God Rising: The Cult of Ainz
Written by: AtheistBasementDragon
Edited by: The Usual Gang of Drunken Perverted Idiots
Chapter 184: Research and Development
...Nazarick...
Vanysa looked over the corpse. "So... yah really think this'll work?" She had a black eyebrow arched and her long talons clicked on the work table. Her storm grey eyes were alight with insanity after all the work they'd done on the corpse, her golden body was still tainted with wet blood from the meat that had once been Thousand Mile Astrologer, she took a few slow, sensuous steps toward where Demiurge stood near her head. She smiled archly as she saw how he looked at the way she rolled her hips with every step as she drew closer to him.
"I think so, if we're right, then something about the confluence of magic that resulted in your demonic nature being selected as a Tisiphone, influences the way magic reshapes a corpse that is resurrected without a specific nature in mind. Ideally we'd have more bodies to work with but..." Demiurge shrugged with resignation, "There aren't that many like her to work with for experiments, so we'll just have to wait until the opportunities arise."
Vanysa bit her lip in thought, "But... we do gots more."
"What, where?!" He asked eagerly, his crystal eyes fixed on the buxom demoness.
She laughed and her madness began to melt away, her eyes went sharp, "Easy, the dead Black Scripture members. I had them retrieved." Before he could ask, she continued in a dusky voice, "I knew where Zesshi had been, near Crescent Lake... more or less, so I just borrowed a beast from Lady Aura to have it look for corpses and signs of fighting in the area, after finding the bodies, I returned the beast and had them returned, they're wrapped and preserved in a few boxes already. As long as we either rob them of or replace their memories, and raise them as something unrecognizable to their fellows..." She drew close to Demiurge and boldly put a hand to his chest, "nobody will ever know, and what marvelous servants they might make."
Demiurge let out grim chuckle as she used the little accomplishment to remind him she was no fool, as much as she used her body to entice him. "You're becoming quite the demoness. Getting used to everything, aren't you?" He asked with a raised eyebrow of his own.
She shrugged and stepped back, her voice grew serious and her lips lost their pursed, seductive look. "Maybe so. I know there was a time when all this was unthinkable. I was a... good girl once, never wanted to hurt anyone, never did anything bad, just hid from bad and tried to make a life. Maybe if things hadn't changed, I'd have stayed that way. But sometimes... you know sometimes, I think this was always part of me, and it was just like a seed that hadn't been watered, and all it took was enough blood dropped on it to make it grow..."
She froze for a moment, bending over the table and resting her hands there, her talons dug in and ripped into the stone, her teeth gritted and eyes squeezed so tight they wrinkled in her head. "Gah... no... no... no..." She repeated on a loop, while Demiurge simply stood and waited, until her body started to shake and her eyes opened.
"Sorry... just..." She shook her head and grabbed hold of her horns as she tried to control her labored breathing and return it to normal.
"Another?" He asked her passively.
She nodded slightly, "Yes, just... this still happens to me... I guess some of what I did to this," she gestured to the parts of the corpse that she'd cut into, "reminded me of my time with... him."
"I see." Demiurge said neutrally, eyeing her in askance.
"I'm fine, don't bother about it." She said with a wave of her golden hand, "It's over, and I'll relax with my plaything later, for now, tell me just what you were hoping these modifications would represent?"
"I'll tell you if it works, I wonder what will happen to her if she's not specifically given an undead nature, your own case, looking back, I would have thought you would have inherited the nature of wrath, but perhaps your hatred was greater than your rage?" Demiurge finished the thought as a question and stroked his chin as he pondered the way the musician had been mutilated before death. "Or perhaps it was the way in which you were damaged, or some aspect of your personality... but if we can master this, we will understand more about how magic in this world works than anyone else anywhere." As Demiurge clapped his hands together enthusiastically, Vanysa matched him in perfect synch.
"Well, with the memories implanted, and the... relevant ones altered in the minds of those who might remember the truth, there should be no further problems. I still feel bad about killing her mother though." Vanysa sighed reluctantly, "I know, I know, you don't need to say it Demiurge, but it is my nature, I can only really enjoy hurting the guilty."
