One Man's Experiment, Another Man's Life

"Let us see, what am I doing wrong?" Asked Hiroko to himself as he opened the book in his hands and started reading. Hiroko was in the guild's library. Everything was quiet, there was no real activity around the guild hall, and the library was obviously more peaceful than the already calm guild. The title of the book was 'Black Arts'. Not much was known about the black arts. Most strong mages in Fiore knew by now the dangerous abilities of the black arts. They were essentially different magics capable of manipulating life itself. And the strange yet difficult power to achieve had gotten Hiroko's attention many years ago. During the last few months, he had been doing intense research about the black arts. There was not that much information about them in the record; however, he did find some information. And while most of it was useless and just included old legends or similar passages, he was able to find enough information to start learning the secrets of one of them; 'Living Magic'. A magic capable of bringing any creation to life. Legends say some of the strongest demons and warriors the world has seen were actually created by this magic. But legends are just stories. Hiroko was looking for a bit more than that, he wanted to shape the history of the world.

The book he was then holding had a brown cover. It looked like a common book, nothing outstanding from the other books in such library. Inside, information about the black arts had been highlighted by Hiroko. Most of the information was useless since it just emphasized on the dangerous task of using such magic. But the warnings inside the book only got Hiroko's curiosity increase over time. The page Hiroko was reading was the first page of a chapter. The title could be seen in big black letters on top of the page; 'From Life to Death'. There was a specific chapter called 'From Death to Life'; however, Hiroko knew the secrets to living magic, the magic capable of creating life, was in this chapter. Yes, one would have thought the understanding of such magic would be explained in the 'Death to Life' chapter, but after reading the whole book, Hiroko understood the way it was explained was garbage. But he also realized there was important information in between the lines. A book to learn the black arts would never be created by someone sane and that book, while it was indeed rare, was not exactly the only copy in the world. It was a common book, it could easily fall into stupid people's hands. And for that reason, a book explaining how to use Living Magic would never be created.

After reading a few pages of the book, Hiroko placed the book on the desk in front of him and pushes himself away from the wooden chair he was sitting on. He turned around and left the book behind him only to see a chess on the ground. A red magical circle had been drawn around the glass chess. Below the chess, a beautiful brown carpet had been permanently stained with Hiroko's blood when the circle was drawn. Hiroko walked towards the chess board, gently stepping on the bloody carpet and picking the king up. He held it above his head to let the light shine on the carefully made glass piece. "Why did I even make you?" Asked Hiroko just before he violently threw the King chess piece to a nearby wall, easily breaking it and having the glass model shatter into many small fragments. "There is and will only ever be one king here." Said Hiroko as he stepped outside the circle and rose his hands towards the ritual-like setup. "Please my Creations! Stand in front of me and make me proud of your life!" Said Hiroko as the red magic circle started to shine. Hiroko hair started to levitate. Lightning bounced around inside the circle and different items were blown away from near the chessboard. Books, pencils, and other small objects were pushed away as the air blew violently and energy flew from inside the circle.

Hiroko's face smiled in ecstasy as he saw the spell was working. He could feel the unnatural life energy gathering around the board. He was just performing his first creation and knew he would not be able to create a monster with enough power as he would intend; however, the magic energy gathering around was more than he was expecting. The red lightning that bounced around the surface of the carpet mimicked some sort of static behavior. The power could be felt even stronger around Hiroko and a roar was heard from inside the chess. "It is working!" Shouted Hiroko as the chess board started to elevate about 30 centimeters from the floor. While it was still shaking, the chess pieces did not move. The book hall started to get louder and louder. One would of thought those around would cry in anger at Hiroko's chaotic ritual. But he had been careful enough to lock himself inside all alone. Plus Nightmare was not a guild full of readers.

After a few seconds, almost a minute of such a ritual, the circle blew up, letting a loud noise be heard all around the guild building and filling the library with smoke. Hiroko coughed at the result and started to blow the dust away with his hands. He slowly opened his eyes, trying to avoid getting them hurt by the smoke around him. Once he was able to have his eyes halfway open, he saw two silhouettes behind the smoke curtain. Did it work? He thought to himself as he waited for the smoke to clear. Once the smoke was gone, he was finally able to see his creations. Two humanoid creatures stood in confusion. They looked at their hands and quickly scanned their location as well as the man in front of them. They were new to this world and Hiroko's efforts to finally bring something to life had finally given results.

