His Worst Case Scenario

Earnest gently opened the cover, confirming his assumptions. All the writing was done by hand, and there were even lines crossed out occasionally. He began to skim over the contents. His eyes widened and his whole body tensed, as he read through notes on performing dark, forbidden magics. The journal had it all, information on mechanics, followed by theory, then most disturbingly, experimental notes. Judging by the writing style and information, it was clear that it wasn’t Rosalind nor the misfit boys who were the authors of this journal, as none had the sick disrespect for life that would be required to pen such a journal.

He read through a multitude of spells that made his stomach churn. There was a ritual to sacrifice living beings to improve the caster’s magic energy capacity to a certain extent. There were diagrams for constructing magic tools of brutal implication. There were spells to transmute overworld creatures into hellspawn or violent abominations. While he was appalled and terrified, Earnest continued page after page. A ritual to raise the dead. A spell to control the dead. A spell to control the living.

Earnest stopped at this one, dreading that this was perhaps the spell that Rosalind was involved with. Had the misfit boys found this journal and mind controlled Rosalind? Earnest read the pages carefully, and confusingly the details didn’t match. This mind control spell did target the living, but the victims of this spell would act as mindlessly obedient, like a controlled undead. These servants would not be able to have much will on their own, hardly able to speak like Rosalind was able to. With this in mind, Earnest continued to look further.

Besides spells for destruction and raising an army, there was one class of spells that all magic users secretly yearned for. Earnest began this section, and felt that he was looking into the darkest depths of magic. The magic detailed in this section all related to unnaturally extending one’s life. There was a ritual to transform the caster into an undying lich, one that required untold amounts of sacrifices. There was a spell for forcibly stealing life ****, draining the target into a mummified husk. There were many pages dedicated to theory and experimentation with reviving the dead, with many parts crossed out in clear frustration, but thankfully there were no successes written anywhere. Earnest felt that he was reaching the end of the journal with only a few pages left.

The magic detailed in the journal was another attempt at unending life, a method to transfer the caster’s consciousness into an artificial body. The theory was that the mind was not only housed in the brain, but also trapped in it. The idea that the author had was to create a tiny passage between brains to allow the mind to move into a new housing. The tiny passage was created with a magic circle, one placed on the head. There was a diagram of the circle, and Earnest was aghast that it seemed to resemble the one drawn earlier. It was an incredibly complex design and especially compact, likely since it needed to fit on a small surface. There were notes underneath, stating that the magic pattern required a small amount of very finely controlled magic energy to facilitate the opening of the passage.

In the author’s notes, they detailed that consciousness did not immediately “flow like water”, expecting it to move into a new space on its own. Instead, it required a physical push to be dislodged and moved. The author further noted that if the mind was pushed out of the brain without a receptive destination, it would still leave the body. The author quickly jotted down that further work needed to be done on perceiving these invisible, bodiless minds to see if this exit from the body left the consciousness intact or destroyed it.

The author further experimented, finding the limitations of the magic that they had developed. A caster would be able to send their mind into any host that was “empty” such as magically created homunculus easily. However, there was more nuance with sending the mind into a natural, living being. If one used the magic to create the passage between two, conscious creatures, both minds would be dislodged and sent into the others’ brain. In the case that both subjects were **** during the transfer, the minds would not transfer no matter how hard the physical collision, even if their skulls cracked. The author bemused that the mind may be more “fluid” when awake and “frozen solid” when asleep or ****.

The author then experimented with sending a conscious mind into a body that was ****. It seemed the author was greatly surprised to find that, instead of being sent back into their original headspace due to not enough room in the new headspace, the experiment resulted in a successful transfer. It seemed that the original body was left empty, and that the sleeping consciousness was not transferred to it. The author again pondered that their “liquid” conscious was perhaps able to wrap around and cover the “solid” consciousness, such that both could exist in one body at the same time.

Further experimentation in this state revealed some interesting results. Firstly, the invader’s mind could remain theoretically permanently within the host body. The only limiting factor was that the invader’s original body would be left mindless and require constant care, lest it die of neglect. The invader also did not need to worry about sleeping while within the host’s body and having the host’s mind wake up. It seemed like the “liquid” consciousness that “covered” the host’s mind would “freeze” when sleeping, and fully encapsulate the host’s mind and keep it ****.

Secondly, while the invader’s mind is in the host’s body, the host’s mind will remain **** while still receiving information from the body’s senses. The author took note of a test subject’s experience, likening the experience to being in between a memory and a dream. The author conducted further tests with this, and found that it was possible to have the host be largely unaware of the invader’s actions after leaving. The host would end up believing that they themselves motivated “their” actions and decisions. As a result of this, the host’s behavior, preferences, and personality could slowly be affected.

Reaching the last page, Earnest read the author’s last messages. This page was unlike the previous, as the author also recognized that they were at the end of their journal. They described their plans going forwards with the knowledge they had gained. Of course there were more theories that they wanted to test, but there was also a plan to extend their own life.

They began by talking about their wretched beginnings, how they were physically weak and magically untalented with a tiny magic capacity. They had turned to dark magic as the only means to obtain power, and became obsessed with it. They had used a ritual to increase their magic capacity, but it had diminishing returns, requiring more and more sacrifices. They also used life draining spells to extend their own life past its natural limit, but there was only so much that could be done. The author detailed their plan to seek out a new host, one with a new life span and a high magic capacity.

They then laid out a further idea. After “settling in” to a strong human body, they intended to experiment with transferring the human consciousness into a higher being’s body. The experiments so far confirmed that it worked with humans, as well as lower beings ranging from rats to goblins, but no experiments on higher beings had been done yet. The author intended to continue their life and research by transferring from human to human if it didn’t work, but if it was indeed possible, then their goals became much more ambitious. They intended to capture and transfer their consciousness to higher beings, going from to more and more powerful flesh, not stopping until they became a god.

The author reeled themselves back in from their delusional ramblings with the last sentence, stating that they had to test whether it was possible first. They then ended the journal with a signature.

Morgan Avaranth