Floating countless miles away from his main body, Percy noticed some differences from his past clones.
Other than the flashier benefits afforded to him by his new blessing – such as the increased number of cords and spectral traits he could endure – it seemed there were some other, subtler upgrades. The cord linking him back to Remior felt weaker, and its pull was growing more slowly.
‘No. That’s not quite right.’
On further inspection, it wasn’t the cord itself that had grown weaker – if anything, the concept of permanence had strengthened it too. Rather, it was his disembodied soul that felt heavier – better at resisting his main body’s call.
Of course, this was rarely a limiting factor in his adventures. Even when the pull strengthened, it was typically only able to drag him back while he was drifting in the void without a body. Whenever he was firmly embedded inside a healthy host, this was something he could mostly ignore.
Even his hosts’ health hadn’t been much of an issue in a while – not since he mastered Soul Stitching. Nowadays, his clones tended to stay away for as long as they wanted, only leaving once they were done with whatever they were trying to do, or if they were in a hurry to bring some benefits back to his main body.
Come to think of it, he had never actually tested how long his clones could exist separated from him. While Percy generally liked knowing his limits, he couldn’t afford to keep a useless clone active for years to learn that. He certainly couldn’t have done that back when he still only had a single cord available.
‘Either way, it’s nice to have the option of staying away longer.’
Obviously, he still didn’t know how long that would be, exactly, but he would hate to miss out on something genuinely valuable because his clone got whisked away at the last minute.
Another, even subtler benefit of the blessing, was something he struggled to put into words. His clones typically felt like dead objects – in a way. They could still survive for a while on their own, and his mind was present in them, but they felt different from his main soul. They were like discarded pieces of cloth – or clipped fingernails – preserved solely due to his bloodline.
Right now, his soul felt a little closer to a real one. It still wasn’t quite at the level where it could survive indefinitely by itself, but it reminded him more of a severed limb. There was still some lingering body heat, and some liquid blood flowing through its veins – metaphorically speaking. In other words, it had yet to fully die, the blessing working alongside his bloodline to preserve it a little longer.
It wasn’t that surprising, really.
Zoris had told him this was one of the primary functions of the blessing. Hell, it was in the concept’s very name. But Percy wasn’t sure when or how any of these changes would help him.
‘Well, they’re bound to show their worth sooner or later.’
Anyway, just because he could send out more clones now, it didn’t mean he could afford to waste his time. Shaking the pointless thoughts out of his mind, he focused his senses outward, scanning the sea of souls for his next host. Percy had a pretty clear goal for this clone – and most of his clones moving forward.
He had to start looking for those greater springs that held the keys to godhood.
Not that Percy looked down on barren worlds. Many of his most valuable gains – such as Crystallization or the Ring of Sacrilege – had come from places like that. Still, lesser and greater springs were simply more likely to possess something valuable. Should the day ever come when he had exhausted all the pinnacle worlds, he could consider branching out to more remote locations again.
That said, he didn’t have any way to target a greater spring directly, but he could at least start by ensuring he always landed on a lesser spring. That, he could more easily control.
The trick was to possess Blue hosts.
Sapients could only reach Blue if they had a means of advancement, which pretty much sealed the deal. Beasts could do it without one – in theory – but most barren worlds didn’t have that many creatures at that level. The few Blue beasts they did have, were likely overlords that had ruled over their territories for centuries. The odds of them happening to die right when Percy was scanning their worlds were minuscule. Even if they did, Percy could easily filter out the beasts from the sapients.
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‘Unfortunately, this isn’t an option right now.’
The only Blue he had ever possessed had been Elaine, and he’d had his main body and Micky helping the clone out. Sadly, the original had been too busy with other matters to use Soul Resonance this time, so Percy was currently stuck with the limited mana in his stash.
Then again, Green hosts could work too. He hadn’t possessed many of those in the past either, because he hadn’t had enough mana to fix them. The only time he had succeeded without help from his main body had been Gabe, and he had only managed that due to an external source of soul mana.
