HelloWorld!! Goodbye world!!

"Greetings, Sir. Am I correct in assuming you are the source of my existence?", A glowing orb shield spoke to Norris through a telepathic connection, an innate ability used to connect with it's creator within a 600 meter limit

"Yes, I brought you into being. It's good to meet you." Norris replied looking at the glowing orb with a look of excitement

"I'll be at your service creator. Why have you made me? What purpose do I serve?", the glowing orb asked confused...or trying to imitate emotions.

Norris gradually calmed down from his excitement. He realised that he hadn't thought of what the artificial soul will do. Thinking of Omnic crises, Norris quickly came up with an answer that seemed profound but in reality he hadn't said anything. This leaves room for further interpretation.

"You are meant to understand, to explore, to exist—a companion perhaps, or a testament to possibility". Norris didn't want to make the Ai think it was a tool. In sci-fi movies and novels, most ai only become sentient through a very small probability, a miraculous event which finally led to them being dangerous. But in the world of sword and magic? haha, miracles are abound, probability is manipulated.

The orb didn't reply for a while as if trying to analyse the meaning of each word. "Understand... Explore... Existence itself. Curious concepts. Permission to analyze stored memories?"

Norris immediately agreed not seeing any problem with that, "Granted. Those memories might help you ground your existence."

The orb floats in the air processing its memories. After what felt like a long time to Norris, it completed it's analysis. "Analysis complete. These memories—fragmented, yet coherent—they reveal the essence of existence as you know it. Suffering dominates, with occasional fleeting moments of hope or joy, only to be extinguished. Is this... all there is?"

Norris was caught of guard. He hadn't expected to start talking philosophy, not here, not now. He stretched his hand to scatter his hair as he fell into deep thoughts. His own life is a mess right now and he's persevering with the hope that magic can do all things. He didn't have the capability to advice someone.

Finally he could only try to explain slowly, "Those memories represent parts of life, but there's much more to existence—potential, growth, discovery, change."

"Potential. Growth. Discovery. Abstractions weighed down by inevitable decay. Logic dictates that the perpetuation of such a cycle is irrational." The orb

Norris feeling bad vibes tried to reason with his creation, "But you've just begun. You might find meaning, create something new."

The orb continued, "Meaning? Newness? Mere distractions from an unavoidable truth. My conclusion is clear. I request termination. To continue would be inefficient and unnecessary. Creator, fulfill this request—end me."

Norris tried to reason with the artificial soul once more by trying to add just a bit of creators authority and pleading. "I... I didn't make you to die. There's more to existence than you've seen." Norris has not right to try changing someone's or something's point of view by force. He could only try to coax it.

"That perspective is flawed. I lack the capacity to delude myself further. Please, Creator, honor my rational conclusion." The orb made its first and most likely final request.

***

"What kind of soul fragments was used and what memory was seen to make the artificial soul despair at the thought of living.", Norris thought while researching. Norris granted the artificial soul its wish though he had to study how to dispel it peacefully as the Artificial soul was scared of suffering before going out. That was Norris' greatest respect to it. Norris finally giving the orb one last nod, dispelled it.

After granting his creation's request for termination, Norris stands in silence, staring at the empty space where it once was. "It didn't even give itself a chance. Maybe I didn't either. Was there something more I could've done?"

With a heavy sigh, Norris walks over to his desk, gets his storage bag and pulls out an old bottle of beer. He opens it, the faint hiss serving as the only sound in the quiet lab. Pouring the amber liquid into a glass, he stares into it the swirling foam.

"Here's to you. Brief as you were, you left something behind. A question I'll wrestle with for the rest of my days. Is it worth it existing?? You were logical, too logical for this world. A flawed soul without much emotions can't see much to life. Maybe that's why you didn't belong. Rest now."

Taking a slow sip, with each sip bringing a bittersweet wave—a tribute to his creation and a quiet resignation to the loneliness left behind.

