A new body was provided to Gaturn's consciousness, and once more his initial state was unconscious. This prompted Ed to quickly use water spurt to get the orc back in business.
"Wha-?" This time, Gaturn reacted with confusion rather than fear. He stayed rooted in place as he watched the surroundings with vacant eyes.
[Gatur# (Disoriented)]
Two sacred tribe orcs for the price of one, Gatur# is currently inhabiting the body of Jolagh.
'The effects of death might get amplified with each death' Ed noted casually seeing the missing letter. He still needed to kill Gaturn a couple of more times to be one hundred percent certain.
Before that, however, Ed had to once more probe the lost orc. He had asked it the same questions but also added a new query.
"What's your name?" He asked him.
"Gatur. Ga- Gatur-? Huh? It's Gatur..." Gaturn seemed to have the remaining letter at the tip of his tongue but the letter n remained ever elusive. He continued to mumble his name to himself always reaching the same dead end. To Ed, his behavior started to resemble that of a mental patient.
"Your name is Gaturn" So Ed decided to lend him a hand. He needed to know how difficult it was to make the revived orcs remember their past. If it was easy to help then the immortal army was still a possibility.
At that very moment, something seemed to click for Gaturn.
"Yes! Gat- Gaturn... " Subtle memories began to return. Gaturn slowly looked towards Ed with his eyes increasingly widening, the fear in them plainly evident.
Gaturn immediately took action, he lunged at Ed but on account of his new body, he was missing a certain spring in his step. Not that it really mattered as Ed would be able to strike him down regardless.
Ed then smiled, a genuinely happy smile. Yet, the exaggerated nature of it caused Gaturn's heart to chill.
"You sure remembered quickly" Ed commented now holding greater optimism.
"No!" Gaturn yelled and lunged once more… this time at the wall… with his head…
Unfortunately, that was also well within Ed's plan. That meant that Gaturn's death was shortlived as Ed simply moved on to another cell to start again.
Each time, the initial stage was similar to the previous in each instance. Gaturn would start dazed. Once Ed reminded him of his name he would remember bits of the past. After that Gaturn would try to finish himself. It wasn't until two more body cycles that Gaturn's response to his name was different.
"It's Gatu- No! Jolag- Wait… I can't remember…" Gaturn said with a hint of sorrow. Ed on the other hand frowned.
'The memories of the brain still persist' Ed could immediately think of a couple of reasons why but he only found one most reasonable.
'Each death is shaving off the strength of the consciousness' Eventually the consciousness would fade away altogether leaving nothing of Gaturn. The brain however was fresh in each instance. Every single body Gaturn received was living only a few seconds before.
'The brainpower eventually catches up to the consciousness power if you will' Neither side would hold supremacy meaning that Gaturn's personality and his memories would get mixed up with those that remained in the brain.
'I wonder…' Ed was really curious why anything remained in the brain to start. It was odd to have both the brain and the consciousness hold memories.
'Unless the brain is a sort of temporary storage with the consciousness being more permanent.' In such a situation the brain could be compared to RAM1 in a computer and the consciousness as a sort of hard drive.
'It's interesting' Ed didn't know how useful such information might prove. It wasn't like he had any intention to make use of the brain although studying it would probably hold some merit. He was simply too shortsighted.
Ed, therefore, continued with his brusque experiments. He killed Gaturn two more times before finally concluding that particular trial. He didn't learn anything from the other two instances and Gaturn even seemed to have become braindead.
The memories from the previous owner that remained in the brain also made it so he held an irrational fear towards Ed. Conversing had become impossible, the experiments had reached a wall, but Ed was still skeptical.
'I wonder if this is enough…' He was still unsure of whether or not he could give resurrecting Vorgarag a try, the range of subjects with which he experimented on was not varied enough.
'The shape differences between these orcs were often times negligible' This was mainly due to the lack of female subjects, different heights and shapes wouldn't be a problem then. The men of the sacred tribe all carried the same diet and performed the same routines since young leading to similar heights and widths. That was all due to the militaristic nature of the religious order.
