Alex felt his entire body tense up as the Primaris forced its way in through his mouth. Acting on instinct, the muscles in his throat clenched tightly against the intruding force. The Primaris simply laughed and tore it’s way through, causing Alex to scream in mute agony as sharp pain lanced into him as his throat was savaged.

For a few seconds, Alex’s entire world was backlit in the fiery glow of agony until… it stopped. The pain ended suddenly, leaving behind a calm void in contrast. The stark difference shocked him, causing him to recoil. He couldn’t. Panic started, as he kept trying to move his body and finding himself unable.

“WHAT THE FUCK!” He screamed into his mind, fear turning to rage and anguish.

Then, before his eyes, his hand began to move without his input. It was like he was watching a movie from his own viewpoint, and he had no more control over his actions than a normal spectator. He watched as the hand, HIS hand, waved about in front of his face, fingers clenching and unclenching with growing fervor. Then he heard a voice.

“Perrrr...fect! No wonder you were able to perform so well against me in that form! Whilst our overall levels were so far apart, your foundation… Your foundation is exquisite. Oh how right we were to lock down your realm and let you grow outside of the constraint of the System…”

Alex shivered at hearing the Primaris bastardising his voice. But he forced himself to listen. The Primaris had just let slip multiple snippets of unknown information. The “Neth” or whatever they were called were responsible for his universe being cut off, and apparently it was to essentially fatten up the inhabitants ready for takeover. But to what end?

These questions were pushed aside again as Alex watched himself begin to stand, forcing his way through the remnants of the fleshy black substance.

Whittaker and the rest of the team had made a hasty retreat from the cocoon-like object once they heard muffled noise from within, thinking that their constant barrage of attacks was causing Alex harm. They sent one member back to let Nieve and the others know what had happened, then set up the rest of the squad in a loose perimeter around the black cocoon. A few tense minutes after the noises had been heard, a crack appeared and rapidly expanded as Alex rose slowly from the remnants.

“Alex, thank Frigid that you are okay!” Whitt yelled as they started to move towards him. Alex seemed to be paying no attention, so Whitt rushed to close the rest of the distance and check on their friend. Whitt got within a few paces when Alex suddenly lashed out at them with his right arm. His suddenly outlandishly long arm.

Immediately Whittaker screamed for full retreat as they attempted to dodge the myriad of thrashing blows being sent their way.

“Alex?!”

A bubbling laugh punctuated with a harsh spray of crimson came from Alex’s mouth. “Afraid not. Alex left the building a little while ago, but he so kindly left me this old thing.” Not-Alex used it’s other arm to gesture toward itself without stopping its barrage of attacks towards Whittaker.

Whitt felt their heart plummet at hearing this. How could they have let this happen to him? He had literally risked himself time and again to assist them with their mission, without really asking for anything for himself. And now he was gone… Diving aside to dodge another swipe Whitt let out a guttural roar of anguish.

Alex watched on in horror as all of this happened, a mere passenger in his own body. He didn’t know what he could do now, and so he was forced to watch on as his friends were beset upon. Luckily the Primaris didn’t seem to be able to access all of his abilities yet, and was instead relying on its own ‘natural’ weapons. Small mercies. As he listened to what the Primaris was saying, Alex realised something. It thought he was gone entirely, rather than just locked away in here. Was there a way he could use this to his advantage?

Alex tried to look around, but found that he was unable to do so. He couldn’t close his eyes or look away either. Frustrated, he imagined he was slamming his hand on a table. His body seemed to respond to this as he inadvertently caused a swipe from the Primaris to veer off course and lodge his arm into the solid floor of the warehouse.

“Holy shit, was that me?”

Whittaker and the rest of their team were struggling against the creature. It had managed to separate them all, and was slowly wearing them down with its relentless barrage of flailing attacks. Added to this was the fact that none of them wanted to hurt the creature as it was still technically Alex, even if as far as they were concerned he had already died.

