‘We’ll need a lot of mana to test the new mutation’s effects,’ they realized.

  Taking a few deep breaths, they gathered the colourful motes in the cavern closer, the particles taking on a grey hue as they transformed into dancing flames, long ribbons and a violent snowstorm. The elements seeped in and out of their pores, filling their channels with mana and their muscles with strength.

  Soon, it became clear that they could still access the original forms of their boosting arts – the Carnival and the Symbel of the Savage Gods – even without going all out. In fact, it appeared that they had a lot more flexibility right now than before their fusion!

  The human and the crow had each cleared and tempered sets of pure, soul, ice, water and air channels. The first could only contain variants of pure mana, so the best resource to fill them up with was naturally phantom mana. The last three networks could contain soul-freezing ice, while the soul channels could handle either of the fused affinities.

  In the past, Percy and Micky had only been able to convert ambient mana to the types they had the correct cores for, but it now seemed like they could create whatever resources they needed on either end of their existence, without having to constantly pass their mana back and forth.

  ‘Well, it’s not perfect…’

  Sadly, the crow body was the only one with beast channels, as the affinity couldn’t exist anywhere outside its circulatory system. On top of that, the human body still had a lower resistance to cold than the bird, though it had certainly climbed by another step after the fusion. Finally, the exact ratio of mana that each body could wield was further capped by the cores they possessed, allowing the human to circulate more phantom mana and the crow to fill up on soul-freezing ice.

  Still, they would certainly have a lot more options during a fight.

  Satisfied with their findings, they moved on to other tasks. The human body poured phantom mana into the self-repair enchantments on his robes. The ice mana had distorted the construct greatly earlier, leaving “Percy” almost naked.

  The tattered rags drank the grey flames greedily, soon expanding to cover the rest of the body. The once-chaotic weave grew orderly again, the clothes turning tidier as the faded enchantments suddenly became readable.

  At the same time, they used some of the mana to mend their injured soul. The frostbitten patches refused to thaw at first, making them realize that the backlash of their new spell wasn’t so easy to reverse.

  They should be able to carve out the smaller wounds entirely, regrowing those parts of their soul from scratch. However, they’d have to slowly thaw and heal the larger of the stiff regions properly, which would inevitably take a few days.

  ‘Better get on it then. The sooner we’re no longer a complete mess, the sooner we’ll be able to place Nephthys inside an egg…’

  While the human body was busy pouring phantom mana into their Cloak and soul, the crow took control of the soul-freezing ice, trying to activate the new mutation. Luckily, it didn’t seem to require much effort, the crystalline flesh responding almost immediately to their wishes.

  The tiny bird absorbed the grey blizzard like a sponge, growing rapidly. Within seconds, it was as tall as a human, its talons turning into feet, its wings into hands, and its beak into an exact replica of Percy’s face!

  The two bodies looked at each other, feeling like they were staring inside a three-dimensional mirror – albeit one that had replaced tanned skin with ice, dark hair with glossy strands, and even regrown their missing limb. Lifting its artificial hands, the not-really-a-crow body clenched and unclenched its fists, realizing they felt no different from a human’s!

  But they didn’t stop there.

  Drawing even more mana, they transformed again. They grew a few centimetres taller, a new beak forming on their head as their torso turned slightly bulkier, a second pair of arms sprouting right beneath the first. This was the original Micky’s appearance!

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Punching empty space a few times, they listened to the booming shockwaves their fists released, taking a moment to appreciate the feeling of the air splitting against their skin, leaving no question as to the sheer power their icy muscles now packed.

  ‘Okay… we look like the original Micky, but this is definitely a much stronger body…’

  While Micky had spent a lot of time fighting in the coliseum, he had still ultimately been a Yellow sapient, while the new body was technically a beast with a Green and a Yellow core, even if it didn’t currently look the part.

  Absorbing more mana, they shapeshifted one final time, ditching their hands for wings again, turning back into a crow. Only, this time they were as large as an elephant – much like Micky had been right before their fusion. They did try to grow further still, but that destabilized their body, the ice falling apart to reveal a regular-sized crow.

