The last merge finished sometime past midnight, though Logan had lost track of exactly when.
The camp was fully fixed, and even sturdier than before.
’All done.’ Logan pulled up the roster panel.
All Mythic-rank.
```
[ Combat Roster: Mythic-rank ]
> Billy (Voidwheel Sovereign)
> Bryowulf (Frostfang Eternal)
> Blitzhawk (Stormking Talon)
> Vex (Cinderveil Reaper)
> Solveig (Dawnblade Ascendant)
> Stitchgrin (Nightmare Seamlord)
> Juggernaut (Worldbreaker Colossus)
> Unnamed (Verdant World-Root)
> Unnamed (Eternal Quartz Behemoth)
> Unnamed (Abyssal Tide Sovereign)
> Unnamed (Celestine Star-Eater)
> Unnamed (Voidmaw Devourer)
> Unnamed (Seraphic Skylord)
```
Thirteen names. One Rare was still sitting off to the side, waiting for a merge later, and the production units hadn’t been touched at all. But out of a hundred and twenty summons and everyone he’d already had, thirteen had come out the other side at Mythic.
Seven of them he’d chosen himself. Billy and the rest. He’d kept their merge line active the whole way up, generation after generation, rather than let any of them get folded into something anonymous.
The other six didn’t have names yet. They were new personalities, built from scratch, nothing carried over from before.
Logan read the list over twice, his good hand not quite steady, and let himself sit with it for one more second before he made himself stand up to actually look at what he’d built.
"Those I have named will stay here. I am going to rest for three hours. During these three hours, I want the six of you to move in two groups. Sky Group consisting of those who can fly, and Earth Group consisting of those on the ground. Move in two different directions and kill monsters you encounter. Level up, and bring everything back."
He took a breath, then added, "Stitchgrin, use your threads and make a flexible bag that can grow. You can do it, if you use your powers with control and intent."
Mythic was the peak, and it came with more than better skills. Mythic-rank units grew Talent Trees of their own, the same way a player did, unlocking Talents tied to whatever they already were. Stitchgrin’s had come in as the ability to produce and shape something he called Nightmare Threads, spun straight out of himself on command.
"Hehehe, I got it. I’ll make two."
Both groups took their toys with them once Stitchgrin finished the work, which took him less than a minute, and left right away.
"Guess we’re housebound, folks." Billy grinned.
The base hadn’t stopped working while Logan had been buried in merges. Bob had the plunder from both raids spread across the yard in neat rows, iron and crystal and salvaged cloth sorted by some logic only he seemed to follow. Martha was elbow-deep in a mountain of fresh meat. Tinkerbell darted between three half-finished inventions at once, muttering to herself and not noticing anyone was watching.
Logan turned to the seven who’d stayed and found all of them already looking different.
Billy rolled his shoulders, and something in his frame shifted with an audible click, gears and joints resettling into a new arrangement. Where his wheel-legs had been dark iron before, they’d gone black now, a deep swallowing black that bent the light around its rim instead of catching it, faint points of light drifting inside like a trapped night sky. The blades along the rim had thinned and lengthened, and when he spun them once to test the balance, each one left a thin afterimage hanging in the air for half a second before it faded.
His face hadn’t changed. Same scar. Same easy grin. But the sling in his hand had reforged itself into something that looked less like a weapon and more like a small tear in the world, a loop of compressed dark that hummed faintly whenever he flexed his fingers near it.
```
[ Voidwheel Sovereign ]
Name: Billy
Rank: Mythic
Talent: Severed Spokes. Any blade on his wheel can detach and keep moving under his own control, cutting and circling on its own while the rest of him fights somewhere else entirely.
[ Active Skills ]
> Absolute Pierce (Mythic)
> Voidrend Barrage (Mythic)
> Event Horizon Dash (Mythic)
> Cataclysm Rampage (Mythic)
> Singularity Pull (Mythic)
[ Passive Skills ]
> Void Afterimage (Mythic)
> Sovereign’s Wheel (Mythic)
```
"Feels different," Billy said, rolling in a slow test circle across the yard. He grinned up at Logan. "Feels like I could take on a whole match by myself, boss."
"Don’t get cocky."
"Wouldn’t dream of it." He was already grinning wider than before.
Bryowulf’s change had gone further than most. Frost that used to just cling to his fur now grew out of it, thin crystal antlers branching up from his head, his coat gone the pale blue-white of old glacier ice. The thorns wrapped around his forearms had turned to something closer to living crystal, edges sharp enough to cut without him meaning to.
He knelt once, testing the new weight of himself, then rose and bowed properly toward Logan.
"Master. I am ready to serve, whatever form this new one is."
```
[ Frostfang Eternal ]
Name: Bryowulf
Rank: Mythic
Talent: Packcall. Any wolf-type creature that meets his eyes knows him as alpha on sight. One howl is enough to bind it into his pack for good, no summoning circle required.
[ Active Skills ]
> Everfrost Arrow (Mythic)
> Glacial Spike Barrage (Mythic)
> Absolute Zero Trap (Mythic)
> Summon: Frostfang Legion (Mythic)
[ Passive Skills ]
> Eternal Quiver (Mythic)
> Winter’s Ward (Mythic)
> Undying Frost (Mythic)
```
"Traps first," Logan said. "Same as always. Just bigger this time."
"It will be my pleasure." Bryowulf was already moving for the outer ring, ice crystallizing faintly with every step he took.
Blitzhawk’s wings had nearly doubled in span, and actual storm clouds gathered faintly around his shoulders whenever he moved, small and contained but undeniably real. His crystal armor had darkened, thin veins of captured lightning running through it like cracks in glass.
