Good evening, Hero-Ranger Clarissa.

Tonight, I'd like to play a game with you. You spent your life stealthily making plagues and biophages, assassinating those that most deemed untouchable, indestructible. I applaud you for that, and recognize that your moniker of the Crimson Mask Maiden is well-earned.

And—wait, no, no, no! Stop! Stop trying to stop your blood flow. No, no, don't give yourself an aneurysm. And why are you grinning! Stop it! The entire point of this exercise is that I was going to infect you with your own poisons and find out if you could save yourself!

I've declared you my Vaketh-Bakal—it's a great honor! Stop attempting suicide, stop it—it's supposed to be the other way around, the other way around! THIS IS SUPPOSED TO BE AN IRONIC THING WHERE I STRIKE YOU WITH YOUR OWN BIOMANCY AND YOU TRY TO STAY ALIVE BUT DIE PROVING ME—STOOPPPP!

STOP! YOU'RE TAKING THE MEANING AND POIGNANCY OUT OF THIS! I DEMAND THAT YOU STOP! NOOO—

-Helix to Hero-Ranger Glory Clarissa

223 (I)

Academia [III]

There was something disconcerting about watching a grotesque parody of yourself die time and time again. The homunculus was Shiv in general appearance, but fundamentally held none of his attitude or his power. It was, effectively, as if an extremely simple animal was trapped in a body made to mirror his own. So simple an animal was the homunculus that it barely responded to pain. It only shivered and let out faint rasps as it suffered a variety of boils, bleeds, hemorrhages, strokes, heart attacks, and tumors.

Time after time, the homunculus died before Shiv, and time after time, he was made to decipher why it had died, what the cause was, and how to potentially fix it. It took little more than a wave on the part of the orc Biomancer to revive the homunculus, and they practiced in a secluded corner of the coliseum's maze.

Helix didn't give him any information for free. Instead, he instructed Shiv to look through his own materials, use the Odes as a compass, and come to his own conclusion.

The purpose behind this exercise was to get the Deathless used to using his Biomancy as more than a blunt weapon. Though he could absorb organic objects into his Aegis of Assimilation, it was meant to be something far more than that. While technically a monster skill, it held far more potential when used alongside a learned mind, being able to draw different biological organs and compositions together to make its wielder an alchemist of the flesh.

As he wrapped his mana hydra around the homunculus, Shiv watched as a complex array of microspells poked into existence before him. There were still far too many components to keep track of, but he was grasping the larger aspects more easily than before. Biology was dynamic; it was a system in play, and every few seconds, bits of the body would die and regenerate. Such was the interplay between living matter and entropy.

However, sections of the rendered homunculus were easy to track. Some organs and bits of architecture had consistent patterns. Bones were easily distinguished, as were the heart, the brain, and the stomach. Shiv still had a hard time sorting between the liver and the kidneys, but the lungs eventually became clear to him as well. And they weren't static, either. There were small spells gliding between the larger ones, and every time something catastrophic happened, it was like watching a symphony of destruction.

Aegis of Assimilation 116 118

A heart attack would result in a sudden calamity for the entire body. The small microspells that passed through the other major sections, blood, as Shiv deduced by now, simply stopped flowing in certain areas. And then, the rest of the body would collapse in tandem. The brain would start to die quickly when oxygen ceased. Without the brain, the other components of the body also began to fail.

Shiv dove into the Odes, experiencing all manner of heart diseases, heart attacks, and strokes. Even so, he had a hard time figuring out what Helix specifically did to induce such deep trauma.

"So, there's no plaque," Shiv said, staring down at the unmoving body of the homunculus.

"Incorrect," Helix retorted. He pointed at the corpse. A spiraling spell pattern manifested within its unmoving frame, and its dense forest of arteries came alight before Shiv's very eyes. "There is a great deal of soft plaque lining the homunculus's blood traffic, but you are right. It's not quite hard yet, or at least it shouldn't be hard enough to induce a sudden blockage or burst."

Psycho-Cartography: He's hinting at something. It probably is something to do with the arteries, then…

Shiv frowned and he focused on the circulatory system even harder. It took him a while to distinguish the congested arteries from the clearer pathways, but soon, he managed, and it was there that he noticed a strange series of spell shapes unlike any of the others. They were smaller than most microspells, seeming like bits of sediment, where everything else had a more unique shape.

