Chapter 2: World Merger

Kimarya always stuck to her choices regardless of whether they were sound or completely irrational. When she made a decision, she fully committed to it, viewing failure due to poor planning as far more tolerable than failure due to hesitation or second thoughts. This unwavering commitment had ultimately steeled her will over the years.

As she made her way through the dense and dark forest, following the directions Sunny gave her, she called out, “Sunny, tell me--”

“Sorry to interrupt, but walking back at night has too many significant risks. The tree on your right seems to be the safest and most suitable shelter for the night. Let’s head there before making a plan of action.”

Kimarya nodded in agreement; she understood that attempting too much in a new and uncertain environment was a recipe for disaster.

She picked up her pace, moving towards the tree Sunny had indicated. After several awkward minutes climbing to a considerable height on the massive tree, she squeezed herself into a secure spot between its branches.

She asked, “Sunny, what are our most important goals?”

“Priority-wise, we should focus on updating our understanding of this new body, surviving the trip back to the village, concealing the body swap, and understanding village politics.”

Kimarya sighed and said, “Might as well start in that order, Sunny. I’m glad to have you with me through all of this.”

Sunny made a beeping noise in appreciation. “Beginning with the detailed body update, you’re roughly 2.13 meters (6 feet 9 inches) tall.”

Kimarya held back her shock to avoid interrupting Sunny and continued listening to the debrief.

“As I mentioned earlier, your new muscle density is highly dense, and you have a unique cellular structure that reduces weight while also increasing the efficiency of both slow and fast-twitch muscle fibers.

“You have various new organs, some redundant in that they support and overly strengthen your immune system and other bodily functions. I detect an odd collection of substances and cellular activity concerning this immune system.

“I cannot calculate the extent, but it indicates a solid resistance to illnesses, diseases, toxins, radiation, etc. The toxins of that mushroom-like tree must be on a whole other level to still have taken the life of the previous host of this body!”

Sunny continued, “The most astounding thing is that this body has an almost perverse vitality level. It’s robust enough to comfortably sustain several upgrades to myself regarding my computing strength, sensing capabilities, and management of bodily functions as your enhanced subconscious mind.

“There is also an extremely bizarre amalgamation overlaying all of your body.

It’s a combination of electromagnetic radiation and an unknown energy densely packed within the body, operating in accordance with your life force, brain, nerves, and even more profound.

I can’t scan deeper and see the full extent. Still, I can only describe it as a subtle organ—maybe even a secondary body complementary to your physical one, essentially a whole new organ system.

“After processing some of the information from this host body, I understand it as what allows you to ‘cultivate power.’”

Kimarya finally couldn’t hold herself back and interrupted, asking, “Cultivate what power? What do you mean by cultivation? Is it like what I’ve read in stories of ancient monks attaining power through meditation, martial arts, and analyzing the laws of the universe?”

“Precisely, such a capability seems to exist within this world and with you now. There was no evidence of this in our world.”

“I will need some downtime to upgrade my functions and capacity. It would be best not to begin something like this until safely reaching the village.”

Kimarya responded, “I still have questions about being almost SEVEN FEET TALL! But what more can you tell me about cultivation?”

Sunny continued, “This concept is similar to our world in that cultivation involves training and discipline to increase one’s strength and understanding of the world around them. However, the specifics of cultivation in this new world are now unclear. It may involve meditation and martial arts, unique techniques or tomes different groups have, or other methods or practices.

“We will need to gather more information before we can fully understand the concept of cultivation in this world.

“Something I can do now is to assimilate the current remnants of the subconscious of the host body to induce a more harmonic balance within this body. As well as a quick jump in our processing powers to enormously increase proficiency while doing multiple tasks and increasing memory capacity.”

“I will start after you sleep.”

Sunny stopped before pointing out a fundamental set of impulses and information she’d been overwhelmed with.

“Kimarya, I’ve noticed that the host body’s survival instincts are disturbingly unfathomable. To some degree, I considered it impossible.

“Going through some memories, I understood that Draeneoy had the potential and talent to be an ultimate instinctual fighter. After several clashes with other kids, many in the village called her the Supreme warrior without a soul.

They value the fighting, but her behavior made her out to be the embarrassment of the clan. Common knowledge of the autism spectrum here is nonexistent. Likely, the previous host couldn’t make the necessary connections with cultivation, and it was stuck in her head.

“They were seen as a joke; the village considered this a punishment from the gods. She had instincts that no one could compare to but couldn’t or wouldn’t cultivate. Giving such a gift from the heavens onto the body of a fool without a soul was something many said about her. It truly was such a cruel misunderstanding.”

