Emily only stirred when the gentle mist clinging to her skin became too much to ignore. The damp air stirred her from her oblivion. Beads of dew rested in her hair and on her clothes, bringing a cold dampness.

Yawning, she looked at her surroundings. At first, everything was out of focus, but as she blinked the sleep away, the vibrant greens and browns came into focus.

Carpets of leaves hung above her, held aloft by skinny tree trunks. While a blanket of mist clung to the ground.

She was in a forest, though how she'd gotten here was a mystery. The canopy was so thick she could scarcely see the day peaking through it.

Emily searched her memory for a reason, but the last thing she remembered was entering that accursed city.

She pushed herself up onto her elbows, feeling the soft grass beneath her. It had formed a depression in the ground where she slept, almost like a nest. There was a warmth coming from the earth. As though it had been baking under the sun for hours.

And yet, even with all the verdant life around her, Emily could not help but feel something was wrong. She searched the trees for potential threats but found no reason to fear. The shallow indent on the ground was filled was tiny cracks in the grass where warm air seeped from the earth, but still she could find no danger there either.

Emily shook her head.

Actually, that was strange, her brain reassured her. 'Cracks in the ground,' she thought.

Pressing her brows together, she laid her hand on the tears.

Reassuring warmth wafted up from deep in the earth, doing its best to soothe her like an old friend.

Emily hummed and dug her fingers into the soft dirt, tearing out clumps of grass and soil. With the heat further exposed, Emily could feel more of it rising out of the earth like blood from a wound.

The longer she bathed in the heat, the more she felt that this was not something to be afraid of.

This was part of her strength.

Emily's bearings were slowly returning to her, and she knew where this was. The warmth coming from below was more than heat; it was power.

Hers, to be exact. Looking around the clearing, she couldn't believe she had not recognized it sooner. This was her forest, the one deep in her mind where he stars resided.

It hadn't changed since she had been here last, but something was off; things looked too different.

Emily glanced up at the ceiling of tree branches.

Where were her stars? The trunks of the young trees had bent and warped above to cover her with their branches.

The leaves trembled as the fog around her thickened.

'Okay, something was off,' she thought as she got to her feet.

The perpetual night she had become accustomed to was stained by streaks of white light stabbing through the tree tops.

Cold, uncaring brilliance pounded Emily's retinas as she reached up with her palm.

In one fluid motion, she opened up a hole in the treetops above, and the disaster came into full view.

Turbulent pools of water drifted through the skies like glowing embers. Bathing the night in shades of harsh energy. The stars beyond remained in the skies like unflinching guards, but they seemed at a loss for what to do. The waters blocked their sight of her as they lashed out towards the earth below. Breaking trees and rending entire swaths of land.

Emily could feel the coming disaster. It brought a wary sense of danger to her heart. Had she not noticed this, she could have been destroyed without even waking up.

Yet the forests had surrounded her with their quiet strength. There was a presence here, watching her from afar.

Strangely, Emily did not feel any danger from it. It had protected her from the waters above by wrapping her in warmth and shelter.

She wasn't sure how, but she knew it was her blood. Even the inheritance she had gotten from the Wyrm had played its part.

And now something new encroached upon her world, a new inheritance. Only this one seemed unwilling to bend to her. It wanted to challenge her here, of all places.

Emily couldn't help the smile that appeared on her face.

"Alright, I don't know what's so different about you, but how about you quietly fall in line," Emily said softly, her voice echoing through the entire space.

The aimless waters floating in the air seemed to hear her words, and immediately, she could feel another presence set its eyes on her.

There was no intelligence there. It felt more like she just got the attention of a storm, but that mattered little to her.

Water began to descend in a howling gale, but Emily snapped her fingers. Causing all the trees in the vicinity to suddenly grow in size. Their root networks interconnected, merging until the endless forest shrank into a ring of trees so thick that not even a drop of water could make it through.

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Water fell against her forest as sheets of rain, sharpened into fine needles. Each seeking her out with deadly intent, but none ever coming close.

She brought both her hands together with a gentle clap, causing the heat resting below the forest to flash out in a stifling wave. The two forces clashed against one another with the hissing sizzle of moisture.

Emily giggled as she waved her hands outward, banishing the fog clinging to the ground.

The waters above seemed limitless, but even as they bounced off Emily's defenses for the hundredth time, she knew they were not. Already, tiny bubbles fizzled in the waters as the heat simmered through them.

Joy pushed itself to the surface as Emily reached for the stars. They responded to her at once. Their relief at her call was evident by the way they fell to the ground, unrestrained.

The night sky descended as the stars fell in a dazzling array of streaks. Each one that descended pierced through the waters, erasing some of their resistance.

By the time all the stars had collected in her surroundings, the water was half its original size.

She could see the water rapidly take the form of a watery scorpion as it stabbed towards her with its tail.

Emily pointed two fingers up at the incoming attack, her whispered demand stretching out into the space.

'Yield'

Every single star near her jumped to the tip of her fingers, joining with one another in a single point.

Each one that joined with the mass of light further built the glow until it was comparable to the mass of water hovering above.

