Samael's roar scraped the sky.
The flame devouring her form intensified, golden arcs surging through her enormous wings and jagged tail. Its size began to shrink, slowly at first, then rapidly—bones cracking, scales crumbling, horns bending inward. Its colossal figure spasmed, twisting under the unseen hand of divine transformation.
Kivas, still huddled near the tree, could only watch through wide, stunned eyes. Her body ached everywhere, blood crusting down her arms and neck, her weapon somewhere behind her. But curiosity overrode the pain, pushing through her fear with a surreal numbness.
This was the process of the Genesis Core imbuement.
That realization landed in her mind like thunder. Disjointed fragments of logic tumbled into a jagged puzzle.
The message she received said Soulmate.
She had a skill called Divine Soulmate Imbuer in her Well of the Soul.
And after answering the prompt, accidentally, a Genesis Core was being forcefully implanted into Samael—because Kivas had agreed to it. Her voice, her consent, had triggered this transformation.
Which meant…
Samael was her soulmate.
The so-called soul-forged connection. A universal pairing. Fated and immutable, of love and journey that many romanticize.
Kivas blinked hard.
Her soulmate… was a void-born dragon that had just declared she had exterminated her kind to extinction?
Kivas wanted to laugh, and maybe proud to some extent? She winced as her ribs screamed in protest, still.
"What the hell is happening…?"
Samael's monstrous shape now coiled inward on itself, the gold fire embracing every corner. Its wings, once as wide as valleys, folded in. its tail coiled like a ribbon before vanishing into the light.
What remained was a smaller figure, humanoid in shape, kneeling in the scorched center of the clearing. The golden flames lingered, but dimmed, wrapping the form in a slow-burning shimmer.
Kivas pushed herself upright with a grunt, her legs wobbling. Step by step, she crept toward the figure. She couldn't stop herself—whatever part of her feared this being was overwhelmed by the urge to understand. She had to see.
The flames covering shrunken Samael eventually hissed away.
Then, two red eyes flickered open.
In a single heartbeat, a bolt of red energy cracked from it.
Kivas screamed as she was thrown to the ground, her back slamming into a shattered root. Her breath caught mid-inhale.
Before she could react, a hand clamped around her throat.
Kivas gasped, gagged.
The pressure was iron.
"Eek!"
Above her, what should become of Samael loomed—but no longer as a dragon.
Her form was now unmistakably that of a mature woman. She was tall, statuesque, her body wrapped in a strange black garment that shimmered like a living shadow—identical in design to Kivas' own regenerating dress, only darker.
A pair of curved black horns spiraled from her head, streaked faintly with red. Her long hair hung in waves down her back, coal-black with ember tips. Bat-like wings jutted from her shoulder blades, twitching with restrained fury.
Her crimson concentric eyes burned like twin stars falling into madness.
"What… did you do to me?"
The voice was familiar—still deep, still heavy—but less distant. More mortal, and pleasing.
"Release, me…!" Kivas choked, grasping weakly at the hand on her neck. "C-Can't… talk… if—if I'm… dead…"
Samael's eyes narrowed, and for a moment it looked like she would snap Kivas' neck. Then, with a frustrated snarl, she threw her hand back.
Kivas fell to the ground, coughing and gasping for air.
"You imbued something into me," Samael hissed. "You cursed me. Changed me! This—this body—this form—I am no longer Voidling! No longer the very thing I'm proud and live with!"
Still on the ground, Kivas rasped between coughs, "Didn't—didn't know it would do this…"
Samael ignored her. She held her palm aloft, summoning a burning violet glyph into the air.
An ornate, familiar screen shimmered open, arcane and radiant. Dozens of rotating circles and texts hovered around it. Kivas stared up at it, but the glyphs blurred before her eyes—foreign, shifting like water.
It looked as if Samael was opening her own Well of the Soul, but it seemed like Kivas couldn't really read anything from the distance.
Samael's eyes darted back and forth. Her breathing hitched.
"No… no, this isn't right. My skills. My libraries of cultivated, high-leveled classes. My eternal mana grid—where is it!?" Her voice cracked with something deeper than rage—panic. She tried to scroll up and down faster, as if she was still acting like there was more to it than a mere few sections of her Well of the Soul. "My unique and inherited skills, my awakened attributes… all gone."
Kivas wiped her mouth, sat upright against a rock. "So, if you're no longer Voidling, what race are you now?"
