Su Clan treasury?" Vergil asked.

He already had a gun, slammed a fresh magazine, and pointed it at Jacob.

"You've seen how well you can hit me," Jacob said.

"Before, you weren't healing anyone," Vergil said.

Jacob froze long enough for Vergil to decide this action was right. It was good to know.

"Kill me, and who is going to heal you?" Jacob asked.

"I will live," Vergil said.

He didn't want to give his techniques away if he could help it. Every technique he kept hidden was a trump card he could unleash later. Then again, slicing them apart with terror blade would be easy. It was gratifying to feel Jacob's fear confirm his intuition.

The fear bubbling up from Tyson was also useful for further refining his Lord of Terror technique. Compared to the apes, Tyson was worth around 1000 fearful apes. Vergil hypothesized that it had something to do with their prior relationship.

Vergil reached out with telekinesis and took ahold of Jacob.

He picked him up and held him in place. Jacob struggled but couldn't break Vergil's telekinetic hold. It was childish but felt cathartic, like draining the puss from an infected wound. He tossed Jacob on the ground and walked away.

After Burst dropped, he had to move with telekinesis. It was a good thing the burns had already ruined his nerves, but they would hurt when they regenerated.

"Wait, was that really it after all of that?" Jacob said.

"Thank you for the lead on the sarcophagus; getting that to me is sure to earn you some contribution points," Vergil said.

Vergil said and activated Black Goat's Embryo. He gasped when the healing juices of eldritch embryonic fluids fell over his wounds. He felt some of his face peel off and fall on the ground, black and burnt. Vergil knew he wouldn't be alive if he had a normal human body. Taking in the flesh of Nyarlathotep had changed him along with his cultivation.

As his body started to go through the long recovery process, he felt raw, like an uncooked steak. More dead skin fell off him as he stumbled back towards the cave.

"Why go back? They are monsters; no matter what they may say, that is their nature. This world was just like ours until they were destroyed. Even the moon was corrupted by them." Jacob said.

"It's better than living in the undercity where rats are the size of cars and roaches stand seven feet tall and own human butcheries." An unneeded voice said.

Lily stood with her hands on her hips, wearing her black leotard and lime green tentacle hair in a ponytail. Her ki was subdued, but it was clearly the initial stage prenatal realm.

"Why don't you boys come work for me instead of living on the dangerous streets?" Lily asked.

"I'm game. Is this your girl?" Tyson asked.

"Are you going to try and use her to insight me to fight someone for talking to her?" Vergil asked.

"That is oddly specific," Jacob said and chuckled.

All three laughed while Vergil only frowned and glared at Tyson. It was an event that didn't mean much to Tyson but was very important to Vergil.

"That's right, humans conduct tournament mating. Should I leave so, Vergil can dispose of the both of you to secure mating rights?" Lily said.

Her voice was a little hypnotic. She wasn't quite transmitting her words, but it was close.

Vergil thought about killing Jacob and Tyson, but they would already be dead if he wanted to. What Vergil wanted was petty prankish revenge for the most part. While he could kill them and get away with it, that wasn't his intention. That didn't mean he wanted to team up with them.

"Let's not get crazy," Vergil said.

He heard Tyson sigh.

"How many contribution points do you think we will get?" Jacob asked.

He thought about it sincerely for a few breaths before shaking his head.

"We are working for a Demon named Mandela," Vergil said.

"Then why bother?" Jacob asked.

Vergil understood it from a distance. Jacob had a wife and three kids. It had already been months, and time was still ticking away. How long would it take them to get the Sarcophagus? If they got it, then how many contribution points was it worth? After that, how many missions until they earn enough points to get home? How long would they need to wait between missions? Would the demon Mandela remember that they were supposed to earn contribution points?

They could return, and the demon could ask them what contribution points. It made all the sense in the world to the shapeshifting demon.

Vergil found a quiet room and slowly healed. The Black Goat's Embryo sealed itself around him and began to sprout small black limbs. He felt the technique go from low to mid as they spread out. After many uses, it had ranked up.

At mid-rank, it sealed him within a sac to hold the fluid inside, grew a wooden shell, and stretched out small tree limbs.

It was slow, but his body recovered bit by bit. Strength returned to his limbs, and torn muscles were stitched back together stronger. His body shed burnt flesh and grew new skin while recovering from the damage. Within the embryonic fluid, he felt his vital energy go through a transformation.

Dense energy flowed through his body as he recovered stronger. He felt the shackle separating him from the advanced stage of prenatal body refinement loosen and shake. More vital energy poured through his body until he took control of it and formed a key. He used the key to open his shackle, and vital energy erupted through him greater than before.

In an instant, he advanced, growing much stronger. He could already feel it; his physical strength had increased massively. Every cell in his body overflowed with vital energy.

If before his intermediate stage, gave him 2 glasses of water worth of vital energy advanced upgraded him to a 3. While that didn't sound like much, having multiple cultivation paths had multiplicative effects.

