Chapter 1022: Breakfast and the Soul Ritual (Part.II)

Frieren would handle everything else.

"I still think I could just call a few souls from Tartarus," Lithara commented.

"You could."

"Then why are we doing it this way?"

"Because I want to know if it works without depending on you."

Lithara placed one hand over her chest.

"How cruel."

"You’re not going to stay here forever."

"If Strax asks, I will."

Frieren looked at her.

Lithara smiled.

"Not like that."

"I didn’t ask."

"Your face did."

Albedo, still serious, quietly breathed out through her nose.

Frieren pointed immediately.

"You laughed."

"No."

"You did."

"Continue the ritual."

Frieren narrowed her eyes, but obeyed.

She walked to the edge of the main formation and checked the small containers positioned beside the crystals one last time.

Each held a different mixture of stabilized demonic essence taken from samples provided by Albedo and Lithara.

The purpose was not to reproduce the two of them, but to give the call a signature strong enough to be noticed by souls from the same spectrum.

"When I activate the first layer, Lithara releases energy slowly," Frieren explained. "No full pressure."

"I know how to control my own power."

"Last week you blew up a wall."

"It was a bad wall."

"It was new."

"Then it was badly built."

Frieren looked at Albedo.

"Please."

Albedo turned her head toward Lithara.

"Control yourself."

Lithara made an offended expression.

"Why do you obey when she says it?"

"Because she threatens less and judges more."

"That makes no sense."

"It does to me."

Frieren had already begun.

She placed both hands on the first line of the circle and released demonic mana into the formation.

The symbols lit one after another, starting with the outer rings and slowly moving inward.

There was no excessive glow.

The lines only took on a dark, deep tone, almost as if the floor had been marked with wet ink.

Lithara closed her eyes.

Her energy entered the formation.

Immediately, the crystals began responding.

Frieren watched the indicators arranged in the air.

"Less."

Lithara reduced it.

"A little more."

She increased.

"Less."

Lithara opened one eye.

"Are you doing this on purpose?"

"No."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

Albedo looked at Lithara.

"Focus."

The Succubus Queen muttered something, then closed her eyes again.

The first attempt lasted almost three minutes.

Nothing appeared.

Frieren analyzed the data, readjusted two lines, and changed the position of one crystal.

"Again."

Lithara opened her eyes.

"How many times?"

"Until it works."

"That’s a terrible answer."

"It’s the correct one."

Albedo uncrossed her arms and approached the formation.

"Maybe the call is too weak."

Frieren looked at her.

"Explain."

"You’re treating a demonic soul the way you would a human soul."

Frieren did not look offended.

Quite the opposite.

She became interested.

Albedo pointed toward the center.

"Demons do not respond only to affinity. They respond to authority. If the call does not carry some hierarchy, many souls will simply ignore it."

Lithara nodded.

"Finally, someone speaking sense."

Frieren looked at Lithara.

"You could have said that earlier."

"I wanted to see how long it took you."

"I hate working with you two."

"You don’t."

"Right now, a little."

Frieren erased part of the formation and began redrawing it.

This time she created a new sequence around the platform, using a pattern she had recently learned by observing Albedo’s spiritual structures.

It was not an absolute command, but a recognition of domain.

Something like a declaration:

There is a place here, if you are strong enough to occupy it.

Lithara saw what she was doing.

"That will work better."

"I know."

"Because we told you."

"Don’t ruin it."

The second activation was different.

The moment Lithara released energy, the entire room seemed to become deeper.

Not colder.

Farther away.

The walls remained in the same place, but the spiritual space began stretching beyond matter.

Frieren watched through the instruments while Albedo kept one hand raised, ready to close any passage that became unstable.

A low sound emerged.

It came from nowhere in particular.

It sounded like breathing.

Lithara opened her eyes.

"Something is looking."

Frieren analyzed the values.

"How many?"

"Three."

Albedo corrected immediately.

"Four."

Lithara looked at her.

"You felt the one farther back?"

"Yes."

Frieren could not feel any of them directly.

That irritated her.

"I want to be able to perceive that."

"Maybe when you stop being a newly formed demon," Lithara commented.

Frieren gave her a dry look.

"I was older than you before the transformation."

"That does not help."

One of the lines in the outer circle lit up.

Then another.

Frieren became serious.

"We have contact."

In the space above the platform, a small distortion appeared.

It was not a portal.

Just an area where the air looked darker, as if something were pressing from the other side without crossing through.

Lithara became completely still.

Albedo too.

Frieren moved closer to the instruments.

"Compatibility at forty-two percent."

"Low," Albedo said.

"Too low."

The presence on the other side withdrew on its own.

The distortion disappeared.

Frieren wrote something down.

"Interesting."

Lithara grimaced.

"Don’t say that word."

"Why?"

"Monica says whenever researchers say ’interesting,’ someone loses sleep."

Frieren thought.

"She’s right."

Another presence approached.

This time the formation reacted violently.

Three crystals immediately turned red.

Albedo stepped forward.

"Reject it."

Frieren closed her hand.

The circle erased that signature before it got anywhere near the platform.

Lithara tilted her head.

"That one was hungry."

"Spiritual hunger?"

