Lilith’s accusations left an uneasy feeling behind that lingered even after Pecta had walked a few blocks away. Why couldn’t that assassin keep her nose out of his business? What and why he did what he did was only his concern.
Speaking of Lilith, Pecta didn’t trust her. On one hand, he believed that Noctus had intervened on their behalf. A Chosen wouldn’t lie about that, and Vindict’s meeting with the god only confirmed this point. Pecta saw no reason why he would have lied about it.
On the other hand, it was all too convenient. A Chosen appearing out of the woodwork to help them because her god told her to? It was too perfect. It all felt orchestrated. Vindict didn’t seem like someone the gods would be interested in. Sure, his story sounded mysterious, but nothing about it screamed god involvement.
This, more than anything, solidified the idea that Vindict wasn’t telling him everything. Which had been fine up to this point. Everyone had their secrets and Pecta wouldn’t be the one to pry into them. But now that things were heating up that might change.
Pecta knew the answer to his predicament. Leave. Leaving Vindict behind would make escaping the city much easier. Nobody could blame him. This mess was far too dangerous for an ordinary man like him. Why should he involve himself in the affairs of the gods? Why should he put his trust in an assassin and a monster? The last time Pecta had trusted someone it had ended horribly. Why take that risk again?
Pecta shook his head to dispel these thoughts. He had made that mistake once. Listening to the voices. Letting fear stop him from acting. At first he had thought that this was a trial from his goddess. A way to redeem himself. He still believed that but it was slowly dawning on him that it was so much more than that.
But that wasn’t the only reason he was staying. Vindict had become something more than a random stranger. Perhaps not a friend but a trusted companion. Hardship strengthened bonds and Pecta and he had been through many hardships. This was just another one of them. Pecta wouldn’t betray him.
Pecta groaned as he strapped the pack to his back. It was filled with enough rations to last him and Vindict a week. All in all, it had cost him a little more than two large knights. There were other things he needed to buy, but they would have to wait until he unloaded his current load at the hideout.
He turned and headed back. The sun had risen and was now shining down on him in all its glory. If it weren’t for the blessing cowering Seran, he would have died of a heatstroke. Pecta had bought salfar cream but decided to wait before applying it. No need to waste money.
He dodged a group of guards, frowning at the familiar experience. This was the fourth patrol he had passed today. Were there usually so many? Sure, he had been told that the City Lord had increased security, but this much? The guy must really be paranoid.
Even though Pecta knew that they weren’t looking for him, he pulled his hood over his head and quickened his pace. Normally this would have been suspicious, but in Seran many people wore hoods to protect themselves from the glare of the sun.
Another group of guards walked toward him. Instinctively, Pecta’s hands clenched into fists and his heart rate quickened. Bad memories began to surface, but he quickly pushed them aside. They had no reason to stop him. He would just pass them and never see them again.
His heart almost stopped when a loud voice startled him. “Halt!” The lead guard shouted. Pecta briefly considered running but stopped that instinct before it got him into trouble. He had nothing to worry about.
Instead, he stopped and waited for them to catch up. “Routine inspection. Remove your hood so that we can see your face.” Pecta frowned. Routine inspection? He had never heard of such a thing.
“What do you mean by routine inspection, honoured city guard?” Pecta asked. Flattery was always useful. The city guard frowned and placed his hand on the hilt of his sword. Not outright hostile, but definitely threatening.
“Dangerous criminals are on the loose and all members of the city guard have been tasked with finding them. Now, remove your hood or we will be forced to remove it with force,” the tall man answered. Pecta complied, sensing that anything else would be too risky. The group of guards was just one hair's breadth away from drawing their weapons.
Another man stepped forward and held two pieces of paper next to Pecta’s head. He recognised them as wanted posters. Theoretically he should have nothing to worry about but that did not ease his concerns. Those spread further when the guard didn’t pull them away and frowned instead.
Pecta was sweating under his cloak, and not just from the heat. Another guard stepped forward and glanced at the posters and the suspect. They muttered something, probably not intended for Pecta to hear.
“Look, both of them have scars.” “Are you an idiot? That one has like two knife scars, while this one looks like he’s been mauled by a herd of wolves.” The second guard cursed at his colleague's incompetence and walked back into formation. He called over his back, “He's not the swordsman either. Way too young for that.” With that, the whole guard patrol moved away in search of a new target.
Pecta sighed with relief and was about to move on when he caught a glimpse of one of the wanted posters. His blood ran cold. “Honoured guards, who are you looking for? Perhaps I have seen the criminals. One of the guards turned around and glared at Pecta. “Don’t bother us. If you want to see the criminals then look at the wanted board.”