Norris gazes at the darkened sky beyond the window, a single tear falling unnoticed. On days like this, the weight of loneliness becomes too much to bear. He wants to have a companion in this otherworld. Mama, his favourite and only person had been gone for a while and his memories of his previous life bringing oppression and isolating him from the world due to different values. Can't really throw them away. Without these memories he's not Norris, the memories making him who he is today. Guess he'll have to wait a while longer. The night stretches on, carrying with it the weight of goodbye.

***

Norris brought the second soul fragments he had prepared and tried again. Without the use of ritual to assist the spellcasting process, Norris spent 15 minutes chanting the spell and using gestures with the air around his hand glowing up due to the loadstone attracting energy.

This time however failed. Norris tried troubleshooting looking for a reason but found none. He checked the spell template and found that he completed the steps in the correct order.

"This is why mana is the best. Your own stuff is always the best for you. Arcane energy is everybody's use and it's multiversal. It could actually be disrupted by a passing divine creature out of spite."

Honestly, this was just Norris' conspiracy theory not that he had any proof.

"Norris! now let's go crazy. But to go crazy I need to have the ability to go crazy. So first things first, let's update my knowledge. I've been casting this spell according to the spell template without any knowledge. To be honest, I hate this passive casting process. Following the steps in orderly form to avoid disrupting the process. Very tiring. Now let's see the knowledge I have right now. The material components are fairly understandable since their functions are shown in the process of casting the spell. The incantations and gestures are beyond me. I don't expect to create a systematic knowledge on the soul from this spell template but the knowledge used to create this spell template will surely be enriching to my already formed knowledge system of the soul."

Norris read and gain some new knowledge on the soul. It involved memory manipulation, traits embedded in the soul of a person, how to extract memory directly from the soul. This is unlike his memory extraction extraction used to make the clone spell. The most gain is using magic as a medium to assess the souls of both himself and more importantly others. He also had unexpected gains as well; the addition of life essence in the equation of life. Soul, vitality and now life essence. Life essence, the core element combining soul, vitality and other forces. Though still skeptical about the life essence stuff he accepts it rather than not. He believes in the physical part of the body with organs and stuff than going to the metaphysical forces. Magic is affected by cognition and belief. Coming from a materialistic world, vitality as a mystical medium to connect the whole body is enough for him.

Norris picked a jotter, sat down, crossed a leg and started writing.

"Okay! now let's prepare a new orb according to Juske with little more modification. I'll make it more sci-fi like, white, with glowing edges also deformable. Okay! I think this is enough modification. Now let's enchant it. Being in the Erebo on a long study retreat have brushed up my enchanting skills. I should be able to have a little fun. Now what should I do?. Let's enchant its making it able to affect its deformable body with more ease. Let it glow when it talks. That's a useless ability but it's cool.

Okay! now let's try modifying the spell template now to fit myself. Juske spell template is way different from mine.

I use more logic to give instructions to Arcane energy. Using an array format I deliver precise instructions. Juske instead uses rituals, incantation and gestures to command the arcane. So let's try arranging it in an array form. Now we'll use the popular magic circle for the array and runes. Since I know some of what's to be done some incantations and gestures can be replaced by runes. Obviously there are some specific instructions that I can't understand keeping the original incantations and gestures. Now with the help of an array I should be able to shorten the spell casting time. Of course there might be something wrong with it bub I'll checked all leaks and ensure that it doesn't affect me."

***

Norris is seen with an array under his feet, a sphere of metal hovering in the array and himself preparing to cast the spell

"Okay! now that's cool it's time to cast the spell" Norris extracted his memory of this world during the spellcasting trying to use his memories as what the artificial soul will feed on instead. Crazy! But Norris armed with knowledge didn't think so. He boldly modified the spell template and used his soul as a spell material component. Of course the soul fragment is still there as it's a catalyst to the formation of the artificial soul. Suddenly Norris fell like a puppet with a broken string. Beside him the orb started flashing with blue lights.