Author's Note: Changed the view back to third person, due to the multiple POVs.
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A Demon's Meddling
-ding-
You have created the special stat Spirit
-ding-
Spirit
Spirit raises the damage you deal, lowers the effectiveness of status effects, and raises your health regeneration and defense when in critical condition. With a high Spirit stat, you can shake off effects like fear, paralyze, and it also lets you survive hits that should killed you due to your sheer determination. Spirit can also rise and fall along with your emotions.
Current Spirit: 4
-ding-
You have learned new skills
Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:Iron HandBeginner10%Drawing upon your spirit, you concentrate it into your hand as you grip your weapon.
Effect:
Whatever is in your grip is clenched in your hand
10% damage increase
Cost: 20 mana per secondSkill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:PressureBeginner10%By exerting your spirit, you intimidate those around you with your aura, making them hesitate and flinch. If they are weak willed, there is a chance to be knocked unconscious, unable to bear the strain of your aura.
Effect:
30% chance to render the weak-willed unconscious
20% chance to intimidate those with equally strong willed
10% chance to make those with higher willpower flinch
Cost: 30 mana per second
-ding-
You have been possessed by the demon Kalgara
-ding-
You've learned the language: Demonic
-ding-
Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:Obsidian Skin (Passive)Beginner10%Strengthens your defensive abilities so you take less damage from enemies. It takes effect upon being damaged, hardening it like obsidian.
Effect:
5% decrease in damage takenSkill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:Demonic Attibutes--0%Kalgara can make changes on your body, if you don't have enough willpower to prevent him. If you regain control, they might subside, but if you don't and Kalgara completely changes your body he can control you at will.
Current Attributes: None
-ding-
Due to being possessed, you now require double the amount of food to fill the same amount of Satiety. This is the result of having a second person in one body, who also requires sustenance.
-ding-
You are the first player to be possessed. You've gained the titled 'the Possessed'
+25% mana regeneration
+35% mental defense
Churches will doubt your words and attack you on sight
Your alignment has become permanently Chaotic
Warren gawked at the windows that appeared with a mixture of horror and amazement. These were amazing skills and terrible effects. Looking at them, there was no doubt he was stronger than before, but with such effects thrown on he'd be hunted and starving. Both players and NPCs would be after him. Even worse, these effects would take place in the middle of a city, with guards and players everywhere.
He was screwed. He was so screwed.
Shaking off some of his shock, Warren realized everything was quiet. At the risk of sounding cliche, he'd say it was too quiet. Where were the cultists? They should be celebrating their success at this, but instead there was silence. Looking around, he realized for the first time that he wasn't in the same room.
This room was blank, empty. It was a dull black, that seemed to stretch on forever. And he wasn't alone in here. A man, with blackish-grey skin, curled ram horns, and bat wings. Warren assumed this was Kalgara.
"I was beginning to think you'd never notice me." Kalgara said, flashing a grin at me
"There's not much else to focus on in here." Warren replied, staring at him
"Indeed. So, let's get started."
That sounded ominous to Warren, coming from a demon that had possessed his avatar. He also guessed this room was either entirely in his head or in another dimension or something like that.
"Started with what?"
"Making you anew"
That was not what he had expected. He had expected something more along the lines of 'with your DEATH!' or such.
"What?"
"The older you are, the harder it is to control you. I have to admit, I didn't expect a human spirit in such a body, but it doesn't matter. Once I'm through with you, it'll be much more easier for me to take control."
That was more like it. Then he realized his words.
"Wait, human spirit?"
Warren twisted himself and looked at his rear, then felt for his ears. No ears or tail.
"Of course, this body isn't your true one. Did you think I wouldn't notice? I quite frankly do not know why this is so, but I'll take this one anyways. First, let's have a look at your life."
Kalgara waved his hand and a window appeared, floating in the air next to them. Through the window Warren watched a small child eating his cereal by himself while he parents left for work, though the scene soon changed, flashing through scenes that Warren started to recognize..
"Wait a minute! That's my life!"
How was this possible?! Kalgara was a program, made by the game's AI, how could he possibly be going through his life? How could the game know about his life! Warren was just one in thousands of people who joined Shattered, why would the game know of his life?!
Suddenly, Kalgara become much more terrifying. Could he be a real demon? No, according to the health and mana bars he had, Warren was still in the game.
"Indeed. Did I not say we'd be looking at your life? I have to say, you come from a strange dimension... no magic, so many laws... by the gods... the taxes and the bureaucracy!"
