Chapter 65 - The Real Deal

Exiting the compound took a couple minutes, and traveling there through the streets didn’t take too long. The psychic he was looking for had a good reputation and was located on the outskirts of town - just like the Fost compound, so they were in close proximity to one another. Trey went alone this time, feeling like he needed to fix this issue on his own. He didn’t want the others knowing about how he may have something else living inside him other than Sithis… Something that was… menacing.

Unlike on Earth, psychics here in this world were legitimate. They had actual, true power and could literally move things with their minds. They had other abilities too, but the one Trey was most interested in was mind reading.

He kicked up dust along the dirt road, passing under palm trees or other tropical plants in the early morning sunlight. The roads were rather uneventful today, with most people still being asleep.

Finding the large hut he’d passed by on numerous occasions with the sign labeled ‘Karomius Malfici, Psychic Practitioner,’ he knew he was in the right place. Looking around to make sure no one was following him, Trey came forward to the wood door and knocked loudly three times. It was still early morning and he wasn’t sure if Karomius would be awake, but he didn’t have long to wait and find out.

The door’s wooden shutter in the middle unlatched and then slid open to reveal a pair of old tired eyes. A raspy voice called out to him that sounded like the man had smoked too much tobacco over the course of his life. “A summoner? What do you want?”

Trey closed his eyes, concentrating on how the sun’s warm rays felt on his back, and let out a long nervous exhale. “My name is Trey. I want you to read my mind.”

There was a long pause.

“Oh? You’re here for services then?”

Trey nodded, and the shutter promptly closed. Four locks were unlatched from the other side and then the door slid open to reveal a skinny old man who looked to have just woken up.

The old man rubbed his eyes, ruffled his old ratty clumps of patchy white hair and motioned for Trey to come inside. “I have little to rob, so if you intend on doing so you’ll be shit out of luck.”

Trey grinned. He knew that likely wasn’t true, but he also had good reason to believe this old man was more than capable of blowing most people away with psychic energy in a heartbeat. From the stories, Trey could only assume that this old guy was much stronger than Trey was. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

The inside of the establishment was just as dull as the outside. There were a couple boxes and crates, along with a small bed off to one side. Parchments were piled off to the right, and a pile of clothes was laid out next to them. There were few furnishing elsewhere other than the circular table where a set of tarot cards, a ouija board, and a crystal ball were set out next to one another.

“Are you a medium as well?” Trey asked observantly, sitting down in the chair Karomius pulled out for him.

The old psychic Karomius mumbled something under his breath and sat down in the chair opposite Trey, putting his hands on the table with a yawn. Light from a small window to their left was all that illuminated the small hut until a candle from underneath the table was placed on the table and lit with some flint and steel.

“I am.” Karomius muttered loud enough this time for Trey to hear. He clasped his old, wrinkled hands and rubbed them together. “I have both the psychic and necromancy attributes… though I don’t keep many minions around anymore. In my retirement, I only want to be left alone. Being a medium gives me enough money to survive in relative solitude. So… tell me why you’d like me to read your mind. It seems like an odd request… Usually I get requests for others, such as an accused thief or a crooked merchant. This is actually a first for me - I mean, someone asking to read their own mind.”

Trey gave him a dry smile, placing his own hands and elbows on the table with a bowed head. “I… think I may have something living inside my soul.”

Karomius raised both eyebrows, now very curious. “Go on.”

Trey didn’t know how much to let on. He wasn’t sure if this was even the right thing to do… after the identifier had found out about Eleknar, the reaction hadn’t been pretty. “What do you know about essence?”

“Essence? Like the pieces of the initial god, the creator, that bind to one’s soul?” Karomius cocked his head to one side and narrowed his eyes. “Those kind of essence?”

Trey nodded.

The old man leaned back in his chair and examined Trey for a moment longer. “Just the basics. Why?”

Trey opened his mouth, closed it, then opened it again. “I may have one that I bonded to… but I think it’s hostile. I’m getting worried, I can’t communicate with it and neither can my symbiote-”

“Symbiote?” clarified the old man, now extremely interested. “You aren’t pulling some sort of joke on me are you boy?”

