Maddox wanted to attempt to hijack or move the miasma around the guys head and turn it into his own as the owner of the miasma who used it for the guy would be able to control it and so if it felt that it was being destroyed then they could cause it to self destruct its carrier. Maddox was basing this on his own experiences since he had yet to be able to view from the sight of his illusions it was safe to assume that only once he drew back the miasma could he view it. Unfortunately dismissing the miasma he used to make the soldiers outside only led to it dissipating naturally since he did not collect it like usual it would seep into its surroundings and just disappear.
So for now the best option for Maddox would be to transfer the miasma someplace else and there was no better host than himself since he could, hopefully, overpower this piece of miasma that was latched on the guy in the hospital bed. Plus if Maddox was able to play this off right then he may be able to get a chance to capture an infected by using this piece of miasma to call upon its placer.
'Miasma sure is pretty useful...' Was Maddox's thoughts as he begins to work on the guy
It was tiring, to say the least, since Maddox was trying to wrangle the miasma affecting the guy as well as maintaining the illusion around his body to prevent him from being seen since he had already used up a lot of miasma and it would take a very long time for him to regenerate. So Maddox was defiantly going to try and move the miasma on the guy to him but before that, he needed to observe through his miasma to act as his eyes and see what it was that was happening. So creating a strand from his miasma that only made brief contact with the miasma afflicting the guy caused a strange new phenomenon that allowed Maddox to briefly view before pulling back.
Now, this was strange as Maddox saw that the opposing miasma was not connected, as usually he just cut off a connection of miasma after it had taken form for his stationary illusions, and only by reconnecting to it could he remove it and absorb it back into himself however the miasma that was attached to the guy in the bed had no such connection and it was acting around giving it the feeling it was connected to someone.
If Maddox could describe this process then it could be like a programmed robot as the miasma seemed to act in certain ways that were predetermined and allowed it to act on its own, almost. Wanting to observe more in-depth rather than what he gleaned from the surface Maddox had to push into the miasma covering the guy in the hopes of seeing how to program a bit of his miasma.
Previously when it came to the illusions that Maddox made he was the one controlling their movements and they were all still relatively connected to him to the point he could dismiss them but could not absorb them back after a specific range since the connection would weaken.
In simpler terms, Maddox was a ventriloquist that controlled puppets, the puppets being his illusions, he did so by himself but unless they were stationary illusions Maddox could not sever the strings attached to them as they would fall apart due to their complexity. He could still control them the further away they were but as a result, there would be a smaller connection so he would be unable to recall the miasma he used and would have to cut his losses.
So if Maddox could copy this technique and program his illusions then he would be another step closer to creating the perfect illusion as he could make a whole new entity out of nothing but miasma.
So paying close attention Maddox wanted to view what made this piece of miasma so unique compared to his own as he probed deeper this time than viewing it from the surface.
It was difficult to know how far Maddox could go since this opposing miasma would defiantly have some sort of defense mechanism against foreign influences since the infected normally went against the coalition then they knew that they would have a self-destruct button once found. However, what surprised Maddox the most was the fact was that this thing had no sure defense mechanism for miasma which he felt was a bit too much of blind trust in the same energy since one might never know when your friends might become enemies. Still, it worked out for Maddox as he was able to see what this thing was doing attached to this guy.
The results though were very confusing as once again Maddox was pulled into the mind space, where Maddox tried to make an orb but failed, but it was not his as this one was white everywhere giving Maddox a slight headache looking at it. Maddox's body was different as he looked down at his hands and saw that his form had been made with his miasma that entered in. Still, the one thing that was confusing though was what the miasma was doing in this white haven. Just like Maddox's mind space, there was a river but instead this time the roles seemed to be reversed with the miasma being the river and the essence being the surroundings however the only difference was that orbs were floating in place. These orbs were a dull gold color which confused Maddox since his essence was pure gold in color he assumed everyone else's was but that did not seem to be the case since this guy had a very different color scheme.
If Maddox was looking at this right then the surrounding white area was the essence in the guy's body and when he created his orbs of essence they barely made gold which lead Maddox to wonder what color he would be able to make once he figured out how to make an orb of his own since his essence was already bright gold.
