“Welcome back Snow.”
“Leafy! I’ve missed you!”
Right away Snow runs into a hug. Such a spoiled child, but I have no complaints. While caressing Snows head, Leafy starts questioning.
“How was the first time out in the town?”
“Wonderful! I found so many toys! There is that spinney thing, a moving wooden bird, a game where you jump over different colored stones, even a puzzle sphere! I never thought puzzles can be round and go upwards, I need to show that to Anna, she loves puzzles too, but first the bird, as it is so cute…”
“Hold on, Snow. I can not understand all of it at the same time. At least you had fun. I was a bit worried, something might happen, but maybe I just had to wonder why Lord Null was not going with you.”
“Ah he was with… I mean was with his studies. You know how he is, when he found something interesting. At least I could still go.”
That was a bit close Snow. Well she knows I have different bodies, but does not know I still can use monster bodies. Who would not stay human after having a new human body? Well, me! So restricting sometimes, and monster bodies are able to use intrinsic magic, so even better.
…
Snow is happily playing with her new toys. Anna and the others are looking at the simple but still nicely made things Snow brought back. I could at least convince her to bring my new ‘toys’ first to the Dungeon.
First thing first I took over two of them. The one female and the one with the closest build to Ava. The story of the woman was kind of tragic, kidnapped by Bandits and the first who wanted his ‘fun’ with her got something bitten off right away. In his weeping shock she bashed his head in, and when the bandits wanted to kill her for it, the leader stopped them and she was made a member, as she has the will to fight.
Later she was one of the most brutal fighters of them, as she enjoyed the fear of her opponents and the awe of the members of her group. I think there is some kind of syndrome or something, that makes abused to abusers, but now she is as all of my bodies a blank slate.
Being a woman has its positives and negatives. Her rather strong body is quite bendable and she has a higher pain tolerance. The negative is the abdominal muscles feel way different and her pelvis is hard to get used to. No back pain though as she was rather small in the upper portion of the female anatomy.
Well, whatever. To the next experiment.
“BB! You’re out! Hurry up and release us, before those things come back!”
Oh, BB was her nickname. Butcher Bella short form BB. Well she does not need that anymore.
“Nah, too late. Who were you again? Doesn’t matter, you are meant for the fusion experiment.”
“Fus… BB?! What is going on!”
“Just sleep.”
Using my kinetic abilities I just throw a sedative needle right into his flesh and wait for him to go numb.
“What… in the Abyss… is going….”
And sleep!
…
So right now his chest is pulled open. His heart is beating and the bleeding is temporarily stopped. Carefully fusing two different veins on the main Arteries I am ready for the blood exchange.
The test is easy. The blood makes cores, and cores make Monster. If I use a human body but transfuse all the blood from another creature the core might stick. Success chance? Maybe one in a thousand, but having a human body without intrinsic Magic is horrible. I have no way of learning it right now, as the Millennia old secret of it is held in the hands of Mages all around the Globe.
So why not create a human with a Core? Sadly human blood can not create cores no matter how much I try. Something just does not work, but who needs human blood if someone can just replace it? He might die, but there are many stories of creatures with hidden Monsters inside, so I just test my theory.
The synthetic core is made of Wolf blood and Tailless is already cleansed of all the former Miasma. He is a normal Wolf, but the core is made with the second best Miasma working with his blood. A derivation of Light Magic, that corresponds with the Moons. Yep, Lunar Miasma, that is the reason for the test. It might be possible for me to create a Werewolf.
For now one under my control would be nice. Later I can create one more with Twin or Ghost. Right now I do not need them, but would hate to let them rot inside my Realm without purpose.
Finished with the new ways inside the arteries, so lets start the transfusion.
Pulling the blood out with putting foreign blood in will have a fast reaction, so I need to be quick. Pushing the new blood in while draining the previous blood starts the convulsing. The core is placed in the place it should go if it works, but no reaction as of yet.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
Still pumping the blood I have maybe transfused half of new blood inside. The body is reacting violently and his eyes snap open. The sedative is gone too, it seems. Well he shouts bloody murder, but we are already in the end phase, so just stay for the ride.
Nose and eyes start to bleed, the pressure I use is too much it seems for the veins, but it is necessary for the fast transfusion, a normal human can not live long with Lupine blood, so bear with it.
Finally, as nearly all blood is transfused and his spirit starts to show death the core snaps in. Confused the core and the spirit fight over who is the rightful owner and start to destroy each other. For this I have Tailless as spirit ready and throw him right in. It clicks in place and fuses with the other spirit seamlessly in seconds. Success!
The body starts transforming in strange ways and spewing black and purple blood out of every orifice. He just needs to survive and I should have a Werewolf!
