CH.394 A Lost Soul
<span style="font-weight:400">Okay Brian. Don’t panic. Nothing bad has happened. Nothing that can’t be fixed at least.
<span style="font-weight:400">You just lost a soul. It can’t be that difficult to find it, right?
<span style="font-weight:400">(Laura! Did Cailie’s soul stay in the Factory?)
<span style="font-weight:400">(We are doing a full sweep, but from what I can see and what Fantasia is feeling, no. Her soul isn’t here.) Laura responded.
<span style="font-weight:400">“F*ck.”
<span style="font-weight:400">Okay. So we’ve really lost a soul. Now I just … need to find it. First off though…
<span style="font-weight:400">I looked at Cailie’s now soulless body on the chair with the Factory VR device still on her head. I should probably do something with it, but I also really don’t want to move it, just in case her soul is somehow in the viriring of the Factory VR device.
<span style="font-weight:400">So instead, let’s do the next best thing and build something around her. I called Wilma to help me with it, because it might be a bit difficult to do solo. And I’ll have to tell everyone about this anyway. I’m not the kind of person that will just sweep an incident like this under the rug. Well, if I could solve it quickly I might, but since I can’t, I won’t.
<span style="font-weight:400">I told Wilma what happened, through the System link, while she was getting here, and after she got here, we constructed an evolution tank next to where Cailie was. We then moved her into it, while not removing the VR device. The VR device should be waterproof. I did test that. So instead of worrying about how to take care of a soulless body, let’s use the device that can take care of an evolving body. It should work for this as well.
<span style="font-weight:400">(Laura. The evolution tank is safe for mer-folk, right?) I asked to confirm. I mean, the evolution tank does get filled with healing potion and unlike most of us, mer-folk have gills, so I need to make sure they won’t cause a problem.
<span style="font-weight:400">(Yes. We did test it, and it is safe for gilled individuals.) Laura confirmed, so we kept going.
<span style="font-weight:400">After Cailie was fully in the tank, Wilma asked me an important question.
<span style="font-weight:400">“... so, what do we do now? If her soul is missing, how do we find it?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“... no clue.” I admitted. “But I’ll start off with what I think will be the best choice.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Which is?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“I’m getting the expert.” I told her. “I’ll be back in about 30 minutes. Have someone keeping an eye on Cailie. Can you also fill everyone in on what happened? Laura can give you all the details.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Sure. Leave it to me.”
<span style="font-weight:400">As soon as Wilma said she’d take care of things here, I rushed outside and summoned my Victory Viper XX03. I jumped into the cockpit and sted off, heading west. My destination, the Dragon coast. My Soul Magic expert is there, and I could really use her assistance right now.
Spoiler
[copse]
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<strong>[Cailie POV]</strong>
<span style="font-weight:400">“She’s waking up.” “The singer is waking up.” I heard people speaking around me.
<span style="font-weight:400">I slowly opened my eyes and looked around.
<span style="font-weight:400">“... where..?” I questioned where I was. This isn’t Brian’s mental Factory, nor is it HomeBase.
<span style="font-weight:400">I was in some strange ce where nothing made sense. Everything was bright and overly saturated. Trees, rocks and even water were just floating in the air. It looked so chaotic that even Brian wouldn’t make something like this.
<span style="font-weight:400">I was surrounded by arge number of small spheres of light. They didn’t have a full form, just looking like orbs of different colored lights. With them were also some slightlyrger beings that looked humanoid, except that they were made of light as well. They were not all thatrge, only about 30 cm tall, and they were mostly blue colors.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Are you alright?” “Are you alright?” Was repeated by the multiple spirits.
<span style="font-weight:400">“I … Where?” I asked.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Our World.” “Our World.” Was the answer.
<span style="font-weight:400">Their world? Like … the spirit world?
<span style="font-weight:400">“W-Why?” I asked.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Brought you here!” “Brought you to sing.” “To hear more songs.” The spirits answered. ““And to awaken the superior spirits!”” They then added in unison.
