I honestly couldn’t stop myself.

I knew I shouldn’t try, but the occasion was too tempting.

I slowly focused, trying to take control of his body.

Patiently, checking if he was really out, I was prodding at his consciousness.

-Mike…?

Nothing.

-Axelrod?

No reaction.

-Anyone there?

Ha. He was really out.

That was just too fucking convenient.

And yet, it was happening. What’s the catch though?

There has to be a catch. I don’t believe it.

I carefully started seeping myself into the body. To control it once more.

It came to me easily, of course. I already had some practice. And he was really not resisting.

What the hell.

I was in.

I slowly started checking if it was really happening.

Legs: check.

Arms: working.

Head: empty.

It really was happening.

I slowly stood up from the ground and stretched.

No abnormal effects. No sudden prods at my consciousness.

I was the only one here at the moment.

I had to stifle my laugh.

I couldn’t believe my luck. He just fainted. And thought I will do nothing?

Well, or rather he didn’t think. Nor had much of a choice. His mana was really low, true. I guess that had to do with his sudden fainting… But I thought that the slow drain was enough for him to at least keep his mind in check.

I guess not.

And, since I swapped, I could now regenerate as much as I wanted.

Not like I needed much to operate this body. At least not now.

I had planned to absorb a lot more, though. I was not going to leave before making this actually useful. Not just a lump of vulnerable flesh: as proved before, it was needed.

I kneeled back on the ground and focused on the forest.

How much mana was here?

I was used to the infused woods of the barrier, having enough magic to be often blinding. Especially around certain ruins.

Here, it was a lot weaker. But wasn’t bad.

I thought that that close to civilization, it would be enough for the growth of the natural mana to be stunted, but no. It was pretty obvious that this wasn’t bothering the trees at all.

Interesting.

But, if I was to do what I intended to, I was going to leave a rather hefty mark on the terrain.

So it would be for the best that I’d move. At least a bit more.

Which meant I probably should use that weird infusion of his.

The only problem was that I had, once more, no idea how to disable it.

I had a brief idea on how it worked and how exactly I managed to start up this reaction, but that was it. If it was to go out of control once more I would’ve been stuck again.

I mean, it wasn’t really a problem immediately, but if I had to cast some other magic… then what?

Nah. It would be for the best to travel without that.

I probably also could use portals… but the only location that I was sure I’d be able to go back would be inside the barrier… or where the barrier used to be.

I was not going back there. No thanks.

So just a casual stroll then?

Seemed like it.

Without much more deliberation, I started moving.

I forced myself to multitask.

While walking, I could slowly drain my surroundings and gather mana for the next step.

If we were chased, though, it would give whoever was our pursuit a nice and easy set of tracks to follow.

I sort of didn’t want to do that, so I guess I probably should minimize my efforts… at least when I was on the move.

I just had to limit myself to draining pieces that would be easily recovered.

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Some from the air. A random branch here or there. Maybe a bit from a tree or two.

I had to make sure not to destroy anything completely, though.

And, of course, to not let the mana wake a certain person.

Although I didn’t feel like it was happening any time soon.

I think he overdid it. By quite a lot.

I didn’t think that this whole escape without chase had drained him that much. I mean, it didn’t seem like his mana was THAT bad. Sure, strained a bit, but that’s it.

Or… it wasn’t it…

Oh.

Right. That was it.

It wasn't a lack of mana he had.

It was pure stress.

I mean, magic always resonates with emotions.

I know that very well.

Were his really that out of whack?

I mean, sure, this was a bit stressful. A fight. A fire, running away. Trying to hide his own tracks. A, supposedly, sudden change of mind of an employer… although that one I could see coming from a mile away…

For a normal person that would definitely be a source of stress.

Keyword: normal.

He was not normal. Not in the slightest.

Nor was I, to be honest.

He was a king. Well, used to be. A pretty ruthless one, from what I’ve heard. And what I saw as well. Wasn’t he murdering people left and right before? Without even a single trace of remorse, might I add.

So what if he’s now added a bit to his consciousness? An action like this should’ve been like nothing to him.

Should.

That is, if that was really him.

I had it in the back of my mind.

Who was I really dealing with?

Sure. He was acting like himself. Well, mostly.

But that didn’t change the fact that there was the assimilation at play.

So far, I was only considering my own mind in that…

But what about others?

