Devourer

Chapter 141: Experiments

I kept an eye on the Ariel girl as she headed to the land of the vampires. My fliers were tailing her and I was tracking her through my intelligence network. I already had extensive intelligence on the troop movements of the vampires and they were most definitely going for the Zarimans. They even had a diversionary strike prepared for the elves to lower the Zariman’s guard. This would work quite well to my advantage as with one of their armies stacked against the elves I could wipe out a small piece for free. 

I already had four hives in the region so I could strike at anytime. But a direct strike into their terrain would be dangerous since the land there was tainted. All that cursed ether would slow down and reduce the effectiveness of my troops. So I wanted to lure them into the golden sands of Zarima where I would have the advantage. But the chance to wipe out the small army that was attacking the elves was still too good to pass up.

So the plan was that I would hit the two armies simultaneously, then I would launch a blitzkrieg counter attack into the vampire lands. If I can maintain the momentum I should be able to end the war rather quickly.

As for Ariel, she set out right after our little agreement. The terms were ironed out and the specifics were quite equitable for all parties involved. This treaty was extremely transactional based on self interest, in other words it was the kind I liked the most. For there was nothing more honest than self interest.

The angels will leave me and Cecilia alone and we would be allowed to develop our rather substantial part of the world in whatever way we desire. Of course within certain limitations.

The limitations of course were just nothing that hampered the interests of the Seraphim. I could kill the Ostayans, slaughter the Vampires, finish off the Orcs. I could plunge an entire species into the jaws of extinction but I was not allowed to attack Divonia. I was not allowed to take explicit actions against the other worshippers of the Seraphim. Unless of course I could make a convincing argument as to why that would be beneficial for both parties. 

Say for example if Divonia has actually fallen to the demons it would be perfectly ok if I launched a campaign against them. After I consult with the angels of course. Currently the situation was basically the Averlonian Empire and Heaven were in a rather tense alliance. Kind of like two people sitting at a table enjoying a dinner while pointing guns at each other under the table.

In retrospect the Seraphim really were full of shit as far as their persona as benevolent rulers were concerned. They were actually ok with us just swiping the entirety of Zarima if we also made sure that the Vampires would never threaten the world again. 

On one hand it was a highly rational decision, in their minds the vampires were an extremely powerful foe. In all fairness they were very powerful, they would probably be the most powerful force I have ever faced up until this point. All the human nations thus far were closer to toy soldiers rather than an actual army. They have grown too soft under the protection of the Seraphim. The real foes I would have to face in this world were those that never enjoyed the protection of the Seraphim. 

So if I were to fight such a powerful foe, I would simultaneously bleed myself and wipe out the vampires. The course of the war would also damage Zarima to the point the land would be rather useless. Thus in the Seraphim’s mind they were giving me effectively nothing to remove the Vampires. However, this plan would only work if defeating the Vampires was actually difficult for me.

Honestly, I feel it wouldn’t be that hard. Thanks to the stuff I got in the vaults and with Malegaros now in my employ my hive’s power has roughly tripled. The part of Hivebrood Prime that everyone was aware of now constituted only about a third of the Brood’s true power. I now had some of the horrors of the Old World at my disposal. 

On the flip side if I show my true power it would tip off the Seraphim to what I can do. So the best course of action would be to straddle the line. Make it just easy enough that it would seem like a mildly challenging fight, while at the same time making it seem like I was hiding something. Well I was hiding a lot of things…

“My king, are you available for a consultation?” I heard the rough voice of Malegaros say to my right. I looked up to see his pale white body crawling ominously on the ceiling. His long centipede like body was arrayed on the fleshy ceiling while two of his tentacles held a human body in one and an orb in the other.

“Is it about the Gene Seed?” I asked and he nodded in response.

“Very well let me see it.” I said as I moved away and picked up the new toy I was making. I had some interesting ideas for improving myself. In fact I took a leaf out of the humans book. I couldn’t transform myself easily since I had to put on a front for the angels. But I could make weapons to offset that problem. So this toy in my hand was simply a custom gun I made using my flesh crafting and artificer skills. Afterall no one expects something like me to pull a gun on them. Usually this would be a crappy solution to my combat problems but given the circumstances the sheer shock factor could give me an advantage.

“Any success?” I asked as we headed for the experimentation room.

“A serviceable specimen is available, but further improvements are required. The human template lacks power but its flexibility allows for easy experimentation.” Malegaros replied as he continued to scuttle along the ceiling.

“I must obtain a tool, I will meet you in the experimentation room.” Malegaros said and I sent a mental confirmation. I continued down the fleshy halls of my little play den towards the room where I kept the test subjects.

The death row inmates were getting few and far between. So I had to resort to some other methods. Occasionally some of the death row inmates were women so what I would do is harvest their eggs before using them in growth acceleration vats. These humans were usually rather imbecilic with stunted IQs and low life spans. But I just needed them as test subjects so these were not issues. 

Although I was thinking of creating a way to just make more humans, it turns out the reproductive cells were rather difficult to get right. The best I managed to do was to create some deformed messes that I swiftly threw into the digestion vats. As to who came up with this idea, it was neither me nor Cecilia. It was Malegaros that came up with this crazy idea. It has worked quite well thus far, certainly better than my previous attempts. It seems my past as a human was limiting my imagination. Well Malegaros’s name doesn’t mean Malicious Hunger for nothing.

When I finally arrived at the experimentation room I saw a woman that was strapped to a table. Or at least what used to be a woman, she was freshly implanted of the latest version of the Gene Seed. She was just a low level test, since the Gene Seed was focused for use on male humans. Malegaros just wanted to test it on a female to see the effects. 