His water without techniques was much greater than merely 3 glasses. Pure physical power was multiplied by his 3 ki glasses of water and 4 psychic glasses of water. That meant his total glasses of water equaled 36. To put it in perspective, Tyson and Jacob each only had 3 glasses of ki. If he could bring all his strength to bear, he would obliterate them, and adding techniques would be overkill. That was the difference between using 3 paths of cultivation compared to 1.

In practice, he could pull out around 8 to 9 glasses and with burst 24 to 27 at 3% and 80 to 90 at 10%. The problem was control over the various energies gained from three paths. He was juggling 3 different energy sources and didn't have enough combat experience to get the best use out of them. So, he would have to work on that.

 

[Ultimatedaywriter]

Dream walking was a thing, and it was the Yin Clan's specialty. Vergil learned that on day 8 in his recovery.

In all her psion glory, Gwen had him wrapped up in an absurd number of tentacles. Her pink tentacle hair was in disarray, and her green eyes glowed like starlight. They lay atop a bed over a sea of stars while gas giants rotated overhead. She gave him a look that said it all.

"My face fell off," Vergil said.

"What," Gwen said.

"I fought Tyson; he's a human like me, except his power is fire and control. He's the one who took control of Far Ao." Vergil said.

"Did you win?" Gwen asked.

"It was satisfying," Vergil said.

"What's the state of the Su Clan forces?" Gwen asked.

"About that, I may have made one of their numbers into a familiar."

The sea of sparkling stars went black, and a meteor crashed into one of the planets. So, Gwen was taking it better than he thought she would.

"Was it Su Charity?" Gwen asked.

The tentacles were tightening around him.

"No, I wouldn't make that psychopath my familiar," Vergil said.

She calmed down a little and gazed at him quizzically. Before her eyes lit up.

"I heard of a female gifted with glyphs with a habit of sealing herself in her room with particular types of drones. There are rumors that she does things with them." Gwen said.

"Weren't you talking about using a female drone body to have sex with me?" Vergil said.

"It was a test to see if you were worth my time. You passed, but I can't trust you to go anywhere alone." Gwen said.

Vergil blinked, then nodded. That was something he expected from a human woman but not Gwen. She didn't seem the type to use soft power and tests. Then again, her fallen clan wasn't very high ranking, so some caution isn't strange.

"I'm not scared of your beak anymore," Vergil said, pushing her down on the bed.

…

Smut

…

Gwen removed her tentacles from the Japanese schoolgirl she summoned in the dream world, and they sat on the bed together. He looked over at the Japanese school girl who looked back before giggling and saying something in moon speak.

"She's what you would call a dream demon or succubus. They feed off the pleasure of their hosts in exchange for a place of residence. From now on, this is our dream landscape. So long as we supply our succubus with pleasure, she will keep this place together." Gwen said.

"What's the range?" Vergil asked.

"At the moment, 100km, but if we find more guests and upgrade it with pleasure points, that range can increase. The only problem is my race isn't very sexual in nature. Most of the pleasure came from you. I was mostly curious." Gwen said.

So they had a place to exchange information within 100km, and the range could be increased. That was incredibly useful.

"When I wake up, I will make you my familiar," Vergil said.

"You better," Gwen said.

…

Another stage of cultivation had been reached. Vital energy permeated Vergil's cells, explosively driving his body to the advanced stage of the prenatal realm. The womb split apart, and he dropped down covered in fluids.

That's when the pain hit. Even unconsciousness wouldn't help him escape the pain of regrowing nerves. He shoved a branch in his mouth and bit down to muffle his screams as his body mind caught up to his body. Finally, after hours of incredible pain, the sensations began dying down.

He left the cave and made his way toward the leviathan vein. After he walked into the antechamber leading to the vein, he saw Jacob.

The blond man smiled, showing white teeth. "Where are you going?"

"I'm taking the leviathan vein and Lily back with me. I have my own goals to meet before we leave this place."

"We can't let you do that. You're just like you used to be, always using force to get what you want. Think about it; all we need to do is wait, and we can walk into the Su clan treasury." Jacob said.

While Jacob put on a brave face, he was filled with fear. Vergil was sure his former friend thought Vergil wouldn't get back up. Tyson hopefully spread plenty of misinformation. It was also possible he thought Burst had some healing factor to it. Honestly, who wouldn't get some form of healing besides the most specialized of specialized DPS or Tank?

Jacob and Tyson were both extremely valuable for fear. He could feel his Lord of Terror technique brush against the mid-stage of the mortal killer realm. Odds were better than zero that if he could terrify a few more powerful individuals, he could reach Earth Erupting before leaving the Leviathan Vein realm.

With that in mind, it was normal to make his next decision.

"Taking the vein doesn't affect our ability to sneak in if Tyson did his job and captured Su Charity," Vergil said.

The fear increased minorly. There was something Jacob didn't want Vergil to know.

