Chapter 267: The Trojan Horse

On the seventeenth day, Ravian experienced an attack unlike any of the intruder’s previous attempts.

He was sitting on his bed when a sudden, piercing headache struck him, followed by the appearance of strange images within his consciousness.

They did not resemble the memories the intruder had attempted to access at the beginning of their confrontation. Instead, they depicted scenes Ravian had never witnessed in his life.

Enormous cities beneath overlapping black towers, gigantic creatures moving between layers of the sky, and people wearing unfamiliar clothing standing before stone gateways engraved with golden inscriptions.

Then the figure of a faceless man appeared, holding an open book across his arms.

The book resembled nothing Ravian had ever seen before.

Nevertheless, he felt a strange force attempting to compel him to look at its pages.

He immediately recognized the danger.

‘He’s trying to force new information into my consciousness.’

The method reminded him of a familiar military strategy: using spies inside a fortress to open its gates, allowing more soldiers to infiltrate until the defenders were overwhelmed from within.

Back on Earth, a similar strategy had been famously associated with the Trojan Horse.

The difference was that the intruder had no need to introduce physical soldiers. Its weapons were the images and information being forced into Ravian’s consciousness, and whatever effect they might have once he accepted them as his own.

The connection was already established through the possession. If he allowed the intruder to use it freely, there was no telling how much more of his consciousness it might gain access to.

Ravian activated Absolute Focus and began isolating the unfamiliar images from his original memories.

But the images themselves were not the real problem.

After a short while, he noticed that they carried a strange sense of familiarity, as though he had witnessed them before and merely forgotten the details.

That feeling was false, or at least he had no evidence that it was genuine.

The distinction mattered more than the contents of the images. Ravian could recognize unfamiliar scenes when they appeared before him, but memories were another matter. If something entered his consciousness carrying the impression that it belonged to his past, simply examining its contents might not be enough to distinguish it from information he had genuinely experienced.

And with the intruder already occupying much of his soul, he was hardly in a position to trust every sensation that arose within it.

Rather than attempting to recover what appeared to be forgotten memories, he concentrated on identifying the point at which the images had begun entering his consciousness.

He had spent days studying how the invading force maintained its connections, and although his understanding remained limited, he now had a clearer idea of what to look for.

He did not need to determine whether the scenes contained genuine knowledge. His immediate concern was the connection allowing them to enter his mind.

Once he located it, he used the Law of Void to erase it.

Most of the scenes disappeared immediately.

The final image, however, lingered for several moments before fading, leaving Ravian unable to tell whether it had been more deeply connected to his consciousness or simply slower to disappear.

Behind it, he heard the intruder laughing.

“You have no idea what you just rejected.”

Ravian opened his right eye.

“I know you tried putting something into my head without my permission.”

“That was knowledge a human like you could never obtain, even if you spent thousands of years searching for it!”

“Then keep it to yourself,” Ravian replied indifferently.

“Do you have any idea what you could learn from those memories?”

“No, and I have no intention of finding out while you’re trying to take over my soul.”

The intruder chuckled before speaking again.

“You really are a strange one. Throughout the ages, humans who discovered fragments of the Golden Scriptures were willing to sacrifice everything they possessed just to read a single line. Yet here you are, rejecting knowledge older than your entire civilization.”

Ravian considered its words.

He did not doubt that the Golden Scriptures might contain knowledge beyond anything available to ordinary humans. He had already seen enough to understand why someone might risk their life trying to obtain even a fragment.

But possessing valuable knowledge did not make the method of acquiring it any safer, especially when the one offering it was attempting to destroy his consciousness.

“And did those who read them survive?”

The laughter stopped briefly.

Then the intruder answered.

“Perhaps.”

“That should explain my position well enough.”

The intruder offered no reply, but Ravian sensed new activity within the occupied territory.

The black gateways that had appeared at the beginning of the possession were gradually opening, releasing spiritual traces resembling the creatures he had encountered earlier.

Not all of them had clearly defined forms, but some possessed features that could hardly be mistaken for those of humans or any known beasts.

One was a tall creature with small faces hanging from its body, while another was a massive figure with metal rings surrounding its chest. Behind them moved several shapes concealed beneath ancient masks.

Ravian understood that the intruder was preparing something new.

It was hardly surprising. After its attempts to expand slowly toward the center of his soul had repeatedly failed, it was only natural that his opponent would resort to using greater force.

What interested Ravian, however, was that the creatures did not appear entirely independent of the black inscriptions.

He noticed that their movements coincided with certain changes in the network spreading through his consciousness, and that some of them retreated whenever the connection linking them to the occupied territory weakened.

Their appearances might be unfamiliar, but the way they responded to those connections was not entirely different from the behavior he had spent the previous days studying.

That observation did not tell him what the creatures actually were. He could not determine whether they were independent spiritual existences being summoned into his consciousness or manifestations produced through the intruder’s power.

Nor could he assume that weakening their connections would be enough to destroy them.

‘Are they merely manifestations of his power, or do they possess independent spiritual existences?’

He did not know the answer, and attacking them without understanding what he was targeting might cost him more than he could afford.

For that reason, he decided to observe them rather than attack immediately.

Their movements would provide him with information, whether they eventually advanced toward the center of his soul or continued gathering near the gateways.

And if the intruder intended to use them against him, he would need to understand their relationship to the black inscriptions before attempting to resist.