The number of Soul Phyctery that exist in the Human Imperium is finite. They were left by the undead ancestor, Grimsong Specter, before he left the Imperium. Therefore, it is natural that each Soul Phyctery is given to Armored Soul Tribe instead of the other imperium undead as they can maximize its usefulness.

  This meant that the number of FTL-capable ships in the Imperium was even less than that.

  An Armored Soul Tribe’s AT-Field is something that many have tried to imitate, but always resulting in various levels of failure, never completely achieving success.

  In this context, Xuangu Wenren was tasked to create a semi-permanent barrier that blocks the invasion of native dimensional ws so that Mizuki’s electronics wouldn’t revert into scrap metal, which was no different to imitate the AT-Field. His master wanted to save the remnants of his closest in the form of AI support units, so he had to comply. To achieve this, he requested one of the most enigmatic undead in Mizuki’s cohort, the Onmyōji.

  Since he is currently in a state of a soul ‘ball’ that allows for ‘permanent storage’ in the phyctery, the first step of using him is to revive him. Some undead do not require mortal shells, such as Volkodav the wraith, whose existence is made out of ectopsmic matter, so their true body can easily change from soul ball into a wraith seamlessly.

  In the case of the Onmyōji, things are quite different.

  ‘The Onmyōji require a mortal shell, but he can project himself using shikigami through the use of paper dolls. It would be hard for Master Mizuki to procure some of those, so I’ll have to substitute…’ Xuangu Wenren gave a respectful bow towards Mizuki who delivered a pile of white bones, procured from the gray dwarves’ inventory.

  “Thank you, Your Excellency.”

  “I’ll be in the drop pod.” Mizuki left.

  In this makeshift cave not too far from the orbital drop pod, Xuangu Wenren adjusted the bone pile into a bone altar and chose the best as a catalyst. He picked a rge rank 1 leg bone from a reptile beast, still containing the blood energy-rich marrow inside. He carved it with his metal fingers as he began to whisper in a dark nguage. His mortal shell produced strong radiation while his dark whispers became stronger “Rank 1 bone-path killer move, [Bonesoul Reversal]!”

  The bone catalyst engraved in purple soul runes ignited in pale white fmes. The intensity of the fmes increased until it completely engulfed the bone altar. The strange cold heat fractures, melted and eventually moulded the bone pile into a paper-thin human-shaped doll the size of a palm.

  Before the bone paper doll falls into the ground, a follow up killer move is activated by Xuangu Wenren and the Onmyōji.

  With a poof, the object of interest turned into a white fox with rge ears and two tails.

  “Onmyōji, shouldn’t you take the form of a human?” There was a double meaning behind his words that perhaps only him and the Onmyōji can understand.

  “...” The white fox merely stared bnkly at the lich, not giving any comment.

  Xuangu Wenren shook his head when he remembered that the Onmyōji’s shikigami is only a projection of his true self. It is more convenient if it didn’t take the form of a human. In any case, he wouldn’t be able to stomach his real face, anyway. “Then, how should we approach this task?”

  The white fox muttered in an alien nguage that even a Terran like Mizuki wouldn’t be able to understand, yet, the lich completely comprehend whatever sound it made.

  “If we go in with that method, we’ll have to ask for a piece of Master’s truesoul. Counterproductive. I suggest we do this…” Xuangu Wenren produced a cloud of telepathic thoughts and sent it to the fox’s forehead. “This would make you entrenched in the orbital drop pod, but at the very least, this static Imitation of the AT-Field can protect what’s important to master. Unlike the entropic chaos of Hyperspace, the environmental variables in this world are unchanging, so once you’ve got a hold of it, there’s nothing else you should do other than maintaining it.”

  “.....”

  “You’re the only one who still has rank 3 cultivation in His cohort, the others have already been exhausted into a Lord. You’ll be fine, just copy Master’s current AT-Field configuration. I’ll support you with a continuous stream of souls, under his approval.”

  Xuangu Wenren left the little cave with the white fox jumping on his shoulder, his gaze automatically scanning the darkness for Mizuki’s figure. The man was busy preparing for his inevitable downfall, it was a race against time before his cultivation decayed. Once he falls into a Legend, his AT-Field won’t be able to protect his tech.

  “Shall we?”

  The white fox barked in approval, climbing Xuangu Wenren’s head as he entered the orbital drop pod once more.

  To no surprise, he saw Mizuki already inside.

  Originally, it was a drop pod for orbital deployment of 7 space marines and their equipment. Sometimes, it was also used as an emergency escape pod. Made from the same material as a battleship’s hull, rank 5 metal known as Adamantium, the orbital drop pod’s outer armor is virtually invulnerable to all damage in this world, but like any other imperium tech, it is also embedded in nanite-based self destruct sequence that would wipe the invulnerable metal out of this world if the need arise.

  At the center of the drop pod was the battleship mainframe, consisting of high-tech processing machinery that allowed Mizuki to sail amongst the entropic chaos of the Hyperspace. The bck obelisk-like object was almost three meters tall with a smooth, reflective surface like that of an onyx. Colorful dots like stars in the night skies adorned the surface of the mainframe. It was one of peak engineering of the Human Imperium.

