My body begins to tremble. The purple tail emerges. I barely notice it. I can feel them. The souls I had devoured are being pulled back into me. A titter escapes me. My hand becomes green. Another titter.

  I look to the countess, “[Countess] Magdeline, where are we? Never mind we must go save my mistress. We were under attack I…” I grasp my head.

  “Phenolp?” The Guild Master asks.

  I look at him and he rears back. I need him to look for my mother. I go to implore him when the countess embraces me. “Shhhhh, everything is fine.” She says calmly.

  I look down and see the spider body. I scream. I blink and my skin is back to being pale. I start to breathe hard when every nerve ending in my body turns on. I scream again. My voice is different from before. I thought I couldn't feel pain. I still remember it. My body shifts again.

  Pink hair falls in front as I try to understand what is happening. I had flooded my chest cavity with magic water and now I am in a catacomb full of broken bones. Sister, tell me my status. I hear nothing. I am denied her voice. I turn my head to see a human woman holding me. Her mana aura encases me. Does she plan to murder me? To rip my Tapestry. I need to find Sara.

  “Whats going on?” A man shouts.

  The woman holding me looks up. “You need to leave. Now. There is no telling which soul comes out next.”

  Soul? I don't understand. I grab my head wincing. My nerves flare again. Interrupting my thoughts.

  “Mags, you might want to flee too.” I croak out.

  “Not happening, dear. I doubt the lich will make the same mistake twice on your exit.”

  But…I grip my head again. My body grows longer and lankier. My curves flatten.

  “Who are?” I ask while searching for a way out of her grasp. I attempt to hide but it fails. I squirm. I need to escape. To get revenge. But I died. I had lost all the…colors? There is more now than ever. I stare at a blue never before known. It juts from my own forehead. I tremble at it all. I will my eyes to stare at the color. To never forget it. My eyes water and I blink.

  More phantom pain. My body balloons out.

  The spider backs away from me. I look around confused. I lost my sister's head in a fight with a small bipedal. I look to the side to see her there reattached again. But I don't feel her there. I nudged her neck. Wake up. We are in danger. She doesn't move. Is she gone? I wail. I failed to protect her. My head falls down slack.

  I lift my head up to find my sister has fallen asleep in the middle of a fight. But the room is covered in bones. This is not how I remember it. There is a crunchy spider in front of us. I snap at it. It is far faster than I ever remember any spider was before. I turn my body to chase it but it continues to evade. I start to move towards the delectable when my body stumbles. It pitches forward as it changes.

  I land on my face. My thirst increases. I have to put up with this for three days? I try to get up when I start to feel feathers sprout.

  Ahhhhh spider. I push off the ground and start flapping. It's just like the one that caught me before. Well almost. This one had a weird set of legs ending in what looked like a monkey paws right before its back legs. I flap towards the ceiling of the area. Trapped? I look for an exit. My head hurts.

  I am falling. Mags catches me. My body twists in phantom pain again. My body shrinks.

  Holy hell I thought this thing had bitten me in half. I am still whole and the spider is smaller. I slip through her grasp and step back. She still looms over me just like every other not gnome. I need options. My foot cracks something underneath. I can't help it. I look down to see bones. Too many bones. Just how many has this monster eaten? I grab a skull and throw it at her. Adventurer basics at work. It misses. I frown.

  I collapsed. Breathing hard again. My heart thuds in my chest. I don't have a heart and I'm not a gnome. My body agrees as it gains scales and my legs become singular.

  I look up. I am being ambushed. Where is my knife? My chest? I can't let that be found. I'll be executed if they find it. I turn to see the monster. The eyes, go for the eyes. I spring forward. I feel faster than before. But I still miss. The spider is more assured in her movement. Damn it. I will not die to a monster. Not when there are still plenty to stab. I stay low. My eyes flitted here and there. Nothing to stab with. I picked up a long bone. Club it is. I surge forward again. Feeling the bones crunch under me as I move. I make my movement erratic, most two legs can't keep up with such. They can't fathom it. This eight legged one seems unimpressed. They stay out of reach of my improvised club as I continue to chase.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  I stumble again, gripping my face. Stop trying to hurt my mother. I tremble. The snake body starts to shift.

  I look up and see the countess. “Ma'am, I found your daughter.” I look down and see the same body the daughter had. I don't understand, also I am naked. I fall on my ass looking at the cold woman.

  “Derrick, the one who broke my daughters.”

  I reach for a flask that isn't there. I wince. “I'm sorry, it was my fault. I don't understand what is going on but your daughter lives. She at—”

  “Derrick, you have been dead for four years.” She comes up to me. I'm transfixed by the movement of those legs. She cups my face. “You're a soul inside of Sara now. She doesn't blame you for what you did but you are her guilt for what she did. You are the first life she took who she felt didn't deserve it.”

  I blanch at her words. I remember the girl's tears as she drank my blood. “No it was my fault, she would still …. But she is still alive.” I grip my head again as I feel tears fall.

  They keep falling. Why? More phantom pain courses through me. I want to hug my mother but my body writhes before I can.

