Chapter 267 Who would want a defective product anyway?

"Emperor Litch?" As these words rolled of Alina's tongue, she could not help but feel some kind of displeasure, as if saying this name alone was enough to make her somewhat apprehensive. "That is the one who is possessing Alex now?"

"I just said his name. Of course he is the one." [Asteria] mumbled in reply as she flitted towards Alina. "And this Emperor is directly tied to his past."

"…"

Once [Asteria] was only a feet away from Alina, [Asteria] crossed her arms as she straightened her body.

"So, Alex had specifically told me to not share about his past to any of you." [Asteria] started her words with this reminder, which made Alina feel somewhat betrayed. "He told me that I will only tell you about his past once he becomes possessed by the Emperor. And now that he had been possessed, I am free to tell you about him and his life."

From the way that the conversation was headed right now, it was quite apparent that [Asteria] was about to talk about this Emperor Litch guy.

With Alex's life in line here, Alina has no choice but to listen.

Behind Alina, her other companions like Queen Mother and Professor Frances were listening intently on [Asteria] too.

As for the Symbolists, they could only look at Alina in confusion, as they could not understand why she was talking to no one in particular.

Astria on the other hand, seemed to have noticed something, as she began to sniff at Alina's direction.

"…" Alina ignored all of this as she only focused on what [Asteria] was about to say.

"Hm, how can I say this… Okay, for starters, I can say that Emperor Litch was an extremely impressive hooman. So much so that even I am impressed by him." [Asteria] muttered as she nodded her head. "Yep, Emperor Litch is definitely impressive."

"…"

[Asteria] must have seen the glower in Alina's eyes right now, which forced her to get serious on talking.

"EHem. So what made Emperor Litch so impressive was his ability to conquer. Nobody was really sure on what his true power was, but that power is the one that aided him to conquer anything that he wanted to conquer."

"…"

"Emperor Litch was born on a planet ruled by monarchy, with technology and magic as the main driving forces on that planet. At that time, Emperor Litchwas only born to a commoner family. That kind of familial status should have prevented the Emperor from ever rising up, yet that did not deter him from his destiny. His extreme talent and charisma had allowed the Emperor to be the best among the rest in that planet."

"…"

"According to ancient records, when Emperor Litch was just 15 years old, he had already conquered the Kingdom that he was born in. 2 years after that, he then conquered the continent that housed his kingdom. Once the 17-year old Emperor did that, he then continued on conquering the other continents on that planet."

"…"

"5 years later, and Emperor Litch succeeded. He had conquered his whole planet, and everyone there started to venerate him as a great ruler. His name was recorded into the annals of that planet, and he was hailed at the history's number one conqueror. However, the Emperor was not satisfied by that."

"…"

"Emperor Litch was not just satisfied with conquering his home planet alone. His own ambitions was greater than that. As such, after spending 1 year to stabilize the economic and technological conditions on his home planet, the Emperor turned his attention to the cosmos itself."

"…"

"With the level that their civilization has reached, the Emperor and his subjects were able to discover countless other planets that have life within then. Naturally, with his ambition and obsession, Emperor Litch had decided to conquer other planets too! As long as they discover a planet teeming with life, Emperor Litch will conquer it, whether by force or with diplomacy!"

"…"

"The Emperor spent the next 5,000 years of his life on this multi-planetary conquering mission, and he was highly successful! Even when they met other planets that had powerful civilizations within them, the Emperor successfully brought them all under his reign!"

"…"

"So great was his success, that when the Emperor reached 5,050 years old, there had been 3,476 planets under his Empire, which he called the Undying Empire, with him taking on the title Emperor Litch. This galactic empire that he created under his name was so strong that nobody dared to even offend anyone under its rule. That age… can certainly be called the golden age of conquest, and Emperor Litch was considered to be the greatest of all the conqerors out there."

".."

