Ozzy was unable to think or plan. A chopping open hand. A striking closed fist. A foot rocketing upward. Cederick was a whirlwind of unstoppable motion and Ozzy had to put everything into assisting his suit with dodging. He was not dodging himself. He’d found quickly that he could barely follow the boy’s impossibly fast limbs at all, even with the other suits restricting Cederick's movements. Yet the evasion he had layered into his own suit was somehow able to do so. He fell into a rhythm of reacting to the pressure he felt on his limbs and trusting his construct more than his own senses. Only catching glimpses of whatever appendage it was he was avoiding after he was already out of its path.
The experience brought up his heart rate and his breath came in gulps. Despite that, as it went on it morphed into a mind numbing repetition. Lulling him into a strangely silent and open mental state. Ozzy had rarely experienced anything like silence in his mind. Meticulously analyzing the world around him was significantly more than a useful skill. It was a comfort, distraction, and protection from feeling anything. Yet at times it was a curse. The constant and deep inspection left his consciousness feeling like it had been scraped across the surface of reality. Only in the brief escapes from persistent scrutiny would his mind come up for air and he became aware of the mental exhaustion, pain, and injuries he’d done to himself. Leaving him in an entirely different state of mind.
One where he could finally experience things rather than exclusively examine them. In other similar instances he’d felt more connected to his family and friends, or finally understood social situations he’d been blind to before. There were things in his life he was intrinsically connected to or a part of that he couldn’t feel or see for the thoughts in the way. This fight was forcing him to face things directly, to feel rather than figure, to intuit rather than interpret. Currently as his body slipped further into the flow of the movements he could feel it was only one small part of the whole of which he was a part.
His domain which he had been utilizing as a tool, quantifying, and experimenting with as an object stood out to him as clearly as his own nose. Something there all the time that he'd only been able to see in the odd forced perspectives while grappling with the voidling inside of it, and now while fighting for his life. The moment with the voidling had only been in the lull and the waning of the conflict that he’d seen it. A time when his thoughts were ramping back up and clouding his insight. Now he was forced into this state on the verge of death, unable to block his own perception and trip himself up.
He didn’t reach out, or connect to his domain, as he was always connected to it, he simply flexed it. He didn’t examine exactly where he wanted specific particles to move. Nor did he plan out the way he wanted the change to happen. The suits simply morphed, the spears shrinking into the shoulders, and the legs shriveling as well, while the arms and hands bulged. The fingers fused together and grew, forming a cuff about Cederick’s wrists and ankles. Then continued growing until they covered the whole forearm, and lower leg, then climbed up the biceps and thighs. Meanwhile his domain flowed into it as well, bulking it and spreading it further along Cederick's body, covering him entirely and thickening as it went.
With each passing second the thickening suit around Cederick slowed him further and further. With the slowing of the attacks Ozzy could feel his inquisitive mind doing the inverse. Speeding back up and taking his focus back from the connection he currently felt. In the space between the handoff he mourned what he was losing. Almost letting up on Cederick just to return to the peace he was currently feeling. Yet simultaneously he could feel that part of himself reassuring him. He could reach that quiet state again. There was too much at stake to hold onto it stubbornly.
As his domain encircled Cederick and engorged the suit holding him, he also saw a change within Cederick. The dark storm that had blown past the barriers in his mind had for the duration of their mutual dance been almost dormant. It had crept itself throughout Cederick’s mind like a vine and sent roots into the tiniest of cracks. Now as Cederick’s body was increasingly restricted so too did the fight that had been a physical one increasingly turn inward. The tendrils that had nearly entirely encompassed his mind were torn out. Synchronized with each internal motion Ozzy could see Cederick's face twitch and his eyes flutter. While it seemed this was a direction he did want this fight to turn he also noticed a reaction in his domain and the suit he was still growing around Cederick.
The portion of the voidling that, while diminished, was still present in his domain was resurfacing and drawing toward the battle in Cederick's head. Pulling his domain and suit back from Cederick's head he also clamped down on the voidling residing there to keep it from turning the tide of that war. Throughout the struggle there was intent bleeding off of it into his domain. While he was getting better at understanding the raw form of thought it used he wasn’t entirely sure what he was picking up was exactly what it meant. Something inside of Cederick had awoken. This wasn’t a voidling at all. The impression wasn’t either of a full void. Nor was it that of an elder or ancestor. The impression was closer to the will to return home. Though more pronounced. This diminished voidling was trying to return to its origin. To recombine with its creator.
The realization had Ozzy turn and find that the tiny voidlet he had trapped in layers of void membrane and his own domain membrane was doing its best impression of a tumbleweed to get closer to Cederick. Scooping it up he also saw even the empty void membranes on the ground were wobbling about. Whatever change they had undergone to take this more robust form also appeared to keep them from fully articulating. Flexing the void membrane that he had taken control over he removed it from the prison for the voidlet and held it on his suit’s glove. While the other void membranes were jerking about ineffectually this one was entirely still and yet under his control.
While He had no idea exactly what had happened to Cederick he knew the boy had been through some kind of experimentation. Someone clearly far stronger than Ozzy, and likely anyone he had met so far, had taken a similar path of experimentation to the one that Ozzy had. Though whoever they were, they had selfishly decided using their own domain, cores, or their own bodies, was too risky and instead experimented on others, and apparently without their consent. While Ozzy didn’t condone such experiments he wasn’t going to allow the knowledge gained from it to go to waste.
