Wipe and go again

A/N While writing this chapter, initially I wanted to include a general vision of my own Warrior of Light because thats the easiest way to go about it, but thats also the most boring way to go about it. So what I thought is that it would be nice that someone that happens to stumble upon this piece of work would offer up their own Warrior of Light to experience their timeline, either through comments or DM.

Finally the perimeter alarms began blaring. The magitek monitoring devices showed the 4 intruders making their way through the repurposed corridors of Ala Mhigan palace. The machine recognized them as Warrior of Light, leading the charge wielding a greatsword, shining. Behind her was Lyse Hext, known accomplice of the Scions of the Seventh Dawn as well as the Ala Mhigan Resistance, with them were two Au Ra, the files on record were scarce about them, there wasn’t much besides the names Sadu of Dotharl and Cirina of Mol, supposedly natives of Azim Steppe. Not much has been known about them.

A diverse group, good, Aulus smiled nervously. They would serve for good test samples, sure Aulus got to do research and trials on countless souls, the issue is that those were already captured and more timid subjects. That is if he survived. But it was clear that it's too late to pack up and leave with intruders this close.

Aulus prepared his special war machina, an arachnid machine, 6 legs and plethora of weapons, and most importantly a soul extractor. The last bit needed some charging but he could figure it out.

The intruders entered his lab, busting down the reinforced doors with explosives. The Warrior of Light was the biggest threat, obviously so Aulus he focused on suppressing their attacks. The blue Au Ra rained magic down on his machine, searing the metal, but thanks to the shields and inhibitors the damage could be contained, a bonus that came with it was that the potent spells charged the magitek batteries, speeding up the soul extractor preparation. The Ala Mhigan resistance leader pounded at the metal of his armour, denting it in a few places, but the machine was still holding together. The other Au Ra. Cirina, was it? Held back and seemed to heal the others.

A few more minutes of combat and the machine started to show wear and tear already but, one reckless flare from Sadu hypercharged the process finally. Aulus hit the button and 4 beams tracked their targets and connected, disconnecting the souls from their bodies. The four women’s bodies fell limp to the floor, the second shot was already prepared and he initiated it without hesitation. The souls, tracked by the sensitive magitek equipment, were targeted and sucked right into four containers. The containers themselves rattled wildly, clearly the women captured by Aulus were. The integrity readings of the containers dropped to about 41%. But finally, it stopped. Aulus called in some remaining staff of his lab to bring in the now soulless bodies to the secret sublab. There were clearly more intruders coming in shortly.

The decision was both simple and complicated at the same time. Aulus captured two high profile targets and two of their close accomplices. The protocol would be to take them with him to Garlemald as prisoners. But looking at the situation and that Lord Zenos was clearly not interested in retreat, more so, he intended to use the power of an Eikon thanks to some of Aulus’ research. Up until recently Aulus was basically blindly adoring Zenos, but after spending such a long time with the heir to the imperial throne, Aulus noticed the cracks in the perfect image of Zenos. Clearly, the man was only interested in greater challenges, which would be fine if not for Aulus noticing that he would be ready to burn everything in his way.

This meant that handing over the prisoners would probably benefit him with better standing in an Empire, an Empire that would be led by Zenos… No that would not do. Aulus had to go with a plan B. He directed his lab helpers to strap the bodies to work benches and then he took the soul containers, mounted them in the magitek soul computing machine. He brought up the database of soul frequency samples and got to work. The work had to be fast, simple but not shoddy if his plan was to work. He mixed the loyalty of his personal hound with the loyalty of Garlemald's most loyal infiltrators. With that the loyalties would mix, resulting with the unwavering loyalty to him, rather than Garlemald. Next, he used the acting skills of the best double agents that volunteered for the soul scanning process. With a few smaller adjustments and additions he started the frequency imprinting process.

The selection took about 35 minutes. The imprinting was the worst part, it would take about 2 hours and 20 minutes. Enough time for some of the attackers to start searching for the missing party. Gladly, his surviving lab assistants dutifully packed up everything that was not required into escape rail carts in the tunnel. The remaining 2 hours passed by with tension in the air, as the machine worked, the sounds of fighting could be heard outside flaring up and dying down over and over again. Aulus wondered if at some point the sounds won't die down and the hidden door will be breached. Gladly, that did not happen.

The magitek soul computing machine dinged, showing the process had been finished. Normally in clinical trials, this would lead to hour long interviews, tests etc. This time, Aulus did not have the comfort of having spare time to do it. He looked over his four captives and made a decision. He took one of the containers, likely belonging to the woman, Cirina and connected it to a different machine. Cirina’s soul aether was released and naturally gravitated back to her body. Aulus placed a shock collar on Cirina, just in case and released the restraints.

