Kaden left his 'laboratory' and made sure to evade Ciner who was always hanging around. He wasn't succesfull, but Ciner merely said she was happy that his research worked out. She reminded Kaden that her own experiments about flying were proceeding well.

"At least so far she can't fly", Kaden muttered to himself. Ciner would come for that delusion of marriage, if she managed to fly. He then realized something. Ciner was extremely talented so there was certain possibility. "... if she reaches level of True Cari before me, she will be able to fly and I cannot resist her. This cannot happen."

Kaden pushed the though out of his mind after a few shudders and decided he merely had one more incentive to grow in power. The only positive side was basically that her obsession caused her to help him sometimes. Whether he asked it or not.

While Kaden did return to the phoenix clan, he didn't go into the actual defensive layers. Instead he searched the surrounding area for suitable subject to show Kranor how his slave formation worked.

There was a large number of lower beasts in the area. If they avoided the phoenixes and become quick snacks, they had a relatively safe place to live. Phoenixes rarely cared about the lower beasts at all, but Lower Cari would already draw notice, if they stayed too close. Therefore the lower beasts avoided many of their predators.

This time one of them would be unlucky.

In this case Kaden flew around for a while and then swooped down to catch a Sawtooth Marmot. A High Beast grade pest. While they could get aggressive, they usually just ate everything. They could chew through even toughest materials at their level. When such a High Beast owned a territory, very few other beasts lived in the area because they would simply get eaten.

Kaden obviously didn't have to care about any of that. He immoblized the trashing beast with well practiced manner. He had already did the same process with numerous other test subjects.

It screamed ceaselessly. At first it thought Kaden was going to eat it, but then it screamed as Kaden stabbed it with Vengeance and along with it huge amount of vengeance mana that tore its soul free from its body, but did not let go. At that time its screaming ended since it is body was now out of its control and only alive because of Kaden's careful control and life mana ... and perhaps a bit of death mana. While all this, it had nearly died, but the life mana was restoring it to healthy enough state that it wouldn't die anymore.

The marmot could observe as Kaden basically burned a formation upon its body. Then suddenly it regained control, but something was off.

"Jump", Kaden said.

The marmor jumped. It did not even understand what Kaden said to it, but its body obeyed. It wasn't question whether it wanted to or not. That was not even the point. There was no want or not. There was only obeying.

Kaden observed the now shaking marmot. He had not given it any other orders than jump to test everything was working. Therefore it stood there doing nothing. Good order to get the slave act as if everything was normal was to simply tell it act normally and await orders. Kaden didn't tell it so. It was already where it was supposed to so no point letting it run around only to call it back.

"Hmmm, the quality of the soul container is better when I tapped at that death side of the life mana this time", Kaden muttered as he evaluated his work. "It is odd. Life mana I was able to learn use after some experimenting, but that death side is basically nothing in comparison. It was barely there, but it almost balances the life. I can clearly use it and have been using ... even unknowingly in the past. Devour and Life Well worked fine."

Kaden had experimented with all sorts of things. Souls, life and death had a lot of things in common. Death mana being the other side of life mana. Phoenixes had a very good understanding of such mana and Kaden had seen the knowledge during his studies, but he felt he was missing something. Perhaps misunderstanding.

"Life and death mana are two sides indeed, but at the same time slightly separate", Kaden felt when he pondered on the matter a bit. "At least from certain point of view. Life is life, but it wont become death until something dies or gets very close to it. It sound very simple, but perhaps I should try to find a way to ... kill the life mana to make it death? Hmmm ... I'll consider this later."

Kaden turned his attention back to the still shivering marmot. He then added a few formations. Sensory formation to allow him to observe it from distance and a communication one to give it orders similarly from distance.

It was time to show that his formation functioned and have Kranor let him go. He would still do the human experiments before truly leaving Frika, but he would have to convince Kranor first.

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Kaden left the unmoving marmot where it was and returned to the phoenix clan. He didn't waste any time and went to find Kranor. He, as usual, was not hard to find since he was still generally staying in his home doing nothing.

"Kranor, you asked for proof that I have a working system to act safely in human territory", Kaden told Kranor right away. "My slave formation is finally working."

"Oh?" Kranor stirred.

"You wanted proof so I prepared a simple demonstration", Kaden continued. "It should be enough for you to let me leave. If so, I would also request you to arrange me some help at the borders. I need to test its functionality on humans and having a few captured for me would be good. Obviously, if whoever is in charge demands some results in exchange, you can tell them any succesful exeperiments can be used for military purposes."

"Show me then", Kranor said.

