Ken wipes the sweat streaming down his face.

"Dear Emperor, what is happening? It's like fifty degrees Celsius outside!" He resists the urge to straight up look at the sun, knowing better of it.

"I should have gotten my hat. Gonna get a heatstroke at this rate." Ken contemplates removing his upper clothing and wrapping it around his head as protection. He decides against it, too uncomfortable. Plus, it would impair his vision, something he needs for the task at hand.

'At least it's not a swamp like in Florida. I can deal with the heat but add humidity to that and I will actually start fearing for my safety.'

Ken reaches the abandoned farm... for the fourth time.

"Tsk. It's no use, I just can't find where I dropped them."

'Screw it, I can't afford to go on another back and forth trip to search for the picks, I'll rest my head in the abandoned house for a bit to cool down then head straight home. Even the mosquitoes are dying out in this heat.'

He trudges in through the hidden entrance, walking down the rundown cobbled path.

We'll need to do some more maintenance on this place. The grass is making it difficult to pass...'

'...What am I even saying? I don't plan on coming back here after toda---'

His train of thought is cut short upon witnessing something unusual.

'Hello there?'

Just in front. A path cut through the grass that hadn't been there the day before. The heat of the day is suddenly forgotten, replaced by a bone chilling coldness that makes all of the hairs on his body stand straight.

He approaches the path made through the two meter tall grass. There's just something wrong with it, Ken knows it. An intrinsic wrongness that he's unable to articulate right away.

'Did Ginta do this!?'

Crouching, he runs his hand through the freshly cut grass.

'It's too perfect! Like someone brought a gas powered lawn mower and used it. The cut grass has a perfect height of around an inch. There aren't any remains either, it would make sense for this place to be littered with all the different types of plants that had been mowed down'

Ken's frown deepens as he looks down the tunnel made through the field.

'As far as I can see it's the same width all the way down. The path is slightly curved so it's hard to tell what's going on further down…'

'Nevermind that, how did he cut so much in half a day!?'

Ken stands up, turning his gaze to an old spruce tree that can be seen close by. He contemplates on his next course of action for a grand total of five seconds.

'I'm going to scout out what's happening and then tell the village head what I found out… no, tell my father what happened. Or better yet, my mother, since dad can't lie to save his life. I don't know what's happening here exactly but my gut tells me it's something deadly. The more separation I have from the events here the better.'

He parts the grass in front of him with his hands as he moves to the spruce. The wild growth at this time of year is hard to move through but not impossibly so.

"Hup."

Kenki jumps up, grabbing onto the lowest hanging branch. He pulls himself up easily enough before moving on to the next branch, and then the next. He climbs higher and higher, to the most elevated position he can safely reach on the tree.

"Uh.." taking a comfortable position up on the tree and gazing down, Ken does a double take.

'Now I don't want to bring my old life into this world and use it to explain supernatural events but…' he uneasily looks at the pattern being made into the grass.

'...but that's definitely a pentagram down there. One that's only half finished, sure, but that wasn't there yesterday. And the house is at the dead center of it too.'

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

Ken squints his eyes.

'I see. I see now…So that's where my lockpicks went. Ginta picked my pocket when he hugged me yesterday, then used them to get more sickles. I thought that was a weird thing for him to do.' He sees Ginta, Mumu and Moiran working on the pentagram, barely, only recognizing them by their clothing.

'I don't see Ren anywhere. I don't know if that's a good or a bad thing though.'

He stays rooted in his place for a couple of seconds, trying to grind the new information through his head.

'Something is wrong with me' Ken dispassionately shakes his head 'I should be feeling terrified right now. There was that demon thing from this morning, now I find out that my friends are possessed, probably have been possessed for days, if not months or years, and I have been just prancing around with them like some mouth breathing retard.'

'And yet?'

'My heart is perfectly calm…'

…

'Fuck this.' Ken starts scaling down the tree.

'This is beyond me. I'll tell Mum. She'll tell the village head. The village head will tell the cultivator and then the cultivator will take care of the problem.'

'I should pack my things just in case. I'll grab some of the dried plums, a sack of flour. I'll also need a pot to boil water in. From what I've seen microorganisms and disease are still a thing in this world. Worst of the worst happens I run straight to Themten and try to survive there.'

