Chapter 262: An Unwelcome Routine

The following morning, Ravian woke to the sound of Darius calling to him from outside the tent.

He had slept in short, interrupted stretches throughout the night, never getting enough rest, as the intruder had taken advantage of every lapse in his concentration to strengthen its control over the muscles shared by both sides of his body.

Keeping his consciousness protected had already demanded considerable effort, and having to maintain some degree of physical control while sleeping only made matters worse. Whenever he noticed an unfamiliar movement or sensed the invading consciousness pressing against his defenses, he had to wake himself and assess what had changed before attempting to rest again.

Consequently, he was hardly in the best condition when he heard the familiar rough voice approaching the entrance.

“Ravian! Are you awake?”

He opened his right eye and looked toward the tent flap.

“What do you want now, Darius?”

“Huh? We got back to camp yesterday, and nobody’s seen you since. Claria sent me to make sure you haven’t killed yourself with that damned stone you bought.”

“Tsk. Tell her not to worry. I’m still alive… for now, at least,” Ravian replied.

“Then open up,” Darius demanded.

It was a rather pointless request considering that Ravian was staying in a tent, not a locked room. Darius could have entered whenever he wanted, but apparently even he understood that barging in without permission might be inappropriate.

“No,” Ravian answered coldly.

A brief silence followed, and then he heard Darius step closer.

“What do you mean, no?”

“I mean I’m not opening it.”

“Are you hiding a woman in there?”

“Pfft! What the hell are you talking about!?”

The question caught Ravian so completely off guard that he nearly lost his concentration.

For a moment, his attention shifted away from the boundary protecting his consciousness, and he immediately felt the invading presence attempt to take advantage of the opening. He hurriedly restored his focus, cursing Darius’s remarkable ability to create problems without even knowing what was happening.

Then, realizing that Darius was not joking but genuinely curious, he took a deep breath and forced himself to maintain his defenses while continuing the conversation.

His gaze shifted toward the mirror, where his entirely black left eye stared back at him.

“Not a woman. Something much worse.”

“What was that?” Darius asked, apparently unable to hear him clearly because he had spoken too quietly.

“Damn it! Just go away already, Darius!”

He heard Darius mutter something indistinct before raising his voice again.

“Fine, but Malrik wants to know when you’re coming back to the squad’s duties, and I don’t think he’s going to like your answer.”

Ravian considered the matter for a moment.

He could not neglect his responsibilities indefinitely, but he needed a convincing excuse to discourage anyone from trying to see him, especially after everyone had witnessed what he had done with the red stone.

His companions were already suspicious of the object, and refusing to meet them without offering any explanation would only make them more concerned. If that concern eventually reached Karius, the situation could become considerably more troublesome.

On the other hand, attempting to explain his actual condition was completely out of the question.

“Tell Malrik I need to isolate myself for a while. There’s something related to my next advancement that requires my full concentration, and I can’t afford any interruptions.”

“Your advancement?”

Darius’s tone changed immediately.

“Are you joking?”

“Do I sound like I’m joking?” Ravian asked in a bored tone.

“You bastard! If you’re really preparing to advance, why didn’t you say so in the first place?”

“Because you haven’t stopped talking long enough for me to tell you.”

Darius laughed and promised to inform Malrik, though he could not resist adding one last remark before leaving.

“If you die during your training, I’m taking your sword as compensation for all the time I’ve wasted coming here!”

“I’d rather give it to an actual bear!” Ravian shouted, making sure Darius heard him clearly.

A few seconds later, Darius’s footsteps finally receded, and silence returned to the tent.

The intruder, however, had no intention of letting the opportunity pass.

“Kekeke! Did you hear that? Looks like your friends don’t know anything about your condition.”

Ravian ignored it and attempted to get out of bed.

The task proved more difficult than he had expected. Whenever he moved his right leg, he either had to wait for his left to respond or force his body to maintain its balance using the muscles he still controlled.

Even a simple change in posture had become unnecessarily complicated. He could influence the right side of his body, but the muscles responsible for keeping him upright did not operate independently, and the intruder had little reason to cooperate whenever doing so might make his life easier.

After several attempts, he finally managed to sit down at the table.

“Aren’t you going to tell them?” the intruder asked again.

“No.”

“Why not? Perhaps your master could help you. He seems strong enough to kill me if he wanted to.”

Ravian stopped moving.

