-You are not exactly wrong about calling her a person. As ILMA, I honestly think that she is that exactly. Maybe not a human being, but close enough. That’s what we aimed for… At least that time…

-That time?

-I mentioned that we created her. It was our attempt at creating something akin to human life without using life magic. And it was not the first time.

-I think she is, maybe the tenth attempt or something? I honestly stopped counting, there were failures. Some were barely working. Some were better than others.

-I am honestly a bit scared to ask… but what was wrong about failures…?

-Ah, it was not that bad. Mostly they were not sentient.

-Not… sentient…?

-Yeah, some were just crude imitations at creating something akin to an interactive discussion partner. You just shove as many questions and answers into one bag and see how that works. The answer is: not well enough.

-I can’t see the point…

-It was only to secure the finances. I honestly was not very happy with that method either, but you do what you have to do. See, without any proof of concept, we’d gotten nowhere. But, it was just a prototype, right? It only had to convince some investors that something like this was possible, doesn’t matter that it was just essentially a scam.

-Wait… and you managed to make something that convincing…? I can’t see how that would be easy…

-It took a bit of time, sure, but it did work. I didn’t feel happy about it, but I was not going to be stopped by just “feeling bad about it”.

-Damn.

-I know. But whatever, we managed to secure the fundings. And so, we started. Of course, the first thing was starting the investigations about life magic. After all, that was the shortest way, right? Of course we had to be “legal”, so instead of trying to use it ourselves, we just used some poor people that already tried using that. It was easy, as soon as the incantations about life magic… “leaked to the public by some unknown third party”, we had plenty of subjects to study.

-Okay, I can see why you liked this world that much… If you managed to pull that out there, and as I understand correctly you were infinitely more advanced than us, here you’d indeed feel like some godlike being.

-I never said I did that. But yes, you are right… This place really feels good. Better than home in most regards.

-Anyway… - I picked up after a moment of silence. - Questionable morality aside, we realized that it was a good idea that we decided on that. As you know, life magic is hazardous to use. If we were to just go ahead with experiments, soon we wouldn’t have anyone on the team. And I don’t mean them leaving. So instead, we focused on trying more technological attempts. Before, there were some projects, some working more than others, but none had managed to use magic in their designs. So we attempted to combine the best of both.

-I thought that both your technology and magic were exclusive…? How did you explain that…

-That one cancels out another - joined in Kon. - I think you said that even here you found proof that it works like that. Was it different in your old world…?

-Nope. Same as here.

-So what gives…?

-I never said we wanted to combine them both directly… At first I mean. We just were learning from failures of life magic. With abominations created, we were getting clearer and clearer picture of what was possible and what not. Trying to remake what people with life magic managed to accomplish, bit instead using as little magic as possible.

-Weren’t you supposed to be called something or other about “magic institute”? Funny that you tried avoiding it…

-Oh, the name was old, before we even tried to get the funds. It was our old group name that we used since school.

-You called yourself “an institute” at school?

-You’re saying that you've never thought of weird names when you were a kid.

-To be honest, I was pretty sheltered…

-Right… there weren’t many people your age in that home arrest of yours… or elves.

-I mean, there were some kids, but I was a bit of a loner…

-Fair…

-Well, in any case - I continued - with that approach we managed to create some subjects, but as I said before, they were just shitty imitations of what we were attempting to make. And I am talking about the better ones. But that direction of thinking was actually quite beneficial to us: we managed to get started as more of a… “problem solvers”.

-You mean more like janitors…

-I guess you can put it like that, yes. We were cleaning after many failures of random people, destroying the abominations and all that. That was when our MIRE actually got its full building purchased and the attempts started for real… this time, with a bit more… advanced approach.

-We went back to using magic, but this time, we actually attempted to merge it with technology. I can already tell that you have questions, and no, it didn’t really work. At first that is. It was clear that we weren’t going to be able to combine those two directly, since, you know, failure of magic near anything remotely advanced, but that didn’t stop us from trying. And then, one day, we switched our approach. So far, we’ve tried… “containing” magic in technology, so to speak. But what if we tried making something technologically advanced using magic?

-Isn’t that the same…?

-That’s what I thought. That’s what we all thought. That’s why we were absolutely stunned to see that we actually managed to succeed a little bit.

-It was just a small thing: we managed to create a small circuit board using only magic. And don’t ask me what that is, I am not going to even try to explain.

-So why even tell us…

-The main point is, it was the start of ILMA. As in the basis of her first body.

-So she had a body?

-Somewhat… the first one was just essentially a handful of components slapped together with magic, but it worked. And then, she was barely even considered an artificial intelligence. She was just a database of our knowledge that we used to catalog all the “experiments” that we both did ourselves and that we were tasked to “clean up after”.

