Life Weaver chapter 1
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Summary: A unique new soul, created from a fusion of Amy Dallon's memories (the character Panacea from Worm, possessing advanced biomanipulation powers) and an ordinary modern military guy's consciousness, awakens in the frozen North of Westeros. The character has been inserted into the recently dead body of a Night's Watch ranger, approximately 200 years before Aegon I Targaryen's conquest of the Seven Kingdoms.
They retain all of Amy's extensive biological knowledge and the Army guy's common sense, experience and modern perspective. Additionally they are gifted a special variant of the NZT-48 pill from the movie Limitless, which when taken, elevates their cognitive functions—intelligence, memory, processing speed, and focus—to superhuman levels. This allows them to effectively combine the modern guy's strategic thinking and the vast biological knowledge into action, rapidly learning, planning, and adapting in the harsh medieval magical world.
Chapter 1 - Prologue
Pain. Cold.
Those were the first sensations as he drew a heaving breath. The second thing was the realization—he couldn't move.
'What's happening? Why can't I move?' He thought in pain and confusion.
Then came the chaos as there were the jumbled memories of three different individuals bouncing in his head, scattering his thoughts like shards of glass. which were not helping him think straight. He started to feel panicked when the oldest personality's thoughts overrode every other thought. His commanding voice cut through the noise.
'No need to panic. Panic doesn't solve problems. Control yourself and find a way out. You have been through worse – remember what I went through the Second World War.'
The wizened, authoritative voice of the old US major Liam Smith's personality lifted the fog of pain and panic that filled his thoughts. As he started to search for a solution, the second and only female personality's thoughts provided the answer.
'Just focus inwards towards your body. Heal yourself. You know how. First, stop the pain by temporarily severing the nerves to the thalamus area of the brain,' the calm, clinical tone of a Amy Dallon insisted.
He obeyed, almost instinctively. Then something extraordinary happened.
As he did something amazingly new yet strangely familiar happened: He could see inside his body. From the smallest cell to the largest organs, every bit of his body was available for him to see in his mind's eye. He could see places where his body was severely damaged, the lack of pain giving him a surreal and detached feeling. Even more astonishingly amazing was the innate understanding of how to alter or fix the damage.
'Hmm, spinal cord severed. Multiple broken bones and internal injuries.' Amy Dallon's thoughts assessed the body clinically and professionally. 'Let's repair the damage. Start with the critical functions.'
The next few minutes were amazing and surreal as he felt his body repair itself by converting cells and tissues from non-critical areas of his body, transferring and replacing the damaged ones. At the end, the damaged spinal cord was repaired along with reconnecting the nerves that he had disconnected.
He jerked in shock as sensations returned and he started feeling everything. The sensation returned like a storm—cold, sharp, alive.
"Brrr. It's cold," he muttered shivering and started to look around. "Where am I?"
This time, it was the third personality that provided the answer, for it was this personality that the body originally belonged to. This person, called Eric Rider, a ranger of the Night's Watch who was out on patrol when their party was ambushed and slaughtered by the monstrous snow bear.
Thinking about his current predicament brought back the most recent and gruesome memories of being swatted by a giant bear, crashing into a tree, and dying shortly afterwards.
'At least the bear isn't around anymore,' he thought as he saw the carnage in front of him. His former comrades of the Night's Watch lay there butchered with some body parts missing and a gruesome bloody trail leading away in to the trees. 'Most likely the snow bear dragged one of my former companion's corpses to eat later.'
'Can we try to save my friends?' Erik thought hopefully, even though from Amy's memories he knew the answer.
'If they were alive, then perhaps it would have been possible' Amy responded, 'which doesn't seem likely. I mean my body... er, your body was dead just a few moments ago. I don't understand how we are alive or even inside your body, but I am certain everyone, including you, was dead for a few hours at least. How are we here at all? My last memory was dying in my body'
'We can look for answers when we are in a secure site. We should move. Other predators could come smelling all this blood,' thought Major Liam, and all the other personalities agreed. 'We should salvage what we can, then find our ride… I mean horse, and leave.'
