Chương 213: Portal to Pink

The sensation of her rib teeth widening beyond the limits of her body was oddly natural. It was both connected to her… and not. Even her shadow, lacking any sort of physical form, wasn't this detached. And yet, she felt her jaw widen to double her height as if it were little more than a casual yawn. Nyxala continued to fall, but the massive teeth her ribs had become now curled around her at the edge of sight. She twisted, expecting the enlarged fangs to move with her. They didn't.

Nyxala spiralled face first into the maw of her own make. A bloom of Pink blazed within the frame of teeth. The strange colour that — until now — had been limited to the meditative realm of her mind danced over the white of fang. The border between reality and Pink was right there. She should be able to perceive where one ended and the other begun. She couldn't. The only distinct separation to focus on was where her ribs split Pink from the space outside it.

And even then, Pink didn't want to play well with the rest of reality. It flowed over her teeth like water and fire simultaneously, yet it remained visibly stagnant. Nyxala had a choice: fall into the Pink, or move the jaw out of the way — as she instinctively knew she could — or meet her end. Not much of a choice. And so, Nyxala's jaws snapped closed. Inside the maw of a god, she swallowed herself. Silence. That was the first thing she noticed.

Not that it was a true silence, the Pink itself seemed to affect her hearing in a way colour never should. It was simply the lack of slicing flesh, churning teeth, and the ever-constant gurgling echoes of The Soulchasm's stomach. There was also a distinct lack of anything. Anything besides Pink, that was. Nyxala was in her Pink mental space again… but this time, her physical body was here too. No longer was she falling. No longer was she within the stomach of The Soulchasm, on the verge of death. Or worse.

She was safe… probably. But what would happen when she left? It was something she really needed to think on. She needed a plan for the moment she opened her jaw again. Just because she'd gained a moment of reprieve didn't mean she'd escaped The Soulchasm. When she returned, she needed a solid plan of action to escape the god's maw. But in this instant, she finally had time to breathe. Nyxala collapsed as her pounding heart finally slowed.

She didn't exactly fall as there was no ground, but she gave herself to the grip of Pink. It was the same as she remembered. The exact same. Despite her body now physically being present in the space she'd originally assumed was just a strange reshaping of her mind, her senses gave her no new hints to the nature of this colour. It was still impossibly vast. And if she could be bothered to move — a heart-rate crash was a tiring thing — then she doubted she'd be able to find much variance in this strange world.

What even was this mutation? She could open up her mouth and swallow herself? Did she exist anymore? Well, of course she existed; she was thinking right now. But from an outside perspective, had she just blinked out of existence, or were her teeth still encasing the Pink that held her? Could The Soulchasm cut its way through her shell? The thought pushed Nyxala beyond her sluggish thoughts, and finally brought her attention down to the jaw in her chest. Well, where it had been only moments before.

Instead of exposed ribs and the dark void within, it was replaced entirely with Pink. The same Pink that surrounded her. Honestly, there was not even a fibre of difference, so her chest from her collarbone down to just above her navel was seemingly just… gone. And by the nature of Pink, she couldn't even see her innards. Everything she might have seen was absent. Nyxala tried gnawing, and a rift immediately began to split through her pink world. She stopped.

It might be good to know she could still control the mutation, but finding herself back in that stomach so soon would be less than ideal. A motion caught her eye. Her veins pulsed and wiggled, and soon Yog was spilling from her body. The oversized, unwieldy bat wings hanging from her back began to drain. They folded uncomfortably, and she felt the bones click back into place.

While Yog fully slipped from her veins and swam through the Pink as if it were an enjoyable bath, Nyxala's wings shrunk back to their normal bird-like form. Though, it seemed, she needed to regrow the feathers. This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.

"Yog," She called.

"What was that? How did you change my wings?" She'd been a bit too busy trying to survive at the time to pay it much mind, but the shift in her wings from one form to another had ignited a greater boost to O̅s̫stho̲th than any other single act ever had. IT IS IN YOUR BLOOD WE SIMPLY BROUGHT IT OUT Had it… forced through one of her mutations? Or adapted one of the amalgamations for her purpose? She wasn't sure which was worse. Better? If not for The Soulchasm closing its maw, those wings would have saved her.

But even so… she wasn't sure what the implications of Yog being so intimate with her body were. Was this what had changed with her promise? Had she given Yog free rein of her body? Somehow, that didn't feel right. At least, it wasn't the whole story.

"What changes?" she asked the bloody blob doing loops in the Pink void.

