Ball of Nothing

Chapter 514: Homunculus Research

Sylvia dare not meet Zero's eyes. Her arrogant attitude from earlier was completely crushed with Zero's display of capabilities. In front of the chosen one, she was deeply humbled. Was this why Raj gave him the Red Phoenix's Pearl? Even if she didn't believe it initially, she had no choice but to believe that Zero was indeed chosen by the Gods to fulfil the last prophecy of the Great One. Her child's soul was still within the powerful doctor's palm and Sylvia was completely at his mercy.

"Before I talk about your child's soul, I have questions about your research. Did you know that trying to create something that falls outside of the natural life cycle managed by Gods is considered a crime? This crime could get your soul returned to the void."

Sylvia nodded slowly. "If it means that I can see my child return to me even for a brief moment, then all will be worth it."

There was something Zero couldn't understand. While he knew that a mother's love could be the strongest force in the world, the knowledge of creating souls shouldn't exist.

"When did your chimaera research project begin? Who gave you the idea of creating artificial bodies?"

Sylvia blinked. This was where Zero wanted to start?

"It's Jynx," she said. "I don't know if she told you about it but we used to be best of friends. This child is a child that we both love dearly. When our child passed on, it was Jynx who started necromancy to bring her back. Back then, I was happy just to see and talk to our child but things started going wrong. Our child became more and more forgetful with every new body that was borrowed to host her soul. Then I found out that souls rejected bodies that weren't their own which would explain why necromancers needed a huge amount of mana to summon the undead. Jynx wasn't a lich, she could never be a lich because she was a banshee. She said that if the soul could have a body to reside in permanently without rejection, they would stop losing memories and personality. Every summon will cause the soul to leave a part of itself behind in the body it occupies. Hence, I decided to create a body that could host our child's soul so that it wouldn't take a toll on her."

Zero looked at the soul in his hand. That would explain all the missing parts. They must have made hundreds of summons in the past, causing it to become so fragmented. He didn't know if it could be restored at this point because there were too few pieces of it left to work with. Not to mention, it wasn't a soul waiting to be reincarnated, it was a soul that still had all its memories for the last few hundred years thanks to Sylvia and Hynx's efforts. Zero couldn't simply go to the Natural Plane to fuse it with other similar fragments. That would damage the memories and personality of this soul.

"The chimaeras I can understand. What about the homunculus research? Why did you start creating artificial souls?"

Sylvia looked guilty. "I didn't mean to do it. It was an accidental discovery in my chimaera research process. The homunculus was not supposed to exist."

With a heavy heart, the Great Sylph explained how the first homunculus was born. Instead of using bodies of other creatures, Sylvia went back to her child's grave and dug out the bones to recreate a new living vessel thinking that the soul wouldn't reject a body that was born from the same cells. Her child looked very similar to Yxaan and Xvyal. They had fair skin and light blonde hair. All the subsequent homunculus looked the same because of this.

"It took me many decades and many tries to finally grow a body that looked exactly like my child using my mana. However, the body wouldn't wake up and couldn't accept the soul. It wasn't even alive because it would stop functioning the moment I stopped fuelling it with my mana. I'm a Great Sylph and my only magic element is air. It was only then that I realised I needed holy magic and healing magic to create life."

Zero cringed. This was something he personally experienced. The abuse of revival magic and the failure to understand it. Sylvia told him how her first homunculus became a monster when it woke up and tried to kill everything around it. Sylvia was broken-hearted when she had to kill her first creation but from then on, she learned about soul summoning.

"Jynx and I tried every trick in the book but we still couldn't get our child's soul to occupy a ready body. Instead, some other soul will occupy the vessel based on the different mana types or materials we used to create it. It took us a long time to find souls that wouldn't turn into killers and we tried to find the closest personality to our child's soul. Xvyal and Yxaan were the closest to a miracle. However, I still couldn't get it to happen."

Zero was finally seeing the puzzle come together. "Is that why you started researching with organic transmutation alchemy? By replacing the parts that didn't fit the requirements of your child's soul in an attempt to create the perfect requirements."

Sylvia nodded. "It was Jynx's suggestion a few decades back to do this. Finding the right parts for the right vessel is extremely difficult. It's also impossible for me to create something from scratch with the right specifications without a cell sample. I'm an alchemist, not a God."

Zero shook his head. "No, it would also be impossible even if you were a God. The process of reincarnation is more complicated than you think it is, much less a forced attempt at creating an immortal. What you're doing is a taboo, punishable by voiding. Death is a natural part of the process, it's time to let go. Stop sinning any further."

When Sylvia heard that, she burst into tears. "My child is right there! How can you say that? I cannot give up when she's still alive... I can't! How do you want me to live without her? After all the blood I've spilt and all the lives I sacrificed... how will I answer to the countless souls I've committed a sin against?"

Zero couldn't say that he didn't sympathise with her or understand how she feels. In fact, if it were him, he would also feel the same way. The importance of some people can never be replaced and if he had the power, he would abuse it for his selfish desires to be with them just a little longer. Not all wounds could be healed with time.

Sylvia wept and Zero could only look at the weak soul in his hands, not knowing what was the right thing to do.