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Chapter 395 – Trust
🕑 Added 2025-07-17 06:01:01 +0000 UTCIn the end, the most recent clone hadn’t brought anything particularly interesting back. Having spent most of his time looking for – and fai
In the end, the most recent clone hadn’t brought anything particularly interesting back. Having spent most of his time looking for – and failing to find – a sapient Green host, he’d possessed a beast instead.
Percy had found himself in the body of an avian creature that had looked a bit like a four-winged bat. He had searched for signs of civilization or rare herbs, only to come up empty-winged. Eventually, he had been forced to deem the trip a failure, returning home to try again.
The good news was that the clone hadn’t brought many memories back either, so assimilating his experiences hadn’t been particularly difficult. Half an hour later, Percy had sent a new clone outside, before resuming work on his projects.
Both his and Micky’s recoveries were coming along nicely.
The crow’s missing body parts had mostly been replaced by chunks of ice already, so he only had to deal with a minor stamina problem. Even with his mutations and his spells alleviating the bulk of his hunger, the fight against the Blues had taken a lot out of him.
They didn’t stop flying, fully aware that they needed to stay on the move as much as possible. However, they did take things easy for the next couple of days. Micky kept himself busy applying Regulation to his new mutation, as well as scouring the wilderness for the occasional Yellow beast to munch on – all in an attempt to rebuild his reserves as soon as possible.
Meanwhile, Percy split his time between perfecting his mana threads and brewing some Aurora Dew to extend his stash. Both tasks were challenging to do while airborne, but he was getting better at them by the hour.
They didn’t practice their coordination, nor anything else related to combat, however. Directly increasing their strength was definitely high on their list of priorities – the difficult battle they’d just barely survived had been quite an eye-opener. Still, they figured they should wait until they recovered completely before exerting themselves.
Eventually, a second clone arrived. And this one proved a lot more successful than his predecessor.
Burrowing in Percy’s body, the grey wisp dumped yet another strange object in his soul. Unlike the black, disk-shaped seal he had purchased from Metatron, this one sported a deep red colour and was shaped like a pyramid. Through his clone’s memories, he understood this was actually a tiny piece of a goddess’s internal world. It contained not only her own soul, but also the souls of hundreds of her mortal subjects. They were all sleeping soundly inside the structure, floating next to his storage seal.
‘What’s left of them, anyway…’
Goddess or not, Nephthys had been forced to brutally mutilate her soul, her mind and her internal world, as well as those of her people. It was the only way Percy could have possibly carried them back to Remior. He still had no idea if any of them would ever recover, but he’d already promised her to try and help them.
That said, he wasn’t going to half-ass things when dealing with an entity that had lived for hundreds of thousands of years. Certainly not one with the mind affinity. Turning to the other former deity – the one resting around his finger – he tried to make sense of Nephthys’s circumstances.
‘Wow, you’ve got quite a knack for getting into trouble.’ Zoris mused after hearing Percy’s explanation.
‘Do you think that she might have brainwashed or manipulated me in any way?’
The irony of voicing this question to the same person whose own integrity he had doubted just over a year ago wasn’t lost on him. But Nesha had already confirmed that Zoris had been honest with him, and that he didn’t harbour any ill intentions. In his girlfriend’s absence, the former god was his best shot at vetting the goddess’s words.
Granted, with a clone inside Nesha’s body, he currently had access to her Truthseeker bloodline. The problem was that he’d need a direct line from the clone to the goddess, as having his main body relay their words wouldn’t work. Worse still, Nephthys was currently asleep, and would likely remain so for the foreseeable future.
‘I doubt it,’ Zoris said, before elaborating. ‘Messing with your senses – sure. She could have shown you whatever she wanted inside her internal world. But even if she did, she shouldn’t have the means to hijack your main body after the fact. Certainly not in her current state.’
‘What about messing with my thoughts or memories?’ Percy asked again.
Zoris mentally shook his head.
‘I don’t know what today’s gods are capable of. I’ve been out of the loop since before this woman was born. But true mind-control goes a lot deeper than merely affecting what one sees or hears. To put this into context, let me give you an analogy regarding life magic. Altering your senses would be the mental equivalent of infecting or curing your body of a disease – a rather simple thing, that even a Violet or a White can do. Affecting your thoughts and memories, on the other hand, would be closer to giving somebody a bloodline. I’m sure you know enough about bloodlines by now to understand how much harder that would be to pull off.’
Percy nodded, the former god’s words being in line with what Metatron had told him.
