Evolution - Third Eye Opens!

Late evening, June 29th

Alto Mare

Inside a room, Kai, Item-M, and Petyr were sitting on the floor around a small round table.

This room was in a building that had been abandoned by the locals for maintenance because of the flood. Even when they were within the confine of the musty walls around them, they could feel the heavy gloom of the town.

But none of them cared for anything other than the fist-sized jewel placed on the table. The jewel was glowing with a light yellow color as if there were millions of stars within it, forming a yellow river of death.

It was the legendary graded Item. Eon Soul Dew!

Despite its obvious sickly, perverted color, there was an unearthly charm to this jewel that had caused the occupants of the room to lapse into an astounding silence.

Yes, all occupants. Other than the low hissing Selene on Kai's side.

-More, master- she hissed, almost panting. -I want more!-

Without taking his eyes off the Item, Kai used Telekinesis to scoop up the last chunk of minced meat from a bowl on his right. Selene smelled the food and opened her fanged mouth wide, venom dripping off her fangs like saliva. With a gentle force, Kai thrust the magical flesh of the adult Latias down Selene's throat.

This was the first thing Kai had done after rendezvousing with Item-M. Selene's state was worse than he had thought. He could tell with one fleeting look that if she had feet, then they would have already crossed the doors of death. What had been keeping her alive before Kai hastily chopped Latias' wings and fed them to her? He couldn't say.

The second thing Kai had done was to tell Item-M about his new Stat, hoping that she could shine some light on the twisted reward, strange Lore, and the incomprehensible Title.

'I have never heard of it, master,' Item-M had told him, without taking her eyes off Kai's face as if she wasn't looking at a human anymore, but some ancient deity. 'It seems to be related to your actions that have irreversibly changed the foundations of an entire Random World timeline. I wonder if I can pray to you now, using those three minor epithets rewarded by the Lore of the Evil Pokemon of Alto Mare.'

Kai had refused her blatantly. The horror and helplessness of falling into the inescapable grip of a Time Paradox still lingered like a wraith in Kai's mind. Without knowing what the result would be, Kai would never let Item-M chant those words as a prayer. Who knows what kind of Being would invade his mind this time?

Kai never feared taking risks, but even his deadliest of the risks had some substance backing them up. This was a risk that had neither beginning nor end. He just hoped he would get to know what it was before the time comes when he would have to use the Stat, anyway.

-/Touch it,/- Kai told Item-M.

Item-M lifted her head and looked at Kai with the utmost reverence.

Kai frowned. It was one thing to show her loyalty, and the other thing entirely to fawn over him with constant awe and fervor. He said nothing, though.

Item-M's hand trembled as she went for the Item. As if holding something precious that could break with the slightest pressure, she caressed the jewel with her long, slender fingers.

-/Anything?/- Kai asked expectantly.

Item-M shook her head. "I am seeing the same Stats as you, master."

Kai cursed. A red shine covered the Eon Soul Dew, and the Item floated towards him. Kai snatched it out of the air and looked at the Stats once more.

[

Item: Eon Soul Dew

Grade: Legendary

Specification: ?

Requirement: ?

Attributes: ?

Skill: ?

Quality: ?

Warning: The Item resents Blue-skinned Demon

]

If only Item-M could use it, then Kai could ignore the warning. She was not the Blue-skinned Demon, and if Kai hadn't got the new Stat, then he would have never known who the fuck this Blue-skinned Demon was and where had he come from, either.

Now that he knew, it angered him even more.

"Even among Kings of the 6th set and above," Item-M said, her eyes down, "a legendary grade Item is something that can only be desired and not obtained. One can't just have them on a wish. Power and status mean nothing for Items of Heroic grade and beyond, master. Absolutely nothing."

-/And why are you so happy?/- Kai asked, feeling the bubbling happiness in her heart. -/Is my helplessness in using my own rewards arousing you, Item-M?/-

The red-haired beauty fell to her knees, her voice shaking. "Never, master," she croaked. "I would never…"

From Kai's side, Petyr chuckled. He had been silent for the entire time, but it seemed he couldn't hold himself back any longer. "My lady," he addressed Item-M, "our master is just messing with you."

Kai snorted out a laugh along with him. Item-M snapped her head up and realizing it was indeed a jest, her face became red with shame. Her flustered expression caught Kai's attention, as he bounced the Eon Soul Dew up and down.

