Greldo gnashed his teeth as he paced the deck of the Nocturna. He kept glancing at Irwin, propped with his back against the mast, right where he'd put him. Eyes closed, and breathing calmly, his friend seemed peaceful.

  "Come on, you stopped changing fifteen minutes ago… what are you doing in there?" he muttered.

  As he spoke, he couldn't help but frown at his friend's new look. He'd grown slightly, but more in width than in height, and his skin had become just slightly less gleaming. None of those was really what drew his breath, however. No, what really drew his attention was the thin trickles of black smoke drifting up from his hair and the faint smell of sulfur that permeated the air. It wasn't heavy, and he knew that most people wouldn't even smell it. But he could. And that meant others with keen senses would be able to.

  No more sneaking around for you, he thought, before snorting as he imagined his bulky friend trying to sneak around. As powerful as his movements were, they weren't really graceful, and Greldo knew he'd hear him a mile or two away.

  Or smell, he thought, the corners of his lips quirking up.

  His levity lasted only for a moment as Coal's consciousness rubbed against his, sharing with him what he was seeing.

  "Only three defenders left…" he snarled as he stomped his foot on the deck. "Gelwin's balls, this is taking too long!"

  He looked at the ship and hesitated. Should he just start heading there with the Nocturna? Even if they had to flee, dragging the ship along wouldn't slow him that much. Probably.

  Especially as I'll not have to help Irwin return, he thought, his fists clenching. He couldn't even help his friend flee!

  For a moment, a fit of bottled-up anger mixed with sadness and a twitch of jealousy flowed through his mind. It had been growing for months now, though he knew a tiny part of him had always wondered… Should he have let Ambraz and Irwin teach him smithing? It wasn't really his thing, he knew that, but perhaps he could have made himself do it. Perhaps then he'd have chosen differently so long ago- not just go with ruby-rank for his first heartcard.

  At least Irwin talked me out of getting an Emerald one, he thought, as the moments back on Scour replayed themselves through his mind. He'd been rethinking those moments, and he was incredibly glad Irwin had done so. It meant the only one he was annoyed… perhaps even angry with, was his own old self.

  He only let himself wallow for a few moments before shoving the bundled mix down. There was no use to it. Besides, Irwin had said there might be something to be done in the future.

  I won't risk reforging Coal, Greldo thought, shivering as he pictured his summon, bond, and friend either changing or, worse, disappearing.

  He crossed his arms, took a deep breath, and looked at Irwin. A minute later, he was pacing again.

  --

  Irwin felt the second handcard settle, and he knew it was about time to step back out to save the Chaos Whales.

  If any still live, he thought with a weary sigh.

  He felt the second card slowly settle, the resonance seemingly spreading out within the cardslot, and as he did, he felt something new. Something he hadn't noticed when slotting all his previous cards.

  The card's resonance spread out beyond the cardslot, although only slightly, and overlapped with the first one's resonance. He raised his hand in surprise, staring at the back.

  "Can you sense this?" he asked, trying to see a visible cue of this overlapping.

  There was none. The card images sat neatly within the slots, the hard lines like tiny boxes. Still, he could sense it clear as day.

  I guess it makes sense, he thought. His soulforce-sense was more sensitive than his soulforce hearing, which in turn was more sensitive than his soulforce-vision.

  "The overlap, yes," Ambraz said, flitting to his shoulder. "It won't do anything until you combine your first hand. At that point, the overlap is where you pick which part you want to focus on. It's those lines that wrap around the card slots."

  Irwin hummed, wondering why he'd never read anything about this before.

  "Why didn't they teach us about this at the academy?" he asked.

  "Because it's not very useful," Ambraz said. "The additional bonus is nice when it's your first handcards, but it has very little influence when reforging them into a heartcard."

  "Wait, it doesn't do anything after we reforge them into a heartcard?" Irwin asked, frowning.

  "Well, not nothing, but just… very little," Ambraz muttered.

  Irwin frowned, and he wished he had time to discuss this more. However, as he watched the second handcard fully settle, the resonance dying down, he knew it was time to leave.

  "Let's talk about this when we return," he said before stepping out of his soulscape.

