An Uninvited Guest (SSoDI-G)

[ParamountKeymaster]

"Sunova...! PISS OFF ALREADY!" Kelsey saw Percy getting dragged further away the closer she flew towards him, as well as several more distorted images rise up to block her way. Her cerulean eyes turned ice blue and snakelike, emitting an otherworldly glow.

Through her eyes, the dead forest lit up with color. Most of it was distinctly muted, as if this desaturated version of the woods was resting on top of the one they were just in, the original just visible through the slight transparency. Vibrant astral dust formed a trail from Percy's aura. Directly in front of her, drawing ever closer as both parties charged at each other, Kelsey noticed that the encroaching creatures had no auras. Now visible through the distortions, they barely even had distinct shapes. They may as well have been poorly-sculpted mounds of tar, with fluid but dense hides to match.

Thinking quickly, Kelsey allowed her own aura to become engulfed in fire. She barrel-rolled through the crowd of monsters, knocking down and setting ablaze a good number of them before being swatted out of the air herself. Upon hitting the ground, she immediately rolled back onto her feet and started hurling fireballs again. Whatever it took to get these freaks off her back. Sure, one stray flame might've landed on a tree, but she could put it out later. She had to get to Percy before-



An unseen force propelled Kelsey and the creatures in her immediate vicinity off the ground and high into the air. Thoroughly caught off guard, she was left with no time to correct herself in midair, floundering about until she slammed back down on her back.

The monsters collapsed in turn. Then they each looked up in Percy's direction, responding to some unheard call. And just like that, each and every one of them vanished.

"Gah...! What the sh*t was that?!" Kelsey shouted, more angry than she was hurt, sitting up and rubbing her back just as Tri materialized right next to her.

Though Kelsey thought nothing of it in the moment, Tri's expression was surprisingly concerned as he looked her over. "You okay??"

"I'm fine... I just..." Kelsey promptly cut herself off, her head snapping in the direction of their downed party member. "PERCY!"

Off like a shot, Kelsey scrambled to her feet and dashed over to Percy, promptly falling back onto her knees and worriedly huddling over him. He was still breathing. He didn't look injured. But his face... His aura... "Percy...??"

[DanteMGalileo]

"... Ugh..."

Percy slowly propped himself up into a sitting position, rubbing his head, slowly opening his eyes. The forest was slowly regaining its life, turning back to green, the song of birds and insects resuming. He was unable to notice certain changes in his appearance, but the static in his head had silenced. "What the hell was that? And where'd they go?" He looked around, seeing a concerned Kelsey, sheepishly waving an arm. "Uh, hey! I'm alive! Somehow. Dunno what they did to me, or... did you kill 'em all?" He chuckled slightly, getting back to his feet.

"So, there's some enemy we're not aware of, but Imago was acting like he knew," Percy stated, walking towards a tree slowly regaining its colour. "Hey, Imago, you were acting like you knew what those were? Can you repeat that, now that I can actually hear you?" Nothing. "Uh, Imago? Are you asleep?" He sounded slightly alarmed, and yet the damn bug remained silent. "Imago! Information as to what we're up against would be nice now!" And still nothing. He grabbed a piece of his hair, yanking it and giving an audible groan, before turning back to Kelsey.

"... Is there something on my face?"

[ParamountKeymaster]

A deep exhale vaguely reminiscent of a sigh of relief escaped Kelsey's throat as Percy sat up, and yet she could not calm down entirely. Not only was it too soon after that spontaneous attack to fully let her guard down, but all of the little changes she was detecting within Percy were alarming to her.

"I just... I-I-I don't know..." Kelsey stammered, standing up and looking around as the forest steadily returned to its natural state. Through her true vision, it looked as if the decayed, overlapping copy of their environment was sinking back into the raw astral, beyond her sight. "I was fighting them, something threw me off balance... then they all just left."

"Ah, f*ck..."

Kelsey warily turned and face Tri, finding him hovering next to her and casting an agitated frown at Percy. The latter was trying to talk to Imago. Kelsey opted to leave him to it while she addressed her own demon. "'Oh f*ck' what?"

"They took Imago."

With a jolt and gritted teeth, Kelsey looked to Percy again, staring him in the face. It was starting to make sense now. The markings, the eyes, the single light within the aura... but knowing this gave her no comfort. If anything, it just elevated her mood from concerned to absolutely terrified.

