In a realm at perpetual half light, stirred a withered man. The same withered man you probably remember from last time. He was woken by screams off in the distance. His first thought was, 'I need to flee.' However the next instant that thought was drowned out by insatiable bloodlust, and paralysing fear. The man was crippled by the two conflicting emotions, and everything else was drowned out. Moments or hour's later the man came back too himself and found the short man in the rundown cloak staring+ at him.
"Please stop I dunno whatcha want, but please let me go." His voice was weak, but never quavered.
"Wow, I gotta say you are rather impressive. Most people just scream and cry, and beg can't forget about the begging. But you!- Stygian released a deep sigh of satisfaction, before going on, "You are truly a cut above the rest. Take that last guy for example -you know, "my friend"? Well broke after he lost all his toes which is a shame, because if he just held on he could have had a better life. Instead..."
Stygian gestured to the right, where a disturbing amalgamation of Shale Tiger and human groveled. It was a hideous disjointed thing that made the withered man's insides go cold. He wanted to demand answers to know what the fuck was going on, but he couldn't even form the words.
"I bet you have a lot of questions, instead of answering any of them let me assure you this is all his, that is to say my former friends fault. You see trying to combine two separate beings grows exponentially harder when said beings do not cooperate. I've had limited success with bending the will of another so I believed that breaking a will would work even better, but I'm sure you can see just how wrong I was. Now before I go any further with my villainous monologue allow me to enlighten you a bit with something I've discovered recently. Tell me do you know how a soul is formed?"
Stygian waited while the man seemed to be reeling from the massive subject change. After a while Stygian grew impatient and continued, "Alright let's just pretend that was a rhetorical question. A soul is the summation three distinct, yet intertwined features. First you have the body or the vessel for a soul, then the mind the guiding force of a soul, and finally the the magic center of a being the driving force of a soul. A soul is influenced by all of these factors and in turn influences them. It's like a carriage, the carriage is the vessel, the driver is the mind and the horses are the driving force. With me so far?"
The man looked confused, but like he was following.
"Now by affecting one of three components of a soul I can affect the others. For example the easiest way to do this would be to cut off your arm. The other two components would changes because of the vessel changing not by much I grant you, but still. Going back to my example, its like your carriage cracked a wheel, sure you could still drive the carriage, but you'd have to go slow in order not to break it further. Now I sure you're asking yourself why am I telling you all this?"
The man nodded reluctantly, and Stygian continued, "Well when you cast a spell on another, you are first and foremost defended by your soul, whether benevolent or malevolent the soul doesn't care it resists. Then the center, tries to determine if the spell is damaging or helping, which lowers its efficiency. Finally the mind, the unconscious portion, resists based on if the caster is familiar. These three step happen near instantaneous upon being hit with a spell, and can turn certain death into an extremely close call. It may not be a huge percentage, but It can easily turn a success into a failure. It's why knowing the name of target is such a boon in spell casting, that familiarity makes spells much more effective. So I'm telling you all of this so that you can understand why I am asking for you to submit to my will."
"I... I don't understand ya want me to willing become like that thing?" In disbelief at the sheer audacity of the question.
"No, no no. Haven't I already said that he was a failure? I'm trying to create a hybrid, half man half Shale Tiger. Look if you submit to my will, then your tiger will submit to your will. Meaning that neither of you with resist what is happening and both of you will become more powerful. Look you saw how much stronger I am right? Well I'm offering a massive power boost, your considerable talents as a beast tamer with the strength speed and power of a Shale Tiger. So what do you say?"
Although the withered man couldn't see under the hood, but he knew the figure was smiling. Honestly the man had always been envious of the strength that monsters had obtained. It's why he surrounded himself with them and honestly considered making a deal. Of course this entire time Stygian had been using subtle mental magic to coerce him. It started with mental effect of Stygian's Plane weakening the man's mind. It continued with small things, a nudge here an adjustment there.
It wasn't even hard, the King's Gaze made mental spells laughable easy, and all Stygian had to do was make eye contact. No bolt of Mana, no nothing just eye contact Stygian could blast the man with any myriad of effects. However that would get our bug's mettling detected. It is why Stygian enlightened the man a bit, you see it is a popular belief that to mess with someone mind they must be unconscious. That is false.
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You see dear friends, your mind is a sensitive thing, and when idle it's pretty great at detecting something that is foreign. However when you distract a mind it is an entirely different story. Now this mostly pertains towards smaller spells and minor memory alterations, but if you go slow enough you can tweak an entire personality. That's far more than what Stygian was doing, but it was possible. All Stygian was did was quell a few emotions, and flare others. That and altering the memory of Stygian and the man fighting. Changing it to imply that withered and Stygian's former friend fought, and Stygian saved the withered man.
Leaning on an improved charisma, subtle and insidious mental magic, and generous demeanor; Stygian was no longer the same illiterate timid bug it used to be. This new devious Stygian almost always got what it wanted, and this time was no different.
