Chapter 596: The Fragments of Elaina
While the twins have successfully gathered the ingredients for the creation of the Soul Vessel, Elaina’s sister, Selena, has also successfully gathered all of the scattered soul fragments of her sister. Each of them holds Elaina’s fragments that are tied to her whole existence.
"To think that her fragments are in here. She didn’t even die even after trying to use the knife that can obliterate a soul...only for that soul to be fragmented."
Each of the souls has various colors to the point that she is getting annoyed just by looking at them.
"Why the hell am I even collecting these, Pope? The hell do I have to do with these fragments in the first place? Didn’t I need to deal with my sister and fully break her instead of collecting her like this?" Selena angrily frowned.
"Despite the fact that you are about to ascend to Godhood, and yet you are still so oblivious and a bit useless in some areas, makes me wonder if I ever choose the right option or if I made the biggest mistake."
"Hah...Like I said, I won’t be doing this kind of stuff in the first place if not for your promise that I can finally get rid of my sister if I decide to ascend to Godhood. And yet, here I am, collecting her fragments, avoiding even destroying them? That contradicts what my initial plan should be!" Selena is angry.
"I can understand your frustration there, but you really are shortsighted when it comes to the pleasure of getting rid of someone you hate. Didn’t you hate her all your life? Then why not take this chance to use these fragments of her soul as your servants? Terrorize her family using the fragments, and if ever her consciousness is still within those fragments, she will suffer a lot for seeing all her beloved people, things, and properties she loved go up in flames without a way to save and all of it done by her own hands? Wouldn’t that be a good way to torture, use her soul fragments as your minion, and use it to destroy everything she once had?"
Hearing the pope’s plan, Selena was stupefied. Not only did she not think of that, but it was also quite a novel idea.
"That is indeed a fantastic idea, but you mentioned turning these soul fragments as my minions? How the hell am I even going to do that? These soul fragments don’t have any body they can inhabit, and they are just fragments, which means they lack a lot of things compared to when they are whole. Can we even command that?" Selena asked. Although she is not sure about this, she does think it is a great idea.
"Why are you asking me? Aren’t you the God who can manipulate the souls of the living and the dead using that dagger and your magic spells? Why not use that to slowly corrupt those fragments, have them materialize, and use themselves as a weapon? Controlling a fragmented soul is much easier compared to controlling a whole soul that has not been divided into parts. Why not test it out on one of the fragments? This way, you will know."
Although Selena is still very unfamiliar with the power of the Pope that transferred his power to her, she is slowly gaining some coherence and understanding of it. Not yet enough to fully master, but something she can already use.
Grabbing the soul fragment of her sister, Selena grinned. "I don’t know if you are going to see this, but I hope you do...see this? This will be the power that will slowly help you...destroy what you once loved. Now, come and rise and become my minion. Follow my will and orders and become the destroyer that will ultimately doom your land."
As she said those words, the soul fragment that was once shining brightly is now slowly getting corrupted. The color is turning black, and a foul aura is coming out of it. As Selena let it go, the Soul fragment floated in the air, slowly materializing a body...a body that looked similar to Elaina. However, it lacked what makes her Elaina. It is a body that only exists to follow the command of Selena.
Seeing it kneel in front of Selena, the smile on Selena’s lips had grown bigger.
"Finally, some new toy..."
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"So, how is the situation with the task? Did the two of you have any difficulties?" Elaina asked as she looked over at her children watching her on their room.
"We managed to gather all of the ingredients, Mom. We still have one ingredient that is still growing, but we only needed to wait for a bit before we could harvest and use it to craft the Soul Vessel," Adelaide reported.
"I really am sorry about this, my children... If only I could still do what I could always do, I wouldn’t have to be stuck like this and have limited time to even talk with you two."
Arthur shook his head. "Why are you apologizing, Mom? You are not to be blamed by this. In fact, shouldn’t you be sad that you have been turned like this? You need to instead turn your anger to your sister, Mom! She is the one who caused all of this, and yet why are you not doing so?"
"Don’t lash out at Mom like that, Arthur," Adelaide tried to control her brother.
"It’s okay, Ade. I can understand Arthy’s frustration...but to be honest, I don’t feel any kind of hatred at all. In fact, I don’t even have the will to take revenge against her. I don’t know why."
The twins looked at each other, looking worried at their mother.
"Mom, just tell us if you are in pain or anything, alright? We will help as much as we can. You don’t have to worry, we will also take care of the farm while we work on helping you wake up. We promise that." Arthur made a promise to Elaina, and even Adelaide nodded in agreement to this.
Elaina smiled. "You two are really growing up healthy and disciplined. I am so proud of you two."
It didn’t take long before the communication with Elaina broke. It only lasted a few minutes before it finally stopped.
"I am so frustrated on this. Why is it that we only have limited time to speak with her? Is it always gonna be like this forever? Just a few minutes of discussion and then everything is over?" Arthur is fuming.
"I can understand that, Arthur. However, there’s nothing we can do until we can finally craft this thing that the God of Farming has given to us to make. Until that time comes, we can only interact with her like this." Adelaide is calming her brother down to ensure he won’t just go berserk all of a sudden.
The God of Farming decided to talk with the twins now that the session with their Mother is finally done.
"[Don’t be discouraged, kids. The fact that the two of you have already gathered the majority of the ingredients we needed is already something else. But just like in farming, patience is necessary. The two of you shouldn’t rush everything to wake Elaina up, as I have finally gathered enough data to fully explain things to the two of you while we wait for the Soul vessel to be fully created. Since we still can’t create that thing we needed, we will have to tell the two of you on what we were about to do.]"
"Are we finally moving on from fetch tasks?" Adelaide asked.
"[Yes, and no.]"
"Eh? What do you mean?" Arthur frowned.
"[After days of studying the soul, I have finally uncovered why Elaina’’s soul is still present, and yet, her body has yet to fully recover and she cannot wake up at all despite her initial injuries are healed up.]"
The twins perked up from their seats after hearing that. "Really? Does that mean we can finally know how to wake the body of our Mother?"
"[The Answer would be another yes...and No.]"
Arthur frowned. "What is this suspense? Can you just tell us?"
"[Don’t be surprised, you two. Currently, your Mother’s soul has been divided, and they have been separated into 7 pieces. Her fragments should be 9 pieces, but I managed to save two fragments, which would be the person you two are talking with every day."
The twins were shocked upon hearing the God of Farming reveal the reasoning for Elaina’s refusal to wake up in her real body.
"Is that why we are going to make this Soul Vessel to actually capture these shards of Mother?"
The God of Farming quickly answered. "Partially correct. Although these shards are no longer part of Elaina, they didn’t become wild; they are still them, her separated fragments are something that you can say as her battery so that she can fully power back to life, and the two of you will need to even travel the whole world just to find a piece of her soul and piece her back together."