Author's note: slowly, take a deep breath, and don't hesitate to ask about anything in the future chapters.
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[The Novice's Grimoire of Souls — By Leonard Von Saint]
•••
«Soul, Will and Body»
Soul, Will and Body — we always heard about those three, but not all really understood them.
If I asked an S rank awakener about the body, he would say that it's the source of his power, attributes and even talent.
If I asked him about the Will, he would say that it comes from the brain where the memories and the emotions come from .
If I asked him about the soul, he would say it's simply what keeps him alive or may not even answer.
Foolishness Foolishness FOOLISHNESS!
Seeing all those awakeners answering by what they call "Common Sense" without thinking or proving — it's disgusting.
How could they live without knowing how their bodies, wills and souls work?
How could they live without doing their best to understand themselves before even thinking about giving up?!
But I'm different. After countless experiments on real living humans, beasts and awakeners using my special power — I finally knew much about them.
The truth was deeper and more complex than what their small minds could think about.
Their deaths served a real purpose instead of their useless lives.
Even if they bullied my, called my researches pointless and my efforts a waste — they would know soon that there are no useless researches, only useless researches.
The Will. The Body. The Soul.
They are all separated, yet, they affect each other like a perfect circle.
Starting with the soul, it's the foundation of the self. It's made of what I like to call soul essence and contains your consciousness, memories, emotions, mental power, personality, and even intelligence.
Body? Brain? They are only vessels that keep the soul safe and stable.
The soul is like a container full of memories and emoticons, and the brain only opens the container to take what it needs , no more no less.
If you can't remember something, it's simply the brain's fault, because your memories are still there.
The body is only a tool to the soul, and ignoring the muscles memory, it can barely do anything useful by its own.
Then comes the will, it's basically the bridge between the body and the soul. It comes out of the soul to command the body.
There are 2 types of wills that I found until now.
The first type is the permanent or the real wills.
They are the wills that are rooted in the soul and keep growing with it. They are the wills that are rooted in the body to perform acts like moving the body. You can even find one inside the cores.
Unfortunately, I still need to study them.
The second type is the temporary wills.
The soul may suddenly produce a surge of wills from the emotions.
I'm losing against someone, I get angry, my will gets stronger and I gain the ability to force my body to move.
I'm losing against someone, I get scared, my will gets weaker and I end up shaking in my place.
A strong soul and will gives a higher chance for getting a strong temporary will.
They are unexpected and depend on the soul.
In other words, it's like artificial intelligence that performs specific acts using the soul's information and commands like moving the body and controlling my power, works as a barrier to the mind against things like pain and fear or turn into a flaw in the case of the weak will.
All 3 of them complete each other.
Without a body my soul wouldn't be stable and may die in the worst case, a strong will may save it turning it into a ghost but it's rare.
Without a soul then I'm already dead, the body would do all the automatic acts like breathing but without consciousness I'm no better than a living corpse.
Without a will then what is the point of having a body? I would just stay there feeling everything but don't have the will to do anything.
No will to move.
No will to hate.
No will to love.
No will to live.
No will to die.
Of course — there are many flaws to what I said, like the unconsciousness.
If I send my will to move my head, then what sends it to make me dodge a bullet unconsciously?
I need to do more experiments.
•••
«Soul»
The most interesting of them all is the soul.
It's the only thing that I can't make or find a way to live without.
It's technically the real me.
For a soul without a body it can still live as ghosts or spectral monsters. I saw and fought those creatures for a long time to confirm that they are souls — additionally, it's so easy to make a body for them with enough money and knowledge.
For a soul without a will, it's still possible to make artificial wills that work temporarily or permanently. There are many potions and treasures that give wills such as the fear resistance potions that give temporary brave will and the will cores that strengthen or regenerate the whole will.
But the soul is simply unique.
No matter how much I tried, I couldn't make a soul.
The soul essence that makes each soul is different from the other completely, giving each creature its uniqueness.
After years and years of making experiments on humans, awakeners and beasts — I couldn't find a way to remake someone's soul.
It was truly… interesting.
•••
«The Origin of a Soul»
What is the origin of my soul?
That was the easiest and hardest question to answer.
The mother simply… gives birth to it.
The fetus is made first as a vessel, then the soul essences of the mother and the father merge together giving the birth of the soul, then gradually, it grows and gets its will.
But that wasn't always the case.
Because I found out that some mothers and fathers don't give birth to the soul completely, but instead, a half dead soul would find its way into the mother.
That was reincarnation.
A real reincarnation!
Old experienced souls that are stronger than the newborn one getting new lives, entering the vessel, still merging with the mother and the father soul essences forming a new soul, and what was the result?
It was the talent.
Ignoring their high density, 90% of the reincarnated souls I found had high talents in different subjects.
They didn't only carry their former talents, but also got new ones in their new lives.
They got mixed with the soul essence that was supposed to make a newborn soul, turning into something new.
I could know the reincarnators by seeing the difference between their souls and their parents' souls, and may even know who their former parents were if I saw them.
Unfortunately, I couldn't find any reincarnator that had his past life's memories.
Maybe it's just rare, maybe I'm just not lucky enough to find one, maybe it's impossible to keep your memories while reincarnating.
Only the future could tell.
The strongest ranker is a reincarnator, but I'm not stupid to just ask him if he remembers his past life memories and expect the truth — that may also make him suspicious of me.
I can't afford to attract attention now, not yet.
•••
«The Death of a Soul»
The soul doesn't age, but the body does.
Then, how does the soul die?
What is the difference between the death of a body and the death of a soul?
When a body dies, the soul carries the will and tries to find a suitable vessel to reincarnate.
What if it couldn't sense a good vessel?
If it was strong enough and had a strong will, it would turn into a ghost, but if it was strong without strong will, it would turn into a ghost
If the soul and will weren't strong?
The soul essence would start breaking gradually until in the end — the soul would vanish.
There is a second way to kill a soul, and it's the direct kill.
As long as the soul is stable, it will always regenerate its lost soul essence.
In other words, heal its injuries.
How fast it can heal depends on the soul and the will.
Then how to kill it?
The trick is simple, it only heals if half of it is still remaining.
If I cut a soul into 2 unequal halves, the half with less soul essence would vanish while the half with more soul essence would regenerate the missing half.
I only have to cut the bigger half again, making each part smaller than half the soul, only by this way — both the parts would vanish.
But then, what if I cut a soul exactly in half? Would both halves die or… maybe both regenerate?
Could that be the real way of perfect cloning?
Unfortunately, I can't do this.
And I have never seen anyone that can cut anything perfectly into 2 equal halves, talk less about a soul.
But I must keep this theory in my mind, because maybe someday — I would do it.
And if I ended cloning myself… then I can only imagine the possibilities.