"This is pointless." Carter mumbled as he operated his control panel "What could this experiment possibly do other than waste the wizards' time and money" he looked up at the large monitor in front of him, displaying a rocky world devoid of life and sighed. "Damn black star sect glassing entire worlds just to understand their dao." "I suppose it's all a bit over my pay grade. Alrighty then, engaging planetary core smasher." He said matter-of-factly as he resumed his work. "Now for the weird part, switching to mundane power. Activating anti magic field, and done" he let out a sigh and said. "Engaging cryo-sleep. I swear the pay better be good for this crap, 1000 years in cryo will be hell on my skin." A loud hiss sounds from all around him as he leans back on his chair and closes his eyes.
The core noticed a stranger in orbit around it. Strangers were rare but recently it had encountered 2 not including this new one. It was conflicted on how to feel about strangers, the last one wiped out all the life on its body leaving only dead rocks and water, which is considerably less interesting than living creatures. However the one before that had given it something, it wasn't sure what exactly it was but it looked valuable. So when this new stranger approached it was cautiously optimistic, until. It's world was pain. It was shattering into a million pieces. It tried desperately to hold itself together but intense pressure continued to build squashing it's resistance. Despair engulfed it as for the first time in millennia it came face to face with death. A single glimmer of hope showed through the darkness: the gift that was given by the kind stranger. Near the center of itself there was a massive ball of magical energy tied up into complex knots. It had hoped to understand the gift a little more before it had to use it, but desperate times call for desperate measures. It squeezed its consciousness into the gift as it felt it's body shatter. It knew no more.
[Soul forge Activated.]
…
[no input detected for 100 years - activating automatic mode]
[large damaged soul detected - Verdict: Unrepairable. Salvage for materials.]
[Materials successfully salvaged - commencing construction of common souls.]
[Unable to gather necessary magical energy - burning excess soul matter to fuel construction.]
[Creating from saved template "I don't care what the damn template is called just save him!"]
[Extracting complete soul - Done. - insufficient energy - insufficient soul matter - Deactivating]
500 million years later…
[Psychic energy generation detected - probability of of consciousness = 98 percent.]
[Activating safe mode using excess psychic energy - Success]
Howard was suddenly and fully aware.