Vol 2: Prologue: Quest for Perfect Merged Soul

Shukla sighed as he glanced at one of his secret base inside the Soul World that he used as his Lab for conducting experiments on Merged Souls.

This lab was mainly a single huge room.

One section was filled with huge transparent spheres containing Merged Souls in it.

Shukla hoped most of them would be stable, but he knew that was not the case.

He used Time Stopper, to freeze them in most stable state that he could get the Merged Souls into. Hence he called them Time Stopper Spheres.

The area at the center of the room has huge cylindrical metallic device with transparent display in the center.

It was filled with multicolored gel like substance that was the amalgamation of essence he had collected from most of the worlds that are present.

It was a prototype for Soul Master.

His life's work.

Beside it a table was there, filled with robotic arms on wheels.

He was working with his daughter, Sheila, who was in her armor that helped her — a being of Water World — stay alive inside The Soul World. He was also in one such armor.

Through the transparent faceplate of her armor, Shukla could see that she still wore her blue hair in braids, unlike his own, which were in disarray.

Sheila was looking at the Merged Souls inside the Time Stopper Spheres with her bright blue eyes filled with so much enthusiasm that Shukla lacked lately.

She had been assisting him in testing the new Merged Souls suspended inside the Time Stopper Spheres, by integrating it inside of Soul Master Prototype.

Shukla hoped at least he would successfully complete the integration.

"Father, why are you so down today. I believe we are much closer to achieving your life long goal. Cheer up," Sheila said.

Shukla glanced at his daughter. Just like her, he had been bright, cheerful and optimistic when he was young. But as he weathered the countless battles against the Dark Over Lord, he lost them. He hoped he could perfect the Soul Master before he died so that his daughter will not become just like him. "I will try to, but I am tried. I don't think we will succeed today," he said.

Sheila shook her head. "Father, you are the one who taught me to look for positive outcome in every situation. I have documented our past experiments and could see some progress. Please don't lose hope. Let's continue testing them," she said.

Shukla didn't want to disappoint his daughter. So he nodded. "Let's get on with today's experiments. I hope this won't explode just like it did during last week. We are short on funding and Chitra has not been too forthcoming with renewing our wages," he said.

Sheila cursed. She hated Chitra. Heck, even he hated Chitra. Chitra was as sadistic and horrible a Nonliving Soul could be. But she ruled the Nonliving Soul World and she was funding his research.

"Father, I don't get why we have to listen to her. I believe without her interference, we would've progressed much faster," she said.

Shukla shook his head. "I don't think so. Without her providing the souls, we couldn't have so many Merged Souls for our experiments," he said.

Sheila sighed. "I know. But she is a horrible bitch. She wanted us to develop a perfectly Merged Soulmate for her. Who looks for a Merged Soul as a Soulmate?" she asked.

Shukla chuckled. Even though he took Sheila along with him to several worlds, she was too focused on research and ignored social life. "There are so many cases scattered throughout our history. It's just that every time they appeared, higher ups would try to keep it out of public knowledge. But if you know where to look and have right connections, you could get that information," he said.

Sheila frowned. "Whatever. How could they waste their time on romantic fantasy? We have to use every moment of our life to research as much as possible," she said, her eyes glowing with so much spirit that Shukla couldn't help but feel proud.

Although he wanted her to pursue her research, he wanted her to enjoy her life. She was already very old. Still without any relationship. He hoped he could get to hold his grandchildren in his own hands. "If you meet the right person, the Soulmate as the beings of Soul World used to call, you will come to know why they waste their time on romantic fantasy. But enough of that. We are not here to discuss about either Chitra or about Soulmates. We are here to see if we could successfully integrate the Sample Merged Souls with Soul Master Prototype," he said, summoning his Holographic Screen.

The screen was a touch screen, 3D Holographic Computer, that is connected remotely to robotic arms and devices present in the lab.

Shukla didn't need to touch any of the devices by hand. He just had to touch their representation in the Holographic Screen and move them, push buttons or act necessary motions he wanted the robotic arm to perform.

Sheila nodded and summoned her own Holographic Screen.

Sheila would be observing the experiment as it progress, recording the events that happened, meanwhile Shukla would do the actual experiment through robotic arms.

