Tier 3+ - Accidental Champion (Book 2) - Chapter 30 - Split Mind

Xavier briefly glimpsed the notification that popped up in his vision. Willpower Infusion had ranked up by three the instant one part of his split consciousness had slammed into the thrall he was now controlling.

God, this is weird. Xavier had been through a lot of weird stuff since he’d been integrated into the System. He’d been yanked from his normal life. Taken to the void and judged. He’d killed countless enemies, reaped countless souls, and now he was controlling another being from inside that being’s head.

The worst part of what he was doing was the disorientation.

Having his mind split in two when it was inside of his own body was one thing.

Having it split into two different places? Well, that was another thing entirely.

Xavier’s instinct, which had been long ingrained into him, was to take deep breaths to calm down and deal with what he was going through. But that wasn’t an option—not in his own body. His lungs were burning, more and more as each second went by. And there was absolutely no air around him.

Inside the soldier he’d hijacked, it was a different story. As strange as it was, Xavier made the soldier take three deep breaths.

It helped.

His focus grew. And as he released the third breath, he received another notification.

Split Mind has reached Rank 2!

The difference that one rank made—or maybe the calming of his mind—was stark and instantaneous. Xavier moved the soldier’s body until he was facing the E Grade wave boss. Laying eyes on the beast of a man with his golden full-plate armour made fear blossom in his chest.

Xavier frowned. No. Fear didn’t blossom in Xavier’s chest—it blossomed in the chest of the soldier he inhabited. Not only was he controlling the man, his consciousness was inside the soldier’s body. Which gave him an insight he’d never had before. It wasn’t just that he could see through the man’s eyes. He could feelwhat the man was feeling.

And part of that was his unbridled fear at facing the E Grade wave boss.

That fear seeped its way into Xavier’s mind, trying to batter at his confidence. Trying to overwhelm his own emotions.

I can’t face that E Grade. He’s too powerful, and I’m stuck underground completely defenceless. There’s nothing I can do down here.

Xavier gritted his teeth. No, he didn’t grit his own teeth. He gritted the teeth of the man he inhabited. Another strange sensation, but he was beginning to get the hang of it. He couldn’t let the man’s fear get to him. Fear, like any emotion, was just that—an emotion.

We can’t choose the emotions we feel. All we can do is choose how we respond to those emotions.

The first part of that—not being able to choose one’s emotions—was more true now for Xavier than it had ever been before.

These emotions aren’t even mine.

Now that he had a good view of his enemy, Xavier could cast Soul Strike on the E Grade Wave boss.

Except Xavier could feel that he was slowly losing consciousness. It was hard to tell that the area around him—around his ownbody—back in the ground was dimming, what with it being pitch black. But his mind… that was beginning to dim. Spots of white floating about his vision, just about the only damned things he was able to see.

And his lungs. God, his lungs. It felt as though someone had jammed a dagger into each one and was wiggling the blades around, trying to make him feel the most amount of pain possible. He was holding his breath for there was nothing to breathe, but that was getting harder and harder to manage.

Push through it. You didn’t come this far to get buried alive and die. You didn’t get this far to fail.

He’d blown through every roadblock he’d come to. Gotten passed each obstacle. Each apparent dead end.

He would get through this one.

Xavier cast Soul Strike. He had 821 souls in his reserve, and he used every single one of them.

It was everything he had, and it would mean that—even if he managed to reap more souls from underground—he wouldn’t be able to recast the spell for almost fourteen minutes.

And he doubted he’d survive that long if this didn’t work.

The E Grade wave boss stepped toward the soldier that half of Xavier’s consciousness currently controlled. Through the slit in his helm, Xavier could see only anger. The man would have seen the purple mist envelop and enter the soldier.

Xavier didn’t move a muscle. All he did was track the E Grade’s movement with his eyes as the massive soul apparition materialised and rose up from the ground.

Whenever Xavier used Soul Strike with the souls of different humanoid soldiers or different beasts mixed in against a single target, rather than splitting up the souls to cause area-of-effect damage, the soul apparition would appear as something that looked unholy and terrifying—an amalgamation of the different souls he’d consumed. Extra limbs and heads and muscles in strange places. Wolven teeth and claws and tails.

It was one such apparition that he watched now.

