Time did not pause but yes, time stopped being a factor.
The Lich Lord’s green necrotic light seeped towards Valen’s face in what felt like slow motion due to Kaelen’s own consciousness spinning at such a frantic pace that his own thoughts became the only things that were happening, the only things that mattered
Inside the mindscape (if it could even be called that, a formless amorphous structure created out of nothing more than whatever fragmented consciousness Valen had to offer in defense of his mind) Kaelen saw the face of the person he had been hunting for weeks.
Golden, radiant.
Even in the pieces it had been broken into, it retained a certain amount of pride, the arrogance of a man who had never considered that there was anything in this world that could possibly overcome him.
Kaelen was not so lucky.
He was an amorphous mass of neon-cyan lines, slow and patient, wrapping around the golden light like ivy around a statue.
[Infection Progress: 94%…
97%…]
You had the odds stacked five ways in your favor and you lost to something that could hide inside your veins.
The golden light did not resist the takeover, simply dimmed out, and then went out completely, smothered by something stronger than it.
[Ding!
Neural Hijack: 100%.]
[Vessel Identity Secured: Valen Oakhaven.]
Valen felt his eyes open.
The fear that had been there a moment before was gone, replaced instead with a strange, impossibly bright glow of…
of neon-cyan light in the brown of his eyes
[Ding!
Total Vessel Control Achieved.]
[Host Attributes Unlocked: Full Muscle Memory, Combat Training, Divine Physical Baseline.]
Kaelen marveled at the flood of sensations that came with the takeover, the muscle memory of a lifetime spent in training, the combat experience of a soldier who had been learning from birth, of a divine baseline of physical power that made everything before it feel like a toy.
This is what Ascended feel like inside their vessels, he thought, flexing the good hand Valen had kept intact as the cracked golden armor plate moved of the man’s skin, the muscles there moving in turn.
I have been fighting this dungeon with toys.
With scraps.
This the real thing.
The Lich’s Soul Rend was coming.
The wall of frost-blue and decay-green light was moments away from reaching the now-unfamiliar features of the man it had spent the last few seconds trying to kill.
Three seconds.
The message came as Kaelen felt the full extent of the control he had over the man he had taken over.
I’ve had these powers for three seconds and I’m already fighting off the killing blow of a Lich Lord.
[Ding!
System Override — Emergency Combat Protocol Activated.]
[Overdrive Infection: Accessing Void Repository.]
A rush of clarity flooded Kaelen’s senses, a sudden sharpness to the edges of his vision and hearing, a feeling not unlike the sudden and terrifying clarity of the transmigration, only sharper, more focused.
The reflexes of the host sharpened, honed, perfected as if by an unseen force that reached into Kaelen’s spine and rewrote his response time.
It was all happening faster now.
[Effect: Temporary Combat Enhancement — Reaction Time +200%.
Duration: 60 seconds.]
Sixty seconds.
That’s what I’ve got.
That’s what this is all about.
Kaelen rolled and rolled, his body moving quicker than it should have, quicker than a mere human body should be able to move, Valen’s expert scout instincts adding to the mix as he threw himself to the side, the very tip of the Lich Lord’s staff slicing through the crack in his breastplate that had been there since the fight began
[Warning: Grazing Contact Sustained.
Minor Soul Damage.]
[Host Vessel Structural Integrity: 43% — Stable, No Further Loss.]
Grazing contact.
Not enough to kill me.
Good enough to let me live.
The Lich Lord’s empty eyes narrowed, the ancient magic in them calculating the odds, probably already coming up with a dozen different ways to put this man in the ground.
“Interesting,” it drawled, the sound of its voice like the creak of old bones on the wind.
“You have finished what you started, little parasite.
A borrowed crown for a borrowed throne.”
It knows what I did.
Kaelen thought, feeling no fear at the realization.
He knows I’m here.
He knows I took you over.
Good.
Let him know.
Let him think.
It will not help him.
Kaelen raised Valen’s sword (his sword, now), feeling the familiar way the magic in it responded to the will of the new master.
“Combat data confirms full skill retention,” Nix said, her voice tight with the rush of adrenaline as Kaelen felt the power in the blade of the sword Valen had wielded for so many years.
“You possess this host’s entire martial repertoire.
You have never used a sword competently in your existence.
You are about to find out if muscle memory transfers as cleanly as everything else has.”
Guess we’ll both find out, he thought.
The Lich Lord raised its staff again, more energy gathering as the necrotic light pulsed.
It had made the mistake of underestimating its opponent, and now it was paying for it.
Around the ridge, the remaining knights looked on in stunned silence as their Knight-Commander’s face (the one that had always been so calm, always been so composed, always been so assured in battle) shone with an unnatural light of neon-cyan.
“Commander?” one of the knights called, looking as if he might faint.
“Your eyes — what happened to your—”
Kaelen did not answer, could not answer.
His attention was fully on the monstrous figure before him, raising something that clearly no longer had a use for the flesh and blood vessel it had inhabited for centuries.
Now it just wanted to kill the one who had stolen it.
[Overdrive Duration Remaining: 47 seconds.]
[Threat Assessment: Second Soul Rend Charging — Full Power, No Margin for Error This Time.]
Forty-seven seconds, Kaelen thought.
Less time than it takes to boil water.
A skillset I’ve only ever had one use for.
A Lich Lord that’s had more than enough time to kill me.
Kaelen took a deep breath, feeling his grip tighten around the hilt of Valen’s sword.