Volume 7, Chapter 57 – The First Vessel

The summer heat rising from the ground gradually dissipated.

As the sun rising in the east set behind the western mountains and faint starlight appeared in the sky, two new guests arrived at the Royal Castle.

“I… I’ve never been to the Royal Castle before. Is this… this entire huge place the royal family’s home? So this is the royal world, so magnificent…”

“No, this is just my residence. The King and Queen live elsewhere. We’re all on the same side here, Lianne. No need to be so restrained.”

Saying this, Fia released Lianne’s and Friede’s hands, stepping out of the teleportation gate. The Royal Castle was protected by the [Citadel of Silence], which would cause massive damage to a soul body like Lianne. The only way to bring Lianne here was to bypass it via teleportation.

As for the vessel to house Lianne’s soul, after nearly a full day of almost non-stop attempts, it now lay quietly within a stone coffin only a wall away from the library. Many things hadn’t been checked yet—like whether the body could digest food or use magic. But such things required the body to be functional first; answers could only be known after Lianne entered it.

“Just your residence? You live in such a big house alone?!”

“Lianne, aren’t you from the wise beastman clan? It’s night now, keep your voice down.”

Faced with Lianne’s exclamation, Friede beside her couldn’t help but advise.

However, Lianne, in her form of a swirling black mist, looked unconvinced (though she had no visible expression).

“I am from the wise beastman clan, but Cold Night has no such magnificent place. And since undergoing the witch ritual, I’ve never left the Witch Hall. The last time I traveled far was when I was knocked out and transported from Bern City to Blossom. It’s so nice… No wonder the witch apprentice always seems distracted after returning from you, Lady Fia. I’d also like to live in such a big house… sniff sniff … it even smells nice.”

No, Lianne. You’re a 6th-tier powerhouse. These are not words you should be saying.

Though thinking this, Fia didn’t let it show on her face. After losing her body, Lianne still endured the needs of having a physical form, trapped by endless hunger and drowsiness. To avoid going mad and losing herself, she had to confine herself to an isolated place. If she were a witch of vile character, she would have long ago fallen into a killing machine.

Fia smiled.

“When Lianne has her own body, you can go wherever you want with your own legs.”

Very noticeably, Lianne’s form wavered—a sign of intense emotional fluctuation.

“Y-yes… you’re right…”

“It’s all books here. Where is Lianne’s body? And… Lady Fia, you only went to Laplace last night. I recall Laplace saying creating a vessel takes at least half a month, and that’s for a lower-tier puppet. For Lianne, I imagine it would take at least a month…”

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“This is the library. Lianne’s body is next door. As for shortening the time to a day… it’s because the one creating the vessel is me.”

Fia proudly puffed out her chest. She looked towards the door, where faint footsteps sounded from the hallway.

Anastasia arrived as scheduled.

When Fia left the Twilight Flower Palace to fetch Lianne from the Witch Hall, she had already informed the palace maids to have Anastasia come upstairs.

Tap, tap, tap.

“Come in.”

The door opened with a click . Anastasia, wearing a light purple dress, appeared before them. Seeing Friede and Lianne, Anastasia clearly paused for a moment, but the surprise soon turned into composure.

“This is Lady Lianne and Lady Friede from the Witch Hall?”

“Let’s skip the greetings. Let’s go to the magic testing ground inside.”

Impatiently, Fia led the way, walking towards the magic testing ground just a wall away. In just a few steps, the four arrived at the spacious testing ground with its stone coffin and large grey stone pillars. The medicinal solution inside the coffin emitted an ethereal blue glow, complemented by the silver magic barrier floating above it, adorned with star and moon patterns, adding much mystery to the dim testing ground.

Throughout the day, Fia had tried countless methods to increase the medicinal solution concentration or add liquid during the body’s formation, all of which ended in failure. After agonizing over a solution to no avail, she simply threw out both plans, starting from the most basic point—modifying the coffin and its magic circle.

Her photographic memory, combined with [Sacred Relic Analysis] and [Hyper-computation], formed an incredibly powerful combination. She quickly created a more functional coffin, and the pale pink magic circle covering it had transformed into the current silver barrier resembling a star chart. The slowly drifting moon and stars everyone now saw were the results of her modifications.

Of course, the most eye-catching was the young girl quietly lying within the coffin upon closer inspection.

Standing only about one and a half meters tall, with fluffy brown ears and smooth long hair atop her head, a slender but not emaciated body, and a face more youthful than mature. Besides these features, the beastman girl had a total of nine brown tails behind her. Though damp from the soaking solution, one could imagine how fluffy they would be when dry.

The snow-white skin exposed to the air was incredibly dazzling. She seemed less like a witch who had lived for over a century and more like a young fox girl only slightly older than Tilulu. Even her expression with closed eyes was flawless, as if merely asleep, ready to come to life once she opened her eyes, showing no trace of artificial marks.

“Uh…”

Not only Friede and Anastasia, but even Lianne herself was stunned for a moment by the flawless fox girl before her. As if uncontrollable, she subconsciously floated forward a certain distance, then placed her hands on the coffin’s edge, staring blankly at her own body within.

“Is this… me?”

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Her voice was full of trembling, mixed with excitement and fear.

Perhaps she was afraid. If even such a perfect body couldn’t grant her new life, how could she face the future?

Without hope, one could muddle through. But being given hope only to have it heavily dashed… nothing was more painful.

“It’s identical to the Lianne I know. How on earth did Lady Fia accomplish this in a single day…?”

Friede, with her Asian features, widened her eyes, her black pupils also full of surprise and joy. As for Anastasia beside them, though silent, her behavior of constantly staring at Lianne’s body in the stone coffin indicated she was also quite expectant.