Trey shook his head, seriousness setting into his features. “No, I'm not pulling any sort of joke. I need help. I’m getting scared…”

Karomius held up his hands again to give Trey pause. “What about this symbiote you talked about, what do you mean by symbiote?”

Trey was getting ahead of himself. He took a deep breath to calm himself, and started again. “Sithis is the name of my symbiote. For lack of better words, he’s a demonic entity… like a spirit, but he drastically improves my reflexes and fighting abilities. Along with a few other perks, he’s generally very helpful. Usually Sithis and I can share thoughts, though I’ve been having these dreams lately… and they seem real. Really fucking real. And… and these dreams, they are only experienced by me. Sithis can’t see them, can’t even access the memories to these dreams. We think it’s the essence but we’re not sure and-”

“Alright, alright boy. Hold on.” Karomius put on a pair of glasses, took a piece of bread out of a small bag along the ground and shoved it into his mouth. Shaking his head and muttering to himself, he swallowed it and placed the rest of the loaf on the table. “If what you say is true, this is way over my paygrade. I’ve only ever even heard of three other essence ever bonding to people of Nagochus in the histories I know of. I’ll help you out the best I can, but I can’t make any promises. I’ll be honest with you though, I’m very skeptical about all this. If one of my friends from the pub sent you, tell them this wasn’t funny.” He adjusted his glasses again, looking Trey squarely in the eyes. “Let me speak with your symbiote if what you say is true.”

Immediately Trey’s face changed into the demonic visage Sithis used to speak through. His skin turned pitch black, his lips receded and disappeared to reveal long wicked teeth set together in a permanent grin, and his eyes grew a brighter red with crimson veins spreading out across his face encompassing infernal energy.

‘I am Sithis.’

The change was so sudden that Karomius fell back out of his chair in startled bewilderment. Cursing loudly and backpedaling after standing up, he stopped a few feet away to look Trey up and down while breathing heavily. Realizing Trey still wasn’t hostile, he moved back over carefully to pick up his fallen chair and sit back down.

‘What is it you wish to speak to me about, mortal?’

Karomius just stared, evaluated him with raised eyebrows as he went over status screens and other things at play that Trey could not see in the NPC’s HUD. “You are unlike any spiritual entity I have ever encountered before. You are neither demon, nor undead, but something else entirely. What exactly are you? Do you even know?”

Sithis scoffed. ‘I am… unique.’

“That I can see.” Karomius rubbed his forehead and furrowed his brows. “How did you and Trey meet?”

‘I was born into creation the moment Trey was accepted by the void essence that spawned me.’ Sithis paused, giving the medium a chance to digest this information.

“Void essence...” repeated Karomius, still skeptical. “Do you mind showing me your status screen so I can confirm this?”

Internally Trey and Sithis debated letting the old man lay eyes on their personal information, but in the end came to the conclusion that it was necessary. Pulling up their page, they did as the old psychic asked.

Void Essence - You have been chosen as a suitable host. You are now able to access black magics, skill trees, abilities, and spells unavailable to most other black magic users.

Karomius’ jaw dropped and his eyes went wide in bewilderment for the second time in one minute. “By the hells… how did you come across a void essence? So, Sithis, you’ve proved me wrong and I believe both of you… assuming this status page isn’t forged. I don’t know why anyone would do that though... just to come harass me so I’ll trust in what I see. Is Trey correct in assuming this essence is hostile? What are your thoughts? Surely you have some insight as you were born from it.”

Sithis was not quick to answer, and he outwardly seemed unsure as he tapped Trey’s fingers thoughtfully on the wood. ‘I do not know, but I do have some insight on the matter that I have not discussed with my master... as I am not entirely sure of my assumptions.’

Sithis stopped his tapping and looked up to meet Karomius’ gaze. ‘I believe Trey is subconsciously suppressing this essence. When I was first born into existence, in the very first moments of my creation, I could feel something else inside of him pushed to the recesses of his mind. I thought nothing of it until he told me of these dreams of his that I cannot access… and I went looking for them. Searching. What I recently found… was an abyss that I cannot reach. It is… hard to describe. Usually his thoughts come as a steady stream of information upon trying to see them… but when I try to access a particular area of thought there is just a lack of response. I cannot force my way through, nor does any attempt at contacting the essence yield results. I believe that when Trey falls to sleep, it is a time that this essence uses to escape its prison. These dreams, we fear, have been real. Perhaps not all of them, but many of them. What concerns me the most is that after monitoring this abyss even after just a couple days… I have found it to be growing in size.’