Pecta nodded, but the guards didn’t spare him any more attention. Instead of returning to the hideout, Pecta turned around and headed for the marketplace. He had to be sure.
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Sitting cross-legged I tried to ignore everything around me. The bustle of my copies, the smell of smoke, the roughness of the ground. None of it mattered. I focused all of my attention on my body until I could visualise it. Then I expanded.
Slowly my attention crept outwards, more and more information coming to me. My eyes were closed but I could SEE everything around me. It was similar to my passive sense but so much more. Everything was more detailed and vibrant. Ready to test this new ability, I focused on a rock behind me. With my attention on it, I willed it to change.
When I had fled from the not-angel, I had changed the material of the fortress. Back then, I had only affected a small area, but it had still felt like a slog. This was nothing like that. As soon as I willed the rock to change, it did. I opened my eyes and turned around. Where once had been a rock, now stood a miniature copy of the castle. Looking closly I could make out every tiny detail. I even spotted a couple mini stone copies of myself manning the walls.
Having the role of User was amazing. Slowly, I stood up to admire the difference. The mindscape had gone from an ugly battlefield to a well-organised fortress. My copies didn’t stumble about randomly, they walked with purpose. The walls were as good as new and the carvings shined with a red light. It was almost as if the battle with the parasite, or should I say demon, and Sarvad had never happened.
“Adam, could you repeat the Protocols that I can use?” The first thing I did after my two companions left was to have a chat with Adam. This gave me the chance to learn a lot about the abilities that being a User afforded me.
“Protocol 2: Calm Mind (active); Protocol 3: Royal Guards (passive); Protocol 4: Fortitude (passive); Protocol 6: Aura of Suppression (passive); Protocol 9: Sense State (active); Protocol 14: Dominion of the Mind (passive); Protocol 15: Chains of Retaliation (passive).”
As it turned out, my fear of boredom had been completely unfounded. There were a LOT of abilities I needed to explore.
First of all, the Protocols labeled as passive. These were relatively simple as they didn’t require anything from me. As the name implied, they worked passively by utilising the ambient mental essence of the mindscape.
I was already familiar with Royal Guards and Aura of Suppression. One of them created the guardian copies of me, and the other suppressed the power of other entities within the mindscape. Chains of Suppression wasn’t new either, though its effect was more situational. I didn’t dwell on it too long, as that would mean thinking about Sarvad. Now wasn’t the time to think about that mess.
The newcomers were Fortitude and Dominion of the Mind. Fortitude simply strengthened my mental castle. Hopefully that meant that the parasite wouldn’t just tear it apart like last time. Dominion of the Mind was by far the most vague. Adam said that it ‘improved control of the mindscape’. My earlier feat of changing the rock was partially made possible because of this Protocol.
Active abilities were a completely different beast. I had to activate them manually, and they used mental essence from a reservoir that had been set aside for this purpose. But that wasn’t the crazy part. No, what had me completely flabbergasted was that I could use these abilities in the physical world.
There were two of them: Calm Mind and Sense State. Calm Mind was a channelling ability that continuously required mental essence while active. Through experimentation, I found that it required 2% to run for one second. When active, it pushed all my worries away, allowing me to completely focus on one task.
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
To test it, I attempted to braid two pieces of hay in the same style I had seen some female humans wear their hair. Normally, I would probably have failed countless times before achieving this task. With Calm Mind active, I analysed the problem logically and came up with a solution. Instead of trying to braid with my claw I instead held the straws between two sharp talons and let the human hand do the heavy lifting. It did not take me long to complete the task. It wasn’t perfect, but for my first attempt it was extremely impressive.
Sense State, on the other hand, was an ability that always cost 10% to activate. Adam told me that it analysed the target's emotions by reading their body language. Unfortunately, I had no target to test it on, as I was currently alone. Using it on a copy of myself yielded nothing, probably because they weren’t real beings.
“Hey Adam, why is it that I still don’t have access to some Protocols? There should be at least 15 but you only showed 7.”
“Mental essence for activation not available.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Mental essence needed for other tasks. Completion of tasks necessary for further choices.”
I sighed. Sarvad had said that Adam had gone to ‘sleep’ and only recently been awakened. Could it be that parts of them were still ‘asleep’? And Adam had to allocated a certain amount of mental essence to awaken these parts?”
“How can I help? What are these tasks?” If I could help them that would be great. It was only because of Adam that I was still in control of my body. Whatever it was, they would get my help.
