Chapter 1411 (Patreon)

While a part of me would have loved to jump knee-deep into the experiments swirling through my mind, I was content to watch a little more before trying anything. So, with a bit of prodding and a promise to help her get another load of biomass to turn into feedstock for her experiment, I watched Luna use her fascinating device once more and create another rabbit-body. 

This time, I was much closer, allowing me to watch in rather explicit and gruesome detail why the process usually took weeks and a closed environment. First, there was only a tiny nucleus of material, the biological base material harvested from other rabbits. Then, suddenly things got incredibly busy, and I had to use Bullet Time so I didn’t miss anything. The tiny lump of flesh didn’t stay tiny for long; it was almost as if I was watching an alien monster feed on its environment, even if I was aware that this was merely my perception. In reality, the environment was invading or infusing the alien, Luna’s magic essentially forcing the nutrients and materials into the tiny body, causing it to expand rapidly. It took just a scant few seconds, maybe thirty, to turn the tiny, almost invisible lump of cells into something I could recognise as an embryo, and from there, it didn’t take much longer for the proper baby-rabbit shape to become visible. 

During that seemingly long, but yet incredibly short, time I watched closely, carefully using all my senses to scan the process, realising that, so far, it was somewhat analogous to what I was doing when using Ice Magic to create my throne. Just a lot more complex, undoubtedly aided by the runes Luna had engraved into the tank, and guided by something I didn’t understand just yet. Some sort of magical perception, maybe innate to Life Magic, that guided Luna and allowed her to put the body together correctly. Or maybe it was feedback from the genetic code within the cells, allowing her to know the correct body plan; I wasn’t sure. Regardless, so far, there was no ‘Life’, well, no Soul, involved just yet.

And my hypothesis was confirmed soon after, when Luna finished the process; the tiny baby rabbit I had seen just before continued to expand until it was fully grown. The nutrient density within the tank was visibly lighter, reminding me that Luna needed these materials, but that was about it, the rabbit remained as it was. Lifeless, and essentially dead, without any biological or magical activity visible.

“Now, I’ll have to take it out,” she told me, and I realised once again that the rabbit wouldn’t be any more living than anything I might be able to clutch together with my Blood Magic. Or my Ice Magic, the rabbit, at the moment, was nothing more than an incredibly elaborate piece of flesh. It certainly wasn’t alive right now. 

“Show me,” I asked Luna, keeping my eyes peeled, even activating my ability to see Souls so I could keep track of what Luna was doing. Just as before, power flooded the room. Knowing what was to come, I knew to shield myself from the light, while trying to keep looking at it at the same time. Then, my eyes were blinded by a particularly strong flash, causing me to stumble back a little, but I managed to glimpse the moment of truth, when the flame of life was sparked within the tiny, seemingly dead rabbit. It was strangely beautiful, for such a minor act, though it sadly taught me nothing new about the soul. I simply couldn’t tell whether the soul now freshly installed in the rabbit was new or had been summoned from elsewhere. It didn’t appear to have any biases or special alignments, nothing that hinted at it having been something else before, just the same, somewhat bland and basic soul each of the rabbits around us had. 

“Interesting,” I muttered. “Could you give me a better idea of your process? I mean, is it a single spell you perform, are there different mental considerations, how does it work?”

At my request, Luna started to slowly, but with a fair amount of confidence, explain just how the creation of new life worked. The growing phase sounded familiar, to the point that I wondered if I could use Blood Magic to mimic the whole process. It would need a massive amount of study and experimentation, unless I somehow managed to tap into that same innate sense she confirmed to have, but that was beyond the point. It proved that, theoretically, I could perform that part myself if I sufficiently developed my Blood Magic.

But that was the simple part. The difficult part was what came next. And what came before- the creation of the growth chamber. As it turned out, the runes inscribed into it weren’t just Life Runes. Some of them were divinely inspired, to the point that Luna could understand them herself, but when trying to tell me their meaning, she had to resort to metaphor and comparison. These runes didn’t just represent words, or even somewhat elaborate concepts; they were beyond that, an explanation I considered deeply offensive. How could something be innately inexplicable? Would I really have to accept this as just ‘divine magic’ and be done with it, or would there be a way to understand these runes at some point?

It was something I would have to look into, especially as this might be the least hazardous opportunity to study supposedly inexplicable divine runes. After all, the deity who had bestowed them upon Luna used to be part of me, so there shouldn’t be divine retribution, or so I hoped. It would certainly be rather weird if I was somehow struck down by the Mother who used to be me. Though, if that happened, would it count as suicide or as divine punishment?

However, regardless of the supposed simplicity of this first part, the second part was everything but. And, to make matters even worse, it wasn’t just Life Magic, as I had already surmised. There was just as much, if not more, divine magic involved, and that divine magic was, as usual, essentially a black box. Pray, apply divine power, get result. That was it; that was, from Luna’s perspective, the process. 

The Life Magic parts, she could explain. They focused on starting the heart, getting the blood moving to support circulation, and helping the muscles start working, so the rabbit wouldn’t suffocate instantly. It was, by and large, relatively simple, at least compared to the rest. Something I could likely replicate, too, using my Blood Magic; I would just need a lot more effort.

For a moment, I considered the divine magic involved again. Or rather, I considered the source of said divine magic, and felt just a little bit annoyed with my former aspect. After all, somehow, my divine aspect managed to do what I wished: merge a soul with a new body. Or it might be an aspect of the Mother’s innate divinity, some replication of the birthing process; I wasn’t sure. 

But I made a note to experiment a little. I already knew that I could extract Souls without damaging the physical body. It took a little more magic than I would like, but it was readily possible; I had it already figured out. Now, if I combined that trick with my slowly developing Soul Prisons, I might be able to capture the evicted Soul, giving me the opportunity to try merging it back into the body. After all, if there was one soul that should be compatible with a particular body, it would be the one that had originally been merged into said body. 

“Say, do you think you could perform this last step on baby rabbits, too? I mean, without growing them to their mature size beforehand?” I asked Luna, thinking about another potential experiment. 

“Probably,” Luna replied, a frown on her face. “But it isn’t needed too much in that state. When they are infants, some of them start moving on their own; it’s quite interesting,” she explained, confusing me just a little. That didn’t match any of my expectations, but then, my expectations hadn’t been based on some sort of sound reasoning, just… Well, just a whole lot of guesswork and a bit of imagination, nothing I could really point to. 

“Curious,” I admitted. “Want to go and gather some biomass? We can get that, maybe transform part of it into feedstock for you, then go and look for Lia. Maybe take Silva along, just for good measure, so she doesn’t feel too neglected,” I suggested, fairly confident that I had learned all I could at the moment. These new realisations, and the tangible progress provided by Luna, were enough to motivate me to work a lot harder and try a few ideas I previously had.

“Sure, Mom,” Luna instantly agreed, a wide smile on her face. “Do you think we could mix some additional protein into the feedstock? Just working with basic plant matter is rather difficult.”

With that, the two of us were off, leaving her laboratory and the rabbits hopping around behind. There was more work to be done.