Karomius blinked a couple times and concern replaced interest. “What makes you think that I’ll be able to access the things that you cannot? Even if I do make contact with this essence, what is it that you want me to say to it?”

Sithis shrugged Trey’s shoulders. ‘We are not sure you can, but if you do… ask it what we can do to communicate with it, and ask it what it wants. Ask it why it has been assuming control of Trey’s body as he sleeps, and ask it if I’m right about being suppressed by Trey subconsciously. This is what we wish to speak to it about.’

Karomius nodded, ruffling his old gray bunches of hair while deep in thought. “I see, they seem to be fair questions. I will do my best.”

The old man moved the crystal ball to the center of the table. He seemed oddly excited as he took out a piece of red chalk and drew four triangular runes with smaller symbols in the middle of each around the orb.

“Extend one hand please.”

Trey did as he was asked and Sithis faded away. Putting his hand out palm up for Karomius, the old psychic flipped Trey’s hand over and drew the same triangular symbol onto the backside. Trey was surprised to find that it wasn’t chalk at all, but some sort of waxy substance he wasn’t familiar with.

Karomius grinned enthusiastically, clearing his throat and blinking a couple times before rubbing off his glasses to clean them on his shirt. “I must admit, I’m a little bit excited. This is a rather rare opportunity, not many people ever come into contact with a real essence. Do you know the name of the essence residing inside you?”

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Trey specifically remembered the way that identifier had acted upon hearing Eleknar’s name the day he’d identified Talsh’Noc’Un. He didn’t want to spook this guy and was scared that if he didn’t get help things could potentially progress from weird to bad. He needed answers, so he shook his head no and played dumb.

“Do essence usually have names?”

Karomius gave him a look like Trey was stupid. “Yes. Charus, Jastallini and Preledane are all named after all. What kind of stupid question is that?”

“Uh…” Trey scratched his head in confusion. “Who are Charus, Jastalini or Preledane?”

Karomius’ enthusiasm faded, and he even looked defeated. “Oh. They’re the three essence who are best known to the world of Nagochus, and although many more are out there beyond Nagochus, but our knowledge about the others is very limited. Charus is an inferno essence. Jastalini is a fae essence. Preledane… she’s an essence of death. Before you told me it was a void essence - I was particularly hoping it was Preledane, because even though she’s dangerous... she’d likely have imparted knowledge that I could use if I was to survive this encounter.”

The old man let out an exasperated sigh. “There haven’t been souls compatible enough to bond themselves to these essence in centuries and they’re supposed to be residing in their respective temples on different continents.”

“Souls compatible enough?” Trey queried with a stroke of his chin. “What do you mean?”

Now Karomius was getting visibly annoyed. “You really don’t know? Each of their temples hold monthly attempts at trying to find potential vessels so they may live again. Despite this they’ve not found a worthy vessel for any of those three essence since long before you and I were born.”

The old psychic ruffled his hair a bit while shaking off his irritation with Trey’s lack of knowledge. Getting back to being focused on the task at hand, he quickly cheered up. “To think that you’d have another… this is something that the world’s historians will document when word gets out. I will be a part of history! You may forgo the fee I charge, I will do this out of self interest. Boy, are you ready to begin? I feel that we’ve spent too much time dawdling.”

Nervously Trey agreed, and at Karomius’ request he held both hands palm down on the table in front of him.

Karomius took a deep breath, placed his hands on the table in the same manner and began to explain. “What happens next may feel a tad strange. I’m going to reach out and access your mind with my own… just remain calm and keep your eyes on the crystal ball. Whatever I see will be shown through the ball, and whatever you do… don’t remove your hands from the table.”

Trey nodded and peered into the crystal ball. Without another word, they began.