Vergil raised two fingers wanting to unleash his terror blade but held back. Instead, he stood tall and glared down at Jacob, using his size to intimidate his former friend. Once again, there was a slight increase in fear.

They glared at each other for a few heartbeats before Jacob broke.

"Tyson can't take over Su Charity."

"What!" Vergil said before turning and punching a stalagmite. The ground spike exploded, raining shrapnel all over the antechamber.

"Why can't he take her over?"

"She has the latent ki of an initial stage natal realm cultivator. I guess it's from eating a ludicrous number of brains." Jacob said.

"Then why didn't you kill her. Tyson should be strong enough; killing her should be easy." Vergil said and shook his head. "Since he isn't here, you probably tried and failed. I'm lucky the psions didn't kill me in my sleep."

"They tried the branches wouldn't let them," Jacob said.

The odds were good that Jacob also tried to kill him. However, branches from the Black Goat weren't so easily bypassed.

"Then the only choice is to confront Su Charity," Vergil said.

Vergil turned around and walked back towards the antechamber where he had recovered. Jacob followed dutifully behind him.

"So where is Tyson now. Did he get away ok, or was he hurt in the process? If Su Charity could hurt him, she must be on another level." Vergil said.

"Nothing Tyson did was effective. But killing her won't do us much good either. If she dies, the remaining Su Clan members, Lily included, could be punished and demoted in the clan. Su Charity is a seedling, according to Su Lily. That means she is more valuable than the other members." Jacob said.

Vergil picked up one of the branches and checked it. The branch was black, jagged, and felt evil to the touch. Faint red veins covered the limb pulsing with red sap.

"What are you going to do with that?" Jacob asked.

Violence had become common.

Vergil thrust it through Jacob's chest. A vast wave of fear filled Vergil far more than ever before.

"So fast," Jacob said.

"Either you weren't phasing, which would be stupid, or the limbs from Black Goat's Embryo bypassed your phasing. I wonder which it is. Are you incompetent, or did I get lucky?"

"Why?" Jacob said.

"You were useful enough to keep around before, but since you can't help me subdue Su Charity, you aren't very useful. Who would want a healer who withheld their healing? You would have waited for an opportunity to let me die. Who knows, you might have even helped me out a couple of times to rebuild our trust. Then, you would have ensured I wouldn't get better after I was good and reckless. No, I don't think I need someone like you. Since Tyson is useless, I might send him on his way too." Vergil said.

Jacob stepped out of his body, and Vergil punched out with ki. One of Jacob's arms shattered into motes of light before Vergil's former friend dropped to the ground.

Vergil smashed Jacob's head to pieces and left the body behind. Jacob's astral projection might help him steal a body, but he must cultivate again from scratch. Unfortunately, plenty of mindless drones were around, so he failed to finish the job. Jacob would be back.

He checked his gun before entering the antechamber where the Leviathan Vein was kept. One of the largest Psions he had ever seen sat on a throne of shattered human skulls.

"So, the strange human has awakened. Be a dear and present your head to me. I could use a light snack." Charity said.

"What do you weigh, 4 or 5 tons? There is no way those skulls can support your weight. So this must be an illusion." Vergil said.



He stepped aside as a massive tentacle slammed down, cracking the stone and shaking the room. Vergil swiped his hand and used his terror blade. The massive tentacle fell away with a meaty thump.

The tips of two new tentacles sprouted before dividing into two smaller tentacles.

"Flattery will get you nowhere. Your kind is food, nothing more." Su Charity said.

Vergil snatched her tentacle off the ground and took a bite.

The psion's many waving tentacles froze as Vergil scarfed down the appendage. He could feel his body greedily take in the information. A part of him understood the fundamental nature of the tentacle and how to alter his body to form them. Still, he needed more.

"Keep them coming; you taste great," Vergil said.

He felt a seed of fear bury itself in the psion's psyche. It charged a laser, and Vergil shot forward and took four tentacles, dove under the laser before it could fire, and took more tentacles. Even as her body recovered before his eyes, Vergil could tell she was losing resources. He tossed another of her tentacles in his mouth and slurped it down. A blueprint of the psion slowly filled out while he fought.

He noticed her recovery rate slowed down while he fought her. None of the other psions came in to disturb the fight, leaving them alone together.

"Stop; what do you want?"

"I want the black sarcophagus in the Su Clan treasury," Vergil said.

She paused for a long time before sending him a transmission he really didn't like. "It left," Su Charity said.

All he saw was red, and when he finally came to Su, Charity's beak was crunching between his teeth. Blood and tentacles covered the walls, and his body was processing psions.

As it turned out, it was not an illusion. It left, as in the sarcophagus left on its own, and the Su Clan couldn't stop it. So obviously, the answer was to power up and rob the Su Clan.

He took a shovel and dug out the leviathan vein before walking over to Lily while wearing Jacob's face.

 

[Ultimatedaywriter]

Any chance of ending his first mission early was out the window. The black sarcophagus had left of its own accord, which had some uncomfortable implications. Finding it would take much more time.

