Full Merging

'Understood.'

'It's painful, but effective, the deep cleansing technique. No matter how well you purify your body, there will always be an accumulation of filth within the body from things like moving and thinking, like dust settling on a table. This helps remove that filth from within the body. I also have another one that clears up the skin. Something my previous female hosts have liked.'

'I thought you took over your host's bodies.'

'Right, but I don't kill their minds. They sit inside and watch from the sidelines like I planned to do with you.'

Karkov was still trapped in the ice in pain and blood, "why are they still talking? The eye never talks that long, not even with me!"

Zeeth finally took the eyeball and hesitantly put it in his mouth.

'wait.' it said. 'the ring. I want it.' and a thick black rope flung out of the eye to Karkovs ring. The end of the rope split into five like finger and grabbed the ring. it broke through the ice and onto the finger that was being tightly squeezed by the ring, small needles sucking blood and mana out of his bony hands. he tore the entire finger off and dropped it to the floor, bringing the bloody ring along with it.

Zeeth had already put the eye into his mouth before he noticed the ring was also being dragged in and was already set comfortably around the eye like a tight hula hoop. He felt the urge to chew it but the eye yelled, 'don't chew!' and he instead tried to swallow it whole. the eye instantly dissolved itself in his mouth and traveled down his throat and spread into his body. he felt a jolt of electricity zap through every part of his body and a cut formed on his forehead where blood trickled out. it was quickly healed but the pain still reverberated through his body, especially near his heart. he grabbed his chest in hopes of stopping the burning sensation in his stomach but it was all gone in just a minute.

The same voice could be heard from inside his head, although this time much lighter, like a small thought that could still let him think about other things.

'I've spread my body all throughout your body and they swim through you like cells. it's not much, it won't kill your body, but there will be some pain. that just means it is working-' but he suddenly stopped talking but quickly said, 'What in the world? I'm looking into your body and… why do you have so many impurities? Your body is full of gunk and nasty bits, I can't even get started on my bone and skin-strengthening techniques. They limit your movement and overall performance greatly, how did you get so much mana under your control? Wait, I see. A skill to tame creatures and you have a hundred slimes. A wise choice, although you definitely should have chosen a wider variety. A good bird or a dragon could have helped.'

"Yeah, I know. I wanted a variety. I just didn't realize I had a limit."

"A foolish thing to think."

"I know, but I had my memory erased just then and didn't get to finish reading my skill description."

Even without seeing the eye's facial expression, he could tell it was about to ask how that happened so he simply said, "it's a long story, I can't really get into it. Can we get started on those technique things?"

"That will have to wait. Your situation seems urgent."

He had noticed that while talking to the eye he had completely lost focus on what was happening in front of him. Page was still staring at him, Gror was waking up and noticing his body covered in black snake bits and Rolas was trying to force a serum into Karkov's neck.

Page waved his hand in front of his open eyes, "Zeeth, are you back? What's going on?"

"No, it's alright," he said, shaking his head a little to clear the slight headache forming.

"That eye, why did you swallow it? Karkov said it bound with you or something."

"Yeah, yeah. It's, uh…" he muttered, still confused and hazy.

The eye suddenly said, "don't tell them that I reside within you. It could get dangerous, greedy people will hear of my powers and hunt you down in order to cut me out of your body and take me for themselves."

'Isn't it better for you to inhabit someone more powerful?'

'There is a chance weaker people could group together up to take you down. Besides, you have a unique skill that I doubt many can match even if their experience makes them stronger.'

It became evident to him while speaking to Page now that when they speak telepathically in his mind, their conversations seem to go much faster, the words and thought flowing out with nearly no pause and much smoother than speaking. Conversations that should take minutes lasted for less than a second.

"It's nothing."

"He just swallowed the eye of Black," Rolas said. "From the rumors, if you were to swallow it, you become the legendary Black. No one knows who it is or what its powers are but the original inhabitant apparently dies or goes into some kind of hibernation forever where the body is controlled by Black until the body becomes useless and Black leaves to repeat it again."

