The cracks in the floor were humming again.
Not loudly. Not in a way a human ear would care about. But in this new body, every vibration was a kind of language — a soft, twitching message threaded through stone. I drifted above the ground, feeling each pulse like a fingertip brushing my edges.
Somewhere below, something large moved.
Not a rat. Not a scavenger. Something that pressed weight into the rock until the rock complained.
A warning?
Or an invitation?
My body flickered, edges sharpening. Hunger pressed from inside, a steady little ache. I swallowed it — or tried to — but hunger wasn't a thing you tucked away in this form. It was the core. The flame. The instinct that moved before thought.
Still… I wasn't mindless. Not yet.
I chose the quieter corridor.
The labyrinth stretched like an old beast's ribcage, pillars crooked, walls carved with runes that flickered with leftover mana. Some symbols glowed blue. Others pulsed a dull red like dried blood remembering what it once was. A faint wind whispered from cracks overhead, carrying the cold scent of stone and something else — something like rot buried under centuries.
I felt safer in the dark pockets between fallen columns.
Safer — but not safe.
A high-pitched squeal echoed down from somewhere far behind me. Quick taps followed—claws on stone. Several creatures. Familiar patterns. Sniffler Scavengers.
Hunting.
My shape tightened instinctively.
They were following the smell.
Not smell—essence. The residual trails I must've left devouring their kin. The labyrinth's darkness held its breath with me. The pillars felt too narrow. The shadows too thin.
I drifted faster.
Every flicker of movement pulled at my form, making me stretch and ripple like a cloth caught in a draft. The instincts growing inside me whispered: Don't run in straight lines. Blend. Break sight. Become less than a breath.
So I did.
I pressed myself thin against the long shadow cast by a broken staircase, stretching almost flat, like spilled ink. The Scavengers scuttled into view moments later — three of them, hooks clicking, snouts twitching violently.
The largest paused near the altar I had fed at earlier. It dragged a hook across the floor, tasting the scratches my body had left.
It screeched — the cry sharp enough to sting my inner shape.
They knew.
Or they sensed enough to hunt.
The trio moved as one, sweeping forward. If they found me now, I wouldn't survive. One rat had nearly shredded me; three Scavengers would tear me apart in seconds.
I drifted deeper into the shadow, trying to become thinner than thought.
The beasts passed… then stopped.
The biggest Scavenger turned its head back toward my direction. Its snout twitched. It stepped closer—
Then the ground under their feet groaned.
Not from their weight.
From something beneath.
A sudden quake rippled through the stone, cracks splitting wider. Dust rained down like powdered bone. The Scavengers screeched in alarm, scattering just as a massive shape slammed upward from below — chunks of floor exploding into the air.
A monstrous head burst through the stone.
Not fully emerging — just testing the surface like a beast sniffing for prey through its own ceiling.
A Burrower Warden.
Huge. Armoured. A veteran predator of lower labyrinth floors.
My Analyze flared violently, text flooding my mind sharper than usual:
[Burrower Warden]
[Threat: Extreme]
[Essence Yield: High]
[Recommended Action: Flee]
No hesitation.
Not even a fake suggestion of fighting.
Just flee.
The Scavengers scrambled in a panic. One wasn't fast enough. The Warden's jaws snapped upward, catching it mid-scream, crushing it like wet bark. Blood splattered against pillars in a dark spray. The other two bolted in opposite directions, hooks scraping violently against the ground.
The Warden's head retracted back into the hole with a grinding rumble, dragging the dying Scavenger with it.
Then silence.
A silence so total it almost pressed against me.
I drifted backward slowly, body trembling in tiny, uneven ripples. Fear wasn't foreign to me — I'd felt it plenty as a human — but fear in this form was different. Less emotional. More mathematical.
A simple, bone-deep clarity:
If it rises fully, I die.
Even my instincts agreed, humming in warning.
I angled myself down another corridor, moving with the steady, careful rhythm my new instincts approved of. The deeper I went, the colder the mana felt — dense streams drifting like thin rivers through the air.
Bits of essence sparked faintly along the walls. The labyrinth was richer here.
Richer meant stronger prey.
And stronger prey meant faster evolution.
That thought… pulsed differently. Not human. Not monstrous. Something in between — a thin strand tying hunger to ambition.
I floated toward a larger opening, senses extending ahead.