"Now that I've made the promise, what does that mean?" IT MEANS WE WILL BE WITH YOU FOREVER If Yog had a voice, she imagined it would be that of an excitable kid. Still, she got the distinct feeling that it knew what 'forever' was much better than any child should. Better than her, even. Nyxala let her body cool off and recover for an hour… maybe two? It was a little hard to track time in this space. She was mostly sure The Soulchasm couldn't eat her while she was in Pink now…

but that didn't make her all that relieved. Not when she was still stuck.

"Yog, I need you to be ready to change my wings again. And any other change you can find in my blood." If she had any chance to survive, then she was going to have to forgo the sealed maw now likely in the depths of the black hole below coral. It was not an attractive prospect, but she was forced to gamble on the other maws. Hopefully they lead somewhere safe. Preferably, a place where returning to Coral was possible.

Yog, still bouncing on its high from her promise, leapt back into her veins without a moment's hesitation. Nyxala clenched her chest jaw. If this didn't work, she was going to have to dive back into Pink again. The Soulchasm hadn't been able to stop her before she slipped away. It was likely she would succeed again. The entity had only ever acted passively, allowing her to fall to her 'End' however deep in its stomach that happened. As a god, it likely had all the time in the world to wait her out.

Nyxala had a way to fend off hunger and sleep, but without material to burn with her gem eye in the Pink, she would be forced back into The Soulchasm's stomach every time she needed to reignite the crimson-violet veins. That would not work forever. And so, Nyxala opened her jaw. As she did, she imagined herself anywhere but the damn stomach of The Soulchasm. A zig-zagging crack of far too mundane light cut through the Pink. It didn't swallow her up.

Instead, she had to walk through the unclear array of lights in the shape of a maw to return to reality. Nyxala stepped out onto a glass platform. Disoriented, she glanced around. She recognised this place, and it was not a stomach. It was about the furthest thing from a stomach she could imagine. Nyxala somehow found herself in the Grand Sacrificial Chamber. Pain began to thrum through her wings as they grew once more. This time, the changes were different. Scaly and heavy.

Not thin and light-weight as the earlier change had been. A point towards the randomness of the amalgamations. Possibly, it was only her wings that gave them a proper shape to take.

"Yog, I think it's okay to stop now," she said. The change halted, then faded back to normal. Nyxala had wanted to be anywhere else besides The Soulchasm, and so her wish was granted. She turned to the jaw full of Pink still lodged in space right behind her. Not only was the mutation an escape to her mind realm. It was a portal. A way to teleport. Lysyra would be so jealous.

Her jaw closed, and Nyxala watched with rapt attention as the long teeth seemed to both shrink and close the distance to her without actually doing either. The maw closed around her chest and she was whole once more. And that was when she finally realised she wasn't the only person in the Grand Sacrificial Chamber. Around her, there were half a dozen Technocultists staring at her. Nyxala froze, then looked down at herself. Her mutations weren't hidden. What where they doing here?!

No, that was a dumb question; of course they'd be here, making use of the most important ritual room in Coral after Nyxala had won it for them. All the damage to the walls and seating had already been repaired. Her typical answer to being revealed was just to kill the ones who'd seen her. Well, for the exception of the Cultless. And Nyxala seriously considered doing the same to these unfamiliar Technocultists right now. But she couldn't.

She was a part of them now, and despite not knowing what she would eventually want to do with them, they were not a part of the group of cults that she hated. So she wouldn't harm them. Nyxala curled her tail to hover before her face, showing off Ta'Malis' work to show she was one of them if they somehow didn't recognise her from the Trial… or seeing her around the Technocult cathedral. Then she reached for her pauldron and reactivated her concealer.

"Uh… Ta̽'Ș͑t̕r̊a͑ḷa̾͆n͙͂o̼͗v͐͐̿͝'r̝͇͎͓͜ would like this kept a secret. Speak to her or Tarchon if you have… concerns." Not wanting to stand around to be gawked at — or for them to snap out of their stunned reactions and actually question how she popped out of nowhere — Nyxala reopened her chest. She was a step from slipping away before a low, barely present, but incredibly powerful rumble passed through Coral and into every part of her body and soul.

Her eyes fell, and she found the creatures of the Darkness spurned into a frenzy. Like rabid fish, they were more active and aggressive than she'd ever seen. Nyxala doubted a god like The Soulchasm would cease its existence from the creatures of the Darkness… or whatever else lurked in the black hole, but it seemed the beings down there were glad for the meal.

"Wait." One of the Technocultists called behind her, but she had other, more important things to be doing than caught up in whatever questions he had. First of all: Lysyra. Nyxala needed to make sure the girl's soul found its way back to her body properly. She was also — slightly — looking forward to being the one to pop out of nowhere. Despite all her fears, Nyxala had escaped The Soulchasm. She was safe. It was almost too easy, but she wasn't about to question when things went her way.

Nyxala would take every victory she could.