Friendship was a difficult thing to covet, Invidia had found. While he now considered himself to have many friends, his very nature as a demon demanded that he have more.

His obsession was an intrinsic part of his being and not something he could rid himself of even if he wanted to. Indeed, he couldn’t imagine living without it.

Yet when one began to exceed a certain number of friends, it became increasingly difficult to maintain them. Invidia had his duties to perform, which he did, gladly, and he enjoyed spending time with his master and his siblings, naturally, yet that left little time to cultivate friendship with others.

He had recently joined a bookclub, which was enjoyable and allowed him to spend time with some of his friends. Taking his Biomass in the mess hall with the third battalion allowed him an opportunity to spend time with others, and resting with the fifth battalion when they took torpor afforded him a chance to enjoy the company of yet more.

More and more, Invidia was a victim to the tyranny of time. There simply wasn’t enough time for him to spend time with his current friends, let alone make new ones!

Even worse, he found that if he didn’t spend time with his friends, then over time they would no longer be friends, deteriorating into nothing but acquaintances. This was intolerable to the demon.

He’d become so worried about his friends higher up in the Dungeon that he wasn’t able to see and possibly wouldn’t for a significant length of time that he had begun spending what precious little time he had remaining writing detailed letters to send to them. Via the exchange of such missives, he hoped to stay abreast of events in their lives and keep them informed of the things he was doing.

In this way he would be able to maintain his friendships even though he wasn’t physically present. An ingenious plan.

And it worked! Already he was receiving replies, a rich harvest of friendship that Invidia delighted in. He had taken to carefully filing the letters in a storage unit the ants had supplied for him, indexed by the names of the senders and the dates they had been received, in order to better hoard his treasures.

Yesssssssssss.

Invidia was not happy to be disturbed from his pleasant contemplations by the arrival of a strong presence rising up from below. Abundant mana flowing out of a rich and potent core, this was undoubtedly another invader rising up from the sixth. A worthy adversary and not one that his friends on the platform were equipped to handle.

[Massster. There isss a presence approaching the fortress.]

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[Oh! Right then, I hadn’t felt it arrive yet. Your senses are still the sharpest amongst us. Are you going to be able to handle it?]

[I believesss ssooo.]

[Let me know if you need help, but these battles will give you the most experience and Biomass. Push towards tier eight! I believe in you!]

Invidia didn’t feel as though he needed the motivational speech, but he appreciated it nevertheless. After informing the battalion on the platform what he was doing, Invidia fluttered his wings and began to drift out into the tunnel.

He couldn’t move very quickly; that was a weakness that had been built into his design, a trade-off in order to make him as powerful mentally as was reasonably possible. Invidia had studied some of the notes that Granin and the others had retrieved from the Shapers regarding his own design. They were interesting to study, but contained nothing too unexpected.

As he drifted, Invidia allowed his myriad of mind-constructs to weave spells, detonating anything that he deemed threatening with air-shattering explosions.

He was also extremely weak physically, unable to suffer so much as a single solid blow. That meant he needed to be cautious while he fluttered through unsecured territory. His prodigious mind was on high alert, constantly scanning for unseen threats while mana thundered through him at a constant pace, ready to be used at any moment.

After a while, he began to feel tired, so he dropped down to the tunnel floor and held himself up with his hands in order to give his wings a bit of a rest. Perhaps in his next evolution he could stand to work on his physical form a little? It wasn’t his focus, but surely a little more endurance could be tolerable?

After five minutes, he once again fluttered up into the air and prepared to depart. He had a task, after all.

When he finally saw the creature, Invidia narrowed his eye. This wasn’t going to be simple.

It took the form of a swirling cloud of purple. Lightning cracked and crackled around it, and when he looked closer, Invidia saw that metal shards swirled about the monster's form in a never-ending loop, thousands upon thousands of them.

He could sense the powerful mind at work within the creature—it was holding those shards in place with mana, not an organ. Intelligent, able to utilise magical constructs, and it likely had sensed his own approach long ago.

This monster was very similar to himself. That would make it more interesting.

Invidia grinned, his mouth tearing a hole open through space to reveal itself as he expanded his will to seize control of the surrounding mana. Almost immediately, he felt himself crash into another mind, and the two began to wrestle to and fro, trying to gain control of the ambient mana, which would become a precious resource between them.

As a humble creature of the third stratum, Invidia did not underestimate what this wild monster of the sixth might be capable of. His minds heaved, weaving together threads of power at a dizzying rate.

A series of cataclysmic explosions rocked the tunnel, sending debris flying and dust scattering everywhere. In an instant, a harsh wind blew all of the dirt downward, revealing the invader, untouched. It had gathered the shards of metal around itself to deflect the force of the explosions, creating a partial shield.

Interesssssting.

Invidia’s eye gleamed as power began to accumulate in it.

He might have some fun playing with this one.

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