Alex studied the two Soul Flames burning before him. The difference between them was almost laughable. Spark’s fire burned at just roughly the size of a baseball, small enough to fit comfortably within his palm. It crackled with a silent intensity that matched the monster represented perfectly.

And across from it was what could only be described as a monstrosity of a flame. It was nearly three times bigger than Spark’s flame, with strands of freezing blue twisting amongst the black like angry gossamer tendrils. It wasn’t hard to see where the influence of the blue void and the deadly strands that lurked within the Forsaken Revenant had come from. The entire thing pulsated to the beat of an unsteady heart, faint tongues of fire lashing off its surface like sunspots.

But… despite the difference, there was a certain degree of familiarity between the two Soul Flames. Perhaps familiarity wasn’t the right word. But Alex couldn’t think of a better one. As different as the two monsters had been, they seemed to share a considerable amount of attributes.

Both Spark and the Forsaken Revenant had bodies made of shadows and armored by dark plates. They’d even come from relatively close locations within the Mirrorlands. That comparison really didn’t go all that far. Spark had shown no signs of transforming into a massive spider-like monster, and the Revenant hadn’t ever swapped locations with its shadow or controlled any clones.

That didn’t change the fact that the two flames almost seemed to recognize each other. They didn’t exert nearly as much pressure against each other as any of the previous monsters he’d tried combining.

Even as Alex cupped the two flames with his hands, activating Monster Medley and pouring magic through his palms to bring them together, their resistance was relatively minimal. It was still an immense struggle. There was no surprise there. Nothing with the System ever came easy.

That didn’t stop him from drawing on his Riftwarped Qi. He wasn’t going to take any chances here. Alex planned to do everything he could do to make sure the combination was as powerful and effective as possible.

He pushed his hands together.

Combining these two Soul Flames at a level below Adept probably would have been impossible. But as Alex’s teeth gritted and muscles strained, the two flames moved toward each other far faster than he’d initially expected they would.

Thanks to the Harmonious Evolution advancement he’d gotten for Monster Medley, he wasn’t too worried about the very obvious differences between Spark and the Forsaken Revenant. The ability would let the monsters evolve in the direction that suited both of them best.

Alex had absolutely no idea what to expect from this. Spark already had a rather powerful combination within Spark. With any other monster, he’d have imagined that the base form of Spark would have been the more dominant of the two.

But the Forsaken Revenant was something else entirely. He wasn’t even completely sure the thing counted as a normal monster. It had been a puppet from the start. But the System counted it enough to let him combine it, and that was good enough for Alex.

Whatever the results of combination ended up being, he knew one thing for certain.

It was going to be strong.

Pressure blew Alex’s hair back as he brought the two Soul Flames closer and closer together. He squinted against the wind whipping against his face and through his clothes. The monster souls were only a few inches away from each other now.

Ripples rolled through the water at his feet to splash against the structures rising up throughout his Mind Palace. Alex gritted his teeth, drinking deeper on his magic as he pushed his palms together. The flames continued toward each other. Centimeter by centimeter, they advanced until they were nearly touching.

Alex bared his teeth.

He squeezed his eyes shut.

Then his palms drove together.

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The Soul Flames connected with a brilliant flash that nearly blinded him even through his eyelids. A wave of energy slammed into Alex, sending him skidding several feet back across the dark waters of his Mind Palace as a furious gale tore through the air.

Wave after wave slammed into him. They threatened to drag him under the churning waters. A sound like rolling thunder filled Alex’s ears. It took everything he had just to keep himself standing under the immense assault.

He squinted through his raised hands, just barely able to make out the pulsating orb of light enveloping the area where the two Soul Flames had been. Arcs of blue lightning sliced through the air as shadows flickered and danced somewhere deep within the light, rising to fill it like a spreading oil spill.

A form started to take shape within the storming light and crashing waves. Then, with a brilliant crash and one final wave of pressure, the light vanished — and all that remained was the monster.

It only took Alex a single glance to realize this monster looked absolutely nothing at all like Spark. Though it was a humanoid formed of shadow, the similarities ended there. The dark matter that made its body up didn’t quite seem fully cohesive. It was more like an illusion, a hazy memory reflected upon after the passing of many years.

Gone was Spark’s hunched form with his shadows binding him to the ground like chains.

This new monster stood regal, taller than even Princess, though it was far, far thinner. There wasn’t a single plate of armor upon it. They had been replaced by long, fang-like jet black bones that pushed out from its skin all along its arms. They also rose up from behind the monster’s head, curving behind it to rise like the cowl of a vampire’s cape.

A vertical seam split the center of the monster’s body, running from its chest all the way up to where its nose should have been. A pale blue void twisted deep within the monster. Gossamer blue thread wove in and out of the churning vortex in wait for command.

The monster’s hands were crossed in front of its chest, directly in front of the center of the vortex, and its palms faced outward as if someone had connected them onto its wrists backward.

No eyes adorned the looming monster’s smooth face, which was little more than a cancerous mess of jagged bone spikes that almost resembled a jagged crown. They’d found their ways into the center of its palms, staring out at Alex, two shards of ice that pierced straight into the soul of anyone who dared meet their gaze.

Thin blue lines of energy twisted beneath the tall monster’s skin, pulsing in and out of visibility. They might have been confused for veins if they had stayed in the same spot for more than a few second. They seemed more like a nest of ultra-thin worms living just beneath the monster’s shadowy skin.

Alex stared at the monster in mute silence. Even though he hadn’t known what to expect, this had still somehow managed to surprise him. It might have been the most unsettling Mirrorlands monster he’d ever laid eyes on, and that was saying a lot.

Words twisted through the air above the looming monster’s head as the System finally managed to identify the creature that Alex had just created.

Derelict Luminary (Adept 1)

“Shit,” Alex whispered, his eyes going wide as saucers. “That’s fucking creepy.”

The Luminary didn’t respond. It didn’t need to. The monster’s hand-eyes stared at Alex with their silent intensity. Holding their gaze was nearly impossible. It was like looking into the sun.

“You sapient?” Alex asked carefully. He cleared his throat and stepped to the side. The Luminary’s eyes followed him. “Any thoughts in there? Just to check. Always have to make sure, you know.”

The monster didn’t respond.

That was a good thing.

Probably.

“Right,” Alex said. “Adept. Shit. Didn’t expect that at all. How damn strong was the Forsaken Revenant if it was able to drag Spark all the way up to this level? That’s… scary. The form its taken is definitely closer to Spark than the Revenant’s original body, but there are storng elements of both. Maybe even a bit more regal than he was before. Is that from the Night King that Spark was combined with a while ago?”

Still, the monster didn’t speak.

It really didn’t need to. Just standing there seemed to be enough to get any point it might have ever wanted to convey across. Never could it be said that the Derelict Luminary didn’t have presence.

“What do you even do?” Alex muttered. “How do you fight? No armor. No claws from what I can see, either. Does it fight like the Revenant did, with the blue threads?”

There would be ample time and space to test the Luminary. Unlike a new weapon for himself, Alex’s monsters were all more than capable of fighting on their own. He just had to point it in the right direction and see what it was capable of — and he didn’t have to worry about it dying.

Was this thing worth two monster slots? It definitely seems really powerful… but I suppose there’s really only one way to ever test that for sure.

“Right,” Alex said. “Something tells me we aren’t going to have to look too hard to find some action to get your abilities tested out. Exciting, right?”

The Luminary didn’t so much as blink.

“Tough crowd. Back into your mirror you go.” Alex sighed. Then a grin crossed his features. “Let’s go say hi to Claire and the others, shall we? It’ll be interesting to see what they think of you.”