The workshop basement was silent, save for the quiet movements of Rlyis and Eno as they made their final adjustments to the Semi-Spirit Mystic Construct.
Lassim stood nearby, arms crossed, watching as the two worked after they spent the last few days repeatedly planning and refinding various designs before finally implementing them inside the prototype.
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The unique lightning construct stood motionless on the platform in the center of the room. The construct’s metallic body gleamed under the cold lights that lit up the basement.
It stood in a fairly standard, but unique looking humanoid shape, broad-shouldered and about seven feet tall. Its angular features reminiscent of the robust Thick-body constructs Eno and Rlyis had crafted earlier but with more aerodynamic architecture and sturdier, more advanced metal alloys to protect the array lines.
However, the biggest and key difference here was the Spirit Quartz cluster embedded within its chest—a carefully placed gathering of smaller shards surrounding the century crystal, which acted as the construct’s core.
This was the design Rlyis and Eno had eventually settled on after working out all of the potential design flaws and other issues. Part of the solution they landed on was to fracture and embed thin threads of the same quartz throughout the rest of its frame, creating a lattice that glowed faintly with the energy stored inside that magically leaked through the metal alloys.
Lassim couldn’t help but feel anticipation as they prepared for the first test.
"All set?" Lassim asked, breaking the silence. His voice carried a hint of excitement.
Rlyis stood by the array controls, her sharp eyes scanning the readings displayed on a translucent mana screen she’d summoned. "Yeah… I think we’re as ready as we’ll ever be," she replied, her tone clipped. "Everything’s connected, the arrays are stable, and the Spirit Quartz is resonating with each other in the same steady frequency, as expected."
Eno was crouched by the construct’s legs, making one last inspection of the joints. His hands moved with precision as he checked the delicate connections between the Spirit Quartz and the metallic components.
"Theoretically, it should work," he said, his voice muffled slightly as he worked. "The arrays will channel energy from the century crystal to the supplementary shards, and the Spirit Sense from Rylis that we’ve stored in the quartz should allow the construct to process basic commands. It should be enough to confirm a trial run before we do a second test with your intent inside."
"Let’s just start it," Lassim said, stepping back to give the construct space. "You two spent a lot of time theorizing and revising the designs so much. It’s time to see what it can actually do!"
Rlyis sighed but nodded, her fingers dancing over the array controls. The hum in the air intensified as the array activated, glowing runes lighting up along the floor in concentric circles around the construct. The Spirit Quartz embedded within its chest pulsed with energy, and the construct’s metallic frame began to tremble faintly.
"Powering up," Rlyis said, her eyes fixed on the readings. "Energy levels are stable… Spirit Sense flow through the arrays is steady… It’s—"
A sudden lurch interrupted her, the construct’s body began jerking as if testing its own joints and limbs. The movements were stiff at first, almost robotic, but they quickly became smoother. Its head tilted upward, the faint glow of its Century Crystal in the core shining through its chest and spreading faint traces of light through its limbs.
"It’s moving," Lassim said in awe that the construct would just immediately begin moving on its own like that without commands.
The construct attempted to take its first step forward, the sound of metal on stone echoing through the basement. Its foot came down and it moved again with the other, its second step more confident than the first. Rlyis glanced at the holographic screen, her brow furrowing.
"This isn’t right," she said, her tone shifting to concern. "Something’s… off. I didn’t program this. Eno, look at its movements."
Eno straightened, his expression darkening as he watched the construct. She was right. Its movements were indeed strange.
Instead of walking forward in a straight line while upright like any normal humanoid, it began to twist and shift its weight unnaturally, as if testing its balance and trying to find a comfortable way to move. One arm jerked outward, bending at an odd angle, and the sound of straining metal filled the room.
"It’s trying to—what is it doing?" Lassim asked, taking a cautious step closer.
The construct froze for a moment, then raised both arms as if to pull at its own chest. The sound of metal creaking and cracking grew louder as its humanoid frame began to contort. Plates of armor shifted and slid apart, revealing the intricate lattice of Spirit Crystal beneath.
Before things could get any worse in the microsecond that the construct moved to tear itself apart, Rlyis snapped, "Shut it down!" Her fingers flying over the controls.
The array pulsed once, and the construct’s movements ceased. It stood still, its body frozen in the middle of some sort of transformation, with fragments of its outer shell scattered across the floor.