"Percy, you..." Kelsey wasn't sure how to approach this delicately. For a brief moment, she raised a hand and pointed to her left cheek, only to limply drop her arm again. "You can't hear him, can you?"

[DanteMGalileo]

"I... He sometimes doesn't respond," Percy replied, trying to rationalize Imago's sudden silence instead of addressing the alternative. He brushed his left cheek. Nothing came off. Eh? "He's an old man, see? Claims things tire him out. I'm sure he'll get back to me after his little power nap, yeah?"

Wow! He even sounded desperate! Not even a sarcastic snore from Imago to rub it in. "I-I'm sure he'll be fine, he'll get back to me, eventually, yeah?" But there wasn't even the usual rumble in his head. Maybe... maybe the damn bug was actually learning to be quiet?

Ah, there's one way to confirm that Imago's still there! The powers he passed on! "I can confirm this beyond a shadow of a doubt." Clearing his throat, he raised his left hand, pointing into the depths of the woods. "Nox!" Instead of the usual burst of darkness, nothing happened, prompting Percy to pull his arm back and examine it. No damage. "Eh heh heh...? This happens? Nox!" Nothing. "Nox! Nox! C'mon, do something!" And still, nothing happened.

"... I can't cast shadow magic anymore," he stated, eyes going wide.

[ParamountKeymaster]

"Percy..." Kelsey's wings retracted and her body slumped with dismay. Seeing him fumbling to rationalize Imago's silence was just sad. "I... I have true vision active. I can see your aura. You... You only have one soul powering it, buddy."

She slowly stepped closer to Percy, her glowing blue eyes dimming back to their natural hue, her hand raised, wanting to offer comfort, not knowing how or even if it was what he needed. "I'm sorry... I don't know what happened but... I just... I wasn't fast enough to stop it."

"They were going after him," Tri muttered, sitting down in midair, resting his chin in his hand, scowling into the horizon. "Imago just took the bullet for him."

"T-Tri... what did they even want with-?"

"You already know."

Kelsey frowned at Tri over her shoulder, half tempted to scream at him that she, in fact, didn't know, but arguing with her archdemon wasn't going to get her anywhere. It almost never did. Instead, she turned back to Percy with a deep sigh and a heavy heart. "I'm sorry."

[DanteMGalileo]

Percy shot Kelsey a quizzical look at her arguing with her demon, but quickly dropped it. "... So... Imago's gone..." His ears drooped, looking down. He brought a hand to his eye, wiping it. "It... it's..." Sigh. "I'm gonna miss him. Yeah, he could be rude, and I would wake up once a month with a giant gash on my arm and no recollection as to how I got it, not to mention he didn't tell me he existed until I was like thirteen, way to make a guy think he's going crazy, right? But I ultimately believe he had my best interests at heart. I think."

...

...

"On the other hand, holy crap!" Percy's ears went back up, seemingly locking in a position higher than their normal. He jumped in the air, hitting his feels together. "I finally have complete privacy in my own mind! I can go to sleep and not wake up with a giant gash on my arm or in a weird location!" In celebration, he fired a burst of pink light like a firework, noting that it seemed more potent. "I mean, yeah, I'd like to have him back, but still! Lemme enjoy this for at least a moment!"

[ParamountKeymaster]

"Whoa, Percy..." Kelsey nervously raised her hands and took a step back, openly put off by Percy's positive reaction. She could honestly understand where he was coming from in regards to peace and quiet, but the heel-face turn was still abrupt enough to give her whiplash. "Don't get me wrong, I'm glad you're okay, but I think this might be a premature celebration in light of the ramifications."

"Yeah, I mean... what? Just one tear? Ungrateful jack*ss."

Ignoring Tri's sideline quips was clearly becoming second nature to Kelsey. "If Tri's word is anything to go by, whatever those things were, whatever they wanted, they were after you. Imago let them take him instead. I feel like maybe it's worth questioning the what and the why of that whole debacle before we let ourselves become complacent again."

Hearing her own words made Kelsey run a hand through her hair, begin a slow pace, and let out a deep, disquieted breath like she was deflating. "Christ, just one more thing to add to the list of freaks, monsters and circumstances out to kill us..."

Tri narrowed his eyes and cast a glance over his shoulder. This hadn't played out the way he had expected it to, even though he had seen the interference coming. That brief moment when he felt her presence struck a chord with him, rattling him still...

