"The words that Mundus spoke had many implications, I better record them while they are fresh in my mind. It is not every day that one meets the avatar of the very planet you reside" thought the masked Cyrus seriously.
"First and foremost was the titles of address, tainted one and innocent one. I am tainted and corrupted apparently, which almost completely proves my theories on my origin. Noted..."
"Next would be the acknowledgement of what I saw when witnessing a soul dying, seeing as Mundus' did not express any vehement distaste or displeasure like they did when addressing me or talking about the previous iteration of humanity they wiped out…it would seem that the entity I saw was one that either works in concert with Mundus or under it directly."
"Next would be the confirmation of universal laws that bind even Mundus and the fact that it is possible for us to invade the origin point of the enemies of Mundus. Of which two prime candidates for the role of 'enemy of Mundus' come to mind, the Auctus Diabolus spores that create the Brutum and the demonic worshippers of the 'true god' " thought Cyrus as he rapidly noted down all his new findings, before immediately storing it in his storage to be hidden away from sight.
"All of the implications of that meeting can be fully discussed with my other half at another time, for now, I still have a bit of will to spare and a lot I wish to try out with my newest tool" thought Cyrus, staring at Ares in front of him who was waiting silently and without movement.
"The ways that I can allow Ares to grow are only two. The first being for Ares to defeat an enemy and absorb their life force directly while the second would for me to feed it a mix of death and life essence to grow it artificially. Unfortunately I can only do the second for now, which is limited by the amount of will I have. An extremely finite resource it is, as I have to use it to study my other magical pursuits and as a method of defending myself. Not to mention the practical exams that will begin in two more days, where most of my will shall be used most likely. To keep Ares alive, however, a constant stream of either life force or essence is required not to mention the massive amount required for him to grow stronger. That vision the night dwellers showed me, I must test for myself how true it was after all but I can only imagine the massive amount of raw materials will be required to reach that level of undead if it even exists" mused Cyrus as he considered the immense hidden trial he had not thought of at first.
"To maintain Ares I suppose I will have to sacrifice some of my experimental subjects, which means I will be bleeding even more Fidem than I already would have. Not to mention I cannot use Ares in combat until I fully understand his capabilities, his growth rate, how he uses his soul leashes in combat, and so much more. There is also the whole warning from Mundus…if I were to show this to the world there would undoubtedly be great interest from the Tower. I need to decide how much of this knowledge to share with the world and when to do it…so annoying. I will just throw all that annoying work to my other half, I have much more interesting things to do" thought the dark half with a cunning smile, ordering Ares to stay put while he exited the lab and closed the door behind him.
Dismissing the two legionaries whose names he had never bothered to retrieve from his other half's memories, he brought the remaining prisoners half to death and dragged them into the lab leaving a bloody trail behind.
"Ares, kill them and make their strength your own" ordered Cyrus, using the connection between the two of them to communicate his thoughts.
Receiving what he assumed was a response of affirmation, Ares moved his rattling bones towards the last three prisoners and crushed them underfoot one after the other. Fumbling for a moment as he learned how to properly absorb the recently liberated life force, he quickly turned them into withered husks and eventually nothing but brittle bone remained.
Next Cyrus used the last of his will to 'feed' Ares, leaving just enough for two usages of his Vita Coil spell, and carefully watched the glowing eyes of his creation to see if any changes occurred.
"The orb is getting larger and the white color brighter, but it is not changing color completely. This does not disprove anything though, as there is no way just a few nobodies and the will capacity of a Novice mage would be enough power to fuel a powerful entity in one go" thought Cyrus.
Ares was then put through a series of tests using the varied equipment of the lab.
"Can lift 250 lb. with a single limb, compared to me only being able to lift 130 lb. It seems my own creation is already almost twice as strong as me, what an odd feeling."
"I should measure the strength of the Legionaries the next chance I get, the more data the better I can estimate my own strength compared to any possible enemies after all" mused Cyrus.
Next he had Ares crush the metal restraints with his skeletal hands, remove and reattach his bones with the soul leashes, and even try to manipulate other things in the world with the leashes.
"It can only move itself and other bones, but why? I cannot even begin to puzzle this one out…why bone specifically? What about it is so different from wood and metal."
He paced around the room several times, pausing every now and then when an idea came to him but he struck it down each time as making no sense upon considering it carefully.
Eventually he just gave up, deciding to wait for his counterpart to do all the tedious work of slowly researching each and every little detail so that he could have the necessary data to make his own grand conclusion.
"All right Ares, make yourself a weapon using that pile of bones over there. It is time to test how much skill from your life has transferred to your current state" ordered Cyrus.
After Ares had fashioned himself two weapons, a large and heavy bone spear made from several spines and a hefty longsword fashioned from several femurs, Cyrus peeked out the door to make sure no one was present, and then ordered his creation to sprint full force into the dueling room.
Obeying his order, Ares stood in front of the door with far swifter motions than it had first used. Then from a complete standing position Ares appeared to fall forward before his skeletal leg hit the floor with so much force that protective runes appeared to negate any damage that would have been done. With a speed that caused muted surprise to Cyrus, the undead reached and entered the dueling arena in just a few short gallop-like steps.
"Impressive…" thought Cyrus, while coming up with a few theories as to why the undead was able to move so fast.
"The soul leashes take the form of muscles, binding itself to all the bones and forming the skeletal structure. The difference between a living human and an undead, the former's power comes from muscles and the latter's from the soul itself. To increase ones speed or strength normally a living human has to increase muscle mass or stress it long enough so it becomes more resilient and resistant to damage. Thanks to Mundus, we can even use life force folding and Life essence to strengthen the muscles even more and repair damage that to it in real time."
"The limitation of this, however, is that there is still a limit of output assuming one does not wish to tear their muscles into shreds for the sake of outputting maximum power. The undead have no such limitations, able to output full force at all times" theorized Cyrus, while he entered the Arena and closed the door behind him.
Even going so far as to pull a hidden lever he had found by chance once, which turned the glass that one could see through into the dueling arena from the outside completely opaque.
Now facing Ares, he drew his own short sword and took the stance of wrath; his sword crossed over his right shoulder with both legs firmly planted on the ground one in front of the other.
"Let us see how much of your sword skills remain, focus more on any technique you can remember rather than using your raw strength. The first to disarm the other is the victor, begin."
Having the chance to enjoy his first combat, Ares' eyes flickered twice in what Cyrus interpreted as excitement, the undead dropped the heavy spear on the ground and also took its own stance.