Arc of the Souls Chapter 45: Arc 2, Chapter 25 - Macabre and Detestable, Part One

Read chapter 45 of Arc of the Souls by Noyr on NovelPedia.

Jasper's lab was as messy as ever, with paperwork spread across a desk and machines humming loudly in every corner. Metal devices of all shapes and sizes were scattered across every available workspace, along with countless blueprints and notes. The windows were thrown wide open, but there was barely any breeze inside to combat the intense heat and the rather obvious putrid smell of hanging corpses. That's right, Jasper's expertise is to dissect corpses and sometimes living beings for his research and inventions. Usually, it's the corpses of those who died by illness or injury before he got his hands on them, but sometimes—in special circumstances—it can be a fresh one, courtesy of the UoK. Those deemed unworthy to even be looked at by the UoK doctors or researchers, on the other hand, get dissected by Jasper to study the Soul and how to utilize in artificial forms. Jasper hummed along to a song playing on a stereo mounted on the wall of his lab, working away with his project. He lifted a body up from an operating table, attaching them to a hook through a hole in their chest before pulling down a cover to hide it from view. To keep the bodies fresh, he had to turn his AC down to reach absurdly cold temperatures. Each body had a machine attached to the lower part of their chest, working as a pseudo-heart, pumping fluid around the corpse. While too weak to bring the body back to life, it was being enough to keep the Soul inside the body - allowing Jasper to keep them for his main experiments. Some people know how to circumvent the Rim of the Universe Gods' main rule of Soul manipulation. If the Soul dies, the Arc is their next home. But Jasper is twisted enough to prevent the Soul from resting in peace and, in turn, keeping the host body "half-alive". The door behind him opened, following with a knock. "You really are a freak." Avu Fujimara said, standing in the plain darkness at the corner of the room. This obviously scared Jasper down to the bottom of his stomach, and he fell backwards into a set of steel surgical equipment behind him with a painful cry. The clatter of his surgical tools had been loud and pronounced as he slipped off the edge. "...Fucking hell," Jasper hissed, trying to steady himself after falling. A cold sweat formed on the back of his neck, his heart hammering in his chest. "Warn me before you come barging in! You don't just-- stand in silence in the shadow of someone's room!" "I knocked. You didn't answer." Avu doesn't wait for an invitation, immediately walking around to investigate what is being worked on. "I have a job for you, Jasper. Surely someone of your... standards... will understand that and get on with it." Jasper tried to regain some kind of composure, letting out an embarrassed and breathy laugh as he tried his best to clean his clothes. A nasty blood stain was formed at the back of the material of his pants where the surgical tools had grazed him and now had been stained. "... Huh. This is new. Usually you don't ask me for any help. What do you need?" Avu coughed, pulling out a bag from his pocket. "See if you can analyze whom this belongs to." The bag contained a single strand of hair. It was red, mixed with purple. There was a strong Soul-Residue emanating off of just the simple strand of hair. For a strand of hair to contain that much Soul-Residue and still retain it's original form, is fascinating even for someone like Avu Fujimara, who spends his free time studying and researching the Soul. It's a clear sign that this strand of hair belonged to someone of fundamental power... or something even stronger than that. Was this someone who achieved the impossible Ascension? Or was this from someone who could manipulate Souls on a fundamental scale, looking down at the very things that created Souls? Jasper gave it a good look, with his glasses framing the strand. He adjusted his posture, intrigued by such a sight. "... You want me to analyze that?" Avu nodded. "Forgive me for saying this but..