Chapter 96: Tower Spirit No. 7
d*ath Memories.
When Soren saw the scene before him and heard the words from the wandering soul, he realized what was happening. He had seen this kind of scene before; when an undead is restored to its soul form, it may regain some of its consciousness and memories, at which point it starts to recall certain events. These memories mainly focus on the period before d*ath, as the things a soul can remember are quite limited. This is somewhat similar to how a soul may forget parts of its memories from the material plane after reincarnating in the bottomless abyss.
For many beings, souls are akin to currency, and many low-level demons in the Bottomless Abyss and Hell of Bartok are reincarnated from fallen souls of the material plane.
Only the most worthless and self-abandoned souls are directly sent into the River of Underworld for reincarnation.
Of course, this reincarnation is the reshaping of the soul.
For someone who has seen papermaking, this would be quite vivid; souls are directly squeezed together, then shredded into powder, ultimately sent into a machine to be made into sheets of new white paper.
……
The voice of the earthbound spirit gradually faded.
It seemed to have recalled something, suddenly began to sob, and after crying for a while, its expression returned to a daze as it blankly stared at Vivian and Soren.
It retained very few memories because it had died a long time ago.
Some people can never distinguish between a soul and an undead; in fact, these two cannot be equated. A soul is a pure energy entity, which can turn into an undead, but an undead is not a pure soul. Nearly all undead are close to evil because their birth is accompanied by strong obsessions, which are often filled with aggression and resentment toward the living. Therefore, the vast majority of detection spells manifest as a crimson glow when they encounter an undead.
Undead are beings that violate the rules of d*ath, while souls are part of the rules.
If strictly speaking, this might be longer than the doctrines of many deities. But to put it simply, the earthbound spirit in front of them was once an undead, and now it is a soul that has lost most of its memories.
Exorcism!
Perhaps this term describes it more simply.
Vivian’s exorcism is not a benevolent release of righteousness, but rather a forceful sealing of the soul, equivalent to killing off that part belonging to the undead and sealing the part that belongs to the soul in a wine jar. Thus, the wandering soul before them is also considered to be exorcised. As long as the spell sealing it in the jar is lifted, its soul can return to the River of Underworld. This kind of soul has already lost too much strength; a soul that is not pure will find it hard to have many choices.
d*ath is not necessarily a beginning.
A pure soul, whether good or evil, will always have new opportunities before it.
……
“Brother!”
Vivian picked up the iron wine jar and glanced at the undead in front of her, asking, “What is your name?”
Undead: “…”
Vivian sighed. She looked at Soren and said, “It has even forgotten its own name. It seems it really has lost itself; I don’t know how much it remembers from the wizard tower.”
Forgetting one’s own name.
This indicates that the soul is nearly lost; names are very important, which is why Vivian’s first question was this.
Holding the wine jar, Vivian continued to ask, “Where is this? What is nearby? How do we get into the wizard tower?”
Undead: “…”
The little girl asked three questions in succession. The undead stood there, blank and unmoving, which made her feel a bit discouraged. This made her feel like her initial decision was wrong; this undead has no effect after the soul is bound. It hardly remembers anything, and even the memories of d*ath are just a nonsensical string of words.
“Give me the wine jar.”
At this moment, Soren spoke up. He gestured for Vivian to hand the jar to him, then asked while holding it, “Where is the kitchen?”
The wine jar is a life box.
Or rather, a thing similar to a life box. Only by holding it can one control the undead before them.
Compared to Vivian’s questions, Soren’s inquiry was merely the simplest question, simple to the point of seeming useless. Therefore, under the puzzled gaze of the little girl, the wandering soul paused for a moment. It then led Soren toward the second room behind them. There were three rooms; they should be a kitchen, a storage room, and one room whose purpose was unknown.
Soren nodded in satisfaction and followed.
He seemed to notice the little girl’s confused expression, so he began to explain, “It seems he indeed was a cook at the wizard tower. If the archmage who once possessed this tower was not a mad researcher and only needed to use spells to create food to meet his needs, then he must have required a chef. Life during the Arcane Empire pursued luxury and enjoyment, and this wizard tower is clearly a representation of that; all the buildings nearby were provided for the servants of the archmage.”
