Chapter 40 - Nightmare

“So, who or what is this Joey?” asked Lukas.

“Joey is my familiar,” said Elena, “and he’s… not from around here.”

“You mean like an alien?”

She scowled. “I don’t know, alright? There aren't a lot of people out there that even know what a nightmare is. It doesn’t help that just meeting his gaze destroys spiritist-kami bonds, and then they don’t even remember seeing him in the first place. But trust me, he’s not evil. I know. I’ve been taking care of him for close to two decades now. He’s not some eldritch monstrosity.”

She paused for a moment. “That said, he’s probably the reason why I never Changed.”.”

Lukas was getting genuinely confused now. “Erm, can you explain this from the start? I feel like I’m missing something.”

Elena smoothened her face into a non-expression. She gave Maude a withering look, but the oni only looked back at her supportively, gesturing her to talk. Lukas felt her gaze drag over every single person in the room, before it settled on him.

“The first thing you’ve got to know is that changelings have very high threshold values. An average bremetan would require 40 to 50 experience to go from Level-1 to Level-2. I needed a 130. My mother told me it’s the way of nature balancing our incredibly high ECR. ECR means —”

“Experience-conversion-ratio,” Lukas finished for her. “I know.”

Elena frowned, but nodded briskly. “My own ECR is 93, which is rather high, even for changelings.”

Lukas glanced at Tanya, and found her looking back at him right then. Both of them were probably thinking of the same thing.

“If you have such a high ECR…” Tanya began.

“Hold your bicorns,” said Elena, and turned back to Lukas. “I grew very quickly in levels as a kid, By the time I was six, I was already at Level-4. My mother, a ljósálfar, was the sacred prostitute of Lycaon, and she thought I was better than her at Charming.”

“What’s that?”

“Lycaon?” asked Elena, tilting her head in confusion. “It’s Llaisy Kingdom’s capital city.”

“Not that,” Lukas corrected her. “This sacred prostitute thing.”

“It’s an Asukan practice,” Tanya explained. “Sacred prostitutes are devotees of the primordial goddess of death, Izanami. They have intercourse with bremetan men as part of the worship and are praised and paid in gold, status and power. Ljósálfar are specifically favored for the role because of their psionic skills. They can remove all thoughts and doubts from your mind and make you focus on the worship part.”

“You mean the sex,” said Lukas.

Tanya rolled her eyes. “Yes.”

If Elena was annoyed at Tanya’s interruption, she didn’t show it. “Sometime after my sixth birthday, I met Joey. I was fishing somewhere along the Sea of Mone, when I saw him slowly disintegrating into mana.”

She balled her fists and looked down at her lap. “I’ve always been… very psionically sensitive. Even compared to the average changeling. When I saw it, and I connected with it, I… I can’t explain what I felt. It was a monster, but cut off from whatever dungeon it came from. The agony, the impossible feeling of slowly being erased out of existence because of a lack of soul capacity… I — I did not know if something so horrifying could even exist. I — I just knew that I had to help this tiny thing. I gave up a part of my soul capacity to it, and bound it to me, hoping to save its life. I didn’t know if it was a nightmare, I just wanted to save it from being… unmade.”

“You performed the ritual at six years of age?” Lukas asked her.

Elena shook her head. “Not the Shikigami ritual. Ours is just a symbiotic bond. I granted him the soul capacity he needed to survive, and in return, I got to use his skills. It’s only much later when Joey shattered someone’s bond with their kami that things became difficult for me. I… I didn’t know he could do that, and I’m sure he didn’t mean to do… what he did.”

“Wow,” Maude drawled. “A misunderstood, innocent little nightmare. Now I’ve seen everything.”

Lukas curled an eyebrow at her.

“Fuck the mushy stuff, Aguilar. I’ll give you facts. A nightmare is a spiritual beast, a predator of the highest order. Not because they’ve raw power, but because they are absolutely lethal to other spiritual beings. They can tear our spiritual bonds asunder, and do catastrophic damage to yokai-kind. Just meeting its Gaze is enough to shatter any familiar bonds or possessions. And the worst part? Those who’re affected by a nightmare’s Gaze don’t even remember seeing it in the first place.”

Lukas swallowed.

“Tell me something,” said Tanya, her voice a lot more mellow, “If you’ve got a 93 ECR, then why by Wind are you still stuck as a changeling?”

Elena looked downcast. “I don’t know. I always thought I might have botched the ritual, because after that, I just… stopped growing.”

“Stopped growing?” Olfric repeated.“What by Susannoo, is that supposed to mean?”

Elena looked at everyone helplessly. “I can’t explain it.”

