This chapter delayed partially by an attack of worry that it was terrible.
The next morning Seira had given Tao a nod along with his coffee, but Tao didn't read much into it. He had just grinned back, because yes, it worked! And he was fine, and Raizel seemed to be fine too, with Seira's help.
…Well, that was the opposite of not reading anything into it, come to think of it.
"Now be sure to scan yourself thoroughly before flying back here," Frankenstein told him, standing by the door of the helicopter as Tao started the pre-flight checks.
Boss hadn't scanned him here on the island – probably because his Master had looked Tao over. The equipment in the main lab was better, and Frankenstein wanted Tao to learn how to take care of himself, too. Not because he had to, but so that he could if he wanted or needed to.
Tao nodded, half-listening but also focused on making sure the helicopter wasn't going to crash (he'd be fine, but they needed it for cargo! Or else Boss absolutely would make them run back and forth to the island carrying everything) and the soul weapon. Was this what it was like to have a pet asleep on your lap? Because he totally understood why (other) evil geniuses had one, then. It wasn't intrusive or distracting, just there.
He'd really grown to like having someone there, now he'd had a chance to get used to it, living with them.
"If you're having trouble controlling anything, stay there and call me immediately. Hopefully you'll be able to stabilize yourself with biofeedback, but don't even think about pretending you'll be fine so I'll focus on Shinwoo, Tao. Shinwoo has Miss Seira to help him control any noble energies in his system, and Master will also be here." If Frankenstein had to literally run over to the mainland to help Tao, he would.
"Don't worry, Boss!" Tao said, saluting.
That earned him a slight glare, which just made Tao even more chipper. He was sure his grin was annoying the Boss, but that was because he wanted Tao to be okay and value himself. Even though it was Tao's job to protect the students. "I can't protect anyone if I'm dead, right?" Tao pointed out, thinking that might reassure him.
"Tao… You just obtained a soul weapon."
So yes, it was possible to protect the people you cared about even after you died and Tao made a mental note to look into that even knowing that Frankenstein could absolutely just see him doing that and it wasn't going to make him any happier.
Last word obtained, Boss stepped back from the helicopter to join Raizel, Shinwoo and Seira. Shinwoo waved as Tao took off. Raizel and Seira tipped their heads back as the helicopter rose in the air. Boss did the same, but with a hand shading his eyes, even though enhanced eyes could take it. Pretending human – ordinary human – limits was that automatic for him, after all this time? Unlike Tao, though, Frankenstein's memories were never wiped. He remembered being an ordinary person.
Tao wondered sometimes. What it was like to be ordinary, when he had the kind of ordinary life Shinwoo might not be able to have anymore. But… being ordinary hadn't protected whoever he was before he was Tao.
That was the job they were given: keeping Boss' precious students safe, the way Boss' Master and Boss had saved them. That was the most important thing to them, keeping everyone safe. Making sure they had a chance to be happy.
Shinwoo might not be ordinary anymore, but he definitely seemed happy. Not that Tao was going to second-guess Miss Seira. Or try to blackmail her. He hadn't been made yesterday.
Master stood there watching Tao fly away until he finally nodded and turned. Satisfied that Tao was a safe distance away, he walked towards the area Frankenstein's training sessions had already flattened.
Seira and Shinwoo followed, but Frankenstein hastened his steps to walk beside him. He wished he could have asked Raizel to leave with Tao, but that would mean that Shinwoo was the one in danger.
"Frankenstein, you have my permission to undo the seal on your power."
"Yes, Master." Frankenstein bowed, grateful that he had Raizel's permission to protect him if something went wrong. That was something, at least. He still remembered when Master helped Raskreia train with her soul weapon, how Master's hair looked gray in the moonlight.
"I will shield us while Shinwoo summons his power," Seira said, stepping forward.
Frankenstein smiled. "Master and I are just discussing contingencies. If something does go wrong, please focus on helping Shinwoo regain control of the power. I'll protect Master."
"Is there anything I should do to get ready?" Shinwoo asked.
He'd already centered himself and was breathing correctly, Frankenstein was pleased to see. "Don't focus on staying calm or remaining in control. That amount of power should worry you, and a soul weapon is a partner, not an extension of yourself. You don't use them, you petition them. I'm sure they'll be happy to help, if you let them." Dark Spear was very happy to kill their enemies. It was holding them back from 'helping' that was the trouble. But if he'd ever dared treat them like property for him to control…
"I'm not going to order around Seira's family."