"Exo Human. That's what it says. That's what I am now." Samael's gaze turned to her with venom. "A human in appearance, the resemblance of humanity on the outside, but of unknown origin and nature..."
Kivas blinked, but she got the gist of what Samael currently took form as of now.
Samael's hands fell to her sides.
Her shoulders trembled.
And then she laughed.
A hollow, shrieking sound that echoed in the trees like something unhinged. Her face twisted between disbelief and rage, like her mind was fracturing from the absurdity of her situation.
"I should kill you," she whispered, staring at Kivas with an unreadable face beneath the darkened gradient. "I should torture you until your bones forget what light is. I should end you slowly, like all of the Fatelings that I have killed in the past."
And this was supposed to be Kivas' soulmate in this world.
Kivas raised her arms weakly in defense, eyes wide. "Is there no space for negotiation…?"
"I really want to do heinous things to you, but I won't," Samael growled, stepping closer. "Because I don't know what this Genesis Core is that resides within my Well of the Soul. And if I end you… I may never find out."
She pounced onto Kivas, straddling her stomach without care. The pressure made Kivas yelp in pain.
"Ow!" With her soulmate on top of her, close and personal, Kivas' instinct was overwhelmed on whether she was in danger or not. "Let me guess, the skill description barely tells you anything?"
"Such is the way of Fathomi," Samael answered begrudgingly, pinning both Kivas' arms by the wrist to the floor. "Everyone must strive to uncover their own essence and their surroundings. Wisdom brings power, and power can lead you to more opportunity for wisdom."
"You're surprisingly helpful and informative for someone who wants to torture me."
"It is the role of an elder to always enlighten a newcomer to this world, regardless of the circumstances, and you're not an exception."
"Alright, teacher, but can you stop pinning me down and pressing onto my stomach?" Kivas grunted. "I'm quite wounded in that area."
Samael tilted her head, expression blank.
"No."
"You're crushing me!"
"You deserve that at minimum," Samael said coldly.
"Just, so you know, you're now somewhat of my soulmate," Kivas tried her best to construct a sentence. "I have a skill that allows me to imbue this Genesis whatchamacallit, and it gets triggered when you further approached me back then!"
"Mhmm... throughout all of my time of living, I have no idea what this Genesis Core and the skill that imbues it."
"Huh! So much for an ancient being with so much wisdom, ouch—!"
Samael tightened her grips on Kivas' hands, almost to the point of crushing it. "I want you to retract this Genesis Core from me. Maybe, just maybe, it will revert my existence back to its original. Do it now, focus your instinct, will it into existence."
"Eh, I don't really know," Kivas looked away and sneered. "If you somehow returned to normal, I might get eaten. You know, due to your so-called principle obligation."
Samael leaned in, her eyes centimeters from Kivas' face. "You think this is funny?"
"No. I think this is terrifying and confusing! But also my ribs are rearranging themselves, so maybe that's distracting me!"
Samael sat back slightly, still pinning Kivas with her weight, her tone quieter now. "You've barely existed in Fathomi for more than a day. You don't know anything. About this world. About what you've done…"
Kivas winced. "I'm curious, elder. How do you knew that I'm new to this world right away? You like teaching, right? This question should calm you down a little." She bitterly chuckled.
"...Your soul hasn't even begun to absorb the essence of this realm," Samael said, eyes narrowing. She couldn't help herself from answering that question. "I can feel it. You are still fresh. Untouched. Your soul is like air—thin, shapeless. You haven't even started living."
"I see… could've told me that while not breaking my rib cage though," Kivas grunted. "Thanks for the exposition, still."
Samael stood suddenly, the pressure lifting. Kivas collapsed to the dirt, wheezing relief.
Samael turned away, staring at her hand.
This new body of hers felt alien, but she somehow possessed the right instinct and muscle memory on how to efficiently use it. Just like how she pinned Kivas to the ground in no time, or even standing without problem.
"To think that I greatly regressed my existence," she muttered.
Kivas sat up slowly, watching her.
"Your new look is… nice, though," Kivas offered, giving Samael a thumbs up. "If you exist back in a world I know back then, you would become a supermodel with one million online followers."
Samael whirled, eyes flaring.
"You—!"
And in an instant, she was back on top of Kivas, fury radiating from her frame, choking Kivas' neck.
"I ought to flay you!"
"Gah! You keep saying that!"
"Die! You accursed Fateling, die!"
"Y-you need to cure your anger issue, first!"