'-even understand what you activated. It could be any... end up with you dead and... -ris and the others will have a field day when they hear I was trapped inside a borderline suicidal...'
Damien sighed in spirit, cursing as his mind rambled on and on against his wishes. Not in a 'can't stop thinking' kind of way, but a, 'have a god trapped inside your head with you,' kind of way. Nothing he had tried worked to stop the diety's rant either. Threats, bribes, reasoning... the God was upset.
Hours had passed, or what felt like hours. Maybe months. All Damien knew was that it was pitch black underground, they could breathe still, and Rai hadn't given him control of his body back yet. At least he'd taken to meditating and only having an internal mental crisis, regaining mana and slowly healing external injuries much slower than Damien could.
Kastra had been sending anxious probes and vibes through their pact all the while, but all Damien could do was reassure her that he was still alive and send back confusion. Because... he was confused. Krissa tried to kill him, the Hellials were dead, Kastra was somewhere above them and trapped, while Alexa...
'Don't,' he thought, stopping that train of thought.
Kastra had enough troubles as is currently, more so than he it seemed like.
Feeling around with a small amount of mana, he was able to tell the small size of the room they were in roughly before Rai sensed his manipulation and stopped him, stripping the mana and pushing it back inside their body.
'What are you an idiot?' the God practically screamed inside their mind. 'Anything could be out there and you just send your mana out, inviting death or worse. Just when things seem to be calm you...'
Another mental sigh at the perpetual state of this so-called God he currently shared a body with. Stuck with a man who was in an absolute panic at the thought of not being in absolute control. It was as if the guy was more worried about dying or being turned into a slave than Damien was.
'And you wouldn't be worried about those things?' Rai shot back, Damien's internal musings halting at the irony of that statement.
'Says the guy who has me TRAPPED inside my own BODY,' Damien practically screamed back inside.
'You'd get us killed anyway. You should be thankful. You mortals all tend to be a bit careless, and if it weren't for me, those Hellials-'
'If it weren't for you, Alexa wouldn't be dead right now! You're damn right it's a good thing I'm not in control, I'd actively try to kill us if it meant dragging you straight to hell with-' Damien started, catching himself, stopping the internal rage, and going back to figuring out how to once again subvert the man's control of his mana so he could probe the room once more.
Damien had long since lost count of how many times he'd already blown up on the God. Truthfully though, even if he had a chance, he would never think about getting himself killed. Kastra... was all he had left, if Vanessa was to be believed. Even if she'd forced him into the runes, he knew she at least understood why it was necessary. It was silly, loving so much but having your life tied to their own. It made ones self-preservation spike, yet at the same time still want to prioritize the other party. Meaning when a life and death situation presented itself, she chose the option that, while it would hurt her more in the short term, would mean their continued existence uninhibited potentially.
When one dies because of the others death, emotions meant nothing anymore. Only the logic of the situation. Which Damien was guiltily thankful for being in his favor this time. He was already taxed beyond his capacities and Kastra had always seemed better equipped to handle these situations. He was glad she'd understood his losing control to the God. Silly of him to assume he could maintain it, against a literal God inhabiting him, anyway. But at least they'd die or be free.
"It really was ridiculous of you to allow it. Just showcasing your ignorance. Demon's hell, this is even worse than when Ceris inhabited me. And she was almost in constant control the entire time. At least it will pose a challenge for the future me though, right?"
Like water dowsing a flame, a new voice cut into Rai's constant ramblings and Damien felt their body stiffen. Finally, he felt his lips part and just before the God addressed whatever was there, it spoke again.
"Ah, I'm Yevlue by the way. Or, I'm the... ghost of him. Ghost? I'm... his memories, given life for the sole purpose of you, and this room. Congratulations on being compatible!"
Damien's mind did a double-take as it took in who the voice had claimed to be. Yevlue was a name that had a piece of knowledge on every single bit of magic in the Academies vast library, whether a small contribution or large. Illusion magic, Runic books, body modification... Yevlue was one of the more famous names in their academy's library simply based on the virtue of how many books he'd written. It was his book that had first introduced Damien into illusions even.
Reminiscing shortly on the first day he'd met Jasmine as well, Damien had to agree it would make sense if the man was actually Yevlue. The rune magic alone...
"Compatible?" he asked, or his mouth did.
Damien himself was still trying to figure out what was going on while sensing a slight weakening in Rai's control.
"Ah, not you, you see. The man you inhabit. You are to take a back seat for these proceedings, actually. Or should I say, for the foreseeable future?"
Rai started to try to respond, but didn't get any further than cracking their mouth slightly as hidden runes lit up all around the room, an obscene amount of mana flowing into them from every direction.