"I certainly hope not." Frankenstein smirked. "That wouldn't give your girlfriend's father a good first impression of you."
Shinwoo winced, shifting his weight to the back foot. "No way, Chairman."
"Are you ready to begin?" Frankenstein asked.
"I think so."
Frankenstein returned his nod and went to stand a few feet ahead of Master, but still with Miss Seira between him and Shinwoo. "Miss Seira, if you would?"
She held out a hand and a spherical shield appeared around them, thicker on the side facing Shinwoo and so thin on the back side it was almost nonexistent. He'd have to correct that during their next training session – it was good technique for deflecting a shockwave, but when preparing to face an unknown assault, you needed to take into account the possibility of an area effect.
For now, he focused on Shinwoo. "When you're ready."
Shinwoo closed his eyes and when they opened again, they were white slits. Most of the energy radiating from him was Miss Seira's, but Frankenstein could detect traces of Master's power, Regis' and even his own, the same way he'd sensed Ragar's soul from Rael and knew the noble had a soul weapon.
Weeks spent sitting in class with the nobles, coming over to Frankenstein's house – but this wasn't just osmosis, Shinwoo must have absorbed significant amounts of their auras for the power to remain detectable as a black robe appeared behind and around Shinwoo.
"That's good," Shinwoo said, making a fist and watching a skeletal arm follow his movement. "I don't know how to fight with a scythe."
His brow furrowed, and Frankenstein saw the young man's muscles tense with effort as he spoke. "Dismiss them," Frankenstein said. "We can work on how long you can keep them manifested later."
"Phew," Shinwoo said, and fell forward into the dirt. His front end landed in a ditch, and he slid forward a few centimeters before he managed to stop his descent.
"…You were floating," Seira told him.
So, when Shinwoo summoned the Loyard soul weapon, he called out the same manifestation Seira did when she used the soul weapon to call on her ancestors. He'd never seen a clan leader use that manifestation for very long – given noble notions of elegance, it seemed to be a last resort. Perhaps the issue was that traditionally, adult nobles, especially clan leaders, weren't supposed to need help. Disturbing the sleep of their ancestors in order to win would be a blow to a noble's pride.
"I'm okay!" Shinwoo said, getting back up. "I need a bit before I can do that again."
Frankenstein was pleased he was willing to admit he had limits. "That's why I want you to find out what you can do now, instead of on the battlefield. You can't push your limits successfully if you don't know what they are." He looked to Master. "Shall we break for lunch?"
Master looked at the lab building with concern in his eyes.
"There will be ramyeon," Miss Seira told him, and Master relaxed, nodding to Frankenstein before leading the way.
Frankenstein would have to thank M-21 and the others for helping him with his experiments to create optimal, fortified ramyeon, otherwise Seira would have made something else for Shinwoo. Not that Frankenstein minded taking time to prepare Master's ramyeon, but they had more tests to perform today and they needed Shinwoo in top form.
The second test was if Shinwoo could summon Death Scythe's power while Seira was using the weapon. The answer was yes; more evidence that Shinwoo's summoning was more like Seira or Urokai summoning an ancestral form from the weapon than splitting it in two the way Ragar had Kartas. Death Scythe didn't disappear from Seira's hands when she called forth the Reaper; why should it vanish when Shinwoo did?
The third test Frankenstein had planned was seeing if Shinwoo could call on Death Scythe to Awaken him. There was a strong possibility, especially since Seira and Shinwoo were so fond of each other – the bond of love would theoretically strengthen the bond of souls, when soul weapons (other than Master, of course) needed a parent's love for a child to perform an awakening.
Then again, Frankenstein realized, watching Master as he performed the thrice-daily miracle that was elegantly eating a bowl of ramyeon without noodles going everywhere or slurping noises, had Master ever performed an awakening without love? He'd seen both M-21's soul and Frankenstein's before he awakened them, and while Master said that humanity's love grew quick and strong, Master…
Frankenstein smiled softly, watching Raizel press a napkin to his lips, not because he needed to but as a tactful hint that Shinwoo should do the same.
