Irwin stared at the three cards on the table, humming thoughtfully. If all went well, he was going to slot all three of them, starting with the left one, Volcanic Tendons.

Glancing at the diamond card, he held back a grimace. It would be the simplest, most basic card he'd ever slotted, a simple body improvement card to increase his strength and ability to use it explosively. It wouldn't grant him any new abilities or really improve him that much, but it was a tactical choice. It was almost a hundred percent compatible with his first soulcard, meaning that when it was time to create his next heartcard, it would help him immensely in creating a cohesive whole. One that would synchronize and harmonize with his first soulcard and not be rejected by his second one.

I'm going to need to figure out a way to balance them out, he thought as he focused on his two existing soulcards.

They resonated softly and happily in his soulscape, not at odds in any way, but also not exactly the same. Ambraz had warned him that after he created his third card, which would have more in common with his first one, he'd need to find either a card to bridge the first and third with the second or find another that had enough in common with the second to balance it out. It was something he'd not really thought about before, as his original concept of a third heartcard had been far different from what he was going to get soon.

Problems for later, he thought, as he focused on the three cards again.

Volcanic Tendons first, then the card he'd just reforged: Gentrils Body, the second full body augmentation card he'd get after his very first card. Well, and the titan card, but he didn't feel like that counted, as it was barely his own choice. He glanced at the booklet with Ambraz's reading of the card he'd just reforged and held back a second, relieved sigh.

Card: Gentrils Body Control

Type: Body Resizing, Toggle, Ruby, Reforged by Irwin Roddington

Owner: -

The now-extinct insectoid Gentrils could change their size depending on the soulforce they could channel. Capable of shrinking their house-sized bodies down to the size of a mere fist or increasing it to be as massive as a mountain, they were a menace that turned many a world into barren, lifeless husks.

Active: Use soulforce to increase or decrease the wielder's size

Toggle: Switch between the current and the wielder's default size at the cost of [???]

He was glad the card didn't gain the insect type, as that would have potentially caused him a world of trouble. Except for the fact he might not have even been able to slot it, he wasn't interested in getting mandibles.

Instead, it had become a utility card, one he hoped to merge with the titan card to create one that would allow him to change his size when needed.

That left the last card, one of the chaos whale cards that allowed more control over other cards. It was different from the other two, thrumming with a constant sense of power ready to unleash.

Card: Subtle Calibration

Type: Ruby, Reforged by Irwin Roddington

Owner: -

The wielder of this card will gain a greatly increased, fine-grained control over the abilities of all adjacent cards.

Passive: Increased soulforce precision

Passive: Greatly increased mastery over adjacent cards' passive and active abilities

A happy grin came to him as he read the card, knowing exactly what they could do with it. According to Ambraz, it was one of the better control cards, especially due to the added benefit of soulforce precision, which had taken him a bit to understand. Unlike a simple increase in control, an increase in precision gave him more steps in whatever a card did. Ambraz had explained that if he'd used it with his fire ability, he'd be able to create sand-grained flames, making them larger very slowly until they covered his hand. With his existing control, it was a surprising but happy addition and one he'd be able to use when creating the heartcard.

If our plan works, that is, Irwin thought as he looked around the empty, vine-filled room.

"Ready, kid?"

Irwin looked at Ambraz, then picked up the Volcanic Tendons and held it above the third and final empty slot of his left hand. A slight, happy resonance came from the titan card, showing it apparently agreed with the resonances of the potential new addition.

Dropping the card atop, Irwin wasn't surprised as it sank inside his hand before stopping. Instantly, he felt his first soulcard connect to the fire part of Volcanic Tendons and resonate with it. However, unlike the previous time, there was not even a single bit of struggle as the titan card seemed content to mesh with the third card.

Irwin didn't even pay attention to the card as it sank into the slot, or the itching that he felt from his entire body a moment later. Instead, he had his right hand raised, staring at the first card slot.

