Seth double-checked everything one more time. Rituals were good to go. The supporting formations were ready. His alterations to the flows... probably fine. He had fastened the remaining bound spirits to his body, ready to draw at a moment's notice. With one final deep breath, he sat down in the middle of the ritual with legs crossed. Then, he let qi flow out of him, activating the ritual.

  As the surrounding rituals flared to life, he slammed the first binding ritual around one of the tumors. It struggled under his skin, dragging a grunt of pain out of Seth. The pain didn't stop him from slamming the second one in place. The wriggling under his skin made him sick to his stomach. Still, the third, fourth, and fifth didn't give him too much trouble. After that, he sent a wave of healing energy into his body before continuing. That stopped the tumors for a moment. As much as he hated empowering them, he needed them to stop fighting for a second.

  He slammed the sixth and seventh ritual into place, tapping into his bound spirits to do so. Sweat beaded on his forehead from the exertion. Just in time, as the ambient qi slammed into his inner ritual formation, further powering the binding process. Part one complete. Just gotta fight for my life now.

  So far, everything had gone as expected. He needed to survive the counterattack. Among the wriggling under his skin, a searing pain erupted in his left lung. He took a deep breath. One lung filled normally, and the other filled his world with pain. Pain, he could deal with. The wet, internal slosh was more disturbing. Something wriggled and made him gasp and choke, forcing blood through his throat and out of his mouth.

  He dove into his mindspace to survey the damage. One tumor had dove into his lung and was thrashing around. He moved his qi to reinforce the parts of his body the tumors were damaging. Then, he tried to use some internal qi to seal off his left lung from the rest of his body. It took him a few tries, and some pain, to get it right. Then, he healed the cut shut, sealing off the lung.

  He breathed in and out, returning from his mindspace for just a moment. Oh god, I'm not getting enough air. Seth forced his mind to focus. Of course he's getting less air than he used to. He was down a lung. But, to the best of his knowledge, people could survive with only one lung. If that was all these tumors took from him in this fight, he'd have gotten off lucky.

  Ok, back to work

  The tumors had taken his distraction as an opportunity to sneak closer to his dantian. He focused all his internal qi to blocking off that particular advance. Of course, that left the tumors free to thrash around. He released healing magic, but this caused the tumors to grow even more. He felt his heart beating erratically in his hands and ears. Is my heart supposed... Once more, he cut off a troubling line of questioning. The binding magic was still ramping up. The technique manual said this process could take a few minutes. That's why the ritual had placed the seven sacrifices in cages. Now, he had to cage them himself.

  If only I had more qi. Need to get one of these bound soon.

  Pain exploded in his neck as he noticed a small tumor snaking up along his carotid artery. He tried to harden his qi in that area, but that allowed the tumor to get closer to the dantian. When he blocked off that route, however... The pain of the tumor sliding under his neck knocked him back into his body. He felt like he was being choked, even though he could still breathe. He put his hand to his throat, and he felt the tumor wriggling just underneath the skin. His field of vision shrank to the altar in front of him, and his head felt floaty.

  It tore through his skin when it reached his jawline, forcing him to heal over it, giving it energy to continue upward. He formed an ice shard in his hand and jammed it into his face, stabbing the tumor. It thrashed, forcing him to heal, but it stopped advancing. Strangely enough, he wasn't feeling much in the way of pain anymore. That's probably bad. His fingertips had started tingling.

  [PAIN!!!] A voice echoed through his head.

  A different one mewled in wordless pain.

  [Hungry...] Yet another one.

  The tumor's voices had been raging nonstop, but he had been blocking them out until now. Was a tumor... crying in pain? What the fuck... No, not gonna think about that. He breathed in. The lung rose normally. A breath out, and it fell normally. Everything is fine

  [PAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!] The tumor in his lung, for some reason, decided it was hurting. Or maybe it just wanted to hurt Seth.

  The tumor in his lung started stabbing toward his heart, and the haze in his mind became crystal clarity. He reinforced the area around his heart. Of course, the distraction allowed the other tumor to keep ascending his face. He was vaguely aware his throat was hoarse, and a high-pitched shriek filled the room. Everything is fine. Stay focused.

  He dove back into his mindspace with a force of will. Now that he paid attention, he could see amorphous blob representations of the seven. Most were muttering and mewling incoherently.

  [Soft and squishy]

  [Fun!]

  [Hard]

  None of these were from the one imminently threatening his life. He found the one that was crawling up his face and faced it. Another wave of pain almost knocked him out of his mindspace. Seth maintained his focus and shouted as loud as he could.

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  "STOP!!!"

  [Stop?] It wasn't stopping, but it was talking.

  "If you keep going, I die."

  [Hurt]

  "Yes, I hurt," Seth said. Maybe, just maybe, he was getting through to it.

  [HURT!!!!!]

  Or maybe not. He felt it push up and out against his cheek, blood and pain flowing from the new wound.

  [Why loud?]

  "Because that hurt!"

  [Hurt?]

  "Yes."

  [You hurt?]

  "Yes."

  [Boring. Fix.]

  "I can't. I—"

  [Boring.]

  Pain erupted from behind his eye, and his vision flickered in and out. He swore he heard the damn thing laughing.

  [This fun.]

  Seth racked his brain. This was like talking to a two year old. A two year old with a loaded shotgun pointed right at his head. Right now, it was having fun playing with the trigger. Seth's limbs went cold and tingly, and this negotiation with the tumor became his entire world. If this keeps going...

  "STOP!"

