The world flickered back in, and it was one that he couldn’t recognize. It was made of black rock and marble, but unlike the dream world of King, this one looked more like a city.

  That’s not really a city.

  It looked more like a colony made by alien creatures. Their construction was tailor-made for them, with wide arcs of stone weaving in and out of each other. Some buildings resembled ‘castles,’ but they looked more like random collections of pillars of various sizes.

  There was something different looming in the far distance on the horizon. A pillar made of white material, cylindrical in apparent shape. Wider than it was tall. It was by far the biggest ‘building’ Arcen had ever seen. It looked out of place among the jagged, hard-edged architecture of other constructs. It didn’t look like it was even on the same piece of land he was on. There could’ve been an ocean between, but he couldn’t see it through the ground fog.

  The sky was red as usual, but this place was brighter than what Arcen saw in King's dream. For some reason, he wasn’t as bothered by the red light as he thought. He was fused with King, and everything came filtered through his perception of the world.

  A flood of information filled every corner of Arcen’s mind, giving him context for what this place was. There was a lot that went missing in the translation, but his initial assessment was correct. This was a city, a place where large gatherings of Meronolith lived.

  How does he have memories like this if he’s not even born?

  He knew the answer to that question, but he didn’t know it in English to explain it to himself. It was an intuition at the core of his being. This is how Meronolith always works.

  These weren’t King’s experiences. He was being dragged like a camera behind a Meronolith female, a creature that was about ten feet tall. She didn’t have thousands of tails like what he saw in Norm’s memories. She had an array of red fibers on the back of her spine, frayed ends dancing in the wind.

  This was a juvenile, one who hadn’t earned the title of Queen. Moreover, she hadn’t been born with a divine mandate. She was a regular Meronolith with no titles or worldly possessions.

  She walked through this city of bizarre architecture.

  Meronoliths came in varying shapes and sizes. She passed ones as small as house cats to docile ones that were as large as old oak trees. The only defining trait between these creatures was their tar-black skin and the red glowing energy that pulsed through them at regular intervals.

  Her name was ‘Lertarn’ or something that sounded similar. Two other Meronolith males greeted her with that name as she passed them, heading up a jagged staircase with her long legs.

  Lertarn was heading towards an arena of trial. Her world had a new trial from God brewing on the distant horizon. The gigantic white pillar on the horizon had appeared when she was little and weak. None from her world had survived the trial, and that made it her prime obsession.

  To be strong as a Meronolith, she had to win against her progenitors to earn her inheritance. Thus, she had climbed this same staircase for each day cycle, trying her best to defeat a creature chained to a back pillar.

  She walked into her own section of the Arena, passing other juveniles just like her sitting cross-legged before their own pillars. This was a typical start to her day, sitting here and meditating before the first powerful creature that she must conquer to earn her place among the lower echelon, the minimum position required to enter that wonderful white pillar.

  Everything that she wanted out of her life was right there before her, chained to a rock with links as large as her palms. This was the bane of her existence.

  Her patriarch, the one who seeded the egg she was born from. Her father.

  He was five times her size, a lumbering giant of a male who had lived long enough to open six of his eyes. He’d been stripped of his tailwomen that every healthy male acquired through conquest. This was a merciful handicap enforced by the upper echelon. She wouldn’t stand a chance against him if he still had his weapons of war. Even if he was significantly weakened, he still used his empty tails as whips, cracking them at her face at regular intervals.

  Lertarn didn’t know his exact age. She only knew of his past conquests of lesser worlds that orbited the Red Sun. Regardless of their life adventures, this was the fate of adult Meronolith beyond a certain point in their growth cycle. The base animal emerged from their temperate and logical depths, devolving them into the source creature that they evolved from.

  In a way, Lertarn already knew this was not her father. This was an animal who wore his skin.

  Unfortunately for her, her father’s mother had chosen a beast from another world to create him from. Other juveniles passed this Arena much faster than she did, because their grandmothers picked a weaker source animal.

  That’s how King became like this! He evolved from Norm Lorraine!

  Arcen would’ve yelled if he was allowed to, but he couldn’t do that in this memory.

  Lertarn sat before him, folding her feet in and placing her palms on the ground in the divine posture. She wanted to do it right this time. Red Court was a crucial skill for the Meronolith. The domain of their one true god, who at this very moment, hovered above her in the red sky, watching over her.

  She looked up, touching her forehead with one finger. Arcen noticed it only after she did. A shattered moon hung high in the sky above them. It looked more like a satellite than a moon, but moon was the word Lertarn called it in her head.

