CHAPTER 57: THE IMMORTALITY EXPERIMENT
—Immortality.
A concept arisen in every tale out there, past and present east and west, an ideal that all those with life would consider.
Never ageing, never deteriorating, never reincarnating, eternally persisting in being as YOURSELF. This concept enraptured many, despite them knowing it a contradiction to the principles of life, consisting the pinnacle of existence for an individual.
Subaru: “Immortality...”
Repeating back the word, Subaru winds up almost laughing at the unreality of it. But his cheeks stiffen, and he fails to craft any proper smile. While desiring to laugh it off as ridiculous, his heart simultaneously, knowing that the witch's experiment was certainly no fabrication, can't conceal its shivering.
Subaru: “Then surprisingly even witches make goals of worldly things. Immortality's image's more like... the goal of some nobody fixated on their own teensy life.”
Lewes: “I'd say it's up ter personal opinion whether valuing yer life's the thought erv a nobody, but the Witch of GREED ert least viewed her life from no philosophical perrspective. She naturally feared death and devised means ter overcome that. ...Most'er the time lack a erv ability 'n lack erv power'd make it end ers a simple fantersy.”
Subaru: “But inconveniently, Echidna had plenty of power. She might've even thought of several methods for it. This's what her clever brains came up with, then.”
Looking down at Pico sitting beside him, Subaru bites his lip. Pico displays no reaction to Subaru's gaze. She proceeds in standby mode, quiet, as if waiting for someone to address her. Subaru gives a kind of breathy exhale.
Subaru: “Right. Having no insides... 'd mean there's no personality.”
Lewes: “Her state's like that erv a marionette. Erkzactly the state erv a newly-prepared vessel. All that's left ter grant the wish is ter pile in what yer desire.”
Subaru: “But is this something that really goes so smoothly? I don't know the theory of it, but I've got a rough image of what doing it'd be.”
Downloading your own memories and knowledge into an empty vessel. Were the process one involving data, Subaru likely would not show so much exception with it. But the topic being discussed here is personality of an individual person. A person whose appearance and substance Subaru knew.
Subaru: “Extract your memories, and insert them in the empty body. Say it succeeds and you can repeat the process every time the body starts degrading, then that's definitely a kind of immortality. But...”
Passing down personalities and memories was indeed close to conquering death.
If you preserved your personality in a similar way to data, then even if by some mistake the body was destroyed, it could still be installed into a new vessel, making recovery possible.
Duplicable personalities, and duplicable bodies. —That was the theoretical groundings of Echidna's immortality.
—But, then,
Subaru: “It's the idea where people panic when they run into parallel universe versions of themselves, and get struck with a sense of obligation that they absolutely must remove the other.”
Lewes says nothing.
Subaru: “That's how unbearable it must feel to have yous who aren't you existing. The future I see just in imagining it makes me feel sick. Hey, Lewes-san.”
Lewes: “What?”
Subaru: “So being able to make multiple... Lewes Meyer bodies like this means, you can fling your personality into every one of the bodies. Basically, you're not just limited to perpetuating yourself temporally, you can also make multiples of yourself.”
This should be possible by the theory previously discussed. Considering the THEORY in play, the more backups and spares you have to preserve YOURSELF, the better. It's unthinkable that Echidna hadn't thought of something that Subaru had.
Subaru: “Wonder what it feels like. Being able to prepare others of yourself. Where even if you fail, there's a sort of ASSURANCE. Can you understand it, Lewes-san?”
Lewes: “...I doubt I'll ever be able ter understand that. The technique erv extracting personalities ersn't anything I'm fussed about. When this individual body is lost, the individual I am will vanish. By that meaning, there's no difference between me 'n you, Lil' Su, in us lacking bodies capable erv a do-over.”
Subaru: “Really. Yeah. ...Yeah, well of course.”
Subaru can't keep from giving a chagrined smile. Lewes furrows her brows, but will likely never understand what Subaru's reaction meant.
Subaru: “So that's what it is. Yeah, got it. Now I understand why you were being so forward, too.”