A thought struck him—What happens if this soldier dies while part of my mind is inside of it?

It was a question he really didn’t want the answer to.

A moment before the E Grade warrior made it to the soldier, the soul apparition soared through him. The power of 821 souls was immense. It wasn’t all the power Xavier could field—in fact, it was less thanhalf—but it was all the power he could field right now. It brought the man to his knees. Xavier could practically see the man’s health draining before his eyes.

But it wasn’t gone completely.

He still lived, and Xavier’s reserve of souls had just been depleted. The pit inside of him widened, feeling as empty as it ever had. His lungs felt as though they were being stabbed, over and over and over, the blades twisting.

The world was dimming, even through the eyes of the soldier he possessed.

The E Grade warrior rose to his feet. An intense look of concentration burning in his eyes. A power seemed to overtake the man. The glow about him didn’t change—it was the same yellow as before. But that wasn’t what Xavier was feeling.

Then it clicked: The E Grade warrior was unleashing its aura.

Xavier felt a weakness in the body he possessed. With that weakness came a compulsion to do whatever the man in front of him wished. He was flooded with the need to comply.

Normally, Xavier doubted something like this would impact his ability to control one of his thralls with Willpower Infusion. But this wasn’t at all normal. With half of Xavier’s conscious mind inside of the thrall, that need to obey flooded into him.

This would have been the perfect moment to attach the E Grade warrior. In fact, he’d been about to make the thrall do just that. It was clear, even with the E Grade warrior standing and looking as powerful as he was, that the man had been gravely wounded by the Soul Strike.

But every moment that passed would give him an opportunity to heal.

A potion appeared inside the E Grade warrior’s hand, as though from nowhere. Xavier made the thrall blink without even thinking to. The E Grade wore gauntlets. Beneath those gauntlets, however, he must be wearing a Storage Ring.

Xavier had been surprised that none of the enemies he’d faced in the previous waves had possessed Storage Rings—at least none of them that he’d checked. And the Endless Horde didn’t seem worried about gathering resources from their own dead. They didn’t pick the bodies for coin, weapons, or armour. They simply destroyed them, burning them to ash piles.

Think, think, think.

The E Grade pulled the cork off the health potion with his teeth, spitting it onto the ground, then he brought the bottle up to his lips. It felt as though it were happening in slow motion, despite the speed of the E Grade’s movements.

If that bastard warrior drank that potion, that would be the end. Xavier would die, the ground on this alien planet in a whole different universe would become his eternal resting place. His party would return to the Tower of Champions without him. Maybe they, and the other Champions, would be enough to save Earth. Maybe they wouldn’t.

Either way, he wouldn’t be there to see it.

No. Xavier lungs burned. I won’t die. I could recast Willpower Infusion. Get word to my party… The world dimmed ever more. Siobhan… could get me out… use her Summon spell… Couldn’t she?

He didn’t know. Maybe the range was too far. Maybe he was kidding himself.

Xavier pushed at the mind of the thrall he inhabited. The aura’s compulsion dimmed, then disappeared. He made the man burst forward and thrust his sword right into the E Grade’s hand. The E Grade—clearly overconfident—had shut his eyes briefly, probably in anticipation of tasting the health potion that was less than a centimetre from touching his lips.

The E Grade cursed. He also stumbled backward. For an F Grade warrior as weak as the one Xavier was controlling to be able to make an E Grade stumble?

The E Grade must be truly weakened by my Soul Strike. It’s only standing through sheer force of will.

But the sword point hadn’t even made it through the gauntlet. It had just made a loud metallic clink on impact.

Xavier didn’t let up. He pushed the thrall forward. And he wasn’t simply commanding the thrall to attack. He was the thrall, controlling every single one of its motions, not merely sending it orders.

He made the thrall thrust, slash, and finally kick the weakened E Grade warrior in the chest. The warrior stumbled backward and actually fell to the ground—the ground that Xavier was buried beneath.

Suddenly, the pain in Xavier’s lungs peaked, then dulled completely.

He could no longer feel himself—only the thrall he inhabited.

The sensation was even stranger than having his consciousness split and being in two places at once.

My body’s unconscious. All I have is the thrall I’m in. And Willpower Infusion could end at any moment.