Chapter 4: Another Experiment!

It is incredibly cold. So cold that her mind is being overwhelmed by the sensations her sense of touch interprets. Nana stared blankly in front of her. The man motioned for her to be silent.

Normal humans, no matter how trained, will never be able to instantly see something when the ambiance of lights was quickly adjusted. For her, it is a piece of cake because of being a zombie and the configurations made so that no one would suspect her racial identity.

She and Lon looked at the entrance of the alley. A luxurious Multi-purpose vehicle slowly drove over. The sleek, flamboyant design told the two of them that it costs buckets of gold. It is evident that some components are changed so that it would look more luxurious, shiny, and costly.

Inside of this vehicle is the four boys who were tailing her. It moved slowly so that its presence wouldn't be discovered by their prey. They still believed that their cover hasn't been blown by the wind. It is too bad that this time, they encountered the 'friend' of Nana.

The vehicle drove slowly, it's headlights blaring to dispel the darkness around it. Inside the dark alley, a tall humanoid individual behind the two silently looked at this passing people. This was the puppet Lon has successfully cultivated despite the early release.

It surely drove slowly until it passed them. Unfortunately, they didn't notice the two of them due to the poor lighting in the vicinity and the fact that they hid in the deepest part of the alley. He could have tested the prowess of his puppets but looking alone at their extravagant car, Lon changed his mind. The people inside surely have some connection and power, a background that will bring a headache to him if they somehow traced it back to him. In that future, it will only bring more trouble to his doorsteps. Not to mention, he has only a puppet and a thinking zombie with him.

"Let's go." After a few minutes that they were gone, Lon and Nana exited the alleyway. With a footstep on the road pavement, his body shook hard. The headache and stress of controlling all of the current numbers of the undead are taking a toll on his body. This is proof that he is weak!

One basic zombie and a high-rank basic corpse puppet almost made him faint anytime. Bonafide necromancers will laugh and mock him for how weak his soul and mind.

"Hey, you alright?", she asked with concern laced in her words.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm good too, arrggh." Another episodic attack that disabled his limbs. His breathing became heavy and distressed. His body fell and Nana caught him in her arms.

"You're clearly not okay!" She dashed towards his side and felt a sticky sensation in her arms.

"House, house, house, house...", Lon kept mumbling as he tightly gripped her body. "Go home."

It is only now that Nana noticed his pale complexion like hers. With a little help from the street lamps, she saw the blow dripping around his abdomen. This put her in a momentary dilemma before she dragged Lon to go to the house.

It is clearly a stupid decision to go home instead of a hospital but in the short time frame she was with this guy, there was never an occasion he showed stupidity. All those times, his actions have a purpose. This time, she also believed it as she listened to his request.

Neither Nana nor Lon was drenched in water because of a tall man that kept following them. This person held both of their umbrellas to shield them from the rain. Its movement is a little stiff like a scared and cowardly man seeing a ghost. But what made it special is the glowing crimson eyes it gives off while faithfully following the two of them.

"Close the door and never let anyone in!", Lon uttered with great difficulty as his body was laid down on the sofa. The wound on the left portion of his torso is so clear here now that there is a good source of light. A good, big chunk of flesh is missing. The shape of the wound is a slanting straight crescent shape. The part looked like it was cut by fast weaponry.

Blood continuously squirts from the wound. It is a miracle that Lon has walked far without fainting due to blood loss. Soon, the sofa underneath him is soaked in his own fluids.

"Holy, did you get in a fight?", Nana exclaimed at the still gaping wound. In her mind, there could be only one kind of weapon that could inflict such injuries. It was called energy-based weapons. Laser rifles, pulse cannons, and photon railguns, these are a few examples that use energy itself to inflict damage against practically everything.

"I will get a bandage and alcohol." She at least learned something in her studies as she quickly strode to her room.

"No, Nana, get my Jirhen inside my room, hurry, aghh", another groan of pain. This was the first time he was expressing physical pain that it nearly drives him insane.

It was funny because, at the same time, Nana also felt the same. He didn't care about the injury but instead, he wanted to do something else. She could only sigh as she opened the door to his room. The contents inside shocked her to the core. This is the first time she entered here since Lon moved in.

