[Thieves!]

  "Yes, Mal, thieves. Make them submit and give your food back." Seth struggled to put intent behind the words while fending off attacks.

  [Mal? Me?] He felt the intention behind that question. Damn thing learns fast.

  "Yes. Need something to call you. Now go, before they steal everything." The image he sent was of all of them withering up and scattering to dust. That, and it fits a malignant bastard like you.

  [Thieves!!!] Internally, the tumor only twitched, but its attention was no longer on trying to hurt him. That would work for now.

  Seth took a moment to pull the ice spike from his chest and heal the wound. The tumor in his lung was still cowering, but he knew it would pull itself together before long.

  [STOP!] He heard Mal shout at the thieves, who slowed down their feeding. He felt the storm of emotions and sensations that came with the message, most of which he didn't recognize. Thankfully, there weren't any accompanying images. Seth tuned them out to give his undivided attention to the one that just wouldn't stop.

  The one in his lungs had stopped cowering and started thrashing. Its screeches of pain and fury echoed through his mind. Looking at how big it had grown, he hesitated. How am I still alive? It was about four pounds of mass, crammed into where his lung used to be. Tendrils came off that mass and stretched toward his dantian. He formed another ice spike, thicker than the last, and stabbed it into the center of his lung. The icy pain that erupted was soon drowned out by the sea of sensations coming from the rest of his body. Like the nausea, lightheadedness, and tingling. And the burning in his lungs. Am I breathing? Come to think of it, my body has gone awfully quiet...

  Not only had he stopped breathing, but his heart had given out from the stress. As darkness pushed in from the edges of his vision, he healed his heart, willing it to start. At first, it refused. He healed it, along with his remaining lung. With the last dregs of his consciousness, he slammed qi into his heart.

  Thump.

  Thump.

  Seth's eyes shot open, and he coughed up a mixture of phlegm and blood. Good thing regeneration deals with blood loss. Therus was staring at him, horror etched on his face. He gave Therus a smile. From the shock on his face, Seth suspected his smile had the opposite effect. Pain erupted from his chest, reminding him that the thin icicle he had skewered the tumor with was still there. Shouldn't I be feeling more pain? The fact that I'm barely feeling it should be a bad...

  He cut off that train of thought and dove back into his mindspace. There was a fight to win, a trial to overcome. Consequences could wait. The tumor was thrashing against the spike of ice. He was starting to run low on qi when another binding formation slammed into place, sending a fresh wave of qi. He generated two more ice spikes and drove them into the struggling tumor, then healed himself to stave off death. After a few more seconds, it stopped struggling enough for the binding to take hold. A flood of qi flew into his reserves.

  Two more binding rituals slammed into place at the same time. Only two more to go. Wait, what if one of these tumors dies inside of me? The one he had stabbed multiple times was growing weaker by the second. Not wanting to learn the answer to his question firsthand, he directed energy to healing the tumor. Just enough to ensure it didn't die. It didn't hurt that the leftover healing energy also healed the surrounding area.

  Another ritual snapped into place, along with the wave of qi. This was... far more qi than he was used to holding. He felt like he would rupture and overflow. Still, one more to go.

  [STOP! THIEF!] Mal was shrieking at the last tumor, but it just wouldn't give up.

  "I'll deal with it."

  Seth turned his focus to the last tumor. It was in his left thigh, though its growth toward his dantian had brought it close to a rather sensitive area. He felt his body swallow, and a layer of sweat covered his entire body. Let's try talking first. I'm not sure my body can endure much more damage.

  "Stop, or I'll punish you." Seth said, making sure his intention was extra clear. He formed a spike of ice in his hand and sent the cold sensation to emphasize the threat.

  [Hungry! Thief!] Damn thief is calling me a thief.

  "Then you will be punished."

  [Punished? Wait! STOP!!]

  Before he could stab, a surge of qi came forth from Mal, slamming into the defiant tumor. His insides burned, but the attack didn't hurt him as much as he feared. Whines of pain signaled the tumor's surrender. Mal, in contrast, made a sound that was similar to happy humming. It sent a shiver down Seth's spine.

  Stolen story; please report.

  The final ritual locked into place. He drew deep from his new sources of power. Waves of discontent slammed into him, but he ignored those and opened his eyes.

  Everyone else in the room was staring at him with expressions of awe and shock, mixed with a bit of fear. Seth pushed himself to his feet, taking care not to go too fast. When he was on his feet and sure he would stay upright, he took one last look at the clock.

  Three flames. More than enough time. Now for the hard part.

  It was torture to move his body, and he almost froze multiple times while trying to consolidate his cultivation. Yes, he was consolidating his cultivation before the final sprint. If he didn't, finishing this ritual would tear him apart from the inside.

  An hour passed while he cultivated. He was as ready as he was going to get for the next part. He sat down in the middle of the ritual circle and looked at everyone else before speaking.

