"W–woaah…"
A girl stood starstruck, her eyes glued to the magnificent cauldron as it tanked bolt after bolt raining down from the sky.
Her dress, sewn from green reflective safety vests, swayed as she held her hood close.
She watched the heavens crackle with fury, each strike thwarted as the strange cloaked giant refined his retribution. The sky itself seemed enraged—yet powerless.
Her soft lips parted as she clutched her reflective hood. Somehow, the storm was strong enough to generate winds and rain that could affect even her kind.
For a full minute, the cauldron remained invincible.
KABOOOM.
"EEK!"
She ducked.
With one final lightning strike—one last tribulation—the heavens shattered the cauldron. Its walls ruptured in a violent explosion, glowing orbs blasting outward in every direction.
She blinked, stunned.
Steam hissed.
Dantians flew—straight toward her head.
"Ahhh!"
She leapt from the top of a truck, landing in a crouching bound. She slipped, face-planting into the mud with a wet splat.
Her body sank halfway into the soil.
"…Hm?"
She pushed herself up—unsoiled.
The mud parted around her as if she weren't fully real. She pulled her legs free and stood atop the surface, staring at the aftermath.
"Woaah…"
Her eyes sparkled.
She ran forward and picked up a dantian.
It glowed in response to her touch.
A dull, black-gray light washed over her.
Her body became heavy.
Real.
She felt her feet sink into the mud. She felt the breeze against her skin.
And she felt the Qi inside the orb flow into her—strengthening her spiritual body, anchoring it into physical form.
She gasped.
Then remembered—
This didn't belong to her.
Her gaze snapped forward.
The ox within the ritual site resonated with several nearby dantians, flora bursting into existence around her massive form.
Then—
The cloaked figure approached.
As his presence drew near, the green lights dimmed, replaced by dark, chaotic hues. Plants withered and died where his shadow fell.
He reached the ox.
What happened next made her heart seize.
The ox turned to diamond.
A perfect statue.
Her legs moved on instinct.
Fear trembled across her face as she hurried forward, clutching the orb. She felt she had to give it back.
"Um…"
She approached the man nervously.
"Um…"
She didn't know if they could communicate. He might be a spirit from the junkyard and might not understand human—or their spirit dialect. The realization deepened her fear. What if he took offense?
What if he turned her into glass too?
She paused, tugging at his robes.
Qiren turned, feeling the pull on his sleeve. "Hm?" He was taken aback by what he saw.
Next to him stood a brown-haired girl in raincoat-like attire.
From head to toe, he saw rough stitching, making him assume it was all handmade.
"T–this… is yours, yes?" she said, carefully imitating human speech.
She lifted the dantian toward him.
His horns straightened.
"Aren't you the ones who wanted to steal my wheels?" he said, bringing his fingers to his itchy, droopy ox ear.
She froze like a deer in headlights at the mention of wheels.
Then he paused. "Uh… never mind."
He held the slave scroll in his hands and smiled, dozens of golden lips spawning behind him.
He bent to her level and pinched her cheek lightly.
She was half his new height—
—but as he lowered himself, she burst into a swarm of rats.
Qiren blinked in shock as she scattered without hesitation, dropping the dantian and disappearing.
"Haha," he chuckled, straightening. "Was I too intimidating?"
He contemplated which of the mouths he conjured should swallow the scroll.
They didn't make it easy. Each extended its tongue, licking the rim of his slave scroll, begging to be used.
He chuckled. Perhaps making them in my impression of Missy wasn't the right choice, he thought, letting one wrap its lips around the golden frame.
From behind, it looked like a two-dimensional mouth with a clear opening—a view straight through to the other side. It gave the illusion that the scroll would fall right out, as the scene behind the gaping maw rippled.
The scroll entered—but did not exit the other side as expected.
Instead, it vanished without a trace: an illusion within an illusion.
This wasn't spatial manipulation or teleportation, but sleight of hand. One side revealed the truth—the lips were reconstructed flesh, complete with teeth, saliva, and texture.