There were countless, confusing scribbles and drawings on the wall. Transparent bottles of different plants ranging from weeds up to pots of small trees, and common materials like mercury, silicon, and sulfur. Each one has a label attached to them.

"Get the paper with the title, CE-14! Follow the instructions on it!", the tired and gasping voice of Lon came. Panicky, she first picked up the book before carefully searching the mini-notes stuck on a dashboard.

"CE-14! Gold, potassium, Menpaurzol herb, Doris' flower, Uila'd venom, a chalk and a silver pin?", she was confused as she quickly yet carefully picked up the bottles and placed it in the living room. After only five times of back and forth did she finally picked all the required materials.

At this time, Lon felt lightheaded as his breath quickly weakened to the point of him looking at the verge of dying. It wasn't wrong as he lost more than a liter of blood. The the whole

"Hey, do you remember the time you promised me you will return the favor of saving you?", she was jolted awake at the mention of this topic.

"Here's a chance, do what is written there and I will help you and your sis-." Before Lon could finish what he is saying, he fainted on the spot while Nana was frozen on the spot. She has never told him about her sister. She even carefully hid all the traces that would lead back to Nila, so how on the world could Lon knew about her.

Time was ticking and she decided after five seconds of contemplation. She decided to do what he wished for her to do. This man never goes back on his words based on her observation during those two weeks. Especially if it is a promise, he will not break those for some reason. Nana knew herself that she wasn't helping a good person but a mad man that will do anything he wanted anytime he wanted. This is evident in what is instructed on the piece of paper.

"This crazy lunatic.", she then began to move. Her stamina is nearly tripled and strength doubled due to her being an undead so it was a piece of cake for her to lift Lon and place him on the ground. With chalk, she began to quickly draw around the body like the time he drew this strange symbols and weird characters around her dead body. After that, it was the placement of materials on the specific areas of the diagram. With the help of a certain section in his Jirhen that worked as a reference, it was soon finished sooner than expected.

The solid metals are used to draw some important runes, Menpaurzol herb and Doris' flower were mashed with mortar and pestle and the resulting paste was used to draw another inner circle inside of two-intersecting circles made by chalk and the venom, in liquid form, is poured at the center of the diagram. There are also other common and rare plants that are also in powder form that is placed in the four cardinal directions.

The thing she is most grateful for is the hand-drawn illustrations of these specific unfamiliar objects. It really saved time for both Lon and Nana.

Without it, Lon wouldn't be able to work some of his experiments and Nana probably wouldn't be able to save him.

She then began to chant long phrases that lasted for five consecutive minutes until she ended it with, "Thee, I abhor and command, preach and direct, the spirits of the Underworld!"

It was an incantation in the common human language. That is the reason she only needed a mere five minutes to finish talking.

The blood that he bleeds, dried or wet, began to collect themselves. As if each cell has a life on its own to attach and form a giant ball of blood above the formation.

Nana hesitated for a second before she steeled her will and punctured Lon's left eye using the silver pin. More blood gushed and squirted is what supposed to happen but magically a bizarre event was solely witnessed by her.

The solidified ball quickly flowed towards his left eye where another wound is opened. When the last drop was inside, it was quickly healed by an unknown force. No traces were left on his face yet she was horrified as realization struck her.

His breathing is ridiculously weak and the hole on his torso is still not healing at all! It was still slowly bleeding as the ritual ceremony was happening all this time. Even after all of it, blood still freely flows out of his body. Although he got back a certain amount of body fluids he lost, it isn't enough for him because he is not some supernatural human that will not die even with a single drop of blood.

Left with no choice, she quickly began to treat and bandage it. She taught it was some kind of magic ceremony that will close that missing flesh on his body. Instead, it only healed the bleeding gap in his eye she made.

Fuming with anger, Nana tried her best to dress the wound to the best of her ability. Today, in the middle of a stormy night, she learned a new lesson.

This young man, Lon Opaqmoor, is a mad man.

.....

Inside of an abandoned building, somewhere in the northern sector of Giogio city.

Blood freely flowed on the ground. Dead bodies of more than twenty humans died gruesome deaths scattered on the floor. Some of them have broken, snapped necks or twisted ones, some have their guts pulled out, some have their skulls shattered and some have their spines deformed beyond recognition. The common thing among all of them is the brutality of how they died.

