Percy found himself inside the body of a Green armadillo-esque creature. His vessel was large, round, and covered in lots of hard, chitinous plates. That said, he didn’t much care about the beast’s physical appearance right now. He was far more interested in his host’s soul, as well as the very process of possessing it.
Convincing the creature to let him in hadn’t been difficult. The promise of patching its soul up and saving it from the verge of death had been alluring as always, the beast being more than smart enough to understand his intentions. But that only made him feel a little guilty over what he was about to do.
Up until now, he’d always had to walk on eggshells around his hosts, because they all possessed absolute authority over their souls and bodies, and could evict him at a moment’s notice if their goals didn’t align. Obviously, his unique ability to save their lives gave him a lot of leverage when negotiating with them, but this advantage was ultimately constrained by their intelligence, their honesty and their willingness to strike or uphold a deal with him. If his host would rather die than let him stay, Percy was – generally speaking – powerless to do anything about it.
That was why he had asked Zoris to coach him on a few simple techniques that would help him cast a stickier vote – so to speak – moving forward. He didn’t expect to reach a point where he could just disregard his hosts’ wills entirely or seize their bodies by force, but he hoped to obtain the means to stand his ground if they tried to bully him around.
‘Sorry mate. I won’t let you suffer too badly. Consider it my payment for saving your life.’
Percy knew this wouldn’t be a pleasant experience for either party, yet he also understood he needed to get some practice before he could truly add this new tool to his arsenal.
Stretching his wisp, he allowed it to brush over all the cracks in the armadillo’s soul, getting a feel for even the smaller ones that he hadn’t bothered to fix. Instantly, he sensed his host’s unease at his actions, but the creature shook its worries off, ultimately choosing to trust the person who had just saved it.
Smiling bitterly at this display of undeserved trust, Percy chose a pair of cracks that crossed into one another, forming an X-shape. Thinking the landscape would give him good purchase to latch onto, he turned his soul into a hand, slipping his spectral fingers into the narrow gaps. Applying some pressure, he slowly strengthened his grip on the creature.
It didn’t take him long to be met with some resistance, a wave of force washing over the armadillo’s soul, unlodging his tendrils one after the other. Naturally, his host hadn’t appreciated his forceful approach, and it was kindly warning him to stop whatever he was doing.
Percy sighed.
He would have asked Micky to let him practice on him – had it been an option. Sadly, his familiar’s soul was way too compatible with his own. If he tried to injure the crow and inject his soul in the wounds, he wouldn’t be able to separate himself later – at least, not without a ton of pain.
Elaine and Nesha weren’t great options either. The girls might be willing to let him experiment on them – since he wasn’t planning to do anything particularly damaging – but there was another problem. His clones were supposed to stay in their bodies for several more months, so they wouldn’t be able to return and bring the knowledge back to the original anytime soon.
Left with no other choice, Percy doubled down on his current test. Identifying a few more cracks like the first one, he tightly grabbed against their ragged walls, careful of the amount of strength he exerted.
As early as during his first meeting with Micky, Percy had learned how easy it was to further damage an already injured soul if he wasn’t careful. Luckily, he’d gained a lot of experience over the years. He understood how to tread the fine line between a grip firm enough for him to hold his ground, and a touch gentle enough to preserve his host’s integrity. The fact that the creature was at Green and in a better condition than Micky certainly helped too. His prospective Blue hosts would be even tougher in that regard.
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Despite his relative finesse, Percy was still at a severe disadvantage, however.
The overwhelming wave of rejection pried his ethereal digits off the armadillo’s soul one after the other, slowly pushing him out of its body. The beast was clearly done playing around, having finally decided to evict its rude guest for good.
‘Not so fast,’ Percy spat.
Before embarking on this quest, he had asked Zoris for tips. Obviously, the former god didn’t have much experience with possessing another’s soul, but he still knew a lot of nifty tricks that Percy might be able to employ. Recalling the strange state he entered whenever he used his spectral traits, he caused his wisp to transform.
