“Isaac, are you alright?!” Mary’s voice called to him, almost failing to reach his ringing ears. Her voice was echoing as if she was underwater.
"...Or maybe I'm the one submerged?
His side ached in pain, Isaac agonizingly turning to the source.
His sight was blurry, but he could definitely see something white, almost silver prodding him in the side. Eyes fluttering to clear his sight of whatever was denying him sight, splatters of goop now a part of him cleared his eyes. “M-Mary?”
He could see her back away in surprise, the gesture causing the titan to realize that goo was leaking out of his mouth in buckets. “S-Sorry…” He gurgled.
“It’s okay...” She stayed put where she was, awaiting Isaac’s reaction. “It’s okay.”
Her reassurance strengthened Isaac as he awaited his body’s complete assimilation of the creatures. They weren’t alive therefore there would be no additional souls added to him. Slowly, but surely, the goo stopped its flow from his orifices and began circulating within his body as blood would.
“I… I’m alright now.” Isaac tiredly hefted his form up from the cloud ground once more, his form shakily awakening. The titan turned to lie on his back, shuddering in the sensation of liquids flowing in his body. “Is the vile goop still flowing?”
“No,” Mary assured him, and he sighed in relief. His eyes cleared up from the black fog before he contemplated his life choices. “I’ll be fine now.”
“Yes I think you’ll do well now,” Isaac muttered in tiredness, but he was getting better. “I think I’ll be getting better too.”
“HEY, MONSTER!”
“And I’m sick again.” Isaac sighed a long, suffering breath as a familiar form came into his blurred sight. “What do you want Slar?”
“I came here because I heard a monster roaring!” He cocked his gun, loaded and ready to fire. “And now I'm ready to blow it to bits!"
“That was me.” Isaac tiredly muttered. “I was the monster roaring back there.” The titan's nonchalant tone caused Slar to tense, his face flushing a hot red.
“I knew you'd turn! Did you hurt Mary?!” Slar aggressively pointed the gun towards Isaac’s head, ready to fire, his eyes darting to Mary. “Princess, are you hurt?!”
Isaac stilled, and Mary stood still in surprise.
”Princess?!” Both Isaac and Mary thought in shock.
”Did Slar lose his mind?” Isaac thought in confusion.
”What?” Mary thought in surprise.
“I’m not a princess, idiot.” Mary refuted in cold anger. “Never was.”
“Lies,” Slar rebuked, livid. “You’re the princess of the Sky King.”
“You’re mistaken. The princess is in the castle.” Mary argued back, defensive about her secret.
“No, I’m not. I know you!” Slar fought back, even as Mary stared daggers at him. “That princess in the castle was not you! What did you do?!”
Isaac watched the interaction in silence, lying on his back as his body reformed itself. The new mass needed a place to stay after all. Isaac had questions himself, but he needed to finish this later.
“You two! Save this for later.” Isaac barked, the warbled voice that escaped his maw surprised him and his companions. “Go!”
“Fine, we’ll talk about this later, princess.” Slar promised as he walked behind Mary, gun cocked and ready.
“You’ll get nothing anyway.” Mary challenged back, brandishing her sword.
Isaac looked on in tiredness before a suckling feeling reminded him.
"Oh, Chirp!”
Isaac willed the armor to part, only to see Chirp suckling on one of his granite rods earnestly. Thankfully it seemed that none of the vile essences flow through his genitalia, as Chirp was still sucking in the bright violet magical essences. Chuckling, the titan willed the armor to encapsulate the dragon child once more.
“Let’s finish this.” Isaac walked forwards, ready to end this once and for all.
It took a bit less time now, the creatures no longer coming at all, oddly enough. The way was clear from the creatures. Isaac knew he had absorbed a lot, but the demon could create more. There was no reason why it would be empty.
It was silent the whole way down until they encountered an open chamber. The trio stepping inside to glance the form of that of a cloud folk.
”Illustro!”
An orb of light burst free from Isaac’s hands, Slar reacting in surprise to it. The orb flew towards the cloud folk, the titan stifling a gasp.
The male cloud folk was twitching as if he was struggling to control his own body. Black veins infecting his body were heavily abundant across his form, his eyes a pair of beady black orbs. Black goo spewed forth from his mouth as he moaned.
Slar immediately let loose a volley of fire on the former cloud folk, the bullets scattering its form as black goop spurted from its wounds. Isaac noticed the black tome in his grasp, the cloud folk’s hands deforming to merge with the tome, preventing its release.
“Mary, Slar, stay back,” Isaac ordered, walking forwards in confidence, his expression stern. “I’ll handle this one.”
”Ah, usurper, how are you?” A warbled voice matching Isaac spilled suddenly from the cloudfolk’s mouth, vile goo spurting out in buckets with each syllable. ”Come to steal me?”
“I’ll be returning you to Alicia.” Isaac stated boldly, fingers elongating.
”The keeper, I see.” The demon smiled. “Come.”
“With pleasure.” Isaac lashed out his fingers without further comment. A grimace crossed the titan's face as a thick wall of infected clouds blocked his attack.
“Tome of Elemental Possession. I am this very cave.” The clouds beneath the trio suddenly shifted, trying to entrap their legs. Isaac was trapped as clouds bit down on his legs. Slar and Mary were agile enough to escape the attempt.
Easily tearing himself free of the clouds, he lashed once more, an annoyed yell resounding from Isaac's maw as his attack was blocked yet again.