<span style="font-weight:400">Eh? What?
<hr>
<span style="font-weight:400">“Alright children. Please back off a bit so that our guest has some breathing room.” A more mature voicemanded the spirits that had piled up all around me.
<span style="font-weight:400">Most of the spirits backed off, but a few of them still held onto me. But at least I wasn’t covered in them anymore.
<span style="font-weight:400">“... it’s you.” I said, as I recognized the spirit. It was the greeted water spirit that had blessed Brian.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Yes. I do apologize for what happened to you, young miss, but wee to the spirit realm.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“... I … why am I here?” I asked.
<span style="font-weight:400">“The lesser ones took your soul from the Hero’s Factory and brought you along. I do apologize for that.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“... Can I go home?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“That … is a bit moreplicated.” The spirit said. “The Hero used a magical device to allow your soul to pass into his mental realm. But as he is no longer connected with the device, it is highly likely that if I attempted to bring you back, something strange would happen. We must simply wait until the Hero uses that device again.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“... I see.” Maybe spending a bit of time here won’t be that bad.
<span style="font-weight:400">… But will Brian use the device again? He must think I’m lost somewhere in the machine, so he might not use it again.
<span style="font-weight:400">“... Brian might not use it again.” I told the greater spirit. “I’m lost because of it, so he might not use it again.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Ah! Yes. He may do that.” She agreed. “... then we must wait until he calls for me or the greater nature spirit. We can exin what has happened to him ande up with a n to take you home.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“How long … will it be?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“That I do not know. Not only do I not know when Brian will call for one of us, but the time in the spirit realm doesn’t work like it does in the world you are familiar with.” She told me. “Here, time is controlled by the time spirits, especially the superior spirit of time, Lachros. Because of that, sometimes time flies and other times it crawls. Especially now that Lady Lachros is sleeping. That leaves the time here to be more chaotic, with the greater time spirits controlling time in different sectors of the spirit realm.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“... why are they … sleeping?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“They?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“The superior spirits. The small ones said … that they want me to awaken the superior spirits. … so many of them are sleeping?”
<span style="font-weight:400">The greater spirit gave an angry re towards the lesser spirits and they tried to hide away from her gaze.
<span style="font-weight:400">“It is because of the dimensional instability. As you work with the Hero, you may know of it. The dimensional fissures that appear around the world.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“I … I don’t. Brian talks of … miasma blobs? Are they the same?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Oh yes. He did use that term instead to hide their true nature. But the name isn’t important. Those fissures are a great danger, not just to your world, but to ours as well. The spirit realm bnces the world you live in, but the fissures cause that bnce to go all out of order. The superior spirits thus have to spend a lot of energy to keep our realm in order, as well as keeping our young ones safe from all the miasma the fissures release.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Is miasma … that bad?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“To us spirits, exposure to miasma leads to a fate worse than death. We turn into sprites. Corrupted spirits that only want to kill and destroy.” The greater spirit told, with clear sadness in her voice. “Our numbers are already going down. The youngest of our children can’t even safely cross over, as they risk exposure, and the others need to purify themselves after each crossing.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“... can we … do something?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“We are. We try to deal with it the best we can.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“... but if the superior spirits wake up … can they solve everything?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“No. They need to wake up for the youngest of our kind. Without them, the youngest will never be true spirits.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“... youngest?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“The orbs of light you see. They are all young spirits that don’t have individuality. While those of us that are greater can turn some of them into lesser spirits, without the superior ones, a lot of them will die. That with our lessening numbers…” The spirit didn’t continue, simply shook her head.
<span style="font-weight:400">“... can I really … wake them up?” I asked.
<span style="font-weight:400">“I couldn’t ask that of you.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“... I want to … I want to help!” I called out. “I want to be like Brian. Someone who helps.” I stated with a confidence I didn’t think I had. “... so if I can… please let me.”
