I would officially be an idiot if I couldn't deduce that the mysterious white blob had somehow hijacked control of my body when it knocked me unconscious and sent me to my soul space. The fact that it had manifested within my soul space also suggested that it had some capabilities when it come to the soul, even it if was instinctual. But right now, all of that was a footnote compared to the tapestry of injuries that made up my body. I was getting better at ignoring physical pain, having been baptized by the sheer agony that was soul pain, but numerous broken bones, burns, and deep lacerations had their own unique quirks that made them hard to ignore...especially as I was still firmly lodged in the cave wall, physically unable to move.

"Are you really him?" Reela said, still on guard against me and wearing an all-too-familiar expression of contempt and eager aggression, her claws extended and flames billowing out of her mouth.

"Yeah, it's me, now can you -"

"Prove you're him."

"Sigh," the exhaling brought about a tiny jolt of pain in my chest and throat, my condition worsening the longer my injuries went untreated. "How do you want me to do that?" I asked her before coughing uncontrollably, acknowledging that it was probably necessary to confirm I was still me. Well, that I wasn't being controlled by the white blob thing.

"Bring me into your space." She demanded.

"Isn't it possible for that thing to do it too?" I asked her, playing devil's advocate even if that wasn't the smartest move I could make.

"Just do it." She cautiously approached me and wrapped her tail around my neck, leaving me just enough room to keep breathing. As if that weren't enough of a threat, she held a claw up to my eye, almost making contact with my eyelid. "No tricks, or this goes through an eye and you die, outsider."

With a thought, I pulled us both into my inventory, and I managed to land on the soft bed that was awaiting me. Unfortunately, human-made beds weren't built to withstand a dragonkin's weight, scales, or magical heat, and it immediately broke down and crumbled, the sudden and unexpected drop giving me yet another bruise on the back of my head. Thankfully, Reela seemed to accept that I was in control of myself and untangled herself from me, getting up and looking over at the voranders before collapsing to the floor and lying down spread-eagled.

"Hurry up and heal yourself, there might be others who have been controlled by those things," Reela said anxiously, her concern for others, excluding me, on full display. In any case, she was right, there could be more of those things to deal with outside. Any questions about them could wait until the situation wasn't so urgent.

Now that my longtime bed had been reduced to nothing but timber and burnt sheets, I gingerly rolled over before immediately declaring myself an idiot and levitating myself with air magic, sweeping the remains of my comfortable bed into an empty space to be dealt with later. Healing spells lit up my body like a miniature fireworks show as they did their magic, and I noticed their effectiveness had increased as my injuries were reduced to a manageable state. Ideally, I would have more time to rest...but when things ever been ideal recently? Making a note to myself to find a more effective spell to heal broken and fractured bones, I stood up, stretching my limbs and stress-testing my body to check for any hidden wounds I had missed.

"Are you ready?" Reela was waiting on me, looking impatient as I responded.

"Just give me one second....ah, there it is. Alright, we can go now." While I wasn't sure if those white blobs connecting to someone's head was a necessity or a preference for them to take over a body, it didn't hurt to safeguard against that with my new helmet. Well, I called it new as I had never used it before, but it was technically years old by now. The important bit was that it protected the entire head and neck, only leaving the eye slits as possible points of vulnerability.

"Tch, fine, let's go now." Reela walked over to me and grabbed my hand unflinchingly, urging me to bring us outside.

"Wait, how did you know that it was really me when we came in here?" I asked her, unable to follow her thought process.

"Really?! That's what you're focusing on right now! Ugh, if the voranders noticed you weren't yourself than they would have attacked and so would I, now can we go out now? Please?!"

It was her earnest use of the word please that did it for me, as my mind sent both of us back to the outside world, where our shared cave matched the state of my bed. Claw marks everywhere, scorch marks on the wall and droplets of blood nearly everywhere. Most of the furniture needed to be replaced...though I couldn't help but notice that one singular thing managed to survive the brawl that had taken place here unscathed.

All of that was put in the back of my mind as Elder Dusk teleported into our midst in his dragonkin form....and he wasn't alone. Two other elder-level dragons, judging by their auras, accompanied him and were staring at us. Well, mostly on me. I only had enough time to notice they both seemed slightly familiar before I was trapped in a field of darkness, unable to sense anything outside, though I could hear the conversation taking place not far away from me.

"Is he back to normal, child?" One of the unnamed elders asked.

"Yes, Elder Song. I made sure before calling for you."

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

"Hmm. Dusk, you know him best. You should do it."

"Bah, how could he do it? This is a matter of the soul, not of familiarity! Boy, are you hungry?"

I couldn't even form a response, as all three of them were blasting their auras at full force, letting me and everything in the vicinity know that they stood before an apex predator, a being at the very pinnacle of power. I had gotten used to being casual around them, but this was a stark reminder that they were only holding themselves back out of...choice? If they wanted everyone weaker than them to feel like insignificant worms, there was no problem doing so.

I was wholly paralyzed, not by any spell, simply sheer terror. If my mind was capable of rational thought, I would have recognized that the elders' presence was related to the white blob creature and they were investigating something. However, rational thought wasn't a luxury I could afford at that moment. All I could do was listen to my instincts...and not do anything that might make the predators in front of me see me as anything but trivial and unworthy of attention.

"Ah, he's frozen stiff! The hard way it is..." And with that ominous pronouncement, a bowl filled with something I couldn't identify that smelled delectable was shoved into my mouth. When I tried to protest, that was when I felt a spell used on me, as I became magically paralyzed and could do nothing but let the semi-solid food slide down my throat, unable to properly chew or appreciate it once it reached my stomach...only for the meal I had just been force-fed to be regurgitated up onto the floor.