  He felt it hesitate for a moment, and the one in his lung started acting up. With some of his remaining qi, he blocked it off and focused. He knew words could carry intention, and he hadn't been taking advantage of that fact. Instead, he'd been defaulting to speaking with the thing like a child.

  [B—]

  "If you say boring one more time, I will punish you." With it, he sent all his anger, and images of the cancer being stabbed, burned, and whatever other horrible fates he could think of. The imagery filled his chest with warmth, which radiated out to his cold limbs.

  [N-no. Lies.]

  Seth formed a foot-long icicle in his hand and jammed it through the tumor inhabiting his lung. Specifically, though the part closest to his heart. It screeched and recoiled away from the magical ice. It was still alive, but had lost a lot of energy keeping itself that way.

  He became aware of a dull, hazy pain in his chest. Seth knew it should hurt more than this, but the pounding of his heart in his ears had become wild, like a chimpanzee playing bongos. My heart. Better fix this. Wait, why am I so calm... no, fix your body first. He pulled energy forth from one of the bound spirits, healing what damage he could while keeping the icicle lodged in. Somehow, he kept his heart beating. For now, at least.

  "You said I was lying," Seth said. He returned to the tumor and took a step toward it. "I am not."

  [H-Hurt?] Along with the words came feelings of... disbelief? Bewilderment? Seth wasn't sure, but it was listening now.

  "Yes, that hurt. Do you want to find out?"

  It squeezed his optic nerve again in response. Distant, hazy agony flowed through him in waves. Still, he kept a steady facade up as he formed another spike of ice in his hand. He knew where the tumor was, and he would...

  [STOP!!!] It stopped squeezing. Stopped moving. Seth didn't stop the formation. Didn't stop moving the ice spike.

  "Then submit." He slowed his hand, giving the tumor time to process.

  [Hungry...]

  "I'll feed you once this is over. Now submit."

  He felt its hesitation, so he still hadn't stopped moving the spike of ice. Before he could thrust it down, however, he felt the ritual click into place. New power flowed into him. How was the thing hungry if it had this much qi stored up?!

  An arc of bruised, purple lightning danced across the ritual. Then another. And another. His heart raced as the lightning danced. What's happ—

  [Hungry?]

  Seth's breath caught in his throat as the thought drifted to his mind. What happened? Is it because the tumors don't have fully formed souls? Or was something wrong with my version? Seth clamped down on his spiraling thoughts. Analysis could wait. Now, he had a devil to bargain with.

  "You'll get something once we're done."

  He felt the thing's rage through the bond created by the ritual, and it squeezed his optic nerve. In response, he forcefully drained some of its energy through the bond. It shrieked and fought against the ritual. The struggle was short-lived.

  "Knock that off."

  [Liar.]

  "I said after."

  [No! NOW!]

  "Not until the thieves are gone. They're stealing your food." He sent a very clear image of the other tumors stealing this tumor's food. At that, he felt its wordless rage shift focus. No longer at him, but rather at the other occupants in his body.

  POV - Therus

  Therus had done a lot of thinking over the last few days. Being trapped in a prison of energy too low to stand gave him plenty of time for reflection. He had accepted that he would die, especially once the final trial was explained. If not by Seth's hand, it would be Aaron's. If not Aaron's, then Mathias's. And if all of them had failed, he suspected none of them would leave alive. If someone had to get his cultivation, he'd rather it be Seth. Not that he was happy about it.

  The first day, he had entertained hope. Seth seemed to be searching for something. That hope further bloomed when he started making arrays. Not sorcerous rituals, actual arrays. Seth was searching for an alternative.

  When the ritual had started an hour ago, he hadn't screamed or begged. Pride was part of it, but it was mostly because he knew Seth couldn't hear them. But time dragged on, and Seth started to moan in pain. Those moans turned to screams. It was then that Therus started paying attention to what was happening. There were seven rituals in the air, intersecting with Seth's body. When did he create those? Hope flared to life in Therus' heart once more.

  It promptly died when Seth started choking and coughing out blood, followed by more screaming. Black tendrils crept up the side of Seth's neck, along the artery there. Was that happening all over Seth's body? His stomach turned at the thought, even as he tried to imagine what it would be like.

  The skin on Seth's face split, though it healed over quickly. That's right, he can heal. Still, how long can he actually last?

  When he looked at Seth, he was overwhelmed by a feeling of wrongness. Seth was at once screaming in agony while the rest of him was still as a statue in meditation. An eye flashed open, completely red and darting around the room. Only one eye was open, but the feeling Therus got from it was... curiosity?

  His stomach lurched and hands went cold. Seth wasn't behind that eye. Something else was. The eye stayed open, unblinking, tears streaming forth. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He rode waves of memories and prepared for the end. He allowed himself to dream of a future where he walked out of this alive.

  Not that I wanted to die, but if I had to... Therus just shook his head and started embracing his fate as cultivation fuel for Aaron.

  Seth's other eye flew open, and an icicle formed in his hand. Therus recognized this eye. Seth was still there. Still fighting.

  The wave of hope that flared to life died as Seth plunged the icicle into his own chest. The sickly purple lightning that followed did not inspire confidence.

  The worst thing? The half-crazed smile on Seth's face as he plunged the icicle in. Followed by more screaming. And laughing. I must be losing my mind. I have to be. He shut his eyes. After thirty seconds, he re-opened them. Nothing had changed.

  For the first time since the ritual started, he prayed the insane spectacle would just stop.

  It kept going.