But all of that had been before his recent advancements.
Granted, Green hosts weren’t as good as Blues, since Green-borns like Doh existed even on barren worlds. Luckily, they were rare too, so the odds of a Green being the product of an advancement instead were much higher.
With some semblance of a plan at hand, Percy ignored most of the prospective hosts around him, brushing over countless candidates in search of Greens. Even when he found one, he ignored them unless they were both a sapient and surrounded by more Greens.
Obviously, being this picky meant it could take him much longer to find a host. Evidently, the newfound longevity of his clones might come in handy sooner than he had expected…
Hours passed, and then days – at least in his perception, though he did feel like he’d gotten better at telling. His main body’s pull was still quite weak, so he could probably keep this up for several weeks – maybe even months – before it became a problem.
Yet, it appeared he wouldn’t have to wait that long.
At some point, he found a bunch of relatively powerful sapients dying near one another. Among them, he saw everything from Yellows to demigods. There was even a god there!
‘Yeah… no. Not going anywhere near that place…’
His first instinct was to run away and never look back. The mortals were currently dying a little too close to the god for his liking. Percy generally tried to avoid situations , since he didn’t want to get discovered by a deity.
Still, he hesitated at the last second, his curiosity getting the better of him.
‘Hmmm? Is it me, or is the god dying too?’
As always, the god’s soul manifested in his senses like a bright sun, its burning rays brushing over everything in the area. But Percy noticed a few dimmer spots swirling within it, and a faint attractive force almost pulling him in. It was quite weak – it would probably be centuries until the god succumbed to whatever injuries had reduced them to that state – but there was no mistaking it…
This was a dying god.
Percy was tempted to possess them, though he held himself back. Not only would it be extremely risky to directly meet with such an entity, he knew he wasn’t nearly powerful enough to heal them. Hell, he wasn’t sure he would even be able to possess them. Was his flimsy mortal soul even capable of interacting with theirs in any meaningful way?
But the rest of the dying souls also piqued his curiosity, as they were quite different from others he had seen. This was clearly a lesser spring at the very least, but its population was laughably small. Barely a few hundred souls. And not a single one of them was healthy!
It was almost as if their entire race had gone extinct, leaving only a few survivors left. They were clustered together in some sanctuary, protected by their last surviving god, slowly dying alongside their deity. There weren’t any beasts either. Not even a single Brown insect. It was quite bizarre, to say the least.
‘What do these people even eat? Is everything on their planet dead?’
Percy really wanted to check the place out, but he was still wary of the dying god. Would they capture him? Erase him on sight?
Maybe he was overthinking it though. These people seemed like they had bigger issues to deal with than an invading Red-born.
‘What if I try possessing one of the Greens? Will I get discovered?’
The mortals were admittedly quite close to their deity, bathed in the potent radiance of the god’s soul. Percy wasn’t sure what that translated to, in terms of physical proximity. Were they in the same country? The same city? The same building?
Either way, staying here was probably ill-advised, but he knew he’d regret it if he didn’t check the place out.
‘Hey, even if I get discovered, it doesn’t mean things will go badly for me…’
Not every god in the universe was an asshole. Percy might have something they wanted, and they might be willing to trade him something valuable for it. Who knew what kind of treasures that god possessed, and how desperate they might be.
Worst-case scenario, Percy would lose his clone and an eighth of his seal. Neither of those things would be ideal, but they also wouldn’t be impossible to recover from for his main body. Conversely, things could also go in a vastly positive direction. Even if he didn’t find anything useful in that sanctuary of theirs, he might be able to explore the rest of their deserted planet, and loot all sorts of abandoned valuables left behind by their deceased owners…
Making his mind up, he located the healthiest-looking Green in the group. They were still dying, but they did so a little more slowly than the others. Focusing on them, he allowed himself to sink into their body as he contemplated his life choices.
‘One day, my greed will be the end of me… Possibly multiple “mes”…’
‘…hopefully not today.’