“Well, try,” Tanya barked. “You said you were a Level-4 at six. What’s your level now?”

Elena mumbled something under her breath.

“Louder, if you please?”

“I said seven.”

“...”

Lukas did a double-take, as did every other person in his vicinity. “You,” he said blankly, “you are still stuck at seven?”

Elena scowled. “Mocking me, are you?”

“No, I just…” Lukas began, but paused, not sure how to progress without hurting her feelings. “I’m just wondering why you’re…”

“Pathetically weak?” She sneered. “I don’t get soul capacity, even though I level up. Neither do I get any gain in lifeforce. Or switch to mana for that matter. After the first three level ups, I stopped caring.”

“That makes no sense!” said Olfric.

Elena gave him a condescending leer. “Think I don’t know that?”

“I’ve checked her,” said Tanya neutrally. “Her lifeforce is too little, and she has no mana. But I cannot confirm her levels. Lukas, can you—”

But Lukas wasn’t listening. His eyes were already staring wide at Elena. The Level-3 Scan and Analyze functions were capable of giving him information way beyond one’s physiological and spiritual data. As they were now, they could get a detailed read about someone’s spiritual constitution and reveal data that would make Tanya green with envy if she ever found out.

Trouble was, they were currently throwing a series of contradictions at his face.

Scanning ‘ELENA’

Found similarities with Scanned data ‘Changeling’

Augmenting…

Analyzing current object

Assimilating changes and adding changes to old data object ‘CHANGELING’

Fetching results…

Race - Changeling

Level - 39

Energy Core - Lifeforce

Soul Capacity - 500  / NA

Lifeforce Capacity - 1100

It made no sense. Elena had claimed to be a Level-7 and yet, the Screen thought she was a Level-39. And if that wasn’t enough, she had just 500 units of soul capacity. That her total capacity registered as ‘Not Applicable’ to his Analysis was an even greater mystery.

And then the Screen displayed more data.

Analyzing ‘?’

‘?’ resisted Analyze function

Trying Again...

Analyzing ‘?’

‘?’ resisted Analyze function

Trying Again...

Analyzing ‘?’

‘?’ resisted Analyze function

Trying Again...

It went on and on, but without success. Whatever ‘?’ was, it was actively resisting any and all attempts made by the Omphalos to get a read on it. For Lukas, who had seen the Screen make a read on everything, from the lowest worm to a freaking Ifrit King, this was nothing short of alarming. It had given him a ton of information about Inanna and Divinity. Hell, it had given him at least something on Everfrost and it was a freaking Taboo. For something that could actively resist its scanning powers, while hiding inside this changeling was nothing short of worrying.

“Stop that!” Elena snapped at him.

Lukas crooked an eyebrow. “Stop what?”

“That!”

“Uh, Elena,” Olfric ventured, “Aguilar’s doing nothing to you.”

Elena ignored him, a strange intensity overtaking her features. “No he is. And Joey’s getting agitated. Tell him to stop!”

Lukas stiffened in response to her words. This Joey —  the nightmare, was not only capable of resisting Analyze, but also able to track its source. It reminded him of the monster prototype Stratim —  a large manta-ray like creature capable of swimming directly in the currents of the Haze. Stratim could do some pretty amazing things with raw ether, but even it didn’t directly interact with the pure anomalous energy of the Haze.

Quickly, he mentally ran through his conversations with Tanya about the changeling. Interesting bit about having to sort through hundreds of prototypes was that it allowed him a form of eidetic memory. It was not automatic by any means, and he had to actively think about trying to remember something before he could recall it, but once he did, he remembered it perfectly.

It probably helped that very few of their conversations featured the changeling.

“Elena,” he said slowly, “do you mind if I ask you a couple of questions?”

“What’s this about?”

“Indulge me for a moment, if you will. Please?”

Elena narrowed her eyes but consented.

“You said you were rather skilled even as a six-year-old. Do you remember what skills you had back then?”

She tilted her head slightly. “Level-2 at Charming.”

That raised some eyebrows.

Elena shrugged. “Told you, I was good.”

“And?”

“And nothing,” she said. “I’m a changeling. There’s very few things we can learn before the Change.”

“How do you charm people?”

“Elena tilted her head again. “How else? I use psionics, I tinker with their thoughts and bring them around to doing what I want them to.”

Lukas noticed how Tanya froze at that reponse. “And this works on everyone?”

“Anyone without training at resisting psionic intrusions,” Elena said. “Or uh, Outsiders, I suppose.”

Lukas ignored the jab. “What skills do you have now?”

“You really expect me to reveal all my skills?” She gave him a challenging look. “I’m not stupid you know.”