WC: 1016

The smoke finally spread apart, leaving Hiroko in front of his first two creations. He was very aware of the capabilities of each of them. "Hellow my sons!" Said Hiroko as he finally spoke to the two. "My name is Hiroko. You might be confused right now, but don't worry I'll guide you two." Said Hiroko as he slowly walked towards both creatures in front of him with his open arms. The first one was a black shadowy figure. He had glowy yellow eyes and his body was barely holding without disappearing. It was slim and quite short. He looked like a 15-year-old shadow or something similar. The other one was a young man with white hair and quite an elegant outfit. He was quite handsome and had shiny red eyes. "Who am I? Where am I?" asked the white-haired man in confusion. The shadow did not speak a word or made any sound. Instead, it limited himself to a sad confused expression and slow scanning of the world around him. "You're name is Ichiro." Said Hiroko as he gave the white-haired man something to associate with. "You are my first son and it is why I give you that name. You, on the other hand, will be named Noctus." Said Hiroko as he turned to the shadow humanoid. He then extended his hand towards the shadow creature to greet him.

The unspeaking newborn panicked and started to teleport around the room. Magnificent thought Hiroko to himself as he saw the abilities of such being; however, as much as he enjoyed such a sigh, he had to limit the creature only to hear him and stop acting out as he wanted to. After all, they were his children and it was his job to teach them manners. Hiroko crossed his arms and created three clones of himself around him. The clones were quick enough to catch Hiroko's creation and after grabbing him from different extremities, the clones blew up. The creature fell from the air he was teleporting through and landed only about 5 meters from Hiroko and Ichiro. Hiroko could feel how easy it was to defeat his creation but to be honest, it was more than expected. His first creations were still not as strong as he was in any sense. He took a quick look at the ground and just as he thought, the chess peaces were still there. The only things that had disappeared were the pawns and the chess board. Had he accidentally fused them together to make these two beings?

Despite his mistake, Hiroko was still very proud of him finally being able to use Living Magic, and while he was still a long way from perfecting it or even just creating strong beings, he was intrigued by the two humanoids he had just created. The white hair man finally spoke. "So, you mean you created us?" He asked. "Yes, you are very smart Ichiro. I am quite surprised. But I am yet curious, what blessing did I give you?" Hiroko was not sure what abilities did the man have. In fact, he wanted to give the shadow abilities he gave to such pitiful creation known as Noctus to his queen. Or to that about to become his queen. Ichiro looked at his hand and replied to Hiroko's question. "I do not know." Hiroko let a sigh out and then looked back at Ichiro. He opened his palm and touched the man's chest. "Tag" Said Hiroko quite depressively. A small explosion pushed away the white-haired man, breaking through many bookshelves and ending his way smashing his back against the wall. Ichiro's back collided with the stone wall, pushing some blood out of his mouth before he dropped to his knees. He used his arms to hold his body above the ground level. "Why... would you do that?" He asked with some difficulty as he spat some blood. Hiroko smiled I wanted to see if you're abilities had something to do with being beaten up.

Ichiro stood up in anger and dashed at Hiroko in attempt to punch him. Hiroko was impressed by his speed, it was exactly the same as his, making it difficult to evade his attacks. Hiroko tried to land a counter strike with his knee, but the white-haired man was able to block it with his left hand and then jab Hiroko in the face with his right hand. Hiroko was thrown a few meters away, landing on a near bookshelf and making it fall. "Impressive." Said Hiroko as he analyzed the physical abilities his son had. Hiroko stood up and quickly cleaned all the dirt from his clothes. "I am really impressed with your skills." He said. And just as he looked up, he saw a fist about an inch from his face. The punch landed, making the dust previously scattered away to rise and block their sigh. Once the dist calmed down again and returned to the ground, Ichiro was able to see his fist had indeed landed on Hiroko's face, but he had not moved his master a single step. "Would you really like this to continue?" Asked Hiroko. Ichiro backed away in fear as he realized his creator was indeed stronger than they were. Noctus finally stood up and got close to his brother. Hiroko now had both his sons in front of him. "Ichiro. I can feel your power now. You have been given the gift known as lockdown." Said Hiroko. "In other words, you are able to lock magic power inside different objects or even people. Your ability is not as powerful as other gifts I have prepared. But you will most likely become my left hand." Said Hiroko as he again walked towards his sons. "I want you to grow stronger. And I also want you to help me create your brothers and bring them to life." Said Hiroko as he turned to the chess peaces whic where now lying behind Ichiro and Notcus.

WC: 1000
Totlal WC: 2016

Investigation Notes Number 1.

