Chapter 106: Mistakes Were Made.

Today was the day, the day of the full moon. It started off with a flurry of activity, my commissioned item was finally finished, though…

“I’m not very impressed…” I critiqued. Sure, the size was fine, and the lines were properly etched in, but… the quality was poor.

“Is that… what I think it is?” Talia asked, giving the bauble a good once over. “What’s it supposed to do?”

“It’s basically a rechargeable battery. With this, I can gather souls, or rather, the fragments of the soul or residual energy that clings to the body when something expires, or well, dies. That energy can then be used to either accelerate the growth of my familiars, or I can use it as a secondary power source. The orb itself has numerous names… A Soul Stone, is the most common for this variant, as it gains energy through, well, souls. It’s also relatively cheap to make, compared to the other options.”

“Oh! That sounds incredibly useful, so it’s like a gemstone?”

“More or less, the ball is made of crystal that isn’t easy to get a hold of, or rather, getting enough to make a ball this size would cost me an absurd amount of bronze coins. And that’s just the base material. It’s also not a common import, so trying to get ahold of it in bulk is, well, unlikely any time soon. The only reason they sold me it, was because they had stuff in reserve, but well… yeah.”

“Is something wrong with it?” She asked giving it a long look over.

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure they scammed me. The quality of the crystal is bad… The lines are etched well, but…”

“Oh… I can kind of see that, but the lines do look well done.” She sad, giving it a once over. “Couldn’t you have just bought a higher quality orb and had them etch it, or… bought the stuff to make the orb and done it yourself?”

“I wouldn’t know where to buy a crystal orb, though, I probably should have looked harder. Grim did recommend them, so, I didn’t think I’d have to worry about a lapse in quality. As for making it myself, well, again, buying the equipment to make an orb, would be too costly. Not just that, but making lines this clean need specialized machines, which I don’t have. As for doing it by hand, well, I’d probably mess up who knows how many orbs. Better to have them do the etching…” I sighed…

“Honestly, even if the quality is bad, it did save me time. And the lacking quality doesn’t impact its performance too much…”

“Oh… that’s good, but wouldn’t it be a good, investment?” She asks, almost tasting the word. “I mean, wouldn’t having more of these be a good thing?”

“You’d think that, but for a single orb, it’s not really worth the investment.” I say, confusing her.

“Why not? Surely, having multiple of these things would be good, no?” Talia asks.

“Technically, yes, but they have a significant drawback in that they can only gather energy through killing… To charge these things, I’d need to actively hunt and kill. Even with weekly patrols, it wouldn’t be worth it to have multiple. Just filling this one orb, despite its lacking quality, would be… difficult.”

“Ah, I can see that… that actually makes sense. Are you planning to use it tonight?”

“Yeah, I see no reason not to. Other than that, we do have another concern before we head out.”

“Like animating that statue you’ve been working on?” She asks, pointing at the proverbial elephant in the room.

“Exactly. I know you’ve spent the two weeks charging up those rubies we received, and even charging up the array, but I’m not sure we’ll have enough juice for everything.”

“It should be fine… though, are you sure you want to just animate and rank up the familiar?” She asks.

“If you’re talking about ranking up the material… not possible. As you know, since you tested it already, one eight-foot block after being compressed, only makes a small block roughly four inches tall. We lose something like, over 90% of its mass. Not just that, the cost of doing it wasn’t small.” I say.

“I’m aware of that, but you could use coins to expedite the process.” She offers playing devil’s advocate.

“That I could, only, I’d rather not spend them on this. Though, our war chest is growing by the day. Waste not want not after all.”

She gives me a brief look before asking, “Is there a reason you’re holding onto them?”

“A rainy day. For the time being, I do want to test if there really is a difference between bronze and silver, and whether or not it’s worth the investment.”

“A rainy day? Well, alright, that’s fine, and well, I also agree that running a test before going all in is a good idea.”

“Right? Now, help me move the statue into position, and see if we can’t get it moving.”

The statue was, probably the largest yet. Very little ice from the original block was carved away. The knight was large and bulky. A living bulwark. Every part of him spoke of durability and strength.