‘And you’re confident there aren’t any gods who can do that?’
‘I didn’t say that. In fact, there used to be one, back when I was still active. His name was Baphomet, and he hailed from the world of Catharis – a rather high-ranking greater spring. But, even he, couldn’t do this by himself.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘He had cultivated a special order of mortals to help him. Over a hundred Yellow-borns and Green-borns, ranging from Violets to demigods. And they all had the mind affinity. They amplified his strength, allowing him to seize another’s mind entirely. He could even do it from afar, manipulating somebody from across worlds.’
Percy swallowed hard, imagining himself getting targeted by this spell. He’d lose control of his body in an instant, probably not even realizing what had happened to him. At least, he didn’t think he had the means to defend himself against such a powerful mental attack.
‘Can it affect gods as well?’
‘Thankfully, no. Even a strong mortal with a mind affinity might be able to do something about it if they noticed it in time. But don’t underestimate how much damage he could still cause to a rival faction. Imagine one of the strongest demigods on your world suddenly falling in the hands of a hostile god. There’s no telling what Baphomet might use them for.’
Zoris’s words sent a chill down Percy’s spine.
‘You think he’s still around? Or that there might be others like him, nowadays?’
‘I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s alive. Even the largest factions avoided messing with Catharis. It just wasn’t worth the hassle of making such a troublesome enemy. But I also doubt there are others like him. It’s not an easy spell to pull off. It takes a very talented god to serve as the core of the array, and that’s not even the hardest bit.’
‘The mortals?’ Percy guessed.
‘Indeed. He needs to keep finding and training more of them every few thousand years. Even for a greater spring that owns several planets, gathering so many powerful mind users all the time isn’t easy. This is just my personal guess, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they own the Elemental Source for the mind affinity.’
Percy exhaled in relief upon hearing that. He still made a mental note to stay clear of Catharis for the foreseeable future. He didn’t doubt it would be full of amazing treasures, but it wasn’t worth the risk. Not when there were hundreds of other greater springs he had yet to explore.
‘So, what’s the worst thing Nephthys can do to me? I admit, I’m still a little nervous to have a mind goddess sleeping inside my soul.’
‘The first thing you need to remember is, that thing inside you is not a goddess. Not anymore. The fact that she managed to set foot on Remior is proof enough that she can no longer be considered one.’
Zoris sighed at that, probably comparing her to his own situation. Percy didn’t say anything, waiting for him to continue.
‘Anyway, that’s not to say that everything she told you was the truth. She could have still lied or held something back – the good old way.’
Percy nodded, knowing that his only options were to either trust her based on the limited information he had available, or to break his promise to her and let the Amenthei perish.
‘At least, I don’t think she lied about the condition of her people…’
Percy had clearly seen the poor state of their souls before entering her internal world. There were only a few of them left, and they were all dying slowly. That much, he didn’t think she could have faked. Of course, she could have still twisted the truth in all sorts of ways when showing him her world’s past…
He sighed.
Blindly believing someone he had just met wasn’t ideal, but he didn’t want to doom an entire race of people due to his suspicions. This was why he had agreed to her terms in the first place. And she clearly understood that too, which was why she’d placed her hopes on him.
‘Well, what’s done is done. I just hope this thing lasts long enough…’
Examining the pyramid again, Percy noticed it was rising through his soul, slowly making its way to his head. The object’s properties felt a little contradictory. On one hand, it was extremely light – probably thanks to Nephthys’s efforts to help him carry it home. On the other, it felt exceptionally hard. Apparently, even the tiniest sliver of a deity’s soul wasn’t the kind of thing Percy could damage easily with his current means.
‘I bet I wouldn’t be able to leave a scratch on the pyramid even if I went all out…’
Of course, that didn’t mean he was powerless to deal with the object. The structure could only exist under the protection of its owner’s soul, which, in turn, could only survive within Percy’s. If he wanted to harm Nephthys or her people, he could easily expel the pyramid from his body, and watch it crumble away in no time. Obviously, he had no intention of doing anything of the sort, but knowing he held all the power in this situation went a long way toward proving Nephthys’s sincerity and desperation.
Finally, there was another thing he’d noticed as soon as the object had entered his soul. Something that caused the corner of his lips to curl up, filling him with greed.
‘Whether she lied to me or not, at least I won’t end up empty-handed…’
Comments
Meir Banon
Tftc
Lord InsidiousTroll
Troll us at the beginning and then tease us at the end. I approve.
MinE
That troll at the beginning was devious.
