A couple of weeks ago
The group was still en route to the next town when Percy’s second experimental clone returned. In the end, he hadn’t found anything of interest in the alien horse’s world, which was a bit of a bummer.
That said, Percy and his clone had managed to keep the cord in its empowered state throughout the journey, indicating that the upgraded Secret Art indeed held the potential to revolutionize his adventures. After he practiced with it some more, of course.
In any case, his soul injuries had already healed thanks to Synchronization, so the group had paused for a while to give him the chance to send another one out. However, he wanted to try something a little more interesting than merely testing out the Soul Resonance spell this time…
“Are you confident you can return to Huehue?” Micky asked, some emotion seeping into his voice.
“I wouldn’t say I’m ‘confident’, no. But I think there’s a chance.”
One of the biggest issues with his bloodline had always been the lack of navigation. For years, Percy had only been able to send his clones in random directions, hoping they stumbled upon something of value. And sure, it had worked to an extent, though he was constantly on the lookout for ways to plan his adventures better.
Currently, his only option was to use Metatron’s Decree to return to the Vault at will. There was also a possibility that he could somehow return to the mysterious girl. At least, he vaguely remembered promising to do so, though he couldn’t recall how exactly it was supposed to work, nor had he heard from her since. At any rate, his latest spell did potentially open a new door for him.
Severing the orb thrumming in front of his stomach, he watched it shoot away into the distance like a teal comet.
‘Huh, I guess I “won” the coin toss this time.’ the clone thought, suppressing a chuckle.
Whenever he activated his bloodline, it was a fifty-fifty chance that determined which side of the cord he ended up on. Of course, whether he was truly better off than the main body would be decided during the next few days – depending on how enjoyable this trip turned out to be.
Soon, a packet of soul mana slammed into him.
Instinctively, he bounced it right back. Not that difficult, since he was already too saturated to contain any more mana. Plus, they’d already been doing this sort of thing for the past week.
‘Two weeks, in fact, from my perspective.’
An interesting thing he’d discovered was that it helped for the main body to initiate the communication. That lessened the risk of the clone focusing on Remior too hard and returning prematurely.
Some time later, the packet arrived once more, the clone repeating his earlier action. It took a few more round trips for the connection to widen. Even so, they’d have to keep sending their thoughts and mana through it periodically, to prevent it from closing.
‘Are you ready for the next test?’ the clone asked.
Obviously, Percy hadn’t the slightest clue where Huehue was. But he did have somebody with him who might. Well, kinda. The idea was simple. Whenever Percy left Remior, there was always a powerful pull trying to drag him back. A huge part of it was due to his connection to his physical body and the rest of his soul, but he knew that couldn’t be everything.
After all, when Micky died, Percy had struggled to pry him out of Huehue. At first, it hadn’t made sense, as there hadn’t been any trace of Micky’s soul left to anchor him there, and his body had already turned into a corpse by then. The only logical explanation was that souls had an innate connection to their world of origin itself, outside of Percy’s shenanigans. And it was precisely this connection that he was hoping to harness right now.
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‘We’re ready.’ the main body replied. ‘I’ve already empowered my bond to Micky too. He’s currently trying to locate Huehue.’
Their plan made sense, on paper, though there were a few potential complications. To start, only a fraction of Micky’s soul was actually from there. Even then, it had been nearly a decade since he started over on Remior. If there really was any lingering connection to the gladiator’s home, it had to be extremely faint, considering that the crow had never even noticed it in the past.
‘Then again, he didn’t even know about Huehue until a few days ago. He might find it, now that he’s actively looking for it…’
The clone waited patiently for news. Admittedly, it was quite annoying, as he was literally floating in the middle of nowhere, with nothing to do. Hell, he didn’t even have any thumbs to twiddle!
That said, he didn’t envy his main body much. The poor guy had two cords to maintain. And all of that while still walking towards the next town.
‘Ok.’ the original transmitted at some point, breaking him out of his thoughts.