With Talia’s help, I was able to move it over to the central part of the array, an array that was positively humming and vibrating with magic. The whole warehouse was charged with energy thanks to Talia’s efforts and refinements in the past couple of weeks. There was little to no leakage by now, making the warehouse a natural power spot.

Unfortunately, everything we had built up over the last few weeks was going into my knights.

With both of us in position, we started the process. The number of energy storage points within the array had expanded, as had the array itself. At the edges, the rubies we had gathered were all placed in special locations to aid in transferring energy. Each glimmered and glowed in rhythm with the pulsing magic of the array.

The energy contained within them had a slight fire tinge to it, but a small conversion array dealt with that issue, at a minor cost. Talia had included numerous safeguards as well, just in case something bad happened. Further proving her worth.

It went all too smoothly when the magic flowed and surged into the knight, working according to my whims and slowly animating the thing. As the magic coursed through it, the ice making up its body began to crackle and pop. As lines etched themselves into their body, replicating nerves, and all converged where the core would be.

It all happened far too quickly. Far too smoothly. As soon as it finished, the core was quickly saturated with energy.

“Should we continue?” Talia asked.

It was a good question. We’d planned this out, looked at our possible expenditure. We should have enough.

“Lets.”

With a shift, the energy that flowed into the awakened familiar rumbled and compressed. The pressure caused more ice to crack and fly away, the number of lines within their body multiplies. Their core pulsed and grew, all the while processing and integrating the new energy into its being.

With every pulse, the ice gained a new hue. Instead of becoming more brilliant, like Cobalt had, it grew darker. By the time it finished with a final crack, a dark blue knight was before us.

With the transformation done, the energy no longer flowed as smoothly.

“We’ll need a higher concentration of energy to elevate them any higher.” Talia muttered.

“Looks like it, but I’m not sure how much energy that would take. I don’t think we have the room to make the array any bigger either. That… and I don’t think the material can handle another rank up.”

Talia agreed after a moment. Stranger still, I couldn’t help but think to what Éclair had said about ranks. The knight before me was now, according to what I knew, a Mid-Bronze, and yet… it didn’t really feel like it was. Even after raising it, it didn’t feel like a bronze rank.

On reflection, even my own knights, even Cobalt to an extent didn’t feel like silver ranks. Or at least, like any of the silver ranks I’d fought to this point. Which was odd. It wasn’t for a lacking magic, but almost like… for lack of a better word, a lack of depth to them. Like a dish that needed to simmer a bit longer to really bring out the flavor.

Perhaps that was what Éclair meant. Something told me that this knight before me wouldn’t grant a coin, and I believed that to be true. Even Cobalt, on hindsight, when he had died hadn’t dropped a coin. Sure, he’d been scattered to pieces, but… I don’t think he, nor any of my knights would yield anything.

Was it a matter of acclimation? Even now, with my hands on the knight before me, I could feel their core pumping like a heart of flesh and blood. With each beat, there was a subtle change, where energy was produced and fed into the body, where what was left fed into the soul. In turn, directly feeding back, increasing their natural energy production.

A virtuous cycle, if there ever was one.

Perhaps what Éclair had said, held some truth to it. As a magical girl, what kind of existence would I rank as? It wasn’t a question I ever considered until now. Éclair had said I would drop a silver coin, but how true was that? When I first arrived, was I even worth a coin? When exactly had that changed?

If I had to guess, it was after the first event that I officially became worth a bronze coin. The events trials, the constant fighting and pushing myself to the edge had changed my body on a fundamental level. As for the second time, it was clearly when I was at death’s door in my fight with the fox.

I hadn’t noticed at the time, but I had felt oddly constrained, like I was bursting at the seams, which is why I was even able to reach for my uniform so easily. Almost like it had been handed to me on a silver platter. Afterwards, the changes had continued, altering, changing me, with both my weapon and uniform contributing to the changes.

