It was the second time Nyxnthix found itself in the strange hallway. The silver doors with no handles were far less inviting the second time. But it knew that The Game Master had pulled it there. After the Soul Nexus expelled it, The Game Master knew and pulled it for another visit.

  It silently waited until a door opened, and one did. The room hadn’t changed, but the man drinking his tea had. At the center of the room, lounging at the white table in his high-backed white armchair, sat The Game Master. His appearance was still that of an older human, but his attire wasn’t white anymore. His suit was completely black, making him seem out of place in a room of so much white.

  A gentle stream of steam wafted off the tea that The Game Master inhaled, closing his eyes as if savoring every moment of the fragrance. “You’re back sooner than I expected.” He took a sip before setting his cup and saucer down. “Rushing things a bit? Please, sit.”

  Nyxnthix glared at the chair it was bidden to sit in before sitting in it. “Why did you bring me back here? I’m not here to exchange pleasantries. I don’t care for your games. I have a job to do.”

  “Always so serious.” The Game Master frowned. “Maybe if you lightened up, you’d appreciate the lives you steal more. After all, you rip someone’s soul from their bodies only to take it for yourself.” He leaned forward and propped his head on a hand. “But, that’s not something that will likely change. At least until you have a soul of your own. It’s all business with you. I just wanted to check in on my little champion.”

  Nyxnthix squirmed in the chair. It could feel The Game Master scouring through its past. It didn’t have a soul, so he couldn’t read that, but it felt its memories were plenty exposed. The longer they sat in silence, the wider the old man’s smile grew.

  Nyxnthix shuddered, and its form flickered as The Game Master finished. “Happy?”

  The Game Master’s grin widened, as if hearing some private joke. “There’s no point hiding from me. You know that by now.” He took another sip of tea, his gaze never leaving Nyxnthix. “It’s fascinating, though. You, who were so sure of yourself, losing not once but twice.”

  That girl had beaten it twice now. There was something odd about that arm blade and metal arms. At first, it thought that was just some very strange armor that she wore. But the blade growing out of her changed everything.

  Nyxnthix’s form stilled. “What do you know about her?”

  The Game Master exhaled slowly over the rim of his cup . “More than you do. That blade of hers... intriguing, isn’t it? Not armor. Not a weapon. Something else entirely.” He set the cup down with a soft clink. “I must say, I never expected her to do that. Even with the cosmic energy she was given, she’s… interesting.”

  Nyxnthix leaned forward, tension coiled in every inch of its shadowy form. “What are you talking about? Who gave her that power?”

  The Game Master chuckled. “Ah, now where’s the fun in telling you? You’ll figure it out soon enough, if you survive long enough to see it.”

  He picked up his tea and took another long draw of its aroma. “I do enjoy this one’s scent. But it seems you were enjoying yourself a bit back there too. How… unprofessional.” Nyxnthix didn’t like the smile the old man gave him. “But that is truly unusual.”

  “What are you talking about?” Nyxnthix leaned forward.

  The Game Master took another sip of tea and sighed as he relaxed his shoulders. “Ah, that’s good stuff. Maybe next time I’ll let you pick a body before bringing you here. You’ve got to try this tea.”

  The shade was annoyed with the eccentric being, but did everything it could not to show it. He was still one of the more powerful beings, with a reputation for using his power.

  “You should try living a little,” the old man said without opening his eyes. “You’ve underestimated her twice, and this reckless charge of yours is, while useful in the short term, going to get old fast. Maybe if you tried to walk a mile in her shoes, you’d understand something you hadn’t before.”

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  “You think this is all a game,” Nyxnthix hissed, voice low and venomous.

  The Game Master’s smile didn’t falter—it grew. “Oh, my dear shade, everything is a game. And you? You’re one useful piece.”

  Nyxnthix couldn’t understand what the old man was doing. Was he trying to help it kill its target? But why? He is playing a game it couldn’t begin to keep up with, but it was without a doubt a pawn in said game. It knew that. And it annoyed Nyxnthix all the more. The way The Game Master toyed with it so effortlessly by using its own rules, nature, and job against it left it feeling helpless.