This was also why Fia had called Anastasia here. If the magic succeeded, Anastasia could be more at ease. As the creator of this body, Fia well knew it had reached a level that could be called perfect. If any gap existed between this body and the real Lianne, it must be because [Sacred Relic Analysis] failed to analyze the complete structure, not because of issues in her recreation process.

Fia lightly snapped her fingers. Lights in the testing ground lit up one after another. She took a step forward, her expression solemn.

“Without delay, let’s proceed with the fusion of the soul and the vessel. If it fails, it will be easier to troubleshoot. I must forewarn you—few things succeed on the first try. Failure this time doesn’t mean it will never work. There will be a second, third, and more attempts. Lianne, you’d best be prepared mentally.”

“I… I understand. So, do we need to take the coffin back to the Witch Hall? Transferring the soul requires Laplace—”

“No need. Laplace’s manual included a method for soul transfer. We’ll do it here. Lianne, lie on the magic circle above the coffin. Then relax your mind and let me control your body. If you resist, the flesh and soul will be difficult to fuse.”

“Alright.”

The brief answer contained intense determination. The black mist representing Lianne floated to the space above the coffin. She condensed herself into the multi-tailed fox-kin shape, lying flat on the silver magic barrier atop the coffin, matching the body within.

Those standing only a step away from the coffin lowered their breathing. Friede and Anastasia simply backed away, their hands clenching involuntarily, eyes firmly staring at the coffin.

Success or failure would be decided in this single moment.

Constantly breathing deeply to adjust her emotions, Fia held out her slightly trembling right arm, placing her palm on one of the giant stone pillars surrounding the coffin.

It wasn’t a violent flow, like a mountain torrent howling past, but a long and vast, infinite output like the ocean. As mana was poured into the pillar, the surface of the three-meter-high, stone pillar that required one person to encircle gradually glowed with patterns. They condensed into flowing white runes, gathering from the pillar’s base toward the top layer. When all glowing runes on every pillar had gathered at the top, making each pillar bright as a magic lamp, a slight humming, similar to a triangle, resonated in everyone’s hearts.

It was a high-pitched ring that made their hearts throb.

Simultaneously, magic circles unfolded one after another beneath the coffin. Using her specialty in divination, Lianne could vaguely identify that part of the magic circles depicted star charts she often saw. But more were patterns she had never seen before that would dizzy her brain with just a glance. She had to close her eyes to resist the slowly moving silver stars before her.

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It encompassed the entire starry sky—not just one, but several magic circles spliced together, forming a complete silver star chart. How vast must this magic be…?

It was simply more radiant than the actual starry sky.

While Lianne marveled and was excited, Friede and Anastasia saw another scene.

They indeed saw twinkling silver stars and the star chart connecting them, but it didn’t steal their senses. They clearly saw Lianne’s black mist-like soul atop the coffin gradually fade. The black parts turned to dust, absorbed by the starry sky-like magic circle above. The remaining soul became transparent.

Moreover, her soul was sinking bit by bit into the coffin’s interior, now reaching the point where soul and body were about to touch. Friede and Anastasia had to crane their necks to see inside.

The moment the soul and body touched, it seemed to trigger some mechanism. The blank space between the pillars was filled with white curtains of light. All pillars began to vibrate violently. The speed of Lianne’s soul sinking into the body within the coffin became incredibly slow. The air was filled only with an unsettling hum. Sweat appeared on everyone’s palms. Eyes stared unblinkingly at the coffin in the center. Not even dust shaking loose from the ceiling made them blink.

Anyone could see the fusion was proceeding with great difficulty.

Is it going to fail?

Without interrupting the output of mana to the stone pillars, Fia’s brow was tightly furrowed. Though she’d said failure once didn’t mean permanent failure, she believed the body’s shaping, the pillars, coffin, and magic circle’s reconstruction were all done to the most precise degree, almost impossible to improve further. If even this couldn’t make Lianne’s fusion of soul and body successful, the problem could only lie with [Sacred Relic Analysis] being incomplete.

Time passed quickly.

When the sweat on Friede’s forehead gathered into beads and dripped down her cheek into the soil, the incessant humming came to an abrupt halt.

The glowing characters on the pillars rapidly retreated into the earth. The light curtains filling the spaces between them followed by dissipating. Fia lowered her hand from the stone pillar it was pressed against, facing the coffin, backing away step by step.

Almost instantly, Friede rushed forward in one step and grabbed Fia’s hand, her soft face full of concern.

“Lady Fia, how is Lianne?”

Fia remained staring at the stone coffin in the distance, her expression full of hesitation.

“I don’t know. It should be no problem…”

Saying this, Fia turned to look at Anastasia. The latter had clasped her hands together in front of her, similarly nervous, with fine sweat covering her forehead.

It can’t fail…

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As if responding to Fia’s inner voice, after a moment of silence, a sound of liquid churning suddenly echoed in the testing ground. Accompanying a fair and slender arm reaching out from the coffin, a slightly immature yet somehow mature, tender voice rang out.

“Ah-choo! It’s… it’s so cold!”

Though quite different from what she remembered, Fia could still tell it was Lianne’s voice.

A body without a soul cannot act. The body acting now explained a lot.

It succeeded.

And on the first try.

Her anxious heart was instantly filled with joy. Fia looked at Anastasia beside her, whose expression had relaxed, and firmly grabbed her hand.

No words were needed. Just their eyes meeting was enough to convey their feelings.

“Lianne!”

Friede was the first to rush over.

Similarly filled with immense joy, Anastasia firmly squeezed Fia’s hand back, her deep blue eyes subsequently misting up.

“You should smile at a time like this.”

“Y-you are right…”

“Let’s go see as well.”

“Yes!”

Thousands of words were turned into action. Fia took Anastasia’s hand, and together they walked towards the coffin, where Lianne was currently trying hard not to choke on the water.