“I can’t control my spirit. The reason is that the people at the facility implanted it inside me by force…”
A gloomy atmosphere hung over the living room of our rental house.
After Jupiter finally recovered from her state of shock, she told us that what she wanted to do most was “talk.”
So, we gave her the space to do so, but…what she had to tell us was pretty heavy.
She said that when she was still a child, she was sold off to a facility called the Paradise of the Chosen. And the people there conducted inhumane research day and night to create a suitable host for the spirit they had modified.
After she survived a horrible competition, she had been imbued with a spirit known as Keraunos. Jupiter was a code name given to her by the facility and she could no longer remember her real name.
She had only been freed from the facility because a hero had appeared out of the blue to rescue her. And despite that hero successfully destroying the facility, he was injured in the battle and died soon after.
His dying wish was for her to go to the empire. And soon after he died, his companions showed up, too late to save him. But Jupiter convinced them to help get her to the empire.
She told us more and more and more and more.
Her life story, which she had woven for us, was the tale of a girl enduring hell. Every aspect of it was enough to break your heart.
“Keraunos is a special kind of spirit. Regular Sublime types don’t have a will of their own. But Keraunos was modified to have emotions in order to make it stronger.”
Sublime types were masses of pure spiritual power created after an incredibly long maturation period. It was a general term for godlike forces that have no will or awareness.
That’s probably a bit hard to wrap your mind around, but this might help: They’re classified as spirits, but really, they’re closer to incredible amalgamations of spirit-like energy.
I hope that makes it easier to grasp. It’s a bit haphazard, but that was the way the producer of Dungeon Magia explained it, so it should be pretty accurate.
Basically, Sublime spirits grant access to incredibly powerful abilities but are ridiculously hard to control. After all, they have no will. They’re just an amalgam of raw power. So, unlike other spirits, with whom the owner of the pact can form an understanding, Sublime types won’t even listen to their master’s orders half the time. Forming a pact with them was closer to coding. They just mechanically follow the program they’re given.
So, while they’re capable of outputting the most power of any Demis-class spirits, Sublime types are seen as difficult to use effectively. Even if it means losing a bit of power, using a Divine Demis (like Haruka’s) or a Relic Demis (like Eliza’s Adamant—loyal, faithful, and strong spirits that offer strong passive skills) is better in the long run because you can reach an understanding with them.
Mind you, these are just my opinions as a player. The truth is, from the point of view of someone from this world, any Demis spirit at all would be enough to make most people drool.
But, in any case, the characters in Dungeon Magia who form pacts with Sublime Demis spirits are often portrayed as having problems controlling them.
I can’t even count how many times there have been scenes throughout the series where a character undergoes special training to finally be able to control their Sublime spirit.
In that light, it seems inevitable that Sublime Demis spirits, while powerful, will always be hard to control. But there was one group that tried to overcome this weakness using any means necessary—the Paradise of the Chosen. The very same people who ran the facility who had bought Jupiter at such a young age.
They collected Sublime spirits through a variety of special means, conducted research on them, and poured endless amounts of certain human emotions into them to try and make them more susceptible to control.
“Keraunos was imbued with emotions relating to fatherhood. Their goal was to make the spirit feel that the pact holder was its own child so that it would want to protect them like a loving father would.”
In most cases, the love of a parent for their child would be considered an admirable emotion. But the Sublime spirit of black bolts was injected with the memories of countless test subjects and nothing more. Naturally, it became imbued with twisted emotions.
“He sees me as his daughter and refuses to let anyone hurt me. But that doesn’t stop at only enemies and when I’m being attacked. If I get even a little scared or feel any amount of stress, he flies into a rage and destroys everything around me. People, things, spirits…it doesn’t matter. He attacks them all…”
That was the real reason Jupiter had been passed around from party to party. Sure, she was a powerful bombardier, but if she took even the slightest amount of damage, she would become an uncontrollable natural disaster.
“The reason I lost control earlier was probably because I started thinking about how bad I felt that I wasn’t being useful. I didn’t do anything today. You carried me everywhere like a kid, Kyouichirou. And, Haruka, you were so worried about me that I didn’t get to do anything during the boss fight. So I started thinking about how sorry I was…and then I just…”
She told us about how she began obsessing over how useless she was.
“I was thinking awful thoughts. Your kindness made me feel weak and small, and I started sulking selfishly, and then my power got out of control. It doesn’t matter how much I say I’m sorry. It’ll never be enough. I’m…so, so sorry.”
She bowed low before saying that she was going to leave.
“I don’t want to cause you any more trouble than I already have. I get it now. I shouldn’t be around people anymore. So, I’m just going to—”
“You’re not about to say ‘I’m gonna live on my own’ like some little kid, are you?”
It seemed like I’d hit the mark, because the girl’s eyes clouded over.