[MA] 302. Test Subject Alpha (Patreon)

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[Chapters this week: 1/3

Next release: Thursday]

Abbav watched Research VFTC-3's Test Subject Alpha with interest.

The subject's mind was a complete mess. Multiple things tried to push it into unconsciousness. Others prevented it from giving up.

On the get-unconscious forefront was the tiredness and strain from the Extreme Time-Dilation Aid. The ring was formidable; it stopped people from fainting and adapted to the wearer's willpower. But there was only so much it could do after a certain threshold. It wasn't meant for long-term use. Five Standard days from now, whoever still had the artifact on would faint, a lesson the trainees were meant to learn by experiencing it. The ensuing headache would persist for weeks.

Another factor against the test subject was the tremendous amount of superimposed Law Exclusion Zones and Voided Continuums on the Void Farm. For someone with seven Laws in their True Path, like Alpha, just being there would be akin to walking on the bottom of the ocean. The pressure was already enormous before the Wild Shift made it unbearable.

The farm itself was the third factor. Entering a Stillborn Phasespace was a minor challenge, and remaining inside had turned into an extreme challenge after the Wild Shift also shifted everyone's existential anchor from Reality to that place. Without intervention, the D-ranks would die in less than a Standard day if the Wild Shift didn't end, and no one could tell how long it would last.

Lucky them, First Lieutenant Zyn had brought enough intervention to keep everyone from dying in any way other than during battle. Costly intervention, too. The Lieutenant was too soft on anyone under his care, exchanging merits for an artifact to shut people's minds down if they were about to accept getting corrupted by the Void. Without that needless expenditure, he would've already reached B-rank.

Abbav hadn't enjoyed banking half the bill for that apparatus but had gone with it. All research on people with his levels of psychopathy insisted that acts of kindness would keep him grounded, away from some lines that shouldn't be crossed. Not because he would develop feelings; he simply would understand better what a healthy mind should pursue and likely act accordingly. He disagreed with those researchers on principle because he was obviously better than any other test subject. Yet, one of the things that made him that much better was his absolute trust in properly collected cold data over any form of empiricism.

His race wasn't intrinsically psychopathic, so he would've preferred being healed, but he had been sired by the union of a yin solar dragon and a white dark fae, two paradoxical existences. He was an even greater impossibility, such a singular aberration that changing his mind in any way, even to heal him, would be his undoing.

Back to the matter at hand, on top of the previous factors, Abbav's Stress Discipline training also pressured Test Subject Alpha's mind.

Abbav pushed everyone into great fear by exploiting their brain's base vulnerabilities. Invisible light wavelengths went here, barely heard sounds passed through their ears there, qi and mana trembled ever so slightly without notice. Every biped biological creature had faulty brains, and he triggered their survival instincts. Add subtle pokes to their souls for specific discomfort and reactions and some illusions for enhanced terror, and the target would remain on edge.

He had been doing much worse to Alpha because it had considerable willpower. Still, after the Wild Shift caused the other factors to grow stronger, Alpha was pushed into outright paranoia—which, in the end, was good for everyone involved.

Lastly, there was the proximity to Void Spawn. Although Ethereal Harmonization cultivators were almost impervious to it, extended exposure or stressed minds ate one's defenses away.

All that should've already made Alpha die or at least faint. Yet, it persevered. Its impressive willpower was frankly preposterous. A weak B-rank Captain would lose in a straight willpower fight against Alpha right now.

The primary cause of that high power was the Realization Impartation that Alpha had received from the Primordial Bridge's investigators. Abbav had barely believed the subject had received something that precious as an apology for having its mind legally read. Not only had Alpha survived, but it also matured from the experience.

Then there was the Baptism of Self. Alpha's Raw Will had already covered its entire being like an infection. It could push Alpha to keep going longer after it should've given up.

The unconscious collective anti-Void survival trick also assisted Alpha with that. The test subject had unconsciously used the boost it received to temporarily improve its willpower. It helped more than should have been possible.

While all those things were impressive, some of them were unearned. Abbav's jealousy had spiked until he saw Alpha's entire life. The test subject had experienced many things that honed its willpower, surviving them with distinction. Without said experiences, all those advantages would've gone to waste or been lethal.

Facing death daily and seeking a solution without ever giving up from youth; one day waking up to find everything it knew and loved gone; adapting to the Alliance; pushing itself to D-rank in the tutorial; adapting to the times in a new human culture; surviving the Primordial's mind control and attempt murder by unlocking the highly confidential Triple-Layered Aura; dealing with the psychological backslash from killing innocents while under mental compulsion; winning the war against the gnolls and the fight against the Void Embryo; training under the drow; finding it was expelled from its clan; and so on and so forth. Its life had been a series of unfortunate events that pushed it to the brink. It always fought with everything it had. It had earned most of its victories.