Damien felt the God's panic as their body went stiff, then fell back onto the ground, facing upward. A man's face came into view, leaning over the top of them. Long, elvish silver hair, blue and yellow eyes, one ear pointed while the other was rounded, skin a dark tone that reminded Damien of an island dweller... The man honestly didn't fit into any one race or category he'd come across since coming to this world. It almost seemed as if he tried to be... part everything.
"That is correct! I am part everything. See look, I even have one black and one white wing," he said, turning and showcasing the two wings on his back. "They're just for show though, most of this is. I could never get either appendage to actually settle into my personal body and work properly. But yours... As I said before, compatible," he finished, beaming down at Damien.
"Unhand me this-" Rai began through gritted teeth.
"Tsk tsk, you Gods. Ceris was mad too, but she lacked vision. Gave me so much wisdom but didn't want me to use it... create death, she said. No light? As if I'd not make the opposite as well, let alone allow her to outright kill me."
"Ceris is a benevolent-"
"Silence," the eccentric man demanded, Damien's jaw snapping shut with a click as he felt some of his teeth crack. "That is quite enough out of you. Time out," the man stated, reaching down and flicking his finger around Damien's face.
If it were just a single-finger puppet show, it would have been fine, but the agony that spread from an absolute splitting headache made Damien reminisce on how easy he'd had it after overcharging his brain earlier. An excruciating pressure pulsed inside his skull, making him feel as if his brain would explode out his ears at any moment. He felt like his eardrums had already blown out.
"Sorry, sorry," Yevlue mumbled down toward Damien, though seeming to look through him, "been a while since I've done this. Not often I get visitors here. Made her swear on her God of Truth, yet the bitch still managed to drop a mountain on my home. Can't trust Gods, kid."
Damien nodded at that at least, the guy finally saying something that made sense as the pain began to lessen. And he actually nodded too, in control of his body once more.
"What did you-"
"Made the old fuck take a back seat is what I did. All I had to do was root around in your brain a little bit. Disconnect this, move it here, reconnect that... a little modification. Not unlike what's to come, actually," Yevlue finished with a bright smile, watching Damien sit up slowly.
"You... to come? What? You altered my brain?" Damien said, thinking out loud. "I can't even hear him anymore."
"Yes, yes. You should be able to if you wish it. Just think about the hitchhiker and-"
'THE HELL IS GOING ON OUT THERE AND WHAT DOES THAT MAN KNOW OF CERIS?! I'M GOING T-'
"-then if I just do this he's quiet again! Though you need to get better at silencing him yourself. It can get annoying when they won't stop talking. Gods don't take kindly to being trapped, after all. They're the most powerful beings on this world, but they're probably the most paranoid and anxious things in existence. Take away their free will and they never shut up. Trapping them inside of you is actually a lot simpler than it seems too. Possession magic like they use only needs a slight alteration to the base of the spell, swapping designation from friendly to harmful and... well, disconnect reconnect, you've got a bad entity in your head and your mana finally helps fight it off! Would be impossible to do for most people though. Altering a brain, even if it is your own, tends to end catastrophically. "
Damien's mind ran in circles as he began to make sense of everything the man was saying. Wings? Opposites? Controlling a God? Compatability-
"Not controlling, harnessing. It's their own fault they sent their consciousness into us. Who's to say we shouldn't be able to trap and exploit that? It's our body anyway. Fuck those guys."
"Can you please... stop interrupting my thoughts. I... How are you even reading my thoughts? No, first, back to my brain. Did you say you manipulated it? Isn't that impossible?" Damien asked, starting with the most important part.
The man, or woman though he seemed male, nodded with an almost approving smile.
"A good first concern. Yes, it is impossible! In the current world at least. You all forget the old magics, young man. Well, I say old, but I created it and... Well, maybe it's only been a few years since this facility was buried. But I digress, only I could do it so it wouldn't matter how long..."
"You-"
A hand got held up, stopping Damien's question before he got it out.
"Right! Yes, I manipulated your brain a bit. No, I didn't change anything that makes you, you. Just made it impossible for that tag-along to take you over again. Like I said, swapped a yes to a no. Friendly to a non-friendly. Sorry, I haven't spoken to anyone in forever it feels like. Speaking out loud to someone who has to listen is so liberating. When I'm by myself I just feel crazy."
Damien nodded to that, wondering just how long this man had been down here, and if he wasn't crazy already. But a more important question was on his tongue before delving into that.
"How?"
