00156. Soul enchantment.

00156. Soul enchantment.

It was only a few weeks later that the second stage of the cloning project finally encountered a way to proceed forward. While they figured out how to create clones for people that already had souls. They always had issues with creating a body with a blank soul already inside it.

The main reason was that the people in Theo’s head needed a soul they could take over. Otherwise they would be closer to a shadow clone with a real body then anything else. That and their memories most likely wouldn't go back to Theo if the body was somehow destroyed.

Since that was the case, Orochimaru, Tobirama and the others spent the last few years trying to come up with a viable solution. They never figured it out themselves, but with some help from Tao and Agatha they finally figured out a way that might work. It wouldn't be easy because Theo had a lot of people he would need to create bodies for and they still weren’t sure if it would even work correctly in the first place.

The planned solution was a master level enchantment to help create magical items with a will of their own. The Cloak of Levitation was an example of one such item. The main point of the enchantment was for the caster to cut off a tiny wisp of their soul and attach it to an item. Over time that piece of soul would bond with the item and awaken.

When Theo first heard about the spell he asked, “What the hell? I need to turn into Voldemort?”

Agatha glanced up from the book she was reading as she asked, “Who's that?”

Theo pinched the bridge of his nose as he said, “Just some super evil douchebag in a kids book who split his soul apart and liked to preach about pureblood supremacy.”

“That's in a book for kids?” Tao asked as she placed her teacup down.

“Yeah, but it was from my past life. Actually, now that I think about it. I should probably write it myself since it doesn't seem to exist in this world.”

Agatha placed the book in her hands down as she asked, “Why? It's not like you need the money and besides you don't really wanna be famous right?”

Theo smiled to himself as he said, “It's a good story. Besides, I already shared the first book with my sister and she loved it. I might as well finish it for her.”

“So this Voldemort person also cut off part of their soul to create a magical item?” Tao asked with interest.

Theo shook his head as he said, “No, they split their soul apart and placed it in different items as a way to escape death. But it was some kinda evil ritual where you had to kill another person for it to work. It also damaged the person's soul.”

“Oh, well this enchantment is nothing like that. A master's soul would normally be a little weak after the process, but it will recover after a while. Sometimes days, sometimes weeks, just depends on how powerful their soul is.” Tao said as she studied Theo while she talked.

After a few more moments she said, “If you use the spell, I am sure you will heal within hours at most.”

“Uh? Why do you think that?” Theo asked curiously.

“Your soul is stronger than four or five souls combined together... It’s most likely because of your reincarnation but we're not completely sure since you're the only reincarnated person we’ve met.” Agatha said.

“What?! If that’s true, how come you never told me about it before? I think that would be kind of important to know, right?” Theo asked as turned to look at Agatha.

Tao smiled as she said, “Because you never asked. Besides, having a stronger soul is only useful for things like this. There are also some combat based soul powers and some other esoteric spells that use the soul, but I would never recommend learning or using them. Since you have a high chance of death when you do, unlike the enchantment spell which does not.”

Theo nodded along before he asked, “Oh... I. I guess that makes sense. Then why don’t more people use this enchantment? Wouldn’t it be beneficial to have a sentient magic item around?”

Tao pulled out a slender looking dagger made out of vibranium and some other materials as she said, “I was planning to enchant this myself, but I put it off.”

“Because you didn't want another item to reject you?” Theo asked with a smirk.

Tao let out a sigh as she said, “Yes.”

Theo took the dagger from Tao as he said, “Maybe it will work this time because your precious student is the one doing it.”

“I doubt that will be the case... Besides, this is just to test to see if it was a fluke, or your soul really can't be separated.” Tao said.

Theo studied the dagger for a few moments and realized it was completely ready for the enchantment process. So he placed the dagger down and started to cast the spell. Once he finished the enchantment Tao said, “Interesting.”

“Indeed. Maybe the first time was just a fluke.” Agatha said.

Theo looked at the dagger himself and noticed the soul wisp was different from the last one. The first one he felt a slight connection to, this one he felt nothing from it, like it was never part of him. As he studied it Tao said, “Try to enchant the body again.”

Theo handed the dagger to Tao as he said, “Alright, give me a minute to remake the rune.”

Once everything was set back up, Theo started chanting the spell again. When he finished and attached the soul wisp, he could feel a connection to it. Theo sighed in disappointment before he said, “Alright so this doesn't seem to work. Is it because it's a body and not an inanimate object?”

As Theo erased the rune to let the wisp of his soul reattach, Tao said, “That's the only logical thing I can think of. Let me try it and see what happens.”

Once the new rune was placed on the body, Tao quickly went through the enchantment process and the result was the same. For some reason trying to place a piece of a soul into a body left a trace of the original soul. As Tao erased the rune, Theo said, “Alright, looks like we need to go back to the drawing board again.”

“Not necessarily. We might be able to do a work around, but we’ll need to test it.” Agatha said.

Theo and Tao both turned to Agatha as she said, “Lets just enchant something and then transfer that piece of soul into the body. It’s an extra step but it should work.”

Tao nodded in agreement as she said, “That might work. Theo could enchant a piece of paper and then we destroy it to get the soul wisp and place it inside the body.”

Theo touched the sealing scroll on his arm and pulled out a sheet of paper and pen as he asked, “You sure it will work on a piece of paper?”

“Yes. The only reason you normally wouldn’t enchant a piece of paper is because it could be easily destroyed. That’s why all magic items that are enchanted this way are made with the best possible materials.” Tao said as she took the paper and quickly started to draw the proper runes on it.

Once she finished, she set it down in front of Theo as she said, “Mark the body and then let’s try this again, with the paper as the target first.”

Theo quickly completed the spell and attached a wisp of his soul to the paper. After he finished he couldn’t feel any connection to the soul, so he smiled faintly before he asked, “Alright, now what do we do?”

Tao picked up the paper and ripped it in half a moment later before she used a spell to restrain the wisp of soul that flew out of it. Once she had it, she placed it over the rune on the body and it instantly disappeared into the rune. Theo and the others studied it for a while before Tao said, “Congratulations, it looks like it worked this time.”