His soul squirmed and bubbled up, countless tiny legs sprouting all over its nebulous surface. The spider-like limbs dug into his host’s soul, strengthening his grip on the hostile soil. At the same time, a series of thin hairs appeared. Flailing around for a moment, they all homed into the nearest protrusions, wrapping and coiling around them.
The beast’s soul thrashed about, hell-bent on getting rid of him.
But Percy held his ground just as stubbornly, refusing to budge. This back and forth continued for a couple of minutes, as neither side appeared willing to compromise. That said, what Percy got out of this tussle was rather limited.
While he had successfully overstayed his welcome against his host’s will, his connection to the creature’s mind and senses had been severed entirely. Even though the armadillo failed to shake him off, Percy still couldn’t retain his access to the beast without its permission.
‘Oh well… Let’s take it one step at a time… This is already good enough for the first attempt…’
Eventually, some of the cracks expanded. Unable to take the pressure any longer, the armadillo’s condition started to worsen, the ethereal tendrils holding the preservation runes in its injuries snapping one by one.
‘I guess that’s my cue to leave.’
Not wanting to hurt the creature, Percy stopped fighting back. The transformed features on his wisp soon reversed, as the armadillo finally pushed him out. Technically, Percy could have stayed longer if he wanted, but he’d already gained plenty from this trip.
Not that he was above killing a beast as part of his training – he’d already slaughtered hundreds during his stay in the Valley – but this still felt rather icky. Healing the creature only to stab it in the back ten minutes later just rubbed him the wrong way, so he didn’t want to go too far. Besides, there were plenty of other hosts in the universe waiting for him.
***
Finding himself inside the body of a flying beetle, Percy didn’t attempt a forceful possession this time. Having a host with the ability to travel relatively quickly, he didn’t want to waste it on his new project. After all, he had plenty of other goals, no less important.
He still tried to find a Green sapient whenever possible, as the value of a lesser spring couldn’t be overstated, but those were rarer. Thus, he was more than willing to spend some time doing other things whenever the situation called for it.
Buzzing around the sprawling forest, Percy ignored the wildlife as he scanned his surroundings for magical herbs. Most of the creatures ran away upon noticing him, as Green beasts were typically at the top of the food chain on most barren worlds.
Over the next few hours, he did come across several plants rich in Red or Orange mana, but he wasn’t interested in most of them. An Orange ingredient with a rare affinity might let him invent a new potion, but there wasn’t much of a point in doing that when his potions were already losing their effectiveness on him.
His current priority was to find a secondary ingredient rich in gravity mana, so that he could try to register the compression principle he had read about in Nephthys’s Sanctuary. If and when he did that, and once he had the means to elevate all his potions and tattoos to a useable level again, he could consider branching out in more directions. As things stood, he’d rather not fill his spatial seals with junk.
Of course, even if he stumbled upon the correct ingredient, it wouldn’t be easy to identify its affinity. Unlike the vibrant colours that ingredients rich in karma mana tended to have, gravity mana was colourless and otherwise subtle. Without his mutated eyes to help him, Percy was forced to take a gamble on any Red plant the affinity of which he couldn’t immediately recognize. Storing a few specimens of each one, he hoped to examine them more closely when he returned home.
There was also the question of whether he would even be able to cultivate these alien plants on Remior. The environment might not be suitable – not to mention that he was currently on the run. But even if he couldn’t, just adding the new principle to his Status was more than worth his time. It would boost his brewing yield and get him more Aurora Dew out of his supplies. Furthermore, it would enhance his eyes, hopefully helping him find other gravity ingredients more easily in the future.
Searching for alchemical ingredients wasn’t his only mission, however. As always, he had kept his compound eyes open for signs of civilization or another source of stable beast mana – two things that often led to something interesting.
And there was another thing – something he could work on by himself, while flying. All thanks to some more helpful advice from Zoris.