‘Ok?’ the clone was startled. ‘You mean, he actually found it?’
If he could really return there, it would be great news for everyone. Now that Micky had started recalling his past, a trip to Huehue might help jog his memories. But there was so much more to it than that.
Of all the places Percy had visited, Huehue was among those he wanted to return to the most. The reason? The final step of the Dance, of course. Other than his second core, Percy’s boosting art was arguably his greatest trump card. And if merely half of the spell had had such a huge impact on his life, he could hardly fathom what he could achieve with the rest.
‘Well, we aren’t sure.’ the main body admitted. ‘He thinks he can sense something, but it’s several times weaker than the other connection. Still, it’s worth a try. Just follow my instructions.’
The clone acquiesced, listening carefully. Though they both knew it was still a long shot. Even if Micky’s unknown connection truly pointed towards Huehue, there was no guarantee the clone would make it.
For starters, he wasn’t even directly linked to the crow, so the main body had to act as the intermediary between the clone and the familiar, coordinating the whole process. Even if the clone followed the instructions perfectly, he understood the way space and time got distorted inside the soul plane wouldn’t help.
‘Worst case scenario, I’ll just go to a random place. It isn’t much different to what I would have normally done…’
It took some back and forth, but the clone eventually turned his gaze towards a certain direction, almost certain that was where Micky said he felt Huehue. Letting his senses expand, he soon spotted countless souls in the region. Scanning them carefully, he looked for a suitable target to possess.
Sadly, he didn’t find one at first. There were a couple injured souls tugging at his attention by the corner of his ‘vision’, but he didn’t allow himself to even glance at them. It had taken him ages to narrow down Huehue’s suspected direction – the last thing he needed was to get himself pulled elsewhere.
‘We’ve got a bit of a problem. Assuming I’m facing the correct patch of space, I can’t find anything to possess.’ he transmitted back.
‘Keep looking. It’s an entire world. Somebody ought to get injured sooner or later. Besides, we aren’t in a hurry.’
The clone nodded internally. His priority right now was to do his best to reach Huehue. If he returned empty-handed, so be it. It wasn’t like the attempt had cost them much.
More time passed. If the clone was guessing, he’d say it had been around five hours since his creation. Still, he didn’t need to guess anything, as he could just ask the original. According to him, it had been closer to ten hours on Remior.
‘Geez, no wonder some of my clones take ages to return. Who knows how much time I’ve even wasted in this place without realizing?’
Regardless, a couple of souls did get injured as he waited, though Percy hesitated to make a move. One of them was a Blue. He had no idea if he’d even be able to possess them. He was tempted, of course. Whether or not they were on Huehue, he wouldn’t mind a chance to play around with a domain. But the guy died a little too fast for his liking. The others did too. It wasn’t until a few dead people later that he finally settled on one that was promising. Dying slowly. Yellow core. Probably sapient.
‘I think we’ve got one. Can you and Micky verify that I’m still looking at the right place?’ he asked.
Conscious of the soul plane’s distorted nature, he was aware his senses might have drifted off during the past few hours. It took a while longer for his support team to help him confirm that his target was still in the acceptable region.
‘Alright. Make sure to cross your fingers, cause I ain’t got any.’ he said, allowing his mind to sink into the damaged soul, a powerful force pulling him towards it.
Soon, his connection to Remior shrank back to its regular width, the distance probably too much for Soul Resonance to hold this time. But it didn’t matter. Now that he’d locked onto a host, he no longer needed it. Huehue or not, his path was set in stone.
Patching the soul up went smoothly. There was no rejection from his host, nor did he seem to need anybody’s permission.
‘Weird. The only other time this happened was with Takeo. Is this person gone too?’
Either way, he wasn’t one to look a gift horse in the mouth. Tapping into the body’s senses, he opened his eyes. Glancing down at his body, and then at his surroundings, one thing immediately became clear.
Whatever this place was, it wasn’t Huehue…