<span style="font-weight:400">As I looked at the spirit, I saw a smile forming on her face.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Alright, young mer-child. We shall do what we can.”
<hr>
<span style="font-weight:400">“... legs? Why do… I have legs?” I questioned, as I finally looked over my body.
<span style="font-weight:400">“This world is like the Hero’s mental Factory. Your body isn’t your body, just a construct made of mana. You likely have legs because you aren’t in water, so your body made legs instead.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“... but … I can’t walk.” I admitted.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Then fly!” “Then fly!” Came the answer from a few of the lesser spirits, as they jumped up into the air and just floated there.
<span style="font-weight:400">“They are right, you know. Remember, this world is made of mana. Control it and fly.” The greater spirit told me.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Control it? … like mana control…” I tried doing that, and it did feel like my Mana Control was supercharged.
<span style="font-weight:400">I tried to control the mana inside of me, so that I could get up from the ground, only to end up shooting up into the sky.
<span style="font-weight:400">“AAAH!” I instinctively yelled as I flew higher, until I felt gravity start pulling me back down towards the ground.
<span style="font-weight:400">Ssh!
<span style="font-weight:400">But instead of hitting the ground, I fell into arge bubble of water.
<span style="font-weight:400">Being in water quickly calmed me down. It felt like I was back in my element. I took a few strokes with my arms, before I kicked with my tail. … wait, tail? My legs are gone but my tail is back? Did I change when I entered the water? But why? Did I do it on instinct?
<span style="font-weight:400">“You cane out of there now.” I heard the greater water spirit say.
<span style="font-weight:400">“... okay.” I agreed, and swam to the bottom of the water sphere.
<span style="font-weight:400">I then positioned myself so that my tail was hanging out of the water, before trying what Brian taught me in the Factory. How to turn my tail into legs.
<span style="font-weight:400">I felt my tail split and two legs formed where it had been. The water sphere then lowered and I felt the ground touch the bottom of my feet, before the water sphere disappeared.
<span style="font-weight:400">As the sphere that I had used for bnce disappeared, I began to wobble. I couldn’t keep my bnce without support. But thankfully, the greater spirit came and took a hold of my arm.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Don’t worry. I got you.” She said.
<span style="font-weight:400">“... thank you. … but … I still can’t walk. Or fly.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“You’ll learn. We have time.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“... but … aren’t you in danger?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Remember, time is rtive. For you, it must feel like we are wasting it. To us, this is something necessary.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“A-Alright.”
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<span style="font-weight:400">I quickly lost track of time, learning both how to walk and how to kind of fly. I still struggled with bnce while walking and flying was difficult because one small mistake would send me either crashing into the ground, or sting into the air.
<span style="font-weight:400">I don’t know how long it took to get to this point. For me, it felt like days and days of practice, but the spirits said I learned so fast.
<span style="font-weight:400">I wonder. Has Brian even noticed that I’m gone? Is he looking for me? Is heing for me?
<span style="font-weight:400">I hope he is.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Alright. I think we are ready to go.” A greater spirit of nature said. She hade to join as at some point during my training.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Who are we waking up first?” The water spirit asked.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Not Time. She will get angry when we wake her up.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“But we can’t wake up Space before her either.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Why don’t we just wake up Water? She is the closest.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“And cause a flood. I might be a water spirit, but even I know that is a bad idea.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“... then …”
<span style="font-weight:400">“... Would Wind be good?” I asked.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Sorry, what?” The nature spirit asked.
<span style="font-weight:400">“... Would the superior Wind spirit be good? … I … Wind is my attribute, so I thought … it would be the easiest to start with.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“... Is she a genius?” The nature spirit asked.
<span style="font-weight:400">“She does live with the Hero, so she probably is.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Wind will be a great help. Her song will be able to reach both Space and Time at once.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“The same with Light and Dark.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“We won’t have to worry about their bnce.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Yes. To Wind we go then!”
<span style="font-weight:400">“To Wind!”