Once I finished parsing through all of the streams of information, I immediately set about doing two things: training my sub-cores to disassemble the fodder and contemplating my next course of action.

I had a difficult decision to make. Where did I focus my power?

The astral beings responsible for the various scenes I witnessed had manifest themselves in many forms. Two spread their essence across multiple hosts, the first using shadows as a medium and the second using animals. Another had manifested an enormous body capable of rampant destruction in its rampage and the last had possessed a powerful sorcerer. Normally, I wouldn’t care about their physical bodies because I could deal with them in the Astral but that wasn’t the case here. Even with my modifications to my detection structures, I couldn’t get a clear sense of their presence in the Astral; it was beyond frustrating especially when I was certainly based on their power that my upgraded sense should pick them up. Yet, there I was, unable to detect anything but vague signals and their mana signatures in the Physical. The situation essentially left me with no other choice than to manifest in the Physical and forcefully evict the invaders.

I was confident in doing so but the process would cost me precious time; time wherein one of the invaders could gain access to Libbu.

They were all close to the channels I had carved into the earth for her. If they somehow tainted her channels with their mana, the structures I’d taken so much care to preserve could be corrupted as well. I didn’t know how much Libbu was capable of defending herself in her current state.

This is once again because of my ignorance, I thought. If I knew more about the capabilities of other astral beings, I wouldn’t be in this situation. I should have devoted some time to spy on those beyond my sector.

I’ll admit that the reason I didn’t was due to extreme caution and a bit of fear. I resolved early. I had been unwilling to take the risk of being detected even after completing my concealment structures. When weighed against spending that time gaining strength, there hadn’t seemed to be a point. I had been wrong of course; knowledge was power and ignorance had felled many mighty individuals. I should have known better.

The situation wasn’t completely hopeless though. Libbu’s mana permeated mankind in various forms even those without a true connection to the Astral. That should’ve been impossible. The mana within their bodies, however minuscule, should have dissipated but instead, it clung to their souls. I had little experience with other species outside of those on the Old World so I didn’t know how unique this was at the time. I did know that it ran contrary to my fundamental understandings of mana and, at the same time, was corroborated by snippets of Truth about the nature of souls that I had gleaned over the millennia spent dreaming. Whether it made sense or not though, mankind had a chance; Libbu’s dream had a chance to come true.

However, they needed help and I would aid them.

Then and there, if pressed, I would’ve said I did so for Libbu so that her sacrifice wasn’t wasted. The truth was more than that though. In a sense, I had become the entity that Libbu hoped I would become. I was furious at these invaders for invading my home. When I felt the screams of mankind’s soul, near-irrational anxiety had consumed me for a moment before thoughts of Libbu drove my rational mind into action. These feelings were a part of me as much as my desire to advance and my love for Libbu, not as strong but enough to matter.

Thankfully, I had to only choose between two locations: the jungle or the tall building. The priest, Auger Broderick, could probably handle the city of shadows with a little help; the same went for the Qi Master who engaged the dark titan. I had to place my faith in those two mortals mostly because I wasn’t confident in manifesting in multiple places in the Physical even with the sub-cores to help segment my consciousness. And, that was disregarding the looming threat of stronger astral beings still in hiding. Considering the threat, I had already resolved to avoid a complete manifestation. Forming a physical body would take too long and divert too much of my attention away from the Astral which I couldn’t afford.

I needed to take a page out of the invader’s book and possess a host.

Possession offered several merits. First and foremost, it saved a lot of time which was of the essence. Second, it cost very little mana for a binding. Third, I could allocate only a fragment of my mind to the possession which allowed the majority of my focus to maintain its vigil in the Astral. And lastly, if things took a turn for the worst in the Astral, I could sever the possession without any cost.

There were downsides, of course. For instance, the weaker the host, the more bottlenecked my abilities would be. The possession also would become more expensive in terms of mana and focus if the host was unwilling.

I decided quickly where I’d go, not wanting to waste precious time with overthinking. In the end, I chose the tall building with the Archmage for two reasons. First, of the four powerful astral beings manifested on the Physical, the one possessing the Archmage was the strongest. Second, I hoped to capture the remnants of the Archmage’s soul and pry any information about the ritual and these astral beings from it that I could. While the elderly sorcerer had, most likely, unintentionally summoned these particular astral beings, I couldn’t discount the possibility of that not being the case. Humans had surprised me enough that I might as well plan for it.

I briefly extended my consciousness toward Auger and the Qi Master as though I was going to possess them; however, I didn’t invade their souls. Instead, I channeled pure mana to their souls, a trickle compared to my reserves but enough to mean the difference between life and death for their battles. Along with the mana, I sent a simple psychic message.

You do not fight alone. Take this power and repel the dark invaders.

Within the message, I wove my feelings of anger at the invasion of these entities and my hope for their victory. I couldn’t force them to accept the mana unless I enacted a full-on possession but I could encourage them.

Next, I gathered a bit of mana and focused on the jungle. I had sensed a few strange mana signatures, ones reminiscent of qi but with a heavy distribution toward the Truths of the Old World and only minor facets of life as opposed to the balanced distribution of qi. Most of these signatures weren’t very powerful but they could make the difference because of the way the invader in the jungle had manifested. I utilized a few of my newly integrated sub-cores, courtesy of my increasingly-efficient network of sub-cores in charge of combating the minor astral beings flooding my sector, to locate the most competent of the mana users in the jungle. To them, I sent more pure mana splitting it among the hundred or so. Their psychic message was a bit different than the previous one.

A great evil has tainted the lifeblood of your home. Gather your warriors and drive it out.

This message contained images of the possessed beasts attacking the men with strange weapons. I paid particular care to show the unnaturalness of their eyes. I had no idea what the natives of that jungle were like but they seemed less advanced than the other humans I’d seen so I aimed at a more superstitious call to action based on my experience with tribal cultures in the past.

With my work done, I devoted a portion of my mind to the tall building where Archbishop Joseph spread his “dark enlightenment”. It was an odd sensation, akin to focusing on a point with one eye while the other watched looked in a completely different direction. The Physical zoomed into view gaining clarity as I sought out a host for possession.