The hivemind is conquering for me?

Collecting all the information in my head, weighing all my judgements together, I then looked up at the duke once more and declared.

”Xy’oi’la’py’re, I...”

”Apollo! What’s going on! Tell me!” Hecate interrupted again, but I shooed her away with my hand.”

Turning back to The Duke, I restarted. ”Xy’oi’la’py’re. I grant you mercy.”

The moment I said that, the atmosphere in the room changed. It wasn’t nefarious like I had a very small suspicion it could have been, it was actually a familiar atmosphere. Love.

Still using the same melodical speech, as no one reacted to the change, I heard Sol speak through the catalyst. ”Oh Apollo, You have done this entity a favour you are incapable of comprehending. On behalf of his last thoughts, I thank you.”

”All good babe.” I replied. ”The fact that you were empowering him and he knew about you sort of made it a trivial choice. So what happens now?”

”Not much, my kindled. I have already taken in The Duke’s former power. Now all I need to do is burn through this flesh suit and return to your loving embrace.” As soon as she said that, the catalyst began bubbling from underneath, the scales began to turn into slag, its horns melting into itself and then in a flash of light, the Catalyst was gone and in its place is was I assumed the dukes original form to be.

A mephitic being that smelled like sulphur and made up of a purple and red Psionic hue. It had no legs, grounding itself to the floor with a single point. Its body structure was similar to that of a tear and had no discernible qualities to it apart from two arm like appendages that had no digits on them.

I felt everyone around me tense up at the sudden change, especially Nerissa who had aimed her spear at the former form of Xy’oi’la’py’re. The form couldn’t exist for long though and seconds later, vanished except for a spiral of purple and red that was helixing around themselves and towards me, crashing into my chest and hurling me backwards.

”Apollo!” A series of voices screamed out. Hecate then teleported to my side and supported my chest up. ”Apollo are you ok?”

Opening my eyes after the impact, I checked myself first to make sure I was in fact ok. It seemed there was just a large impact, no damage. ”Yeah, I am fine thanks-ow!” I exclaimed as Hecate stopped supporting me and teleported away.”

”Leave his body this instant!” Hecate suddenly screamed in warning, preparing a powerful Psionic ability. My surprise at the sudden change took me by surprise as I rose to my feet, but what didn’t help was everyone else was also pointing their weapons and abilities towards me.

The only one not doing so was Sapphire who had come to my side and began letting out a low rolling roar of deterrence. ”Can someone tell me what’s going on? Nerissa?” I asked, turning to the one in the room I was closest to.

Nerissa seemed to pause for a moment. I could tell she was looking between Sapphire and myself before in her free hand she created a mirror and chucked it towards me. ”Your eyes.”

’My eyes?’ I thought, confused before looking into the mirror. ”Oh.” I exclaimed in understanding as I began to check my eyes out. They were no longer brown with the odd purple fleck. They had turned fully purple, like my hair, with a prominent red ring around the iris. ”Wow. They look equally mesmerising and terrifying.” I thought aloud before addressing the rest of the room. ”I kind of understand why you are wary now, especially with that thing hitting me, but please trust me when I say I am still good ol’ Apollo. I’m not something else... Huh... I just realised. If I had a credit for every time a group of individuals thought I was possessed by some sort of Psionic entity; I would have two credits. Which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird it’s happened twice.

Maximus then stepped forward, stroking his white long bear. ”Apollo, do you have any way to prove you are yourself? Otherwise we are going to have to put you in quarantine.”

I frowned upon hearing that. I wasn’t going into quarantine. I’d rather just go home. Thinking of how I could prove that I was myself, I suddenly turned to the only one in the room I trusted wholly and sent off a telepathic tendril. Everyone in the room was psionically gifted and could sense what I was doing, putting their guards up as I did so, except the one I did it to.

Nerissa allowed me to relay a single word to her and the moment she heard what I said she turned to the others and declared. ”Apollo isn’t possessed. He is safe. You have my guarantee as a Praetorian.”

Upon saying that Maximus lowered his guard entirely. Hecate and Circe were still a bit weary though. With the former suggesting. ”I think we should still keep him isolated for a while. To make sure he is still himself. If you need someone with him, I will supervise. This whole afternoon has been such an eyeopener and I still need to translate whatever was said at the end. Apollo, shall we go?”

There was a hungry look in Hecate’s eyes. Not sexual, like I have grown accustomed to with hive shenanigans, but a hunger for knowledge. She wanted to know everything and honestly? That scared me a bit more than the possibility of the hive taking a chunk out of me during mating.

Fortunately I had a guardian Nymph looking out for me. ”Hold on one second, Lady Hecate. I still need to give my verdict regarding your fate.” The room suddenly turned silent as Nerissa was now speaking with official authority, compared to her usual role as a certified backdrop observer.

”What you have done today was incredibly reckless. Summoning Psionic entities is a capital offense the majority of the time. We do not understand enough about that plane of existence to be so reckless. However, I know what this summoning circle is and its usual limits. I also understand that there were some...” She turned her head to look at me for a moment before turning back to the group. ”Underlying circumstances that made the whole ordeal much more dangerous than it should have been. My verdict is six months suspension of teaching. In that time however, I will allow you to have one on one sessions with the respective members of the currently existing group as I believe your guidance and knowledge of Psionics is hundreds of years ahead of where it should be and can only be beneficial to your students’ growth.

Now with that being said, I have to go and report this whole ordeal to my order and Hecate, you will be put on a watchlist we have for... Let’s call them useful troublemakers. Does anyone object to this ruling?”

Maximus then spoke up. ”Not at all, Praetorian Nerissa. Your ruling was more than lenient. If you weren’t present for me to call upon, I would have ruled much similar, though perhaps a bit harsher. Don’t you agree the ruling is fair, Hecate?” The man asked, turning to her.

Hecate opened her mouth, clearly having thoughts on the matter before simply sighing and replying sullenly. ”Yes, very fair.”

Moments after she said that, the rest of the group that had been stuck in unconsciousness due to the sheer Psionic presence of the recently departed began to stir, at which point, Maximus chuckled.

”Well, I best be off, I will allow you to explain what has happened to your students. Mr Lambdason, Praetorian Nerissa, may I have a moment of your time outside?”

I called Sapphire to come back inside the Mindspace and followed Nerissa and Maximus out of the classroom. Once we were alone, Maximus spoke in a serious, but relaxed tone. ”Alright. I need to understand what happened at the end. Nerissa might have given you the clear, but I cannot have an unknown variable walking around my College. Were you attacked? Marked? Given power? Something else?”

I turned to Nerissa for a moment as I contemplated before turning to Max and deciding to tell him. ”Well, at the end there, The duke could tell his catalyst was failing him and was about to go. You weren’t here at the start, but before he addressed us as the Duke, he was a lot simpler. His thoughts were scrambled as he was apparently in a cursed state of existence. He didn’t want to go back to being that so he offered me his title of Duke as a thank you for allowing him to return to sanity and then basically committed suicide so he didn’t have to go back to being that. I have no increased power or anything. I think, as far as I can tell, the mark of his duke title is purely cosmetic.”

Maximus then went silent for a moment, internalising everything I just said before nodding. ”Very well. That answer suffices. I will check in every now and then over the next few weeks to make sure you are safe and sound. Take care on your journey back home Nerissa.” He said before simply blipping away.

Once he was gone, Nerissa then turned to me and stated.

”Now he is gone. Can I have the unabridged version of events?”