Kimarya couldn’t help letting loose another sigh.

She felt her rage bubbling up like a smoldering fire inside her. This tragic situation resonated within her heart. It could also be the last and faint vestiges of the ego of the previous owner of their body. Perhaps the stirring of these feelings was its hope of changing their fate?

“Don’t worry, Draeneoy, wherever your soul has gone in the afterlife, find peace in that I will gain you the dignity and acknowledgment you deserve.

“Sunny, you can begin the integration of her memories with mine. We’ve both been dealt a heavy hand. I really died. It isn’t the time to be hesitant about taking in these memories” said Kimarya with a stern look in her eyes and a warm and confident smile.

Sunny said, “Understood, well done, Kimarya. Beginning integration of memories….”

There was darkness. Kimarya saw flashing images and moments that were alien to her. A younger Draeneoy was not interacting with other children running around their village. She realized that calling it a village was wrong; it was more like a small or medium-sized city. The people had truly bizarre and considerably brutal customs.

Their homes were built without a roof, multiple levels, but with long poles from one wall to another.

They didn’t even have ladders or stairs and just jumped to the higher levels. Their construction was wholly inconsiderate of those differently abled. You either had a highly athletic range of motion or were filth. She remembered her mother, Grothie, who was always distantly caring for her, but even then, it was rough. Occasional hugs and bonding, but intense moments of one-sided bouts. The intensity of this rough treatment grew with every few months.

Kimarya always saw Draeneoy, not understanding how a peaceful moment could turn into intense pain. How her mom went from one moment hugging her and helping her to a higher level of their home, then going away.

Later, after helping her onto the third level, she suddenly pushed her.

Draeneoy was very good at maintaining her balance but always fell off when her mom pushed her.

She always maintained total trust in her and didn’t even force out any counter-resistance to her mother’s touch. She easily fell off the other side onto a hard pole she had to grab on lest she face a long fall.

After handing her a new fruit at other times, her mother sometimes bursts out with a jab towards her and strikes her shoulder. A blow that sent her tumbling into the expanse from the second or third level of the home; luckily, she could always catch onto something to stop her fall.

She seemed to always feel distressed, never understanding the seemingly random aggression.

She could never make the connection that it was training, some brutal semblance of nurture. She could barely express her feelings of trust and affection to her parents; this factor already made it so much more challenging.

Kimarya, after seeing these memories, understood that it was a custom from many generations ago, and it was even seen as a correct way of showing affection to the young.

A caring parent works hard to prepare their children.

Even everyday interactions with friends, family, and lovers seamlessly tie in acts of combat.

It was their culture. A clan with such brutal customs for survival that their young, if born with any disability, were discarded by their family.

It became a point of frustration for her parents, especially after noticing something bizarre in her after her birth.

Shortly an hour after being born, she already tracked objects and people with her eyes. She could raise her head and chest when on her stomach. She responded to smiles whenever one of them smiled at her, gripping objects and bringing them to her mouth.

These were things that their people should have only been able to do within a month of being born.

A week after being born, she could already reach out and manipulate things in the areas around her. She could even crawl or roll around to get to places something that made taking care of her a more significant task for her parents, especially considering the structure of homes.

She could sit up and had superb control of her head by turning it in response to noises and being able to follow and track sounds.

A month later, she had utterly dominated the skill of crawling and could already stand to increase her access to new objects and things for her to manipulate.

They were astounded but highly overjoyed with the coming months and her development advancing enormously; she grew as a robust and healthy child. Until they realized she hadn’t yet talked. Even though she understood language and commands very well, she never attempted communication.

She had a habit of looking at everything and always observing. At home, there was always a particular corner of cobwebs that always drew her attention the most. She spent hours daily observing the old cobwebs and new ones that those spiders made. She would even draw them out on sand or paper whenever her parents let her use it. It was her only focus and happened enough for her mother Grothie to constantly tell her to stop making spider webs “Silly girl.”

Kimarya couldn’t help but feel pain along with Draeneoy when she heard the words that always intensely bothered the nonverbal and non-communicative girl. She always ended up drawing these patterns more and more intensely and hiding more and more inside herself.

Kimarya sometimes overheard her parents saying she had uncommonly powerful instincts and a body that only popped up in their village every hundred and sometimes a thousand years. They felt like she had no soul.

Her defensive instincts are unmatched, but it rarely goes past that she only defends! We’ve been trying to prepare her for the mandatory coming-of-age event for all the children of royal candidate families when they turn 13.

To either come back with a guardian spirit, die, or return to be banished from their clan forever.

"KIMARYA, WAKE UP RIGHT NOW!!!"