Leo stood as the Slime-Titan, a seventy-foot testament to consumed power. He felt the earth's pulse through his feet, a slow, drumming heartbeat of immense energy. He could feel the weight of stone and the patience of mountains. With a thought, he could cause the ground to tremble. With a gesture, he could raise a wall of polished obsidian from the soil.
It was... too much.
The perspective was dizzying. The wind, which had been a gentle rustle in the leaves, was now a roaring river against his stony skin. The forest, once a vast and terrifying labyrinth, now looked like a patch of moss he could crush underfoot. The simplicity of being a small, oozing creature was gone, replaced by the immense responsibility of this colossal form.
[Analysis: Vessel is stable but energetically inefficient. The form requires a constant, massive drain of terrestrial energy to maintain structural integrity. Reversion to a condensed state is recommended for long-term sustainability.]
[Sage] was right. This form was like holding a breath he couldn't exhale. He was a slime, a creature of fluidity and adaptation, not a static monument.
[How?] he thought, the concept echoing in his new, vast mind.
[The principle is the same. You Assimilated to take this form. You can choose to release it. Focus the energy inwards. Condense it. Consume the form itself.]
Consume himself. It was the most natural thing in the world.
Leo closed his single, giant eye. He turned his awareness inward, away from the continental scale of his new senses, and focused on the core of his being-the small, green, immutable truth of what he was. He remembered the feeling of oozing through the undergrowth, of being a simple, small thing in a big world. He wanted that back.
He initiated the process not as an expansion, but as an implosion.
The energy that sustained the Titan form began to flow inward, reversing its course. The stone and wood that comprised his body lost their solidity, softening, liquefying, and streaming towards the central point of his consciousness. It was like watching a mountain range dissolve into a single, bottomless well. The polished obsidian darkened, becoming translucent, then transparent, merging with the green, gelatinous core. The living wood flexed and shrank, its fibrous structure breaking down into pure life energy that was reabsorbed.
He wasn't destroying the power; he was compressing it. The ability to manipulate earth, to generate tremors, to shape stone-all of it was being refined and packed into a denser, more efficient vessel.
The process was silent and swift. The seventy-foot Titan slumped, not with a crash, but like a deflating balloon, its mass collapsing in on itself. In less than a minute, the colossal entity was gone.
Where it had stood, Leo remained.
He was human-sized again, perhaps six feet tall in his vaguely humanoid slime form. But he was different. His green hue was deeper, more profound, like ancient jade. Faint, almost imperceptible specks of mineral wealth-flecks of obsidian and gold-swam within his translucent body, catching the light. When he moved, there was a new, solid certainty to his motion, no longer a mere wobble but a fluid, powerful glide.
He raised a hand. With a thought, the earth at his feet obeyed. A pillar of soil and stone rose smoothly, shaping itself into a perfect, polished chair before crumbling back to the ground. He hadn't even tried; it was as easy as moving a limb.
[Reversion complete. Vessel stability has increased by 900% from base form. Energy efficiency is now optimal. All assimilated skills from the [Forest Titan] template remain accessible in a condensed state.]
[Skills Integrated: Terrakinesis, Geokinesis, Earthquake Generation, Terrakinetic Constructs.]
He was no longer a small, weak slime. Nor was he an unsustainable, colossal titan. He was a perfect synthesis: a human-sized slime containing the concentrated power of a terrestrial demigod. He had learned his first lesson in true power: ultimate strength was not about size, but about density. About having infinite potential in a finite, controllable form.
He looked at the wasteland around him, the silent witness to his transformation. He was safe, he was powerful, and he was finally in control. The journey through the Dark Forest would now be on his terms. He was no longer just passing through; he was its master, walking in a form that belied the continent-shaking power within.