Looking around Kael spotted another white rat... He immediately tried connecting it.
Kael's connection to the white rat wavered, the threads fraying dangerously. He could feel himself fading, his form growing dimmer with every passing second. But he'd done it. He'd won.
For now.
The white rat slumped to the ground, its body trembling with exhaustion. Kael hovered above it, his ghostly form flickering like a dying ember. He didn't have much time left. He needed to act fast.
With a grim determination, Kael reached out once more, his spectral threads weaving through the air as he sought to solidify his control over the white rat. The process was slower now, more difficult, but he didn't stop. He couldn't.
Finally, the connection stabilized—barely. The white rat twitched, its movements still clumsy and uncoordinated, but it was under Kael's control. For now, that was enough.
Kael let out a breath he didn't need, his form flickering faintly as he surveyed the scene. The larger rat's body lay motionless, its blood pooling on the damp stone. The white rat—his rat—stood shakily, its fur matted with blood and filth.
It wasn't much, but it was a start.
Kael's gaze hardened as he looked deeper into the sewer, where the faint sounds of scurrying rats echoed through the darkness. He didn't know how long he had before his form faded completely, but he wasn't going to waste a single second.
"Alright," he muttered, his voice a faint whisper in the empty tunnel.
With that, he willed the white rat forward, its tiny claws clicking against the stone as it moved deeper into the shadows. Kael followed, his ghostly form flickering faintly as he prepared for whatever lay ahead.
He wasn't done yet. Not by a long shot.
Then, suddenly, the white rat bolted deeper into the rat hole, its body moving with jerky, unnatural motions. Kael didn't have full control yet, but he was in.
Finally! A surge of relief washed over him, but it was short-lived. The moment the white rat entered the nest, chaos erupted.
Another rat, slightly larger, immediately lunged at it, its sharp teeth sinking into the white rat's side. Kael felt the pain—not in a physical sense, but like a distant, dull pressure squeezing his fading soul.
Shit!
The fight had begun.
Kael gritted his teeth, knowing that if he lost this body too, there might not be another chance.
...
The white rat fought clumsily, its movements erratic and unrefined, but it still dominated its opponent.
Unlike the others, it displayed a sharp intelligence, using the terrain to its advantage.
Though the tunnel was narrow, the white rat maneuvered expertly, slamming the smaller rat into jagged rocks, biting into its throat with relentless precision.
Within moments, the newborn rat died.
Kael hovered in silence, staring at the lifeless body. A thought crossed his mind—what did it mean for a ghost to kill a living creature? Would there be consequences? Before he could dwell on it, a strange phenomenon unfolded before his eyes.
A thin, nearly invisible white mist rose from the dead rat's corpse. It drifted in the air, aimless at first, before flowing toward Kael.
The mist seeped into his soul like water soaking into dry earth. His dimming form flickered, then stabilized slightly. He was still transparent, but no longer on the verge of vanishing.
Noticing this subtle change, Kael's eyes narrowed. 'So that's how it works…'
Without hesitation, he commanded the white rat to continue fighting while he attempted to connect to other small rats.
As he expanded his control, he noticed something strange—his white rat wasn't normal. He had sensed it when he first tried to take over its body, but now he was certain. It was infected.
The rat carried something—a presence, a sickness, a parasite. And what's worse… it wasn't just his strings controlling it.
'It was already under something else's influence.'
As Kael processed this unsettling discovery, the once-dead rat twitched.
Then, it moved.
Kael's soul tensed as he watched the rat stand up, its empty eyes staring blankly ahead. Its fur had changed—white patches spread across its body, the same black spots forming over its skin.
It turned without hesitation and lunged at another normal rat.
Kael didn't interfere. He needed to see what would happen.
The newly resurrected rat tore into its victim's throat, feasting on its blood. Moments later, the second rat began to twitch as well. Its fur lost color, its body convulsed, and then—just like the first one—it stood up, eyes blank.
Kael's expression darkened.
'Shit… would this count as mine?'
Then, the mist came.
From each fallen rat, the same ghostly white mist flowed into the air before surging toward him. The more that died, the more mist entered his soul, reinforcing his form, making him less transparent with every passing second.
The cycle repeated.
Kill. Convert. Grow.
Soon, the entire rat hole was filled with white-furred rats, their movements erratic, almost unnatural. Sometimes they scurried, sometimes they froze completely, standing eerily still like statues.
Kael seized the opportunity, trying to extend his invisible threads toward them. Unfortunately, he could only connect with four out of the twenty new rats.
Frustrated but intrigued, he focused on what he could control. He sent his consciousness deeper into the white rats' bodies, examining their structure through the unseen threads.
That's when he confirmed it—this wasn't a simple infection.
It was a disease.
Any fluid from their bodies—blood, saliva, anything—could spread it. A single bite was enough to turn the victim into one of them.
Kael wasn't sure of the full extent yet. He needed more time, more experiments. But time wasn't a luxury he had right now.
What he needed… was more rats.
More bodies.
More power.
Without hesitation, he pushed his newly controlled minions forward, deeper into the tunnels. There was no stopping now. If he wanted to survive, he had to grow his rat army.