章 17: The Voices

…

'Hey babe, wanna get fucked?'

'How are you gonna do that? The two of you share one body!?'

No matter how much Alfir racks his brain, he can't remember the Soul Method imposing this kind of mental illness. In his writings, mental illnesses revolve around obsession, heightened emotions, or the lack of them.

Most often, in fact, Soul Method can't create a 'craziness' as evident as this.

There are some mutants that also hear voices, but this is due to their abilities' side effects.

Alfir's case however is way too out of control.

The closest he can derive this from is the multi-personality disorder that one of the main villains is suffering from. Alfir can confidently say, these voices are not because of multiple personalities, but purely auditory hallucinations.

How?

Well, that's what the voices said. Not that Alfir can take their honesty for granted.

'Wha~t!? You don't believe us!?'

'He must be crazy to believe us lol.'

'Why don't I try to prove it?'

'NOOO! STAY HERE, OLD MAN!'

"SHUT UP!!" All of the voices called and screamed that the old man doesn't do something.

These guys are getting noisy— too much, that... Alfir's head is hurting and is about to burst.

"But what if I don't want to..." A whisper carried itself to Alfir's ears.

Alfir felt someone tap his shoulder. He looked back only to see a wizened old man carrying a staff. He wears a blue cloak that speaks of his affluent status.

"Why is this happening to me?" Curious about what is truly happening, Alfir asked the figure before him.

The old man answered, "Dissociation among personalities. You need to perfectly assimilate your original self to this body."

"Personalities? So I am truly suffering from multi—"

"I will stop you right there. Like we told you, you are not. Your personality is yours alone, and is independent of us."

"But you said my personalities are—"

"Nah, your personality is yours and yours alone. But our presence tells something else. I believe that these voices or 'we' are remnants of the old personality that resides in that body."

"Shit."

Now, that makes sense. You can't truly transmigrate without consequences. In some LNs, transmigrators tend to end up in a body with mysterious backgrounds, some penalties, or catches.

"It still doesn't make sense. Isn't it still multiple personalities in that case? If not, maybe a split personality?"

"No, a personality is purely mental. What you have is a split in your soul. Hmmm, hear this. You are possessed. At first, it was you who was the ghost, but now, you have become the soul. Me and the other voices in your head? We are the ghosts that remain in this body."

There is a lot for Alfir to process. A split soul sounds more dreadfully dangerous than multiple personalities. Giving the old man the benefit of the doubt, Alfir grew curious.

"Why are you helping me? If I successfully assimilate with this body, do you not fear vanishing?"

"Oh, this? Well, you can choose not to vanish us, right? Anyway, I want to earn goodwill. Your memories aren't really safe from our prying. Right? Fallen god..." The old man sounded out Alfir, as if indicating that he knows some great secret

Alfir's heart rose. These specters came to a conclusion they thought reasonable, but in fact, it's just misunderstandings. Alfir is quick to catch on thanks to his overactive imagination.

'I am a fucking transmigrator, not a fallen god! Wait, there is something wrong with his statement...'

"Sure, you can pry my memories, but not my thoughts. For example, you don't know what I am thinking now." (I am not a fallen god.)

"As expected of the fall—"

"You keep on interrupting my words. It's now my turn to interrupt yours." (I am not anything grand, just a mere mortal.)

"Forgive me if I have shown you dis—"

"What do you want?" (Fuck, he can't read my mind.)

Alfir interrupted the old man's words not out of spite but to confirm the truth. This specter can't really read his thoughts. In Mutagenic Medieval, there is no perfect mind-reading, only different variations that act on unique mutant mechanisms.

Since Alfir sees himself as a transmigrator, and this old man sees him as a fallen god, Alfir can safely deduce that his identity is relatively safe for now.

But… Alfir can't erase his doubts 100% trustfully. What if, the old man's deception is just too great for Alfir to decipher?

"Ahem… Ahem!!" The old man faked a cough.

Then, he explained. "The old MINION #12913 awakened his Curse in the midst of confronting Flamecore— it's the power to delete emotions. It's a scary ability alright even to your standards I presume... We are the results of it, after his ego shattered in his death—like a dying star, it gave birth to us."

"It's certainly a scary ability..." To delete emotions, MINION #12913's ability got stuck in Alfir's mind more than it matters.

To delete emotions. That's the scariest brainwashing ability out there. It can even be used on oneself to increase their winning probability. Imagine an emotionless machine with inhuman ultimate precision. It's highly likely for one not to commit mistakes if their emotions cannot be moved.

So to surmise. After the original 12913 died, Alfir came, with his soul and memories intact... This is reasonable...

