Hiyama's Mansion, Kuoh town –
POV: Hiyama Oreki –
After waking up, I headed for breakfast and informed Shiori I wouldn't be attending school with her today. Of course, she wanted to skip to if I was, but I denied her. I may be a transmigrator that doesn't need to go to high school for a second time, but she did.
After she was taken by Mittelt to school, I ordered Raynare and Kala to accompany me to the underground lab. As we walked, I explained to them the mission I was intending to take to save Tosca. When we got there, I went to the holding pens that I specifically designed to be big; it did turn out that the cells needed to be a bit bigger, but Kala handled it.
After moving Viser to a larger testing room without waking her I prepared my first test. I wanted to see if I could undo the mutations that resulted from the Demonic Power running rampant in her body.
Before I could begin Raynare spoke up, "What are you doing master? Is this a stray you brought while you two were out last night?"
"I am going to see how capable I am at changing another being's body. I have plans to make all of you stronger, but I need to figure out how far I can go. Healing myself and changing permanently someone's body is completely different. Thus, I have this stray to test." Raynare seemed satisfied with the answer.
I started off by using what I got out of some of Mittelt's books. I used thought acceleration to read all of them in a matter of a few hours. Biomancy was a magic type in this world, but it was often considered un-useful. Its offensive capabilities were limited by natural defenses, and after a certain level of power individuals became increasingly specialized.
So, I began to cast the magic spell that should allow me to undo the physical mutations of Viser. They were advanced, but she was severely weakened from our fight. As I cast the spell I simultaneously began to use the voice.
Gathering the whispers of the Voice, "The chaotic energies within her body will settle to be as calm as the still waters of a puddle." Feeling some of my magic power leave me, I saw Viser's body began to shift and contort. The centaur-like body parts began to shrink, until there only remained a normal looking, albeit beautiful, woman. With that I confirmed that I can change the physical body without causing irreparable damage.
Deciding to let her wake, I release the command I used to keep her unconscious. She almost instantly shot awake in panic but was quickly forced to hold back when noticing Raynare and Kala had already drawn light spears to defend me.
"Hello, Ms. Viser, it is nice to meet you. My name is Hiyama Oreki, your savior or perhaps Jailer… It really is a matter of perspective." I could see she was afraid, so I waved the fallen away so they would dispel their spears.
"What do you want from me?" She asked with a shaky voice.
"Well, I need to perform experiments on you to test some things. I woke you up to see how you are feeling." She recoiled even more in fear.
I walked up to her before kneeling to get on her level. Taking her hand into mine, she initially was going to pull away, but my gentle touch stopped her. Giving a charming smile, I brushed my thumb back and forth on the top of her hand.
"You need not suffer anymore… So long as you help me, I will help you." I used the Voice, as wonder and awe overtook her fear she immediately calmed down.
I didn't really mean it, someone like Viser was the worst of devil-kind. I was going to eliminate her simply because I can do many things, but changing a personality is not something I can do yet. I would say she is sufficient healed from the mutations considering she could move and speak normally.
Gathering the Voice again I said, "Sleep." Instantly she slumbered in my arms. Carrying her naked form to a steel operating table I placed her there so I could complete my experimentation. If I could make her stronger then I could do the same to the fallen at least, if not Shiori.
"Master…" Kala called out.
I turned to her, "Yes?"
"Will you kill her?" She questioned.
"Of course." I said perturbed at the suggestion. "She is the worst kind of stray devil, killing all those who come across her. I just needed her to calm down, any resistance will result in unnecessary energy usage." Kala nods with serious expression.
Next, I was going to try and see if I could increase Viser's Demonic Power
Gathering the voice, "Viser's Demonic power will increase too twice its current amount." As I got the words out, I felt dizzy as my magic power drained.
When my vision cleared a bit, I saw that Viser physically hadn't changed much, so I placed my hand on Viser to try and sense her Demonic Power. It wasn't hard to find, nor was it particularly large, but it had doubled in amount. I expected that this was something I could do at the very least considering the strength difference between low-class and high-class.
"Her Demonic Power actually increased…" Kala said in awe. "Can you do that for our Light and Holy Element?" She asked with a hint of greed.
