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Late afternoon. A very peculiar group of academy students and one teacher was gathered on the roof of the central building of the Royal Academy in Yutis.
"Can you see them?" A petite and twiggy girl with a regal demeanor asked her elf friend, a girl of apparently eleven years of age.
"I can. Elf eyes." She made goggles with her hands and giggled. "They are right there!" She pointed at the north-east sky.
"I see them too!" Another girl squealed. Her two friends jumped with excitement.
"Yes. I can see them too, all three of them." The wizened old teacher commented to the young woman in a nice dress by his side. She was the only one not in academy uniforms besides the teacher. The petite girl snickered something like 'cheater' under her breath.
"I'll let the castle know of their safe arrival." Answered the young woman.
"Light Pillar."
A cylinder of white light burst forth from a corner of the roof behind them, illuminating the clouds above.
Soon four flying creatures approached that pillar. Three humanoids with wings of light at their back and a little dragon, sky blue this time.
They returned. Completely tired and exhausted.
There was no escape from the party.
If the young Lord couldn't go to the feast, the feast came to the young Lord. The townsfolk loaded carts with food and drink and hauled everything to the Lord's keep. If you ask the mayor, he'd speak of loyalty to the best Lord in the region.
He didn't give in to the collective whining of dozens of maidens clamoring to see their beloved young Lord after two years of wait. No, sir.
And thus they were forced to participate. It was the first time seeing the princess for the townsfolk and Sora had to deal with all the maidens' wrath for snatching 'their' young Lord. In her defense, Sora the Squirrel-kin was paying only 3/1. Very different from Gilda the Baker's Daughter and her 200/1. Nevertheless, a lot of coins changed hands that night.
The fief had a new policy issued that night. It was forbidden to bet on the private life of the Lord or its family.
They sent a message to Astromelicus using a dedicated communication device they had in the keep and departed with bellies full and still a little tipsy the next morning. They reached the County of Marlimar before nightfall and the now awake and fully recovered Countess threw another banquet. Somehow, Skippy, Abigail, and Margareth ended up in the sewers and found a dungeon underneath the city. Margareth and Abigail discovered their calling and now they want to be explorers. Dawn promised them they would join the Academy when they reached 14 years of age.
They departed Marlimar with bellies full, even tipsier and sleep-deprived the next morning. They flew high until they saw the capital.
If you asked Aidan what was the silver lining in this gastronomic return trip, he'd say not having to stop to eat lunch. And even that was defeated by the need to take breaks for other reasons.
"Goodness gracious. You look like a uberwurm trampled you, darlings." Was the first thing that escaped Pearl's mouth when she saw Dawn. Uberwurm was a fifty-meter long worm that could devour horses whole.
The boy-in-princess-skin tied her head with a scarf, but the buffeting winds tore the hair free strand by strand.
"I think the worm would've been kinder," She replied to the princess.
The ladies-in-waiting were prepared. Upon hearing that she would return flying they brought a full set of hair care items and rushed to tend to the princess' mane.
Sora was talking to Pearl and Cythrel, leaving Aidan relatively alone. He suddenly winced at the arcane presence beside him.
"Did you bring it? You did bring it, right?" He didn't need to turn to know who it was.
"Yes, Headmaster, it is here. The Keeper wants to see you though. She only sent half the usual amount and you are requested to go there with me to get more, later." Aidan removed his big backpack and dumped it with the forty-kilogram bag of coffee beans on the ground. He also dismissed the strengthening spell he used to be able to move with that load.
"Sylph's Hands."
Astromelicus used the same basic spell as Aidan could, but instead of floating the backpack jumped through the air and vanished into the building. The old archmage smiled at his slack-jawed apprentice.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
"Mission Accomplished. And yes, We'll go pay the Keeper a visit on a future occasion. Now tell me, what is in the other sack?"
"Otherworlder bait. I expect to go after Kazuya right after we finish healing..." Aidan glanced at the three ladies-in-waiting tugging the knots in Dawn's hair, "...that girl."
The archmage raised an eyebrow and spoke in a low voice. "I don't know if it is dumb luck or some extraordinary foresight, but I think you will have to use your secret weapon earlier than you think."
"Do you know where he is?" Aidan's mind was running simulations and thinking of Kazuya's abilities, at least those known. Maybe Pearl had more information.
"That otherworlder is coming here. I believe he is after our princess friend."
"Which one?" Aidan joked.
"Well, not me, that is a given," Claire answered behind him. "Don't worry. Archmage Astromelicus already warned me."
"Your Highness. I'm glad to announce we are one step closer to resurrecting your sister. I got the right spell to separate us."
"I don't mind if you call me by my name, Aidan. You don't refer to the other princesses by their titles anyway, it feels awkward."
"You are right. I'm sorry, sister." He jokingly spoke with the same tone Dawn would use.
Claire blushed. Cythrel saw it and rushed in, screaming murder.
It was good to be back. Even better to sleep the whole night. That was exactly what they did.
