Upon waking, I realized I was dead. Meaning, I was now a ghost without a body. A quick check showed that the demons had 'sealed' me well. Neither magic, chakra, nor psionics worked. However, astral magic worked as it should, so I wouldn't remain here without a body for long.

Looking around, I found myself in a typical twentieth-century city. Judging by the shabby surroundings, it seemed to be the seventies. But no, there's a guy talking on a cell phone. So, it's more likely the late twentieth century or even the early twenty-first.

First of all, I needed to understand where I had ended up, and for that, I needed to 'take a language.' Magic didn’t work here, but even simple contact between astral bodies allows one to read a person's surface thoughts. I was on a narrow street, it was night all around, and not far away, some thug or bum was walking and talking on the phone. He became my victim. Flying up to the person, I focused on his consciousness, broke into it, and began to push through the defenses with my will, taking control of his thoughts and memory. The thug stumbled, had an epileptic tremble, and then quietly lay down, losing consciousness. And I found and claimed this lost consciousness.

After ten minutes of thoughtfully rummaging through someone else's brain, I more or less realized where I had landed. The world was indeed familiar to me. I was now in Brockton Bay, and it was early February 2011. However, the timeline didn’t match my previous encounter with this story. Back then, it was the end of 2017. But from a plot perspective, I was probably in the right time because the drug addict I gutted knew about the existence of Shadow Stalker and that she was currently part of the Wardens.

After reading the most superficial knowledge from my victim, I decided to get to the rest by consuming her soul. I mean, I decided to check if it was possible to get anything useful this way, apart from the rather dubious taste sensations. It turned out, it was possible. Moreover, in the process of devouring the soul, I almost became that drug addict, inhabiting his body.

That's a thought! I could, not only possess a person, making them possessed, but I could consume the soul and take its place. Theoretically, I could become any local hero or villain. But before doing that, it was worth figuring out how the local capes got their 'superpowers.' My previous experience left not-so-good memories. I couldn't use my parasite yet because the Shub-Niggurath spell had blocked it as well. I would have to get another parasite.

Orienting myself in the area, I headed to the headquarters of the Parahuman Response Team, or PRT office for short. There were always a few heroes around, so I could assess the source of their power. Traveling as a ghost was a hassle since I had to move around the material world 'by force of thought.' Plus, my astral body kept trying to 'anchor' itself to some place and make it its permanent 'residence.'

Finally reaching my destination, I began looking for capes actively using their powers and found Kid Win. He was a tinker, currently tinkering in his workshop. By the time I had trudged through the streets, it was day. Today was Saturday, so the tinker could fully indulge in his favorite activity, and I could fully immerse myself in studying his symbiote.

After a couple of hours, I more or less figured out what kind of creatures were responsible for the local 'magic.' These were shards of two unimaginably vast cosmic worms. They were currently evolving, allowing people to create new types of abilities, and in the future, they planned to merge and devour all life on Earth. However, there was good news. At the moment, one of the worms had 'lost itself,' as the central shard of its personality had been destroyed. Nevertheless, the remaining shards continued to exist, although somewhat 'passively.'

I quickly learned to see the shards inhabiting separate from people, and there was simply a vast sea of them here. Brockton Bay was considered a city with many capes, but in fact, there were only three or four dozen. However, shards swarmed in the surrounding world by the millions. Considering this, the question arose, was it worth taking the place of some cape? It would be much more interesting to find a shard with the most suitable power, then possess a person and become a cape myself by 'activating' the desired shard.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

After considering this idea, I concluded that it should be done. And since I could choose the best shard, it made sense to also choose the best body. Obviously, this person shouldn't be a cape. But at the same time, I didn't need a bum or a simple worker. It should be someone with connections, some power, but not connected to villains or heroes.

My task was to save the city, so the first one that came to mind was the mayor. But that position was too public. A mayor couldn't afford to disappear in the middle of the day to deal with some issues using superpowers. Something less official was needed. For example... And then an excellent candidate came to mind. A person with connections, leading a crowd of men ready to do anything for money. Having access to the mayor and heads of the city's largest companies. In short, my victim should be Danny Hebert, head of the Dockworkers' Association.

Having settled on a candidate for body and soul donor, I began to search for a suitable shard. Ideally, it should give me access to magic. This power should be versatile, with many application options. Attack, defense, espionage, self-healing. Ideally, my power should have all four aspects. Or at least three of them.

I began examining the shards swarming around but quickly discovered that the powers they granted were quite monotonous. Most were various shooter-levitator types. A typical representative of this category was Legend. Related to them were powers that protected the physical body, increased strength, and reaction speed. Alexandria was an example here. There were also plenty of shards giving shapeshifter powers. You could often see 'breakers' abilities, allowing one to change the world around somehow. But all these shards had a narrow specialization, and the powers they granted were frankly poor.

I spent the rest of the day studying shards but couldn’t find anything that satisfied me. Perhaps it was worth finding Eidolon and figuring out how he created new powers. That would be the perfect option—to have a shard capable of creating any power. I was already contemplating how to reach Eidolon when I stumbled upon an interesting shard.

Usually, shards exhibited some activity, moving through space and 'observing' people. Some of them constantly followed their chosen target, waiting for them to get into a stressful situation and reveal their innate mental defenses. This particular shard, however, quietly lay next to a building wall in a narrow alley, not even attempting to move. What attracted me to it was the familiar sensation of Chaos energy.

In some inexplicable way, this shard was connected to Chaos and could manifest it around itself. I had managed Chaos Magic fairly well in my time, so I hoped to use this shard in ritual magic. It's not the best option, but after some preparation, I could do something no other shard could. Even a simple demon summoning could give me a significant advantage. Alright, decision made! I'll take this piece of rotten sausage.

I extended my grasping tentacles and grabbed the shard that caught my eye, pulling it along with me. I was now heading to the apartment of Danny Hebert and his daughter Taylor Hebert. I recalled she was a cape and could control insects. Not the most impressive ability, but it could make her my first minion.

I learned the address of my future body from Shadow Stalker's consciousness. That bitch was well-acquainted with Taylor and knew where she lived. I also learned that yesterday she had locked Taylor in her locker at school with a bunch of filth and trash. Last night, she had opened the locker and found that Taylor had lost consciousness, though she was still alive. Right now, Stalker was sitting in a panic, trying to figure out if her 'prank' would be revealed or if she would get away with it as usual.

It seemed I had arrived at the right time. By now, Danny probably knew what had happened to his daughter. This was already a good trigger event. And when I started devouring his soul, he would go completely mad and could awaken my future shard. As far as I knew, these creatures reacted sharply to manifestations of despair, almost instinctively embedding themselves into the astral shells of their victims. After that, the shard would connect to a specific area in the person's brain and read commands to control their 'superpowers.'

I managed to reach Danny Hebert's residence only after midnight. Upon arrival, I found that he was not home. I was about to head to the hospital where Taylor was admitted, but after half an hour, the head of the dockworkers finally returned home and collapsed into bed, falling into a heavy sleep. His soul was filled with suffering and despair, so I was somewhat surprised that no shard had already taken him, making him a cape.

Waiting until Danny was in a deep sleep, I drove the shard I had chosen straight into his head, then extended my lustful tentacles and sank into his soul, sucking out the very essence of his being. Danny felt someone was devouring him alive and, of course, began to resist. However, I was stronger, after some time, the resistance turned into despair, fear, and hopelessness. All this emotional cocktail hit the shard. It trembled, released some threads from its body, and then attached itself to Danny's consciousness, transmitting the standard images of 'the arrival of doom on Earth.'