Whitt watched on in horror as the Sergeant caught a solid blow and went sailing into a couple of their soldiers. Not-Alex’s face twisted into a horrific parody of a grin as it readied a blow that was sure to end them all. It slammed its arm down and the rising dust cloud obscured Whitt’s view completely, but they were surely crushed, and this knowledge hammered yet another blow deep into Whittaker. Were any of them going to be able to survive to see this mission through at this point?

A frustrated sounding bellow drew Whitt from their introspection. Looking over towards the creature, Whitt saw through the clearing dust that the Sergeant and the other soldiers were still alive, and the damning blow had somehow missed them completely. The creature was looking at it’s arm in complete shock, unable to comprehend what it was seeing.

Suddenly the same arm came up and punched itself square in the jaw, causing it to stumble backwards and fall over it’s own feet.

“WhAT?! What is thiS?!” Not-Alex bellowed in sheer disbelief before seeming to answer its own question. “Surprise BITCH! Thought you’d gotten rid of me didn’t ya? Guess again!”

And with that, the strangest battle Whitt had ever seen began to unfold in front of them. Apparently Alex wasn’t as dead as the creature had thought, and now he was PISSED! And fighting to regain control over his own body.

After his swift realisation that extreme emotion apparently still allowed him some control over his body, Alex gave in to his bottled emotions, uncorking everything he had suppressed over the last few days and aiming it squarely at the Primaris. Alex imagined himself throwing a haymaker straight at his own face and was elated when after a slight delay he watched as the blow came in full-speed, knocking his body back. He heard the Primaris yelling for answers, and with a huge flex of will Alex mentally screamed his answer in response.

“Surprise BITCH! Thought you’d gotten rid of me didn’t ya? Guess again!” Alex imagined himself with a huge, shit-eating grin plastered on his face. The next few minutes were a bit of a blur as Alex watched intently for any movement from the Primaris, and dedicated himself to thwarting any action. Thanks to the slight delay in his directions, what ended up happening looked hilarious to him as he kept grabbing his own arm mid-action, or throwing his opposite leg out and causing the Primaris to fall back on its ass.

The Primaris was growing more and more enraged as this continued, and Alex found his actions easier and easier to project. After falling over for what seemed like the 100th time, Alex took control of his mouth again.

“I WILL keep you here indefinitely. You will NEVER use my body to hurt my friends. I will wait until you lapse for a split second, and then I’ll drive my weapon through my skull before allowing you another second in full control!”

Almost like being bumped in a queue, Alex almost felt himself get shoved out of the way as the Primaris spoke. “HOW?! You should have been destroyed when I took your form! This is IMPOSSIBLE!”

Alex chuckled to himself. “You’ve never fucked with Nexian Humans before. We don’t really like being told what to do.” Alex wanted to keep the Primaris off balance and angry for as long as possible. “Hey Whitt! Can you and the others find a way to restrain me at all? I’m fairly sure I can keep myself from lashing out now!”

Whittaker watched all of this unfold with their mouth slowly dropping open further. They could vaguely remember what had happened with the parasites, and they had been able to slowly feel themselves being eroded away. Watching Alex somehow wrestle control from something far stronger was insane. When Alex shouted for them to restrain him, Whitt looked around for something without a second thought. If Alex said he could control his body, he had their full trust.

At this point Nieve and the others finally ran over. “Whitt! What’s happening? They said something happened to Alex? And we heard a huge crash…”

“I'll explain later, have any of you got something to help me restrain Alex? Something strong!” Whitt rushed out, continuing their search for something.

Everyone went through their packs until Yas pulled out a length of Fros-steel and shaped it into a length of braided cable. “This should do, but why are we restraining Alex?” Yas asked with a look of worry.

“He got possessed by… whatever it was that we found in the back of the warehouse…” Whitt replied before taking the cable and rushing towards the still twitching Alex. “I’m gonna do it now Alex, please don’t wreck me…” Whitt proceeded to wrap the cable around Alex, securely immobilising him. There were a few scares when Alex didn’t catch an action quick enough, but overall they managed it.