Strangely, looting the bloodied corpses wasn't an action that any of the three personalities found appalling, as they were still in some form of shock and survival mode. In their search, they found half a dozen steel daggers, three steel swords, and two decent bows with around 60 unbroken arrows—enough arrows to fill three quivers. Everything else was far too damaged to be salvaged.
'It's not a lot, but we still can't carry all this around,' they pondered the problem briefly before Erik's thoughts provided the answer. 'Let's just warg with Luna, our horse, and make her come back to us.'
'If it's alive,' Amy Dallon thought. 'This warging isn't such a great superpower that Erik has.'
'Hey,' protested Erik. 'This world ain't scary like yours with people so powerful they could kill entire armies!'
'Quit squabbling. Positive thoughts, everyone. We can argue when we are safe,' the Old Major's voice encouraged. 'Hopefully, Erik's warged horse is alive and well. Even if it's injured, we can heal it using Amy's powers.'
'This is so weird. Three different people from three different worlds stuffed inside one body,' Erik thought.
'Indeed.' 'Yeah!' were the positive replies. 'The entity that sent us did say he would provide something to help us deal with this multiple personality problem,' Major Liam thought. 'We have to survive first. We'll deal with everything else later.'
Sitting down under a tree, they closed their eyes and concentrated on their connection to Luna the horse. They found her not too far away, terrified and in pain.
'She probably scratched herself running through the bushes in a panic,' Erik thought as he took control of the mare and started to bring it back.
Soon enough, the nervous horse had reached the clearing. After healing the horse and calming it down, they quickly stored their loot and climbed on.
'Where should we go?' Erik thought. 'My old posting at Eastwatch by the Sea is far to the south-east.'
'Can we just get away from here? Preferably in the opposite direction that the bear went. I don't want to deal with snow bears or hungry wolves,' Amy thought grumpily. 'Or whatever else lives in this world.'
'There's an abandoned hut nearby; it's got no roof, but the walls are sturdy enough. We'll head there,' Erik thought as he directed Luna the horse to move in that direction.
They rode in uneasy silence, three minds sharing one body.
'One boon to our condition is that I can control the horse while you two control our body,' Erik thought filling the uneasy silence. 'Usually, my body would sleep while I warged.'
'But we are still connected even though you are primarily controlling Luna while we are controlling this body.' Major Laim thought
'Hey, aren't you even a little bit bewildered by having two other personalities in your head?' Amy asked Erik. "You're surprisingly calm for a man sharing your head," Amy teased.
'I was at first,' he answered. 'But then I realized that if this… whatever this may be, hadn't happened, I'd probably be dead back there in that clearing with my carcass being torn apart by wolves. So, while I'm definitely not happy to share my—I mean, our body and mind—it beats the alternative. I'll take strange company over the grave. It's also a little bit like warging.'
The next couple of hours passed as they talked and got to know each other better.
It was near sunset that they reached the abandoned hut. It had no roof and the door was also missing, but the walls were indeed quite sturdy and tall enough to stop sneaky night attacks. They quickly tied the horse inside and set up a tent that was packed with the horse.
'Let's gather some wood before it gets dark. It gets cold at night even during summer. Fire also keeps predators away,' Erik thought.
An hour later, they were sitting in front of a merrily burning fire, eating their rations and finally feeling relaxed and safe enough to focus on their unique predicament.
"We need to do something about this multiple personality situation," the old Major thought to the other two, his mental tone weary but firm. "From my memories, we know that I was sent from a dimension where no superpowers exist, yet knowledge of both of your dimensions exists in the form of stories that I have read extensively with my grandchildren. The being that sent me here told me that our different set of memories and personalities will be too much of a strain on a single mind. To remedy that, they said that they will provide us with something."
Saying that, his hand reached under his clothes and fished out a small, cylindrical steel locket.
'How did that get there? I don't remember having it!' Erik thought worriedly.
'And we definitely didn't loot it off the bodies,' Amy thought curiously.
