The Martial Unity

Ria had never bothered looking into the program that the Psyker had given her. She had simply accepted the gift from the man during her meeting with him in Esocline Federation and had completely forgotten about it since then. After all, she had been completely engrossed in and consumed by the creation of her company and her hunting of infected worlds. She had been far too busy to care about anything else.

The neural inlay in her mind had stored the program that had taken root in the neurons. Unbeknownst to her, it was in a passive state of surveillance.

Of the state of her mind.

Ordinarily, a stored program couldn’t run unless the user actively ran it, but biotechnological information technology didn’t work the same way as silicon-based electronics or photonics or non-organic forms of information processing.

Neurons were alive, and the information that was integrated across their neural pathways was the building blocks of consciousness.

The program was a biotechnological virus, of sorts. Not one with malicious intent, but rather an experimental technology that the Pskyer had developed. One that could only function when the user was dying.

The moment the program sensed that the neuropsychological structures in her brain were crumbling also with the final embers of her life, it immediately activated. For it was precisely this state of mind that was the trigger for the program to actually do what it was supposed to.

[Activating cerebro-cranial stabilizing systems.]

[Sustaining abnormal brain state.]

[Restoring neural activity.]

[Activating neurochemical sustenance systems.]

The program spontaneously activated when she was on the verge of death, preserving the precious state of mind that she was in. The precious state of mind where barriers between consciousness and unconsciousness crumbled on their own.

In his many years of research into the mind and among the many topics of research that he pursued, the Psyker had always developed a keen interest in the impact of death on the mind.

After all, he had sought to understand what consciousness was for much of his life, and one of the ways to do that was to observe what changed when a living brain hosting consciousness died, losing the consciousness with its life.

He had noticed, in his pursuit of a deeper understanding of consciousness, that during death, for a very small window of time, the brain underwent a profound change. A profound change of heightened neurocognitive activity with neurons firing left and right, uncaring for the boundaries within the brain, separating some parts of the brain.

He had realized that it was a state of mind that was very similar to that of the Martial Soul. And if it could be preserved and sustained, it could allow a Martial Master to break through to the Sage Realm even quicker than was already possible with his Enlightenment of Self artificial intelligence.

More than that, it could allow even ordinary humans to reach an extraordinary state of mind. It could allow him to reach a much higher state of mind, improving his cognition and improving his understanding of consciousness and the mind.

Of course, the risks associated with this process were not low. To reach the state of mind where the barriers between consciousness and unconsciousness broke down, one would have to be on the very verge of death, for there was a brief window between an intact, alive mind and a dead brain where the special state of mind was sustained.

In other words, someone would have to be actively dying, arriving at the very precipice of absolute death and even falling towards it in order to achieve the state of mind. It was extremely risky even in a controlled environment, for death was still absolute even by the standards of technology of Gaian Civilization. No sane person would be willing to undertake such a risky experiment.

That was why he gave it to people who regularly faced death.

Pathwalkers and, in particular, Martial Artists.

These were people who were much likelier to die. There was no one better to test his experimental technology on. Not to mention, there was no downside or risk to the experiment.

If they did face death on the battlefield, then the success of the experiment would allow them to avert death.

And if the experiment failed, then they would die anyway.

A vast majority of activations of the program ended in failure. The person couldn’t sustain their life long enough, brains died too quickly, or the special state of mind simply didn’t manifest as well due to physical damage to the brain.

But every once in a while, when the conditions were just right, a miracle could occur.

Ria’s neurons maintained their activity as the program managed to create an anchor for the state that her brain was in, allowing it to sustain itself for a crucial amount of time. The barrier between mind and soul had crumbled, allowing for electrical impulses to flow freely from her cerebrum to her cerebellum.

Her mind and soul flushed into each other with an unparalleled amount of exposure to each other.

Her consciousness was confronted with who she was.

Her mind burned with exposure to the essence of her identity and her soul.

When she opened her eyes, she wasn’t lying on the soil of the center of the greater manifold on Planet Pinky. The blood that her body was soaked in was nowhere to be seen. She wasn’t even wearing her exo-Martial suit.

’Where am I…?’ she groggily thought to herself, unable to hear her own voice as she took stock of her own environment.

She found herself in the arms of a very familiar, dear person.

Her mother, Amare. She gazed down at Ria with a face that was laced with exhaustion, yet an expression that was filled with love.

”Waaa!” Ria could hear a newborn crying. ”Waaa!”

It was her own cries.

Her amber eyes widened with shock as she realized what this was. ’This… is the day I was born?’

She had no memory of it, or so she thought. But the truth was clear as day when her father came in view, smiling at her with adorable love.

She had returned to the start of her life.