A very young Keem is giving a class presentation "when I grow up, I want to be a shaper" he says lifting the top paper with the name and title of his presentation, to reveal some crude drawings. "Look, Dada I made a tool" a ball rolls across the floor and then moves itself back into his hand. "I'm so proud of you" An older Keem enters the palace. He enters an auditorium to see Zaheer and another guy on the podium. "You made a wise choice in coming here" said Zaheer. "Where Mil, fights people for his country, the Pharaoh deals with management and laws and Wakim handles diplomatic affairs, our group here works as the backbone advancing the collective capabilities and knowledge of everyone" In a dimly lit room Keem and others are testing human/tool integration. One of the coworkers lets out a yawn. "These crunches are terrible" he says. The overseer walks in "Now, I know these last few days have been rough, but it will be worth it when we finally get this running" He always does these pep talks? when we're closing down. "I hope you can think of this not as a paycheck but as a family, besides if we raise our budget a little higher I can set everyone up a mini-golf" Why even bother, no one will end up using it. Keem's coworker leans in and says "Hey, who wants to bet that's the only way the boss gets it in a hole" The Keem laughs. Everyone got out their sleeping bags except for Keem. The Boss gave me even more work, is it because I laughed at some joke. Keems mind begins to drift away as he writes his report. If only I had... I just need a few more hours in a day. He falls asleep.
So, that's exactly what I did I finished the human tool integration project replacing my head and stomach, with machines. Now I don't need to sleep, and I can construct food directly in my stomach. I use the extra hours to check in with my dads. However some of the Pharaoh's guards use my machine parts as an excuse to bully me when I leave, so I created a solution to that too. The guards try to trip him with tools on his way out but trip themselves instead. Keem walks back into work. "I've almost finished the auto surgeon, we will have the entire weekend off" he declares "Oh, you don't know" replied the coworker. "Mil's spies just came back with a mystery compound from Arcada, it's supposed to help turn the tide of the war, anyways he wants us on it" "If, Arcada finds out wont that be a problem? If they end up helping Portcrest..." Keem sees the team busy synthesizing a murky brown compound. Another group completely covered in clothing are standing over a man strapped to a table. They inject him with the compound, he convulses secreting black foam from his mouth while spazzing impossibly fast. The machines the man is hooked up to start making noises then stopped. "He's dead" confirmed one of the researchers.
"bring out the next volunteer" said the overseer. "we're all out sir" "then we just need to find more" replied the overseer "Let's go he told Keem" as they head out.
The overseer recalls a conversation with Zaheer eating some mochi's. "We need this compound working, we can do it though our researchers are the best" Zaheer always had an intensity about him no matter what he is doing "Yes, absolutely" responds the overseer. Zaheer stares even more intensely at the overseer "I need you to do whatever it takes"
Keem follows behind the overseer to Mr. Boo's house. "What could you want with Nania? she didn't win" asked Mr. Boo "Yes but at the shaping tournament we saw some potential in your child, with a little help from the people at our lab I think she has a bright future ahead of her" responded the Overseer.
It turns out the compound responds better to children. We ended up going through many children. Do to all the progress we were making Zaheer decided to stop by to congratulate us and to personally help us finish the compound. We began to work on a soldier without the operating table. Suddenly a knock at the door. It was Mr. Boo. He hadn't heard from his daughter in weeks and was wondering if she was alright. "Ignore him" said the overseer. He deserved to know the truth so I slipped away from the group to tell him what happened, after I showed him the documents realization began to sink in. "I'll kill you!" he said pummeling Keem. The overseer catches Keem outside "How bout that?" said the overseer "Skipping work are we?" The overseer see's the documents Keem is holding. "You know those aren't supposed to leave the lab" "You didn't share these documents with anybody right?" "No" replied Keem "Right because that would be treason" responded the overseer. "I'll tell you what we need someone to investigate some disappearances happening in the salt mines, if you fail, you will be tried for treason, if you succeed I can promote you to middle management"
"back in the palace, we were testing a compound we synthesized from some top secret documentation our spies picked up from Arcada. First we tested it on volunteers and prisoners of war, however later we moved on to children finding them more effective. The compound left the subject in agony, but for some they didn't die, it instead turned them..." "Into demons" finished Domaskis. "Protodemons but yes"
Demons form from the extreme emotions or will of the deceased when a person dies. They release these as a noad particle, when enough particles coagulate in an area a demon is born. However like Keem said this is a Protodemon, these happen when the soul decays but the body does not with the body still alive, Nias'sha's minions won't take the soul to her realm, causing a mass of noad particles to form in their body, creating a Protodemon. This is largely believed to be by design so that mortals try to avoid cheating death.