Chapter 68 - 20 Experiments

"Okay, let's just go through and list off everything that I have managed to learn so far, just as a quick reminder to myself"

"Well first thing's first, my Soul vision skill allows me to see a hell of a lot more then I had originally thought in the beginning" I said as I lent back in my chair with my legs resting on top of a nearby table while also looking at a piece of paper I was holding in my hand.

I had just gotten back to my experimentation room after my little trip outside into town. To my slight annoyance and frustration, it had taken me a second or two to find all my notes after Fuyuko had so thoroughly cleaned the whole place. My two very persistent body guards had also been replaced with two new ones shortly after I had gotten here and these guys weren't any better at respecting my privacy, the only time they leave me alone is when I'm doing personal stuff like changing or going to the toilet. Anyway, they were currently hanging from the ceiling like the weirdos they are.

"From what I can personally tell, I am able to see the traits and abilitys of any soul that comes in to my view, however, this takes a lot of focus so I can't do it during a fight or anything stressful like that. For the past couple of days I have been referring to these traits and abilities as the 'code' of the soul, so that's what I'm sticking with for now. As for an example, an apple tree has certain peaces of 'code' that tells it how fast it should grow or how to create apples and at what times" I said while stretching slightly.

"At first this information was completely and utterly useless to me as I had no actual way to interact with it, that was until I realized something very important that I hadn't even thought of before. I could use my Soul manipulation skill to cut segments of this 'code' and combine it with my artificial souls to create something entirely new, I can even make multiple copies of the new soul that I can then store inside of my Soul storage skill. Once that is finished I only need to place the new soul inside of something suitable while also giving it just a little bit of Black blood and it will become what I want it to be.... or at least something very close to it"

"Up until a few days ago I've been doing this all wrong, I have just been pushing artificial souls into whatever I can and hoping that something good would come out of it. Thankfully for me however, it would seem that when I use Black blood it somewhat takes my subconscious ideas into account when creating things but now I can be far more precised and accurate with what I want to make"

"My first attempts at doing this, however, were.... interesting to say the very least" I shivered ever so slightly as I looked over at a large cabinet in the corner of the room, it was also wrapped in large heavy looking chains that were tied tightly around it. The cabinet had also been frozen solid in a block of ice with a wooden sign hanging off of it that had the word 'monstrosities' written on it in red paint.

Every now and then the frozen cabinet would shake violently as if something was trying to break it's way out. Also sometimes, every so often, nightmarish noises that made my skin crawl would somehow manage to leak out from within. Whenever this happened I could feel my guards tense up as if they were about to fight something as powerful as a demon lord... and honestly, I couldn't blame them for that.

"....A-anyway, I have actually managed to get a lot better since then, so I think that it is about time for me to get started on my two projects that I have been planning over these past couple of days. The first one should be able to solve our food problems that will soon start if nothing is done. The second one will hopefully help to lessen the cults overall number advantage by increasing our own numbers massively over a short period of time" I said hoping I was right about the last part.

"Let's just start with the first one because it's the immediate problem that we are facing, also it will probably be quicker to finish because plant souls are a heck of a lot less complex then the souls of animals or those of sentient races" I said while cracking my knuckles as I stood up and walked over to one of the several shelves that were in the room. On this particular shelf were about ten or twenty labelled jars that are filled with different types of plants and seeds.

After a second of looking through all of them, I eventually picked out several different ones before then carefully carrying them back over to my seat were I placed them all on to the table. I had already created several dozen prototypes for both my projects and I was planning to use them to help me finalise the final designs that I had in mind. I had been keeping them all inside of my Soul storage skill, mostly because I had already learnt early on that shoving experimental souls into bodys with out refining them properly first was a terrible idea, also if I didn't put them inside of my storage skill they would eventually disappear over a very short period of time.

"Alright then, I think it's about time that I finally get back to work, after all, I have no idea how long it will take for the cult to decide to counter attack"

The first thing that I decided to do was to pour out several seeds from different fruit bearing plants that were native to the island, I then used my Soul vision skill to slowly look at all of them one by one. Something that I had noticed after trying this several times is that the soul of a plant is very simple and structured in overall design compared to the more complex and chaotic soul of living creatures, so in the end it didn't take me much time at all to find what I was looking for.

Even though I would like to try, it's actually almost impossible for me to even come close to describing just what a soul's 'code' looks like, this is because a soul's 'code' is actually more like a feeling or an impulse then anything physical that can be seen normally. Anyway, it didn't take very long for me to find the 'code' that represented the different types of fruits that the plants would eventually grow.

After that I began to cut and weave them all together, similarly to how I created enchantments with my Magic weaving skill. This process actually ended up killing the seeds over time, after all, I was literally cutting bits and pieces of their soul's up before then knitting those pieces with other pieces, it was honestly like trying to create a whole new jigsaw puzzle by mixing and matching several different other jigsaw puzzles together. Anyway, eventually I managed to get something along the lines of what I wanted, I then went on to pull out several prototypes as well as the souls of the plants that I had in the jars and got started on adding in more bits and pieces.

What seemed like several hours had past until I finally got something very close to a finished product that I could actually use. I had to admit I felt pretty happy with my hard work and couldn't help but be excited to show off my new creation later to everyone once I had finished refining the very minor details, however, right now I still had one more thing that I needed to do.

(Let's just hope that I can actually get my next project finished before the Cultists decide to launch a counter attack on us)

=======Somewhere else pov========

".....well, will someone please explain to me what the fuċk happened!"