  Blinking at it thrice to gain God’s blessings, she turned her head back towards her chained father. She placed her finger on the ground before her, sending a pulse of red energy through her Arena. Her father woke up from his slumber.

  His six eyes flared wide open, and his mouth opened before she could open hers.

  END YOURSELF NOW.

  Lertarn countered it with only moments to spare.

  SHUT YOUR MOUTH.

  Their Red Courts clashed, her father’s bubble expanding faster and stronger than hers. She closed her eyes as the threshold approached her. The red court couldn’t be maintained without concentration. Her God did not reward divided attention. Her God demanded all of her attention, even in the face of certain death.

  She managed to stop the threshold only a few meters away from her. It fluctuated, as if it could fall apart at any moment.

  Arcen watched, bracing himself to be paralyzed.

  It happened exactly as he imagined. The domain washed over him, turning his world red and white. Lertarn went numb as her father’s venomous words seared into her brain. She lifted her hand, pointing sharpened claws at the side of her head. Without hesitation, she sank her hand into her brain.

  The memory flickered, and Arcen felt himself being pushed forward. He popped into existence right next to the King, who stared at the dead Meronolith girl at his feet, frozen in time.

  “W-wait, she died?”

  NO, IN THE ARENA, THEY’RE REVIVED UNTIL THEY SUCCEED.

  King looked up at him with a smile.

  THIS IS MY MOTHER.

  Arcen woke up in the muddy hole that fell asleep. He was immediately greeted by Jelly, who was standing on his forehead while slapping his cheek with her small hand. Arcen jolted, and she jumped off, running away with a giggle.

  He was cold. It didn’t seem like he fell asleep for too long. The orange blood from the dead worm had pooled at his feet, and it was as cold as water from a refrigerator now.

  He saw Elena sitting on elevated ground where she passed out. Somehow, she was wearing his shirt over her tattered, makeshift bodysuit. The bandages and duct tape had fallen apart, leaving her with only the undergarments that she’d built the bodysuit from. Jelly ran up to her after waking him up. She nudged Elena until she turned back to face him with a strange expression on her face.

  “What did you do?” She asked right away.

  “Huh?” Arcen looked around himself for what she was glaring at. He didn’t see anything.

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  “The egg! It’s on your back now!”

  “Oh fuck, I-” Arcen raised himself in a hurry, thinking he may have crushed the egg trying to use it as a pillow. That wasn’t the case. Elena’s oily long coat was there, submerged in cold orange blood. The egg was nowhere to be seen. “Where’s the egg?!”

  “On your back!” Elena said angrily.

  Arcen reached around him, feeling his back. Sure enough, the egg was clinging to his back. He grabbed it and pulled it. A pulse of energy blasts through his body, making him groan. He fell on his knees.

  WE'RE HERE TO PLAY, REMEMBER?

  King’s voice echoed in his head. He froze as the words diffused through his body from head to toe.

  “What did you do?!” Elena yelled, clearly upset with him.

  “I didn’t do anything!” Arcen howled, trying to touch his back. The egg had sunk halfway into his flesh. “I fell asleep on it, that’s all.”

  “That can’t be all! I’ve been sleeping with it for like two weeks now. This never happened to me!” Elena yelled at him.

  “I don’t know how this happened!” Arcen said, touching the egg much more gently now. “How is this even possible without that headgear?! How was I even supposed to know?”

  “This is exactly like what happened on the ground floor, you're fused with the egg now,” she looked away, her face twisted to a frown.

  Arcen debated whether to tell her about what King and he talked about. Telling her would clear things between them, but he didn’t know what she could do with such information. She needed the egg for something else. She wasn’t capable of interfacing with the creature inside it.

  I wonder why that is.

  I DO NOT LIKE HER. I THINK SHE WANTS TO KILL ME.

  Arcen jolted again as his words pulsed through him. If King spoke the truth, he’d gained a crucial piece of information. She wanted to kill King for some reason. If it also had something to do with Helene, she was trying to save someone like Gareth was. It could also be a way to get stronger; maybe she was upset because she couldn’t take advantage of the King as he could.

  “Now, I can’t even kill you to get it back. Can’t believe I was so stupid!” Elena said, rubbing her forehead. Her voice was fluctuating as if she were about to cry in pure frustration.

  kill me to get it back?!

  “Maybe I can find a way to give it back?” Arcen suggested just to keep the conversation going. He had no actual intention of giving it back. Although it happened accidentally, this was exactly the outcome that he needed for the Osiryn quest.

