The war stopped abruptly with the defeat of the errors.
The power of resurrection was forbidden by the Eternäns, which feared it. By the same time, I lost my connections since the immortals did not trust us anymore. My experiments had to wait for a moment, and I kept a low profile on my research to preserve the result of my work as well as the gift that the errors gave me.
As I resumed my research, I took great care that it stayed a secret. I fled my native town to seclude myself in a more desertic region, far from the immortals. And despite the number of study subjects that was well below the pre-war
one, I still noticed a huge evolution towards my objective.
My other pure alchimantic research was nothing but a bleak memory for me now.
In brief, I resumed my task where I left it. The colorimetric evolution of my substance when in contact with dying corpses.
I was pushing my experiments far enough as to execute them on my own body, on my own being. What I could unveil with a simple substance, I could now observe with my very own sight. It was like if a tiny etheric energy was gravitating around bodies. I now had to control it through space to focus it on a precise body. I did tens of inconclusive tests, since I was forgetting an essential element, our world’s very energy: A light source concentrated on a bioluminescent substance mixed with mercury, as always accompanied with the catalyzer gifted by the errors. I had prepared this solution of mercury long ago, it was however of use to part the gold from any impurities, but added to this catalyzer, its effect was the one I was looking for. After having found a sudden reaction to this substance, I begun to concentrate enough light in order to provoke, for the first time, a vital and physical breath into a lifeless body.
And so, it is by allowing the awakening of some persons, deceased since a few minutes, and for a very short time lapse that I perceived a sort of energy emerging in the room, was it their spirit?
It was thrilling and exciting at the same time, the tested body was wailing and shaking. I could hear its pain in his chilling whispers. A well-chosen metaphor since the room seemed to become colder as the experiment progressed. I was experiencing new and frightening sensations. I did not know anymore if it was from the ecstasy of being at reach of the grandest discovery of my time or if it was a side-effect of my experiment.
Whichever, the lights on my mercury substance diminished until they wore out completely. The lifeless body stopped moving. I did not succeed at reanimating the individual, but I touched the goal. The only thing I was missing now was more luminescent energy.