When Boris fled, an alarm immediately blared through the intercom, and he could even distantly hear some outside despite the thick walls.

The pseudo-interrogation afterwards was immediate and thorough. They questioned him in the hallway as to what he'd done, but were unwilling to put him in a cell or corner him- likely to avoid him resisting or running away. He told them truthfully that he didn't help Boris escape, the man just fled on his own.

Eventually, they were satisfied enough to simply drop it. They'd try and track him down again either way, and Dei was clearly not helping Boris right now, so it wasn't immediately important.

Relevant to him right now was that he'd now cleared out the entire facility, and there were none left to help. At the request of every Elite there, Dei was asked to attend the banquet-slash-party being hosted in the mess hall.

'Oh God no' he thought as he walked in, seeing the entire room erupt in cheers at his entrance.

He'd always been a bit more withdrawn, and he didn't mind social interaction, but he felt himself cringe hard with how many people were shouting over each other trying to talk to him.

Some of the soldiers around him pushed them back and they were asked to sit back in their chairs, but Dei still felt obligated to at least greet every table one by one.

He was also now discovering a new facet to his Soul attunement. There were times, such as when he was socializing professionally, that he'd start taking soul damage very slowly. Now that he was at this "party," he was finding that he could take damage faster too, and he knew he'd have to leave the party in… maximum, about thirty minutes before things got bad

In that time though, he went around, shook hands, accepted their gratitude and tearful hugs, and heard bits of their stories before being ushered to the next person. The speed with which everything happened overwhelmed him, and trying to interact with whole tables of people at a time was immediately draining.

By the time he'd greeted everyone and finally got his food twenty minutes had passed, and he was feeling irritable. Still, he didn't let it show. These people were simply celebrating, he wouldn't begrudge them that. Especially considering he wasn't immune to the the uplifting mood.

Sitting across from his Earthly father, it was hard to keep the emotions off his face, but he managed. He framed their interaction as one of business, because Dei needed to fulfill the promise to the Hardie's and find a way for Oscar to better control his Wrath. He didn't have enough information to make a more permanent solution, but he had some theories he could test. Right now though, he had a stopgap solution to use until he was ready.

That could wait though. He talked now with his father in a more casual sense, telling the man how he'd come to find himself in the Hardie home, and everything that'd happened- according to his alibi at least. He could be caught up on the truth later.

Despite his previously decaying soul affinity, he found a gentle balm was placed on it when talking to his dad. It not only completely stopped taking damage, but started to heal faster than it would've if he'd simply sat alone.

It was nice to speak to the dad he'd left behind.

He could tell Oscar loved hearing about his family again as well, and by the end of their brief conversation he was looking far more relaxed.

When they'd run out of topics to discuss and finished their food, Dei jumped into the thick of it, rearing to finish up with the next two facilities and finally bring this whole ordeal to a close.

"Before we part ways, I have one final gift. An idea your wife gave me to help you control your anger slightly. One of the reasons you fare a lot better than most in containing your anger is because she has given you a certain type of mana to help, and I removed said mana from your system when I healed you. I've concentrated it down to become a lot stronger, and would like to return it to you."

Dei would just pump his father full of Kindness mana, but that would simply exacerbate the issue. Whatever his mom did to the mana she gave Oscar made it so the mana did not damage his soul, but Dei didn't currently have a way to repeat that.

Instead, when he'd taken the Kindness mana from his father, he kept it in its own separate box and chose to compress it down to thirty six concentration, as he felt like it wouldn't be worth it to make it an even smaller amount.

His goal was to make Kindness mana sturdy enough to cut through the influence of Wrath, but in a large enough quantity to not be overshadowed by the Wrath mana his father would inevitably produce.

The end result luckily kept his mother's imbuement from her spell and was successfully empowered, so it was an all around success even if he didn't know how to recreate such a feat on his own.

Temporarily finished with his family business, he was ready to leave. True, he loved talking to his father, but a man could only withstand the reverence of those around them for so long, and he wanted to leave.

* * *

Dei tapped his fingers impatiently on the armrest of his seat, staring holes into Matthew as the man looked back, expressionless. He was on the plane to their second location.

One which he knew he'd never arrive at.

It was simple, wasn't it? Dei's Profession kept pulsing whenever he glimpsed into the foreign affinity users, further sloughing off the mental control attempts. Becoming more resistant to influence with each passing level.

There was no chance his enemy would simply give him a concentrated source of power. He expected the attack and welcomed it, ready for it all to come to a head.

Matthew was eerily calm as well, but Dei felt the subconscious tension, the glimpse of his true enemy, leak through. Shortly after he boarded the plane, the Elite realized Dei knew and was simply waiting for said enemy to make the first move.

He watched the tension drain from Matthew's subconscious, transforming into resolve.

Matthew stood up and moved to another part of the plane. Dei raised his eyebrow at what the goal was, but in Matthew's seat an image flickered, and a man appeared.

Dei knew he wasn't real, merely an illusion.

'This must be the rogue Elite.'