'I believe it is a container. Let's open it and find out what remedy we have been provided,' the Major thought as he unscrewed the top off. They could see that inside it was a single transparent pill and a rolled-up piece of paper. The paper had information written in English which Erik couldn't read but the other two could.
NZT is a nootropic drug that enhances human memory and intelligence while acting as a nearly perfect antidepressant and anxiolytic. It unlocks 100% of the brain, referencing the oft-repeated myth that only "10%" of our brains are normally used. It increases intelligence to superhuman levels and results in perfect recall for the extent of its activity.
'I remember this,' Amy thought. 'It's from a movie I watched, imported from the Earth Aleph dimension. This pill could solve our problem.'
You think it's safe? Erik asked doubtfully.
'Indeed. You don't sound so sure,' The Old Major stated.
'Well… From what I remember, the pill made a brain work to its fullest potential, essentially granting them Thinker-type powers. Theoretically, it should help us in not only solving this multiple personalities problem in a single brain but also in surviving this place.'
'What if we don't take it?' Erik thought, wary of medicines gifted by strange, powerful beings.
'That's also not an option,' Amy replied. 'Our shared brain is already under a lot of emotional strain. If we don't resolve this problem soon, we could damage our brain. The human brain is simply not designed for this. If we don't fix this, it'll tear itself apart I say we take it.'
'Agreed,' The Old Major thought. 'I may not have seen that movie, nor do I have the medical knowledge that Amy has, but I believe that the entity that sent us here would not go through all this effort to put us here and not provide us with a viable solution.'
'That makes sense,' Erik thought, changing his opinion of the pill. 'The God that did all this must have a purpose for us.'
'He isn't a god, Erik,' Amy responded in exasperation. 'Just an extremely powerful interdimensional being with power beyond our ability to comprehend.'
'Yes,' Erik thought. 'Exactly as you say. A godly being. We must trust in their will and take this pill.'
The Old Major interrupted Amy's heated response. 'So we all agree to take the pill? Regardless of our beliefs or reasoning?'
'Aye.' 'Yes.' 'Ok.'
They took the transparent pill and swallowed it.
Nothing happened.
They waited.
Still nothing happened.
'The being that sent you… Is he into practical jokes?' Amy thought. 'Because nothing's happening.'
'I wouldn't put it past him,' Major sighed. 'The stories sometimes depict them as bored pranksters with too much time and power in their hands.'
Amy chuckled. Wouldn't surprise me. Beings with too much power tend to be either mischievous or worse.
Blasphemy, Erik muttered
'We shouldn't be talking about gods like that,' Erik thought worriedly. 'What if he's hearing us think badly about him?'
'Oh, he's not a god…'
Then it happened. It felt like the world shifted.
The scales fell from my eyes. Everything was the same, yet so much more. It felt as if I was blind, but now I see the world in its entirety.
Our brain is a miracle, but it's not efficient. There is a maze inside everyone's head. A labyrinth of missed connections and untapped potential. But now suddenly, we had access to every single brain cell.
Major, Erik, and Amy Dallon were extremely different people from different worlds with different ideologies and experiences. Being stuffed into a single body was far from ideal. As such, they were on the verge of becoming split personalities. But now they were becoming one. It felt as if they were living all their lives all over again simultaneously. They understood each other's thoughts and lived as though they had lived it.
The first among the three was Erik Rider, a man of the Night's Watch. Born to wildlings beyond the Wall, Erik became an orphan at the tender age of six years. Later on, he was rescued by men of the Night's Watch and taken in by them. There he was taught all he needed to know about fighting and surviving in the harsh landscape. The maester taught him to read and write, so he read the books in the library. The Night's Watch was like his family, but he kept one secret from them. The secret was that he was a warg, because he knew that the folk south of the Wall were too superstitious of magical powers like warging.