"Frankenstein." Not a sign showed on Raizel's face that he had sent a message to his bonded, so Frankenstein was careful to keep his own expression exactly the same.
"Summon Dark Spear as soon as Shinwoo is Awakened, and be ready."
"Yes, Master."
Frankenstein was careful to show no more (or less) worry than usual as they got ready for the next trial. That meant he was standing a little closer to Miss Seira than he would have liked, but Master would have a reason to avoid warning the children. "Begin when ready," he told Shinwoo.
"Heed my call," he whispered in the back of his mind as Shinwoo's eyes closed and black energy surged around him.
Humans, nobles and werewolves all manipulated energy differently, and one of the best ways to tell what kind of opponent he was fighting was examining the shape of their aura – curves verses lines, radiating or seeking paths of least resistance. When the shape of the power Shinwoo summoned changed to something resembling Dark Spear without the traces of purple, that was when Frankenstein reached one hand forward to grab Seira's jacket and throw her behind him and another up to the sky to grasp, "Dark Spear."
A moment later he needed both hands in front of him. The effort to keep the shield optimally spherical was abandoned in the pursuit of keeping some amount of energy between Master, Seira, and the lines of power that were attracted to those power sources.
If they struck, then, like lightning, they'd reduce the difference in charge between the things they connected, but here that meant moving power from greater concentration to lesser.
Sucking power out of Master, Seira and Frankenstein and channeling it into Shinwoo.
When uncontrolled noble power turned humans into mutants and Master's power, his soul, was falling apart. He couldn't even control it, what would happen if the Noblesse's power entered Shinwoo's soul? Frankenstein had defenses in place to keep a noble's soul from overriding his own, but Shinwoo wasn't even enhanced!
Frankenstein's mind raced as he called for more power from Dark Spear. "My fingers are barely tingling," he told them, knowing that was because the current was being sucked away from him before it could do more than tickle the nerves in his fingertips, instead of gleefully swarming every part of his nervous system he let them empower.
He watched Dark Spear's purple creep through the aura of power surrounding Shinwoo, until the young man cried out in surprise and the power drain stopped. Frankenstein had only a moment to organize his flowing power into a shield before the charge Shinwoo had built up exploded outwards. Thank goodness that by then Seira was already on her feet and able to throw up her own shield; otherwise Master would have, but he was safe behind the both of them.
"Shinwoo!" he called while the dust was still settling.
"I'm okay, but ow! I thought my fingers were broken!" Shinwoo was shaking out his hands.
"That's what you get for taking something that isn't yours. And I'd better not hear of you using that kind of language around Mr. Park." A single four letter word was a fairly mild reaction to touching Dark Spear's energy directly, all things considered. Frankenstein jumped down to the bottom of the crater. "Show me your hands."
"My fingertips hurt when I touch them," Shinwoo said, touching his thumb to his forefinger again and wincing.
"Then stop doing it." For goodness' sake. "Dark Spear has a lot of practice getting at the nervous system. I can fix the damage, but you'll have to learn how to control your energy flow in case someone tries something similar." Frankenstein touched Shinwoo's wrist, palm, and knuckles on his thumb and index fingers, watching for his reactions. "I'll have to scan you, but it seems the poison was also the cure – this wouldn't have happened if you weren't awakened, but the same facility that let you do this defended you against it."
"What happened?" Seira asked aloud, no longer able to hover while visibly slightly concerned and forced to be rude enough to ask.
"An Awakening doesn't grant someone power from an external source. It calls forth, or optimizes, the dormant power someone possesses. I expected it to boost Shinwoo's strength and speed significantly," the way humans could lift cars if the brakes were taken off – but an Awakening should also have increased his resilience enough he wouldn't break his arms trying. "Humans evolved the ability to take noble power into ourselves and use it through contracts. From there, we may have evolved to absorb the power noble auras radiate the way plants absorb sunlight. I never explored that option myself, because I had no interest in getting power from nobles, but was able to confirm that the principle was sound working with Ragar Kertia – forgive me for not giving you the details, he incorporated them into the clan techniques."
Frankenstein had proposed methods of hiding a clan leader's overwhelming power to test ways of keeping the Noblesse's power from leaking away from him. Master might have forbidden him from experimenting on Ragar, but he'd granted permission for Frankenstein to help Ragar with Ragar's training and experiments. He'd even given Frankenstein permission to undo his seal when sparring with Ragar, allowing him to stay in practice. Frankenstein and Ragar weren't friends, but if it made Master happy to think that they were, Frankenstein wasn't going to give more than a token denial.
