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When they reached the first objective, Hector observed the integration users at work. Together, they’d brought along immense lengths of uninsulated cables and a duffel bag full of compact electrical devices. They’d been laying the cables down as the tunnel progressed, but they only now stopped to plant one of the devices into the ground. Then they attached cables to the device and used their abilities to somehow craft a barricade around the device.

Hector had a number of fresh questions for Garovel and decided to start with the broadest one. ‘So, uh... what are they doing, exactly?’

‘Making limiters for the soul net,’ said Garovel.

‘Limiters?’

‘Yeah. Ever wonder what happens when you try to empower an energy field with your soul?’

‘Er. I’m not even sure what that means.’

‘Then this won’t be an easy explanation.’

‘Hmm. I’m sure you can do it.’

‘Ha. Well, I suppose I’ll start at the beginning. Quite a long time ago, something like a soul net would have been considered impossible. We only knew that servants could empower physical mass with their soul, and we thought that things like light and electricity didn’t have mass, but as was later discovered, they do--it’s just such a small mass that there isn’t enough to attach a soul to. If you tried, the soul power that you expended would just bleed out into the air and attempt to fill the entire body of gas that makes up the planet’s atmosphere. Which is impossible to do, by the way. It’s simply too big for even the most powerful servant’s soul to fill. It’d be equivalent to spitting into an ocean.’

‘Okay, I’m with you so far...’

‘Anyhow, it was later discovered that soul power CAN occupy an energy field, as long as that field is strong enough within a contained area. Relativistic mass plays a role here, but that’s probably more complicated than is worth going into right now. Simply put, a soul net is an energy field that has been empowered with someone’s soul.’

‘Uh, alright...’

‘In this case, the Rainlords look like they’re going to use a magnetic field. Those devices they’re carrying are most likely protective relays, which will serve to prevent the net from overloading--and possibly also amplify the electric current that will run along these cables. Someone will empower the current with their soul, and since the magnetic field is a product of that current, it will also be empowered.’