  He instantly felt the raging storm around him, pushed back by the section of Portal Gallery where they were, and looking up, he saw Greldo standing nearby. His friend's hands were clenched, and his eyes narrowed.

  "Everything alright?" Greldo asked softly.

  Irwin pushed himself to his feet, noting a few changes in how he felt. He examined his hands, glad to see they hadn't become disproportionately large as those of his giantself.

  "Yes," he said, looking back at his friend. He didn't really want to ask, but he knew he had to.

  "How are the Chaos Whales?"

  Greldo grimaced, shaking his head. "They are cornered again, and they just lost another one of the big ones, leaving only two."

  Irwin saw there was more, and he gritted his teeth.

  "Can we get there in time?"

  "If we leave now… maybe," Greldo said.

  Irwin stepped forward and grabbed his friend's shoulder. He'd wanted to try his new handcard outside his soulscape, but there was no time for that.

  "Let's go," he said.

  Greldo nodded, a slight relief on his face, and a moment later, the world around Irwin changed into a blur of shadows. They were moving so fast that he could barely see anything. The storm clouds and lightning flashed by so fast that he felt his head hurt as he tried to keep up.

  I wish we'd had more time, he thought, as he felt a slight pang of regret at how long everything had taken.

  As he readied himself, his giantself -or should he call that his lavaself now?- left the house, hovering above the hills beside it. The two cards he'd slotted had appeared in his bigger hands just like they had in those of his smaller body.

  "Are there actually two versions of each card, or am I just looking at the same card from two perspectives?" he rumbled.

  "The latter," Ambraz answered from his shoulder. "The cards exist within you, and there's only one you."

  "And what if I bring both my bodies outside?" Irwin asked, not completely satisfied with the answer. "There will be two physical versions of me, each with handslots."

  Ambraz was quiet, then hummed. "I… don't really know."

  "Are there clone cards that allow socketing cards in the clone?" Irwin asked.

  "Definitely, though those are as rare or more than the soulforce sensitivity cards of your second soulcard. Probably more," Ambraz said.

  Irwin nodded as he focused on his first handcard. With a burst of fiery light, two gauntlets appeared around his hands before growing up his lower arms, ending at his elbows. They looked like raw, burnished metal mixed with bands of dull rock that flowed with fiery light. Fire rippled around them, and as Irwin flexed his hands and moved them around, the fire seemed to hover in the gauntlet's wake.

  "It's the same type of fire from my new soulcard," Irwin hummed thoughtfully as he manipulated it to stick closer to the gauntlet. As it condensed into a thin layer of fire, he gently pushed more of his fire from his heartcard onto the gauntlet. It accepted it without a hitch, and the layer of fire grew to a few inches thick.

  Irwin toyed around with it a bit more, eventually finding he could make long whip-like constructs of fire and even layer it with the Devouring Flame from his first soulcard. Doing the latter gave him even more control over the fire, allowing him to create intricate shapes.

  After a while, he let the fire slip away, and he raised his hand, summoning a hammer. As his gauntletted fingers wrapped around it, he let the hammer grow until it was as large as he could wield.

  "That looks absurd," Ambraz snorted. "The hammer's bigger than you are!"

  Irwin grinned, gently swaying the hammer from left to right. His grip was as strong as it had been when it was smaller, his gauntlets taking a lot of the effort away from him.

  Dropping to the ground, he began moving through the hammer forms that Crithan had taught him years ago. It took him only minutes to understand that he was going to have to practice for a whole while longer when he had time, and it had nothing to do with his new hammer or changed physique. He'd lost his smoothness due to a lack of practice.

  "That will have to wait," he muttered, unsummoning his hammer and the gauntlets and focusing on his second new card.

  "If we try it now, we'll waste its duration," he muttered.

  "Ten seconds won't matter compared to having no idea what it does," Ambraz said.

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  Irwin hesitated, then nodded in agreement.

  "Let's see what this does then," he thought, focusing on the card.

  A minute later, he was back to his normal size, staring at the ground before shivering as his soulscape slowly shrank back to its previous size.

  "That's going to take some getting used to," he muttered, rubbing his head.

  --

  Irwin watched the shadowrealm flitting by, wondering just how far they had to go. They had been traveling for over an hour now at a speed that was a hundred times as fast as a normal ship could go.

