All things end. Good and bad, one day they will all come to a close.

Vaelin was captured, and brought to a hovel. That wood nymph seemed to want something from her, but she couldn't quite figure out what. The ghostly presence of Leon didn't physical harm our pink pixie, but it did stun her and make her faint. Since then the treant and nymph seemed to be arguing over something. Vae wasn't sure because they weren't using anything resembling language, but it definitely seemed like they were disagreeing.

Our pixie had no idea how long she had been out for, nor the status of Stygian. She chose to hope that the little bug was okay and would bring some kind of back up. Well knowing the psyling she thought that was a bit optimistic, but she still chose to hope.

She tried to sit up just a bit to get an idea of where she was, when both treant and nymph snap their gazes on her. There was definitely some kind of area of detection skill they were employing. The nymph rushed over and made a big gesture with its arms, and then pointed at Vae. The pixie only stared blankly back, it was obvious that it wanted her to do something, but she didn't know what. Well the easy answer was her lust aura, she had used it several moments before the nymph knocked her out, but she was worried that had made the nymph angry. Right?

Before any reasonable conclusion could be reached, the treant swiped at the nymph and the two rejoined. Vaelin noticed that every movement seemed harder and more laboured than before as though the two entities were in conflict. Which they were, and the nymph part was losing.

Vaelin remained as still as possible waiting, hoping for Stygian to arrive quickly. Stygian was in fact racing through the dead forest at this very moment, looking through some of the prompts it had ignored after the fight.

Congratulations, magic level increased to 10. Mind attribute bonus; Int +4, Wis +4, Mnt +4, and Per +4. Congratulations Combat level increased to 15. Congratulations, magic has reached level 5. Choose a new passive skill. Insight: Gain greater insight into yourself and everything around you. Identify enemy weaknesses and strengths, as well as your own Intune: Thread are a great mystery. The greater mystery is what threads are ideal for an individual and why. It becomes easier to identify ideal connections, but creating connections takes longer. Compact Bonds: The bonds with threads will take up less space in your center making room for an extra bond. Congratulations, combat level has reached level 15. Choose a new passive skill. Unrelenting 2: Never give up, never giving up. Stamina drains half as quickly. Wasted motion doesn't drain you. Unrelenting Speed: Never stop. Stamina drains half as quick normally, but you can increase your agility and dexterity by using more stamina. A normal drain will double your speed. Get tired faster for being faster. Unrelenting Physique: Nothing is too much. All four body attributes, constitution, endurance, vitality, and charisma are 25% more effective.

Without a moment of hesitation Stygian chose compact bonds, it was completely necessary after the bug saw what a mess its center was. Unfortunately the next skill was a tough choice. Unrelenting two would be extremely nice, but having a bonus to four attributes would be very nice. In another ten levels unrelenting physique could give an even greater bonus to those four attributes, or branch off into more attributes if Stygian was really lucky.

It was also worth considering that the bugs stamina would drain faster than it was used to. So should it go for a potentially huge pay off in ten levels that had a cost right now, or should it go for the extra bonus for wasted motion. The wasted motion would pair extremely well with the enchantments on A Knight's Fork, the bug could just waste and waste motion without losing any steam. It was a tough choice, but Stygian ultimately went for unrelenting physique.

The payoff was just too tempting to ignore. As soon as our bug chose it felt its body shift as it gained twenty five percent to four physical modifiers.

Name Physical Modifiers Attributes Unique Statuses Stygian Half-light Str: +23.7% Str: 24 Oath Age Agi: +20.1% Agi: 25 At Death's Door 3 months Dex: +19.5% Dex: 30 Monsters Vitality Species Acr: +16.0% Acr: 20 Thick Plating Deväk (Psyling) Mnt: +0.2% Mnt: 35 Int: +9.1% Int: 27 Wis: +8.9% Wis: 27 Per: +13.7% Per:23 End: +39.7% End: 29 Con: +35% Con: 22 Vit: +35% Vit: 21 Cha: +10% Cha: 7

Positive charisma was neat, but overall the bug was a little disappointed. It was hoping that this skill wouldn't directly add to physical modifiers because modifiers had a limit. If it hadn't added on to the modifiers then Stygian could have had over one hundred percent. More than doubling its stats. A bit of a let down, but useful and it might become better with time.

