What is a soul? Not much is known about this mysterious aspect of existence which seems to house our consciousness. We can guess that it is not something physical but rather an unseen aspect of ourselves, or rather our personality and memories itself. The fact that magic can be attuned to the concept implies that they do exist, but we are still unsure on how a soul exists.
We also have no clue what makes up a soul and what affect changing one would have on the body. There is a hypothesis that we will be testing today however, what happens when Soul Magic is used to change your soul from inside your body. Thank you everyone for watching today's presentation!
-Speech from A Nekronis Kingdom scholar.
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After spending a couple hours to change the three who have pledged to follow Charon into Charon's species, a species which Charon could not decide on a name for, They all had the white hair with sigils that all of the species seemed to have so far. Standing up, they looked at their respective rings, resting on their ring fingers.
Charon waited as he saw them all grasp their heads in pain as they received memories of their newfound species, gaining all the knowledge which Charon had found so far. After they seemed to recover, they realized why Charon had them make the pledge earlier.
"Now that I understand, I am glad to see that you are not so gullible to just believe us without evidence." Rhada shook her head wistfully while thinking of the potential of the Soul Pact ability.
"Yes, I do apologize but I wished to make sure you could be trusted. Even if I was almost sure you could be." Charon nodded towards them, standing up and respectfully shaking their hands.
Minos waved his hand as if to assuage Charon's concern, "To be honest, As much as I appreciate you helping to found the orphanage I would have been worried if you had just taken three strangers at their word."
Aeacus stepped in at this point, "Now, sir, What is your first task for us?"
"Yes, onto business. I wish for two of you to protect my son and daughter at all times. I care not whether you hide in the shadows to protect them or if you choose to do it in the open. I just need them protected from any who might do them harm, what is your strength?" Charon shifted into his more serious attitude, using training he has received as Prince to focus the required task.
"Me and my brother Minos are veterans whereas Aeacus..." Rhada reluctantly paused, glancing over at Aeacus.
"I am technically an adept, but I am mainly a healer." Aeacus spoke up when Rhada glanced over.
"Ahh, In that case, Rhada will focus on protecting Nyx, my daughter. Minos will protect Hypnos, my son. As for Aeacus, You shall assist Hades in his current task. It seems some enemies have snuck into the capital and Hades is currently working to root them out. Since you are a healer, I wish for you to help Hades knock them out and bring them to me." Charon confidently threw out orders without doubt.
Charon's subordinates, now numbering four, nodded their heads as Hades and Aeacus left while Minos and Rhada had Charon show them where the two children were staying as they decided to hide for now in the hallway.
Afterwards, Charon went back to his room to wait for the morning. In the morning he gave the children their lesson of the day before eating. Later he took them back to the lab while explaining the rules for them and what they would be currently researching.
Like that, a week flew by. Hades had reported the night before that he was certain the freelancer he suspected before was guilty and that he would capture him and bring him in with the help of Aeacus. Charon was currently waiting in his room, rereading a book on his current research on souls and what other things his new species could potentially do.
As soon as heard movement on the other side of the door, he used the telekinesis of Soul Magic to open the door, letting Hades, Aeacus and their knocked out captive inside. Charon got out of his chair and gestured for Hades to toss the prisoner in the chair.
Hades happily obliged, Aeacus calmly pulled out a rope and tied down the captive after Hades did so. Charon nodded to both of them before walking up to the unconscious prisoner.
Over the past week, Charon could feel his soul fully merging the conscious and unconscious aspects over time, with it now being roughly ten percent of them left uncombined. He had recently felt a new form of connection, between the white energy which makes up all soul's and himself. The energy which even now strengthened itself from one of the vortex's in his bodies.
Charon instinctually felt that he could now partially control the energy, using it to strengthen parts of his body beyond what it passively did. As such, he tried slowly gathering the energy behind his eyes. He closed his eyes, as he slowly inserted some of the potent energy into his eyes to strengthen them.
Once he felt that they were filled up enough, he slowly opened them. Charon's eyes, which were already a white expanse of nothing, now glowed with power. Hades and Aeacus shivered as they looked at Charon, feeling as if he was staring into their core being, their souls, a feeling which they hadn't felt since their souls and bodies became one.
Charon grinned to himself, "Let the experiment begin!"
Slowly, Charon brought his glowing eyes onto the captors soul. The moment he did so, however, cracks began to form on the soul as the captive woke up screaming in pain. The captive felt as if his very existence was being eroded away, being completely erased from existence. Watching this with a curious grin on his face, Charon slowly closed his eyes, keeping the mysterious energy contained within them.
Slowly, the prisoners screams came to a halt as he calmed down before looking at his captors with the look of a feral animal in a cage. After briefly glancing at everyone, lingering on Charon from a newfound fear at whatever means he used to cause such pain to him, he brought them over to Hades as he was the last thing he saw before being knocked unconscious.
"Hades! Why have you brought me here?!? I've been completing the contract perfectly!" THe captive screamed out in anger.
"Hmph, don't lie to me Jay. I know you have another contract, or at the very least that you have broken the current contract and are trying to harm my brother." As Hades spoke, he let his changed form go, revealing short white hair with sigils floating across it much like Charon's hair.
"Now, your going to tell us what you know. Or I will open my eyes yet again, and this time they won't close before your soul itself is destroyed." Charon was quite mad at poor Jay. Normally he is against human experimentation but when you threaten his family, his moral code can become a tad more flexible if need be.
"I don't know anything! I'm not privileged to such inform..." Jay was interrupted by his own screams, as Charon took a single glance at Jay's already cracked soul causing the cracks to grow deeper like a canyon.
"Now, Now my liege. Calm down, he has a master who assigned this task to him. The information he has was already gained by me eavesdropping on a conversation between his meeting with his master and employers." Slowly, the shadows in Charon's room melded into one as a figure arose from it, a figure wearing the usual attire of a butler.
"You didn't think to tell us this before?" Charon got increasingly annoyed at this untrustworthy butler.
"Your subordinates already had found one of the four rats sneaking around. I decided to investigate this fellows' master and employers. After finding the information I had decided to immediately come to inform you of them but I found that you had already captured this vermin." The Butler bowed to Charon perfectly, as if he had practised this movement for a millennia.
"Fine then, I suppose we don't need you anymore then." Charon withdrew the energy from his eyes before opening them and nodding at Hades.
"Wait! Please don't! I can still be of..." Sadly for Jay, he was cut short as his throat was promptly punctured by the spear which abruptly appeared with Hades hands with a white flash of light.
Jay briefly choked on blood before his brain was stabbed multiple times by tendrils made up of shadows. The Butler gave a competitive grin towards Hades.
"When someone you follow wants someone dead, you should immediately kill them rather then taking your time." The Butler wagged his finger as if teaching a disobedient child as Hades clicked his tongue at his antics.
After Jay died however, all the white haired individuals went as silent as death itself. They all stared at the soul of Jay which floated slightly above his corpse, the connection forcefully severed. The three beings all felt a feeling the had not felt since their species was changed. Something which they thought they would never feel again.
A feeling which they never thought they would feel towards a soul. The all-consuming feeling of a deep and carnal hunger!