Seira nodded automatically, eyes a little wide. Of course it would be improper to pry into someone else's clan techniques.
Not that Frankenstein cared, and Seira was an ally of the Kertia, but… he was letting himself get distracted. "Master, when you Awakened me after I was devoured by Dark Spear…" He hid a wince at the memory of what that cost Raizel.
"You healed yourself with Dark Spear's power."
Healing? With Dark Spear's power? Healing him? That only seemed possible if Frankenstein's power drain had weakened Dark Spear too much for them to keep him from purifying their power, much less keep him imprisoned. He was still unconscious for some time after Master Awakened him… but why did that surprise him, he knew what Dark Spear wanted to do to him if they had the chance. They wouldn't have restrained themselves. Couldn't restrain that many selves. Thankfully he hadn't suffered long: millions of attacks on his mind at once had made it shut down.
He'd still been in shock when he woke up, now that he thought about it. Dark Spear should have jumped on such a vulnerable emotional state, tormented him with all their might so he felt too worthless to offer his blood to Master instead of to them. Had he drained them into unconsciousness? All of them?
If that was even possible, if there was some way to spare them even a few days of suffering at a time... He couldn't afford to look into it now, not when he might need Dark Spear at any moment. Also, they'd never forgive him for knocking them out if it made them miss the death of a Union agent.
That was what Frankenstein had done when awakened, and he'd tried to keep his soul from attaching to a noble's soul. Dark Spear? Dark Spear absorbed human and noble souls alike, fed on them with glee. That was why wounds inflicted by Dark Spear were so slow to heal – the traces of Dark Spear's energy left behind fed on the victim's energy as they tried to heal the wound. It was why he was certain of his ability to defeat Gradeus. While a clan leader with his experience should have good control over their own power, and would be able to purify themselves of Dark Spear's energies the way Ragar crushed them out of his hand when Frankenstein first fought him, Gradeus' strategy required bleeding his power all over the battlefield where Dark Spear could easily consume it. Leaving Gradeus to experience the normal effects of major blood loss.
He'd thought that consuming the soul energy (and souls) of the living was a property of Dark Spear. It might be a property of the source material - of human souls. A human power.
He hadn't let Shinwoo latch on to any of their souls, but if he had?
Frankenstein was very, very glad Master insisted that Tao leave the island before they began these trials. Cetus would be some protection, but the Union had done its best to make sure that Tao's soul would never grow strong enough to defy them. His will might not be stunted anymore, but it was still injured.
What predator could resist injured prey?
He'd planned to use that very fact to get Dark Spear to agree to lend Tao power, if it came to that. Dark Spear would know that they had a chance to take over Tao, so as much as they hated the thought of answering to another master, any master, they wouldn't be able to resist the urge to pounce. One of the earlier enhancements he'd given the three of them was the ability to resist Dark Spear's effect and heal wounds it caused, because he knew Dark Spear would be lashing out at them. Then they asked him to train them and it became very fortunate that he had.
Now this.
"I assume you didn't consciously choose to try to drain Rai's power," he told Shinwoo, "so it may be instinct to try to absorb any power in range."
"What?" Shinwoo jumped, turning to Rai, horrified. "Are you okay?"
"I am fine, Shinwoo." He didn't smile, but Master was touched as always by someone's concern for his life. It was just a pity that his first reaction wasn't happiness, but the sort of confusion that made him hide behind his reserve until it sank in.
"Are you sure?" Shinwoo hovered around Rai, looking at him from different angles, and if he could sense any of Master's weakness, he would definitely blame it on what just happened.
"He's fine, Shinwoo. Miss Seira and I made certain of it. However, we can't have you accidentally draining your allies." Or civilians. It looked as though those tendrils headed for the strongest power sources in range, but if the only energies in range belonged to loosely-tethered souls?
If Frankenstein wanted one of his students to have a horde of angry ghosts in their head, he'd have given Dark Spear to Tao right away so he had time to practice with it (if he survived) instead of taking the risk that the Union might attack while he was hesitating. If he gave Tao Dark Spear to survive an attack, for Tao to go directly into combat with a weapon he could barely control?
