Return of the Fallen Volume 9 Chapter 32
Zephris finally found a way to bring his Azirian’s completely under his control. A device that would automatically split the growing soul inside of the Azirian’s in half. Half would remain in his creature and the other half would join with his own soul increasing his power rapidly while at the same time allowing his control over the Azirian’s to remain fully intact.
Even if one of his Azirian’s formed a personality and consciousness, they would never be allowed to slip from Zephris’s control. In order to make such a device, Zephris needed more knowledge. He had a theory behind this device but in the end, it was just a theory. In order to bring it to fruition, he needed more knowledge as well as a myriad of test subjects.
The test subjects came easy. Since the basis of his Azirians was blood he formulated, the procurement wasn’t difficult. Taking this one step further, he found an even more efficient way.
(Why spend so much time hunting for different creatures to gather their blood when my own blood can be used. I am near the top of all experts in all the land. Who has better traits and strengths than I. Using my own blood as a basis, my Azirians will be even stronger than previous iterations. Not only that, my blood can regenerate in the blink of an eye. I no longer have the need to waste other ingredients as I can just use my own body.)
Since Azirian’s were formed using alchemy, Zephris could create a new Azirian in seconds.
Cutting open his finger a large drop of blood fell into a vial. After that, he split a piece of his soul and sent that fragment along with his magic, and fused all of the ingredients directly into the vial. The blood within the vial transformed and changed color to a purplish-black and began to move and squirm about, looking for a host. Zephris could simply release this drop of blood out into the open air but then it would take several minutes of devouring the nearby energy around it before it formed a full body.
Instead, Zephris entered a dungeon beneath his city. In this dungeon, there were tens of thousands of cages and cells. Animals, monstrous beasts, humans, elves, dragons, every manner of creature seemed to be here. Zephris walked near one of these cages and pointed at a wolf-like beast and with a curl of his finger, this animal flew to the edge of the cage.
As it snapped i’s jaws at Zephris in a rage, Zephris simply flicked the tiyn droplet of squirming blood. As soon as this drop of blood flew out, the wolf could sense danger. All of the hairs on its body suddenly stood on end and it tried to get out of the way but it was already too late. The drop of blood squirmed and shot into the wolf’s eye and without warning, it drilled directly into the depths of the wolf’s brain.
Soaking into the wolf’s brain, it took over the beasts almost instantly. The wolf fell out of the air and began to spasm and vomit blood. The very next moment bones began to crack and break as its body started to reform until it took on a humanoid shape.
The creature’s eyes turned crimson red and the transformation was complete. The Azirian immediately knew exactly what it was and whom it served. Beyond that, though there wasn’t a sign of intelligence. The creature stared at Zephris with a blank expression. Like a doll awaiting for its strings to be pulled.
*Haa*
Zephris sighed in annoyance. With a wave of his hand, the Azirian’s head exploded into hundreds of pieces and it was dead. The other creatures in the nearby cages had seen this sight one too many times. Even now they didn’t understand why Zephris did what he did but it was clear he was looking for something. He would always come down here and throw a drop of blood seemingly randomly and it would create one of his monsters. If Zephris didn’t like what he saw, he would then destroy his creation.
The other creatures had no way of knowing he was looking for signs of intelligence and sentience. Once he found one, it made his experiments that much easier. If one didn’t have a personality of some sort, and intelligence, it meant that although the creature had a piece of his soul, it did not show any signs of development and growth. Without that growth, it would just be another puppet and Zephris could not gain power from it.
(Another failure. That makes the 800th one so far today. At the rate I’m going I’ll run out of test subjects in only a week or so. Why is it so difficult to find a unique one? Why do some of them develop intelligence and others don’t? I know the root cause is from the soul but I don’t know why? The soul is still so mysterious. Every time I discover something new, it leaves me with a million more questions. So frustrating.)
Why Zephris was deep in thought, A beasts down the way roared.
“Release me you demon! You dare keep this dragon in chains. One day my people will wipe you and your family from the map!”
Zephris casually strolled down to this prison cell. This cell was hundreds of times bigger than many of the others and the dragon inside was a few hundred feet tall and wide but in this cell, it was completely cramped.
“You wish for me to let you go. How laughable.”
The dragon grew enraged.
“YOU LITTLE BASTARD. I’LL RIP YOUR INTESTINES OUT AND DEVOUR THEM IN ONE BITE!”
Zephris smirked before opening the cell door.
“Sure go ahead, I’m right here.”
The dragon saw this and became shocked. It didn’t know what the fuck was happening but understood this was its chance to escape. It had heard of Zephris’s strength before but had never seen it in action nor really believed the rumors. As a matter of fact, it had been on a stroll one day and been hit from behind and knocked out. When it came to it was already inside of this place.
It sniffed the air and it felt something was off. It could sense no strength inside of Zephris whatsoever but it knew this shouldn’t be the case. The longer it thought about this, the more it questioned if this was a trap or not and its fear started to overtake its rage. As soon as it realized this, a huge rush of rage came flowing through like a storm as its pride welled up.
(I am a powerful dragon and this small thing is merely a forest dweller. I can not be afraid of it!)
It then rushed forward and tried to crush Zephris with its body but before it could touch him, Zephris once again flick this finger. Except for this time instead of blood, it was just his finger.
*BAM!*
Zephris’s finger landed squarely on the dragon’s torso and the dragon flew backward and slammed hard into the cage behind him. The sound of the dragon’s body slamming into the back of the cage resounded like thunder in the sky, terrifying those around them.
The dragon itself was now covered in injuries from head to toe and blood was spilling from its mouth.
“Wh…What did you just do? What sort of demonic magic was that just now?”
Zephris looked at his own finger before chuckling and shaking his head.
“Not an ounce of magic to it, simply undeniable and pure strength. Well, you had your chance to leave but you have refused to exit so I guess that means you wish to stay, hehe.”
Zephris slowly shut the cage door and the dragon tried to crawl to it but it was too badly injured. By the time it got to the door, it heard the most horrible sound in the world as the door latched shut.
*Chck*
Zephris then took out another drop of blood and fuse it with a fragment of soul and his magic. The blood once more seem to come to life before he calmly put his hand over the dragon’s head and released the drop.
“NO!”
The drop fell onto the dragon’s face and shot up into its bleeding nose. Once again a round of spasming and vomiting of blood followed by eyes becoming blood red. However, instead of a dull expression, the dragon transformed into a humanoid and knelt on the ground.
“Master.”
Zephris suddenly had a thought as he recalled every creature he transformed into an Azirian. The ones that possessed intelligence he now knew what they had in common.
“STRENGTH! Every Azirian that had intelligence came from a strong creature but their strength isn’t the actual answer, it only reveals what I have been overlooking. Those with strength must also have a powerful soul to reach such heights in the first place. The root cause I figured was my soul but my soul isn’t the only one in this equation. When I drop the Azirian blood into the host body, it is taking over but when it enters a strong host is it fusing with the remaining soul instead? I need to test this theory. Looks like in order to create my controlling device, there will need to be several more sacrifices.”
While Zephris said this out loud, the titan within his bracelet took notice and observed everything with a cold gaze.
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