The second and only female of the three was Amy Dallon, a.k.a. the healing hero Panacea of the Worm multiverse dimension. Born to a villain who was imprisoned, she was raised by the very superhero group that had imprisoned her father. Amy was a parahuman with the ability to manipulate all forms of living matter in any way she desired. She used this power to heal only, fearing that if the true extent of her powers were ever revealed, she would be imprisoned as bio-tinkers had a very bad reputation in her world. Initially, she feared altering brains, but after her manipulation of her sister's brain and the subsequent stint in the Birdcage prison gave her ample opportunity to master tinkering with brains and ultimately altering a person's thoughts. She also learned to manipulate her body. She was in her early 30s when a copy of her memories, sans her ability, were dumped into Erik's almost dead body.
The final and most important of the three was Major Liam Smith. Born in a normal world with no powers or magic at the time of the First World War, he himself fought in the Second World War as a British engineer and sapper.
His task as an engineer was to support both the army's combat and its supply elements. Close to the front, he dug trenches and tunnels, strung wire, or bridged shell holes, while facing the same dangers as regular infantry. Further back, he was constantly building and rebuilding roads and railways and establishing lines of communication. From mine warfare to forestry and topography, he and his fellow engineers from the engineering corps relied on all kinds of knowledge and tricks to outclass the enemy in the field. They didn't see much active combat, but their lives were almost always in the same amount of danger from both the enemy and the dangerous stuff they had to do.
After the first war, he returned to civilian life. He got a master's degree in mechanical engineering and held several high-position jobs, during which he researched and acquired several small patents for his minor inventions. For the last ten years, he taught engineering as a professor before retiring. His favorite pastime was reading stories with his grandchildren and participating in historical reenactments and building medieval and renaissance-era working models. In the end, at the ripe old age of 91, a stroke left him completely paralyzed. After living such an active life, being trapped in his own body was hell.
So when he was offered a chance to live again in a fantasy universe that he had read about, he accepted quickly.
Thus, the memories and personalities of the three became one.
Everything was sharper—each sound, each scent, every flicker of the fire seemed to hold infinite detail. Thoughts aligned like stars, every synapse alive and luminous. The maze of their shared consciousness untangled.
'I feel as if I have lived over a hundred years,' he thought as his newly merged mind started combining the vast knowledge of all three lives and rapidly churning out ideas. He was Erik Rider but he was also Major Liam and Amy Dallon. He was all of them and he was one. 'Add all their lives and I probably have lived over a century and a half'
The NZT pill delivered much more than what was promised.
He remembered it all: the frozen North, the wards of Brockton Bay, the trenches of Normandy. It was as if he had lived a hundred years in a heartbeat.
'The synergy that my healing powers have with this pill is amazing,' He thought in awe. 'The pill boosts mental faculties to use the bio-tinker's powers in new ways, including taking care of the mental side effects easily since it's all biological. Combine these with warging and controlling animals that I will enhance to supernatural levels, and we have a recipe for guaranteed success. A perfect union'
His thoughts shifted towards his current predicament and the golden opportunities he could imagine.
'I remember this feeling. The feeling that the world is mine for the taking. I just have to decide what to do with it,' he thought as he absentmindedly gazed into the campfire.
And then he began to form an idea. Suddenly, he knew exactly what he needed to do. It wasn't just surviving here. It wasn't just building a city north of the Wall, traveling this wonderful new world, and conquering it with his powerful, enhanced army.
It was all of it and so much more.
'But it would take resources to get there,' he thought as he gazed around as his supercharged mind provided several ideas on how exactly he could acquire some resources immediately.
'Let's start with something small that I can do right now.'
Lighting up a fire torch, he started by laying down small traps and snares to catch small animals in the surrounding areas. He quickly found areas that animals frequented, and his enhanced mind provided all sorts of ideas for traps and snares to catch them.
'It's too dark to do anything else,' he thought sadly as he returned to his tent to get ready to go to sleep 'My body is too tired from healing and being awake for so long. This NTZ pill's effect will be gone by the time I wake up'
He examined the changes to his brain that NZT pill had done
'Amazing! It's like looking at an entirely new brain. The original neural pathways are still there but now there are so many more and they are working in unique ways. Hopefully, I should be able to recreate this enhancement once the NZT wears off''
But sleep eluded him because his mind wouldn't stop churning out ideas for anything and everything. So busy was he thinking up new plans, he didn't notice when he fell asleep.
