Chapter 466 – Betrayal

‘There’s no point resisting, Percy,’ Kassorith said, a mental sigh faintly echoing through their muted connection. ‘To tell you the truth, I didn’t want to double cross you this time. Sadly, it’s no longer up to me. You sealed your fate when you revealed your existence to my master.’

Percy didn’t bother replying, being too busy holding on to his host’s soul. The cold-blooded Thess’kalan was trying to evict him even more aggressively than the previous time, likely emboldened by the soul healer waiting to patch him up. Remior’s pull had also grown stronger during Percy’s stay on the greater spring, making everything worse.

Still, he didn’t panic, having honestly expected the betrayal. From the very beginning, he’d known that Kassorith and Syrreneth were nothing but a couple of backstabbing assholes, though it might be a bit hypocritical of him to criticize them for it. After all, Percy had also been torn between pre-emptively betraying Kassorith, or allowing him to harm more innocents in the future. If anything, his host had done him a favour by making the choice easier.

‘I need to escape, but there’s no chance I’m leaving that thing behind. I’ve come way too far to give up on the leaf when it’s right in front of me…’ Percy thought, his spectral claws digging even deeper into his host’s soul, eliciting a pained groan.

He concentrated on the foggy chamber, and everything in it. Sensing his surroundings wasn’t easy through the broken connection, but Percy had already burned the layout of the room firmly in his mind. He hoped the life-extending leaf was still on the cushion – about ten to fifteen metres away from Kassorith. It was a long distance for a Red-cored mortal, but his Blue host could cover the gap in an instant.

It didn’t look like the others had made a move toward him yet either. They were likely waiting for Kassorith to kick him out by himself, not wanting to worsen the latter’s injuries by accident. But they would certainly attempt to stop Percy if he tried anything.

‘I’ll only get one move. I’ll have to accomplish a thousand things at once if I want to make it out.’

First and foremost, Percy had to reestablish his connection to Kassorith, otherwise he wouldn’t be able to so much as twitch a muscle. Luckily, that wasn’t very difficult. He might not be able to forcefully control an unwilling host for a prolonged period of time – especially a Blue – but seizing the man’s body for a second or two was more than doable. Percy had already practiced this extensively on several beasts before this trip. None of the Thess’kalans would see it coming either, which was a bonus. Nor did Percy much care what happened to his host afterwards.

‘Grabbing the leaf is just the start. I’ll need to break out of this room before Kassorith regains control, or the enchantments will prevent my soul from escaping.’

There was zero margin for error. If he messed up any part of the plan, the consequences would be severe. Still, he was confident he could make everything work.

Not wasting any more time, Percy focused on his host. The spectral fiends running rampant inside his wisp grew more erratic, the spider-like limbs digging deeper into Kassorith’s injured soul, the long hairs wrapping themselves tightly around everything in their reach. Percy’s mind rammed against the Thess’kalan’s, in an attempt to force their lost connection to reopen.

‘It’s useless,’ the Blue spoke again. ‘If you stop being stubborn, I’ll ask my master not to hurt you as much. No need to make this any more painful than it has to be.’

Ignoring Kassorith’s quip, Percy doubled his efforts. Time was running out, as both of their souls had already sustained a lot of damage. Finding purchase to hold on to the Thess’kalan had become increasingly difficult.

‘Come on! No way I’m losing everything I’ve gained here!’ he yelled internally, pushing through the clogged link with every fibre of his being.

A modest flash of light illuminated Percy’s surroundings as Kassorith’s blurry vision dimly seeped into his mind. The muffled sounds of Syrreneth talking to his lackey reached Percy’s borrowed ears as his fleeting ownership of the Blue’s body returned unceremoniously.

[Congratulations! Your spell has evolved: Soul-to-soul – Crude -> Spectral Art: Parasitic Connection – Refined!]

Percy didn’t bother reading the notification, knowing this wasn’t the time nor the place for that. Before Kassorith even registered what had happened, Percy seized control of the man’s tail by force, leaping toward the leaf with as much strength as he could muster.

At the same time, he pulled out two objects from his spatial seal, holding them tightly in his host’s hands. Their jagged edges ripped into his borrowed palms, a pang of pain helping him experience his environment more vividly. A surge of lightning mana rushed through his arms, flooding the steel constructs.

Kassorith instinctively tried to slow his output to a trickle, but that was fine – Percy didn’t need that much anyway. The objects were naturally a couple of fragments from Kassorith’s enchanted swords that he’d had the foresight to stash away during the tournament, having expected them to come in handy in a situation like this. Percy didn’t know whether his host had noticed his sneaky move in the heat of battle, but it didn’t really matter. Either way, he hadn’t had the chance – or a reason – to warn the others. Percy hurled the red-hot shards at his enemies as he flew toward the leaf.

Syrreneth reacted long before the soul user did. A powerful domain slammed against Percy’s in an attempt to intercept him. Percy’s willpower got pushed back with ease, but not enough to arrest his momentum. The elder’s move failed to stop the projectile flying toward him, leaving him no choice but to defend himself by hastily manifesting a thin layer of ice on his body.

