AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH, ANGRY SQUIRREL

We approached Ratatosk as fast as we could, throwing stealth and caution in the wind. It was too frenzied and scared.

The beast turned to us, it's scream of anger made ground shake. It started to run towards us to, crossing the distance we would need half a minute for in 5 seconds. It immediately attacked us full force.

We dodged and were thrown sideways by the raging winds it's attack summoned. It turned towards Allaster, he had been thrown next to the edge.

"YES, THIS IS THE THRILL I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR!" He laughed like a maniac dodging multiple attacks, getting thrown sideways every time by the raging winds.

I wasn't sitting still either, I was preparing a spell.

"I call upon the earth, mother of us all

I call upon the sky, father to us all

I call upon the water, the eternal companion

I call upon the fire, our emotions personified

Become one, follow my beck and call and grant me the power I now need."

The elements started swirling around me. This spell allows me to fully control the four elements, as long as I can handle the massive mental strain.

I formed a massive hammer and hit Ratatosk as hard as I could. dropping the spel, I thought that surely he should be unconscious now, right?

I was wrong, I had dropped my guard too soon and was hit by a punch. I felt my body cracking, the armor barely protecting me from the impact.

"Mistress! BEAST, I, THE GREAT ALLASTER, SHALL BRING YOU DOWN!"

Allaster rushed in, distracting Ratatosk and allowing me to catch a breath.

We wouldn't be able to win this, I didn't know what his tier was but I was sure that it wasn't tier two. Time to call in the new servants. Don couldn't leave his gate because his skin would dry up but Lupo and Bearry started to move the second I called upon them.

"MORE, GIVE ME MORE YOU BEAST!" Allaster had entered some kind of battle frenzy, completely ignoring me screaming that he should go away.

Ratatosk started moving faster and faster, circling Allaster. Then, the inevitable happened, Ratatosk hit Allaster full force.

He was thrown against the wall with a wet smack, the bond binding our souls snapped so fast that I couldn't even process what had happened.

I heard a voice in my head, 'I told you he was destined to die Fateless one.'

The feeling of the bond breaking and that bitch saying that snapped something in me;

{//ERROR// Do you want to defy fate? //ERROR//}

{//ERROR// Y/N //ERROR//}

I didn't even think about the choice.

{//ERROR// Events have been set in motion, activating revival protocol. Please stand back from the dead body. //ERROR//}

The bond returned with an explosive presence, and it wasn't just the bond.

"HAHAHAHA, THIS IS WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT!"

Allaster had changed, his dark-red fur had now turned entirely black. Death mana was flooding from him in massive waves.

One side of his face was a skeleton with it's eye missing, instead of an eye, it had a glowing bleu orb.

What had just happened was a certain phenomonon called forced evolution. At certain times, when the conditions are right, an evulotion is forced in creatures that can evolve and this causes them to go up a tier without needing to grind exp.

He had also entered the forest inventory.

{Hell's Herald Fox

Rarity: Unique

Description: The evolved form of a dark fox that died while being bound to a fateless one.The legends of the world this fateless one comes from speaks of a goddess with a body that is both dead and alive, this fox has now claimed the title of her herald in this world.}

Ratatosk rushed at Allaster, punching with everything it had, Allaster was thrown back but didn't react more than that.

He just grinned, as far as foxes can grin anyways. Allaster started attacking it with a zealous fury, his attacks hitting much harder than what Ratatosk could do.

It took him less than a minute toknock down Ratatosk, during that minute Lupo and Bearry arrived. They explained the whole forced evolution thing to me.

When Ratatosk was finally down, I bound him to me as fast as possible. I was happy to finally have all four of them. Ok, finally is an overstatement, I had gotten three of them bound to me near instantly but still, Ratatosk was painfull to get.

Because they were here anyways, Lupo and Bearry joined us in ascending the stairs, the last stretch was before us.

When we arrived, we saw the most beautiful thing I had ever seen, The reason I loved climbing mountains.

Strectching before us was the entire forest, the trees glowing under the night sky. The air tasted like cinnamon for some reason. The magic particles made it look like fireflies were flying above the forest.

And the tree itself, that was the crowning piece. It's bark was a golden brown, it's leaves had more colors than what I could count, varying from a black blacker than ink to the white that would shine even if there wasn't any light.

The fruits hanging from the tree looked like peaches, although they shined in a shade of white. Bearry quickly climbed the tree and made one of the fruits fall to the ground.

I ate it, calmly, knowing that there was no threat here, if anyone wanted to get here they would have to go through Ratatosk and he, yes I had confirmed his gender, was still extremely aggressive.

The fruit tasted like freshly baked cupcakes. When I got to the core at the center, I swallowed it in one go.

{Core of Light Assimilated

Digestion: 9 yrs, 364 dys, 23 hrs, 59 mns, 43 scnds

Evolve to speed up the process.}

Good thing that was what I was going to do immediately after eating the damn thing.

{Opening user profile

User: Lizbeth Johnson

Sex: Female

Race: Advanced Refined Sandstone (EVOLUTION AVAILABLE)

Level: 5 (175/000)

Stats: Showing All

STR: 160

AGI: N/A

DEX: N/A

CON: 240

RES: 120

INT: 60

WI: 70

STA: 180

Skills:

Expert Refinement Lvl. MAX (conditions for advanced skill not met), Death Affinity (High Immunity), Base Affinity Lvl. 7, Holy affinity Lvl. 9, Soul Affinity Lvl. 3 (No Lvl cap), Metal Manipulation Lvl. 7, Mana Manipulation Lvl. 7, Mana Sight Lvl. 5, Gluttony, Wrath, Mercy

Curses and Blessings:

Curse of Light Lvl. 4 (Ignored in property), Blessing of //ERROR//

Titles:

Reaper, Tamer, Magic Pioneer}

I hadn't even looked at it since evolving. I did not know that the curse didn't have any effect on me here. It did make sense.

{Activating evolution subsystem

...

Loading options

...

1. Death Golem: A rare type of golem that has mastered death enough to be recognized as Reaper by the system.

(Future evolutions: Mid)

2. Shift Golem: A different path, allows you to mold your body into different shapes making you a full shapshifter. Compatible skill Stone Armour (Unique) detected, evolution will change in accordance to skill.

(Future evolutions: Mid)

3. ???: Special conditions have been fulfilled, events have been set in motion.

(Future evolutions: Unknown)}

I wanted to choose Death Golem but I was drawn to the third option. That last sentence made me think that someone was pulling some strings.

I choose option 3.

{Option chosen, initializing evolution ...

Ichor detected ...

No unique skill creation possible ...

Good luck ...}