"Extremely precise, intricate, delicate, substantial, and creative runes. With a ton of mana. Actually, mostly that part. Enough mana and you can override any paltry last line of self-defense the body puts up, allowing you to root around inside them all you want," Yevlue replied without a second thought. "Just think about it like this: You can suppress someone's ability to wield mana by simply saturating their exterior in more, muddling anything they try to accomplish. Now, multiply that saturation by one hundred, insert it directly into their body and... voila! You can isolate sections of someone's person and claim them as your own, altering them however you want until you eventually lose control by running out of mana. Which will happen very fast by the way. I made light of it, but if the creators of our universe did anything right, it was making our souls extremely powerful at fighting off foreign meddling."
Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.
Damien took a deep breath, idly wondering how groundbreaking this information would be if it got out, staring dumbfounded at the excitable man before him.
"Alright," he began, thinking of where to go next. "Let's say you are Yevlue... and I'm not hallucinating, and you did suppress Rai," he thought, opening and closing the mental hatch to Rai's screaming cage again before continuing, "What is all this then? What is this facility?"
"Let's take a seat first, champ," Yevlue stated, picking him up off the floor and settling him into a chair he conjured.
"Am... aren't I a prisoner," Damien half asked, half wondered allowed, finally sending Kastra a bit of a positive note to ease her worry.
"Eh, of a kind. More like a test subject, maybe even willing if I explained it all, but I digress," Yevlue stated, continuing to conjure another chair as he too sat down from across Damien. "Please hold your questions until the end. I have a lot to get through here, but I'll summarize as much as I can. Oh, also, this may be of interest to your partner, so let me just..." the man said, causing another bout of head pounding that wasn't nearly as strong as the first,"... And there. Should be able to hear us now. Took me years to perfect this with Ceris. She was a feisty one, I tell you. Anyway, let us speak. Ah, but first, does your companion need anything? She seems content to lie in a heap where you left her, but perhaps?"
Damien thought he'd meant Kastra for a moment but realized he was speaking about Krissa. He shook his head, trying not to dwell on thoughts of Kastra since this man seemed to be able to read minds slightly, which of course led to him thinking exclusively thoughts about the not-Fae up in that same chamber they'd just-
"Hah! I was wondering what that hole was. A Fae... little buggers always eluded me. Have to respect that. Anyway, not important or my mission. My story... well, let's just keep the in-depth parts relevant to you then, hmm? Which would make my timeline go... birth, abandoned, found, abandoned, tortured, home, abandoned, home, and then... well, abandoned, but that one didn't count since I kinda deserved it, adventure, friends, family, old age, death, back to young age for me, lots more abandonment but again, not their fault. People die... and honestly, that just repeats for another couple hundred years, and leads us to a third commune to Ceris, in an attempt to create an entirely new species because I was beyond bored. You know them as Celestials I believe?"
Damien's mind stuttered at that final statement, doubting its credibility while simultaneously accepting it in his heart. If the man could do all he claimed to, and suppressing Rai was already a huge chunk of credibility, creating another species, Celestials of all things... It certainly seemed plausible.
"Well, I say I created Celestials, but really I made Hellials first, then Celestials. Not because I wanted to, mind you. Well, actually yes because I wanted to. I loved creating... modifying. So many dead test subjects over the years and I finally succeeded! Even if they were meant to wipe out your hitchhiker's followers, that's not exactly my problem, is it? Well, now maybe a little, but since I silenced him, problem solved? Anyway, I'm a man of science! Well, magical science. And I did balance the scales! Celestials came next. Well, again... trapping Ceris came next, then Celestials, er no, then modifying so she could hear me but not talk, then getting bored of that and her explaining why they were making Hellials to kill your followers by the way!" he yelled, taunting the God inside Damien, he presumed. "Then Celestials and... ah, her wrath and my death, but I'm getting off-topic..." the man finished, ending his rant by mumbling to himself.
Checking on Rai, Damien found the God eerily quiet. He had expected the man to be ranting still, defending his fellow Gods, and it wasn't exactly a pleasant thing to see that instead, he was considering everything the being in front of them was saying. He preferred the yelling and tantrum-throwing to cold calculative silence.
"But you! And now. Ceris began slipping my control after a few years of working on my next project, and after threatening to kill us both should she continue her efforts, we came to an agreement. She'd get to kill me, as was only fair, but only after I finished my greatest work. And she wouldn't be allowed to interfere in it! Well, building a new mountain sort of counts, but I assume she got away with it."
"Your greatest work?" Damien asked, sensing the man had paused for audience participation, if the look of expectance on his face was to be believed.