The man was anything but average. Larger than Dei's current height, he was around six foot five, with muscles to match. His skin was tanned from over exposure to the sun, and slightly wrinkled despite his young looks. Glancing at his crossed arms, Dei could see that his hands were clearly calloused from hard work.

Light blonde hair and brown eyes, his face in general wasn't particularly noteworthy. His clothes, as well, weren't quite ragged, but a well worn white t-shirt with dirty jeans.

This was a working man.

"You are?" Dei asked.

"Daniel. Friends call me Danny though."

"Alright Daniel, what's your deal?"

"Nothing, really. I just need your help."

"Could've asked, just like the rest. What did you find at the center of the planet anyway? I mean, I know it was The Mother, a bigass worm from what I understand, but I just don't know how that's relevant or why you'd even risk waking her. I'd like an explanation."

Daniel raised an eyebrow, "What makes you think I will answer that?"

Dei looked at him incredulously, "Why would you appear at all? I thought you were here to monologue before trying to take over my mind."

He frowned in response, "No, I intend to try and talk you into working with me before we ever come to blows."

"Okay… why would I ever do that?"

"There are many reasons. Rewards to earn if you help me, people to lose if you don't" he said threateningly.

"Alright I'll bite. What's your proposal?"

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

"To understand my situation, I shall start from the beginning. You see, around eight years ago-"

'He's monologuing!'

"-A Visitor arrived from the collective subconscious of every human, and began questioning several high-tier officers about their universe. Information was collected, questions asked, and eventually it was found that the monster residing in the core of the planet was worth far more than anyone ever believed. For so long, the world thought it was braindead for mysterious reasons, and it is, but the Visitor informed us of just how priceless it is. Not only was it a gateway to other dimensions, but there was a vast library of knowledge hidden within. On that day… a second space race began, this time going down rather than up, the new competitors being China and America. The first to secure the Mind Realm would gain weaponizeable knowledge of magic beyond anything we now know.

"Immediately, America began testing different categories of Elite to see if they were capable of delving deeper in- and I was one of the more promising candidates.

"You see, humans have the natural categories of Foresight, Farsight, and Hindsight. When you combine all three, they become powerful yet foreign to our nature: the Seer category, and this is what I was born with.

"For a long time, I was trapped in my own mind, unable to escape and always fighting for free will. I knew things I shouldn't, dreamed of impossible knowledge, and felt my will spread thin, unable to ever act. "When I was ordered to give up my resistance and lean into it, I was so tired. I simply closed my eyes, and finally let my mind expand."

A manic grin spread across his face. "And what a beautiful sight revealed itself to me. My body died instantly in a gory explosion, but my soul lived on. I no longer existed in one place, but everywhere, in the minds of many, all at once. I was tempted to let myself relax and simply cease to be, but I'd fought such urges my entire life. By comparison to before, it was easy to keep existing. Leaving the scientists behind without even informing them I'd lived, I dove into the minds of humanity, the collective subconscious, and found many others. Other agents, fumbling around in the dark to glean the slightest clue of the vista, but I knew they were nothing compared to me. I picked out my countrymen versus those of the enemy, and went to work.

"Hundreds of our enemies died in the first few days, but the experiments yielded results. I was now able to enter the minds of those closed off to the collective unconscious, but I was still unable to affect them. So I kept going. Testing. Searching. Until at last… I found it. The hidden link between The Mother and everything else.

"It took me years to discover, but only because I was searching in the wrong place. I came to realize that The Mother was completely incapable of forming her connection to humans, and my breakthrough came when I looked towards animals.

"It was atrophied from millenia of disuse, but it was there. And I followed it back to the beautiful treasure trove. I was so ready to help, to give it all back to America… but when I connected with it, something awoke within. Not her mind, but her flesh. The Mother was gone, but the body sought a replacement in me.

"It showed me her eternal purpose, the extinction of all sapience, and bid me to take it up as well. Yet I am the final say. What it showed me… humanity must go, but genocide is not the answer," he told Dei.

"Evolution is. We must shed sapience, and become the monsters we were always meant to be."

Looking inquisitively at the man before, him, Dei said "And your answer lies in overloading the Elite with foreign mana? I'm sure you realize now that humans on Earth are unable to change their Races."

"Ah, but not so!" Daniel said, overjoyed, "The reason humans cannot change their species nor gain affinities is because of our universe's placement near the reality being Distinction, and its laws about there being a clear divide between everything. At one's conception, they are the being they will always be, for now. I have a theory though, one supported by all the knowledge I found within The Mother's mind.

"If I can lay claim to all of humanity on Earth in the same way The Mother claims all monsters, I'll be able to banish the being named Sapience from our world, and once I do that… humanity will be mine to mold into something better."

'In Summary: The Mother's mind is gone, her body put this guy in charge as a replacement, and he's been twisted to its purpose.'

"So where do I fit in?" he asked curiously.

