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Vanderberk didn't wait to see what they were going to do. He increased the pressure on his helium coatings--as intense as he could muster.

Their crystalline bodies imploded and turned to dust, all of them at once.

That was one problem taken care of, at least, but Vanderberk was still unsettled. He didn't know how they had transformed. If the Devourers could be turned against each other like that, then his entire strategy here--

Another beam of light interrupted his train of thought, catching another group of Devourers and beginning the same process again.

No. Not the same, he soon realized.

Instead of each Devourer changing individually, their collective glow coalesced into one massive, winged creature.

A humongous avian monster of radiant crystal.

Vanderberk didn't hesitate to attack again, but in the back of his mind, he couldn't help hanging on the fact that they were turning to crystal.

Why crystal? Why? It couldn't be--no, if it was, then--

This couldn't be the work of the Crystal Titan, could it? Vanderberk didn't have the luxury of thinking it through. His instinct was telling him no. Sermung hadn't been seen at all during this war, so why would he show up here, of all places?

No, no, no. NO. It had to be a trick. The enemy was a powerful psychic. Playing mind games. Trying to get to him. Make him panic.

This damn crystal bird was resisting the coatings. He couldn't seal its movements. Freezing wasn't accomplishing much, either, other than making it slightly more brittle, perhaps.

He shot an invisible pillar of pressurized helium at it. And somehow, the fucking bird almost dodged it. Instead, it took the hit on the wing, which exploded on impact, sending crystal shards raining over the entire area.

A solid white beam erupted from its beak and eyes, coming straight for him.

He couldn't avoid it in time. Even in his gaseous form, it hit him clean, right in his invisible torso, sending him down and down, pummeling him into the ground.

His gaseous form flickered, and he scowled as he sat up. He paid no attention to the gigantic crater of vaporized rock and dirt around him. He was only concerned about the bird. Where had it gone? It was so huge and obnoxiously bright. How could it have disappeared?

Unless--could it have been an illusion, too? Agh, of course it could have. But the Devourers. They were real. The Inferno. What was it telling him? He needed to listen.