"A COMBINATION OF THE TWO! LIGHT AND DARK, GOOD AND EVIL!" Yevlue screamed at the ceiling, cackling. "It didn't work on anyone I tried it on of course, their bodies came apart at the seams and... poof. But I realized it was simply due to bad materials! I hope. For your sake. Everyone I tried it on so far was either already a Hellial, mind-controlled, or... simply too far to one side or the other. You, on the other hand," he started, smiling while pointing at Damien. "You might just be perfect. You've a strong body and strong magic, you kill and protect, your soul is far tougher than any I've ever come across in all these years... even a sliver of Celestial in you already but you seem to lean toward Hellial. You just might be perfect!"
Frowning slightly, Damien was confused about how to proceed, not sure how to respond to a statement like that in the slightest. Agree or disagree, refute anything he'd said...
It was unnecessary though, as the man before him showed once again how he didn't actually need Damien to be a part of the conversation he seemed to be having for his own benefit anyway.
"Or, maybe you're not. Either way, it'll be fun to find out, won't it?! Think about it. Either you live, get all the benefits of both bloodlines put together, along with all the drawbacks, or you die and it's no longer your problem! Only mine because I have to wait for another few decades! Sounds like a win-win for you to me," the madman stated with a huge grin. "My personal favorite part is where you don't get a say in it. Though you actually stood on the runes willingly, that was your own form of consent anyway. Who just does that?"
Damien finally got a word in edgewise.
"Are you saying if I hadn't that it would have turned out differently? Was it just chance?"
"Of course! Fate willed you here. The runes on the sides just teleport you to the surface, you know? You had a one in five chance and still chose to be here!" Yevlue stated with mirth on his face, hands raised above his head while his wings tilted upward slightly as well.
Thoughts of how they could have done it differently spun around Damien's head over and over when he finally found an irregularity in the man's statement.
"But Krissa didn't get teleported anywhere when we-"
"Eh, she wasn't willing. Have to enter the runes of your own will. You were blasted in, but it is what you wanted nevertheless," Yevlue finished with a shrug, his smile growing dimmer.
"But-" Damien started, his mouth clamping shut once again.
"Alright stop," the man finally said, open palm in front of Damien's face as he laid on the ground. "Gods you're boring. I lied. Arguing semantics instead of despairing at your luck... They would all just teleport you to the middle rune. I wanted you, not her, etcetera etcetera. Activated from here. Can we start now?" the man asked.
Before Damien had the opportunity to reply, or even begin to think of a reply, the man's finger pressed a metaphorical button as Damien's hands, feet, midsection, legs, arms, and forehead were all wrapped instantly in the same binding tendrils as before, dragging him halfway into the floor.
A bit of anxiety leaked through the pact from him, despite his best efforts, as Yevlue's face became... the opposite of apologetic.
"Aw, man, totally didn't mean to do that... really wanted your answer... oh no... good luck! I'm adding in God-domincance for no extra charge, by the way! Tell yours he's a little bitch. Ceris loved that. Hated it, who cares. She sorta won in the end. Unless this actually works, in which case, I win! Haha! Aww man though, I just wish-"
Damien was almost, well, exuberant over the fact that he sunk too far to hear the man's rambling any longer, an invasive force of wrongness slowly crushing every single pore in his body, as if he were under thousands of pounds of constant force that instead of mushing him, seeped deeper and deeper into his being, shutting down his senses one by one until all he had left was oddly his sense of smell. His own blood mixed with dirt being the last thing he got a whiff of before he probably died.
----------------------------------------
----------------------------------------
"You only got another five Millenium for that? Man, you got off easy."
A dark shape nodded, clenching his jaw as he tried to manage the vast irritation he'd been feeling for the past few years. You'd think a timeless entity wouldn't get angry, or would understand the feeling enough to ignore it, but in reality what happened was a man for whom time usually passed unfathomably quicker than others, was slowed to a crawl as the unnatural emotion swirled throughout his body.
Well, a crawl for him was still much quicker than mortals perceived time, but that didn't make it any easier to calm down.
"If I don't find and fix the problem, the sentence is doubled," he responded to his companion, a hole in the floor opening as another soul came floating into view, causing him to sigh. "No rest on this backward planet. Not even at war really, just constant death."
Rarely did he and his buddy get offered the chance to spend a year together, but when you get permission to bring a former coworker to your new place of work, you don't waste even a day debating it. Sure he'd be gone before a star could even think of forming, but such was life when undergoing punishment.
"You know, if you hadn't tried a second time while already under surveillance, you might have been able to at least receive a temporary improvement of... well, your conditions. Or a stern verbal warning."
Gesturing around with the most... respectably disgusted look he'd ever seen on a reaper, the figure before him took in his platform of space to work. Not even a chair, forced to float for decades... they'd taken away the small stone pillar he'd built for leaning on as well when the soul had slipped past him and back into life.
