Kharl frowned, staring at the huge bulk of a body before him. Left Bird fluttered its wings lazily on his shoulder.
Garfakcy was over to the side, drawing out the blood with a syringe from a small vial and putting it into a smaller tube. He stepped around all the junk on the floor, stopping in front of a machine that was humming gently. He pushed the tube of blood into a cylindrical opening, closed it, and pushed a few buttons on the machine to get what he was looking for.
The machine whirred and clanked, a couple of words showing up on the monitor high above them. Garfakcy frowned, turning back to his master. "This sample is definitely the Dragon Lord's blood."
Kharl nodded absently, scrutinizing the body in front of him. "It should be enough. The body's already dead, but check just in case."
Garfakcy tapped a few more buttons. The machine rattled alarmingly, shaking. Garfakcy yelped, jumping to the back of the machine and wrestling one of Kharl's socks out of the gears.
Kharl didn't even blink. He sort-of stared vaguely into the distance contemplating something life changing, for sure.
Garfakcy panted a little, eyes wide.
The machine stopped shaking and went about its business.
"Kharl!" Garfakcy snapped, exasperatedly. "What have I told you about picking things up and putting them away after you're done with them?"
Kharl turned around then, simpering and wringing his hands pathetically. "Weeeeell . . ."
The machine dinged.
Kharl gave a little cough-blush combo and waved a hand. "Would you get that?"
Garfakcy sighed, walking around to the right side of the machine to pick up the tube filled with red liquid. "Happy?"
"Yes." Kharl had on his psycho smirk. Garfakcy knew what that meant.
He glanced around the room, making sure he knew exactly where the broom, bucket, and mop were.
Kharl raised his eyebrows at the sight before him. "My greatest creation as of yet." Garfakcy looked a little put out at that comment. "Too bad it's for Nadil," Kharl mourned, a pathetic expression on his face as he looked at the ice dog before him, now looking distinctly more human (or yokai, as the case may be).
Garfakcy frowned. "Didn't he want it to look more . . . female-ish?"
". . . I knew I forgot something!"
Garfakcy nearly had a heart attack. "WHAT!"
"Oh relax. You've been so uptight lately! I have the spell all planned out, I just got sidetracked when Left Bird showed me an interesting specimen of tree that--"
"You didn't make it yet?" Garfakcy yelled, panicking.
". . . Not exactly, no."
Garfakcy groaned.
"Don't worry, all the spells for the different parts are in there," he waved in the vague direction of at least twenty different doors on the side wall, "being put together as we speak."
"By who?"
Left Bird abruptly flew up. Kharl smiled before a puff of smoke and a loud bang filled the whole room as he exploded.
Garfakcy blinked. ". . . Did Kharl copy himself again?"
That was, quite obviously, a rhetorical question.
The real Kharl exited one of the rooms, dust and Right Bird following in his wake. "Did I complete it yet?"
Garfakcy coughed and waved away the smoke in front of his face, nodding.
"Good." He held up a pitcher full of a clear liquid.
"What's that?"
"Water."
Garfakcy fell over.
"If you're wondering about the spell . . ." Kharl patted a section of the robe in front of his heart, "I have it all taken care of." He chuckled. "Lykouleon is going to have a hissy-fit once he finds out about Zul, if he ever does."
Garfakcy smirked.
Kharl calmed himself, gliding towards the body.
"Is the demon inside?" He dipped his head towards a nondescript looking black jar, covered in gray and blue swirls that were actually a powerful seal that would put anyone inside in a hallucinogenic so that whatever was sealed generally didn't realize it for a good, long while, and then it took even longer to actually get out. There was no lock that could not be got out of, in Kharl's opinion, but this one came pretty close.
Garfakcy nodded, walking around the table.
"Good."
It was a tough process, trying to get all the pieces to fit just right; a lost art form only one (the Great and Wonderful Alchemist known to a few as Kharl and to many others as a competent Renkin Wizard and author of the Demon Bible) had the knowledge to use. Illuser's body was male, but Nadil said he specifically wanted a female. (Something about a witch, but Kharl hadn't really been paying attention at that point, too busy planning and mentally listing the things he would need.)
Kharl had to mix the body with a sex-changing potion, causing many explosions before he got it right so that no harm would come to the demon soon to be dwelling inside of the body or the body itself, with the added Dragon Lord's blood. Without that it wouldn't have been nearly as problematic. Then he had to strap down the body into an awkward position. He carefully planted the demon inside, though "planted" does not do justice to the complete elegance of movement he used when he placed an unwilling demon in an equally unwilling body.
Even dead, Illuser's body rebelled against something that could hurt his friend. Kharl could respect that, but it didn't change his mind or his actions.
Now all that was left was to wait.
Disclaimer: Dragon Knights is not mine to own. The author is Mineko Ookami. I am writing this for pleasure, and no profit is being made. No suing. Thank you.
AN: Yes, this is an AU. Think of it as starting around the time the demon who took over Illuser's body was rampaging all across Dusis. Except the demon isn't raging across the country because Kharl is tweaking it at Nadil's request. As to why he's listening to Nadil, I'll leave that to later. (I actually have the scene planned out. Yes, be shocked.)
No updates 'til I get farther into writing this. I'm trying something I don't think I've seen yet. If I'm wrong, tell me. How do you like it? What isn't working for you so far? Were Garfakcy and/or Kharl out of character in a way that made you want to vomit?