After finding himself back in Sol’s body, Percy noticed that the colossal symbol spinning in the sky was gone.
While he, and presumably his companions, had been busy experiencing the Broodmother’s memory, the enormous creature had seized the opportunity to surround them. Its serpentine body was stacked onto itself, coiled twice in a circle that was nearly five kilometres across, with the tiny Melodians smack in the centre.
Percy’s borrowed blood froze as he felt the Source’s curious gaze. Sol and Doh were like specks of dust being stared down by a massive python. Even more unsettling was the fact that Percy had no idea where the myriapede’s eyes were – assuming that it had any.
Technically, the microscopic mortals were still located over two kilometres away from the closest part of the creature’s body, but that was poor consolation when it could cross that gap in an instant or even rip them to shreds from afar.
‘What is it doing? Trying to intimidate us?’ Micky asked. ‘There’s no need for any of this if it just wants us dead.’
‘I think that it was gauging our reaction to the World Tree’s destruction,’ Percy replied.
The life Source’s grim end wasn’t news to him, though watching some of the universe’s strongest deities fight for hours had been quite eye-opening. Percy was definitely going to ask Zoris about the planet’s shocking transformation into a mindless abomination later, but ensuring that the myriapede wouldn’t eat them currently took precedence.
“I’m sorry about what happened to your friend,” he said out loud, startling Doh and Sol who had been stuck in a daze. “I assure you that I’ve never told anybody about you – or the Mirror Lake, I suppose – nor am I going to.”
Percy wasn’t just lying to placate the Broodmother – he’d be a fool to even attempt that, since the creature could obviously read his thoughts. Zoris and the Elemental Source were arguably his most well-kept secrets, as they were the only things that he hadn’t even told Nesha, Archibald, or Elaine about.
Unfortunately, Phoebe had recognized the Ring of Sacrilege while spying on him, and it was only a matter of time before everyone pieced together the origin of his blessing, but the existence of the Elemental Source would probably remain private until after his ascension to the Concept realm.
Outsiders might eventually wonder how he had mastered his soul affinity concepts so quickly, but Percy should be powerful enough to protect Melodia by then, considering the ambitious apotheosis he was aiming towards.
The only flaw in his plan was that he had allowed Phoebe into his mind while separating his memories from Micky’s. Still, Percy had done his best to hide the most sensitive information from the titaness, and he was confident that he had succeeded.
‘I believe in your words and intentions, but that is not enough. You are still young and prone to changing your mind. Alternatively, you may be forced to betray me via torture or coercion,’ the myriapede responded. ‘Convince me that I have nothing to fear, or I will kill you and flee to another planet. Unlike my old friend, I am not rooted in place, and I will take advantage of that if necessary.’
Percy gritted his host’s teeth, fully aware that there was only one way out of this mess.
“I can swear a binding oath not to intentionally reveal your secret, and to do everything I can to protect it until it no longer matters,” he begrudgingly offered.
It wouldn’t be his first time using Kerfyl’s Decree on himself, though this was worse than before. The purpose of most of Percy’s contracts had been to restrict others, so the terms that he had forced on himself had always been rather loose.
Even the Oath of Self-Destruction that he had placed solely on himself while possessing Tiberius had been temporary, as its clauses had expired upon the clone’s reunion with the main body.
This was different, as the contract would last much longer and would restrict the original as much as his clones. It couldn’t be helped, because he would lose access to the Elemental Source if he didn’t do this.
On the flip side, striking a deal with the Broodmother and receiving permission to practice near its true body might be worth the trouble. At the very least, it would be far better than simply training at the Mirror Lake. Not to mention that Percy had been playing with the idea of taking a similar oath voluntarily, even before being given an ultimatum by the myriapede. Sol’s people deserved better than to have their very survival hinge on the twists and turns of his dangerous life.
‘A decent solution, but riddled with flaws,’ the Broodmother insisted. ‘I do not care about the mortals, as they are not leaving this planet anytime soon, but the Concept mage residing on your finger must swear the same oath. The deity may be incapable of acting against me directly, yet their powerlessness is all the more reason to take additional precautions.’
Percy couldn’t help but clench his host’s fists, his gaze growing colder.
Beads of sweat trickled along the sides of Sol’s face, sporadically dripping from her chin or rolling down her neck as he considered the myriapede’s demands. The Source remained silent too, clearly seeing no reason to rush him.
‘I’ll do it,’ Zoris offered. ‘If the day ever comes when someone truly powerful gets ahold of my ring, it will probably mean that you’re already dead and we’ve failed in our quest anyway. In that case, we might as well do what we can to protect these people. Besides, we don’t even know if your contract can kill me.’
Percy sighed, before shaking his head.
“That is not going to happen. I’m more than willing to bind myself according to your demands, since all of this is ultimately my responsibility,” he told the Broodmother. “Nobody would have discovered Zoris or you if not for me. However, I’m not going to force such an oath on my friend. You can kill my clones and flee wherever you want, and my main body will still keep his silence. That said, I promise that he will tell every powerful faction in the universe what you look like and where you were last seen if you so much as touch Sol or Doh.”
The phantom mana inside Percy’s wisp suddenly flared, making him fear that the myriapede had chosen to kill him. After a second without anything bad happening, he realized that his mana was dancing primarily with joy rather than anger.
‘Good answer,’ the Source praised. ‘I would have been a lot more hesitant to trust you, had you been willing to betray your friends under the slightest hint of pressure. I still want you to place that contract on yourself, though I will make it worth your while.’
Percy exhaled in relief, his host’s knees almost buckling as tension largely left her body. “Staying on Melodia and letting me practice my soul magic close to you whenever I visit is all I could ask for.”
‘I will do you one better. I’m tired of hiding from the whole universe like a common bug. Perhaps, helping somebody who respects those he meets in his travels reach the pinnacle of magic might not be the worst idea,’ the myriapede replied as its enormous body shifted.
One end – its head, presumably – flew toward the Melodians, crossing the vast distance in an instant. Doh gasped and leapt back in fright as what looked like a mountain nearly crushed their minuscule bodies into paste.
Percy could tell that his host was equally shocked, though she hadn’t moved a centimetre. She must have instinctively understood that there was no evading the colossal creature. Either that, or her feet hadn’t responded to her wishes.
Fortunately, the myriapede stopped a few hundred metres above the mortals, extending one of its countless long limbs toward them. Exerting phenomenal control over its bulk, the Source gently tapped the front side of their bodies with the almost-flat tip of its appendage.
The limb was quite thin compared to the rest of the Broodmother’s body, though still large enough to flatten even a White beast, so it looked like a giant silver wall from Percy’s perspective.
He felt something crack, suddenly fearing that the Source had put slightly more force into its movements than it had meant to. Fortunately, he quickly realized that his and his companions’ bodies and souls were intact. It was the tip of the myriapede’s limb that had cracked, somehow, causing a few tiny shards to break off and seep into everyone’s souls.
A bad premonition bubbled up in Percy’s mind. Should he have warned the Broodmother that nobody in the group could absorb another fiend? He’d honestly thought that the very creature who had spawned every fiend in existence would have known.
Either way, it was too late for warnings. His Status spoke, confirming his worst fear and causing his host’s face to pale.
[Congratulations! You have absorbed a new spectral trait: Command!]