Currently inside of the throne room the Sixth as well as three others were in the middle of a very tense meeting. The Sixth was sitting on the throne, a tiny bit of his aura had started leaking out of him because of his current anger at the situation they had to deal with. The three others in the room were more then likely Bishops, one was kneeling in front of the Sixth with a ruby red bow on his back, another much more muscular Bishop was leaning up against a wall with a massive great sword by his side that had a ruby red blade and black hilt. Finally, the last one was in a far corner of the room rocking back and forth in the fetal position, several metal robotic arms came out of his back that ended in different types of medical tools that were all ruby red in colour.

"Lord Sixth, it would appear that over half of our territory has been lost in the span of a single night. This one has been told by the survivors that we were attacked by an unknown enemy that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere. A-also it would appear that this new enemy army is led by a..... a Phoenix my lord" the bowing Bishop said making the room go dead silent for a long moment.

"That damn enforcer I made should have warned me ahead of time but instead he got himself permanently killed" the Sixth said while thinking about a certain icy bastard.

"DAmN biRd, fiLthY FiltHy fiLThy LitTLe ThiNg! It deStrOYed aNd sTolE OuR PrEciOus liTtlE tOyS. HahAH-SHUT UP! BE QUIET YOU! YoUr nOt NeEdeD rIgHt nOw, No nO, yOuR nOt nEeDEd sO jUsT bE QuiEt sO thIS oNe cAn ThInk, yEs tHinK ThInk tHiNk, THis OnE tHiNk oF VeRy gOOd plAN HaHAhAhA. ThIs oNe wiLL TakE rEveNGe, yEs yeS, tHiS oNE WiLl tURn LiTTle DiSGusTiNg bIrD iNtO onE oF ThiS One'S bEaUtiFuL BeAutiFUl tOys As PUnIsHmEnt fOr iT's cRiMes, hAhaHahAHa" the Bishop that was currently sitting in the corner madly said while using their hands to violently scratch at their own face that was covered by their hood.

"Crazy bastard" the big muscular Bishop said while looking away in apparent discussed.

"Silence!" The Sixth yelled as he slammed his hand down on the arm rest of his throne instantly causing everyone in the room to shut up.

"....To think that one of those damn things are still alive, just where the hell has it been all this time for us not to have found it. I had my suspicions but to think that they were actually one of them all along, sigh, after all we when through...." The Sixth said sounding some what tired.

"Why don't we just us-"

"NO! No nO No NO, ThE BiRd aNd It'S pETs beLoNg To tHIs ONe anD nO oNe ElSe, No ONe nO OnE NO ONE! THey aLl BElonG tO ThiS oNe, YeS yEs yES, THEY WILL REPLACE THE BROKEN TOYS! THey WilL bEcOMe wHaT thEY HaVe BrOKen, tHiS oNE wiLl aLSo tAKe baCK All THe tOys ThAt tHeY HaVe sTOleN" The crazy Bishop quickly said interrupting the muscular Bishop.

"Oh for fuċk sakes, would you shut the fuċk up alright, you crazy son of a bitch! No one even cares about your fuċkɨnġ toys! Also if they were so damn important to you why weren't you at your post when the enemies attacked? Answer me that god damn it"

"YOu yoU YoU, tHis oNe WilL mAKe yOu iNto a bEaUTifUl tOy tOo, yEs YEs, yoU WilL MakE A GOod tOY"

"Try it you crazy fuc-AAAAAAAAH!"

"AAAAAAAAAH!"

Both of the two arguing Bishops cried out in agony as dark crimson red spikes ripped out from all over their body's. The two of them continued to thrash around on the floor in pain until they felt a terrifying aura that made them forcefully stop their screams of pain out of fear.

"Didn't I already tell the both of you to be silent or was I just talking to myself?" The Sixth asked sounding pretty pissed off.

After a second or two the Sixth waved his right hand ever so slightly and the spikes disappeared inside of their body's, seconds later their wounds began to scab over before quickly healing completely. The two then slowly got up and moved back to their original positions with out saying a single word, they both really didn't want to make it any worse for themselves.

"Idiots" the bowing Bishop said while shaking their head.

"To answer your question, even if we had one at this very moment I don't even know if it would even be effective. If the report that you have given me is truly accurate then that thing is probably some kind of variant, after all, Phoenix's are known to have been covered in orange feathers not black and gold. Also it managed to survive the last time we used 'that' so it's only natural to ȧssume it may be immune to it" the Sixth explained.

"Should we counter attack?" The bowing Bishop asked.

"No, it's not like we can actually kill or harm it in any real way right now and besides, the ritual is almost complete. once that is done we can leave this shitty island and regroup with the others, let this place burn to the ground for all I care. For now just hold them back until were ready to leav-" the Sixth was suddenly cut off when the large doors to the room flung open and a cultist ran in.

"WHAT IS IT NOW!" The Sixth yelled at the uninvited guessed that had interrupted him.

"This one has come to report the sudden and unexpecte-"

"Get to the point already" the Sixth said with a dangerous tone.

"One of the sacrifices has managed to escape" as soon as the cultist finished that sentence their body exploded from the inside out covering the area in a mass of blood, bone and organs.

"Damn it!"

"YOU!" the Sixth quickly pointed at the bowing Bishop who immediately straightened up.

"Send a group to find them this instant. We can not afford to slow the process of the ritual right now, not with the appearance of our new enemy"

"The rest of you get out of my sight before I blow you up as well" hearing this everyone immediately left to carry out their tasks leaving the Sixth alone on his throne.

Soon after this the Sixth slowly got up and also exited the throne room while clenching his fits in rage at the current events. However, unbeknownst to everyone who was in the room this whole conversation was being listened too by an invisible being that was floating in a far corner of the room.

"Looks like I'll have something interesting to report when I get back"