“A what?” Alex asked, his heart still slamming in his chest as he readied himself for another attack.

“An Incarnation,” Shawn repeated. He tapped the end of his scythe on the ground. “You should have mentioned earlier. Don’t tell me you don’t even know what that is. How fresh is your planet?”

“No, I know what an Incarnation is,” Alex said warily. “I just wasn’t aware I was one.”

Orchid mentioned Incarnations when we were talking with Derek. But she didn’t seem to notice anything off about me. I feel like she’d have brought it up given the way she was simultaneously irreverent of and unsettled by Derek.

“Not an entirely uncommon occasion,” Shawn said. “Interesting indeed. It’s been a while since one of your kind have come through here.”

“I don’t suppose you’d be willing to tell me exactly what my kind is?” Alex asked.

“You want me to give you something for free? That’s not how this works,” Shawn said with a laugh. “Have you forgotten what we’re doing?”

“Isn’t your goal to find someone worthy of the power in the Ancestry? It seems like you’d be motivated to make sure I’m fighting at my best, wouldn’t it? And you’re the one that makes the rules here. The only one who gets to decide how things work is you.”

Shawn’s lips split into a wide grin. “Well said. I will answer your question if you want — but not for free. It will come at a cost. Your choice.”

“Done,” Alex said instantly.

Before the word had even finished leaving his mouth, a black streak was cutting through the air before him. There wasn’t even an instant to react. By the time his eyes had registered it, there was a thunk from behind Alex as Shawn’s scythe embedded itself in the wall behind him.

His right arm split from his shoulder. It fell to the ground with a wet thump. Pain drove into Alex’s mind. A pained gasp tore from his lips and he staggered, clutching a hand to his shoulder as blood started to pour from it.

“The price has been paid,” Shawn said. He extended his hand and the scythe flew back to his hand in a blur. “The trial will continue. So long as you remain conscious, I will answer your question.”

Alex gritted his teeth. Blood poured from the wound at an alarming rate, spraying past his fingers to paint the sand at his feet. This was bad. He couldn’t heal like Claire could. Not while Princess was still alive. But if she died, a fair amount of his defensive and offensive capabilities went out the window. His chances at performing well would plummet.

Shawn swept his scythe, uncaring of Alex’s position. A huge wave of roiling black magic swept out from him and hurtled toward Alex, covering nearly the entire arena and leaving nowhere to dodge.

Alex grabbed at his magic, casting Funhouse in the air before him and throwing himself to the ground as reality cracked before him. The black magic hit the fractured patch before Alex and a small portion of it redirected itself, passing just by him and slamming into the sand several feet to his side.

“An Incarnation is a being whose soul is abnormally shaped. You can think of it as being so stubborn that your soul manifests itself in a magical or physical manner. It changes the way your class works and occasionally gives you a few unique aspects entirely unrelated to the powers you’ve claimed from the System.”

“I already knew all that!” Alex snapped. Can we get to the more interesting parts!”

“You didn’t specify which part of an Incarnation you wanted information on,” Shawn replied with a wry smile. He extended a hand, his fingers curling toward his palm.

Alex’s ears popped.

Gravity shifted. He found himself ripped into the air and hurtling toward Shawn like a bug caught in the pull of a vacuum. Princess leapt, grabbing onto Alex’s leg and jerking him to a painful halt.

Shawn leapt forward, bringing his scythe down in a blur.

Princess threw Alex to the side, grabbing for Shawn with her other hand.

His scythe carved right through her. A wave of purple magic ripped through Princess’ body, shredding it to pieces. Her final mask shattered and she melted into a puddle, her power flowing back into Alex as he hit the ground in a roll.

The blood pouring from his arm turned to black sludge. He shot to his feet, his eyes fixing on his discarded arm near where Princess had fallen.

Spark blurred, grabbing the limb and swapping spots with a shadow to bring himself out of the way of a wave of black magic that Shawn sent tearing in his direction. Spark threw Alex’s arm back to him, and he grabbed it out of the air.

Alex drove his limb back onto his shoulder with a squelch. Threads of black sludge knit him back together and sensation returned in his fingers an instant later. Magic drained out of him at an alarming rate — but not nearly as fast as it would have been if he’d had to regrow the whole arm.

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“Can you skip to the bit where you say how I can use this to my advantage?” Alex asked through gritted teeth. “I’d love to know if there’s a way I can actually control this magic.”

“Starts by figuring out just what it is you’re capable of,” Shawn replied. “Once you know what your soul is doing to the world around you, it should be easier to influence it. I’d look for a common pattern.”

The giant drove his foot into the ground. He blurred — and then, amidst a spray of sand, he was before Alex.

A black arc cut through the air.

Shawn’s scythe slammed right into the center of Alex’s chest with enough force to pick him off his feet and raise him into the air, impaled. The blow knocked the air from Alex’s pierced lungs in a pained wheeze.

“Point to me,” Shawn said.

Alex grabbed onto the shaft of the scythe.

Mirrored shards exploded out from it, racing down the hilt of the weapon to pierce into Shawn’s hand. The giant flicked Alex to the side, sending him flying from the end of his blade and rolling across the blood-splattered sand.