Seeing this scene, Ajoika Akizuki is pissed. He was angry not because his men died but because of what kind of animal is able to do something like this. Being a gang leader is not easy especially if they are being eyed by the authorities. Cleaning this mess alone proved to be tough if they do not want the police hounds sniffing this abandoned factory. If they somehow did, all the goods secretly hidden in this place will be confiscated.

'Fuck this, what kind of monstrous creature did this?', he internally thought. Wild animals couldn't have done such an act since this location is still in the vicinity of the city. Hostile aliens are also out of the mystery because they will be bombarded by the military at first sight. Those cyborgs or genetically advance humans wouldn't create a bloody battlefield knowing their strength and specialty of finishing cleanly their opponents.

Though this place has lax security with only twenty men standing guard, all of them were killed without the incident being reported to him. Or the raider is so fast that there was no chance to tell anyone else in the gang. That other possibility he could think of has shaken him a little.

Weirdly enough, aside from the guns and wallets of the deceased, not a single item went missing.

"Boss! Look over here!", a shout of urgency surprised him and his men. Many of them flocked towards the source of it and they are in for a surprise. In a hidden section of this metallurgy factory, a wooden coffin was secretly left. A weird drawing of squares, triangles, and circles combined was below it. There is also the used candle wax on the floor placed in seven different directions and the dry traces of blood. An eerie feeling gradually crept on their skins.

Even Ajoika, the tough tiger of the north, felt a stronger creepy sensation than the others for some reason. It was an ill omen when something like this appears randomly. The lid is open and when they opened, all of them were puzzled.

"The fuck placed this here?"

"I curse that damn fucker!"

"Holy shit, ain't there scared of doing something like this?"

Initially, they were nervous about what was inside but as soon as they saw it, they began cursing themselves.

It was filled with paper money, the one used in funerals. Weird writings were also written on the back of the coffin lid and the walls of it. There wasn't a sign a corpse or anything ghastly rested in here.

"Boss, I think we must move now. I feel not so good in the presence of this cursed thing.", one of the more apprehensive underlings of his suggested. Although they are hard to kill gangsters, experienced in fights and killing, at the end of the day, they couldn't fight a ghost, a curse, or something supernatural. It is perhaps something they could not touch or damage with conventional means.

Ajoika thoroughly thought about it. It is true that they couldn't fight something that couldn't be hit so he consulted the one thing that always solves the problems for him. As an avid believer of superstitious things, it would be bad if this caused countless misfortunes to befall on all of them. If he couldn't find a proper, plausible solution, relocation is the only option left.

A notebook with fierce depictions of mythological animals like the easter dragon and the wrathful white tiger was opened. Pages are flipped and soon, an answer was presented to this man. The title is a little dubious but who cares. They were created in the first place to clickbait people to check them out.

'How To Create Effective Charms To Ward Evil 101'

...

One of the signs, the burden of overusing your own soul, is unique fatigue of the mind. Sleeping won't cure this ailment. By increasing the strength or power of the soul, could only withstand the pressure. Of course, removing the cause of the problem is also a solution.

There are dozens of solutions to alleviate these symptoms with that goal in mind. But what Lon did is a unique unorthodox way many thought before but didn't do it due to limitations impose into the body.

Creating an artifact, the lowest grade, to lessen the burden on his soul. This, however, is hard because a single person has limited capabilities. Then what if there is someone that could help do the job. It will then be easier to complete with him alone.

This was the plan of Lon as he watched his zombie girl copying drawings and writings on a specially treated stack of papers. Her reference is of course his Jirhen.

Although he is still having a hard time moving his body and do complicated equations, at least he could now sit and talk. Lon has passed another set of instructions by following the things pinned on his dashboard.

An artifact can be a staff, pendants, exquisite charms, and anything that can be used as one. But the manufacturing process is not easy. Sadly though, there is no section in the Jirhen clearly stating how to create an artifact. That is why he is conducting another experiment.

Lon was not confident it will work one hundred percent but there was no harm in trying it. Besides the projected effect on his body is that he will be immobilized for a week if it miserably failed. It's more appropriate to call it comatose for a week.

"Say, why did you do that?", a sulking voice of Nana asked him. During her free time, she always helps Lon so that he could have recovered faster and also help her as soon as possible.