Of course, there was another factor helping it, its talent, which assisted it whenever it was facing death. However, its talent hadn't been used as much as the subject and its drow former lover believed. Whatever plans Reality had for Alpha, it had only provided breadcrumbs until now. It seemed almost uncaring if it survived. From Abbav's point of view, Alpha was treated as plan B.

If Abbav had to guess, the talent would come into full effect if Alpha reached the peak of C-rank. And Abbav was guessing; his research depended on it. If the talent was triggered in all its glory before then, Alpha would never reach B-rank.

Fortunately, Abbav had never betted wrong.

Even the losses in some of his research had been within the error margin, and he kept those within Alliance research rules. Cutting-edge research required betting. That's what made it exciting. That's what gave flavor to his dull, monotonous life. To have everything so clearly set for him and so obvious from the day he was born...

But this? This was the best gamble possible. This was new. This was unpredictable without being wholly random.

This was perfect.

When the test subject did reach B-rank, the first first-class talent to ever accomplish it...

Abbav's heart beat faster just thinking about the particular dragon whose blood he would demand to fuel his advancement to A-rank.

But he had work to do to get there.

So, it was a fact that most of Alpha's wins were thanks to its tenacity and resoluteness. The test subject had been perfectly honed from childhood.

Last but not least, the induced paranoia also helped Alpha not to faint from the overwhelming pressure in his mind. It was one of the reasons Abbav used fear to train the troop's stress. Paranoia would keep them from fainting or going to sleep out of exhaustion. Most of them would remember it if they ever had to deal with something similar.

It had caused permanent harm those few times, but it was all justifiable in the pursuit of science, regardless of whether the military agreed and banned him from training or testing troops.

Good or bad, all those factors made Alpha hard to control and predict. And that was just the surface. The unconscious collective ability and the subject's unique circumstances came with extra considerations.

After reading Alpha's memories and witnessing what it had gone through when the Wild Shift happened, Abbav was now confident the unconscious collective trick had to do with the Void. The ability used, for sure, the subject's Void-taint to pull Void Energy out of non-existing Breaches. It was also certainly connected to the dragon genes in the subject's existence, tying the dragons to it beyond redemption if the research had evil intentions. Finally, Abbav was 83% sure its talent also played a part; he saw no alternative to using Void Energy, which was theoretically impossible.

Abbav, unfortunately, had no experience dealing with any of those three factors. Likewise, he didn't know how the subject being a Void Harbinger affected everything else, especially when its existence was temporarily anchored to a Stillborn Phasepace. But it did affect everything. The entire situation was volatile, and if not for the Stress Discipline training helping by coincidence, Abbav wouldn't insist on his research.

After all, the warning had been clear when the subject had tried to join the Void from a Stillborn Phasespace—while anchored to it—using a domain that would see its soul injured. That was not to be allowed, no matter what.

Fortunately, the Stress Discipline training gave Alpha's focus even amidst a storm of mental pulls and pushes. Abbav had countless years of experience dealing with test subjects affected by paranoia, which frequently happened before he found the right variables. He knew just what, how, and when to say things to have them believe what he wanted. And without direct mind control, too!

While some argued that making people terrified of you and using it to get things your way was also a form of mind manipulation, the rules begged to differ. Such an order of events was natural enough everywhere in nature, part of life, part of society, and the sociodynamics of power. The issue was that invading and directly stimulating a mind robbed the target's agency. Abbav had never crossed that line.

Instead, Alpha reacted to things Abbav did to the environment and to subtle touches to its soul here and there. Abbav had a good idea of how it would respond, of course, but three was nothing wrong with that. It was like a beautiful specimen wouldn't be blamed for smiling when they knew it would interest a viewer.

The soul pokes were a bit questionable but allowed in the military exercise. They had never broken through Alpha's soul, and he hadn't poked after reading his memories.

Unfortunately, all of Abbav's experience could only take him so far in this particular instance. His time was limited even with spacetime as distorted as he could make it. He was already one step away from stretching the rules of memory reading and self-memory erasing beyond the acceptable. He would have to forget everything soon and couldn't leave any hints for future memory-erased Abbav to do things the way he was doing. Any such guidance would be illegal.

The only exception for hints was doing something that greatly benefitted the one who had his memories read. Even then, future memory-erased Abbav would only have the direct consequences of the benefits—a subject less influenced by its Raw Will and who was no longer trying to escape—to understand what was going on.