I made my first creatures. I was indeed able to make them humanoids despite one of them not really having a solid body. I found myself reaching a lot of the expectations with these two first creations. They are stronger, yet not stronger than me and are capable of different things. I accidentally wasted the abilities I was looking to give the stronger ones, now I must do further research in other strong abilities to give my future creations. Another mistake I made was fusing the pawns with the chess board. I have not told them yet, but they were created by giving life to the pawns. But noy only that, they were each given a color from the chessboard and now represent the weakest of my army. I have high expectations on the abilities of Ichiro, and while Notcus has great potential, I feel like his magic power has already reached its maximum proficiency.

Investigation Notes Number 2.

I have been training them the last few days and have noticed their existence is completely independent of mine. They need no magic power from my body to keep themselves alive, instead, they have their own personal resource. And while I can seal them back into their respective objects, they are still very capable of scaping. I'm afraid I'll have to wait before making my biggest creation. She has already been designed but needs some last details before being released. With her power, if I am capable of creating her with such abilities, she will be able to defeat even myself. I must first find a way to link my creations back to myself. Maybe using some basic Organic Link Magic. I have yet to find an answer.

Investigation Notes Number 3.

After a few experiments using organic link magic, I was able to in fact link my first two creations to myself. They are now incapable of fighting without me near them. They can now live permanently on their own; however, I am now sure they will not betray me since my mare existence represents their life. They are my experiment and I am their god. My new objective is to master my creations and slowly get to create a stronger one.

WC: 376
Total WC: 2392/5000

"One month has passed and I've treated you like my kids." Said Hiroko to his two creations who were no standing behind him. This time, they were outside the guild. Hiroko wanted to see if the investigation he had previously made was correct. He was going to attempt to create a stronger being. This time even stronger than himself. Because of this, he had to be very careful. He had everything carefully planned, while his creation was not supposed to act too violently because of the nature of the piece he chose, he still decided to keep both Ichiro and Notcus with him. In front of Hiroko, the same blood magical circle was drawn, this time in the grass in the middle of the spooky forest. In the center of the circle, a single chess piece. The bishop. Known as a strong piece of its strategic positioning and long-term value, the bishop was a symbol of matureness, strategy, and mostly elegance. While he knew his creation would most likely not have all the characteristics he was hoping to, he still knew it was likely to have those three. After doing some research, he knew what he wanted for this creation. The gift of manipulation. The ability to make everyone see what one desires. "Let's do this." Said Hiroko as he pointed his hands at the magic circle.

Just as last time, the circle started to shine. Red lightning hopped from side to side, never touching the bishop chess piece which was now levitating a little. Both Ichiro and Notcus were now more than obedient and only stood behind Hiroko to watch how their new sister was born. Wind and energy pushed leaves away and even started to burn part of the grass around them. Noctus had previously scanned the area and was sure nobody was watching nor close enough to accidentally bump into these. "Don't attack unless I say so." Said Hiroko as he wanted the other two about their sister's incoming. An explosion covered the area with dirt and dust. Again, Hiroko covered his mouth and eyes as the cloud moved back to the ground. Once the dust was gone, a female body showed in the middle of the magic circle and the chess piece was gone. Hiroko laughed loudly and got the attention of such female. "Celina! The Black-Moon Bishop!" Shouted Hiroko to introduce the female. After this, silence covered the woods and no movement was made by the group.

"Why is she not moving?" Asked Ichiro after about 5 minutes of silence. Hiroko turned to him in disappointment. "How are you not able to notice? She is carefully looking at us right now." Said Hiroko. Both Ichiro and Noctus were confused. The female was looking at directly at the opposite side from them, but in reality, that was not even the real Celina. After a few seconds after Hiroko's comment, Ichiro understood. "She might bite by the way." Said Hiroko just before Ichiro received a stab through the stomach. He turned down and saw a hand completely passing through his stomach. Blood spilled from his mouth. After a second or so without being able to talk, Ichiro fell to his knees, letting the woman's hand out of his body. She was obviously stronger than the other two creations. Hiroko could tell, not only because of the abilities she had just shown, but because of the magic energy, she was showing. She was able to hide her body but not her presence, or at least not completely. Hiroko understood her abilities, in the end, he was the one who gave her such power.

