Cassiel shook in fright upon realizing who the pentapus standing in front of him was. Unlike many of the other hosts that Percy had brought to the Vault, the boy was obviously aware of the titan’s existence, even if he had likely never met him in person.

  ‘Let me do the talking. He just wants to negotiate with me – we shouldn’t be in any danger,’ Percy said to placate the child, before turning his attention outwards.

  “Don’t even bother pretending to be angry. We both know that getting a Blue Yellow-born with an extended lifespan, a composite affinity, a bloodline and a second core is a bargain for you.” Percy shrugged. “And just to be clear, if you don’t want Kassorith, feel free to get rid of him. I’ve no interest in wasting my quota or including him in our deal. In fact, I might even be willing to pay you a few credits to kill him for me.”

  Metatron didn’t press the issue, but that was answer enough. “Mind telling me why the cube is having trouble identifying your soul?” he asked, switching to a different topic.

  Percy smiled. That not only confirmed that the titan hadn’t locked him out deliberately but also gave Percy the opportunity to lay the groundwork to explain his blessing later.

  “My soul has changed. A lot of stuff happened, and I ended up fusing with one of my hosts,” he said, keeping things vague on purpose.

  Raising a purple tentacle, Metatron rubbed a spot below his yellow eyes, seemingly in contemplation. “Interesting… Your ability keeps getting stranger the more I learn about it.”

  “Can you fix the authorization to let me in?” Percy asked, not hiding his irritation. “I was forced to use life mana out of my own pocket to give Cassiel his second core. According to our deal, you owe me a serving.”

  “Fine. I’ll register your new spectral signature as soon as we’re done here. You can claim the mana later.”

  Percy’s borrowed heart skipped a beat. He still had plenty of healing potions inside his seal, but Clear mana was far more potent. If he rationed it well, they could vastly accelerate Cassiel’s recovery and physical training, allowing him to master Circulation sooner.

  ‘Or wait… maybe I’m better off relying on the potions and bringing the divine mana back to Remior?’

  The best part about Clear mana was that it could be stored and preserved for a prolonged period of time. It would serve him well to have such a powerful source of healing at hand. He might even try including it in his brews, though he didn’t think it would be that simple. His cauldron could barely handle Green potions, and any secondary ingredients he tried to mix with the divine mana would be too weak to affect it in any way.

  Regardless, this was something he could decide later.

  “Are my other clones here yet?”

  They were all connected to the original, but not to one another. He could still sense their presence in his disembodied state if they were nearby, as they were the only souls that didn’t reject him, but there was no way of knowing whether they’d reached the Vault now that he had already entered a body.

  “Other clones? You’re sending more than one?” Metatron asked back.

  “Yeah. I’ll have them complete challenges across grades. Please tell me this won’t break the system again?”

  Metatron shook his head. “Do you take me for a fool? This is something I’d accounted for since the very beginning. You can’t blame me for not predicting your fusion though.”

  Percy nodded. “Great. If that’s everything, I’d like to get started. Restoring Cassiel’s malnourished body and priming it for Circulation will take a while. Time is precious for us mortals. As is food,” he said, throwing a not-so-subtle jab at the callous titan.

  Ignoring Percy’s accusatory tone, Metatron let out a chuckle. “Not so fast. We have yet to address the main reason I summoned you here.”

  “Oh?” Percy raised an eyebrow, trying to mask his inner turmoil. Sure enough, the titan’s next words were the ones he’d least wanted to hear.

  “You can stop suppressing your blessing – you’re not fooling anyone. Even if I hadn’t noticed it during your previous visit, your scaled buddy would have clued me in about your spectral traits.”

  Sighing, Percy allowed the concept of permanence to flood his soul again, a wave of relief washing over him as the unruly fiends calmed down. “So, you do know about them…” he muttered.

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  Unlike Circulation, this one wasn’t his fault at least. The good news was that he would be able to fully take advantage of his traits in the challenges now. Weaving had never been particularly useful in the Vault – other than with stitching his hosts’ injuries up – but Insomnia and Scribing would be game changers.

  “How did you get your blessing?” Metatron asked, clearly focusing on the part that interested him the most. “Don’t tell me that you found one of the missing rings so soon?”

  “Wouldn’t that be nice? As much as I would have loved a spare ring to trade, I haven’t got any,” Percy replied, doing his best to maintain an air of nonchalance. He needed Metatron to believe that he’d only cared about hiding the traits – not the blessing or a ring.

  “The person I fused with has the soul affinity and the blessing. Now, so do I,” Percy added, choosing his words carefully so that they were true – if somewhat misleading. Technically, Micky did have the soul affinity and the blessing now, sort of, though they’d both come from Percy – not the other way around. He didn’t know if the titan could detect lies, and he’d rather not risk it.