A wide chamber. Broken pillars arranged in a rough circle. A collapsed ceiling allowed a pale shaft of gray light to pierce the center, illuminating floating dust motes like snow.
At the far side — movement.
A squat creature, large as a dog. Four legs, curved tusks, thick hide patterned like cracked stone. It snorted and scraped its hooves across the floor, irritated at something.
Analyze flickered:
[Stoneback Grazer]
[Threat: Medium-High]
[Essence: Good]
[Weak Spots: Underbelly, Eye membrane]
[Warning: Highly territorial]
I pulsed faintly — my equivalent of a sigh.
A rat had nearly ended me. A Grazer would smash me if I got careless.
But I needed something substantial to evolve. Larvas were nothing now. Scavengers were threats. The Warden was suicide.
This Grazer? A possibility. Barely.
Instinct whispered a strategy — not from memory, but from pattern recognition of prey and predators.
Grazer. Thick hide. Slow turn radius. Short-tempered. Blind spots near rear legs.
Strike from below. Strangle the throat. Devour before it thrashes you loose.
Simple instructions.
Horrifyingly natural.
I drifted into the chamber, keeping low, hugging the darkest angles. The Grazer snorted again, unaware. Its underbelly glowed faintly — warm essence pulsing in veins close to the surface.
My hunger sharpened like a blade.
Closer… closer…
A faint vibration brushed my senses.
Another creature?
No.
Something else.
Watching me.
The hairs I no longer had prickled. I turned my awareness upward — toward the collapsed ceiling.
A pair of faint yellow eyes gleamed between the rocks.
A predator.
Not huge — but enough to complicate everything.
Analyze triggered automatically:
[Echo Bat]
[Threat: Medium]
[Behavior: Opportunistic ambusher]
[Trait: Sonic Lance]
That was bad.
More bad?
The bat twitched, wings tensing — ready to dive.
Not at me.
At the Grazer.
I felt the wanting inside me shift sharply.
If the bat attacked first, the Grazer would thrash wildly. The noise would attract other predators. The Warden might return. I'd lose my chance.
So I acted.
Not because it was smart. But because instinct made the decision before thought arrived.
I shot forward.
Fast. Faster than before — Silent Step amplifying my drift, making me glide like a line of pure shadow.
The Grazer sensed me too late. It turned, tusks swinging, but I was already beneath it — wrapping around the softer flesh under its throat.
It bellowed, legs stomping violently.
At the same moment, the Echo Bat dove with a shrill screech.
Its sonic cry cracked the air — the Grazer roared in pain —
And its hoof slammed into my body.
Agony tore through me — like being shredded by wind blades.
My form wavered violently.
But I held on.
The bat's second screech hit the Grazer's ear membrane. Blood burst from its eye. The creature staggered — giving me the one second I needed.
Devour ignited.
Warmth burst through my body like liquid fire. The Grazer's essence poured into me — heavy, complex, rich. My shadow pulsed, swelling slightly, stabilizing from the hoof impact.
The Echo Bat realized too late what was happening. It screeched in frustration, wings beating furiously.
Then Analyze chimed sharply:
[Evolution Threshold Approaching]
[Essence Requirement Met]
[Warning: Form Unstable]
Unstable?
My body flickered violently — edges stretching, contracting. The stone felt too bright. The air too sharp. Instincts swelled inside me, clawing for space.
The Echo Bat dove again, attacking while I convulsed.
Its claws sliced through part of my flickering shape — ripping a chunk of shadow clean off.
Pain flared.
I snapped upward, grabbing its wing with a shadow lash born purely from instinct. The bat shrieked as its membrane tore. It crashed into a pillar.
I lunged.
Devour flared again — brief, weaker, but enough. The bat dissolved into a thin stream of essence that joined the growing storm inside me.
The warnings blazed:
[Evolution Threshold Reached]
[Stabilizing Form… Failed.]
[Instinct Overload Imminent]
[Begin Evolution?]
[Y/N]
The labyrinth around me tilted — walls bending, shadows rippling like water.
The essence storm inside me roared.
My body could not hold this shape any longer.
I drifted backward, trembling, the last remnants of Grazer warmth shaking through me.
A single, cold clarity cut through all the instinct noise:
Evolve… or unravel.
The choice wasn't a choice.
Darkness folded inward around me, like the ruins exhaling.
I answered the system.
Yes.
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