The darkness surrounding Arthur slowly faded, and cold hit him the instant he opened his eyes.
He was standing in an enormous icy landscape, snow drifting through the air, massive walls of ice rising so high he couldn’t see their tops. "Back here?" he muttered, taking a few steps.
Nothing attacked him, no Beast, no copy, no shifting gravity, no crushing pressure, just silence.
That alone made him cautious. After everything the Mirror had already thrown at him, the absence of danger felt like its own kind of warning. "That’s never a good sign," he said, moving forward.
Then something caught his eye, a tiny blue shape. He stopped. "...Star?"
The little Slime sat alone on the ice, and something was wrong immediately, no bouncing, no wiggling, none of the usual excitement, just trembling, its small body shaking as it looked around the frozen landscape.
His expression softened as he crouched beside it. "Star? What’s wrong?"
It looked past him, and he followed its gaze to find a perfectly straight path stretching through the ice, Star on one end, a brilliant white light marking the exit on the other.
The answer was obvious. He could reach that light and continue on. But Star was on the wrong side of it.
Golden-blue words appeared.
[Continue without the creature.]
He stared at them, then at Star, still trembling, and shook his head without a moment’s pause. "No."
The words disappeared. He waited, and another line followed.
[It is weak.]
He looked down at Star, silent for a moment, then crouched lower. "So was Vedas." He remembered how far the Goblin had come, from something barely worth comparing to the others around him to a partner who fought beside Arthur without hesitation. "That didn’t stop him."
Star looked up, the trembling starting to ease. He reached one hand toward it, and the Mirror tried again.
[It has not proven its value.]
His expression cooled slightly as he glanced toward the exit, then back down. The implication wasn’t subtle, the Mirror wanted him to weigh Star’s worth by usefulness. He didn’t.
"It doesn’t need to," he said, hand still extended. Star stared at it, hesitating, and he didn’t force it, just left his hand there. "Come here."
It slid forward slowly across the ice and climbed into his palm, and he gently closed his fingers around it. "You’re my Beast." A pause. "That’s enough."
Everything stopped, the wind, the snow, even Star’s trembling. The entire world went completely still.
"...What?"
Nothing. Then the golden-blue words returned.
[Bond Recognized.]
His eyes widened, and he looked down. "Star?"
A faint blue light began glowing inside the Slime’s body. The Water Mirror suddenly flared to life in the distance, its surface shining brilliantly, blue-white energy flooding through the chamber. He shielded his eyes instinctively, but the energy wasn’t coming for him.
It was moving toward Star.
He lowered his arm. "It’s going to Star." The light surrounded the little creature, and it rose slowly out of his hands.
"Star?"
He reached for it as its body began to change, stretching, contracting, expanding again, its form unstable for several seconds. It went nearly transparent, then deep blue, then almost black, tiny points of light appearing inside it, one, two, ten, hundreds, moving with clear intention, resolving into something that looked like stars scattered across a miniature night sky.
"You’re changing..." he said, reaching out as it floated higher, blue light filling the chamber around them.
His Evolution Path Vision activated on its own. And this time, unlike with the ice copy, the information came through perfectly clear.
[Consume 100 Mana Crystals: Complete]
[Reach Level 15: Complete]
[Forge a True Bond: Complete]
He froze, and read them again. "...All three."
He didn’t know when Star had met the first two. As he never saw Star defeat a beasts or even devour that many mana crystals. But he supposed it could have reached those requirements before he met it. And then the last one. It was never about strength but surprisingly a bond with another being.
"You were already ready," he said, and Star simply kept floating.
The evolution reached its peak. And then its body settled into a more defined shape, still a Slime. But taller now, the surface smooth with an entire starry sky swirling inside it, deep cosmic darkness threaded through with sparkling points of light and small drifting nebulas. When it moved, the stars moved with it, an entire miniature universe carried inside one small body.
Something formed above its head next, a tiny crown and built from golden-white light. "Star..." he breathed, the whole chamber lit now by its cosmic body.
He reached for it on instinct. "Star!" It shot toward him and he caught it against his chest as a wave of energy exploded outward, blowing snow and ice in every direction. He braced against it, blue light flooding the chamber, and then everything went quiet.
He opened his eyes slowly. Star rested in his arms. For a moment he said nothing, then smiled. "...You did it."
It wiggled happily, and he laughed.
Golden-blue words appeared.
[First Evolution]
Starborn Slime
He read the name aloud. "...Starborn." Star wiggled at the sound of it. "You like that?" Another bounce. "Yeah," he laughed. "I think it suits you."
His Evolution Path Vision activated again, a path stretching forward this time.
Starborn Slime
↓
Astral Slime
↓
Celestial Slime
↓
???
Something almost childlike lit up behind his eyes, not thinking about how strong Star would eventually become, just genuinely fascinated by everything it might turn into. "...You’ve got a long way to go," he said, and Star wiggled happily in response. "So do I."
Another notification appeared.
[New Ability — Mimic Form]
Star could temporarily reshape its body to mimic the physical properties of anything it had touched, not their abilities, not their skills or magic, just the raw physical traits themselves. Metal. Stone. Rubber. Ice. Water.
"...So you can become harder," he said, and Star wiggled. "Or elastic." Another wiggle. "Or behave like water." A bounce, and he smiled. "That’s actually pretty useful," puffing with obvious pride at the compliment.
He looked around the icy chamber. The path was gone. The exit was gone. The Water Mirror had already started to fade.
He looked at Star, and he understood now, that the whole trial had never been about whether Star was strong enough, or useful enough to help him win. It had only ever asked whether he’d abandon something before it had the chance to prove anything at all.
He hadn’t hesitated. "It’s my Beast." That had been enough.
"I think I understand you now," he said. The Mirror didn’t answer.
The icy world began breaking apart, and he looked down at Star. "Ready?"
It wiggled.
He laughed. "I guess that’s a yes."
The entire world shattered, not like glass, the ice, the snow, the sky, even the ground fracturing into thousands of pieces of blue light, and he fell through the darkness that followed.
Then a voice reached him, faint, almost distant. "Arthur!" Another, louder. "ARTHUR!"
His eyes snapped open, and he gasped as the cavern returned all at once, the Water Mirror right in front of him, his body still standing. Only moments seemed to have passed.
But something was wrong. Everyone was staring at him.
"Arthur!" Sun was practically shouting, already closing the distance. "Are you okay?!"
He blinked, looked down. Star was still in his hands, but different now, a tiny celestial crown glowing softly above it, its translucent body holding a swirling field of stars.
He smiled. "...I’m fine."
Sun’s eyes went wide the second he saw it. "What happened to Star?!"
He looked around at all of them, Vedas, Mithra, Athena, Athy, Eden, Kong, every single one staring, and Kong pointed at Star, then back at him.
Arthur laughed. "Apparently, we had a little surprise."
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