“Foolish Frigidia...urk… Sorry Whitt, thanks. This arsehole is really figh… I WILL FLAY YOUR BODIES BARE!”

Backing away slowly, Whitt looked to the rest of the group. “So… yeah. Alex got possessed and is currently trying to fight the creature's control. As you can see, it's only kind of working…”

Silence descended upon the group, punctuated by the two sides of Alex having their continued argument behind them. Eira was first to speak.

“What can we do to help him? We are running out of time to finish the mission, and without Alex we stand no chance of success.”

Everyone shared a glance at Alex, before looking at the floor, racking their brains to figure out what to do now.

Alex would have been sweating if he could. The constant warring for control with the Primaris was starting to seriously tax his cognisance. During one particularly long calm period Alex was surprised to see a system message appear to him.

Alex, we are more sorry than you can fathom. This should never have happened to you, or your realm. Nexus was supposed to be the future for all realms. A way for us to stop any arguments arising between the others by showing that all realms were able to co-exist with a little work. The Neth shouldn’t even exist in the first place. Without getting into too much detail as time is short, they are an amalgamation of every negative feeling, every dark thought had by every inhabitant of every realm. We don’t know how this happened, but this is what we have been able to figure out so far.

As far as We can tell, the possession is irreversible. That you have been able to resist it as you have thus far should shock us, but add that to the list of feats you surprised us with. As you know, We are unable to interfere directly in the realms. However, as this crisis has now at least partially transcended the realms we are refusing to stay back any longer.

We are granting you 2 days grace. We will actively suppress the Primaris and allow you to maintain control for the entirety of that time, however, after that period elapses your body will become completely locked off to you. There is no other alternative we have been able to find at this time, and for that we are truly sorry Alex.

~Veil

Alex read the message again, then let out a low growl. So. This was it. He had 2 days left, then he was dead one way or another. Fuck. Now back in control of his body completely, Alex could feel the suppressed consciousness of the Primaris at the back of his mind like an itch. It was raging against its bonds, but also howling with glee that it would have his form sooner rather than later.

Looking around, he saw his friends and the soldiers crowded together nearby. “Hey, I’m in control again. The Veil suppressed the Primaris and allowed me to regain control…” He slowed as he was unsure on whether to tell his friends about his time limit. Everyone looked over to him in relief. “For now, keep me locked up so you can verify i’m me again, but we need to head back to the Council compound and finish this right now. All of you deserve retribution for what has happened to you.”

“Leave you locked up?” Nieve looked uncomfortable at this, but Whitt and the Sergeant nodded their heads.

“He’s right Nieve. We need to verify that he is actually back in control, and this allows us to observe him in relative safety. For tonight, I suggest we camp here with a watch on Alex to make sure nothing happens. Tomorrow? We head back and do what we can to fuck up those pricks in the compound.” Whitt explained, laying out the apology and the plan in one swift move.

That night, Alex’s friends all took turns to monitor him and discuss plans for the attack. After a few hours Alex finally passed out from exhaustion, simply falling onto his side where he sat. The Primaris was there in his dreams, mocking him, and making light of the fact he was dead in just a couple of days. Alex woke frequently because of this, and each time his growing rage towards the Primaris and the Neth was stoked further and further until he finally vowed that if he was dying, the Primaris and Neth would suffer as well.

Oath accepted.

Morning finally came and after a brief flurry of activity Whittaker and the Sergeant had everyone organised and ready to march on the compound. Yas and Zerath had spent most of the night waking up batches of the Fridigians in stasis and filling them in on what had happened to their people. Not everyone that was awoken wished to take part in the attack, but they all agreed to head to the deserted housing that Alex and the others had come through the previous day to await the outcome.

Whilst Alex was frustrated by the shortsightedness of this approach, because if their attack failed then the Neth would surely be back to round them up and put them back into stasis, he didn’t begrudge them their choice after just finding out that their entire lives were a collective fallacy.

