Chapter 514: Homunculus Research
Sylvia dare not et Zero's eyes. Her arrogant attitude from earlier was completely crushed with Zero's display of capabilities. In front of the chosen one, she was deeply humbled. Was this why Raj gave him the Red Phoenix's Pearl? Even if she didn't believe it initially, she had no choice but to believe that Zero was indeed chosen by the Gods to fulfil the last prophecy of the Great One. Her child's soul was still within the powerful doctor's palm and Sylvia was completely at his rcy.
"Before I talk about your child's soul, I have questions about your research. Did you know that trying to create sothing that falls outside of the natural life cycle managed by Gods is considered a cri? This cri could get your soul returned to the void."
Sylvia nodded slowly. "If it ans that I can see my child return to even for a brief mont, then all will be worth it."
There was sothing Zero couldn't understand. While he knew that a mother's love could be the strongest force in the world, the knowledge of creating souls shouldn't exist.
"When did your chimaera research project begin? Who gave you the idea of creating artificial bodies?"
Sylvia blinked. This was where Zero wanted to start?
"It's Jynx," she said. "I don't know if she told you about it but we used to be best of friends. This child is a child that we both love dearly. When our child passed on, it was Jynx who started necromancy to bring her back. Back then, I was happy just to see and talk to our child but things started going wrong. Our child beca more and more forgetful with every new body that was borrowed to host her soul. Then I found out that souls rejected bodies that weren't their own which would explain why necromancers needed a huge amount of mana to summon the undead. Jynx wasn't a lich, she could never be a lich because she was a banshee. She said that if the soul could have a body to reside in permanently without rejection, they would stop losing mories and personality. Every summon will cause the soul to leave a part of itself behind in the body it occupies. Hence, I decided to create a body that could host our child's soul so that it wouldn't take a toll on her."
Zero looked at the soul in his hand. That would explain all the missing parts. They must have made hundreds of summons in the past, causing it to beco so fragnted. He didn't know if it could be restored at this point because there were too few pieces of it left to work with. Not to ntion, it wasn't a soul waiting to be reincarnated, it was a soul that still had all its mories for the last few hundred years thanks to Sylvia and Hynx's efforts. Zero couldn't simply go to the Natural Plane to fuse it with other similar fragnts. That would damage the mories and personality of this soul.
"The chimaeras I can understand. What about the homunculus research? Why did you start creating artificial souls?"
Sylvia looked guilty. "I didn't an to do it. It was an accidental discovery in my chimaera research process. The homunculus was not supposed to exist."
With a heavy heart, the Great Sylph explained how the first homunculus was born. Instead of using bodies of other creatures, Sylvia went back to her child's grave and dug out the bones to recreate a new living vessel thinking that the soul wouldn't reject a body that was born from the sa cells. Her child looked very similar to Yxaan and Xvyal. They had fair skin and light blonde hair. All the subsequent homunculus looked the sa because of this.
"It took many decades and many tries to finally grow a body that looked exactly like my child using my mana. However, the body wouldn't wake up and couldn't accept the soul. It wasn't even alive because it would stop functioning the mont I stopped fuelling it with my mana. I'm a Great Sylph and my only magic elent is air. It was only then that I realised I needed holy magic and healing magic to create life."
Zero cringed. This was sothing he personally experienced. The abuse of revival magic and the failure to understand it. Sylvia told him how her first homunculus beca a monster when it woke up and tried to kill everything around it. Sylvia was broken-hearted when she had to kill her first creation but from then on, she learned about soul summoning.
"Jynx and I tried every trick in the book but we still couldn't get our child's soul to occupy a ready body. Instead, so other soul will occupy the vessel based on the different mana types or materials we used to create it. It took us a long ti to find souls that wouldn't turn into killers and we tried to find the closest personality to our child's soul. Xvyal and Yxaan were the closest to a miracle. However, I still couldn't get it to happen."
Zero was finally seeing the puzzle co together. "Is that why you started researching with organic transmutation alchemy? By replacing the parts that didn't fit the requirents of your child's soul in an attempt to create the perfect requirents."
Sylvia nodded. "It was Jynx's suggestion a few decades back to do this. Finding the right parts for the right vessel is extrely difficult. It's also impossible for to create sothing from scratch with the right specifications without a cell sample. I'm an alchemist, not a God."
Zero shook his head. "No, it would also be impossible even if you were a God. The process of reincarnation is more complicated than you think it is, much less a forced attempt at creating an immortal. What you're doing is a taboo, punishable by voiding. Death is a natural part of the process, it's ti to let go. Stop sinning any further."
When Sylvia heard that, she burst into tears. "My child is right there! How can you say that? I cannot give up when she's still alive... I can't! How do you want to live without her? After all the blood I've spilt and all the lives I sacrificed... how will I answer to the countless souls I've committed a sin against?"
Zero couldn't say that he didn't sympathise with her or understand how she feels. In fact, if it were him, he would also feel the sa way. The importance of so people can never be replaced and if he had the power, he would abuse it for his selfish desires to be with them just a little longer. Not all wounds could be healed with ti.
Sylvia wept and Zero could only look at the weak soul in his hands, not knowing what was the right thing to do.
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