-To be honest, she doesn’t sound too sentient even now… I mean, she never speaks, only answers your questions, or, well, our questions and that’s all.

-I guess… But it is as you said, she did attack some of you, and that is something she never was supposed to be able to. Even in the case of some attack, like she supposedly was acting on in the Red Edge, she would just give us a message, some kind of warning, and that’s it. Sure, we’d be able to instruct her to create a spell that would be useful in current circumstances, but for her to cast it herself? That’s unheard of.

-Her being able to make a spell is something that I can’t even wrap my head around - thought Kon, not hiding his amazement. - I still don’t understand how that works… I mean, you told me, but…

-I was a bit perplexed too - I agreed. - But only because of the fact that she somehow managed to retain that knowledge… and be inside of people of all things!

-Right… How did that happen? I mean, you said that she had somewhat of a body, what happened to it then?

-She had a bunch of them. The fact that she is able to move is not worrisome, the fact that she is able to do it to PEOPLE is concerning. But also probably our fault.

-I feel like you say that every time. My fault this, our fault that… What’s not your fault, huh?

-I fear that not much. All thanks to one stupid idea… The last experiment.

-Last one? Meaning that one that supposedly “created a calamity” and got you here? - asked For.

-That’s the one… I am sad that it failed that time…

-I just hope that you’re not going to attempt that here - she chuckled quietly. - We have enough as it is…

-I already did.

-You what?!

Both of them almost unison bombarded me with their surprise.

-Calm down, I told you that it succeeded, there’s no problems with… well, there’s no major problems, but…

-What do you mean?! Explain, what and where!

-I am. Calm down.

I honestly wanted to tell them. After all that time, it was refreshing to be able to share all my problems with someone. And since I didn’t even have to talk, it was even easier for me to not dwell on it and just go ahead.

-Let’s get back to that day… when we failed.

-It was our first attempt at this. Because, honestly, neither of us wanted to do it. After all, we would be finally using a live subject that was important to us.

-Wait… do you mean that you used…

-Live subjects before? Of course. What do you think, that we just killed all the abominations that we were told to destroy? That would be a waste. And of course, every now and again there were people connected to those “illegal experiments” as they were calling them, that actually survived. Not the casters, of course. Sometimes those were the “masterminds” of the projects as they wanted to call themselves, sometimes just some unwilling subjects taken. We weren’t exactly picky.

-That’s… That’s what you meant back then… when you told Jack…

Kon was a bit horrified. Understandably so.

-Oh, you remember that…? Well, yeah. And before you’re going to judge me, even if we were to let them go, don’t think that they would’ve had a better life as government’s subjects instead.

-Your world was fucked up.

-You don’t say. I am glad that’s gone, to be honest. Besides a few survivors at least. I hope that most of us are dead though.

-I… I had a hard time understanding why you never seemed distraught or… I don’t know, angry or something, about you being in a different world… - said For after a bit of silence - but now I completely understand…

-I wouldn’t say completely, but at least you have a good idea about me. I guess you were not wrong about me being a criminal and exploitative person.

-Why are you telling me this? Why are you telling US? What happened?!

-Happened? Nothing. I was always an open person, in contrast to the rest of my coworkers…

-In contrast?! So far you’ve been hiding things constantly, and yet now you’re telling us everything, and I barely even asked for half of it!

-I guess you’re right… See, I realized something. Something that’s been brewing constantly inside me since I’ve arrived here… and I don’t mean this island, I mean this world as a whole. I just… wasn’t myself.

-What?

-Just let me continue. Our friend here’s going to be busy for a while longer I think, we still have some time.

Her eyes darted towards the guy in question, and sure enough, he’s still busy.

-Let’s get back on topic. About ILMA. She was the culmination of our experiments. An attempt at creating something, finally using life magic. And I know, you’re going to ask: but why? After all, didn’t you spend years and years on researching life magic, don’t you know how stupid that is? And of course we did. That was the whole point. To find a way to avoid the drawbacks and somehow create something without need to, essentially, trade one life for another.

-And you succeeded? I mean, she exists…

-Yes and no. Yes, we did make her, but no, we didn’t succeed in not trading lives. As you know, we did create a calamity.

-But you avoided the first casualty? I mean… I guess that would be a success…? Right…?

-Sort of. See, in our efforts, we realized that completely avoiding death was impossible. But, the question was, what was considered as “death”? Would using our previous subject… one of our previous creations would count as good enough “sacrifice”, so to speak?

-That’s…

I didn’t let her finish.