Says Subaru to the white-haired witch passing through his mind. She planned to prepare herself duplicates, transferring her personality there, living long, achieving immortality. Such a thing was assuredly having an ASSURANCE of life.
Subaru: “And just how different is that from me?” Subaru couldn't possibly harbour disgust for it.
In fact, feelings of closeness instead boil up. This excessively questionable emotion being called closeness might've been the dark joy of having found someone of the same breed. Although it was using her own kind of methods, Echidna achieved a piece of immortality.
Still being tossed around by the Witch, Subaru was repeating DEATH to achieve his goal.
Both in positions which mutinied against the supposedly singular thing known as LIFE. What if, thinks Subaru. —What if, Echidna is the only one who can understand me.
Or at least, understand that mentality. Lewes: “Lil' Su?” Subaru: “...I understand your position, Lewes-san. And what Echidna was trying to do. So then there's something I sorta wanna ask... did Echidna's aims succeed?” Lewes: “Aims...” Subaru: “Even I can see she finished in preparing empty vessels. All that's left is to overwrite her personality into them. Did she succeed in that overwriting? Or no, putting it more simply...” —Is Echidna alive somewhere in this world right now? Subaru's question goes unvoiced.
Understanding the implication, Lewes closes her eyes, shaking her head in response to Subaru's pleading gaze. Lewes: “No, unferternately... the witch couldn't succeed in her plans. There is no Lewes Meyer body which inherited the witch's personality, tying her to life.”
Subaru: “Wh-why not? The personality download, sucking out the mental stuff, didn't succeed?”
Lewes: “Dunno what this dhownlerd is, but the technique fer extracting personalities itself wers errlmost definitely completed. The failure came from a different cause.” Subaru: “A different, cause being?” Lewes: “It's simple. If yer pour too much water inter a vessel, it'll fail ter all settle inside n' overflow. If some part flows over, yer can't call that the original being, it's something different.” At the word 'vessel', Subaru looks at Lewes, and Pico. Subaru: “Vessel... wouldn't be a problem of bodily size, yeah?”
Lewes: “Yer maybe oughter call it a problem in soul size. There exists in people a receptacle ter fit their soul. With the girl Lewes Meyer as vessel, it wersen't big enough ter receive the witch Echidna's soul.”
Subaru: “That... how did she confirm that?”
Lewes: “Pouring her knowledge inter the ferst double failed, and she ferst encountered the problem erv soul and vessel sizes. But in saying, Lewes Meyer's body wers already inside the crystal by then, and the mechernism ter create doubles was complete... so erlthrough unable ter fufill their intended purpose, vessels continued ter be born one after another.”
Done with surprisingly little foresight, thinks Subaru. This kind of mistake was incredibly improbable coming from Echidna. That there were no means to deal with the multiplying Leweses afterwards also feels much unlike her.
Subaru: “What happened to that first double? Even though not all of it got in, it still would've inherited some of the witch's memories, yeah? It might be fragmentary, but you could still call that a copy of the witch.”
Lewes: “When water flows outter a vessel, noberdy can choose which portion ers spilled. Ert's one thing if yer spill quibbling memories, bits which won't impede daily life, but if yer spill a part which brings about big problems, the personality's changed.”
Subaru thinks upon the dud first Lewes = Echidna. Basically, Echidna wound up creating SOMETHING incredibly different from what she expected.
Lewes: “Story goes that the ferst double born wers completely bonkers, and since it inherited a fragment erv the Witch of GREED's power, a real nuisance. Terk her quite'er bit'er trouble disposing it, apparently.”
Subaru: “Disposed... I, see.”
Lewes: “But er course the witch wersen't a good ernough quitter er without enough responsibiliy ter throw everything away after one failure. After disposing erv the ferst double, she apparently toiled wondering if she had ter alter the mass erv her soul, so she could transfer it into the next double.”
Subaru: somethingsoemthing That her soul came up with this is amazing.
Echidna's idea was unmistakably to compress the size of the data so it could be transferred to different medium. Otherwise to cut off unneeded parts so it would fit inside the receiver. Subaru had some familiarity with computers and understood the general concept of data, so he had reached this idea. But Echidna's thoughts, conceiving this while ignorant of computers and data, and especially when talking about compressing SOULS of all things, were incredible.