Running for a bit longer Stygian began to feel very close to Vaelin. Stygian readied its psychic aptitude ability waiting to get into range, only to find it was already in range. Apparently the stronger bond had increased the psyling's range. Significantly. However, Vaelin seemed too preoccupied to respond all that she could manage to get across was a sense of urgency.

Stygian nearly flew through the forest it moved so fast.

Vaelin waited as long as she could, but the treant seemed hell-bent on eating her. Not that this would kill Vae, it would just imprison her and use her as a living mana battery. So our pixie did the only thing she could think of and activated her lust aura. This was the special skill she got for reaching level seven of her sin. It made everyone around her more lusty, letting them feel comfortable with their deepest desires, as well as making everyone appear more attractive. It also worked as a fairly useful momentary stun, as the brains of those inside of the aura would switch from fighting to fucking.

This caused the nymph that was Leon to begin to fight the treant and wake up from his lust filled fantasy's. Being stuck halfway between conscious and unconscious our lost boy couldn't effectively fight off the beastial instincts of the treant. The lust arua made Leon want to wake full, but he was still tempted by the literal flesh pit of his mind. She felt Stygian touch her mind, and the bug felt different from before. Stronger, and more aware.

She felt a rush of excitement, and then dread as it seemed the effects of the aura were weakening. She needed the bug to hurry.

As soon as Stygian layer eyes on the hovel, and saw the treant struggling to attack Vae. The bug unleashed its shackled rage, and everything went slightly red.

The bug screamed louder than it ever had before into the mind of the treant. The treant faltered for a moment before locking it's gaze on the small black intruder. Before it could make a move to attack Stygian had smashed the fire side of A Knight's Fork into the treant. It remained halberd shaped for a moment before the bug told the weapon to spider web through the treant. The whole time Stygian used its fire affinity to burn the insides of the treant. The treant tried to swing at Stygian, but the bug dodge letting go of the fire side and embedding the ice side. Cranking the affinity of ice to the max Stygian began to chop the now brittle wood, but only managed a few swings before the nymph popped out of the tree and fired a blast of spirit mana at the bug.

Activating repulse for a brief moment Stygian narrow dodged the blast of ghostly blue magic by jumping off of the treant. With a force of will and a fair amount of telekinesis Stygian pushed the nymph away. Refusing to stand still the bug charged at the treant. The red tint was getting redder. Climbing up the treant Stygian just barely avoided an eruption of wooden spikes. Our felt a wave of dizziness, as the effects of repulse and telekinesis affected the bug's mind. Stygian saw Vaelin and it looked like she was saying something, but the bug could only hear the rushing of blood in its ears.

Deciding not to worry about it, Stygian made it back to the fire halberd and commanded it to link together. Forming its armored tentacles over both arms Stygian used all its might and ripped a large chunk out of the treant. Dropping the wood and reforming the axe portion of the halberd Stygian prepared to strike again in the same spot. When our bug felt a foreign presence touch its mind. The boiling sea of hate block most of the connection and words, but a very faint 'help' made it through.

Which was promptly ignored by the enraged psyling. Instead of striking Stygian scurried away towards the ice halberd that was still lodged it the treants back. The bug expected an attack but was surprised to see a fresh wave of that pink aura. Confusion finally overcame the bugs rage, and the bug touched Vae's mind, and for the first time ever Vae spoke directly into Stygian's mind.

"Finally! Why weren't you listening to me? Did you get a new sin? Actually ignore that. I need you to tame the treant, don't kill it. I. Think once you do the nymph will stop attacking."

Stygian weathered a barrage of thorny vine whips and asked, "If yoou're wroong?"

