Root of life

The Root of Life is pluripotent cells that enables regenerative medical processes. It is a precious material that's the epitome of the life-attribute and that only Zakkart was able to create, though a transplantation of the material can be conducted by anyone who knows the procedure. It was created by Zakkart not through science, but by magic and alchemy. In a sense, it is more fitting to call it regenerative magic rather than regenerative medicine. It's extremely similar to the base form of life, but different.^[1]

Appearance

It appears as a white, mud-like substance. "The way it pulsed with its shape undetermined and constantly changing resembled the Lump-of-flesh-chan, the origin of Legion… the 'base form of life'."^[1]

In the concealed space behind the workshop wall, the root of life is being kept in "a group of transparent, cylindrical capsules, large enough for people to fit inside." Inside, it floats in the fluid that the capsules are filled with.^[1]

Abilities

These pluripotent cells can "adapt to become any body part, inducing regeneration in any patient. If transplanted where an arm was missing it would become a new arm, and if they were injected into an organ that had ceased to function, it would regenerate that organ. They could restore bones, nerves, eyeballs and even brains to their original states. (…) It didn’t actually have immediate effects like real magic, and the memories and personality contained within damaged brain tissue would not regenerate, but even so, these cells would enable the heavily wounded to return to the battlefield within a matter of days."^[1]

"The Root of Life changes shape in a way that is adapted to the patient’s soul, and then regenerates the damaged body part. It does not adapt to Undead, but it should regenerate the physical body without any problems as long as the spirit is an ordinary spirit containing the soul."^[1] "The root of life is delicate, so another spirit getting too close to it might cause unforeseen complications."^[2]

Normally, doing physical training without a body would leave no results. But "the root of life adapts the soul to the body while creating it, so if your soul performs muscle training here and acknowledges that your muscular strength has increased, the root of life will feed that back into your body." This is why Darcia underwent training in a divine realm.^[3]

Resurrection. The root of life can be used to resurrect somebody with only a damaged soul left, as long as the spirit is not an undead. It is also not advised to revive somebody whose sanity has not been preserved. If one tries to resurrect a race that did not exist at the time of the root of life's creation, like a dark elf, it may lead to some complications. If you also use one of Vida's blood crystals, you can resurrect somebody even if you add something like an orichalcum skeleton. The root of life will be confused when absorbing many different materials, but once Vida's blood is added, all of the materials will dissolve and fuse with the root of life. Finally, the soul is added.^[1]

History

"Research into regenerative medicine to restore lost organs had been ongoing both on Earth and in Origin, but it seemed that the Champion Zakkart had completed this task a hundred thousand years ago."^[1]

"Many had become injured or ill during the battle against the Demon King's Army. But at the time, gods had existed on the world’s surface. Even those with damage to their limbs or organs could quickly be restored to good health with the gods’ treatment. But as the state of the war worsened, the gods had become unable to continue treating all of the wounded. Treating cuts and bone fractures or reattaching severed limbs could be done by saints that served the gods, but they were unable to return warriors with incinerated limbs or significant damage to their brains to a state where they could fight."^[1]

"Zakkart had received power from Vida, the Goddess of Life and Love, and already possessed a reasonable amount of medical knowledge as he had once been aiming to become a forensic scientist. But there were limits to what he could do. And most importantly, even though he was a champion, he was still just one man. There was a limit to the number of people that he could treat at once. That was why Zakkart had created these pluripotent cells, named the ‘Root of Life.’ (…) Of course, it was not only the warriors of Lambda but the champions themselves who had relied on this Root of Life."^[1]

Its use was stopped in the past due to this incident: "One day, the Root of Life had produced a warrior who was supposed to have died. Unable to perceive spirits, Zakkart and his companions had failed to notice that a wandering spirit had entered the Root of Life. If that was all that had happened, it would have been a miraculous resurrection of a dead man. But the resurrected warrior had lost his sanity from the fear and despair that he had felt as he died. He had gone on a rampage inside Zakkart’s workshop and tried to kill the injured people waiting for treatment, mistaking them for monsters. In the end, Zakkart himself had been forced to grant him a second death."^[1]

Alda, the God of Law and Fate, had seen this as a great problem and insisted that the use of this regenerative medical technique be halted until a way to stop this from happening again was discovered. But before it did happen again, Zakkart and his companions had fallen at the hands of the Demon King.^[?]

Nobody had known how far Zakkart had progressed on creating a measure to make sure that it would not resurrect the dead, so the Root of Life was preserved in the workshop, in case the remaining three champions were heavily wounded and needed treatment. When Vida separated herself from Alda and the other gods, Gufadgarn had brought it with him, along with Zakkart’s entire workshop.^[?]

References