Seira didn't have infinite amounts of power and could only keep Death Scythe manifested for so long. Noble maturity wasn't a matter of years, exactly, but there had to be some reason Gejutel could throw around so much more power than Seira and Rajak could. A noble might have dismissed it as some age or clan-related 'thing,' but Frankenstein was a scientist. If there was a thing, then that thing could be studied and eventually replicated. For now, Frankenstein had already verified that Shinwoo could store some amount of noble energy, but once he used up that charge he would be a drain on Seira's resources.
If he could be a drain on enemy resources instead? And Shinwoo and Seira had a true contract. Power could flow both ways between them. It would be difficult at best to wear down a werewolf (perhaps with psychological attacks), but with a clan leader like Seira it might be possible. If an enemy ignored the weak human to focus on the clan leader, not knowing that Shinwoo was was using the power he leeched from the enemy to replace Seira's energy?
"I don't want to hurt you guys. If it's a reflex, is there some way to train myself out of it?" Shinwoo asked. A martial artist needed to train themselves out of several instinctive responses to danger that were suboptimal or actively counterproductive.
"Exactly what I was thinking." Frankenstein smiled and raised a hand, letting his now-dark aura creep over it, covering fingers with claws. "I find that the burned hand teaches best."
Shinwoo gulped, but stood his ground instead of arguing with the person in charge of his training.
Maybe Shinwoo's martial arts training was more of an advantage than Frankenstein had thought. In any case, "You absorbed enough power that you should be able to summon Death Scythe again – or at least more often than once in four hours. Master, Miss Seira, if you would step back please?"
As they sat in the common area of the island's lab building, Seira could feel the guilt as well as see it in Shinwoo's eyes. Her Bonded – she was considering the matter of choosing the proper word for it. Literature class had explained these things called 'connotations' that humans used to pack extra meaning into words, and it was easy for slip-ups to occur.
Like the name of her species, 'those who know themselves,' connotating 'arrogant parasite who sees others as lesser beings and property.' Something would have to be done about that. Unfortunately Homo Sentiens wasn't an option when they weren't relatives of humanity even though the genes they had were mainly human ones.
It was a problem, and as of yet she did not have the education to make a suggestion to the Lord. At least 'Lukedonian' would do for now in the official correspondence between them and whatever nations the Lord saw fit to contact, since that could be treated as a matter of countries allying against the Union.
But 'Bonded' connotated 'bondage' instead of 'sacred bond' in modern times. Those who had a sacred bond with each other were called 'married,' but that implied that the humans might be having sex, and Seira knew from attending a high school that humans found the version of events where people were having sex more interesting and thus more appealing than the version where they weren't. Especially when those people were attractive. They might even feel cheated or as though the word was not appropriate or accurate if some human and noble contractors did not have sex.
A 'contract' might be an arrangement where two beings chose to take on obligations towards each other, but it connotated 'business arrangement,' as though souls could be bought and sold. It stank of the Union.
Shinwoo kept glancing at where his principal was sitting next to Sir Raizel, humming at a handful of black-purple charms hovering in the air between his hands.
Sir Raizel was angled slightly away from Sir Frankenstein to indicate his displeasure. Sir Raizel had given Frankenstein permission to release his seal so that his bonded would experience less pain and worry, not so that Frankenstein could come home late after whatever he had done to make Dark Spear produce those charms with his clothing in disarray. From what Seira saw before Frankenstein went below to get changed, the configuration of shreds that was all that remained of his shirt indicated significant wounds, not just Dark Spear's usual level of venting.
Frankenstein was pretending he was too happily focused on his creations to notice Sir Raizel's displeasure so that his bonded would see that Frankenstein was happy and fine and in no way in pain, including the pain of displeasing his liege.
Shinwoo was pushing the remains of his ramyeon around in his bowl because Frankenstein had told him that the charms were a solution to the problem of training Shinwoo to avoid automatically draining others, instead of just learning to avoid Frankenstein's aura alone. That meant that the Chairman getting 'banged up' and Raizel being unhappy because of it were because of Shinwoo's inability to control his power when awakened.
Being noisy like this was also unusual for her housekeeping teacher – she had been present when he invented new recipes often enough to know that he did not hum when he was thinking contentedly. So to the nobles in the room, the noise was a transparent attempt to conceal that he wasn't happy with the current situation.
