The underground lake stretched before them, its surface reflecting the dim pulse of bioluminescent fungi like a living mirror. Stone ridges jutted from the water, forming natural barriers between them and whatever lurked deeper in the cavern. The air carried the sharp tang of metallic spores mixed with something muskier—Heloxian pheromones, Kai realized.
Grin sat beside him, her mask still off, violet-pink hair damp at the ends. She caught him staring—not at her, just in her general direction, damn it—and smirked.
"Problem?"
Kai cleared his throat. "No, just thinking."
"About?"
About how you looked rising out of that water like some kind of whale.
"Tactics," he said instead, pulling up Marin's device. The holographic interface flickered to life, projecting a 3D terrain map of the cavern. Gemstones pulsed red in the distance, Riftborn signatures blinked orange, and a single, narrow passage glowed faintly blue—a potential stealth route.
"Two Gemstones in range," Kai muttered, zooming in. "One's heavily guarded with six Riftborn patrolling the area. But this path behind Heloxian territory, that's our way in."
Grin arched a brow. "Since when are you a tactician?"
Kai grinned. "Since I was six and outmaneuvered my entire clan in war games. They called me 'the little Vogel viper.'"
"Uh-huh." Grin didn't look convinced. "Prove it."
Kai's smirk widened. "Watch this. I'm about to become mate one of them."
---
"Heloxians are in their mating cycle," Kai explained as they moved. "It's a biological window—triggered by lunar fungal spores in the Rift. It makes them territorial but real easily distracted."
The first Heloxian he'd encountered was mating and too bold for its own good. Now it made sense.
Grin gave him a look. "And you know this how?"
"I read."
"Bullshit."
"Fine. Sekh told me."
"Liar," the parasite purred. "You guessed."
Shut up.
---
A Heloxian crept along the edge of the fungal grove, mandibles twitching nervously. He paused as he spotted her—a female Heloxian, standing with her arms crossed awkwardly, head slightly lowered, posture reserved. Her pale plates shimmered faintly, and she kept one hand over her chest sac, the other near her lower slit joint, fidgeting like she was trying to be modest.
The male clicked his throat cavity once—then twice—like clearing his voice. "You… new? Not from brood-nest?"
The female gave a hesitant nod, antennae drooping.
He looked away, flushed with bioluminescent blue, then back. "I… I have shelter. Not much, but warm. Come?"
The female shifted on her legs, tail plates brushing the ground behind her. Her silence stretched—then she gave the softest hum of assent.
The male skittered ahead excitedly, guiding her into his home.
It was… a mess.
A dome of half-rotted shell fragments, dried fungus crusting every surface, thick with pheromone residue. The stench made the female hesitate at the threshold, resisting the urge to gag. This smells worse than the inside of a Riftwolf.
Still, she stepped inside.
The male turned, eyes gleaming, and began his ritual: stretching his thoracic cartilage, inflating his scent glands, vibrating his back plates in rhythmic pulses designed to impress.
Then—
The female's body twitched.
Her color shifted—slowly at first, then in rapid pulses.
The soft lavender hue of her plates darkened, drained, until they became dull gray—then flushed into the pale, human-like tone of skin.
Her chitin plates cracked, curled inward like petals folding. Her limbs compressed. Her hips narrowed. Her claws softened into fingers. Her antennae retracted into her scalp, replaced by strands of ash-blond hair.
The sac on her chest deflated and collapsed into smooth skin, exposing—
Wait.
Not a female.
A human.
A male.
Kai.
Standing in the middle of the Heloxian's hut.
Completely nude.
...Oh crap.
His expression was flat, unreadable, but his inner voice screamed. This is the worst mission I've ever done and I've swallowed sludge before.
---
Kai's plan had been relatively simple—if morally questionable. Use the Adaptive Gene Canal to replicate the Heloxian form using the genetic sac he harvested earlier. Sekh's mutation protocols allowed for full-form shapeshifting, not just superficial camouflage. It wasn't illusion. It was full biological rewriting—down to joint spacing, scent glands, and reproductive sacs.
But Kai was still male. His transformation had only mimicked female Heloxian features: Sekh had grown him chest sacs to mimic fertility glands, reshaped his torso, and temporarily sealed over his actual reproductive sac with hardened keratin skin.
The deception wasn't just visual. It was hormonal, chemical, behavioral. Every twitch had been rehearsed.
And it had worked.
---
I really hope this guy doesn't know what human genitals look like, Kai thought, frozen.
Kai's plan didn't start with seduction.
It started with a kidnapping.
When he entered the Heloxian's crude fungal hovel, pretending to be a bashful female, his real target wasn't the adult—it was the small, shivering child crouched near the wall, nibbling on a dried spore crust.
The Heloxian's son.
That's the pressure point.
Kai didn't hesitate. As soon as the male turned to inflate his chest gland, Kai's fingers darted out—fast and practiced. One movement and the child was asleep, nerve-spiked by a thin injection fang hidden in Kai's reshaped nail.
The male turned back, blinking. "Where… where she?"
Instead of an answer, he got a nightmare.
The woman he thought he'd been charming melted. Plates folded, sacs deflated and skin shifted, colors bled. In seconds, a pale, ash-blond human stood there—calm, bare, expression like carved stone. Holding his unconscious child in one arm.
Kai didn't say anything for a moment, just watched.
The Heloxian backed into the wall. "What… are you?"
