Alwin kicked Niwla out of the control seat and took over his Yin-Yang Slime form.

He looked up at the ceiling and searched for the camera, squinting to keep the ceiling crystals from frying his eyeballs. Apart from the dots in his vision, everything looked the same—white.

"Hey, Lapis! I'm done!" Alwin shouted at a random ceiling tile.

A buzz of static answered before Lapis' voice cut in through the speakers.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Your birthday? If so, when's your birthday, so I know how long I have to wait?"

Alwin tried his best to figure out where her voice was coming from, but it was to no avail. Lapis had a really good speaker set up. Her voice came from all over the room and at exactly the same volume, such that no matter where you stood, it always sounded like it was right in your ear.

"How about some pills or equipment for the Tribulation?"

"If there even is one," Lapis said. "We have no idea what's going to happen, so I say we go at it raw."

"But—"

"Relax," Lapis interrupted him. "I'll be here watching the whole thing."

The static cut off, and Alwin was left staring at the ceiling again as if it might give him a clue about what came next.

Who knew what was about to happen? This was uncharted territory. Best case? He Devolved. Worst case? He died.

Both didn't sound appealing now that he had actually put some thought into it. And here Niwla was supposed to be the 'smart' one. Guess someone's about to lose that title.

Alwin smirked at the thought and brought out his Spirit Hands. They tapped the System Screen in front of him.

Begin Tribulation?

[Yes] [No]

They selected 'Yes'.

Instead of a flash of light, it was a flash of pure darkness. The screen blinked out, vomiting forth a thick, black miasma that quickly filled every corner of the room.

Alwin coughed as the outpouring of smoke flooded his lungs. It tasted like burnt eggs—and not even the tasty, crispy kind.

As he continued to cough, the speakers crackled with static again, Lapis' voice breaking through intermittently.

"Slime—what's—on—?"

Either the smoke was messing with the speakers, or it had flooded his ears, too. Whatever it was, Lapis' message wasn't coming through. Though he could surmise what she was saying.

"Slime boy, apprentice of mine. What's with your amazing looks? You're the most awesomest and bravest slime in the whole wide world. You're the only one who can save all of monsterkind!"

Yup, that's exactly what Lapis had said. And definitely not the more likely, "Slime boy apprentice of mine, what's going on?"

More and more darkness surrounded him until Alwin could barely see in front of him. What sort of Tribulation was this? A dark one, obviously, but what was he supposed to do? Fight the darkness? Embrace it?

Not even Niwla knew the answer.

The very first Dark Tribulation was supposed to involve him conquering his inner demons. Emphasis on 'supposed' because Alwin simply spoke to Dark, skipping the whole formulaic cliche. Surprisingly, it had worked.

Was this the new Dark Tribulation that Dark had devised?

If so, it was more annoying than creepy.

"Hello?" Alwin called out as he started hopping forward. "Anyone there?"

A pinprick of light pierced through the darkness. It was small, faint, and slightly blue. Also, it was coming closer.

Alwin knew what that meant. The Tribulation was about to begin for real this time.

He let loose a couple of Yin-Yang Blasts at the light. The white and black orbs spiralled around each other, erupting into a brilliant explosion of Yin and Yang. But not even the bright yang could punch through the darkness. It swallowed everything whole.

Everything except that blue light. It kept coming closer, glowing brighter.

A figure stepped into view.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

It was Dark.

Ironically, it was also the source of that light. In its hand was a tiny blue system screen. Dark scrolled through it with a furrowed brow, seemingly as confused as Alwin, if not even more so.

"Hey, Dark," Alwin said. "What are you doing here?"

"You're undergoing a Dark Tribulation, so of course I'd be here," Dark replied flatly. "After our last talk, I've been working hard revamping it, but I think some kinks slipped through QA."

"What kind of kinks?"

"Well, for some reason, it says here you're undergoing a Tribulation to evolve from a Tier 2 monster to a Tier 1 monster. I've never encountered anything like this before," Dark said, as it continued to scroll on the system screen in its hand.

Alwin chose to stay quiet. It didn't seem wise to let Dark know that that was actually what was happening. Who in their right mind would feed the enemy such valuable information? Even if that enemy was such a swell guy like Dark.

"So… what now?" Alwin asked.

Dark stroked its cloudy chin, still reading through whatever it was on the system screen. Maybe it was a really good book? The real page-turner kind. Not some status report about the Tribulation or anything remotely close.