  "I'm not sure if you can hear me, but if you can, I need you to not resist. I've modified the ritual to not drain you to death. However, if I fail... I'm sure Aaron won't give you the chance I am."

  Nods and glares were the only replies, even from the spirits. It made sense, as he was talking about stealing some of their cultivation to ensure his own success. He hoped he didn't have to, but he needed the safety net. Failure was not an option. Still, Seth was satisfied everyone knew what fate awaited them if he failed, so he stood up for the final stretch and activated the last part of the ritual.

  Qi slammed into his meridians, and he felt like he would burst. Not wanting to use any more bodily qi for this, he drew deeply from the bound spirits. This qi, he used to both heal and support his meridians where they were failing. He fell into a rhythm of fix, cultivate, fix, cultivate that seemed endless. His whole body was on fire, and the qi still kept coming.

  This was a mistake. I should... Seth clamped down on that train of thought and kept fixing his body. As he worked, he slipped into a trance, understanding of the cycles of renewal going through his meridians pouring into his mind. Flawed as they were, pushing them to their limit, then nurturing them, was forcing them to grow stronger. He felt the ebb and flow of the cycle as closely as he felt his own breathing. Qi flowed more freely every second—.

  Pain lanced through his body as the tumor in his lung woke up. As expected, it tried to kill him by stabbing him in the heart. However, it was so empty of qi, and he was so full that it was like a toddler punching a brick wall. He used the link to drain it of all qi but that it needed to live, and its struggle ended.

  That distraction, however, pulled his attention away from his meridians. His grasp on the cycle had broken. Another one was about to fail, and he patched it up just before it failed. But that had led to another meridian about to fail. Not having any time, he drained two bound spirits to flood his body with healing energy. His tumors were feasting, but most had the sense to stop wriggling. The two that didn't, he quickly dealt with.

  After thirty minutes, qi filled his body to bursting. More was still coming. The movements of his cultivation technique became harder to perform. Why would they... oh, it takes more effort to compress the qi when the body is full. He pushed through the pain and struggle to crunch down on his qi once. In that moment, he felt both heavier and lighter, and more qi rushed in to fill the gap his crunching down left.

  The tide of qi slowed down. Seth was panting, dizzy, and dripping sweat. I haven't even taken any qi from the other initiates. If I did... no, let's not go down that road.

  The ritual was winding down, but it took another hour for the flow of qi to stop, and for Seth to temporarily stabilize his gains. As he finished, he flopped to the ground on his back. He felt far more powerful, yet weaker than ever.

  [Hungry,] Mal said.

  He sighed and broke off the smallest piece of his condensed qi and gave it to six of the tumors. No rewards for the defiant. Pleased rumblings echoed through his head.

  "Congratulations, inheritor." The trial overseer was back, and everyone was standing free of their prisons. Aaron and Mathias were also there, staring at Seth. He started to force himself up, but a voice stopped him.

  "No need to stand. Your method of inheriting was... unorthodox and wasteful. Still, you succeeded, if barely. The living area of this site now belongs to you."

  Barely? You mean this result was worse than expected? How... never mind. There are more important questions.

  "What about the trial area?" He wasn't delusional enough to believe he would be granted the trial area itself. Still, he had to ask.

  "Hahaha, how greedy! Truly a worthy inheritor. Unfortunately, we cannot give it to you, nor can we allow you to access it. It's a shared trial space, after all."

  "Wait, there are other trial sites?"

  "However, you do have full control over the living quarters, including who has access to which areas. That is all. Farewell."

  With that, the overseer was gone. Everyone started trying to ask questions at once.

  "How are you...?"

  "What kind of..."

  "Thank you..."

  "Wait!" Seth yelled, the action causing his raw throat to constrict. Everyone else stopped. "I'm tired. And need to rest for a few years—hours, I mean hours. We can discuss later." He was already walking toward the sleeping quarters before he finished talking.

  "But, what about—" Seth didn't hear the end of the question. Right now, he didn't really care about anything other than collapsing into a bed.

  Seth floated through a void. For the first time in forever, he wasn't afraid. Nothing hurt. It was paradise.

  At some point, he noticed a dull ache in his right arm. That dull ache spread through the rest of his body. He felt cold. Then, he felt hot. His stomach lurched, but the only thing that came up was acid.

  That dull pain transformed into a sharp, tearing pain in his hands. They twisted and twisted until they popped off his body. Something grabbed hold of his left foot. It twisted and twisted until it too came off. He tried to heal, but the qi wouldn't come. Blood gushed out endlessly, and he prayed he would pass out from blood loss soon.

  Pain swelled in his stomach before wriggling black tentacles burst forth. He couldn't tell if he was screaming or not. More things burst forth, and an unseen force twisted limbs off. Yet his consciousness wouldn't fade. It kept going long after he should have been dead.

  Then, when he was just a misshapen lump of meat, the damage reversed itself. Within thirty seconds, his body was whole. He took a deep breath and sighed. Then, the dull pain started again. This time, he definitely remembered screaming.