The method for releasing revenants was simple enough, this bird held on for so long, that it already reached its limits and started to decay. As soon as it ran out of magic to prolong its life any further, in another half an hour, it will be completely sucked dry of its life force.
Then, the revenant will appear before them.
"Why not just kill the bird?" Suddenly, a mage at the side asked.
Benjamin shook his head.
"Killing its prey during its feeding would only anger the revenant." He explained, "Although we made thorough preparations, who knows whether the spiritual energy barrier from the glass container could hold against the spirit? Besides, the spirit is fragile at the moment, what if when the prey is killed, it didn't stockpile sufficient energy, plus the dark elemental environment wasn't good enough, leading to its instantaneous demise?"
The spirits were unlike any other revenant lifeforms, it would be best for them to take some precautions in the matter.
As they listened, the other mages at the side nodded almost in unison, none of them questioned further.
In the laboratory at the moment, stood around ten people, all of which were mages specialized in researching spirits. At first they were all dissecting the revenant's remains, examining the residue which the elder researcher filtered out, but as soon as they heard Benjamin attempting to release the spirit, one by one they abandoned their tasks, hurriedly rushed to the scene.
In this laboratory however, due to the otherworldly converging of dark elemental energies, masses of shadows danced in it. A whole group of people stood amidst the shadows, eyes fixated onto the bird within the glass container, their visions grew intense by the moment, a sensation of sinister magic filled the room.
Following time's passing, the bird's lithe body shriveled further. Its body already bare, with no feathers on it, its frail skin gradually wrinkled and sunk, it was grotesque to look at.
As the mages observed this, their eyebrows furrowed.
"The spirit trapped in the body is awakening due to this dark elemental environment." Benjamin's expression was unchanged as he continued, "The draining of lifeforce is accelerating, careful, it's taking shape!"
Out of precaution, he began casting water elemental domination, summoning more than ten sound dampening water spheres, enveloping all of the mages present.
As soon as he done so, a subtle oscillation, suddenly pulsed from within the glass container.
"Poor bird, after days of excruciating torture, your life had finally ended." The System spoke, "It died gracefully, died boldly, died... erm? Hold on."
In a sarcastic manner, it condemned Benjamin's inhumane act. Halfway through, it stopped abruptly, astonished mid-sentence, as if it saw something unimaginable.
In this moment however, already Benjamin paid no mind towards the System.
Everyone's gazes, converged to the center of the glass container. What they saw thereafter, was the originally diminished bird, suddenly moved once more.
"It, it lives!" Someone pointed out in shock.
Benjamin took in a deep breath, shook his head, and said, "No... it died."
In the glass container, the bald wings fluttered, as if it's a toddler finding balance for the first time. The shutted beak began to tremble as well, as it parted, not a single breath went through it. Its two claws first fumbled about, then at last... it channeled enough strength, to the point of which it stood upright on its own.
After that, it opened its eyes. Crimson light beamed from its eyes, leading Benjamin to thoughts of the red of various "no entry" signs.
This is... this is...
"It turned the bird into a revenant!" The System was alarmed, said, "After such a long time, I thought the spirit wouldn't had any lifeform revival powers like in the movies, who would had thought... that it did it for real."
In that instant, Benjamin suddenly spoke in his mind, "Activate standby mode, one second would do, I need to confirm whether or not I'm in an illusion."
The System jolted from his shift in tone, but initiated it immediately nonetheless. In that one second of standby mode, Benjamin scanned his surroundings... fortunately enough, this was all real, he didn't fell into an illusion.
He heaved a sigh of relief at that moment.
The spirit's sudden appearance took him by surprise, which led to his nervous state. If things take a turn for the worst, it would be no laughing matter, the whole Academy could be swallowed whole by it.
Right now however, knowing that none of them fell into a delusional trance, then there's nothing to be concerned about.
"Director... is this how a spirit actually looks like?"
A mage at the side turned to him, asked him doubtfully.
"Of course not." Benjamin then shook his head, said, "I don't know what happened, but, that spirit had completely taken over the bird's body. We may had just witnessed the birth of a new revenant."
Everyone listened, their faces astounded.
In this instant however, the "spirit bird" in the glass container seemed to have gotten used to this body, fluttering its wings in an attempt to take flight. However, as its wings were already featherless, this disgusting lifeform couldn't fly no matter how much effort it put in. As such, it then decided to ram into the glass container before him.
The mages were all shocked from its action, however, as its head impacted the glass container, then utterly recoiled from it, everyone felt relieved.
This thing... seemed to be weak?
Revenants obviously don't register pain. After the disgusting bird recoiled, it immediately regained its balance, and smashed its head on to the glass container again. No one knew what drove it to mindlessly attempt to break out, however, in its first failed attempt at ramming the glass container, the whole laboratory fell silent, the atmosphere was awkward to say the least.
The aforementioned powerful spirit, reduced to just this?
"...Whatever's the case, we now have a live revenant to research." The elder coughed a few times, then continued, "There's no need for you guys to run that errand now."
Benjamin scratched his head, slightly confused.
Could it be... that the revenants in the Revenant World, came to be from this process which spirits went through?
Something felt out of place.
However, in this moment, a transmutation occurred. After several failed attempts in breaking through the glass container, the disgusting bird halted its movements. The dark elements within the glass container suddenly swirled about, shadows danced sporadically. Immediately after this, the disgusting bird opened its beak, and shot out a dark energy sphere.
Following the definite crack, the bird trapped in the glass container, broke free.
Under the possession of a spirit... perhaps fused together with the bird as one, it steadied its feet once more, and leapt out of the breach in the glass container.
Then, as if the dark elemental energies in the laboratory answered a calling, it all converged toward that bird.
In that instant, on the wings which were naked, shadows of feathers suddenly formed from dark elemental energy. The disgusting bird flapped its wings, and took flight in the instant it leaped out.
Under everyone's shocked gazes, it flew straight towards Benjamin.