After calming down from this loss, Guts made sure that Casca was alright, then found a horse left behind by the Kushan assassins and mounted it with Casca before riding off into the sunset. The people, of course, tried to follow him, but there was only one horse. Plus, Guts boldly charged straight into the approaching regular army of the Kushan Empire. None of the others could boast of such recklessness, so they decided to flee in the opposite direction.
Meanwhile, Guts, accompanied by me and Puck, fought his way through the army of thousands, killing anyone who dared to approach him within the reach of his blade. He effortlessly deflected all arrows and spears with his sword, as his enhanced reflexes and strength allowed him to even deflect bullets and tank shells if necessary.
After two days, the couple reached the blacksmith's shop, which had been Casca's home for the past two years. Here, Guts was greeted with the news that the old blacksmith had died shortly after his departure, having exerted himself in the process of restoring the sword. But the swordsman didn't have any particular regrets about it. After everyone celebrated Casca's return and exchanged the latest news, I "lured" Guts to a secluded place to have a serious conversation.
"Guts, do you want Casca to regain her sanity, right?" - I asked him.
"What? You... you can do that?" - The hero-lover immediately became anxious.
"I can" - I nodded solemnly. - "I just thought that if you were to remain trapped in this hole, taking care of a madwoman, soon I would go mad as well. Out of boredom. And you understand what the consequences of my madness could be for all of you, right?"
After hearing my words, Guts involuntarily trembled.
"When can you help her?" - he asked anxiously.
"Today" - I replied. - "The cave where you keep Casca will suffice. Although I must warn you, complete healing is unlikely. I can block all memories associated with that night, but along with them, something else may also be blocked. But it will still be better than the current situation."
"Alright. I'll make sure no one interrupts us."
"Excellent."
Morally preparing one victim, I began to prepare for the "repairing" the second. Casca's story was quite typical. Her mind couldn't handle the weight of the events of that night, so she blocked out all her memories. Without her memories, her level of intelligence dropped to that of a one-year-old child. Over the past two years, her "new" consciousness had developed slightly, but it should be noted that children learn much faster than adults. So, using "natural" methods, the ability to act meaningfully would only emerge in Casca in old age.
Putting the patient into a deep sleep, I connected to her consciousness and started to figure out what baggage of thoughts and knowledge I would need and what I wouldn't. However, it soon became clear that my predictions were somewhat hasty. Yes, Casca had lost her memories. Yes, this happened partly because she wanted to forget all the horrors she had experienced. However, the main cause of her condition was a demon that had taken root in her soul. The situation was similar to Guts', but there were also differences.
This demon did not want to coexist with another consciousness in the host's body. Why hide in the folds of paradise when it could destroy everything and become the sole ruler of the desolate wasteland? That's how this demon thought. And when Casca decided to forget everything and opened up, it tore her personality into tiny fragments.
I had to conduct an "inventory" of all these fragments of her personality to understand how to piece together a mosaic from this mess, creating an original picture rather than something horrifying like Bosch's style. It quickly became apparent that I could assemble her personality by following a specific scenario in her dream world. I had to gather one piece at a time until, in the end... the demon would emerge and devour the naive fools who stepped into its territory and accepted its rules of the game. And even if someone managed to defeat the demon, the personality assembled in this way would be infinitely loyal to Griffith. Well, what a nice surprise. I do love surprises like that.
But I didn't bother with solving the proposed puzzle and decided to resort to my favorite argument - the power of... the mind. Ultimately, when restoring a personality, we were only talking about restoring the astral body. The girl's soul was more or less intact, if we don't take into account the Brand of Sacrifice, of course. Currently, her soul was suppressed, and her ability to use memories recorded at the soul level, rather than the astral body, was minimal. So, by "collecting" the necessary astral consciousness and suppressing the demon, I would obtain Casca's personality with the desired settings.
