Chapter 191: 255. Science

Jianmo’s insight on the different states of essence had sparked an excited discussion among the girls as they theorized about how the different properties of essence worked and how it might be possible to alter them. Jianmo himself was decidedly unhelpful, answering most of their questions with a shrug or an oblique “I don’t know.” Nevertheless, after what felt like hours of intense debate, they were ready to experiment.

“Test number one! How do Soulfire and Plasma essences interact with each other? Eunae, if you please?”

Eunae nodded at Yoshika and closed her eyes to focus for a moment. Three pale green orbs of flame flickered into existence just above her tails, and she held out a hand as one of them floated over to it.

“Will this do?”

Yoshika nodded enthusiastically.

“That’s perfect. It’s hard to test this sort of thing on my own because I have a limited supply of Soulfire and can’t create more on my own like you can.”

“Perhaps that will change after we’ve refined our techniques some more.”

“Here’s hoping... If the only defense against soul magic is more soul magic, then I’d like to learn it as soon as possible.”

She called forth her own ball of fire, this one the iridescent rainbow of Plasma essence. Yoshika held it out towards Eunae and prepared herself.

“Are you ready?”

Eunae nodded.

“Go on.”

Yoshika took the cue and pushed the ball of Plasma essence into Eunae’s Soulfire, watching eagerly as—nothing happened at all. The essences didn’t interact in any way, both happily existing in the same space without so much as displacing each other.

“Holy shit. Ja Yun, is that supposed to happen?”

The mage shook her head slowly.

“Uh, no. At the very least the essences should be pushing each other away or rejecting each other or...something other than...nothing.”

“What does it mean?”

“Well...this is uncharted territory but it seems to me like they are in...different phases, I guess? Not like water and ice, but rather it's as if one of them is just occupying another adjacent space. Kind of like those fancy formations you were working on with Senior Hyeong.”

With a thought, Yoshika changed their surroundings, placing them within the academy’s library. The tables had been shifted to the side and the floor was taken up by Dae’s soul sight formation—the one that Yoshika had worked with him to make when they’d met back up in Goryeo.

Ja Yun jumped at the sudden shift in scenery, while Eunae just looked around curiously.

“Could you always do that? Rika described her experience in your soulscape, and according to her you had to walk to different locations.”

Yoshika shrugged.

“Eh, that was symbolic. Everything here is symbolic. I’m not really bringing you any deeper into my soul, just to a different concept along the same axis.”

Ja Yun blinked.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Hah! Sorry. Try not to think about it too much, it makes less sense that way. Like a dream.”

Eunae began examining the formation with interest, walking in a slow circle around it.

“I never actually saw this. Dae mentioned it in one of his reports, but the actual spellcraft at work here is quite impressive except—well, this shouldn’t work, I don’t think. It’s missing pieces.”

Yoshika smacked herself in the forehead.

“Oh right! I forgot...here.”

With another thought, the illusion included the spiritual elements of the formation. The full formation was a mess of dense script, written in circles within circles, doubling back on itself and intersecting in impossible ways as it passed through the veil separating the physical and the spiritual and back again over and over. Ja Yun turned away.

“Oh ancestors, that hurts to look at. I’ve seen it before, but I’ll never get used to it.”

Eunae kept staring intently, examining each piece of the formation carefully as if trying to commit it to memory.

“Is this what soul sight looks like to you? It really is remarkably difficult to focus on...my eyes keep slipping off.”

Yoshika scratched the back of her head.

“Yeah, sorry. I don’t think my illusion is doing it justice. Overwriting all the physical senses is one thing, but it’s a lot harder to fool mana senses or a domain. This is the closest I can manage right now.”

“I see. It’s good enough, I think. If you can create something like this, then you can presumably shift your essence into the spirit realm, right?”

Yoshika nodded.

“Sort of. Dae’s method, which he learned from Do Hye, uses a modified version of spellscripting. He makes special talismans that draw the parts of the formation that need to extend into the spirit realm. Part of what made this formation so hard for us to make was that we had to cannibalize the very particular bits of script that Dae knew how to make the talismans for, because he didn’t know how to make new ones.”

“I see. Have you made any advancements since then?”

Yoshika averted her eyes.

“Eh, I’ve been pretty busy working on other things, and without Dae around to help me, my spellcraft advancement was pretty slow so...”

“That’s a no, then. Yun, make sure you don’t let these slackers fall any further behind in their arcane studies.”

Ja Yun straightened her back and saluted.

“Y-yes ma’am!”

“That...wasn’t an actual order, Yun.”

“Oh, uh, s-sorry...”

Eunae returned her attention to Yoshika and frowned.

“Does essence have the same properties within the spirit realm? I was hoping that you’d be able to move your essence freely between realms to test it, but it sounds like that’s not feasible.”

Yoshika scratched her head.

“Well, I’m not sure. Being in the spirit realm is...weird. I can sense auras much more clearly, but the physical presence of things is almost nothing.”

Eunae’s eyes widened.

“Oh, that’s right! You can travel bodily to the spirit realm! Can you take others with you?”

“I’m not sure. When we were cornered by Sovereign Shen I was tempted to try, but Jianmo ended up intervening first.”

The figment of the demon smiled and waved.