[DanteMGalileo]

"Okay, okay... let's just discuss just... why..." Now that the moment of celebration had worn off, Percy was starting to find the silence in his head... off. It wasn't normal for his head to be silent. Even if Imago wasn't active, there was still a faint rumble in his head. And now, nothing. "... What happened to the forest? It turned all grey and silent. I couldn't even pick up the presence of the smallest insect. So, uh, did your true vision detect the same?"

He kicked up a bit of dirt. "And now, the question that's on both our minds and the latest item on the things-I-don't-know-about-myself list. Why were they after me? Apparently, whatever it was, Imago felt the need to take the hit for me." Percy placed a hand to his chin. "Imago was acting like he knew what those things were. Called them something along the line of... the visitors?" He took a few paces back and forth, eyes closed. "I knew that I have some angel blood, but wouldn't it make more sense to go after an actual angel if that's what they wanted? Clearly they wanted my soul, not Imago's, so it can't be anything a demon could offer..."

[ParamountKeymaster]

"Y-Yeah..." Kelsey ran a hand through her hair and paced a few steps away, her apprehensive gaze focused on the ground. "It's weird, it was like... this forest didn't really die so much as two identical but aesthetically different planes briefly merged. I guess there is precedent for that sort of phenomenon as far as I'm aware, but taking that ambush into consideration, this all felt too calculated to be a spontaneous cosmic event."

"And that's not even the cosmic event I'm worried about," Tri grunted, shooting a hard frown at Kelsey, earning a genuine look of consideration this time.

After taking a deep breath, Kelsey looked back up at Percy. "As for why these 'visitors' wanted you... well, Tri insists that I already know why, and I'm not anticipating a straightforward explanation out of him..."

"I'm notcha dad. Not here to hold your hand."

"...so if I had to theorize based on what I know about souls, maybe the mix of angel blood and demon astral energy rubbed off on your soul to create some sort of unique, light/dark hybrid state? Maybe that's what they were after?" Kelsey shrugged, acknowledging that she was just spitballing, scrounging her memories for the exact details on the subject; it had been quite a while since she had much excuse to think about it. "That is an atypical event that I have at least a little bit of knowledge on. Virtually unprecedented but not unheard of where I come from. I've only heard Tri speak of cases where a soul achieves this state naturally, so I'm not sure how different it would be if balance resulted from outside influences."

"The difference is a whole lotta ugly!"

Plus one eye roll from Kelsey for Tri's eloquent verbiage. "But that's just my two cents. I could be way off the mark. I can't claim to know you as well as you know yourself, regardless of how many things you're still trying to figure out. Besides, if that was the case, from what I understand, a soul obtaining that kind of state would usually result... in... the..."

Kelsey's eyes grew wide as she stared into the middle distance. Now she remembered. She remembered the ramifications of a soul achieving balance between light and dark. She remembered the legend of a being that even Tri was nervous to divulge information on. And the more she thought about it, the more the details felt unsettlingly familiar.

"Uh, Tri...?" Kelsey peeked over her shoulder. "What exactly were you worried about?"

"I told you before," Tri responded as he reclined into a hovering lounge. "The monster in the woods."

"And those... weren't...?" Kelsey trailed off again, a baffled expression on her face. Between Tri's cryptic wording, the attack on Percy, and the intricate chain of events that almost perfectly mirrored a myth from her world, she was starting to piece together something she hadn't even thought to consider before. And never in her life had she more desperately hoped she was wrong.

She gritted her teeth in a nervous grin. "Percy, could you excuse Tri and me for a moment? Thank you so much..."

Then Kelsey hastily turned and scurried away, grabbing Tri's projection by the wrist and hauling him off with her. "Whoa, hey, I don't need you to hold my hand either!"

[DanteMGalileo]

"Okay, so we had two planes overlap, I can buy that, maybe we crossed over with one of the other Nine Realms, probably Helheim by the lack of life..." Percy nodded, snapping his fingers. Gods, the silence in his head wasn't natural to him. "... I see Tri's, ah, being about as useful as Lark. Perhaps even less so, you could probably get the snowy-haired bastard to talk if you bribed him."

Ah, why was he suddenly uncomfortable? And not just from the lack of noise in his head? "I-I don't think I ever achieved such a balance. Imago's always been with me, so... I'd imagine I'd have a more dark sway, but now with him gone," he continued, forming a small ball of pink light in his hand. "Maybe it'll shift in the other direction? Hope so..." Maybe this was his natural state? "Well, the things I know about myself are that, apparently, my middle name is Morgan, I get physically sick when I cast too much magic, I see some weird things when I'm exhausted, I-"

And now, apparently, Kelsey had something to discuss with her demon. "Uh... okay?" Percy tilted his head to the side. "I'll just... be over here... thinking... yes, I can think."

