All the void had melted away at once, and colour, pain and everything else were quick to rush back into existence. Reality hit her mind once more, but Izumi barely had time to take in the world around her again before the sweet call of the spirit captivated her whole attention.
There it sat, calling to her. A simple touch, it intoned, imploring her to approach. So she did, stumbling towards the purple vessel and touching its smooth surface with both hands outstretched.
Her hands sink into the vessel, her body begins to slowly become pulled in, the 'skin' of the ship resonating with her own skin, which she notices is thicker with a strange clear layer over top of the others.
She continues being pulled in until the vessel completely envelopes her. She can feel her skin tingling once more. She can feel herself being merged into the vessel. Filling it up, adapting to the insides.
This is it.. She can feel her transformation slowly reaching the end.
__
"The final stage.. I think we have a success.." the lead scientist remarks.
The world outside was tinged a deep purple by the spirit's translucent flesh, and blurred unrecognisably. She could see nothing but indistinct shades of blue and violet, and she still felt spikes of agony shooting through her every muscle. Everything felt like it was on fire; everything save her skin, which itched intensely. Her body felt heavy and misshapen, though she could no longer see herself to make sure.
The spirit's mental touch was the only positive thing left. Though it was hard to focus on through the haze of pain engulfing her being, its reassuring pull was unwavering.
One of her bones crack with a muffled SNAP only to be reset in a different position, allowing her body to fill in the space within the spirit, her thought process speeding up, only to be slowed right back down by the pain. The new feelings, rushing past her, sending her pain receptors, and neurons within her body into overload, pushing every part of her body into a large stress, and then.
Nothing. No feelings. No pain. No thoughts. Only a light.
The light gets closer, and closer. As it seems to hit her with a large force, she can feel everything. She can feel a large presence in her mind, thoughts running through her head a hundred miles a minute, pure information flowing through her.
Her thoughts remained. She was still Izumi. No.. That sounds wrong. She was more than that now.
Nothing felt right. That was the first thing that came to mind. Calling out was impossible; the words wouldn't come. Thinking was amplified, like a blunt knife had been sharpened and sharpened until it was the keenest of blades. Each thought came more fully formed and whole than ever, a true form of communication, so much more than the simple words people used. Moving didn't seem to be working, either. In fact, it felt like her very essence was being leeched away, ceasing to exist as a distinct entity. The feeling was dreadful; her own thoughts beginning to spiral away from her as soon as they came into being, all while the huge presence seemed to loom closer and closer.
The light passes through her, she finds her deformed body floating through a large empty space. Planets. Stars. Even Ideas start to take a physical form, floating around her.
Spirits appear. Nomad bodies swimming all over the place. The telepathic network, a place where everyone dreamed to be, yet very very few have ever accomplished it.
Izumi can feel her identity start to drain away, turning into pointless memories. Memories that did not have any relevance to what she was experience. Izumi was no more.
She awakens to find herself back in the spirit vessel, able to control her body, yet some pain remains. Inside her head, remains the same universe that she just experienced. A feeling of being in two places at once.
That is when it happens. Being thrust out of the few precious seconds she had back in reality, she is thrown violently in her mind by the pure mass of data, information, and thoughts bombarding her mind. A major headache immediately springs, one unrivaled by any headache she has experienced when she was a person who was still alive.
The only cure was to get used to it. She was part of the network now. There was no going back.
Were it not for the Nomad encasing it tightly, the blurry figure buried within the purple vessel would have writhed and thrashed around in abject agony. Instead, the only visual indication of its torment was a slight twitching, barely visible through the azure flesh of the Nomad ship.
The psychic network was daunting in every aspect. There was no real concept of size, but at the same time it felt impossibly vast. A million voices, images, thoughts and concepts flowed around in a whirlpool of pure imagery, so many it was nigh impossible to keep track of them all. At the same time reality continued to call, an immense battering ram of pain making its presence known.
The technicians and other loyal to the Nomads watched patiently from the operating room, looking down at the special room as their experiment merged into the Nomad body. "We may have given birth to another success. May the spirits watch over their new brethren."
The senses slowly start to slow down, the spirits in the network recognizing the new presence within their minds. She feels them turn their attention to her for a few minutes, the pain dulling as they purposely quiet down. She feels a large presence of one of the older nodes in the network convey its thoughts.
"You join us.. You became one of us.. You will do well for us"
The language becoming more and more understandable as her brain adapts to who she is now. "You will understand. You will receive endless knowledge. You will know what we are."
The pain slowly dissipating, her body finishing up its adaptation. She was not human. Izumi was dead. Instead, something else was born anew.
She was something more now, the fragments of Izumi as a being dissipating into a collection of foggy, indistinct memories. Izumi no longer existed, except as a concept of something from times past. The collective sung through her, and as the pain faded, Belili felt a sense of calm. The ancient node's thoughts washed over her in a promise of blessings to come.
Hours pass. The observers do not move an inch, only watching the ship and the floating figure inside of it.
"Stage four should be beginning due to past observations. She.. No.. It has made it."
__
The spirits voices return back to full force, encompassing the newcomer as a trusted individual, all her past memories, and her current feelings flowing into the Mindshare, becoming part of the network. An understood individual. It was one of their own.
Her physical body starts to return, she is overwhelmed by the feeling of being two places in once. She is always inside the mindshare, but she started to begin to become aware of her surroundings. Every single movement of the Nomad ship moveable by her will, but on a separate plane of existence, her body floating through the world of information.
Two places at once. Her head starting to dull in pain, beginning to take control of her actions once more.
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