Hearing that the first double was lost dejected Subaru. But knowing that Echidna immediately attempted another approach gave him hope. However,
Lewes: “But,”
Lewes: “Though she searched fer a new method, the witch wers unable ter test it.”
Subaru: “Wh-well why not? It's sure something saying this, but the preparations were all there for testing it. And multiple copies of Lewes Meyer...”
Lewes: “Befer the experiment in SANCTUARY could proceed, the Witch of ENVY started acting.”
Subaru goes silent.
Lewes: “The Witch of ENVY consumed half the werld, and in doing devoured aller six witches outside herself. The Witch of GREED wers no exception. The witch's plans ter persist in life immortal wers assuredly aborted by the witch's hands.”
That Echidna, although not achieving immortality, still exists mentally in the world could perhaps be called her final bout of stubbornness.
Subaru: “...What happened to SANCTUARY after the witch was gone?”
Lewes: “Lil' Roz's family the Mathers have been in charg'er managing this land from the beginning. I don't know just what contract the Mathers family and the witch shared, though. That charge continued uninterrupted, and now Lil' Roz is maintaining and managing SANCTUARY. That said, all he's really doing is circulating goods through here so the place doesn't go ter ruin, and occasionally bringing along kids in circumstances appropriate fer SANCTUARY as new residents.”
Subaru: “And he's left everything else to you, Lewes-san. Earlier you said the individual things you acquired are your individuality, but...”
Lewes: “If I'm speaking limiting myself as an individual double, I'm the third double from the beginning. I wers born with a sorter personality implanted beforehand, to inherit the role erv managing the multiplying vessels and erv Lewes Meyer. Even now I'm following that duty.”
Subaru: “Implanted personality... you can seriously do that?”
Implanting a mock-personality into an empty vessel so that it can fulfil a role. Installing robots with mock-AI so they could preform human behaviours—was still a far cry from being reality in the world Subaru's from. Lewes nods.
Lewes: “Though erv course it wersn't anything easy. Ert was possible exactly because I wers a soulless, empty vessel. And even then, I cerld only do truly simple things at the experimental stage.”
The beginning was certainly tough, says Lewes' smile, peeking through.
Lewes: “Being givern a role but having no memories is sure a mysterious feeling. The days passed slowly, but with increrdible momentum. It took a very long time befer I began thinking that wers mysterious, too.”
Subaru: “...What happened with the multiplying doubles? I sorta haven't seen any in SANCTUARY except for you and Pico, Lewes-san.”
Lewes: “The Leweses except fer the four filling the role of Lewes are scattered around SANCTUARY. They're made ter act ers eyes against invaders, er as relays. Interestingly, doubles can relay thoughts between each other.”
Garfiel has mentioned the term 'eyes of SANCTUARY' before. If he was referring to the doubles, and they're scattered around SANCTUARY's outskirts keeping watch, then yes it makes sense Garfiel found out about the villagers' evacuation so easily. And, thinking that far,
Subaru: “Wa—wait hold on, you said something I can't overlook. The four filling the role of Lewes, what.”
Lewes: “Hrm, that. It's simple. Continually reproducing the entire structure erv a person's body with mana puts on an incredible load. If the mana runs out, my body disappears. But ernlike spirits, if I disperse I probably won't be able ter reform. Er maybe there is a way ter do it, but I don't know it.”
Disappearing and reforming, with memories persisting, makes Subaru recollect on spirits. Although since spirits have places to RETURN to after vanishing like Puck's jewel thingamajig, strictly speaking they don't actually disappear. But this isn't the case with the Leweses. A death from complete mana depletion means the death of that individual for them.
Lewes: “We can't keep active alone fer very long. It takes abert three days fer us ter replenish our mana after hitting the point where our bodies operate so little that we're overtaxing them. We need ter avoid the inconvenient things that'd happen with Lewes Meyer being absent from SANCTUARY over that time.”
Subaru: “And so, four Lewes-sans.”