[ParamountKeymaster]

"Yep. It's still going on. Still holding my hand. I can fly myself around, y'know. You can let go. You're not letting go. Your hand is still-"

"Just phase out of my grip if it bothers you that much!"

"I'm lazy."

Once a considerable amount of distance had been put between Percy and herself, Kelsey flung Tri out of her grasp, letting the hovering astral demon flounder to a halt in front of her. Tri promptly straightened himself out, shaking his arm off and scowling at his partner. "So what damage am I appraising this time?"

Kelsey's chin dropped with distaste. "Can you at least attempt to be serious with me for one conversation?"

"I make no promises."

Whatever. It would have to do. "Do you know what those things were?"

"Vaguely," Tri answered honestly, folding his arms and leaning back as he casually floated through the open air. "We both know my vision isn't perfect, especially when it comes to people, creatures and planes I've never interacted with, so you'll have to bear with me when I say that my knowledge on the visitors is a little hit and miss, and I'd rather not bother with it for the most part."

Kelsey sighed and nodded with frustrated acceptance. "Yeah, okay, that's fair."

"I can at least confirm that you're on the right track with the planes-crossing theory, and I meant it when I said they were after Percy." Tri shot Kelsey a coy smirk. "Granted, that's not what you had your little epiphany about, is it?"

With a stiff grunt, Kelsey turned away and stared at the ground, her pensive scowl gradually softening into a nervous frown. She'd slowly come to accept that the visitors weren't Tri's initial reasons for leading her into the woods, but the only other conclusions she could reach were respectively worrying and completely devastating. The first step in her process of elimination was to ask the easier question. "What was that force that knocked me down during the fight?"

"THAT..." Tri bluntly responded, "...is something I don't wanna talk about."

"Seriously?" Kelsey groaned in an equally blunt manner. He was really going to be this stingy with her when people's souls were on the line?

"Look, don't worry about it," Tri continued, raising his hands. "All you need to know is that this is one of those 'what you don't know won't hurt you' situations. Besides, you have enough on your platter without factoring other other alternate universes into the mix."

So that fourth entity wasn't Tri's main concern either. With a low moan, Kelsey dropped her head and cast that notion away, leaving only the worst-case scenario. The one she desperately hoped she was wrong about.

"Then... if there are no other monsters out here..."

Tri donned a casual grin and rested his chin in his hand, calmly awaiting Kelsey's result of adding two and two. Her hesitation amused him a little, but more than anything else, he felt bad. Bad that it took her this long to figure it out. Eventually, Kelsey looked back up at Tri and placed her hands on his shoulders, her voice barely above a whisper...

"When I was talking about the balance of light and darkness in a soul, was I...?"

"Yeah."

"So he's...?"

"Yep."

"So last night, that was...?"

"Uh-huh."

"And I...??"

"Ee-yup."

"SON OF A B************TCH!!!!!"

Kelsey sharply turned away from Tri and stormed over to the nearest tree, promptly leaning her head against it, burying her face with one arm while repeatedly punching the trunk with the other, shouting a mixture of swears, half-sentences and guttural noises with each impact. She couldn't believe it. She didn't want to believe it. She couldn't decide what she was angrier at, the cosmic forces that seemed pitted against her, or herself for being stupid enough to try competing with them.

Tri watched this mental breakdown with a soft smile full of pity. A very condescending kind of pity, but pity nonetheless. He opted to give Kelsey her moment, waiting patiently for the moment she inevitably bawled him out. In the meantime, he turned his grin skyward. "How's that new apartment workin' for ya, slacker?"

...........................Frig you, dude.

"TRIIIII...!!!"

"Whoop, there she goes."

Kelsey's eyes were sharp cyan. Her face was red with a cornucopia of emotions. "WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME?!"

"Hey, like I said, I'm not gonna spell everything out for ya. You're smart enough to figure these things out for yourself."

"YEAH, BUT IT WOULD'VE BEEN NICE TO KNOW BEFORE I TRIED TO...! I-I ALMOST...! AAAAAUUUUUGGGHHH...!!!" Kelsey buried her face in her hands, muffling her vexed screams, pulling at the locks of hair tangled around her fingers.