The voidling, or voidking in Cederick appeared to have been shoved into his core without first being converted to his control. Letting it draw in and control energy for its own devices. Thankfully it whatever form these cores, or dantains took at the very least they appeared to keep the void trapped. Which is likely why a small portion of this void was diverted to Cederick’s mind at the last minute to remain free from this prison the rest had succumbed to. Ozzy was not usually one to move recklessly forward in testing and experimenting with unknown forces, but these experiments had already been done. Cederick had lived with the void inside of him, and its membrane surrounding him for years. That was even with it apparently not being under his own control.
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His mind made up Ozzy reformed the void membrane directly around the voidlet in his other hand. Removing the portion of his membrane, and the void membrane he hadn’t incorporated into himself yet. Before he allowed himself to second guess his choice, he swallowed the new even more dangerous pill he’d formed and watched as it slowly sank into his stomach. As with the void membrane and the trips before it he felt, and watched the exchange between it and his essence. The battle of wills as he believed it to be was slightly more chaotic this time. He even felt a bit drained as it neared his center and the battle intensified. There was even an aspect of the fight he’d had in his domain when the voidling had invaded. His thoughts were scattered and halting as if he was again in a mental struggle with the ephemeral being.
Though like the physical fight he’d just had the longer it went on the more repetitious and reassuring it felt. The end result was a known fact. This new form would become a part of him as had the others. Even the battle altered from one of countering thoughts to one of corroborating statements. This voidlet was not tearing him down any longer but was imparting knowledge to him. Like a dying man it was confessing its sins and trying to have one last impact on the world before it left for good. Though even that wasn’t quite the accurate characterization. The voidlet wasn’t going anywhere. It was simply joining the larger whole that was Ozzy.
Like the void membrane before it absorbing this voidlet altered his perception yet again. Not only of the void material itself or of the void membrane, but of everything else as well. Most of it he couldn’t quite put into words or even grasp, but that wasn’t an entirely foreign concept. Even everyday human interactions had unwritten rules, things that were never uttered, and often were not even thought through consciously, but still existed all the same. Things like hierarchy between individuals wasn’t usually negotiated verbally or contractually designated, likewise he was finding that there was a similarity and yet a subjugation between the different portions of void material.
What he had felt from the voidling trying to escape his domain just moments before became so much more clear. It was seeking to join itself to a more capable host. Not a host as in a parasite taking up residence inside of Cederick, but as in a heavenly host such as the conglomeration of void that made up the monstrosity imprisoned inside of him. Like a blind man seeing for the first time he no longer needed to run his hand along someone's face to feel what they looked like, or as a deaf man touching a throat to feel when someone spoke. In turn the voidling in his domain was no longer straining and struggling to be free from him in order to return to its origin. The invader was instead turning to him, and evaluating him. Likewise he could see that the portion of void in Cederick's head had halted its fight with Cederick and had turned its own attention on him. Which allowed Cederick to gain more ground in restoring his control over his own mind and body.
Ozzy was encouraged by Cederick's resurgence in his internal battle, and the pause that his actions gave the void. Moving to the rest of the unincorporated void membrane he quickly pulled and twisted it all into a single dense pill form. The process, while more difficult than if he had full control over it, was significantly smoother than his previous attempts. Again he swallowed the new addition and as it slowly neared the other still inside him he turned his attention back to the voidling in his domain. It seemed unsure of itself, turning its focus back and forth between the other portion of void inside of Cederick, and the new one in Ozzy’s stomach. The other voidling stared daggers at the one inside of Ozzy’s domain. Entirely ignoring the rough tearing of its tendrils out of Cederick's mind.
After a few more moments of indecision the voidling in Ozzy’s domain turned to him one final time and stared him down. There wasn’t any intent he could feel from it, but knew he was being evaluated. Another moment later Ozzy felt the focus leave him but could tell the voidling hadn’t returned its gaze to the other voidling. Instead it appeared to have closed its eyes and was slowly plodding, like a walk to the gallows, toward the voidlet now under his control in his gut. As the forward portions touched the voidlet a new conversation began. Not a battle like the incorporation of the voidlet had begun. A hoard of whispers that told him things he only partially heard or understood. This exchange didn’t completely alter his perception, but it at the very least gave him one last capability he had been missing. As the last of the voidling merged with the voidlet inside of him he converted the entirety into the ephemeral form and willed it out into the rest of his domain.
Turning to Cederick he knew what he needed to do. The boy was now more than halfway done pulling the roots of his own voidling out of his mind and his eyes while still fluttering were at least no longer rolled back into his head. As Ozzy reached out to him Cederick again screamed “NOOO!”. Though this time without blacking out, and he began to more vehemently fight against the invader in his head.
“I’m trying to help you” Ozzy said while pausing his forward movement. Though only physically, with his domain and the new voidling under his control he continued reaching forward.
Cederick again responded “nooo”, but this time it was much fainter and more worried. He didn’t let up his attacks inside of his mind though. There he was pushing ever further and faster back to the wound that Ozzy could now see was formed of both physical, and metaphysical portions. It seemed Cederick may have awoken the same form of magic that Ozzy had, to help defend from this portion of voidling. Though Ozzy was distracted as he realized Cederick’s onslaught was helped along by the fact that the Voidling invader was now actively pulling itself back likely from Ozzy’s own reaching tendrils. With the new paradigm Ozzy momentarily wondered if between the two of them they might be able to keep him from pulling the invader out.
The moment he grabbed a small tendril of the voidling he knew that wasn’t a problem. He could feel all of the voidlings' strength being put into pulling that bit out of his grasp. Behind that he could also feel the brunt of Cederick's domain pushing with all its might. Yet his own domain was not budged a bit. “It’s ok Cederick, I’ll get it out” He said, knowing now that he could help his friend.
Behind him came the faintest of rustling. Followed by at least two different voices shouting “WHAT ARE YOU DOING!”