The world around me is dark. It's not like floating in the Conscious Sea. When space gets dark, the star's light, as is the warmth, is far from reach. The cold is like no other, as is the dark. Your eye can feel the lack of light and desperately try to scramble for a spec of illumination as the cold sucks the heat from your body, leaving you a shivering husk. I’ve been in this and have seen too many of it happen.

This isn’t that darkness. Instead, it feels like light does not exist, that the conception of ideas and reality has not happened yet. There is no temperature—no hot, no cold, no comfortable, no sweating blob of sweat. It is the space between nonexistence and birth, the passageway of life.

Breaking all of this is a familiar voice. One that is soft and gentle. The hazy words aretrying to reach me. The mumbles fall before they can hit. My eyes begin to form as I see a light for the first time. It's blinding as I can’t make anything out, it's too strong for me.

A heat forms in my stomach and grows as a pain engulfs me. Then, these words become clear as they can reach and touch my mind.

“You are a god.”

My body jolts up and breaks me from my dream. A single fire to every nerve. Imagine your calf cramping, waking you up from a deep sleep. Instead of your calf, it’s your entire body, and the pain refuses to let you move.

My eyes formed as I saw the mansion guest room, and I made my bed for the night. I sleep in a ball, but as I awake, I stretch out to form my upper torso. A man obscured in shadow stands above me. On his face is a familiar black mask. In my stomach is a dagger with a burning red blade adorned with orange and black signals of spells. My stomach goo sizzles as he twists the blade.

What he didn’t excpect is me ignoring the burning pain and sending a fist flying toward him at high speeds. He doesn’t move out of the way. He expects a soft goo hand to hit him. Yes, that would hurt, but I can tell he’s smart. he knows whatever hit a soft goo ball would be nothing compared to the extra second or two of twisting the burning knife in me. That is when my fist makes contact with his face and sends his body flying, shattering the closed door as he hits the wall in the hall.

I may not know spells, but I know my body. Focusing the magical energy known as the Source through my ooze, I can harden it stronger than most metals. My first crystalizes to jagged edges, emphasizing my knuckles and the tip of my fingers. That way, my punches can leave a few cuts on any unwanted people, like people who STAB PEOPLE IN THE STOMACH WHILE THEY SLEEP!

“Cid, are you alive ?“ I hear Emanuel shout from the hall.

“Stay away from here. Lock your door!” I shout back.

I hopped on my feet from the bed, but my shape was unstable. My legs wobbled as I fought to keep their shape. Most importantly, Emanuel’s voice didn’t come from the other side of the wall where he should be sleeping. It came from the hall. The man turns to someone I can’t see. He was still holding his knife. He wasn’t an amateur.

At the man’s feet, I see it. A broken black mask with drops of blood. The moon shines through the window, shining a light on my assailant. He was in all-black tactical gear with a cloak draped over him. My eyes then jumped to his face, but there was a problem. I couldn’t make out his face, and every time I tried to, my eyes would look away, and I would only remember a blur. It wasn’t a conscious choice, they are being forced to look away, but I don’t know how.

The attacker gets on his feet as he steps forward to lunge out of frame toward Emanuel's. I can’t waste time. My other hand crystalizes as I rush after him. The good that was stabbed has hardened, but not like my crystallization; it is burnt and shriveled, like a lump of coal. The nerves in there are dead, and I can no longer control them. My stomach spits out the chunk of burnt ooze as my height shortens by a centimeter as I send goo to the wound in my stomach.

My fist extends and fires out like a bullet to the man. He expected that and ducked below it, but I’m not dumb and predicted his prediction! I made my arm thicker so that out of my forearm, another crystallized first extended out and punched him in his blurry face.

Blood hit the floor as I cut his face with my knuckle, but it got me a chunk of goo as he sliced the hand off my arm. My suspicions are right. Watching this, all in the hall is Emanuel in long pajama pants and a t-shirt. Then I realized I am not wearing any pants or shirt and have all my slime exposed.

