CH.394 A Lost Soul

CH.394 A Lost Soul

Okay Brian. Don’t panic. Nothing bad has happened. Nothing that can’t be fixed at least.

You just lost a soul. It can’t be that difficult to find it, right?

(Laura! Did Cailie’s soul stay in the Factory?)

(We are doing a full sweep, but from what I can see and what Fantasia is feeling, no. Her soul isn’t here.) Laura responded.

“F*ck.”

Okay. So we’ve really lost a soul. Now I just ... need to find it. First off though...

I looked at Cailie’s now soulless body on the chair with the Factory VR device still on her head. I should probably do something with it, but I also really don’t want to move it, just in case her soul is somehow in the viriring of the Factory VR device.

So instead, let’s do the next best thing and build something around her. I called Wilma to help me with it, because it might be a bit difficult to do solo. And I’ll have to tell everyone about this anyway. I’m not the kind of person that will just sweep an incident like this under the rug. Well, if I could solve it quickly I might, but since I can’t, I won’t.

I told Wilma what happened, through the System link, while she was getting here, and after she got here, we constructed an evolution tank next to where Cailie was. We then moved her into it, while not removing the VR device. The VR device should be waterproof. I did test that. So instead of worrying about how to take care of a soulless body, let’s use the device that can take care of an evolving body. It should work for this as well.

(Laura. The evolution tank is safe for mer-folk, right?) I asked to confirm. I mean, the evolution tank does get filled with healing potion and unlike most of us, mer-folk have gills, so I need to make sure they won’t cause a problem.

(Yes. We did test it, and it is safe for gilled individuals.) Laura confirmed, so we kept going.

After Cailie was fully in the tank, Wilma asked me an important question.

“... so, what do we do now? If her soul is missing, how do we find it?”

“... no clue.” I admitted. “But I’ll start off with what I think will be the best choice.”

“Which is?”

“I’m getting the expert.” I told her. “I’ll be back in about 30 minutes. Have someone keeping an eye on Cailie. Can you also fill everyone in on what happened? Laura can give you all the details.”

“Sure. Leave it to me.”

As soon as Wilma said she’d take care of things here, I rushed outside and summoned my Victory Viper XX03. I jumped into the cockpit and blasted off, heading west. My destination, the Dragon coast. My Soul Magic expert is there, and I could really use her assistance right now.

Spoiler

[collapse][Cailie POV]

“She’s waking up.” “The singer is waking up.” I heard people speaking around me.

I slowly opened my eyes and looked around.

“... where..?” I questioned where I was. This isn’t Brian’s mental Factory, nor is it HomeBase.

I was in some strange place where nothing made sense. Everything was bright and overly saturated. Trees, rocks and even water were just floating in the air. It looked so chaotic that even Brian wouldn’t make something like this.

I was surrounded by a large number of small spheres of light. They didn’t have a full form, just looking like orbs of different colored lights. With them were also some slightly larger beings that looked humanoid, except that they were made of light as well. They were not all that large, only about 30 cm tall, and they were mostly blue colors.

“Are you alright?” “Are you alright?” Was repeated by the multiple spirits.

“I ... Where?” I asked.

“Our World.” “Our World.” Was the answer.

Their world? Like ... the spirit world?

“W-Why?” I asked.

“Brought you here!” “Brought you to sing.” “To hear more songs.” The spirits answered. ““And to awaken the superior spirits!”” They then added in unison.

Eh? What?

“Alright children. Please back off a bit so that our guest has some breathing room.” A more mature voice commanded the spirits that had piled up all around me.

Most of the spirits backed off, but a few of them still held onto me. But at least I wasn’t covered in them anymore.

“... it’s you.” I said, as I recognized the spirit. It was the greeted water spirit that had blessed Brian.

“Yes. I do apologize for what happened to you, young miss, but welcome to the spirit realm.”

“... I ... why am I here?” I asked.

“AAAH!” I instinctively yelled as I flew higher, until I felt gravity start pulling me back down towards the ground.

Splash!

But instead of hitting the ground, I fell into a large bubble of water.

Being in water quickly calmed me down. It felt like I was back in my element. I took a few strokes with my arms, before I kicked with my tail. ... wait, tail? My legs are gone but my tail is back? Did I change when I entered the water? But why? Did I do it on instinct?

“You can come out of there now.” I heard the greater water spirit say.

“... okay.” I agreed, and swam to the bottom of the water sphere.

I then positioned myself so that my tail was hanging out of the water, before trying what Brian taught me in the Factory. How to turn my tail into legs.

I felt my tail split and two legs formed where it had been. The water sphere then lowered and I felt the ground touch the bottom of my feet, before the water sphere disappeared.

As the sphere that I had used for balance disappeared, I began to wobble. I couldn’t keep my balance without support. But thankfully, the greater spirit came and took a hold of my arm.

“Don’t worry. I got you.” She said.

“... thank you. ... but ... I still can’t walk. Or fly.”

“You’ll learn. We have time.”

“... but ... aren’t you in danger?”

“Remember, time is relative. For you, it must feel like we are wasting it. To us, this is something necessary.”

“A-Alright.”

I quickly lost track of time, learning both how to walk and how to kind of fly. I still struggled with balance while walking and flying was difficult because one small mistake would send me either crashing into the ground, or blasting into the air.

I don’t know how long it took to get to this point. For me, it felt like days and days of practice, but the spirits said I learned so fast.

I wonder. Has Brian even noticed that I’m gone? Is he looking for me? Is he coming for me?

I hope he is.

“Alright. I think we are ready to go.” A greater spirit of nature said. She had come to join as at some point during my training.

“Who are we waking up first?” The water spirit asked.

“Not Time. She will get angry when we wake her up.”

“But we can’t wake up Space before her either.”

“Why don’t we just wake up Water? She is the closest.”

“And cause a flood. I might be a water spirit, but even I know that is a bad idea.”

“... then ...”

“... Would Wind be good?” I asked.

“Sorry, what?” The nature spirit asked.

“... Would the superior Wind spirit be good? ... I ... Wind is my attribute, so I thought ... it would be the easiest to start with.”

“... Is she a genius?” The nature spirit asked.

“She does live with the Hero, so she probably is.”

“Wind will be a great help. Her song will be able to reach both Space and Time at once.”

“The same with Light and Dark.”

“We won’t have to worry about their balance.”

“Yes. To Wind we go then!”

“To Wind!”