He shrugged, "Everybody who does not serve Lord Ainz is guilty of not serving Lord Ainz, that is reason enough."
Vanysa tittered in an amused voice and turned her eyes down to the corpse, "Sorry to keep you waiting there Meidhall, but I can't resist the charms of some." She looked up and winked to the demon, who wished he had the ability to roll his crystalline eyes at her flirtatiousness.
He coughed into his hand, and took up the scroll. "Create Undead..." He said, and then left off any specification.
The magic whorled around the corpse, whipping around her like the wind, the skin of the dead, already pasty white, paled further, her hair, once long and blue, became red as flame, her ears developed a small tip at the top as if she were a half elf, her eyes, milky white in death, became catlike and her irises red as blood.
"What...?" Meidhall managed to muster out as she looked up at the demons that were in turn hovering over her body and looking at her as if they had found a particularly interesting insect.
"Welcome to the land of the... unliving, I guess." Vanysa said with a toothy grin.
"Unliving... wait... I remember..." Meidhall shrieked in a furious rage as the memory rushed to the fore, "My father... he... he had me killed! My father had me killed! He had my mother killed!"
She tried to sit up, pushing up from her palms, only to feel two sets of hands on her shoulders pushing her back down. "Where do you think you're going?" Demiurge asked serenely.
"To kill my father! To kill the assassins my father sent! They have to die!" She shrieked, her eyes filled with red tears and she tried to sit up again.
"They will, in time, first..." Demiurge said, then turned to Vanysa, "Show her."
That gave Meidhall pause, and Vanysa released her grip to take up a nearby hand mirror, which she handed over to the still unmoving Meidhall. She took it in hand and held it up to her face. "Wha... wait, you said 'unliving... this is not my hair, those are not my ears... what did you... do to me?" She asked breathlessly as she looked at her pale skin and looked transfixed at her blood red eyes.
"You are a Leanan Sidhe, a curious outcome, an undead of not considerable power but... not quite what I was expecting." Demiurge said thoughtfully.
"This was how you were restored to the world." Vanysa explained patiently, "So that you can exact your revenge on those who ended the life of yourself and your mother." She placed her golden hand on Thousand Mile Astrologer's shoulder, "You are now bound to the service of His Majesty, the Sorcerer King, and will follow his orders."
Meidhall took all that in with silence... "I... am bound, am I? I have no choice? I am enslaved?"
"If you want to call it that, however..." Vanysa touched her cheek, "My master is very generous, I am sure if you wish to return to death after your revenge is exacted, he will permit you to do so, you do want revenge, more than you want to die, don't you?"
Meidhall thought for a moment... "Why did you leave my memories intact, you surely could have raised me as a mindless husk?"
"You would not be you, and... I know something of how you died, it was brave, my master believed you deserved to stay yourself, and did not want to steal who you were, away from yourself." Vanysa smiled patiently through the lie.
"What does he command of me? I want to... know that I am bound." Meidhall said uncomfortably.
"Hunt the Agante, the ones who killed you, your mother, and all their organization. No matter where they hide." Demiurge said with a predatory expression as he released his grip on her.
A powerful pull rose in her chest, like a heavy chain she could not pull away. "I... am bound to my maker... but tell the master this... even without compulsion... I will obey him. And as he gives me so generous an order... my chance at revenge... I am his to command until he wishes my unlife to end."
"Your equipment is over there." Demiurge said and pointed to a corner, "Put it on, and we will drop you into the area we suspect some Agante may be operating."
Meidhall didn't say anything, she just slid her legs off the table and walked to the corner, heedless of her nakedness, and began to dress, with her back to the demonic pair, she could not see the sadistic smiles on their faces as glee rose up within their hearts, nor did she see as they mouthed the word 'perfect', as she cursed the ones she believed to be her killers.
A few minutes later, the [Gate] opened, and Meidhall was gone, leaving the demon and demoness alone. "That went well." Vanysa remarked happily.
"Yes, it did, so... music?" Demiurge asked.