  Obviously, the story he had come up with was a bit of a stretch, but he wasn’t very worried that the god wouldn’t believe him. After all, his bloodline truly had allowed him to fuse with his familiar and gain access to his cores – the evidence was standing right before Metatron, having been verified by his own creation already.

  On top of that, this explanation was perfectly plausible. Had Micky had a soul affinity and the blessing, it really would have allowed Percy to increase his trait capacity without the ring. Of course, this would have required a god with a soul affinity on Remior – which Percy didn’t think they had – but the titan didn’t know that.

  More importantly, this explanation was far more credible than the alternative – that Percy had found a sentient Ring of Sacrilege swimming inside the unclaimed Elemental Source of his main affinity.

  “I see. What a powerful bloodline this is… infiltrating greater springs… stealing and passing the Moirais’ Decree… and now even replicating Svarog’s Decree in many ways,” the titan said, creasing what Percy assumed was his forehead. “What are its limitations? Did your maximum number of clones go up after your recent promotion?”

  Percy grinned upon confirming that Metatron had bought his story. “How about a trade? I’ll humour your questions if you answer a couple of mine.”

  The pentapus nodded. “Deal, but I’ll be the judge of what questions I answer. If I don’t like it, you’ll ask a different one.”

  Percy felt the urge to rub his hands. “I get a couple of new connections with every advancement, though I’m still in single digits. Fusing with my hosts permanently ties up those slots. It gives me access to their cores – among other benefits – but doesn’t boost the limit further. I’m still hoping that I can absorb more than three fiends.”

  “Interesting…” Metatron muttered. “I take it this is what you want to ask me about?”

  Percy didn’t deny it. Since the titan knew about spectral traits already, he might as well. “Do you have a way to test one’s capacity? To grant traits to non-soul users? Or to control what fiend you absorb?”

  “That’s a few too many questions, but sure, I’ll answer them. Yes to the first one, no to the others. As far as I know, spectral traits can only be absorbed by soul users, and you get whatever fiend you get. Testing one’s capacity is normally unnecessary because it’s not exactly a mystery – regular soul users can only have one trait, those with the blessing can get three. But designing a test for it should be simple enough. I’ll enter one in the system later, though you aren’t getting it for free.”

  “How much?”

  It was the titan’s turn to get one over him, a sly grin finding its way into his eyes. “It won’t be sold for credits. You can use a bonus reward from the Yellow pool or higher to claim it. Keep in mind that the method to absorb the fiends is usually only available from Green and up, so you’re getting a bargain.”

  Percy wanted to swear. Bargain? He didn’t need the absorption method anyway. Still, he couldn’t absorb a fourth fiend without being sure that his soul could endure it, so he needed that test. Bracing himself, he asked about something else that he wanted, fully aware that Metatron was going to extort him again. “Any chance you could make me another spatial seal or two?”

  Metatron gave him a strange look. “Have you run out of space already?”

  “Well, not exactly. It’s enough on most days, but it’s always handy to have more. Isn’t that why you made it so easy to upgrade?” Percy explained.

  “I’ll sell you more at the same rate – five thousand credits for each one. And they can be combined with the one you have like its current denominations. However, if you want me to craft it slowly in front of you like the previous time, it’ll cost you another Yellow reward.”

  Percy sighed, though this was only to be expected. Metatron needed to entice him with useful rewards to keep him coming back, but he also had to keep him wanting for more. Getting him to spend his credits and bonus rewards at every opportunity was a no brainer.

  “Okay,” Percy spat. “I’ll reach out after I complete the challenges.”

  While he would have loved to spend his rewards on other things, the seal and the evaluation were both worth it. Besides, there were plenty of grades in the Colour realm. Even if he ran out of bonus rewards after clearing all the sixth waves, he could always push for the twelfth, or even the eighteenth.

  Would it be impossibly hard? Sure. But Percy was capable of fighting three grades above his own with his main body. If he wanted to turn one of his hosts into an absolute monster, he could do it – at the cost of revealing the Dance and his reinforced equipment to Metatron.

  Then again, if Percy decided to come clean to the titan, he could probably just trade him the secret of the cyan powder, allowing him to turn the Vault into a proper greater spring. Something that valuable ought to buy him a lot of goodies. However, he’d rather try to earn whatever he needed while giving the least back to the titan. A scumbag like him didn’t deserve more power.

  Flicking his tentacle, Metatron sent Cassiel and, by extension, Percy flying out of the training room. They landed on their butt as the titan’s parting words echoed in their ears.

  “Make sure you do. I want to discuss something else before you leave. Your scaly friend mentioned a ticket to the void tournament that I’m very interested in, and you should be too…”

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