"Victor," He turned at the sound of his name to find Dave looking at him. "Boss, you know we like him. He's a friend by this point," Dave went on slowly, there was a but coming here, Victor was certain. "But the bug thing, surely you see the similarities." Victor nodded and looked over the rest of his team; they had similar looks on their faces. Not hostility, but worry, questioning. There were similarities between the new monstrous Aiden they were seeing here and their insectoid enemy, but they only ran skin deep. Or chitin deep as was the case.

  "Nothing has changed, Aiden is Aiden," Victor pronounced, "they look similar in a certain light, it's the feel that matters. Focus your senses on them, and you'll get a better sense of it. Aiden feels like part of the world, like he belongs. Whatever that thing is, it doesn't belong. It's an invader that doesn't belong here." Victor fell silent, leaving the rest of the team to investigate with their own senses as he had himself the moment Aiden had transformed.

  He shrugged, settling his gear in place. The fight that was going on in front of their eyes wasn't something they could easily intercede in. It was too fast. They would have to bide their time and wait for an opportunity to appear. Victor gritted his teeth; he hated being sidelined, but he knew well enough there wasn't a better choice at the moment.

  ——-

  I whirled and scuttled sideways, half on instinct and half on the tactical certainty that getting into a grappling match with the bug would be a dicey proposition. Our last impact had left the stone floor cracked, and my legs buzzing with the shock of the collision. Unlike most of the other monsters I encountered, this one seemed to be able to learn. At a frightening speed. A thought occurred to me that was chilling in its implications.

  What if it's not learning, so much as developing?

  Rapidly coming to adulthood, like a parasite bursting free from its host fully formed and ready for the next stage of its evolution? That possibility would make sleep hard for anyone, simply because attached to it came the reminder of the most defining feature of insects and parasites, both.

  Population.

  I shook the morbid thoughts away and focused back on the fight. I needed to bring this to an end. Fortunately, I had something I'd been working on that I thought would do well here. In fact, I could ask for a much better environment to test it out.

  I could almost see it thinking, as if behind those compound eyes there was a mind churning away at how to rip me apart.

  I webbed the wall and shot up and over, just as the bug-thing streaked at me. It missed by a whisper, then used its own talons to claw a handhold in the stone and reverse direction, coming up the wall after me. I could have just kept going, played tag all day, but that wouldn't get anything done. Dozens of web lines spiralled out from my legs and thorax, attaching to the walls, floor and ceiling of the chamber. Every line became a new foothold for me while I danced through the upper section of the chamber, pursued by the insectoid monster.

  I watched closely as it tore through every line it came into contact with, sometimes with its body and other times with its claws. Threads of mana snaked through every single line I launched, which gave me a better sense of their composition and what was happening along them from start to finish. [Mana Manipulation] was a Skill I hadn't spent much time on, not directly at least. It touched many of my other abilities, though, from my Spells to my Skills, it enhanced my ability to control them to shape and mould the outputs to my desire. It was almost constantly active in a passive state. Now I pushed my focus into the Skill and moved it to active, took control of the mana within my webs directly.

  Dozens of web lines split and stretched, all reaching for the insect monster like chasing fingers. It was slow at first as I began to exert my control, but more and more lines fell under my direct control, turning the chamber into a mess of webs all seeking out their intended prey. darting, attaching and branching in their endless pursuit. The monster, for its part, flitted around the cavern, leaping from wall to wall, to floor, even to the ceiling at times in its desperate bid to avoid the webs that were slowly closing in on it.

  In the center of the chamber, I sat perched on a confluence of webs, the spider at the center as my web grew denser, more complex.

  Inescapable.

  Yes.

  I accepted the System prompt. I was on the verge of something, some epiphany. I could feel it, nearly taste it as my webs whipped through the chamber in pursuit of the monster, so focused on escaping my webs it wasn't even targeting me directly anymore.

  Without question, I accepted the newest prompt.

  My senses dimmed, the chamber darkened. That singular moment stretched on and on until I fell into darkness.

  ——-

  I floated in a sea of nothingness, without form, adrift.

  A spider hung in its web, the web stretching out for what seemed like miles and miles in every direction. My mind struggled to take in its scope. At once it was both massive and not, twisting over itself in my mind's eye as my mind began to rebel against perceiving the being in front of me. As if my mind couldn't handle the totality of it.

  This spider was unlike any I had ever seen before on earth, but parts of it were hauntingly familiar. Web Realm Weaver, the thought whispered in the back of my mind, confirming where exactly I had seen this type of spider before. It was something impossible to forget. The ostensible source of my bloodline, and the thing I had killed to escape the Soul-Sheer. It wasn't the same spider to be certain, but there were similarities enough to be sure they were the same type.

  A new Legacy begins to form, interesting.

  The words echoed through the nothing as if they came from everywhere and nowhere. As if they had simply appeared in existence fully formed. I shuddered as the words pounded against the edges of my mind; it was nothing so simple as waves of air vibrated to make a sound. This was more akin to a mix of physical and mental, almost spiritual. There was no ill intent behind it that I could sense; it was only that I couldn't handle the raw power.

