At first glance, this method seemed ruthless, cold, exploitative, and utterly indifferent to the will of the Spirits themselves.
But these beings were not natural beings.
Their souls originated from half-beasts. Sylas had merely erased their former memories and stripped away the ferocity, bloodlust, and cruelty that defined their past lives. What remained was obedience, clarity, and purpose.
Because of this, Sylas felt no pity.
After all, these creations were, in essence, refined half-beasts.
Having completed the creation of four, Sylas did not continue. He led them out of the laboratory and down the stairs into the castle's sitting room.
"Daddy!"
The moment Elseth and Elroth saw him, their eyes lit up. They ran forward happily and wrapped their arms around him. But halfway through, they stopped short.
Behind Sylas stood four thin, unfamiliar figures.
The children stared at them, eyes filled with curiosity.
"Dad," Elseth asked, tilting her head, "what are those? We've never seen creatures like them before."
Arwen also looked surprised.
"Sylas… what are these?"
"These are magical beings I created," Sylas replied calmly. "They possess innate spellcasting abilities and specialize in magic."
"They are called House elves," he continued. "Once they accept a master, they will obey every command and never betray them. Coincidentally, each of us can have one."
"They'll be your most loyal attendants."
"House elves?" Elseth and Elroth repeated.
They looked the creatures over again, long limbs, thin frames, large eyes, strange proportions, and immediately frowned.
"These?" Elroth said bluntly, his expression clearly unimpressed.
As half-elves, their aesthetic standards were… demanding. Even Arwen's expression looked slightly awkward.
Sylas laughed softly.
"These creatures aren't elves," he explained. "They're something else entirely. If you don't like the name, you're free to call them whatever you wish."
The term House Elves was simply a matter of convenience. Their bodies contained beastman flesh, elven blood, and half-beast souls, and half-beasts themselves were said to descend from elves twisted by Morgoth long ago.
In a distant, tangled way, these beings did share a connection to the elven race.
Eventually, Arwen, Elseth, and Elroth accepted Sylas's gift.
Arwen and Elroth each chose a female House Elve, naming her Ela.Elseth selected a male House Elve and named him Til.
With the naming complete, the House Elves formed a magical contract with their masters. From that moment on, their loyalty was absolute, even Sylas, their creator, could not override their masters' commands.
Thus, Elseth and Elroth each gained a silent guardian, one who would attend to their daily needs, watch over them unseen, and protect them without hesitation.
If danger ever arose, the House Elves would stand between its master and death, or help them escape at any cost.
Though Elroth still found the House Elve's appearance somewhat displeasing, he carefully dressed it in an elegant gown, making her neat and presentable. Arwen, gentle as ever, treated hers with quiet kindness.
Though everyone understood that these House Elves were fundamentally half-beasts, no one mistreated them. Separate rooms were prepared, and they were treated with basic dignity.
Once the House Elves took up residence, the castle itself changed.
Hogwarts was cleaned daily, immaculate beyond belief. Windows gleamed, statues shone, suits of armor sparkled, and even ancient portraits looked freshly restored.
Sylas and his family no longer needed to worry about daily life. Clothes appeared when needed. Meals were prepared without request.
The professors and students soon noticed the House Elves as well.
When they learned these beings had been created by the Headmaster himself, their reverence only deepened.
After all, they had seen it with their own eyes.
These House Elves cast spells without wands, often more powerfully than trained adult wizards. And within Hogwarts, where Apparition and Disapparition were forbidden, they could teleport freely.
How could the Headmaster create such terrifyingly capable magical beings?
This kind of life creation carried a power so fundamental that it appeared almost divine, leaving all who witnessed it in constant awe.
What Sylas had done this time was entirely different from his earlier experiments, fire dragons, serpent beasts, flying horses, and the like. Those previous creations had all relied on magical hybridization and modification, reshaping existing living creatures into new magical species.
But this time was different.
This time, Sylas had taken lifeless blood, flesh, and bone, and from them forged a powerful, intelligent magical being.
This act, reversing the boundary between life and death, shook even the most accomplished professors of advanced magic to their core.
In their understanding, only beings of the highest order could accomplish such a feat: the divine creators of elves and humans,the God of Craftsmanship, the goddess of growing things, Yavanna,or dark primordial beings such as Morgoth.
Yet now, their own Headmaster, capable of creating an intelligent magical race, seemed to stand shoulder to shoulder with such legendary existences.
But Sylas understood the truth far better than anyone else.
Despite the miracles of his alchemy, despite his ascension to a higher plane of existence, Sylas knew that he could not truly create life.
The most essential component of life, the soul, was something he was fundamentally incapable of producing.
Every soul he used came from elsewhere. In this case, from half-beasts.
In fact, in the entirety of the Central Plains world, there was only one being truly capable of creating souls:
Ilúvatar, the Creator God.
The God of Craftsmanship created the dwarves. The goddess Yavanna created the Ents.
Yet all of these were, at first, soulless creations, mere forms and vessels. Only after Ilúvatar bestowed upon them the Immortal Flame did they gain true life, free will, and independent consciousness.
The core of the soul originated from that Immortal Flame alone.
Even Morgoth, the most powerful of the fallen, could not create souls. He could only corrupt and twist the lives already created by Ilúvatar. Orcs, trolls, and other dark creatures were all the result of distortion, not creation.
That was why Morgoth coveted the Flame.
He once searched the void for it, hoping to seize it and create life of his own, but he failed.
Sylas, however, harbored no such ambition.
He did not desire to create true souls.
He merely wished to use biological alchemy to shape new magical creatures suited to the wizarding world, built upon existing foundations.
After creating the House Elves, inspiration struck Sylas once more.
He returned to the volcano of Mordor, drawing upon its final remnants of power. There, he took a drop of his own blood and a phoenix feather. Using a vast alchemical formation, he gathered immense fire-elemental energy and gave birth to a phoenix.
This phoenix differed from those of the wizarding world.
Rather than the small, swan-like phoenixes known to wizards, this one varied greatly in size. Though it possessed similar abilities, nirvana, rebirth, and functional immortality, it was fundamentally different from the phoenix form Sylas himself could assume.
The difference was akin to that between a true dragon and a lesser fire dragon.
Not stopping there, Sylas used the earth's fire once more to create a second phoenix.
One male. One female.
The two formed a bonded pair, capable of reproduction.
The creation of these twin phoenixes completely exhausted the last remaining power of the volcano. From that moment onward, the volcano rapidly cooled, falling into dormancy and becoming an extinct volcano.