The trio stared at the construct in stunned silence.
After a few silent minutes, Lassim broke the tension by asking, "What was it trying to do?"
He was met with a long pause before Eno replied, "It was trying to change itself… I think," his voice filled with disbelief. "But why? What’s it trying to do?"
Rlyis shook her head, "I don’t know. The arrays aren’t programmed for this much change in the out structure to hold the arrays. It should be following the basic programming we set to walk around the workshop while cycling the stored Spirit Sense through the quartz."
Eno stepped forward, examining the damage to the construct’s joints and armor. "It’s optimizing," he said, his tone laced with fascination. "Look at these breaks. They’re not random. It was forcing its form to adapt to some other shape, but the metal wasn’t flexible enough to accommodate the changes."
"Adapting?" Lassim repeated, frowning. "Into what?"
Eno didn’t answer immediately. Instead, he reached for his tools, quickly loosening and adjusting the damaged joints. "Let’s make some quick modifications," he said. "If it’s trying to reshape itself, we need to let it. Otherwise, it’s just going to break itself apart again."
"You want to power it on again?" Rlyis asked, incredulous.
"Do we have a choice?" Eno countered. "If we don’t figure out what it’s trying to do, we’re flying blind. We’ll never get it to work the way we want and perhaps there’s a more efficient design that we’re not considering. We won’t know unless we let it happen."
Rlyis muttered something under her breath but didn’t argue further.
Together, she and Eno reinforced the joints and loosened the plates around the construct’s limbs and torso, creating more flexibility for movement. Eno was heating and cooling the metallic parts in rapid succession, attempting to match and predict what shape it might be trying to become, but still adding a lot of range of movement and flexibility to the previously standardized human shape. A lot of the metallic rigs and cap-plates came off quickly, leaving exposed socket joints and frames.
Lassim watched silently. What could be causing this? Was it the Spirit Quartz? The arrays? Or something else entirely?
When the adjustments were complete, Rlyis returned to the controls, her expression grim. "Let’s try this one more time," she said. "If it damages itself again or puts the Spirit Quartz we have at risk, we’ll shut it down for good and reassess."
The hum of the array filled the room once more as the construct powered up. This time, its movements were less erratic, though no less unsettling as it clearly wasn’t fully following the programmed instructions once the Spirit Sense began rotating through the entire Lightning construct’s body.
This time, it raised itself back to its full height, resetting to the standard human stance with its crystal core glowing brighter.
Then, slowly, it began to shift again.
Several pieces of the frame attempted to slide apart and it used the lightning to take some of the metal plates by its feet to help reassemble itself how it wanted. Its humanoid frame then bent over, almost as if in pain, before contorting into a new shape.
Its arms elongated, the joints reversing direction, while its legs shortened and thickened. Its head tilted downward, the faceplate retracting into the body as a new, elongated snout formed in its place.
The trio watched in stunned silence as the construct dropped to all fours, its movements now much more fluid and "comfortable". The former, polished metallic sheen of its frame was now broken by jagged spikes that jutted out along its back and shoulders, giving it a feral, predatory appearance.
"It’s a wolf?" Lassim said, his voice barely above a whisper.
Rlyis glanced at him, her expression confusion. "But what kind? This isn’t any kind of wolf I’m familiar with. Look at how many freaking spikes are on its back and limbs!"
Eno stepped closer, his eyes narrowing as he studied the construct. "A wolf-like form would make sense for agility and speed. But we didn’t program any of this, so why? The construct shouldn’t be capable of making these decisions on its own with just Rlyis’ Spirit Sense. Rlyis, do you have a werewolf fetish or something?"
Rlyis shook her head. "It’s not me! It’s got to be something else stored within it. Do you think there’s already some intent inside?"
"But what intent?" Lassim asked. "We didn’t put anything else except your Spirit Sense in it and my mana. I doubt that simple combination would’ve caused it or else the other tests we did yesterday on the dummy constructs would’ve reacted the same. Do you think it’s the Spirit Quartz?"
The discussion was interrupted again by the construct taking another cautious step forward on its newly-formed body, the sound of its movements eerily quiet and perfectly silent despite its metallic and lightning filled body. Its head turned toward the trio, the faint glow of its Spirit Quartz core visible through its translucent eyes.
"I think it has to be," Rlyis said softly.