Silence returned to the hive once the shaping was complete. This was not the hollow quiet of an empty cavern. It was a dense and settled stillness that pressed inward. The stone no longer breathed beneath Kael's senses.
It no longer shifted or answered his call. It existed now as a single and uninterrupted mass. The structure felt inert and final. The bees moved through the chamber in precise and unhurried paths.
Their hum was low and orderly. It was stripped of all previous urgency. They no longer reacted to his presence beyond gentle course corrections. The hive had accepted him as a constant rather than a variable.
Kael finally fell back to rest within his dwelling. Shining black marble now covered every surface except for the archway leading to the larger cave. Around him the drones continued their work with rhythmic buzzing.
The architecture of the hive grew slowly under their care. Kael reclined on his stone bed and observed their tireless activity. Echo had informed him that full recovery required many magus level beast corpses.
She needed their soul energy to mend her shattered essence. Even with such power she would remain unable to separate herself from the hive. Kael had intentionally left the block where Echo was attached as simple stone.
He refused to enhance that specific area for now. Kael wanted to test the limits of his new domain without delay. Through his connection with Echo's soul, he commanded the drones to leave the hive.
They were to hunt magus level beasts for his impending experiments. He would not repeat the mistake of underestimating the creatures of this dungeon. The bear had shattered his illusions of invulnerability.
He had entered that battle without any defensive preparation. The cost nearly included his own life. Only Echo's intervention had saved him from a certain and gruesome end.
He needed the Compendium to search for answers within the memories of Rakshar. He required defensive options to prevent another disaster. Whether spells or artifacts he needed a shield for his fragile form.
Compendium, do the memories of the trolls contain an array that provides defensive manoeuvres or a weakening effect on beasts?
[Query Initiated: No defensive arrays exist within the memories of the trolls. However, an immobilization array is available to bind targets within a specific area. Cost: 700 CP. Current Balance: 101 CP.]
Kael stared at the glowing text and weighed his limited options. The cost of security was steep and his current reserves were pitiful. He needed a significant influx of essence to bridge the gap.
His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of heavy dragging. Six drones entered the chamber while pulling two massive shapes across the marble. Four of his servants were missing from the original swarm of ten.
He felt the loss of their tethered spirits as a faint and hollow ache. The price of the hunt had been high. The stone monkeys were slumped and utterly lethargic.
Kael could sense the thick venom coursing through their systems. It had turned their powerful muscles into dead weight. They were alive but their wills had been completely extinguished by the toxin.
He approached the fallen creatures with a cold and clinical gaze. He did not mourn the drones that had fallen to secure this prize. In the logic of the hive every life was a currency to be spent.
He reached out to touch the cold skin of the nearest monkey. He could feel the dense soul energy vibrating beneath the rocky exterior. These initiate level beasts were exactly what he required for his experiments.
Their essence would provide the fuel for his next advancement. The Compendium pulsed in his mind with expectant hunger. He prepared to begin the harvest without further delay.
The immobilization array was no longer a distant goal but a necessity. He would tear the power from these beasts to fortify his sanctuary. The path to survival required such brutal transactions.
Kael did not wait for the monkeys to wake up. He drew the rune for shaping in the air with a fluid motion. His rings were crafted only to manipulate stone but he had a different target today.
The quarry he was hunting this time was the very flesh of these initiate level beasts. The moment the flesh mana was imbued in the shaping rune the air grew heavy. The monkey's skin rippled and separated.
The creature died instantly as its internal structure collapsed. Kael hurried forward to drain the soul of the fallen beast. He expected the essence to flow into his own core.
Instead, the whole soul flew toward Echo and was drawn into her stone prison. Kael watched the transfer with a measured and observant frown. He realized that flesh mana was fundamentally different from stone.
Stone was immobile and even in a malleable state it tried to remain fixed. Flesh moved much more freely and possessed a chaotic vitality. He could still see the skin and meat separated from the bones.
Kael did not target the living monkey yet. He turned his attention back to the carcass once again. He cast the rune on the separated flesh with a more careful intent.
He did not care if the flesh separated as it had before. He was ready for the reaction this time. He watched the process through his mana sight to identify the structural flaws.
The flesh rippled as the mana surged through the fibers. Kael tried to extract the impurities and foreign objects as he would with a block of granite. He focused on the individual cells of the muscle tissue.
Unlike stone the whole skin began to deteriorate in front of his eyes. It rotted and dissolved before he could stabilize the structure. He sighed as he watched the waste of biological material.
He had hoped the same principles of stone shaping would apply to organic matter. Reality was much more complex and unforgiving. Kael did not stop or get discouraged by the setback.
He knew that organic and inorganic materials must have fundamental differences. He ordered the drones to bring more initiate level beasts to the hive. He required as many different kinds as possible for his work.
He knew that he would need extensive experimentation to get results. He commanded the drones to not leave any corpses behind in the tunnels. They were to bring even the dead beings they found back to him.
