Julius spends approximately 2 days acclimating to her human body. It reminds me of brain trauma victims that need to relearn how to walk and talk.
"How have you been?" I ask her as I enter her room.
"It’s so… liberating." She says. Until now I haven’t been able to get a good look at her human body. It’s average height with a slender build and brown hair.
"Are you ready to return home?" I ask. "No need to decide at this moment." She looks down at her hands for a moment before responding.
"I… I don’t think I’m going to go home. I’ve been so eager to return, but mulling it over I think I’ve realized that I’d only be causing more issues for my friends and family than if I stayed away. I mean, I’m sure they’ve already had a funeral and everything…"
"I understand. Well, if you’re going to be staying, I would be delighted if you joined in our hunt to free as many souls like you as possible."
"I certainly will! It would be ungrateful to just laze around the tower, wouldn’t it?" She says. Glad to hear it.
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I enter my study, drawing the ire of Winter once again. "Just leave me alone," he says. I shake my head.
"I’ve got good news and bad news. The good news is I’m going to begin experimentation with biothaumic processors. The bad news is you’re my guinea pig." I unplug all the devices attached to his brain except for the life support.
I tinker away for hours, combining various thaumaturgical and animus theories and practices to fuse his brain with thaumaturgical components.
After about four hours of work, the creation is complete: a colloquial "brain in a jar" if you will. Several augmentations have been made to the brain, as evident by the several gears protruding from its side. Now to create the body.
After about another hour of work, I have another golem, but this one is different. Instead of brass casing, this one has thaumic metal to increase its hardness. The reason I didn’t make the previous ones thaumic metal was due to the difficulty of creating thaumaturgical materials. The size is also different: about one and a half times my height. I certainly hope I did this right.
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I place the modified brain in a jar into the empty cavity that is the golem’s skull and screw on the top of the skull. I feel it lock into place as the golem’s red eyes light up. Several gears start to click as the golem powers up. After a moment, the golem looks at its hands and around at its surroundings.
"Enjoying sensory input after so long without it?" I ask.
"Finally… after so long…" His voice is robotic, so I can’t hear the anger I assume is behind it. "You’re a fool!" He makes a move to strike me, but centimeters away from my face his hand freezes in place. "What the…"
"Ah, that would be the psychological limiters I placed on your mind. You can’t take any action to harm me, and you must obey my actions at all times to the best of your intelligence." He lowers his arm hopelessly. I place my gauntlet on his head and send a pulse of flux through him to power him off. Ingenious power switch, no? Only I can use it.
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"Brothers and sisters, today we begin a crusade to save countless souls just like our own from the machinations of the lesser gods. Today, we get one step closer to reaching Heaven!" I shout from my throne. Leviticus and Victor stand at my side. All the crimson cultists put both hands in the air, making fists and letting out a guttural grunt.
I gather all the praetors in front of me and hand them each a device of my own design. "I call it the soul radar. It beeps when it’s pointed towards a creature with a wise soul. We’ll have to use more traditional methods to locate trans placed humanoids, but with these, if anyone’s soul has been summoned into an animal body it will be much easier to detect. You all understand the mission. Bring back any individuals you find who have been summoned or reincarnated. We’ll figure out the logistics later." They all nod in understanding. I approach Victor and hand him one of the devices. "I trust you to lead them effectively. With you I am sending Tetrax, as I understand sometimes there will be threats you are unable to overcome alone." The shambling husk of Tetrax walks over to him. Victor nods.
"There’s no time to lose. Let’s go work miracles."
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We all step through the flux rift and back into the savanna. The praetors all go their separate ways. I help Julius through the portal as she looks around in awe. "I’ve elected to take you with me so you can get a better sense of what we do. I’ve also brought Winter since it’s impossible for me to protect you 24/7 in every battle." The massive figure of Winter steps through the flux rift, his gears clanking. His purple form looks around for a moment.
"It’s quite beautiful here," he says. "Far better than that dusty old lab."
"Your directive is to protect her. Sacrifice your own life if needed." His red eyes flash as he registers the command. No time to waste. Let us begin.