Cirina’s PoV

Cirina felt numb and stiff, the machine she fought must have knocked her , she hoped that the Warrior of Light and the others were fine. She reached up with her hand to rub her head, a slight headache plagued her and she opened her eyes, her vision returning slowly as well, blurry as she saw a figure standing before her, a mix of white and grey colours slowly turned into a shape of a Garlean man in a lab coat, he felt familiar… OH! It clicked in an instant. Cirina basically sprang to her feet and did not even realise that her tail was wagging wildly at the sight of a man. The man was clearly startled by her instant movement. Which made Cirina worried and uneasy before another wave of realisation caused her body to shiver. As if practised for her whole life, her back straightened, her left foot stomped down and pressed together with the other foot. Her left hand dropped tight to her side and her right hand closed in a fist and crossed over to her left shoulder in an imperial salute. “Agent Cirina reporting for duty, master Aulus”. Now everything was right in the world. Cirina realised she was master Aulus’ loyal agent, her loyalty laid with him. Aulus served Garlemald, so technically by extension Cirina would work for Garlemald, even though currently she and the others were a part of the attack . But surely that was just part of the plan of her master. “Master, is it time for an update of my orders?” She asked inquisitively.

Aulus PoV

Aulus held his breath as the Au Ra sprang to life, he jumped back seeing how swiftly Cirina jumped to her feet, he expected to be cut or choked out any second, his hand reached for the remote, but then he froze wide eyed seeing the Au Ra that supposedly never even heard about Garlemald execute a perfect imperial salute. Her question threw him off for a second, the confusion adapting to the new truths was something he expected, so he had a vague idea what to say. “I will explain once your comrades are awake.” He simply answered, it would be less of a hassle for him. “Be so kind and be ready to restrain others when they wake up. They may be startled and confused.” Aulus saw Cirina nod and proceeded to look over the remaining three, the second least dangerous target would be Lyse Hext… That one would be interesting. Aulus never got to study such a cognitive dissonance, with the Au Ras here, they didn’t have much investment or hatred for Garlemald, Lyse on other hand… Needless to say Aulus was curious how her psyche will handle her new soul’s frequencies. He retrieved the container and placed it in the device and turned it on for Lyse, the same process as for Cirina began.

Lyse’s PoV

Lyse felt her limbs twitch as her soul returned to her body, she groaned and the thoughts started going through her mind, she had to get that bastard zenos, she had to free her home country from Garleans… But her master was a Garlean… right…? Why would she work against her master’s homeland then…? Did it matter? No, no of course, her master must have put her on this track and she should follow. She finally managed to groan as the thoughts continued to race through her head. In her daze she heard her Master and… Cirina…? Huh she did not even realise that Cirina worked for the master too. Regardless, she felt her body finally react to her attempts to move and she carefully slid up into a sitting position and then stood up, faced her master and saluted. “Lyse Hext, reporting for duty, master”. She smiled darkly as the words escaped her lips. Master Aulus gave her a purpose and for that alone she would kill, betray and destroy for him. He was quick to explain her orders for the time being. The next one to wake up would be Sadu and that one would be a rough one if she was still confused.

Sadu’s PoV

That damn steel golem! How dare it! She was having so much FUN! The fight made her blood rush and the carnage was just brilliant! She felt her body jerk, her consciousness felt a bit more connected to her body more than a minute ago. With her eyes still closed he lifted her upper body with her elbows carefully. Seriously, she is going to find the sod who interrupted her fun- MASTER! Sadu finally opened her eyes and noticed the man in front of her. She leapt from the cot she was laying on and landed a tight grip of a hug around the man she recognized as master Aulus, her tail wagging wildly. She heard Cirina giggle, and felt the hext woman groan annoyed as she tried to pull her off of the master. Sadu showed the woman an annoyed look and then looked up smiling at the master… who looked not too amused, maybe even a bit terrified. She cleared her throat, letting him go and giving a teasing salute to her master “Sorry, sir I got a bit carried away after seeing you for the first time in… a long time!” She explained eagerly. Unlike the other two, her pose was more relaxed in the salute, her free hand on her hip, the hip itself cocked to the side, Sadu just found it amusing, that's all.

Aulus PoV

Sheer shock stopped Aulus for letting out a high pitched scream, for a moment there he thought that the Dotharl woman was strong willed enough to see through his hasty work of altering her soul and just wanted to go to crush him in half with his arms, the two other thralls would surely be able to get her off of him… surely. All the tension left him once he saw the salute performed. He was half wrong half right, she had will hard enough to take her own spin on the changes the other two went through, even though there were subtle hints in the other two as well. Regardless, now he looked on the last test subject, the fabled Warrior of light…

Also, why not use the CHYOA format? Write up your own WoL PoV similar to the other character's in this chapter! If you feel too shy for it to be public, make it a DM!