Zorhellian clicked his tongue several times, quickly examining the errors that had appeared in Instance 37 of the Soul Harvesting Story. His eyes narrowed as he tried to figure out what had gone wrong.
The Stories' successful execution relies on several complex magical processes. The most unpredictable variable in these, and thus the most likely source of the error, is found in the process of overlaying a more powerful identity on top of each participant's; this includes everything from their species to their personality, memories, abilities, and more. For most participants, this is an easy task. Humans especially are ridiculously simple to overwrite. They have little to no psychic resistance to speak of, rarely possess any supernatural or godly powers to alter, and their personalities are so changeable already that changing them up requires little effort.
This was why Zorhellian preferred having humans as the participants in his games. Speaking in terms of magical technicality, altering alien races could get complicated. The more species he had to alter, the more variables he had to juggle, and the more difficult the games would be to run. Luckily, considering how the humans' characteristic xenophobia made them hated everywhere, it was easy to convince his patrons to agree to use humans. This round, almost all the participants were human.
One of the less than ten nonhuman participants was a Dragonchild youngling who called herself, "Alesha Williams," and she had a peculiar chaotic aura about her. He'd first noticed it as he was prepping her for the Werewolf Island Story. It had felt familiar in an unpleasant way, but he'd overlooked it at the time.
Now, however, as he was revisiting the details of her alteration to figure out what went wrong, he remembered where he had felt that particular chaotic aura before. Damn Krogor! It was the aura of the Chaos Dragon Krogor, Toltura's "General," a loose cannon who lived for destruction, chaos and bloodshed!
Unlike Zorhellian, who loved causing chaos in a sophisticated, sadistic manner (drawing out the process to savor every moment), Krogor liked it quick and violent. Planets visited by the brute always ended up in scrambled ruins, randomized by his characteristic breath weapon: Chaos Fire. Such an uncivilized, distasteful creature! There was no class in the way his chaos left everything decimated. Zorhellian hated the brute. In fact, Krogor was part of the reason he'd left Toltura's Army in the first place, volunteering to go off on his own to preach Chaos in the way he preferred.
So why was the bastard's chaotic influence here?! Last he'd heard, Krogor was off tormenting the inhabitants of some unimportant planet in the Human Alliance. This girl wasn't even human!
… Wait. Krogor's breath weapon often changed the species of those it touched. Shit.
He pounded his fist on the desk, hissing and cursing Krogor under his breath. That damn dragon's influence was about to ruin this whole round of Storytelling Games! No matter how much Zorhellian hated Krogor, he could not deny how powerful he was. His chaotic power was so robust that even the smallest fraction of it could have profound ripple effects no matter where it went or how it was used. This would be blasphemous if he were to say it aloud, but it was to the point where Zorhellian wouldn't have been surprised if Krogor was the God of Chaos rather than Toltura.
Dreading what he would find, he returned his attention to the errors in Soul Harvesting. As he feared, they were entirely related to Alesha's identity overlay.
To get to the core of why this was happening, he delved deeply into how Krogor's aura had changed the girl; at first, he had made the mistake of assuming her species change was all there was to it, but the more he examined the details, the more shocked he became. What the hell had Krogor unintentionally created in her?! This was insane! Not only had her species been changed, but she now had some sort of nonphysical entity attached to her that allowed for rapid development, including evolution, physical enhancement, the acquisition of new supernatural abilities and even creation of Toltura's holy water, Korak.
Zorhellian was thoroughly mortified. Looking into the details of this particular error in the Story reminded him of a few human terms for her existence: "a bug," or perhaps "a glitch," maybe even "a ticking time bomb." There was absolutely nothing balanced about her presence in the Story, and if he did nothing, this same error would keep occurring no matter how many times he reinforced the identity overlay. Eventually, especially in the current Story that practically forced her to acquire XP in large amounts, her existence would become too powerful for him to alter.
What could he do? It would violate his business ethics to cut the Story short by altering the "End" conditions, but he couldn't allow Alesha to continue with the Story.
Even if he locked her away inside the "Derek" identity, she would still accumulate XP and level up, then break free again upon reaching her next evolution at level 30. By the time she reached level 80, he predicted that he would be unable to contain her again. Zorhellian might be powerful, but he was by no means omnipotent. Especially not when facing a power such as Krogor's.
He sighed and took off his top hat, placing his face in one palm. Was that the only option? He hated the idea of doing this, but in the interest of allowing the Games to continue fairly, he would have to. He prepared himself to carry out the solution he had come up with, steeling himself to face the criticism that would inevitably follow.
It was very likely that many patrons would see his solution as being unfair.