Hermes woke to a loud swishing sound and was upright before he was fully conscious, heart hammering — then realised it was just the dark sea receding.
He made a small hole, stuck his head out, and looked around carefully.
Everything was as he'd left it.
"Phew."
He climbed out and took a proper look.
The dark city. The castle. The giant hand was pointed directly toward it, had always been pointed toward it, and he simply hadn't noticed because he'd been too busy not dying.
Joy moved through him, clean and simple.
I can make the walk today. I have to make it today.
He summoned water, washed his face, swished some around his mouth, and cast the cleaning spell. He would have preferred a proper shower but he didn't have time.
He got the fire going, cut more fillets from the Bloodscale Devourer with the water spell, and ate quickly while looking at the city on the horizon.
Then he remembered.
He hadn't absorbed the soul shards from either kill.
I'm fucking stupid.
He looked around for the Carapace Scavenger. Where's the Mr. Crabs-looking ahh anyway?
An empty shell lay a few feet from where he'd killed it.
Just the shell. No soul shard.
Oh.
The Bloodscale Devourer had eaten it. Obviously. He kicked the dead snake in irritation.
Then again, he'd been barely conscious when he killed the Scavenger. And even if he hadn't been, trying to absorb its soul shard with a demon the size of a building circling the statue would have ended him. He kicked the snake again anyway. It deserved it.
The only reason he was alive was luck. The only reason this turd was dead was also luck.
He started cutting through the carcass methodically until he found it.
The soul shard didn't look like a crystal. Through Oculus Sapientiae he could see condensed essence rotating slowly within it, three dense nodes orbiting a hollow centre, the remnants of the demon's soul core. Whatever corruption had animated the creature in life had vanished with its death.
He absorbed it.
The effect was immediate. His skin felt smoother. His vision sharpened considerably, edges crisper, colours more distinct, the distant outline of the castle suddenly legible in a way it hadn't been a moment ago.
He summoned his status.
—
Name: Hermes
True Name: Demon of Arcana
Rank: Dreamer
Soul Core: Dormant
Memories: [Penitent Spear]
Echoes: [Bloodscale Devourer]
Attributes: [Oculus Sapientiae], [Ars Scriptoria], [Ars Homuncularis]
Aspect: [Grand Alchemist]
Aspect Rank: Supreme
Aspect Description: [A Grand Alchemist believes he can improve upon creation itself. He is wrong. He has always been wrong. Every Grand Alchemist before him was wrong. This one will be no different.]
Innate Ability: [Azoth]
Ability Description: [You perceive the hidden unity beneath all forms. What others see as flesh, stone, or steel, you recognise as a mutable substance awaiting refinement.]
Aspect Abilities: [Spagyria]
Aspect Ability Description: [You may distill the essence of the slain into a draught. Drink it, and become them. You are the crucible.]
Flaw: [Foreign Soul]
Flaw Description: [You are prey to things that have never tasted your kind. They are curious.]
—
"Haah..." Hermes let out a disappointed sigh.
No fragment counter. No neat little number telling him how many he'd absorbed. Unlike Sunny. Unlike Nephis.
It was a reminder.
He was ordinary. Just like every other Sleeper.
But I don't need it anyway. I have Oculus Sapientiae.
Those three nodes in the shard, those were the fragments. Three. He'd absorbed three.
Good enough.
He focused on the Echo.
—
Echo: [Bloodscale Devourer]
Echo Type: Beast
Echo Rank: Awakened
Echo Class: Demon
Echo Attributes: [Cold-Blooded Predator], [Bronze Scaled]
Cold-Blooded Predator: The Bloodscale Devourer moves silently and efficiently, reducing stamina consumption. When coiled around prey, its strength increases dramatically.
Bronze Scaled: The Bloodscale Devourer is highly resistant to physical damage. Its bronze scales function as natural armour.
Echo Abilities: [Visceral Fangs]
Ability Description: [The Bloodscale Devourer's fangs inject a lethal venom into its target that ferments and dissolves the victim's flesh.]
Echo Description: [A massive serpent of bronze scales and crimson eyes, the Bloodscale Devourer is an apex predator of the Forgotten Shore. Its body is built for ambush—silent movement, crushing coils, and venom that turns flesh to slurry.]
—
Hermes was delighted.
An Awakened Demon Echo.
This changed everything. Mobility, combat, survival, the noodle could handle things he couldn't. He could ride it. Use it as a mount. Just ride the snake. The very large, very long, very girthy snake. Hehe.
The naming sense of the Spell remained deeply questionable. Bloodscale Devourer. The thing was mud-brown. The only red on it had been its eyes.
Redeyed Devourer would have been accurate. Or Bronzescale Devourer. Bloodscale Devourer was just the Spell being dramatic for no reason.
Although it did sound cooler. He could admit that.
Whatever. He was keeping it.
He summoned the Echo.
The serpent materialized before him in its full-sized glory, thirty feet of coiled muscle and bronze scales. For a moment, Hermes's breath caught. The thing had almost killed him. Seeing it whole right in front of him—
He shook it off.
It's mine now.
He looked at it. Really looked.
I'm calling it Turd.
Shiny turd, he amended. Because you're bronze. Obviously.
He approached and climbed onto its back.
Then froze.
He was still naked.
He didn't have an armor Memory. Didn't have clothes. Nothing but skin and the Penitent Spear Memory in his soul sea.
Well... He looked down at the bronze scales beneath him. Then at his own exposed anatomy. Hopefully my nuts don't get scraped off.
He sat down very, very carefully.
The scales were smooth but offered purchase—he could hold on. The ride would be... bracing. In multiple senses.
"Alright, Turd." He pointed toward the castle, trying to ignore the distinct lack of fabric between him and thirty feet of serpent. "Let's go. Please be gentle with me."
Hermes requested nervously.