“I sure did! I’ll bet that old pervert is still chasing me around the continent. Probably why you haven’t heard from the real me in a while. Don’t worry, though—I’m sure they’ll show up again.”

Yoshika narrowed her eyes.

“That sounds more like a threat than a reassurance.”

Ignoring the demon’s laughter, Yoshika returned her focus to the task at hand.

“I think I might be able to move some essence into the spirit realm using Steps of the Stalker, but the technique isn’t really meant to work that way. What do you think, Heian?”

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The cat spirit glanced up from where she was moping off to the side.

Possibility.

“She says yes.”

Eunae chuckled softly.

“I was able to understand that much, thank you.”

“I have an idea.”

Ja Yun’s voice interrupted, and when the other’s turned to look at her she shook her head and pointed down. Muddy’s mimicry of Ja Yun’s face had gotten slightly better, but still disturbed Yoshika to look at as it spoke.

“Test the flames on me.”

Ja Yun went stiff.

“What?! No! Absolutely not! Muddy, what are you talking about?”

The elemental shifted its form so that its pupiless gaze stared up at Ja Yun.

“As a being of mana, I am more keenly aware of it. In this place without form, you are able to comprehend my thoughts. I will share them with you.”

“Muddy, you could get hurt! You’re still just a baby!”

“I have absorbed enough power to survive something like this.”

Ja Yun shook her head.

“You don’t know that! Plasma burns essence! Soulfire burns souls! Even your father was afraid of it when we put them together as one.”

“The being that spawned me did not fear anything, it simply recognized the danger to its existence and wisely fled.”

“You know what I mean! If even a xiantian elemental was in danger, what makes you think you’ll be okay?!”

Muddy’s impassive monotone cut straight through Ja Yun’s frustration, completely unperturbed.

“You do not have any reason to slay me. I believe you will not.”

Ja Yun ran her hands through her hair and groaned.

“Ugh, that doesn’t mean you won’t get hurt by accident. Your soul is still small and weak, right? What if even just a little bit of Soulfire is enough to kill you?”

“Then I will have died fulfilling my purpose. I will take the risk.”

Ja Yun shook her head.

“No! I won’t let you.”

“It is not your decision to make.”

Yoshika watched the exchange, nonplussed. Since when had Muddy gotten so talkative? Clearly being in her soulscape had been reinforcing the connection to its soul, and if that was the case...

“Actually, I think we should try it. Just a tiny bit.”

Ja Yun turned to her with a betrayed look and Yoshika waved her hands urgently.

“Just hear me out! Eunae’s inner spirit helped me sense my divine spark that way, although it was really painful and I felt like I was going to die...”

Yoshika shuddered at the flat glare that earned her.

“But! We can be a lot more careful. I don’t think the Kumiho cared much whether I survived. She gave me the impression that she was doing it more out of petty spite than a desire to help. I think she was annoyed that I’d managed to get a look inside Eunae’s soul.”

Ja Yun frowned and crossed her arms.

“So you think that we can help Muddy find its soul by setting it on fire?!”

Yoshika shrugged.

“It worked for me.”

Eunae nodded slowly.

“Me too, actually. She did the same thing to me when I first learned to wield Soulfire, and it improved my spiritual cultivation immensely.”

Ja Yun threw her hands up.

“You’re both insane! Cultivation is insane! Why did I ever think it would be a good idea to become a mage?! My parents were right, I should have just stayed at home and gotten married so I wouldn’t cause any more trouble.”

There was a long, awkward silence as Ja Yun’s statement hung in the air. She started to blush and turned away from the others.

“Uh...could you guys maybe forget that last part? I didn’t mean to say that.”

Yoshika nodded.

“Of course—though if you ever want to talk about it—”

“Thanks, but no thanks! Let’s just get this over with alright?”

“Alright...”

Yoshika crouched down next to Muddy and called forth the tiniest mote of Plasma essence that she could manage, holding it out carefully towards the elemental. Muddy reached out with a pseudopod slowly and touched it with the gentle precision of a surgeon.

In an instant, the tiny flame spread across the surface of Muddy’s slimy body, and it began to thrash and scream in a strange, warbling voice.

“AaAaaaAAaaAaaAAAAaa!”

After a moment of rolling, thrashing, and literal splashing, Muddy was able to compose itself and collect its form back into a wobbling spheroid.

“That was extremely unpleasant. Not only is the Fire essence entirely incompatible with my Water aspect, but the nature of the essence is to purge all that it touches of mana. I find it difficult to regenerate the parts of myself destroyed by it—much like your destruction essence, Yoshika.”

Yoshika blinked.

“Um, okay? We already knew...most of that, but thank you.”

“I am simply establishing a basis for comparison. Please test the Soulfire now.”

Eunae hesitated.

“Are you sure you don’t need a moment to recover? That looked...stressful.”

“The harm I suffered was within expectations. Please test the Soulfire now.”

Eunae copied Yoshika, summoning the smallest bit of essence that she could manage and holding it out. Once again, Muddy’s pseudopod reached out to give the essence the barest touch. The reaction was no less sudden, but not at all what they expected.

Instead of the flame spreading across Muddy, both the elemental and the fireball simply vanished out of sight.