The lie was insulting, but that could be excused when Frankenstein was trying to reassure them. If he refrained from insulting them, Raizel would worry. So would Seira, for that matter. She would think it was a sign he was unwell, except she had seen Frankenstein outnumbered and heavily injured and he had only increased the frequency of his insults. No, if Frankenstein managed to go without insulting anyone she would be concerned that someone had managed to trespass on his will and make him act in a way that went against who he was.
Just thinking about it made her glance at him now, with concern equal to Shinwoo's.
Now Sir Raizel was looking at her, worried – what had upset her so?
She drew herself up and topped off her cup of tea to reassure Sir Raizel that she would handle it as a clan leader and he should focus on Frankenstein.
That made Shinwoo glance between her and Sir Raizel and send her a ? with a plea to know what was going on and was Frankenstein going to be okay and was it his fault everyone was on edge?
"Here, Master," Frankenstein said with a bow.
Raizel frowned at the charm. "I have told you that this color is not my style." Not when the charm was the color of Dark Spear, a reminder of Frankenstein's pain.
But despite his sigh Raizel still reached out and took the charm, ignoring Frankenstein's look of desperate apology, so that Frankenstein could smile with relief once the bracelet was back around Sir Raizel's wrist. Once his Bonded was even a little bit safer.
When she felt Shinwoo smiling at her she turned to him with a ?, the way she had after Suyi not only turned down Rael but told her 'Good luck with the unwanted harem.'
"You've got…" he gestured to her cheeks, indicating that there was color on them and blushing himself.
She should have tried to regain her composure, but it struck her again how adorable he was. No, adorable wasn't quite right. Shinwoo wasn't 'able to be adored.' Instead it was very clearly imperative that he be adored. It was impossible that he not be.
Not when he looked at her with that same emotion reflected in his eyes, leaving her to wonder how they could be so alike and so different, all at the same time. Or how someone who had barely had the chance to start figuring out who they were already knew it was their nature to protect others with the same will that forced even the Noblesse to sigh and submit to Frankenstein's efforts to protect him, because who could stand against such a shining will?
Shinwoo might not be elegant but he was precious. A rare jewel to shine like this. The same light that protected all of Ye Ran, and he was willing to let her bring him home. Willing to protect the Loyard with her, help make her manor a home again.
"Do you want to go outside?" Shinwoo asked, ducking his head with embarrassment, because, "We can't kiss in front of the Chairman?"
Seira stood up immediately. She tried to maintain composure, but Shinwoo took her hand, grinning, and it was fortunate that it wasn't very far to the door.
I have a lot of fun with the worldbuilding in this 'verse. Humans: amazingly nice for a species that eats souls. Of course, we may have an ulterior motive for wanting nobles to stay for dinner…
Since the Rai's brother reveal, one needs a reason someone who was probably the Noblesse, and therefore responsible for protecting the nobles, felt humanity had to go despite how we're advantageous to them.
While nobles and werewolves seem to be perpetual motion machines (canonically werewolves can get mass from nowhere and Seira casually makes matter 'go away'), if humans want energy we need to get it from somewhere, and if you tried to power energy blasts with hunting/gathering you'd over-harvest your range and starve next year, so we may have adapted to specifically not fuel psychic abilities with our normal metabolisms. Since most nobles can't hide because they're constantly radiating that much soul energy, and we know it's possible for humans to make use of noble power…
Old Mother Nature - out eldritch abominationing Azathoth since the first proto-plants exterminated damn near all other life on earth with chemical weapons.
Or to sum up – because Physics, humans need an external source of soul energy. That meant leeching off of nobles, which would have condemned us to an existence as a dependent race; consuming the souls of other sapient beings (eg. monkeys, dogs) making us obligate carnivores if not obligate cannibals; letting Raizel's brother exterminate us (which would have been the obvious route for nobles, their survival instinct works differently); letting the Lord modify us into something convenient for nobles (because the Previous Lords had to do it that way); or develop to the point that we could create an alternative for ourselves – eg. enhancing ourselves into something still human but able to screw physics enough to no longer need an external energy source.
Obviously that last one was the optimum, but as long as we had nobles around the need was met and we had other priorities. Once the nobles left…