"That is the plan. I intend to increase the power you and the others have, but I didn't want to wing it out of fear of hurting one of you. I have plans to increase your physical and magical strength, create magic artifacts, and even new beings." As I explained my plans Raynare and Kala went into deep thought.
Raynare looked at me, "From what I observed of your ability the less your power has to do on its own, the less energy it takes?" I nod in confirmation. "What if we created a device that helped out with that?"
At that I raised my brow in intrigue, "What do you suggest?"
"I believe we could create a device that gathers ambient magic from the surroundings and with your voice we could inject it into anyone to increase their magical power or potentially any energy." I had almost forgotten Raynare was incredibly intelligent. It was an extraordinary idea that I hadn't considered they would be able to help. I planned on stealing Valper Galilei's research to help increase our Holy Power, but Raynare's plan was quicker and easier.
"That is an extraordinary idea, could you build it yourself? And how quickly?" I asked with a toned excitement.
"We could get it built in a few hours or so if we have the materials, but most of the materials can only be found in the Underworld…" Raynare trailed off in thought at the end searching for a solution. I could perhaps create these materials with my Voice, but that depends on their quality.
"Are there any substitutes that could be used?" I asked.
Raynare looked stumped, but Kala spoke next, "It is possible we could use Alchemy." At the suggestion both Raynare and I give her our full attention. She continued, "We could potentially use ourselves as ingredients, blood, bone, feathers. The materials we would need are for the purpose of gathering and storing the magic itself. With your Voice, you could take them and enhance those properties, then attach them to ourselves. It could even decrease the construction time more."
She was right… Our bodies already naturally do what the machine we want to create does; with my Voice we could draw out the latent magical properties of even mundane materials. I think if I had a decent sized mineral of some sort often used in rituals and infused it with my blood, and even the Fallen's, I could make the mineral act as a pseudo-living conduit.
"Kala, go out and get me some quartz. The bigger the better really…" I turned to Raynare, "Let's start creating what parts of the device we can, I will use the quartz to make a magical conduit." With that Kala immediately teleports out of the room, it won't take long to get a piece of mundane quartz.
After returning Viser to her cage, Raynare and I began to work on the device. I was particularly interested in learning artificing from Raynare, so I made sure to actively participate. It also used the Voice to help speed the creation process up, since magic generally wasn't permanent.
Shiori got home from Kendo practice before Kala did, but when she saw what we were doing she claimed I was evil for not including her and began to help. Mittelt just made sure we ate and kept to her chores. We spent most of the day working on the device before Kala got home with a piece of quartz the size of my bedroom from my old house.
Regardless of its size, I chopped it up with the Voice and we put it all together. I got blood from myself, the fallen trio, and Shiori's.
Taking each vial of blood, I used magic to float them in front of the nearly completed device. Gathering the Voice, "The blood in these vials shall combine and be infused into the quartz of this device. When it is infused the quartz will gain the ability to absorb, store, and transfer magical energy of any type as though it were living."
With that a thrum of power consumed the room as the vial's opened and the blood combined with each other. The blood began to shine with a subtly red glow and became semitransparent. After the combination process is finished the blood floats into the various pieces of quartz in the device. The quartz then became semitransparent red crystals that shone.
Not yet done I said, "The crystal flooring at the base of the device shall take a portion of the energy from the crystals and emit a healing aura to prevent injury or death during the ritual." The flooring of the device that underwent the same process as the other crystal parts began to become less transparent and took a pinkish-white color and runes in a language I did not know ran appeared.
When the thrum of power receded, the device was completed. It was a large table that had a large headboard that curved over the top and held the primary piece of red crystal over the table. It also had six smaller pieces of quarts that ambiently floated around the device. Beneath the table was a circular altar that had stone walls, but a circular pinkish-white quartz floor inscribed with symbol along its circumference.
"We did it master…" Kala sighed in relief at the success.
"Don't celebrate yet. We don't know if it works." I spoke. Stepping up to the table, "I will test it first."
"No" Raynare called out. She walked to my side looking me in the eyes, "You are too important to risk the first test on, I will go first." Looking at the others, I saw they were in agreement, so I relented and backed away. It wouldn't much help me anyway, I was already beyond what this device could produce. Raynare laid on the table of the device as Kala and Mittelt moved to either side of the device.