"Music." Vanysa agreed, and they walked out together to go and visit Astraka.
...Kami Miyako...
"I hate this." Raymond said under his breath as he walked from his house to the carriage.
Nua was behind him, around her neck was a collar made of thick, heavy iron. She was biting her lip as she walked behind him. 'It hurts... so heavy...' She thought as she walked, but her face stayed carefully neutral as she followed Raymond to the carriage. 'Don't let him see, at least don't let him know that.' She reminded herself, biting her tongue over and over.
His footman opened the door, and he entered to quickly take his seat.
As he made himself as comfortable as he could, he glanced out the door and saw Solution stroll easily behind Nua, evidently indifferent to it all. He bit back a laugh. 'They're so afraid of an elven insurrection but I've got a monster right here that wanders around without any impediment at all, my country has become a joke, what is left of it." Raymond thought bitterly.
When Nua reached the carriage, he held out his hand, shielded from any other eyes, he could safely assist her, and he did so, allowing her to sit. Solution sat beside her and put her feet up on the seat next to Raymond.
"Are you alright, Nua?" He asked as he leaned forward a little, resting his arms on his thighs.
She nodded as rapidly as the heavy collar allowed.
"I'm sorry... if I could do this any other way... but the change in the laws regarding elven slave security... there are no exemptions, if you're going to be in public, this is how it has to be." He said as he looked down at the carriage floor, unable to look up at her as she was. He could though, feel her looking at him, worse, he felt only resignation, not condemnation. 'Hate would be easier to bear.' He thought sadly.
"Master, I..." She started to say.
"Please... when it's just us, don't call me that." He said tiredly.
"Raymond... I don't want to lose the habit... not yet, I'm... scared." She leaned against the window and moved the curtain a little to look outside at the busy street.
She trembled as the sound of a brawl struck her ears, two groups of peasants were brawling at an intersection, the brawl quickly grew, they were shabbily dressed and filthy. Knives, fists, and improvised clubs were the weapons of choice, most of them were clearly not well fed, so even the brawl was pathetic. She saw the cause immediately as a small bucket of grain was kicked over and the brawl halted and both groups dove for it, desperate to gather the grains into their hands.
A whimper left her lips and she closed the curtain and held it tight long after they passed. Raymond didn't say anything, not even to reassure her. 'He's afraid, Raymond... is... afraid.' It was like ice formed around her heart, he was still peeking out the window still.
"Who was fighting?" Solution asked with a hint of annoyance in her voice.
The sounds of armored footsteps passed by as guards went to bring an end to the fighting the carriage was leaving behind.
"Two groups of refugees I'd say, I caught a few words, sounds to me like accents from Crossroads region and Feron. Fighting over grain if you want to know." He said as he relaxed back into his seat and folded his arms as the carriage rolled along.
"There's still grain?" Solution asked with a sadistic smile as the sound of screams behind them told them all that the guards were not being kind to the brawlers, and blood ran in the streets.
Raymond did his best to ignore the sound, "Yes, the project Berenice, Ginedine, and I oversaw resulted in one more harvest, it took all the magic we could manage even so, to get just one more harvest again, but it's being rationed, it can't be just 'bought at will' like it was, there's a limit based on the ration cards, speaking of which..." Raymond said and drew a card out of his pocket, then handed it over to Nua. "That is for you to use while shopping with Solution. It authorizes enough to feed the entire household if we're careful."
"Relax Raymond, I'll be mindful of her." Solution said in her customarily cocky voice.
Raymond did relax. "I know. But it isn't just that, I got word that a riot broke out at the food stall when the ration cards were first used, apparently people are saying that there isn't enough, the restaurants are all completely shut down. Twenty refugees were murdered by residents, and a half a dozen residential homes were burned down in retaliation by the refugees... and of course the refugees are broken down by where they came from and they're fighting each other as well. It's bad out there."
Nua rested her palms on her knees, "You're going to see Cardinal Yvon while we shop... right... master?" She asked anxiously.