Lewes: “The role erv Lewes Meyer cycles ter be once a day, every four days. Outside those times, I'm the same ers the other vessels. ...Wearing just the facade erv Lewes Meyer, an empty vessel. That might be how ter say it.”
Says Lewes somewhat cynically. Subaru doesn't know what to say on the spot. Anything he says will be conceivable as vapid, know-it-all cajolery. Although he knows that shutting up here in itself just affirms Lewes' cynicism, Subaru's mouth fails to say anything.
Lewes: “Don't feel down, Lil' Su. Me and the other doubles are consentingly conferming ter our role. Same as the ferst Lewes Meyer.”
Subaru: “First... Right, I wanted to ask this too.”
Lewes: “Mm?”
Subaru: “I understand why you Lewes-sans, why you duplicates of Lewes Meyer Lewes-sans, are following the witch's words and protecting SANCTUARY. But why did the girl Lewes Meyer help the witch?”
From the conversation so far, it doesn't seem there was any testing to fill an empty vessel with Lewes Meyer herself. Meaning that Lewes Meyer sacrificed her body to the experiment, her soul having nowhere to go, choosing an end forever sealed in crystal. In exchange for creating bodies eternally, she ended her own soul there in a decision akin to suicide.
Why was that young girl able to make that decision? Otherwise, perhaps Echidna selected her as a lab rat at random without her consent. While wishing for it not to be the latter, Subaru asks,
Subaru: “What was Lewes Meyer thinking in participating in the experiment?”
Lewes: “...I herrd Lewes Meyer presented the witch with a proposition. The witch accepted the terms, and that's why she participated in the experiment. No need ter worry, she wasn't forced.”
Subaru: “Proposition... can I ask what it was about?”
Lewes: “I doubt yer could understand it even if yer did ask, Lil' Su.”
Subaru wordlessly stares at Lewes. Faced with a gaze similar to that of a stubborn child, Lewes frowns, sighing.
Lewes: “The cerndition Lewes Meyer presented the witch with was SANCTUARY's continued existence.”
Subaru: “Sanctuary's... continued existence?”
Lewes: “Lewes Meyer wished fer the place that the witch prepared as a laboratory bench, fer the test site SANCTUARY, fer this environment ter continue being maintained. The witch, having necessity fer SANCTUARY ter remain fer continuing her experiments, of course consented. And even now after the witch's passing, her promise ter Lewes Meyer remains kept, with us preserving the contract between the two by our own hands.”
Subaru: “No but that... the arrangement's backwards.”
Echidna was the one who needed SANCTUARY's experiment, and Lewes Meyer would've been someone assembled in SANCTUARY for the sake of that experiment. The lab rat girl wished the witch for SANCTUARY's continued existence. Their proposer-reciever arrangement makes no sense.
Lewes: “Hyperthetically, even saying it wers a laboratory bench... SANCTUARY wers a much more comfortable place than the areas where she wers persecuted. How ders that thought sound ter yer?”
Subaru: “...That is overwhelmingly beyond help.”
Lewes: “Here ers where help is. And so Lewes Meyer sacrificed herself ter the experiment. Whether er not that achieved anything is something I can only have yer judge by seeing myself and this girl.”
Lewes takes a sip of her thoroughly cold tea. Subaru has nothing he can say.
A conversation about herself essentially just ended, but Pico's shown no reaction. Merely sat there quietly gripping Subaru's sleeve. Subaru: “Why is she so attached to me? She's empty, and at first she was treating me like I didn't even exist.”
Lewes: “It's 'causer that. Yer touched Lewes Meyer's crystal, Lil' Su. The command right got converted and overwritten to yer.” Subaru: “Command right?”
Subaru furrows his brows, puzzled. Lewes nods and raises a finger. Lewes: “As er test, try giving her an order. Oop, but nothing indecent now. She looks erkzactly like me, after all.”
Subaru: “No need to say that, I'm not into lolis, okay? I, healthily, like girls around my own age.
...Pico, rub my shoulders a little.” Hearing Subaru's order, Pico raises her head and gives a faint nod, affirming the command. She climbs up onto the bed, circling around to Subaru's back.
