I thought I would be inside my mental realm when I was evolving, but it was like all the other times I had evolved. I was awake, then I was breaking out of my cocoon. Suppose there must be something different about mutating and evolving. It was inconvenient since I was going to use that time to plan, but it wasn’t the end of the world, so I went over what I had already planned to do.

  I checked the countdown time for the Fifth phase, only thirteen minutes. I quickly looked at my new status page.

  Species: Moon Sigil Moth

  Level 0/100 Max

  Antenna: Imperial, Crown of Lunaris

  Wings: Imperial, Cloak of Lunaris

  Tarsus: Imperial, Sceptre Of lunaris

  Abdomen: Imperial, Heart of Lunaris

  HP: Green

  Lv: 25

  MP: Green

  Lv: 62

  EP: Green

  Lv: 30

  Core Skills: 5/5

  Lunar Scale Dust

  LV 10/20

  1873/10000

  Moon Silk

  LV 10/20

  Royal Will

  LV 10/20

  Slip Away

  LV 10/20

  36/600

  Lunar Aura

  LV 0/5

  Waning Gibbous

  Gained Skills: 2/5

  Stealth

  LV 10/10

  Appraisal

  LV 10/10

  I immediately used Appraisal on my newest and last Core Skill, Lunar Aura.

  Lunar Aura: Creates an aura around the user 100 yards in diameter, where they can treat everything infused by their Domain as a part of themself. It is powered by Moon Light, but can be supplemented by MP, EP, or HP. During Full Moons, the user is bestowed with a blessing by their god, but during a New Moon, the user is unable to use Lunar Aura and is weakened. During daylight hours or in complete darkness, it is possible to use Lunar Aura, but it takes a significant amount of energy.

  Ok, that seemed rather powerful, but what did ‘those infused with my domain are treated as a part of themself’ mean?

  I didn’t have much time to think, so instead I tested and activated the skill. And I was bombarded with the senses and thoughts of every creature within a hundred yards of me, pouring into my mind like water finding every crevice in a sponge.

  But it didn’t hurt, it was just… a lot. It felt like I had been blind my whole life and was finally able to see. I reached out through the minions, controlling and manipulating them like they were my hand. I vaguely noticed Urg and Second, but I wasn’t really interested in them. I was marveling at what I could do, and they were only specks of dust. Then it was gone, and I was shoved out of my minions, feeling a tired ache in my core.

  “Finally,” I heard Bug Jacob say, agitated.

  “What? What is it!”

  “You were doing that for way too long, and you were ignoring me the whole time.”

  “Oh, sorry. And, uh, how much time did I waste?”

  “You got seven minutes left.”

  I cursed and called my minions into the tunnels, but had to wait an agonising minute till I could do that because I had run out of MP, “How did that happen?”

  “You were using Lunar Aura.”

  “But it’s midnight, and the moon is out, shouldn’t that have made it not use MP?”

  “Jesus Christ, we’re underground, there is no moonlight here.”

  “Oh…”

  After that little… decent… hopefully non-monumental fuck up, I regained enough MP by connecting to a nearby minion with Moon Silk to call all my land bound minions inside the tunnels. Second and Urg noticed and tried to follow them, but I pushed them back, and they had a boss battle, so I wasn’t the biggest concern at the moment.

  My minions flooded the tunnels, cramming them uncomfortably tight. But as the benevolent king I am, I made a small effort to get them all the bare minimum amount of space needed not to die. Then gave myself an entire chamber, lying down in the middle of it.

  Keeping an eye on the area above by connecting my senses to some of the useless minions I had kept up there for this purpose. Watching as the last minute on the countdown became ever smaller, I disconnected from my minions so I could talk to Bug Jacob for any last minute planning.

  “Sorry, I got nothing, there ain’t much else we can do.”

  “Not much doesn’t mean nothing.”

  “You’re just playing semantics.”

  “So, do you have any ideas?”

  “No, you have a functioning brain, do it yourself.”

  “Yeah, but I don't wanna, I’ve been doing 90% of the work till now, you do it!” I whined

  “Well, tough shit, kid, I’m in the back seat, and you’re the one driving. In the end, it’s up to you.”

  I grumbled quietly, “Kid, me? You’re like two weeks old.”

