What were the undead? If someone asked this question, everyone would have their own answer.
"Undying villains, destroyers of Order, existences that should be purified by Holy Light." This was the standard Holy Light answer, as well as the mainstream view of this world.
"Miraculous creations created under certain conditions are existences that are the complete opposite of living beings with life energy. There are two main conditions for their creation: sufficient negative energy, and soul shards …"
This was the standard answer of a mage, with comparisons and hypotheses. Professional undead mages would probably add a bunch of comments, such as the types of undead, the necessary requirements, and so on.
"I like the term 'miraculous creations', but forget about negative energy. The first undead didn't have any negative energy at all. They were usually noble and unyielding war spirits."
As the first undead, Aillé once mentioned that the first undead were naturally born. They were brave warriors unwilling to die. Only those with undying wills that were strong enough to resist the Cycle of Reincarnation would be able to walk out of their graves by themselves and transform into the undying Valkyrie. Yep, they were also the legendary natural undead.
Everything originated from the soul. Those who were able to use their pure souls to resist death's sweet eternal slumber were all extraordinary historical figures. There might not even be one in every generation.
The later undead were created by demons to study how Valkyrie was created. In order to allow the undead that didn't reach Valkyrie's standards to move, they used negative energy from the lower planes to fill in their bodies. This special type of negative energy came to be known as the power of death.
This was a power that originated from the Chaos Abyss. However, it possessed bloodthirsty, insane, and chaotic natures. Even a wise archmage would become insane and incomprehensible after transforming into a lich due to the loneliness of living in solitude and the corrosion of negative energy. Low-level undead that only relied on negative energy to move about were even more bloodthirsty killing machines.
And now that I mentioned the classic undead created by negative energy, it was time to talk about positive energy and negative energy.
Positive energy and negative energy were two types of energy that counteracted each other. There were many types of positive energy, with the most common being Holy Light and the power of nature. Many angels and God Envoys in the upper planes could almost instinctively use these types of energy. But the reason why they were called positive energy, apart from the fact that they were commonly connected to the Source of Order, was that these types of energy were often beneficial to the living and could even heal injuries.
On the other hand, negative energy was the opposite. Due to the rise of undead and undead magic, negative energy was now equivalent to the undead's power of death. However, this type of energy was harmful to the living just by coming into contact with it. It was the most important nourishment for the undead. The so-called Death Planes were where negative energy and the power of death gathered.
For an ordinary mage, this level of research would be more than enough. After all, all sorts of offensive spells such as exhaustion rays, curses, mental retardation, negative energy contact, and so on only required one to follow the classic spell model and create a specific type of negative energy, then toss it out in a specific way to injure others.
Since negative energy was the undead's most foundational energy source and filler, it wouldn't be enough for an ordinary mage to study it. It could be said that most undead mages had done quite a bit of research into negative energy. Instead of summoning the undead, there were curse masters who specialized in negative energy type offensive spells. This was the most famous branch of undead mages.
But interestingly, the same type of negative energy spell would be highly damaging to the living, but it would be a light of healing for the undead. Could it be that life and death were such opposites?
Perhaps in the eyes of other mages, this was nothing more than a natural phenomenon like rain after dark clouds, but I was quite interested in researching "why dark clouds form" and "how raindrops form."
The body would still be the same body, and the soul would still be the same soul. Could it be that the difference between life and death was only limited to the power of death or the power of life? Could it be that life and death represented two completely different forms of existence?
Why was it that some Valkyrie were even more powerful than when they were alive, while the undead were generally weaker in power, and their potential for development was greatly limited? Just what happened during the transition between life and death?
When I was at my craziest, I once conducted insane experiments. Every step of the transition between the living and the undead was recorded in a chart. After hundreds of precise experiments, I came to a very strange conclusion.
In my previous world, a person's body mass would decrease by 21 grams after death. In this world, this mysterious 21 grams still represented the mass of the soul. But unlike my previous world, souls existed in this world, and there were also undead magic spells that allowed the soul to return to the physical body … My conclusion was that after transforming into an undead, the weight would return to the body, but it would definitely be less than 21 grams!
"The amount of soul that returns ranges from 1 gram to 20 grams. In that case, the irreversible process of death is that the soul will shatter first. At the very least, a portion of the soul will vanish without a trace."
Afterwards, I used my enemies to conduct a series of experiments on the transition between life and death. This included making the living and the dead coexist at the same time, causing the living to directly transform into the dead while screaming in extreme pain. The change in the soul's weight was still measurable. All the souls of the dead would lose a portion of their mass. This was unavoidable.
Even if I knew that the soul's mass was lacking, what was the point? Heh heh, for mages, knowledge itself was power. It all depended on how you converted it.
Not only did I obtain first-hand information on soul conversion, I also unexpectedly discovered a conclusion. The lower the level of an undead, the lower the soul mass they would have. Typically, three to five grams would be enough. Any more soul fragments would naturally dissipate, and the only thing that would make up for the lack of soul fragments would be the so-called negative energy.