Before that, he needed to get more leviathan veins and cultivate his mind like crypto to the moon. He was also behind Danete and needed to reach the natal realm quickly; even if it was fast and dirty, he had to do it.

The leviathan vein realm was a rocky gray region filled with eldritch beasts. Tunnels sheered into the rock covered the land mass from psions searching for the leviathan veins. No one removed the veins from the grey rock because the gray rock somewhat absorbed the signals leviathan rocks produced.

Vergil had dug up the vein only to find a paper white finger with a long black nail still bleeding from its stump. The purple glow came from the crystalline purple bone sticking out of the finger's end. The finger itself was a little longer than 10ft at the knuckle. Even if a storage ring couldn't handle the energy output, it wouldn't be difficult to transport. Vergil was confident he could use a sack made from ape leather with little rocks inside.

The only thing stopping him from snatching the finger was Lily's resting bitch face.

Lily glared at him and tried not to look at the bloody spot where he had eaten Su Charity. "Do you know how we rank monsters?" Lily asked.

Before he said anything like what that had to do with the finger, she smacked her forehead.

"What am I saying? You're a human; how could you have a basic education. Monsters are ranked from 10 to 1; the lower the number, the more powerful. There are 10s like the Tri-eyed apes, Rape Dolphins, locust starfish, pseudo 9s like the ghost jellyfish swarms, Colossal Tormentors, and the rare sea dragons. A pseudo-nine takes 3 silver ranks to win without casualties but take that leviathan vein out of the ground, and an 8 could appear. Can you even conceive of the power of an 8?" Lily asked.

He knew what an 8 was; she didn't have to treat him like an idiot. An 8 was a realm stronger than a 9 or 100 times stronger than a 10. The apes would be considered solid 10s or even mid-high level 10s. Psions weren't unique in the categorization of monsters.

Apes were cannon fodder, and Vergil hadn't taken on a pseudo 9 before. He hadn't tried taking on the other 10s either. Perhaps they produced resources that could prove beneficial. If that were true, an 8 would produce even more valuable resources.

"Maybe pulling a leviathan vein out of the ground is too much," Vergil said and kept quiet about the, for now, part of that sentence.

"I can hear your thoughts when you think too loudly. If an 8 appeared, the elders would interfere with gathering the leviathan veins." His familiar said.

"What resources can I get from walking rape dolphins and locust starfish?" Vergil asked.

Lily tossed her tentacle hair before sighing. "They both contain psi extract in their blood from living in a leviathan vein. Drain their blood and take their psi for yourself to cultivate. If you have the right technique, it's faster than standard cultivation. I happen to know one if you're willing to make an exchange." Lily said.

Vergil was ecstatic; a technique that let him cultivate ki, psi, fear, and vital energy would be amazing. However, while the technique would only help psi, the rest would come from actively massacring enemies.

"I'm willing to pay you four void stones for it," Vergil said, producing the stones on the spot. 80 human lives were surely worth a technique, except if he learned one from her, it wouldn't fill up a slot, and it would be psi based.

Lily seemed taken about by his reaction. "That wasn't what I had in mind when I said I wanted an exchange." She grabbed her breasts and pinched her nipples. "I have this human body, but you haven't even broken it. Stop neglecting me, and I will give you the technique."

Oh, that's how it was. "Lily, you're a good girl."

Vergil had planned to move the finger, but if it was going to cause him more trouble than it was worth, he had a plan B. His ki strands numbered 10 after his latest breakthrough in mind and ki cultivation. After stringing them together, they went from being ki strands to being a ki string. The rotating string consistently absorbed twice as much psi as all 10 strands alone, and that wasn't all. Before he sent the string over, he admitted to himself he was about to do something dumb.

Instead of rotating around his mind to absorb psi, he reached out with it. His qi string touched the finger, and he felt its diamond rank psi flood his system. Then, like sticking a fork in a power socket, he received a shock, and it was just what he needed.

Jumping a realm from prenatal to natal had a requirement that was simple in practice but difficult in application. Vergil needed to craft his mind node. Below the foundation-building realm was the natal realm, where nodes of zones where foundations were built. He needed to condense his cultivation into a node to step from the prenatal realm to the natal realm.

Normally a cultivator would require vast quantities of psi stored away to be used simultaneously. There were techniques to do so, like Tyson's control technique. Tyson could quickly gain the energy needed to reach the natal realm if he sought out psychic power. After all, he had the technique needed to complete the hardest step.

Vergil, on the other hand, took a different approach. There was already a perfectly good source of psychic energy in the leviathan vein. So he harnessed the power to head into the next rank.

The power hit him like a truck, and he immediately got to work condensing the power. At this point, the incredible psychic power flowing into him acted as pressure. So Vergil used it to push against the psychic power already in his mind and began condensing.