-/It's just an Item like you,/- he told her, sending it to his Inventory. -/So what if I can't use it now? I will figure it out, eventually. It's like a delicious, live fruit that's just throwing tantrums at the thought of being eaten by me. I will let it ripen, just like I will let you ripen, Item-M./-

Item-M had the decency to look away in shame. "I am sorry, master," she apologized, her face becoming pink. "I couldn't carry out the command you gave me before the start of the mission."

Kai knew she was talking about the command related to her being a virgin.

-/Are you?/- he quipped, raising an eyebrow. -/Are you sorry? Really?/-

Item-M's mouth opened, fumbling to find words, but Kai cut her off before she could even begin.

-/And it's not like we got nothing out of our endeavors,/- he told them.

"We got the egg," Petyr counted. "You got a new Stat, my lord. It's useless without knowing about it, I know. Nevertheless, it's a Heroic addition. Then we got a legendary grade Item, who seems to resent you. But it will not be the first to do so and still bend to your will. As you said. Eventually, all fruits ripen."

The corners of Kai's mouth lifted at that. -/You forgot the most important reward, though, Petyr,/- he told the Character. -/There is one reward that has yet to show its results. A fruit that has already ripened, waiting for me to devour…/-

And just as Kai said those words, Selene hissed maniacally by his side.

Inside her, unseen, but not entirely unknown to Kai, the black tendrils and the patterned yellow rings seemed to tremble and pulse. A thick blue-red substance approached and got sucked by them. Suddenly, their efforts to break into Selene's gene structure shot through the roof.

With an ethereal cracking noise, they merged into the genes.

But in the middle of this gene structure, where the black tendrils and the yellow rings came into contact with each other, a dull grayish new substance took form. Not only did this substance keep the black tendrils and the yellow rings on either side, preventing them from coming into contact further, but it also spread throughout Selene's genome, becoming a part of her gene structure.

The spiral gene structure, which once had looked blue and white, now glowed with three colors. The leftmost part was covered with black tendrils, which flailed about like millions of live gluttonous tentacles. The rightmost part had patterned yellow rings. They made it impossible to look at them without losing one's mind to the ever-changing, hideous patterns and the convoluted geometrical shapes.

In the middle of these two parts ran a dull river of gray color across the entire length of the gene structure.

Outside, Selene's hisses had caused a deathly alarm. Kai's ears buzzed from her shouts, as he saw her eyes bleeding, and her dragon-like scales rattling like the call of a billion bugs.

And then she burst out with a blinding flash.

When the flash receded and vision returned to the group's eyes, they saw a silver mist had filled the entire room. But mixed in this silver mist were tiny black, yellow, and gray particles like different colored smokes. The entire mist roiled, churned, and then, with no sign, became a whirlpool. All the mist, from all directions, condensed onto a single point and outlined the figure of a serpent.

Danger banged Kai's mind.

Kai closed his eyes not knowing why. Such was the difference between his Perception and the arriving death. The extremities of his fingers and toes throbbed, as anxiety, bordering fright, took over his mind. Behind him, Item-M had done the same. She had even turned her head away, her eyelids pressing so hard that they looked like hard, black lines.

Petyr wasn't blessed with Perception or any sense of danger, though.

A 6 ft long, viper-like serpent with pure white draconic scales slithered into existence. Its tongue flicked out of its mouth, and when it moved, illusory black and yellow rings seemed to travel across its body. The serpent's eyes snapped open then.

The right eye was jet black, and only when one looked deep enough that one could see a sea of black tendrils. They were coiling around and over each other, their hunger seemed to know no bounds. The left eye was murky yellow. Uncountable and nonsensical geometrical patterns ran in that eye, like unsolvable equations of mathematics accompanied by many-dimensional geometrical figures.

When it seemed it was over, the bulge between her two eyes parted vertically.

Petyr stared into the third eye. It was as if someone had surgically planted a wet, gray stone into her head.

Selene stared back.

And then, Petyr became stone, his entire body gaining a dull, gray color of eternal petrification.

**********

AN: Phew! It was a long chapter. I hope you liked it.

Now we have faced the Question Marks (?) many times within Stats. Kai's Dementor Blood Essence has a Skill with question mark, Golduck's has it too (focus punch). And now an entire Item full of question marks. So we will soon learn what they mean and the reason behind their existence.

Yeah, I know. One more chapter today. Enjoy!