Josh and Sen reappeared on the Hegemon-4, one of over two thousand ships owned by Sen’s grandfather, Zenyak. Vast and powerful, the ship was the size of continental Africa, and somehow still had lines saying it was built for speed. They had returned to the same empty training room where they had used Gaia’s Earth crystals to gain their Earth Attunement. Likely the same cots and same ten-inch pillows had again been laid out in the large vacant space.
Their interfaces suddenly chimed in unison.
Item of Power obtained.
Item of Power: Ip’pul Fruit
Quality: Unique
Provides Mind Attunement.
A 100% probability of increasing your Core and free Essence capacity by 1000%
A 100% probability of increasing the propagation of Essence utilization rate by 1000%.
An increased probability of being able to manipulate psychic Essence outside your Meridians.
Further increase the Essence capacity of your Core and Meridians by increasing your Cultivation.
You do not yet have this Attunement. Do you wish to absorb Ip’pul fruit?
The Clone’s deep and certain voice interrupted before Josh could even make a mental choice.
“Absorb the fruits.”
The reported upgrades the Ip’pul fruit would provide seemed off the rails. Josh was curious to see these changes and what other changes the second Attunement of Spherical Cultivation brought... but there was only one priority for him right now.
~We’re back on the Hegemon! Sophie and Alysa!~
~Yes, brother... we will speak with Alysa about Sophie as soon as we are finished here.~
Josh sat at the end of his cot and looked at the Ip’pul. It filled his splayed fingers and was roughly the size of a softball, its deep-violet color appealed to something deep inside of his being.
When was the last time I ate anything?
Then, as if compelled by forces outside his control, Josh started to devour it.
Flavor exploded across his tongue. Tangy, tart, and so sweet it drove Josh to get more and more in his mouth. Before Josh realized it, he was eating bite after bite. Stem, core—there were even some almond-shaped seeds that he chewed through.
As he ate, he began to feel like he saw everything around him more clearly and in much greater detail. It was as though his consciousness were expanding. He felt connected to Sen, the Clone, the cot he was lying on, the individual tiles covering the floor around him... He was part of everything—connected to the molecules that made up Reality, the atoms and subatomic particles that the molecules consisted of. Suddenly Josh was...
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Somewhere else. Everywhere else.
He floated in the only space he had ever known. Darkness was all around. The sound of a steady and strong beating was his constant companion. Every so often, he would hear the sweetest thing he knew. It was regularly irregular in its cadence and timbre. Did it have a meaning? A purpose? Was there something greater and deeper attached to these sounds? How could he know? All he knew was that he could hear the beautiful sounds and they made him happy and safe.
Months passed and he grew limbs that moved. Not to his commands, sadly, but he could feel them when they shifted, and they felt right. They felt as though they were a part of him that should move.
Months more passed, he continued to hear, to feel... and suddenly, there was pressure, firm and regular. It was awful and forceful, as though something were trying to evict him from his home and happiness. He was squeezed over and over again. Then he was out! Cold, slick, wet... something touched him, pulled on his limbs and then the brightness came. Pain! But for the first time, he could recognize where all the beautiful-happy-safe sounds came from...
She was even more wonderful than he could have ever imagined. He had the power of sensation. This was as it should be. He was the Mind.
The scene changed and the heat was unbearable. Flames were everywhere. All ways blocked by walls of fire and thick black layers of lung-clogging smoke. The rafters of the wooden building cracked above as fire ate the strength needed to hold the weight of the burning roof above them. When it fell... certain death would follow. He slammed through the heat-jammed door that kept him from his little boy. The hair on his head caught fire. Skin sizzled and melted on his arm, head, and back. A rush of heat and flaming timbers rained down as he grabbed his son and barreled through the second-story window. The sobbing boy was shifted onto his chest. His body would be a cushion when they hit the ground. Would he survive... he didn’t know... this was his son’s only chance. That was what mattered. He had the Will to overcome pain and fear of death. This was as it should be.
He was the Mind.
The scene changed.
Josh presided over the same world he had every day since his instigation. Where he had been for hundreds of thousands of years. Many years of expansion and then ultimately, many more of contraction that led to extinction. House by house, block by block, cities grew into countries, countries to the unification of the world. Births of billions upon billions. He knew their names, actions, achievements, and failures. He was aware of their communications, writings, and the trillions of terabytes of media and art. He knew the mistakes they had made as youths in school, as men at work, and as leaders that strode the world. Even the actions that led to their inevitable diminution and final complete expungement as a race. The creations they lost. The beauty they destroyed. The hopes the last few had of continued existence, and the faces of those responsible for their final and assured destruction. Josh knew it all as the planet’s AI. Now these things were known only to him. But he would not forget. He had the power of Remembrance. This was as it should be.
He was the Mind.
Josh was a woman running down a dark alley, her pursuers just behind. She opened a door and, instead of running in, hunched quietly behind a dumpster on the other side of the alley. Her chasers charged through the doorway... unseen, she slipped away.
He was a youth walking through sun-drenched fields composing a love poem for the beauty in his life.
Josh was Conscious Thought.
He was the biosynth consciousness of a fleet of starships performing trillions of calculations a day to keep the ships on course through the singularity portals between galaxies.
He was a six-legged house pet that whined under the table for something sweet.
This was as it should be.
He was the Mind.
The scene changed.
He was an ancient elder, wheeled by caretakers to the top of the hill outside his country house for late afternoon sunlight. His joints ached even as he sat still. He hadn’t spoken more than single-syllable grunts in years. Unable and unmotivated to spend the energy. But his eyes tracked the butterflies that fluttered above the plants as they sought each other out. He watched the birds soar as insects were caught or bits of straw were carried to nests. His mind joined them in flight, in painless, carefree movement and fearless activity. Hawks dove from unreachable heights and leveled out over the grass to catch a helpless rodent that couldn’t scurry fast enough. This was as it should be.
Josh was Imagination.
I am the Mind.
I am Sensation, Will, Memory, Thought, and Imagination. Being the Mind, all things are possible!
Gasping into wide-eyed consciousness, Josh sat up as he first felt and then saw Sen doing the same. For a split second, he continued to feel connected to everything around him—to be a part of Reality’s perfect imperfection and to understand what was complete and what was missing.
He knew.
Then it faded, pulled from between his clenched fingers, and suddenly, he was only Josh again.
I wonder if that was a taste of Immortal consciousness...
A truly great question, he admitted to himself, but Josh shook his head and let his lips flap as he exhaled to wake himself fully... I have bigger fish to fry.
The Clone stood over them at the foot of their cots. Josh looked over to Sen, who seemed to be recovering from a similar residual acid-trip flashback.
Josh nodded. ~Let’s go!~
~Agreed—~