  When things finally slowed down, it took him a moment to realize the clouds had stopped flashing by, and he heard the dull roaring of the storm.

  Looking around, he searched for the Oculithar and the Chaos Whales, but he didn't see anything until they flew through a purple-lightning-wreathed thundercloud and into what looked like a monstrous war zone.

  Dozens of Oculithar were flying around a small clearing in the storm. In the middle hung two enormous chaos whales, new, long wounds crisscrossed over their bodies. A pale shimmering cloud seemed to wrap around them, glowing with an immense amount of soulforce. Even from this far, Irwin could sense the two adult Chaos Whales struggling to keep up whatever defensive measure they had taken.

  Huddled between them was a group of seven younger Chaos Whales, the largest the size of a rowboat and the smallest half that size. Compared to the two adults, each almost as bulky and big as The Bigbelly, the young ones looked tiny and weak.

  It wasn't just the young Chaos Whales that looked tiny compared to the adults. Even the Oculithar, some as long as the adult Chaos Whales from the tip of their tentacles to the base of their stubby bodies, looked like twigs beside their bulk. Still, the Oculithar barely seemed to care. They were circling around before dashing forward and slamming against the edge of the cloud, ripping chunks out of the gaseous substance that seemed to guard the Chaos Whales. Each chunk dissolved as soon as it was pulled clear. The others hung nearby, like a group of predatory fish, ready to dive in when the time was right.

  Where are the other young ones? Irwin thought, feeling his stomach churn. He looked around, but there was no sign of any more Chaos Whales.

  Knowing that could mean only one thing, he gritted and stared at the Oculithar. A part of him wanted to just burst out of the shadowrealm, grow as big as his card would allow, and rip into them.

  I can't. There's no idea how hard it will be to pull them inside, and after that, I need to get out of here as fast as I can.

  Focusing on his giantself, he flashed his soulforce in such a way that he knew Greldo would feel it.

  He was right.

  The roaring of the storm hit him like a sledgehammer as he was ejected from the shadowrealm, and he didn't wait for a second. His normal body vanished, reappearing in his soulscape, replaced by his towering giant form. Still, among the giants that were battling nearby, he was only a seventeen-foot-tall humanoid, barely as large as the baby Chaos Whales and far less bulky.

  Nothing noticed his presence as he fell through the storm, which suited him fine.

  He didn't have to make any sound, as he triggered his second soulcard's ability and flitted along the soundwaves toward the Chaos Whales. A moment later, he reappeared beside the pale, misty barrier. From this close, he saw it was a translucent ten-foot-thick barrier of condensed soulforce-infused mist.

  A blurry motion to the side made him dodge sideways, reappearing to see an Oculithar slam into the barrier where he had just been. Its pale, milky eyes were locked onto him, and as they did, a pulse ran through Irwin.

  The mindless hate he saw within the eyes caused an explosive reaction in his mind as his ancestral memories filled him with a desire for violence, for vengeance… for ripping apart the horrid, evil thing that was the Oculithar.

  The Oculithar shot toward him, but Irwin didn't dodge, rage momentarily consuming his mind.

  --

  A flash of fire pulsed from the twenty-foot body, engulfing it and the nearby storm. For a few short moments, it outshone the storm- burning away any dust and matter that was within its range.

  Within the fire, a shape grew rapidly, doubling in size, then again and again, until a two-hundred-and-fifty-foot figure hung in the storm. Soulforce pulsed and rippled around it as it drew a breath of the toxic, chaotic soulforce-infused gases, seeming to care nothing for it.

  Lungs large enough to house a family filled, and the muscle-covered chest expanded while burning eyes locked onto the Oculithar, which had come to a dead stop.

  For one moment, there was nothing to hear but the storm, and then sound waves surged out, visibly pushing the clouds away. At the same time, a primal battle roar unlike any that had been heard for thousands of years caused anything and everything to focus on the being that had just appeared.

  --

  Irwin felt incredible, his body more powerful than it had ever been. His three soulcards resonated louder than they had ever done, producing a combined song that sounded like a battle hymn. His smaller self was hovering above his soullake, eyes closed, and with just enough of his mind left that it would remain there safely. His soulscape around it was immense, everything having grown as much as his body, and for a moment, Irwin wished he could stay like this forever. The power was unlike anything he had experienced, and he felt like there was nothing he couldn't do. It was overwhelming. Intoxicating.