"Well if it means ya won't need to save me again I'm all for it."
Stygian was ecstatic, though this would probably be the hardest thing the bug had ever attempted. Sure Stygian could slap together to separate species in a somewhat cohesive whole. It was hit or miss, but with less complex beings it was easier. It was also far easier on smaller targets. With bigger beings you were far more likely to end up with two halves of a heart on separate sides of the chest. Or a brain too large for the skull, or a misshapen skull that crushes part of the brain. Countless thing could go wrong. That's why Stygian had to try with the beast tamer and one of his beasts. The two already share a link, fragile though it maybe.
With that in mind Stygian killed the groveling twisted failure and used the soul essence to strengthen the weak tame bond between its new test subjects. Slowly every so slowly Stygian increased the bond, "Call your beast with the strongest bond here, now."
Slowly it trotted over, and Stygian spoke again, "Now ask if it would like to be stronger, and tell it I can make you both stronger. However it will be painful."
Stygian still intruding in the man's mind saw flashes of a conversation of image's. A conversation that reminded Stygian of a time when it was... Well when the bug was a bit simpler let's say that. The man spoke aloud, but Stygian could feel the willingness of both parties. Without hesitation Stygian ripped the bond wide open, wide enough that the two souls connected by a thin line with, looked like an oval now. Wide enough that their minds and souls could mix, yet stay distinct. Both Shale Tiger and man fell to the floor disoriented.
As Stygian had said before the Soul is a combination of things. Stygian was trying to create a unified being, before the bug had just desired a unified form in it's test subjects. It now desired the whole package. Mind, center body, and most of all soul. Normally when Stygian used Meld, or the newly upgraded version Combine, the skill would basically kill the former beings and create something new with their old parts. However it was Stygian's belief that a unified soul could and would help guide the combination. After all it worked for Stygian's metamorphosis.
Eventually the elongated oval soul would come together on its own, or split back apart. Stygian wasn't willing to wait for eventually and continued to mettle. Our bug started combining the attributes of the two together. Then skills, spells, and abilities. Finally Stygian made each of them live the others life. Painstakingly Stygian intertwined their minds, without forcing their souls together. Mentally they were neither tiger nor man, but combination of the two almost like a new mind. Neither fought for control because they were not individuals any longer, they were a unity.
Stygian created connection to the new beings mind, and spoke directly into it, "There isn't much time, I've disassociate you from your physical forms. If you wish to stay as you are you will need to fight with everything you have to stay together, to stay whole. I will assist with what I can, but this is on you. Fight this and survive, or surrender separate and die."
Stygian felt panic pour off the newly minted being, but our insidious bug firmed the being's resolve with a spell. Then Stygian activated Combine, Flesh Shaping, and Soul shaping all at the same time, and all the cells of the man and the Shale Tiger crashed together fast. Combine tried cut the link between the bodies and their souls which Stygian forcefully stopped. All while the bug used Flesh Shaping to slow down the rate of combine. The mental pressure of hold all three strained Stygian's massive will. So much so that the bug began to pull on the connection with Reya and Nora.
It eased the pressure just enough, that Stygian could watch as the unity fought against the destruction of it physical forms, but that's all they were doing just holding the tide back. Eventually it would break through, and a thought hit Stygian.
"Form. A. Shape. With. Your. Mind. Imagine. What. You. Would be. As. One. Refuse. All. Else." Stygian ground the mental words out through the massive pressure and felt its control slip ever so slightly, and could no longer watch to see how the unity was doing. Moments stretched out, and ever so slightly the pressure eased, but not faster than Stygian tired. It was a race, perhaps an agonizingly slow race, but a race nonetheless.
In a haze Stygian fought, clawed and scraped with every ounce of will it possessed. Without even realizing it the pressure fell off Stygian, despite that Stygian didn't stop. Struggling now to keep it's eyes open. Stygian had long since fallen to the ground, yet it wanted to see the fruits of its labor. However it was a losing battle and as Stygian eye's closed an unnamed amalgamation commonly known as a Chimera opened its eye's.
A strange combination it was looking like a scaled gorilla instead of a human pangolin hybrid. It's body was powerful and its mind even more so. Most chimera hate their creators on principal. Considering that most Chimera are in pain constantly I can understand why. However this Chimera felt genuine respect and appreciation towards it creator vowing to serve it's new master. Now that was the influence of The Flesh Lord's Plane, any new beings brought to life in the plane will feel boundless gratitude and debt to said Flesh Lord.
This was far stronger than an imprint bond since anything with a high level of sentience could break such a bond. This was loyalty truly befitting that of a vassal towards their lord. Stygian was well upon the way the way towards an army. After months of trial and error, more error than Stygian would care to admit, our bug had done it, and now Stygian was one step closer towards unity.