…
Well it is a failure and a success. It is a success as the fusion seem to have worked. I have made a human wolf… thing…
And that is the failure, it is not a Werewolf. He looks like a deranged kind of creature. Huge snout with jagged and uneven teeth, a giant tongue flopping mostly out of the open mouth, white eyes with only a small black dot and otherwise just some veins inside. I do not think he can really blink, as he just stares while breathing heavily. Claws instead of fingers and fur all over. He looks like someone drew a kind of creepy cartoon Wolfman.
This won’t do. Such a creature can not be seen outside without scaring everyone.
“Can you understand me?”
He nods.
“Do you know who you were?”
This gave him pause. He cogs his head in thinking, then he looks up to the right, afterwards looks at me again and shakes his head.
“Can you speak?”
Only brabble came out, and after he realizes it he shakes his head.
“How much is two plus four?”
While thinking, he uses his claws. It took him some time but shows me seven claws. Well not really right, but it was a try at least.
Kinetically moving a broom to me I give it to him after freeing him from his restraints.
“Please clean the halls down here periodically. I make you a room to sleep and live later.”
With a nod he takes the broom and starts sweeping. At least he does what someone tells him to do.
…
“WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT THING!?”
Ah, the last Prisoner has noticed Loopy. I can not call him Tailless anymore as he has a tail, albeit a small one, and Smalltail sounds just demeaning, so Loopy it is. His body and his strange behavior seems to fit that name. At least he seems happy to do something. He hums sometimes, even if that humming does not make any semblance of sense.
I had used another one with a forced fusion. This time it was a mild try. Roots are a combination of Plant and Sentient, so I thought why not try it on a human. The result was… a walking bush. Fusing him with a vine made him grow vines and leaves from his body, so I inserted some more, different vine like spirit bodies and… overdid it a bit.
Impressively he survived, if that is survival. He even got a Core, which made me wonder if there was something of a threshold. Why do I know he has a Core? He suddenly sucks in Mana and a specific Miasma. As for the Miasma it is similar to what the snakes imbue and his ‘sap’ is nearly as potent as some kind of Xenomorph in a Movie franchise I knew.
By the way he loves gardening! Tending to other plants is somehow his life goal. Might be the voices of the plants nagging him to do things for them. Root might have it also bad with all the talking plants it seems.
…
Finally my main experiment. It is time for the fusion of Ava with Bandit A. His name? He was one of the Robbers who were responsible of the sufferings to the Farmers around Halk and afterwards hid into the Town as a Mercenary to lay low. I would not deign to allow him to have a Name anymore.
Ava is resting in the Vat and right now I put inside him the Spirit of Bandit A. Let us see how Humans mutate.
Body and Spirit are still normal, the flesh gets replaced slowly and the bones get… wrapped? The structure seems to change for better flexibility with maximum durability. Why did I not think of that idea? They stay light but breaking them is difficult. The muscles change in a different kind of pinkish purple. Those veins and nerves, are they some kind of network to let Mana flow easier? I do not know any spell, so what… Oh! Muscles react to the Mana and can multiply their strength while precision is still spot on! That is possible?!
The brain got another fold. He has now four hemispheres. What in the Void? I do not understand any of this.
...
Outside nothing changed with Ava. Inside? Is he even still human? The heart grew new arteries and has a perfect blood flow. Brain, I can’t even braining. Muscles are Mana infused and ready to twitch any time I want. I can now see ultraviolet and even some Infrared. Well that needs to be get used to. Mana is visible too. Ears have a kind of volume membrane. I can if I want to set those ears on sensitive, common noise level or dampen them even further.
Lungs do not look normal too, but I have no Idea how to explain it. They filter way better somehow. And then there is the spine. Thicker, sturdier and the nerves inside multiplied. I have control over every single muscle. I can even control the heartbeat!
So much control is overwhelming. What is Ava now? High Human? Something like that maybe.
While working out with the new body I notice my ability to put Mana in my skin to harden the part. Nice, I have a Mana shield. This will come in handy if I ever get hit.
…
“Hello Null! Is that the new Ava?”
“Yes Snow. Thanks for bringing me some things I needed to make it possible.”
I pat her head. She is delighted like always. Right now she is in her favorite linen clothing, obviously dyed purple. It has way more freedom than the silk dress and has less delicate parts. Well, if she is happy I am happy. Still, her Parasol does not leave her side, if she is outside. Poor girl…
“New Ava?”
“Ah, it is nothing Leafy. I just needed to tend to some demerits, as it was not easy for me to work around some problems, as it is not my own body really. So I had made a kind of crutch to make it easier to work with what I have.”
Hope that lie does not make her ask too many questions for now. I just don’t want to put all my cards on the table, if I do not need to.
“I see. Do you want to eat something?”
“Yes, I am starving. The whole time I worked without remembering, how I need to eat sometimes.”
“I want something too!”
Snow you glutton, did you not eat an hour ago? I saw that.