Author's Note:
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Summary: A unique new soul, created from a fusion of Amy Dallon's memories (the character Panacea from Worm, possessing advanced biomanipulation powers) and an ordinary modern military guy's consciousness, awakens in the frozen North of Westeros. The character has been inserted into the recently dead body of a Night's Watch ranger, approximately 200 years before Aegon I Targaryen's conquest of the Seven Kingdoms.
They retain all of Amy's extensive biological knowledge and the Army guy's common sense, experience and modern perspective. Additionally they are gifted a special variant of the NZT-48 pill from the movie Limitless, which when taken, elevates their cognitive functions—intelligence, memory, processing speed, and focus—to superhuman levels. This allows them to effectively combine the modern guy's strategic thinking and the vast biological knowledge into action, rapidly learning, planning, and adapting in the harsh medieval magical world.
Chapter 1 - Prologue
Pain. Cold.
Those were the first sensations as he drew a heaving breath. The second thing was the realization—he couldn't move.
'What's happening? Why can't I move?' He thought in pain and confusion.
Then came the chaos as there were the jumbled memories of three different individuals bouncing in his head, scattering his thoughts like shards of glass. which were not helping him think straight. He started to feel panicked when the oldest personality's thoughts overrode every other thought. His commanding voice cut through the noise.
'No need to panic. Panic doesn't solve problems. Control yourself and find a way out. You have been through worse – remember what I went through the Second World War.'
The wizened, authoritative voice of the old US major Liam Smith's personality lifted the fog of pain and panic that filled his thoughts. As he started to search for a solution, the second and only female personality's thoughts provided the answer.
'Just focus inwards towards your body. Heal yourself. You know how. First, stop the pain by temporarily severing the nerves to the thalamus area of the brain,' the calm, clinical tone of a Amy Dallon insisted.
He obeyed, almost instinctively. Then something extraordinary happened.
As he did something amazingly new yet strangely familiar happened: He could see inside his body. From the smallest cell to the largest organs, every bit of his body was available for him to see in his mind's eye. He could see places where his body was severely damaged, the lack of pain giving him a surreal and detached feeling. Even more astonishingly amazing was the innate understanding of how to alter or fix the damage.
'Hmm, spinal cord severed. Multiple broken bones and internal injuries.' Amy Dallon's thoughts assessed the body clinically and professionally. 'Let's repair the damage. Start with the critical functions.'
The next few minutes were amazing and surreal as he felt his body repair itself by converting cells and tissues from non-critical areas of his body, transferring and replacing the damaged ones. At the end, the damaged spinal cord was repaired along with reconnecting the nerves that he had disconnected.
He jerked in shock as sensations returned and he started feeling everything. The sensation returned like a storm—cold, sharp, alive.
"Brrr. It's cold," he muttered shivering and started to look around. "Where am I?"
This time, it was the third personality that provided the answer, for it was this personality that the body originally belonged to. This person, called Eric Rider, a ranger of the Night's Watch who was out on patrol when their party was ambushed and slaughtered by the monstrous snow bear.
Thinking about his current predicament brought back the most recent and gruesome memories of being swatted by a giant bear, crashing into a tree, and dying shortly afterwards.
'At least the bear isn't around anymore,' he thought as he saw the carnage in front of him. His former comrades of the Night's Watch lay there butchered with some body parts missing and a gruesome bloody trail leading away in to the trees. 'Most likely the snow bear dragged one of my former companion's corpses to eat later.'
'Can we try to save my friends?' Erik thought hopefully, even though from Amy's memories he knew the answer.
'If they were alive, then perhaps it would have been possible' Amy responded, 'which doesn't seem likely. I mean my body... er, your body was dead just a few moments ago. I don't understand how we are alive or even inside your body, but I am certain everyone, including you, was dead for a few hours at least. How are we here at all? My last memory was dying in my body'
'We can look for answers when we are in a secure site. We should move. Other predators could come smelling all this blood,' thought Major Liam, and all the other personalities agreed. 'We should salvage what we can, then find our ride… I mean horse, and leave.'
