Finally, after six hours, the crystal's manufacturing and testing were completed. I began to feel jittery. With trembling hands, I placed the crystal in the holder, sat in the "extraction" chair, and activated the transfer process. A few seconds later, I lost consciousness, and when I awoke, I found myself in the soul crystal. It was a very unusual sensation, let me tell you.

The next stage was the most important. Forming a telekinesis spell, I grabbed the crystal and transferred myself to another apparatus, where the program of influence had already been set. Here, I passed out again to avoid interfering with the delicate process of recording information into my soul.

When I woke up, I felt like minced meat someone had decided to push through a meat grinder in reverse, hoping to get chunks of meat. It took almost a day to recover, avoiding any magical or mental activity. Finally, the equipment showed that my condition had normalized, after which I moved the crystal to the open container with body materials.

I watched the formation of the external shell with interest. So far, it was a standard program for reproducing a copy of my previous body. Finally, I sighed, opened my eyes, and listened to my pulse. The imitation of an ordinary human body was complete. Even an autopsy and X-ray would show the presence of internal organs. Only a chemical analysis of the blood or flesh would yield very strange results. My body consisted one-third of titanium and two-thirds of carbon-silicon organic material.

I climbed out of the coffin and examined my previous body. I must say, Samael Tamuz wasn't particularly distinguished in appearance. When this game ends, I will need to give myself the look of a true macho. Next, I dressed in regular clothes and disposed my corpse. "My corpse"—a very unusual concept for a person.

Upon leaving the laboratory, I encountered already nervous guards. After all, I had stayed there quite a while.

"The transport with inspectors arrives in four hours" - Oak informed me right away.

"And what about our brains?" - I asked, referring to the scientists. Engineers, being more down-to-earth, and mages, being more trained in self-control, were much less likely to rebel.

"They're boiling. But it hasn't exploded yet. Everyone is quiet, waiting for the commission to arrive."

"Anything known about its composition?"

"No."

"Well then, let's prepare to meet our dear guests."

The arrival of the ship at the station was quite a hassle. To prevent our destruction, the station teleported to a random location approximately once a day. To meet the ship, a special beacon-scanner was sent to the designated place. It ensured the meeting point was safe, waited for the ship to arrive, and then signaled us. The station would then move to the agreed place, take the ship on board, and jump in a random direction again.

Cargo ships arrived roughly once a month, and this meeting was unscheduled. Finally, we received the signal, made a short jump, and a diplomatic courier—a special class of ships with serious protection and the ability to jump at any moment—flew into the hangar. A few minutes later, the ramp opened, and three people in civilian clothes descended, followed by four in combat suits. Papadopoulos wasn't among the arrivals, which disappointed me slightly.

"Welcome, gentlemen. My name is Samael Tamuz, and I am the head of this station."

"John Doe, plenipotentiary representative of the Council of Wise Men" - introduced one of them. The others remained silent, generally pretending to be furniture. - "Where can we talk?"

"Please follow me. At your disposal is a negotiation room of the highest security level."

Navigating through the station's corridors, we entered one of the most secure and simultaneously useless rooms. Its only plus was the luxurious setting. There wasn't even a computer here, as it could be used for espionage. Following protocol, I suggested getting straight to business.

"As I mentioned, I am the plenipotentiary representative of the Council of Wise Men and one of its members. I know there are still three months left until the deadline, but the situation is very serious. We can no longer wait. Just four days ago, we lost five planets simultaneously. All the populations were either wiped out or are currently being wiped out. We only have ten worlds and twelve habitable planets under our control. My task is to evaluate the results of your research and, if promising, organize a demonstration of these results to the Council."

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

It seems my first obstacle in the finale will be making the right impression on this person. If he decides my developments are "unpromising" I will automatically lose the game. And I don't want to find out what Being will come up with because of this. I have to hope for the impartiality of this individual.

"Basically, our project is already complete. We have some minor tweaks planned, but they can be carried out parallel to implementation."

"And what is the essence of your project?" - It seems the secrecy was maintained at a sufficient level, so even the members of the Council of Wise Men didn't know what I was doing here.

"In short, it’s about giving people immortality and making them mages."

"And that's it?" - John Doe's voice dripped with disappointment. - "I was hoping for some sort of weapon."

"This is better than any weapon. If you didn't catch it, it's about immortality. You can send soldiers into battle who can't be destroyed."

"Battles are decided by spaceships, not soldiers."

"No. Spaceships decide nothing. Without supporting planets, without supplies of food and ammunition, they are just flying coffins. We only need to send one fighter to an enemy planet, and within a month, there will be millions of our soldiers—immortal, able to fight mages and robots on equal terms, not needing rear support or infrastructure. No race in this galaxy will be able to cope with our army. Just as they won’t be able to conquer any of our planets. Yes, they can fight back for a while, but in a hundred years, there won't be a trace of them."

John listened to my passionate speech with interest.

"So, the soldiers will be able to reproduce?"

"Not only the soldiers can reproduce. This is about a new form of life. It's an almost immortal body that contains a soul, preserving memories of past lives. You can pull an experienced warrior's soul from the afterlife and immediately have a soldier capable of performing all types of tasks. As I said, the body will be nearly invulnerable. But if it is destroyed, the fallen's comrades can summon his soul and give him a new body in just a few minutes."

"Hmm... can you demonstrate what it looks like?"

"Of course. Let's proceed to the testing ground. We conduct experiments on death row inmates. We have several working samples that can demonstrate all the advantages of the new form of life."

"Let's go." - We left the room and started wandering through the countless corridors of the station again. - "You mentioned this is a new form of life?" - the envoy asked me along the way. - "So nominally, this isn't the salvation of humanity."

"Nominally, it’s the salvation of each individual of the species. People will change bodies but remain themselves. They will gain a better life. And all non-human scum will be destroyed by us and turned to dust."

John Doe nodded in agreement with my words and continued on with a satisfied look. Mental scanning showed that he was very partial to all non-human forms of life in the galaxy. Meaning, he hated them to his core. But the idea of humans transforming while remaining beings of a 'higher order' didn't cause him any rejection.

We stopped in a room separated from a large hall by a glass wall. According to my instructions, one of the official test subjects and three simple guards, armed with various weapons, were already there. I wasn't afraid of a rebellion from the prisoner because he had already passed that stage. He had personally experienced that he was firmly on our hook, and any rebellion would only worsen his very comfortable position.

"You see a sample of the new form of life in front of you. We call it vritras. Now we will demonstrate how the sample withstands an attack from personal firearms."

I gave the signal, and one of the guards raised a kinetic rifle, shooting regular bullets. Despite all the progress, a piece of metal flying at one's head was still a quite effective weapon. Only now, the bullets were accelerated not by gunpowder gases but by gravity compensators. A long burst rang out, and the prisoner's body was literally riddled. Scarlet blood gushed from the wounds, and the mangled body fell heavily to the floor. In the shattered head, brains were visible, and a large pool of blood quickly formed under the body.

"And what?" - John asked, puzzled.

I frowned, walked to the communication device, pressed the button, and said:

"Martin, if you don't stop fooling around right now, I will deprive you of sex. For life."

At the word "life," the figure twitched and immediately stood up. The wounds healed, and the blood was absorbed back into the body. Even the 'prisoner's robe' restored to its factory condition.

"Can't even joke anymore" - muttered the test subject.

"Another burst" - I commanded.

The guard raised the weapon and emptied the rest of the magazine into the target. This time, the bullets barely left marks on the body, which healed immediately. The tester switched the weapon to a blaster and continued the demonstration.