  ╭ ╰︶?? ERITHERIA ?? ︶╯ ╮

  ╭────────────────────╮

  ︶╯ QUEST ╰︶

  ????

  RETRIEVE ITEM

  ╰─────────╮╭────────╯

  ╭────────────────────╮

  ︶╯ DESCRIPTION ╰︶

  ????

  RETURN THE BLACK EGG

  OF THE MERONOLITH

  ╰─────────╮╭────────╯

  ╭────────────────────╮

  ︶╯ DURATION ╰︶

  ????

  30 DAYS

  ╰─────────╮╭────────╯

  ╭────────────────────╮

  ︶╯ CONDITIONS ╰︶

  ????

  MUST BE UNHATCHED

  ╰─────────╮╭────────╯

  ╭────────────────────╮

  ︶╯ STATUS ╰︶

  ????

  PENDING

  ╰─────────╮╭────────╯

  Arcen winced when he noticed the days he had left. Four had already passed without him even realizing.

  The fact that he had the egg now was good progress. If he didn’t end up where he was because of that hell dog, it would’ve taken him weeks to steal it. This left him with twenty-six days to figure out where to deliver the egg to.

  And then I’m going to get the fuck out of here so fast!

  “You can’t take it off by yourself!” Elena said, pointing at him. “We’ll have to wait till Rika gets here. Maybe she can pry it off of you. Why did you even sleep on it! Ugh!”

  That was bad news. He had to avoid Rika somehow.

  Arcen decided to explode on her now that he had the advantage. He didn’t enjoy being snarked by this overconfident middle schooler.

  “Well, don’t fucking yell at me like it was my fault!” He shouted, his voice echoing on the walls. “This was all your idea, wasn’t it? You’re the whole reason I even ended up here. You ruined fucking everything the moment you jumped on the train. Now here you are, yelling like a dumbass about me stealing your idiot egg. Make that make sense!”

  Elena leaned back, her eyes wide with shock. Jelly slowly backed away from them towards an empty corner.

  “I thought-” Elena said, grabbing her chest.

  “Oh yeah? What did you think? Hundreds of people died. You literally killed me. Where was the apology for what you did, by the way? I damn sure didn’t hear it!” Arcen went off, not letting her speak. He was actually holding himself back from using all the key pieces that he wanted to throw at her. There was a good chance to get more information out of her if he yelled at her with the right tone, using the right information at the right moment.

  “I didn’t want anyone to die!” She shouted back indignantly, lips quivering.

  “Like that matters? Who gives a shit what you wanted? Do you think their families care? They died because of what you did. How do you feel about that? Twelve years old and already a mass murderer,” he saw the words hit her as they left his mouth. He felt bad about it, but he also didn’t want to ease the pressure anytime soon. She wasn’t upset enough to reveal something yet.

  “You’re the one who ate those people! You ate me too! You didn’t apologize either!” Elena yelled, her volume much lower than his, tears in her eyes.

  “Oh yeah? Try to flip that on me somehow. I didn’t even know about these fuck ass towers until I got here. How was I supposed to know if I ate the wrong goddamn pills, the alien freak was going to use me to make kebab out of everyone?! You’re the one who knew all of that. You sure knew way more than I ever did. Hell, you know more now than I ever will!” Arcen paused, coming up with the one sentence that could deal a lot of damage after cornering her. “You say you didn’t want anyone to die. You knew everything. So what exactly did you fucking do to save those people? Because all I remember from you is how you acted very cool and powerful like a fucking idiot.”

  WHY ARE YOU CALLING ME AN ALIEN FREAK? I AM EKIN.

  Shut up! I’m trying to do something!

  Elena turned her head down and slumped. She was whispering something to herself that he couldn’t hear.

  “It’s okay, I’m used to getting yelled at,” she said, wiping her eyes.

  Arcen spotted her manipulation tactics a mile away. He’d grown up with the greatest teenage drama queen of them all—his sister. This kid was still playing the game, trying to use her tears to weasel out of a situation while keeping a moral high ground. He doubted if they were even real tears. She was too oily for that to be the case.

  “Oh hell, I wonder why anyone would want to yell at someone like you?” He mocked her. “In fact, they didn’t yell enough, if this is what you are now!”

  Elena wiped her tears, frowning at him. Jelly seemed to be concerned now, hands on her tiny head as she stared back and forth between them. It’s the most shocked Arcen had ever seen her little face. He felt bad about that more than he felt bad for Elena.