They resembled grains of sand lining the inside of blood vessels, but there were differences between the different grains as well. Some of them were faint, soft as Helix described, but others, as they passed through certain organs, would grow brighter, turn thicker.

Shiv's eyes widened as the blood crossed through the left ventricle of the heart.

Farsight 81 82

"What the hells is this?" Shiv muttered to himself, and as he leaned in, he saw Helix grinning widely, his orcish teeth pointed and sharp, pleased that his disciple had finally discovered his trick.

The left ventricle seemed clean, but Shiv examined the structures nearby, and that's when he saw another strange pattern induced into the pulmonary artery. It was an odd ring shape, and it distorted every blood particle that passed through its expanse. It was subtle, seeding each microspell symbolizing blood with one of those grains, and every time full circulation was completed, the grains grew thicker.

"You put a plaque-building spell inside a heart?" Shiv asked, sounding surprised.

Helix snapped his fingers. "You finally see. Remarkable, isn't it? You don't really need that much to slay someone, Insul. You just need to find the most delicate part of them and fill it up, or manipulate it in some way. Think of how difficult it is for you to overcome some adversaries. Think of that brutish Vulteg you fought earlier. We all were slamming into it over and over again, trying to crack it open like a can, and it just wouldn't break."

Shiv hummed in thought. That was true. Urri had been near-indestructible with his Toughness and Magical Resistance fused together. "Not sure how this would finish him off, though," Shiv said. "You couldn't get through the resistance at all, even with your Biomancy."

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Helix tutted. "Ah, but that's because you threw me directly into a combat situation. There are more subtle ways to induce heart failure. Not all spells need to be inflicted directly upon your enemies. In fact, I recommend that you don't use your spells so directly, that you don't use your mana like a lashing limb. The body is a complicated set of reactions. If you make someone ingest, say, a hypercaloric consumable, and the system cannot process it, the insulin will react most cataclysmically, and thus," Helix gestured at his homunculus once more, "death. And there are many ways to reach a state of heart failure."

"Right, right," Shiv said. "How common is heart failure, anyway?"

"For whom? Humans? Extremely high. Your bodies are inefficient, poorly designed. In fact, if you remain Pathless after you hit the age of, well, let's say, 30 or so, there's really not that much point to you. Your resilience plunges, and your organs start decaying far too fast. It's pitiful."

And that took Shiv for a loop. "Not that much point to us. What the hells do you mean? Even if you're Pathless, with a good Biomancer, you can—"

"Ah, you see there? With a good Biomancer," Helix said, smirking. "With a good Biomancer, you can guide the body's natural stupidity and reactivity to make sure that you live with as much health and dignity and for as long as you so desire. But without one... Well, have you ever been to a low mana threshold world?"

"Not really? But I kinda get your point. Low mana world people are fragile, is that it? So what? Lacking mana means the body deteriorates and fails to manage itself properly?"

"Only for creatures of evolution." Helix grinned. "Some of us are sculpted for higher purposes."

Shiv sneered. "You orcs are oh so special, aren't you?"

"Oh, yes, we're far better at exporting our entropy. We don't age like you do, after all. Anyhow, there are still some leftover biological architecture problems. Even when humans become Pathbearers, you, for instance, are at higher risk of developing several types of cancer and heart disease due to your size alone. And then there is your diet."

"What about my diet?" Shiv asked.

"Not yours specifically. Humanity's. You're omnivorous, willing to eat anything, from vegetables to meat to even more exotic things." Helix chuckled. "And this is usually the folly of your species: death by diet. Many Vanguards have a propensity for highly caloric substances."

And with that, Shiv finally understood what Helix was getting at. "So it probably would have been easier to assassinate Urri if you'd managed to modify something and made him eat it. Is that what you're saying?"

"Indeed. Most Pathbearers don't need to eat much at all, but many still do, out of pleasure and taste. These are weaknesses, Insul, especially if you don't examine everything you put in your mouth. Right now, you should be perfectly aware of everything you decide to imbibe. What effects it might have on your body, how it binds itself to your most delicate cells. The proteins wish to dance, Insul, and you should be aware of how the waltz unfolds."

Practical Metabiology 44 46

And with that, Shiv felt another two levels descend upon his Practical Metabiology Skill. "Forty-six," Shiv said, "not that far from an evolution."

"Yes, but you are far from a well-studied Biomancer," Helix replied, wagging a clawed finger. "You need constant and unceasing practice to make up for all the time you lost."