  A legacy born from a fragment of my own, hmm. It seems he was right.

  The spider seemed to be musing to itself more than anything else, but I felt the moment it turned its attention on me directly. It was like becoming an ant under a magnifying glass. As if this monstrous spider reached into me and scooped out everything I was to examine the contents and then placed everything back where it had been in the span of a single moment.

  By the terms of the pact, old friend, I will provide a boon to the young one.

  The words rang in the nothing, reaching far beyond where my senses could touch. Something seemed different, like the words themselves were a calling, a demand of attention and answer. For a single moment, a presence that didn't belong to the spider seemed to loom over the area of the void we occupied. Ancient, powerful. Then it left.

  Next, the spider was gone. Vanished.

  In its place was a man dressed in flowing black silk robes that seemed to blend in with the nothingness that surrounded us. He walked slowly towards me despite my lack of a physical body in this place. Pale skin and silver eyes stood out against the endless black, as the man drew ever closer. I tried to move and was unable, tried to activate any of my Skills as the being drew closer, but they refused to answer my call. Because I’m not physically here, I realized after a moment.

  I have seen where you have tread, and the paths you may one day travel. Blood and death will be close companions to you child.

  I sense that does not bother you as it would many, good. Blood and death can bring great power, and do good, just as they can do evil.

  In the coming days, you will need power to face what may yet be.

  I blinked, and the man stood before me while I was suddenly embodied, silver eyes shining with power in the dark, while his hand came to rest against my bare chest. It was like being touched by a barely constrained lightning bolt; I felt power boil into my being from the simple touch.

  Off with you now, you have things to do. The enemy won’t wait for you.

  I felt reality crash in on me.

  ——-

  I was moving before I was totally conscious, instinct taking over as I danced along my webs to avoid the insectoid monster lunging at me from below. Looking around the chamber was the best I could tell I had only been out of it for a few moments, but that was long enough for the monster to take advantage and make an attempt to skewer me.

  I grinned savagely as the strands of web that had been pursuing the monster before my vision fell under my control once again. This time, they didn't feel like things I was controlling; they felt like a part of me, like a limb I'd never known I had. Along with the increase in control came a commensurate increase in speed and agility. It wouldn't be useful all the time, but during the times when it was, it would be a game changer.

  Strands of web shot off like rockets towards the monster at blinding speeds. A single strand wrapped the monster’s wrist; it tried to shear through with its opposite claw but found that the web only parted for a moment before the filaments reformed and closed, tighter than before. It shrieked—an ugly, static-laced sound—and spun, hurling itself at the nearest wall. The carapace made an unholy crunch as it hit, but the line held. More followed, and followed by the dozens as they chased down the monster. Every bit of web attached added to the drag and slowed it down, constricted it’s ability to move and resist.

  I lunged out of my web down to where the monster struggled with the webs that were constricting it, my forelegs slammed home into its shoulder and thigh, targeting the areas where I had wounded it earlier as I bore it to the ground. Hissing victory, I slammed my fangs into the monster, empowered by [Venomous Strikes], I dumped a truly massive dose of venom into the monster, all the while the webs constricted, growing tighter and tighter.

  From deep within, I felt Vipera sag in relief, as if we had just avoided a grisly end.

  I'm going to have questions after this, you know. I stated flatly to my familiar. There were too many things happening, too many questions that couldn’t be ignored.

  I know, I will answer what I can, which thankfully is more after that little encounter you had. She sounded both tired and somewhat relieved at once.

  You saw that? I questioned, surprised.

  For better or worse, I am a part of you to a large degree. There are very few things that concern you that I wouldn’t be aware of.

  Huh, later then.

  Yes, later.

  Done with the internal conversation, I turned to find Victor and his team approaching, a variety of expressions on display ranging from mild horror to disgust, and a healthy dose of grief and anger. Immediately, I turned back to my human form, the transformation over and done in the span of a moment as the others approached.

  I turned back to the monster corpse; they would either deal with it or they wouldn't. There was nothing to be done about it either way. I crouched down in front of the web wrapped body. It was blurring around the edges, but not fading the way other monster corpses would. I reached out to touch the body, but there was no prompt from the System to loot the body. Activating [All-Seeing Eye], I started looking for answers. I scowled at the corpse. I didn't like this; there were only more questions piling up moment by moment.

  I felt a hand on my shoulder and looked back to see Victor standing at my back.

  "We need to bring it back, the labs need to study it." The look in his eyes promised he would fight me every step of the way if I chose to do anything else. I couldn't blame him for the bit of hostility I felt in his aura, after all, I was essentially picking over his dead friend's body, even if it wasn't really Matt anymore. There wasn't a good reason to antagonize Victor or the others here over one monster corpse. Even if it was behaving abnormally. It should be simple enough to just get David to make certain I was present for the examination.

  “Agreed.”

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