Somnus stood in his Paradise. His avatar had ascended! He had fused EVERY multiverse. He had created a dream realm that was truly his own. His consciousness was no longer like that of a human. He had surpassed gods! A supreme being that ruled above all!
He sat on his throne and waved his hands.
"Mental energy? Pathetic!"
"Through my declaration. Let there be..."
Somnus created his own energy system!
"Dream force!"
Somnus subconsciously rotated his visualization technique.
[ECHO]: Stage 370 - 25%
"Wait..."
"This is impossible."
"If I became a supreme being. A top hidden existence. Why is my technique not complete?"
It was at this moment. The illusion shattered! Somnus woke up from his daze. He found that he left the ship. It had been punctured by rocks and started to sink. Beautiful women were singing on an island. Somnus saw his crew swim towards them. They completely abandoned the boat.
"I was almost tricked!"
"All of that was just an illusion."
This was Somnus's first encounter with sirens. Through their songs. The target would enter an illusion where their deepest desires came true.
Atesh called out to his crew. But the captains head exploded like a watermelon as the 'women' ate it in a single bite. Their true form was revealed. It was like a monster.
But everyone had goofy smiles on their face as they rushed to death.
Only Somnus escaped this fate.
He was almost drowned by the waves.
"I will be exhausted to death before finding another island. My only hope is swimming towards those creatures..."
"Luckily, I regained some energy by using devour."
Somnus closed his eyes as he was submerged in the water. He focused on his pendent. It had become his mental energy server prototype.
When he used 'devour' earlier. He had absorbed the energy particles powering the formation. This mixed with a small amount of his mental energy.
"Dream force..."
"Although what I experienced was just an illusion. Perhaps I can achieve it? The illusion itself had things only I knew about. Perhaps my subconscious wants to create this type of energy!"
"But I have no idea how to create this dream force... my illusion was too vague."
Somnus vigorously swam towards the sirens.
They looked like women covered in feathers. Their jaws opened up wide enough to fit a human head within. They thought Somnus was still in their illusion.
Soon. Somnus arrived.
Somnus pretended to be in a trance as he staggered towards a siren. Just as they were about to eat him. he dashed away. He ran for his life.
"I do have a legendary skill. But using it will put me into a coma for a small period of time."
"During that time. They would be able to kill me many times over."
Soon... Somnus was in a forest.
He was taking a break and leaning on a tree. But something was wrong. This tree looked as if it was a person transformed into a tree. It had the shape of a human, but with roots and leaves.
It wrapped its hands around him!
It started to crush him. He felt his ribs break and puncture his lungs. He started to cough up blood as it became extremely hard to breathe.
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His vision became blurry as the pressure increased.
He started to slam his head into the face of the tree. But it refused to let him go.
"It's... a dead end."
He slowly lost consciousness.
His eyes closed as if he was dead.
But then they opened. They were completely bloodshot.
His body burst into flames. An application of using the energy particles mixed with mental energy. He had no time to distinguish between friend and foe. He was burned all over. The tree screeched and let go. He stumbled forward still on fire.
As he moved forward. He felt his thinking slow down.
His life was flashing before his eyes. The ground was covered in blood he had coughed up. This blood landed soaked into the ground.
"Join us! Join us!"
Roots started to wrap around the feet of Somnus.
His feet started to look like bark. Every step he took required an immense amount of willpower. He continued to burn the energy stored in his pendent.
"Ahhhhh!"
The feeling of getting burned alive made his thinking messy.
"I can't keep this up! I'll be burned alive if this continues!"
In his panic. He didn't notice that this entire time. He was being watched by an elf.
The forest was set ablaze and the screams of these tree people rang in his ears. But soon his energy ran out.
He crawled forward...
"Heal! Heal!"
He tried to forcefully transform his body using mental energy. But his control of mental energy was unstable. Not to mention, he had none at the moment!
He leaned against a boulder and smiled.
"It's over..."