  “What was that?”

  “Nothing.”

  “That’s what I thought.”

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  Then the count down to the fifth phase hit zero, the system notifying us with an underwhelming.

  “Phase Five has begun.”

  I said my goodbyes to Bug Jacob as I extended my domain out toward the minions on the surface, but hesitated. Then I decided to check on the minions in the tunnels, you know, just in case. And I did find a problem, some of my minions were straining against the reinforced command not to attack, I put on them, so they didn’t kill each other in these crammed corridors.

  And they were all in the same area, so I checked it out, finding someone I hadn’t thought about since the week started, Fifth of the Mist. Or their shell, more aptly put, I had gotten some of my minions to babysit them and just sorta forgotten about them. The minions I assigned to babysit them had probably taken Fifth along with them when they were entering the tunnels. And after I commanded them to stay still, they let Fifth roam free in the tunnels.

  Not very fast since they were still mostly bumping headfirst into things. But they had made the revelation that many Roombas had made before them, turning to the side a little bit, and then moving would get them past the obstacle. After chuckling a bit at the sight, I had Fifths Baby sitters take them to my chamber so I could keep an eye on them without wasting MP.

  “What are you doing?” Bug Jacob asked.

  “Making sure Fifth doesn’t get hurt.”

  “That’s not what I meant, and you know it, actually follow the plan and look at what’s happening above.”

  “Will it actually matter in the end, they’re going to get killed if I look above or not.”

  “I’m more worried about something happening that will affect us, like the boss going into the tunnels. Or Urg flooding them again.”

  I mentally gritted my teeth and didn’t respond.

  “And why do you care so much about what is essentially a moving corpse, this is ridiculous.”

  I wasn’t going to respond, but something fell out of my lips before I registered them, “Fuck you.”

  “What?” they said more out of surprise than confusion.

  “Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you, you can go die in a fucking volcano and give yourself a lava enema for all I care. Just because Fifth is dead doesn’t mean I can’t treat his body with dignity.”

  “It’s a hollow body, just another animal like all the ones that you’ve subjected to a fate that many would argue is worse than death.”

  “I have no other choice with them, but with Fifth I actually do.”

  “Do we, though? Do we really have any choice when we’re being bombarded with Bosses above, and you won’t even do the most basic steps to ensure our survival.”

  “Why, though, why do I have to do it!”

  “Because there’s no other choice, there never has been.”

  I wanted to scream at them, to tear them apart word by word, but I didn't. Then the boiling emotions moving me fell out of my body, leaving a void behind. And I slumped onto the floor, my legs splayed out, “Why though…”

  Bug Jacob didn’t answer for a while, but when they did, it was in a much gentler tone than I thought they would take, “Because sometimes the universe says ‘fuck you in particular’ and there’s nothing we can do except try.”

  I didn’t respond for a while or do much of anything, and Bug Jacob didn’t say anything either. But after sulking, I did what Bug Jacob asked of me and looked through the eyes of my minions above, finding a field of carnage.

  A good third of the minions I had placed above had already died, and the rest had survived were far away from the battle, so I couldn’t get a good look. Most of the battlefield ground had been torn up like a meteor shower, and a rototiller had fought, the path of destruction thankfully far away from my pond. And in the distance, I could see blurry outlines clashing together, only occasionally catching clear glimpses of the fighters.

  Second of the Snow had seven arms now, having lost one on his right side. Urg Floaw was faring better, due to their long range magic allowing them to keep a safe distance. But that didn’t stop whatever was fighting them, charging towards the floating axolotl. This being the only time I saw even a fraction of it, revealing it had horns and hazel brown fur.

  Then I disconnected, tending to any needs my minions had, but mainly focusing on Fifths well being. Then the ground shook ever so slightly around us, making trickles of dirt and dust fall.

  “Check,” Bug Jacob commanded me.

  I hesitated, but followed his orders, and saw the battle above had intensified even more. Second hadn’t lost another arm, thankfully, but they were covered in scars. I kept an eye on them for a moment longer, but disconnected when I saw another wound cover Second.

  Bug Jacob chided me, “You know that isn’t enough.”

  “Come on,” I protested weakly.

  “You know what we have to do.”