The next morning they resumed their usual routine. Pearl, Aidan, and Dawn were having their morning private lessons with Astromelicus. The archmage smiled as he brought the porcelain cup back on its matching saucer.
"You will see I am a reasonable instructor when I have my cup of Joe."
"I thought that was called coffee," Pearl pointed.
"It is an otherworlder term. I believe they have over a hundred different words to describe this beverage and its variations," The old man replied. "It is a foundation of their culture. Depending on the otherworlder, it could be even more effective than your 'bait'."
"We shall see. Say, Headmaster, could I get a quote on this jewel here?" Aidan took out the core of the Orc Leader.
Astromelicus raised an eyebrow. "Where did you find this thing? It looks orcish in nature."
"We ran into an orc tribe during our travels. After wiping most of them, we had to fight their chieftain, an Orc Leader." Dawn answered.
Astromelicus analyzed the core using a spell. "How much do you think this is worth?" Aidan eagerly asked.
"Six hundred gold coins and I already know the buyer. Would you leave it with me?"
Aidan was expecting five hundred and a long wait for a buyer. Bringing it up to Astromelicus seemed a wise choice. "Deal."
The archmage stashed the core away and returned to Aidan, "Let's see the spell you developed to separate Lumina."
They went down into the basement of the magic laboratory building. In the detention, there was a goblin gagged and chained to a wall. The emaciated creature shook and wriggled in an attempt to break free of the restraints in all its four limbs.
"There is our target. I'll capture the soul fragment with this magic vessel," He showed a cloudy crystal. "If we succeed in capturing the soul fragment, we can proceed to try and graft it into an artificial body. I already created the compatible body for this goblin last week. Check your soul, I want the cut to be exactly like what we'll see in the Lumina part."
Aidan used Soul Reveal on himself and observed his own effigy using Dawn. Noting that half the head, and about three-fourths of the chest were Lumina, he focused on the goblin.
"Soul Sight."
"Soul Incise."
He cut the same portions as he saw on himself. As the soul split, Astromelicus used his spell.
"Soul Trap."
The cut portion was sucked into the crystal, stirring the cloudy impurities inside it in the shape of the fragment. It was shedding a sickly lime green glow that probably was the goblin's soul color.
The goblin was still alive but unconscious. His condition was deteriorating fast. The body wouldn't resist for much longer.
"Desiccate."
Astromelicus killed the goblin removing the moisture from its body. it was one of the cleanest methods of execution.
"I will leave you some wizardry exercises and go try and graft this fragment in its new body."
That afternoon they executed an abridged version of the Soul Restoration ritual on the goblin body with the soul fragment. Their objective was to stabilize the soul fragment inside the body. It worked but the artificial goblin didn't live much longer. A few minutes after the ritual ended it died.
"Did we fail?" Dawn asked, afraid. The execution should be perfectly rehearsed when the time to bring Lumina back came.
"No, it should've worked," Astromelicus answered. "We are missing something."
"Maybe we could use monster cores to reinforce the mana matrix. It would raise the risk of overflow, but we should be able to control if we reinforce the etheric regulator part of the diagram."
"That is it. Cadet Aidan, you are absolutely right. The problem here was a lack of a monster core."
That put Aidan to think. With a single strong core, the flow would be stronger in a single channel. It would be harder to control if compared to a single lesser core, but easier than twenty like they already did when they fully healed Pearl and Dawn.
"Use a single core?"
"Yes. This is a monster, not a person. It needs a core to survive and handle mana. The artificial body I created followed the procedure for a person's body, not a monster's. It had no core."
"And a monster's core resonates with the monster's mana signature. It is as unique as any other individual. This will greatly limit our ability to experiment with monsters."
The implication was left lingering. They would need to experiment on people if they wanted to perfect the grafting method when it came Lumina's turn. It was not a decision Aidan wanted to even consider.
The method they developed had five steps, two of them were Underworld, one Death, and two Life magic. Sever the soul fragment, store it in the vessel. Create the artificial body by cutting and regrowing the parts of the original body. Graft the soul fragment in the original body. Perform the ritual to repair the souls.
They couldn't afford to fail Lumina.
It was Astromelicus that came with the grim idea:
"We can reach out those criminals convicted with capital punishment and ask them to volunteer in exchange of some benefit. Maybe for the ones caught in the political cleanup the Crown we could offer to spare their Houses some of the punishment for their cooperation."
"Only if they are made fully aware of what it entails," Aidan said. We can even tell them we will let them live if the copy is successful. The original body is executed and the copy is set free as a commoner."
"Yes, that is possible. I'll talk to Helios tonight. You two please retire for the night and rest."
"I can compile a list of possible... volunteers for our project. Skippy got a list of names from the late Count Bentley. Tomorrow I am going to cross-reference the list with Claire's financial reports to narrow it down."
Astromelicus paused to think. Aidan was delving into dangerous and unknown territory. The stunt he pulled at the dinner party worked because he caught them by surprise, but those slimy nobles were now wary of them.
"Just take care. They attempted to assassinate one too many princesses. They will attempt to do so again."
"All the more reason to hurry up and nail them."