บท 33: The consequences of 'peeping' into a dark place

The next 2 days passed in a blink.

I met with Barbara again to get her on board with my plan.

When she heard the name I chose for the business, she had stars in her eyes. I think girls her age are in love with the idea of romance.

I secured her help easily after that, she would read the same letter Noelle would in another place. Considering how popular she was, I didn't need to fear that people wouldn't learn about it.

Jean was in for a big surprise.

"Kenshin!" Amber saw me and hurriedly approached.

I wanted to get Amber on board too, but she was smarter than Noelle and Barbara, she might realize that my intention was not good at all. I only wanted to make fun of Jean after all.

"What does my favorite bunny-haired girl want?" I asked calmly while eating a chicken mushroom skewer.

"Mou!. I told you not to call me that" she complained with a pout. "It's only my ribbon"

"That looks like bunny ears" I pointed out. "Anyway, what did you need?"

"Albedo came back" Amber said with a smile. "I knew you were looking for him so-. Kenshin?"

"Alchemist!. Wait for meeee!"

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I immediately identified the alchemist in question. Simply put, he is not human.

His soul was made to look exactly like a human's but it was not. It's almost as if you wanted to copy a very famous painting, you can get very very near perfection, but even the slightest of details can give you away.

"Do you need something?" the non-human guy asked me.

"Yes, what are you?" my curiosity was acting again.

"I'm afraid I don't understand your question" Albedo replied with a straight face devoid of emotions.

"You are not human right?. I can sense that you are very close to being one, but are not human" I explained with my own straight face.

"Indeed, I am what you can call an homunculus" he replied without any inflexion in his voice.

"I haven't heard that word in my life. Are you an artificial soul?. I sense your soul is too close to that of a human to be a mere coincidence"

"Hmm, yes I am. I deduce you can somehow sense souls. Is that related to your eyes?" he inquired without expressing surprise.

"Yes, I can see souls and curses, and everything in between. I wanted to ask you for help. I have a soul that needs a body, do you know how can I do that?. In case you can't, I was told a woman called Alice could help. May I know where she is?"

"That won't be necessary. Crafting bodies is not a problem for me. In exchange I would like you to participate in a few experiments involving your ability" he suggested.

"If they won't maim, cripple or impede me in any way, I agree" I obviously agreed.

"Then let's meet tomorrow morning here" he said.

"No problem" I agreed again.

We both walked on our way. My face was still calm and relaxed.

I left the city and started climbing a random mountain, after a lot of sweating I finally reached the top.

"YAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

I was euphoric. Happy, excited, emotional, whatever you wanted to call it, I was feeling that.

'Did you hear that Guizhong?!. We can craft a body!'

'Yes, but you should be ready to be disappointed, I don't think it's going to be easy' she tried to calm me down, but I could sense some hope in her voice.

'That doesn't matter!. We can learn how to craft a body, after that we only need to adjust the process to make a body similar to yours!'

'Yes, but we need to be careful about that. I am still a god, a powerful soul. I don't know if this alchemist can craft a body able to house my soul' she said with worry in her voice.

If the body is not good enough for her soul, her soul may suffer backlash and be damaged, so we would need to wait until her soul has recovered to try again.

'Not a problem, I can still seal your soul again to try again. With a body and my ability to seal and make your soul recover, we can afford to fail no matter how many times'.

Yes, it was a perfect plan.

I slowly went towards Mondstadt after having released my energy in the form of screams. Nearby the gate, a kid with long dark blue hair was sitting. He looked to be my age, maybe a year older.

'Coming to Mondstadt has been the best idea I have ever had. Look Guizhong, 3 peculiar souls in a single day'

Yes, this boy's soul was special, but not as much as Albedo's 'artificialness' or Signora's. Honestly, hers was extremely peculiar.

This boy's soul had a darkened part, and it was somehow being contained by a small sheet of 'white paper', that kept this darkened part separated from his main soul. I remember having seen this color somewhere, but I don't remember where.

In any case, I was too happy to listen to another tragic story, that was what this guy's face was screaming. I will ask him another day.

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"There you are, I have been waiting for a while" I said to Albedo, who looked ready to go on a trip to the mountain and got with him a canvas. I knew better than to question the guy who may have a solution to Guizhong's body.

"Hmm, I am ready. We should go outside, this is something a few people don't approve of" he mysteriously said, and led the way to a nearby mountain.

It was early in the morning, so nobody was near us.

