Chương 78: Options

Kryl was a staple of the Fleshsmith's path. It was the point where acolytes became smiths of their own right. An additive that many young cultists would kill for, as it would solidify their future within the cult. There were plenty who would take it enthusiastically. Not Nyx. The name was poison. Worse than the corruption of a Dark Star. She would take cursed names a thousand times before she willingly accepted this as part of her soul. How could she have even received this?

Few Fleshsmith harbingers had the additive themselves. Their names always tended towards the use of flesh and steel weapons, rather than the creation of them. Well, she knew the answer — it said it right there in the description — but she didn't have to be happy about it. Because the Dark Star had taken on the aspect of the Fleshforge, that was what she had to deal with for years. Against her will, she had become incredibly experienced with flesh and steel.

Killing the creations, specifically, but that didn't matter. That slaughtering of fleshforged beasts was apparently enough for her to be considered for the Fleshsmith path, and she abhorred it. Nyx would be sacrificing the additive the first chance she got. Forget incorporating it into her name. She refused to allow any part of the cults' paths into her soul. Only a name entirely of her own, and unbound to others, would accept. But, thankfully, that opportunity was right before her.

She just needed to see her other additives, then she could evolve. Tanorr — An accretion storm may contain the same power as a deific tempest, but uncontrolled and unrefined, it can never reach the heights of its nightmare cousins. The same is true for all things. A mind must always understand the body it wields. Okay… mentions of deific tempests were not something you wanted to see in your name description, but Nyx would take the metaphor for what it was; a representation of its purpose.

Hopefully, there wasn't any relation. From the last line, she could guess it was an ability that helped her understand her body. But, now that she knew she had this… were her understandings of her mutations as instinctual as she first thought? Just by how long the description was, and how unspecific it was to any ability, it was possible there was more to it than a simple instinct. Still…

it was surprising that it wasn't just the mutations being perfect fits for her that allowed her to wield them so well right after growing them. Nyx had been sure she'd just gotten used to it after her claws and eye came in. She couldn't be disappointed though. This only meant her command over her limbs, even future ones, would be easy to control the moment they popped into existence. Her next additive, Nanaz, was another name so direct and lacking complexity that it became confusing again. Heat tolerance.

What did that even mean? Could her body handle more heat, or was it just her pain receptors that ignored burns more than other types of harm? Nyx skimmed through the remaining additives, doubting they'd be any more impressive than the couple other pointless ones she'd gained. Juul, Nen and Mpsil were just as she expected. Like her first additive that let her breathe twice, they were similarly useless. But it wasn't like she expected more.

Everyone knew that for every good name, you were likely to pick up five shoddy ones. But she had to stop in surprise when she skimmed over the next one. Ossuul — Sever thy worldly possessions. Order and structure remain an unending scourge, ever unquestioned, ever intrusive. They interfere with the hidden, yet ubiquitous nature of things. Only by crawling, and scraping, and shattering the body, yet leaving it without damage, can such sinister oppression be punctured.

Nyx stared for a good few seconds, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't make sense of it. More than likely, she'd received this additive during her fight against K'Thorn and K'Caies. With no time since acquiring it, the name hadn't had a chance to reveal itself, so all she had to go off was this description, and that was entirely pointless. The mention of shattering her own body wasn't exactly something she was looking forward to attempting. It was a metaphor.

She didn't want to think about what the name meant if it wasn't. She would never do it, but she was tempted to ask an onomastician. They'd know what it meant. With how cryptic it was, there was a very high chance it was a good name… but it was difficult to get excited when she hadn't the foggiest of what it did. Maybe her next, and last, would be more clear. El — Burn bones like candles. Well, it was certainly clearer, but not nearly as exciting.

Nyx idly wondered if those bones could be a replacement for ritual candles. Should she ever get stuck somewhere where access to ritual tools was impossible — like another Dark Star — then she could use the bones of her enemies. How crude. She would absolutely do it, though. Having finally concluded her long overdue name reading, she moved onto the entire reason she lingered in this void. Her evolution. The void responded to her intent.

Of all the components that made her name, those that could be included resonated in Nyx's mind. They shone to her non-existent sight. Thirteen of her sixteen were ready to be merged or brought to a higher standing. As they were all unevolved names, it wasn't surprising only the three she'd received in the last day — Ossuul, El, and Lyotep — were incapable of advancing. Even names like Evast, the one about dancing, which she knew she hadn't explored entirely, were ready to evolve.

Nyx was surprised, but not incredibly so. She'd been stuck in an endless fight for years; plenty of time for the abilities to have been expressed… even if she hadn't noticed some of them. Names, particularly the more valuable ones, often did not fully express themselves in their enevolved forms. If the names themselves did not allow everything their description announced, then they could hardly expect more than a partial exploration on her end. This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval.

Report any appearances on Amazon. Apparently just expressing the ability to increase her speed with wing beats was enough. It would not be so easy beyond the first evolution. Taking those thirteen names, Nyx tried to see what sort of options she had. The void responded. Her name, which had been frozen still in the space before her suddenly split and spun around her. Aspects of possibility fractured from each name by the hundred as they engulfed Nyx's surroundings.

The void was still as endless as ever, but now her options for evolution surrounded her entirely. Despite them being in all directions, she found she never had to turn to look upon the next. They were all visible. All eight thousand one hundred and ninety one. Nyx didn't know how she knew that number — she certainly hadn't counted them — but just like the options themselves, the count seeped into her mind unbidden.

