Chapter 260 The Surviving Consciousness

Several hours had passed since Ravian fell from his chair, and nothing from inside the closed tent suggested that its occupant was still alive.

His body lay sprawled across the floor, his right arm resting beside him while his left stretched toward the table he had leaned against before collapsing. His breathing was so faint that anyone observing him from a distance might have mistaken him for a corpse that had yet to grow cold.

But Ravian was neither dead nor unconscious in the conventional sense. Deep within his soul, he was still capable of thought.

His consciousness no longer resembled what it had been before he read the inscriptions on the stone tablet. Most of the gray ground had disappeared beneath layers of black writing, and the strange gateways that had emerged during the possession now extended far into the distance. The territory he could still control had contracted to a small area surrounding his Soul Crown.

The gray crown, with its two crimson gems, remained suspended above him as before, but the pressure it exerted was no longer sufficient to prevent the invading force from approaching.

Nevertheless, the assault had stopped.

Ravian noticed this after regaining enough clarity to think properly, though he was careful not to mistake it for a victory. He knew that the possibility he had selected through Sovereign Paradox had not involved eliminating the intruder, but rather preserving his soul’s existence despite the possession.

At least that part of the outcome had been achieved.

That distinction was important. The possibility he had selected offered him a chance to survive, but it had not promised that he would retain control over his body or prevent the invading consciousness from continuing its advance. He had chosen it because every other possibility he could identify had been leading toward the destruction of his consciousness, leaving him with no reason to expect a more favorable outcome.

‘I’m still here, but I don’t know how much control I’ve retained.’

He tried moving his body, but felt no response. When he directed his attention toward the outside world through what remained of his connection to his senses, all he could perceive was intermittent darkness, with sensations from his body mingling with another presence that did not belong to him.

It was like trying to control an arm that had gone numb while someone else continued using it.

He attempted to concentrate on individual sensations, hoping to determine whether any part of his body still responded to his will, but the connection remained too indistinct for him to distinguish one movement from another. For the moment, he could not even tell whether his body was standing, sitting, or lying somewhere beyond his reach.

“Kekeke…”

Laughter came from the depths of the black expanse, and a massive eye opened among the inscriptions, examining the area where Ravian had taken refuge.

“So you’re still here.”

Ravian looked toward it without answering.

“What an irritating creature! I thought you’d finally surrendered, only to discover that no matter what I do, I still can’t reach the part where you’re hiding.”

“Did you expect otherwise after spending all this time failing to kill me?” Ravian replied.

The laughter grew louder.

“You still speak so confidently, even though I’ve already taken over most of your consciousness. Tell me, can you even move a single finger right now?”

Ravian ignored the question and began examining his surroundings using Absolute Focus.

His condition was far from good, but the difference between his current state and the one he had been in before collapsing was unmistakable. The direct pressure on the center of his soul had weakened, and the black inscriptions could no longer penetrate its inner boundaries as easily as they had before.

That did not mean they had lost their ability to expand, however. He could still see black threads creeping across the ground around him, although their advance had slowed considerably.

He observed their movements for a while, comparing the areas that had already fallen under the intruder’s control with those it was still attempting to occupy. The boundaries were not completely stationary, and although the pressure on his remaining territory had diminished, the foreign presence was clearly still active.

Whatever Sovereign Paradox had accomplished, it had not severed the connection through which the intruder was invading his soul.

‘So the selection didn’t end the possession. It allowed me to retain an independent consciousness inside a body I no longer control completely.’

He did not understand the mechanism that had allowed this possibility to occur, but there was no immediate need to figure it out. What mattered now was determining whether he could reclaim some control over his body and how far his opponent could act without his consent.

“You’re thinking about something again,” the intruder remarked, sounding amused. “I don’t need to know what’s going through your head to realize you’re looking for a way to get rid of me, but I’d advise you to abandon that idea. All you’re doing is delaying the moment when I take what remains of you.”

A faint smile appeared on Ravian’s face.

“If you’re so confident, why haven’t you finished the job already?”

The laughter stopped for a moment.

“Because your soul is strange, and that damned book protecting its center has proven more troublesome than I expected. But none of that will save you forever.”

It was the first time the intruder had referred to the book so directly, but Ravian showed no interest in the remark.

He had already discovered that Sovereign Pride exerted a certain pressure on the invading force. What he did not know was whether his opponent could actually perceive the book or merely sense its influence.

There was no reason to help it discover the difference.

Besides, the intruder’s frustration had already told him something useful. Despite occupying most of his consciousness, it had been unable to overcome the protection around the center of his soul. That limitation might not last forever, but as long as it remained, he had an opportunity to examine his situation without surrendering the only territory he still possessed.

“I see you’re having some difficulties,” Ravian remarked.

“Don’t test my patience, little one,” the entity replied.

“Do you have any left?”

He received no answer. Instead, the enormous eye gradually disappeared, and the black inscriptions resumed their slow movement.

Ravian watched without attempting to attack them.

Using the Law of Void within his own soul had been dangerous even before his collapse, and he had no intention of repeating the attempt while he still had no idea how much damage he had sustained.

Once he was reasonably certain that the center of his consciousness had stabilized, he turned his attention toward his body again.

This time, he could feel the fingers of his right hand.

He tried moving them and received a response so faint he could barely detect it. After several more attempts, however, the movement became more noticeable, gradually extending through his palm and wrist.

He deliberately kept his attention on that single hand rather than trying to move the rest of his body. The connection was still weak, and he had no intention of losing it by dividing his concentration before confirming that the response truly came from his own will.

Only after repeating the movement several times did he attempt something more substantial.

His fingers slowly curled inward.

Then, with considerable effort, his right hand finally clenched against the floor of the tent.