“I have to insist —”

“Insist all you want,” Elena scoffed. “I’m not telling.”

“Elena,” Maude added helpfully. “I’m sure Lukas has a reason for asking, don’t you, Lukas?” She gave him an odd look, as if daring him to challenge her words.

“Possibly,” said Lukas, “Just an idea I had.”

Elena frowned but nodded. “I can do glamor. I can mesmerize people with my voice.”

“And alter one’s emotions?”

“How did you….?”

“You said you can mesmerize others, and tinker with their thoughts. Tanya has trained against psionic attacks and she’s claimed you’ve manipulated her without any intrusion. And she’s claimed you’re excellent with monsters who operate on an emotional and instinctual spectrum. Two plus two is four.”

Elena stiffened in response. Obviously she didn’t like the way he was interrogating her. Most likely, she thought he was deliberately trying to throw her out of balance with his rapid-fire questions, and was trying to figure out why.

Which… wasn’t very much off the mark, to be honest.

“Lukas, what’s going on?” asked Tanya with slight concern. He ignored her and kept his gaze focussed on Elena. One must never be distracted when springing a trap.

“Tanya told me she saw you effortlessly control shkroi hawks which are supposed to be absolutely unruly. Do you remember doing that as a child? Maybe your mother taught you how to do that?”

Elena opened her mouth… and then slammed it shut as her eyes widened in surprise.

“Let's try something easier. When was the first time you performed glamor for the first time? Or mesmerization? Do you remember learning them and upgrading those skills to use them flawlessly on someone of Tanya’s caliber?”

Elena didn’t answer, because she couldn’t. Noticing her distress, Olfric interrupted them. “Why’s this important? She already told us that she can draw on her familiar’s skills upon need.”

“Tell me, Olfric,” said Lukas, swapping his gaze to the aquamancer. “You’re a spiritist, and an Omnyoji. That means you understand the relationship between the physical host and the spiritual symbiont very well, don’t you?”

Olfric looked taken aback at the direct question, but nodded.

“Yes. And what of it?”

“Is there any kind of manacrafting that affects the mind?”

Olfric looked at him in surprise. “Manacrafting… can affect the elemental spectrum, which can affect one’s emotions and the like, yes.”

“I’m not talking about generic influence. I’m referring to direct psionic manipulation.”

The aquamancer froze. He had probably figured out exactly what Lukas was asking him, given the look of shock he gave towards Elena.

“No,” he said. “Spiritual beings affect mana-based skills. Psionic manipulation uses lifeforce, and beyond their ability.”

“What,” said Elena, with an edge in her voice. “What’s so weird enough about me not remembering those things? I don’t have the soul capacity to etch them on my soul, so I have to draw them from Joey all the time.”

Lukas gave her a small smile. “It is weird because Joey is a spiritual beast. I can still understand having a power to disintegrate spiritual bonds, but it’s not supposed to have lifeforce-based psionic skills in the first place. And even if by some miracle, it does, then it requires the soul capacity to have them, and soul capacity, in your words, is something you don’t have.”

He met her eyes. “So, do you know how Joey has them?”

Elena stood there, utterly stunned by his questions.

“Lukas…” said Tanya, looking distinctly uncomfortable. “What’s wrong?”

“I did a cursory scan of her soul,” he said briskly. “I’ve got lots of experience studying damaged soul architectures of bremetans that are possessed by yokai. I was expecting something similar for Elena. Maybe this nightmare was also a spiritual parasite, perhaps a yokai-variant that took advantage of her ignorance. I expected that it was leeching her, and using her soul capacity for itself, keeping her weak and dependent.”

He exhaled. “I was wrong.”

He looked up. “I don’t know what a nightmare is or isn’t capable of, but Elena, according to my scans, is a Level 39. If what she says is true and her ECR is 93, then as a Level 39, she must have over a hundred thousand soul capacity for herself.”

“Level 39?” Elena snorted. “You’re crazy!”

Lukas sighed, pondered for a moment as to what he should do or say, and then raised his hand.

Metaforge Active

Raw ether erupted out of his hands, and condensed itself into a black board and stand. He ignored the blinking looks the others gave him and conjured a piece of chalk, and drew two concentric circles within it. He labeled the outer circle as ‘ELENA’ and wrote down ‘Level-7’, ‘500 Soul Capacity’ and ‘Level-2 Charming’ in the form of bullet points.

Then he labeled the inner circle as Joey, and added ‘Level-39’, followed by a list of skills — Mesmerization, Glamor, and Emotional Manipulation, which Tanya told him was called Allaying. He then added a ‘Level-2 and above’, followed by ‘LIFEFORCE-BASED PSIONIC SKILL SET’ in brackets next to it. Finally, he added ‘SPIRITUAL DISSONANCE’ with a Level ‘?’ next to it.