"That's not the question you should be asking."
Kai's voice was low, cold, nothing like the flirtatious pretense from seconds before.
"The right question is this—who's guarding the Gemstone in this sector?"
The Heloxian shook his head, trembling. "Can't say. Forbidden. They hear, they kill. Queen's law."
Kai raised the child slightly. "Then I guess your family line ends with him."
The words hit like acid.
The Heloxian collapsed to his knees, hissing. "No—please—Knight. Heloxian Knight. One of the Queen's. Center chamber. D-rank power. D-!"
Kai's brows furrowed. D- Rank?
In standard parasite classification, that was enough strength to tear through walls, regenerate lost limbs, and possibly sense through pheromone veils.
I can't take that alone.
Not unless he had a terrain advantage. Not unless he had Grin's support. Not unless he played smarter than the damn Knight.
Still holding the child, Kai let Sekh reshape him again. Heloxian form, female sac, plates sealed tight. In seconds, he was back in disguise.
He set the child gently on the ground. "He'll wake up in a few minutes."
The Heloxian looked up, still shaking.
"One more thing." Kai leaned in, golden Heloxian eyes glowing faintly. "Tell anyone, and I'll come back. And next time, I won't be bluffing."
He turned and walked out without waiting for a reply.
---
Grin was exactly where she said she'd be—thirty meters from the Heloxian settlement, lounging against a jagged rock shaped like a shark's tooth, chewing on dried root jerky.
Kai knelt by the lake's edge, scooping up a handful of water and letting it cool the dryness in his throat.
The Heloxian form was hot and tight, the chitin plates locking around his limbs like armor he couldn't breathe through. Ten more minutes, max. Any longer and the transformation starts to slip.
He wiped his mouth, exhaled, and glanced across the water.
A figure moved.
Not again—
Yes, again.
Grin stepped through the shimmer, her silhouette breaking against the lake's glowing light. For a second, Kai froze—then squinted. She was fully clothed. Standing ankle-deep in the water, jacket still on, boots soaked, hair braided back. It looked—unsanitary.
She's bathing fully clothed? What kind of crime against hygiene is that?
Relief and disbelief mixed in his chest.
"Sekh," he murmured in his head, "how long can I keep this form?"
The parasite's voice coiled back, tired but firm. "Ten minutes. After that, you risk organ failure."
Not worth the risk.
He shifted, bone creaking, skin rippling as his upper half morphed—head first, then arms. His human torso returned, ash-blond hair flicking forward, pale skin dripping with mutation dew. From the waist down, though, he stayed Heloxian—legs armored, chitin glinting.
Grin reached him.
"You good?" she asked, raising a brow.
"Yeah," he said, rolling his neck. "But I'm about to overheat. Can you turn around?"
She blinked once, then grinned. "You saw mine. Seems fair I return the favor."
Kai's brain froze.
She's joking. She's definitely joking... right?
He yanked his gear from the pack, practically teleporting into his clothes.
Grin didn't even flinch.
"Damn," she said, shaking her head. "Could've at least given me a half-second."
"You bathe in your jacket," he shot back, tugging the collar straight. "You've forfeited all rights to flirt."
She laughed. "You say that now. Let's see how long that lasts once you realize I look better dry."
Kai groaned. "Please stop."
But part of him—just a small part—felt the heat rise again.
I'm never getting peace around her, am I?
---
Kai adjusted the last strap on his gear, finally back in full human form. The scent of Heloxian musk still clung to him, and his legs ached from the strain of prolonged transformation.
Grin leaned against the stone, arms crossed. "So? What did you learn?"
He knelt beside her, drawing a crude map into the dirt with a broken bit of bone. "The Gemstone's in the center chamber, buried under spore-root tunnels. Problem is, it's not unguarded. One of the Heloxian Queen's knights is watching over it. D- Rank strength, at least."
Grin narrowed her eyes. "That's above our current mutation threshold. Even with you shapeshifting into their mating ranks."
Kai nodded grimly. "Yeah, I had to... improvise." He didn't mention the kidnapped child. "He told me what I needed. Then I made sure he wouldn't talk."
She raised a brow. "Define 'made sure.'"
He looked away. "Scared him. That's all."
Before she could prod further, a soft chime echoed—Marin's call shimmered to life in the air between them, projected from Kai's wrist device. Her face appeared, flickering, scratched with static.
Her expression was tired.
"We neutralized the first Gemstone," Marin said, voice clipped and hoarse. "One of the Heloxian's knight's dead. Sylvie took a poison lash to the leg and Ash lost use of his left arm. They'll need time."
Kai frowned. "That leaves ours..."
"Exactly." Marin's eyes flicked to something off-screen. "Yours is still live and so is the Rift."
Grin stepped closer, eyes locked on the projection.
"This Rift is categorized E+," Marin continued. "None of you are capable of closing it alone. I don't care how clever you get, or how many tricks your parasites cough up. You're a team for a reason. Stay together and stay alive."
The call ended with a blink.
Silence returned—heavy, mineral-soaked, thrumming faintly from the tunnels beyond.
Grin exhaled first. "She's right. That thing guarding the Gemstone... we're not meant to take it head-on."
Kai nodded. "But maybe we don't have to."
Grin tilted her head. "I'm listening."
He glanced back toward the Heloxian town, toward the way he'd come, where fungal spores glowed like dying stars.
I've been their goddess once. I can do it again.