The question is, does Alfir possess the same mutant abilities? Alfir thought long and hard about this, and the conclusion he came to is... he didn't. Alfir's mutation is 'Mind-over-body', and not 'Emotion deleter', that, he is certain.

"So, what do you want?" Alfir dived into the heart o the matter and asked the old man about his objectives.

"Coexistence."

"No can do."

"What!? Am I not sincere enough?"

"I can't accept your lot as my equals. Become my subordinates. I will give you flesh, blood, bones, and will."

"..."

At Alfir's shocking revelation, the old man was speechless. The methods available to Alifr are numerous. Creating a homunculus body for 'ghosts' to possess is certainly within his abilities.

"You are in disbelief. You can't read my memories, do you? You saw it, but you can't read it... That's just so sad..." The 'interpretation', that's what the old man lacks. They have information about Alfir, however, they don't understand it. This 'fallen god' play, might as well be the old man's attempt to con Alfir.

Alfir smirked at the old man's predicament. There is a way to turn these egos into something like artificial intelligence. It will be a waste if he doesn't make use of them.

He is sugarcoating it, but what Alfir can do? He is just being honest.

The old man is sincere and looked amiable. Alfir can only negotiate something that the egos would bend their will to, so an exaggerated offer of a 'vessel', might appease them.

On the surface, Alfir looked calm, however, he is not. He is shaken to his core.

These egos inside him are a liability. Alfir can only play the long con.

"We accept." The old man answered without hesitation.

"Is this the will of the hive?" Alfir jokingly asked.

"Yes..."

"Brilliant... The terms are—"

The negotiations were easily made. In exchange for the egos maintaining silence and subservience, Alfir will give them, bodies. The deadline is a decade, so Alfir isn't in a hurry. If Alfir wasn't able to make ends meet, the numerous egos inside him will shatter his nerve endings— it's not like Alfir doesn't have a countermeasure for it, but it would be really inconvenient if his nerve endings were shattered.

...

"Oldie, I told you not to go. Now look, we are busted. He now knows of our realness, our existence."

"Stop with your complaints. It's good I adapted on the spot. He referred to us as the Hive. Although said jokingly, it actually meant something. He already has an inkling that we are one ego. Do you know what that means?"

"Hmmm... That we are only one ego, and if he puts his mind to it, he can kill us? Doesn't that mean you just made it worse? If you oldie stayed, he would've remained ignorant!"

"You have to look more into it! He said he 'will' give us flesh, blood, bones, and mind you, he said will— WILL, I TELL YOU! Do you know what that means!?"

"What!? Spit it out!"

"That we can choose not to stay as one ego. We are the multiple personalities born from the old 12913. No matter how much we gloss over it, we are a single entity, but with this fallen god's knowledge, we can be reborn as something more. All he asks is our loyalty."

And this is how this world's most frightening fanatics came to be. Still, the question remains... Will they really be reborn just as Alfir promised?

...

Alfir trained every day and forced himself to devise a satisfactory disguise using his mutation. Every day, Alfir peels the skin from his face enduring the pain and the horrors of inflicting self-harm. He recited the words "Mind over body" repeatedly in his mind over and over again as he wished for the best.

"I am Alfir."

Minion#11111 watched in horror as Alfir peel his skin using a bread knife inch by inch. The blood and gore are too much even for him who worked as an executive's aide.

Alfir didn't mind the attention though. 11111 can gawk as much as he wants, Alfir has better things to do. A light slice, scrape the dead wounds, rinse, and then repeat.

The mind hive in his head is satisfactorily behaving like what is demanded from their agreement. Since Alfir awakened his mutation, he already knew that there is something wrong with this body. But he can't pinpoint it. With the egos' cooperation, his plans for world domination continue to advance forward.

But first, Alfir needs to shed his identity as 12913. He peeled the skin from his face with experience. He's not even flinching from the pain now that he discovered a trick to it. He just has to suppress the pain through his mutant abilities. It works wonders.

Finally, looking in the mirror, he found success. A familiar face greeted Alfir. It was his original face back in his old world. MINION #12913 is originally white pale and has plump cheeks and a rounder chin. Now, he has a more vibrant color, flat cheeks, a mole under his right eye, and a sharper chin— looks that he once possessed are now embedded in his soul.

"I am Alfir."

The dissociation of personalities is no more, and if he wills it, he can kill the egos residing in his head with a thought. But it's not yet time for that. There are uses for these egos.

To Zentury's eyes, 12913 is already dead. This is all thanks to a certain executive's help. Alfir's going-off-the-grid is a complete success. Now, it's time for him to build an independent force. And he knows just the right place for it.

"Hmmm... I'm gonna enroll now... It's time to have that academy life..."

...