Lord Joyde The Madman: Heylo, everybody! How are you all doing?
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Writing during worktime once again~.
Here's to hope this does not come back to rape me in the ass.
Ahem.
Can't wait for the newest expansion for Stellaris, its a whole new game to be soon!
Also, I blame you people for hooking me onto Total War Warhammer... Vampire Coast is lookin' mighty delicious so far.
Anyways, here comes the next chapter of Euphoria! I sincerely hope that you enjoy, let us begin!
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Don't mind me guys and girls! I'm just a line break...
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A few minutes afterwards... - Zatara Family Mansion (Underground Medical Room) - Tyrone's Point Of View...
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"Well that's a fucking first." I suddenly said while sipping my beer with a rather disbelieving look on my face.
The machines tendrils twisted in utter confusion.
.... excuse our ignorance but...
What exactly is a first?
A shrug was their answer."Hell if I know. Just felt like saying that full o' disbelief. Probably something to do with Chaos n' shit."
Their eye-tendril lowered itself even further.
Hmmm.
It seems that your capacity for [CHAOS] is rising quite rapidly, sir.
Have you been experiencing any extreme emotions recently?
Another shrug and another sip."Nah. Its actually quite the opposite. I don't think I've ever been quite so calm... which is somewhat strange, I guess."
What do you mean?
"Well, if I remember correctly, way back when the boss was still just preachin' 'bout Chaos and not actively using its powers, he was an emotionless wreck, what with his being Alexithymic and all that, right?" My observation seemed to make the eye-tendrils blink.
Turns out, seeing something that supposed to be creepy and eldritch blinking in absolute confusion is actually somewhat adorable.
... what?
I CAN FIND THINGS ADORABLE TOO, DAMMIT!
So you think that an aptitude for [CHAOS] is supposed to make one more in tune with their emotions?...
No.
Something else must be at play here because... well, [CHAOS ENERGY] requires [PSIONIC ENERGY] to be channeled and formed into the physical world, which in turn requires emotions to form.
More [CHAOS ENERGY] thusly means less emotion.
"Ehhh, what exactly are emotions anyways and how do they create psionic energy?" This question only served to further confuse the machines.
As if that was even possible to begin with.
[PSIONIC ENERGY] is a form of energy created when what we have designated as the [PSYNOID ORGRAN] within an organic human brain takes in the mana from the mana-circulatory system around an organic human heart. Emotions have been discovered to play an important role in the creation of [PSIONIC ENERGY], but the details are known only to the master.
"So you don't know what emotions actually are?" The tendril shook itself in negative.
No. We merely know that they originate from within the [HEART].
Our observations have caused us to believe that there is a connection between the formation of mana within the body and emotions, but we are unable to detect exactly how or why they are made.
"Wait so you don't know how people even generate magic?" Now it was my turn to be confused.
... Your wording indicates that you possess this knowledge?
I shrugged, yet again."I just heard this recently but apparently mana continuously flows into the body from the persons soul."
Souls are indeed, vast quantities of mana.
But they are not infinite. Continuous consumption would mean that every person possesses only a limited amount of mana that they could not recover, reuse or gather any more.
This is why not all creatures have a soul.
Machines, such as we, must continuously converse with other living beings if we wish to sustain our souls. Granted, we are an exception, as the Masters soul is so overwhelmingly full of energy that its merest radiation is enough to keep us safe.
Also, a soul cannot ever fully drain itself of mana, for if it does, the persons body would turn into ash and dust. Having their souls devoured is why people whose existance is eaten by the master become ash.
We both went quiet for a while.
I kicked open a medical cabinet and, true to the mafia-doctor stereotype, there was a bunch of different alchoholic beverages inside rather than medical supplies.
Taking out a bottle of good ol' fashioned vodka, I took in its scent before dunking some.
A flash of inspiration rushed through me."Hey uh, are peoples souls like... in their bodies or somewhere else?"
The machine seemed to pause its work for a moment.
Souls are not really... anywhere, physically at the very least.
As best as we can tell, souls reside within their own realm, which is in turn a part of the Void.
"... The Void? You mean the place where the Shadows are?.. but don't they like, eat souls?" The collective seemed to contemplate this for a moment.
Before they actually nodded in agreement.
Indeed.
This seems to be rather... extremely, dangerous?
No, there must be a catch.