Deciding that hand to hand combat would earn his favor, Isaac jumped into close combat range and sent a pulverizing fist down onto the demon. Another wall of clouds intercepting him, the titan broke through as the punch flattened the possessed cloud folk’s face.
The demon being stunned, Isaac's arm pulled back before bringing it down upon the cloud folk, slicing the arm of the vessel clean off. The tome dropped onto the clouds along with the arm of its wielder.
Body reacting, vines suddenly escaped the titan's body to penetrate the cloud folk before him. Jaw opening in shock, Isaac flinched. Although his body relaxed as the paladin noticed the cloud folk’s black goo was receding, the actions his body had begun to undertake being rather beneficial.
Leaping back with the cloud folk in his grasp, his vines steadily suctioned out the black goop from inside; eventually returning the cloud folk to the pure clouds once more, albeit with a missing arm.
“Is he okay?” Mary asked as she cautiously approached Isaac, fear present in her eyes. In her sight, Isaac was sucking the insides of a cloudfolk. She froze as Isaac locked eyes with her, a grin plastered on his face.
“I don’t know why my body is doing this, but it looks like he’ll be fine." On cue and vines has done feeding, the tendrils retreated back into his body.
“ARGH!”
Isaac and Mary jumped as Slar’s voice screamed out in pain, shattering the tense silence. Eyes darting to him, Mary's face twisted in a mix of rage and horror.
“Idiot! What are you doing?!” Mary shouted in disbelief, Isaac looking on in surprise.
“HELP ME!” Slar shouted, the tome excreting tendrils which dug into Slar’s arms, his hands deforming to fuse with the tome.
The tome suddenly lurched forwards, tendrils of black goo erupting from the tome, heading straight for Mary. Isaac countered with his finger vine blades cutting it off. Lashing out, a sickening squelch echoed throughout the chamber as the blade sliced off Slar’s arm that held the tome.
The tome, however, wasn’t finished. Due to the darkened cave, Isaac's gaze couldn’t follow as the tome suddenly went under the clouds.
“Where is it?!” Mary shouted in shock, Isaac ignoring Slar's writhing body. The titan grunted in anger, unable to track the demon due to the entity's aura filling each and every cloud.
“Isaac!” Mary shouted in shock as multitudes of black tendrils erupted around her, the tome appearing from beneath her to jump at her. Attempting to block it with her arms, the tome merely attached to them. Mary struggled, and Isaac was unable to do the same for her. She is human after all for now.
Isaac was panicking. He didn’t know what to do.
A tautening of the bond called to Isaac.
And Isaac answered. The moment he did, an unfathomable sensation coursed through his body, eyes widening. He was watching from two points of view; looking at both himself and Mary.
The fear in his heart was not his.
By instinct unknown to him, Isaac placed himself between Mary and the Tome Demon.
And it worked.
The Tome Demon was unable to possess Mary, being interrupted by Isaac already possessing her. The black goop released Mary as Isaac pushed it back. But it was stronger in this matter.
“Give. Me. The. TOME!” Isaac shouted from both mouths, Mary heeding his command, body guided as she threw the tome straight to Isaac.
The moment it touched his form, however, his body rampaged.
Vines filled with black goop went against his control as they merged almost instantaneously with the tome, pulling the tome straight into his body in an attempt to consume. It stayed outside his granite core, unable to pierce through and join the other pieces of literature.
“RarRGH!” Isaac roared as the vines of his body revolted against him, his warbled voice terrifying the others around him. Black goop poured from his mouth in droves, thick black ooze puddling at his feet.
Mary had already brought the thief away far from Isaac, unable to do anything but watch as the paladin battled his own body.
Unable to do nothing else but to scream, Isaac did just that. Inside his body, he tried to counter-possess the Tome Demon, mind simultaneously gaining and losing control of the vines on his body. The tome had merged to his body intrusively, pumping more of the black goo from the book straight into his body and overflowing his reserves.
The tome, knowing that it wouldn’t be able to possess Isaac attempted another method. Isaac roared as spurts of dark goo erupted from his chest, as the tome demon had landed there.
Slowly, a face formed from within his chest, vines as black as the void erupting and forming a head with horns. The demon’s head.
It was climbing out of Isaac’s chest akin to a butterfly tearing free of its cocoon. Yet the emerging demon was anything but.
Isaac’s roaring and the demon’s roars were so intermingled that Mary couldn’t differentiate who was who; unable to feel anything from their shared bond. Isaac’s mind was intermingled with the demon to such an extent that she could only scry a mind of both creatures at once, a mind whose thoughts made no sense.
Too panicked to try to call for help, Mary could only stand and observe in horror.
“My my.”
The demon was only able to look up from its new head before a hand slapped its forming head, the impact forcing it to immediately sink back into Isaac.
Isaac himself felt the demon surge through his entire body, its mind merging back into the paladin; thoughts and knowledge of the demon flooding his own. A tight sensation overwhelmed his body and heart, the tome sealing into his body at a rapid rate.
Unable to hold his consciousness with the warring forces and the knowledge of the demon shot straight into his memories, Isaac's body violently lurched. Roars of the demon surged through his body, doing all in its power to resist the sealing.
Consciousness gave way as the demonic tome sealed shut.
The titanic form slumped before crashing into the receding black puddle, tainted liquid slowly being reabsorbed into its being.
“What an unholy mess.” Alicia chuckled, turning to Mary and Slar. “Great job.”
“Can you help us?” Mary pleaded, her human form shivering in the cold cave.
Alicia smiled mirthfully. “I will.”