With time limited as it was, he couldn't even explain the Will-Path Merging adequately to the subject. Attempting to say more than he had would do more harm than good because the explanation would be cut short, and Alpha would overthink things. Abbav had to keep going and hope for the best.

That was the opposite of what he was supposed to do. The Will-Path Merging was supposed to be thoroughly explained so the one undergoing it could find the proper Counterbalance Truth. Without the time for that, he split the technique into two, turning it into an assisted one.

Abbav wasn't reading Alpha's mind but would hear any Truth the subject tried to add to its Ethereal Whole. He would refuse any Truth that would see the subject explode—a Truth had to oppose the Raw Will but couldn't create a paradox. He would also reject any Truth that didn't prevent Alpha from escaping into the Void. Hopefully, Alpha wouldn't attempt too many stupid Truths out of spite. If the subject didn't find a proper Truth within the time limit after the ritual started, Abbav would have to stop it midway through, and Alpha would die.

It was regretful, but the ritual had to finish after it started. Termination would be preferable to a Truth that would let Alpha attempt escape. The warning had been unambiguous when Alpha tried it for the first time. The entire Node, with all 33 Subnodes, would be obliterated if one of Reality's Forbidden Deterrents was permanently lost to the Void because of artificially induced paranoia.

There were many reasons the Alliance stepped lightly around talents, especially the first-class ones, and punishment should anyone push the talent the wrong way was one of those.

At long last, Test Subject Alpha finished pulling every part of itself into an Ethereal Whole. Abbav used his domain and his part of the technique to tightly grip Alpha's Raw Will. That would be impossible without that technique.

Alpha then pushed a Truth into the Whole.

"The Void cannot be destroyed."

The subject's Raw Will trembled as soon as the Truth was stated. The Ethereal Whole trembled much worse, but Alpha didn't notice it. Abbav had cut any sensation from Alpha's part of the ritual. Any additional negative feedback might push the subject's mind beyond the point of no return.

"That isn't allowed," Abbav told Alpha. "Nothingness is the result of utterly destroying something. Not destroying what doesn't exist is an empty statement, even in the face of omnipotence. It doesn't serve as a Counterbalance Truth."

Alpha would overthink those words , but there was no feasible alternative. If Abbav said nothing, the subject would refuse to continue.

Abbav could only wait for Alpha to get over it and think of the next Truth.

He really hoped Alpha wouldn't die here. It would be inconvenient. At least he had enough justification to kill the subject after Reality's warning. It might not be accepted by the A-rank that was soon to arrive in La'sing, but it was a risk Abbav was willing to take. His research deserved it.

Time was ticking.

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* - * - *

‎

Shen's whole being had become a conceptual sphere. He then firmly stated his Truth into it.

"The Void cannot be destroyed."

Karlov immediately replied, "That isn't allowed. Nothingness is the result of utterly destroying something. Not destroying what doesn't exist is an empty statement, even in the face of omnipotence. It doesn't serve as a Counterbalance Truth."

Shen snickered. Of course. The Truth was too good, and Karlov was making up stupid reasons not to accept it. It hinted at the Will-Path Merging being legitimate and beneficial to Shen. Karlov simply didn't want Shen to get all the benefits he could.

So, he had to find a way to trick Karlov into accepting a similar Truth, but worded differently. That shouldn't be too difficult.

"The Void can be destroyed," Shen pushed next.

His Will was Omnipotence; destroying something that didn't exist perfectly fitted an ideal that claimed to be able to do anything. His Will would strengthen the diametrically opposing Truth. The Truth's impossibility would halt his Will after getting amplified by the Will. The system would crumble to pieces under that imbalance, which Shen liked.

Shen's Truth was so good that Karlov didn't want to accept it, so he tried to make it as mighty as possible to crush Karlov's plan.

That's what he called strategic perfection.

"That is also not allowed," Karlov said, foiling Shen's scheme. "I see what you're trying to do, and it's not that bad of an idea in healthy doses. Alas, your Truth would become too dominant. Too much imbalance."

Shen frowned, then smiled.

He had an idea.

He flared his Path, and while doing it, he pulled slightly more from True Boundlessness. It was almost impossible to focus solely on it in his conceptual sphere, but True Boundlessness was just enough of a rule-breaker to help him achieve it. It shone brightly, getting closely linked with his Will, strengthening it, making things potentially balanced again.

"That... is surprisingly doable," Karlov admitted.

Shen's frown deepened. That voice again! Too sincere! To marveled! Too obviously false!

That's what Karlov had wanted from the start! It was all a ploy! A scheme! This was the target! Karlov was aiming for his True Boundlessness somehow!

