"Curious," the natural energy flowed into the unconscious bandit's body from Ordyntsev's outstretched hand and began to rapidly spread through the veins, seizing new areas.

Meanwhile, Stas maintained the Healing Palm technique with his other hand, controlling and observing occurring changes.

A small amount of natural energy caused a very slow mutational process. Nevertheless, it was still happening.

Then, Stas deliberately stimulated cell regeneration in the damaged area to produce controlled and localized acceleration of mutations.

Under his watchful eye, the cells began to divide rapidly, but with each subsequent iteration, it was noticeable that they differed from the original ones. And the longer the process went on, the more avalanche-like the irreversible changes in their structure became.

From Stas's hand, which had previously emitted natural energy, ether now shot out, destroying much of the mutagen. Of course, Ordyntsev didn't bother to fully heal the bandit, just removing the main threat.

In half a year, the mutations would have ultimately killed this man. The thing is, he won't live to see that time, as Stas already has a couple of risky experiments planned for tomorrow.

Ordyntsev left the room bathed in a flickering red light and thoughtfully headed to his study.

Once again, Stas confirmed what he had long suspected.

Natural energy affects him not at all as it should.

For ordinary people, contact with this force causes uncontrollable mutations, which can go so far that the subject loses any ability to function. Controlling this is almost impossible. The human body, unlike animals', is not meant for this type of energy.

But the transformations in Stas's body were far from random. It was more like there was some pre-existing plan for restructuring that was slowly executing itself. And it could be accelerated by slamming it with raw natural energy, which he had done with his right hand.

Upon reaching his office, Ordyntsev settled comfortably on his "chair" - a wild mix of stone, wood, cushions, and blankets that allowed him to lean back at will but not lie down.

The backrest could be adjusted using earth techniques, either by thickening or thinning the stone.

Stas was frankly tired of the locals' habit of always sitting without any backrests.

Ordyntsev took the glove off his right hand and clenched his fist a couple of times.

The hand felt excellent, despite the examination with the Healing Palm showing that it seemingly didn't belong to this body.

The restructuring had occurred at the deepest level.

There were many questions, but the main one was, "What was the Great Serpent aiming for when he not only brought a man into his world but also took steps to gradually turn him into a hybrid of a human and a serpent?"

Two theories looked plausible. In the first, the Serpent was unable to make the changes he needed in Stas, like endowing him with prana, without intervening in his genome.

In the second case, the Serpent did it intentionally to get the kind of healer he wanted, to increase his chances of success. After all, Stas was taking much calmer the troubles that befell him at different times. Could he have been as inexorable if he were purely human?

However, all these reflections were meaningless for now. When he becomes strong enough, then he will ask the Serpent his questions.

The eighth month was passing.

*****

"I really hope you don't die right now," Minoru muttered tensely, frowning as she surveyed the clearing they had chosen for training. "I didn't teach you for so long just to kill you myself when you turn into a vampire."

"Everything has been calculated and double-checked," Ordyntsev replied grimly, receiving a message from Leviathan that there was no one in the vicinity.

For this demonstration, they had moved quite far from the Hideout. Minoru had to be laden with special trinkets that protected her from the search of both fellow yokai and onmyoji.

Despite Stas's confidence, he was also a bit jittery.

Nevertheless, there was no turning back.

His hands lay on his chest, directly opposite his heart.

Over the past months, Stas had summoned both natural energy and ether enough times to know what he was doing, yet bringing these energies simultaneously to his heart was terrifying even for him.

Still, the unruly elements obediently moved where his will led them.

And when they reached their destination, Stas began to bind them into a single technique capable of holding each other in equilibrium.

All this time, Minoru, holding her breath, watched Stas with an advanced version of spiritual vision available only to yokai. She couldn't see everything, but even what she could was enough to appreciate the precision of the work being done.

"Done," Ordyntsev exhaled quietly, relaxing his fingers cramped with tension.

"Did it work?!" Minoru approached and stared greedily into his chest. Her vision faltered, as the pulsating ether in the chest cavity absorbed even the spiritual radiation.

"Let's check now." Stas raised his hands and pointed towards a couple of nearby trees.

"Ether Technique. Absorbing Bog." He put a little ether and prana into the technique, carefully watching how the surplus ether in his body would behave.

To his relief, it was immediately drawn toward the pulsating natural-etheric sphere.

The trees, being hit by the technique, slowly sank into the ground until the technique itself expended its energy, turning the former trees into peculiar shrubs.