"Kels, Kels, come on," Tri sweetly insisted, floating up to her and wrapping his arm around her shoulders. "It's not your fault, alright? You were doing the right thing at the time. This is a slightly different case than the kind I'd described to you before. Now whether that makes things less or more dangerous is up for debate..."

"Hhnnggghhh..." Kelsey dropped one hand, shooting Tri a look of despair. "Does he know?"

"That he does. Not all the details, but he's at least aware of the big picture."

"Then... why didn't he...?"

"Nope, we are dipping into Tri's uncomfortable zone! Ask him yourself!"

Before Kelsey could make any attempt at protest, Tri shoved her from behind, forcefully guiding her through the forest in a hasty, awkward gait like she was being swept up in a gale she couldn't fight. Caught off guard, yelping in angered confusion, Kelsey stumbled along until she was finally propelled back to her starting point, briefly tripping over herself before straightening up and going ramrod stiff, staring face-to-face with Percy in pure shock.

[DanteMGalileo]

"... Hmm..." Percy found a stump to sit down on and gather his thoughts while Kelsey was doing... whatever it was with her demon. Maybe he's best off organizing his thoughts.

...

My full name is Percy Morgan Worcester-Isaac. I'm 16 years old. My birthday is the 16th of the Crimson Scorpion. My birth parents are Susan and Alfred Worcester. I was orphaned as a baby, or so I am told, and went into the care of Mort Isaac and his wife. She left when I was six.

Imago... had been with me until now, although I only became aware of his existence when I was thirteen. It's strange to miss him in retrospect.

He felt something stirring in his chest. Something off, and yet it felt right. He stood up, just in time to see Kelsey march up to him. "... Uh... That... sounded like quite a show. Is everything all right?"

[ParamountKeymaster]

"Uh..." There was no easy way to broach this. Kelsey couldn't even look at Percy the same way. How was she supposed to talk to him?

She stood there in silence for a moment, relaxing to the best of her ability, rubbing her neck as she mulled things over. Maybe it was best not to reveal what she knew just yet. She didn't want to stress Percy out or make him feel bad about anything. Now was probably not the time to pile too many heavy topics on top of one another. At least she knew. At least she could ready herself for at least one thing.

The more she thought about it, the more Kelsey realized just how important this new information was. And what she needed to do with it.

"So... listen..." Kelsey eventually spoke up. "Tri tells me he doesn't know much about... what just happened out here, and I'm inclined to believe him on that. So... maybe our next step should be to figure it out in case they try to come back. Maybe see if we can't deduce how to get Imago back. Considering the other threat looming over our heads right now, it's probably best that we prepare ourselves for future interruptions."

[DanteMGalileo]

"... You're... gonna have to be a little more specific on that."

Percy rubbed the back of his neck in confusion. "Okay, so we're in the dark about whatever... those were. Imago was acting like he knew something, and my head feels weird without his constant chatter and verbal abuse anyway. So, at least we've got one goal. ... Out of how many again? This plot is either a jigsaw puzzle that's missing a few pieces, or we have no plot at all."

... Oh shut up Percy, I have the authority to kill you off later for that remark.

"... Is this about that cult? Because I've got nothing? Or is this about that giant monster from last night? Augh. Too many enemies and only one of me." Something was stirring in his chest. The hell? It...

"... I suppose you have the right to know," Percy sighed, brushing some hair off his neck. "Feel free to check my pulse. Just promise you won't freak."

[ParamountKeymaster]

"No argument there..." Kelsey grumbled, kicking up a small stone. "I was thinking more along the lines of the cult. They're the real brain-scratcher in this setup, or at least the one that I'm most worried about. The monster is something I feel at least slightly more prepared for."

She warily looked up at the treetops, half-consciously massaging her hand. "And that's not even factoring in the dragon..."

The offer to check Percy's pulse took Kelsey aback for a moment. She had no idea what he was insinuating, let alone what it had to do with anything. If it was that important to him, though, she figured she may as well indulge him, offering him a shrug before placing her fingers to his neck. "Well, okay. I'm more or less braced for weirdness at this point."

Kelsey wasn't sure what she was expecting, but it certainly wasn't nothing. The stillness beneath her fingers didn't exactly startle her, as she responded to it with little more than a blank stare, but it did certainly raise a few questions in her head. She didn't remember this being a side effect of...

"Huh..." She pulled away, raising a half-concerned, half-wary eyebrow at Percy. "Well, that's different. Has it always been like that."