Chapter 660: 660. The Empire's Age of Exploration: Fatima Fatesh's Brilliant Operation |
"You're the main assistant?" Fatima asked the doctor who just spoke. She was a petite woman of European descent with brown hair.
"I'm Doctor Ivette Carlson, and yes, I'm your assistant."
"Good. Dr. Carlson, you will be in charge of cutting off the soul piece that will be fed to the flame," Fatima said.
"No problem."
Fatima nodded before continuing to address the team: "Once the flame is dealt with, we will move on to the next step: decomposing the soul." The team looked at her, and this time, everyone looked as if she was a madman.
"We will remove all the corroded parts. You don't have to be gentle or worry about the effects of the healthy soul parts — just remove the death energy," Fatima continued. "Once that is done, our next step is to re-establish the link between them, allowing the soul flame to regenerate the soul. We'll have to provide the flame with an ample amount of soul energy, but that is not our worry."
The room was eerily quiet before the primary assistant muttered, "This might work." Everyone knew that the soul flame was the primary source of the soul, so as long as it remained intact, it was possible to regenerate a complete soul. However, despite this plan sounding perfect on a theoretical level, the practical approach was something no one had ever done before. Was anyone skillful enough to pull off such a profound level of Soul Manipulation?
However, as soon as this team had their doubts, they remembered who suggested this plan: a Grand Arcanist and Tower of Soul Magic. The Grand Arcanist title means her understanding of the Soul has reached the level of law, and being a Tower Master means her contributions have impacted the development of the entire Arcane Empire. If there was someone who could pull it off, it was Dr. Fatesh.
"Of course it will," Fatima said calmly. "Now, let's get started."
"Dr. Fatesh," Chief Sherma said. "This might be a little—"
"I know your office can see the patient's condition. If you have a better suggestion, I'm all ears," Fatima said.
"But…but…Is there really no better way?"
"You can ask the Empire to use the Death Staff to save his life, but that will only put him in a suspended animation state by stopping his death. It won't save him."
Many doctors listened in puzzlement since their security level was too low so they'd never heard of the Death Staff. However, Dr. Foster, Fatima, and the chief had enough security to understand her meaning.
"Very well," the chief sighed.
"Chief…" Dr.Foster yelled, but she was immediately muted.
"We've already wasted enough time, so let's get to work," Fatima said. Without hesitation, she cast a spell to separate the fourth layer of the Soul Dimension from the Third Layer. However, there was still a small connection — the Death Energy. Dr. Tanaka started her work for the final separation. Her work progress was not as fast or smooth as Fatima's, so the latter warned her that they were in a time rush.
Once the connection was utterly severe, Fatima cast another spell that manifested a soul scalpel. Without hesitation, she started cutting off the corroded aspect of the soul flame. Her actions were swift and precise, almost as if she were a sculptor working on their best work. Once the Death Energy was removed, Dr. Tanaka would use her own spell to remove it from the Soul Dimension.
"Done," Fatima muttered before checking on the others. Dr. Carlson and her team were still scraping off Death Energy from the soul. 'They are too slow,' Fatima pondered. Her calculations say they won't be done within the seven-minute window. And if she removed the separation, the soul corruption would just return to the soul flame.
Fatima raised her hand to cast another complex spell, which placed the Soul Flame in a state similar to suspended animation. This gave her more time and prevented any accidents.
"Let me help you." She changed her perspective to the Soul Dimension Third Layer and started helping Dr. Carlson. With her expertise, the team's work dramatically accelerated. Soon, they removed most of the corruption except for one last piece.
"Why does this piece feel like it's fighting back?" Fatima asked.
"I'm afraid it is," Dr Tanaka responded.
"Are you suggesting this string of Death Energy has gained sentience?"
"How?"
"Death and Soul energies are highly compatible, even interchangeable, in many situations," Dr Tanaka explained. "It's probably that this string absorbed a large chunk of the patient's memories and used them to form basic instinct and eventually sentience."
"But what does that mean for our operation?" another doctor asked.
"It means most of the methods we can use to eliminate this string will take too long," Fatima explained. Time was not something they had, and everyone knew it.
"So, that's it? The operation is a failure?"
"Complications are expected in high-level surgeries, and giving up is the last thing that should be on your mind," Fatima stated. "Since the thing is sentience, we will use another will to expel it. Dr. Calrson: use the Soul Materialization Spell to awaken Mr. Ulilanu's consciousness and tell him to help us expel the death energy."
"What?" Dr. Carlson asked, almost stuttering.
"I will be responsible for managing his pain," Fatima continued. If Ulilanu woke up without any help, the pain created by the current state of his tattered soul would be enough to kill even someone with a Willpower of 8.
"Yes, Maam," Dr. Calrson nodded before executing the plan. Soon, a slightly plump figure appeared in the Soul Dimension Third Layer. He winced in pain before a feeling of ease came over. The figure seemed to have received some information that explained his citation and looked at his transparent body.
Without much hesitation, Ulilanu started helping the team expel the sentient Death Energy. With the two working in tandem, the process was swift and effective. Once everything was done, Ulilanu started asking about his current situation. Fatima did not entertain him and immediately put his soul back to sleep.
The next step was removing the severance between the layers and feeding the tattered soul to the flame. The machine started beating, showing signs of the patient's death due to their soul being annihilated. However, everyone ignored these warnings as they focused.
These excellent doctors watched in awe as the soul flame slowly re-ignited the missing part, becoming whole again. It was a beautiful sight, and everyone could appreciate how a high level of magic was used in this operation.
"We're not done," Fatima warned. "Input the Soul Energy to recondense the soul," she ordered. Medici, the hospital spirit, followed her orders. The hospital was one of the best in the Empire, meaning they had a few Tier 9 Aether Core serving as their primary energy source. They also contained the best [Energy Converter] created from Primordial Runes.
Under her order, the mana from the Aether Core transformed into Soul energy before being fed to the soul flame. Then, Fatima started her work of recondensing the souls. Of course, someone of her expertise would not recondense any souls. No, she wanted to recondense Ulilanu's soul perfectly, meaning keeping his previous level and his memory intact.
Luckily, this process could take longer since the flame had been revived, meaning the patient was technically saved. Fatima cast hundreds of spells to ensure she perfectly rebuilds the soul little by little.
"It's so beautiful," Dr. Carlson commented in a daze as she watched that operation, and she was not the only one who felt that way. Numerous Soul Specialists came to watch this operation, and they had the same thoughts as she did.
"Last step," Fatima said. The last step was re-establishing the link between the soul and the body. This step appeared the least technical, but she took it seriously because it would reveal whether the operation was truly a success.
"The data showed the soul is 98% compatible with his body," someone reported.
"So, it's not perfect," Fatima commented.
"Come on, Dr Fatesh. A 98% compatibility means he will only spend three days of rehabilitation before returning to peak help," someone said. A 70% compatibility was the lowest grade for a passing surgery, and those usually require re-doing the surgery, or the patients have to spend years rehabilitating themselves.
Fatima shook her head but did not comment. 98% was not good enough for her—at least, it was not sufficient to save her daughter. "I'll leave the aftercare to you guys. Report to me if something goes wrong," she said before slowly leaving the room.