Strangely, looting the bloodied corpses wasn't an action that any of the three personalities found appalling, as they were still in some form of shock and survival mode. In their search, they found half a dozen steel daggers, three steel swords, and two decent bows with around 60 unbroken arrows—enough arrows to fill three quivers. Everything else was far too damaged to be salvaged.
'It's not a lot, but we still can't carry all this around,' they pondered the problem briefly before Erik's thoughts provided the answer. 'Let's just warg with Luna, our horse, and make her come back to us.'
'If it's alive,' Amy Dallon thought. 'This warging isn't such a great superpower that Erik has.'
'Hey,' protested Erik. 'This world ain't scary like yours with people so powerful they could kill entire armies!'
'Quit squabbling. Positive thoughts, everyone. We can argue when we are safe,' the Old Major's voice encouraged. 'Hopefully, Erik's warged horse is alive and well. Even if it's injured, we can heal it using Amy's powers.'
'This is so weird. Three different people from three different worlds stuffed inside one body,' Erik thought.
'Indeed.' 'Yeah!' were the positive replies. 'The entity that sent us did say he would provide something to help us deal with this multiple personality problem,' Major Liam thought. 'We have to survive first. We'll deal with everything else later.'
Sitting down under a tree, they closed their eyes and concentrated on their connection to Luna the horse. They found her not too far away, terrified and in pain.
'She probably scratched herself running through the bushes in a panic,' Erik thought as he took control of the mare and started to bring it back.
Soon enough, the nervous horse had reached the clearing. After healing the horse and calming it down, they quickly stored their loot and climbed on.
'Where should we go?' Erik thought. 'My old posting at Eastwatch by the Sea is far to the south-east.'
'Can we just get away from here? Preferably in the opposite direction that the bear went. I don't want to deal with snow bears or hungry wolves,' Amy thought grumpily. 'Or whatever else lives in this world.'
'There's an abandoned hut nearby; it's got no roof, but the walls are sturdy enough. We'll head there,' Erik thought as he directed Luna the horse to move in that direction.
They rode in uneasy silence, three minds sharing one body.
'One boon to our condition is that I can control the horse while you two control our body,' Erik thought filling the uneasy silence. 'Usually, my body would sleep while I warged.'
'But we are still connected even though you are primarily controlling Luna while we are controlling this body.' Major Laim thought
'Hey, aren't you even a little bit bewildered by having two other personalities in your head?' Amy asked Erik. "You're surprisingly calm for a man sharing your head," Amy teased.
'I was at first,' he answered. 'But then I realized that if this… whatever this may be, hadn't happened, I'd probably be dead back there in that clearing with my carcass being torn apart by wolves. So, while I'm definitely not happy to share my—I mean, our body and mind—it beats the alternative. I'll take strange company over the grave. It's also a little bit like warging.'
The next couple of hours passed as they talked and got to know each other better.
It was near sunset that they reached the abandoned hut. It had no roof and the door was also missing, but the walls were indeed quite sturdy and tall enough to stop sneaky night attacks. They quickly tied the horse inside and set up a tent that was packed with the horse.
'Let's gather some wood before it gets dark. It gets cold at night even during summer. Fire also keeps predators away,' Erik thought.
An hour later, they were sitting in front of a merrily burning fire, eating their rations and finally feeling relaxed and safe enough to focus on their unique predicament.
"We need to do something about this multiple personality situation," the old Major thought to the other two, his mental tone weary but firm. "From my memories, we know that I was sent from a dimension where no superpowers exist, yet knowledge of both of your dimensions exists in the form of stories that I have read extensively with my grandchildren. The being that sent me here told me that our different set of memories and personalities will be too much of a strain on a single mind. To remedy that, they said that they will provide us with something."
Saying that, his hand reached under his clothes and fished out a small, cylindrical steel locket.
'How did that get there? I don't remember having it!' Erik thought worriedly.
'And we definitely didn't loot it off the bodies,' Amy thought curiously.
