"Anyway, since when I got healed, I am trying to restore my cultivation. The only method I know is the possession of the body of the beginning practitioner through a secret technique. That technique is quite unique, and I learn by chance during my half-century of cultivation. However, in the middle of nowhere, it is hard to find any intelligent being. It is even harder to find those with the potential to open their spirit meridian. Luckily after 3 years of wondering, I found a single human and two grey-man villages. I started stealing their children with illusory techniques and then teaching them how to cultivate. After they opened their meridian I tried to possess them. You may ask why children? Well, firstly they are easier to catch the strong adults and secondly they are much, much easier to possess since their will is not developed and shaped by experiences as adults. Lastly it is easier to teach them cultivation. However their bodies could not handle the possession ritual and died one after the other. You can tell by several bones in this chamber that I was not discouraged by just one or two the failures" said women with a mad look in her eyes. "I also tried with adults, but those with cultivation were stronger than me, and those without had a slim chance of opening the meridian if they couldn't do it in earlier days. Like a poor grey-man here. " Continued her story and her voice long ago lost the coldness and was now filled with robust and unbeatable desire to live and execute vengeance.
"I was starting to lose hope of getting back on the path of cultivation due to reaching my life limit. But then you have appeared - a practitioner with opened meridian, but cultivation so shallow that you were still weak and vulnerable. A perfect gift from heavens" smiled Baba Yaga which made Leshy terrified. She just finished drawing strange characters on the floor, which Leshy and walked out of the room. Shortly after, she returned, holding with few flagons full of some liquid.
"I was also wondering how to lower adult will and increase my chances of possessions. Then I found a scroll on different poisons and medicine where I found something that fits perfectly the situation. A poison not strong enough to cause permanent damage, but proficient enough to take away your will. Without making you lose a mind" chuckled woman" The funny part is that this poison is known to man and they even drink it for pleasure" she said, opening the flask. Shortly after an intense aroma of strong, fruit wine filled the room.
"Yes, you got it is good, old, good alcohol - and now bottom-up," said merrily woman pouring wine to the massive chalice and feeding it to Leshy. As he had neither choice nor means to oppose the old woman, he spoke nothing and decided to at least drink his fill.
"Well, there are worst ways to go down then being drunk and possessed by some crazy grandma. However, there is some irony to it, my Slavic, heavy-drinking ancestor must have a very wryly smiles on them right now." Thought Leshy as he continued gulping the alcohol, happy that he could drink a lot giving him few extra minutes of living. "I bet at least a few of them kick the bucket due to alcohol-related matter. Ancestors, let me follow then your examples!" The wine was not bad, slightly sweet, but of high quality. After a few cups, he got enough courage to speak.
"Lady Yaga, how about we make a deal - I will help you find a suitable vessel for you, a much better one them me. You see my eyesight are not that great, I have an old arm injury and my back hurts when I am lifting something heavy. I am literately the worst body to possess…I am even getting bold - look" said Leshy earnestly
The old women got stunned for a moment, then she smiled become even wilder.
"Out of all, begging for life, I heard so far this one easily makes to top three. Sorry to disappoint you but it is no deal. I can't trust you, and I have not enough time to look for other vessels. Now, be a nice little victim and drink your wine."
"W-wait, wai…glump glump" Leshy was forced to continue drinking, and strong booze started to taste better and better for him. Even though Leshy was far from being drunk, he loved drinking! It always gave him a good mood and make him joke around.
"Have I told you that I came from a different world?" asked Leshy
"Not really" responded witch and started to wonder whether her victim does not have enough of the wine already.
"I came from the world where were science and technology is much more advanced than here. People were able to build machines that help them to be faster than sound and reach stars" continued Leshy.
"He probably has a weak head to speak such non-sense" thought inner Baba Yaga" he must not lose consciousness for the ritual. Otherwise I would need to wake him and make him drunk one more time and there is not that much wine left. A couple of cups more and let's begin the ritual."
Leshy obviously not aware of her inner thoughts continued his mumbling "But coming back to the possession topic. You see this fat here? I can't seem to lose it for over 10 years now. You really don't want it to be your problem now, do you?" said Leshy, seeping wine without any help from Yaga as he somehow managed to free his hand from shackles astonishing the ragged woman. At some point, he asked if there is anything more left making the Yaga worried that he already overdosed. After drinking one and a half flask of wine, Leshy started singing some Slavic drinking song.
"Hey, hey hey falcons, avoid mountains forest and valleys. Ring! Ring my bell, the reddest one ring!". The song made no sense, and the sound of it was horrible enough to make Yaga reach the conclusion that the time to start the ritual has come.
This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.
