?"What...?" Wren asks frantically, his voice strained as he tries to force his paralyzed body to move. "What is it, Envy? What’s wrong?"
?"I know you’ve got a million questions running through your head right now," the spectral owl replies, its voice unusually heavy. "While you were knocked out cold, I slipped outside this cell to scout around and figure out what kind of twisted hellhole this place actually is."
?Wren listens closely, his heart pounding against his ribs despite his absolute inability to move a muscle.
?"Didn’t I tell you before? You never actually completed a proper Awakening," Envy continues, narrowing its glowing eyes. "The only reason you even unlocked any power at all is because you formed a contract with me."
?"Yes... I know," Wren whispers mentally.
?"Good. Because if you know that, then tell me—have you actually stopped to look at what you’re using right now?"
?"What...?" Wren blinks in confusion. "What do you mean?"
?"Think about it," Envy says, floating closer to his face, its expression deadly serious. "I didn’t notice it at first either while we were caught up in that brawl. But now that I’m looking closely... Wren, take a good, hard look at yourself. Is this really your own physical body?"
?"What are you even talking about? Make it clear, Envy!" Wren demands mentally, pure panic surging through his chest as cold sweat breaks out across his skin.
?"If you want it made crystal clear, look at how regular people function," Envy explains, its voice dropping to a harsh, serious whisper. "Normally, after someone awakens, their soul and physical body cross over together into this world."
?The spectral owl hovers closer, its golden eyes piercing straight into him.
?"But you are a exception. You didn’t awaken naturally—you were forcefully dragged in here through raw, external interference. Because of that, you don’t actually have your real physical body in Norhera."
?Wren’s breath hitches. What...?
?"Right now, you are forcefully inhabiting someone else’s body," Envy continues, driving the words home like daggers. "This isn’t your true physical form, Wren."
?"Then... where is my real body...?" Wren’s thoughts spiral into absolute chaos.
?"Your real body?" Envy replies grimly. "It’s still trapped right back where you started—inside that dwhite, empty void."
For several seconds, Wren couldn’t form a single thought.
His real body was still inside that empty void?
Then what exactly was he looking at right now?
"What... does that mean?" Wren finally managed to ask. "Are you telling me I’ve possessed someone?"
"Not exactly." Envy shook its head. "If you had possessed someone, their soul would have been pushed aside or destroyed. But I can’t sense another soul inside this body."
"Then whose body is it?!"
"That’s what I’m trying to figure out!"
For once, Envy sounded genuinely frustrated.
"I’ve examined this place as much as I could without attracting attention, but I still don’t understand what happened to you. Your body has a physical presence. It bleeds, it feels pain, and it can interact with the world. Yet, when I examine it with my senses..."
Envy paused.
"...there’s something fundamentally wrong with it."
Wren’s stomach twisted.
"Wrong how?"
"Your body doesn’t feel like a body that was born and raised naturally in this world. It’s more like..." Envy tilted its head, searching for the right words. "A vessel that was created to hold something."
"A vessel?"
"Yes. And before you ask, I don’t know what it was created to hold."
Wren desperately wanted to grab the owl by its feathers and shake some proper answers out of it.
Unfortunately, he couldn’t even twitch a finger.
"Wait." A terrible thought suddenly struck him. "If this isn’t my real body, then what happens if I die here?"
Envy said nothing.
"Envy."
Still nothing.
"ENVY! ANSWER ME!"
"You’re awfully loud for someone who can’t move his mouth."
"THIS ISN’T THE TIME FOR JOKES!"
"Fine, fine!"
Envy flapped its wings, finally abandoning its usual smug expression.
"Honestly? I don’t know."
Those four words felt worse than any threat Wren had heard since arriving in Norhera.
"You don’t know...?"
"I can tell you that your consciousness is connected to this body. I can also tell you that your real body remains inside the void. But whether your consciousness would return to it if this vessel died..." Envy’s golden eyes narrowed. "I can’t guarantee anything."
Wren felt a cold chill crawl down his spine.
He had already come close to dying once in this world.
Hudson’s punches had shattered his body, and that mysterious skill had nearly destroyed what remained of it. If he hadn’t survived the third punch, he might never have learned any of this.
He might have simply disappeared.
Forever.
"So I’m basically walking around in a body that isn’t mine, with no idea what’ll happen if I die?" Wren asked bitterly.
"That’s the situation."
"Wonderful. Just wonderful."
Wren wanted to laugh, but even that felt exhausting.
First, he had failed to awaken.
Then he had been humiliated by his classmates, nearly eaten by goblins, dragged into another world, and beaten half to death by a man who could probably crush his skull with one hand.
And now he was apparently trapped inside someone else’s body.
What else could possibly go wrong?
"There’s something else," Envy said.
Wren immediately stopped complaining.
Somehow, he already knew he wasn’t going to like what came next.
"Your condition isn’t the only strange thing I’ve discovered. While scouting the prison, I noticed something unusual about the people here."
"What people?"
"The guards. The prisoners. Even the men who were watching your fight."
Envy’s feathers bristled.
"There’s a peculiar energy flowing through them. It’s faint in some and much stronger in others, but it’s present in almost everyone I’ve encountered."
"Mana?"
"Perhaps. But it doesn’t feel exactly like the mana you’re familiar with."
Wren remembered the awakening ceremony, the crystal that had refused to respond to him, and the grey spark that had marked him as a failure.
His fingers would have curled into fists if he could move them.
"Are you saying everyone here has awakened?"
"Not everyone. But something has changed them. Whatever this energy is, it seems deeply connected to their bodies."
Envy moved closer, its golden eyes fixed on Wren.
"And you, my dear contractor, are the strangest of them all."
"Let me guess. That’s supposed to be a good thing?"
"Usually, being strange is wonderful. It means you’re special, interesting, and potentially very profitable."
"Potentially profitable?"
"Don’t interrupt me when I’m being serious!"
Wren would have rolled his eyes if his body had allowed it.
Envy sighed.
"Your vessel has almost none of that energy flowing through it. Yet, during your fight with Hudson, something inside you reacted when you were pushed to the brink of death."
Wren immediately remembered the black tattoo on his body.
Supremacy Through Envy.
The skill that had allowed him to survive Hudson’s final punch.
"What does that mean?" he asked.