"Note to self, don't bridge galaxies when superiors are watching. Did you hear he called me-"
"A madman, insane, among other things, yes," his friend replied, snickering back. "We all decided that would be your nickname, by the way, for when you get back. Mr. M for short."
Glancing away from the much quieter, more grief-stricken soul, he rose to his feet from a crouch and glared at the other figure.
"Don't even start that shit," Madman said, an ethereal finger pointed at his buddy. "The last thing I need is another few lifetimes with a strange-"
"Wait, stop. What is happening? What are you doing?!" his friend shouted, interrupting him while staring through him at the ground the soul floated above.
"What?" he asked, tilting his head to the side.
"Are you STILL EXPERIMENTING?!" his friend bellowed. "You could get me in exile with you!"
Turning around to see what had his friend in a panic, Mr. M found that the soul that should have been sitting on his platform without any change suddenly appeared a lot more hopeful, and for some reason, the hole leading back to the planet hadn't closed. It glowed slightly and every so often, what appeared to be a bolt of lightning flashed across its silver tinged surface. Shoulders hunched forward, M simply reached down to the planet with his mana to finish gathering the poor thing.
"No, not an experiment. Calm down, Jett. It's just an unfortunate thing that happens in this galaxy. Never happened where you work because the folks there aren't insane or capable enough to actually split off parts of their mana signature," he began explaining, rooting around on the planet's surface, trying to find the rest of the creature. "Seems it even has some other beings inside of it as well. I can try to gather this one's mana from the surface, but those two will forever be missing a rather sizeable chunk. Looks like the beginnings of a soul bond as well. Never pretty when you lose a part of your soul, but these idiots are the ones who-" he continued, pausing briefly when his collection efforts failed.
Not for lack of finding his target, but interference.
"The ones who?" his friend asked nervously, looking around as if he was staring at his new demotion already.
"They recognized my interference... that shouldn't be possible. Unless they'd felt it befo- no," M muttered, ignoring his friend entirely as a bit of panic began to grip his body.
He kept sending probes after the remaining pieces of the soul's mana, but they were all swiftly eradicated by a familiar presence, almost as if on instinct. When he noticed the connection strengthen between this soul and its original container, his slight panic delved into an extreme panic.
Lifting his right arm, the darkness around his hand extended outward a few meters and began to flatten, elbowing about halfway down to create the large, sweeping L shape and scythe is known for while sharpening to a deadly edge. With a swing downward, the Reaper attempted to perform his namesake to sever the connection underneath the soul and be done with it, but felt the blade slam into something. A second swing brought the same response, but rather than being physically stopped, it was more as if the blade simply wasn't allowed to pass through the connection. One of the only bonds in the world a Reaper was not allowed to sever, only alter.
A strand of life.
"No way," he mumbled, staring down at the little soul before him as it slowly began to draw back downward, Jett yelling at him from behind. "No FUCKING way! NOT AGAIN," M screamed, jumping forward and physically trying to get purchase on the soul, though knowing nothing he did now could stop what was happening. "YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD! STOP BEING A PROBLEM! HOW ARE YOU EVEN BRINGING SOMETHING BACK, THIS IS A NO-REVIVE SECTOR!" the Reaper bellowed, moving to the edge of his platform and gripping it while peeking over and down at the large solar system below it. "Oh, I'll kill you good when I find you I swear it you little shit-stained-"
The minimally silver-hued soul sunk further from the platform, soon through it entirely as it began picking up more speed as it descended. M's entire body went rigid as Jett slowly floated backward and off the platform, looking around at the many reapers in the nearby area that were all peaking down or up at M's workspace.
----------------------------------------
----------------------------------------
The entire realm of reapers were all later called in as witnesses to the event and there were four things made very clear to their superiors.
The first, that even when mana is involved, there will be ways to reclaim a soul and bring them back to life. The second, there were no longer to be visits from other Galaxies to encourage those undergoing punishment to stay the course and finish their exile from their original Galaxy. The third, a new space workspace needed to be cleared for Jett. And finally, due to popular demand of all witnesses nearby, Madman was to be quarantined for the near future during work due to fear of his anger spreading and stiffly reprimanded for his month-long tirade of insults which consisted of, per multiple witness testimonies, "a never-ending slur of foul language directed at the floor while multiple neglected souls began to pile up on the other end of his platform in fear, only stopping when a soul M recognized arrived on his workspace." These reports were later officially confirmed by the filed report of the arresting enforcer who had wisely chosen not to interfere until the reaper had calmed down substantially.