The moon reached its zenith, casting a bright glow.
It was late at night, and Neustadt City lay in silence, its streets deserted, with the occasional hurried figure passing by after a long interval.
In the laboratory of the True Knowledge Society Castle.
Before Colin, the body of the summoned Ice Element had crumbled away substantially, leaving only the upper torso and a fragmented right arm.
A chill hit him, yet beads of sweat appeared on his forehead.
Colin was exhausting all his efforts to maintain the integrity of the Ice Element before him, observing to pinpoint what caused its disintegration.
Crack.
However, the energy within the Ice Element, akin to boiling water, overpowered Colin's magic, and in a moment, the recently modified Ice Element shattered completely, its remnants scattering on the floor.
Colin withdrew his right hand from the Ice Element, and as he exhaled lightly, he meticulously reviewed everything he had just experienced in his mind.
"The energy fluctuations are strange, although the Life Cycle Core has already transformed all Magic Power into Ice Elemental Energy. There shouldn't be any conflict... Could it be that the transformed Ice Elemental Energy still differs slightly from the Ice Element's inherent energy?
But that's not right either. The energy transformed by the Life Cycle Core is identical to the 'Ricker Summoning Ice Element Magic'—the standard for Ice Elemental Energy. I have verified it myself; there is no difference..."
Moments later, unable to find the answer, Colin recited another incantation and summoned another Ice Element, swiftly modifying it to prepare for another test.
The moon gradually descended from the black treetops, and time moved on.
Woosh.
As the Ice Element broke down into pieces again, Colin pulled out his pocket watch for a glance.
It was already past two in the morning.
He would usually have left the True Knowledge Society by this time at the latest to go home and rest.
Colin looked at the gradually dissolving pieces of the Ice Element on the ground, furrowed his brows, snapped his pocket watch shut, took a breath, and then channeled his Magic Power to summon another new Ice Element.
With each inspection, the problem within the Ice Element became clearer. He felt he was on the verge of discovering the cause of its disintegration, and he chose to continue his research rather than going home where he knew he would not sleep well.
The Elemental Puppet made by Ricker's Summoning Ice Element Magic represented the standard among those created by wizards to imitate Ice Elements. It shared no particular bias and was standard and popular, much like Colin's current mastery of Summon Fire Element.
Thanks to its popular nature, Colin had a wealth of resources for reference.
Generally speaking, Ricker's Ice Elemental Puppet, a wizard's synthetic standard form of an Ice Element, consisted mainly of an energetic state of Frost, also possessing various icy attack abilities of an Ice Element and immunity to most physical attacks.
The main difference lay in the core. The core of a natural Ice Element not only housed a spirit but was also structurally much more complex than a wizard's crafted Ricker Ice Elemental Core.
The wizard-crafted Ice Elemental Core, which was the control center, after all, was an artificial creation, its functions limited to only the essentials, such as combat and spirit linkage.
"I wonder if there will be any structural changes to the body of a Miracle," Colin suddenly thought.
Although Isidore always maintained that there was no structural difference between a Miracle and an ordinary Ice Element.
Clearly, this was a fallacy. As Isidore had said, if a Miracle possessed self-awareness and potentially a soul, it would naturally manifest in its physical form.
Especially after these days of study concerning the soul, Colin understood that it could not exist independently.
The soul could not exist on its own; it needed something to depend on.
Things like ghosts and specters had nothing to do with souls; they were soulless beings that in the strict sense were merely residual thoughts from before death combined with post-mortem influences.
Therefore, in actuality, the soul and its host influence each other, these influences inevitably reflected in the material world.
For humans, that is reflected in the physical body, and for the Ice Element, it naturally also lies in the body structure.
Even if we step back and assume that a Miracle doesn't truly have a soul, but merely intelligence, that still signifies that it is different from a common Ice Element.
After all, a common Ice Element doesn't possess intelligence... it's just that this difference may not be as significant as the presence of a soul would be.
In fact, during these days, Colin also attempted to persuade Isidore to let him have contact with Miracle.
But unfortunately, it was to no avail.
Colin found it hard to describe Isidore's attitude towards Miracle, but his attempts weren't completely futile.
Isidore gave him some test data, like energy composition and structure—claiming it was Miracle's.
Upon careful examination, Colin found that it indeed didn't differ from a common Ice Element—if the data Isidore provided wasn't falsified.
This only made Colin even more curious about Miracle.
How did Miracle's self-awareness come about?
Does she truly have a soul?
Even though Colin didn't believe that Miracle really had a soul, what if she did? That area was, after all, related to the domain of the right to life, a realm yet unconquered by Wizards.
If Isidore spoke the truth, then no Wizard would be able to curb their curiosity!
Colin's hands paused slightly, moving away from his current task.
The Ice Element in front of him had been reformed once again, and he silently thought as he gazed at the blue figure.
'Once I figure out a method for treatment, and the time comes for me to make modifications, Isidore surely won't keep me from contacting Miracle again...'
With this thought, Colin renewed his vigor. Before it was for five hundred thousand Magic Stones, but now a part of it was also to satisfy his own curiosity.
And so, the moon gradually dimmed, and the pitch-black night sky first turned deep blue, then was suddenly pierced by a streak of orange from the far horizon. Those deep blues swiftly lost their color, revealing the azure Sky.
Inside the True Knowledge Society laboratory, Colin was busily scribbling on a table covered in papers, with remnants of Ice Element debris scattered at his feet yet to dissipate.
After who knows how long, Colin suddenly stopped his writing, raised his head, and muttered,
"The control center of the Ice Element and the newly added Life Cycle Central are experiencing a compatibility issue..."
After relentless effort, he had finally pinpointed the reason behind the disintegration of the Ice Elements.
Within the body of an Ice Element, whenever the Life Cycle Core began to function and absorb external Magic Power to transform Energy, it would cause the Ice Element's original core to produce a strange "resonance".
This peculiar effect was the direct cause of the Element Core's instability and subsequent collapse, which naturally also led to the demise of the Ice Element.
It is worth mentioning that both occurrences almost happened simultaneously, making Colin initially unaware that it was the Ice Element Core that collapsed first.
Gathering up the analysis data scribbled on his draft paper, Colin waved his hand to clear the debris of the Ice Element at his feet, twisted his neck, and without further study, turned and left the laboratory.
'Perhaps, I could attempt to combine the Ice Element Core with the existing Life Cycle Core? Although the presence of the Life Cycle Core alone negatively impacts the Ice Element Core.
Its function is sound, indeed capable of replenishing Energy for the Ice Element. The peculiar "resonance" now seems more like a design flaw in the original structure of the Elemental Puppet—if there is another structure coexisting with the core within the body of the Ice Element, it's likely to trigger the collapse.'
"To avoid this kind of collapse, I probably need to integrate the added Life Cycle structure with the Ice Element's original core."
Colin walked towards his home, his mind flooding with thoughts,
'Perhaps, the original Ice Element Core could also be upgraded? I could add a structure for the Life Cycle function to its existing structural basis, modeling it after the core of a true Ice Element, since a true Ice Element's core possesses the function of a Life Cycle...'
After identifying the cause, the subsequent work became clear and straightforward.
Colin had a premonition that the day he would successfully complete his commission wasn't too far off.