"We'll mow, tasty morsel…surrender to the Hive!" The new unique Nephilguize exclaimed and pointed a clawed finger at me. I trumpeted threateningly at the evo and raised my body temperature even higher, making the tiles under my feet start to glow bright red as they were heated.
"You're in my way, move or get ashed!" I growled. The evo cocked her head to the side like a praying mantis studying its prey before striking.
"Not like last prey…powerful…deadly…plump and primed with delicious magicka…" She said with a predatory purr.
'Magicka? That her word for mana?' I thought.
"The Hive needs nourishment…surrender…our feast is painless…" The evo started only to be cut of by me.
I raised my hand and snapped my fingers as hard as I could and sent a wave of super-heated air at the evo but she was quickly shielded by more than fifty Nephilguize that were reduced to charred corpses that blew away past the Nephilguize leader.
"You don't know how lucky you are right now…" I warned in a low growl.
My consciousness was at war with itself, between Jiggles desire to destroy all of the Nephilguize and Chase's desire to try and help them now that he's seen one that was intelligent, somewhat.
"…I am showing great restraint right now by not turning you all to ash. You, your Hive, everything in this hall would become nothing but flakes in the wind."
"All strength has limits…you will reach yours in time…prey…" The evo started again but I was quickly losing my patience and Chase's consciousness was losing the drive to help her.
"Fuck it!" I growled then started casting two offensive spell sigils. "Slice and whirl, saucer to sorcery! Burn to the blazing sky: Ogrest Oblige!"
The two spell sigils merged together into a golden spell sigil and a offensive spell sigil formed around that one. Green flames spewed from the new combined spell sigil and whirled into saucer shaped disks, nine of them. The Intelligent Nephilguize and her minons were all on edge watching my spell. Though it was too late to do anything. I snapped my fingers and the disks flew towards the horde.
The Intelligent Nephilguize jumped backwards and snapped her wings open to fly backwards while her horde climbed over one another to act as a shield. My blazing saucers cut through the wall horizontally, I twirled a finger and the saucers responded. They turned and whirled at incredible speed, reducing everything to seared pate.
The rest of the horde jumped into action and tried to race around the blazing tornado of burning saw blades and attack me, only for me to move another finger and alter their flight pattern and slash those to ribbons. The entire time I kept an eye on the Intelligent Nephilguize watching her fly towards the back of the horde.
I channeled blast attribute mana into my feet and darted into the air with a burst of flames towards the Intelligent Nephilguize. Commanding half of my burning saw blades to clear a path forward while the other half were defending me against the Nephilguize that tried to attack my back.
I rapidly approached the Intelligent Nephilguize, much to her surprise. She tried to maneuver away from me I kicked off the wall and grabbed her by her throat then slammed down into the ground in the center of the horde, crushing a couple Nephilguize under foot. My blazing saw blades immediately cut through all the Nephilguize around me and whirled into a tornado of flames, blades, and death.
"Foolish Prey..!" The Nephilguize hissed then grabbed my arm with both hands. I felt my mana start to get drained and a wave of weakness come over me.
"…Foolish Queen…" I said then glared down at the Nephilguize. I then willed my mana to flow into the Nephilguize in question, her eyes widened in surprise at my move then horror as I wormed my mana into the reservoir of mana that she had stolen. I quickly yanked my mana back into my body, also draining the mana she had stolen from other splicers along with mine.
"STOP IT! STOP!" The Intelligent Nephilguize screamed and started scratching at my arms, hands, or anything she could get her hands on an attempt to make me let go but my rough rock like skin deflected her claws. They gradually chipped and snapped until her fingers were bleeding.
"You were warned…" I said coldly then drained the last of her stolen mana.
She writhed on the ground in agony. A cacophony of groans and screams echoed around us. I looked around past my protectively blazing tornado and saw that all of the Nephilguize were writhing on the ground like the Intelligent one.
"The Hive hunger! I hunger! Have mercy!" The Intelligent Nephilguize pleaded.
I felt a pang of sadness and regret coming from Chase's part of the consciousness. I knew how she and the other Nephilguize were created, the pain and tragedy of splicers being used to make evos. He wanted to help, the evo in front of me at least.
With a sigh I grabbed the evo's head with my other hand and channeled mana into her. Using Chase's knowledge of shaping and mana-channeled body modification magic. I quickly memorized her genetic structure, recognizing many inconsistencies and errors in its structure. I fixed many of those errors by adding Chase's DNA. I then condensed all the mana that I channeled into her body into a mana crystal core right behind her heart.