"In that case, can I hypothesize that the more complete an undead's soul is, the stronger they will be? Or perhaps the opposite is also true. The undead's level determines how much of their soul and intelligence they can retain."
This research result doubtlessly matched the fact that low-level undead were foolish, while high-level undead were capable of retaining their intelligence and memories from before they died. However, just this result alone was still insufficient to satisfy my research expectations … which was why I viciously experimented.
Alright then, I was indeed rather insane at the time. Otherwise, I wouldn't have kidnapped two Valkyrie, the God of Holy Light, and conducted all sorts of experiments on them.
I dissected them, extracted their souls, and then placed them back inside. I also tested the Valkyrie's body's capacity to hold low-level undead souls, and so on. Before the two Valkyrie's souls became nothing more than fragments that couldn't be pieced back together, I obtained sufficient experimental data.
The results were quite astonishing. The Valkyrie's souls were astonishingly complete. Their souls weren't 21 grams, but rather 23 grams and 25 grams!
And after dissecting two living Saint-ranked undead, I confirmed that all living Saint-ranked undead souls weighed 21 grams, which wouldn't change due to the difference in power level. In that case, the only possibility was that their souls had increased in weight when they transformed into Valkyrie. Since a decrease in the soul's mass would mean a decrease in power level, wouldn't an increase in the soul's mass represent some sort of evolution and sublimation?
As for Valkyrie's souls, they indeed had obvious advantages over common souls in all aspects. Just their souls alone had natural magical resistance, and they were also capable of increasing their physical body's power level. They were even capable of switching between different physical bodies without dying due to their souls shattering … Fine then, it seemed that I had gone overboard back in the day. Even the sturdy Valkyrie's souls were reduced to mere fragments.
In that case, my conclusion and experimental goal were revealed … If I was also capable of increasing the soul's mass, would I be able to create "undead" that were even stronger than Valkyrie's?
And so, my premise and experimental method were confirmed … Valkyrie was usually the sublimation of ordinary souls. In that case, what exactly happened during the sublimation? What was it that caused Valkyrie to become Valkyrie?
Only the venerated would be able to accomplish heroic feats and be chosen by the Gods to become Valkyrie? I laughed at the Church's methods. I wasn't a theologian, I was a scientific … mage. As long as I had enough experimental materials, such mystical things could still be transformed into actual experimental data and conclusions.
And so, I set my sights on several famous heroes. Through various methods of tempering, scheming, and cruel battles, I had them die at the most glorious moment of their lives. The first few dozen heroes only provided me with undead subordinates that were far above average in quality. However, the priest named 219 actually succeeded in transforming into Valkyrie, and I recorded the entire process of his transformation.
Sacrifice. In the face of despair, he ignited himself in order to protect his companions. A wall of light blocked the undead from invading, and at that moment, he also died …
The world's recognition? A venerated spirit? No, no, as I've said before, we mages don't believe in such mystical things. With sufficient data and samples, we can find out the truth behind those hypocritical slogans.
"The spirit and resolution of sacrifice? Virtue, or rather, stubbornness, or more accurately, 'intense emotions, emotions so intense that they can interfere with the world' … I never expected that it would be the same thing as the creation of natural undead. "
Although I had such a conclusion, as a strict researcher, I naturally had to be careful in verifying it. And so …
"I'm unwilling to die here," "I still have things to do," "Is my sacrifice really meaningful?"
When I used undead magic to repeatedly inject these intense consciousnesses into an individual, causing them to explode with intense emotions before they died, theoretically speaking, I should have been able to obtain an artificial Valkyrie.
In the end … I failed. What I obtained was the most berserk evil spirits. They furiously attacked everything before them, and this still didn't explain why the soul would increase in mass. After all, even if a powerful stubbornness ensured the soul's completeness, where did the extra mass come from?
And so, I repeatedly thought back to that successful Heroic Spirit 219 and completely simulated the environment of that Heroic Spirit 219. However, I removed certain conditions one by one in hopes that I could find the critical point that I had overlooked … It was likely that during those two years, the Holy Church would have been quite confused as to why seven or eight heroic spirits would suddenly appear in a single year that hadn't been seen for ten years. Not only that, more than ten times the number of elite priests would suddenly die.
Finally, after I removed one of the crucial conditions, it was impossible to successfully create an artificial Valkyrie. I also found the lost orb.
"His heroic deeds were passed down by the world, and his descendants were proud of him … So that's the important point. Valkyrie must be perceived by others."
My eulogy for Valkyrie was another proof of my research. Making one's deeds known by others, preferably witnessed by others before one's death, was a necessary condition for one to become a Valkyrie.
In that case, could a fake legend combined with a hypnotized "hero" really become a Valkyrie? If it was possible, then my conclusion seemed to be correct.
And in the end, as I laughed maniacally, the first artificial Valkyrie in history, the "Dragonslayer King" Sven, was born and became the God of Holy Light's Valkyrie. And five years later, in my intentionally arranged second encounter with Sven, I conducted a second experiment … That unlucky person whose hypnosis I removed discovered that he was only a despicable murderer and instantly transformed into a holy firework. This also proved that Valkyrie's "stubbornness" was necessary.
