2829 More than Flesh (Part 1)

'Like me?' Kelia echoed in confusion.

'You are the one who pulled all those all-nighters.' Dusk replied. 'You studied hard to cram years of academy into months. You practiced magic non-stop until Invigoration lost its effectiveness.

'All those things are on you, not me. You didn't delegate the written tests to me nor did you leave your body to me to train it. Even your bright green core and our academy life are your doing.

'I wanted to delay your breakthrough and the academy until the following year.

'It's you who decided otherwise, even against my judgment. So don't sell yourself short because if it was for me, we would still be hotel hopping while I taught you the basics of magic instead of being on the first Train of Mogar.'

'Thanks.' Kelia clenched her teeth, doing her best to get that sincere praise past the wall of her self-doubt.

Solus recognized from the orange light in Kelia's eyes that she and the Horseman were having a private meeting no different from those she and Lith shared and that pissed everyone else off.

Only once the orange light disappeared did Solus attempt a second mind link and this time, Kelia accepted it.

'What were you saying about the mind fusion?' Since the young girl seemed to have trouble discussing her relationship with Dusk, Solus glossed over it, pretending that Kelia's slip of the mind had never happened.

'That it's the simplest and yet the most powerful weapon at your disposal. It can break even the most strong-willed individual in the span of a few minutes, turning them into a loyal slave who is going to obey your every command.

'They'll fight and die for you without a second thought or putting up the slightest struggle. And that without no conditioning and soon after they've bonded with you.'

'Seriously?' Solus was flabbergasted. 'How is that possible? It seems too good to be true.'

She would have liked to point out that she had fused her mind with Lith hundreds of times and their relationship was still healthy but she didn't want to face the barrage of questions she knew would follow.

'Also, when I shared it with Dawn, she instantly understood my feelings for Lith.' This part, she kept for herself.

'It's actually quite obvious if you think about it.' Dusk replied, oblivious to her inner turmoil. 'Fusing your mind with that of your host completely means to fill their head with your memories, thoughts, personal beliefs, and even your feelings.

'For creatures with an infinite life like us, the longer we live the stronger this kind of attack becomes. If I were to perform a full mind fusion with Kelia, worst case scenario, I would fry her brain. Best case scenario, I would turn her into my clone.'

'What do you mean, your clone?' Both Kelia and Solus asked.

'Think about it. Her ten-something years of life are nothing compared to the millennia of my existence. A single fusion would have flooded her mind with more information than she could process.

'By reliving my experiences, she would reshape her morals according to mine. By sharing my memories, she would care about the same things I love and hate the same things I do.

'Hence she would become my clone, at least in mind. I wouldn't need to force her to follow my goals because they would be her own as well.

'She wouldn't hesitate to sacrifice her life for me because she knows I'm the immortal one and that even if she dies, I'll keep working on what now are "our" objectives.'

Both women froze into place, one pondering the power she held and the other realizing how dangerous her situation was.

'Okay.' Solus said while Kelia was still in shock. 'But I'm not millennia old. Does it make the mind fusion less powerful?'

'Not really.' Dusk shrugged. 'Even if you are centuries old, it's still a lot of information to process and-'

'What if I'm not centuries old either?' Solus cut him short.

'It's easier if you tell me how old you are.' Dusk could feel the hesitation in her voice and decided that there was no point wasting time with a guessing game.

'About twenty years old. More or less.' It was a rough estimate obtained by adding up the sixteen years she had spent with Lith after recovering from the centuries of mana starvation plus the memories of her old life that she had regained over time.

'Twenty years?' Kelia and Dusk echoed in shock. 'Were you made on the same day as Verhen's birth?'

'It's complicated.' She wrung her hands in nervousness. 'I'm actually much older but I've lost my memories due to an accident. It was an almost complete wipe out so I don't remember much from before I bonded with Lith.'

'That's as interesting as it is unsettling.' Dusk pondered for a while before answering. 'It explains why you know so little about your own abilities. You never needed to develop techniques to manipulate or resist a host because Verhen is your first.'

'Sure.' Solus felt no need to explain to Dusk that Menadion had never meant for her daughter to need more than one host.

Whatever offensive telepathic ability Solus now possessed was likely to be a happy accident due to the First Ruler of the Flames using Baba Yaga's Horseman technology as a foundation for her work.

'Then let me put it this way. Even your twenty years of memories are a powerful weapon. Only a millennia old Divine Beast could resist your onslaught and even then, it would be just a matter of time before their mind crumbles.'

'Seriously?'

'Seriously.' Dusk replied. 'Think about it. Even an old creature would have a hard time enduring the mental pressure of reliving twenty years of life in one second. Your fears, your feelings, and your beliefs would be hammered into their mind too fast for them to reject them.

'Also, even if the first assault fails, you just have to do it again. And then again and again until the personality of your host collapses. But beware, such a method is a double-edged sword.

'There's a reason we Horsemen prefer taking young hosts and avoid using the mind fusion this way. A young host means a more malleable mind so that even if we use the mind fusion, the counter pressure on us is minimal.

'Yet we'd rather not use it at all. I'm teaching it to you as an extreme measure to deal with an extreme situation.'

'How so?' Solus asked.

'Because unless you manage to isolate your sense of self completely from that of your host, their mind flows into yours as well. A single mind fusion is enough to bring you two closer, making it hard for you to sacrifice them.

'In the case of people like Meln, Night would risk being infected by his obsession toward Verhen if not even from his arrogance. Anything your host holds dear, every major aspect of their personality is their weapon against you.

'Especially if you use the mind fusion multiple times.'

'I see.' Solus nodded. 'So my first priority is to learn how to isolate my mind from my host and lessen the effects of a mind fusion solely on my side.'