"Let's increase the power," Stas realized he was decidedly beginning to relish what was happening.

"Ether Technique. Absorbing Bog!" This time, the technique was filled with the maximum concentration of ether that the earthling's body could withstand.

Taking more would start the fatal process of transforming into a vampire.

From the man's hands surged a familiar ripple that quickly turned hundreds of meters in front of him into a barren wasteland.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

'I've definitely become even stronger,' Stas critically surveyed the devastation he had created, recalling how he had used this technique before.

The training had definitely paid off.

Ordyntsev, with a pounding heart, checked his body for remnants of ether, and then a sinister smile crossed his face.

There was almost no ether present! And what little remained was quickly draining into the new "heart."

"Minoru, be ready," Stas warned the nearby yokai. He didn't want the water spirit to be affected if something happened to him.

Perhaps there was real concern in him, or maybe he planned that if things went south, Minoru would take care of Levi.

Stas clenched his teeth until they creaked and removed all restrictions from the spiritual energy and prana, sharply pushing them toward each other.

The two raging streams met and exploded with black ether waves, locked in the fragile human body.

This technique was so complex, precise, and powerful that Stas didn't even dare alter it. Therefore, there was only darkness and not a speck of purple.

There was so much ether that it began to leak from his body, absorbing the sunlight and warmth around, distorting visibility around the warmaster with a black shroud.

Minoru watched with concern and admiration what was previously thought impossible.

A living man had created something like this.

After all, this technique was created by vampires and for vampires. It was the most forbidden magic among the forbidden - because it brought nothing but death to the living. And even then, only the strongest undead could accumulate enough ether to use it. For that, they first slaughtered entire cities.

Ordyntsev slowly, as if a whole mountain weighed upon his shoulders, turned towards the white cliff standing a kilometer away and towering above the forest. Its sharp peak looked straight into the gloomy skies.

"Ether Technique," the man's lips trembled, and his tongue refused to obey, but he finished naming the technique. "Ray of Absolute Destruction!"

The world froze for a moment, and then, between Ordyntsev's hands, a black, low-humming sphere formed in a fraction of a second. Nothing happened for another second, as everything froze in stillness, and then one side of it snapped with a pop, as if the reality itself cracked, and a black ray of ether shot towards the distant cliff.

Although the speed of this technique could not compete with, say, a laser, it was still very fast.

The ether reached the cliff in a couple of seconds, effortlessly burning through dozens of meters of stone, disappearing somewhere in the depths of the colossal stone bluff, and then suddenly released all the energy hidden within it.

The cliff shattered with a deafening crash into heavy chunks flying through the air, and where it once stood, a coal-black cloud of corrosive ether slowly rose.

The same second, a shock wave reached the man and yokai, forcing the entire forest to violently bow before the irresistible force.

The giant chunks of cliff that had reached their peak first halted and then rushed to the ground faster and faster.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Each fall spread a tangible tremor through the earth, as a single "piece" could cover and crush a dozen trees at once.

"Holy smokes," Stas whispered wearily, not even trying to restrain his emotions.

Yes, Minoru's descriptions had told him it should be a fiendishly powerful technique, but what he saw still astounded him to his core.

Such power - and all of it entirely at his disposal.

The closest analogy to what he saw was a shot from a so-called nuclear cannon. Of course, Stas's "ray of destruction" was not yet as powerful, but overall, the destructive force was similar.

Besides, the ray had the ability to penetrate enemy shields and techniques to explode somewhere inside.

And let's not forget that to fire from a nuclear cannon, you first have to build it, maintain it, train people, and spend crazy money on each shell.

Yet Stas only needed to rest.

He had already checked his body and was pleased to see the ether passively dissipating.

"That was magnificent!" Minoru sincerely smiled at Stas. "How long I haven't seen this technique in action. Finally, the world will see our creation again."

Stas just nodded. His body ached a bit, and his throat was unpleasantly dry.

By his estimation, this technique could be confidently attributed to the upper tier of the advanced rank, or perhaps even the supreme.

The problem was that the "ray" was quite unwieldy and took a long time to create. Its purpose lay not in close or mid-range combat, but in launching strikes at extreme distances against the vulnerable spots of the enemy's defenses or cities.

At that moment, the ether finally disappeared from his body. After a short while, the natural-etheric sphere also finished its work. Although the technique operated in passive mode, Stas still had to spend part of his attention controlling it.