His lungs were punctured. His brain was barely getting enough oxygen. He had severe burns all over his body. His feet had turned to burnt wood.
He whispered.
"What is this place...?"
He held out his arm and used 'Devour'.
But there was nothing to absorb. The energy particles in the air weren't very concentrated. There also wasn't a formation over this part of the land.
This legendary skill was useless in this situation!
He died.
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What exactly is death? Is it when the heart stops? Is it when the person becomes brain dead? Somebody on life support can 'live' for a long time while being braindead. Somebody who's heart has stopped can be resuscitated.
As long as the brain hasn't completely been destroyed. Advanced enough technology can bring a person back. But Somnus was in a mystical land. He hadn't seen any technology or other people here besides sirens and those weird tree people.
What if you uploaded your consciousness to a server? Making yourself like an artificial intelligence. When your body finally died. Would you have truly?
At this junction of life and death.
Somnus wasn't simply seeing his life flash before his eyes. He was looking for a way out.
"Immortality hasn't been acquired yet."
"I cannot regenerate using mental energy."
"My spiritual body is completely fused with this body now. I cannot abandon it as I lack an independent consciousness."
"My heart has stopped."
"My blood has stopped flowing."
"Organs are failing."
"But my brain... it hasn't failed yet! A normal person would have lost consciousness as their brain rapidly fired off its neurons..."
"I have lost consciousness. But I have my unique characteristic."
"I am still lucid."
Somnus started to perform calculations.
"Based on the speed of my thinking... I'll let Echo calculate how long I have left."
[ECHO]: Time until complete brain death: 2 minutes and 3 seconds!
Somnus's mental body was in complete darkness. But he was rapidly solving puzzles and thinking of a way to survive.
"I didn't want to have to do this. But you've left me with no choice!"
"Path of Somnus: God's Death!"
Immediately, Somnus used his imagination to manifest a book in his mental space. He flipped through the technique that he had memorized.
[ECHO]: Time until complete brain death: 2 minutes an 1 second!
Step 13: Hidden Existence
Somnus quickly read through this step.
"In this step. You discard the soul for something greater. Normal people have one thread of consciousness. When they die. This thread returns to nothingness."
"From the nothingness they came from. That is where they will return."
"In this step, you lose your will, consciousness, and soul."
Somnus didn't care about his soul. It was artificial either way.
[ECHO]: Time until complete brain death: 1 minute an 57 seconds!
"Instead of relying on a thread that will one day disappear. You must create an eternal thread!"
Somnus started to manifest his consciousness and visualization technique.
[ECHO]: Time until complete brain death: 1 minute and 30 seconds!
"I lack a source castle..."
"Time to improvise!"
Some people can use willpower and adrenaline to perform feats that they normally would never be able to do.
"My main body was once rejected by nonexistence. But it has no idea that I am the 'virus'. I just need to trick it again!"
That's right! Somnus planned on devouring abyss to heal his body!
Soon. His soul dipped into nonexistence. It locked onto his naked existence and tried to erase him. He had to time this perfectly.
He ran away! Metaphysically!
The abyss locked onto his existence and was connected to reality. Instead of branding his consciousness on nonexistence and becoming a hidden existence. He knew he wouldn't be able to do this once it realized what it was dealing with.
[ECHO]: Time until complete brain death: 1 minute and 10 seconds!
Nonexistence connected with his body.
"Devour!"
Somnus consumed nonexistence itself! This was like the energy of laws. It circulated through his pendent as the energy was stored.
He then manipulated this energy!
His body started to rapidly heal. But reality noticed this and tried to 'ban' him. So he cut the connection!
[ECHO]: Time until complete brain death: 15 seconds!
His soul had been damaged. His foundation was shaky. He was not feeling well. But his body had been transformed by the abyssal energy.
[ECHO]: Crisis resolved!
Somnus opened his eyes and breathed a sigh of relief.
"I doubt I'll be able to trick nonexistence a third time. I need to be more careful. This land is very weird."