  I groomed my antenna for a moment, trying to delay the moment, but that only made the tension in my chest worse. So I finally looked back towards the fight, the tension in my chest turning hot as I watched the fight for what felt like eternity, but was less than a minute.

  Then I saw the Boss's horn, no, antler, piercing Urg's water bubble, mangling the axolotl's arm. I felt the heat in my chest spark. Urg ripped and threw the arm away, then the water around the horn started to bubble, and when the Boss pulled away, a piece of their antler didn’t come with them, dissolving.

  I disconnected.

  “Again, you know you have to do it longer than that?” Bug Jacob chided.

  I was walking towards the chambers' exit.

  “Wait, what are you doing?”

  I didn’t respond

  Bug Jacob kept pestering me as I commanded my army out of the tunnels, but I ignored him. A swarm of a thousand different creatures flooded out of the tunnels, catching everyone in the battle off guard. And I finally got a good look at the boss as they stood still in shock, revealing a Giant deer adorned with a crown of antlers, whose points numbered in the triple digits. Colored hazel with a tinge of sickly green, covered in numerous vicious wounds. And a skull for a head that I suspected wasn’t due to injury.

  But this image didn’t last long as it went back into motion, nearly impossible for me and most of my minions to keep track of. Most, but not the Storm Raven Munnin, their eyes built to latch onto rapidly moving targets.

  And with Munnin's help, I directed the attacks of my minions, mostly just keeping it distracted while I healed Urg and Second with my butterflies. They both gestured for Moon Silk, but I had the convenient excuse of a life or death battle distracting me.

  And when I was assured none of my companions were going to die, I turned my complete attention back to the Deer. I kept it constantly moving around, positioning it and my troops so that it was surrounded, intentionally leaving a wide gap in my troop formation for it to take.

  And it bolted for it, but the troops that had been positioned so far away from the others were my anteaters, Thor and Zeus V2. A safe enough distance away so they could bombard it with a million jagged fingers and tongues of lightning without worrying for the other minions.

  The attack didn’t kill or stagger it, but it visibly slowed down, even my poor insect vision could catch the occasional glimpse. Then I herded it into the same trap with my minions surrounding it. But it already learned from its mistakes and charged towards the wall of minions, head lowered to brandish its knife like antlers.

  And it hit them like a wrecking ball, pushing the troops back a dozen feet, but it eventually ran out of momentum. It had created a small opening and tried to take it, but it was too slow now and was surrounded by my minions once again.

  This time, though, it let out a scream as it glowed a sickly green, all the wounds my minions had suffered at the hand of the Deer rotting and festering. A plague rapidly spreading through my ranks.

  I quickly separated my healthy minions from the rest and healed any injured minions the plague hadn’t gotten to. Then burning the infected with my Sun Rhinos, but the Boss rushed towards them, uncaring for the flame.

  So I had Huggin and Muninn pelt it with a storm of attacks that actually got its attention, and it tried to run away. But Second of the Snow was in its way, and it stopped in its tracks.

  Allowing Huggin and Muninn to catch up, a torrent of water crushing the Deer under its pressure. Though it still wasn’t enough to stop it, until Urg joined in on the efforts. Pouring in tons of water, making the Boss slowly crumple under the pressure, looking like a slow motion video of it falling.

  And the water kept on pounding into it, visibly flattening its body till it was a wet pancake on the ground, with only its antlers intact. Then the system announced.

  “Virtril, Stag of Rot has been slain.”

  And with that, I finally took a breather, but not a long one, as Second of the Snow and Urg Floaw were moving towards me. I contemplated running, but they had already gotten to me and were indicating for Moon Silk. So I gave it to them.

  Urg asking, “Where were you!”

  I had expected this and planned out a response, but they all crumbled on my tongue as I said, “Uh, sorry, sorry, sorry… sorry about that, um, I sorta had to take care of…” I looked around for a lie, but found something better, “Oh, uh, I don’t think that's important right now, I think that’s the second boss spawning.”

  I pointed towards a ball growing Reg, Green, and Yellow, my senses telling me it was the gods and systems Domains converging together to create something.

  “Fine, but we’re talking about this after; Statement.”

  “Yeah, after…”

  Then our next enemy took form.