Black veins covered his skin, and he felt his body shrink as he struggled to protect his mind. Vital energy and ki went to work, keeping him on a knife's edge from catastrophic brain death. Shapeshifting helped him shrink his body and shove more vital energy into his brain to act as a buffer.

There was so much psionic energy passing through his string it had become visible. Vergil could feel the 10 strands melt together as more power poured into his mind.

It felt like the hands of a giant were pushing down on his mind trying to crush his brain into paste. This was exactly the force he needed to reach the natal realm.

Blood flowed from his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth as he struggled against the incredible force of the leviathan vein. All the while, he could feel his psionic energy condense. Vergil tried to estimate the progress through the pain, but he couldn't figure out which would give his mind or body first.

What felt like hours of pain passed in seconds while he struggled to condense his psi. That's when he felt Lily's hands touch either side of his head, and another force pushed down on his mind.

She seemed to get what he needed intuitively. She lent her control to direct the vast flow of energy from the leviathan vein. Once she helped, he handed off the reins of keeping the energy even and pushed with all his might.

His psi condensed under the incredible power of the leviathan vein. Vergil could feel the node grow ever brighter as it formed until it glowed like a star. Still, he pushed; he had to push until he couldn't any longer. That was the only way to ensure his node was the most stable. Size didn't matter; only density was worth anything in the natal realm. The leviathan vein was the best possible resource for this venture.

Blood continued to pool down his body, staining his white drone robe red as sparks of psionic energy danced across his skin. That was the sign he had entered the realm, but he hadn't reached his limit. Vergil continued to push with all his might.

It was time for the real test. The denser Vergil could make his node, the better off he would be. So he had to press down and hope his body could handle it because once the node settled, that was it. His potential would be set from then on. He would have to destroy his mind cultivation and start over to improve it.

He pushed with all his might and hoped it would be enough. It shrank another degree, and more purple sparks of static danced across his skin as his node became what's known as a 3rd​ rate. He might make it two more realms if he stopped, but that was it. A 3rd​ rate node had a rickety foundation like a house built on sand.

He wasn't giving up even as he widened his veins and arteries and shrank his body while thickening it in places until he looked like a dwarf. His mind needed more energy if he was going to survive. A human body couldn't handle the strain of this level of cultivation. Humans weren't built for mind cultivation, or at least not without better preparation. In hindsight, he would rather have had Gwen and Lily with him to help contain the power.

His short-sighted decision had made the transition to the natal realm much more difficult. Still, he wouldn't give up.

His node condensed further until it shined with 10,000 lumens, and random bolts of psionic energy blasted across the cave. Vergil continued to alter his body to support the pressure and felt another lurch. Vergil had reached the 1st rate node at the latest lurch, but he wouldn't stop. It was like building a house with a concrete foundation. Sure, it was sturdy, but he needed something stronger.

Feeling left his legs, and his heartbeat was slowing down. The same power he had cultivated was on the verge of destroying him. Unfortunately, Vergil felt he was only halfway to where he wanted to be. To reach the top, he would have to take a gamble.

Surviving a storm like a human wasn't going to work. He fused his legs and arms together and felt his head sink into his neck.

His node jumped to the greater rank, but that was still insufficient. Vergil felt his body drying up and dying. He wanted, no needed to be great, and this wasn't his limit. Maybe if he had waited to reach the peak stage in ki and body refinement, he would be stronger, but he wanted to win. Dante was already intermediate stage in the natal realm. The only way Vergil could see himself catching up was with the strongest foundation possible.

Another jump brought him to the legendary rank of nodes, one of the highest ranks possible and a sign of an extreme talent like a seedling of a powerful sect. His body was mostly dried up and on the verge of death; even his vital energy was only embers. If he stopped here, he would be considered incredibly talented.

To Vergil, who had already suffered almost complete destruction, it wasn't enough. Even when his node illuminated his mind with the light of a million lumens, it wasn't his goal. He wasn't aiming for a skyscraper; he wanted an orbital elevator.

His body shrank in until his skin was paper thin, and the last sparks of life fled from his body. All his blood dried in his veins before it reached his brain. Any moment his spirit would collapse into particles.

"Vergil, stop, pull back," Lily said.

A shining light brighter than he had ever seen appeared in his vision, smaller than a needle's eye but brighter than a billion lumens.

He opened the way and let power rush into the new Deified node. It drank in the energy, and Vergil quickly activated Black Goat's Embryo hoping it would be enough to save his life.

Vergil felt Lily flee while his branches reached out. Natal realm psi flowed through his Black Goat's Ebyro skill, enhancing it beyond its original power.

After only a few hours, he was more or less conscious and in the womb of a tree kaiju.

 

[Ultimatedaywriter]

Standing two football fields tall, built from long spindly tree limbs wrapped around each other to form corded muscle, with the head of a goat and the body of a man, the creature roared its indignation at the world. At its core, the finger from the leviathan vein fed the colossus ever greater amounts of psionic energy. Long purple veins spread through black bark until they reached the giant's wide hips and massive breasts. Over its womb, a half-filled heart surrounded by bat wings pulsed with its occupant healing inside.