“Essence intensive tasks include protection from Enemy and containment of Former User.”
I cringed. Those… were some pretty big problems. Best to tackle them one by one, starting with the demon.
I concentrated on the mindscape and suddenly appeared on top of the wall surrounding the castle. Another useful trick made possible by Dominion of the Mind. My copies didn’t react to my appearance and just continued patrolling the walls. Smiling, I turned and beheld what was outside the castle. What greeted me was less than comforting.
A lifeless wasteland stretched beyond the walls. It went on for hundreds of steps before ending abruptly at the foot of another wall. But this was no ordinary wall. It was made entirely out of dark smoke that rose into the red sky. The smoke was not motionless, instead writhing and bubbling, like a beast that couldn’t wait to pounce on any unsuspecting victim. Winged shadows seemed to move within it and I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was watching me.
With a shudder I turned away. This wasn’t the first time I had seen that smoke. I vividly remembered the first dream I had in the desert. Dream probably wasn’t the right word. Encounter was more accurate.
My enthusiasm for solving the problem suddenly waned. There was no way in hell I was going to approach that wall. That would be dumb. I had no idea what lurked behind and getting closer could be a death sentence. Instead, I tried to use my new control of the mindscape to make the smoke disappeared.
A howl echoed from the smoke and I could see it begin to move. The demon's will was fighting me, but this time I had the advantage. With each passing second, the smoke receded. This was it. There was no way-
“Warning. Essence reserves are low.”
The surprise caused me to lose focus, which was all the demon needed. With a triumphant howl, the smoke slammed back to where it had started. I was about to scold Adam for interrupting me, but then I noticed my mental essence. It was at 15% and only rising slowly. This small struggle had almost completely drained me.
I glared into the smoke. There was nothing I could do for now. My control over the mindscape was stronger than the demon’s but I simply had too little mental essence. Now wasn’t the time to provoke it. What if the demon decided to attack again? Sure, since the battle with Sarvad it had been pretty quiet but that could change.
I teleported back to the courtyard. Now wasn’t the time to think dark thoughts but to try new things. Focusing, I could sense my essence reservoir. It had shrunk from my teleportations, but not enough to be worrying.
“It seems that I currently can’t help you with the demon problem,” I directed at Adam. “What was the other problem you mentioned?”
“Containment of Former User.”
I cringed at Adam’s words. Sarvad. I already knew that my former companion was alive, but to have to deal with him was something else entirely. My feelings towards Sarvad were, like many things, complicated. Did I hate him? He had betrayed me and tried to take over my body. His final moments flashed before my eyes. No, I did not hate him. I pitied him. Whatever had happened to Sarvad had left him as a prisoner inside his former body and drove him to the brink of insanity. “Can I see him?” I asked tentatively.
“Positive.”
Usually that would have been it, but this time Adam had something to add.
“This course is not advisable. Former User is unstable and poses a potential threat to the User.”
“A lethal threat?”
“Negative.”
“Then yes, I would like to see him.” I could feel the fortress rearranging itself. With a steadying breath I prepared myself to enter. I trusted Adam when he said that Sarvad was a threat to me, but I couldn’t just let him rot away. I didn’t know what had happened to him but it all seemed so… unfair.
The gods, or whoever else controlled the world, had dealt him a bad hand, to use one of Pecta’s sayings. And whether I liked it or not, I was one of the reasons for it. Talking to him was the least I could do. A selfish part of me also wanted to use this opportunity to dig for more information about my origins. With one last look around, I teleported into the fortress.
What awaited me was very familiar. It was a white room, the same one I had seen in countless memories. A set of glowing stones on the ceiling bathed the cell in a blinding light.
On a small bed opposed to me sat Sarvad. His eyes had been closed when I appeared, but now they were open. He slowly rose to meet me at eye level, the chains around his limbs and neck rattling. They were attached to the wall, severely limiting his movement.
“So the body stealer decided to show his face. What a pleasant surprise.” He laughed mirthlessly and took a step forward. The chains stretched taunt. “What are you here for? To laugh at my misfortune? Trapped by my own creation, how pitiful.”
“No, I’m not here to laugh,” I replied seriously, also taking a step forward. “I am here to say that I’m sorry for what happened. I only understand bits and pieces but from what I've been able to piece together, your life hasn’t been that great.”
My words had a profound effect on Sarvad, as he became completely still and stared at me. I was starting to hope that I could get through to him but then his face contorted into a grimace of anger.
“You are SORRY for what happened?! How can you dare to utter those words, when you’re the whole reason for my misery! They promised me that the pain would end, that there would be a bright shining future at the end of the tunnel. But look at me now, powerless to escape this cursed mind.”
