The clone had been searching for a new body for months. Percy had no idea whether his three counterparts had gotten any luckier, but he certainly hadn’t found what he’d been looking for. He’d actually skipped half a dozen lesser springs during this trip, each missed opportunity like a stab in his severed little soul.
But it couldn’t be helped.
Lesser springs were good, yet Percy understood he couldn’t afford to get distracted every time he encountered one. Sure, there was always a chance – albeit a small one – that he’d find a new Decree or alchemic principle, but he knew he would be very unlikely to extend his lifespan or accelerate his advancements by relying on them alone. After all, if these worlds had what he was searching for, they wouldn’t have been classified as lesser springs in the first place, would they?
That was why he’d decided to steel himself and reserve his time for only the most promising places in the universe. That wasn’t to say he wouldn’t visit more lesser springs in the future, but they had to truly stand out for him to bother – much like Gallimus did.
Or at least, that had been his goal at the start of his mission.
More than once, Percy had considered giving up and settling for the next lesser spring he saw. Perhaps, his criteria had been unreasonable to begin with. What if he never found a greater spring? Would he waste his whole life searching for a needle in a haystack? Maybe his best shot was to gather minor insights from lots of lesser springs instead, slowly building his own ladder to divinity, one plank at a time.
‘Get a grip, Percy! It’s only been a few months!’ he kept telling himself.
He’d always known it would be difficult to find one of the peak worlds. Besides, he hadn’t really wasted that much time yet. He could reconsider in a decade – or ten – if he kept finding nothing. On top of that, his main body had asked the clones to stay away for at least six months – unless of course they found something genuinely valuable. Percy was currently working on consolidating his gains and upgrading his armour, so he didn’t want to be interrupted too frequently. Thus, the clone had been forced to stick to his monotonous journey, endlessly scanning the sea of souls while counting the days to his return.
It was one day – or night… he couldn’t really tell – like any other, when it finally happened.
A giant world, several times larger than Remior appeared in the distance. Granted, Percy couldn’t observe the planet itself, but he could see the dense swarm of souls that stretched as far as his senses could reach. After a rough count, he estimated this world was home to over a dozen times Remior’s population. And that wasn’t everything – their average grade was much higher too. Greens and Blues were practically everywhere, and he guessed they had over a hundred thousand Violets, tens of thousands of Whites and thousands of demigods!
Most notably, they also seemed to have hundreds of gods! Their joint radiance made it difficult for Percy to even glance at the place, let alone examine his potential hosts carefully.
‘I’ll manage,’ he thought, his soul lighting up with greed.
This place was obviously teeming with danger – but also brimming with opportunity.
It had to be a greater spring, right?
Even if it somehow wasn’t one, it would still be the most developed lesser spring Percy had ever seen. Either way, he knew his main body wouldn’t blame him for taking his chances.
Unfortunately, he had yet to perfect his new skill. Percy wasn’t confident in fully possessing an unwilling host, though he estimated he would still have a few decent options even in that situation. Another issue was that he hadn’t kept the connection to his main body open, which meant that he was limited to his own stash. Healing a Blue wouldn’t be easy with so little mana.
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Well, it couldn’t be helped. The original had been way too busy to keep four cords open for months on end. Perhaps, Percy would be better served going for a Green host, though he didn’t want to be too restricted. On Remior, Greens did hold some status. But here? They were probably worthless – no more than commoners.
‘Let’s go for a Blue. I’d rather not find myself trapped in a tiny village. I’ll just have to pick the one with the lightest injuries and hope I can fix them…’
Having made his mind up, Percy searched for a dying soul suited to his needs. After dismissing several choices, his gaze landed on one he found promising.
‘Not too old, nor too young… Probably a Yellow-born who’s lived for a couple hundred years…’
That didn’t sound right.
If this was a greater spring, shouldn’t a Yellow-born have advanced to Violet by that age?
‘Have I made a mistake?’ he couldn’t help but wonder.
It was possible.
Though it was also possible that these people didn’t have a way to accelerate their advancements, but instead a method to directly extend their lifespans. Something like that could also allow a Yellow-born to ascend past White, though Percy would be slightly disappointed if this was the case.
Ideally, he wanted a way to reach Green sooner. It would not only extend his lifespan, but also raise his fighting strength – something that he desperately needed, given how many enemies were waiting for him back on Remior.
‘Then again, this might be a good thing…’
For a while now, he’d been operating under the assumption that many of the greater springs had achieved their elevated status thanks to the same cyan powder that he’d incorporated into his Aurora Dew. It would make sense, considering how easy the resource was to produce. The problem was that the knowledge was now useless to him, so he couldn’t help but hope for something different.
‘Well… either way, there’s no point in guessing. I’ll have my answer soon enough.’
Not wasting any more time, Percy dove straight toward the soul he’d singled out. Other than looking for somebody more lightly injured, Percy had picked a Blue located as far away from the gods as possible, just in case. It hadn’t been easy, because the deities seemed to be scattered around the planet, but he had done his best.
Entering his host’s body, Percy was greeted with a wave of suspicion. Not that strange, but also not a great sign of things to come.
‘Who are you?’ a voice cold like a serpent’s hiss rang through Percy’s soul.
‘Unless you have a way to heal yourself, I’m your only shot at survival,’ Percy replied matter-of-factly.
His host didn’t respond immediately, seemingly taking a few seconds to evaluate their options.
‘Name your terms,’ the Blue eventually said, somewhat guardedly.
‘I know this is a greater spring. And I know what that means,’ Percy said, cutting to the chase. ‘I’ll heal you if you give me what I want.’
Had his host been a child like Enki or Duwa, Percy might have offered to help them for free. That said, he had no intention of giving his services away to everyone he met. This was Percy’s first greater spring since the Moirais’ world – which he’d only visited by accident decades ago – so he wasn’t going to walk away empty-handed. Besides, this person was a centuries-old Blue – they could afford to pay up.
Some hesitation bubbled up within his host’s soul, though it didn’t last long.
‘Fine… I’ll pass you my people’s core cleansing technique.’
Percy thought he heard wrong.
He’d already surmised that he was dealing with a life-extension method – not a means of advancement. The Blue had also agreed a little too easily considering their initial reaction.
‘Are they trying to screw me over?’ Percy wondered, though he kept those thoughts to himself.
Outwards, he simply gave his host a mental nod before beginning to stitch their injuries. Either way, Percy knew he had all the leverage.
Manipulating the silver tendrils extending out of the Blue’s wounds, Percy weaved them into preservation runes like he usually did. Only, this time, he added a little extra – he included a control rune in each enchantment, giving him the ability to freely turn their effects off later, in case his host tried anything funny.
Even without doing this, Percy could still cause a lot of damage on the way out, but that would destroy the preservation runes, and he didn’t think he’d have enough mana to replace them.
This way, he would be able to freely flaunt his control at a moment’s notice, forcing the Blue to back down. Temporarily deactivating the preservation runes wouldn’t worsen his host’s injuries, but it would accelerate the soul’s degradation, possibly beyond its ability to recover.
‘Hopefully, it won’t come to that.’
As long as the Blue upheld their end of the bargain, all would be good. Still, Percy couldn’t shake the gut feeling that his new host couldn’t be trusted, and he’d rather not turn his back to the old monster.
He’d only managed to stitch about half of the man’s – Percy thought his host was male – injuries when his mana ran dry. Perhaps, he could have done more if he hadn’t wasted it on control runes, but he was confident he’d done enough for the Blue to survive – as long as he behaved.
Tapping into his host’s senses, Percy felt their eyes opening, a grotesque scene greeting him…