The next book of the series: Backstreet Evolutionist (Book 9): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HDSBXM1M The dome over Lensk is cracked all over. In two days, the town will be no more. Misha Arkharov has only just returned from the Kungur Caves, but the crystal is already dying. Without a new stone, Lensk will be defenseless before hordes of monsters. And the time to get that new stone was yesterday. Before he dives into another rift, however, our Evolutionist absorbs the dominants of a fire bear – and he gets an ability that changes the rules of the game. Now, any fire mage is powerless against him. His hammer soaks up mana from Tears of Creation, and one blow is enough to send granite boulders flying. His third-rank Bloodline dominant, meanwhile, shows the locations of his relatives on the map, and one of them is moving somewhere near Perm. Every power, however, has its price, and something terrible is happening to Serge – deathly pale eyes, a cursed axe, and dreams in which the monsters he’s killed sit around silently, waiting. Screaming in pain, Misha’s mother receives a regeneration dominant. And in the rift, a four-armed necromancer crafts bone serpents from human victims. You think he’s afraid of a few kids? Misha finds allies – Baron Titov, his guardsmen, and his artefactors, whose products Misha can make forty percent more effective in seconds. He assembles the Memory Weaver, an artifact capable of rewriting the memories of any intelligent being. He hands out dominants left, right, and center, rebuilding the clan from scratch. It looks like everything’s going to plan. The rift’s cleared. The crystal’s secured. The clan’s getting stronger. But, looking down from a telecommunications tower forty yards above the ground, stands Ostap, thinking I’ve got you now, Mikhail Konstantinovich.