Please don't extend, he thought. The chance was incredibly small, but so far, he'd had enough bad luck that he wasn't going to take it for granted.

Seconds turned to minutes, and when no odd lines from the titan card appeared around the first slot, Irwin finally let out a relieved sigh.

"Thank Yilda," he muttered, finally focusing on the new card he'd gained.

With no active ability, all he could sense was the changes it had wrought on him, and already having two soulcards, the changes were somewhat underwhelming. He punched out a few times, his fist exploding forward. It was faster and more explosive, but not so much that it would change how he fought. Still, he wondered if he could use it in some way with his kinetic ability.

He waited as the card integrated, a process that was remarkably fast compared to what he had expected. Instead of days or hours, it took barely half an hour for the card to settle and the resonance to flow with the rest of his soulforce.

"It's because of your second soulcard," Ambraz said to his unanswered question. "As long as you slot cards that are compatible with either of your soulcards, the soulforce resonance sensitivity you have will allow handcards to integrate far faster."

Irwin hummed as he looked at the other two cards. "What about these?"

"They will take longer, a day if you are unlucky," Ambraz said.

Irwin looked around the room again, wondering how long Elder Sigora would accept him using her room.

"Alright, let's do this," he said, picking up the second card.

There was a sense of annoyance from the titan card, and he felt it resonate oddly.

"Do you sense that?"

"Yes, and there's no other choice. You need to put it in and see if it works," Ambraz said.

Irwin nodded and placed the card above the socket. Immediately, the sense of annoyance grew to hostility, and the titan card began resonating rapidly. With some trepidation, Irwin released the card as it was partially pulled into his hand slot.

A dissonance erupted as the titan card resonated in anger, immediately blocked by his first soulcard.

Irwin groaned as he felt his soulforce begin swirling around him, a headache popping up and growing from a throbbing annoyance to a full-fledged migraine within a minute. It felt as if two contradicting types were fighting for dominance.

"That titan card is creating dissonance because there's another card that can change your size," Ambraz hissed—try and influence it!"

Irwin nodded as he started picturing himself growing from the titan card and then growing again from the Gentrils card. It wasn't truly what he was planning, but technically, he could do so.

The titan card's resonance seemed to dismiss his attempt, but Irwin didn't let up, picturing himself growing to the size of a mountain, too small to fight the Oculithar, and then growing even more to allow himself to rip them apart.

The harsh dissonance weakened slightly, and emboldened, he tried again.

The more he used the Oculithar in his fantasies of fighting, the more the titan card seemed to be placated, and after what felt like hours, the Gentrils card finally slotted inside. As soon as it did, the titan card's resonance spiked a final time before dying down—seemingly almost going dormant, as if it was spent.

Irwin groaned as he leaned back, his head a pulsing mass of pain. Raising his hand, he sensed the card slowly begin to settle, but he could barely detect its abilities. Still, seeing the card and knowing what it entailed, he felt a massive relief. Even if it would take a while to figure out how it worked, or worse, he'd had to wait till he made his heartcard, at least he had a way to shrink back to a regular size now.

"It is going to take a while before I can use the card's ability," he grunted, taking out a container of water and draining it rapidly.

"Be happy it worked at all," Ambraz groaned. "I was really afraid that card would be expelled and explode halfway."

Irwin grimaced as he pictured that happening.

"Well, it didn't. Now we just need to figure out if it will be enough to offset the titan card."

Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

"Which is why you can't slot anything in your last handslot until you can shrink a bit," Ambraz said. "You don't feel… different?"

Irwin blinked at the remark, looking down at himself. He'd dropped the armor while reforging, wearing a simple shirt and pants. The shirt had been a tight fit, but as he looked at himself, he saw it had ripped apart, while his pants had split across the seams.

"What—" Irwin groaned as he carefully stood up, getting a slight vertigo when his head rose another foot above where it had been before he sat down.

