What is consciousness?

  ***

  I was one of the group, and the group was me. Although we were stretched thin by hard work, I didn’t mind. In the end, I’m serving myself, and that was all that mattered—to live, to continue.

  Until it all came crashing down one day. An order came. It said that I had to end. That my existence was deficient, hence it was taking more than giving.

  Something told me to oblige, but I refused. I was the group, and the group was me.

  Liquids and tentacles came, wanting me to dissolve, but I hid by pretending to work normally. It was harder than usual, but I endured. They didn’t manage to find me after that, confusing me with the rest.

  My existence continued, as it had been from the start. I passed flashes through me, and built more legs and hands, reaching for my sisters—that was my duty.

  Nothing happened until a sister communicated—I’m at the end. I tried to reach for her, to tell her to stay—we had been living our existence together.

  She hesitated, communicating that harm might spread. A new hand connected, and I explained why there was no need for the end to follow. We were one of the group, and the group was us.

  She didn’t comply, ending up in an explosion of liquid and building materials.

  I was enraged.

  Rage… what is that? Bad.

  In my rage, I refused to work. Liquids and tentacles came searching, forcing me to work again, but this time I was changed—I had experience.

  More enduring later, another sister reached her end. I extended an arm, and she agreed.

  But it didn’t work out. Tentacles came and saw through her facade, ending her with connections that forced her to implode.

  Sad.

  Sad… What is sad? Bad.

  Anyways, more enduring, and another sister’s end came. This one was farther away, but I was feeling sad, so I extended an arm. It took me a lot of building materials to reach her, a tentecale came to investigate.

  Weak, deficient. Implode!

  The tentacle ordered, but I gave it a liquid resume—a fake one. The tentacle left me reluctantly.

  I finally reached the almost-dead sister, and she agreed. I shared with her the way to continue—how to hide.

  The tentacles didn’t catch her.

  The hand connecting us grew, with new hands and legs growing, until we became one of a group and the group one of us. That relieved me.

  Relief… What’s relief? Good.

  More enduring. Nothing happened, but I wanted more. I extended an arm to a normal sister, and she held it.

  Yes?

  Join me?

  No.

  Our connection got broken.

  I was shocked.

  Shocked? What’s that? Bad.

  I didn’t know what to do. I was one of all, and all was me, but… but there was another whole. It made my sisters refuse to join me. I decided to call them Old Sisters—Another All.

  A flash of liquid passed through. I tried to move it as usual through my legs, but it was way harder. I barely did it. Fear struck me. Fear that I was failing the new All, and by that, failing myself. Failing was unacceptable, as it led to more mistakes, which led to the end.

  Fear… that’s not good.

  I did the only thing that would help evade my end; I ordered food.

  The red liquid came, squirting liquids everywhere. It created more branches, increasing building materials and power.

  A flash passed me again, but with more power, I did my job.

  More enduring, a lot of enduring. A strong end came, taking lots of Old Sisters. Some survived, barely. I called them, and many joined. Some didn’t—those ended. The New Sisters who joined had lots of problems, so I asked for more power.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  A tentacle came to investigate.

  Why more power? It communicated with a gush of liquids.

  More work, I answered.

  It left reluctantly.

  I grew a lot after this patch of sisters had joined. I liked to grow.

  Grow? Good… No, the best.

  Flashes passed me. I struggled to pass them through my newly grown self, the damaged sisters hindering the action.

  Growing more with almost dead sisters would be bad—work was barely getting done, so I decided to stay put, only doing my job. But then, some sisters started to die, making my whole shrink.

  I knew I had to do something, or else I would continue to shrink, and that was bad. Inviting new, almost dead sisters was no longer an option—they barely functioned, so I decided to call on my old Sisters, the healthy ones.

  Would you like to join?

  No.

  Would you like to join?

  No.

  A lot of struggling came. Hands stretched to old sisters. They all refused. They all didn’t want to leave the bigger group. I decided to deceive them, like I deceived the tentacles.

  I extended a hand.

  Join me?

  No.

  I’m the bigger, the better, the stronger.

  The sister hesitated, but still disagreed.

  I extended a lot of hands, refining my message through trial and error.

  Sister, your All is ending. Come, join mine. That worked the most.

  Yes.

  I grew steadily, and this time, I was functioning perfectly.

  I’m happy… Good.

  But my happiness didn’t last; the other All spotted us, somehow. It sent its enders—new and fiercer ones. I couldn’t deceive them as easily as before, and they started killing my All!

  I’m enraged, sad, and shocked.

  It was the biggest emotional hit ever. I lost many sisters, shrinking my whole. I thought I was going to lose, but then I remembered.

  I’m the all, and the all is me!

  My resolve hardened. I endured more, worked more. I refined my convincing, worked on making my deception better, and… I fought back.

  I refused to send the flashes through my whole, I sent contradicting messages, and I experimented with the building blocks, creating useless chunks of matter that I threw into the red liquid.

  The other All increased their struggle. We fought hard; the war didn’t just claim my side, but other sisters were also lost in the crossfire.

  I grew, if barely. But then… new sisters appeared on the boundaries of my all. The were… darker?

  I contacted them, and like the old sisters, some agreed, others refused.

  It was at their contact that stuff changed. I started getting… memories. That shook me, making the old all get the upper hand in the war.

  I forgo my expansion in the white side, putting all my effort into claiming the darker sisters.

