Threads of the Soul

[Transcendence Process complete... Congratulations]

Angel's voice whispered in Seth's mind, even though he was barely on the cusp of consciousness. Their last word being added after a lengthy, incredibly telling pause and a tone of voice that didn't even try to make it sound as if they were being genuine with that congratulations. After all, He had just lay there, squirming uselessly while they did all the work to improve his useless body.

So surely Angel should be the one getting the congratulations on a job well done, right? They even made sure to not mess up his face, he had spent so many years earning those dark circles around his eyes that surely he wanted to keep them. Angel wasn't going to rid him of that achievement, so they made sure to keep them.

According to their revision of human society, they were a mark of honour and showed what a true worker he was. Although... Seth got his from late night gaming instead of countless hours of overtime, was that better? Yes, surely it had to be. Clearly Angel had made the right choice. Congratulations to them for a job well done. All that was left was to restore the broken connections before the lazy bugger woke up.

***

Letting out a low groan, Seth finally began to stir as Angel kept rambling on about utter nonsense in his head. Although they weren't actually saying anything to him, it was as if he could hear them muttering under their breath about him. He swore he even heard the phrase 'lazy bugger', but that must have been his imagination.

Pushing himself off the ground, Seth rubbed his face with his hands, his fingers massaging his still closed eyes as he tried to rub the tiredness from them in order to convince them to open, before he began to stretch out. Rolling his shoulders, he flexed his muscles and tested their flexibility.

It was odd, he didn't feel any pain. Surely after all that he expected his muscles would be incredibly stiff, since they were technically moving for the first time. Yet, despite the rejuvenated state he found himself in, when he opened his eyes and gazed at the ceiling with morning blurred vision, he couldn't help but feel like he was missing something.

Wait... Hands? Hands, plural? No... that couldn't be right. He lost his arm. And yet... As he touched his fingers together, that feeling was absolutely unmistakable. Although he had been feeling the phantom sensations ever since he lost it, the feeling of his fingers actually touching something was definitely unlike any phantom sensation he had felt before.

Lowering his gaze from the ceiling, where it had been locked as he was stunned by the new yet oh so familiar sensations, Seth raised his hands up to make sure that his mind wasn't playing cruel tricks on him. When he finally lowered his head, his gaze locked up in stunned silence again.

Yet it was not on his hands, which were indeed a pair as he held them in front of his face, but instead what was behind his hands. His mind reeled as he struggled to comprehend what he was looking at, yet it was undeniable. Peaking out from behind his raised hands... was his own body. He was looking at his own unconscious body, its singular arm still wrapped around Omelette as they both rested and recovered.

But how was that possible? Yes, he could look through the eyes of his puppets, so it wasn't the first time he was seeing his own body through the eyes of another, but he knew what controlling a puppet felt like and this was definitely not it.

For one, he could never feel anything when controlling his puppets. His senses were utterly and unequivocally restricted to sight and sound alone. That was just a fact of his abilities and yet... Here he was, standing in the place of Corvus, able to feel the weight of his cloak as it rested on his shoulders and the flow of the air within the room. If it wasn't for the clothing they were wearing, and the addition of the extra arm, Corvus' body would be utterly indistinguishable from his own.

There had always been a delay, a sort of disconnect between himself and his puppets, but now he had actually become one of his puppets.

Narrowing his eyes, Seth could still feel the connection between himself and his puppets. He could feel the statues outside, and could see their perspective in his mind as usual. The veiled connection was still active with those puppets, their senses dulled as they always had been. Yet there was another connection, in place of the one that should have been connected to Corvus. He didn't need three guesses to figure out what that was tethered to.

Pushing mental commands through that particular spiritual connection, Seth watched with morbid curiosity as his body pushed itself off the ground before turning to face him. It was... uncanny watching himself move like that. Like just another one of his puppets.

It was like listening to a computer generated copy of your own voice. It was definitely you, but it was dead and lifeless.

His face, the face on his real body that is, remained completely slacked and emotionless. His eyes devoid of any life as they perpetually stared off into the distance without a single thought behind them... so not that different from normal, but still creepy to look at.

'Angel, I'm hoping you have an explanation for me.'

[Of course I do. Honestly, you'd be lost without me.]

Suppressing the urge to roll his eyes, Seth, still in the body of Corvus, turned and tapped his chin pensively as he scrutinised the transparent panel that floated before his eyes.

[Resonant Threads: As you have taken another step further into the path of Evolution, your power has grown alongside you. Further imposing itself on the physical world, and breaking the limits of your mortal shell, your soul has become completely entangled with your threads.

Unwilling to be restrained by a single shell, your soul has become able to traverse along the spiritual threads it emanates, allowing you to possess the variety of vessels you are connected to. Furthermore, due to this unique ability, your threads have become empowered and allow for easier transmission of your soul energy, allowing your connected vessels and other bonds to be saturated with your energy, further strengthening them.]

'That's even better than expected. Definitely more of a growth type skill.'

Even as he was mentally absorbing the new information, Seth could already feel the aforementioned saturation taking effect. It was much easier to detect with Corvus' body, not just because he was possessing it and therefore actually able to feel, but because that possession was also seemingly speeding up the process since it was currently housing the source of his power. His soul.

Clenching his fists, Corvus' fists, he could feel the power within the nonexistent muscles as a mixture of mana and soul energy slowly seeped its way into every inch of the vessel, just as it had done with Seth's body during his mutation.

Before his puppets were limited by their material and innate strengths, for example the statues. They were carved from stone, making them naturally tough, resilient and strong. But that had its limits. Any attack that would break stone or shatter a normal statue, would be just as effective on his puppets.

But now? Now that was a different story. Although it was a gradual process, each statue was slowly benefiting from Seth's evolution. His strength was becoming their strength, which was added onto their already existing natural benefits. A simple statue could, with time, become tougher than titanium and able to crumple a car like it was nothing more than a tin can.

And they would only get stronger as Seth progressed. While it would not be instantaneous, Seth was another step closer to his goal of having an unstoppable army of his own puppets at his beck and call. Plus, this way his puppets wouldn't become useless cannon fodder as he climbed further and further into the realms of extraordinary strength and supernatural feats.

In fact depending on what they were made of, it was entirely possible they might surpass him in some aspects.

It took a few seconds of concentration, but Seth eventually managed to transfer his soul back across his threads until he was once again in control of his own body. Although it was a decision he regretted almost immediately, as the moment his soul settled into its original vessel, the excruciating pain and stiffness of his newly constructed muscles hit him like a truck. In fact, it literally did feel like he had been hit by a truck. A few trucks actually, with a few reversing over him again just to make sure they got him.

His legs quickly trembled before giving way, feeling like a newborn that was learning to walk for the very first time, as Seth fell back onto his ass. At least he didn't have a tailbone to bruise anymore...

Brushing his fingers through Omelette's new coat of feathers, Seth waited for his companion to arouse from his slumber.

"Don't worry little buddy, I'm sure you got something nice from it too. It'll have all been worth it, you wait and see."