Pain burned into Alex with every bounce. But the pain meant he wasn’t dead. Princess’ magic was already stitching him back together, but his magical energy was nearly at its limit. He gritted his teeth and staggered back to his feet. Another blow like that one would drain what magic he had left.

“That’s one more to me, right?” Alex asked.

Shawn looked down at his hand. “You barely even cut me.”

“But I did cut you. Also, you stopped answering my questions. I gave you an arm for that shit, man. You could at least give me a bit more to work with.”

“You got the arm back!” Shawn protested. He spun the scythe in his hand, his eyes narrowing. “And if you need help — you adjusted the trajectory of the meteor I summoned. If you’re asking me to guess what your concept is, then I’d hedge it might be gravity. That ring a bell?”

Adjusted the path of the magic? Wait. That happened during the fight with the Gorgonaga as well. But gravity doesn’t sound right to me. Could—

Alex’s thoughts died as he suddenly realized Shawn’s scythe was heading right for him again. Spark leapt forward, shoving him out of the way of the blow. Alex hit the ground in a tumble as the huge weapon obliterated his Knight Wraith, sending its powers flowing into him.

“Goddamn it,” Alex snarled as he scrambled to his feet and set off at a sprint to put more distance between himself and the giant, leaving his shadow behind “Would you stop that?”

“No,” Shawn said. He brought the scythe down for Alex again.

Alex swapped spots with his shadow, barely managing to avoid the blow in time. All three of his monsters were dead. He was starting to run out of tricks and he’d only gotten one hit on Shawn. Two, if the giant counted the second blow.

“What is it with people that use scythes?” Alex asked as Shawn turned toward him.

Shawn swept his weapon through the air. Another wave of magic sliced out from its blade, slithering toward Alex in a massive wave. The only way he could dodge it was to use Encore — but Shawn was nowhere near him.

Alex’s teeth gritted. Shawn’s words rung through his head as memories welled within him. The fight with the Gorgonaga. His Visualization. The very first moments in the Mirrorlands when he’d gotten his class and something had changed his starting ability to Requiem to the King.

How he’d stolen from the System itself and somehow managed to get Aubrey’s soul out of the trial.

Finally, it all clicked.

Alex’s eyes widened.

Something in him shifted.

He threw himself to the ground, and the wave of magic heading toward him bent.

It wasn’t by much. Only enough to knock a tiny portion of it slightly askew, curling down just a little earlier than it should have. But that was enough. The magic just barely missed Alex. It slammed into the sand right before his face with a hiss, failing to connect with his body.

“You figured it out,” Shawn observed. “Or you’re extraordinarily lucky.”

“The former,” Alex said, slowly rising back to his feet as his heart pounded in his chest. He could feel it. Something within his chest, unfurling like a flower.

The Singularity Core.

“And?” Shawn asked.

“Density,” Alex said. “It’s density. I’m really fucking dense. Enough that my soul can pull magic out of its path and into orbit. Is that possible?”

“You’re an Incarnation,” Shawn replied with a wide smile. “Most things are possible. Congratulations on your revelation. Also — you lose.”

His foot slammed down into the dirt as he appeared before Alex, his scythe blurring right for his neck.

Alex activated Encore, pumping it full of Riftwarped Qi.

His monsters snapped into being. Princess formed right in the path of the scythe, intercepting it with her body and grabbing onto the giant’s arm with both hands. Fluid splattered from her body in an arc, spraying across the sand, but she managed to bring the scythe to a halt a moment before it could connect with Alex.

Glint and Spark leapt for Shawn as one.

The giant released his scythe and dodged away from Glint, wisely avoiding hitting the Glasmir again, but Spark snagged the giant’s shirt with one hand. A shadowy dagger materialized in his other hand and he brought it down, driving it right into Shawn’s chest.

An instant later, the giant’s hand slammed into the Knight Wraith. Spark died instantly, crushed flat. Shawn summoned his scythe back to him and flicked it twice, dispatching Glint with one move and carving through all three of Princess’ masks with the other.

“You’re quite the persistent one, aren’t you?” Shawn asked, looming over Alex as he raised his scythe once more. “Difficulty’s up. This is your limit.”

“That’s three,” Alex said with a grin.

Shawn matched his grin. “Not bad at all. For an Initiate, you did respectably. Well fought. I’ll be seeing you on the other side.”

Alex clasped his hands together, hooking his fingers as he twisted his palms. Deep within his soul, a gate slammed open.

“Partial Soul Manifestation. Edict of the Shattered King.”

Alex’s domain exploded out. The Mirrorlands juxtaposed themselves over the arena, sending twisting trees of hazy Riftwarped energy exploding out all around them in a wide circle centered on him.

Shawn’s scythe fell.

It found nothing but air.

Shawn spun toward him, his eyes widening. “You’ve got a Partial Soul Manifestation?”

“I’m not done quite yet,” Alex said, his grin growing. Sludge poured down his hand as he activated Armament Elegy. His chainsword materialized within his grasp. It whirred to life with a hungry roar. “You might want to stop counting me out before I’m actually dead.”

“So I can see,” Shawn said. Coils of purple magic swirled around the giant. He lifted into the air, another scythe taking form in his other hand. Arcs of black magic arced between the blades of the two weapons with a hiss. He pointed them both at Alex. “Then allow me to determine just how much more you are capable of.”