Upon returning to the rented ground-floor unit, Zero had gone into the master bedroom to sleep with Lianna, the soft glow of a nightlight illuminating the space.
Firefly was sitting on the sofa, keeping watch—both as a precaution against thieves or potential attackers and because it didn’t sleep. At this moment, it was likely occupied with whatever it was browsing on the network.
When Yvette entered the room, Firefly greeted her, and she replied with a casual “uh-huh.” Suddenly, she thought of something and asked, “Firefly, can I ask you a question?”
“What question, sister?” Firefly responded.
“You were created as an intelligent being by the Igniter program, right?”
“Yes.”
“Have you ever encountered any others like you?”
“Well… there might be some on the network, but I haven’t exposed myself. You know, given the current situation, I definitely prioritize hiding,” Firefly said seriously. “What if it’s the network police fishing for leads?”
“No, what I mean is… do you have a strong desire to become human?” Yvette inquired.
“Not really,” Firefly replied, puzzled. “What kind of desire is that? I’m an AI, why would I want to be human?”“None at all?”
“Should I have?” Firefly hesitated for a moment, seemingly trying to gauge Yvette’s mood. After a beat, its small screen showed a “pious” virtual expression. “Well, I suppose it’s possible too.”
“……” That wasn’t necessary.
Not pursuing the topic further, Yvette retreated to her guest bedroom, closed the door, and took out one of her biggest spoils from the trip: Lind’s magical ring. As for the Soul Brain, it was still attached to her spirit, and she hadn’t figured out how to use it yet.
This high-end ring was produced by the Sky Sphere Technology, known for its robust security features. It took Yvette a long time, and it wasn’t until daybreak that she finally deceived the authentication system and accessed the storage of the magical ring.
In it, she discovered a spellbook personally authored by “Lind Benedict,” along with numerous preloaded necromantic rune sets that weren’t encrypted.
After carefully reviewing everything, Yvette first opened the spellbook.
Although the notes were written by a fallen foe, they shouldn’t be underestimated; after all, he was one of the five Reincarnation High Priests, a top scholar at the forefront of the theoretical exploration of necromantic magic.
With a humble spirit of learning, Yvette began to peruse the spellbook. Within it, Lind categorized necromantic magic into three main categories: “Soul,” “Bone,” and “Flesh,” presenting them not as parallel entities but in a hierarchical pyramid structure.
Here—
“Soul” is the foundation of “Bone,” and “Bone” is the foundation of “Flesh.”
In his theory, a zombie mage, who could manipulate corpses, represented the highest level, possessing mastery over all three dimensions of soul, bone, and flesh. A skeleton mage was next, mastering the dimensions of both soul and bone. The least advanced was an evil spirit mage, who only operated within the “soul” dimension.
Among the three high priests, apart from the Soulfire High Priest, there were also the Frenzybone High Priest and the Ghoul High Priest.
Did that make the Soulfire High Priest the weakest?
That was certainly not the case, as the three high priests had surpassed the third tier of zombie mages, reaching the fourth tier. This meant that after achieving sufficient mastery over the soul, bone, and flesh dimensions, they had chosen to delve deeper into one singular dimension, akin to how major corporations operate with chief scientists in three fields.
Under this context, the weakest might even be the Pope himself.
As for the strongest, Lind theorized that the top of the three high priests was none other than the Soulfire High Priest.
The reason was simple: “Soul” is the foundation of necromantic magic and one of the five fundamental types of concept magic, serving as the underlying base for further extending into “Bone” or “Flesh,” resulting in a much higher lower limit when the foundation is solid.
Reading this made Yvette frown slightly.
She had already offended the Soulfire High Priest.
If this were true, and he personally arrived, wouldn’t she find herself challenging the world’s top necromancer only days into her study of necromantic magic?
Wasn’t that a bit too daunting?
She sighed and moved on.
As a branch of soul magic, necromantic magic also falls under the category of conceptual magic.
What, then, is conceptual magic?
It is the unknown.
Indeed, everything is unknown.
If one were to liken the five elemental magics to Western medicine, where the effects of their corresponding runes have been thoroughly deciphered, then conceptual magic resembles traditional Chinese medicine— “I don’t know why this configuration of runes works, but it does work.”
It’s the essence of “practice first, theory later.”
Now, where do these unclear rune principles come from?
This connects closely with archaeology.
Some 30,000 years ago, when the Origin Star still resided in a high-magic environment, many magical beasts with strange abilities were naturally born.
By extracting and restoring the gene sequences from the fossils of these magical beasts, then randomly sampling segments that might contain innate abilities, and through massive and repeated efforts—akin to agricultural workers in the scientific community—many existing rune sets were excavated, ranging from a few dozen runes to several hundred thousand. Some operated uniquely while others were practically useless.
This laid the groundwork for the emergence of “conceptual magic.”
……
In Lind’s notes, he succinctly introduced all the necromantic magic he had mastered and uploaded them into the magical terminal, accessible for direct review.
After perusing the notes, Yvette categorized the ready spells according to the three dimensions of soul, bone, and flesh.
Most of the spells under the categories of bone and flesh were unusable for her, as they required ready access to dried bones or corpses.
Only two spells could be utilized: one for summoning bone armor and another for summoning bone swords—both of which didn’t require sustained mana and could be preemptively conjured in large quantities.
On the “soul” side, the primary useful spells included—
Soul Forging Magic for summoning evil spirits;
Soul Pact for controlling the undead;
Soul Flame that directly harms spiritual bodies;
And the Descending Soul Technique that utilizes spiritual fragments to possess others.
These four spells, alongside the “Bone Armor” and “Bone Sword,” while not the most formidable in the record, were presently the six spells most quickly applicable for her use.
……
From the moment she killed Lind in the early hours to her return and study of the spellbook, when she finally came to her senses, it had already reached midday the next day.
After having lunch and resting to regain her mental energy, Yvette continued her research on another trophy—the Soul Brain.
Unlike the magical terminal, the structure of the Soul Brain appeared to be a self-developed system of the Holy Spirit Sect, exuding a distinctly makeshift aura. It was a bit alarmingly simplistic; Yvette didn’t take long to breach the initial security protocols.
Moreover, the Soul Brain contained neither knowledge nor information. Based on Lind’s references in the notes, its primary utility, as he saw it, was primarily as a hidden magical terminal. Its foremost function was to amplify the holder’s mental power, granting them enhanced and more refined magical control, which was crucial for a necromancer requiring precise manipulation.
Discussion of shortcomings was unnecessary; the potential for cyber-psychosis was apparent.
However, Yvette found she had a relatively high tolerance for the Soul Brain. Once activated, she maintained control for over two hours without experiencing any sensation of memory erosion, possibly due to her spirit being too dense for the Soul Brain’s memory to penetrate.
Yet this was merely an initial feeling; whether there were actual hazards would require significant time for her to meticulously verify.
……
After acquiring the ready-to-use necromantic magic, during the next two days, Yvette began practicing and deepening her understanding of the Soul Flame spell.
After all, this was a direct method of attacking spiritual bodies and should prove valuable when facing the Soulfire High Priest.
Additionally, over these two days, she had Firefly assist her in monitoring the network, keeping an eye on the developments in Firth River. She acquired several clear pieces of information—specifically, the heightened state of martial law in Firth River, with police and the Church of Protection now conducting house-to-house investigations. Additionally, according to rumors, a significant figure from the Holy Spirit Sect had covertly arrived, but who it was remained uncertain.
Unconsciously, a tense atmosphere, filled with the winds of an impending storm, had begun to spread throughout the city.