28 Soulless Failure

After some study using the blood, I had figured out some of its properties. I was wrong about it keeping the divinity, it kept the aura of divinity but not the powers behind it, the divinity that actually was contained in the blood was spread throughout the blood, functionally diluting it.

While I was playing around with blood alchemy, I thought of a sick idea. I couldn't do anything to Freya physically, not with the laws in Orario and Ottar around at least, I could however use her blood to try and make a copy of her body to puppet around… It would be worth a try…

To start on this idea I knew that a crucible would not suffice, so I designed and with the help of the golems built the Curative Vat. The vat was a large glass container reinforced with greatwood. To use it as a crucible numerous essentia pipes, filters, and valves were added to input essentia in safe amounts. After filling it up with water and funneling vis into it the Curative Vat was ready. You could enter the vat through a hatch at the top of the structure.

I did however find another use that I didn't intend for. By pumping in varying amounts of victus essentia it could slowly heal wounds, this also worked with fames, which acted as a food supplement, lastly sano also worked because it was a compound element of victus and ordo it could remove diseases and heal the body at an accelerated rate.

I did use this to reduce the taint on my arm, and it worked extremely well, it reduced the taint back to a small point on my hand, it didn't cure it completely. This was however a good start for a potential cure.

Moving back to the original focus, I used blood alchemy on a small portion of the blood to convert it to flesh. Then by mixing fames with some sugar with alchemy I was able to make a growth solution to speed up the process of making the body.

By mixing the tissue sample, a portion of the subject's blood, and 4 units of victus the main process was done. The clone did however need a huge amount of the growth solution, so after a few more days the body was grown to adult size.

There was a problem though, I had tested this process on other animals and found that It worked, sort of, the animal was grown but the soul of the creature was incredibly weak. The soul would likely grow and stabilize over time, but for a human, the soul never came.

I had a copy of Freya but it was just a corpse without a soul so it was functionally useless. I couldn't use a normal golem core because those cores were built for a smaller, more limited body, not a complex human form.

With a blockage in my research, I decided to move to another project to let the ideas build up.

I decided to move to some armor, the robes I had were helpful while crafting or casting but defense wise they weren't all that great.

I already had the solution to my problems though, thaumium was the solution. Normal thaumium armor was great but it was outdone by higher-end metals, but the infusion process could fix this.

By taking a suit of thaumium armor excluding the boots and infusing them with more thaumium, some gold, leather, and an emerald as the infusion objects and large doses of metallum, praemunio, and praecantatio essentia I managed to make an improved set of armor.

The Thaumium Fortress Armor looked like a purple version of the easts samurai armor, it has a greater durability rating, improved protection from magic, fire, or explosion damage. Additionally, when wearing multiple pieces of the Thaumium Fortress set, there is a damage reduction effect.

I was not happy with my results though, I had defense and I had casting ability, both separate from one another, so I decided to combine them!

By using the fortress armor as a base and infusing them with the robes, more thaumium, leather, some enchanted fabric, and salis mundus along with a host of essentia I had created an even better set of armor!

The Thaumium Fortress Robes were a perfect mix between casting and defense the armor took the abilities from the fortress armor along with the reduction in vis consumption from the robes!

I soon heard a knock on my door, unfortunately, I still had a cloned goddess in my basement so I headed up and locked the door.

POV Change

Lefyia was asked to come and get Stella from her lab, Loki had said that Stella had not been seen in 17 days and Loki didn't know where her lab was so she sent Lefyia because she said she knew.

Upon knocking on the door Lefyia noticed that Stella took quite a while to respond. When the door opened Lefyia stared in shock at Stella's appearance, Stella looked like she hadn't slept in days carrying large bags under her eyes. Her eyes were leaking a purple fluid and there were purple stains under and around her eyes where the fluid had been.

"ARE YOU OK!?"Lefyia asked with concern

"Oww not so loud, I've been having pretty bad headaches recently but other than that I am fine."Stella responded

"Oh sorry. You look like you haven't slept in days though!"Lefyia said

"Oh now that you mention it I haven't… whoops. What are you here for though?"Stela asked

"I was told to come and get you, Loki doesn't know where your lab is and you disappeared for 17 days while we were on the expedition."Lefyia explained

"I swear I told everyone where the lab was, I guess the expedition was good? Where is my storage bag, I might be able to make one of those now."Stella said

"The bag is with Finn he was reporting to Loki last I checked, I heard you did something stupid. Also, what's with the purple liquid coming from your eyes?" Lefyia explained

"I did not do something stupid, I just did something without thinking."Stella answered

Stella grabbed a mirror and saw the flux dripping from her eyes.

"Weird that shouldn't be happening."Stella mumbled while she wiped the flux off her face

"Ok Lefyia give me a second to get some stuff and then we head to the Manor." Stella said

Stella got a few thaumium golems to pack some boxes with her new armor, potions, and a special casket so she could store the clone. She didn't want Freya to break in again and see the clone, that would cause too much trouble.

"What's with the casket?"Lefyia asked

"Dont worry about it, it's a failed project that I need to store in the bag."Stella responded

"If it failed then why keep it?"Lefyia asked

"Because I might be able to fix it, just need to keep it with me for safekeeping."Stella explained

Lefyia was curious about the project, along with the new golems and boxes that Stella had them carry, but she didn't want to pry. With that, the 2 headed to the Twilight Manor to see the other familia members.

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Word Count: 1218

We are on the way to a full cure for the taint! We also have a new set of gear, next is weapon upgrades but we get some nether action next! Suggestions and power stones are always welcomed!