Connor was confused and, honestly, terrified.
The distorted voice rang again.
Are you ready to discard your humanity?
Who are you?
I am you.
The fuck does that mean? What are you? Why are you in my head?
He didn't have time for this....the creature was approaching and-
Then, Connor's vision blurred into darkness. As if pulled into a dream.
He woke up in a dark space....it was clearly a dream realm, inside of his mind.
His heart hammered as he looked around the room. Dark grey pillars surrounded him in a circle.
"Time moves faster in here. Do not worry about dying from that being."
Connor turned around and saw....himself.
Dark blond hair, green eyes.....except that its face was cracked like broken ceramic. It just stood there.
"What is this?.....what's even happening?! Who are you!"
"I do not know myself...I was not sentient, until I went in your body and copied your ego," said the thing, its voice a distortion of Connor's.
It really was uncanny, unnerving. Staring at what looked like himself in a dark space.
A chill went down the boy's spine. "Are you...are you a parasite? But, when did you....wait, did you enter my body when I was in the Void?"
"Yes, that is correct."
Connor almost let out a laugh. He thought that it was a miracle he survived in the Void. He had ended up in an area with the least danger and had the help of a fallen angel.....but it was almost too lucky. The thing that was now inside of him....it was powerful, dangerous.....and also considering the fact that not even Lumikki detected its presence....
"What do you even want from me? Let me guess, you want to take over my body, in exchange of saving my life by killing that shadow monster?"
It nodded. Its eyes seemed to glow through the cracks.
"No. I know I'll regret it! Make this vision end. And, if I die, you also die."
A smile appeared on its cracked face. "I don't need to convince you. Once you're close to dying, you'll call out to me. And I'll save you....just like those two times."
"Those two times? You've taken over me before?"
"I'll let you see."
The scene changed. Connor had a third-person perspective and saw himself falling into the Void. The incident at the Aether Festival....it was only a few days ago....
He saw himself floating in infinite space, checking his watch. Then, he sensed a presence in the form of a ball of light, almost invisible to the eye. It had entered his chest, wrapping around and merging with his core.
So that was when the parasite had entered his body....he hadn't even noticed.
The scene changed again. He was bleeding on the ground of a dark forest, as two guards stood over him.
"Sorry. But, we're gonna have to use you as bait. Two lives are worth more than one," the man had said.
"How could you? He's just a kid!" the woman had said.
"He's injured, he'd be deadweight."
Then, he saw himself quickly getting up and slicing the guard's throat.
That was when he had killed that man in the Void....when he became a murderer. The parasite had secretly given him enough power to catch the man off guard and kill him in one strike.
Once again, the vision changed.
Now, he was seeing himself on the snowy grounds next to a town.
"Look at what they did...I will not kill you since you're an outsider," the demon had said.
As the demon walked away, Connor had charged at him, making him turn back.
Seeing the scene from as an outsider, Connor could tell that the demon was ready to kill him, it would've only taken a few seconds....until, he had launched an electro blade.
That was also caused by the parasite. He would've died without its help....
He heard the parasite say one more thing: "Call out to me."
Then, the dream ended.
Connor opened his eyes and sensed that only a second had passed in reality. He looked at his surroundings.
On the vast snowy valley, the night sky loomed over a one-sided battle.
The tenebrous beast descended on the running soldiers, melting them with its breath and shredding through them with its six limbs.
Connor was a few meters away from the battle. He could see through the dark that a dozen men had formed a wall formation, desperately keeping the creature occupied. The rest fled on horseback. Pierre and Sacha were nowhere to be found. Or maybe he couldn't see them in the dark.
Should I just run? But....where? I don't have a map or anything...
Before Connor could even think of his next move, a flash of light shone to his right.
He didn't have time to react. The beast had shot a beam at him. Destroying the right side of his body.
"Wha-"
Connor felt all his senses leaving him. Unlike the sensation of getting pulled into the dream, he felt cold....too cold....not from the temperature, but from death.
I don't want to die....no, I still haven't....
Then, almost involuntarily, he let the entity take control.
***
Sacha
Sacha was hiding. Clutching his useless rifle, he glanced behind the pine tree to see the monstrosity tear up his teammates.
Seeing that some were fleeing on horse, he thought of joining them. But he was too scared to even move.
"Huh?" mumbled Sacha as he saw a figure moving in the woods.
