And then it all went to shit

One last time, I looked across my work, the rota sequences I have written, were taking up much of the mana-fueled screen in front of me. Yes, I was happy with how the sequences turned out, they should work just fine.

Finally, I pressed the small box on the translucent screen before me that read “Send notification”. And with that, my part of the preparation for today’s experiment was finally done.

My workplace is far below the surface, hidden away below mountains. There is not a single elevator nor stairs leading above ground. Our only connection to the outside is a travel gate that is only powered at set times of the day. It must have been quite some time since I had last felt the warm light of the sun on my skin.

Hurried footsteps disturbed my peaceful little office from the outside, but soon the chaos in our lab will come to a stop, and we will finally get to the fun part.

The constant humming from my screen stopped as I turned it off, and I leaned back in my seat to close my eyes for a while. The preparations are finally over. I hope the experiment is a success this time, we really needed it to secure more funding.

My eyes slowly grew heavy as I was about to doze off, when I heard the unmistakable hiss from my door.

I did not bother to open my eyes when I heard the footsteps of someone entering.

Who dared to disturb me during my brief respite?

“Tepin, have you checked the rota sequences yet? We are about to start the experiment.” My superior said.

I sighed and chose not to respond. Honestly, I couldn’t be bothered. I mean, come on, it should have been obvious that I had checked it since I had sent the confirmation just seconds ago.

Absentmindedly, I scratched one of the horns on my head.

“Are you sleeping on the job? Again! I can’t believe this. If it weren’t for your damn skill, I’d have thrown you out long ago. Hey, HEY Tepin, answer me!”

My eyes twitched, but I kept them closed. “Yes, I have already checked the sequences, multiple times even! If you had waited for the notifications, you would have seen the confirmation message. And now, let me rest.”

“Again with your attitude! No wonder you are always alone!” I heard him say.

Yes, he was right, I was mostly by myself, but I preferred it that way. I work better that way!

“We are all stressed and are putting a lot of work into this project. You are not the only one here.”

I frowned.

“We can all rest after the test is over and we are done with analysing and documenting the results.”

He was, of course, right. But I really did not want to be bothered after days of constant work, just because I relaxed a little.

With that in mind, I stretched myself as I sat back up, as a loud crack rang through the room. “That was a good one.” I said as I shrugged and waved my superior away.

“You are impossible.” Shaking his head, he turned on his heels and stomped out of the room.

Well, so much for a small breather before the show starts, I thought to myself. I stood up, my two tails hitting the ground as I did. They slid around on the ground while I walked to the wall opposite my desk, too lazy to lift them off the ground.

I opened the security shutter that was obscuring the view of the testing chamber. From inside the chamber, a light blue glow enveloped the glass. It is always reassuring to see that the shielding was running as intended.

Inside the chamber, the fruits of our labor could be seen. It had been four years since we started working on this project. It was top secret. We were constructing what was to be the first artificial soul, or at least that was our goal. Things were looking promising, this would elevate our society even further, allowing us to build automatons that would be capable of speech, logic, and much more.

Magitek was about to change again, I was sure of it! Just the thought of this made me smirk involuntarily.

There it was, in the middle of the chamber, sitting on top of a metal pole held by four thin metal fingers.

A sphere about 15 centimeters in diameter, rota sequences etched impossibly small into its surface, they are not even visible to the naked eye from where I stood, gazing at it. But that is just the outside, it has layers upon layers of complex runic spell-work within it. The intricate patterns across its surface looked stunningly beautiful to me.

I was quite proud of the rota sequences I had designed. Soon, mana would flow through the etched runes, bringing it to life.

Whilst I stood there observing the result of the hard work of the past years, a short, high-pitched beep echoed through the room.

“Soul Version 0.8 test countdown will commence after this message, all personnel are required to return to their stations.”

Finally, I couldn’t wait to see if it would work. It would!

“60… 59… 58…”

The countdown had started, and alongside it, several of our safety measures sprang into place. In an outer circle around the pole, rota sequences were etched into the floor, and mana was pouring into the runes, activating them. As they started glowing, a large spherical translucent double-walled barrier sprang into life around the artificial soul.

“30… 29… 28…”

On the ceiling of the testing chamber were more sequences in each corner. All of them simultaneously started coming to life. I knew these were supposed to drain the room of mana, interrupting the test if something went wrong. That is, if our deactivation sequences would fail, which I very much doubted.

“3… 2… 1… Activation start.”

A pulse of mana ran through the pole, shooting into the core, activating its complex and, if I might say, elegantly arranged rota sequences.

I shivered as the surrounding ambient mana skyrocketed. If I hadn’t already reached the 4th compression stage of my mana-sphere, I would have definitely passed out from the pressure.

The sequences on the surface all started glowing, and since they were designed as agile sequences, they began moving as if they were alive. Actively calculating and creating new sequences that would hopefully result in artificial awareness and something resembling intelligence.

My breath got caught in my throat. This is the most beautiful piece of working magic I have ever seen. The sheer complexity of it! And I was part of its creation, the smirk already plastered across my face grew even wider.

The artificial soul started hovering, slowly forming a blue-white barrier around it, making it resemble what it is supposed to copy even more.

And then it all went to shit.

It happened so quickly that I had no time to react. I saw what looked like a small black dot shoot into the artificial soul. Not a second later, a wave of mana intertwined with what looked like midnight dark inky streaks burst out of it. As the wave of mana approached me, my eyes widened as I watched it pass through all of our safety measures, like they were just not there.

And then it reached me.

The mana forced itself through my body, it shot through me like lightning, and then I felt something pop within me. A horrible feeling of dizziness suddenly spread through my whole being.

It felt horribly wrong.

Without warning, my field of view expanded to the point where I could see the entire room in a 360 degree view. At the same time, my mind was flooded with sounds. It was like my senses were being overwhelmed, I was being overwhelmed.

I could hear everything, even the smallest speck of dust floating through the air, I could see everything all at once.

I saw my body, in front of me, the stupid smirk still somehow on my face. Wait… that seemed wrong. It wasn’t supposed to be that way, right? I was supposed to be inside my body? No?

With my mind in chaos, I caught a glimpse of the artificial soul, it seemed to vibrate erratically, a dark ink-like substance pouring out of it.

My concentration was slipping with the constant bombardment of my senses going haywire.

Then I felt it, something latching onto me, distracting me from the overwhelming amount of information that was flooding my mind.

Something dark, something foreign, something alien. It took over my whole being, and then…

I tried to fight it with everything I had, pushing it away from me, I still had so much to do, this couldn’t be the end…

…I pushed against it with everything I had, but there was nothing I had…

nothing

…and then there was nothing.

There was nothing I could do about it.

There was only darkness, while my consciousness faded into nothing.