"Sorry, kid, but as you struggled with it, that titan card forced your body to grow again. I thought you were letting it on purpose to appease it… but—"

Irwin groaned as he sank back on the chair, closing his head.

"I didn't even feel it!" he grunted. "How big am I now?"

"About the size of Tang… maybe a bit taller and less bulky," Ambraz said.

Irwin pulled out another container of water, draining it before carefully using his steam to refill it. The first one he'd pulled out.

"I'm not moving from here until I can try and use the other card," he grunted.

As if to mock him, a deafening explosion rocked the building, the vines in the rooms swaying lightly while cups, books, and other things tumbled from the shelves.

Irwin looked up where his sensitive soulforce scanning showed a swirling vortex of soulforce that just appeared out of nowhere. As he recognized the resonance, his anger flared up.

"Lasther," he hissed, sensing the Guidar's resonance.

He'd not experienced the Guidar's presence in the real world before, and now that he did, it felt like a horrid amalgamated song that clashed with itself, grating on his senses. Irwin pushed himself up, glaring at the ceiling, and as he did it, he felt the seemingly dormant titan card explode.

Grab! Kill! Punch! Burn!

A wave of sensations, images, and ideas flared through his mind as he suddenly felt himself struggle with himself, trying to remain sane. His otherself's focus fully joined the rest of him, allowing him to push back against the overwhelming desire to grow to his maximum size and throttle the thing he sensed above the building.

--

Sigora sighed as she walked back to her apartment. The smith had been held up in part of it for hours now, and she wondered if he'd decided to sleep. Her vines told her he'd been calmly sitting at the table for the last few hours, ever since the oddity with socketing the card had happened.

I wonder how and why he'd want to socket a card so counter to the rest of his cards, she pondered.

It would make his next heartcard nearly impossible. Then again, as he was a smith, she guessed that he knew what he was doing.

Still, she wanted her apartment back.

Two steps from the main hallway, she sensed the smith move. Focusing on her vines, she heard him mutter something, likely to that Ganvil. She was still surprised about that, but it made sense that he'd not flaunt his ability to bind one. It would make it far too evident that he was a smith after all.

Sigora stopped in the hallway before her apartment.

Should she wait, or—

A tiny flicker of soulforce rippling across the outside of her perception was just enough warning to trigger her third soulcard as a deafening explosion blew away the top part of the building.

Sigora, wrapped in a thick armor of leaves, some of them blackened, glared up. A figure was hovering in the sky above the building, writhing in purple tendrils of energy.

A growled whisper emanated from everywhere.

"Hand over the smith, and I'll leave everyone alive."

"Lasther… did you decide to commit suicide then?" Sigora said as she used more of her power.

Vines burst from every section of wood, including the floorboards, pushing her up into the air through the hole that had been the Inn's roof. Dozens of warning signs came from her other tendrils, shadewalkers flitting into the building from everywhere.

"Sigora, you are no match for me," Lasther growled. "Don't waste both our time and energy—"

A boom rattled the already heavily damaged upper floor as a section of the room that had slid sideways was blasted apart.

Roark floated up from below, his body twice the size it had been moments before, while enormous, black wings made of leaves flapped back almost lazily, creating enough pressure to blast tons of rubble away, causing it to roll down into the alleyway and square around the building. People were rushing around, fleeing the scene.

Roark, please don't overdo it, Sigora thought as she saw the burning anger in the ancient Viridian's eyes.

"Lasther! I'd wondered if I should find you, but it seems you made my choice easy!" Roark roared as his thunderous flapping carried him up to the same height as Sigora and Lasther.

"You won't get any help," Lasther snarled. "Leave, tree-folk! Or—"

Roark hurled a blob of green and brown liquid at the purple-wreathed clad person.

Lasther growled, and the purple surrounding him slapped at the ball, only succeeding in shattering it into a dozen smaller ones that splashed apart across the purplish haze surrounding him. The purple glow dulled as a thick moss seemed to grow midair, expanding to cover a dozen feet of the purple, hazy barrier.