And at the same time, it also proved that the Holy Church's explanation of souls and Valkyrie was complete bullshit!
Finally, after many more experiments, my conclusion was the closest to the truth.
"No wonder Soul Worlds are able to distort reality. In this world, human nature, knowledge, beliefs, and stubbornness are all part of one's power. They can become nutrients for one's soul, making it complete and able to resist the corrosion of negative energy. And after reaching a certain level, one can even transform into a Valkyrie form and begin to use positive energy!"
This also explained why those canned mages whose heads were filled with the spirit of a Knight were still able to retain their moral character and wisdom even after transforming into undead. Their stubborn Knight's virtue protected them in a way. Meanwhile, those lonely archmages who had incredibly high intelligence yet had no experience with relationships and viewed their so-called beliefs as a joke would naturally gradually lose their sense of self under the corrosion of negative energy.
At the same time that I obtained this experimental result, I also understood the true nature of Valkyrie. For mages, knowledge was power. My Infallible Diffindor also had the ability to temporarily transform undead into Valkyrie. This was absolutely unparalleled in the world.
If that was all I had, then I would probably be the greatest heretic and blasphemer in the past thousand years. And if I added on the hypothesis that I came up with based on this conclusion, then I would probably be the greatest heretic ever since Aichy created the world.
"Perhaps the so-called Gods are the next stage of evolution for Valkyrie, which has gathered so-called beliefs and Divine Concepts … Ha, doesn't that mean that the so-called venerated Gods are just another type of undead? They were already dead the moment they ascended to the throne of God? The remaining ones are only soul shards that were kidnapped by beliefs and Divine Concepts? "
Alright then, if I revealed the results of my research, perhaps half of the True Gods' believers in the world would be busy scolding me for spouting nonsense, while the other half would be busy trying to kill me.
But I had proof … my experiment was a success!!
That's right, it was Wumianzhe! His successful ascension to Godhood, even in the eyes of a powerful individual like Aillé, was nothing more than a fluke. But only I knew that this was the final experiment to prove my theory — artificial Gods.
Sometimes, I would think about what would happen if I spread this truth to the entire world. But I would give up after thinking about it. After all, most people wouldn't believe me, and if they really did, the world would probably be destroyed.
[Don't go any further. You've already reached the source. If you go any further, when Pandora's Box is completely opened, the results of your research, that damned undead structure, might possibly destroy the entire world.]
"Ha, since I'm not doing anything, the world is destined to be destroyed. If I continue, it'll only be 'possible' for the world to be destroyed, so let me continue."
Thus, the Seven Original Sins came into being. Their material isn't considered outstanding. Bastian is a normal house dog, Ah Dang is a random pile of corpses collected from the battlefield, Envy is a battleship made from inorganic materials, Greed is a normal Undead Slime, but …
I softly chanted the source of everything. For undead, the physical body wasn't as important as most Undead Mages thought. The soul was the foundation of everything.
My undead structure, or perhaps I should change it to Soul Evolution, replaced the beliefs and beliefs that Valkyrie needed to evolve. What I gave them was the stubbornness of my soul.
Valkyrie and the Gods? What were idiots who were held hostage by beliefs and the knowledge of others!? In the end, this continent would still be controlled by intelligent lifeforms with flesh and blood. What I gave the Seven Deadly Sins was freedom, the most basic human nature, and a soul that was more complete than that of a Creator!
From this standpoint, they were indeed my children. My blessings gave them limitless potential for evolution, allowing them to evolve into a soul that surpassed Valkyrie. And they would forever be a part of me, accompanying me until the end of the world.
"The Seven Deadly Sins? Heh heh, that's the most basic human nature. Wrath, anger and judgment against the unjust, gluttony, desire for physical body evolution, lust, overflowing love, jealousy, desire for others' strengths and possessions, arrogance, desire to be superior … Children, let me see just how far you'll go after you possess a soul that's even more complete than that of a God. "
"Although all Undead Emperors are insane, you're probably the craziest among all Undead Emperors, aren't you, Roland … Your Majesty?"
In this world, the only person who had ever seen the true results of my research was probably Harloys, who was bound to me. And right now, I needed this assistant to serve me. After I provided her with all this information, Harloys actually used the respectful way a Lesser Undead Lord would address an Undead Emperor.
"… I'm still inferior to you in this aspect. But I won't lose. I have my own understanding of undead magic as well! One day, I'll use my own research results to become an Undead Emperor as well! "
"Heh heh, I really look forward to your research results. But right now, please help me. I need your accumulated knowledge and experimental data."
"Help you? In this campsite that's filled with undead? Oh, you intend to create undead creatures! Original Sin level? "
"No, not at all. It's just that you seem to have a lot of materials and want to create something slightly interesting. Although it won't be Original Sin level, it doesn't mean it won't have the destructive power of a Original Sin."
It was likely that none of the undead knew that due to a certain someone's sudden decision, they were in deep trouble.
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