Alwin screamed as the White Tiger pounced on him. Claws and fangs as white as the room itself seemed to vanish until they flashed inches across his face. He threw himself to the side. The nearly invisible weapons scratched against the floor.

Desperate to stay ahead of the predator's strikes, Alwin continued to roll.

He should've listened to Lapis and put on that circlet—crown—before the Tribulation began. But in his defense, he really thought it was going to play out exactly as he had imagined.

That's okay. Everyone makes mistakes. He just had to fix it. And he would do so by wearing the crown and laughing as the White Tiger's attacks become nothing more than an afterthought.

Alwin was almost there. The thin, silvery piece of metal crowned with a huge dark gem in its center sat atop the pedestal, calling out to him. Metaphorically, of course.

Just before he reached it, something flew past his ear. And the next thing he knew, the crown was flying off into the distance. Something had knocked it off the pedestal.

He couldn't see what it was, but given the unmistakable 'pew' sounds echoing around the room, it might have been a laser beam. A completely white laser beam that camouflaged with his surroundings, because, of course, things had to be made even harder for him.

On the bright side—which might not be the best side right now—he didn't have to turn around to dodge the shots, because he wouldn't have been able to see it anyway. So, Alwin activated evasive maneuvers.

He rolled to the left, then he rolled to the right. Lasers blasted the ground around him, charring the floor white. So, at least he was doing something right.

But the crown was so far away. And he was moving oh, so slowly.

Alwin activated Dark Tackle.

Darkness flooded out of his Core, shrouding his body, only for it to disappear. Alwin lunged forward, expecting to travel much further than a single hop. But reality can be cruel sometimes. He covered a pitiful stretch before breaking into an awkward forward roll.

Yup, that was definitely what he had planned to do. A practice tackle before the actual thing.

Alwin activated Dark Tackle again.

Darkness surrounded his body only to dissipate in the next instant. He didn't automatically surge forward like he should've.

Okay, the Light Tribulation must have been nullifying his Dark Elemental skills.

That sounded like a much more probable explanation than his backup excuse of performance anxiety.

Unfortunately, for him. The White Tiger did not care whether it was due to the Light Tribulation or actual performance-related mental disorders. Lasers struck the ground around him as he continued to zig-zag roll his way toward the crown.

Even worse, a roar erupted right behind him, followed by the thunderous burst of legs pushing off the ground with way too much force.

Alwin rolled forward, and in that split-second when his face was positioned behind him, with the whole world hanging upside down, he launched a Yin-Yang Blast.

White and dark orbs materialized in front of him, spiralling around each other as they travelled forward. Unlike the Dark Tribulation, he could actually see the orbs.

The black Yin orb was so tiny, it might as well have been a marble. Meanwhile, the white yang orb shone with such ferocity that it reminded him of the artificial light bulb sun he had installed inside his Core.

They crashed into each other, more like the white Yang consumed the tiny Yin marble, creating a huge explosion of Yin and Yang—mostly Yang. The symbol was more white than black, completely ruining the balance and harmony of his skill.

The White Tiger didn't care about any of that. It emerged from the huge, mostly white Yin-Yang Symbol claws first.

Alwin screamed and launched another Yin-Yang blast that exploded point-blank in his face. He was sent hurtling through the air, screaming even louder, pitch as high as the ceiling from the searing pain of a light explosion that singed the dark side of his form.

Maybe he should've grabbed the vial of Healing Pills, too.

Dammit Niwla. You know how irresponsible he could be. Why didn't you hijack his body and yoink the pills and crown before the Tribulation started?

Yup, this was all Niwla's fault and not his.

Alwin was a flawless slime!

Awin also crashed onto the ground, rolling to a stop. His squishy behind bumping into something pointy.

It was the crown!

All part of the genius Alwin's flawless plan!

He summoned out his Spirit Hands, their fingers curling around the thing of beauty. Alwin kneeled down as well as slime could, which involved leaning forward and folding his jiggly curves as the Spirit Hands lowered the crown onto his big, beautiful noggin.

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Just as the cool metal graced his royal head, something knocked it away. It tumbled onto the ground in the far distance, the back gem shattering into a thousand pieces.

No!

His crown! The gem! That must've been really expensive! How much did he owe Lapis now?

Alwin turned back, fully expecting a White Tiger claw to the face. What he found was even worse.

It was just White.

Both the color and the Tribulation Being.

It was as small as all of the other Tribulation Beings, with a shining white flare for a head. And for some reason, a dark outline traced its form—the only reason why Alwin could actually tell that someone was standing right in front of him.

Okay, Alwin lied.

There was another reason.