Shen tried to pull back but found he couldn't. He realized with horror that after he pushed a Truth into the Whole, only Karlov could refuse it.

"Yet, I won't allow it," Karlov continued. "No one will mention destroying the Void. It won't trigger your inner defenses and keep you from escaping."

Shen was pulling so hard that the sudden release caused a minor mental backlash. He grunted in pain. But that was fine. It was better than falling for the ploy.

And the actual plot had just been revealed!

This release had been Karlov's goal all along. The relief Shen was feeling. Karlov wanted Shen to think True Boundlessness was his goal and shy away from it!

Shen smiled again; he knew just what to do.

True Boundlessness had two parts: Truth and Boundlessness. He always focused on Boundlessness, but what if he sneaked the True bit in his Counterbalance Truth? That even sounded easy.

Karlov would certainly be too dumb to notice it.

"Omnipotence isn't real," he pushed.

That would be even better than his strategic perfection. Shen's entire being would exist solely to prove himself wrong. The only way to prove it was by accomplishing his Will in the end, omnipotence. If he truly became omnipotent, he would be able to change this Counterbalance Truth, too, no matter how impossible to accomplish it might be.

It fit Karlov's desires. Shen, himself, would always remind himself of his Truth, thus grounding him down like Karlov wanted.

Probably.

Karlov snickered. "That is stupid. You would aim to pursue with utmost drive something you absolutely believe doesn't exist. You would just implode from the logical impossibility. You have one last chance before I cancel the technique and erase your memories."

Karlov was smart. Too smart. He saw through it. He saw True Boundlessness right there, trying to sneak inside.

Shen had to think hard after that. He thought of a dozen possibilities and discarded them all.

The more Shen heard something wasn't allowed, the more his still-ignited True Boundlessness was incensed. He had to use the Law just because Karlov didn't want him to. That was obvious. That was the end goal. Even if he ended up losing his memories, he would fight for his principles to the end.

And then, he had an epiphany.

Karlov was stupid. That was a fact. So, what if Shen made it so obvious that he was going against True Boundless that the stupid Karlov wouldn't see past the Truth's shallow meaning?

And then... Shen chuckled. True Boundlessness was flaring really strongly now. The thing Shen would do with it after the Truth was accepted would either kill him or make Karlov very pissed.

"I have limits," Shen pushed.

That fit Karlov's requirements to a T. It opposed omnipotence but not as absolutely as before because he didn't outright state his power was limited, only that he had limits. It also looked like it would limit his True Boundlessness, which Karlov would like. Lastly, Karlov would assume it would work for the example he had given; if Shen considered escaping this Voided Subnode, he would have to think twice about annoying things like surviving an eternity there because he was limited by his mortality.

In fact, this Counterbalance Truth might cripple Shen's entire existence. Imagine always believing he was omnipotent but limited in some other way? How could he even fight like that? He would live a timid, pathetic life.

He would never use this Truth it if it wasn't for the gamble he was about to make.

Karlov took a while to reply this time. Ultimately, he sighed, "I failed, but at least it won't kill us all. I might as well see what becomes of your sorry existence."

The Lieutenant Specialist pushed Shen's Raw Will against his Counterbalance Truth. The Will fitted tightly into the seamless conceptual sphere that contained all of Shen. The orb seemed to have two sockets on opposing sides, each filled with a smaller half-sphere, the Raw Will and Counterbalance Truth. Roots started appearing from the Raw Will and the Counterbalance Truth, sneaking into every part of Shen in equal measures.

Shen waited a little, letting Karlov believe Shen had given up. Then, he flared True Boundlessness with everything he had. That everything included the extra strength provided by the Raw Will of Omnipotence. Shen wasn't supposed to be able to control it directly, but it was currently part of the sphere under his control.

Karlov could stop Shen if he were paying attention...

...but he wasn't.

A third socket appeared in the conceptual globe, and his Truth and Will shifted to become equidistant to it and each other. That third, smaller socket was empty at first. Then, the opposite of what was happening in the other sockets occurred. Roots came from the socket's bottom, filling it with the new part that defined Shen's existence: True Boundlessness.

It became much more than a mere Law in his Path.

That shouldn't be possible, but he was omnipotent, he was Truly Boundless, and while he had limits, they weren't there; he could do this.

Pain filled every part of his being. His soul threatened to split apart. He felt Reality itself pressure him, but it felt like a distant echo. He almost went crazy and incapable of thinking.

Yet, Shen laughed wildly, for he only focused on one single thing throughout the agony: he had done it. He had screwed Karlov over.

And then, terror struck.

His now-intrinsically Truly Boundless Self started unraveling itself.

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