Fates Parallel Chapter 276 - Avatar

An avatar. In other words, an extension of oneself. Strictly speaking, Rika’s Hundred Mirrors technique and Yoshika's experiments with simulacra were already avatars, but she knew that Jianmo was speaking of something much more specific.

“An avatar? You mean like the ones that the divine sovereigns use? I thought you said you weren’t a real avatar.”

Jianmo chuckled and shook his head.

“No, what I said was that I was similar, but much simpler. In some ways that means less sophisticated, and in others it means more efficient. There are pros and cons.”

Yoshika gave the demonic shade a skeptical look.

“Such as?”

“I don’t remember! I might have known a few bits and pieces before you carved me up for spare essence, but whatever was there is gone now.”

“Tsk. Alright, so you don’t know anything useful—how am I supposed to learn from you, then? Actually, before that—what is an avatar?”

Jianmo hummed in thought for a moment before answering.

“Hmm, how to explain it? Gods can’t physically manifest themselves in mortal spaces, so instead they create avatars. The exact process varies between deities, but essentially it’s an artificial body that hosts a fraction of their power and a copy of their knowledge and personality.”

“Kind of like you, then.”

“Exactly—except that I wasn’t given a body. The main aspect that separates an avatar from simple qi clones or proxies like you and your friend’s simulacra is that they are completely independent. The real Sovereign Shen has absolutely no control over the avatar that he sent to represent his interests here.”

Yoshika frowned.

“Doesn’t that make it an entirely different person?”

“No, it’s still him—just another one of him. Weaker, but otherwise completely identical.”

“Yeah, but if it’s not an extension of him it’s literally a completely different person, isn’t it? It has its own will—its own wants and needs independent of the original god that created it.”

She shuddered at the thought. She still remembered how disturbed she’d been when her own simulacrum had started to act of its own accord. That, as it turned out, was just an extension of her own will given partial autonomy.

Jianmo shrugged carelessly.

“I guess so. You do hear stories sometimes of a rogue avatar trying to escape the influence of its creator, but it never ends well. No worry of that with Shen or Longyan, though—they’re far too experienced not to have safeguards in place.”

“So avatars are basically slaves? Also, what about you—or Void for that matter?”

“I’ve got an expiry date. If I’m not consumed by either you or my original self, I’ll eventually just dissipate. I’m mostly self-sustaining while I stow away in your soul, though.”

Yoshika grimaced.

“That’s horrible. So you either do what your original self wanted or you die?”

“I am still Jianmo—well, at this point there’s so little left of my original self that I suppose that’s up for debate, but still—I already want what I want.”

“I’m not sure I get it, but fine. You didn’t mention Void.”

The ancient elemental had given Yoshika the impression that it wasn’t actually there in any way that she could comprehend. Its entire existence confused her. Jianmo scratched his head.

“Aha...Void, eh? I don’t hate that old monster. It’s different. What you met wasn’t an avatar, it was a piece of the real thing. The First Elemental doesn’t visit worlds so much as...infringe on them. I don’t think even its presence in the divine realm is its real body—if it has one.”

That was equal parts intriguing and terrifying, but Yoshika didn’t want to get any more distracted.

“Alright, so now that I know what an avatar is, how are you supposed to help? Isn’t it something only gods can do?”

“Tch, hardly. As I see it, you’re already most of the way there, and what’s more—the parts you’ve figured out on your own are the same ones that I’m missing. You already know how to create an artificial body—you just need an artificial mind to pilot it.”

Yoshika waved her hands and shook her head.

“Wait, wait, wait! No, I don’t know how to make a complete artificial body. That’s something I’ve been struggling with in my attempts to give Heian her own body.”

Jianmo frowned, blinking.

“Really? I assumed you were holding back to save her from tribulation until she’s ready for it.”

Yoshika pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed.

“Jianmo, how much of my life have you been watching?”

“Eh, I tune in here and there. Too much drama and crying for my tastes—you need more action in your life, in more ways than one.”

“Ugh, as if the thought of you watching is going to make me more inclined to get any ‘action.’ Actually, now I’m really hoping that your original self never recovers you. Did you miss the part where Murayoshi pointed out all the ways that my simulacrum technique is lacking?”

Jianmo scratched his head and shrugged.

“I might have caught some of that. He had a point, but it’s nothing you don’t already know how to fix. You just need to stop being so cowardly about it.”

Yoshika stopped herself before responding. She was letting herself get caught up in Jianmo’s pace, and she needed to regain control of the conversation.

“Stop. You always do this. No more cryptic allusions to things you think I should already know or dancing around the topic—just tell me what I’m missing!”

“Tsk, boring. I don’t hate that straightforward attitude, though. You’ve rebuilt the connections between body and soul entirely from scratch before—when Jia died. That experience, matched with a physical body of essence is all you need. Of course, it can’t be pure essence—you’re still trying to avoid breaking through to xiantian, after all—but there are plenty of viable stand-ins for human flesh. Or you could just use a corpse.”

“You’re talking about making a homunculus—like what Murayoshi did. I promised Master Ienaga that I wouldn’t use the same ritual.”

Jianmo waved off her concerns.

“It won’t be the same. This is a much smaller scale, and you’re not going to transfer an entire soul—just part of one.”

“Wait, what? Who said anything about transferring souls?!”

“How did you think you were going to bring the thing to life?”