He felt a wave of assertive obedience from the drones as they departed. He turned back to his work with a focused and icy resolve. Kael started slowly and methodically with the remains of the first monkey.
He began inserting flesh mana into the rest of the corpse. Every time he tried to draw the flesh into a malleable form it failed. The tissue would rot and decay the moment it was separated from the mass.
He first thought that the flesh of the stone monkey was unique. However other beasts brought by the drones produced the same grisly results. The moment the flesh was separated it began to perish.
It seemed that flesh required the spark of life to remain viable. Then a memory of Lilian surfaced in his mind like a beacon. He recalled how she had used her mana to mend and alter bodies.
He had originally thought she was simply using her inherited aspect. Now he realized that she might have been combining different energies. Life mana was likely the key to keeping the flesh stable during the process.
Kael began to experiment with the delicate balance of life and flesh mana. He moved very slowly as he had with the stone when he first started. He did not want to overwhelm the flesh aspect with too much life.
It took him multiple tries to get the combination right. Every failure became a stepping stone in his grisly and dark laboratory. The hive grew dim as the air became thick with the scent of ozone and blood.
The only positive thing was the efficiency of the hive itself. All the organic waste was absorbed by the drones for their own sustenance. The souls of the dead were sucked into the hive architecture automatically.
This was the perfect environment to conduct such dark experiments. Kael turned his attention to a large rat like beast brought by the drones. He began the process by infusing the creature with his combined mana.
The moment the rat flesh became malleable it did not die. A sharp and piercing screech escaped from the beast in an instant. It was in intense pain even with the venom dulling its senses.
Kael did not stop the process despite the creature's agony. He started extracting the impurities that prevented the flesh from being uniform. He removed the jagged hairs and the uneven patches of skin.
The shrills of the beast grew louder and more desperate with every second. He kept going as he made changes to the internal structure of the body. He knew only his constant supply of life mana kept the subject alive.
He started to see the physical changes happening before his eyes. He did not have any anatomy other than his own human form to copy. He used the Compendium to access the previous memories of the necromancer.
With that legacy guiding his hands he began to pile changes into a humanoid form. He reshaped the legs to stand upright and widened the ribcage. The rat was becoming something far more terrifying.
He was in the middle of the procedure when the beast went quiet. He feared for a moment that the subject had died and wasted his progress. However, the eyes of the creature were wide and filled with madness.
Kael ordered the drones to inject more venom into the rat to settle it. Its eyes closed and the body went limp once more under the influence. Kael felt as if something fundamental had broken within the beast.
He pushed the thought aside and continued with his surgical precision. He removed all the remaining impurities from the target with his mana sight. He refined the physique of the rat until it resembled a human.
It was as if Kael was composing a complex and dark symphony. In the middle of the performance the music stopped abruptly. He realized that the flesh would not grow from a fixed point.
He had used every bit of material the rat had to offer. It was still not enough to complete the transformation he envisioned. He could stop now and observe the impact of his changes on the creature.
However, he was struck by a sudden and brilliant epiphany. He started to extract flesh from the other beasts the drones had captured. He began with the remaining stone monkey carcasses.
He extracted their flesh while keeping it alive with his life mana. He started assimilating the alien flesh into the body of the rat. The organic materials melded together as if they were always one.
The impact was immediate because he had already made the flesh synonymous. By removing the impurities, he had removed the barriers of the species. Now that he had enough organic material he continued with the help of the Compendium.
He simulated the human anatomy with increasing complexity and detail. Whenever the flesh stopped being moulded, he would add new material. He took the best parts of every creature the drones brought him.
Kael kept adding rats and monkeys and snakes to the growing being. The most unsettling part was the lack of any further cries of agony. The subject had become a hollow shell for his artistic ambition.
He added stone patches from the monkeys to the outer layers of the flesh. He gave the being four powerful hands to maximize its utility. He integrated the venom sacks of a serpent into its jaw.
He added the sharp and hollow teeth of the snake to the mouth. He kept the keen nose of the rat for tracking purposes. He added many other features as he saw fit for his new guardian.
He kept embellishing and refining the canvas like a true creator. Whenever he disliked a feature, he would simply melt it back into the mass. The Compendium provided the blueprint whenever his own imagination faltered.
The being on the slab was a nightmare of biological engineering. It possessed the strength of the monkeys and the speed of the rats. The stone plates provided a natural armor against physical strikes.
Kael felt a sense of pride as he looked at the finished product. He had moved beyond the limits of simple stone and simple souls. He was now a master of the living and the dead.
The four hands of the creature flexed as he finished the final circuits of mana. It was a perfect synthesis of his new powers and ancient knowledge. He named the creation his first successful chimera.
The hive buzzed with a new and dark energy as the project concluded. Kael stood over the being and felt the drain on his own reserves. The cost in mana and effort had been immense but the result was worth it.