Putting that thought aside for now Maddox wanted to see what exactly it was that this miasma was doing in this man's mind space. Ultimately the results were disappointing as after observing it for a while it was doing nothing but sitting there. So Maddox wanted to see what would happen and decided to make the thing act by grabbing one of the orbs in the mind space. Expecting to feel the pain of being erased once more Maddox was surprised to see that the orb in his hand only felt mildly warm in his hands and did not harm him in the slightest. Now holding an orb in his hands Maddox wanted to see if there had been something wrong that he had done before when trying to make his essence orb. Still seeing something special about it left Maddox confused and stumped on what to do for his problem as he just tossed the orb in his grasp away however it was heading straight to the miasma river.
Glancing back at it and seeing what was happening caused Maddox to panic as he expected the miasma inside the guy to panic and begin to self-destruct in the boy's body.
However, something completely unexpected happens as the miasma as if sensing that the essence orb was coming towards it started to move and instead of shrinking away actually lashed out at the orb and began to reel it in like some sort of fisherman. Confused by this Maddox only silently watched from the side as the miasma river drew back the orb before it was swallowed by the river entirely.
Watching for some sort of rejection by the miasma Maddox is given a bigger surprise as the miasma river grows a bit more. As if some sort of condition had been fulfilled multiple lines from the river began to reach out in random directions in hopes of latching onto the essence orbs and drawing them back into the river to be assimilated.
"I thought essence was stronger than miasma..." Maddox mumbles to himself seeing that the river was now active and had begun to activate
Wanting to see what exactly was the benefit of absorbing an essence orb Maddox grabs an orb a fair distance away from the river and tries it out himself. Since his current form within this mind space had been created with his miasma that was being supplied directly from his body Maddox was sure that he could just absorb the orb just like the river with no problems. So with it in his grasp, he tries to absorb and to his surprise, he sees the effects of orb absorption.
The miasma converted the essence into miasma which was interesting to Maddox at this implication and how these two energies followed some natural laws. Energy cannot be created or destroyed, it can only be converted into some other form which made Maddox's mind spin down a spiral of what if's. Could other forms of energy be converted into miasma and essence, or is the opposite be possible, can a new form of energy be created from the two? Those were some of the bigger questions in Maddox's mind that we're going around as he felt the process occur within his body and a small portion of the miasma that he had spent earlier had been restocked. In terms of percentage, this singular orb was able to recharge Maddox's miasma by %5 which normally would have taken days to refill on its own.
It was interesting to see this which meant that Maddox had to steal orbs from the coalition members to refill his miasma quickly from those with a lower quality of essence in their bodies. Going based on his own body he could not absorb the same orb quality as his essence as that would harm him and seeing how much pain it caused him before he did not want to find out what would happen if he were to die in his mind space.
Returning to look at the miasma river that was invading this bodies mind space Maddox could see that it was attempting to devour all the essence orbs in the mind space, from there one could only guess that it would attempt to absorb the remaining essence from its surroundings once strong enough to do so.
Once an essence wields had their essence completely drained from their bodies and could no longer produce more Maddox had no clue what would happen to their body and seeing as how he could not stay here for long before the miasma river devoured everything Maddox had to find the owner of this place.
This place was called the mind space for a reason as a person's mind resided in here where they could be alone to develop their abilities or attempt to create more orbs. Essentially the mind space is a way out of one's body which is normally created by essence and no one else can enter except the one whose body it resides in.
Miasma seemed capable of entering into these mind spaces and was able to attack the body from the inside out since once the miasma devoured everything in the mind space Maddox could only assume it would go to the body next. There he had a hunch that it would be able to absorb the host's memories directly from the brain and anything else it deemed as useful.
Maddox however was gonna attempt a shortcut through this process and instead of going through the task of mind space domination would try to go from the brain and its memories directly.
Wielding the miasma of his form to change his arm into a blade Maddox tries directly stabbing into the essence surrounding everything by concentrating the miasma to the tip of the blade.
Like a hot knife through butter, Maddox cuts through and creates a tear in the space leading him to a... door? Well, the most common depiction of memories in cartoons is through doors, and because of that, it may be showing itself to Maddox in that form instead of something else. After cutting off and absorbing a section of the mind space around him Maddox places a few essence orbs around the door so that they will be safe for a while from the miasma river... hopefully. With that done he reaches out, opens the door, and goes through.