"But with that success came a bad news. At that point in time, the Emperor was extremely old already, and not even their extremely advanced magic and technology can extend the life of his body anymore. The Emperor only only had a few years left in his time already, and no kind of medicine or magic were able to alleviate his impending mortality."

"…"

"Naturally, Emperor Litch was not happy about this. Why should he die already, when he still had not succeeded on conquering all the planets present in the universe? 3,000+ planets was not just enough for him. He is the Emperor, and he wanted to conquer more!"

"…"

"As for the residents of the Undying Empire, they also were extremely unwilling to see their Emperor die. For them, Emperor Litch is the foundation of the whole Undying Empire, and without him, the whole Empire might succumb from the enemies."

"…"

"If they want the whole Undying Empire to survive, then Emperor Litch must survive too. That realization led to a massive movement among all the residents of the Undying Empire, which was focused on finding a way to ensure that Emperor Litch will stay as their Emperor for forever."

"…"

"With the combination of countless civilization, technology, and magic, the residents of the Undying Emprire managed to discover the perfect solution for Emperor Litch's dilemma."

"…"

"And that solution was the Soul Transfer Method."

"…"

"The Soul Transfer Method was an extremely intricate method which involved transferring the soul of one individual to another person. It was facilitated with a mixture of magic and technology, which ensured a water-tight method."

"…"

" ]This whole process was extremely painful to the soul being transferred, but if the soul manages to persist through this pain, then that soul will be taking the control on the body that it was transferred to. Any ability that the transferred soul had will stay with him, and any ability that the new body had will be usable for the transferred soul too. Pretty impressive right?"

"…"

"So, once the people had discovered this method, they recommended it to the Emperor. Emperor Litch, who was already extremely desperate at that time, decided to agree with this method. The only problem now is the matter of the new body that will be used."

"…"

"According to research, a body that was used for the Soul Transfer Method will only last for 100 years, which meant that if Emperor Litch manages to transfer his soul to a new body, that body will only last for 100 years. After that 100 years, the Emperor has to transfer his soul to a new body again. Now, the problem with this limitation was quite apparent immediately."

"…"

"If a body can only last for 100 years, then Emperor Litch must acquire more bodies in order for him to continue living. But where will the Emperor get this many bodies? He cannot just use the soul transfer to a resident of his empire, as that will be a great dishonor for him. Nor that the Emperor can use his soul transfer on criminals, as that will be just humiliating."

"…"

"Fortunately for the Emperor, he managed to gain a good idea on what should be done."

"…"

"If the amount of bodies was the problem, then the best solution was to just create many bodies that can be used by the Emperor!"

"!!!"

"With the technological level of the current empire, creating bodies for the Emperor is quite possible. So with this in mind, the Emperor commanded the whole scientific division of the Undying Empire to dabble in the art of body cloning! This method will allow the Emperor to gain the bodies that he wanted to use!"

"…"

"After just a year of research, he scientists on the Undying Empire succeeded on their research, and it is now possible for them to clone bodies! Once the Emperor heard of this, he immediately gave another command to the scientists."

"…"

"And that command was to create clones of Emperor Litch's 15-year old body!"

"!!!"

" In no time at all, thousands of clones of a young Emperor Litch were created, with each body perfectly suited to be possessed by the Emperor. Each of these bodies were numbered based on the order that they were created, and they were all at peak condition. To simplify matters, these bodies were called Vessels, which was an apt description for their purpose."

"…"

"In order to make sure that nothing goes wrong, all of the cloned bodies were blasted with Soul Magic, which will erase any kind of consciousness inside the cloned bodies. This method ensures that there will be no problem during the Soul Transfer Method. However, just like what you can expect from any kind of production unit, there will be sometimes be a 'defective product' that will appear."

At this point of her story, [Asteria] started to let out a sigh as she patted Alina's head.

Alina on the other hand, had her head down, as she seemed to have realized what [Asteria] was going to say next.

"Out of all those cloned bodies, there was one that resisted getting mindless. That clone was Vessel 969, and you probably you know this vessel by the name of Alex."