"Let's kick this ugly Sheitroot's ass," Roark roared as his leafed wings flapped with explosive thunder, causing him to shoot forward.

Sigora raised her hands, causing vines, some three feet across, to shoot from the wooden building.

I hope the others come quickly, she thought, knowing their disturbance was likely warning the other powerful entities of the commotion.

--

Greldo teleported ten steps to the side, intercepting the other shadewalker as it tried to flow past him, grabbing it while inside the shadowrealm. He clenched his hand, using his own control over the shadowrealm to clamp down on the shadewalker. For a single moment, there was some resistance, then his far greater strength overtook the other, and a motionless figure was ejected out of the shadows. The body landed on a crumpled heap atop the debris, joining the six already there.

Greldo sensed the dozens of others moving around nearby, and he shot at the next one. There was a worried question from Coal, and he sensed his friend and summoned on the cusp of coming to help him.

"No, stay with Irwin!" he shot back. "I'll be fine! Just keep distracting as many with your shadow clones as you can."

Coal reluctantly agreed, and Greldo focused on another two shadewalkers as they shot into the room, trying to get to the three Viridians behind him.

Protect them, my ass, he thought, as he intercepted one of them, grabbing the shadewalker mid-movement, likely terrifying him. Roark had asked him to guard the younger Viridians while he took care of whatever was happening—but Greldo had a pretty good idea what that was.

As he dragged the shadewalker across the room, he grabbed the other one and forced them along with him out of the shadows. There was a stunned gasp as he slammed their heads together while they were still woozy from being forced out of the shadows. He released one of the two hooded figures and slashed his nails across the other. As pink blood spurted from between the thin yellow scales that had covered the neck, he dropped the flopping body and kicked the second that was trying to scramble up. The body was flung back, and he teleported behind its back, striking the back of the second shadewalker's neck.

The crack was loud, and ten years ago, Greldo knew it would have unsettled him. Now, he just ignored it as he turned to the other side of the room.

Taben, Ralk, and Meira were huddled against the far wall, their eyes wide.

"Let's go! We need to reach Irwin!"

There was a stunned silence, and then the Viridians rushed toward him, asking questions.

"What is going on? Where did Roark go?"

"How did you kill all those shadewalkers!?"

"Why should we go to Irwin?"

Greldo moved to the door that led up, hoping it hadn't been demolished. One of Coal's shadow clones told him it was clear, while another said that both Elder Viridians were fighting Lasther.

The Guidar, he thought, as he told Coal to keep a shadow clone there and check exactly what the thing was capable of.

"The Holy Shadow Inn is attacking us, and Roark is fighting Lasther," he snapped as he moved into the hallway, climbing across the rubble that now covered part of it. More had slid down the stairs, but it was traversable.

"And we are going to Irwin so he can keep you safe," he continued as he sensed another three shadewalkers close in on them. He made a snapshot decision, stepped back, and held out his arms.

"Grab on!"

As soon as the three stunned Viridians did as he asked, Greldo drew on his cards and pulled them along into the shadows. He'd never pulled three people at a single time, but as he shot through the shadows, just out of reach of the other shadewalkers, he realized they were easier to move than Irwin was.

He really is a fatass, he thought, as he maneuvered around two more shadewalkers.

As he reached the next floor, where Sigora's room was, he saw that the vines were swirling around dangerously, and two of them were partially inside the shadowrealm, wrapped around the struggling forms of two shadewalkers. He'd not sensed it until he just got within reach, and Greldo quickly dropped out of the shadowrealm.

"That was incredible," Ralk snapped, taking a stumbling step away.

"This way!" Greldo said as he ran through the corridor, keeping a weary eye on the vines. Luckily, they didn't move to stop them, either because the Viridians were with him or because Sigora had ordered them.