Although pointless at first glance I was open to it since part of my ascension project for Cecilia would require a working Gene Seed. So I decided to kill two birds with one stone with the Gene Seed construction. One of the requirements for it was that it must turn the target into something that was beautiful to look at. Afterall the philosophy behind this project was quite simple, “Ascension not Corruption”. I needed to make this process something to be coveted, if not how else am I going to get volunteers or even have people covet the opportunity? 

Thus the woman in front of me now had a head of matted red hair and dull red eyes. Her body however was warped from the mutations, one arm was over sized and looked to be rotting off her body. Her legs seemed to have shrunk and her red hair was falling off in clumps. It appears the shock of the transformation has ruined any sense of higher cognitive function.

“Well this was not thoroughly unexpected.” I said as I gazed at the twitching wreck that was once a human.

This one was guilty of infanticide, she had smothered her own baby in it’s crib. Preliminary examination revealed hormone changes after giving birth caused some sort of depressive disorder. It would be better to put her in some kind of mental institution, if we had one that is. Cecilia and I never bothered to create one since mental issues can just be fixed by me and the occasional lunatic was also just an extra test subject. 

“Yes, the Gene Seed lacks universal compatibility. However, this is a female human, the gender can be determined by the pitch of its cries.” Malegaros said as he leaned over the blank face as if confirming its assertion.

“The latest male test is here.” Malegaros said as he turned to face a nearby flesh wall. The wall opened up like a mouth and a large muscular male was revealed. He was strapped to a bed of bone and there were numerous tubes connected to him. His eyes were wild and he would be screaming if not for the gag in his mouth.

It wasn’t terror in his eyes but rabid aggression. Judging by the fact he was straining against his restraints to the point it was straining his joints it seems he has lost all reason. 

“Testosterone levels are too high after implantation. Berserking is inevitable, current implantation results in a decrease of higher cognitive function.” Malegaros said as he moved over to the man. 

Malegaro’s chest opened up revealing a mass of tentacles that shot out and pinned the man to the bed, locking every limb and preventing all movement.

“Tested with available females, does not seem to correlate with breeding instinct. It appears to just be rabid aggression.” Malegaros explained as I continued to examine the frothing man.

“Have you tried castration?” I asked and Malegaros nodded in assent.

“Removal of male genital organs proved ineffective. Attempted replacement organs were also ineffective.” Malegaros said and I nodded as I stared at the man. I formed one of my hands into a tentacle, I then stabbed it into the man’s belly to take a sample. The tentacle emerged after tearing out a wad of flesh and organs. The wounds were immediately healed thanks to the in-built healing mechanism of the bed he was strapped to. I was pleased to see that the man barely registered the pain, this part at least was something I wanted to see.

“Then perhaps Testosterone is not the right hormone…” I said as I examined the man.

“Have you tried Draveberone? The one found in Lizardkin males.” I mused and I saw Malegaros paused as if thinking.

“Yes, then I can work. Lizardkin do not have a different hormone as compared to the Draconians, they just have less of it.” Malegaros said with a nod.

“Also this might help.” I said as I reached into my pocket dimension and pulled out a small vial filled with a clear liquid.

“You might have to analyze this.” I said as I floated the vial over to Malegaros.

“What is this?” Malegaros asked as he grasped the vial and gazed at the clear liquid.

“I have isolated Factor H.” I said and I saw Malegaros turn to look at me in shock. 

The humanoid family of creatures were united by a specific line of code in their essence. It was named Factor H by the Eternal Mother. It was an extremely unstable line of code since it changes constantly. From my memories every Firstborn knew it but I never got the actual code since none of the Firstborn viewed it as particularly important. Due to them downplaying the significance it never got transferred. Afterall I only get the memories that the target views as significant.

It wasn’t that hard to crack this problem, at least for me. I could tell this was beyond the likes of Malegaros but it was child's play for me. This line code is bound by a type of frequency that could be used if you had the “key”. 

An extremely over simplified example would be that if the key was +1+2+3+1 then if applied to the base code of 0000 it would result in 1231, while a base code of 1562 would result in 2793. Thus with the key I could reverse engineer the essence by finding the base code. This key kept the humanoids just close enough in terms of traits thanks to this common key but yet allowed flexibility in traits. So the key made it so that no matter how much the line of code changes it will still keep an underlying commonality to it. It was an interesting system since it disallowed certain base codes that acted as restrictions. So for example if the key had a +9 on one digit then the base code must always be 0. 

However the sheer complexity of the codes and the key made it so that only a Firstborn or a creature specifically designed for this function can handle it. Attempting to create a humanoid. or alter a humanoid genome from scratch without the ability or key would cause catastrophic errors. Such as the mess in front of me…

I asked Malegaros to do this, so that we could gain more insight into the human template but I knew it would only be complete with this Factor H. However, I felt the testosterone hormone was inferior so I was hoping to find an alternative. Testosterone had a tendency to cause an uncontrollable rage when put in large enough quantities. So an alternative was needed, I zeroed in on the Draconian hormone that allowed for a far cooler form of rage. One that was more controllable. 

“Thank you my king, I should make great progress with this. I assume you will continue the female variant of the Gene Seed personally?” Malegaros asked.

“Of course, I cannot trust Project Queen to anybody by myself.” I said as I turned away from Malegaros.

“Keep me updated, there is no rush, we have months to perfect it. As far as we are concerned that is all the time in the world.” I said as I headed out of the room but paused at the door.

“Do not disappoint me, you have proved useful in repeating what you already know. This will be your true challenge. Let’s see if you can tame the legacy of the Watchers.” I said and I sensed the fire of ambition burning in Malegaros’s mind.

“I will do more than tame it, my king…” Malegaros said with a bow.

I will usurp it…