Lying comfortably in a wooden tub, Orion, busy with the utterly absorbing task of absorbing fluids, said.

  “You know, I’m curious about this whole demon thing. I mean, did they ignore me at the time, or didn’t they notice me at all? If they’re so cunning, they should keep information from getting out, no matter how weak the unit is. Then the question comes to mind, was what you told me about them true? And, sorry for the third question in a row, but if they’re such a threat, shouldn’t we rather move in groups?”

  “Well, we have some time, so I might as well explain a few things to you. To answer your first question, you need to know that demons don’t use bodies directly like normal people do. It’s more like sitting in a house that you can control from the inside, like some kind of puppet. So they don’t use their eyes, their ears, or their touch sense. Don’t get me wrong, though. They still have their senses of sight and so on, only they’re dependent and closely related to mana, which, as you already know, you don’t emit at all. So, to sum it up, they didn’t even know you were there.” said Zaiah.

  Orion, listening to him, got the impression that when it came to mana, the friendly crystal spoke with a little more commitment.

  “As for the second question, we were telling the truth for the most part, but of course, we weren’t telling the whole thing. And why did we try not to give out false information? Well, it’s simple. If you were some high-ranking demon disguised as a human, you’d already know this stuff, so you’d know if we were lying, that we were trying to deceive you. Only Eynis lied at one point, taking a big risk, though. In her defense, a longer pause in response might also seem suspicious, so she quickly decided that instead of telling the truth, she’d answer with what a demon would want to hear.”

  Looking back on that conversation and trying to remember what Eyharnis said, which could have been a lie, Orion concluded that only one statement made sense. That’s when, after hearing the history of this world, he asked if he was also a suspect. She said it wouldn’t make sense to possess him since he’s level one, and then she tried to change the subject immediately by asking about something else. He also remembered Egill’s reaction. Looks like he didn’t frown on a personal question but on a lie.

  This was followed by a brief exchange in which Orion confirmed his thoughts and Zaiah continued.

  “As for the two of us being here, you don’t have to worry. In short, demons can’t possess certain races, including, as you probably suspect, the eliko race. Generally speaking, they’re restricted to… meaty races, so to speak.” he replied with a chuckle. “As I mentioned, they use different kinds of senses than humans. So imagine, for example, what would happen if they suddenly got another pair of the same senses? The other thing, aside from the senses, is that they would have trouble controlling a body like that.”

  Well, it made sense that no demon would want to possess someone and then end up as a stationary target. So since Zaiah was safe, it’s understandable that he was also acting as a kind of credible witness who would testify if necessary that nothing dangerous happened during their journey. Looking at the fluid in which he was immersed, Orion noticed that its level had decreased slightly, and his body began to feel a strange tingling. He decided it would make sense to let Zaiah know about it.

  “It means we can begin the process of… unclogging.” Zaiah replied.

  Orion stepped out of the tub and then, as instructed, sat in a meditative position in the stream. The spot Zaiah pointed out to him was so shallow, the water couldn’t even cover his legs. Since he’d already been naked for a year before he got to quarantine, he barely noticed the fact that he was naked. Instead, he saw that his whole body had turned a little bluish.

  “Alright, then let me explain what we’re going to do now. Since your pathways are blocked, first I need to create an entrance to your core. Don’t worry, I won’t be able to accidentally insert my own mana into it, so there’s no chance of any damage. So the first thing I have to do is open the way to it. We soaked your body with a reagent based on my personal mana so I can operate it within your body. At some point, you’ll instinctively start to feel something foreign, like an intruder, but you have to focus on not resisting. I warn you, though, the process will be extremely painful. If you need a break, just say the word.”

  “It’s ok, I’ve had some experience with pain.”

  Without commenting on his latest statement, Zaiah flew close to Orion, who after a moment began to feel movement in his body near the sternum. There was no pain, but rather an uncomfortable sensation of something trying to push itself through his body. Like an invisible snake, something pierced through his skin and went deeper. As soon as he realized in which direction this feeling was going, he immediately felt a screaming but incomprehensible panic.

  “Well, that’s to be expected.” Zaiah said, and the feeling went away.