The other side was a painted canvas mimicking its surroundings, hiding the inner jaw and throat passage and creating the illusion of floating lips.
"Mmm, maybe I'll have fun with these later," he cooed, remembering his Aspects. He could feel his power leaking as the scroll's partial departure took effect.
He looked at his current appearance and smiled.
He snapped his fingers and lit himself on fire, burning off the outer layer of "skin." He didn't flinch as he moved his hands to his chest.
He grabbed a balloon string as his jester suit took form.
"Playing minotaur wasn't on my to-do list for today. That'll have to take a back seat."
He looked down at the scattered dantians.
Qiren's skin lost its dark sheen, becoming a pale, powdered tone.
He released the balloon, took out a gun, and shot it.
It burst open with glitter, confetti, and a piece of purple paper.
Due to your outstanding performance, you have awakened. You have advanced into the Characterization Stage of Demonic Evaluation, making your future world-crossing easier.
"I don't know what this new demonic stage entails… but characterization looks like a big part of it. Then nothing's really changed—I'll joyfully continue to play these characters~"
He sent out the mouths he created, tasking them with swallowing dantians.
Qiren stared at the cow statue. His fingers slipped into his sleeve, pulling out a tarp and covering it. Then he reached back in and pulled out balloons.
He reached for the dantian the mysterious girl had dropped. It sloshed with abundant Qi, which turned purple. Gas began swirling around it. Inside the now-clear violet core, something rippled.
Tiny figures swam like worms in a pond.
He brought the core to his mouth and inhaled the poisonous fog.
It sank into his lips, stained his gums, and paralyzed his tongue. He took a balloon and blew into it.
Then he nibbled along its opening.
Swesss.
He pulled it forward, a white string trailing from his mouth, tied to its end. It glowed with a hazy sheen.
"Boom~," he cooed, blowing the balloon away.
—BOOOOM!!—
It exploded in a violent haze, taking the car it landed on with it.
His fourth Daoist Aperture reflected the scene back into his mind with perfect clarity—his actions fitting neatly into his Mad Jester characteristics.
He closed his eyes, forming more wyrm smoke around his dantian.
That lone action was accepted into his characterization.
Then he created a music box, a surprise clown already hanging from it.
His eyes opened to the doll's creation. "Will you hold this for me?"
It limped to life and nodded as he handed it over. Its simple clothing darkened with intricacy. It blinked, feeling Qi flow through it, then looked back at him.
"Thanks. Now, if anyone passes by, blow yourself up, okay?"
He smiled, closed the music box, and placed it by the entrance road.
That earned him a clearer memory as well, his Aperture responding.
"Now then, should I make more?"
Qiren summoned a pair of lips to bring him new dantians.
—
Yoyo's POV
"No, wait—don't leave me!!" a rat squeaked beneath a pile of scrap metal.
Its gaze lifted to the sky. A bus floated away, packed with strange creatures.
They flew in a hot-air-balloon-like contraption as she remained divided into different rats across the yard.
Sigh.
"Now what am I going to do?" she muttered. "Maybe I'll wait for him to leave?"
Her scattered bodies lay low as she watched Qiren set up three more boxes before heading deeper into the junkyard.
"Finally, it's safe," she whispered, emerging from her hiding place.
Reforming beneath her coat, her body slowly masked itself in human light.
"Hmm," she snorted, standing proudly. "I have to punish those fools for leaving me."
"I told them never to leave without me. Now I have to find my own way home."
"Your own way home?"
She froze at the playful voice behind her.
She turned, feeling an orb pressed against her back.
There he was—the spirit she had run from.
"I thought this was your base of operations."
Yoyo panicked and broke into rats once more.
But after moving barely a meter, she slammed into a glass wall on all sides.
Her heart skipped as she looked around at what the jester had made.
She was completely enclosed.
Her many eyes shifted toward him.
He smiled inside the box with her, holding a dozen balloons.
Oh rats…