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The demon had mixed up the fragments of the astral personality matrix and established a certain algorithm of "spinning in reverse." But I had another way to understand how it all originally was. I could examine the astral body from a higher level and assemble it, guided by the pattern that was visible to the "host" soul. We can make an analogy that personality is like an eggshell. The demon painted this egg in a hodgepodge manner, then crushed the shell into pieces and mixed them up. However, the shell had two sides - external and internal. I could use the "view from the inside" to determine the correct position of each piece. For demons and external observers, this "internal pattern" was too complex. But for me, this task was not a big deal.
I "returned" to the material world, waved my hand, and a large piece of Vritras' body materialized next to me, which immediately took the form of a marble altar adorned with golden skulls and merciless angels, according to their status. A second wave of my hand moved Casca onto this altar, while inside this structure, a powerful quantum computer formed, operating with Ancient technologies.
Guts became a little concerned by the appearance of such "props," but I found a task for him as well. After all, the demon had already sensed my attention and was now restlessly stirring in its "lair," preparing for a confrontation.
"Listen me" - I said to Guts. - "Soon, a demon will appear in this room who will try to interfere with me. Your task is to distract it. Not to defeat it, not to beat it down, but to distract it, preferably by portraying that you are literally one step away from death but can't die properly. Therefore, you must not use your sword, and try to depict wounds on your body, squeeze out your guts, and so on. Understood?"
“M-m-m, yeah.” - The swordsman nodded skeptically.
“Okay, then I'll start. The preparation will take some time, so don't relax too much. It might take a couple of hours before the most interesting part begins.”
With that, I switched back to perceiving the astral and spiritual levels of existence and got to work. First, I needed to analyze each "piece" of the astral matrix of Casca's personality and calculate how these pieces should be connected to each other. That's why I needed the computer.
The demon naively believed that only he knew how to "correctly" restore Casca's consciousness. But I knew that the “scientific trial and error” method worked even in cases where it's not clear what's going on at all. And it was quite easy to "combine" all possible combinations of connecting the puzzle pieces for the computer. After about an hour, all the puzzle pieces came together, and I started deciding which memories and behavioral patterns I needed and which ones could be discarded.
My goal was to obtain a Casca who would be in love with Guts, capable of dealing with simple demons, and dreaming of children, a home, and a peaceful life. This didn't quite match the original personality, so I had to creatively tweak some things. Finally, this part of the plan was ready, and within a few seconds, the computer calculated the algorithm for restoring the personality from its current state. However, there was a demon standing in the way of the patient's recovery, and Guts had to deal with it. As they say, leave the job to professionals.
"It's starting now" - I gave a signal to my "bodyguard" and then pretended to try to enter Casca's consciousness and "awaken" her. However, I didn't actually enter her dream world, but rather manipulated it from a distance with a long stick, preferring to "stir the shit" from afar.
Of course, the demon didn't like this and decided to come out and punish the intruder. But since the demon itself was quite dull and acted more on instinct, once it manifested in the material world, it "aggressively targeted" the biggest and scariest opponent, which was Guts. And while the eternal "struggle of a beaver against a donkey" was taking place, I quietly began the procedure of restoring Casca's personality. It took another ten minutes.
Finally, everything was ready externally, but Humpty Dumpty didn't want to "come alive" even when assembled together. Some external impulse was needed to kickstart consciousness and "convince" it that it was whole.
"Guts, call Casca" - I said to my loyal sidekick, who strictly followed Stanislavsky's teachings and was currently engaged in a bloody battle with the demon, scattering guts and blood around the room. - "Call her in a way that she can hear you even in hell. We have a direct line of communication, but the volume isn't enough."
"CASCA!!!!!!!" - Guts roared, sending waves of emotions. Even I was almost touched by it.
The fragments trembled and then merged together, forming a conscious personality connected to the soul. At that moment, I cast a sealing spell on the demon, imprisoning it in a personal dimension within the girl's soul. It was a temporary solution, but according to my calculations, it would last at least fifty years. And fifty years is a whole human lifetime. Well, that should do.
"Guts?" - Casca looked around in confusion, trying to get up from the altar.
"Stay down, lady" - I reassured her, pressing her against the stone infused with binding magic. - "The healing process is not yet complete. Just hold on for another fifteen minutes."