It was far away and too dark to make out, but he thought he saw a woman with silver hair...
Just my imagination, thought the boy.
Glancing back towards the scene, he saw his teammates desperately fighting for their lives. Noémie was there. Out of everyone, she was the only one who treated him decently. His only friend.
Sacha made a decision.
He aimed his rifle at the beast, while crouching. His weapon didn't really have a long range, so he approached cautiously.
Then, he got up and ran to duck behind a snow-covered boulder. The creature was now unleashing an azure flame, devastating the area. Sacha looked away. He didn't want to see his teammates burning to death. He hoped that Noémie didn't die....but he was afraid to look at the corpses.
I only have one shot at this....
Channeling all his mana, he focused on activating his spatial arts. He could only use it to accelerate things, but if he channeled all of it in a single bullet, adding it on top of the mana that reinforced the bullet, then he could damage the beast.
He aimed the rifle. The reinforced bullet took half his mana. The rest was given to the acceleration that would give his rifle the range of a sniper.
Brushing away his bangs, he closed one eye and aimed.
In the distance, the shadowy sea dragon was flying through the night sky in an unnatural way.
Sacha pulled the trigger.
In a flash, the bullet broke through the air and hit the beast in its neck. A splash of purple sprayed from its wound.
Yes!
But then, Sacha immediately started to back away....before breaking into a sprint. The beast was flying over towards him.
He tripped and fell on the snow, hitting his head on ice. He rolled to his back and-
The creature had suddenly stopped.
As he got up, Sacha saw that something had redirected its attention.
A dark figure.
What is that? Is it a person?
Sacha focused on the figure and barely made out some details.
It looked like a dark knight, covered in black, bony armour.....except that the armour seemed to be part of its body, not like some clothing. Blades were growing out of its body, forming an intricate design. Its legs were long, and seemed to be hock-jointed, like those of a horse, and covered in blades. A pair of glowing green eyes were behind the eye slits of its angular helmet with curved, horn-like protrusions coming out of its sides. It also had a cape....no, it was a pair of black, feathery wings...like those of a dark angel. It held a pair of shadowy swords.
Immediately, it dashed through the beast, tearing it into pieces that then disintegrated.
Sacha couldn't believe what he was seeing. It was too confusing, too quick.
His brain hadn't even registered what had happened, before he noticed that the knight entity had disappeared after having slain the monster.
"Where did it go....." mumbled Sacha, before suddenly running towards his teammates and letting out a shout, "NOÉMIE!"
She was injured and turned to look at him.
***
Connor
Sharp pain jolted through his body. He wanted to scream, he had no mouth.
He couldn't even tell if his eyes were open or closed. He just stared at darkness...
Then, Connor felt the sensation of a dark aura unwrapping itself from his body.
He fell to the cold ground. Gasping for breath, after regaining consciousness and the control of his body, Connor assessed the damage. His clothes were ripped, as if a multitude of blades had poked out of him.
His mana felt empty. He couldn't move. As he stared at the midnight sky, he thought back to what had happened:
Just as I was dying, I felt the entity take over....my body transformed.
I felt myself killing the beast...and then, I dashed away towards the woods.
He sat up and looked around. It was in an unfamiliar area of the mountains.
Feeling coldness, exhaustion and a dull pain across his body, Connor tried to get up...before falling.
"....Am I gonna die here? The entity saved my life, just for me to die of cold.....how pathetic...."
Connor was tired of relying on the help of others, on luck.....but what could he do? He was just a helpless-
He froze. Then, brought his arm up to examine. Dark, bone-like protrusions were sprouting out of his left arm.
"What is this...."
The entity was doing something to his body....
"No, no, NO!"
Then, it was as if every nerve in his body was set on fire. As if every bone was shattered, then glued back together, before repeating that process a million times. As if the entirety of his skin was being knit with burning needles. As if spiky centipedes were crawling under his scalp.
Connor let out a guttural scream as agony took over his body, mind and soul.
His only thoughts were:
Ah...AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Stopstopstopstopstop
enoughenoughenoughenough
please make it stop pleasemakeitstoppleasemakeitstop pleasemakeitstop pleasemakeitstop pleasemakeitstop pleasemakeitstop
STOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOP
AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Suddenly, a pair of large, white wings wrapped around him. A surge of healing mana spread throughout his body, erasing the pain, as he was caressed by the feathery wings.
"It's gonna be okay," said Lumi.