Kaden started to explain the functions and all the details to Kranor. He was planning on donating the formation for the clan. It was relatively low level, but would be useful, if they can replace the requirement of Vengeance and its vengeance mana somehow to replicate the effect. It should be easy. After all, the formation is based on already existing one.

Kaden then triggered his side of the sensory formation that allowed him to see the marmot. An image of the marmor appeared. It was still unmoving.

"Do you require me to make it do something specific?" Kaden asked. "It will obey any command I give ot it."

Kranor didn't say anything and looked at the image a bit and then looked away. Kaden wondered what he was looking at, but the understood it was easy for Kranor to sense something not far from the clan. He could simply look directly at the enslaved marmor rather than use Kaden formation.

"Hmmm, you must hide these extra formations you have put on it externally", Kranor started. "Humans tend to wear a lot of fancy clothing which can hide them, but leave nothing to chance."

Kaden nodded.

"At this distance I cannot see the slave formation inside", Kranor continued. "This is good. No random passing True Magus will notice it unless they come directly looking for it. Show me how well it reacts to commands."

"Jump", Kaden said to the communication formation that connected to the marmot. It jumped. "Run around in a circle... stop. Turn around. Roll. Sit."

Kaden continued giving the marmot some random commands. Kranor observed it.

"Actions are quick", Kranor said.

"Commands are absolute", Kaden explained. "There is no thinking process for a command. Only action. The slave is free to act within the bounds I set. That portion has thought, but they cannot act against me, if loyalty is hardwired into the formation. There may be the free part that hates me, but they cannot take action to act on it. Such action does not even exist for them."

"Set the orders carefully", Kranor said.

"Which is why I need a human", Kaden said. "They will try all they can to resist me and find a way around. I must see it still works on them. Humans also don't have a core so the formation will last longer. I must see that too."

Kranor nodded a few times.

"Lets test survival instincts", Kranor decided. "You have set the constrains for the soul and its connection to the body. What about body and its instinctual actions that do not require consciouss thought."

That was something Kaden had not thought about. He was pretty sure no one would be able to, say, make themselves go into a trance and have their body work for them. To do that they would have to break the rules which isnt possible, but what about pre-existing natural actions. Those might reveal to others that something was wrong. It was somewhat hard test to conduct.

"You will need to test it a few times with some tricks, but lets see, if, when its body is broken, will it give up or attempt to continue obeying its commands", Kranor said. He raised his talon a bit and did something. Kaden could tell space vibrated slightly. Suddenly the marmot screamed as bones in its limbs shattered. It slumped on the ground. "Now tell it to run in circles again with its body unable to do so."

Kaden issued the command. The marmot stood up screaming in pain. It was attempting to move, but doing so with broken limbs was not really working, but at least it seemed to continue attempting to do so. Kaden himself decided to add one extra command and told it to be quiet. The marmot stopped screaming.

Kranor observed and nodded a few times.

"Tell it to claw its own heart out of its chest", Kranor said coolly.

Kaden, once again, issued the command. The marmot started to furiously claw at its chest and trash about despite its limbs being broken. Eventually, it was able to tear itself open and get a hold of its heart. It was able to even do this before it bled out, but it quickly died after it destroyed its own heart.

"Good", Kranor said. "It seems at least with these preliminary tests that commands are indeed absolute." He then sighed. "I will allow you to do as you please. I will also hand you some orders you can show at the border to get those humans."

"If it works on humans, I will arrange myself way to the Centralean Forest", Kaden said. "From there I will capture humans and make them work for me. I might not come back in a while."

"I'd rather you don't even go, but I will not stop you", Kranor replied to Kaden. He was clearly not happy, but Kaden already knew his reasoning on the matter. "You are what remains of Anuu. Don't die."

"I do not plan on dying", Kaden said with confidence. He had things to do. "I also promised her I would avenge her death. One way or another, I will require strength to do so and I will also need to reach humans. At any rate, I will try not to do any big moves at my current level."

"Even I would be too weak to act directly, Kaden", Kranor pointed out.

It was a clear truth. If Kranor was too weak, then Kaden for sure was. That was something he would have to remember.

"This method allows me to act covertly", Kaden attempted to reassure Kranor. "I might not ever have to act personally."

"A single mistake and you will be hunted down", Kranor still continued reminding Kaden of the dangers.

"I'm aware", Kaden only replied.

Kranor stared at Kaden quietly and then took out a crystal. He then handed it to Kaden, who looked at its contents. It had Kranors mark and explained what Kaden required and why. This would let whoever was in command to know a True Cari was aiding Kaden once he showed it. There should be no problems.

"My time on Frika is at its end", Kaden said to himself as he walked out.