Chapter 804 Waking Up
Daneel didn't know where he was, but he really wished he could leave.
It was as if he had just woken up from a slumber, but he couldn't control his body, and neither could he even form too many coherent thoughts.
The last thing he remembered was his mind feeling as if it was being ripped apart from multiple directions at the same time, and after that, he had been sure that his time in this world was over.
It had all happened in maybe the span of a second, but it had felt like an eternity. At that moment, he had felt his consciousness perfectly - it was a vast, incredible thing, which was the core of each and every being's existence. It was what gave meaning to one's life, and if it was tampered with… It was one of the most deplorable things to see.
Consciousness was sacred, and that was why there were always so many rules regarding it. Even though oaths always functioned by coiling themselves around it, they never dared to intrude on the inside. True, when an oath was broken, the coil would squeeze and make a consciousness collapse, but until then, it would almost be as if it wasn't present.
Hence… Ripping one into a thousand pieces was no simple thing.
The whole reason why the system had always told him that this protocol might cause his death was that there had been many cases back in the Empire where people had tried exactly something like this. After all, power had always been one of the most powerful motivating agents behind research, and the possibility of one person putting forth the power of hundreds of the same or at least one or two realms below their level was something which would send anyone into a tizzy.
In the Empire, there were a few researchers who performed even illegal research on this topic, using helpless prisoners and ordering them to split their own consciousness into multiple pieces by threatening them that their family would be killed if they do not oblige. Just like back on Earth where the most horrific research had been carried out on helpless people with the pretense that it would benefit the general population, nothing good had come out of this, and the Emperor had cracked down on all of these individuals as soon as he found them right after he reached his post.
Still, he had at least not wanted those people's deaths to go in vain, so those records had been added to the archives of the Empire, from where Daneel had perused them while making his protocol.
The records were very thorough, highlighting both the efficiency and cruelty of those who had carried the experiments out. The man had wanted to be very meticulous, so he had rounded up 10 people and started to split their consciousness from the most basic two parts to 10 parts.
They had all been Champions, and because he had been a Hero who was quite celebrated, they had followed him thinking that they would really gain power and breakthrough, too, like he had promised them. Of course, after that, he had forcibly overpowered them and carried out these experiments, and the only good thing about this entire story was that it ended with some people at least being saved from him and reviving themselves many years later.
Sadly, these were only a minority - more specifically, these were the people whose consciousness had been split into single digits, and even then, the one who had been unlucky to be at the bottom of this group had needed 50 years for his ten pieces of consciousness to all assemble together and form his original one again.
The fact was that it wasn't even about assembling - it was like a brick wall that had been broken into ten pieces. Even if it was placed together and formed into a semblance of what it had once been, the cracks would remain, and just the slightest push would make it topple over. Hence, the issue was more about integrating the pieces of consciousness rather than just putting them in one place and hoping that they would heal themselves, but the other researchers in the Empire had never been able to discover any outside means for this to happen. Typically, what would happen when one split their consciousness was that they would retain their thinking faculties in at least one of them while giving orders to the other, and this one would facilitate this reintegration smoothly, even if it caused pain, so that one would be whole again.
But with his consciousness in a thousand pieces, was there even one which was strong enough to do this?
The answer was definitely no, and that was why each and every clone had looked so lifeless and even robotic. Each one had been controlled by the system, and if it weren't for this incredible entity's existence, Daneel would have just collapsed if he had attempted to do the split by himself.
At that moment of extreme pain which had hurt more than anything he had felt all his life, Daneel had understood one thing: this was dumb, and if he had a choice, he would never do it again.
Alas, he really had no choice. Each and every expression and word of his sovereigns and subordinates had deeply affected him, so much so that he had not been ready to have their blood on his hands. If he hadn't acted at that point, he knew what was coming, so he had decided on this drastic step after ensuring that it was all not some sort of test that was being placed by his master.
He kept thinking of all these things and going over what had happened over and over again, but soon, he realized that he was doing all that in order to distract himself from the fact that he had realized that there was no way out of where he was.
"System? System?"
He finally built up the courage to ask this, because he had to least ensure that he wasn't being disillusioned.
No answer came back to him, and even his voice seemed to echo everywhere.
His mouth was the only thing he could control, and the rest of his senses were completely blocked. The feeling of not being able to access one's vision, hearing, sme, l and touch was just so disorienting and scary that even Daneel, who had been through so much, started to panic a bit and wondered if this was some sort of hell that he had entered after dying.