After the first assault, the woman banished in mid-air, leaving only the three original family members alone. "Get up Ichiro, we have to catch her." Ichiro was severally damaged, but he was still able to fight. While the piercing attack was strong, Hiroko had landed quite a few stronger attacks to his creation. "Quick, let's move." Said Hiroko quite calmly. The shadow formed creature disappeared in between the trees to move quicker and find their target before she got away. Hiroko, on the other hand, helped Ichiro stand up by lending him a hand. After that, he ran towards the same direction he knew his new creation had taken. He did not see Celina move or anything, she had just disappeared leaving no trace. But the truth was she was not exactly much faster than Hiroko and this mage was actually able to sense the magic energy of his target. Celina, while was indeed ahead, could be easily sensed by Hiroko. Celina was just a few minutes old and was still learning about her abilities, but most importantly, she had not been trained now knew anything about this new world. Finding her would not be too hard of a task.

"This way." Said Hiroko as he jumped from tree to tree, scanning every single step he gave and trying to hear anything suspicious. After a few minutes looking, Hiroko stopped moving and stood on the branch of a tree. "Silence." Said instructing Ichiro with a finger to his lips. They both rest on the branch of the tree as they saw Celina on her knees. She felt the grass of such a dead forest and was holding may be the only flower in a big meter radius. It was not common to see one of those around spooky forest. And it looked like Celina found quite an interest for the flowers. "That's a flower. I'm guessing you did not know the exact name." Hiroko had given his creations quite some understanding of the world. Common knowledge and understanding of magic were all they had in their brains. He had still not mastered his magic to give them an understanding of everything around them but he was already pretty close if she recognized something as beautiful. "My name is Hiroko, nice to meet you." Said Hiroko and jumped from the branch he was standing on and landing just a few meters from Celina.

WC: 1007
Total WC: 3399

Everything froze. Celina would not speak to Hiroko and limited herself only to look at him. She was quite curious about what was happening. Celina was made as smart as Hiroko, and her curiosity was just a few levels below Hiroko's. Noby moved and while Ichiro was quite confused for what was happening, Hiroko was able to understand everything. Without letting the white-haired man behind him notice, Hiroko whispered a few words. "You are by far my best creation, let me test your strength by killing the other two. I will help you and I promise, after today, I will focus on helping you grow stronger." Suddenly, like out of nowhere, Celina appeared just next to Hiroko, only about 10 centimeters from him. The woman in front of Hiroko and next to the flower banished, it was an illusion. "Your abilities are very impressive. Very dangerous." Said Hiroko just before the white-haired man known as Ichiro was yet again stabbed in the stomach with a hand. He tried to speak in confusion, but no words came out. Instead, a bloody struggle of sounds announced their way towards Hiroko just before he fell down and landed just beside the tree. He used his two arms to push himself back up and sat looking at the woman who was just standing in front of him. "Please master..." He said speaking to Hiroko. "Help me." Hiroko smiled in a very dark way, showing Ichiro he would not save him this time.

Ichiro suddenly received some sort of adrenaline rush. His body started to move as if it was not even damaged at all. Celina tried to land a kick on Ichiro, but before she actually made her hit possible, Ichiro jumped backward, landing on his hands before getting back to his normal standing position. He now understood Hiroko would not help him, but he also knew Hiroko would not attack him either. Because of that, he did not care for Hiroko standing behind him. Ichiro focused his abilities to try and sense the enemy. He now had a better understanding of Celina's abilities and could even sense her magic power to find her location. He felt the energy behind him and quickly jumped forward, evading another hand stab across his chest. Hiroko was impressed, it had been a while since he saw Ichiro fight with his full power. "Merge" Shouted Hiroko letting his shadow made creature understand he could help in the fight. Noctus was hiding inside a tree's shadow. Once Hiroko gave him the signal, he proceeded to use a powerful technique they had learned quite a few days ago. Noctus rushed inside Ichiro's mouth just after transforming into pure darkness. Ichiro's body turned black, his wounds closed and magic energy started to push away from the spot. The grass moved and some dirt started to rise, leaving some small holes in the ground.

Hiroko was actually very proud of his creations. It was impressive what Living Magic was capable of. By giving them a life of their own, they were able to get stronger and maybe one day even grow stronger than Hiroko. That was of course quite scary for him. He needed to feel superior and so, he had to be more careful when creating his experiments and giving them a life of their own. After such a powerful demonstration of energy, Hiroko stepped back, leaving his three creations to fight. He was, of course, expecting a fight to the death, but he was still not sure which one of his creations would win.

