-As I was saying… the world was not going to let that go. They were going to punish us.

-Didn’t you say we were “dead”? How would they go about it?

-Well, at first they were content with that… Well, mostly. That is, until they got to the results of our experiment.

-Something survived?

-It’s not like the explosion wiped EVERYTHING. We were still connected to the network, we got backups.

-True… Right…

-Yeah. Well, when they checked what experiment caused this, they decided to double down. Not only they didn’t stop further research, they wanted to expand it.

-Of course. One failure wasn’t enough for them…

-It was more than one, but yeah. But there was a reason. See, you asked if something survived… and it did. The crystal did survive.

-Wait, what? I remember it exploding! It was the whole reason shit went south!

-Oh yes, it did explode. But it didn’t vanish. There were still plenty of shards that were left. I mean… - he gestured towards my non-existing body. - You know.

Right… That was the sole reason I survived… Or, well, I thought I survived. What was that about me dying? I still didn’t understand what he was talking about, but decided to wait for him to explain on his own.

-See, the crystal… THE Crystal was the starting point of the further research on life and mana. On souls.

-Souls? I guess it kind of fits…

-Our research ended up going that way, after all. And it also gave them a perfect material for that.

-Origin Crystal? They used it to experiment on souls…?

I mean, essentially, it was what we were doing all that time. And it was a success, the fact that Kon survived… everything boiled down to the souls being trapped inside the crystal. Same with ILMA.

-Yes. And what they found inside some pieces was a perfect solution to everything.

-They found remains of ILMA?

-Oh, no. Well, not only. ILMA never got disconnected from the network… at least not completely. Some fragments were scattered, but nothing that would prevent her from working normally.

-What was in there, then, if that was so important…?

-Don’t you get it? It was us.

-Us?!

-Well, me, to be specific. At least at first.

-The fuck do you mean “you”?

-Exactly what I said. I was killed. Or rather, my body was destroyed, but my mana got merged with a piece of crystal.

-So why did you have a fleshy body then? Wouldn’t you look like me?! I mean, not like now, but…

-Slow down. I have not finished yet.

-...

-As I was saying, they found me. And recognized that I was one of the researchers that worked on the project that went south. And of course, they jumped onto the occasion. They presented me with an ultimatum: you either work for us again, or we are going to present what you did for the whole world to see and punish you accordingly.

-Like that mattered… - I scoffed. - What, smear you in the newspaper? Who gives a fuck?

-Yeah, I thought so as well. But it was the “punishment” they mentioned that pushed me towards agreeing…

-What kind of punishment could they even think of? I can’t imagine how you’d punish a piece of crystal.

-I can think of a lot - he sighed. - Drain your mana constantly, use you as a source of energy.

-What, they finally figured out that reactor-thing? What was that thing called… mana engine? I guess there’s been some technology that combines both magic and technology…

-Ah that? Well, yes, they did, but that’s not what they had in mind. There were plenty of sources that would drain mana for the fuel that were not sentient. It was a bit risky, putting a literal criminal inside a highly important reactor. You know, what if I changed my mind and just blew that thing up?

-Right… that’s another calamity waiting to happen, true.

-Exactly. No, they wanted me to resume my work, so even if they were to place me as a core there, I wouldn’t be able to do what they wanted me to.

-So what was the incentive? Because I feel like you agreed…?

-Oh, you bet I did. And so would you.

-I don’t know about that…

-You don’t? Well, I do. They told me that if I won’t work for them, they were going to use her as a test subject.

He didn’t say the name. But he didn’t have to. I could tell who he was talking about, and he knew that.

He was right. I wouldn’t hesitate either.

-Damn it.

-Yeah.

-...

-Well, long story short, I started working for them. They gave me a new body. Or, well, rather that was the first part of the test. To see if there was a possibility to regain one after being… well, vaporized.

-And you succeeded.

-Of course. You know that’s possible.

-Who?

Simple question. I didn’t need to specify. He knew.

-Some random prisoner. And before you ask, yes, it did feel horrible. But not for the reasons you imagine.

-...?

-It was a criminal. Someone that was not dangerous enough or powerful, but enough to not be missed.

-That doesn’t specify…

-I won’t get into details. I am just going to say I hated having that body and also was happy that he was no longer existing.

