Finding

(28) Soul and Escape

It was painful.

The whole process of taking over his younger counterpart's body and devouring his soul felt so painful that for a moment Tord wondered if he even did the spell right. After all, he felt as if every fiber of his being was ripped to little pieces and put back together again in such a painful cycle that Tord couldn't stop himself from screaming.

It was undeniably painful but Tord didn't want to give up. He would never want to give up now just because of the pain.

He was now so close to finally getting what he wanted. He couldn't just give up because of this. So, Tord forced himself to deal with the pain and focus on what he was doing.

Being broken over and over again while being rebuilt; the pain soon began to ebb with the flow of time until it finally stopped. Ragged breaths and gasps then filled the brightly lit night as Tord was accustoming himself to his new body.

Glowing gem like eyes blinked as it looked at the starry sky and noticed how the moon was now slowly being covered by the clouds again. The sound of rumbling thunder was upon the air as the winds increased in its fierceness.

It looked like it was about to rain again so Tord forced himself to move and take note of his surroundings.

The woods he was currently in was now the picture of death as the once verdant vegetation was no more. The noise of animals and night creatures were now even silenced and the ground he was standing on looked as if it was long dead and dry.

Tord then took a deep breath and discarded the bloodied clothes his younger self wore to set it on fire; not caring about the fact that he was now naked as the day he was born or that all of his injuries were now healed. The Norwegian strode forwards and headed to the prone body he formerly inhabited.

He rummaged his former body's pockets and found a couple of small boxes with buttons. Checking them one by one, Tord finally found what he wanted and pushed it to reveal a set of children clothes which he immediately wore while another box revealed a cryogenic chamber which was where he planned to place his older body.

Tord then tried to reach within himself to check whether his magic was still there to function properly and found it his now doubled in capacity. It had increased to such a great extent that Tord couldn't stop himself from smiling in pleasure at the discovery. His already large magic reserves doubled and it only meant more benefits for him in the future.

With a flick of right wrist, Tord then levitated his older body into the cryogenic machine and had it set up as he erased the traces of a magic circle on the ground since he didn't want it to be traced back to him.

The possibility of it being known to be connected to him would be close to null but Tord didn't want to have chances. He was still in enemy ground; far from the borders of America and the safety that he knew that would greet him once he meets his father.

Therefore, Tord was cautious as he finished cleaning up his traces and pushed the cryogenic machine's button to make it turn back into a small box. This box was then secured into the inner pockets of his coat for safety keeping along with the other small boxes which his older body kept.

"I have to move soon," Tord remarked as the sounds of sirens and the blaring of gun fire was coming closer. It looked like he got the attention of his trackers which was why he soon ran to flee from them.

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How many days had it been already?

A week? Half a month?

Tord had lost track of time during the moments he was shaking off his awfully persistent trackers. Thankfully, Tord remembered what those bastards would do so he had the advantage and used his short peaceful moments of rest to assimilate his younger self's memories with his. Which at a point he knew wouldn't be that much helpful since the tortures they've done to him was just the same as to what they've done to him before in the first timeline.

So, here he was now.

He was now fortunately past the American border and traveling his way to New York stowed away in a cargo plane which some shipping company had.

It was just as he remembered; the staff of were just as careless that he was able to slip in and wait for the ride. Tord then made use of his time there to sleep and gather his strength while he practiced the spells he knew with his current body.

Just a few more hours and the whole plane ride would soon be over.

He had to be ready since the security of the expecting crew who would receive the shipment would tighter. He had to be ready and use the right time to make a break for it.

He would soon see him.

He would see his father.