Then, he looked at his audience. “Elena is the host. Joey, the spiritual parasite,or symbiont. Whatever. Doesn’t matter for now. Conventionally, this is how it works for spiritual bonds. Isn’t that right, Olfric?”

The aquamancer grimly nodded.

Lukas turned to his audience. “So, what’s wrong with it?”

Olfric was the quickest to answer. “It’s impossible.”

The others looked at him.

“The setup is impossible,” said Olfric. “Spiritual beast or not, Elena’s soul should not be able to maintain the pressure of anchoring a soul spiritually greater than itself. Even without the other skills, just the difference in skill level is enormous. Elena would need constant access to spiritual healing, just to keep the parasite from destroying her soul or devouring it.”

“I hold Ezzeron within me,” said Tanya, frowning in confusion. “It’s a King-class kami, and I’m not even in the Warlord class. How do you explain that?”

“That’s because Ezzeron wasn’t born as a King-class kami, Tanya,” said Lukas, stopping her in her tracks. “Unlike that demon we faced in the borderland, Ezzeron was born a Level-2 kami. All its skills  are converted into Attributes, and held in that form within its soul, a blueprint that does not consume any soul capacity. The moment it gets a host with enough soul capacity, it changes the attributes back to skills, and can use them accordingly. Joey, whatever it is, does not have attributes. It has skills.”

“What about possession?” asked Olfric.

Lukas smiled. Of course, his mind would go to that first.

“You’re raving nuts if you think Joey’s possessing me,” said Elena. “If it had the soul capacity to possess another, it wouldn’t be disintegrating into thin air.”

“No, it isn’t possessing you,” Lukas clarified. “Your soul architecture shows no signs of damage.”

“But you said—” Tanya began.

“The setup is impossible. But I said nothing about spiritual damage. When something’s possessed, even if the possessing spirit imposes a change of shape, soul or energy core, the original soul’s history is still there in some capacity. Elena isn’t altered in any way. She is, and has always been a changeling. There is absolutely zero change to her spiritual constitution, so I can safely say she’s the genuine thing, not a copy or some twisted spiritual alloy.”

“I’m right here you know,” Elena growled.

“He’s right,” Maude asserted. “I’ve performed naturopathy on Elena many times. She’s clean.”

The irony that the claim was coming from someone who had lost her identity and fused with a yurei to form an oni was not lost on anyone.

“But that’s… impossible,” said Tanya, frowning. “You said the setup is impossible. But she has Joey. And if she’s not possessed or broken somehow, then somewhere, something must have happened that made it work.” She looked around in confusion. “Right?”

“....Oh,” said Olfric, and given the sickened expression on his face, he definitely didn’t like the implications.

“Olfric? What’s wrong?” asked Maude.

“I do hope it isn’t what you’re insinuating, Aguilar,” Olfric coldly warned him. “Because if you’re expecting me to believe that such an abomination exists under the Great Goddess’s All-Seeing-Eye…”

“Won’t be a surprise,” said Lukas with a half-shrug. “I’ve always thought of Eternal Light as a fraud.”

“Why you—” Olfric began loudly.

“Okay, okay,” said Tanya, standing  between them to break up whatever confrontation was about to happen. “For those of us who aren’t experts at soul architecture, can you explain it in simpler terms instead of talking in circles?”

“He is implying that this isn’t a spiritual parasitism at all. If anything, it’s the reverse,” said Olfric, as he strode up until he was standing in front of the blackboard. “And as much as I hate it, I cannot find any flaw in his reasoning.”

Lukas passed him the chalk and Olfric began drawing an exact copy of the diagram next to it on the board. When he was finished, the two circles were exactly like the original. Only this time, the outer circle was named JOEY, with its associated Levels and skills, while the inner circle was labeled ELENA. And then Olfric added a third circumcircle surrounding both of them, which he had named — BODY.

Olfric turned around and faced the audience.

“A Level-7 soul cannot bind a Level-39 soul. The reverse however, is possible. The larger soul bound the smaller soul to itself, and stole the body. However, the soul always reflects on the body, and so, all those skills — Mesmerization, Glamor and Allaying, are all reflected on Elena’s body, and she can use them. But, she’s a changeling, and cannot use mana by herself. So, she needs to manifest the nightmare to disintegrate spiritual bonds, like Maude claims she did in the anomaly. For whatever reason, Joey stays in the background, allowing Elena’s mind and soul to take control. The result is something that has the body and mind of a changeling, but the soul of… something else. And as a result…”

“I cannot Change,” murmured Elena.