In White's hand was a small glowing System Screen. It scrolled through its contents with multiple flicks of its thumb, eyes entirely fixed on the glowing blue device. White's other hand was otherwise occupied.

It was both good news and bad news.

The bad news was that the White Tiger was right there next to White. The good news was that it was too busy receiving head pats from White to bother attacking him.

"Um, hi," Alwin said. "White, I presume."

"You have presumed correctly," White said, eyes still locked onto the System Screen.

Maybe it was the lack of easily identifiable facial features, because White's head was just a flowing spark, or it was the first time meeting it, but Alwin had a sense that White wasn't as perplexed by the situation as Dark was.

Here's to hoping it was just his overactive imagination.

"What are you doing here?" Alwin asked.

"Investigating an anomaly during the Light Tribulation," White said. "It says here that you're undergoing a Tribulation from a Tier 2 monster down to a Tier 1 monster."

"Is that bad?" Alwin asked.

"It is unheard of. It is also against the natural order of things. So, yes. It is bad."

"And you're really weirded out and confused about how such a thing is happening?"

"I'm more curious than anything, but nevertheless, it is just a small issue."

"Oh," Alwin said.

Why did White have to be so boring? It behaved as if it had better things to do than unravel this mystery. Okay, that might be true. Alwin certainly didn't know how busy the Tribulation Beings were, but that was besides the point. What was the point was that they should solely be focused on figuring out why there was a Devolution Tribulation and not shoving it to the wayside.

White acted like a spilled cup of water was more important than this!

Yeah, now that Alwin thought about it for a second, he really was a selfish brat, huh?

Again, he would pull out the less-than-one-year-old card.

"So what are you going to do now?" Alwin asked.

Hopefully, it could hurry up and give him the free pass so that he could harass—have fun—with different Tribulation Beings.

"Now, you die," White said.

"What? Why?"

"You are an anomaly. The most efficient course of action is to eliminate you."

"What about investigating why there's a problem with the Tribulation? Don't you need me alive to do that?"

"That can be done with or without you being alive. This way, the chances of you triggering another anomalous Tribulation will be zero," White said, not even bothering to look up from her System Screen. "Whitey, go. You don't have to hold back."

The White Tiger crept forward, those black slits in its eyes boring into Alwin. Its black stripes slowly began to fade away, replaced with a stark white until its entire body blended in with the white blinding radiance of the Light Tribulation.

Alwin couldn't see it, but he could hear it.

Its growl was becoming louder, deeper. As if the creature itself was expanding into a hulking beast that dwarfed its previous form.

Alwin tried to run, but he couldn't. Something, four somethings, punctured his gelatinous body, lifting him high up into the air.

He tried to scream, but he couldn't.

An invisible something was clasped over his mouth. All that came out was a high-pitched muffle.

The sound of air being sliced apart hissed in front of him. Alwin closed his eyes, bracing for the worst.

"Stop!" a voice came.

A gust blew past his face, as that invisible something stopped nary an inch from cutting his beautiful body. Not by choice, he might add.

In between his handsome face and that invisible something, was actually something visible. It wasn't just a random something; it was a shell. A black shell, to be precise.

Mrs. Cooper?

No, her shell wasn't as black as night.

Alwin looked down and saw a figure standing next to White. It was Dark.

"What are you doing, White?" Dark said, exasperated. "Why are you trying to kill him?"

"He is an anomaly. Something that has disturbed the natural order of things. He must be eliminated."

"Or, hear me out. We can investigate the cause without killing someone who has been blessed by Mother Cor."

"Him? A blessed one?"

"Surprisingly, yes."

"Fine. But I insist you assist me in this investigation."

"Already planning to do that."

"White Tiger, release him."

Alwin felt that sharp vicegrip of death on him loosened as he plummeted to the floor. His body compressed into a puddle before springing back into that familiar ball-like shape, although now he wasn't completely spherical, with sharp ridges carved out of his body.

At least now he could see what had saved him.

It was a turtle. A black turtle that stood on all four unlike Mrs. Cooper. No prizes as to what the black turtle's name was.

Dark walked up to Alwin, shaking his head and sighing. "I'm sorry about you getting hurt like this, Alwin. I suggest that you don't trigger Tribulations for a while. I might not be there to save you next time."

Oh man. There goes his plan about having fun. What should he do now? Other than obviously getting his wounds treated.

"Till next time, Alwin," Dark said, pressing on White's system screen before all four of them vanished along with the bright white light.

It was hard to tell whether it had truly disappeared because Alwin had started out in a bright white room, transitioned into a room filled with even more bright white light, only for him to go back to that bright white room. And now, he was glowing white, because, of course, as he started to Devolve.

Hopefully into something other than a Dark Slime.

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