“And… there, I think that just about does it,” Emil said as he took a step back. He had tied Hadwin the cleric to a chair with rope and gagged his mouth. It had taken a bit of work, considering how cumbersome a full-grown man’s body was while unconscious. The knots also likely weren’t the best in the world, but he figured that they would be good enough. But the older man was now positioned more or less where he wanted him.

Emil went over to the kitchen and proceeded to fill a large container with cold water. He carried it back with him, and dumped it straight onto the cleric’s face. Hadwin’s face jolted as he instantly woke up. He tried to move, but very quickly realized what was happening and struggled against his restraints. His eyes were panicked as he muffled into his gag.

“Welcome back,” Emil began as he walked over to the center of the room. “I hope you had a restful nap, because, well, you’ll find out in just a minute. Anyway, I’m sure you’re probably confused about what’s happening, so allow me to enlighten you. But first, can you see what’s next to me?”

Standing beside Emil was the ghost of the now-dead mayor. It swayed back and forth in place, mumbling incoherently under its breath. He watched the cleric’s face as the older man’s gaze searched the room, but never focused on the spirit. Instead, he eventually looked down, and saw what was on the ground. His eyes widened upon seeing it.

The elderly cleric began trying to kick and scream. However, the rope and gag proved it to be a futile effort. Ignoring him, Emil stepped over the body of the mayor, now placed on its back against the floor. He then turned back around to face the cleric, and nudged the corpse with his foot.

“Mayor Duran confessed everything, gave me the full explanation. From the fact that you’re the one that’s been drowning children, to revealing the existence of your Order and goddess. Unfortunately, the mayor died from a heart attack shortly after. Perhaps the guilt and weight of his sins ultimately proved too heavy to bear. It’s a true shame, really.” Emil knelt down beside the body, the light of flickering flames danced wildly in his eyes.

“But if you would like to speak with him again, I can make that happen. I am capable of resurrecting this body, I simply wanted to wait for you to be awake, to witness this. But before I do, I’d like to share some thoughts with you. In the time it took for you to wake up, I’ve had some time to think, and had an epiphany.” Emil looked over at the mayor’s ghost, and then back at the cleric.

“What do you think is the most important aspect of a person, the mind, body, or soul? Some scholars believe it to be the body, saying the other two have no impact on the world without it. Others say it’s the mind, because our intelligence is the main thing that separates us from common animals. Lastly, the soul, the source that holds our connection to the other planes, and allows humans to connect the arcane and perform magical. If you were to visit an academy, the most commonly accepted idea now being taught favors the mind.” As he spoke, Emil reached for the shortsword and held it with one hand. Then he pulled out a memory orb and moved it around between his fingers.

“That’s because they view the mind as the thing that contains your consciousness, that it’s the thing that makes you… well, you. And that the soul is little more but a mass of primordial energy. According to some theories, the mind makes an imprint on the soul. Which is one explanation as to why ghosts have varying levels of their personality from when they were alive. For a while, if you asked me, I would have said that this theory and idea made sense. However, in recent days, I’ve come to understand the nature of our souls in a new light. Simply as a result of being able to view them from a perspective that no other person really can.”

He carefully pulled up the mayor’s robe and undershirt, revealing the body’s torso. Then, Emil pointed the tip of the blade at the body and thrust it right into the center. The steel stabbed into the flesh directly below the ribcage. Blood began to pour out from the fresh wound.

“I think it may actually be the other way around. Just based on how I’ve interacted with souls, I believe that there’s something about them that’s fundamental to who you are as a person. That it acts as the basis from which your mind develops as you grow as a person and experience the world. So that when someone dies, I still believe them to be a person just as much as when they were alive.” He paused to glance over at the mayor’s ghost, it had shown no reaction to his desecration of its former flesh.”

“And that the body simply acts as a sort of shell, keeping them tethered to this world. However, like the empty shell of any other animal, when they leave it, it’s no longer anything special. To me, looking at Mayor Duran’s body, I know that his soul is not inside of it. As such, to me, this corpse is nothing more than a sack of muscle, bones, organs, and blood. Even when cutting straight into it, I don’t feel disgusted or guilty in any way. It feels no different from butchering a rabbit. Anyway, I’m just rambling at this point. I ended up saying much more than I originally wanted to, but I just wanted to say my thoughts out loud. Now then, Mr. Mayor, would you come over here?”