When Emily released the light, it was neither forceful nor loud.

It simply was. The light shot out as a beam, erasing the attack as though it were nothing. Then with a flick form Emily, it sliced through the watery beast.

The water screamed, but it was cut short as the ray of light broke apart into thousands of wisps. Tearing through the inheritance until it had no option but to submit.

The smile that had remained on Emily's face only faltered when she had integrated all but the last of the new power.

The was the briefest flash, and suddenly one of her numerous stars burst out of existence. Emily yelped in pain as it felt like being stabbed with a red-hot needle.

She immediately called for a retreat until she could find the reason for the death of one of her stars.

Luckily, no more dissipated. She felt the loss of that single star greatly. It had been connected to something distant. Emily was pretty sure it was her connection to the title Courtier. Which was fine, it was more than likely she would never use a title like that, but still. It felt like something sacred had been stolen from her.

Anger bloomed in Emily's chest, and the world shook in response.

It only took a thought for her to rise into the air and move toward where her stars swarmed. They were keeping their distance from something. Moving just out of range as the interloper chased the nearby blips of light. When it got close enough for Emily to make out, she could see a roaming ball of mud that swam through the air. Trying and failing to catch up with the stars floating around it, like a shark in a school of fish.

As Emily turned her full attention to it, it seemed to notice her too. It turned to face her and warped, becoming an open maw. It charged at Emily, trails of spittle frothing off the corners of its mouth. Seeing it approaching, Emily warned her stars off again as they began to move to defend her.

The thing closed in at alarming speeds, but Emily made a cage with her hand. Closing over the sight of the mud ball.

No sooner had she done so than an immense force arrested the anomaly's advance. It wriggled, trying to get free, but it was no use.

Emily saw this and brought it closer to inspect.

What she saw was not a ball of mud, but filth. The distinction was small but important. Mud was made from earth, it came from this world. This thing? It came from somewhere beyond, it was pure menace and hunger. Its very scent lingered like decay as an endless giggle echoed out from its twisted mouth.

No one form seemed enough for it, as it shifted through an array of terrifying shapes to escape her hold. A beetle, a centipede, a toothy fish, a coiling serpent, a barbed anemone, and many more. All the while, the laughter never ceased.

Feeling a deep sense of impending doom, Emily began to crush it, attempting to kill it. She wanted existence gone, and yet even as she pushed the world to expunge the impurity, the creature struggled against her.

Emily increased her pressure, applying enough force to shatter countless stars, and yet still the mass refused to die or leave.

She knew what this stuff had to be. That foul energy she'd drunk in earlier. She thought it was gone, but it was clear it was just hiding.

Studying it further, Emily swallowed.

From her test, she could not destroy it, so containment was the next best option until she could figure out what this thing was, or ask someone.

From the looks of things, the ball of filth was moving like water, but was it water? The longer she looked at the interloper, the more certain she was that this was not the case. It was not water, it was just using its traits. That begged the question: what happened if she removed this energy?

Calling to her bloodfire heritage, once more, Emily wrapped the ball of sludge up with intense heat.

The slime continued to laugh, opening its maw and letting out an unholy giggle before it began to wither.

Moisture escaped, and the vile little creature began to shrink, but even still, it continued cackling. Emily kept this up until it shrunk from the size of a tennis ball to a marble. The laughter finally stopped, or at least became too soft to hear. The filth had hardened to a near-gleaming pellet of void. It seemed incapable of moving any longer, but she couldn't risk it escaping and trying to eat her stars again.

Glancing down, she pointed at a tree.

"You. Come here."

The tree rose up and out of the ground, bringing with it a chunk of earth. The little landmass drifted to her, and when it arrived, she released her hold on her black marble. Relinquishing it to the tree's branches which encased it.

"Look after that, and don't let anything touch it."

Emily knew it would do its best, and without another thought on the matter, she sent it to the edges of her world. Not the best outcome, but it was nothing she could handle right now. Sighing, Emily inspected her world. The waters that had been so aggressive before had turned into the beautiful silver clouds that graced the skies. Sometimes, it rained down a gentle mist of rain onto the forest below. Invigorating the destroyed land.

Finally, she had some breathing room to look up at the stars, and they began to arrange themselves into words.

New features have been unlocked! (Special condition met: consuming blood inheritance.)

Conductive flow(lesser): The user's blood has become mixed with a source lineage(Mutated Venomtail), changing their physiology to match that of the originator.

Enhances channels designed for incoming energy through the body, reducing external stimuli stress. This makes the wielder more resistant to force, plasma, and heat.

Emily was pleased with this outcome; the force and plasma were nice, but even more so, the extra resistance to heat was always nice in her current circumstances. She now had two linages, and both helped her bear the heat, which was great.

She was just thinking this when she realized she didn't know how long she'd been here or even if she was still in danger. The memory of the storm came back to her, and she cursed. She began to rise into the skies and out of consciousness. Slowly waking up from her slumber

At the edges of her returning awareness, the tree she had chosen stood watch, silently guarding the tiny sphere of darkness it had contained.

Blood points: 672

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