"Because you are the final piece! Long have I struggled to undo the madness induced by affinities, even if I have nearly perfected the art of getting people to accept their transformation into something more, I cannot bring them back from the edge. Transferring their mana to another vessel simply does not work when they are finally complete, because they no longer want to be rid of it. You though? You are able to remove the mana forcibly, the last step. With us working together, I bet we could even figure out a way to transform non-Elite into something new!"

'Yea, he's nuts, and I don't think I even want to know what he'll offer me. I do, however, know that he will kill my family if I don't work with him, so I will need to act decisively and bring him down before he gets the chance to. But there's one thing that doesn't fully add up…'

"Say, how did you mind control people despite being trapped within The Mother anyway? Last I heard, she was fully locked up under some powerful magics that prevented her from connecting with or commanding life in general, but I can see you're able to command humans at will."

"Ahh, I take it you are aware of how our universe is a fragment of one larger? I believe the reason her mind was gone when I arrived is because it failed to form in our dimension, though her body still did. In the same vein, the seals placed upon her did not arrive either- Earth has one of the very rare, very dangerous free versions of The Mother."

"Like, no seals at all?" he asked, brow scrunched.

"None."

"No physical or mental ones? You can control people as you please and endlessly birth monsters?"

"If I manage to figure out how to control those portions, yes!" he said, grinning.

'Ooh, that's not good at all. Aloran said there was a reason she was locked away. I suppose that settles it, he has to die.'

He didn't hesitate. Mind made up, he activated a long-dormant function within Cycle of Sealing. Every scrap of mana flared to life at once, and he watched the Leviathan carrying it all writhe for nary a moment before suddenly exploding into a multicolored cloud. He was briefly shocked, afraid he'd somehow broken his spell, but still sensed his connection to it.

He assumed the cloud would disperse in his soul, granting him strength- when something suddenly called to the spell from the center of his soul.

His focus was drawn to his node of Potential, briefly feeling an invisible field emanate from it and wondering why.

A thundercrack rang out within him, leaving only the afterimage of a kaleidoscopic lightning bolt stretching from the cloud formed by Cycle of Sealing and his Potential. He was barely able to register the charged, glowing nature of the node before a wave of force exploded outwards from it, expanding his soul and transforming his body into something greater.

When it hit the surface of his soul it hardly even slowed, blasting out from him in a wave of rainbow miasma, disintegrating every surface it touched.

Everything happened within the span of a second, but Daniel was still not caught off guard, his image flickering and disappearing before the field reached him.

Dei was not worried for Matthew and the other soldiers… They had, after all, jumped off the plane with parachutes on their backs moments after the conversation started.

The shimmering field continued to expand, vaporizing the plane and beyond for a distance to reveal his placement over the ocean. He felt that allowing it to keep going would work as an incredible suicide attack, destroying everything within hundreds of miles, but that was the flawed use of his ability. He clamped down on the expanding field with his willpower, pulling back and forcing it to a stop.

Looking down, he saw that his body was pure, featureless white light. Not only him though, but Perumah was somehow pulled into the transformation as well, panicking and trying to study the process at the same time.

He would've given her assurance that he felt this was supposed to happen, when the colors pushing outwards started to collapse back towards him, compressing every inch of his body and imbuing him with new meaning in a silent implosion.

At last the transformation ceased, and he knew he was changed.

No longer did he exist as flesh and blood, but an idea manifest. No soul, mind, or body, he was… something.

The mana he'd fueled the transformation with was not solely his own, so he was no longer only Dei.

Looking down at his hand, it saw a shifting aurora. The former owners of the mana Dei had absorbed it from all held purposes of their own, and it embodied them now.

For the moment, it was not Dei, but an amalgam of purpose.

Despite that though, the loudest voice within was still Dei, and it found itself wanting to act in Dei's interests.

"For what?" Daniel said accusatorially in his mind. "I do not exist in the physical world. You can't hurt me! NOBODY can, because I am beyond, I am better than the brutes who simply-"

The world shifted, and The Embodiment looked straight into the field of collective unconsciousness spread around the globe.

The Embodiment did not need spells to enter such a space, as it needed merely the idea of a location to enter.

There were no minds around, and The Embodiment saw this section of the realm reflected that, showing a vast desert rather than the blue ocean they existed in before. Within the sand, The Embodiment could spot the miniscule minds of fish and other aquatic creatures reflected in the mirror physical realm

As well as Daniel floating before him, stunned.

The Embodiment did not wait for Daniel to recover, seeing the concepts around it, tasting the world of mind and coming to an understanding of its own existence. The affinities used to fuel it had been stripped away, leaving only their bare concepts to compose its body. Currently, it was mostly made of human-based concepts, so its existence took on the familiar shape, but it did not have to stay that way.

Daniel, unwilling to give him time to adjust, simply pulsed his will, causing a form the size of a mountain to leap upwards from the sand, snapping shut around the Elite and putting itself on a collision course for The Embodiment and bringing out the full power of a Primordial Child.

Yet… as The Embodiment adjusted to its new existence, it found a purpose written within itself.

A power, though temporary, that gave it direction.

A desire, unending in depth limited only by the spell.

A directive to assimilate.

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