  ‘That’s probably the largest body those two cores can support by themselves. We’ll likely need both bodies working together to form a construct as big as the one we used against Deimos,’ they realized.

  Over the next few minutes, they performed some additional tests, playing around with their different forms while exploring their limits. Switching between them was relatively quick and painless, though they struggled to transform into anything outside the four shapes they were familiar with.

  It should be possible, but it would probably take a lot of practice before they got used to anything else. A project for the future, but not a priority, since the choices they had available already covered most of their needs.

  The small crow was the least conspicuous form, as well as the one that would consume the least stamina. Of course, all four shapes could be maintained indefinitely, but the most efficient one would allow a greater ratio of their meals to be directed into the beast core’s advancement, probably shrinking the time to Blue greatly. At the very least, they fully expected the ice body to spend most of its time in that shape moving forward.

  The giant bird was the fastest and strongest – physically at least. However, the sapient forms could borrow and wield the same tools as the human body, using the Cloak and Harvesters to reproduce most of the Carnival’s Parades. In many ways, they should be even stronger than the human, though the reduced phantom mana would limit the maximum number of constructs they could wield, and the lack of the Sovereign’s Eye would prevent them from predicting their opponents’ moves.

  More importantly, those two forms should be capable of performing the finer arts like alchemy or runecrafting, and even interacting with others like regular people! Unfortunately, their icy texture would make them stand out, so blending in a crowd wouldn’t be easy, but the crow body’s endless flexibility was bound to serve them greatly down the line.

  ‘Well, it’s probably more accurate to call it the “elemental body” now…’

  Shaking the pointless thoughts out of their heads, they then moved to the other sections. The alchemic principles had remained entirely untouched, and so had the Decrees.

  Funnily enough, the Moirais’ Decree now affected them twice, even though its entry mentioned nothing of the sort. Most people in the universe would likely lose their minds if they knew that somebody had found a way to not only steal, but completely abuse, one of the most powerful Decrees in existence.

  There was no longer any question as to whether Phoebe’s or Obatala’s Decrees affected the human or the elemental, since they only had a single Status shared between them. Iapetus’s Decree only worked on “Percy”, however, as did the mutation part of Ea’s Gift.

  The biggest question mark in the entire section was Metatron’s Decree. They imagined that both bodies should have access to it – because Micky had been able to use it before, with the clone’s help – but that wasn’t what bothered them.

  ‘What the hell happened back there? Why didn’t it activate when we needed it to?’

  Strictly speaking, it was probably a good thing that they’d failed to escape to the Vault. While their current situation had its downsides, there was plenty to be happy about. Falling into the titan’s hands would have certainly been a lot worse.

  However, that was irrelevant.

  The problem was that whoever had prevented them from opening the portal couldn’t have possibly predicted their fusion. They’d clearly been willing to let at least Micky – and probably Percy too – to die.

  As for who it was?

  Well, it had to have been one of Remior’s gods. Probably Phoebe herself, as they couldn’t imagine anyone else interfering with a Decree like that. They’d long suspected that the titaness had set her eyes on them, of course, though they still had no idea what she wanted.

  They had obviously brought lots of valuable techniques and treasures to Remior, so it wasn’t that strange that the Order had decided not to directly join the Root’s manhunt, but that didn’t explain why they had even allowed their subordinates to continue chasing them, or why Phoebe had suddenly been willing to let them die.

  ‘Well, we can’t really blame her for not wanting us to open a portal to the Vault… Still, she could have intervened in a way that didn’t completely screw us over!’

  Alas, the gods’ whims were sadly not something they could do anything about right now. Shrugging, they decided to move on to the thing they’d deliberately left for last. Opening their Status, they read the spell section once more, their eyes landing on what was arguably the most important of the new entries – as well as the cause of everything else that had happened to them:

  The new spell.

  Book 1 on at no extra cost, grab a copy for your shelf, or listen to the audiobook on .