  I look up, “[Countess] Magdeline, where are we?” I recognize the mother of my husband's killer. Hard not to with that grotesque body.

  “To whom am I speaking.”

  Of course she does not know who I am, “[Lady] Minthan, are you not going to answer my question?” This room of bone is macabre enough to be a dungeon.

  “No. I am curious how you are here though. Reports said you fled north. A defector. Did you hunt down Sara and meet your end?”

  I laugh, “Your daughter is a slave to the Elf [Empress]. For whatever reason, she wanted the head I had and I negotiated being reborn as an Elf with her. I can't imagine why I am here though. Last I remember I was in front of your demon of a daughter before I lost consciousness. If that Elf broke her vow, I swear I will claim retribution.”

  “I am certain she would have worded it in such a way to avoid any penalties. So you delivered my daughter's head to Cea.”

  “Price of admission, it was my head to give. I can feel your anger [Countess], need I remind you she killed my husband.”

  “Yes, I know. In fact it was to appease you that my daughter was executed. I heard from Katty herself that you would not accept any less.”

  “The [Queen] has her vows, that the remaining Anvar feared you more than they loved their parents is nothing to me. Not that it matters, the girl lived.”

  “And the Elf [Empress] didn't.”

  I tremble at that. “But what of my rebirth?”

  “I don't know. To be honest I'm not sure Sara remembered you are in there. It would have been through her that you were to be born from.”

  I blanch at her words. I was to be the daughter of my husband's killer. That would mean he would have been her son. Siblings? I feel nauseous. Focus, your still nobility. I push down the bile. I notice I am naked.

  “Why am I naked?”

  “The robe you were wearing was ripped to shreds when you became a hydra.”

  That's just absurd, but I don't feel a lie coming from her either. I want to ask another question when I grip my forehead again.

  “I had forgotten she was in there. I never really fully ate her soul I feel.”

  More phantom pain. I grit my teeth. I need to hold myself together.

  “That’s concerning. You stayed in that personality the longest.”

  I look up at Mags, “Why would that be a—”

  I feel whiskers and fur start to grow. My body hunches over as it shrinks.

  The ground is unsteady. There is no green here. Just death. I grew afraid. I hop. It's everywhere. It's cold. I am in the air. Pulled into an embrace. I see another creature. I freeze. It strokes my fur while cooing at me. It is warm. I burrow myself more into her.

  -----

  This is a daily reminder: You have 416 unallocated stat points

  “Shit.”

  I look at the woman who spoke.

  43 ? Tibyder Sanguine Head Priestess, Adventurer, Vampire

  Tibyder is new, as is Vampire. Why can I see her sect name? Also a notification box instead of my mothers voice. I keep an eye on the distance between us. I am missing parallel minds. I pop open my status screen.

  “Double shit.” The Tibyder says again.

  Tier four Kitsune? The stats are wrong as well. Twin Goddess Sanguine. Soul eater. When did this happen? Separate minds, not parallel. Both a queen and a countess-designate. Certainly not the empress I remember from before. The thing before me isn't a monster even though it looks like one.

  “Who are you?” I ask, to buy time.

  “The [Countess] Magdeline, I presume I am speaking to [Empress] Cea.” She says cautiously.

  “Presume wrong if what is listed in my status screen is true. I do not feel like I am under some sort of compulsion but everything is wrong. I feel…” Incomplete. My soul isn't all here. I can feel souls now. There is a weak tether from me outward. It's bound in my soul. But it's frayed. Am I transferring my soul to this body? Soul Eater. This body is a devourer then. Seems I am too much for the creature. I feel along the tether. I connect to my other half. Dead. An undead that withers. I see.

  “Who are you to this body?” A more pressing question.

  The woman tenses. I can see the blood moving in her body. Most curious. She is not answering me though. I can not force her, the mind magic is greyed out. I need to make a decision. To sever the connection, to force myself to the other side, or pull the rest of myself here. Severing it would cripple both sides of myself. To return is to join a dead body. If this is a necromancy situation, I believe my other half is a lich. It should be feeding on this body, life and soul but the body is fine and it's my soul that is being devoured, not this ‘goddess’. Perhaps the rules are different for divinity. That leaves option three.

  “What are you doing?” She asks after not answering me.

  I give her the same treatment she gave me. First I need to solidify this tether. My soul threads through the tether. The connection grows. It repairs the fraying. Making it stronger. Before it was one sided, now it is accepted on both ends. I feel a flush of euphoria from the other side. A sense of triumph.

  A dirt construct glances off my head. That should have hurt. But I just feel a need for something grow. I look at my assailant.

  “Got your attention, Cea? How bout you look right here with life eyes.” She pats her waist.

  My eyes narrow as my life sight engages. I feel that previous need grow but I see what she mocks me with.

  “Why do you have Elf ovaries?” I say in a low menacing voice. That there are two is more absurd. Did she carve out those from two elves to graft into herself?

  “‘Cause I'm a hybrid you crazy bitch, what are you going to do about it?”