He lifted the icons representing the Time Stopper Spheres and placed them on the icon representing the table beside the icon representing Soul Master Prototype.

The robotic arms responded by lifting the Time Stopper Spheres and placed them on the table beside Soul Master Prototype.

Shukla then pushed the blue butoon at the corner of the Holographic Screen and a Semi-Transparent Blue Barrier separated them from the Table, Time Stopper Spheres and Soul Master Prototype.

Shukla then opened one of the Time Stopper Sphere and the Merged Soul immediately disintegrated the moment it came into contact with the outer environment.

Shukla sighed, while Sheila noted down her observations on her Holographic Screen.

Shukla then proceeded to take another Merged Soul from next Time Stopper Sphere and it didn't disintegrate like the earlier one. But as soon as Shukla opened the Soul Master Prototype, the Merged Soul disintegrated.

Shukla ignored the growing sense of defeat and took the next Merged Soul and was successful in getting inside the Soul Master prototype.

Before he could close the Soul Master Prototype screen, the Merged Soul winked out of existence.

It has been consumed by Soul Master Prototype.

Sheila whistled. "It has been a long time since I saw a Merged Soul with enough Soulfire that The Soul Master Prototype consumed it completely," she said. "It's a sign of progress father. Don't you see? I just recorded its features. All we have to do was see how it was formed. What elements were used and in what quantities. We just have to tinker it a little bit and we are much closer to finding the perfectly stable Merged Soul."

Shukla didn't want to dampen her enthusiasm. But they had seen many Merged Souls with enough Soulfire that was consumed by the Soul Master Prototype. What they wanted was the Merged Soul with enough Soulfire that it can overpower the Soul Master Prototype and take it over it's control.

He stared at her.

Sheila sighed. "I know, but you should rediscover how to be optimistic every once in a while," she said.

Shukla shook his head and proceeded with experimenting the next Merged Soul.

The moment it entered the Soul Master Prototype, it didn't disintegrate or even gotten consumed.

"Father, is this the Merged Soul we are looking for?" Sheila asked.

Shukla hoped it was. He closed he Soul Master Protype and let the Merged Soul inside it.

It didn't disappear.

"I think it might be," he said, and activated the Soul Master Prototype.

There was a brief flash of light, followed by the shaking of the Soul Master Prototype so intense that Shukla could feel it even standing from outside the barrier.

With a hum, the Soul Master Prototype rose in the air and hovered over there. It still continued to shake.

Just when Shukla thought it was going to work, the Soul Master Prototype flashed brightly for a moment followed by a sharp whine and gigantic wave spreading all around The Soul Master Prototype, throwing Shukla, Sheila and other devices away.

The Soul Master Prototype was destroyed.

Their secret lab was also destroyed.

Shukla's ears were still ringing when Sheila came to support him.

She immediately erected a barrier around them, the one that can create Water World environment for them and removed their armor.

She replaced them with new ones for both of them and once it was done, they surveyed the damage caused by the blast.

All their equipment were in ruins. The Time Stopper Spheres completely destroyed. The robotic arms melted into puddle.

There was no signs of Merged Souls or Soul Master Prototype.

There was no way they could salvage anything from the site other than their Holographic Screens which are linked to their mind and are not affected by the blast.

Shukla was angry at himself.

Was his experiments ever going to work?

He had been working on them for past few decades, ever since he discovered that his Water World was in danger.

If he couldn't find the Perfect Merged Soul and integrate it to Soul Master, then they couldn't proceed to integrate the Soul Master with the elements of their Water World and they were not going to save his Water World.

It was going to be destroyed.

If Water World is destroyed, then other worlds will slowly start to their downfall as well. After all, many beings depend on water for their survival.

What should he do?

He can't give up and look for a place to hide. The Dark Overlord know almost every place that ever existed. There was no way that Shukla could escape from his eyes.

He can't go to work for Dark Overlord either. It was against Shukla's principles.

Should he just kill kill himself before he could watch his world be destroyed?

No.

He had to persevere.

He had to continue his quest to find the Perfect Merged Soul, there by integrating it into Soul Master, and ultimately integrate all the elements of other worlds that existed in the universe.

He said to his daughter. "Sheila, let's get out from this base before others arrive and move to our next base and continue with our experiment."