Darklight: Precipice

Part 34: Selective Perception

The most ironic part of the entire situation was that these new locusts, that swarmed on the surface of the new planet on which he found himself, were as naive and easy to manipulate than the Arundar. Of course as soon as he had emerged from The Device following his escape from the dead world of the Necropolis they were on top of him, immediately firing some kind of technological projectile weapons at him and directing their arcane based attacks towards him. But the body that The One had inhabited – this Master Kisa – just so happened to be learned in the ways of combat and defence. He had subdued them easily.

But he hadn't killed them. No, he needed to blend in. Not make an impact... Not right at that moment, anyway. So the green tendrils of energy leapt from his form and inhabited the minds of all of those who had seen him, wiping him from their memories and removing him from their perception.

It was time to take a look at this new world.

Once he had realised that he was underground somehow, the man that looked like Master Kisa ascended to the streets of Utopia City. Using the abilities inherited from his host he decided to make himself invisible to the population, giving him the freedom he required. He was aware that Kisa was a well known individual in this world, and he did not want that kind of attention.

And how he was in awe. The Arundar civilisation was a cesspit of excess and depravity, but this Utopia City was something else entirely. So many people wallowing in self absorption, so many living in excess... And just so very many people. So many hosts... So much opportunity.

He was aware that there were two dominant species' on this planet... The Skry and Humans. As Humanity did not have the ability to manipulate Arcane Energy he was unaware as to whether his kin could inhabit them as hosts. The Skry, on the other hand, were clearly susceptible - as his own host could attest to. Research had to be done, he had to understand their neurobiology before any attempt could be made to recruit his army. He had encountered the Humans when they had appeared in the Necropolis and opened the gateway to allow him access to this new world, but they escaped before he could attempt to take their bodies as his own. It was of little concern, though. They appeared to be organisms of complex design, they were likely to utilise an electricity-based nervous system... And so they were vulnerable.

But that man... Soran. He and Natasha were different, but he didn't know how. They had the ability to resist him. They also had knowledge and use of the Blue light. And that was a concern. How much did they know of the Arundar? But they didn't call them by that name... They called them The Forefathers.

But then he sensed something. Something that he had not come across before. As The One walked along a walkway overlooking a great cliff that dropped into the ocean, weaving between the various others who were unable to sense him, he felt a great power coming from below the waves. The power was like a great mass, an emptiness. It felt to him like a void in the fabric of reality... And it made him uneasy. It did not appear that the other organisms had detected this void, perhaps it was beyond their comprehension.

But The One did not like the darkness, he knew that his existence and the void were attached to each other in ways that he didn't quite understand.

And so The One moved on towards the Utopia City Central Database –where the CCN servers were located.

It was time for that research.