Mhh, it seems that the voice of the weapon is too strong; they speak of it as if it's trying to merge itself with the wielder's mind, and this causes issues of identity crisis.
The report was all over the place; the way the weapon's sentience was described was inconsistent. Some soldiers described it as a feeling of losing control over their own bodies, and some others felt as if the weapon was tampering with their memories.
Everyone experienced temporary tachypsychia. Followed by a strange sense of warped self.
This is tricky; the balance between the sentient blade and humans is currently broken. I don't even know what the balance could look like, but there's also the problem that some of them tried to take over their hosts.
I looked at Mr. Ignis, and he simply shrugged his shoulders.
I felt cornered; had this been a normal experiment, I could've just called it a failure and moved on to the next project, but this time it was different; Uncle was fully invested in seeing this see the light of day.
How annoying. How do I even begin to tackle this issue?
I got the idea looking at a movie and told the others to write it down in a convincing enough way to get the idea approved. It's something I do almost every time; this time they were a little too convincing with their words, and my uncle was now fully invested in the project, overseeing all the prototypes.
Fuck, everything is different. There isn't much consistency other than the fact this was a colossal failure.
"Since the weapons have sentience, maybe deciding their personality from the get-go would improve the results?" Mr. Wing proposed.
I see, I see. It could work, probably? Hopefully.
"See? I told you it would've been best first to put in as many safety checks as possible even if it made the weapon weigh a ton; then we can figure out from there what can be erased or simplified." Mr. Shang reprimanded us.
Figuring out how to even make them sentient was a bitch and a half; we couldn't afford to make a weapon too heavy.
"But a weapon that can't be wielded can't be tested. What argument is that?" Researcher Wing complained.
This is troubling; perhaps Mr. Shang was right. Now we need to find a new set of testers… I never thought such a thing could occur; it's a shame, but it just speaks volumes on our current understanding of how demonic artifacts work.
I couldn't just try to breathe life into the artifact; I had heard they had themes, concepts they followed from which they manifested their powers.
If the concept is too vague, then the weapon will end up having too much autonomy, causing problems for the wielder; just putting more restrictions is likely not the correct solution. It's just a temporary band-aid.
"This is just the first test; we can always improve on them later. Our focus for now should be finding possible new testers." I proposed.
In the meantime I kept glancing at the newly arrived bodyguards; they were young, extremely so. At most, between me and their youngest member there could have been maybe a two-year difference.
I expected something a little more imposing, more threatening.
It wasn't needed. As far as I knew, neither mother nor uncle had plans to allow me to descend into either the fracture or the surface, so they had plenty of time to grow along with me.
I wonder if I can get them to test my weapons; they're probably not going to be as good as trained testers, but so long as we figure out… or maybe no, if I hurt them, I might get scolded by the uncle… Fuck, I should've been more careful with this.
"Can they know?" I asked one of the researchers next to me.
"Huh? Know what?" One of the researchers asked me as he raised his head off the pile of reports.
"How we make weapons here." I clarified my thoughts.
"Yes, they can know; it'll come at the risk of losing a few of them, but you definitely can." He answered, waving his hand at me, not even bothering to glance over the many bodyguards roaming around the room.
"Right… let's save the topic for another time then; I would prefer we didn't overwork our poor guards." I jokingly said it to lighten the mood for the few that turned their heads worried.
"It would probably be best if you never told them; there are too many to keep an eye on. I'll be annoying for everyone involved." Mr. Shang said suddenly.
"Okay."
"Can you tell us specifically what you had in mind while making the seventh one?" Someone else asked.
"The seventh?" In my mind the memories of that day were still a bit blurry. The order in which I created the weapons was too
"The floating axe, across multiple reports, that weapon seemed to have been the most aggressive of the bunch." I realized it was researcher Spire, a short man with large round glasses, one of the many colorless ones. people working with me, the only unique feature about him being his round, thick glasses.
"Ah, I was thinking of something akin to a guardian beast, more specifically the fierceness of a lion paired with the speed of a cheetah. " I explained as I recalled the moment I created the weapon.
"Why did you reference those animals?" He asked me as he adjusted his glasses.
"I saw a documentary the day prior with Leo, and those concepts sounded cool and useful, especially if the weapon could also inherit some of those animals' abilities," I quickly answered.
I saw someone covering his face with his hands; some others simply solemnly shook their heads.
Why? I don't think it was embarrassing… It was fairly cool, I hope.
"Well, it did inherit those abilities, but the weapon was too strong for any of the testing subjects; we even got a medical report attached to the report." He reported as he handed over the report?
"It was that bad?" I was surprised at reading it; it was even worse than he described.
"The guy has apparently lost the sense of taste and the ability to speak coherently." He responded.
Not only that, he had gone into a full mental breakdown and had to be sedated, as he had been completely taken over by the weapon. Once the weapon was confiscated, the man remained in a vegetative state, with no hopes for his recovery.
Damn, I didn't think it would end up that badly; back when I made it, I didn't feel any of that.
"How come I didn't feel those side effects?" I then asked them.
"Since you're the maker, it might be possible that you're partially immune to their side effects; that's the only reason that passes through my mind." The researcher explained.
"Anyone else?" I asked, turning around.
"It might be because of the fact the concept synergizes too much with the theme of your demon." Someone in the crowd answered while raising their hand.
"Huh?"
The man who raised his hands was the newcomer, a young man full of spirit named Jacopo.
"The concept of the weapon devouring its own user that belongs to your ability, paired with the concept of ferocious carnivores, ended up producing something that automatically begins devouring and ravaging its user." He further explained.
Ah, that makes sense, and it kind of sucks. My bad.
"Then we should dispose of that weapon as quickly as we can," I replied.
"What about the second weapon? The double-tipped spear," Mr. Wing asked me.
"That… give me a second."
Fuck, what did I do with that one? This happened like a week ago, and it's not anyone as easy as the axe, I think… the blue thing, right? Why did I make it blue? Probably something about animals, right? So it's gotta be something related to the sea, probably.
"I think most of those weapons were influenced by that documentary. What happened with the testers that touched the blue weapon?" I asked them as I handed back the medical report to Spire.
"Most of them died." He replied with a deadpan tone.
Huh?
"Like that? On the spot? What about those that survived?" I asked, alarmed and worried.
"The one that survived couldn't manifest the weapon's ability. But he obtained a significant boost in his own strength and reaction speed." He replied.
Huh? How? Why did he suddenly grow stronger?
"Is he okay now?" I asked. reaching my hand to him in hopes of seeing a report with more details.
"Yes, so far."
What the hell did I even put there for it to kill a bunch of people? Maybe next time I should put there some more human-like personalities… no, scratch that, they might get backstabbed over minor things… maybe the animal theme is good; I just needed to give it like the loyalty of a dog.
What a mess. Well, I'm sure the uncle will be understanding; we may have lost… No, I should probably just go and apologize. I didn't think things could get this dangerous; usually people would get at most a mild headache.