Vergil had no control over the creature. Getting out of it wasn't really the problem in his current state. His body, while he healed rapidly, wasn't 100%. While most of his body was back, his vital energy and ki slowly recovered. On the bright side, when his vital energy did recover, he could tell it would be the peak stage of the prenatal realm.

An explosion rocked the kaiju, and suddenly he was in the driver's seat. Vergil glared down at a dozen psions blasting him with their lasers. It burned his flesh but didn't have the penetration power to finish him off. Vergil raised his hands and clapped one. The psion's barrier shattered, and the creature became a meaty slurry that Vergil's kaiju body eagerly absorbed.

From the ground, Tyson blasted forward and blasted a hole through Vergil's kaiju arm. The wound quickly caught fire while Vergil adjusted his strategy. The realm was still mostly solid though most of the psions, including Lily and Gwen, had left. But that was fine; it was time to bring an end to this show anyway.

Vergil let a particularly strong beam from a gold hit him and fell to a knee over a particular cave system. He quickly shot his hand through the ground and plucked another finger. The psions joined in, slowing down his arm while Vergil struggled to consume it. Jacob appeared in the body of a clone holding a starfish.

Jacob's hand glowed, and a massive dense green orb burst erupted from within the starfish. Vergil quickly understood that Jacob had been working on the creature for a long time, storing more power until it became something like a treasure.

Treasures were one-time-use items or creatures that couldn't be used again. However, because of their sacrificial nature, they could be powerful if used correctly.

The second the treasure energy hit the starfish and started mutating out of control, its death was certain.

Vergil wasn't incredibly worried; the psions relaxed their hold as the starfish formed, and his hand rose closer to his mouth.

He measured the distance, and the speed at the growing starfish moved by his hand's movements and knew he would make it in time. But, unfortunately, the psions were too late to put on the pressure again, and his hand approached his mouth. With a second leviathan vein, his power would be immense.

Before it reached his mouth, Tyson returned, climbed up his body, and threw himself through Vergil's wrist. Then, as his hand collapsed, the other psions took the moment of reprieve in the battle to join their wills to charge up a massive beam.

That was when Vergil acted. He used the telekinesis from his main body to grab ahold of the leviathan vein and yank it into his mouth. The starfish smashed into his body as the leviathan vein fell down his through to join the other. The symbol on his abdomen glowed brighter as immense power flowed through him.

None of them watched his footwork.

Vergil felt the starfish slam on his chest repeatedly, but it was too late. He felt his hand stitch itself back together before the first 8 appeared.

Riding on a broomstick, a pink-haired girl wielding a wand smiled cutely. "I am Pink Starlight of the starlight patrol, and I am here to stop the forces of evil."

Vergil shoved his hand through the ground and grabbed another leviathan vein. At the same time, he cultivated his main body bitterly. The diamond rank psi had more than doubled beyond its former rank.

He didn't waste time and devoured the third one just before the colossal beam hit. Then, while the beam hit him, Vergil grabbed the starfish and used it as a shield. The third leviathan vein raised his power even more, but then a pink arrow shot through his chest. He quickly placed a hand over the wound as he struggled to stand. All the while, he cultivated with all his might.

His Deified node grew exponentially as the dense psionic energy powered him up. Vergil hugged the starfish and felt the roots in his body shoot out into the monster. Its flesh broke apart as the healing power altered to increase growth, ultimately causing the starfish's cells to self-destruct. Its vital energy started collapsing since it reached its massive size.

A power Vergil had never sensed before radiated from the magical girl, and for once, the brand had no information. So, the only thing to do was to capture the girl. A fourth avenue of cultivation could only make him more powerful. The starfish had helped patch up his wounds, so Vergil sprinted forward.

Before the third leviathan vein, his kaiju body had been sluggish. However, his speed had massively increased after he gained the third piece. Vergil swatted the gold psions out of the sky like flies before rolling under the magical girl's arrow.

"How many demon lord pieces did you monsters hide here? This goes against the treaty. I have half a mind to leave you to this beast." The magical girl yelled as Vergil shattered the psion's front line.

"Help us, and you can have 3 items out of the Su and Far clan treasuries." A psion gold promised.

"Make it 5 each, or I will leave your well-deserved fate. It's listening to us negotiate." The magical girl said.


"Princess Mona, that's impossible; it's a mindless monster." Vergil stabbed his hand into the ground but pulled up nothing. "See, it only knows that some leviathan veins are underground; it can't sense them. The other two were lucky nothing can sense the leviathan veins through the Tiamat Stone." A psion said.

"How dare you tell it my name, and it's reacting to our transmissions. There is a demon lord fragment near the toe-shaped mountain." Princess Mona said.

Vergil ignored her words and headed away from it and stabbed his hand through the ground again but pulled it back empty-handed.