To what end? I wasn’t sure, but… if what Éclair said was true, In terms of power, I’d probably classify more towards a Low-Silver, probably… It was obvious I was a gold ranked being, and yet… Yeah…

Why this mattered… Honestly, it didn’t matter in the grand scheme of things, but it did mean, that it wasn’t possible to mass produce and farm coins by raising familiars and killing them for coins. Even if I could, it would take years of acclimation possibly before they became worthy of their rank. An acclimation period that would likely only increase with rank. A bronze would probably only take months. Silver could take up to a year… Gold? Gold could possibly take decades without serious dedication and effort.

Not that I had the space to accommodate so many familiars and simply sit back. Already, the space was cramped, even more now that my newest knight was done. If I wanted to get more out of my familiars, and future familiars, I’d probably need to consider getting a larger area. Though, for now, this would have to do.

Once that was confirmed, next came the fun part. I glanced over to the knight, they still hadn’t moved, but I could see the glow of their eyes from behind their helmet.

The moment we locked eyes, or whatever equivalent, the knight shuddered and stood. Throwing off chunks of brittle ice in the process. They towered above me. Just the shifting of their feet made a heavy, satisfying noise. They eyes me, waited for my command. Our connection, our tether feeding information back and forth.

“Kneel.” I commanded. And kneel he did. Even then, his form was impressive. Easily staying level with me, despite being on its knee.

It was strange. Yet, not a new sensation. A fluttering in my stomach. The elation, joy, and the dread. The pride at seeing my new creation come to life. Of all my work, all my toils coming to fruition like this. The anticipation of seeing what it would become, and finally, the creeping fear that like Cobalt, they too would die in the line of duty.

Do I treat them as disposable? That question remained pertinent, an yet, Diva’s words still haunted me. They were the fruit of my labor, the closest thing to progeny I had ever had…

A sad thing, truly. In my past life, I’d never taken the chance to settle down… Nor would I have done so. Between my own feelings, how my own psyche castigated me for what I had done to Alex, and the fact that every day I was surrounded by vipers. A single mistake would have seen my downfall, though…

It didn’t really matter in the end, now did it?

“You okay there?”

“Mm… just thinking…” I muttered back, not even bothering to glance at Talia. In some way, I could feel my emotions, my fears being transmitted over the link. Could he feel it? My insecurities?

They didn’t reply back if they did, but… it was strange. Cobalt was assuring. His presence strangely calming. As for Estrella and Luna, both felt ephemeral. Their emotions, fleeting, their sensations ebbing and waning constantly. Like the tides.

This one was different. Like a wall, no, like an iceberg. A giant chunk of ice, simply existing on the open ocean. Standing above the fathomless depths, unaffected by it all.

He did not care if I named him. He cared little for anything. He only existed for one purpose, to be commanded. For the waves and wind to pull him to where he needs to be.

I had a name on the tip of my tongue and yet…

It felt like even naming him would be a disgrace to who he was. Like an anchor that would diminish this nameless knight.

“Rise.” I said, and so he did. Slowly, with surety. I had a speech, I had a whole thing, but… in the face of this knight, none of it seemed to matter.

“Take up your weapon. We have work to do.”

A subtle nod was all I received as a response. The link between us did not shift or stir as the knight moved. Grabbing his weapon and shield. Once armed, he took position near the entrance. His presence undeniable.

“Well… that’s something…” Talia said after a moment, her eyes not wanting to leave the knight. “He doesn’t feel strong, but…. There’s just something about him that draws the eye.”

“Yeah… its weird…” I say back, neither of us take our eyes off him for a good moment before time catches up with us. “We don’t have much longer… and I have no idea how the rest will go.”

“With how this is going, I think we can condense the other two knights without issue, but we might be just short on the final candidate.” Talia says, bringing up a notable issue.

“Your former captain, you mean?”

“Yeah…”

“If you want, I can do it another time. I’d rather have the combat potential now, but…”

“Its fine.” Talia says, cutting me off. “I’m actually curious to see what you did.”

“It wasn’t much, but yeah, I am too… now, let’s hurry this up.”

Luna and Estrella came in next. Well, one at a time. Each was filled to the brim with energy and finally condensed, effectively securing their rank up.

