Count Viper was afraid.
That wasn't normal.
Whenever he activated his power to swap bodies, the transition was swift—clean. Rarely did he have to wrest control from a host. In over 52 successful transfers across centuries, only twice had he encountered resistance. Only from those with very strong wills.
Joseph Bell—yes, that was the boy's name. He'd caught it while rifling through the surface of his memories after invading the strange mental plane Joseph called Dream State—a realm tied to the Astral Plane.
But something was wrong.
The white snakes that had restrained Joseph began unraveling, slithering back into the white floor of the Dream State, dissolving like mist. The throne of serpents beneath Viper's feet crumbled too, draining into the ground—absorbed.
Viper tried restraining him with more snakes only for the same thing to happen.
"Wait! Arrête!" Viper shouted, leaping from the vanishing throne in a panic.
Joseph was absorbing him. His psionic energy was being pulled into the boy like water down a drain. Dangerous. Fatal, even.
Maybe it was because the boy had a home field advantage. He needed to escape.
As the stronger psychic, he managed to wrench himself free—barely—slipping out of the Dream State just before the last of his essence was devoured by the psychic black hole Joseph had become.
Viper snapped awake in his original body, bones aching beneath the crushing weight of the beasts he'd once controlled—twisted scientists spliced with dinosaur DNA. His genetic modifications had perfected physical transformation, but at the cost of the mind. Most of them lost all reason. Airstryke had been a rare exception though he was weaker than the others.
Viper had kept control through hypnosis, using them as meat shields, enforcers, and silencers.
He didn't need them to think. He needed them to obey.
With a mental command, he stirred them.
"Kill the boy," he hissed. "Before he wakes. Now."
But it was already too late.
Joseph's eyes snapped open—burning gold.
Merde.
Viper acted fast. He met the gaze of one of the beasts and swapped bodies.
The boy hadn't attacked them seriously before. He'd held back. Believed they could still be saved.
Fool.
It would be his undoing.
Viper ordered the beasts to escape the room as he joined them. But before they could move, they froze—hovering, trapped mid-motion. And then, without mercy, they were torn apart.
A brilliant yellow beam shot from Joseph's eyes, slicing and incinerating the mutated creatures in one sweeping blast.
Limbs fell. Bodies burned. The room fell silent.
Viper looked into Joseph's glowing eyes—and felt raw, suffocating fear.
"You did something to me," Joseph said coldly, voice laced with power. "Absorbing all that energy made me able to hear their wild, beastly thoughts. And yours as well."
He took a step forward, energy crackling around him.
"You are right to be afraid."
Viper knew. He wouldn't survive another second in the physical world.
He did have pyrokinesis as one of his abilities but against Joseph, it would either fuel him or barely tickle him.
So he fled again—pulling both of them into the Astral Plane.
Here, the playing field was equal. Here, he was stronger.
Matter became shimmering ectoplasm. A translucent blue and silver realm stretched out in all directions.
And Viper changed.
He grew—his form becoming a colossal green serpent with eyes that blazed like dying stars. He towered over Joseph, coiling through the ether.
"Be of good cheer, Joseph Bell," he said, voice echoing through the void. "You are the first to push me this far. Rejoice."
Before Joseph could react, the viper lunged—and swallowed him whole.
Victory.
Inside his gut, Joseph's spirit would be broken. Digested. Viper would finally take his body. And perhaps this time, the body would last for centuries.
But then—again—something went wrong.
Joseph's presence didn't weaken.
It grew.
He was absorbing Viper's energy. Faster than before.
Impossible.
Even the half of his psychic power Joseph had absorbed in the Dream State should've been too much—Joseph's spirit should've burst from the overload. Viper had spent centuries mastering control. The boy shouldn't have lasted a second.
And yet…
He was still taking it. All of it.
Viper's massive serpent form began shrinking, unraveling.
"Let's see who breaks first!" Viper roared in desperation. "Me from your absorption, or you from your overconsumption! Even if I die, you'll join me in hell, putain!"
He poured everything into Joseph—his last reserves, every scrap of stolen essence from centuries of body theft that he'd retained.
But Joseph didn't stop.
Didn't flinch.
Didn't burst.
Until only a flicker of Viper's psychic energy remained.
The serpent had dwindled to a shadow of itself, coiled and shaking, with Joseph's glowing figure visible in its core—burning brighter than ever.
Then, with a soundless scream, Count Viper exploded in a radiant burst of yellow light.
And was no more.