Forsaken Body, Void Qi

Waking up to the strangling feeling of having no air to breathe, Gilgamesh greedily gasped for oxygen as he flew up off the living room floor. His manic behavior startled Vittoria, though her lack of response aside from her eyes widening went unnoticed.

Gilgamesh slowly caught his breath and looked around, relaxing a bit when he saw that he was in his cabin again. In between breaths, he looked to Vittoria and explained, "A dream... it was just a dream."

Vittoria slowly readjusted, "Must have been some dream, to evoke a reaction like that."

Shifting her body in order to better face Gilgamesh, she asked, "What did you see?"

While doing his best to recount the details, Gilgamesh explained the dream to Vittoria, who listened in earnest. Her interest seemed to be focused mostly on the little star; she would perk up and even ask Gilgamesh to repeat himself when he mentioned it.

In the end, Vittoria had conducted a thorough investigation into the dream, leaving Gilgamesh feeling like he had been through an interrogation.

"This is unheard of," Vittoria mused, biting at her brittle fingernails.

Gilgamesh took a sip of water that Vittoria had gotten him. "What is?"

"Do you not realize what the little star that appeared to you was?" Once again, Vittoria made Gilgamesh feel like the slower of the two.

He shook his head.

Scoffing, Vittoria brought her feet up on the chair and raised herself up, sitting on her folded legs. "That was undoubtedly the Idea- or whatever it is- that resides inside of you now."

Gilgamesh considered it for a moment before agreeing that it made sense.

"It does," Vittoria stated with certainty, sure of her own deduction. "The way it refused to acknowledge your identity- or even see you as a person- it must be a True Idea."

Gilgamesh pursed his lips, "So does that explain why I felt so restless when it was convincing me to climb the mountains? Does that explain why, in that moment, its words felt like the law to me?"

"It would, if you think about the end goal of all True Ideas," Vittoria's expression of curious pondering became one of somber realization. "If it found a way to mask its travel to the Fractured Sphere and hide itself from The Lord, then the only thing left for it to do is create its own version of a Thematic Being."

Gilgamesh frowned. "So that's why it wants me to climb those mountains-- to get stronger. It's going to have me do its work for it. Turn myself into the perfect Thematic Being, then rip my consciousness right out of my body."

Nodding, Vittoria added, "The Idea knows you are nothing but a Lesser Idea it helped to acquire this semblance of life. Perhaps that makes you even easier to overpower than someone like me, because you lack a proper foundation."

Gilgamesh sighed, "That's the same way I felt when I saw those mountains. On my own, I could never be enough to climb them. Only when the star appeared was I able to find my footing."

Vittoria sucked her teeth and fell into thought.

"So," Gilgamesh groaned as he sat up straight, "it wants to give me everything I need, allow me to 'climb those mountains,' and then take advantage of all my hard work."

"Tch! What a lazy bum this Idea is."

Vittoria chuckled lightly; Gilgamesh saw her shoulders rise and fall sharply, but did not hear anything. Silence followed as they navigated their own minds, but Gilgamesh soon spoke up.

"So, with that out of the way, I have to ask you something."

"Hm?" She looked over at him, not expecting him to have more questions. They had had a rather long and thorough conversation earlier.

As the world started getting darker, and the silver sky darkened above them, leaving nothing but dim stars to illuminate the night, Gilgamesh got to work lighting a few lanterns around the cabin.

Vittoria helped him with the fireplace, and together they turned the cabin into its nighttime self, full of light-abundant and warmth, staving off the world of night.

"What was it you wanted to ask?" Vittoria had been awaiting Gilgamesh's question ever since her brought it up, but he set about lighting fires before he asked it.

"In truth, I'm a bit hesitant to even ask it. Perhaps I worry that speaking of it will only further prove its existence as more than just a murmur in my head." Gilgamesh laughed to himself-- at himself.

"What? The Idea?" Vittoria was befuddled.

"No, not that." He brought two plates over with lightly toasted bread and salted butter, along with some fruit on the side. Going back to retrieve the teapot and teacups, he sighed.

"Ever since I had that dream, these two... things... have been floating around in my head. They're like songs that I can't stop hearing. Like images that I can't stop seeing. People that I can't stop thinking about." He placed the teapot and cups down, and took a seat next to Vittoria.

