44 Guinea Pig (1/2)
Hearing Joshua's reply, Catherine couldn't help but look confused.
”Me? What are you talking about?” she asked.
”Exactly, the one removing the seal in people's head should be you.”
”Well, if I can do it, of course, I will but why me specifically?”
”There are two reasons. The first one is more long term. Remember the effect you had on those beggars when you enabled them to train properly? They instantly swore their loyalty to you!”
”... You want me to use this as the opportunity to gain followers?”
”Bingo! We'll turn you into a sacred person who will accomplish miracles wherever she goes! Make place for Saint Catherine! She has come to unleash your true abilities. One touch of her hand will turn you into an expert! OK, the slogan needs some work but I don't think you'll find a better marketing opportunity than this. ”
Catherine looked skeptical. She had gained the support of homeless people, true…
”I get the idea and it's not a bad one but even if I get this ability, it doesn't mean everyone who will remove the seal from will automatically follow me. Once it's removed, they could just take their leave.”
”Yeah, I'm not saying it will be perfect, we'll have to see the finer details later. There is a much more short term benefit for having you do learn the process anyway.”
”And that is?”
”We need a guinea pig!”
”....What?”
”My lovely Catherine, allow me to clarify. You probably remember when we first learned about the seal, you asked me if I could try and remove it from you. I refused back then, cause it was too risky. Our knowledge of runes was minimalistic back then and if I messed up, I could end causing you some brain damage.”
”That was then, we learned a lot about runecrafting since we found this lab.”
”True, and we now have a chance to successfully remove the seal. Except... the brain damage problem is still real.”
Catherine nodded but she wasn't sure where he was going… unless.
”Wait… Are you suggesting I learn the process by trying it out on you?”
”Catherine, how many people are currently present who can afford to have their physical body being destroyed over and over? No matter what happens during the tryouts, I won't die. Worst case scenario, I dismiss my body and make a new one. Furthermore, I can equip the body I'll make with the rune we want to dismantle. We'll just have to try over and over until we develop a safe way to remove the rune. Therefore, yes I am officially asking you: 'Catherine, please mess with my brain!' ”
”Let me guess, while I'm doing the experiment, you want me to dress up like a doctor or something?”
”How about we give you a coat full of blood, making it look like you're someone who enjoys cutting people to pieces?”
”...Deal!”
To help the homeless people, they had developed a method where Catherine materialized a rune with Luna's help for a few seconds using her water magic. However, this time around they would have to remove a permanent inscription so they decided to use the equipment Joshua had discovered in the medical room.
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Joshua had spent some time examining the apparatus in the room. It was a bit similar to a tattoo machine except instead of ink, it would send energy to be inscribed on the human body. The type of energy could be freely changed via a button. Of course, it only contained the 8 basic types, none of the advanced particles Joshua had recently discovered. Catherine grabbed the pen used for the inscription and started to practice a bit while Joshua prepared the procedure in his lab.
Joshua sat behind his computer and took out the model of the brain-limiting rune. The design of it was incredibly complex. Even with his newly acquired knowledge, it took him over an hour to study every single part. Its effects were really nasty, it forcefully deactivated some parts of the human brain and severed the connection between the brain and energy vessels. Furthermore, it seemed to hinder one's ability to prevent them from growing too powerful making each breakthrough to the next level more difficult. A portion of the rune was also dormant most of the time but could be activated remotely. Joshua suspected that was what had neutralized Jacques and the other teams. The trigger to that part was most likely getting too close to Easa.
Removing an existing rune from someone was a new experience for Joshua. The books he had read offered some clues so he had a decent idea of how to proceed. The basic idea involved sending opposite energy types at various spots on the engraved rune. The thing is, it had to be done very carefully or the energy inside the rune could start leaking and go out of control. For example, imagine if someone had a fire rune engraved on their hand. If the rune went out of control, the energy could end up severely burning the person's arm. Now, if a rune went out of control in someone's brain… you can easily imagine how that would end. To dismantle the brain-limiting rune, they would have to disrupt the energy flow at least 30 spots. The chance of an error occurring during the test was thus pretty high.
Nevertheless, Joshua made the first draft for the process and had it simulated by Luna. In theory, it could work although it would only become clear during a live experiment.