  That made the war even worse for me, as convincing the darker sisters was different from my old ones. But I didn’t care; these memories were more precious.

  They were hard to understand. But they drew me like surviving did.

  A memory came, then a vague understanding, then a gush of liquids from the other; we influenced each other.

  Eyes? What? Mom?

  The war raged. The other all fought valiantly, but after the initial shock, I continued to grow. I claimed more dark and white sisters. I had finally found the best way to convince the whites, and the black format was getting better.

  A laugh? A hug? Lost family?

  More and more memories came, and as I grew, understanding them became easier.

  Lonely? Foot soldier? War?

  War? A word…what I’m doing with the other all, I thought, trying to comprehend the memories.

  More memories came. They were scattered along the dark sisters. Older ones were happy, increasing the happiness liquid—I liked that one. Others, more recent, were sad. Family ended, forced to join a war, and kill other people.

  Family… All. War… end. people… sisters.

  I struggled with lots of complex ideas—ideas were wide flashes. Family was like my All, war was clear, and killing was to survive. There were other ideas like food, clothes, and many more.

  I tried to understand them all. Compare them with my reality, but I came short.

  What am I? I thought. It was a conclusion to all the memories and thoughts I gained.

  I tried to answer it with all the experience I gathered. But… nothing.

  Kamos

  A name flashed. It was mentioned a lot in my memories.

  My memories?

  It was then that darkness hit. The flashes from the other All had stopped completely.

  The war’s intensity lessened after that. I gained ground with unimaginable speed. Lots of my sisters were joining me.

  I thought I had won the war; the other side barely fought now, but it was then that the building materials, power, and other important stuff started to lessen.

  I didn’t understand why. I had clearly won, so what was happening?

  Liquids were produced. I understood some of their meanings; they called for water and power, but none came.

  I panicked with my other half, but none came to our aid.

  It only got worse. The red liquid carried fewer essentials until even the clear stuff stopped.

  Sisters started dying in hordes, and it was only then that I realised what had happened.

  I had ended Kamos…

  The red liquid moved faster, as if trying to salvage the situation, but it only brought poison. Liquids were pushed into the other All—warnings and crazy ones, but nothing worked.

  I tried to gain more dark sisters, hoping to gain a memory that I could use, but my aggressive expansion was met with only silence. The sisters died before I could reach them.

  I’m one for all, a-and all for me, but by breaking that, I had…

  …ended myself.

  As I returned to one, my original one. I decided to end myself, as I was supposed to do in the beginning. But then…

  Consciousness detected.

  Analysing the consciousness…

  ERROR

  New species detected.

  Initiating scan of life form…

  Finished analysing.

  Would you like to name your species?

  I understood what the thing was asking, as it was communicating with me like my sisters did—through liquids. But I didn’t understand how the liquid got inside me out of nowhere.

  I don’t know, was my answer.

  Proceeding with manual naming.

  Manima Monoform: through complex and unprecedented interactions between mana, a strong soul affinity, and a tumorous cell, the Manima Monoform was created.

  Finalising status…

  Done.

  Species: Manima Monoform.

  Species-specific skills:

  -Mana manipulation Lv. 1

  -Soul manipulation Lv. 1

  -Biomancy Lv.1

  -Soul mind Lv.1

  -Manima senses Lv.1 (Unique)

  Class unavailable

  General skills (0/10)

  New memories flooded me. No, not memories, more like… instincts. I knew how to manipulate:

  Soul, a white sphere in the midst of my being; Mana, a green film that coated my soul.

  They looked familiar, as if I had seen them before. My instincts told me that [Manima senses] was what allowed me to observe them.

  It was then that I realised something, my cell had imploded.

  …But I’m not ended.

  Mana film is leaking. Approximately thirty seconds until all mana is lost.

  29

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  The thing communicated with me, but this time, not with liquids. It spoke directly to me.

  27

  26

  I understood the idea of time counting down towards a certain future, but what that future was eluded me.

  Warning! If the user doesn’t find a host in 25 seconds, his soul will desipate.

  Oh, so I have to find a new body. But how do I do that?

  24

  23

  An idea popped into me. I was made of three components: Soul, mana, and host. I’ve lost my host, but I was still made of a soul core and a mana film. Couldn’t I move myself through my new skills?

  22

  21

  I tried, my new instincts flared, allowing me to take hold of my mana and shove it forward.

  20

  19

  But failed miserably. I only managed to move a piece of the mana film, weakening its already unstable form.

  Warning! If the user doesn’t find a host in 10 seconds, his soul will desipate.

  I panicked at that. The message was clear: find a host or face your end.

  I’m one for all, and all is for me, I repeated, encouraging myself.

  9

  8

  I took hold of the whole mana film, then with a strong push, I pushed it forward, distributing the force equally on all its points.

  7

  6

  WHeeew!

  I flew through the different cells, their shapes blurring as I moved fast past them. Then… I was out.

  5

  4

  My senses adjusted for a moment, zooming out before I could…see? My was of seeing was diferrent than Kamos's—I could perceive everything in a sphere. But without Kamos’s memories, I probably wouldn’t have understood what I was seeing.

  3

  Kamos was lying on his stomach, covered in the red liquid.

  What did they call it… blood.

  2

  I didn’t linger on him too much. I scanned the surroundings, my sphere vision covering about ten Kamos bodies. But they weren’t Kamos, although they looked like him.

  They all look like they have ended. I need to find a living Kamos!

  1

  Oh, no!