-The answer is: not completely. See, our creations had one problem, besides their sentience being just a shitty knockoff of a real person: they didn’t have a soul. And I am not talking in metaphysical or religious terms: I mean literally. As they didn’t have mana. That was what we thought that we needed. And, since we had access to the Origin Crystal, we thought that would be enough.

-You… wanted to make an artificial soul…? Holy fuck… I didn’t realize that you were that deep into this…

-Hah. I guess we were… But, we first needed a base. A better, let’s say, brain, for our new subject. And so, ILMA was born.

-She was a piece of work, I can tell you that. It was the combination of every single previous test subject, plus every single piece of information we could gather. It was… good enough. We tested her for a year, and after that we let her loose a bit: let her contact actual people. In containment of course, everything was clearly monitored. And she shattered our expectations. But the problem was still there: she was not there in the main “humanity” aspect.

-What…?

-You were able to tell that she was not a person, right? I mean, her manner of speech was enough. Back then, we masked that a bit using some algorithms, essentially translating what she said from “robot” to “human”. Ish. We managed to fool some people, but it was not enough. That’s when the “soul” came into play.

-Our first idea was to make an artificial one. Origin Crystal and all. But we never were able to make one from scratch. So we went with second best: copying an actual one.

-Copying a person? A person’s soul? Is that even possible?!

-I don’t blame you. I didn't think so either. Yet, I couldn’t help but be curious. What if, am I right?

-That seems like a very smart idea that will definitely not backfire…

-Hah. Yeah, I understand. I know. While I might be a bit of an… extravagant person, I still thought that we had limits. But a certain pair had no stops. Honestly, since I joined them, I guess that I lost my idea of limits, but still.

-It was Iloa. Her idea. Her… she volunteered. To be a test subject for copying a soul.

-And her husband didn’t stop her?!

-At first, he had reservations. But as soon as she presented her first results, all stops fucked off and everything went full swing. Hell, it was the most exciting it has ever been in the MIRE. We made progress. We made something that could work.

-I feel that it’s getting too positive.

-You’d be right. When we had a base of our soul, a chunk of mana that was comparable to what we calculated as a “souls worth”, that’s when the progress stopped. We couldn’t make it… jump-start, you know. It was just there, stuck in the Origin Crystal, waiting dormantly… for something, that we didn’t know what.

-Origin Crystal?! You used THAT as a container?

-And do you think there exists any other thing that would manage to host that much mana? Hah, no. And as you are well aware, we were on point. Besides it being a potent “battery” it is compatible. The three of us are the living proof. There are probably even more of us…

-...

-In any case, she insisted. She would’ve done that either way, so we decided to give it a green light, hoping that we would be able to… well, contain everything.

-But that did not end up well as I understand… What were you doing? What was the result supposed to be?

-Result… well. She thought… we thought… I honestly don’t know what we thought. We wanted to give the small spark… a jumpstart, if you will, to ILMA. And since she was using the base of Iloa’s actual memories and overall mana… we thought that a little bit of her magic, or “soul” so to speak, would be enough to awaken her completely. We were not exactly wrong.

-Long story short, shit just went out of hand really quick. A small “donation” instantly turned to a steady current of mana that none of us was able to stop. You know the properties of Origin Crystal. It started draining her, but even after she stopped touching it, it continued its effect. To the end.

-That… but you said that you met her! That she was with you…

-Inside my head. Yes. Just like ILMA. The process, as you are well aware, was not exactly… pleasant nor contained. The crystal started both draining mana and shooting it wildly everywhere. That’s why I thought all of them were gone. I saw that. But, apparently I was wrong. We, instead of getting drained and turned into ash, just got transported here.

-At first, I assumed that I was the only survivor. That my accidental connection to the crystal saved my ass from draining thanks to me adapting its ability myself. Apparently, I was not the only one.

-What about ILMA and Iloa?!

-That’s… We know both of them survived. But in a different… form so to speak. Since the two of them were the main targets of the whole experiment, they took the brunt of the hit: their bodies destroyed completely, their minds and souls trapped inside the Origin Crystal. And, in the process, in me.

-You’re telling me that you were connected to ILMA the whole time? And didn’t realize it? How?!

-I don’t know. I constantly felt something off with me, but now I realize that it was just Iloa in the back of my head, along with ILMA. Neither was aware of each other. Or at least that is what I want to think. Both of them accidentally, or on purpose, affecting my mind. That’s why I was all over the place. And, to be honest, I still am.

-Even when they are gone…?

-I wouldn’t say that they are gone. I still have a crystal inside me… or, well, I am the crystal. It’s not so easy to just ditch it and not leave some traces still. Right, Kon? I think you probably realized that by now.

-Kon?

For didn’t know. But the same can’t be said about Kon.

I think he realized that a long time ago, but decided to be quiet.