I was not going to push him. But I had a good idea what that could mean.

-Now, when you mention that… “no longer existing”. That means you took over. You managed to… assimilate him? How does that work, exactly?

-I fucking hate that - he squinted visibly, even with his face being not really a face that could make expressions.

-What?

-Nothing… Well, about how that works… There are two ways it can go. Depending on your aptitude and, of course, willpower.

-Aptitude?

-How much mana the body can handle. Or, rather the thing that is hosting the soul. Can’t really say that just a piece of crystal is a proper body.

-Well, if it’s large enough…

-I guess… But well, you can go two ways. First off, the thing that you probably figured out: you merge two consciousnesses. You learn about your target. You absorb their memories, everything that made them… and then make it your own.

-You make it sound very simple.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

-It is. But it takes time. Especially if you have less magic to work with.

-Wait, less magic? You can assimilate someone even if you are weaker?

-”Weaker” is a very relative term. It’s only dependent on willpower. You can be a powerful mage that has enough mana to wipe a full city from existence and still get defeated in the battle of wills by a simple scummy person that is just too stubborn to give up.

-Speaking from experience?

-I wish I wasn’t. It was too close.

He paused for a moment.

Was it really that hard for him?

-Well, I did manage to win, but it took me longer than expected.

-How much longer is “long”?

-A year.

-Fuck.

-Eh, could be worse.

-I imagine.

-Yeah. But, thanks to that, I managed to get a body and started working on the next part of the program.

-Still on souls?

-Yes. They wanted to recreate… well, the process. That, and make it less destructive, obviously. It would essentially mean the end to death.

Immortality.

Well, yeah, I bet that would make everyone interested.

-Immortality and eternal youth. Resistance to all diseases… I can understand why everyone would jump on that ship…

-No kidding. But, as we both know, that comes with issues.

-Well, apparently less severe than I thought - I pointed out. - If an idiot like me managed to hold off someone as powerful as ILMA, then…

-Yeah… I was getting to that - he interrupted me. - You… are a very special case.

Me? Special?

What was he talking about?

Out of all the people, I’d say he was the most unusual one, with the whole body changing thing…

Oh. Right.

-You reminded me of something. What happened to Odar?

-What? Who?

-Odar? Odar Erf I think his name was? I heard he was a part of your… I don’t know, circle? Whatever that was.

-I don’t… Aaah, that one. Right. I gave that name back then, right…

-You gave that name…?

-You didn’t realize? There was no Odar Erf. That was me.

Ah. Yeah, okay.

-I was going to mention that, but the man I mentioned before… that was not the only body I’ve used… or rather taken over. There were plenty of those. And one came with the ability to… modify your body. I think you know what I mean.

Kon.

Or rather his family, most likely.

I wasn’t sure, but it was possible that that spell… or, well rather ability, could be some family secret. Or a hereditary thing.

I guess that was the case.

-I used that persona to move freely, not as a king, but a lot more people. Be it a guard captain or someone less visible. Very useful. But also painful.

I know.

-Don’t look at me like that. I bet you’d have done the same.

-...

-Anyway, let’s not jump around topics, let me continue.

-Where was I… Right! About you being a special case.

I wondered about that.

-Our, or rather my progress was pretty swift - he continued. - The higher-ups managed to find some pretty good replacements for you two. Hell, they were even more efficient sometimes. It was kind of bothering me, to be honest.

“Bothering”?

He just replaced us and it was just “bothering” him?

Wait, why was I even getting annoyed? It didn’t matter to me at all. Who cares about his problems?

-But, the work was done quickly, tasks were on schedule, there was nothing to complain about. The better they were, the quicker I would be done, right?

-Yeah… Now, when you mention that… “done”? If you were done, then what then? Did they offer you something?

-Aside my freedom? Yeah… there was one thing…

-Hm?

-They promised that they’d give me the crystal that was housing her soul.

-OH.

-Yeah. I learned about that a bit later. One day, they noticed that I “started showing lack of eagerness”.

-Pff. Corpo talk.

-Well, true. “It’s more efficient to provide encouragement than just a threat”. And so, they proposed to me that after I was done, they’d give her to me.