The feeling he got when the old man’s mind touched his was a little unsettling. It was foreign, alien, another new consciousness intruding into his thoughts to join him. Sithis had felt the same way over the course of the first week getting to know his symbiote, so he was surprised that this foreign touch felt so off-putting. He thought he’d be used to it… but he’d been mistaken.

Trey could feel it before he could see it appear in the glass orb in front of him. Karomius, upon first approaching his thoughts, had tentatively scoured the surface level memories Trey had before delving deeper into memories of the distant past.

Before Trey knew it, three hours had gone by.

It was a swarm of imagery and a whirlwind of emotions, many of which Trey had completely forgotten he’d even had. The strongest of these emotions were the hardest to bypass, many of them revolving around his two brothers, his ex-girlfriend Amanda, and his parents… but eventually Karomius bypassed those too.

‘You are almost there…’ Sithis hissed encouragingly, watching from a distance in the halls of Trey’s mind as Karomius pushed passed the plethora of memories comprising Trey’s life.

Within minutes, Karomius had found it.

Up until now: the crystal ball had been a flurry of colors, but now it remained an eerie deep-set black. As Sithis had described it… it was an abyss of nothingness. The stark contrast between this and the rest of Trey’s mind was vividly apparent... and Trey’s anxiety was beginning to climb. Not just because of what he was seeing in the crystal ball. but also because of the feeling of dread he got from some internal source. He suddenly felt cold... very cold. Just like he had back at the pit when that enormous ungodly demon had been summoned by the cultists... but he knew they had to keep going if he wanted answers.

For the first time since they’d started, Karomius spoke aloud. His eyes were closed and he continued to concentrate, but his facial expression was one of deep thought. “You were right Sithis… this is not a normal thing to see when scouring one’s mind. It feels… cold.”

Ah. So Trey wasn’t the only one.

He watched Karomius approach this foreboding mental barrier through the glass orb on the table, and as the old man did so - the runic symbols around the crystal and on Trey’s hand began to shine a hot white.

“Do not fear.” Karomius said confidently while still approaching the abyss. “Those runes are there to keep us from harm in the case of vengeful spirits. We will be fine, I’ve done this many times before.”

Trey didn’t feel any better despite the other man’s encouragement. Still keeping his eyes fixated on the crystal ball, he watched as Karomius’ mind silently touched the darkness.

Nothing happened, to his surprise… and then there was total silence.

Karomius remained touching the abyss, the wisp of his mind pressing firmly against it in this realm of thoughts for some time. The glowing runes along the table and Trey’s hands suddenly sparked and afterwards immediately died.

Then... the darkness… it just drifted away.

Trey’s concerned scowl began to fade as his memories re-entered the visions in the crystal in a flurry of color and Karomius opened his eyes with a sigh.

“What happened?”

The old man looked blankly at the crystal table, emotionless, the lines in his face denoting how tired he was. Whatever had just done had really put a strain on his mind. “Eleknar is not a threat to you.”

Trey cocked his head to one side in concern. “Uh… and you’d know that how? I didn’t see anything change in the crystal ball after you made initial contact. You just sat there and then the runes sputtered out.”

Karomius didn’t look up, but a small smile began to creep across his face. “Eleknar is not a threat to you.”

The images of the crystal ball faded away, leaving a confused and irritated Trey in the wake of Karomius not sharing more information. Trey put out both hands to either side as if to say ‘what the fuck,’ but the message was poorly construed. Karomius still didn’t look up, and he remained deathly still.

A little too still.

Karomius continued to ignore him, but something about the old man was off. Trey couldn’t place a finger on what it was though and in his irritation Trey began tapping his finger loudly on the wood.

“Old man, are you seriously not going to tell me what you experienced? I’m starting to get pissed, now just-”

Trey’s words halted in their tracks. A cold chill swept across his spine and his extremities suddenly felt numb with the same feeling of dread he’d experienced earlier when they’d first seen the dark abyss in the crystal ball.

A single droplet of blood slowly welled up in Karomius’ left eye, and Trey watched it trickle down the old man’s face; falling off his chin to drip onto the wooden table beneath. Then came another droplet, and another.

