Shades of the New World

Chapter 244: A long due meeting

At first Gizel was a bit skeptical, but after some examples and demonstrations, she was desperately urging him to speak more of souls, like Evin was the incarnation of the Empress. Gizel seemed disinterested in how Evin knew of these things, instead only focused on writing down everything as accurately as possible. Evin guessed that this was the professionalism of a true researcher showing itself.

Evin also talked about the specialness of the human form of the World Sprites he possessed, speaking of how World Sprites are usually shaped like the Beast Lord they're based on. Perhaps that was the reason they started to become more and more human.

She asked many questions, ones that Evin was too lazy to tackle himself, like how the souls that he obtained managed to pervade unto the World Sprites? How are the World Sprites themselves are turning out to become so similar to humans and so successfully at that? After all, humans and the World Sprites were technically completely different species. 

All very valid points. As far as Evin could remember, evolution really didn't work in such a simple and straightforward way. There was a reason why cat-girl hybrids weren't running rampant in society. By that logic, practically all of the World Sprites in Evin's possession should've turned out to be defective or not okay in other areas. A 100% success like the one that happened with all 80 World Sprites that Evin had just wasn't plausible. And this didn't even consider the incredible speed at which the merging happened. 

It could be explained by the mysteriousness of one's soul, but Anna's memories that Evin possessed didn't really confirm such claims.

But all this wasn't really what Evin was focused on. After a few rounds of discussion, Evin steered the topic back to its origins. 

"Is it possible to make golems piloted by these World Sprites?"

The excited Gizel also calmed down a bit, before pondering the question with some seriousness.

"There's a slight problem to it all."

"Go on."

"Hmm, it's a bit difficult to explain as it could be considered a problem of technicality, but I'll try to make it out to you clearly," Gizel said and continued after thinking a bit.

"First of all, there are two methods I can think of after I've seen your World Sprites, though both of these methods are kinda hmm, how should I say this? They're not really considered part of Somaturgy," she said calmly and brought out a small handbook from a Storage Ring. Flipping through the pages, she stopped on a page and showed it to Evin.

On it, Evin could see a person sitting inside a metal/rock construct. Some text to its side explained that the mage would be piloting the construct from the inside.

'Is this a mech?' he couldn't help but think as he looked at the picture.

"And this one," Gizel said and flipped to another page.

On this one, Evin could see a picture which showed someone who seemed to be a mage and another pile of rock, which was supposedly the golem. The two's heads were connected with dotted lines and the words "World of Thoughts and/or World of Earth" were written above.

'Isn't this just the same as someone controlling rocks and metals through the World of Earth?'

"As you can see, one is just a method to control a construct through mechanic controls, while the other is just a method where a mage controls a rock construct through a World. I'm offering you this method, because your World Sprites are practically the same as humans at this point."

"I see," Evin hummed thoughtfully. 

"But this isn't really Somaturgy in its purest form. The original vision of this art was to create a construct that can follow orders without being directly controlled and hopefully smart enough to make decisions independently. They would make use of something called a Golem Core, which would act like a control center of some sorts,"

"Golem Core?"

"Think of it like the golem's brain or its soul, or whatever you wanna call it. I suppose another way to explain it would be to say that a golem is supposed to act similarly to a living being, except that its body is mostly artificial."

"But someone or something needs to do the thinking for the construct, right? Be it World of Thought spells; human or animal brains; spirits; or World Sprites in this case."

"Yes, thus, if I were to be completely faithful to Somaturgy, I would have to have Lucario or Enri here turn into a state of pure energy and control a pile of metals through some magical means. Perhaps I'll work on some method to make it so that they can move a bit further away from this shadowy area around you as well But that doesn't seem possible now with their humanoid form," Gizel said.

"I guess" Evin thought, but another question popped up in his mind, "Lucario, can you turn into something made of pure energy? Like you used to be before you turned human?"

[Will try] a thought came in reply.

Evin could then see how the World Sprite's body was seemingly trying to shift states, most likely going from something solid to something based on energy. But sadly, Lucario's efforts seemed to be in vain. 

"Enri?" Evin asked, wondering if the eldest sister was able to achieve the feat.

[If the others can't do it, then it's even more impossible for me. I'm technically not even a World Sprite, after all,] Enri explained.

Evin could see why. After all, ever since she came to reside in Evin's body, Enri always had a physical body although it was just her head most of the time.

"Well, I guess we just have to work on having you guys control a construct from a distance. Though that doesn't really give you much freedom," Evin said with a sigh.

[Maybe If Mother helps out I can go back] Lucario slowly articulated.

"What should I do?" Evin asked excitedly.

[Not you Other mother] 

'Other mother?'

"Oh, the Vulpine Mother?" Evin murmured with some confusion.

'Why am I so used to being called mother now?'

But aside from this little problem, he could definitely see how Lucario's suggestion was plausible. After all, the World Sprites originated from the Beast Lord, and a very accomplished mage at that. If she couldn't do it, then no one could.

"Yeah, that sounds good. I was thinking that I should give her a visit sooner or later, anyway," Evin said.