-Stick was starting to hit diminishing returns, so they went with a carrot - I nodded. Or tried to. - I am just amazed that it went in that order.

-Ha… yeah… Although the stick never left. But it worked. It definitely gave me a lot of motivation.

I can see that.

I probably would do the same thing in his place.

In that case, we were similar.

-Long story short, I did manage to succeed. At least on paper.

-On paper?

-Yeah. What I was working with was just theory. They never let me work with actual material. Be it because of fear of repeating the last fiasco, or just in fear that I’d somehow change my mind and use it to turn on them.

-Could you even do that? To fight the whole government?

-Governments. Plural. And no. Back then, I still had mostly fleshy body, so it would be suicide. Now… Well, I’d probably have a better chance.

True. Our bodies right now were almost impossible to destroy.

Hell, even destroyed, they apparently had enough power to let the person seemingly return from the dead.

Were we even alive, to be fair? There’re a lot of uncertainties here…

Whatever.

-But that was not the end of the project. They wanted results. Not on paper. Real results. So they finally gave me living test subjects.

-Hm.

-Yeah, I know. Not very humane.

-Not what I was concerned about.

-Right… right. The consequences. Well, I think I managed to at least make them…. unlikely to happen.

-How unlikely?

-Ten percent. Give or take.

-So the same as before… Wait. You used my formula.

-Ha… of course. Yours was the most powerful thing we’ve ever made. Even if you were to give me a hundred years more I’d raise the value by a percent at best.

-Better tell me if it worked.

-It… it did.

That’s unexpected.

Well… not mathematically.

But even after all that work, he managed to just redo the experiment?

Just how much was destroyed?

-It wasn’t just a copy of our procedure - he explained, either noticing my surprise, or just rather reading my thoughts. - It was a complete way to move a soul from one body to another. No artificial souls, just clean transfer.

-Hm. And who was the lucky winner? Some rich fucker that was paying for that?

-You kidding? No! - he shook his head. - Knowing them, I expected the opposite. Some poor soul, random homeless or a prisoner, like one I got my body from. Honestly, at first I was planning on doing it to myself.

-Wouldn’t that be kind of a pointless risk? I mean, you were already hosted within a crystal. It’s a bit different than just moving someone from a regular body, right?

-No. I doubly made sure of that. Or at least was aiming to do so. That… that’s what I wanted to do after the experiment. I wanted to take the crystal Il was in and give her a proper body.

-Proper? What’s wrong with a setup like ours?

-Do you really need to ask?

Right…

The drain would’ve been problematic. Although avoidable. And sure, the problems with food were a pain…

-Okay. I get it.

-I wanted a regular body. One that could feel and touch like normal. You understand me? I wanted for us to be a regular family again.

-Ah. So both of you…

-Yes. But… well, that was not the end of it, sadly.

-The transfer worked without an issue. The subject was… Honestly… to this day, I don’t know who that was. I never saw their face.

-You what?

-Yes. While I was one who created the procedure, the one to perform that was…

-Something? Don’t tell me… they used HER?

-Of course. You think who was the one who oversaw the whole procedure? The whole process?

-That makes no sense! Who in their right mind would leave this to ILMA?! Wasn’t she the reason it went bad last time?

-It only went south because of her being the subject. And you know how they don’t want to waste resources.

-I don’t know what they were thinking… or you for that matter! You should’ve stopped that! It’s not something an AI can handle! Nor should! Doesn’t matter how advanced or humanlike it appears to be!

-You don’t have to tell me that. I know. But, it’s not like I ever knew it beforehand. I only learned that from her memories.

-Her? Here?

-Well not exactly here, but yes, it was recently.

-Fuck.

-It wasn’t all that bad - he said calmly. - It did succeed. Or at least that’s what I was told. It was enough for me. I got rewarded and reunited with a piece of Il. Everything went great for me and I couldn’t care less if some random idiot that got used as a test subject would get assimilated.

-Damn.

A bit heartless.

-Weren’t you worried that they’d go after you if something was to go to shit?

-It already went once.

-Right… speaking of. You said you wanted to get a body… how did that go? Or was that lot later…?

-Oh no, that never even came to be. Before long, just like you said, it went to shit.

Of course.