Chapter 419: Soul searching
After some reflection, Sofia decided against continuing to pursue space flight, and chose to wait for the shuttle.
She felt that with [Runeforged Overlord]s flight and help from the Engineer skeleton, she might be able to actually leave, but then she would face the problem of having to chase the moons as they flew through space and to somehow land without killing herself, and that felt like a lot of things which could go wrong. Too many things. When she could just wait a bit.
A week was not too long, considering she had a full year ahead of her, and considering the speed at which she was collecting imprints so far, she probably wouldnt need that much time. The more troubling matters were finding dungeons for heart catalysers and finding Cerberus Alpha.
It had been night for about an hour when she came down from the tower. Sunless drones roamed around the hills like the brainless blobs of black goo that they were.
Its seriously weird. Not just them but also the cocoons that appear around the other monsters at night. And what about that Tarren guy? He wasnt a monster
Have I ever heard of another species mixing people and monsters? Goblins and Hobgoblins are closely related but theyre not really the same species Supposedly they have a common ancestor or something?
Ive never even seen a real goblin yet, have I?
What differentiates people and monsters is a bit vague in the first place
Right, I wanted to check these things spiritual body.
Sofia summoned the graveyard skeletons as well as a big block of bone and got them to bring her inside it. From in there, halfway in the spiritual realm, she watched the Sunless drones in the distance.
In the all-white spiritual realm, one was able to see spiritual matter, that was, usually: the soul of people, and the spiritual body of monsters and animals. Added to that were the vague transparent and fog-like shapes of physical matter. Oftentimes spiritual matter could go through other spiritual matter without too much trouble, unless it was really dense like the sap of the black primus trees of the soul of a very high level individual.
What Sofia was looking for, now, was whether the Sunless had a true soul, the kind which Sofia thought was what would usually prompt the system to call a kill murder or a simple spiritual body. The difference was quite hard to make out. Usually, someones soul would look much like their physical body, just white and very blurry, with natural mana veins spreading throughout. Spiritual bodies were the same. What made a soul a soul, though, was a sort of small knot in the mana veins, an origin point, a core. The same thing that the Scribe had to protect when Sofia combined her classless skills into [DODGE - ME].That was it.
Beyond that, there are Saints and Oracles souls which look nothing like their body because we get slapped with divine essence. Apostles get a mangled body and Saints get a mangled Soul.
And then theres me who has both.
Looking at the Sunless drones from afar, it was hard to see anything. To begin with, it was hard to see the mana veins on a willing person up close and standing still. The mana veins in the spiritual body were the ones which connected it to the physical body and allowed mana to flow from one to the other, not the actual pathways used for magic, which mostly resided in the mana plane and showed through in the soul as little capillaries spreading everywhere.
Finally, for the sake of her experiments, Sofia bolted all the drones in the area save for one, which she had Pareth wrestle while she observed it from underground in the spiritual realm.VIsit n0(v)eLb(i)n.com for the best novel reading experience
The Sunless debris acts like a core for the mana to build around, no actual mana veins there, just like a golem. And yet it still has a spiritual body
Interesting If we follow the direction the spirit of the Sunless went I think theyre attracted to the middle moon. It should be opposite to the rising sun right now, so from here, considering the curvature of the planet, it has to go through the ground if its going for the middle moon in a straight line, while during the middle of the night it could just go straight up.
Hmmm
What are the chances that Fenrir is the middle moon?
Pareth shrugged.
Yeah, well get to know in a few days, I suppose Do you think we could get a weak Sunless inside the Shuttle? With proper preparations we could trap it inside of a blessed construct and hold it there for a while. Itll be much easier to see where exactly the spirit is going from there.
While Pareth and Sofia were pondering over that idea, a blinding light illuminated the morning sky.
Sofias first reflex was to bring out her shield while Pareths was to stand above her with his own shields ready.
The light came from right above them and seemed to be getting bigger and bigger like a second sun.
Meteorite?!
Then came the sound, and Sofia relaxed, this was no rogue space rock, but the shuttle slowing its descent toward the tower.
Already?
Is it Ihuarah coming back?
Sofia observed the bright light disappearing into nothingness as it entered the invisible tower on the distant hill. She pulled on her [Reign over shadows] skill to get an idea of the mana needed to use her ability to swap position with Ihuarah, it did not ever give a precise number but she could tell whether she had enough or not, and at the moment she had more than enough.
Lets do a neat party trick.
Sofia switched places with the hero shade, which cost her just about 110 000 mana, and she found herself sitting inside of a loudly landing space shuttle, the interior of which looked a lot like a sized down version of the one that had taken her to the trial. It had to be said that Ihuarah had to accept the teleportation for the swap to take place, so the situation was likely a surprise to him but not a jumpscare.
Of course you would accept instantly, Sofia said out loud as Pareth teleported to her, holding the arm of a fully black shadow of a man in one of his oversized hands.
Well of course, Lady Sofia. What a pleasant surprise to cross your path on this beautiful morning, the Merciful Mother blesseth my day, he answered with a deep bow.
