Chapter 90: Pursuit of Madness (I)
Page 7: Failure
Failure in the Otherworld carries absolute consequences.
If the soul is destroyed, the body will not awaken, and if the will collapses, the mind will not return.
If the user is consumed, their existence is erased.
BE WARNED: There is no external interference once descent is complete.
_________
Swiping once more, the grimoire closed quietly.
That was the end of the Otherworld Dream manual.
White exhaled slightly, closing his eyes to process the words he had just received.
It took about five minutes of silence before he was able to get his thoughts under control.
[The book failed to talk about one thing.]
The system panel flashed before him, and White responded.
"What happens to the soul after fusion?"
[Exactly.]
[When I think of Otherworld Dream, I think of Inumaki, and the Otherworlder being his summon, Irasul.]
[But their relationship is pretty clear.]
[Irasul is summoned out of a void space and doesn’t seem to affect Inumaki’s own health or life. It’s an ability akin to summoning.]
[But Otherworld Dream says the Otherworlder shares the soul, meaning it is manifested within the User’s soul.]
[What happens when a human soul has to share space with a creature from a different reality?]
[What are the effects? How does the power work?]
[Does the Otherworlder take control of the human body to use its power, or is it like a summon that appears from the Otherworld?]
[Now that they share the same soul, would it be a second voice in the user’s head from the Otherworlder?]
[What are the chances of the Otherworlder, with its greater power, wiping out the human soul and taking full control of the body?]
[What even stops it from doing so in the first place?]
The system asked a flurry of questions that White himself had no answer to.
The manual explained in depth how to cultivate, but it never mentioned the consequences in detail.
At that moment, his eyes settled on the coffin.
"I guess there’s only one way to find out."
[Absolutely not!]
The system panel flashed as White rose and walked toward the coffin.
"Every power comes with risk."
[This one isn’t worth it. An unnecessary risk, for what? A little bit more power?]
"What do you think I should do, then?"
White asked.
[Stay in here for three months.]
[Once that’s complete, you’ll be sent back to Xtremecyber and can get rid of that heart if you want.]
[That’s the safest option, with no risk at all.]
"Actually, that comes with an even greater risk."
White said, his hands trailing over the runes on the coffin.
[What risk is there?]
"I’ll be behind everyone by three months."
"I can’t cultivate with my core locked, nor is there a semblance of Essence energy around here, so all I can do is sit down and do nothing."
"The same wouldn’t be true for the newcomers, though."
"They all have access to their core and can still cultivate with no problem."
"If I just sit down and do nothing for three months, when I get back, I might as well be last in the rankings."
White analyzed calmly.
"And to top it all off, I would have wasted three months of life. A time I would never get back."
[It’ll be worth it if you return with a clean soul. And you’ll catch up soon enough anyway.]
ZIIIIP!
The sound of zipping echoed through the room as White removed his clothes, leaving himself bare-chested.
"Sorry, system, but I’m not the play-it-safe type of person."
He said, and in the next moment, swung himself up and landed inside the coffin.
It was more than two meters tall, allowing it to contain White’s height, though it was narrow, just enough for him to place his hands side by side.
Looking up, he could see a rune forming over the coffin, solidifying with every second, slowly taking the shape of a cover.
Remembering the instructions, the first thing was to sleep.
It was a bit difficult when you were trying to force yourself to sleep, but with the exhaustion from fighting all night and going through the manual, his brain was already in need of one.
All he needed to do was keep his breathing rhythm slow and stable, and soon enough, a quiet, rhythmic breathing echoed through the coffin.
Once White fell asleep, the runes on the coffin fully solidified, creating a complete cover that sealed him inside.
The entire space glowed a brighter red, absorbing the Otherworld energy in the room and channeling it into the coffin, after which a chilling silence followed.
________________
It was a foreign feeling.
Like your body traveling forward at great speed, yet you remain in the same position, wondering what was moving you and how long you would remain like this.
This was exactly how White felt.
He felt in control of his body at first, but soon enough, he lost that control, and even his thoughts slowed to a crawl until there was nothing left in his mind.
He remained in that fully unconscious state for longer than his mind could comprehend before, all of a sudden, his eyes snapped open.
Full consciousness returned all at once, sending his body into a violent jerk of caution that stopped as quickly as it came.
White immediately turned to look around him, but there was nothing.
Nothing but a darkness that surprisingly did not blind him.
He turned to look at himself next, finding a body incomprehensible, and made of three colors.
Dark, crimson, and white.
Darkness made up the majority of it, burning like shadowy gas around his form.
The crimson came from a part of his head, around the left side of his brain, which seemed cracked open, with red flames burning out of it.
The last part of him, the white, was barely a flicker within the darkness surrounding him, and it came from where his heart should have been.
But when he reached toward it with his dark, claw-like hand, there was no heartbeat, only the faint dilation of that white core.
"This is my soul body."
White mused, coming to the realization.
He paused silently for a moment before calling out,
"System."
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