CRACK
ZANG
ZAP
Those were the sounds of the spark fighting against the aether. It was barely a few seconds after Hilde found the indent within the ring. She'd learned several things in a row at that moment. Even creators could not interfere with the birthing of life. The spark refused to slow or bulge as it strained to touch and attach itself to the indent.
Hilde could just let the spark be, end the soul later on and do what she wanted if it did not work. Yet it didn't sit right with her. Ripping out the Destroyer's core was due to it being a beast, and she had to admit she was biased about traumatizing a life from her universe.
The main reason though was Hilde didn't know what would be different if she tried to remove the spark later. Plus Lies Bane kept hinting at her making the right decision.
It led to the current status quo, as much as she didn't want this she also needed to complete her experiment. Letting the spark attach to the indent would automatically register the soul as living. While Hilde didn't know what that would mean as a soul beyond her universe she didn't intend to find out.
A body and A false life.
Two things she needed.
Realizing what she had to do, Hilde activated a skill she had not used since she got it.
"Devil Boon. Silver Reflection,"
Her body glitched, tears of divinity flowing out her orifices without causing pain and floating off her cheeks into the air. She could feel the energy drained from her though and watched intrigued as the liquid whether it was her blood or just divine energy crafted a copy of her. Not just physically, but in all aspects, mentally and even in sight. She could see herself looking back at her.
The only difference was that it was very clear who was the real and the fake. Clone Hilde was pure liquid gold from head to toe. Clothes, skin, and even hair are made of condensed divinity. The only different color in the clone was the blue orbs that seemed to have remained the same. It was astounding to see the connection she had with it, looking at herself from two perspectives, one straining and confused while the other was just confused. Willing her clone to take over, she watched from two different angles as she reached out with aether and grasped at the spark.
Hilde appeared outside the soul standing by the monolith, she could still see the spot the soul was, and also the spark from within the soul.
"How am I doing this even if it's a game?" she was already turning away though not bothered to ask herself many questions. To her, it was not something she needed to add to her list of curiosities.
"Now the truth of the body and soul".
*
The body whether human, elf, demon, or whichever species desired was a husk of meat and bone, chitin and fluid. It was the vessel for the soul, the vehicle for passengers experiencing life.
An exhale escaped the tired-minded female, her finger sewing the last of the divine floating runes into the carbon form. It was the last of the innumerable runes she had formed and given intent. The last of the mirror replica runes etched into the soul of the being. This was the truth of body and soul.
Weaved into the soul were numerous runes that bore intent and function. These same runes were replicated in whatever body the soul was set to inhabit. Depending on the number of missing runes whether soul or body the compatibility of a fusion was noted.
Fortunately, time was nonexistent within the soul which meant that Hilde's Clone was able to last for long just as long as it remained within the soul. Enough time for Hilde to have replicated all the runes in the soul. It was while doing this that she learned several things too. One was the identity of the soul's race. It was unsurprising when the soul turned out to be an Argatan. Runic intents like Perseverance and Physical boosts were things that caught her eye. Even a rune that explained the Argatan's capability to absorb solar energy which made them seem sun-blessed. Hilde left some runes and changed some, both in the soul and body. By the time she was done a new body was completely forged.
The more she looked at the entire cluster of runes the more she realized it resembled a cluster structure. If she had been a doctor or any biological scientist she would have realized how similar to cells the entire runes looked.
Within the soul Golden Hilde grew lax, her straining arms which obviously were bulged from holding back the unrelenting spark finally relaxed. Her right palm separated from the left unfolding. A green flame engulfed the fingers and palms up to her wrist. As quick as light, it condensed into a little ball pinprick.
The corruptive fireball was flicked forward straight at the indent. This was her grand plan. If the spark brought life then all she had to do was make sure this life still had what the false lives had. Her left palm opened, the spark without hesitation running forward like all its existence depended on this. Faster than before it speared through the darkness.
It ran through the fireball just as Clone Hilde was sucked out of the soul rune inscription space. Yes, that was the long name she had given it. The spark rather than exploding the green fireball slid through its center coating itself with the fire right before it made contact with the indent. Hilde was not there to see the massive flare that occurred.
It was like a single switch was flipped on in an amusement park and an exaggerated outburst of light came next. The darkness vanished. Greenlight spread like an exploding star within the fleeing void. Beyond all the runes illuminated like torches.
Two Hildes stood by the monolith watching the normally transparent soul gain a green hue and glow eerily.
" Now!"
With excited speed, both the original and clone dived into work. One grabbed the soul and body, while the other, the original produced a thin needle from her inventory. Just like the inscription pen it too was made for this moment. Pricking the soul she then threaded an invisible thread through it and out before pricking the needle into the body.
[Soul Binding learned]
[Puppetry Art gained]
An intangible tether formed binding the soul to the body, like a noose it dragged the soul down and into the cadaver. Within the soul inscription space, the runes were seen tethered with artistic nooses, strings that connected to similar runes within the physical body. Yet unlike the soul that was aglow with energy and lights the body remained dark and dim. This represented a still unliving body to Hilde.
Confused she crouched accessing the being. She could tell that everything worked. Lies Bane after all led her down the correct path in linking the body and soul. So what was left?
"The soul possesses the spark which gives its life or sentience or whatever it does that makes it living." she waved the idea away." The body on the other hand has no such thing."
She rose her eyes moving to the corpses that piled up by the corner. Her eyes twinkled as she tried to compare and contrast. All life within Creator Online possessed a Shard, even the Creator gods themselves had one. Hilde was certain that was what the One spark within her was. It was theoretically the power source or more of all life forms. Yet it was not what kept beings alive.
"If so it would never fall out of a dead creature. " she shook her head. "If not the shard then what. Something important to a body. That serves as a..." she paused.
"...heart. " Hilde shook her head. While she had come to many obvious answers it felt just irritating to know the answer to this conundrum was something so realistic and not a shred of magical.
The being had no heart. The major life organ of all creatures. In all her excitement she had forgotten to make one. Lacking patience at this crucial moment of her experiment she restrained from forging one with her hands out of flesh and organ. Rather she spoke it into being.
[A/N: Statements spoken with the Speaker aura will be known with this symbol [•]
•A heart beyond death, nihilistic yet subsistent. Of Silver and Gold. By death do you rise•
Her words had a vivid imagination as she spoke them, the effect being instantaneous. The mound of corpses to the side suddenly melted like acidic goo, rivers of disgusting flesh and bone flowing from the quickly reducing mound and straight to the inert body at her feet. Hilde was quick to step away with disgust as she watched the scene, her clone mirroring her. It was still strange how she could control two bodies at once.
The disgusting liquid crawled up the body and drilled into the chest region of the corpse. Hilde pondered why this thing chose the chest for the heart spot. Was it due to her imagination or was it just a common spot for most humanoid-looking entities? Her questions were left unanswered as the entire liquid vanished into the body. Her eyes glowed with energy as she peeked into the corpse watching her aether forge her words into existence.
Like all the creations made from the words of the speaker, the heart was completed in moments and she watched ecstatically as the six horizontal eyes arranged vertically on each side of the face with three on one side and three on the other opened. Just like the False Life Hilde smiled as she spotted the familiar glow of fire within its eyes.