Yup, that was what Alwin chose to believe.

"I'm not allowed to cancel an active Tribulation," Dark finally said. "I might just have to let you pass so that I can investigate the issue. Although I'm not quite sure what will happen."

"Like a good 'not-quite-sure' or a bad 'not-quite-sure'?"

"I'm not even sure about what I'm not sure, to be honest."

That sounded bad.

"Okay, so what happens if you don't let me pass the Tribulation?"

"We sit here and wait till you die from natural causes."

"So… either way I pass," Alwin said. "I'll take the less deadly option."

"Again, I'm not sure what will happen if I do that. There's a chance you might die too. And I don't exactly want that for you."

"Aww, you're so sweet. Now, math may not be my strong suit, but even I know a maybe is better than a definitely. I'll take the pass, please."

Dark sighed, "Fine. I'll make it up to you later. If there's a later. Good luck."

It tapped on the system screen in his hand and vanished.

Just like that, the black miasma disappeared, sucked out of the air in a blink as if it was never there in the first place. The sudden contrast between the dark void and the bright white room made Alwin scream as his corneas were burned again.

To make things worse, he was glowing white, too. So even if he turned his eyeballs inward, he'd still be blinding himself.

The white light continued to grow, and Alwin started to feel strange.

Sure, there was the usual warmth, but he didn't feel strength surging within him. The opposite, really. If anything, everything around him looked… bigger. The rooms. The walls. Even the floor seemed to have more floor to them.

And as suddenly as the light arrived, it vanished.

Alwin blinked through the aftermath. He was still in Lapis' white room. So… he wasn't dead. Unless he was, and now his ghost was stuck haunting this room.

Only one way to find out.

He looked down.

What he found shocked him.

It wasn't a ghostly wisp; it was far worse. The whites on his body were gone, and now he was all black again.

Oh, no. He really did get weaker.

He was back as a Dark Slime.

No!

Lapis burst into the room surrounded by an army of drones. They all started scanning Alwin, casting beams of blue light that moved up, down, left, and right across his now dark gelatinous body.

"Are you okay?" Lapis asked. For once, she actually sounded like she was concerned. "What happened during the Tribulation? There was this dark cloud that blocked the cameras, and I couldn't see or hear anything. Even the door was locked!"

"I'm okay, Lapis. Except…" Alwin sniffed. "I've grown weaker."

"Are you serious? As in, you can't evolve back into a Yin-Yang Slime anymore?"

Oh, wait, he forgot to try that in the heat of the moment.

Alwin closed his eyes and focused. There was a flash of light, and he was back as a Yin-Yang Slime.

"Crisis averted," Alwin said.

"That's good," Lapis said. "But, keep still while the drones are still scanning you."

She followed up as blue lights continued to illuminate his half-white, half-black form. "Do you feel any different? Pain? Weakness?"

"I thought I felt weaker, but I think I was just being dramatic."

Inside Mind Niwla just rolled his eyes.

"Are you sure?" Lapis asked again.

"Yup."

"Maybe we should take a break for today."

"Really?"

Alwin really wanted to take a break, but after what happened with Dark, his curiosity had been kicked into overdrive. He really wanted to see what would happen if he did another Devolution Tribulation.

How would the Tribulation beings react? Oh man, just imagining how confused they'd look was enough motivation to continue the experiments.

If he kept this up, his next evolution might be a Troll. Totally worth it in his opinion.

"It's okay, Lapis. I can continue."

Lapis looked toward a drone, and it looked back at her. The rest of the drones scanning Alwin finally stopped, and he was no longer bathed in that blue scanning light. They arranged themselves to form a message.

"He's okay."

After that, they broke formation and flew back into Lapis' lab, presumably to continue baking whatever it was she was baking. Though the lack of any delicious aroma wafting through the door might mean she was making more Holy Water. Or maybe she actually was genuinely worried and ceased all experiments except for his.

Only Lapis knew, and frankly, Alwin didn't care.

"If you say so. In the meantime, I'll be preparing some equipment and pills for you. This time, I want you to refine Light Essence."

"I don't think I've ever done that before," Alwin said.

"Perfect. It'll give me more time to review my notes and procure the best gear I can."

Lapis didn't even bother to float out of the room. Instead, she teleported. Maybe she had to go to the bathroom?

Whatever.

With that out of the way, Alwin turned inward to his Core to try and figure out how to refine Light Essence.

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