He didn't want to go into a long soliloquy about his life without at least confirming that this was the case, so he pondered on what he could do.
At the moment, he first felt grateful that he had never depended too much on the system, even though it had been vital in most of his plans. If that had been the case, he would definitely have been completely helpless at this moment, without even a direction to go in in order to find a solution. Instead of acting like some random person who found the system and just used it to get everything they wanted, he had had the grit to put in the hard work, and that had definitely paid off.
It was almost as if this thought had triggered something, as Daneel suddenly realised that this place, whatever it was, had begun to constrict.
Each of his senses returned to him one by one, and he suddenly saw that he was in a dark, circular room where the walls were closing in on him.
He first screamed, hoping that maybe he had miraculously recovered and then been captured by the enemy who might have lived, but there was no answer.
He stopped after a while, understanding that it was futile, and began to study everything.
The most horrific thing was that his Mageroot route could not be felt, just like when he had been in the power of those handcuffs. It was almost as if he had been born with no potential at all, meaning that his Mageroot had never been uncovered, but it was all an illusion brought forward by trinkets like those.
In barely a second the walls were at his feet, and Daneel wondered, not for the first time since coming on this mission, whether that was it.
Yet, strangely… The walls actually move through his feet, almost as if they were transparent, and the King of Lanthanor could only stare incredulously at what was happening.
It all felt normal, until suddenly, the same didn't happen when the part of the wall above him came into contact with his head.
He could feel it - it had a slight rubbery feel, and strangely, it kept slowly pushing in but not passing through like the rest.
This extremely bizarre occurrence made Daneel get a puzzled expression on his face, but he understood what was going on when the bottom part of the walls came and suddenly became solid around his head, too.
The end result was that only his head was completely covered in this black wall-like material which kept pressing in, as if it wanted to squash it like a watermelon, and Daneel kept resisting with his jaw set with resolve.
It kept moving closer and closer until it actually felt as if it had entered his skin, and even his consciousness.
It kept pressing down like a mountain, making Daneel give his all to not allow it to just crush him with impunity and end his story.
Wait… a mountain? Hadn't he felt this before?
Finally, getting a brainwave, Daneel quickly thought back, and he realised that this wasn't the first time he was going through something like this.
The last time… Was when he had been assaulted by that spirit which had taken residence in Faxul's body, and at that time, too, he had felt as if there was the strong pressure akin to a mountain bearing down on him that had threatened to crush his consciousness.
What had happened then?
He had resisted… And been presented with the boon of increased potential.
Since then, he had always known that pressure was able to increase one's mage potential, but he had never tried it as it had always felt too dangerous. What if there was even a small mishap? What if the pressure ended up actually doing its job, instead of acting like a millstone?
It seemed dumb, but now, finding himself in a position where he had no other choice, he kept pushing back more and more.
With each second, an eternity seem to pass, and the pressure kept getting stronger. Yet, Daneel didn't even let his mind get a single thought that he would fail, and he kept telling himself it that he had too much to achieve on the outside. He had too much to see, too much to uncover, there was no way that he would die because of this stupid incident.
Also… He kept assuring himself that he would definitely set his Master's pants on fire whenever he saw him the next time, as the whole reason behind him coming here was that that man had told him to.
A long time seemed to have passed, until finally, Daneel was sure that if this went on anymore, he was done with.
He had been completely focused on this aspect of defending himself that he had not realised that small changes had started to come upon his consciousness, until finally…
CRACK!
With a loud sound that was very similar to what appeared when one broke through a window, the reality that Daneel could see around himself, which was that of a black wall pressing down upon him… Cracked, into multiple places, with each really looking like shards of glass.
All of these fell away, and he was presented by a very strange sight.
An old man with a kind expression on his face was looking down on him, and the strange part was that behind him, Daneel could see his sovereigns, each of which had an attack trained on this old man's head, as if they wanted to be sure that they could kill him at a moment's notice they wished.
At the same time, Daneel felt a headache more severe than any he had experienced in his life so far, and as he clutched his head and began to scream with pain, the system sent him a message.
[Host has recovered from near-death consciousness split. Mage potential has increased. Spell: Consciousness Integration recorded. This spell fits one of host's requirements :to be able to find a method to increase the mage potential of a large number of people. Achievement: Dashing Past Limits unlocked.
Dashing Past Limits: Even breaking into a thousand pieces did not kill you. A World Dominator must be indestructible. If not, how can he continue down his Path with confidence? You broke your limit by holding on, and you even gained power in the process. Congratulations!
5000 EXP Awarded.]