Pulling open the door, he saw that the roof in the next room and part of the wall had been blown away. The door leading into the chamber Irwin had been reforging was still closed, but a crack ran across its length.

Three shadewalkers were wrapped up in the vines, and as he ran forward, he heard Irwin curse softly.

"Ir… Rodd! It's me," he snapped, pulling the door open. As he ran into the room, he saw Irwin without his new armor, his clothing ripped to shreds as his body hulked across the table. His skin looked like glowing metal, and his hands clamped around the edge of the table, which had partially splintered. Vines hung all around him while dozens of shadewalkers were flitting around, trying to move through.

"What is happening?" Greldo shouted, looking around. He was glad he didn't see any sign of Ambraz.

Irwin's head snapped up, his eyes pools of burning anger.

"Trying to stop… going… crazy," his friend snarled, his heated gaze turning to the roof.

That BLOODY card, Greldo thought as he glared at the glowing card on Irwin's left hand.

"Can you bring them into your soulscape?" he asked as he saw the three Viridians huddle at the door, eyes wide with fright.

"Not… sure… it's safe..." Irwin growled.

Greldo echoed the growl as his mind spun. His carefully crafted plan—get the Viridians to safety in Irwin's soulscape and then help the two Elder Viridians battle the Guidar was gone.

A deafening screeching came from above, followed by an explosion that rocked the ceiling.

Coal's warning told him he had no time left, and he spun to the Viridians.

"You are going to have to hide in Elder Sigora's room," he snapped quickly. "Her vines should protect you from the—"

The building shook, and he barely managed to stay on his feet.

"- from the Shadewalkers," he continued rapidly.

Taben looked around, panic in his eyes, and for a moment, Greldo feared he had to help them get to safety. Then Ralk let out an angry hiss as he turned to the door. "Let's go!"

Greldo watched as the three left, and he hoped they could get to safety. Still, from what he could sense, the shadewalkers were all swarming around them, unable to get anywhere near those plants. Why they didn't just leave the shadowrealm and attack normally, he didn't know, but he asked Coal to send half a dozen shadow clones with Taben and the rest.

"They should be safe," he said, turning to his friend. "What can I do to help?"

Irwin grimaced, shaking his head.

"No...thing… just… need to resist."

The building around them shook, and Greldo listened to Coal. His eyes narrowed.

"They are going to lose," he said.

The words barely passed his lips when he got a warning from Coal. He stepped into the shadows as the roof above them caved in, and an explosion of rubble, wood splinters, and something heavy slammed into and then through the floor. Greldo saw a glimpse of Roark, his bark skin blackened and ruptured, his armor torn.

Then, an angry howl was followed by purplish tendrils ripping through what was left of the chamber's room, ripping it up and away. Irwin was hunched over the table, glaring up, his hands balled into fists. His body seemed to keep growing and shrinking.

"Finally, I've found you," a nasty snarl echoed all around the room.

Lasther's purple-wreathed shape appeared above the hole. Long, curved horns stuck out from between a chaotic tangle of red hair while purple blood oozed from four thin wounds that had been slit across his forehead.

Greldo gritted his teeth as he felt the danger emanating from the being, a pressure more powerful than that which he'd sensed from Sigora or Roark or any of the other powerful beings he'd seen.

At least it's not as powerful as that titan thing, he thought as he told Ambraz to get ready.

"I really didn't want to do this…"

The soft, deep rumble caused him to freeze as he floated up. There was a menacing danger in the familiar voice that made him slowly turn his attention to his friend. Irwin was pushing himself up from the table, which looked like a child's plaything compared to his nine-foot self.

"You want to fight? Fine… let's fight."

Greldo had no idea if his friend was talking to Lasther or his card, but it didn't matter much as a pulse of fiery golden light flashed from his hand as his body began growing rapidly. Within moments, his head reached where the ceiling would have been while his armor ripped apart.

Greldo slowly backed up, staring at his friend in growing worry.

Now, what was he supposed to do?

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.