  “Alright, it’s all my fault. I’m sorry. Are you happy now?” Elena asked, sniffing.

  That was a non-apology hall of famer. He’d probably heard the same sentence from his sister at some point in time. He wanted to pivot from here to shock her out of the deflection she was trying to do.

  “Yeah, it’s all cool now! I’ll forget everything,” Arcen said sarcastically as he turned away.

  “Why are you so mad at me! I didn’t even do anything right now!” Elena said through a sob.

  “Didn’t do anything!” Arcen exploded again. “I sleep after getting chased by a dog from hell, I wake up, and what do I have? You acting like it’s my fault this fucking egg got glued to me. It’s that tone of yours that I can’t stand. You talk like it’s my fault you can’t fucking take it off without killing me.”

  DO YOU HATE ME?

  Shut up! I’m trying to upset her!

  “I won’t talk like that again!” Elena said, all too eagerly.

  She was putting up less of a fight than he thought. It could be part of her current strategy to look as small and pitiful as possible, or it could be that she was somewhat sorry. Either way, she didn’t seem to be capable of exploding on command as he could. While he knew she was faking at least half of this, he’d indeed managed to overwhelm her with words.

  “I’m really sorry!” She said, looking at him, making her eyes big and teary as humanly possible.

  “You better be,” he said, walking away. He’d have to find a way to shock her out of this pitiful act. That could be done later. For now, he’d achieved what he wanted already. He had just shown her he wasn’t going to be a doormat, that he could, in fact, explode if he wanted to.

  He knew the exact kind of picture of himself that he painted in her head by mercilessly yelling at her. She would be plotting against that false image.

  And that’ll be her mistake.

  Walking around, he started looking for the exit. It either had to be through the tunnel he came here from, or through the carcass of the obliterated worm. They were both bad options.

  Now don’t tell me we’re stuck in here!

  “Jelly, you can come with me if you want,” he said, tapping his shoulder. Jelly moved a couple of steps towards him before Elena interrupted, standing up in a hurry.

  “W-wait, where are you going!” She asked in a throaty voice.

  “The fuck out of here? What do you think?” Arcen said, pointing at the tunnel. It was oily and muddy, but he could crawl through it somehow.

  “But that thing’s still out there! We can’t go back!” Elena said, rushing over to him.

  “You don’t know that. I’m going to climb up and head back to base camp. Wake everyone up so they can kill that thing.”

  Arcen tried to poke his head through the hole.

  I WANT TO PLAY ALONE. DO NOT BRING OTHERS.

  Sure, whatever.

  Elena tugged at his pants from behind, dragging him with all her strength. Arcen whirled around, ready to explode again. “What!”

  “I know it’s out there! because Jelly knows!” Elena said, pointing at Jelly.

  “Jelly, is this true?” Arcen asked, bending down with a sigh.

  “Jelly!” she nodded, less enthusiastically than usual. She looked weary of them now that they had gotten into a yelling match in front of her.

  Elena squeezed his shoulder. It was too early to touch someone after getting yelled at by them. She was trying too hard to ‘fix things’ in a screwed-up, manipulative way.

  “That’s not the way out anyway!” She said, still keeping her sob-strained, soft voice. “We have to go through the worm. If you go out of the same hole you came in, it’s going to catch you right away.”

  Makes sense, but I can’t tell her that’s exactly what I want to happen.

  WHATEVER YOU DO, MAKE SURE I GET TO PLAY.

  “Alright,” Arcen spoke aloud for everyone to hear. What Elena wanted to do was the safer option for her and Jelly. In a way, it was the more tactical choice. He knew King was very capable of ‘playing’, but he still didn’t want to get ambushed by that creature. He’d have to get out with the girls and pick the moment and location to let the King play.

  “Let’s bust through this worm, then. Got any contracts?”

  “I-I’m running out of Aura now…” Elena said in a low voice. “I can’t do too much anymore.”

  Arcen checked his own numbers.

  ╭────────────────────╮

  ?╭─ GOLD ─╮?

  ╰ 100,000 ╯

  ╰─────────╮╭────────╯

  ╭────────────────────╮

  ?╭─ AURA ─╮?

  ╰ 12,639,254 ╯

  ╰─────────╮╭────────╯

  Oh fuck yeah.

  “Get ready,” he said. “I’ll give you all my Gold.”

  How deep does this Meronolith rabbit hole go?

  Next chapter on Monday.

  Regular reminder to rate/review if you’re enjoying the ride!

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