"Master, look!" He spread his wings, and thunder rolled somewhere overhead despite the clear sky. "I brought my own weather!"
```
[ Stormking Talon ]
Name: Blitzhawk
Rank: Mythic
Talent: Stormseed. Anywhere he’s flown over, he can plant a storm that keeps building long after he’s gone, left to grow worse and worse the longer nobody deals with it.
[ Active Skills ]
> Apocalypse Feather Storm (Mythic)
> Thunderking’s Blade (Mythic)
> Stormcall Throne (Mythic)
> Thunderclap Judgment (Mythic)
[ Passive Skills ]
> Tempest Wing (Mythic)
> Stormsight (Mythic)
> Eye of the Storm (Mythic)
```
Logan laughed despite himself. "Mount something on the towers using that. Give us an early warning system."
"On it, Master!" Blitzhawk was already airborne, thrilled with the assignment.
Vex hadn’t grown any bigger, which somehow made him more unsettling than the ones who had. His fur had gone the color of old ash, and where black flame used to bleed from the cracks in it, something darker leaked out now, not quite fire, not quite shadow, just absence with an edge to it.
"Feels good," he said, flexing one clawed hand. "Feels quiet."
```
[ Cinderveil Reaper ]
Name: Vex
Rank: Mythic
Talent: Shadowline. Any shadow he’s physically stood in becomes a doorway that stays open. He can step into one and out of any other he’s already claimed, as long as his feet have actually touched it before.
[ Active Skills ]
> Voidstep (Mythic)
> Reaper’s Black Flame (Mythic)
> Legion of Cinders (Mythic)
> Death’s Toll (Mythic)
[ Passive Skills ]
> Fading Echo (Mythic)
> Apex Cinderdark Engine (Mythic)
> Shroud of Night (Mythic)
```
"Perimeter," Logan said. "Nothing gets close without you knowing first."
Vex was already gone before he finished the sentence, nothing left where he’d been standing but a stretch of deeper shadow.
Solveig’s armor had gone from gold-white to something closer to captured dawn itself, seamless plate that generated its own soft light instead of just catching it. His wings had grown, individual feathers replaced by long unbroken sheets of solid light, and his greatsword burned steady now instead of pulsing.
He knelt the way he always did.
"Lord. Command me."
```
[ Dawnblade Ascendant ]
Name: Solveig
Rank: Mythic
Talent: Splintered Dawn. He can carve a piece of his own light free of himself and shape it into a second knight, weaker than him but genuinely independent, for as long as he keeps feeding it his own radiance to stay standing.
[ Active Skills ]
> Dawnbreaker Zenith (Mythic)
> Aegis Eternal (Mythic)
> Starfall Cataclysm (Mythic)
> Judgment’s Light (Mythic)
[ Passive Skills ]
> Sovereign’s Dominion (Mythic)
> Ascendant Wings (Mythic)
> Unwavering Oath (Mythic)
```
"Hold the core," Logan said. "You’re the last line if anything gets past everyone else."
"It will not get past me."
Stitchgrin had gotten stranger without getting much bigger. The seams across his patchwork body had multiplied, and some of them didn’t stay closed anymore, gaps opening and shutting like slow blinking eyes, each one glowing faint violet from somewhere inside him that had no business being lit.
"Hehehehe~" He turned in a slow circle, seams popping and resealing as he moved. "Feels roomier in here."
```
[ Nightmare Seamlord ]
Name: Stitchgrin
Rank: Mythic
Talent: Nightmare Threads. Produces and shapes thread straight out of himself, for crafting, binding, or combat as the moment calls for. Thread reduce stats of whatever it touches by 20%.
[ Active Skills ]
> Abyssal Devour (Mythic)
> Eternal Restitch (Mythic)
> Nightmare Swarm (Mythic)
> Toybox Dimension (Mythic)
[ Passive Skills ]
> Seamlord’s Ward (Mythic)
> Unraveling Thread (Mythic)
> Grin of the Void (Mythic)
```
"Build up the toy reserve while you’re at it," Logan said. "I want a garrison waiting even when nobody’s here to call it out."
"Hehehe. Yes, Master."
Juggernaut had simply gotten bigger, the way a mountain gets bigger the closer you walk to it. New cannon housings had grown along his back and shoulders, and the furnace glow behind his chest grate had gone white hot instead of orange.
He planted all four feet and let out a sound that shook dust loose from the nearest wall.
"Roar!"
```
[ Worldbreaker Colossus ]
Name: Juggernaut
Rank: Mythic
Talent: Offloading Barrier. He generates a barrier around himself that grows stronger the more damage he deals to a target, lasting up to an hour or until something manages to break it.
[ Active Skills ]
> Apocalypse Barrage (Mythic)
> Absolute Overdrive (Mythic)
> Destructive Roll Charge (Mythic)
> Seismic Slam (Mythic)
> Fortress Mode (Mythic)
[ Passive Skills ]
> Eternal Engine Core (Mythic)
> Adamant Plating (Mythic)
```
"Take the gate," Logan said. "You’re the wall now."
Juggernaut rumbled something that might have been agreement and rolled into position, settling into a stance that looked less like a creature standing guard and more like a fortification that had simply decided to grow legs first.
Seven of them, spread out now into seven different corners of a base that had started the day as three stumps and a summoning circle.
Logan looked around at all of it and finally let himself feel how tired he actually was.
Three hours. That’s all he would rest for. Afterward, he would start his rampage.
He found a quiet corner near the core, sat down, and closed his eyes.