“Mid-Silver.” Talia said after a brief inspection of the two. Confirming the result. They looked more brilliant. More like gemstones than ice. “And we used less energy than anticipated.”

“Might be that they’ve absorbed more ambient energy?” I posit.

“Mm… you might be right on that, but they won’t be ranking up anytime soon. Not unless we can increase the magic density in here by a magnitude or more and improve the material.” Talia says.

“You’re not wrong. As it stands, I think there’s enough left over for the fox.”

“Do you think so? You don’t think we’ll need a higher magic concentration?” Talia questions.

“We should be fine, the body’s quality is good enough on its own as it is. Plus, the concoction I had them fermenting in is supposed to help with the reanimation process. Plus, you did put in safety measures.” I reply.

“I did, but… this a gold rank, right? I don’t think your book properly conveyed how to raise a gold rank. At best, it reached silver rank. Even the process your doing now, is tuned more towards a silver ranked revenant. I mean, we added a lot of safeguards and contingencies, but this could go wrong very easily.” Talia said.

“You’re not wrong, but we should be fine..” To my words, she just gives me a look.

“Really? You think it’ll be fine?”

“Yeah, I mean, how bad can it be?” Again, she gave me a long look Before sighing.

“Fine, okay, sure, if anything does go wrong, we have the rubies… Now, I read up on the revenants, but the actual information was surprisingly sparse. So, what exactly makes a revenant special?”

“Revenants retain their experiences from life, to an extent. Memories will come back, and they’ll also retain any unique constitutions they may have had. They can even learn and adapt. The only issue is, they’re more a long term type of undead, as they start out as mostly blank slates. They need time to properly grow into being.”

Talia nods. “Makes sense… But, I’m still concerned. This isn’t just any gold ranked body. This is a former magical girl, a fox. Are you really sure it’ll be fine?”

“Absolutely.”

Agan, she gave me a skeptical look, but this time, she didn’t protest. “All right, how do we start?” With that as the signal, we began.

The process was easy enough. Grab the plastic drum, give it a shift to make sure no more liquid was sloshing about. As it was, there wasn’t any, so we cracked it open.

The girl inside looked completely different after marinating for the last thirty days. The concoction had a bit of corrosive properties. So what she wore for clothing at the time, a glorified sack, had all but disintegrated away. Her hair was now black, though, under the right light it looked more crimson. Her skin was pale, like marble. Even the wound I had inflicted upon her was completely gone. Having been sealed and repaired by the concoction.

The oddest part, was how warm the body felt. There was no discernible heartbeat, but I could feel that the new heart I had given her had completely assimilated.

With the inspection done, I carried on with the task.

I didn’t need much help carrying her to the ritual circle. A towel was thrown over her for modesty’s sake. Though, not like she’d mind. Once she was in position, we started the process.

It was almost like kicking on an old-style motor. The array shudder for a moment, acting as if it would fail at any given instant. Only to soldier on and begin to chug away, gaining pace, little by little. At first it was manageable. A slow, steady draw that rapidly became worrisome.

“Prima…” Talia voiced out, worry in her tone.

“I know, its fine.” I say, but… the power draw quickly became untenable.

All too quickly, it began to draw on the power reserves we’d created. Sucking them dry in a matter of seconds. The safeguards kicked in, redirecting the draw towards the rubies. Only… even the fully prepped rubies were swiftly made inert. Even empty, the array kept drawing from them, sucking them dry up until the point they exploded into glittering dust.

Then, without any contingencies, the ravenous array came at us full-force.

“PRIMA!” Talia shouted again, her voice cut off when the sudden draw hit her. I tried to offset it, to pump more of my own energy in, but… it wasn’t enough.

“LUNA! ESTRELLA!” At my command, the knights burst in and immediately joined the effort, and yet, it was akin to trying to save a sinking ship with spoons.

The array quickly became the center of a vortex, as the ambient magic was forcibly drawn in. The arrays all over the cold storage began to flicker as they were sucked dry. My own body, as well as Talia’s, underwent existential agony as the magic was viciously ripped out of our veins.