He then proceeded to paint a butterfly, and suddenly the butterfly 'escaped' the canvas. This insect had the same artificialness that his own soul had, but it was impressive anyway.

"This is called the art of Khemia, focused on the creation of life. I can paint something, and it will give me life. As you can probably see with your eyes, it's not perfect. That right now was merely the 'imitation' of a butterfly, not a real one" he explained something amazing with a straight face.

"I don't need life. I already have it, I only need a container to house it. It must be a human one, preferably a female one" I'm sure the Boss won't complain, he can change his form anyway.

"That is a bit complicated" said Albedo. "I was told not to create anything remotely similar to human life, but if all you want is a human body, we can work on that".

I'm feeling hopeful again. We only need to iron out some details, but I thought about this during these last years in Inazuma. I couldn't do anything, but if we somehow learned how we would need to be prepared.

"The body must be a special one. I have the soul of a God, so the body must be strong enough to house it" I clarified.

"Then the difficulty has gone through the clouds" said Albedo with his straight face. "The bodies I can craft are designed to house the soul of the form they have. If I tried animating the soul of a boar inside the body of an ant, the ant would explode, unable to resist the pressure the soul puts on the body".

I thought that would be the case, but I was prepared.

"So you need to paint a God, or I should weaken the soul enough to fit the body" I deduced.

"Yes, but I can't paint a God"

"That won't work then. My friend's romantic interest is a God, and if she is in a human body, she will die too soon" I mused. In that case, asking the Shogun for a puppet would be a better option."What if we let the soul of my friend paint her own body?"

"That can't be done" Albedo denied my idea. "To 'paint', you need to be able to interact with the world, and a soul can't do that. Even something like a ghost can't 'paint', sure they can put colors on a canvas, but that is different to the 'painting' we are talking about"

Hmmm, I see the problem. You need to somehow put the 'life' in the painting, and you need a body to do that. The soul alone can't go out of the body to- hmm?.

"Hey Albedo, I think I have an idea". Yes, this could work. In fact, it's revolutionary, this could change things forever. "The soul can't 'paint' because they need a body, and they can't 'insufflate' life to the body right?"

If the soul needed a vessel to live in, this vessel was a body. Of course, this vessel needed a living body, so the soul could 'paint' the body, but couldn't 'give life' to said body.

"Yes, that's correct" he agreed with me, making my idea gain credibility.

"What if we can make the soul 'paint' from the 'inside'?"

"Explain it" Albedo replied with a straight face, but I could feel his curiosity brimming from his soul.

"We gave the soul a living body, and let the soul 'paint'". I'm a genius.

"That can't be done" he denied. "A being must have a soul at the same time the body is given life. You could make a living body, but the soul won't be able to enter it"

"Oh, but I can do that. I'm the best at manipulating souls, I can put the soul inside the body at the same time you give it 'life'". With this, Guizhong's soul can be introduced into the body at the exact same moment it's given life.

"If you are talking about the soul of a God, it's still impossible" he once again denied my plan. "I can't 'paint' the body of a God".

"I told you, you don't 'paint' it, leave it to the soul. My plan is to let the soul mold the body, after all, the soul must recognize a body as hers" I explained.

"You are telling me to give life to a body not yet 'painted'" mused Albedo.

"Yes, you craft a 'ball', I introduce the soul the same moment you give this 'ball' life, and then the soul makes the ball automatically turn into the body she had when she was alive". Yes, this could work, and Guizhong will have the exact same body she had before her death.

But this is far grander. This is a method of revival, granted that the soul remains. And of course, my help is necessary, there is nobody out there who can play with souls as well as I can.

If I have the soul, with the Art of Khemia we can craft the exact same body the soul had. There are a few little problems, ones that will make normal souls be unable to enjoy this. I can't 'reincarnate' human or weak souls, they are not 'firm' enough. But with stronger souls, I can do this infinitely. Even if said souls deteriorate with time, I can heal them using my ability at the expense of my own soul, but I can recover with time.

"Indeed, this could work" replied Albedo with a small smile, the first I saw him do.

"Be careful with this" suddenly a voice reached us. It came from the air, and I recognized this green hue around us.

"Barbatos, come and talk, if this is dangerous, I would prefer knowing before putting my friend in a dangerous situation". I'm not going to take any chances here.

A green silhouette materialized before us, but it had no face, looks like this guy wants to keep his identity a secret. Albedo didn't change his face, but the shock was there, only that it wasn't reflected in his face.