Karomius chuckled softly, creepily, and to Trey’s horror Karomius finally looked up. The old man was crying tears of blood from widening bloodshot eyes, with even more of the red liquid beginning to drip from his nose down his face in a slowly increasing stream. Next came his ears as the red liquid seeped over his jawline and down his neck into his shirt, all the while the old man continued to chuckle with a crazed, manic smile.

Then Trey realized what it was that had been so strange about Karomius just moments ago, and why the old man had been so still. As he watched the psychic in stunned, horrified silence, he’d finally noticed it.

Karomius wasn’t breathing.

Then to top that in another swift realization… He’d never actually told Karomius what the name of the essence had been. He’d never told Karomius that they were dealing with Eleknar, so how had he known the essence by name?

The creepy chuckling abruptly stopped.

“Eleknar is your friend…” the old man hummed darkly, curling his lips inwards to display the largest smile the old psychic could possibly muster.

If anything had been off-putting earlier, this took the cake. Trey’s creepometer was off the charts and his heart was racing as the feeling of dread grew. His world suddenly seemed small, and he felt utterly insignificant… though he couldn’t place why.

Trey slowly leaned back and away from what he was increasingly believing to be a talking corpse. He swallowed hard, trying to peel his eyes away from those bloodshot unblinking eyes locked onto his own… but Trey wasn’t able to do it. He couldn’t look away no matter how hard he tried.

“... Karomius?”

The old man clicked his tongue and shook his head, blood pouring out of his mouth over his lips like a river of red. “My dear boy. Karomius isn’t here anymore.”

That was all it took for Trey’s face to pale. “Well… well where is he?”

The old man chuckled one last time, still bleeding from all the orifices of his head. “Well… well he’s not anywhere my boy. Karomius doesn’t exist anymore. I began eating his soul the moment he dared to touch me. He was not worthy of such an act…”

In an aggressive blur of motion far faster than Trey could have ever done himself, the old man’s hands shot out across the table and latched onto Trey’s wrists. Panicking, Trey tried to pull away but found that he couldn’t overpower the frail man in front of him - and when he tried to shadowstep out of the way - he found his magic had been completely suppressed.

Karomius’ face lurched forward to be within an inch of Trey’s own, facial muscles and skin tearing apart into a sickly twisted grin spreading literally from ear to ear in defiance of normal anatomy. Bloodshot bleeding eyes bored into Trey’s own, glowing crimson ones and the old man continued to keep his hold despite Trey’s frantic struggling.

“Have you finally accepted me?”

The old man’s tongue licked his lips in excited interest while keeping Trey an inch away. Meanwhile, Trey’s heart felt like it was going to explode at any moment under the absolute panic.

“HAVE YOU FINALLY ACCEPTED ME!?!?!?”

This time Karomius screamed it at him, manic as ever. His eyes suddenly spasmed into various directions at lightning speed, and he began to mix drool into the river of blood flowing off of his face - splattering bodily fluids along the table and onto Trey’s body.

“ACCEPT ME!!! ACCEPT ME ACCEPT ME ACCEPT ME ACCEPT ME ACCEPT ME!!!!”

Karomius violently threw back his head, literally snapping his own neck with a loud crack and flinging blood all across Trey’s face and the ceiling. Trey could only look on in stupefied terror under the vice grips of his arms and watched as Karomius opened up his throat to let out a guttural alien wail.

It sounded like a grotesque gurgling intermixed with a bullfrog’s mating call while blasted over a blow horn. The creepy sound reverberated through the house, and when it stopped the old man’s broken neck swiveled back around to stick out his tongue and slowly lick the blood off Trey’s right cheek.

Then the two just stared at one another for the next three seconds. It felt like an eternity. Trey’s chest heaved up and down rapidly and he found himself sweating under the cloak of fear the likes of which he’d never before experienced.

Thankfully, Sithis intervened. Trey’s features reverted back into demon form, and Sithis somehow withdrew his hands from the grips this old man had on him with minimal effort. Taking one clawed pointer finger and placing it against the old man’s head, Sithis calmly pushed back on Karomius’ forehead until the possessed man sat back in his seat… still smiling and profusely dripping blood all the while.

