After a short while, Zephyr found himself inside his mana core space, which was still the sa as usual.
He was practically giddy with excitent at finally getting to try out sothing different in here. But first, he needed to do sothing.
"Aegis. Let’s try it out." His thoughts echoed through the space, reaching Aegis on the outside, who had no access to his mana core.
I’m ready when you are, host. Aegis replied.
Zephyr imdiately focused his gaze on his mana node floating at the center of the white space. He was trying to send the image he was seeing directly to Aegis. He could already send out thoughts in words from this space, so he wanted to see if he could do even more.
Since their ongoing theory was that Zephyr would be able to see the embedding process happening in here as he comprehended the word Transistor, having Aegis see the exact sa thing he was in real ti would prove very helpful, as it would be able to spot anything wrong even better than Zephyr could.
"Anything yet?" Zephyr’s thoughts echoed as he focused his intention.
Nothing, host— Hold on....
"What? What’s it, Aegis?" Zephyr asked excitedly. "Is it working?"
Focus host! Focus on doing what you’re doing. Aegis urged Zephyr.
I’m picking up unprecedented neural activity in your brain. Specifically, in your posterior parietal cortex and parts of the frontal lobe. Regions associated with spatial processing and ntal visualization.
It’s a targeted surge, unlike the background chatter I usually observe during our verbal link.
Zephyr imdiately strained, putting more effort after hearing Aegis’ statent, when suddenly, he began to feel a strange sensation, almost as if an invisible pressure point was forming behind his eyes, even though he had no physical eyes in this mana core space. He pushed harder, trying to transmit the image of his mana node he was seeing to Aegis.
Yes, host! Keep at it! Aegis urged.
This confirms my hypothesis of how we’re able to communicate here. Despite the fact that your consciousness is physically separated from your brain, leaving your body on the outside in a comatose state, we’ve always still been able to maintain a latent connection, which makes no sense.
Your sensory pathways that process raw visual and spatial data, are still intact. They’re just... blocked. Not by a physical limitation, but by a ntal block. Your conscious mind, here in the mana core, isn’t fully ’opening the channel’.
Aegis was basically telling Zephyr that it was he who held the key to how much information he could pass across. The ntal barrier he felt was simply ’made up.’
You need to grant access, host, Aegis continued.
You’re attempting to ’send’ the image, but what’s needed is to ’allow’ to perceive directly through your ’eye’ on the inside. You need to drop your guard, the subconscious filter. Will it. Consciously give permission to link directly to your internal visual feed from this space. Only then can I ’see’ what you see, in real-ti.
Zephyr paused, considering what Aegis had just said.
Was he actually the one subconsciously blocking Aegis from accessing this space? Why? He hadn’t even thought about it that way once. Heck! Even if he did, he couldn’t even control anything inside here.
And if what Aegis was saying was correct, that would an from the very first ti he had entered this space, within all that chaos, his clouded-minded state, and the threat of invasion from that dead origin substance, he had still subconsciously blocked out Aegis.
As he thought about this, he suddenly beca aware again that his thoughts and musings were echoing through the space subconsciously, but for so reason, he was absolutely certain Aegis was not hearing any of it.
"What the hell is this place...?" Zephyr thought out loud this ti.
What do you an, host? Please do not let up! The neural activity is beginning to drop. Don’t lose your montum!
Zephyr couldn’t care less. At this point, a calming surety filled him. It wasn’t about ’trying to allow’ anymore.
He now knew he could ’allow’ Aegis at any ti, so right now, he was analyzing himself, trying to get to the core of the reason why he had prevented it subconsciously.
It had to be his default nature. Giving up a sliver of his perception, his absolute internal privacy, to an external entity, no matter how trusted, was a leap of faith. So that was most likely why, even without knowing he had so much control, he had blocked off any external access. Coupled with the fact that during his first entry into this space, he was battling a foreign entity, his consciousness must have been doing everything in its power to prevent any ’foreign’ entity from entering. Friend or foe.
Zephyr looked at his mana node once more. He needed to get a full grasp of his abilities here. What was his role here? Why could he even do this? How much Master Access did he have in this space?
He filed those thoughts away for the anti, attending to Aegis who had been urging him repeatedly.
With a certainty that it was going to happen, he imdiately willed Aegis to have ’visual’ access only. And almost like there was never any block in the first place, he felt a foreign presence through his ’eye’. Through his ’view’, watching along with him.
He kept silent, just as Aegis also did, taking in the white expanse, the glyph lines that ran across the ground, the mana node that floated in the air right in the center of the space, all through Zephyr’s ’eyes’.
...analyzing visual feed... status optimal...
...cross-referencing data...
...Host! This— This environnt is unlike anything in my database! No simulated reality or visualization corresponds to the level of concreteness of this space! Aegis stated with a surprising excitent.
This space, by my standards of analysis, passes fully as a stable and defined space. It’s fascinating. These linear glyph patterns on the ground... they look like channels for energy propagation, so they most likely function as natural mana pathways. And the design appears to channel energy with minimal dissipation too.
Aegis’s focus shifted to the center as Zephyr looked at his node. Ah! And that must be your mana node, host!
Such extre energy density... and those filant-like threads! Those must be what connect it to origin! Like a ’data download link’ for systemic modifications or instruction sets. It would logically be the link for ’etching’ components onto the node, should that process occur. Almost like a high-bandwidth fiber optic connection delivering blueprints to a specialized fabrication unit. Aegis’s enthusiasm grew as it processed the visual data, making inferences based on its knowledge.
This is astounding! This architecture for magic looks far more intricate than previously inferred from external observation... The possibilities for direct manipulation, to build as we see fit, provided we can understand and replicate how it works, are imnse! This is an entirely new field to explo—!
"Aegis!" Zephyr cut it off abruptly, overwheld by the barrage of information. He needed to focus on the actual task at hand, not theoretical future breakthroughs.
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