"Albedo, Alice warned you before, the Art of Khemia is dangerous. It is the reason a kingdom fell 500 years ago. Creating life is prohibited by the Heavenly Principles" he warned us.

"Barbatos, are we really creating life?. The life is in the soul, and we are not creating that. The only thing Albedo is going to do is make a ball of flesh 'breathe'" I said seriously. I'm not trying to convince him, but I need to know the risks we are about to take.

"I don't know. The only thing I know is that you are playing with fire. If you are going to proceed with this, be sure to make it far away from Mondstadt" he said, and promptly disappeared.

We fell silent for a while, thinking about what Barbatos told us.

"Albedo, is what we are doing that dangerous?" I loved Guizhong like a friend, but I wasn't going to risk millions of lives for her.

"Let me show you something" he said, and started painting again. "Look carefully now. This is what I wanted your help for, observe the exact moment where I create a soul for the body".

I watched what was happening carefully. He did 'something', that I was sure was the main step of the Art of Khemia, and a soul appeared. It wasn't a sudden thing, I saw how a few streams of 'soul' were sucked into a point, and the imitation of a boar soul was molded using those streams.

"Albedo, repeat it, please. Try to condense a bigger soul" I asked him.

"Hmmm, you know that I 'condense' them, I guess you saw something" he muttered, and proceeded to paint a Geovishap, a particularly annoying creature that lived in Liyue.

I saw the same streams appear, but this time there were more and bigger. I tried to see where they came from, so I approached my face to the point the stream was being released.

'Kenshin, stay back, I don't like this' Guizhong muttered, but I was too focused on what I was doing.

A tiny hole opened, and the stream was being released. I tried to peer through the hole, but I couldn't see anything. Until I saw it.

I didn't see it with my eyes, I sensed it with my soul. I had no form or color, I'm not even sure I should describe what I did as 'seeing'. Just like entering in the shadow of a huge mountain on a hot day, you feel surprised by the sudden cooling and look up, to see an enormous mass of rock and stone, the same happened here.

I was suddenly looking up at an enormous creature. That was all I could do, I was too busy trying to understand how big it was to realize anything else. I knew one thing.

If this being came into Teyvat, the fall of a nation was not a problem. The whole world would crumble under the might of this being.

And then it 'looked' at me. Again, not with his eyes, but his existence noted that there was something here, something that wasn't him.

I felt how a planet suddenly was focused on me, crushing me with the mere pressure of his gaze. I didn't sense interest, anger, shyness or sadness. It just noticed me.

And under that pressure, I couldn't run. My whole existence was frozen, if this thing focused even a little more on me, I would disappear. I wouldn't be killed, stomped or crushed. I would simply disappear, like a sugar cube in a glass of hot water, my abnormally strong soul would just be dissolved in this thing.

I couldn't see anything. I couldn't move. And soon, I won't be able to think.

I understood that when that moment arrived, Kenshin would be dead, and yet I couldn't react.

Maybe this is what people saw when a meteorite was heading towards them. You recognize the danger, but your mind and body are too shocked to form a response.

'KENSHIN!!'

I heard something, but I couldn't understand what those sounds were. That combination of sounds reminded me of something, something important. but I can't remember what.

I am..starting to th...ink a bi....t slow no.....w.

Suddenly, I took a huge mouthful of air, my body hadn't been breathing for a while. I still couldn't see anything, but I could feel my body again.

'Kenshin!!. Are you okay?' I could understand Ghuizong now.

"I-I am go-good" my body still wasn't answering me that well.

The frequency and amplitude of the tremors in my soul were telling my mind what to do, and the mind would communicate it to my body.

Maybe that's why souls like Guizhong's have all the memories and thinking abilities, and they are not floating around like rocks. The soul is the life, the body the mere vehicle.

"Are you okay!?" this time was Albedo. I can see perfectly his soul now, a masterpiece without a doubt, but a step short of that of a human. Yes, he lacks a bit here. Oh, and that area is a bit different, maybe if I can-

'Kenshin shut up!'

Oh, I didn't realize I was saying it out loud.

"Albedo, get this thing off my face, my hands are trembling too much" I said, trying to point to my face.

'Ohh, Kenshin' why does Guizhong sound so sad?.

"Kenshin, there is nothing over your face" the worried voice of Albedo reached my damaged ears.

I had lost my sight.