My Soul card is a Reaper-Chapter 954: The Prototype Artificial Arcana Spirit

Retina scan required. He leaned in.

Fingerprint confirmation required. He placed his hand on the screen.

The door clicked and parted sideways.

Inside, a humanoid robot rose from its chair the moment Azzy stepped inside. Its metal joints rotated with clean precision as it bowed slightly. "Lord Azrael," it said in a clear, pleasant tone, "how may I be of service?"

Azzy pulled out two vials he had kept safely tucked away. One vial held ordinary blood—or ordinary at first glance—the sample he collected from Azrael earlier. The second vial shimmered faintly like molten sunlight. His own divine gold ichor. That is also the proof of one’s divinity. Only the divine beings have blood in the form of gold ichor. The demons, not fallen angels, their blood that is generally in the form of black ichor.

And this is the proof that Azrael himself hasn’t turned into a demon... And he is still a human.

He set both vials on the counter in front of the robot. "I need you to check whether the DNA in these two samples matches."

The robot gently picked them up. "Acknowledged. Estimated processing time: 18 minutes and 44 seconds. Please wait."

Azzy nodded and turned to leave the chamber. 18 minutes wasn’t long, but he didn’t like standing still with so many thoughts crowding his head. So he walked down the corridor toward the central control room, where the air always carried the sharp scent of chemicals and scorched metal.

Inside, screens filled the walls with glowing data streams. The large containment capsule at the center pulsed with reddish light, demonic essence swirling like smoke trapped underwater. Dr. Mac stood in front of it, tapping commands into her panel with both hands.

Her eyes lit up immediately when she saw him. "Azrael!" she greeted, her voice carrying its usual excitement. "It’s been a while."

"It has," Azzy replied with a small nod.

She wiped her gloves on her coat. "How’s Leiza? And how’s the baby? Everything okay?"

"Still a few weeks before labor," Azzy answered. "She’s doing fine."

"Good, good." Dr. Mac nodded as if checking off a mental list. Then her expression shifted into a proud grin. "By the way, I have some good news for you."

Azzy raised an eyebrow. "What is it?"

Dr. Mac stepped aside, motioning for him to look at a floating hologram of a glowing seed-like object swirling with shadows and golden light. "I’ve successfully created a prototype artificial Arcana spirit."

Azzy blinked. "From Belial’s essence?"

"And your divine energy," she corrected with a little flourish. "It was a hybrid, although not completely stable. "She clasped her hands behind her back. "It still needs refinement before we can proceed to the next step—creating a soul weapon to house it and giving it a compatible form. Something like Orion’s Mythril bow will really suit this. If you provide enough mythril, we will produce another one."

Azzy stared at the hologram, watching the mixture of demonic and divine energy pulse rhythmically. A spirit waiting to be shaped, like a child waiting to be born. "Can you finish this before my son’s birth?"

Dr. Mac grinned widely. "Of course I could."

Azzy then studied the hologram for a moment longer as another thought surfaced. He glanced toward Dr. Mac.

"What if," he began carefully, "instead of merging this spirit into a weapon... we merge it into a living creature? Something in the form of an egg." His gaze drifted to the swirling core again. "Can you use that spirit to fuse with a monster egg and create a monster-type Arcana spirit?"

Dr. Mac’s fingers froze mid-air. She turned toward him, eyes narrowing thoughtfully.

"A living creature?" she repeated. "In the form of an egg...?" Her brows drew together. "Technically, yes. It is possible." She tapped her chin. "But there is a problem. The egg must come from a monster with no elemental affinity."

Azzy nodded. "And?"

"And such monsters are practically nonexistent." Dr. Mac threw both hands up. "In my entire career, I’ve never even heard of a monster born without an element. They always have something—earth, spirit, storm, anything."

She paused.

"Although," she added with a slight tilt of her head, "in extremely rare cases, a monster may be born with no element. Like a mutation of sorts."

Azzy gave a slow smile. "Then you might be in luck."

Dr. Mac blinked. "What do you mean?"

"I heard of an egg Orion won at an auction," Azzy explained. "It’s from a dinosaur and around seventy million years old, still not fossilized. And the egg still has a living spirit inside because of a seal."

The moment the words seventy million years left his mouth, Dr. Mac’s face lit up like a child opening a present. She practically teleported closer to him.

"Really?" She leaned in until Azzy had to take half a step back. "Where is it? Can I see it? Do you have it? Is it intact? Is it fossilized? Is it alive? Did they scan it? PLEASE tell me they scanned it—"

Azzy blinked at the rapid-fire questions. "I don’t have it on me. Orion does. But I’ll tell him..."

Dr. Mac didn’t even try to hide her disappointment—she deflated dramatically for all of three seconds. Then, just as quickly, she perked up again.

"You have no idea what kind of opportunity it is to study the egg!" she exclaimed, pacing excitedly. "Back when I worked in the Arcturian Federation, we discovered two planets in the NGC 446 region—Milky Way Galaxy—absolutely filled with giant reptiles. Massive ones! Some swimming, some flying, some with armor thicker than warships. We suspected they might be the ancestors of Gaia’s dinosaurs of the past."

She raised a finger dramatically.

"So, naturally, we collected samples!"

Azzy nodded politely, letting her enthusiasm run its course. She continued without stopping.

"And when we compared the DNA between the planets, do you know what we found?" She didn’t wait for him to answer. "They matched! Not entirely, but strongly enough to suggest they originated from the same genetic root."

She started laughing to herself, like remembering her favorite memory in the entire universe.

"And that eventually led us to the discovery that—"

She abruptly froze mid-sentence.

Her excitement flickered out.

She cleared her throat, straightening her coat. "Ahem. Anyway. I’m rambling."

Azzy raised an eyebrow. "A bit."

She waved her hand dismissively. "Point is—if Orion truly has such an egg, bring it to me. Immediately. A seventy-million-year-old organism preserved by a divine seal? Perfect material." She pointed at the floating hologram. "However, instead of using it as a vessel for the artificial Arcana spirit, if you give me enough time, I can clone it. You know, I have been cloning Belial’s avatar for the past few months and have succeeded already. Using his essence as the seed, we can basically create top-tier Artificial Arcana spirits. We can also collect different types of essences from powerful Arcana Masters to create normal Artificial Arcana spirits, too, basically raising the Dinosaur Clan from the ashes. And I will..."

Looking at her eyes that gleamed with ambition, Azzy stopped her, "Alright... alright... first, let me talk to my son and then we’ll decide what to do with the Dinosaur egg. It belongs to him, after all. Meanwhile, you focus on refining the artificial Arcana spirit to its best. Make it a priority, please... I can’t have my second child be born in the same way as Orion."

Dr. Mac nodded slowly, understanding the weight behind his words.