"I think it's fitting to celebrate our success with some well-deserved rest," Minoru suggested. "How about playing your game again?"

"Hmm, why not," Stas finally agreed, feeling that everything was going according to plan.

He loved this feeling, for it so rarely graced him with its presence in this world.

The warmaster and yokai, as well as Leviathan, quickly left the improvised training ground. At the same time, the descending black cloud of ether slowly began to spread to the sides, destroying everything unlucky enough to survive the explosion.

*****

'How I missed this,' Stas sighed, watching the obedient dead rise to its feet.

The renegade warmaster of ordinary strength had been caught by Mari and Kaede while he was leading a small group of bandits.

To avoid attracting attention, Stas's subordinates had to go far from the forest, so they physically couldn't take many prisoners.

Therefore, from that raid, Stas only got three ordinary bandits and one warmaster. One body for each shoulder.

Remarkably, they were all alive.

Now Ordyntsev was enjoying that he could infuse the corpse with the necessary amount of ether in one sitting.

The "new heart" burning in his chest reliably protected him from ether poisoning, so he could afford much more than before.

This feeling was like having your right arm in a cast for a long time, making it impossible to do anything properly, and then the cast is finally removed.

"Get in line," the dead warmaster joined the five zombies standing motionless.

There could have been more, but Stas didn't want to attract undue attention, so the team of Kaede and Mari hunted mainly ordinary robbers and other criminals.

Knowing how Mari sometimes gets carried away, Kaede was also attached as a restraining factor. Stas suspected that to carry out his orders better, Mari might start stealing people from villages or someone's ashigaru.

He also made it especially clear that if Kaede "accidentally" died, Rinako would be held responsible in any case.

At that time, Stas did not notice the irony of the situation, as once something similar was said to him.

Meanwhile, Minoru diligently taught him not only offensive techniques but also how to modify and improve zombies.

As it turned out, special treatment with ether could give the flesh of the dead greater strength and energy conductivity, enhancing their combat qualities.

In addition, like the techniques of the Kiatto clan, an etheric thread could be used to transmit ether, amplifying particular aspects of zombies.

Although Stas was very interested in this direction, he pursued it more as a hobby. After all, his appearance in the company of the dead raised by forbidden magic was undesirable.

The tenth month of his "vacation" was passing.

*****

"Minoru, do you happen to know where I can find artifacts of chaos?" Ordyntsev's question made the lamia suspiciously slowly place her glass on the table.

"Allow me to ask, madman, why do you need deadly-perilous artifacts of chaos? You might not be aware, but their danger is such that you might not notice when you start praying to some dark lords and arranging hecatombs of sacrifices! And that's in the best-case scenario."

"You are overdramatizing," Stas chuckled, but the yokai was not in the mood for jokes.

"Shiro," she lowered herself so their eyes were at the same level. "I know you're a very brave person. Perhaps even too much so. But artifacts of chaos are not a joke at all. Ether, compared to chaos, is not even that bad, understand? Artifacts absorb the will of their creators. And believe me, there are such horrors hidden in there that I cannot even describe."

"Ah, it seems I will have to explain in more detail," Stas resigned, seeing how nervous the water spirit became. "You and I will definitely need something on which we can practice the technology to destroy chaos. So I suggested artifacts as something that can be destroyed."

"Whew," Minoru relaxed a bit. "I thought you had decided to study them. And that would have been a real disaster. Hmm, let me think. You know, for starters, we can do with something not as radical."

Stas raised an eyebrow.

"I'm talking about the bones and skulls of demons. Of course, efforts were made to destroy them, but some still ended up in the hands of collectors. They have much less chaos and are much safer."

"Decided," Stas agreed. "So, for now, we look for demon bones. Do you happen to have any ideas where to find them? I certainly don't know."

"I'll think about it," Minoru tapped her finger on her lips. "I'll give you an answer later."

"Does this have to do with you starting to recruit new vassals?" Stas noted astutely.

He accidentally saw Minoru with a woman shrouded in a deep cloak, who was doing everything to hide her appearance.

Spiritual vision immediately hinted that this was a fully materialized yokai. The level of her power couldn't be determined because she was concealing it, but Stas managed to comprehend her nature after she dropped a part of her disguise.

It was hard to say what race she belonged to, as Minoru and the guest quickly left, but it was thought-provoking.

"And for that reason, too," the water spirit replied vaguely.

Stas didn't insist. As long as Minoru worked towards a common result, he didn't care much about her side projects.

Either way, the process had begun.