Bab 42: Tests
'I can feel myself becoming colder.' Vlad thought to himself. 'Not even a week has passed and already I find my mind and body reverting to their once zero state. Or should I call it, my true neutral? The state at which one truly exists as themselves, with no outside influences.' He mused as he laid on his back with his hands behind his head and one ankle rested on a propped up knee. The only thing below him to be used as a resting board were the very clouds upon which he hovered.
He had had a fruitful few days since he separated from his paramour.
Not exactly fulfilling.
But fruitful.
He began with meeting his loyal one.
She had tracked traces and sources of energy connected to the spirit world that had bled over into the realm of the living, creating opening that could be exploited.
Much like the one used by Goody.
With his targets known, he made himself busy.
Shielding his activities from those who believed they could track him, he moved alone. Stationing his loyal one as a monitor for his paramour. It would not do if something were to happen to her. Not only would it devastate him, but it would also lead to the destruction of the world in its entirety. That would teach it to not protect what was his.
Goody had been given a mission of her own. One that will be explored from her own perspective.
Vlad had his targets. He could see the strings tying and linking individuals on a metaphysical level, as they hid throughout the world. Serving a purpose that he did not know. Only that it went against his own. Therefore, it was a purpose that need not be fulfilled.
As of yet, he had not touched a single one of the spirits he had taken not of with his own eyes. Nor did he let his presence be known.
It was a period of testing and theorizing.
He first approached. Shrinking the distance between himself and cannon-fodder. He needed to know for certain whether the protections that he believed that he could establish for himself, were truly infallible, in front of his current foes.
They were.
As he closed the distance, he noted no changes in the energy signature. No sense that the spirit had become wise to his presence. So, using his speed, he instantly appeared before the vessel that housed his target. A vessel that was currently serving as the political advisor to some developing country.
He readied himself to strike at the first sign of awareness, however there was none.
He relaxed the tension in his body, but not his attention to his target.
Then, he simply stood there.
Looking, observing, analyzing.
His eyes, that had long adapted to the veil of death, viewed the vessel and the spirit.
He could see how they interacted.
The way the soul of the vessel was altered by the soul of the spirit. Or rather the energy that governed the souls.
The vessel, while believing themselves to be operating normally and fully in control, did not know that their minds nor bodies were not their own. They followed the will of the spirit and simply carried out the thoughts and actions that fell in line with that will.
Only if the spirit commenced an action that went completely against the principles of the vessel would they sense something wrong. Then, and only then, unless they had an incredibly powerful soul, like his paramour, it would come down to a battle of wills.
It was the strength of will, exerted by his loyal one, that allowed him to realize her predicament without the need to use his sight. Purely through their bond, he felt her go against what she should have believed to be her conscious mind, simply because it went inherently against her very core to appear in my presence without me acknowledging her.
The fact that the spirit attempted to lead her to simply suppress our bond in order to see if it could go undetected in my presence, was enough to cross her bottom line.
"Oh, a very loyal one!" Vlad could hear producer guy say from somewhere out in the omni-verse.
And he had to agree, which he why he got all the way off her back about allowing herself to be infiltrated in the first place. Her soul was more than capable of resisting the initial intrusion, had she not gotten comfortable in her old age.
Without her monarch, she had lost her sharpness.
But not just her, the world in its entirety had lost its sharpness.
No longer did Darwin rule.
No, people adhered to the rule of sensitivity in his current age.
And while wokeness is nice.
Being able to put entitled assholes in their place was always his preferred operandi. Punch first, apologize never.
Nonetheless, after completing his test, he left that one alone, and traveled to several others. Testing their defenses, in all their forms.
Seeing if he could scan their minds without their knowledge. Stripping their will and trapping them in the vessel as nothing more than binded observers. Or simply devouring them.
Many tests were conducted.
Many answers were obtained.
However, none of it truly left him satisfied.
His mind and body were beginning to revert back to that cold disposition that accompanied Vlad the Impaler throughout his life.
The world was losing its luster and once again becoming simply a place to exist.
He truly did not have much to do in a place where he was OOOOP compared to everyone else.
Only his people truly made him interested in interacting with it at all.
He knew there had to be more to his provincial life.
What that was though, he did not know.
All he knew for certain was that he had a love.
He had people.
And if push comes to shove, he could always dive back into the world of otaku culture that he perfected in his first life.
At least until this world offered him something new to learn. The universe was open for exploration. And science was ever evolving. All for his own perusal down the line.
For now however, he had his little death to occupy his time.
Based on what she told him the last time they spoke through the link. Things were getting very interesting.
[So, you say your Uncle Fester is in town?]
(A/N: Yes, I do know her Bday was before big unc came to town, however, I changed it around. Be grateful or do you want to dance.)
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone