Okay Brian. Don’t panic. Nothing bad has happened. Nothing that can’t be fixed at least.
You just lost a soul. It can’t be that difficult to find it, right?
(Laura! Did Cailie’s soul stay in the Factory?)
(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.
“F*ck.”
Okay. So we’ve really lost a soul. Now I just … need to find it. First off though…
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.
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.
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.
(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.
(Yes. We did test it, and it is safe for gilled individuals.) Laura confirmed, so we kept going.
After Cailie was fully in the tank, Wilma asked me an important question.
“... so, what do we do now? If her soul is missing, how do we find it?”
“... no clue.” I admitted. “But I’ll start off with what I think will be the best choice.”
“Which is?”
“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.”
“Sure. Leave it to me.”
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 blasted off, heading west. My destination, the Dragon coast. My Soul Magic expert is there, and I could really use her assistance right now.
Spoiler [collapse]
“She’s waking up.” “The singer is waking up.” I heard people speaking around me.
I slowly opened my eyes and looked around.
“... where..?” I questioned where I was. This isn’t Brian’s mental Factory, nor is it HomeBase.
I was in some strange place 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.
I was surrounded by a large 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 slightly larger beings that looked humanoid, except that they were made of light as well. They were not all that large, only about 30 cm tall, and they were mostly blue colors.
“Are you alright?” “Are you alright?” Was repeated by the multiple spirits.
“I … Where?” I asked.
“Our World.” “Our World.” Was the answer.
Their world? Like … the spirit world?
“W-Why?” I asked.
“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.
Eh? What?
“Alright children. Please back off a bit so that our guest has some breathing room.” A more mature voice commanded the spirits that had piled up all around me.
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.
“... it’s you.” I said, as I recognized the spirit. It was the greeted water spirit that had blessed Brian.
“Yes. I do apologize for what happened to you, young miss, but welcome to the spirit realm.”
“... I … why am I here?” I asked.
“The lesser ones took your soul from the Hero’s Factory and brought you along. I do apologize for that.”
“... Can I go home?”
“That … is a bit more complicated.” 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.”
“... I see.” Maybe spending a bit of time here won’t be that bad.
… But will Brian use the device again? He must think I’m lost somewhere in the machine, so he might not use it again.
“... Brian might not use it again.” I told the greater spirit. “I’m lost because of it, so he might not use it again.”
“Ah! Yes. He may do that.” She agreed. “... then we must wait until he calls for me or the greater nature spirit. We can explain what has happened to him and come up with a plan to take you home.”
“How long … will it be?”
“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.”
“... why are they … sleeping?”
“They?”
“The superior spirits. The small ones said … that they want me to awaken the superior spirits. … so many of them are sleeping?”
The greater spirit gave an angry glare towards the lesser spirits and they tried to hide away from her gaze.
“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.”
“I … I don’t. Brian talks of … miasma blobs? Are they the same?”
“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 balances the world you live in, but the fissures cause that balance 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.”
“Is miasma … that bad?”
“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.”
“... can we … do something?”
“We are. We try to deal with it the best we can.”
“... but if the superior spirits wake up … can they solve everything?”
“No. They need to wake up for the youngest of our kind. Without them, the youngest will never become true spirits.”
“... youngest?”
“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.
“... can I really … wake them up?” I asked.
“I couldn’t ask that of you.”
“... 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.”
As I looked at the spirit, I saw a smile forming on her face.
“Alright, young mer-child. We shall do what we can.”
“... legs? Why do… I have legs?” I questioned, as I finally looked over my body.
“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.”
“... but … I can’t walk.” I admitted.
“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.
“They are right, you know. Remember, this world is made of mana. Control it and fly.” The greater spirit told me.
“Control it? … like mana control…” I tried doing that, and it did feel like my Mana Control was supercharged.
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.
“AAAH!” I instinctively yelled as I flew higher, until I felt gravity start pulling me back down towards the ground.
Splash!
But instead of hitting the ground, I fell into a large bubble of water.
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?
“You can come out of there now.” I heard the greater water spirit say.
“... okay.” I agreed, and swam to the bottom of the water sphere.
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.
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.
As the sphere that I had used for balance disappeared, I began to wobble. I couldn’t keep my balance without support. But thankfully, the greater spirit came and took a hold of my arm.
“Don’t worry. I got you.” She said.
“... thank you. … but … I still can’t walk. Or fly.”
“You’ll learn. We have time.”
“... but … aren’t you in danger?”
“Remember, time is relative. For you, it must feel like we are wasting it. To us, this is something necessary.”
“A-Alright.”
I quickly lost track of time, learning both how to walk and how to kind of fly. I still struggled with balance while walking and flying was difficult because one small mistake would send me either crashing into the ground, or blasting into the air.
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.
I wonder. Has Brian even noticed that I’m gone? Is he looking for me? Is he coming for me?
I hope he is.
“Alright. I think we are ready to go.” A greater spirit of nature said. She had come to join as at some point during my training.
“Who are we waking up first?” The water spirit asked.
“Not Time. She will get angry when we wake her up.”
“But we can’t wake up Space before her either.”
“Why don’t we just wake up Water? She is the closest.”
“And cause a flood. I might be a water spirit, but even I know that is a bad idea.”
“... then …”
“... Would Wind be good?” I asked.
“Sorry, what?” The nature spirit asked.
“... Would the superior Wind spirit be good? … I … Wind is my attribute, so I thought … it would be the easiest to start with.”
“... Is she a genius?” The nature spirit asked.
“She does live with the Hero, so she probably is.”
“Wind will be a great help. Her song will be able to reach both Space and Time at once.”
“The same with Light and Dark.”
“We won’t have to worry about their balance.”
“Yes. To Wind we go then!”
“To Wind!”
nro_8 I do have to say, I'm kind of surprised no one commented that the spirits took Cailie. Not that I get a lot of comments, so please do leave more comments. I like them. But I mean, the title of last chapter is literally 'Factory Spirits' and they were all around Cailie just before they and her avatar disappeared from the Factory. And Cailie, even when she was introduced into the series, has always had an admiration for the spirits, to the point where she really didn't want to talk with Brian until she realized Brian had a greater spirit with him. But yeah, a little Cailie adventure side quest coming in.
Also, as it is the end of the month, I feel obligated to remind people that the chapters come out on all even days. So next chapter is coming out on Friday.
Okay Brian. Don’t panic. Nothing bad has happened. Nothing that can’t be fixed at least.
You just lost a soul. It can’t be that difficult to find it, right?
(Laura! Did Cailie’s soul stay in the Factory?)
(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.
“F*ck.”
Okay. So we’ve really lost a soul. Now I just … need to find it. First off though…
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.
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.
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.
(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.
(Yes. We did test it, and it is safe for gilled individuals.) Laura confirmed, so we kept going.
After Cailie was fully in the tank, Wilma asked me an important question.
“... so, what do we do now? If her soul is missing, how do we find it?”
“... no clue.” I admitted. “But I’ll start off with what I think will be the best choice.”
“Which is?”
“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.”
“Sure. Leave it to me.”
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 blasted off, heading west. My destination, the Dragon coast. My Soul Magic expert is there, and I could really use her assistance right now.
Spoiler [collapse]
“She’s waking up.” “The singer is waking up.” I heard people speaking around me.
I slowly opened my eyes and looked around.
“... where..?” I questioned where I was. This isn’t Brian’s mental Factory, nor is it HomeBase.
I was in some strange place 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.
I was surrounded by a large 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 slightly larger beings that looked humanoid, except that they were made of light as well. They were not all that large, only about 30 cm tall, and they were mostly blue colors.
“Are you alright?” “Are you alright?” Was repeated by the multiple spirits.
“I … Where?” I asked.
“Our World.” “Our World.” Was the answer.
Their world? Like … the spirit world?
“W-Why?” I asked.
“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.
Eh? What?
“Alright children. Please back off a bit so that our guest has some breathing room.” A more mature voice commanded the spirits that had piled up all around me.
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.
“... it’s you.” I said, as I recognized the spirit. It was the greeted water spirit that had blessed Brian.
“Yes. I do apologize for what happened to you, young miss, but welcome to the spirit realm.”
“... I … why am I here?” I asked.
“The lesser ones took your soul from the Hero’s Factory and brought you along. I do apologize for that.”
“... Can I go home?”
“That … is a bit more complicated.” 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.”
“... I see.” Maybe spending a bit of time here won’t be that bad.
… But will Brian use the device again? He must think I’m lost somewhere in the machine, so he might not use it again.
“... Brian might not use it again.” I told the greater spirit. “I’m lost because of it, so he might not use it again.”
“Ah! Yes. He may do that.” She agreed. “... then we must wait until he calls for me or the greater nature spirit. We can explain what has happened to him and come up with a plan to take you home.”
“How long … will it be?”
“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.”
“... why are they … sleeping?”
“They?”
“The superior spirits. The small ones said … that they want me to awaken the superior spirits. … so many of them are sleeping?”
The greater spirit gave an angry glare towards the lesser spirits and they tried to hide away from her gaze.
“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.”
“I … I don’t. Brian talks of … miasma blobs? Are they the same?”
“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 balances the world you live in, but the fissures cause that balance 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.”
“Is miasma … that bad?”
“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.”
“... can we … do something?”
“We are. We try to deal with it the best we can.”
“... but if the superior spirits wake up … can they solve everything?”
“No. They need to wake up for the youngest of our kind. Without them, the youngest will never become true spirits.”
“... youngest?”
“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.
“... can I really … wake them up?” I asked.
“I couldn’t ask that of you.”
“... 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.”
As I looked at the spirit, I saw a smile forming on her face.
“Alright, young mer-child. We shall do what we can.”
“... legs? Why do… I have legs?” I questioned, as I finally looked over my body.
“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.”
“... but … I can’t walk.” I admitted.
“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.
“They are right, you know. Remember, this world is made of mana. Control it and fly.” The greater spirit told me.
“Control it? … like mana control…” I tried doing that, and it did feel like my Mana Control was supercharged.
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.
“AAAH!” I instinctively yelled as I flew higher, until I felt gravity start pulling me back down towards the ground.
Splash!
But instead of hitting the ground, I fell into a large bubble of water.
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?
“You can come out of there now.” I heard the greater water spirit say.
“... okay.” I agreed, and swam to the bottom of the water sphere.
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.
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.
As the sphere that I had used for balance disappeared, I began to wobble. I couldn’t keep my balance without support. But thankfully, the greater spirit came and took a hold of my arm.
“Don’t worry. I got you.” She said.
“... thank you. … but … I still can’t walk. Or fly.”
“You’ll learn. We have time.”
“... but … aren’t you in danger?”
“Remember, time is relative. For you, it must feel like we are wasting it. To us, this is something necessary.”
“A-Alright.”
I quickly lost track of time, learning both how to walk and how to kind of fly. I still struggled with balance while walking and flying was difficult because one small mistake would send me either crashing into the ground, or blasting into the air.
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.
I wonder. Has Brian even noticed that I’m gone? Is he looking for me? Is he coming for me?
I hope he is.
“Alright. I think we are ready to go.” A greater spirit of nature said. She had come to join as at some point during my training.
“Who are we waking up first?” The water spirit asked.
“Not Time. She will get angry when we wake her up.”
“But we can’t wake up Space before her either.”
“Why don’t we just wake up Water? She is the closest.”
“And cause a flood. I might be a water spirit, but even I know that is a bad idea.”
“... then …”
“... Would Wind be good?” I asked.
“Sorry, what?” The nature spirit asked.
“... Would the superior Wind spirit be good? … I … Wind is my attribute, so I thought … it would be the easiest to start with.”
“... Is she a genius?” The nature spirit asked.
“She does live with the Hero, so she probably is.”
“Wind will be a great help. Her song will be able to reach both Space and Time at once.”
“The same with Light and Dark.”
“We won’t have to worry about their balance.”
“Yes. To Wind we go then!”
“To Wind!”
nro_8 I do have to say, I'm kind of surprised no one commented that the spirits took Cailie. Not that I get a lot of comments, so please do leave more comments. I like them. But I mean, the title of last chapter is literally 'Factory Spirits' and they were all around Cailie just before they and her avatar disappeared from the Factory. And Cailie, even when she was introduced into the series, has always had an admiration for the spirits, to the point where she really didn't want to talk with Brian until she realized Brian had a greater spirit with him. But yeah, a little Cailie adventure side quest coming in.
Also, as it is the end of the month, I feel obligated to remind people that the chapters come out on all even days. So next chapter is coming out on Friday.