  He pulled his focus back and gazed at the thing that had triggered him.

  Eyes like the caldera of a volcano about to explode locked onto the stunned Oculithar, and he wanted only one thing. To dance across the soundwaves towards it and rip the tiny thing apart. The tentacles that had been thicker than his entire body now looked like strings, and for a moment, he pictured himself ripping them apart.

  No. Save the Chaos Whales first, a calmer part of him shouted.

  Irwin shuddered and spun around, dancing over the sound waves in a way he'd never been able to do before. Instead of being limited to a single sound wave, he could easily traverse from one to another, sensing as he moved. The ease and distance he covered were so much that he almost overshot his goal, barely managing to reappear above the Chaos Whales. The two adults had their eyes locked on him, and he could sense their weariness.

  Without thinking about why, Irwin loudly hummed the very first song he'd ever learned from the Chaos Whales. The deep sound rolled away from him like a landslide, the depths as deep as he remembered, making them audible even above the raging storm.

  The reaction was immediate and intense, as both Chaos Whales raised their voices louder even than his, joining in his song. Their eyes gleamed as they stared at him, while deep voices were filled with powerful joy and relief.

  Irwin sensed how the odd defense measure nearby changed slightly, almost as if it became attuned to his own soulforce resonance. Without hesitation, he shot across the sound waves, moving through the barrier and feeling nothing but an odd shudder from his soulscape. The next moment, he appeared beside the Chaos Whales. It was the oddest experience he'd had in his life.

  The Chaos Whales, normally these ship-sized behemoths, now reminded him of Charbull, size-wise. Irwin instinctively reached out to stroke one as he fell down, and as soon as his hand touched the Chaos Whale, time seemed to stand still.

  His mind was filled with a rapid-fire dialogue, and he barely understood what he was doing. His ancestral memories somehow guided him in sharing images, feelings, and the outlook of the near future in a single burst as he responded to the hopes, fears, and, finally, sad resignation.

  The moment passed almost instantly, and he began falling, somewhat stunned by the knowledge that he knew what to do.

  "I…. am sorry," he rumbled, locking eyes with the larger of the two adults, the one he'd just connected with. He was called Ourbrach, which Irwin knew referred to the specific color of misty soulforce as it flowed around a meteor shooting through the atmosphere of a gas giant.

  A deep rumbling hum came in return, and Irwin knew what he had to do. He turned midair, danced over the soundwaves of the rumble, and appeared beside the seven baby Chaos Whales. He stretched out his soulscape senses. He wasn't even surprised as it encompassed all of them without issue, but as he pulled, he felt a powerful resistance. He groaned as a slight stretching sensation came from his soulscape, then Ourbrach hummed again, and the resistance fell away. With a snap, seven immensely powerful disturbances appeared inside the soulscape, and instantly, his sensation of being able to do anything faded.

  Pain. A deep, throbbing sensation of anguish ripped through his entire being, and Irwin gritted his teeth.

  He had no more time to think of the adult Chaos Whales or about how his faint hopes of bringing them along were now dashed. He groaned, then flashed across the sound waves, reappearing beyond the barrier.

  "Grell…. This way," he roared before hurling a hammer in a line forward. It vanished as he returned to the sound waves, and he shot forward as fast as he could, no longer caring about anything but getting away.

  Pain jumbled his mind as he tried to think of how much time he had left. He felt his soulscape's balance rapidly degrade, and he knew that if the Chaos Whales were still in there when his handcard stopped working, it would explode.

  He had no idea if anything was chasing him or if the Oculithar even could. Instead, he fully focused on surging forward, using all of his newfound skill to remain within the sound waves. Only popping out every now and again so Greldo could follow him.

  --

  Greldo groaned as the deafening roar rippled through the storm.

  He just can't do things halfway, can he? he thought as he gawked at the towering figure of his friend, now more massive than nearly all of the Oculithar present and large enough to ride one of the Chaos Whales as if it were a Charbull.

  As he watched his friend stare down at the Oculithar, he fully expected him to charge when he vanished, and he let out a sigh of relief when Irwin reappeared near the Chaos Whales.