Once I was done, the Intelligent Nephilguize let out a loud gasp and stopped writhing on the floor. She looked up at me while I shot her a glare that threatened immediate and horrific violence unless she showed submission. She let go of my arm and held her hands above her head, showing that she wasn't a threat.
I tentatively let go of her head and neck and stepped back. Looked over at my side and saw that they were all frozen, laying on the ground like they'd been cast in bronze.
"You fixed me? Magicka…I feel magicka flowing inside me…" She said.
"Be grateful the Star Shaper took pity on you." I said gruffly.
"Star shaper?" She asked.
I reached out and placed a hand on her head and let Chase's consciousness split from my collective and enter her mental space. Her eyes glassed over as I felt a killer headache come over me from the void of Chase's consciousness and felt the fusion of my form start to unravel.
After a few agonizing moments that felt like they were stretching onto eternity I felt Chase's consciousness return and my fusion stabilize.
'Never do that again…' I thought as I let go of the Nephilguize's head. The Nephilguize eyes widened with a look of pure reverence.
"Such power…majesty…" She gasped. I turned and looked down the hallway towards door to Lulu'Zurkai's lab which was now in view thanks to all the Nephilguize being comatose.
I snapped my fingers and dispelled the blazing saw spell I had cast earlier then headed towards the door. I kept an eye on the Intelligent Nephilguize as I approached the door. It was black onyx with gold trimmings which were elaborate and very ornate unlike the rest of the doors in the lab. Which were clear and had no decoration.
"Let's get this over with…" I said softly then undid my fusion. Crystal started creeping over my body, encasing me completely. While I felt my consciousness to fade to black as Chase and Jiggles consciousness began to unravel and split.
Chase
I gasped for air as Jiggles and I separated from the Ifrit's crystal merged form. Crystal fragments swirled around me and then condensed back into Jiggles. I dropped a few feet and landed with less grace than I would have liked but unharmed nonetheless.
Jiggles landed beside me and turned to keep a eye on the comatose Nephilguize and star struck Intelligent Nephilguize. I ignored all of them for a moment and looked at the panel on the door. Remembering my grandpa's instructions and warning about the pain, I took a deep breath.
I steeled myself for whatever pain I could feel walked over to the panel and placed the back of my hand on the panel. Them moment my farm crystal came into contact with the door panel I felt a deep seated and excruciating pain that felt like thousands of tiny drills tearing through my body. My crystal glowed a myriad of colors before flashing a bright red and black.
I screamed like I was being burned alive and dropped to my knees, only barely managing to keep my hand pressed against the panel. Jiggles had rushed to my side and started shouting at me, asking if I was okay. But his voice was so distant it barely sounded like a whisper to me over the excruciating pain. I gritted my teeth, having very nearly bit my tongue off from my screaming, and took several deep breaths to try and bear through the pain.
"Identity confirmed! Welcome back Mistress Lulu'Zurkai!" A voice said from the panel.
The pain immediately subsided and I rubbed my crystal in an attempt to soothe the pain. The door hissed as it opened, separating across the middle. Half raising up to the top of the doorway, the other half lowered into the floor. I held a hand up to silence Jiggles who was still asking if I was okay then petted him on the head for reassurance.
A white light shined through the cracks in the door as it opened, nearly blinding me. I closed my eyes briefly then allowed them to adjust to the light as the door opened completely. I wasn't sure what I had expected the mastermind that conceptualized the Nephilguize's personal laboratory to look like but what I was looking at definitely wasn't it.
The room was midsized, and white from floor to ceiling. The far wall had glass cabinets that spanned the entries wall that were filled with vials of blood and random animal body parts. The wall to the right had a small desk with multiple tables around it, stacked with tablets and scrolls. A large crystal pedestal woth a crystal screen stood to the right of the desk. The wall to the left had a bed with a single sheet bundled messily in the center like it hadn't been made or cleaned in quite a long time. In the center was a large splicing circle that looked three times as ornate as the one that has been in my Laboratory at Andromeda college. Apart from the bed everything looked clean and well organized.
'I'm guessing the pedestal is what I'm looking for.' I thought as I stepped into the lab. 'let's hope Grandpa Seamus was right…'