"You know, as much as I'd like to spend all day and night performing twisted experiments on my lookalike with you, I still have classes to get to, and other shit I need to get done. Sun's almost up, and I think I should survey the terrain a bit so I have a general feeling of the campus layout."

At first, Helix seemed offended. But the expression didn't linger. Seconds passed, and the orc grew thoughtful. "This might be good as well. You can encounter other students and individuals, organic materials too. You can interface with them using your Aegis. Yes… I have homework for you. You are to tell me what latent health risks the people you encounter have, what existing ailments they suffer from, if any, and how you might best go about collapsing their biological architecture. Since I will be accompanying you within your cape, you must be prepared to respond to my questions most promptly."

Shiv snorted. "Alright. Can't say I'll do that well, but—"

"Oh no, it's going to go disastrously. You're going to be like a blind man trying to perform surgery on an animal you've never encountered before." Helix giggled. "But that's how it always begins. For you, anyway. If you were to perform manual surgery on anyone, I expect them to die screaming, unless you're performing throat surgery, in which case there's going to be a lot of wiggling followed by nothing at all."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence, Helix."

"Confidence is to be earned and taken from success. And you can start by fixing the homunculus."

Shiv stared down at the unmoving body. "You know, I don't really know what you did before. You kind of just waved your hand. It got back up."

"It's a homunculus, Insul. Its body is far simpler than yours. Revive it. Go."

"Wait." Shiv wrapped a mana hydra around his armor as well. And only then did he notice the special ingredient Helix had infused within the Homunculus. There was a faint static that ran as an undercurrent between all the cells. Bioelectricity. "It can regenerate."

"Yes. As soon as you clear up the mess in the organs, it will get back up again. You'll probably have to fix part of the brain damage induced by the oxygen deficiency. But everything else should be resolvable through your capable hands."

"All right," Shiv said. He let his mana hydra sink even deeper into the body. And he focused mainly on the arteries. He pulled at the plaque, trying to remove it gently now. And—

His thoughts trailed off as everything inside the homunculus became untangled. Blood sprayed out, hitting all the walls and floor as Shiv accidentally unlatched all arteries from the corpse. Organs were wrenched free as well, sliding out from expanding wounds like glistening balloons of mutilated tissue.

"Ah," Helix said, suppressing his disappointment. "Oh well, you'll get better at focusing on the blood instead of, well, the things that hold the blood."

Shiv turned away from the twitching corpse and stared at the orc Biomancer. "Is it gonna be able to regenerate from that?"

"By itself? No. Its insides are on the outside, Insul. You ripped some of the brain matter out as well. There's a limit to this. However, I can always regrow a new one. Assimilate the body. It'll be a good draft reference for when you need to make your own homunculus down the line. For now, please try developing a softer touch. It will be most helpful for your art. Not everything needs to be torn and crushed. Sometimes, a poisoned seed is the most sublime—"

"The other orcs hit you a lot, don't they?" Shiv asked, unable to keep his intrusive question contained.

Helix sputtered. "Wha—what? Why would you say—No, no. I am respected. Highly."

The moment dragged. Helix's outrage was a bit too much. Shiv laughed. "Yeah, they definitely bully the shit out of you. You're enjoying this a lot. I'm the only one who plays along with you, aren't I? Even the other orc Biomancers don't take you seriously."

Psycho-Cartography: Don't go too far. His feelings will actually get hurt. And he's the kind to pout and withhold his knowledge in response.

"N-no!" Helix came just short of stomping his feet. "I am respected!"

Psycho-Cartography: Anyone who needs to claim they are respected out loud is lying to themselves.

Shiv just kept laughing. "It's okay, Helix. You're a pretty good Biomancer. Not a great teacher, but your self-importance and outrage tickle me enough to make up for your personality."

"And what's wrong with my personality, huh?" Helix all but whined.

"Nothing. Except for the fact that you like to hear yourself talk too much. And you constantly mutter behind people's backs like a teenage girl. Anyway. Get in my cape and get your snide comments ready. Let's go on a walk."

"I—" Helix was about to refuse.

Shiv intercepted his refusal with a pre-prepared threat. "If you don't go, I'll grab Mortar, and we'll just shit-talk you all the way."

"Nyah!" Helix snarled.

Psycho-Cartography: I do think we have him by the metaphorical balls. But he might be enjoying this little game too.