He had not told the intruder much about Karius, but he remembered that his opponent had managed to access some of his memories during their previous confrontation.

Apparently, what it had obtained was enough to learn of his master’s existence.

The possibility that it might have discovered other information was irritating, but he had no reliable way to determine how much of his memory had been exposed. Questioning the intruder directly would probably accomplish nothing beyond revealing which secrets concerned him most.

“You’re awfully interested in people who have nothing to do with you.”

The intruder laughed.

“Everything related to you belongs to me now. That’s one of the benefits of sharing a body.”

Ravian had no desire to continue arguing with the creature. There was nothing about the disgusting thing that he found remotely likable, and he knew it was deliberately trying to provoke him. Giving in to his anger would only provide another opportunity for his concentration to weaken.

Instead, he returned to studying Void of Prohibition, the cultivation book on which he had pinned all his hopes and the very reason he had chosen this particular fate.

The book offered no direct instructions for overcoming spiritual possession, but it contained theoretical explanations of the Void’s nature and how it could be used within his spiritual path.

His earlier attempts had already convinced him that he needed to revisit the fundamentals rather than continue trying to force the Law into doing what he wanted.

The Void was neither darkness nor merely the absence of matter or energy. It was negation given actual existence, and the distinction between erasing something and removing the relationship connecting it to something else was far more complicated than he had initially imagined.

That distinction was especially important in his current circumstances. The invading consciousness had already established connections throughout large portions of his soul, and simply erasing everything it touched was not an option when some of those connections might be attached to his own spiritual structure.

For that reason, Ravian also summoned the Book of Sovereign Pride to study it again, something he had not done in a very long time.

He spent the following hours analyzing the concept with Absolute Focus, reviewing what he knew about the Law and reconstructing the attempts he had made to use it during the previous confrontation.

He could not invent knowledge he did not possess, but he could compare the results he had already observed and test different interpretations of them.

And in doing so, he noticed something strange.

During some attempts, the trace of the Law successfully erased small portions of the black inscriptions, only for the intruder to spread them again shortly afterward. On other occasions, the erased areas seemed to remain clear for considerably longer, even though the amount of energy he had used was nearly identical.

He did not immediately understand why, so he decided to investigate the difference through another practical test.

Directing his attention toward a small section of his consciousness, he examined a thin black thread extending from the occupied territory to the edge of the gray ground.

After confirming that the thread did not belong to his original spiritual structure, he attempted to erase it using a limited amount of the Law of Void.

The thread disappeared, but moments later, another black inscription extended from the neighboring area and replaced it.

Ravian repeated the experiment. This time, however, he did not target the thread itself, but attempted to identify the point from which it originated.

The result was far from encouraging.

The instant the Law touched the area surrounding the connection, a sharp pain pierced his head, and a small portion of the gray ground protecting him vanished.

He stopped immediately, and several minutes passed before he could think clearly again.

“Kekeke! That’s what happens when you play around with a power you don’t understand!”

The intruder had naturally noticed his attempt.

“Did you think possessing a tiny trace of the Law meant you could do whatever you wanted?”

Ravian did not answer.

He was too occupied assessing the damage he had suffered, having realized that targeting the source of the connection was not nearly as simple as he had expected. Some of the links the intruder used had become intertwined with his spiritual structure, and attempting to erase them indiscriminately could destroy parts of his own soul.

‘Then I need to learn how to distinguish the invading force from whatever it’s attached itself to.’

It was hardly a groundbreaking discovery in theoretical terms, but it gave him a clearer direction for his next attempts.

If he continued attacking the inscriptions without understanding their connections, he would only waste his limited energy while exposing his soul to unnecessary damage. Before making another attempt, he would need to determine what distinguished a connection he could safely erase from one that had already become entangled with his consciousness.

For now, the failed experiment had provided enough information to justify the risk.

When he opened Sovereign Pride’s interface several hours later, he discovered that his comprehension had increased for the first time.

[Law of Void — Comprehension: 0.00150%]

Ravian studied the number for a while.

The increase was still too small to produce any meaningful change in his actual strength, but it was proof that his efforts had not been entirely wasted.

It also gave him a reason to continue despite the danger.

After all, he had never expected to overcome an existence like the intruder through a few experiments. What mattered was whether he could continue making progress before his opponent managed to break through the defenses protecting his soul.

And as long as that possibility remained, he had no intention of abandoning it.