The look of sadness had completely faded, replaced by an ocean of rage and hatred. Now I could see the gleam of madness in his eyes, the same as during our battle. My pity for him only increased as Sarvad continued his hateful ramblings.
“I want to help you,” I interrupted his rant about all the things I should do to myself. “Just tell me how all this happened. Who is the horned woman? Help me, so that I can help you.” My heartfelt pleas only seemed to increase his anger.
“You want to help me!? I gave you that chance! You had the honour of being my poetic instrument of revenge but you squandered it on useless frolicking!”
“You gave me no clue as to what I was supposed to do. My desire to help would be greater if you EXPLAINED things to me. The short time I've been alive has already been filled with so much hardship, and you haven't made things any easier.”
Sarvad’s harsh laughter filled the room. “Hardship?! HARDSHIP!? You claim that whatever happened to you was difficult? You have no idea what I’ve been through and you dare to say that you have had it rough. Your life has been a walk in the park compared to mine, so stop being so entitled!” He retorted spitefully. His hands reached for my neck but the chains barely stopped him from strangling me. It was difficult, but I didn’t back down.
“Then explain it to me!” I commanded. “Show me the reason for your suffering so I can help stop it.” This made him stop. A malicious grin spread across his face. “Oh, you want me to show you what happened. With pleasure.” Suddenly, an intense burst of mental essence blasted out of him. I could see his muscles rippling and the chains groaned worryingly.
“WARNING,” Adam’s monotone voice filled the room. “Former User is in danger of breaking containment. Immediate evacuation is-“ That was the moment the chains decided to give way. The last thing I saw was Sarvad’s hand racing towards my face before everything went black.
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When Sarvad reached the marketplace, his eyes were immediately drawn to the gallows. With a sigh of relief, he noted that they had removed the poor sap that had been dangling there. The smell of rotten flesh roasting in the sun was probably the reason for that.
He quickly approached the notice board that stood at the side of the marketplace. As usual, it was separated into multiple categories, but there was only one that interested him. The wanted board. It was located in the bottom right and contained sketches of all the people wanted by the law. Below them was a description and the reward.
Seran's was relatively small, at least compared to others Pecta had seen. No wonder, since there probably weren’t a ton of bounty hunters out in the desert. Pecta scanned the board until he found the two posters he was looking for. His grim expression hid the kernel of desperation that was starting to bloom.
Even if the face looked 20 years older. Even if the nose was too crooked. It was still his own face staring back at him. Beneath the image stood:
Unknown Swordsman. Wanted: Dead or Alive. Recently arrived in Seran and accused of robbery. Threat level unknown. Reward for capture or confirmed death: 10 princes.
Pecta shuddered when he saw the reward. 10 princes was very tempting for anyone. Although, with that kind of picture it would be almost impossible to recognise him. What worried him more was what he was being accused of. It was clearly a lie, but why would someone go through all that trouble? Did one of his many enemies finally want revenge? One look at the other poster dispelled all notions that this was about him. With amazement he starred at the almost lifelike drawing of Vindict’s face. The artist had even gotten all the scars right. He quickly read the description and almost gasped.
Sarvad. Wanted: Alive. Subject is wanted by noble decree. Recently arrived in Seran with an unknown swordsman. He is believed to have an injury on his left arm. Threat level: High. If seen you are to immediately call the city guard. Reward: 1 king.
Pecta just stood there in shock before quickly turning around and scurrying away. He felt eyes digging into his back, but refused to look back. Another group of guards passed him. What kind of mess had Vindict gotten him into? Noble decree meant that this wasn’t just some random bounty, but one issued by a noble. Someone with money and power.
Most nobles wouldn’t care about one king. But for anyone else that amount of money would be life-changing. If Pecta had that much, most of his troubles would simply disappear. Enough money to leave his old life behind and start a new one. ‘Enough for you to betray Vindict?’ A nasty voice in his head asked.
He shivered but kept walking. It was a dark thought, one that was sadly very enticing… No. It wasn’t enticing. It was just another cheap attempt to run from his sins. He took a steadying breath and placed a hand inside his cloak. It closed around the small amulet hidden inside.
The necklace was just a collection of wooden pearls on a string, with two intertwined rings at the centre. He had bought it for 5 knights from some beggar and it had accompanied him ever since. The rings were a symbol of Persa, a constant reminder of his need for atonement. He wouldn’t break his tenants because of simple greed. This belief guided him through the rapidly filling streets and let him ignore the dark laughter inside his head.