Gulool Ja Ja's Legacy: A FFXIV DT Rewrite + Expansion Concepts [Fanfiction]

Ch8: Into the Purple Dome

"...I was saying, aether and soul are strongly interlinked. As the soul weakens, the aether also thins," Y'shtola explained to Koana.

"I cannot deny my interest," G'raha Tia muttered. "Another soul of mine from a different timeline, along with its memories, was integrated into my own, but to separate the two..."

Most surprising to the Warrior of Light was the presence of Zero.

"Us voidsent consume one another, soul feeding on souls along with aether," she said. "However, memories are also consumed, thus the crazed minds of the beings in my world, consisting of multiple personalities..."

"Couldst this mysterious civilization hath drawn inspiration from voidsents?" Urianger wondered.

"Hmm... It is certainly a possibility," Y'shtola nodded with a finger on her chin.

"I must admit that I am most intrigued," G'raha Tia said. "As far as we know, the soul is cleansed in the underworld and during those moments, even the memories hidden in the deepest parts of the soul are recalled. We must be misunderstanding some aspect of this...absorption of souls conducted by this 'Golden City'."

The many archons furrowed their brows in deep thought. As for the Warrior of Light... well... perhaps in the minds of these archons, the Warrior of Light is a bit of a knobhead.

"Master Motoya once warned me that by using aether to 'see', I would live a shortened life," Y'shtola slowly said as she organized her thoughts. "Extending that logic, perhaps when a soul is extracted from a body prematurely, a sort of lifeforce linked to that aether remains locked into this soul."

"Then, it is this influx of aether-life force that is used to revive and strengthen the user, as it did for Zoraal Ja when he fought against Gulool Ja Ja," she spoke, increasingly certain of her hypothesis. "As for said memories-- the Warrior of Light has seen those crystals that carry the memories of the twelve seats of the ancients."

"If I may make another bold guess, I believe the memories of past existences have simply been recorded and stored using a sort of technology. And as for the memory hidden within the supporting soul-- it may simply have been repressed in some way, to prevent its interference with the user's mind."

As she said this, the Warrior of Light recalled the device used by Hermes-- Kairos, which wiped memories from test subjects.

Koana nodded. He had been investigating the many soul-related devices left behind by the automaton invasion of the 'Golden City'. His tinkering exposed certain aspects behind the technology, and once the more... knowledgeable scions arrived, he naturally broached the subject.

"Assuming what you say to be true, then..." G'raha Tia muttered. "The supporting soul is temporarily attached to the controlling soul, supplying its remaining life-force aether until spent. Then this spent soul should return to the aetherial sea?"

"A slight reprieve for the enslaved soul," commented Y'shtola.

Indeed, to truly combine and split souls... perhaps only beings like Hydaelyn and Zodiark were capable of this. Even then, to fully combine souls with no connection to one another... such a thing should not be possible. Otherwise, the Ascians would long have 'completed' their sundered members to create powerful paragons.

As for temporarily combining souls...The Warrior of Light believes that to be possible, recalling the temporary fusion of two Ascians prior to the battle against Thordan back in those early days.

Regardless, the ancients, as masters of creations, are most capable of such a feat if it was possible. Was it possible that an unknown Ascian had passed on such knowledge to this 'Golden City'?