  Xuangu Wenren sees Mizuki interacting with the mainframe. He tapped his skull a few times, producing a small chip, and then put the chip into the mainframe’s opening.

  “With that, the 43 AI models inside… should be safe” Mizuki muttered as his mechanical eyes gleamed in sorrow.

  ‘We must protect the master's precious memory of home.’ Xuangu Wenren shared his thoughts with the white fox.

  “..... 13h@!#%T asdna jneqhw asdgqet… I am ready.” The white fox’s voices were grating and incomprehensible, but on the tter part, Xuangu can recognize some terran nguage. It seems like the Omyoji were adapting himself to the new projection.

  “Master, we are ready to start raising the barrier.”

  Mizuki turned to face them, “Not yet.” he started to narrate his pns going forward. “I’m going to create a system based on the Imperium in this world. I’ll need the mainframe core’s computation capabilities.”

  “You’re de-tech-ing yourself?” Xuangu Wenren inquired in mild shock as he realized the implication. He knew it was the most logical decision that Mizuki could take at the moment, but one of the highest advantages of being an Armored Soul Tribe is the fact that their soul is digitalized. The current flowing within the machine is not electricity, but the truesoul of an Armored Soul Tribe.

  Being a digitized undead meant he could hop from one tech to another seamlessly. In fact, as long as there’s computation power, he could use it to generate thoughts.

  Of course, weaknesses and limits still exist, but Mizuki’s greatest advantage is the fact that his current mortal shell is a literal war machine made for combat. There’s so much high-end technology crammed up in that little body that his actual combat effectiveness compared to others of the same rank is off the charts.

  De-tech-ing himself meant he let go of his rank 5 mortal shell and chose an analog mortal shell like what Xuangu Wenren was resurrected into.

  The difference being, Xuangu Wenren was a lich who specialized in necromancy. He can support locomotion through weaving his soul into the steel wires that have already been treated to accept souls. Mizuki, on the other hand, has to utilize the [Scattered Chapters of Lemegeton] to activate mildly complex soul arts. High-speed combat will be extremely difficult considering the time-g of decision making and actual movement.

  “I know of your concern.” Mizuki waved his hand, “I brought three redundant mortal shells, and one of them has a psychic emitter. I can perform at least half of my peak of the same rank.”

  “Understood, We’ll prepare some redundancy.” Xuangu Wenren nodded in understanding. He left for the previous cave, fetching some leftover bones for further arrangement.

  In the meantime, Mizuki gnced at the two redundant mortal shells that remain.

  One is an analog puppet made out of metal with a psychic emitter embedded on where the brain should be, while the other is an android. Both are rank 1s.

  In this case, the rank 1 tier refers to the material it was made out of. Considering it is a mars-pattern artifact, a rank 1 mortal shell is near or comparable to rank 2 items outside of the Imperium in terms of quality. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be able to pass the technomancers' quality control back on Crimson Mars.

  Taking the one with the psychic emitter into the center of the room, Mizuki sat cross legged on top of the obelisk-like mainframe core and closed his eyes. From the gaps of his body, thin, prismatic hairs began to protrude, animated like the roots of trees looking for water at accelerated pyback speed.

  The prismatic hairs were in fact, solid hardlight that encased electric and information current, simir in design to optic fibers. They slithered and connected to some parts of the mainframe core that opened up some holes, allowing direct connection between the two high-tech artifacts.

  With power restored, the Mainframe core is back online, but Mizuki wouldn’t allow every module of it to be activated, as it would waste energy. Instead, he partitioned and made arrangements so that the AI models stored in the mainframe are authorised to activate each other depending on the needs, as he couldn’t afford to be distracted in the near future.

  “Shiro-sensei…” Mizuki whispered, almost pleading. “Please take care of everyone while I am away.”

  He did not wait for an answer as streams of light and electric current exit his body. Slowly, they clumped up and gathered to form the figure of a human, visually simir to a pale blue holographic image.

  At this time, Xuangu Wenren has returned. Seeing the holographic image next to the cross-legged Mizuki, he whispered, “The true form of an Armored Soul Tribe… is truly a beautiful soul…” His hollow eyes gleam in a rare emotion of burning desire.

  Then, the pale blue figure lunged at the analog mortal shell standing before the mainframe core, merging with it. There was some static electricity jumping around the body before eventually stopping. Shortly, the mortal shell was able to move as it grasped the air multiple times, as the one controlling it is getting used to using a new ‘body’.

  “How was it, Master?” Xuangu Wenren inquired, curious.

  “If I leak my truesoul radiation even by a bit, I fear this mortal shell will melt.” Mizuki candidly replied.

  Due to being a Paragon, his truesoul couldn’t normally be contained within a rank 1 mortal shell. If not for the specialized treatment performed by the Sepulchral fleet done to every single mars-pattern mortal shells after their departure, they would melt or dysfunctional regardless of ranks.

  In any case, he has successfully switched to a weaker mortal shell, allowing his rank 5 body to partially keep the mainframe core on standby mode. “I leave the rest to the both of you.” Mizuki left, wearing the same face with only different bodies.

  “Un!” The white fox hyped himself up, “Lich, let’s start deploying the [Kekka.”

  So-sama