Even then, there was no sign of stopping. We’d be wrung dry, rendered into desiccated husks long before the array’s hunger was filled. With no other option, I retrieved my coins and put them down. Talia began to do the same on her end, with her own coins. Both of us hoping, praying that it would save us.

With each passing thump of our hearts, the suction increased. The coins rapidly burst into motes of nothing. Each cracking snap filled our hearts with terror. Knowing that the moment the last coin fades, we’d probably die.

Abort? We no longer could. The safeguards had failed all too fast. We’d have a better chance chopping our limbs off and making an escape that way, but by this point it was far too late…

Even if we did that, it was latched onto s, not just physically, but wholly and completely. Demanding even our souls as compensation for our folly.

Seconds passed. Teeth grit. Only… To our shock, the coins were breaking at a slower rate. The swirling vortexes pull, lessened.

“Just a little more!” I shouted, but nobody else responded and we settled in. Even then, the last of our coins slowly, shattered. The array, now at its very limits. Even then, its grip never loosened. Sucking us empty as if through a straw.

Just before everything went dark, just before permanent damage could be dealt. The array stuttered and came to a stop.

There was no bang. No sudden earth-shattering crack. Just a whimper, a sharp exhale as we fell to the ground. In the midst of the body wracking agony I was in, I felt it. A small, thin tendril. Connecting me, to the body at the center of the array.

It felt… weak. Pathetically weak. Like a child born far too early. The array didn’t have enough energy. Just enough to complete its task, but nowhere enough to actually complete the ritual to full effectiveness.

The line connecting us shuddered. A tentative tug. A small touch. Her eyes flew open. They were glowing red, empty, lacking any semblance of being like an inert pool of blood. Her irises slit, like a snake. Slowly, she got up, the towel covering her went completely ignored.

She looked at me. Her eyes bored into me. There was something in them I understood all too well.

Hunger. Mixed with something else, longing. A longing to fill their hollow body. An emptiness that could seemingly, never be filled.

It was strange. Gnawing and yet… My own heart thumped in resonance. Deep within me, I felt the endless dark stir. If only just.

She blinked. Her blank eyes, stirred. Her feet moved unbidden, step by step, closer and closer. I did not move. I did not stand. I watched her every movement. My body tense. Every nerve ready to fire at the closest sign of trouble.

She stopped right before me. Her empty gaze carried with it an almost, uncertain quality to it. Like she was unsure of what to do.

It made no sense. Yet, as I slowly stood before her, she looked at me with a horrible mix of emotions. Each of which battered at my heart.

She had killed Cobalt. That was why I even did this and yet…

Why did it feel like I was just hurting myself even more?

Staring into her empty eyes, filled with longing, desire, I could almost feel the remnants of her memories. No, not the memories themselves, but the deep-seated desires she carried within.

To be accepted. To be acknowledged. To be loved.

It… confused me. Angered me. And yet…

What was the best option here?

I deliberated. My hesitation obvious. My own insecurity bled through the line. Her own link echoed that back. Every moment brought her untold agony. And right back to me.

It was just enough for me to make a decision.

“Come.” I commanded, lowered my body, arms held wide. Her empty eyes, once again, flickered. Her body moved closer, slowly, unsure, unsteady, and yet… I did not wait. I pulled her into my embrace. She was cold, ice cold. There was no thump of her heart. No signs of life and yet…

I felt something else well up from within her at my touch. Like a seed blooming, if only just. I felt something wet on my shoulder.

Only after I felt her settle did I pull back. My clothes were wet from her tears. The girl was silent, yet…

Now, she felt like a pool of water. Whose depths, could just barely be seen. Slowly, but surely, I could feel it growing in depth, and also, I could feel the ice crawling over it. Protecting her, hiding away what lies at the very depths.

With a sigh, I stood. Talia gave me an odd look, though… it was clear she wanted to know what had happened. For me to explain it in excruciating detail, only…

“I’m going to get something to eat, and nap. Later we’re going into the depths.” I said, my tone and voice brooking no argument.

After all, this did not go to plan. No… not one bit. I wanted something expendable. A doll, a simple toy soldier that would do as I command… Instead, I received something so much worse.

Something else to care about.