'I believe it is a container. Let's open it and find out what remedy we have been provided,' the Major thought as he unscrewed the top off. They could see that inside it was a single transparent pill and a rolled-up piece of paper. The paper had information written in English which Erik couldn't read but the other two could.
NZT is a nootropic drug that enhances human memory and intelligence while acting as a nearly perfect antidepressant and anxiolytic. It unlocks 100% of the brain, referencing the oft-repeated myth that only "10%" of our brains are normally used. It increases intelligence to superhuman levels and results in perfect recall for the extent of its activity.
'I remember this,' Amy thought. 'It's from a movie I watched, imported from the Earth Aleph dimension. This pill could solve our problem.'
You think it's safe? Erik asked doubtfully.
'Indeed. You don't sound so sure,' The Old Major stated.
'Well… From what I remember, the pill made a brain work to its fullest potential, essentially granting them Thinker-type powers. Theoretically, it should help us in not only solving this multiple personalities problem in a single brain but also in surviving this place.'
'What if we don't take it?' Erik thought, wary of medicines gifted by strange, powerful beings.
'That's also not an option,' Amy replied. 'Our shared brain is already under a lot of emotional strain. If we don't resolve this problem soon, we could damage our brain. The human brain is simply not designed for this. If we don't fix this, it'll tear itself apart I say we take it.'
'Agreed,' The Old Major thought. 'I may not have seen that movie, nor do I have the medical knowledge that Amy has, but I believe that the entity that sent us here would not go through all this effort to put us here and not provide us with a viable solution.'
'That makes sense,' Erik thought, changing his opinion of the pill. 'The God that did all this must have a purpose for us.'
'He isn't a god, Erik,' Amy responded in exasperation. 'Just an extremely powerful interdimensional being with power beyond our ability to comprehend.'
'Yes,' Erik thought. 'Exactly as you say. A godly being. We must trust in their will and take this pill.'
The Old Major interrupted Amy's heated response. 'So we all agree to take the pill? Regardless of our beliefs or reasoning?'
'Aye.' 'Yes.' 'Ok.'
They took the transparent pill and swallowed it.
Nothing happened.
They waited.
Still nothing happened.
'The being that sent you… Is he into practical jokes?' Amy thought. 'Because nothing's happening.'
'I wouldn't put it past him,' Major sighed. 'The stories sometimes depict them as bored pranksters with too much time and power in their hands.'
Amy chuckled. Wouldn't surprise me. Beings with too much power tend to be either mischievous or worse.
Blasphemy, Erik muttered
'We shouldn't be talking about gods like that,' Erik thought worriedly. 'What if he's hearing us think badly about him?'
'Oh, he's not a god…'
Then it happened. It felt like the world shifted.
The scales fell from my eyes. Everything was the same, yet so much more. It felt as if I was blind, but now I see the world in its entirety.
Our brain is a miracle, but it's not efficient. There is a maze inside everyone's head. A labyrinth of missed connections and untapped potential. But now suddenly, we had access to every single brain cell.
Major, Erik, and Amy Dallon were extremely different people from different worlds with different ideologies and experiences. Being stuffed into a single body was far from ideal. As such, they were on the verge of becoming split personalities. But now they were becoming one. It felt as if they were living all their lives all over again simultaneously. They understood each other's thoughts and lived as though they had lived it.
The first among the three was Erik Rider, a man of the Night's Watch. Born to wildlings beyond the Wall, Erik became an orphan at the tender age of six years. Later on, he was rescued by men of the Night's Watch and taken in by them. There he was taught all he needed to know about fighting and surviving in the harsh landscape. The maester taught him to read and write, so he read the books in the library. The Night's Watch was like his family, but he kept one secret from them. The secret was that he was a warg, because he knew that the folk south of the Wall were too superstitious of magical powers like warging.
