“What is this ‘Heaven Casting Body’?” she asked HES, her voice tinged with curiosity.
[Heaven Casting Body is an option to create the strongest combat troops using biomass. With this feature, Lyna can design new units from scratch without relying on the initial forms available in the Heaven Evolution data bank. Once the new troop design is created, the model will automatically be stored in the data bank and become part of the "Army" options in the system. However, creating a new model requires special energy to bring that new body to life. Once the first model is successfully created, this special energy is no longer needed to make copies of the same model.]
Lyna fell silent, digesting the explanation. Something caught her attention. "What is meant by special energy?" she asked finally.
[The special energy is SOUL.]
Lyna’s eyes widened. Her gaze immediately shifted to the blue panel in front of her. There, she saw a shocking number: 346 Soul and 1 Unique Soul.
She didn’t know how she had accumulated so many Souls or where they came from. But before she could ask, HES responded first.
[Soul is obtained through a loyalty contract. This contract is made when a living person surrenders their entire existence to be bound to Lyna until the end of their life. After the subject of the contract passes away and their body decays, their soul is drawn into Heaven Evolution and becomes SOUL.]
The explanation made Lyna’s mind race. She immediately realized the origin of the 346 Souls she currently possessed. They were the crew of The Nest—the people who had followed her in the mission The End of The Queen, their final mission.
Although the crew had never directly stated it, Lyna always knew they held an eternal loyalty to her. Their loyalty ran so deep that when she decided to undertake a suicide mission and blow up the ship to kill the Vamrah, she never sought their approval.
For Lyna, asking if they were ready to die with her would have been an insult to their loyalty. That question would only wound their pride as crew members who had already pledged their lives and deaths to her. Lyna refused to be someone who questioned loyalty that had already been proven, especially from people she considered family—more so than her own flesh and blood.
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And now, the number 346 on her blue panel stood as a concrete testament to their unwavering loyalty.
Lyna felt her eyes well up, her chest filled with warmth. One by one, the faces of The Nest's crew appeared in her mind. She recalled their names, their life stories, and the sacrifices they had made. She never imagined that she would have the opportunity to meet them again—even in different forms and species.
Lyna struggled to control her mind, which was overwhelmed by memories of the sacrifices made by her crew. However, her focus quickly shifted when her eyes landed on the blue panel. Beside the Soul count, there was something else: Unique Soul.
She knew for certain that the number of The Nest's crew was 346, not 347. So, who owned this Unique Soul? Before she could voice her question, HES answered, as if reading her thoughts.
[Unique Soul is different from Soul. Unique Soul is not obtained through a loyalty contract but through the imposition of a contract. A person with an incredibly strong soul can resist the pull to the afterlife, freeing themselves from death. However, merely escaping death is not enough to become a Unique Soul. It requires such a strong will that the soul attaches itself to a specific object. How this happens remains a mystery, even in the Heaven Evolution data bank.]
"Object?" Lyna whispered. The word slipped from her lips unconsciously, and her gaze immediately fell to her finger—her left ring finger.
There, a ring circled her finger. In that instant, her body trembled violently.
The ring was a living masterpiece, so beautiful and captivating. A perfect fusion of soft gold and shimmering silver, entwining like the branches of a tree, intertwined yet growing toward the light. In the center of the twist, a star-shaped sapphire stone radiated a soft glow, like a tiny star shining in the darkness of night. The stone was adorned with delicate carvings shaped like small flames, adding to its mystical aura.
Lyna’s vision began to blur. In her mind, the image of her husband appeared—his warm, soothing smile. She remembered the moment when he had placed the ring on her finger. With a soft voice full of love, he had said,
“My love will always stay with you. It’s stuck with you forever. And I trust the universe will always bring me back to you. Because you are my beautiful thing.”
Lyna’s knees began to tremble, unable to support her any longer. She fell to her knees. Her back weakened, her body curling, as if the world had struck her with a devastating blow.
But amidst her sorrow, she held her left hand close, as if wanting to bring the ring closer to her chest. She felt a warmth so real, a warmth that had long been absent since her husband’s passing. For the first time in a long while, Lyna felt a sincere sense of security, as if the ring were whispering, “I’m here.”
Tears streamed down her face, but they were not only tears of sadness. There was gratitude, and there was hope. In her sobs, she whispered with longing,
“My love... my life... my husband—Mujun!”