The Lone Wanderer

Chapter 621 – Justice

In a flash of inspiration, the clone decided to bring a beast that had died of old age to the Vault. That way, the creature was bound to die again not long after he abandoned its body, denying Metatron a two-cored test subject.

No matter how skilled the titan’s healers were, there wasn’t much that they could do to extent a mortal’s lifespan. If such a thing were possible, the top factions in the universe wouldn’t have prided themselves in their ability to turn Orange-borns into gods.

At most, Metatron and his people would be able to grant the beast a second core and feed it enough mana to get its original core to the next grade, but that wouldn’t buy the creature more than a few weeks.

Percy generally avoided pulling pranks like that on the titan, not wanting to get on his wrong side. While bringing him a host near the end of its natural life wasn’t against the terms of their deal, Percy didn’t know whether the god would care for the technicality.

This was arguably the worst possible time to play games with Metatron, as falling out might cost Percy the chance to enter the void tournament. Then again, didn’t that apply both ways? Would the titan be willing to call everything off at such a critical moment over something this dumb?

Percy briefly considered stopping by Ruby Heart to grab some of the red material as well, but ultimately decided against it.

‘Let’s not take this too far…’

Sure, he wouldn’t be responsible for all the injuries the creature would suffer from the violent currents near the base of the whirlpool either, but handing Metatron a mangled mess of a host would skirt the line more than necessary.

Besides, it was best not to open portals to the Vault from his resource farm – for the same reason he avoided doing so from Remior. Percy still didn’t fully understand how much awareness Metatron had over each activation of his Decree, so he’d rather not give him extra opportunities to learn the coordinates of important locations.

After travelling through the cosmos for a couple of days longer than he would have liked, Percy found a decent body to ride to the artificial world. Entering the circular rift, he soon found himself standing on the familiar metallic floor of the Vault, gazing at giant runes that pulsed rhythmically in the distance.

As was often the case, he was immediately surrounded by a crowd of curious sapients, prompting him to click his – whatever his host had in place of a tongue – in annoyance. Then again, he couldn’t help but appreciate how much information his newly evolved mutation granted him as his secondary domain enveloped everything within hundreds of metres.

‘Yeah… this will definitely be a huge help in the tournament,’ he confirmed as he realized how easily he could count even the beads of sweat present on these people’s bodies.

Much to Percy’s dismay, it didn’t take long for his three-dimensional vision to lock onto a certain approaching figure that he hadn’t been in a rush to meet. The crowd parted to make way for the Blue, allowing him to slither through their ranks.

The Thess’kalan looked just like Percy remembered him. He appeared slightly taller than the average sapient, yet that was just a trait of his species. It had to do with the way their long tails supported their upper bodies, though their torsos weren’t necessarily larger than those of humans.

Kassorith was covered from head to tail in pale scales. His crimson eyes were looking at Percy curiously, the Blue having clearly recognized the exotic animal as one of his hosts. His lips curled up in the shape of a smug, punchable

smirk.Finally, a set of blue robes adorned with a distinctive violet trim were draped over the scaled man’s shoulders, hanging loosely in front of his chest. The clothes looked almost identical to those that Kassorith had worn on Thess’kala, though Percy didn’t miss the hints of synthetic fabric that one could purchase from the Vault’s system.

Clearly, the robes were newly sewn, yet Metatron had tried to make them resemble the originals as much as possible, so that his prized test subject wouldn’t look out of place in the upcoming competition.

‘He must have sent him to greet me,’ Percy guessed with a sigh, seriously doubting that Kassorith had just happened to stumble upon him by accident as soon as he got here. Percy had obviously known that he’d be working with the Thess’kalan again, but he’d be lying if he said that he was happy to see him. ‘Whatever… it’s too late for regrets anyway…’

At the end of the day, Kassorith wasn’t that important. He was just a tool for Percy to use and get rid of when convenient.

With a resigned eyeroll, he gestured at the scaled person to follow him to a more isolated location. People were unlikely to bother Percy if he tried to possess the Thess’kalan in plain sight, but he preferred working without an audience.

The two travelled silently for a few minutes, circling a cube-shaped structure that Percy didn’t know the purpose of – though he was pretty sure that it wasn’t a training cube, nor a residential one.

As soon as they were alone, Percy halted, briefly examining his host’s body for the first time since possessing the creature. He had almost forgotten to do so earlier, since it didn’t really matter how it looked. The poor beast would die not long after they parted ways. That said, Percy did need to know what he was working with.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

His three-dimensional vision promptly informed him that the beast resembled some kind of jackal, though it did have a couple of questionable features here and there. Percy didn’t attempt to speak, seriously doubting that the creature would even be capable of it.

Instead, he raised his right forelimb, motioning for Kassorith to lie down. The Thess’kalan calmly followed his instructions, seemingly without a care in the world, clearly aware that Percy wasn’t going to harm him. His smirk only widened as he did so.

‘The bastard is enjoying this…!’

Grinding his fangs, Percy gathered some phantom mana to his claws, inflicting a few precise incisions on his patient’s soul. At the same time, he asked his main body to send another clone his way.

After that, there wasn’t much to do, besides keeping the Thess’kalan stable until he got possessed – oh… and holding himself back from “accidentally” carving too many unnecessary wounds into the guy’s soul.