She walked to Leshy and placed her hand on his abdomen, sealing his cultivation base. Then approached lying Gray-man and start chanting, her voice quite hoarse at the beginning was getting louder, more precise and full of power. Qi began to swirl around from Grey-man and flowing to runes on the ground and making them glow. Leshy immediately stopped singing, his eyes half-closed, but if one looked closer, they were vigilant and quite clear. Then he started making an attempt to circulate his qi and said:
"Are you sure you want to start? There is still some wine left. It would be shame for it to go wasted. It has such nice tase.."
The ragged woman was paying him no attention as she stabs a bone knife into the Grey man's heart and takes his spirit stone. That action silenced Leshy, and his face grew solemn.
Baba Yaga swallowed the spirit stone and laid in the centre of the runes formation closing her eyes. Leshy failed to rotate his cultivation base and only swelled his muscles to break the ropes that tied up his torso and legs. However, the effort yielded no visible result.
Shortly after the air in the room become heavier as dark qi energy started to accumulate. The woman screamed something and from her mouth flew a full of light, fist-size orb. The orb made few circles above her then flew with high speed toward Leshy.
Once the sphere of light touched Leshy all qi from his body made an effort to repeal it. The orb becomes a bit smaller, but soon the Leshy's qi got exhausted, and the sphere entered his head.
Inside the darkness of Leshy's inner world, a corporeal ball of light appears emanating an aura of Baba Yaga. The orb seemed reluctant and hesitant as if it was waiting for something. Then small tentacles of light started to emerge from Baba Yaga dig into the surrounding reality of darkness. One of the arms was approaching the empty now Qi pond. When it made half away on its way appeared the second ball of light. It was slightly dimmer then Baba Yagas but at least three as big. That was Leshy's consciousness.
When Baba Yaga noticed the size and brightness of it, she becomes terrified. In her worse dreams, she wouldn't expect Leshy's will to still be so dazzling. The alcohol supposed to make it dimmer and smaller, weakening his rationale and mental strength. However, the orb before her was almost as bright as her own, not to mention the size. Leshy's lifestyle during study days was paying off at this moment in the most unexpected way! Years of drinking made him much more alcohol tolerant than an average person That was sad news for Yaga. The size of his energy orb indicated abundant energy pool while the brightness the mental prowess.
Usually, her consciousness or mental energy would be even bigger and better then Leshy's but the possession technique used at least 4/5 of her power, leaving her with a fraction of her normal strength. Such a method was arduous and rarely used as it would require the attacker to be at least a stage higher in cultivation. It also comes with the high cost of lowering lifetime and various other backlashes. Right now, her cultivation was there no more making it very hard to execute the technique properly and what little qi she had was taken from Grey-man...
However, the loss of her energy during the technique was within her expectations, and previously it was enough to win mental fights with a child's consciousness. Right now, her chances for winning were less than 50%, and she was considering breaking the technique and leaving back to her body.
At this moment countless of tentacles shoot from Leshy's projection aiming at Baba Yaga existence. Their number was significant enough to quickly surround her, making her stop the absorption of his inner world.
"You were not invited," said Leshy feeling the Yagas hesitation, attacking with his mental energy." But now that you are here I won't let you off easily."
"Who said anything about escaping?" asked Yaga as her tentacles became mini-swords and started slashing at Leshy's will manifestation. It took Leshy by surprise as his manipulation of energy was not as proficient at changing the shape of his tentacles.
"Take that then," he said with a cold harrumph. Having quantities advantaged he decided to all create as many tentacles as it is possible to overwhelm Yaga.
Yaga's face became pale, as some of the tentacles breakthroughs and started to create wholes in her. But it was not easy on Leshy - when his arms were being cut, he was experiencing pain, and his manifestation was getting smaller. As the fight continued, it turned out they were evenly matched. Both manifestations were becoming tinier in size and less bright with none able to secure the upper hand. Leshy's energy supply advantage was matched by Yagas technique and a slight edge in quality.
"Die" suddenly yelled Leshy as he was able to transform some of his tentacles into small daggers, piercing at Yaga's defences. Some of them broke due to being weaker then Yaga's swords, but due to their sheer number, some managed to pass, hurting Yaga even more.
"Denote" screamed Yaga decisively sacrificing part of her soul to detonate about half of her energy. The explosion blasted countless Leshy's tentacles, giving him gaping injuries and pulling him away but made Yaga extremely weak.
Yaga, using a moment of Leshy's distraction chanted something. It turned what was left of her manifestation in one huge sword that flew in extreme speed at recovering Leshy. The sword, although deadly sharp, was full of cracks but full of pride and will to crush everything in its way.