She was silent and patient as she waited for him to explain himself. Though, she did not wait to begin eating and drinking.

"Have you ever heard of... the 'Forsaken Body Mantra?' Or the 'Qi of the Void Path?' Do any of those things ring any bells?" Gilgamesh looked both relieved and worried after speaking the words that had only existed in his mind.

Now they had come out of his mind, and existed in his reality.

It was both terrifying, and liberating. On the one hand, he felt like he had not gone mad. On the other hand, there was nothing to prevent him from descending into madness now that he had accepted it.

He could only hope that he was not losing himself just by acknowledging these things that- surely- came from the Idea inside of him.

"That 'Qi of the Void Path' thing definitely sounds like it's in the vein of Qi Refining. As for the Forsaken Body Mantra, it could possibly be a Body Refining technique, but the only way to know for sure is to know more about them." Vittoria surmised while stuffing her face.

For a zombie girl, Gilgamesh thought she sure could eat. She put away a lot more food than he thought humanly possible, leaving him wondering how she could look so scrawny and half-decomposed.

"Where did you hear about these things?" She asked casually, taking a piece of fruit and combining it with the toast.

"Like I said, I only started to 'think' about them once I had that dream."

Vittoria stopped chewing. Her eyes found Gilgamesh, wide as his word replayed in her head.

"I think the Idea gave me... knowledge." Gilgamesh shrugged.

Vittoria swallowed without being finished chewing, and had to rely on the use of the tea to help her through the process. "When I came home, you were meditating, weren't you?"

"Yeah," Gilgamesh nodded, "I was trying to do something impossible again- come up with my own method of cultivation. After what you said, I figured it was really the best way to find out more about this Idea inside of me."

Vittoria sat back, holding her teacup close to her body. "You meditated on cultivation... and received a dream about four mountains..."

Gilgamesh's eyes brightened. "Those four mountains ...were most likely the four paths of cultivation."

Vittoria continued, "Then the Idea capitalized on your desire to grow stronger, and basically turned you into a puppet; you agreed to everything it said, not even stopping to think when it called you a little lizard."

Gilgamesh gulped and nodded.

"Finally, the Idea gives you two cultivation methods... for you to choose a path?" At this junction, she was stumped.

"No," Gilgamesh shook his head massaged his face. "No, that's not it."

"I could feel the desire flooding into my mind and soul. It wasn't all mine. The Idea is desperate to have me do what it wants, which is to climb all four of those mountains."

"It doesn't want me to choose, it wants me to do both. To begin building the foundation."

Vittoria paused, "Both? But that's imposs-" She froze.

Gilgamesh laughed, though it was both a pained and bitter laugh. "There you have it. I meditated in search of something impossible, and the Idea gave it to me."

"It wants me to build an impossible foundation, because only that kind of foundation can support someone like me, who embodies a Lesser Idea."

"And also support a True Idea itself," Vittoria finished Gilgamesh's thought.

Gilgamesh stood up from the table, having not eaten or drank anything. "So this is how it plans on forcing me to become its Thematic Being? By leaving me with no choice?"

Vittoria, for the first time, expressed an actual emotion in her gaze. It shifted from deadpan in order to display a hint of sympathy and sadness at Gilgamesh's ultimate fate.

Helplessness ensued, and she was unsure of what exactly to say. She could not even begin to imagine what it could be like to be in Gilgamesh's predicament.

To have no way out.

Gilgamesh walked over to the side window, and leaned onto the wall as he looked out of it, at the silhouetted trees and the many stars in the dark, moonless sky.

"I am a Lesser Idea. Nothing but what a God of Creation imagined. I was lucky enough to desire more, and in desiring more I opened the way for this... Idea... to enter my soul."

"It looks down on me. Wants to use me. Thinks that I am nothing but a vessel for it to grow a body in, then discard like trash."

Gilgamesh's leaned into the glass pane, and shut his eyes.

Past experiences, lessons, emotions- they all flashed by him in that moment. In the end, the last image that was left in his mind was the sight of the Mother of Scriptures. The person who was responsible for everything.

The good, the bad- all of it.

He looked to Vittoria, thinking about everything they had spoken of, before grinning.

"Alright then. I guess I'll have to find out whether a True Idea has what it takes to bring Gilgamesh to his knees."