Enjoying her meal, noticing the setting sun she said her goodbyes to her newfound friend and sauntered home in the early rays of moonlight. Walking the same old desolate path, she's taken every time just soaking up the beauty. The tall evergreens for as far as the eye can see cascading the dangers within. She can hear the last sounds of wildlife and birds making their last hurrah for the night.
Reminiscing about the days locked in her examination cell just wishing to see the forest one last time. A small smile creeping on her lips as now she can look upon this sight whenever she pleases. A barely audible maniacal laugh escapes from her thinking about those days.
Being locked away as a test subject was the worst thing she had ever experienced in all her life's. The facility would take or buy humans to participate in their top-secret experiment with the human soul. Their goal was to create a new class of humans that would become tools of destruction had their experiment succeeded.
They had come across information from a lost civilization allowing one to harness the power of their soul to act as a second brain allowing information to follow them for all eternity. With the soul acting as a container to store all information that then freed the brain up to focus on just the basic mechanics of motor skills and pushing blood to your organs. The catch was that they didn't have the whole information or the proper skills to utilize the skill in its original form so what they were doing was closer to mutilation than an upgrade.
If successful, the results would lead to heightened skills all around. Imagine what would happen if your brain used 100 percent of its capacity on just your body. That allowed the individual ease of control all around.
"Those damned scientists were creating monsters, and I happened to be one of them."
Shiyanna muttered, continuing her thoughts on the past…...
She wasn't the only subject of course and they made sure all rats had as little contact as possible with each other. All branches had high mortality rates but hers was one of the highest since her branch wasn't a specialized branch where their soul was filled with only a specialized skill. The more skills or information added the more deadly it was. She was unfortunate in the way that she wasn't a single branch combat or something like painting, but she was knowledge. She was the fifth experiment and survived a lot longer than she would have wanted too.
A cold sweat breaks out as she remembers getting on the cold table every day and experiencing her soul being forcibly expanded with anything and everything, so they decided whether it was minor or major.
They didn't care, the sole purpose of this branch was to just test the limits of the human soul. Do you know what would happen if she succeeded and was a completed subject? Extermination. They would not allow a being with that amount of information to survive in their world.
She spent over twenty years in that hell knowing that her only respite was death. She prayed every day that she wouldn't be able to bear the next experiment and perish. It was a hopeless wish… in the end they only lightened up on the testing once she began to show instability, they couldn't have on of their best dying on them just yet.
Thankfully she didn't last much longer but not due to the experiments but due to an explosion. Shiyanna's last memory was looking up at the stars for the first and last time as she burned to death.
She's always wondered what happened to the others and if any subjects were able to escape that hell. But she's happy she's been given another chance to live again and have the freedom she's so dearly wanted. Now she has the opportunity to spend this life exploring and doing what she wants and enjoys. Shiyanna's end goal is not to be the strongest of the strong and have world destroying power since she just doesn't have those aspirations in this life.
If Shiy is honest, she knows she's too temperamental to do anything like that. Anything she does is on the drop of a hat and depends on her whim and only out of necessity. All those years of torture didn't leave her sane of mind, it's amazing she's able to function to the point she does now.
So, in this life Shiyanna will spend her life exploring, creating, building familiar bonds, and rediscovering what it means to be human. She will no longer be a slave or test rat; she just wants to do silly things and share her knowledge with others. It's a silly wish but it's what keeps her sane.
…
Walking through the threshold of her cozy cottage Shiyanna left her shoes at the door and headed straight to the bathroom to draw a hot bath. She needed to soak the day away and wash away all worries before tucking in for the night.
Dipping her fingers into the bath to make sure the temperature was just right, Shiyanna quickly hopped in. Slipping into the warm embrace she closed her eyes and visualized the world around her. She could feel how the mana interacted with everything around her from the molecules in the water to the flow of air coming in from the cracked window a foot away from her.
Each having its own characteristics with bits of every element mixed in, if she didn't focus, she would have almost missed them. The reason she is able to grasp other elements is due to being able to sense them. It's difficult finding high amounts of most elements in the air without being in an area that produces those elements. Being this close to Beast Barrow the highest would be the wood or earth element hence most of the mages that awaken here are mages of the wood element.
Realizing the bath had run cold, Shiyana got out, put her clothes on and headed for her room. Feeling the chill in the air she lit the small heater in the corner of her room before slipping into sleep embracing the darkness as she dreams of sweet nothings.