Shaking inside, Warren couldn't help but tremble as the demon continue with comments, always in a cheerful tone. That didn't hide the fact that he was in serious trouble.
"Log out..."
He tried logging out quietly. He had no idea what would happen, but if the game could scan his brain and read his memories because the demon wanted to know them, Warren was sure as hell not sticking around for the demon to go messing with his brain.
You can not log out in combat!
Whaaat?!
"You can't leave yet, due to the fact that the magic affecting you is magic that affects your mind. Besides... I haven't even started to change you yet."
Kalgara had a huge grin, revealing his perfectly normal white teeth. Briefly, Warren wondered why a demon had the build and the appearance to pass as a model, before Kalgara suddenly appeared in front of me and laid his clawed hand palm first on his face.
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"Yeorn! Yeorn! WAKE UP!"
With a groan, Yeorn rolled out of bed and onto his feet, before he had even open his eyes. Past experiences of being woken by such a way kept him from falling face first into a dresser, but he sincerely cursed the mind that had suggested the idea of supplying the living quarters for those who worked for Crescere with a speaker system, so that they can be contacted as wished.
"Marcy, I swear, if you've woke me up to talk about something unimportant, I will find you and I will hurt you."
"This is serious! That corpse kid of yours, he's found a demon!"
"WHAT?!"
Yeorn knew how important this was. The amount of demons found in Shattered so far could be count on two hands and every single one of them had been hidden away in some seriously nightmarish dungeons, found by the best players. More importantly, not one of them was lower than level 200.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
"How the hell did the kid find a demon! Last I checked the kid was somewhere near the west coast of Irea!"
"Well, now he's in the south, in Caose. Apparently, he some how caught a ship there. The feedback is a little odd though."
"Damnit! On my way!"
Yeorn managed to get dressed within a minute, shattering his previous record, from when a player had discovered dragons. Sprinting out of his quarters, he got a call, which he answered on the run.
"Yes, this is Yeorn?"
"Yeorn, it's me Marcy. Figured you'd be on the way, so the speakers aren't an option."
"What's so important that you couldn't wait?!"
"It's the kid."
"What's new?"
"The hospital's called. The doctors are going crazy, apparently the kid's brainwaves are going nuts. Most activity they've seen yet. They were babbling something about him releasing contradictory brainwaves that he's still in the coma, while accessing all of his memories, and with his brainwaves changing. The doctors haven't seen anything like it."
"So what happened with the demon then? Did he lose?"
"No, apparently he's still with the demon."
"Wait what? How's this even possible!? This doesn't make any sense! Marcy, find his feed and focus on it, I'll be there in a minute."
A minute and a half later, Yeorn sprinted into the room. He came to shuddering halt, his chest heaving like he'd finished a marathon, before making his way to Marcy's desk. To his surprise, there was a crowd there, everyone in the room watching her screen. He quickly shoed them away before turning back to Marcy.
"Marcy... fill me... in...."
Marcy was a perky young woman, with florid orange hair, a pieced nose, heavily tattooed, and wearing a particularly eye-catching shade orange t-shirt and jeans. She looked nothing more than a orange goth punk. Not at all what you'd expect of one of Crescere's top computer specialists, but Marcy was allowed some leeway, she was that good.
"Yeorn, you're not going to believe this... it's impossible, it's gotta be fake, no way, no how."
"Spit it out!"
"Apparently the kid got possessed by the demon."
"..."
"..."
"You're serious, aren't you?"
"Yes."
"Crap. What happened? How'd the hell he'd get possessed?! I thought that was as good as impossible!"
"Apparently, he's spent the last couple weeks in game captured, he was sold to the arena in Caorse, and cultists dragged him into an area under it. Some hound was turned demonic, then he was shoved into the circle, and he got possessed."
"Wow... so, what's happening now?"
"Hell if I know. The game was never designed to do something like this. It definitely shouldn't be happening in the first place. It's Shiv again."
Yeorn groaned, frustrated by the mere mention of the AI. The developers had surprised everyone when they gave the AI control of the system. Even updates and repairs had to be accepted by the AI before being implemented. That had driven a good many specialists to curse their names as they worked and given birth to the moniker 'Shiv', to describe their pain.
Of course, on the plus side the lore was better and far more in-depth than anything a human could make. It also prevented Crescere from knowing everything about the game, so the employees didn't have an advantage over other players.
"So, what's going on with the kid?"
"Apparently, the demon is trying to create a younger version of him. It mentioned something about it being harder to control older humans. It went through his memories, trying to find a good age for him to control."