Subaru: “o, ohh, it's good it's good... huh? Um, Pico-san? This is pretty forceful? Scale it back scale it back... au, crap, Pico-san, scaleitbaaaaaack!!” Lewes: “Rubbing shoulders, ers something she knows of, but the strength ter put into it ers an unknown. Slack on teaching her those things, and she'll make these blunders.”
Subaru: “Y-you were knowingly testing me!?” Shaking himself free from a Pico even now attempting to give him shoulder rubs, Subaru orders her back to her spot and rotates his creaky shoulders. Shivering at Pico's near bone-shattering grip strength, he tilts his head. Subaru: “Having the command right transfer just by touching it is kinda crazy low security, yeah?
What'd you do if it'd been some malicious lolicon?”
Lewes: “It's unlikely yer'd enter that place by coincerdence, and more impertently the command right dersen't transfer easily. Yer'd have ter be accepted as an apostle erv GREED.” Subaru: “...Hn?” Lewes sips her tea. Subaru crosses his arms, and timidly, Subaru: “Ummm,” Subaru: “Excuse me. I'm afraid I have no idea what this apostle of GREED thing is.”
Lewes: “Something recognized by Echidna, with that being a qualifier befitting an apostle. Did yer accept anything like that inside the tomb? Be given anything, conferred anything, put anything in yer body.”
Subaru: “Inside the tomb...”
Subaru thinks back on his meetings with Echidna inside her dream-castle, figuring there must have been some impressive conferment somewhere like what Lewes is talking about. But he can't come up with anything. If there was anything Echidna had given Subaru in that place, is was some knowledge, relief, and a rather terrifying experience. And also,
Subaru: “...It couldn'tve been the Chidna tea?”
Lewes: “Hrm, Chidna tea?”
Subaru: “Echidna said it was her bodily fluids, and she cleverly presented me this stuff resembling tea, and I've kinda drunken it twice...”
Lewes: “Nert even jesting, it wers probably that.”
Subaru: “Asshole, seriously what did she fucking make me drink!!”
Subaru unwittingly stands up out of anger. Lewes chides him with a 'now now', but Subaru shows no signs of not being cranky.
Lewes: “Yer can say that, but it's erkzactly because of it that we have this situation. It surely wasern't anything entirely bad?”
Subaru: “It pisses me off that she put this in me without me knowing! The fuck is she doing to people's bodies. Apostle of GREED, relations with witches make things damn complicated as it is, don't you pile more on that. Witches are just all so fucking...”
You've got the Witch of ENVY settling some RETURN BY DEATH agreement without his knowledge, you've got the Witch of GREED just going off making him her apostle, are witches all just fucking like that?
Lewes: “Anyway, cause'er that you've gotten command right of the Lewes Meyer doubles in SANCTUARY, Lil' Su. Yer can make even me obey yer.”
Subaru: “This thing even works on you, Lewes-san?”
Lewes: “She hasn't gotter will and I can resist more'en her, but ultimately I can't defy it. Must be a happy thing fer a healthy young man?”
Subaru: “I said I'm not a lolicon...”
She can give him a seductive gaze, but he doesn't react an inch. Glancing aside at Lewes as she laughs delightedly, Subaru thinks back on the mystery of SANCTUARY. A facility hidden deep in the place's depths. Lewes Meyer sealed there, and the double-producing system. Destruction coming in six days, and the problem associated with that. Having discussed the facility's existence, what was indispensable was—
Subaru: “Lewes-san, I'm sorry for this being sudden, but... please help me out.” Lewes: “What, if it's something dirty go fer the purer lot, not me.” Subaru: “Enough on that already.” Subaru stands up, stretching as he looks up at the ceiling. Subaru: “There has to be at least one other person than me with the command right.” Lewes goes silent. Subaru: “I do wanna talk to him, but there's another thing that's been bothering me.” Two people arise in Subaru's mind.
The first gave orders to over 20 Lewes doubles, tiger and protector of SANCTUARY, Garfiel Tinzel. And the other— Subaru: “Why did Gate Crossing throw me into that facility? I'd say now's about time to find out...” —A cream-haired girl, who Subaru determines to now question thoroughly.
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