Chapter 123: Chapter 123 Cognitive Misalignment_1
Gun?
Why would Presia have a gun on her?
Aiden was momentarily confused.
"Rebecca," now on suspension, was being constantly surveilled by Harold’s people, and under normal circumstances, she wouldn’t have had the opportunity to get a gun.
Yet, the outline of a gun was clearly discernable beneath the person’s top; Presia was actually hiding a gun behind her back, like some plainclothes officer...
No, the person he just dealt with, was that really Presia?
As doubt arose, the "illusion" dissolved.
With a mere blink, the scenery shifted and Aiden realized the person before him had changed.
Although he couldn’t see her face from the back, her hair color and length were starkly different from the "Rebecca" who had just appeared before him.
He... had actually "mistaken" her!?
This hair color, it was the same as the investigator who had just been under the street light.
Realizing this, he reflexively pointed his gun at the woman who had just been standing under the street light.
The view shifted, and the person standing under the street light had shockingly turned into the "Rebecca" he had just taken down!
"You’re two steps too late."
"Rebecca," or rather Presia, stood under the lamplight, flashing him a triumphant, slight smile.
Almost reflexively, Aiden prepared to shoot, the situation was so dire he could no longer consider the extent to which he should try not to harm Rebecca’s body.
But the very next moment, his field of vision twisted abruptly into an indecipherable mess of static, and the sounds around him suddenly turned into unrecognizable noise.
In fact, he could still see and hear, but his spirit couldn’t make sense of the sensory information he was receiving.
In those few seconds that Presia had deceived him, he had completely fallen under her mental spell.
He could only fire his gun instinctively, but the demon-biting bullet ultimately grazed past the lamp post.
In the moment of his lag due to sensory disarray and disorientation, Presia had already dodged in front of his gun barrel. Then, she quickly circled around him and took cover by the unconscious surveillant, using them as a shield.
In desperation, Aiden tried to summon the shadow demon and protector spirits to attack, but received no response—his spiritual connection with these summoned beings had been severed.
Presia stood next to Aiden, eyeing him as if he were fish on a cutting board.
The "Sensory Disarray," which made it impossible for a person to comprehend the information obtained by their senses, and "Mental Block," which sealed off one’s spirit and the ability to perceive the external world—Presia had cast these two mental spells on Aiden after closing the distance, rendering him unable to aim with his gun, nor use any magic other than spells for the self.
Though it was unexpected for Aiden to use such powerful demon summoning and necromancy, she ultimately won in the end.
It was fortunate she had prepared in advance...
To deceive Aiden and the heretical inquisitors from the surveillance bureau, she had employed a low-level mental spell known as "Cognitive Dissonance."
This spell merely amplified a person’s momentary misperceptions, such as seeing something incorrectly at a glance or mishearing something for a short period. Those affected by the spell would mistake one thing for another that their subconscious felt should be seen or heard instead.
It was like putting a cat inside a sealed box—if the person affected by the spell believed for some reason that a dog should be in there, upon opening the box they would see a dog, even if they heard a cat meow, they would misinterpret it as a bark.
The effectiveness of this low-level spell was very weak, firstly because it only worked in accordance with the target’s line of thought, and secondly, as soon as someone realized they had seen or heard something incorrectly, the cognitive dissonance would be immediately corrected, which meant it could only replace similar objects and couldn’t be used directly in front of someone.
But precisely because it was a low-level spell with strong limitations and weak power, its casting range was much longer than those powerful offensive mental spells.
She had long been aware of being monitored by the heretical inquisition. The surveillance agents would take turns on duty and regularly return to report, and any interference with them would immediately expose her.
But this time, when she was determined to act against Aiden, she thought of a way to use the surveillance agent.
She started by waiting on a street near the prison with the surveillant, using an animal familiar to watch for the moment Aiden left the prison and his subsequent movements.
Luck was on her side, the familiar she used happened to be a crow which cast no shadow on the ground when it flew over the streetlights, thus even Aiden, who was equipped with a shadow demon summoned by Daili, failed to notice the animal’s surveillance.
Of course, an animal familiar posed no threat to him. To attack Aiden, Presia had to approach him personally.
Having confirmed Aiden’s movements, Presia then set out to follow him halfway.
At the right moment, she quickly distanced herself from the surveillant and then swiftly turned into an alley to hide, disappearing temporarily from the surveillance agent’s view.
When the surveillant affected by "Cognitive Dissonance" hastened to catch up, what she saw walking ahead was Aiden.
At that moment, convinced that the person she should see around the corner was her surveillance target, the spell made her mistake Aiden for "Rebecca," whom Harold had ordered to be monitored. She didn’t look for the person she was supposed to track but instead followed closely behind Aiden.
As the surveillance agent began tracking Aiden and got closer, Aiden became aware of the follower and identified them as Presia, intending to launch an attack against him.
Using a simple mental spell, Presia made both of them mistake each other for their own selves, initiating a chase and ambush filled with mental combat, while she took the opportunity to become the opportunistic bird after the praying mantis caught the cicada.
She didn’t have the confidence to confront Aiden head-on, but she could take advantage of his cognitive dissonance to quickly close the distance while his attention was on the surveillance agent, and then catch him off guard with a strong mental attack.
Just like now, Aiden had lost all means of retaliation and was at her mercy.
All she needed to do next was to completely seal his memories and then switch consciousness; she would then take possession of his body!
Presia began casting the spell, and suddenly Aiden felt countless sturdy and cold chains appear in the depths of his consciousness, aiming at his many memories like a swarm of snakes, wrapping around to seal them.
Bits of his memory started to blur—he realised he was about to suffer the same fate as Rebecca.
At this critical juncture between life and death, he desperately searched his brain for anything that could save him. Then, the strange divine words taught to him by Abigail suddenly surged into his consciousness.
Words of Divine Power! Although he was still unclear about the effect of uttering these divine words at this moment, this unknown effect was now his only hope for salvation.