Alex was hoisted onto Whittakers back for the march, as he requested that he only be let free once they were closer to their goal. Their rough plan was to get as close to the compound as possible before they were spotted, and then just rush en masse once the element of surprise had been lost. Not an elegant plan, but their enemy was sure to still be on high alert after their escape yesterday. Alex, Nieve, Whittaker and Eira were going to attempt to use the fighting outside as a diversion to allow them to make their way back down into the tunnels and then try to find whatever device was the cause of all of this mess and shut it down for good.

Once they were on their way Alex found he had some time to himself and decided to take one last look at his flashing notifications.

!Warning! Malicious outside entity detected. Immediate removal needed!

Primaris entity deals #!*% damage!

Primaris entity begi..finishes possession. You have di...Conciousness held.

Alex entity channels rage slam… Success.

Alex entity channels rage voice… Success.

Alex quickly scrolled past the 100s of similar messages as he and the Primaris battled for control, until he reached the section he was looking for.

Veil successfully casts Total Suppression on Primaris entity. Alex entity regains motor control over body. Access to previous skills blocked by Neth infection. Gain access to new Class and Skill: Nethromorph.

Nethromorph class Inherits all previous levels from host form alongside existing levels. Error! Nethromorph class incompatible with controlling entity. Resolving…

Nethromorph class incompatibility resolved at 60% success. Host level inheritance intact. Pre-existing levels reduced from 328 to 197. Combined level 266. See stat panel for breakdown.

Alex’s jaw dropped and he started coughing in shock. Having accessed the prompt Alex could now feel the changes taking place within his body. He had gained nearly 200 levels in an instant! Sure he could no longer access any of his previous skills or classes, but for that kind of boost, especially under the current circumstances? He could take that loss with a smile on his face. He opened his stats panel ready to see what had happened but there was nothing there apart from some red jumbled letters and a little error triangle. What the hell? Guess he wasn’t meant to be able to access and view these changes after all.

Looking to his HP and Energy bars he saw that they too had been altered. His energy bar was gone entirely and his HP was now sitting at… NEARLY 60000! No wonder the fights they had had with these creatures up until now had been so hard. With that level of health it was like fighting 15-20 of him in pure stats alone.

“Alex, we’re getting close to the compound now. We need to find somewhere to hole up and finalise the plan.” Nieve appeared next to him, causing him to jump slightly. They were this close already? They had only set off a few minutes ago, surely?

“We’re here already? Didn’t we just leave?” He voiced his question, garnering himself a look of worried confusion from all nearby.

“You’ve been staring off at nothing for nearly 3 hours whilst we marched Alex… We weren’t sure what was wrong, but as you weren’t causing any danger we left you alone. We’ve been trying to get your attention for a little while now.” Eira joined Nieve and explained.

Alex didn’t bother to hide the shocked look on his face. 3 hours? He had only been reading his messages for a few minutes… Unless… The class incompatibility must have caused him to blank out without realising.

“Sorry… I was reading through my system messages. Got a real doozy apparently. Check my level out!” He exclaimed.

Everyone crowded around and inspected Alex, before letting out various exclamations. Whitt voiced theirs first.

“What the fuck Alex? 266? Explain, please.”

Alex recoiled slightly at the harsh tone before filling everyone in on what had happened to him. From start to finish, including his now day and a half time limit. His friends all reacted as he had expected them to, which filled him with both overwhelming happiness and a crushing sadness at the same time. He had known these people for such a short time, and yet felt more of a bond with them than any of his friends and family back home.

The plan was gone over one last time and everyone present, which was now over 400 in total, knew their individual role to play. Alex was released from his restraints and joined up with Nieve, Eira and Whitt at the edge of their little camp to say their goodbyes to Yas as none of them were under any illusions as to their chances of making it back.

All too soon, the call to battle was sounded and the freshly released troops began their charge at the outer compound. Their sole purpose was to cause as much havoc as possible to ensure Alex’s little strike team was able to get inside.

With one last smile and a little wave, Alex put his newly gained class to the test and rocketed towards the building, leaving his friends behind with shocked expressions.