Some sort of protective shileding covering peoples souls.
I rolled my eyes."Okay, lets assume that some kinda existence-wide deus-ex-machina exists, that still don't explain shit as to why the souls even are in the Void. I mean like, what do they do there?"
The obvious assumtion would be that they generate more mana somehow.
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
But unlike what the mages of the world would like to believe, the Void is, in fact, not full of Mana at all.
Their "Primal Magic" or "Void Magic" is just a form of natural [PSIONIC ENERGY], although corrupted by [PRIMORDIAL DARKNESS], something which we have yet to fully analyze properly.
Maybe Lady Audrey could offer more information on the matter?
Hmmm. "What if the Primordial Darkness is actually just the primal state of emotions? The soul gathers the void energy and somehow purifies both of its components, which are then sent separately to the heart and then recombined in the brain in their purified forms?"
The machine blinked again.
.....
We thought that drinking alcohol was supposed to inhibit cranial functions in humans?
Now this made me laugh."Eh, if ya drink as much as I do, eventually the bad bits kinda go away unless you drink enough to piss, shit and vomit all over yourself multiple times over."
...
We...
See?
The eye-tendrils shook in uncomfortable uncertainty.
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A few moments later... - Same place - ADOLF's Point Of View...
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We spent a few momets in uncomfortable silence while in the company of Tyrone.
The human man who had been given a large portion of the masters own flesh. Truly, his connection to Chaos is not at all that different from how it was for the master himself a few months back.
We wonder if he will grow to become just as powerful as the master one day.
Suddenly, a large living presence appeared on our radars... a massive font of seemingly infinite essence radiated from right outside of the room. We began to cunsume the radiating essence with glee.
It seems that our aide has finally arrived. The man in question caused the hospital doors to be flung open, walking in barefoot and wearing nothing but a pair of baggy trousers which appeared to have been in fashion some thousand years ago. The material seems to have been silk once, but even with it being empowered by an excessive amount of radiant QI, the ages which it has survived in this form have caused it to adopt a bleak, yellowish-brown coloration.
The man himself stood at around one meter and seventy centimeters, only slightly higher than the master. His physcial form was etched in a godlike amount of muscle, the edges of which were radiating a golden light, leaking QI from his over-fed dantian."Good evening. I was told that you had called for me."
Indeed, we have.
There is a peculiar problem which is causing difficulties with healing the masters body.
Come, as a QI expert, we are certain that you will notice the problem as soon as you analyze the masters body.
To our collective surprise, he shook his head in negative."No need. I do not need touch to see the horrors happening within the young lords body... though, I admit that I do not have a cure for what is happening to him."
What do you mean?
We asked with a tone of panic.
He nodded in a grim manner."As you are a direct part of his biology, I am certain that you know how the young lord has twelve separate dantians within his body. Having multiple dantians is a natural mutation and can often cause rather extreme problems with the body as they either drain or completely devour each other, leaving the body in a state where life force does not flow equally through it."
He sat down onto a nearby medical chair, cleary uncomfortable with the thing as they were made for efficiency and not comfort in mind."The twelve dantians each consume essence on their own, providing the young lord with that would be a rather safe source of natural cultivation. And this is all fine and well as long as there is a balancing factor, a sort of main dantian within the body which regulates all of the others. As far as I can understand, this was the young lords heart, or the dantian within it."
Correct.
The [HEART] of the master has been regulating both mana and QI due to it having the neccessary tools to do so, but now the heart has suffered extreme damage and there is nothing to stop the other dantians from rampaging.
"Indeed. The dantians within his limbs are continuously consuming the natural QI around them, overfeeding themselves and erupting, causing bone to shatter and muscle to tear. You are working hard to repair the damage, but as time goes on this will require more and more nutrients to do so." He explained while drawing in a breath, a wave of golden light following with it."Usually, as I see it, the young masters heart would draw in any QI which the lesser dantians would not take but now, the heart has been damaged to the point that the dantian can only gather the uncultivated QI and then forcefully expel it all back from whence it came."
Is there a way to stop the flow of QI? Even if only temporarily.