  "Stick to the plan," he muttered.

  He watched as Irwin touched the Chaos Whale. A shock seemed to run through his friend's body, then he dropped a few feet and vanished, only to reappear beside the Chaos Whale babies.

  Here we-

  Greldo's eyes widened as he felt the absolutely horrified panic from Coal. A moment later, he sensed his friend rushing back to him, and the images he sent back made Greldo shiver.

  The big one…

  He shivered again as he saw the scope of what was approaching, and he almost missed how Irwin roared his name and hurled a hammer. It flew in a direction blessedly away from what was coming.

  Greldo dove ever deeper in the shadowrealm, sensing Coal's pain as more and more of his shadow clones were destroyed. He waited for the full minute Coal needed to return before pulling his trembling friend inside his shadow pocket. Then he turned and shot away in the direction Irwin had left. By now, only a few dozen of the shadow clones remained, one still tailing Irwin.

  As he shot through the shadowrealm he felt a pushing wave, almost like a swell from the sea as something immense moved through it. The last thing he saw behind him was the two adult Chaos Whales turning around and letting out a trumpeting bellow.

  It took him only a minute to overtake Irwin, using Coal's shadowclone as an anchor. They were not going in the right direction, but at least not in the opposite one either. Still, as they continued shooting away and time passed, he began worrying. Irwin had said what, twenty minutes? Half of that must have passed, and he felt nothing from behind them, but who knew if that titanic monster could follow them somehow?

  The remaining minutes passed too fast for his liking when Irwin reappeared, and this time didn't disappear. A moment later, seven baby Chaos Whales appeared beside him, and Irwin's size shrank down so rapidly that Greldo almost lost him in the churning clouds. A moment later, Irwin vanished, reappearing on the back of one of the baby Chaos Whales, this time in his smaller form.

  Great, now we need to get back riding Chaos Whales, Greldo thought, shooting down beside Irwin. He hesitated for a moment before he stepped out of the shadowrealm and onto the back of the Chaos Whale. He knew he couldn't stand the airless cold for long, but he didn't have to. Hopefully.

  As he appeared beside Irwin, he saw his friend's eyes were scrunched, his jaw clenched, and drops of blood were leaking from his nose. As the raging storm and lack of oxygen rolled over Greldo, he was glad to see Irwin's burning red eyes lock onto him, and a moment later, the world around him disappeared. The next thing he knew, he was standing on the edge of the small town Irwin had made. His friend's giant form sat beside him, his head between his knees as he groaned.

  "You okay?" Greldo asked quickly.

  "No. Just tell me where to go."

  "One of Coal's shadow clones will appear in a moment, pointing with his head in the direction you need to go," Greldo said, his worry growing as he saw blood drip down on the ground below Irwin's head.

  "Alright," Irwin mumbled.

  A few moments later, he sighed. "We are on our way, and the Chaos Whale babies are moving as fast as they can."

  "You… don't look too well…" Greldo said, walking closer.

  "I'll be fine. I just nearly overloaded my soulscape, and the backlash is… well, let's just say I'm going to need to rest for a few days after we return." Irwin said, slurring some of his words. "Now, I'm going to close my eyes and rest for a while. If you need something, ask Ambraz."

  Greldo nodded, only now noticing Ambraz sitting nearby, his lips pressed in a tight line.

  Irwin slumped onto the ground, and a second later, his breathing turned shallow.

  Greldo licked his lips, turning to Ambraz. "Is he going to be okay?"

  "Yeah, but let's be happy he didn't bring more Chaos Whale babies. Otherwise, things wouldn't have gone this well," Ambraz grunted. "Now, we need to think of a plan for what to do when we encounter Oculithar. The way back will take days at this speed."

  Greldo groaned and shook his head. "Right… any ideas?"

  "A few, but they all involve us somehow filling your soullake," Ambraz said. "So let's start planning."

  Greldo felt a slight wave of hope when he heard that, and he leaned closer.

  "Alright, what do we do?"

  ?

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  Common = Quartz, Uncommon = Amethyst, Rare = Topaz, Very Rare = Emerald, Epic = Ruby, Legendary = Diamond, Mythical = Ammolite