"Then kill the treant. Just try for me. Please"

Feeling like it would instantly regret this, Stygian shackled its wrath, needing every ounce of mentality. Then began to try and tame the treant. Hurt, outrage, panic, suffering, frustration, and desire filled Stygian. These were all the emotion that Leon was forced to abandon when he became a mourning wood. These abandoned feelings became the basis of the treant when Tekanis placed his weaving on Leon. Stygian in this battle of wills was forced to subdue each and every one of these rampant emotions. The treant tried to push against the ironclad will of Stygian Half-light, but lacked the discipline and mentality. Despite the strength of Stygian's mind, it was still heavily taxing to tame something so powerful.

As Stygian began subduing the final rampant emotion, the treant managed to crack the psyling's defenses. Shifting more mental weight on to the treant stopped any further attacks, our deväk finished taming the treant. Although it was far more exhausted than it would have liked. The bug came back to reality to see a beaming pixie and a befuddled nymph.

"Whyyy did you make me doo that?" Stygian shifted and spoke with a faux pixie mouth too tired to do it psychically.

Vae looked at the sexless, but still quite feminine nymph before responding. "Having a treant as a shield will be useful, especially since my magic will restore it far better. Flesh and blood takes time, but trees are easy. Plus we get the added bonus of a ghost turned nymph as a ranged attacker. So we now have a tank to soak up more hits, you can focus on pure attack, the nymph can attack from range and most attacks with barely do anything to it because of its-

"Hiiiis" Interrupted the nymph in a laboured voice.

"What?" Both Stygian and Vaelin asked in unison.

"I aaam a he. Leooon is naame. Will join paarty if yooou waant he tooo."

"Oh. My. God. He sounds exactly like you Stygian! Like when we first met."

"Whaat? No he doesn't." Making a significant effort not to slur its words. Not wanting to sound as dumb as Leon.

"Ha. Yes he does. It figures that I would get saddled with two, well shall I saw special party members"

"Fiirst I am waaaaay smarter now, and secondly what if I doon't want hiim in the 'party'. Whatever that's suupposed to mean." Not slurring was hard, but the bug was getting the hang of it.

"Ahh, you're sooo~ cute. Leon means our adventuring group, they are usually called parties and he is a part of our group because you tamed him."

"Only cause you toold me too."

The two bickered back and forth until they reached the edge of the dead forest. Deciding that the treant nymph combo would indeed be useful Stygian hid Leon in its garden. Worried that the Woods wouldn't give the bug a reward if her issue wasn't destroyed. The Woods had no idea what happened in the cut off section, but believed the story that they burned the tree-ghost alive. Most because she saw some of the smoke. The Woods seemed oddly distracted as she lead the pixie and psyling to her cache of unborn marg's.

Congratulations, combat level increased to 17. Attributes increased by; Agi +3, Dex +3, Int +3, and End +2. Dodge increased to level 9. Path of the spear increased to level 11.

Everything was finally coming together, only aväk's, and two unfilled sections remained. The bug had plans to make a bunny hybrid for its mammalian section, and was lost in thought. Taking its sweet time to inspect the unhatched marg's Stygian blocked out the urgent voice of the Woods. The bug didn't want to be rushed. Depositing the two margs in the garden and importing some material from the surroundings at its own pace. The bug was blissfully unaware of encroaching danger. Until a human stepped into their clearing.

Tekanis upon finding the bug and pixie was quite pleased. He had been trying to get close to these two for weeks. Even though the Woods had done her best to steer him away, Tekanis was tracking the spell residue that Vaelin had left in the mudling's nest. It had taken quite a while, but Tekanis was determined. That determination allowed him to overcome the ever shifting landscape of the Woods and find the one who had been thwarting all his plans. Needless to say, though I will say it anyway, Tekanis was very unhappy with the duo and had a very special plan in mind for the destructive duo.

All things end. Good and bad, one day they will all come to a close.