"The what?"

"You know what I mean. Why did you told me to go home instead of going to a hospital."

"So that I could have gained another power.", he chuckled at the thought of what happened three days ago.

"Are you not worried that I will abandon you?" This made him laugh a little and chuckle more.

"Of course, I'm not. Isn't it obvious?" He paused as he collected his bearings. "You're not a person that will leave her own benefactor, right?" All she could do is nod because what he said is indeed true.

"Then why did you told me to perform such a thing when you're clearly dying at the time?" This time, it was a burst of mischievous laughter that came from Lon. For him, it looked like this little missy certainly didn't read the new sections of her own Jirhen. While others may approach cautiously this unknown arcane knowledge, someone will be driving straight towards it. The two of them are one great example.

"Creation of Eye, #14, is a method that requires the person to be in a state of near-death. Else, the chance would be gone to waste. It is the easiest one to perform if you only knew.", he said casually while pointing on his left eye that looked the same with his right one.

It was the fruit of his intensive research in the past two weeks. The training is more focused on understanding the runic symbols that are needed to build the basic magic diagrams. It wasn't exactly a giant leap but he at least has progressed. And that advancement resulted in a new theoretical magic diagram that is somewhat successful.

"You call that easy, why don't you look at your injury", she pointed out to him while her right index finger pointed on the left area of his stomach. There are no more words left to emphasize his level of sanity. In the beginning, no one would be crazy enough to undergo extreme torture to achieve one's own goals. But she was mistaken because there is a living representation in front of her.

"So, what kind of power does it bring?" A change of the topic. "Like what it could do? Seeing directly the underwear of anyone?"

Lon only mysteriously smiled as he explained in a few words, "Hehehe, greater, I can freely see the souls of the dead." This stunned her as she stared intently at his black eyes, skeptical at his claims.

He only shrugged and didn't want to further explain. It is not that he doesn't trust her loyalty or anything but some matters are better kept hidden from anyone. After all, who could guarantee him that there is nothing out there that could read people's memories, scientifically or magically?

"Say, Lon, aren't zombies supposed to have no emotions?", a puzzling concern for her since the time she was reanimated.

"I thought you were smarttttt???", a sarcastic remark and smirk surfaced from his mouth. An intended one because this girl couldn't figure such a simple secret. She can deduce a little about his character from their interaction but she could not deduce when it comes to this issue.

"Think about it, the body is the vessel, your body is a zombie, the mind is the subconscious, the memories, the automatic identity, and the soul, who are you, smartypants?", explaining is clearly not his forte so he simply told Nana his current understandings of this concept. The response is too vague and there is also a contradiction in his explanation. It's her problem if she could not grasp it. As a smart woman, instead of asking more, she suddenly stopped what she was doing and sat quietly there.

Both of them are intellectual and Lon is clearly the one with lesser patience among the two.

"Tsk, alright, alright, after I will clearly explain, do what you must do. So listen up and I will explain to you 'clearly' what I understood so far.", he said with repetition because he didn't want to be bothered by her next time.

"The body, be it a human, an undead, a Poiw alien or the body of a pagan bug, it will be the vessel that houses the soul. Biologically, the body is either capable or incapable to produce certain emotions. Like the undead being completely emotionless and the pagan bugs not being faithful to any queens or kings. Moving on, the soul and mind are entwined. Both of them are closely related to each other. The soul is your main consciousness, yourself, the controller of your own choices. In other words, it is your true self that will never change no matter how many cleansing happens. The mind is born from the soul, your soul, it is the secondary consciousness and the subconscious. Preferably, you can call it the 'instinct'. Unlike your soul, the mind can be manipulated and distorted because it houses your memories and emotions and whatnot. It can be shaped to a certain degree or so I heard."

"But it doesn't explain why I can still feel emotions." Lon almost exploded like an active volcano. He has patiently explained yet she can't sum up it herself! Talk about being smart! This girl just wished to irritate him so she asked innocently. But it cannot be denied that she has a point. It partially explains why she can feel emotions despite being undead.

"That's because I reconstructed and restarted your body, dragged your soul, and your mind that is protected by your soul towards your body, thus reviving you! Because of the magic diagram of magic of Uila! Or something like that!"