"Have you gone completely dark? How could you have thought that was a good idea?"
"Maybe I have." Vale laid on the floor, laughing wildly. "I wanted to show you how truly dangerous this world is."
"And you couldn't just tell me?"
"I didn't think you'd believe me."
". . . even so, I could've died."
"Have I not told you already?" Vale sat up suddenly, putting his face right in front of Dorin's. "I don't care about this world anymore, let alone your life. If you want to survive, then you need to become strong enough to live despite any odds stacked against you. My domain is nothing in comparison to what awaits you in this world."
An unsettling feeling overtook Dorin as he backed away from the old man, and he wondered how he could have ever thought himself to be an apex predator. In that world, he was almost as weak as a newborn fish.
"If you want to sate your beasts, you need to create a similar domain in each of your egos."
"How am I supposed to do that? I can't even summon them."
"While you might not be able to physically hold your ego, they are still inside you." Vale thrust his hands out towards Dorin's face, and before he could react the man had a finger pressed into the space between his eyes. "Don't come out until you find them."
. . .
Several streams of different colors twisted in the darkness across Dorin's vision, like a curled spiderweb. They became bigger and smaller as he focused on them, and he saw different things inside the various colors.
There were the smaller fish he had devoured originally in the ocean in the blue stream, the predators in the red, and a mix in the yellow. There was also a purple and black stream that he couldn't quite make out, until a set of pincers clamped down towards him, as if they knew he was watching.
Dorin wondered where they led, and just as he was about to follow one to the end, he saw a black and blue figure rush into the blue stream. It took a fish from the stream and turned into a blue light which flickered into the distance.
Dorin followed the blue light, until he saw a giant ball of water that had all of the various streams of color curling around each other. There were two other balls of water, one of which was completely red and a half the size of the first. The other was more like a pebble, and it was a mixture of a red and black, but with a purple tinge on its edges.
The smallest ball looked like Eki's eye, and Dorin wondered why it was so small. The last time he saw Eki his ego beast had only just survived an onslaught from Rae's beetles, and he hoped that he was okay.
In the center of all three balls was a curious golden stream which curled into itself. There was a strong pull towards it the closer Dorin got, until he realized that it was an infinity.
'What is that doing here?'
. . .
Ara
A month had gone by since Ara had arrived in this world. There had been several other purple beetles that had visited her nest in that time, and their arrival had gotten quicker with each invader.
'We can't keep waiting, Balo.'
Balo clacked his pincers together, like a war drum. His followers had multiplied in the past couple weeks since Ara had engraved the sun onto his crown. They were lined up in the hundreds around the edges of Ara's various connected nests. They joined Balo in his clacking, until it was as if an applause was ringing through the swamp.
Balo had grown much larger with each purple beetle he devoured, and Ara climbed atop his crown. He had grown white spikes on his shell, similar to those he devoured, and some of them curled around each other just behind his crown to create a throne where she now sat. She could easily see past the trees, as their crowns were barely at Balo's eye level.
Ara had noticed that the beetles had been coming from the same direction each time, a mountain in the distant west. The rising sun shone on its face, and Ara thought she saw movement on the mountain.
'That must be another wave.'
Ara rolled her ego, and for the first time since the day she got it a six shone on Balo's shell. The air heated up as six white strands crawled up her body to create her long spear.
'This might be the best chance we get.'
The sense of nervous excitement filled Ara's body, the precursor to a hard battle. Ara would never back down from such a thing, and instead wished for it. The last time she had been forced to overcome her limits, she had gained Balo.
Ara raised her spear towards the distant mountain, and the light from the sun was magnified through it ahead of her. Any vegetation was instantly set aflame, creating a clear path for her towards the mountain.
Balo and his followers continued their clacking as they began to march forward. An orange light oozed out of Balo's crown, and it covered them both, as well as his followers. The flames fueled the covering as they walked over the blaze, until they had become a wave of orange fire washing through the swamp.
'Today, we claim this world.'
A group of purple beetles ran into the orange wave, only to be set alight on impact, burning to ash within moments.