Ystur

Upon returning to her home on the island, Astur went into her workshop and kicked everyone else out. Since the first few days of her arrival in this world, Astur has been gathering the ingredients for the creation of a homunculus, and after almost an entire year she has gathered all the ingredients she needs.

Lighting the fire beneath the cauldron, Astur places the chemical elements that compose a physical body into it. Following that, Astur pricks her finger and lets her blood drop into the cauldron. The reason for the blood is to provide a source of DNA for the homunculus to take after. The next step is for Astur to add in the Soul Essence. Stepping away from the cauldron, Astur takes out a basin and without any hesitation, forces her fingers down her throat, triggering her gag reflex and vomiting into the basin. Alongside her last meal is a slightly translucent ball of light, the Soul Essence Astur had extracted from the soul of Saint Heleste. Grabbing hold of the Soul Essence and shaking it to throw off the vomit surrounding it, Astur turns back to the cauldron and tosses it in. With the base ingredients all in, Astur moves onto one of the final steps, the formation of the body. Using her energy as a conduit, Astur manipulates various ingredients as she starts forming the body. Unfortunately, unbeknownst to Astur, when her back was turned to vomit out the Soul Essence, something else was forcibly injected into the cauldron.

******

On Earth Just a few moments before Astur began making the homunculus, a young woman is returning home from the game shop. In her shopping bag is the Full Dive Virtual Reality Helmet, one of the two machines that can play Eternal Universe Online. Having just bought her copy of Eternal Universe Online as well as the required equipment, this young woman is happily walking along the sidewalk with a smile on her face, excited to play the new game she has been following. This woman isn't of any noteworthy status nor does she come from any hidden lineage, a simple woman who grew up in an old orphanage with no special background. Soon after moving out of the orphanage for high school, she took up a part-time job with the intention of sending money back to the old couple who ran the orphanage. She was the last child to leave the orphanage and the caretakers were no longer able to properly take care of the orphanage and were getting ready to hand it over to the government, but before anything was set in stone and before the young woman could even receive her first paycheck to send money back to the closest thing to a family she had, misfortune struck and the old couple passed away.

It was in the months following the passing of the old couple that this young woman got into the world of ACG, or Anime, Comics, and Games, as her friends tried to help her through her depression. And now, several years later as a fresh graduate from the University of Atlantis, this young woman, beneath her cheerful smile, is dying.

In the year before, she had been at the hospital to receive information about her recent exam. Diagnosed with an incurable heart disease and lung disease, the woman just barely getting started in life received a death sentence. With a life expectancy of about eight to ten years, she doesn't have too long, and this is assuming she receives treatment. For almost all of that day, the young woman had sat around her house in a daze, unsure of how to process the information she received. But she isn't a stranger to the harsh side of life, and instead of living the remainder of her life with a frown on her face, she'd rather live the rest of her life doing as she pleases. Hearing about a brand new game that features new innovative technology, Full Dive Virtual reality, she decides to put her focus on this new game that would allow her to make use of a brand new and healthy body, but things don't always go according to plan.

Only an hour remains until the official release of Eternal Universe Online, the young woman is brought to a halt on the crosswalk right in front of her apartment building. In the middle of the crosswalk, a small child is chasing after a ball they dropped as all the pedestrians hear a loud sound.

*Honk*

The horn of a truck as it comes speeding down the road.

"Get out of the way! The brakes died and the wheel's stuck!" The truck driver yells out.

The child is paralyzed, too terrified of the oncoming truck to move. An older woman, seemingly the mother of the child, calls out, shouting for them to move. But realising her child is too scared to lift their legs, she runs out to shield her child. From an outsider's perspective, it's irrational, there isn't enough time for the mother to carry her child out of harm's way, but when has a mother protecting her child even been a rational being? With her fate sealed, she hopes to at least shield her child, hugging them close and bracing for impact. And only a mere second later an impact was received, but not the one the mother was expecting. From the opposite side of the crosswalk, the mother and child duo are pushed aside as the young woman forces out of the truck's path.

"I never knew I could move this quickly before," the young woman thinks as she shoves the two out of the way. With the truck only a few centimetres away from her face, one final thought crosses the young woman's mind, "I don't have anyone left to care about me anyway and more importantly I was already dying. Although it's a bit regrettable that I can't play the game, at least this way I've done something to be proud of before the end."

And in that instant, the young woman died. But her story isn't finished just yet. Unseen by all those who bore witness to this tragedy, the soul of this young woman was whisked away by a certain mischievous deity with ten tails.

******

At this time, Astur has finished the creation of what should have been the body of the homunculus. Looking at it, the homunculus appears to be a smaller version of Astur in every aspect, at 153cm tall and a bust that rivals Elizabeth, the only similar size between the supposed homunculus and Astur is their hair that reaches down their back. Standing side by side, one might mistake them for sisters or even mother and daughter.

Satisfied with her creation, Astur says, "From now on you will be known as Ystur."

But rather than the response Astur was expecting, the supposed homunculus says, "What happened? I thought Truck-kun got me?"