The Archivist 4, Madness

The Archivist had few options in front of him

'I can either find someone weak and give him methods to become stronger then implement my plan on him, or, get an apprentice and nurture him myself until he becomes the strongest in the world'

But The Archivist didn't like any of these options

'Giving anyone methods to become stronger isn't a good idea, if it didn't acquire it on his own then he's not worthy of it'

As for the second option

'If I interact too much with the Being, everything will become easily predictable for me, thus it won't be fun or interesting'

On top of that, The Archivist didn't want to interact directly with the Subject for various other reasons, one of these would be that being around someone as powerful as The Archivist would drive the Being to mimic him in an attempt to become as powerful as him ...

'Also, if I nurture the subject directly, how will I make the world cause it pain?'

'He will naturally be aware of the fact that I can protect it from anything ...'

'So, instead of blaming the world, it might end up loathing me for not protecting him'

Naturally, that was something The Archivist was resolutely against

'I don't care if I'm one of the Being's enemies, but I don't want to be the main focus or even worse, the ONLY focus'

A tiny smirk appeared on his face

' ... Not from the very beginning at least'

He removed the smirk off his face and re-focused on the matter ...

The Archivist started by organizing his thoughts

'One, I need a Being that still has room for growth'

'Two, I need the Being to never interact with me until I deem fit'

'Three, I need the Being to not be fully resonated with the world'

After scratching his small, yellow beard for a couple of seconds, The Archivist realized something

'I don't think that the world has a human who fits my criteria'

But very quickly, another smirk appeared on his face, a smirk much more sinister than the previous one

'That's simple, if he's not in this world, I just need to bring him'

The Archivist's knowledge and power are unfathomable, he knows most if not all of the world's secrets, at least that's what he thinks ...

Naturally, he didn't want to reveal these secrets to anyone, he preferred to watch civilizations evolve on their own.

However ...

'Drastic times call for drastic measures'

It couldn't be helped

'I'll reveal one of the World's Secrets to make my plan work'

He had a specific secret in mind, one that would work very well with humans

'But for that, I need a human baby that will be aware of how to take advantage of the knowledge I will provide'

The Archivist scratched his chin in thought

'I can alter a baby's mind, give him intelligence and knowledge, but that won't suffice'

The Archivist wanted the process to be as natural as possible

'If I do that, no matter how smart I make the baby, he'll still be inexperienced regarding social skills, and that's of extreme importance'

Sure, The Archivist could just install in his mind how to socially interact

'But that would change his personality, turning him into a robot that responds with specific responses when specific actions are made'

That would no longer be a human ...

'More like an artificial mind in an organic body'

After thinking about it for a bit, The Archivist found the solution to his dilemma

'Instead of altering the mind, I will alter the Soul!'

'I can summon a so-'

For a brief moment, The Archivist's eyes widened

'I got an even better idea'

'I don't need to summon a soul, I can alter an already summoned one!'

'No! What about making the summoner alter the soul himself? This way I won't have to interact with the soul in any way'

'Luckily, there's a single human who knows how to use Summoning Magic'

When The Archivist thought of that, he immediately felt disgusted

'How low has the world fallen ...'

In previous Eras, there were entire civilizations that used Summoning Magic in wars and summoned countless beings into this world, making it even more diverse

'But now ...'

He sighed

'There's only a single human who knows how to properly use it, and he had to improve the entire classification on his own, basically reinventing it from scratch'

'What's even worse is the fact that he did it for a pitiful goal'

He smiled wryly

'Such a degeneration'

Anyway, the plan was almost completed, there were only a few hurdles left to overcome

'One, I need the summoned soul to be altered, then ...'

The first thing The Archivist needed was to keep the soul in this world, otherwise, it might reincarnate in a different reality.

'I need to make sure it stays in this reality'

'Two, when humans get reincarnated, their memories are soft-reset, obviously I can't let that happen to the altered soul'

'I know how to take care of that'

The Archivist smiled with satisfaction

'Overcoming these hurdles is easy, but it'll take some time'

Suddenly, a desk manifested in front of The Arcihivst, and on top of the desk were countless tools, Gemstones, Diagrams, Crystals, and Magic Circles ...

The Archivist's hands started rapidly moving, drawing seemingly random shapes and yellow lines in the air, and at the same time, he chanted multiple Spells at an incredible speed ...

And like this, time passed ...

Hours

Days

Weeks

Months

Years

Decades ...

How much time passed? Well, it doesn't really matter, The Archivist is immortal

He had all the time in the world, quite literally.

For the record, this was the first time since EONS that The Archivist was focused on something other than writing books or observing the world.

Finally, after an unknown number of decades, The Archivist was done ...

In front of him floated a marvelous purple Pearl

He looked at it with satisfaction and thought to himself

'Such a Marble'

The Archivist was impressed by his own work

'Wonderful'

The Pearl was shining brightly

'Perfectly designed, will bind the soul to this world and allow it to keep all of its memories as well, Magnificent!'

But suddenly, something came to The Archivist's mind

'If I allow it to keep its memories, wouldn't it want to go back to its old world or something?'

After considering it for a couple of seconds, he decided

'Better safe than sorry'

He extended his hand forward towards the Marble, and black smoke came out of his palm and slowly seeped inside the Pearl, making it slowly dim and lose its luminosity

'Now the soul will never care about its old life'

For a couple of minutes, The Archivist kept staring at the pearl ...

Suddenly, his yellow eyes shone brightly

'Let's do this'

He extended his index forward, and a tiny, black dot appeared on his finger, and he slowly put his index on the Pearl, transferring the black dot to it ...

'Personal flavor, disregard for life'

'It should help the Subject accept murder, albeit slowly'

He chuckled lightly

'The more lives the subject takes, the easier it'll be for it to take even more'

'Now only one thing is left'

'Should I mark it?'

'If I mark it, then it'd be extremely easy to find the soul'

All The Archivist would need to do was to fly over the world and he'd be able to perceive the mark when it was within his perception range

' ... But that wouldn't be fun, would it?'

It'd be too easy, also

'I can ask someone to find him, so he'll have even more enemies'

So he decided against putting the mark.

Eventually, The Archivist caught the hovering Pearl between his index and thumb and brought it closer to his face ...

'The preparations are complete'

"Who will be the lucky one"

"Aha- Ahahaha- AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA ... AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA"

"What am I asking? I am the lucky one!"

"PWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA"

The Archivist's maniacal laughter echoed throughout the humongous library ...

Then an evil smirk appeared on his face

"Who will be the unlucky one?"