'The dungeon also doesn't really dilute the genes very well' The first orcs came from the dungeon and if the skeletons were anything to base on, the first orcs were likely identical. With identical genes, it would be near impossible for significant diversions between orcs to occur.
'And the rest is a blur…' Ed had forgotten much about genes until recently but he was obviously still lacking something. Nevertheless, it mattered little, he wouldn't get much from learning of the orcs' genes.
He instead halted his killing of the orcs and attempted to enter the system space. Unsurprisingly, his eyes shut as his mind scampered off to dreamland. He managed to enter the boundless white space where he got to witness the rise of the ethereal white temple and its grand sacred atmosphere.
Ed walked into the temple and headed straight into the storeroom, where many items were put into piles both big and small.
'There it is' Ed walked over to a medium-sized pile. This pile only had four bodies, four orc bodies.
[Herewaruk's body]
Ed had decided to bring back Vorgarag.
His next set of experiments would be geared towards figuring out what exactly a body was. Such information was unnecessary for bringing his friend back from the great beyond so Ed decided to start now.
'Wait… does that mean that my mind is the great beyond?' Ed then quickly shook his head. Every now and then silly thoughts would find their way into his head. Perhaps they were remainders of his personality as a human or they were his way to cope with the great expectation he held for this project.
He hurried over and grabbed the body. He then swiftly exited the system space with the body in tow.
Herewaruk's body was aged yet healthy, it was a middle-aged orc. One particularly skilled in arrays and formations.
'I wonder if Herewaruk's knowledge of formations will help Vorgarag improve his own skills' The more Ed thought about it the more expectant and excited he became. Although at the same time he felt sorry, sorry that he couldn't prevent his death to begin with.
'I'm sorry I didn't revive you sooner' And sorry that he seemingly didn't place enough importance on him either, it had taken him long enough.
***
The Volcan Empire. Contrary to what one might expect, the place was cold. Real cold.
"Young master, please get inside" Said a maid towards the young man with bright blonde hair who was watching the snowy outside from his balcony.
"It's fine" The young man casually dismissed her worry and continued to peer into the snowy wasteland. He looked at the tall trees pine trees and their snow-capped leaves. He watched the fluttering snowflakes being pushed around by the mountain wind.
"Sigh... " He eventually gave in however and returned to his warm room. There awaited him a cup of hot chocolate.
"This is expensive isn't it?" He said with a small frown. The snowy weather of the Volcan empire made it unfit for growing cocoa beans, which meant they were all imported and pricey.
"It's not alright to always be so frugal your highness" A woman said from a corner of the warm room.
"Ah!" The maid was shocked by the sudden guest.
"Well, old habits die hard" One of the many Volcan princes, Mite Volcan replied as he grabbed the chocolate and leaned back on his seat. It turned out that all along he had only been waiting for a visitor.
"That they do" She replied.
"Anything new?" He asked while sipping on the warm liquid.
"Yes, the king has gone into seclusion leaving your brothers in charge of the people" The woman casually replied.
"Foolish" Mite Volcan said in between sips. The Volcan siblings' rivalry was a secret to no one. Leaving them in charge of the empire was asking for trouble.
"What will we do?" The woman asked this time with a serious tone.
"This is what we've been waiting for no? What do you think we should do?" The prince said playfully.
"Show them the power of the forsaken prince" The woman replied with a stern expression.
"Hahaha, that's right! Well said Shade" Mite Volcan, the forsaken prince was a motherless bastard. To his brothers, he was the same as air- no, the air was at least useful, he may as well not exist.
"I'll show them the power of the forsaken prince…" He mumbled as he took another sip of his chocolate.
"This is actually pretty good... Let's drink this more often in the future, Coralie" The prince told his maid, Coralie.
"...Y- Yes, young master" The maid replied feeling somewhat overwhelmed. The relaxing snowy day had suddenly become a momentous occasion, one to be written in the annals of history.
Though that was yet to be seen, the confidence of the young prince suggested just that.
"Very good…" ...As he seemed more preoccupied with appreciating every cent spent on the hot chocolate.