The numbers began to tick down. 2:57...2:56...
Its instincts screamed louder than ever before. Danger! The pressure was suffocating, like a noose tightening around its very existence.
It was running out of time. The energy holding the motes of light together was leaking away. If that timer hit zero, it wouldn't just lose one of its three remaining lives. It would vanish completely.
Total Erasure! Erased from the fabric of reality as if it had never existed!
Fear, cold and primal, flooded its senses. It needed a shell. It needed a container. Just like the snake before, it needed a new host, and it needed one NOW!
Driven by panic, it surged upward. It accelerated through the dirt, pushing faster and faster.
BOOM!
It burst out of the ground and into the open air. The silence of the underground vanished instantly, replaced by a wall of noise.
It had emerged in the middle of a city.
This was a Tier 9 City—the foundational rung of civilization on the continent. But to the entity? It was overwhelming.
The sun was setting, but the city was bustling. Streetlights flickered to life across an endless sea of paved avenues, illuminating a skyline packed tight with functional, sturdy skyscrapers. It wasn't the magical utopia of the higher tier cities, but it was a vibrant, breathing colossus of steel and glass where millions lived in relative safety.
The streets of the city were teeming with life. Thousands of humans moving like ants in a colony.
But in the entity's vision, the world looked different. It couldn't see colors or clothes. It couldn't see faces or surroundings the same way a human could. It couldn't hear the honking cars or the chattering crowds.
What it perceived were Souls. Burning fires of life energy housed within bodies of flesh and bone.
Some fires were small and dim—regular humans, perhaps tired from their day of labor. But others? They were like roaring infernos, crackling with power!
Unfortunately, the entity did not have time to appreciate its surroundings fully.
I need one!
Desperate, it drifted toward the nearest human. A man in a cheap suit, waiting for a bus.
It tried to latch onto him. To slip inside the warmth of his body.
THUD!
But things did not go as planned. It bounced off. A metaphysical impact sent a shockwave through its form.
Why? Because the man's mind was healthy. It was too healthy. It was a fortress with the gates barred shut. The natural mental barriers of a sane, stable human were too strong for the entity to penetrate in this weakened state.
00:01:45
The timer continued its relentless countdown. Every second that ticked by increased the feeling of crisis within it. Its form was flickering now. The pale blue light was growing dimmer.
It was fading away!
It drifted frantically through the crowd, led purely by instinct.
It tried a laughing child. Rejected.
It tried an old woman carrying groceries. Rejected.
It didn't care who they were. It didn't care what they looked like. It only had one goal: SURVIVE!
But every mind proved to be a wall. Every soul was locked away. Its dulled senses couldn't find an opening in this sea of lifeforce.
If this continued, death was guaranteed.
Wanting to escape the noise, it rose higher. It fled the crowded streets, trying to gather its overwhelmed senses. It needed a crack, a fissure. It needed a mind that wasn't whole.
That was when...
It caught a 'scent'.
It was like seeing a light at the end of a tunnel. Like a lost sailor hearing a siren's song.
It was a sickly, sweet aroma. The smell of rotting emotions. The unmistakable presence of a mind that had given up.
The entity did not resist such a temptation. It followed the scent like a shark tracking blood.
It phased through several buildings, eventually passing through a high concrete wall. Nestled within the walls was a school.
The entity paused, trying to pinpoint the source of the scent.
Even this late in the evening, the campus was far from silent. From the open-air combat arenas, the sharp crackle of elemental energy rang out. Glowing magical circles flashed in the twilight—hovering behind backs or expanding beneath feet—as anxious 11th-graders drilled their casting patterns for the upcoming practical finals.
Meanwhile near the residential block, the vibe was looser. Groups of students ambled back toward the dormitories, their laughter and chatter drifting through the pleasant evening air.
The entity felt the presence of the numerous lifeforms down below. They were youthful. They were vibrant. But they were of little interest to it.
Instead, its focus shifted to a singular presence which stuck out like a sore thumb.
Without a second thought, it ignored the students brimming with vitality. It followed the scent of decay upward. Past the classrooms. Past the library. Towards the silence of a certain rooftop.
There!
At the very edge of the roof, standing dangerously close to the rusted safety railing, was a single figure.
It was a human male. A boy.
He looked small against the backdrop of the darkening sky. His school uniform was messy, covered in dust and tears. His shoulders were slumped, burdened by an invisible weight heavier than gravity itself.
To anyone looking from far away, he might have looked like a student enjoying the view from the rooftop. But to the entity? He was a beacon in the dark.
The boy's soul did not resemble a steady flame like the others. It was a chaotic, flickering mess. Bruised purple. Frantic gray.
The mental barriers that should have protected the boy's mind were shattered. They lay in ruins around his psyche.
Despair. Isolation. A profound, aching desire for the end.
The boy gripped the railing, his knuckles white. He looked down at the concrete pavement far below. He wasn't looking at the city lights. He was measuring the distance.
He was calculating the fall.
00:00:30
Thirty seconds remaining!
The entity hovered behind the boy, filled with urgency. It knew the truth. If this chance was lost, another one wouldn't appear in what little time remained.
This human was completely defenseless. His mental doors weren't just unlocked; they had been torn off the hinges.
There was no need for further consideration! The entity felt no pity. It didn't wonder what the boy was feeling, why the boy was sad. It didn't care about who or what had hurt him.
It was incapable of empathy. Indeed, it was driven by a single, primal instinct— Survival.
With the last dregs of its strength, the cluster of pale blue light surged forward.
It crossed the final few feet of space. It slammed into the boy's back. It sank through his clothes. Through his skin. And dove deep into the shattered ocean of his mind.
Finally, relief washed over it…
[ Suitable vessel found. ]
[ Initiating occupation... ]