Alwin looked around. All around were multiple glowing blue System Screens surrounding him from every direction. The ones basking in the light half shone brighter and brighter until blue shifted into searing white. Then, a huge white circle that looked like the sun blazed into their centers. They dazzled so bright, until the screens seemingly disappeared.

But Alwin knew better. It was just like the White Tiger. The screens were still there, blending in with the retina-destroying light.

On the other side, those wrapped in darkness gained a dark circle right in the center of their screen. The blue light they gave off dimmed until only the light from the light half illuminated it, barely. But even that flicker was doomed. The dark circle expanded, consuming the System Screen, leaving only a dark square—presumably. It blended in with the darkness to the point that Alwin couldn't tell where the screens began or where the darkness ended.

What he did know was that he wasn't about to have a good time.

He couldn't see it, but he could feel it.

Something struck him in the belly. Then another one. And another.

All around him, invisible somethings crashed into him one after another.

He would've howled in pain except that it would be unbecoming of him. Something as simple as a Tier 1 Tribulation shouldn't phase him. There was also the fact that the attacks merely stung, unlike the agony of having chunks of his flesh ripped away from his body by a certain White Tiger.

Still, a single sting would've been trivial. But that one sting had multiplied into tens, then hundreds, and the thousands would come sooner or later.

Alwin rolled to the right, towards the dark half of the room. Since he was a Dark Slime, he'd be able to blend in with the darkness. If they couldn't see him, they couldn't attack him, right?

He stopped and spun around on his behind. Now, all he had to do was sit back, relax, and wait for the Tribulation to blow over.

White laser beams pierced through the darkness. They didn't blast off into random directions. Quite the opposite, actually. All of them honed in on him.

This time, Alwin screamed.

Not out of fear, but because his relaxation time had ended before it even began.

He twisted his body, prepared to roll out of harm's way, only for something to crash into his jiggly folds. It wasn't one of those white laser beams. No, those were about half a second away from lighting him up. It was something he couldn't see. In other words, the Dark Tribulation attacks could track him down, too! That was doubly unfair. He couldn't see them, so why could they see him?

Alwin had another idea.

He rolled into the light side, moving until he bonked into the wall that blended in with every other darn thing in this half of the Tribulation. He spun around, watching the beams of light from the dark half travel down the split and disappear. Behind them, black globs of goo bulged into existence, dripping into the light. They floated toward him, pulsating and squelching ooze as they did so.

Alwin sat there, waiting. Hoping that his genius idea would work.

He watched as the black, bubbling ball of blackness continued to travel across the room. Thankfully, the congealed glob didn't drip drops of ickiness onto the ground. Unthankfully, they were still headed towards him. It didn't take a genius like him to realize the white laser beams were still flying toward him.

However, it did take a super genius to realize that his genius idea wouldn't work. Who would've thought that the plan of simply moving to the other half of the Tribulation would miraculously cause the attacks to stop following him would fail? Definitely not him.

It was time for plan B. Or was moving to the other side plan B? Personally, he'd prefer to think it was more of a plan A, part two.

"Enough with the plans, Alwin," Mind Niwla thought. "It's just a simple Tier 1 Tribulation. With the Resistance Pills and gear that Lapis gave us, we just need to hold out till it's over with a Spirit Barrier."

"No!" Alwin screamed.

He was the attacker of the squad, not the defender. Using a defensive skill like Spirit Barrier was simply inconceivable. And this time, he wasn't letting Niwla partially hijack his body just to cast that spell, like during the big hoo-ha with the Crimson Gold Sect.

"It's an infinitely better idea than just moving from one side of the room to the other."

"Oh yeah? I have a doubly infinitely better idea than you."

"Which is?"

"Just watch and learn."

Multiple pairs of Spirit Hands materialized around him. They interlocked their fingers, wrapping his body in a protective layer of hands. The invisible laser beams struck them, and the hands jolted and twitched with each hit. Black blobs splattered against them, drenching them in ick and muck. As they continued to absorb the hits, the Spirit Hands wanted nothing more than to give the Tribulation a few choice hand gestures. Unfortunately, doing so would form a hole in his not-defenses.

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Every time a single Spirit Hand crumbled under the assault, Alwin would simply summon a new one to take its place.

"How is this any better than a Spirit Barrier? If anything, it's objectively worse. A single Spirit Barrier is more Mana efficient than multiple Spirit Hands."

"It's because these Spirit Hands aren't a defensive spell, they're a utility one. It makes sense they won't be as defensive as one of those disgusting defensive spells."

"Okay, thanks for just rehashing whatever I just said. This still isn't any better than using a Spirit Barrier."

"Au contraire, my silly friend."

"What?"

"Watch and learn."

"I'm definitely watching, not so sure about the learning part."

"Oh, shush!"

Even more Spirit Hands appeared, this time away from his body. The light beams and dark globs struck them, but that was a sacrifice that had to be made.

The Spirit Hands closest to him detached themselves from his body. Though battered, bruised, and covered in all sorts of filth, they were ready for the ultimate sacrifice. Overhead, Spirit Bombs appeared. Before gravity could wrap its greedy little fingers around them, they started spinning around in the air, rotating around a chosen Spirit Hand. Bomb and Hand twined together, fusing into something volatile, unstable, and may or may not blow up in his favor.