Raymond didn't correct her again. "I am. He's... look, I've worked with all the cardinals for years, even before I became one myself, but of all of them, Yvon has always bothered me the most. Maximillian was a brilliant legal mind, I think, if things had been a little different, we could have won him over to us. But the Cardinal of Light is different. His support for Dominic was unflinching. He's like Dominic's right hand, he never much favored public work, he preferred to work on internal projects. We get his votes, but never more than a sentence or two of his opinions." His voice was clearly frustrated and he shifted in his seat uncomfortably, then peeked out from behind the curtain again, sighed with disgust, and let it fall closed the way it had been.
"Weren't you three looking into the two of Dominic's supporters more, thinking of putting them to the test or something?" Solution asked in passing.
"Yes, I asked Berenice about it, Maximillian well... I guess he doesn't matter now. But Yvon?" Raymond's eyes went distant and he looked away from them as he called up his youth to mind, "I may not know much about him, but, well a long time ago when I was a boy, I remember seeing a neighbor beat a dog that had barked too much. The dog suffered an injury to its leg that never healed properly, it limped for the rest of its life. The neighbor kept the dog, still fed it, still used it for its purpose. But I never saw on his face even the slightest hint of remorse for the injury he caused the beast, nor any pity for it when it was in pain. And when the dog couldn't work anymore, he killed it and threw it out, then bought another to replace it. I always felt bad for the dog, to have that kind of life. Let's just say Yvon reminds me of that man, only elves are to him, the same as beasts. So are criminals, if I'm any judge."
"When you... saw us, before all this... can I ask... did you feel pity the same way you did for the dog?" She asked hesitantly, 'Do I really want an answer to that?' She wondered, and cursed her tongue for speaking it aloud.
Raymond looked back over to her, then closed his eyes and folded one hand over the other, and lowered his head, "Do you really want an answer to that question?"
"Do I?" Nua asked with a quivering voice, "You're the first good human I've known in... a long time, I guess I want to believe you were always this way."
Raymond's pursed lips finally parted as he answered, spitting the words out with loathing thick and rich with every syllable. "Fine, yes, I felt exactly the same way, right down to equating both in the same manner, which is probably why I did just as much about it... which was to do nothing. When I began to become a man, I regretted not doing anything for the poor dog. The irony that I should feel a similar regret twice is not lost on me."
He shook his head regretfully and forced himself to sit upright again, disgust and dismay warred in his voice as he went on. "To the matter at hand though, Yvon is just like that, his devotion to his deity is fanatical, his divine magic is probably why he survived the assassination attempt on Dominic, and he's extremely dangerous, the slaves he keeps in his house don't even have clothing, unless you count collars, though he seems to have no sexual interest in any of them, male or female. The agent we had talk to the outdoor laborers revealed that he sees them as exactly the same as the dog I just talked about. To him, elves are just animals to be worked like any other."
He briefly looked at the roof of the carriage, "I am hoping his isolation and general muteness is because he's found some magic way to produce food, because there won't be time for another harvest before the armies of the Sorcerer King arrive, but even if they don't, we're done. We're going to destroy ourselves in this city." Raymond's tone was of a broken man, his arms lay limp at his sides, and he looked over to Solution, who wore an expression he'd seen on ladies attending a theater drama, intrigued but... disconnected. "Do me a favor, would you?"
"What?" She asked with some interest, the inhuman smile on her face revealing her hunger for violence.
"If I don't come back from this meeting with Yvon and Dominic, get Nua and the others out before doing anything else about me." Raymond implored her anxiously.
"Feeling antsy, maybe?" She asked teasingly, only to feel surprise instead when he nodded seriously.
"I didn't think things could get worse, but I was wrong before, and I don't want to think it but... well, every time I imagine I've hit rock bottom, the bottom drops further." Raymond's said in a quiet voice as he looked from one woman to the other. "Just... do this for me, would you?"
"I'll think about it." She said smugly, "For now..." The carriage rolled to a stop, "it appears as if we've arrived, come along Nua, we've got some shopping to do." She said and waited as the footman opened the door, as she got out, she looked behind her, "See you soon, Raymond." She said with a wink, and they left him in the carriage alone.