No time to think as I sprint by the assailant. He gets a cut on my shoulder. Fortunately for me, I pick up my severed hand and open a whole large hole in my head. Emanuel stares in horror as if he knows what's coming next. I bend down and swallow him up in my body.

I turn to my Taxi Crawler form and rush to the stairs. My first foot hits the steps, and he slices off one of my six legs. A hand stretches my back and grabs it before it hits the ground. I leap onto the wall and liquefy a layer of my feet to stick and rush down the wall. Emanuel screams as my severed hand and leg float inside me, something that shouldn’t happen.

If I can recover any lost part of me, the goo should be absorbed into my body automatically. I separate the burn areas and spit them out, yet they keep their shape. I didn’t get much time to think about that as his boot hit the back of my head. Yup, he is a professional. People’s hands and feet get stuck in my body when hit, but coat your hand and feet with a constant flow of the Source, and you have a magical energy glove that can hit me. My goo body absorbs the hit better than a regular person, but it's still solid enough to do three-fourths of the regular damage.

I tumbled down the stairs, and Emanuel fell out of me. My limbs are still inside of me but not absorbed. I looked up at the man, but my eyes kept averting his face.

“Me or the boy?” I ask him.

The man’s voice was calm, downright prideful. He didn’t speak like a man i just hit twice, but instead, the calmness in his tone portrayed a man in complete control.

“The boy. Give him up before I slice up more of you.”  The assistant says.

“Why are you here? If you want money, take whatever you want from the house. “ Emanuel shouts at him.

“Nothing here is worth more than what I am already being paid. Either way, it would work better for me if I did this job. “

“Crane’s paying you,” I say. His smile was all the confirmation I needed. I’m pretty sure there's something in this mansion worth more than his offer. Take the kid’s deal. “

“The money is a bonus.” He says with glee. “The power I gain from doing this, on the other hand, is worth more. Do you know how much a favor from Crane is worth? What about you? Why not ditch the kid and run?”

“Because that would go against my duties.”

“What are you, his bodyguard?”

“No, I am a god.”

The man erupts into laughter. His cackle is erratic as he sways his whole body. Even so, I still couldn’t find an opening to strike.

“That's hilarious. Maybe I’m stronger than I thought because I just slashed a god.” He lets out an in-between laugh.

“Those were lucky. “I say, clenching my fist.

“Or maybe you're full of crap. I never heard of a slime god. “

“Gods come in many forms. Mine’s just the most versatile.”

“You shouldn’t claim to be a god. It is a title you are either born with or earned. Looking at you, it’s neither of those two.”

“Coming from some random dude.”

“You can call me Crimson. It will do you well to memorize that name as I will become the next King of this world.”

I glance at Emanuel, whose eyes widen and goes pale after hearing his name.

It's clear I won’t change his mind with words, but the short conversation did buy me enough time to form a plan. I expanded one crystal hand to punch the window next to us and my other hand to push Emanuel out. I leaped after him, but not at a cost, as the man jumps down the stairs and cut my foot off.

I wrapped around the screaming Emanuel and morphed my free foot into a crystal fist. I fire the foot, and it stretches toward the window. The timing was perfect, and I punched Crimson right in the face, but he predicted my prediction. Even though he is in a daze after the hit, as my foot stretches back to me, he stabs the side of my leg and slashes up. Leaving a long burnt streak down my leg.

My body hits the grass as i act as an airbag for Emanuel. With no time to lose, I shifted to Taxi Crawler mode, but I lost so much mass that Emanuel’s head sticks out of my back.

“I thought I was going to die,” Emanuel shouts.

“Still a possibility,” I say, running toward the backyard, hoping to find a hiding spot.

“No use hiding,” Crimson shouts from the window. “I’ll find you, fake god!”

My stomach aches with pain as I still feel the burning blade twisting in my stomach.