Sure, there was ILMA, the obvious culprit. And the recent guy as well, he was fresh so I guess his mind was… “on top of the pile”, so to speak.

And that’s not even mentioning the whole other pile of people he drained and absorbed.

What did that do to his mind?

I used to think basing everything on my own experience.

I didn’t have much trouble resisting, if I even had to.

Despite the warnings from everyone, I seemed to have absolutely no problems.

Honestly, I had some worries that it might have been just me not caring, or the process being so seamless that I wasn’t noticing anything…

But after seeing this…

I had some other theories in mind.

Everything came down to who I was dealing with.

In my case, with ILMA, it was clear that she never intended to harm me. Or, any lasting harm that is.

Sure, she had her own agendas, but that was even better! It meant that our minds were separate, with no assimilation happening.

Of course, I want to say that was just my adamant mind not letting anyone tamper with me, but let’s be frank, that’s not what was going on.

She was, straight up, not trying to take me over.

Okay, maybe there were some signs of our memories being jumbled, but that was it. And both of us realized that pretty quick and wanted to have things separate.

And I was planning on this exact scenario to happen here.

Of course, I was not going to just rely on my own mind. After all, seeing as his was already showing signs of weakening, it doesn’t matter that I wanted to keep to myself. His weakness was the main risk.

If his own barriers would’ve fallen, I’d essentially have a pile of melted memory right next door, meaning that any contact between us would push the process forward.

Something I wanted to avoid.

Let’s be clear on something.

I knew him. He was my friend… well, more like “used to”.

But, no matter that, I still didn’t want to share my own head with him.

It was…

Annoying.

And what could I do? The one thing I knew.

Separate us. Seal him in something else.

I already did this once before.

But, I wasn’t going to be that brutal with him.

After all, he still was someone that I didn’t want to hurt. Mostly.

While having him sealed in a piece of crystal would’ve been a solution, that would not be a… preferable one.

At least not for him.

I definitely didn’t have any issues being locked in a piece of stone. After all, I could grow out of one and again reform my body.

Not so sure about him.

Okay, he had knowledge about that. But with his state of mind…

It would only help in damaging his mind. And that was something I wanted to avoid.

I still wanted him sane.

But first things first. I still needed to prepare for this.

I still was lacking material, and especially the main problem: my body sas still not ready. Technically it was still his, but not for long.

I had to find some kind of clearing. If I wanted to regenerate and generate mana quicker, I had to find some nice sunny place.

Thanks to earlier observations, I did notice that besides the sun giving me essentially free energy, it also was helping me heal faster. I thought that was going to be just an easy boon, find a clearing and be done with it, but it was harder than expected. The forest was as thick as those I’ve seen inside the barrier. Hell, it was even thicker. At least the canopy part of it.

It was a bit bizarre. I wouldn’t expect for nature to be that developed near an area that was fully urban. And pretty dirty on top of that, thanks to the slum being slum.

Same with ruins nearby. I thought that they would hinder the growth, not fuel it. And that’s what it seemed like.

I guess nature was just running its course and developed itself. It’s not like that was just a human thing to do: adaptation to any environment.

I guess growing in a pretty shitty area made it stronger.

So strong that there were absolutely no holes in the canopy. And it seemed like it was going to be like that for a while yet.

I probably could just move along and just be slower in my preparations, but I had some other ideas.

Why not go on top of it?

It should be possible with my current form. After all, I wasn’t fully crystal. If I was to be careful about how I move, I could avoid touching the trees with my bare crystal.

That, and I was a lot more proficient in using it after all that time. Sure, I wasn’t able to completely stop my drain, but if I was to focus, I would be able to get on top without much of an issue.

And so, that’s what I tried.

I found myself a tree that looked the easiest to climb and started watching carefully for a way up.

I probably could just jump up through the canopy if I wanted to… I would probably get absolutely maimed during the jump, though. The thickness of the canopy with the durability of the trees… yeah, let’s not do that. I can just climb.

While meditating about that, I started tearing the clothes that I still had on me. I wanted, just to be safe, to make some handwraps and legwraps: just enough to have some kind of safety margin if I was to lose control and let loose my ability too much. It would be problematic if suddenly a tree collapsed while I was focusing on my ritual.

-Well, let’s go… - I muttered to myself, and tightening the wraps on my hands I grabbed the lowest hanging branch and pulled myself up.