In the same moment, seconds after Finn had crashed into the furniture…
Blood. Blood. Blood.
The need for blood was all that colored Finn's mind. His entire body craved it. An urge driven by his very soul, requiring his body to consume. So much so that, even without seeing, he could feel the presence of blood calling out to him from the person in front of him.
So, against the voice that nagged at him from the back of his mind to stop, he had lunged straight at them.
His brief sliver of clarity came only after being stunned by a sudden impact.
His mind had cleared up for a moment, and he realized exactly what was happening. He'd lost control. Again. And this time he'd attacked Isis. Someone that had taken care of him, a total stranger to her, as though it was her very duty.
He'd been beaten back now, but what about the next time? What if there was no one there to save her? How would he feel, when he returned to his senses only to see he had killed his benefactor? Sucked her dry of her blood like he craved?
No.
Something needed to be done. There was no way this could continue.
The brief moment of respite gave him the much needed opportunity to latch onto the presence demanding the soul debt of blood. The shadow wolf.
Finn felt its presence very evidently. Felt its desire to consume. A desire so raw and thick with pure insatiable greed like a bottomless pit. Bound only by Finn's luck, or maybe talent that instinctively limited the new debt to demand only blood.
But now that he felt the full brunt of this… creature's desire, his heart was struck with a fear so deep, he wondered how he'd been able to pull off such a 'limiting' clause without knowing what he was doing in the first place.
This creature is pure destruction and greed. Finn thought in alarm. Almost like Fenrir from the old Norse mythology in his original alternate life.
Just like this shadow wolf, Fenrir had a singular purpose: To destroy.
It was a wolf born to devour the All Father, Odin, and the very world itself, almost like Ragnarok.
Finn didn't know why now, of all times this thought came to mind. Perhaps because the correlation was so striking.
The shadow wolf soul mass residing in him sought to devour until there was nothing left. Just like Fenrir.
And just like Fenrir, which was bound by the Norse Gods with chains, his shadow wolf was also bound by his clause, limiting it to devour blood only.
In the story Fenrir succeeded in the end during Ragnarok and swallowed Odin whole. Was that the same fate Finn was also destined for?
The thought chilled him, when after considering the hunger to devour emanating from the shadow wolf, he realized it was only a matter of time. A creature with a desire to devour that strong could never be tamed.
Not unless its very nature and essence was changed.
Not unless order could be enforced upon the creature itself.
The thought was casual and nonsensical. Entirely inappropriate for the dire situation he was currently in, but for some reason, Finn found nothing wrong with thinking about it.
But just as the last thought crossed his mind — the thought to impress order upon the shadow wolf — as if a pot of ants had been stirred, he felt an intense malice directed at him from the shadow wolf. Thick with bloodlust and desire to devour him whole. Challenging the clause and control he already had in place. Overwhelming his mind with pure terror.
Finn couldn't think.
He could feel the clause he had in place slowly being challenged. Like a battle of wills was being issued. And this time he was going to be fully aware. This time, his deficiencies as a new soul mage in enforcing a clause was going to be revealed…
This time he was going to be devoured whole.
The shadow wolf bombarded his mind repeatedly, preventing him from forming any coherent thought to have any say in enforcing a clause.
He could feel himself losing control… Feel the shadow wolf's presence get stronger as it weakened his hold on the clause, bombarding his mind with more bloodlust as it did.
Finn was numb with terror…
...Until he wasn't.
As if his mind wasn't his, he suddenly became detached. The fear stopped being relevant. The pain stopped being relevant. The terror stopped being relevant.
In this new state, the terror of the shadow wolf felt...mediocre. Almost like he had experienced a terror from something far greater and far more terrifying.
And in that detached state, Finn considered:
What is this I sense from this creature?
Urgency…? Franticness…?
No...
It's fear.
It is afraid. This creature…This entity of pure greed and devouring destruction is… afraid?
Why?
Finn's mind shuffled through his earlier thoughts in confusion, before locking onto the last one. The thought of order. He'd thought of impressing order onto the creature.
Just that alone? He mentally frowned. I've thought of many things in the past. Finn's mind went back to the original Finn's before his arrival. Nothing of the sort had ever happened when he thought—
Finn stopped abruptly. He'd just tried to call up the memory of his previous interactions with the soul masses residing in him, but found that…he couldn't.
But that made no sense. Back in the carriage, during his arrival into this world, he had very evidently remembered that he had assimilated twenty one soul masses after…
He paused again, an unsettling chill spreading through his mind. What was going on? It was as though the memory was there… but also wasn't. When his mind brushed across the memory as he thought back, there were no flaws. But immediately he tried to focus and call up the required memory about how he actually assimilated the twenty-one soul masses, it came up like a blank slate. A picture used to pad an otherwise blank spot in his memory!
A different kind of terror crept into Finn's mind this time.
What had happened to him in this reality during that blank spot in time?
Why had he never noticed it up until now? His family? Friends? Why hadn't they noticed anything too? Was that the only thing that was blank? Just how much, or how deep were the holes in his memory?
What was going on?
His mind went back to the battle between him and this world's version of himself.
Now that he thought about it, during 'his' final moments, the other 'him' had tried to grasp onto him as 'he' died, gurgling as if struggling to force out a few words. At the time, Finn had interpreted it simply as a final death throe…
But looking at it from another angle, what if 'he' had been trying very hard to convey something?
Finn still did not know how, why or what exactly he was here in this alternate world for.
His attention turned back to the shadow wolf and its rapidly heightening presence.
Was there something about the current him that was unique? Something that could make this creature of utter greed and devouring destruction to feel… fear?