Ken jumps down when he's low enough, dropping down on the tall grass. It absorbs his weight and allows him to safely land, significantly shortening the time it takes for him to go down.

'All should be fine, I'm just a clueless child. Plus this thing wouldn't be done in secret if whatever's responsible was stronger than the cultivator. I just need to spin my story in such a way that it absolves me of any wrongdoing and suspicion…'

…

'...just say that I stalked them until I saw them enter the abandoned farm? It should work, nice and simple, we were absolutely forbidden from coming here after all. I can play it off as just telling on them, not knowing of all the nefarious stuff happening below the surface.'

Ken finally makes it to the path that leads out of the farm. He guns straight for the exit but is stopped just short.

'Damn it!'

Ren was standing in front of him.

========================================

These vessels. Weak.

These souls. Weaker.

His current position. The Heavens' cruel joke.

No. It won't do to dwell on his rage. Not now at the moment of utmost weakness. Soon it will happen, soon he will have a body once more. Soon… but not now.

Until then, he must control his rage, control his being. Lest the ripples created shatter the weak link formed and fail the ritual.

Everything will be perfect.

The time.

The temperature of the chamber.

The light of the blood moon.

The alignment of the stars.

The sweet Qi formed from the torment of five fortunate souls.

Now he just needs to wait. To wait for the final sacrifice. The dream-demon seed must have sprouted inside him and taken control of the body.

When all is done he will feast. The entire province will remember his terror.

If only that bastard of the Verdant sou—.

He is stirred from his thoughts, sensing a disturbance.

He latches a tendril of his soul onto one of the dream-demons, the one that controls the body of the so called 'Ren'. Assuming direct control, he now controls the vessel. He feels what it feels, sees what it sees.

And what he sees… he would have spat blood if he still had a physical body.

The most annoying of the wretches, Kenki, stands in front of the vessel.

How!? Did he see through the illusions of the seed? Impossible!

And yet, try as he might, he cannot sense the demon inside him. Not even the seed.

And worst of all, the look in his eyes. He knows… No. He's just a child still, he has no reason to suspect him.

"K-Kenki?" The foreign voice grates on his nerves but he says what needs to be said nevertheless. This isn't the first time he'd played the part of the frightened fool.

"Wh-what happened? You look white as a sheet!"

The brat stills for a second before he… stomps his foot on the ground?

"Ginta stole from me!" He shouts.

"S-s- stole from you?"

"Yes! Everyone has a sickle, I saw it. Ginta, Mumu, Moiran all of them have sickles! The only way they could have gotten them is if Ginta stole my lockpicks, and they've been missing since yesterday!" The kid throws his arms up in outrage.

Hmm…

Troublesome, but manageable. He has to be knocked out. All that is needed is half a minute of direct skin to skin contact. Choke his soul out with mine and bind him to the ritual spot. Simple as.

Shifting, he moves into the vessel. The tendril he'd used to interact with the body pulls the rest of his soul along until it fully enters and settles. The soulspace shudders and nearly cracks, trying to hold three souls at once.

Nearly is the key word. His supreme control making the impossible possible.

Puffing up his cheeks, he grabs the kid's arm.

"I c-can't believe they'd do that! C-Come on, let's go tell Father!"

"Ah." The insect is hesitant but still follows. Good. Just thirty seconds and I'll have him.

Hundreds of tiny tendrils break through the skin, invisible to all but one. They begin wrapping around the insect's soul.

*shluck*

However… The process is interrupted by a sharp pain. It sprouts from the neck of the vessel.

It loses strength in its limbs, causing it to fall to the ground. Direct contact is lost as a result and the tendrils retract.

There's barely any time to register what happened. The vessel's carotid artery has been severed!?

An infuriating voice is heard.

"Ren doesn't have a S- s- s-stutter you daft cunt."

The object he used to stab the vessel with can be seen. The knife. It's white with a yellowish hue…bone. It has a red stain.

Wait..

This isn't 'the vessel's' body. This is my body. Mine! I'm still inhabiting it!

Quick, I must leave! It will be catastrophic if it fades while I'm still inside it.

The lack of blood flow to the brain makes the senses dull and then disappear. The gravel underneath, shifting from his panicked movements, can no longer be heard or felt. The edges of his vision blur then turn completely black.

The last thing he sees is the boy's back as he runs away.

I- No!