The fight began and the now enhanced Ichiro, who now looked like some sort of a black demon, rushed towards Celina at incredibly high speeds. Celina's body instantly banished as she was only a projection. Ichiro struck the tree behind such projection, instantly destroying it and having plenty of dust float from the ground. Celina appeared behind him and attempted to land a jab with her open palm. Her hand was actually able to pierce most things with ease, it was part of her ability, but it was not fast enough to damage Ichiro this time. He jumped and turned towards Celina in the air. A black sphere started to grow in front of Ichiro. Celina changed her neutral look to that of a worried one. It was easy to tell the attack was pretty strong and quite a threat for Celina. The blast was shot at her, generating a black explosion able to push away and destroy many trees surrounding the area. Celina stepped back in order to avoid the full blast but was still quite damaged. In fact, she was now missing her left arm. The attack had easily burned it of with its corrosive nature.

The creature attempted to attack again as he kicked the air to impulse himself towards his target and prepared his claws to stab her. Celina however, was this time an illusion. The creature passed through her body and crashed on the ground, leaving another hole in the ground similar to that of a small meteor. He turned and saw Celina who was now making a magic circle above Ichiro. "Ildom Uemura Kanjo" Said Celina as a black energy stretched from above the creature and bound it's for extremities. Celina then summoned 5 copies of her around the now bound Ichiro. "You shall die with pain." They all said at the same time as their hands turned black and quickly stabbed Ichiro and Noctus together. Their hands pierced through the creature's body, but instead of the instant death Celina was expecting, the creature howled hard enough to move the tree leaves of the few trees still around. Just after that, the magic circle and the clones started to disappear. "Block" Said Hiroko "The name of Ichiro's ability, he is able to block the movement of magic energy, essentially making him able to uncast any spell as well as limit someone only to their physical abilities."

The clones were finally gone and the magic circle had faded, but not only that, Ichiro's wounds were now gone. He quickly closed them with his dark energy and dashed towards Celina. She only had one ability left. It was simply her strongest resource. A black cube appeared in her hands as the monster in front of her got closer and closer. "Fade away." She said as the cube grew surrounded both herself and her enemy. Hiroko was not able to see what happened inside the cube, but it was not necessary, he knew what that ability was. The cube was able to block all 5 senses of anyone inside, slowly killing them in an unexplainable feeling of unexistence. However, it did not take as long as Hiroko thought. Only a few seconds after, the cube banished, revealing Celina in her feet with both Ichiro and Noctus on the ground in front of her. It was not difficult to tell both of them were dead and there was now only one woman standing. Hiroko slowly walked towards her and realized she was very damaged and exhausted. "Godo work Celina... sadly, I'll have to kill you." After Celina's expression changed to that of fear, Hiroko's open palm touched her chest, pushing her away and instantly knocking her out. She was not yet dead, but if nobody treated her, she would quickly die.

Hiroko was proud of his experiment. Everything had gone more than perfect. And so, he turned back and started to walk towards the golden fortress of the guild Nightmare.

WC: 1256
Total WC: 4655

Investigation Notes number 4.
The last experiments were more than great. I've done quite some research and am now understanding how to make them stronger, better and more dangerous. I am coming to understand their personification and the way they think. At the moment, I have no experiments alive, however, there is much more yet to do. Today is actually the day I will attempt to create my most appreciated being. A humanoid, my son. At least that is the plan. It will take a while to perform, but once I create him, he will be the strongest of my creations. Note: nobody knows about this experiment yet.

Investigation Notes number 8.
Again, I have failed to create my son, but as I was reading about this, I found quite some interesting information. I found a way of creating creatures way superior to myself. Devine entities able to do whatever they wish. I do not know what I need for this, but the investigation will be continued while my son is perfection. In other notes, this 5th try of creating my son has been the most disappointing of them all, it looks like I am still not yet in complete control of this magic ability. I am still in need of practicing much more, but the practice will come as a try. It will come in practice.

Investigation Notes number 10.
I have gotten further than ever. I've created a son of mine, however; an incident took him away from me. I had finally created a boy who would fight alongside me, but as the testing began, he started to get scared. He was very strong, and while not stronger than me, he was easily able to put a good fight and eventually escape. He took another of my creations with him. He was still not ready and was not even completely alive yet, but I have learned and this shall never happen again. I looked for my creation, but nothing was every found. I hope to see him one day.

Investigation Notes number 13.
Again, I have failed. But I'm getting closer. However, the big achievement today was my investigation. I will soon be creating a god. A divinity. Much stronger than me, but able to comprehend my needs and help me achieve my goals. It is a dangerous task but I have finally understood what I need to bring such creation to life.

Investigation Notes number 14.
I am finally a father.

WC: 414
Total WC: 5069