"Closer to desperation."

Frieren wrote again.

"Doesn’t work."

"Are you really going to reject every soul with some kind of problem?" Lithara asked.

"No. But I’m not putting an unstable soul inside a military body capable of killing hundreds of people."

"Fair."

The third signature took longer.

When it appeared, it was so faint that Frieren initially thought it was interference.

Albedo, however, changed her posture.

"That one."

Lithara opened her eyes.

"I felt it too."

Frieren watched the indicators.

Compatibility climbed.

Fifty.

Sixty-three.

Seventy.

The number stopped at seventy-eight.

Frieren moved closer.

"That’s high."

"For a first attempt?" Lithara asked.

"Very."

The presence did not try to cross.

It remained on the other side.

Waiting.

Frieren looked at the other two.

"Is she conscious?"

Albedo closed her eyes for a few seconds.

"Yes."

"Can she understand?"

"Probably."

Frieren modified part of the circle and created a small spiritual interface.

They were not spoken words, but a simple channel for transmitting intent.

BODY AVAILABLE. VOLUNTARY BOND. MILITARY SERVICE. AUTONOMY PRESERVED.

She waited.

Nothing happened for several seconds.

Then the line in front of the platform lit up.

Lithara smiled.

"She answered."

Frieren immediately looked at the records.

"How?"

Albedo answered first.

"She agreed to listen."

Frieren sent more information.

Memories could be preserved within certain limits.

The new form would possess an artificial demonic core.

There would be training, military command, and a bond with Asgard, but no absolute control over personal decisions.

The contract could be broken under defined circumstances, though the body would remain structural property of Asgard while active.

Lithara looked at Frieren.

"You wrote an employment contract for a dead soul."

"It’s important."

"I know. It’s still funny."

The presence remained.

Frieren sent the final question.

ACCEPT?

The answer came as a pulse.

Yes.

All three immediately became serious.

Frieren placed her hands over the formation.

"Let’s begin."

Albedo activated containment.

Lithara slowly increased the authority.

The presence crossed.

There were no screams or storms of energy.

A small dark light appeared at the center of the chamber and slowly descended toward the homunculus’s chest.

The artificial core began to pulse the moment it made contact with her, and every line around the platform lit up.

Frieren tracked each value.

"Stability is good."

Lithara stood beside her.

"Compatibility?"

"Eighty-two now."

"It went up?"

"The body is responding."

Albedo stepped closer.

The soul entered the core completely.

The body on the platform suddenly arched.

Frieren froze.

The fingers moved.

Then the feet.

The chest began to rise and fall slowly, even though that breathing was not strictly necessary to keep the structure alive.

The eyes remained closed.

Frieren checked every reading.

No rejection.

No collapse.

No rupture in the core.

She barely blinked.

"It worked."

Lithara looked at her.

"Are you sure?"

"No."

Lithara laughed.

Frieren kept watching the values.

"But it hasn’t exploded yet."

"That’s your standard for success?"

"In experimental research, it’s a start."

The female body breathed again.

Then opened her eyes.

Two dark red irises appeared.

Albedo immediately assumed a defensive stance, though she did not release energy.

Lithara remained relaxed, but her presence changed just enough to make it clear she could act at any moment.

Frieren approached only as much as necessary.

"Can you hear me?"

The woman on the platform moved her eyes.

First to Frieren.

Then Lithara.

Then Albedo.

Her mouth opened, but no sound came out.

Frieren waited.

The second attempt produced a weak voice.

"Yes."

Lithara smiled.

Frieren, however, only picked up a clipboard.

"Good. What is your name?"

The woman took time.

Her expression seemed to tighten with the effort of searching for a distant memory.

"...Neris."

Frieren wrote it down.

"Do you remember accepting the contract?"

"Yes."

"Do you know where you are?"

"No."

"This is Asgard."

Neris remained silent for several seconds.

Then she looked at her own body.

Moved one hand.

Then the other.

There was a strange mixture of shock and curiosity on her face.

"This body..."

"It is yours while you fulfill the agreed terms," Frieren explained. "We are going to run a lot of tests before you’re allowed to leave."

Neris touched her own chest.

Felt the core pulsing.

"Am I alive?"

Frieren stopped.

That question was more complicated.

Lithara looked sideways at her, curious to see the answer.

Frieren thought for several seconds.

"You are here."

Neris looked back at her.

Frieren continued, in a more careful tone than usual.

"For now, I think that’s enough."

The woman remained quiet.

Then nodded.

Frieren wrote another note.

Behind them, the thirty-five remaining completed bodies stood motionless inside containment capsules.

Lithara looked at the row.

"One."

Albedo looked too.

"Thirty-five left."

Frieren corrected without looking up from the clipboard.

"Forty-seven total if we include the twelve still in development."

Lithara slowly exhaled.

"This is going to take a while."

Frieren finally smiled.

"Now we know it works."

Albedo looked at Neris, then at the dozens of bodies awaiting a soul.

"Worse."

Lithara raised an eyebrow.

"Why?"

Albedo crossed her arms.

"Now Frieren won’t sleep."

Frieren kept writing.

"I don’t need to sleep today."

Lithara started laughing.