Her intent had been to do as she'd done with her first evolution and read through her choices before deciding, but that wasn't going to happen. This wasn't something she could decide on feeling alone. She had to consider the direction she wanted to take herself; the future she wanted. But first, there was one in particular Nyx wanted to check. Nỷx-aul-thaaren-est-evast-scol-eth-kryl-tanorr-nanaz-juul-nen-mpsil Curse — A seedling grows within the rotting soil of fate.

Ready to sprout into an environment of rot and parasitic weeds. Okay… that was barely different from what it had been last time. At least now, she was 'ready to sprout' rather than just a seed. Whatever that meant, still eluded Nyx. And still cursed. Though, that was hardly a surprise. The evolution that incorporated all her names was likely to be her most powerful, and its cryptic nature gave her no reason to doubt that. But…

when she considered her current situation — caught in the grasp of a cultist that knew of her mutations — she couldn't imagine a second evolution name ever being enough. What she needed was a specific path. Control. Surely, amongst these thousands of options, there was something that could help her. Something narrow and specialised, like K'Thorn's names, that allowed her to target her particular problems. So, what were her problems? First, was just how visible her mutations were.

But the worst case scenario had already sailed; they were already known. There was no point in hiding them if Tarchon already knew. He may love his assumptions, but there was no ignoring reality. No matter how Nyx tried to convince him otherwise. Then her biggest problem was being held captive by cultists far stronger than herself. Even with the few years she'd spent in the Dark Star, she still had a few more before the date where they would cast her into the black hole.

If she had a name that allowed her to slip away, then there might still be a future for her. But what sort of evolution might that be? As she stressed over what combinations were possible for her, she decided to consider her more powerful names. These were the components that would form the base of whatever choices she had. Their influence on her evolutions would be great. Thaaren — From early stages of evolution, to the hardened razors of the forge, these weapons have proven themselves time and time again.

But a killing edge is only as good as its wielder. Evast — Rhythm in all: the pace, the beat, the thrill of the body spinning in dance. One who gives in to melody enjoys a tempo set only by themselves. Eth — Mind over body. Those with true determination will starve off all worldly requirements until nothing but the grave await. Tanorr — An accretion storm may contain the same power as a deific tempest, but uncontrolled and unrefined, it can never reach the heights of its nightmare cousins.

The same is true for all things. A mind must always understand the body it wields. The single name evolutions held the same description. By evolving the name alone, and not incorporating any other aspect into its structure, it would leave the name to expand uninhibited. As with all evolutions, combining names could strip them of aspects that one relied on. The only, truly safe way to avoid that, was to let a name advance without interference. But that often came at a major loss of potential.

Of course, if one could still make the name work in conjunction with their others, it wouldn't be a loss. With that in mind, Nyx was hesitant to toss these additives to the grinder. For all four, there was an entire world of advancement she could make should she evolve them untouched. Thaaren, to teach her how to use her rapier and claws. Evast, to move faster. And Tanorr, just for how unspecific its description was. Eth, too, seemed to have more to it, but of the four, she cared about that one the least.

As she pondered the names, something stuck out at her. They were all related to the body. Whether that was improving her body itself, or her mind's capability to directed it, there wasn't much deviation amongst her stronger names. Nyx figured that was understandable. She had relied heavily on her body and mutations whenever she fought. Even when she was using her rapier, it was her tentacle wielding it, and her eye keeping her from collapsing.

Out of curiosity, she checked the evolution involving just these four names, and found something rather interesting. Thaaren-evast-eth-tanorr A cannon of wood can only fire once. A blade may be as sharp as a razor, but without strength, it cannot cut. The body is a weapon, but unsupported, it is blunt. Nyx had to hold herself back from evolving the names right there and then.

With how strong her mutations already were, gaining a name that was explicitly directed towards enhancing the body would go a long way towards improving her strength. Unfortunately, it didn't help with her current predicament. She wouldn't be able to fight her way out of cultist captivity, after all. For the next while, Nyx skimmed through her options. She was looking for a path, any path, that would give her a way out. But all evolutions were defined by the names used in their core.

Despite her wishes, there was no extracting something obscene like teleportation or invisibility from the physical based names she had. Only options similar to her first appeared, with the slightest of variations between them. She was ready to expand her search to include the smaller names — and the Fleshsmith one — but before she did, another caught her eye. Nỷx-tanorr Curse — Can a black hole perceive itself?

It was a simple combination of her core name and the additive that gave her an instinctual understanding of her mutations, yet it resulted in one of the most cryptic responses she'd been given. At least that metaphor of a seedling had been a promise of growth… if she was reading it right. But this was just a question. The combination, and the question made her consider exactly what it might create. Nỷx, in its current state, allowed her to somewhat see names, and also interact with the curses within those names.

Should 'perceive itself' have any relation to her own curses, then this might be an option she couldn't turn up. With the idea suddenly placed in her mind, she went over her names again, and any that had even the slightest benefit towards her senses, specifically internally, she added to the evolution. Nỷx-est-tanorr-nen-mpsil Curse — A black hole can perceive itself. Well, that was confirmation if she'd ever seen it. She was convinced.

If it even had the chance of doing what Nyx thought it might, then there was no passing this up. Regardless of the evolutions she would choose for her other names, this was the path for her core.