Hatsumi managed to collect a few test corpses during the next two days. Interestingly, they were mostly rats and two birds. Suspiciously they were exactly what a cat would hunt. She might have used Ivy and Yoru to acquire those corpses. The cat corpse for the final undead was still a work in progress though.
Cassie managed to brew a variety of potions which might do the trick. So we started our experiment. We had the corpse inside a tub and I tried to circulate Cassie's potion.
I frowned. "The water is kind of resisting. The fire mana in your potion makes it harder to control for me."
"I suppose a potion is not really water." Cassie admitted. "Can you still do it?"
"I might have to water it down some." I admitted. "Hm. Or we can circulate with a joint casting?"
We had to do a joint casting anyway. But originally I had only planned to use it for the actual raise undead spell, not the preparations.
"It's going to explode." Skadi said. She was watching the process, together with Helena. Hatsumi was out looking for a proper cat corpse.
"Maybe I can train my healing spell." Helena mused.
We ignored our audience and focused on the corpse. I took Cassie's hand and formed a connection. While I was not as close to her as I was to Helena, we were still friends. We trusted each other.
We started the circulation process through the dead rat. Then I tried to raise it. Casting a second joint spell while concentrating on the first was not easy. I tried to form the new runes but it was hard to get them right. Was that supposed to be round?
The corpse exploded. Somehow Cassie's potion ignited in the process and small pieces of burning rat were flung everywhere.
"Outch!" I complained as I brushed a burning piece from my arm. It was not that bad, the pieces had been small and our bodies were rather sturdy, thanks to our circulation.
Still, Helena approached me with a grin and healed the small burn. She had also summoned some water and ensured nothing caught fire.
Cassie was more fire resistant. She simply wrinkled her nose because of the smell but was otherwise fine.
"Rather tame for one of your explosions." Skadi commented. Cassie stuck out her tongue in response.
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"Concentrating on two joint spells is hard." I observed.
"Why did it explode? Was it the potion?" Helena asked.
"I am not sure. I think because we brought fire mana into the mix it became a bit volatile." I theorised.
"Can we help?" Helena asked.
"We only have one Cassie and she is needed for all the fire mana." I replied.
"Sure. But what if we create a joint casting with more people? Someone else can lead the circulation spell and you lead the raise undead spell." Skadi suggested.
"Hm. Can we have two joint castings simultaneously with different leads?" I wondered.
"It might be worth a try." Helena said.
Meanwhile, Nyx was sniffing some of the dead rat parts. She seemed uninterested though. As I was preparing the next rat corpse I heard a crunching sound. As I turned around I saw a feather sticking out from Nyx' mouth.
"Nyx! Those are for experimenting!" I complained.
Nyx kept chewing.
"You want us to succeed with another cat, right? This is important!" I tried to convince her. Nyx tilted her head as she looked at me. Then she walked away from the other corpses.
I sighed. "Cats…" I muttered.
Helena snickered.
Then we focused on the next experiment. This time we added Helena. She was doing the circulation with Cassie and I focused on the raise undead spell.
"Ugh. This is disorienting. Being connected to spells from two different people gives me vertigo." Cassie complained.
I felt the mana Cassie was providing but it was not a smooth stream. It was coming in erratically. My spell was already in progress and a sudden lack in fire mana meant my undead did not quite develop an affinity. Instead I created a normal rat zombie, which was now on fire.
The tier two undead immediately collapsed as the fire destroyed it. "At least it did not explode…" I was just trying to say that, when it exploded. A piece of dead rat landed in my mouth.
I spit it out immediately. It tasted vile. Then I rinsed my mouth with water. "Argh, that is worse than crackers!" I complained.
"Worse than mushrooms?" Helena teased.
"Eh… I am not so sure. Same slimy texture." I replied as I shuddered.
"Well, it was a slight improvement." Skadi noted.
Cassie was breathing hard. "I might need a break. I almost vomited."
Skadi walked over to her girlfriend and steadied her. She also offered her some water. Cassie leaned into Skadi as she accepted the drink.
"What about the potions we are using? Do you think you have something easier to circulate?" I asked.
"Hm. We can try something more watery but I am not sure if that will be enough." Cassie replied.
So our testing continued, after a small break. We tried different water contents, potions made from slightly different materials and worked on our joint casting. Skadi joined the spell as well and we found that she worked as a stabilizer for Cassie. Maybe because of their relationship?
It was getting late when we had our first success. It was the second bird corpse. The undead rose and I could feel some fire mana in it.
"It worked!" I exclaimed. We were all tired but seeing the undead made us cheer.
"Wohooo!" Helen celebrated.
Cassie and Skadi were hugging. Nyx licked her lips.
I commanded the bird to use fire. Its wings were coated in flames… Then my eyes widened.
"Oh no…" I managed to say, before the bird exploded.
"What happened?" Helena asked, while picking a feather from my hair.
I sighed. "Um, the corpse could not handle all the mana. We need a better corpse for that type of undead."
"At least we have a working method, right?" Cassie asked.
"I think so. Maybe we can strengthen the corpse before we try the cat. A slightly bigger creature will also help."
"Well. We did have some success. We should celebrate!" Helena announced.
"Sure. Let's clean up and have some food." I replied.
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