  But it knew The Game Master was right. Something needed to change. It wasn’t hunting a defenseless human girl who didn’t know what she was doing anymore. She was a threat. Something had granted her power it never thought possible, and it needed to figure out what it was.

  The Game Master lifted his cup in a mock toast. “I’ve enjoyed our little chat. But now it’s time for you to go. And do try show a little creativity. I’d hate to see you end up... obsolete, or worse.”

  Slowing down was an option. Nyxnthix thought about what the old man said, but it was too cryptic for it. Nyxnthix just decided that it would treat the human as a high-priority assassination now. It wasn’t a common job for it, but it always found those jobs to be far more rewarding. So it started formulating a plan, and by the time it reached the door out of The Game Master’s little pocket plane, it had five different options.

  It just needed to pick one. Because Nyxnthix didn’t fail three times in a row. It never has, and it never will. And the first step in all of its plans was to learn about its target in every way it could. With a wave of his hand, The Game Master opened a door to the Soul Nexus for Nyxnthix.

  It was time for Nyxnthix to take the hunt to the next level. There won’t be a round five.

  On the third floor of the spider-infested abandoned golem factory, an ice statue melted. Its crystalline surface shedding flowing droplets that pooled on the cracked floor below. As the ice melted, a tiny sapient blob burrowed its way out through the head. Killa landed on the ground with a squelch. She didn’t have enough mass to form her usual body, so she was reduced to the beginning stages of a slime.

  Her essence condensed into a formless puddle of herself of no more than five inches across. It was going to take her a while to accumulate enough mass to be able to speak again. She quivered slightly, disoriented and weakened. She tried to stretch, but the motion was sluggish, and her edges slumped back inward. Manipulating her body in her diminished state was slow, awkward, and exhausting. Her tiny body undulated weakly as she inched across the floor, looking for anything to consume, a light flickered from the pedestal.

  “Killa, you…” Gary’s voice was lost in even more static. “Rina will be glad to…”

  Killa deflated slightly. Her limited form made it impossible to respond. There wasn’t enough mass to even shape rudimentary vocal cords, let alone push air through them. But she was glad to hear Rina survived.

  “Killa, it seems there is something… Rina is headed for the fifth…” No more sound came from Gary as the lights of his head went dark.

  If Rina was headed to the fifth floor, she needed to catch up. But her current state wouldn’t get her far. She had to rebuild her body and fast.

  There was a hesitation as she found the two corpses. Bark, the one she had thought had been her friend who had gone and gotten himself killed, and the demon possessed by the creature hunting Rina without a head. Slowly, she ate the demon. As she ate, a wave of guilt flowed through her. In order to collect enough mass to be useful when she caught up with Rina, she would have to do something she swore never to do again.

  After the demon, she moved towards the second corpse. Her edges brushed against Bark’s still form, and for a moment, she paused, feeling the familiar contours of his body beneath her membrane. The shaylip had made his choices. But had she been too hard on him? Had his heart been in the right place, even if his actions weren’t?

  She needed to release her self-control and eat everything. The situation called for her to go on a rampage again. It wouldn’t be pretty, and it would only show the world why slimes were feared in her world. But she needed her friend, and her friend needed her. Time was not on her side. But if she went too far, she already had a way of reigning herself in. It’s just that she won’t be happy. It was better to ask for forgiveness than permission.

  Desperate times call for desperate measures. Maybe Bark was right about that. It was her turn to be desperate. As she finished eating him, she thought maybe she was too hard on him. Even though she couldn’t say it, she forgave the shaylip, because if she couldn’t forgive him, who was going to forgive her?

  As she devoured the bodies, her form began to swell, only about another inch. There was a long way to go. Each inch would take more than the last. She could already feel the edge of a dangerous hunger stirring inside her, the old urge to consume everything within reach. But she overcame it once, she could do it again.

  It was time to become a monster again. The Soul Nexus would learn why slimes were to be feared. But Killa held the reason for everything in the core of her soul. She needed an anchor to hold onto—a reason for letting go.

  For Rina.

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