  “I don’t know where it came from, but all of a sudden, my mind went crazy, like I saw a truck coming right at me at full speed.”

  “I don’t know what a truck is, but I understand your panic. Try to get over it. The more resistance on your part, the harder it is for me to move and maintain precision.”

  It took a few attempts, as the panic was just too sudden and overwhelming. The sensation was like he was running on straight ground and suddenly realized that the next step would lead to a precipice. He felt the breathing suddenly accelerating, the blood getting colder in his veins, and the strange pressure in his lower back causing tension throughout his whole spine. Automatically, his whole body tried to prevent the fall, and the deeper this invading energy got, the stronger the sensations. When the metaphorical snake tangled itself around something in the middle of his sternum, he had a clear sense that he was at someone’s mercy. If he wanted to, Zaiah could have killed him right now, just because Orion had allowed it to happen.

  All those feelings disappeared instantly, like they never happened.

  “Alright, one thing’s off the table. Now we have to fill your core. We don’t want to open your pathways on an empty ‘stomach’.” said Zaiah, chuckling again. Apparently, it was funny for him to refer to the organs of the ‘meaty races’. “Though, I have to admit, I’m surprised there was no screaming and stuff. Aside from the physical issues, which must have been extremely painful, as far as the pathways are concerned, they’re in a state somewhere between soul and body. That means the process had also irritated… oh, well, I talk too much.”

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  “As I mentioned, experience.” Orion simply summed up. Noticing a sudden pause in Zaiah’s speech, he realized that what they were now doing must be dangerously close to the taboo of this world.

  After a moment of calm after the panic attacks, another mana potion appeared in the air and floated towards Orion. Drinking it this time didn’t result in a sense of pressure. The fluid, or rather its etheric version, after filling his body quickly found an entrance leading to its destination.

  He felt the energy entering his sternum, and something inside was greedily absorbing it. Only now did he understand the Inquisitor’s surprise when he told him of his low mana percentage. Suddenly, he became more awake, his mind clearer, his body more alive. He felt as if he had been locked in a small container for a long time and could finally stretch his limbs, or as if he could only take a tiny fraction of a full breath before. Until now, he’s been like this slow-cooking frog, but now he jumped out of the boiling water, suddenly knowing the difference.

  “How does it feel?” asked Zaiah in a laughing voice, seeing the carousel of his facial expressions.

  “It’s… hard to find the words. It’s like I’m… free again?”

  Although his mind and well-being were not technically constrained; at least not by the low state of mana, he noticed that there was some metaphysical veil. It wasn’t causing the changes in the spectrum that he knew so far and that he could logically explain, but the lack of it was at least palpable.

  Zaiah, although he didn’t quite understand his answer, could easily imagine what it might have meant. But instead of delving into Orion’s past, he decided to move on to the next stage of clearing the pathways.

  “Well, I’m sorry to tell you, but now you’ll need to face another unpleasant process. To illustrate a little bit what we just did, let me explain it in a metaphor. Imagine that, inside a box filled with all kinds of unwanted stuff, there’s an inflated balloon. The box has holes that we can use to push things that aren’t welcome out, but to achieve that, we have to increase the pressure inside. If we had tried to do this earlier, the balloon might have been popped. But now it’s not an empty balloon. It’s a solid object.”

  “So you had to insert a tube to fill the balloon. Now that it’s more durable for some reason, we increase the pressure and push out the impurities without worrying about the important thing breaking. Well, if you were to ask me how I imagine myself in a world of magic and all that, I would never say that I’ll take on the role of a blown egg.” Orion continued with a nervous laugh. Sudden panic attacks and the feeling that someone could ‘pop’ his existence at will made him still a little shaken, but not wanting to take Zaiah any more time than necessary. So he took a breath and added. “Alright, let’s get this over with.”

  “A blown egg? Well, it doesn’t matter, I think I have context. Now, this part will trigger your earlier fear again, but since the balloon is full, it won’t be as traumatic for you. Aaaaalthough… as you put it earlier, we only inserted a small tube. Now we’re blowing it in. It’s going to be unpleasant. Very. But I also think it would be better not to interrupt the process than to approach it several times.