The Blue wasn’t as lucky as his superior. Either he lacked the instincts of a fighter, or his ethereal affinity and weaker body didn’t give him as many options as the Violet. Whatever the reason, the man failed to protect himself from the sneak attack, the sharp piece of scorching metal slicing through the scales on his chest as if they were paper, emerging out of his back in an explosion of blood and gore.

Seeing the Blue fall, Percy relaxed a little. He hadn’t expected – or even required – his sneak attack to finish Syrreneth off, but the soul mage was a different story entirely – he had to die at all costs. Percy wasn’t great at suppressing his blessing yet, so he hadn’t tried to do that throughout his stay on Thess’kala. It hadn’t been a concern before, because he’d long used up his mana, and nobody in the tournament would have noticed anything strange unless they examined Kassorith from up close with Soul Vision.

That said, he didn’t doubt that Syrreneth’s unfortunate subordinate had already noticed the odd colouration of the wisp lodged inside Kassorith’s soul. That wasn’t a problem in and of itself, since they would just assume Percy had been born to a god with a soul affinity. However, this could quickly turn into a major issue when he factored in his pending escape plan.

‘So far so good,’ Percy thought, finally reaching the giant leaf resting on the cushion. It hadn’t even been a second since he took hold of Kassorith’s body, but it had honestly felt like an eternity.

The jade treasure disappeared into Percy’s spatial seal before the soul user’s body even hit the floor, thankfully without giving the Moirais’ Decree a chance to awaken from its slumber. Having caught on, Kassorith used his own domain to suppress Percy’s, already working hard to sever their newly-forged connection. Syrreneth also looked like he’d recovered from the sneak attack, his domain pressing his disciple against the ground. Clenching his borrowed gums, Percy stubbornly held on to the dissipating link, knowing full well that the rest of his plan couldn’t work if he didn’t have a physical body.

‘Almost there,’ he thought as the floor beneath Kassorith and Syrreneth warped, giving way to a backdrop of metallic greys and colourful runes.

“What the hell is this?!” the elder demanded.

Percy didn’t care to reply, doing his utmost to suppress every trace of the blessing from his soul. The concept of permanence rapidly receded, robbing Percy of its usual protection. The two traits warring against Kassorith’s soul suddenly felt heavier, tearing Percy’s wisp to shreds every moment they remained active.

But Percy didn’t let the wave of untold agony stop him.

The portal finally took form, the ground disappearing beneath him and Syrreneth, destabilizing their footing. The Violet’s domain relaxed slightly as a result, allowing Percy to move again. Taking advantage of the elder’s disorientation, Percy slammed his tail down on Syrreneth, wrapping it around the man’s torso a couple of times as he sank into the artificial world. Using what little of his domain he could still wield, as well as his host’s enhanced physical strength, he tried his best to drag the elder with him.

Crossing the spatial channel made Percy dizzy as always, but he’d experienced this plenty of times. Kassorith hadn’t, allowing Percy to gain more ground in their internal battle. Syrreneth probably wasn’t used to travelling in this manner either, but Percy wasn’t sure the man’s upper body had even entered the portal – he’d only managed to pull the elder’s tail and the lower half of his torso so far, the Violet stubbornly holding on.

‘Oh well... That’s your loss,’ Percy thought, willing the portal shut.

Kassorith landed face-first onto the metallic floor, his master’s severed body falling on top of him amidst a rain of blood and spilled guts. They probably had plenty of powerful life mages in the Broken Fang Sect, but Percy didn’t think Syrreneth would live long enough to employ their services. Even if the greedy elder somehow survived, he could, at most, tell his people about the parasitic alien who had possessed and kidnapped his disciple. He didn’t really know anything more sensitive than that.

Overcoming his nausea, Kassorith was about to regain ownership of his body.

Percy brushed his hand over the amethyst emblem still pinned to his host’s tunic, storing it in his seal as well. He didn’t think he could enter the void tournament with it, so he’d only done this to spite Kassorith. He would have much rather emptied the contents of his host’s spatial pin, grabbing himself a third set of ritual ingredients among other valuables, but he didn’t have time for any of that.

‘See you around, Kassorith. I hope you live long enough for me to kill you,’ he said, finally allowing his host to evict him.

Following the cord back to Remior, he waited until he’d travelled far into the void before releasing his blessing, allowing its protection to wash over what was left of his ravaged wisp, calming the spectral fiends down. It had been an unpleasant and arguably dangerous experience, but Percy was content with this outcome.

The only sour note was that Kassorith would probably survive. Despite Percy’s efforts to rip his soul to pieces, he didn’t doubt that Metatron had both the means and the intention to fix him. No way the titan would let go of a two-cored Blue with an extended lifespan, fresh out of a greater spring.

‘Such a mess. I’ll have to deal with it the next time I’m there…’

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A/N: Just a heads up that the next three chapters will feature an alternative POV. I know that many of you would have preferred that we went back to Percy's main body right away to process his gains from Thess'kala, but these next couple of chapters are actually super important for the story, and I think this is the best place to slot them in.

Sorry about that! I figured I'd warn you guys so that you don't get unpleasantly surprised over the weekend. (I still recommend not skipping them though, because they tie in to so many plot threads.)

After that, it's Percy's story all the way to the end of Book 4 (Chapter 492) and beyond!