"I admit, this is still a prototype, so I can't be certain whether this will work as intended. It was supposed to be a gift much later, but it will be helpful for now."

Small, nervous lettering floated beside Julius' head as he was hunched over next to Seth before they evaporated into swirls of ink. His hands were busy, one set fixing the harness around Seth's chest, while the other set fitted an even newer arm to this new harness.

This new harness was an all round improvement over his previous, mostly because it didn't have a poorly welded, makeshift cover slapped on top of the core to protect it.

Instead, it had a properly forged protective housing, courtesy of Titus. The runic carvings were more intricate as well as much more subtle, being hidden underneath a top layer of black leather crafted from some monsters hide.

All in all the harness was composed of three layers. A top protective leather layer, a middle layer composed of a mix of metal and leather to operate as the base for the carvings, and finally an inner layer.

That one was Seth's favourite, because it was made of silk taken from a spider monster. It was as soft as Egyptian cotton and smooth like velvet. His previous one always ran the risk of giving him a rash, but this one was just wonderful, absolutely blissful against his stub.

"Even if it's only a prototype, It's still your work. So I know it will work wonderfully, just like everything else."

Julius bobbed his head bashfully at his Father's praise, putting the finishing touches on Seth's arm before stepping away.

Seth stood, swinging his arm, rolling his shoulder and performing small movements with his fingers, He tested the responsiveness of the new arm. He peered curiously at the carvings it had at its fingertips, but much like the other project, Seth was unable to decipher it. He really was slacking in his studies.

His teacher, Julius' namesake, would be disappointed in him. But in his defence, he was a very busy person as of late, and would only become busier as time went on.

"Is everything I need still in the storage room?"

"Ah, Yes Father. If you don't mind, there is a black box in there too. If you would be so kind as to bring it out, I believe it will be most helpful."

Seth nodded his head, before slipping into the storage room. He hummed to himself as he searched about, rooting through the crates of crystals for the perfect core. As it turns out, he didn't have to look for very long.

In his absence, it seems one of the brothers had taken the time to organise the storage system. Instead of storing them in a disorganised pile, which was Seth's preferred method for most things, they had been stored by size, which corresponded perfectly to it's capacity.

With a baseball sized core in hand, Seth's eyes glowed softly as he looked around for his final ingredient. He found it, strangely enough, sitting on a table. The same table that held Julius' odd box, which seemed to be made out of a black material that had the appearance of wood, but the texture and toughness of stone. It was hard to tell which it was originally, stone or wood.

Tossing the matter to the side, Seth focused on his secret ingredient, which was in itself a big of an enigma. Sitting on the table, like it was a simple desk lamp, was the flickering remnant of the Giant Dwarves soul.

He was expecting to find it sitting in a corner, or within a jar that contained what remained of its body. Soul's generally stayed tethered to the body until something either ate them, the body decomposed or the grim reaper came along to do his thing.

But this soul, or the remnant thereof, was attached to nothing. Even the table it was floating slightly above.

He couldn't help but wonder how Julius had managed to do it. Regardless, this little keepsake was his final ingredient.

In previous 'birthings' for lack of a better term, Seth had simply used his own soul fragment and the mana filled core. He combined the two, fed them into a body and flooded them with intent until the miracle happened.

Breaking it down like that, it honestly sounded quite easy. Of course, it was overlooking the fact that one had to be able to split their soul, control it and do it all without dying. That was where most of the difficulty came in.

But ever since he created Titus, he had been wondering about improving the process. The Anima, the name he gave to his creations, were born at tier 0. They were as weak as a new born, because they were.

So he had wondered that, if he could use another soul and add it to the process, could he use it as a level booster?

Since he was already committing himself to doing this foolhardy task in a chance to get stronger, he may as well experiment a bit with it, right? If it failed spectacularly and blew up in his face, well he could simply blame something else.

Plus, he would still be able to strong arm the dragon into getting the Untainted Tear for him. He could just say that since they never exchanged specifics or got it in one of those special contracts of hers, that he never agreed to fully make one. Only demonstrate the process. It wasn't his fault it didn't go right.

It was the perfect plan. It was also where his new prototype arm came into play.

Flexing the fingers of his new hand, Seth reached out towards the flickering soul flame before simply plucking it off the desk. He smirked to himself, turning his hand over and holding the soul in his palm like a ball.

His threads liked to devour souls when he touched them with them, but like this he wouldn't have to worry. Although... The prototype status became quite clear, as Seth could already feel his hand starting to gradually heat up under the touch of the soul. The core on his chest flickering and the runes of his harness pulsating as instead of accidentally draining the soul, the soul was draining the power from his arm to sustain and empower itself. An unforeseen complication, but nothing too terrible.

Quickly scooping up the strange stone-wood box, Seth hurried out of the room as the glow of the soul in his palm gradually increased in brightness.

"Ah, You have it. Quick quick, put the box down and bring that over here."

As soon as he saw Seth coming back, Julius quickly ushered Seth over to the vessel he had prepared, at Seth's instructions, for his new brother. The body had been placed in the middle of Julius' pet project, the one that had utterly stumped Seth as to it's true purpose.

Laying on the floor was a suit of armour. It was a set that Titus had forged, intending for it to be enchanted or used as a puppet for whatever purpose Seth might have. Detailing the floor beneath this armour was covered in an intricate circle of perfectly carved runes.

An octagram was carved into the ground, surrounding the runes, as well as separating them into four different layers. Each layer separated by a circle, which held its own band of runes below it. It was as if Julius had tried to create something taken straight from the cultish ritual books that Seth used to be taught from as a child. Such fun times as a child.

At seven of the eight points of the octagram were smaller circles, roughly the size that they could have been traced from the rim of an average soup bowl, with the eight point remaining untouched.

The runes were currently glowing a dim blue, illustrating that while they had some power running through them they were currently dormant, waiting to be activated for their glorious purpose.

Seth quickly hurried over, depositing the soul above the suit of armour, leaving it simply floating in the air exactly where he had let it go, before shaking his hand in the air and wincing in pain. The hand was glowing softly from the heat generated, the core in his harness dimmer as it had been half drained.

"The prototype worked, although it could do with a little fine tuning. Especially when it comes to keeping its own power. The soul seemed hungry for any power as soon as I touched it."

"Oh, Yes. I will take that into account. Thank you Father."

He bobbed his head in acknowledgement, plucking the stone-wood box from the ground and carrying it over to the ritual site. He placed it down, carefully opened the hinged lid on top and reached inside.

To Seth's amazement, Julius plucked out seven additional souls from the box. These souls were weaker than that of the Giant Dwarf, and much smaller in comparison.

One by one, Julius placed one of them in each of the seven empty circles at the points of the octagram. His eyes almost popped out of their sockets as he witnessed the spider-like Anima handling precious souls with his bare hands, as if they were nothing special in the world, something that Seth had to get a special arm made for precisely the same purpose.