I felt the spell holding me in place melt away as I buckled to the floor, only supported by my hands and knees as I began convulsing from the palpitations of my abdomen, the sludge that was just inside my stomach now on the floor inches from my face.

"See, he's fine! Now, where's the corpse of that --" I quickly brought out the tamed blob from my space before the elder could subject me to anything else and was relieved when it remained docile.

"Interesting...seems like we'll be seeing more of each other in future lessons, whelp."

It was at that point that I had enough strength to look up and take a good look at who it was that was speaking to me. It was difficult to differentiate between individuals of the same dragonoid species, as the only distinguishing features were the colors of their scales, their clothes when they chose to wear them in their dragonkin forms, and their intangible and invisible auras. Given that some dragonoids could change the colors of their scale when they wished to, it was hard to identify with any real accuracy who I was speaking to at any given time, which was probably why my social circle was so miniscule. Even taking all of those factors into account, I had no idea who this elder was...until the green-grey scales turned transparent and the raging aura calmed down into something more subtle and muted. By the time I had figured it out, a noticeable smile had stretched across his face, almost in confirmation of my suspicion.

Elder River?!

"You need to work on your veil, whelp! You can't keep your thoughts so unguarded all the time, to say nothing of your emotions! Dusk, get some free time soon so you can whip this youngling human into shape!"

"Sigh, why bother with all this playing around, River? Just take the boy in formally and be done with it," Elder Dusk's exasperated voice responded, the other elder who I was unfamiliar with turning in my direction for a moment before returning to Reela.

"Seeing as our goal is accomplished, we should be on our way, no?"

"Yes, yes."

"...Tread lightly, human. Do not mistake our indifference towards you for approval. Your presence here is tolerated, nothing more. Were it not for the --"

"Song."

That one word from Elder Dusk had the other elder who was berating me for no reason stop partway through, though she did half-snarl in contempt as she walked back to where the other two elders were waiting for her.

"For now, both of you should stay here until this is dealt with. If any of those others appear once more, call for me and I'll handle it." With those last instructions, Elder Dusk and the others blinked out of existence as they were teleported away from our cave.

Free of the presence of the three terrifying elders, I collapsed onto the ground, exhaustion overtaking me despite doing nothing to warrant it. With a thought, a small ball of water washed away my vomit and was launched into the distance, landing somewhere in the grass outside. The cave smelled slightly better now, but the debris and broken pieces of furniture needed to be tossed out and replaced before it could be considered livable. Collecting the scrapped pieces took no time at all, as Reela, in an unexpectedly masterful manner, incinerated everything that was considered trash in a gout of flames, without affecting the surroundings at all.

"What was that...sludge?" I asked rhetorically.

"Something the elders created to test if you were in control of yourself. If you had eaten it without any reaction, they would have known that you were being controlled. Since you spat it all up, they knew you were yourself." When I turned to look at her in amazement, she turned away, focusing on the work. "Elder Song explained it to me just then." I sighed at how ingenious the elders had to have been to create a litmus test for possession already, given how short a time period they had to react, then turned my attention back to Reela's ongoing impersonation of an arsonist.

While I was curious as to how she could be display such control over her flames here and not while fighting the blob that controlled me, I knew pursuing that line of inquiry would be fruitless, if not leading to a world of retribution, so I dropped the matter and used a combination of wind and water magic to clean out the place, leaving the cave practically sparkling, save for the literal princess bed that had been shifted outside for the meantime. The cave was bare, but I had slept in worse before and Reela barely felt the difference, so we made do while we waited for word from Elder Dusk about what was going on.

Four days of sheer boredom followed, and once again I had a painfully unbearable craving for the internet. How often had I mindlessly scrolled through short form videos, or browsed useless posts, or read trashy machine-translated xianxia novels just to piss away my time? Sadly, until I could find a way back to Earth, my time with the internet was over, and I only had memories of stories to tide me over. Reela, showing far more maturity and patience than I had ever seen from her, went into something of a meditation trance for the entire duration, hovering a few feet off the ground while only beating her wings every few minutes, something that defied common sense which she had no intention of explaining.

When we did receive an update, it was not from one of the elders but the dragonkin messenger who first informed Elder Dusk of the emergency. He was the only other person I had seen in days, and I was almost hungry for some social interaction. Unfortunately, he ignored me entirely and only spoke to Reela.

"I have been sent to escort you to the elders," he said after bowing to her, causing her trance to end as she gently landed on the ground, opening her eyes and staring at him before nodding.

"Where to? I can shift us --"

He interrupted her. "Apologies, but spatial travel is banned for the moment. We can only proceed by flight and time is short."

"I see." She used the mentor-disciple telepathic connection exclusive to us to talk to me unnoticed after flying off with him.

"Stay on your guard. If I don't respond to you in two hours, come find me. This might be an ambush."

"...You think this guy is possessed?"

"I don't know. Just be ready for anything, and hope that I turn out to be wrong." She went dormant, and the connection turned passive.

I had healed considerably in the four days of rest, and I was practically in top condition, ready for any fight. I had practiced a bit with my newest affinities, and while I wouldn't rely on them in a battle, using them for distractions wouldn't be too much of an issue. I just hoped that I wouldn't have to try out my newest spells against a dragon. Possessed or not, that could only end badly for me, no matter how the fight turned out.