The second and only female of the three was Amy Dallon, a.k.a. the healing hero Panacea of the Worm multiverse dimension. Born to a villain who was imprisoned, she was raised by the very superhero group that had imprisoned her father. Amy was a parahuman with the ability to manipulate all forms of living matter in any way she desired. She used this power to heal only, fearing that if the true extent of her powers were ever revealed, she would be imprisoned as bio-tinkers had a very bad reputation in her world. Initially, she feared altering brains, but after her manipulation of her sister's brain and the subsequent stint in the Birdcage prison gave her ample opportunity to master tinkering with brains and ultimately altering a person's thoughts. She also learned to manipulate her body. She was in her early 30s when a copy of her memories, sans her ability, were dumped into Erik's almost dead body.
The final and most important of the three was Major Liam Smith. Born in a normal world with no powers or magic at the time of the First World War, he himself fought in the Second World War as a British engineer and sapper.
His task as an engineer was to support both the army's combat and its supply elements. Close to the front, he dug trenches and tunnels, strung wire, or bridged shell holes, while facing the same dangers as regular infantry. Further back, he was constantly building and rebuilding roads and railways and establishing lines of communication. From mine warfare to forestry and topography, he and his fellow engineers from the engineering corps relied on all kinds of knowledge and tricks to outclass the enemy in the field. They didn't see much active combat, but their lives were almost always in the same amount of danger from both the enemy and the dangerous stuff they had to do.
After the first war, he returned to civilian life. He got a master's degree in mechanical engineering and held several high-position jobs, during which he researched and acquired several small patents for his minor inventions. For the last ten years, he taught engineering as a professor before retiring. His favorite pastime was reading stories with his grandchildren and participating in historical reenactments and building medieval and renaissance-era working models. In the end, at the ripe old age of 91, a stroke left him completely paralyzed. After living such an active life, being trapped in his own body was hell.
So when he was offered a chance to live again in a fantasy universe that he had read about, he accepted quickly.
Thus, the memories and personalities of the three became one.
Everything was sharper—each sound, each scent, every flicker of the fire seemed to hold infinite detail. Thoughts aligned like stars, every synapse alive and luminous. The maze of their shared consciousness untangled.
'I feel as if I have lived over a hundred years,' he thought as his newly merged mind started combining the vast knowledge of all three lives and rapidly churning out ideas. He was Erik Rider but he was also Major Liam and Amy Dallon. He was all of them and he was one. 'Add all their lives and I probably have lived over a century and a half'
The NZT pill delivered much more than what was promised.
He remembered it all: the frozen North, the wards of Brockton Bay, the trenches of Normandy. It was as if he had lived a hundred years in a heartbeat.
'The synergy that my healing powers have with this pill is amazing,' He thought in awe. 'The pill boosts mental faculties to use the bio-tinker's powers in new ways, including taking care of the mental side effects easily since it's all biological. Combine these with warging and controlling animals that I will enhance to supernatural levels, and we have a recipe for guaranteed success. A perfect union'
His thoughts shifted towards his current predicament and the golden opportunities he could imagine.
'I remember this feeling. The feeling that the world is mine for the taking. I just have to decide what to do with it,' he thought as he absentmindedly gazed into the campfire.
And then he began to form an idea. Suddenly, he knew exactly what he needed to do. It wasn't just surviving here. It wasn't just building a city north of the Wall, traveling this wonderful new world, and conquering it with his powerful, enhanced army.
It was all of it and so much more.
'But it would take resources to get there,' he thought as he gazed around as his supercharged mind provided several ideas on how exactly he could acquire some resources immediately.
'Let's start with something small that I can do right now.'
Lighting up a fire torch, he started by laying down small traps and snares to catch small animals in the surrounding areas. He quickly found areas that animals frequented, and his enhanced mind provided all sorts of ideas for traps and snares to catch them.
'It's too dark to do anything else,' he thought sadly as he returned to his tent to get ready to go to sleep 'My body is too tired from healing and being awake for so long. This NTZ pill's effect will be gone by the time I wake up'
He examined the changes to his brain that NZT pill had done
'Amazing! It's like looking at an entirely new brain. The original neural pathways are still there but now there are so many more and they are working in unique ways. Hopefully, I should be able to recreate this enhancement once the NZT wears off''
But sleep eluded him because his mind wouldn't stop churning out ideas for anything and everything. So busy was he thinking up new plans, he didn't notice when he fell asleep.
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