Sithis slowly raised and cocked his head, the mask of the devil ever-grinning. “Eleknar, I presume?”

The old man slowly nodded in turn, keeping the wid- eyed creepy smile of split-open tissue the entire time. “Sithis… my son. It is a good name our host has given you. I am glad to speak to you, but I lack the time to do so now. Has our host decided to let me in? HAS HE DECIDED TO ACCEPT ME!?”

Sithis outwardly recoiled, though not out of fear. It was more out of disgust than anything else. The two demonic entities stared one another down for a time as Sithis let out a hiss through the long devil’s teeth of his maw. “No. Not yet.”

Eleknar’s creepy smile still did not fade, but he didn’t reply either. He was waiting for Sithis to go on.

“We know little to nothing about you Eleknar. Why have you been taking control of Trey during his sleep? Why have you been interfering with our shared thoughts?” Sithis let out a low growl, a sinister demonic snarl and leaned in. “I do not find it pleasing.”

Eleknar’s chuckle made a comeback, his old wrinkled hands drifting to prop up his bloodied drifting chin. “It was only a little bit of fun! I have waited many millenia for a suitable host to arrive, my child. You would not understand… you have only just begun your own journey. I am sure that the three of us will become acquainted with one another long enough for you two to eventually value the price time extracts upon an immortal’s mind.”

A low hiss and then an unearthly pained wail from somewhere inside Eleknar’s borrowed body erupted aloud.

Sithis lowered his head but kept eye contact, intertwining clawed fingers in a curious glare. “What was that?”

Eleknar seemed confused, narrowing his eyes for the first time since possessing the old man. “You really don’t see it?”

Sithis shook his head, and Eleknar became outwardly surprised.

“Ah. Well you are still young. It is this man’s soul… or what is left of it.” Eleknar gestured to the bloodied, torn, and broken body he now possessed. “In order to speak with you, I had to borrow it… the soul and the body. Trey wouldn’t let me out otherwise!”

Eleknar gave them an elated bloody wink. “This soul’s structure will only last another dozen seconds. Because of that, I will take this opportunity to express myself. Listen well… I am not your enemy. Above all else… I wish for both you and Trey to succeed, but I will not be able to assist at full capacity until he accepts me as his equal. If he doesn’t…”

There was another shrill shriek, and out of nowhere the body Eleknar was possessing lurched and spasmed into a seizure. Pale blue light emanated from Karomius’ body, and a second later - the old man simply exploded.

He literally exploded.

“You have gained XP.”

It must have counted as Trey’s kill after what Eleknar had done to this poor guy. Fleshy bits and bodily fluids plastered the inside of the hut from floor to ceiling, covering Trey’s upper half that wasn’t blocked by the table. Sithis sat there, covered in guts and contemplating what had just happened with both of his eyebrows now raised in surprise of his own. He tried to bow out and give Trey control of their shared body again, but Trey mentally declined.

Sithis, not knowing exactly what to do, picked off a chunk of face that had landed atop one of his horns. He really wished Eleknar would have gotten to finish what he was saying.

Chewing on the fleshy bit of Karomius’ face thoughtfully and then swallowing, he received another notification.

“You have gained 1 strength from consuming a fresh kill.”

With a loud sigh, Sithis pushed himself back from the table. The wooden chair skidded on the floor until it came to a freshly bloodied patch, and then began sliding more smoothly. Standing up and turning around, Sithis trot over to the door to head out.

The sunlight blinded him momentarily and Sithis had to let their eyes adjust as the door opened. Tropical paradise or not, he really wished that they’d find some version of sunglasses.

The clatter of breaking pots and a gasp sounded out. Sithis looked over across the street to where Karomius’ neighbor, an old scrawny woman who definitely got too much sun, was staring straight back at him in a terrified expression. Sithis couldn’t really blame her considering he and Trey were covered in her neighbor’s guts, but shrugged indifferently and began to walk down the street. He wasn’t sure if he and Trey should tell the others about the things that had just transpired, and he’d have a lot of work trying to calm Trey down after the creepy interrogation they’d just undergone.

At least they now knew Eleknar was the real deal.