"Its luck has run out. We will make it 3 items each for your assistance, lady." Vergil snatched up, moved between two peaks, and made his move. He threw them both in his mouth and swallowed them down. That brought the leviathan veins in his kaiju body to 5, and he could feel it. His body glowed bright with psionic power, and Vergil felt something fighting him for control. Suddenly Vergil stood, and he could feel changes spreading through the kaiju.

As he struggled against the being, he felt his arm reach up to grasp a breast the size of a two-story house. "Someone has been naughty with my fragments."

"You bastards, how many fragments are here," Mona said.

"Starlight ranger and you're the pink one that must make you the current princess of the 12 moon kingdom, or has it come under a new name. It has been too long since I've been awake; the stars feel different; we are no longer in the Night Cluster.

Vergil pulled in more power and felt his mind cultivation hit the next milestone. Intermediate-stage natal cultivation helped him push against the presence. However, the creature was barely holding on.

"How dare you? These are my fragments?"

Vergil felt great fear from the creature and used it. He took control of the body and stood up taller than before. Pale white skin covered his body, and the goat head was replaced by that of a giant horned woman.

"You are a tool, nothing more. If you're going to take control, then 5 fragments are enough." Vergil said.

"You will need my power. Don't you want to get stronger?" The demon lord said.

Vergil fiddled around with his kaiju's new hands. They were white with long black nails like the fingers. It made sense she wanted to look like herself.

"Give me a drop of your blood and become mine, then I will help you find every fragment," Vergil said.

"Like that, Lily psion no thanks, even if it would slightly benefit me. I don't want to be controlled by a man like you."

Vergil shot forward and slapped the magical girl out of the sky before extending two fingers and slashing. His terror blade improved after receiving some of the demon lord's fear. The magical girl crawled out of the mountain she fell in and fired another arrow. Vergil swatted it aside.

"How can you be so strong? A demon lord shouldn't have such strength with only 5 fragments." Mona asked.

Vergil smiled with the demon lord's face. "Sorry, the demon lord isn't in charge right now," Vergil said.

Even from the vast distance between them, Vergil saw the girl's pupils dilate, and a shower of fresh fear washed over him. It felt great.

"Vergil, you haven't beaten us yet," Jacob yelled.

Vergil turned his head to see Jacob feeding a vast amount of power into Tyson. Vergil threw himself in that direction and body-slammed them. Then he raised his fists and punched down with all his might, but his fists passed through an illusion.

He turned to see Tyson use his control while Jacob healed the magical girl. That's when Vergil remembered Tyson's other technique. He could make his controlled targets stronger for a short time.

"Feed me another fragment. You can't hide from me what they plan to do. I've seen desperate heroes in action before." Vergil stared down at the sixth fragment. He had unearthed it while unconsciously sticking to the former plan. It would have been a great plan if not for the demon lord.

Plan B had been to rip out the fragments from his body and ditch it before slipping into a crowd of drones. But, unfortunately, Tyson has control over Princess Mona and possibly access to a method to find the black sarcophagus.

"If you mean the sarcophagus of the Elder Thing, then I could help you find it, but first, you must help me. We must win this quickly before the other Starlight scouts arrive. If they form their Ultra Fighting Robot, we're through." The demon lord said.

Vergil blinked and felt like laughing. He should do the same if they were going by anime logic. What was all the power he had if he couldn't control it? Tyson couldn't boost Mona by more than 40%. That wasn't as much power as Vergil's Kaiju had.

"It isn't power; it's control which you sorely lack. If you won't get more of my fragments, cede control to me." He did the equivalent of bitch slapping her mind away from the steering wheel. "How dare you." The demon lord shrieked.

"No, be quiet. I have this handled. Say another word about ceding control to you. I will rip the fragments out myself and toss them in five directions. Do you understand me?" Vergil said.

He did the equivalent of rattling her consciousness to make his point clear.

"For now." The demon lord said.

"Good enough," Vergil said.

While her power was immense, her consciousness was mostly scattered. It took a lot for her to try and take control compared to the power output of the fragments.

After sensing the psions blast him with beams, he had a good impression of how beams work. Fortunately, his kaiju body was large and had many psionic energy-carrying limbs running through it. Actually, the superstructure was 100% psionic energy-carrying limbs. While his life force was immense within the kaiju, his power came from the fragments. He could use psionic techniques through the kaiju.

That's why he decided to replicate the beam and hold burst in his back pocket for a final trump card. Using a technique he had never practiced before seemed difficult, but he had a lot of power to waste doing it. Moreover, the fragments had a practically infinite steady power output. A few more, and he would be scary strong, and the demon lord's consciousness would be much stronger.

With that in mind, Vergil held out a fingertip and gathered his immense power at its tip before firing. An explosion shook the world as a mountain exploded. And a blade sliced through his arm.

An alien girl with antennas on her head sheathed a long blade. More starlight rangers appeared in various colors. The fight had picked up.