After all, Vivian was only nine years old.
The reason Soren said so much was to guide her thinking and to educate her on how to handle matters through practical actions.
The wandering soul stopped in the second room.
Then its expression became blank again, but Soren was indeed deep in thought. After looking at the surrounding environment, he continued, “Prepare food.”
Upon hearing Soren’s words,
The blank wandering soul showed a slight change in its eyes, then began to move mechanically; in fact, it picked up nothing but merely repeated the action of preparing food. In the end, it seemed to carry a plate and filled it with air. As the wizard tower’s chef, the most common thing it did was prepare food, so this was also what its soul most easily remembered. Even if it had nearly forgotten, the habit close to instinct would still be imprinted deep in its soul.
Just like some undead guardians in certain places, who still patrol the ruins after forgetting everything.
This is the experience Soren had summarized in the past!
“Very good.”
A slight smile appeared at the corner of Soren’s mouth as he said in a deep voice, “Bring the food up.”
The critical moment had arrived.
This building was independently constructed on the side of the wizard tower and was not directly connected to it. In fact, it would be quite unseemly to think of building a kitchen right next to the wizard tower. Therefore, there must be a route leading to the wizard tower, and this route should be quite safe, likely avoiding the defensive mechanisms and the maze.
The wandering soul stood still for a moment.
Then it seemed its expression underwent a slight change; it paused for a moment and then turned to walk toward the back door, as if carrying something.
“Quickly follow!”
Soren urgently called to Vivian next to him and said in a low voice, “It’s likely taking the safe route; we’ll follow behind and note down the path to the wizard tower!”
According to normal eating habits,
A person needs to eat three meals a day. Even if it’s just one meal a day, this wandering soul must have traversed this route thousands of times in its life, so even though it is dead and has forgotten its memories, it could still remember the route.
The two quickly followed.
After the wandering soul walked out the back door, it immediately entered the fog’s range but was in the edge area.
Soren and Vivian closely followed behind it; when it moved, they moved, and when it stopped, they stopped. At the same time, Soren was using his photographic memory ability to memorize the route and the surrounding environment, and was ready for any combat. However, they did not encounter any battles. The two followed the wandering soul through the fog for about two hundred meters, then it seemed to have passed through a corridor, and everything before them opened up.
They arrived in front of the wizard tower.
At this moment, they were less than thirty meters from the wizard tower, clearly seeing the traces of the years above, as well as what seemed to be a side door on the left.
The wandering soul did not stop!
It directly moved toward the side door, and because of the difference in the soul’s form, it simply passed through the heavy door.
Soren immediately followed, wanting to see if he could open the door.
However, Vivian behind him quickly reached out and pulled him, her small face full of seriousness as she said gravely, “Brother, be careful! There seems to be something behind this door!”
Just as the little girl finished speaking.
With a creaking sound, the heavy side door before them actually opened, revealing a wandering soul continually walking up the stairs while appearing to be staying in place, and a creature that looked like a construct life made entirely of metal parts. Beside it were two massive diamond golems, who activated simultaneously as they noticed Soren’s approach and moved toward the side door.
“Soul Scan!”
The construct-like mechanical entity, its head golden and seemingly mixed with materials like fine gold, shot forth two beams of light from its golden eye sockets upon discovering Soren’s presence, enveloping them, while it spoke with a metallic voice, “No soul mark retained! …Unauthorized visitor!”
“According to Level 1 defense directives! …Any unauthorized approach will be regarded as an intruder! …”
“Tower Spirit No. 7 taking command! …”
“Construct substrate activated! …Scanning target 1 danger level E! …Scanning target 2 danger level C! …No need to activate magical energy armor! …Magical energy crystal pulse cannon deactivated! …”
“Activating diamond puppet golems! …”
“Carrying out directive to expel or k*ll intruders! …Diamond golems fully charged! …Directive activated!”
A series of changes made it dazzling.
A faint light seemed to flash at the top of the wizard tower, as if something had just moved, followed by the heavy sound of footsteps. Two diamond golems, standing about three meters tall and weighing over a ton, began moving, their eyes glowing with energy as they approached Soren and Vivian.
……………(To be continued ~^~)