Only after his fellow Percy

reassured him that Kassorith would be okay – much to both of their chagrin – did he finally leave.***

‘Well, well… if it isn’t my ticket to glory and riches!’ the Thess’kalan drawled, every word lacquered in syrupy mockery. ‘I have to admit, I didn’t expect us to work together again this soon. Not after the way you left me here to die. Hmmm? What’s up with this fancy new vision? You must’ve kept yourself busy over the past decade.’

Percy ignored him entirely, more interested in studying his host’s second core. He knew that they wouldn’t be able to use it in the tournament, but he couldn’t help his curiosity.

‘Lava affinity. And it’s Green already, with all the channels for Circulation cleared and tempered,’ he concluded after a cursory examination.

None of this was particularly surprising. It was highly unlikely that Kassorith had awakened a composite affinity, and Metatron wouldn’t have given him an element that he’d already possessed, so the Thess’kalan had probably awakened earth and been given fire.

He was pretty much in the same situation as Elaine – with two composite affinities that shared a single common element – though he had ended up like this in a slightly different way. The only thing worse would have been to awaken a second metal affinity, though the odds of that happening had been extremely low.

Neither Percy nor Kassorith said anything for a few minutes, so it was actually Micky who eventually broke the tense silence.

‘I guess I can finally introduce myself to you, asshole,’ the Huehuan said.

Percy wasn’t a huge fan of his friend revealing his existence to a potential enemy, but they’d already discussed this on the way here. Metatron knew that Percy had fused with somebody, so it didn’t really matter.

They just had to stick with Percy’s lie that he had acquired his blessing of permanence from Micky – and not a Ring of Sacrilege. Since Percy had supposedly only been able to absorb so many spectral traits thanks to his friend, they would also have to pretend that Micky had been present during Percy’s entire trip to Thess’kala, having lurked quietly inside Kassorith’s soul without ever revealing himself.

The good news was that Micky did have access to all the associated memories, so it wouldn’t be difficult to keep the façade up. If Kassorith or Metatron pressed them on that, they would just have to mention a version of the truth: that Percy and Micky’s minds had been fused for a while, thus having operated as a single person until recently.

Perhaps it would have been simpler for Micky to just shut up for the next few weeks – or however long the tournament lasted – but Percy didn’t want to do that to his friend for no good reason.

‘Oh? And who might you be? Percy’s mysterious companion?’ Kassorith asked, sounding more curious than alarmed. The titan must have filled him in at some point.

‘Name’s Micky. I’m the one who wasn’t dumb enough to betray the person keeping my soul from falling apart back when I was the one possessed.’

Percy was tempted to point out that Micky had also tried to kick him out of his body at first, but ultimately decided to let the comment slide.

Kassorith chuckled. ‘It’s not like I had a choice. Syrreneth would have skinned me alive if I hadn’t helped him, and it’s not like your buddy would have jumped to my rescue. Besides… do you honestly expect me to regret my actions? I’ll have you know that things have turned out for the better since I stabbed Percy in the back.’

Percy frowned, though he couldn’t exactly refute the Blue’s words.

Sure, had Kassorith never betrayed him, he would have still had a good life on Thess’kala. Percy had earned him a new mutation, several additional prizes that he could have traded for even better stuff, and the reputation of an elite disciple who had won a regional tournament.

However, Kassorith’s life in the Vault was clearly even better.

He was free to use his second core – which he hadn’t even known about before getting here – to his heart’s content. He’d even traded his spare resources for an affinity-changing treasure and Circulation. Finally, due to the titan’s deal with Percy, Kassorith was about to obtain yet another new mutation. The Sage’s Eye was temporary, but the Thess’kalan would unfortunately keep his Ruby Bones, in addition to competing in the void tournament for even more rewards.

‘There’s really no justice in the world,’ Percy grunted, though he didn’t linger on that. Instead of bickering with his smarmy host, he would rather use his time productively. ‘Do me a favour and activate all forms of your boosting art. I hope you know how to do that.’

‘What for? You know that we won’t be able to use any of it in the tournament, right?’ the Thess’kalan asked.

‘I’m aware. Just do it – there’s still a way to benefit from it indirectly,’ Percy insisted.

With a shrug, the scaled Blue followed his instructions, taking several deep breaths and flooding his cores and channels with mana. Soon, five instances of the Refined spell activated, sending waves of strength rippling through his muscles.

Kassorith had used the metal, lava, fire, lightning, and earth versions of Circulation. It appeared that plasma was still beyond him. Percy didn’t know whether his host had yet to master that particular form of affinity fusion or if it was just too difficult to circulate a composite affinity that he didn’t have a core for, but it didn’t matter much. This was already plenty.

Not interested in Kassorith’s physical enhancements, Percy drew out his willpower and shaped it into the most powerful domain he could muster, allowing Obatala’s Approval to lock it in place. Kassorith wouldn’t have access to this later, but Percy and Micky would, giving them another small edge in the competition.

Once that was done, he tilted his borrowed head up and spoke loudly, his words seemingly aimed at nobody in particular. “If you’re done watching us, I’d like to get this over with.”

Barely a second later, their surroundings shifted as they found themselves inside one of the smaller training cubes, standing before a certain pentapus.