 

[Ultimatedaywriter]

Rough barely explained how he felt. He was missing an arm, not really, but his Kaiju was, and it cut his combat strength down below half.

A gathering of Starlight Scouts told him his situation was anything but good, and one by herself had cut off his arm. The worst part was that he didn't even know what kind of energy she used.

Vergil tried to calm down and strategize.

All he managed to do was review how he reached his current situation from his perspective. It started with a desire to reach the next realm and catch up to Dante. That was a desire that turned into a minor obsession. Because of it, he strung his delicate lines of psi-cultivating cords into a string and attached it to a leviathan fragment. From there, he made a decision.

Jacob was waiting in the wings to attack when he was weakest. The opportunist would have watched and waited until Vergil thought he had all his ducks in a row. So he had to be spontaneous.

Vergil ascended to the natal realm, but that wasn't enough for him. He didn't want a weak foundation, and leviathan veins were convenient for their perpetual diamond-rank psychic energy.

He did what he needed to do and sacrificed his health to ensure his node was of the highest quality possible. Of course, that was on him, but it was necessary for the strongest foundation possible.

To recover, he fell back on his old reliable technique, The Black Goat's Embryo, but he was nearly too far gone. Power and flesh were needed to bring him back to full health, and with him passed out, the will behind the technique took over. Shub Niggurath would not let him die with resources close at hand. She directed his skill to reap the lives of drones and psions too slow to get away. Her will was not the only one that mattered.

Shub Niggurath used the leviathan vein for its power when constructing his sanctuary. But the leviathan vein wasn't simple. It was an object perpetually producing diamond-rank psychic energy. When attached to the malleable flesh created by Shub Niggurath, it sought a reunion with its original body.

The wills fought for control, but ultimately Shub Niggurath was too far away to drive out the will of a being she had already ingested. So the leviathan vein was always the fragment of a demon lord, a finger from the demon lord's dismemberment.

When Vergil came to, he had no control. However, thanks to Shub Niggurath's efforts or the demon lord's distraction, he gained control over the Kaiju. Once the Kaiju body was out of the ground, a rank 8 monster should have noticed. But that was a lie told by the psions from an early age.

In reality, the psions were using demon lord fragments to foster their youths under the nose of other groups. The princess of the 12 moon kingdom, Mona, the pink Starlight ranger, attacked him. Throughout the battle, Tyson and Jacob interfered while Vergil tricked the psions so he could buy time.

As he gathered the fragments, the demon lord's consciousness grew stronger until it was all he could do to maintain control. After 5 fragments, he was at his limits, unfortunately; after he had Mona on the ropes, Tyson used his control technique on her and boosted her power. That wasn't a problem until the other rangers appeared, and one cut off his arm.

"Why are the rangers instead of scouts?" Vergil asked the demon lord.

He felt her fury before she replied. "How can you ask questions at a time like this?" She said.

The arm was where he wanted it to be. After giving it, some thought, one of the last dominos had fallen into place as he wanted. He fell to a knee and made the expression on the Kaiju's face appear pitiful.

"She's pretty weak for a demon lord. How did she give you trouble, pink?" The green ranger said.

Vergil clawed another fragment from the ground and tossed it back like a jello shot. A new power radiated from the kaiju, and a new arm formed immediately. But, again, he felt his will get pushed back by the demon lord.

"You fool did you think your meager will was enough to stand against me. I am Lucifina, the dark lord who rebelled against the goddess Yehwah" The demon lord cackled.

He fought tooth and nail for control before the image of the remaining areas where the fragments remained came unbidden to his mind.

"Watch as I regain my power," Lucifina said.

To be perfectly honest, it was better to let his subordinates do the menial labor after he put the initial work in.

He watched her reach out her hands before a flowing dress that seemed to devour the light of countless stars wrapped around her naked body. Countless images appeared on the dress of demons, monsters, and alien life forms. The tattoo above her womb glowed ever brighter as she began her battle against the rangers.

Canons fired, swords erupted in towering slashes that sliced apart mountains, and the black dress countered them all with its twisted creatures. The world seemed ready to fall apart. Holes started to open in the fabric of space while the demon lord cackled, and yellow-eyed snakes launched themselves from the dress to attack the scouts.

Vergil cultivated bitterly while the demon lord battled the Starlight Scouts. He felt himself quickly reach the advanced stage of the natal realm before charging forward.

After being thrown around but not fully defeated, the starlight rangers finally decided to go for broke. They raised their wands in the air and summoned their ultimate weapon.

From their wands, a signal erupted until 5 robot girls, each of a different color, combined into the ultra-fighting robot. Long blond hair flowed down the ultra-fighting robot's shoulders like a waterfall. Its dress was short but stopped being revealed, and its face was adorable. Small delicate white wings spilled out from its back as a halo of purity appeared over its head.

"Allow me to show you true power." The demon lord grabbed her hips before tapping her giant clit.

Vergil's eyes widened. He knew what would happen next, but it was supposed to only exist in hentai.

I should just move this to NSFW