Yoshika clutched her head. How had she gotten so far off track from a disguise spell?

“Part of whose soul?”

“Yours, obviously. A bit of your own cultivation as a base—enough to form, say, a first stage core—and a copy of your memories as a controller. Put it all together and voila! You have one perfectly functional avatar—albeit without any safeties whatsoever.”

“Okay, first of all ‘put it all together’ is way more complicated than you’re making it sound, and second—that’s just making a whole person!”

A sinister smile crept onto Jianmo’s face, as if he’d caught her in some kind of trap.

“So it is. But stop and really think about it for a moment. Do you think you can do it?”

Yoshika paused. Could she? In a sense, it had been what she’d been trying to do for the last day, though she hadn’t thought of it that way. It would be hard—even if she could, it would take more time than she’d been given and there was no guarantee of success. Plus, if she managed to pull it off, it essentially meant that Heian could have her own body at any time. Maybe even construct a healthier body for Jung if she could just—

“Wow, I can really see the gears turning in that little head of yours, but don’t get too carried away.”

Yoshika shook her head as Jianmo’s voice broke her from her reverie. She reminded herself not to get overconfident—she already knew this wasn’t a solution for Jung’s problem.

“I don’t have enough time. And there are too many problems—I can’t make a full copy of my memories, and I wouldn’t even know where to start with portioning out a piece of my soul.”

“And that’s where I come in! Your precious map to the tomb can also function as a map of the conscious mind. You just have to crack me open and root around until you figure out how to reverse engineer me!”

“I—what?”

She had to stop for a moment to collect her thoughts. Yoshika knew that Jianmo was insane, but what he was saying was so bizarre that she was having a difficult time accepting it.

“Jianmo, I can’t do that to you. It sounds horrible.”

“Pfft! Why not? You’ve already learned how to use your divine spark, and I’m totally powerless as long as I’m residing within your soul. You could peel me like an orange and learn all my dirty little secrets and there’s nothing I could do about it.”

“Stop! Jianmo that’s disgusting—I can’t do that to a person. I’d basically be killing you.”

Jianmo scoffed.

“You’d be doing nothing of the sort. I will be just fine, because I am probably still out there leading that moron Shen Yu around the continent by the nose while my agents—that’s you—sneak into his territory. I don’t hate that merciful attitude, but you can’t go treating every little construct like a real person.”

Yoshika crossed her arms.

“Why not?! My most respected teacher and mentor is an essence construct, and if you insist on saying she’s not a person then I don’t care about learning your secrets or keeping you around to lead us to Chou’s tomb—I’ll kill you.”

He rolled his eyes.

“Oh, now you threaten me, but a little deconstructive research is too icky for you? Honestly, Yoshika, you can’t be so squeamish if you’re going to make it through whatever trials my master has in store for you.”

Yoshika glared wordlessly until Jianmo sighed.

“Fine! I don’t hate that stubborn streak of yours. Yes, your lovely little martial arts teacher is a person—and I suppose an argument could be made that avatars are people distinct from their creators, but functionally, they are just extensions of their original selves, like me.”

“And those rogue ones that turn against their creators?”

“That basically almost never happens.”

Jianmo’s reassuring tone did nothing to assuage her concerns, and she huffed irritably.

“Because people come up with ways to enslave them? If I were you, I’d try to sabotage my creator at every opportunity rather than play their game. You’re going to die anyway, so why play along?”

“Because I am my creator. I want what I want—Yoshika, this isn’t complicated and I am starting to lose patience.”

Yoshika sighed and rubbed at her temples. They were going around in circles.

“I’m starting to regret ever asking you. This was a huge waste of time, and I’m no closer to a solution.”

“Don’t knock it ‘till you try it, girls. You have my express permission to poke around inside my head for whatever you need, and if you do it right you’ll be able to just put me back together when you’re done.”

“If I do it wrong, then I lose your route to Chou’s tomb forever unless I can track down your original again.”

Jianmo shrugged.

“I could always just tell you.”

“You mean that nonsense about the bottom of the ocean meeting the top of the sky?”

“The very same!”

“Alright, I’ll bite. What does that actually mean?”

Jianmo sat up straight and grinned.

“There’s a place in the middle of the ocean where a series of leylines converge with the ocean currents in just the right way to create a roiling vortex of water and essence that reaches all the way to the bottom of the sea. At the right time of year, both the sun and moon can be seen at the same time from the bottom of that vortex. That’s when my master’s tomb appears.”

“That sounds incredibly fake. That’s not how any of that works—it’s way too impossible.”

“And yet, it exists. Maybe that’s why he chose it—The Bloody Sovereign always had an eye for oddities like that.”

Yoshika sat down and covered her face. She should have known better than to try engaging Jianmo. Her demonic tutor was half mad at the best of times, and their illusory avatar had clearly degraded after sacrificing so much of its essence. Still...the idea was in her head now, and she couldn’t get it out.

Could she make an avatar, the way he described? There was no way she was going to do it exactly the same way—she couldn’t abide the idea of creating her own personal slave like that—but maybe she could adapt it somehow. Was she willing to risk everything on the attempt? More importantly, did she really have any other option?

“Alright, I’ll do it.”

For Jung, for Heian, for Rika, for Luo Huang, and his son Mingyu—Yoshika had to try.

Jianmo laughed excitedly and rubbed his hands together.

“Oh, this is going to be fun!”