"So...so Zeeth's dead? He's gone forever?"

"I guess so…" Karkov had fallen asleep on the floor and Rolas finally let him fall limply to the floor. She walked over to him cautiously, ready to strike him down if he did anything.

Page was also backing away from him but very hesitantly. "No, that's not possible… he can't be, that's not how this is supposed to go."

"Supposed to go?" Rolas asked.

"No, he can't be dead, that's not possible." Page felt a dread within him he never thought could exist. Close friends and even family died, but on every occasion, he had fought and risked as much as he could to save them, but this time he had simply watched him put this death eye in his mouth. The feeling of ridiculous stupidity washed over him and horrified him. Zeeth was the one person he was meant to keep alive and strengthen…

'Wait, Zeeth. They know what I am. You can tell them the truth.'

"Guys, it's still me. I'm still Zeeth, the eye would have taken over me while I sat and watched from the back lines but we made a compensation. He would watch from the sidelines instead and provide me with help while I provided Black with information."

Rolas curiously asked, "Provide with help?"

"Prove you're really Zeeth!" Page was a bit more apprehensive, not as quick to believe such a thing.

"Your mother has some kind of disease and you come from a distance far, far away. Where things were a bit more advanced than they were now."

"Hmm. Alright, I think you're trustworthy." Said Page, who turned to Rolas and asked, "can the eye read the minds of its host?"

"That hasn't been confirmed, but it has been confirmed that it can't talk for an hour after a body change. This is still Zeeth."

"What about Karkov? What will you do to him?"

"I still have to figure out how he split his consciousness into several bodies and combine them all to become this." she pointed at his body that was missing both his arms and a body made out of stitches. "After that, I will have to kill him all over again." she sighed. Just saying that seemed to hurt her miserably.

"Sorry for dragging you guys into this but thanks for your help. We might be cynical and vengeful, but we dark magicians remember kindness more than all else because of that."

Page waved his hand dismissively, "No, it's nothing. He attacked us first, we were just defending ourselves."

"Gror wasn't. He jumped out to save me and was knocked out cold," said Rolas, holding up his head tenderly and pouring a healing potion down his throat.

"Yeah, Gror's a good guy."

"Hey, do you kids still need me to teach you magic and potions?"

"Oh, that would be great. Potions would be a great thing to learn more about. We can just finish darkening that root that Terry gave us within that time and be on our way, I've just got to see where Zeeth is right now." said Page.

Rolas remembered after hearing about Terry's root, "Right, my truth serum. We can use those on Karkov to tell me how to really end him."

"You really think he'll tell? Wouldn't he just use some spell to end his life and spread his consciousness again?"

"No, I already put a mana disrupting stone on him. He won't be using magic for as long as it's there."

Rolas softly put Gror on a bed to go pick up Karkov. Just as she said, a mana disrupting stone was lodged in the back of his head that they noticed when she lifted him up. His head lolled around as he was moved but his eyes were wide open just like his mouth. He looked around at them, his eyeballs moving and staring at Zeeth but no voice came from him as he couldn't even talk.

"Rolas, what's wrong with him?" asked Zeeth.

"A mana disrupting stone causes temporary paralysis and slight nausea or sickness, especially when lodged somewhere along the spine or the head. That's what's happening now, he probably can't hear, see or think very well but he can see a little. I suppose he's mad at you for taking the eye.

Gror woke up the next day, confused and aching all over. Karkov used a powerful stun spell that put him into a deep trance, intending it for Rolas. It was a spell he made that would incapacitate the victim and put them into a state like having way too much alcohol. They pass out instantly and wake up with a major headache and all the symptoms of a terrible hangover.

The three of them filled him in on what happened while he sipped on some warm purple drink that Rolas said would cure negative side effects like those. He wasn't sure if it was the placebo effect or the drink, but it definitely felt like he was getting better.