The ghost did as he requested, and approached him. In the time between him killing the mayor and waking the cleric up, Emil had already won the battle of wills and could now command the spirit. Though interestingly enough, it only listened to him begrudgingly and made no attempt to hide the fact that it hated him in its expression. As the ghost drew nearer, he could hear all kinds of curses being said under its breath. Emil turned around, sitting so that he was now facing away from Hadwin.

When it was close enough, Emil dropped the sword and grabbed the spirit by the arm. As he had promised while the mayor was alive, he began to put Soul Manipulation to the test. In his mind’s eye, he visualized the spirit’s memories, will, and everything about it as a book. In it, the various stages of mayor Duran’s life were divided into chapters that filled the first half.

As for the second half, those were the details about him. His likes and dislikes, personality, and ego. Emil hoped that by keeping the two sides divided, then ideally, he could have undead with all the mayor’s knowledge. While at the same time, keeping his conscious self separated away as its own unit. Slowly and steadily, Emil imposed his own will as an arcane force against the ghost. He would mold and manipulate it into the form he mentally pictured.

There was a lot to go through, however. After all, this was a man who had lived to be in his sixties, and now Emil was combing through every minute of that life. But when dealing with matters of the soul, every minute he spent performing this action translated to only an instant in real-time. However, in the corner of his vision, he could see the notifications ticking in as his Mana drained away.

-165 Mana

Beads of sweat dripped off his face. It had taken all his concentration, and well over half his Mana pool, but it was finally done. The mayor’s soul had now been divided into two parts. One was a sphere of pure white, while the other was a rainbow of colors and maintained a roughly humanoid shape. Emil carried them in each hand, and turned back to the cleric. As he did, the older man’s gaze focused straight on what he was holding, and widened with shock.

“Wait, you can actually see these?” Emil asked, an eyebrow raised. “I wonder, is it because I took his ghost and reduced it down into two forms, therefore making them more concentrated? That does bring up the question about why people can only sometimes perceive spirits. Hmm, it's definitely food for thought. But I’ll think about it more later. For now, though, let’s see if I can have the good mayor rejoin us and let him walk the earth once more!”

Lighting flashed across the window as the window shutters struggled against the heavy winds. With a deep breath, he began to perform the next step of his work. This would effectively be the most complicated undead he had made yet. In concept, it sounded straightforward, simply shove the soul back into the body and resurrect it. But from Emil’s perspective, there were a number of steps to follow, and each one had to be done with perfect precision.

First, the two parts of the spirit needed to be kept separate from one another. Just in case, so that they don’t combine again at any point. He would keep the one with the mayor’s personality around the central region, near the gut. When he placed it in the desired spot, it went through the skin and flesh with ease. It almost felt too easy. But maybe it was because, at some fundamental level, the soul desired to rejoin its body? In any case, he would take that part being done.

Next, was the piece that represented the mayor’s memories. Without his actual personality, it was now just a mass of collective experiences. Emil decided to put that into the head, and it too melted easily into its place. Now, he needed a source of energy for the undead to draw from. His original intent had been to use part of the mayor’s soul, but he decided to fully preserve it so that it wouldn’t go to waste as just a power source.

Emil placed a memory orb into the mouth, placing it directly under the tongue. He then began to create threads made from Mana, and poked their ends into the skin right above and below the lips. Once they were all in place, he sewed them together and tightly shut the mouth. This way, even as the body slowly decayed, the jaw would remain closed.

The next few steps were relatively the same as his previous undead creations. It was the biggest body he had worked with so far, so they were repeated at just a larger scale. But with the cleric as his witness for the whole process, he was soon done and now ready. Satisfied, Emil allowed himself a slight smile as he wiped the sweat from his brow.

“Alright, we’re ready to go. In just a few moments, you’ll get to speak with mayor Duran again. Maybe I’ll even have him be the one to remove that gag, so we can all hear what you have to say for yourself,” Emil said as he placed both hands on the corpse’s chest. With his eyes closed, he began to use Undead Creation to raise the mayor as his latest and greatest achievement.