issei fear manifest

chapter 4 introduction

Issei was frozen. He couldn't take his eyes off the woman's eviscerated throat. She clutched at it and fell to the ground, a dark puddle of blood forming under her body as she fell. Issei heard a mysterious voice begin,

???: "HAHAHA, Issei, I've been waiting to speak to you for some time now." The voice was grating; it seemed to speak in multiple pitches at once, both high and low. Its gravelly voice scraped against the boy's mind.

Issei: "What's going on? Who are you? Why is this happening?" The boy said, unable to process the events, the body of his attacker still warm in front of him.

???: "So many questions and so few answers, poor boy. You must be shell-shocked. For starters, who am I? Well, you see, I have no name. And for what I am, well, to put it simply, I am you. We are one being, bound forevermore."

Issei: "What? A part of me? What do you mean?"

???: "It means I am forever bound to your soul. For as long as you exist, so shall I. As for why you were attacked, she most likely sensed your magical energy and decided to kill you before you unlocked your power. I can explain more, but we must leave. You're injured, and there's a corpse in front of us. If we leave now, there'll be no way to link us to it." As the voice mentioned his injury, he looked down to see his left leg had a hole straight through it, and suddenly all the pain that wasn't registering due to the shock flooded in.

Issei: "AAAAH, fuck my leg!" The boy yelled in agony. Luckily, no one was around to hear it.

???: "Quiet, you'll draw attention to us. I have enough energy to spare to brace your leg on the walk home." As it said this, the strange shadowy, smoking mass moved down around Issei's leg, surrounding it. It felt strange; the first thing he thought was that it no longer hurt. It just felt numb. Almost an ethereal chill also came—not cold, but unnerving, like that feeling you get when you think someone's watching you.

Issei: "Okay, I'm gonna trust you. Whatever the hell you are."

Issei began the walk home, avoiding crowded spaces to not draw any potential suspicion. The thing remained quiet throughout the walk home. He got home, lumbered his way to his room, not bothering to alert anyone of his arrival. He got into his room, locked the door, and collapsed on the bed.

???: "Good. Now that you're safe, I can disengage the brace." The black mist surrounding his leg dispersed, and Issei looked in shock. The wound had closed and looked good as new.

Issei: "How in the hell is this healed? There was a hole clean through my leg." He continued to look in shock as the thing began speaking. This time it wasn't aloud; it was directly in his head.

???: "I wish I could claim full credit, but that was mostly you. Your natural healing is greatly increased, it seems. Don't go thinking this makes you immortal, though. You just heal supernaturally fast; you don't regenerate or anything like that."

Issei: "How is any of this possible? You were talking about magic. God, this makes no sense." The boy exclaimed in confusion.

???: "I have much to explain, but first, allow me to tell you the story of how we came to be one." The being then recounted the events of the boy's birth. "And that, my boy, is how we came to be one."

Issei: "So you're some kind of parasite attached to my soul?"

???: "Parasite? I am appalled. I am no such thing. I am linked to you; we are one being."

Issei: "Okay, so you're not some parasite. Then what the hell are you?"

???: "I am fear, the living manifestation of fear."

Issei: "Fear as in the emotion fear?"

???: "The very same, my boy. As long as fear exists, I cannot be killed."

Issei: "Well then, Mr. Fear, I can't exactly keep referring to you as 'you.' We should give you a name."

???: "If you're insistent, the humans from before I was sealed did have a name for me. They called me Umbris."