"It went through his... are you SERIOUS?! How did a program start going through his memories?!"
Something like reverence began to shine in Marcy's eyes.
"That was a work of brilliance. The AI interpreted it and used the scanner in the capsule to do so."
"...."
"The scanner was made to identify each player by their brain and to translate everything into in game actions. The AI simply took the scanner and scanned the part of the brain that possessed the memories. By doing so, it gained access to them and allowed the demon to 'read' that kid's memories."
"So... it basically downloaded his memories? What's Warren doing while all this is happening?"
"He tried logging out."
"What else?"
"What do you mean 'What else'? The kid is level 3, the demon's at least 200, and he's already possessed. Even if he was beyond lucky and he could use the environment, he's basically in a blank room. That alone takes out like half of his spells, and even if he has a hidden class, Druid isn't exactly the most combat-oriented."
"So, this is affecting his mind, according to the hospital? I thought the demon was just scanning it!?"
"No, it's trying to overwrite his mind. That of course, has a major effect on his brain."
"How so? How will this affect him?"
"Basically, the demon is creating a split personality from the kid's mind. Once that's done, the doctors said the previous personality will be swallowed up, until the new one is the only one that only one that remains. Which, according to what you told me of him, might not be so bad in my personal opinion."
"No, this is bad. The kid's still himself, even if he has a look that can give you frostbite. Lord, what if the other players learned of this... we need a patch to prevent this from happening to anyone else!"
"That's easy enough to do, I can write it up within a half-hour. I don't think Shiv would mind either, it basically just cares about the game. Adding in features that protect the users should fly right through his inspection.... but what about the kid?"
"...damnit. There's nothing we can do. The kid's in the middle of brain surgery, if we go mucking about, it can turn out to do a lot more damage. We just have to wait and hope for the best."
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Kalgara heaved a sigh as he worked. Creating a new mind, even with an old one for basis, was no simple task. The human mind's thrashing even set him back some, as if he was a blacksmith with another person was working against him. But, the human clearly didn't have the experience to stay up to par against his onslaught. Slowly, he reworked the mind, choosing the qualities as if he was a connoisseur picking fine wines from the menu. Some of the qualities were buried deep, so deep that even Kalgara was surprised they were there, but he found they were well worth his effort. If he was going to make a mind for the body he was using, he wanted qualities that'd aid him immensely.
Fearlessness, yes, that was good. Couldn't have his body flinching or such at crucial moments could he? Naivety, for ease of manipulating the body, he wanted to avoid a struggle for every step. Make him slow-minded and foolish too, no need for him to realize what's happened or think too hard, Kalgara would do that for him. Yes, and make him cheerful. The last human he had possessed nearly a century ago had been endlessly grim and dark, even for a demon like him.
Taking these as the mind could only take so much, Kalgara finally finished and ignored the previous mind's struggle, which amounted to little more than death throes. Examining his work he came to a conclusion: the new mind was simple, with no memories of the past.
It was perfect.
Taking a hold of it mentally he replaced the old mind, which disappeared into the new mind like water down a whirlpool.
Stepping into the mind, he arrived in the new mind, which was a contrast to the previous one. This one was like a forest, with creatures and and flowers blooming. Ignoring the new surroundings, Kalgara focused on the child-like man who was waving his hands in the air in front of him.
Greetings, Warren.
"Are you my family?
No, I am your Master Kalgara. You shall serve me and we shall enjoy this world to its fulles-
"Don't wanna."
...What? You have no choice in the matter, you shall serve me, or pay for your disobedience!
"I don't like you. Go away."
With that, Kargara felt a force lift him up spin him away, arriving in the Abyss immensely confused as to what had happened, and helpless to resist the suddenness of it all. Unknowingly to Kalgara, the new Warren was far more child-like than he had expected thanks to the 'death throes' of the previous mind. Working as hard as he could, the previous Warren could only give his new mind a single quality that he had lacked throughout his life but secretly wished he had.
Stubbornness.
Meanwhile Warren was surprised by several windows as the forest began to fade before his astonished eyes.
-ding-
You have lost the skill Obsidian Skin
-ding-
You have lost the skill Demonic Attributes
-ding-
Due to being possessed and your possessor being suddenly driven away, your Satiety bar remains the doubled, though only you will draw upon it.
His eyes opening, Warren stared at the ceiling, wondering how he got there. Looking around, he noticed some strange people with funny looking clothes staring at him. Looking at the swirling magic and drifting mist, he said his first words in this strange new place.
"Wow, this place looks cool!"
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