Chapter 84: Soul Simulation
"Astuya demons."
Lakdevo gave the answer without any hesitation.
"They possessed bodies roughly similar to humans, yet were extraordinarily robust."
"Their over-two-meter-tall forms were black in color, covered with purple markings."
"However, their most distinctive feature was the two curved, hardened goat horns on the tops of their heads."
Sylvia leaned back against the chair and did not continue to press further, instead quietly waiting for time to pass.
And in this way, she waited all the way until three o’clock in the morning the next day.
Seated in her chair, Sylvia rose to her feet and, in the extremely quiet atmosphere, walked out of her office, heading straight for Adela’s workshop.
She pushed the door open and stepped inside.
After stopping in front of the table, she reached out and picked up her own thoroughly modified head, and with a soft "pop," pressed it onto her neck.
She tilted it left, right, forward, and back, and when she found that it had returned to its original firmness, she rotated it in a full three-hundred-sixty-degree circle.
Confirming that it could turn smoothly without any abnormal issues, she finally nodded in satisfaction.
Tsk, it really felt wonderful to be able to nod again.
After that, she looked at Adela—at that puppeteer whose eyes were vacant and whose eye sockets were darkened.
"……"
"You should go get some rest first."
"Yes, Your Highness."
Adela listlessly stood up and walked outside, her steps slightly unsteady.
Seeing this, Sylvia suddenly felt a pang of guilt in her heart.
After thinking for a moment, she decided to offer her a bit of appropriate consolation:
"By the way, you need to speed up the rate at which you make puppets."
"Your advancement ritual is nearly complete."
"Yes, Your Highness."
Adela yawned, then gave Sylvia a token gesture of thanks before continuing toward the door.
"……"
All right then.
Hm… why did she suddenly feel a little wicked?
No, it wasn’t her fault. It must be that Adela simply hadn’t put in enough time and effort. She ought to learn from Loruze next door.
Although she made a little joke in her heart, she still took a silver talisman out of her pocket.
This talisman was not from the batch Lakdevo had made, but rather the result of Sylvia’s own initial attempts to imprint her powers through study.
The Talisman of the Soul Seed— a new spell formed by combining the Authority of Lust at the Apostle level and the Authority of the God of Death’s domain of the same level, with the aid of the Witch’s Mask.
After activation, it could grant a specified object a false soul, maintaining it for up to three hours.
This was a gift she had prepared for Adela.
Because the core of the puppeteer’s Third Metamorphosis ritual was to make a puppet personally crafted by oneself truly come alive.
To achieve that, endowing it with a soul was inevitably required.
In fact, for puppeteers of the Doll School, this ritual was extremely simple, since their puppets were themselves, and they themselves were already considered alive.
The only thing they needed to consider was how to ensure that their bodies would not collapse during the advancement.
Puppeteers of the String School, when faced with this problem, typically chose to cut a portion of their own soul and merge it into the puppet to complete the ritual.
Once the ritual was over, they would decide whether to retrieve their soul, depending on their particular needs.
However, this method still had many drawbacks, the most common of which was the development of split personalities.
Moreover, aside from the unavoidable severe pain during the cutting, it was also highly likely to inflict irreparable damage to the soul.
For this reason, many puppeteers chose to take a different path, cooperating with the Church of the Earth Mother or the Death Herald Crows to cultivate artificial souls, which replaced the previously cumbersome process.
Through experimentation, they had ultimately succeeded.
Even though the discrepancy between an artificial soul and one’s own caused the ritual’s effects to be less than ideal.
Nonetheless, this method had not become widespread among puppeteers, for one simple reason—it was expensive.
Artificial souls required the Authority of an Apostle-level domain, and producing them also demanded tremendous effort.
And judging by Adela’s appearance, she neither had the money for it nor intended to try.
Watching her leave the room, Sylvia let out a soft laugh and placed the talisman along with a note describing its effect on the table.
The talisman she had created, due to its fusion with Lust, would result in simulation rather than creation.
Therefore, it would fully replicate the user’s own soul.
This also meant that the original drawbacks would completely disappear.
And the fact that the simulated soul would vanish after three hours was not much of a problem.
The ritual required by a puppeteer did not take long. Three hours would even give them time to invite friends over for a celebration afterward.
After finishing all this, the gray-haired puppet once again rotated her head in a full three-hundred-sixty-degree circle.
For some reason, after doing it once, she felt it was oddly satisfying.
……
Returning to her own office and sitting back down in her chair, Sylvia leaned against the backrest.
In her mind, she couldn’t help recalling Adela’s expression as if she had been utterly wrung dry.
Then, she thought of their conversation.
Hm… had she been a bit too casual?
There was none of that deliberately profound fake smile. Even though there was still a thin mask between them, it was already very close to the truest version of herself.
And it wasn’t only her—the other party also seemed to be gradually getting used to being around her.
Although she still reflexively used honorifics, her attitude had clearly undergone subtle changes.
Thinking of this, she suddenly recalled Lakdevo acting cute in front of her a few days ago…
No, that was definitely not acting cute—it was being shameless!
Feeling a shiver of disgust, she instinctively glanced at a certain fat crow, then let out a cold snort and picked up the mask on the desk.
But at this moment, she also let out a quiet sigh in her heart.
Her interactions with this fat crow were also gradually becoming natural.
So now, only her relationships with Loruze and the other church members, as well as with Divoman, remained the same as before.
But perhaps that was just as well. For an ambitious Radiant Bishop and a mafia boss willing to stake everything, this distance was exactly right.
If they drew any closer, it would not be good—for either herself or them.
Then she would just maintain the current situation.
Having made up her mind, Sylvia sat up leisurely, picked up the popular novel by her side, and a thought flashed through her mind:
This world seemed to have become interesting.
So, this was what people called bonds?
Hm… perhaps it could also be called friendship.
Then, if she established bonds and friendships deep enough, wouldn’t she be able to unleash some passionate combination techniques?
Teasing herself with that thought, she leaned back again, rested her elbow on the armrest, and continued reading the part she hadn’t finished.
In this section, the protagonist was having a meeting with his subordinates.
Seeing this, a sudden idea crossed her mind.
Should she also hold a meeting of her own?
It seemed feasible? Although, weren’t there a bit too few attendees?
Speaking of subordinates, another name suddenly popped into her head—
Anwendeika, that member of the Southern Cross Constellation.
It had already been more than ten days. Why hadn’t any new information come back yet?
Could he have run off?