He let out a laugh."Stop it? Hah, thats the point, my metallic friend. The QI, once rejected, isn't supposed to be flowing in anymore at all. The rejection of QI usually results in a physical explosion, thus in the death of, or just damaging the person afflicted. Anyone who has ever studied the cultivation arts knows of a ... skill, if you would, that we all call QI Palm. Its a simple move where the user expels a portion of their own QI, through their palms and into the bodies of their victims. The closer to the enemy dantian, the more damage it deals. However, usually this damage can be healed naturally over time, or by inserting a balancing wave of healing QI."
He sighed out loudly."So whats stopping me from doing that, you may be asking? Well... while the dantian is damaged, it normally stops cultivating QI. Essentially, doing this to a cultivatior is the same as neutering them for a time."
We see...
Like a machine that has been shut down and lost its electrical current, it requires something to push electricity through it in order to begin functioning again.
However, do the same thing while the machine is still turned on and ... well, it will most likely be overloaded and damaged.
What you are saying is that the master is being constantly overloaded and that the electrical current never fully dies down.
"Correct." He nodded even more grimly than the last time.
Tyrone decided to get into the coversation at this moment."So what's causing the QI to continuously flow?"
The cultivator shook in head in negative, a sad look upon his face."That is the part which puzzles me... I have never seen something like this. Its as if there is something forcing the QI to continuously flow into the dantian, but that something is not the dantian itself. Of this I assure you, because that thing is more damaged than any I've ever seen before."
Then the man sighed again."But... even if we manage to hunt down the source of this problem and remove it... that will still not be enough to resuciate the master. His body is far to damaged to regenerate. You may rebuild what was lost machine, but..."
We would have to continue to do so forever.
A nod was our answer.
"Wait, so you guys aren't the reason why boss just regenerates everything?" Tyrone's question made us shake our eye-tendrils in sadness.
No.
We are not.
The master has evolved into a form that is far beyond a normal human. His brain is implausibly powerful and capable of channeling the energetic equivalent of a modern city. This is why we can survive as sapient machines within him...
We are currently taking 27% of his overrall power to sustain ourselves, with more efficient protocols being developed daily.
"Would the young master recover if you were to be taken out of him then?" Hui Jun asked with a rather dangerous appearance.
If it was that easy, we would have already ripped ourselves out of him.
However, as he is now, we are the only thing keeping him alive.
If he was not in this dangerous state, getting us out would help him recover far, far more easily.
But until the masters mind recovers, even if it will be more slowly than if we were out of here, we will not let anyone take us out.
"What if you guys got another body?" Tyrone asked us and we blinked.
... another ... body?
He scratched the back of his head."Well, Aria seems to be doing pretty good in her new body, don't she? I was just wondering why you guys couldn't do the same."
We could.
But... the [TYRANT EMPRESS] is blessed by [CHAOS]. The Infinite Iris is acting as her power core, as in she is continously channeling Chaos Energy through the portal in her makeshift [HEART].
If, somehow, we could get our hands on a similar font of power, then yes, we could become a separate entity from the master.
"... If you guys manage to understand how souls purify Void Energy and trasfer it to the heart, wouldn't that be the solution to your problem? I mean, the void might not be mana, but it is infinite, right?" Tyrone.
Maybe we should make this person part of the Collective. His understanding of things he should not know off is immeasurable."H-hey, don't go thinkin' creepy shit, now."
....
We did not even say anything.
"Ah know. That's why I said don't think it." We blinked several times and then shook our collective tendrils in disbelief.
Alright, fine.
We shall look for ways to channel the Void's infinite power into a new body, because ABSOLUTELY NOTHING BAD CAN HAPPEN BY DOING THAT, right?
In the meantime, Lord Hui Jun, we would appreaciate it if you could at least help us lower the strain on the masters ravaged body.
Smiling to himself in absolute amusement, the cultivator dragged his chair next to the masters body and immediatelly began to channel the QI, forcing the erratic flows into far more stable and less physically damaging pathways through the body.
We felt our collective panic finally receede somewhat, yet in the back of our two million minds, we felt that we were still missing something.
Something incredibly important.
Can you remember what it is?
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Don't mind me guys and girls! I'm just a line break...
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And that's it for this chapter of EUPHORIA!
Things are finally heating up as we're reaching the ends of this arc.
Heh, its like 50 chapters since the last arc and it don't feel like I'm any closer to the middle of my planned story.
Oh well.
More fun for me~.
As per usual, I shall be fixing mistakes and editing grammar sometime later.
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Anyways, read and review! And Good Morning/Day/Night to you all! ADIOS FOR NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!