  “Got it.” said Orion, mentally preparing. “Sure. Go on. Blow.”

  ‘Very unpleasant’ was as big a misstatement as the statement that being tortured may not be the best way to spend your spare time. On this round, it wasn’t the invading energy that was the problem. It was what was pushed out of him.

  Compared to his previous experience, panic was now just a silent whisper, however, instead of one metaphorical snake getting in, there were now hundreds trying to escape from his body. Then thousands, and more and more. They were wriggling in his bowels, attempting to find every possible way out to get some fresh air.

  An unidentified gunk began to emerge from Orion’s body, quickly sticking to him. As he breathed in, he smelled its stench, causing the sticky liquid into which he had been teleported to suddenly taking on a rank of pleasant aroma in his eyes. As the disgusting slush tried to find the quickest way out, every orifice in his body was already responsible for its intense production. But that still wasn’t enough, and it began to seep through his body’s pores, making it look like his skin was also excreting it.

  Between numerous convulsions, Orion wondered how the hell it all got in him. The answer came after a few minutes. Among the free-flowing streams of vomit, he noticed a rather characteristic material. It was just an excerpt, as if it had been chewed before, but this excerpt immediately clarified the situation. The completely black flesh that was floating in the water looked like it was made of something resembling tar and was partly liquid, partly solid.

  Orion remembered well the beast that killed Martha. It was the first creature he ate, and which, in the madness of hunger, he devoured without remorse. Its strange, partly liquid, partly solid skin served as his bag for a long time in quarantine. He could still well recall the horrible consistency of the meat he then had ingested, and now he saw it in front of him.

  Although his body was working at full speed to get rid of all the unwanted elements, as it had been taking some time, his mind started working and connecting the facts. The System told him he was a soul in a physical state, so he was also physically eating the beasts.

  Then he got out of the quarantine and the System restored his soul to a spiritual state while creating a new body. So it looks like all the beasts he ate were stuck in some kind of halfway stage between soul and body. The ‘place’ where, as Zaiah mentioned, are pathways.

  Certainly, he got something out by eating them, as he actually regained his energy. But that didn’t mean that his soul had to simulate the real digestion process. Frankly, if his theory was correct, this event was a good reminder that the System, according to what it said, is actually an algorithm. It had to restore both the spirituality of his soul and his body, so it did just that, without even thinking about the side effects.

  The whole process took over an hour, and Orion was grateful that they were far from the city and could happily paddle in the water. If it weren’t for that, he’d probably be mistaken for some unique race of feces golem. No, let’s not insult excrement. They don’t smell that bad.

  When it was all over, Orion plunged as quickly as possible into the deepest part of the stream. He was incredibly tired from the experience, but at the same time he felt a lot better. Aside from the fact that he was now underwater, his body suddenly seemed much lighter, and he felt as if his soul could now breathe, and above all, he felt that he was now full of potential.

  As if some of the world’s most natural processes, previously suppressed by force, could finally be restarted. He could clearly feel something nourishing and refreshing flowing freely through his veins. No, it wasn’t in veins. Although the sensation itself didn’t directly identify it, the energy that was now in him was moving in entirely different patterns than it would have felt in the circulatory system.

  Once it swirled around the shoulders, only to come back and swim straight into the hand and up again, splitting later towards the head and down to the sternum. Once it moved slowly and freely, like in well-planned pedestrian traffic, another time it rushed unstoppably, like on empty highways. This movement was felt throughout the body, not just in this newly discovered circulatory system. In some places, he felt this pleasantly cool energy coming out of it, and in others, it was seeping into his veins.

  “Haha.” Zaiah’s laughter interrupted his contemplation. “Now I can see you!”

  “What? Couldn’t you see me before?”

  “Not in the mana spectrum. I saw your shape on the physical plane, but through the mana, you looked like a black hole walking by.” Zaiah replied, flashing lightly. A moment later, Orion felt that the stench that had been holding him was no longer emanating from his body but from everything around him.

  “Thank you. Uhm… I know you don’t have a nose, but…”

  “Yup. Let’s get out of here.”