The newly Mixed Spirit Bomb Hands were barely stable, in part because he hadn't gotten the exact timing and mixing speed down, and the fact that the Spirit Bombs were primed and ready to blow at the drop of a hat. It was similar in look to when he had Mixed the Spirit Hands with a Spirit Blast. A bulbous palm with five stubby little fingers jutting out, except that this time, their swollen palms pulsated with explosive power.

The outer layer of Spirit Hands—the non-Mixed ones—retreated toward Alwin, while the explosively Mixed ones lugged their heavy bodies forward. They slipped past each other, taking extra precaution not to come in contact with one another—'they' being the more agile non-Mixed ones.

Unfortunately for the Tribulation, their attacks weren't as careful. A huge blob of block goo crashed into one of the explosive Spirit Hands, detonating into a fiery eruption that tore the blob apart and dragged nearby attacks into the blast.

Another explosion boomed, though it appeared that nothing had hit the explosive Spirit Hand. But Alwin was confident in his Mixing ability to know that they had detonated because of the Tribulation's invisible white laser beam attacks and not because of a premature eruption.

As the explosive Spirit Hands intercepted the Tribulation's attacks, Alwin worked hard on replenishing his not-defenses. Spirit Hands were resummoned and Mixed together with Spirit Bombs prepared by Winal. They'd move forward to refill the ranks, creating an explosive dome of not-protection.

"Again, how is this any better than a Spirit Barrier? In fact, I'd argue it's even worse than what you were doing earlier. It's even more Mana inefficient with the extra Spirit Bombs and Mixing used," Mind Niwla thought.

"Oh yeah? Well, I argue it's more learning efficient than a lame stinking Spirit Barrier," Alwin countered.

"What are you talking about?"

"Tribulations are meant to challenge us. There's no challenge if we simply rely on something yucky as a Spirit Barrier. See, because I didn't want to use such a gross spell, I came up with a clever solution that might help expand our range of attacks in the future. We now have mobile bombs!"

Niwla didn't say anything, his wing propping up his chin as he contemplated Alwin's words.

"You're technically right. Limitations do breed new, ingenious ideas."

"Told you!"

"But, it's unnecessary. We could always have done this without the risk of failing a Tribulation."

"But would you have done it?"

"Possibly."

"Would I have done it?"

"Knowing you? Never."

"Exactly! So, this was the only way for us to add a new trick up our jelly folds."

"I don't like your modification of a classic expression. Though whether this new 'trick' is actually useful is still up for debate."

"It's working right now, isn't it? Against a Tribulation no less."

"Again, a Spirit Barrier would've more than sufficed."

"I—"

Before Alwin had the chance to explain to the bird-brained Niwla about how this was infinitely better than a Spirit Barrier, the explosions stopped. It wasn't because during the debate that Alwin had lost his concentration and Mixed up a dud batch. Nope, far from it. He was a perfect slime and could never make such a mistake. It was because there was nothing left to trigger the explosions. Unless, of course, you count the Spirit Bomb Hands themselves.

The Tribulation was over! Attacks, visible or invisible, no longer bombarded him.

The Spirit Bomb Hands cheered, celebrating by slowly lugging their huge bodies toward one another in a high-five for the ages. Though moving at a pace that made a snail look like a jet, the moment they touched each other, explosions rang out around them.

As the smoke died down, the light and darkness of the Tribulation began to mix with each other—not caused by Alwin, though that would've been really cool.

They blended together, nullifying each other's properties. The light side grew dimmer while the dark side lit up. Eventually, both halves had become nothing more than shadows, or lights, depending on which side, of their former selves.

Sadly for the dark side, the light still won. Because once both had disappeared, he was back in that same stark white room which rivalled the light of the Tribulation.

Even worse, his body was glowing—another win for the light side.

He was Evolving. And this time, it actually felt good. Strength welled up within him, unlike that horrid feeling of it being sucked away. The stings of when the Tribulation had struck him melted away like ice cream, reminding him of his pledge of lickety some banana split once this was all over. And the room seemed to shrink, very slightly, but growth was still growth, even if it was just an inch.

And just like that, the dark side had a minor victory. The light had vanished, leaving Alwin in his new form.

Niwla was eager to see whether Lapis' theory was right or not. He begged Alwin to stop wasting everyone's time and just angle their eyes downward.

Alwin, in Alwin fashion, refused. Instead, he turned upwards, eyes gazing into the ceiling crystals.

Niwla, in Niwla fashion, dove in with one of his Turkey legs, kicking Alwin out of the control seat. And when the slime protested, charging back in to regain control, Niwla grabbed his rotund body, slamming it right back down on the seat. Then, he plopped down on his new cushion, squeezing Alwin into submission.

Niwla, now in control of the body, looked down. Lo and behold, Lapis was right. A perfect mixture of black and white swirls marked their round, squishy, jelly-like bodies. He had evolved into a Yin-Yang Slime again.

The doors slid open, and Lapis swept in with her entourage of drones buzzing with excitement.

But Niwla was too eager. He didn't need any drones to tell him whether the experiment was a success or not. Instead, he triggered a Yin-Yang Blast.

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