The beautiful thing about all biology is mutation; the transformation is synthesization. Everything can be something else, all can be true, and all can change. When flesh tears, it is not absolute. It can be regenerated, and yet all things have the capacity for regeneration, though some bodies need to be taught such things.
Now watch. Watch as this brutally dismembered, mangled ruin of a being is restored as I simply inflict a single dose of viral infections upon it. First, the infections will seep in. It will be little more than a cold, but it will greet his brain, it will modify the body's bioelectricity, and soon, soon the virus won't be so much of a virus anymore. Soon, the virus will become an educator, a teacher, an instructor of the flesh. Soon, what is instinctively and intrinsically known to the virus will be bestowed upon the body. Watch now, it regrows.
And so, once more, I have transformed. Not only this body, but a concept—an idea of a virus that is meant to harm, an infection certain to kill. But within that, within everything I have done, is palliative, is transformation, is mending.
You do not tear and break if you cannot put back together; that is what I believe. And you cannot break properly if you cannot put something back together. For this is the beauty of Biomancy. With a few adjustments to the blood codes, a few moved proteins, a simple tweak of the structure, that which might have made your flesh peel from your very bones could make you utterly immortal.
-Odes of Blood and Flesh, Sculptor Ekkihurst
102 (I)
Feast [II]
"I am the chef," Shiv said. He clenched his jaw and raised his kitchen knife. His reflection stared back from the fifty meters of severed Court Leviathan tentacle that lay in a huge steel cauldron. It had been shaped from broken remains found in the ruins of Gate Theborn. It took the aid of Can Hu to properly shape what once was a gnarled mass of scrap metal into something that was a good conductor of heat. Now, the setup work was done.
The cauldron lay partially embedded in the ground. It was held in place by curved grills, and the surrounding ground was rendered level and flat by Can Hu—an island of stability and cleanliness amidst a sea of rubble and devastation.
As most of the first response force from Weave headed off to render aid at the Surface Gateway, a few stayed behind to help Shiv with his meal. Adam, Uva, Can Hu, Valor, Ikki, Uva’s team Pyromancer, and a few Weaveresses remained nearby.
With a gesture from Shiv, the Weaveress Hydromancers unleashed a deluge of water that quickly filled the cauldron. Next, the Umbral Pyromancer channeled a beam of searing heat into the water, raising its temperature to a grumbling boil in a near instant.
As he waited for the others to finish their parts, he observed those around him. Uva looked uncertain—Uva more dubious than anything. Valor was studying Shiv more than he regarded the slowly simmering tentacle. Not far away, parked in the sky over the Abyssal Gateway, was Courtney, the Court Leviathan. It barely reacted when Shiv severed its tentacle, but now it was making loud groans as several of Uva's Psychomancy strands burrowed in its many minds.
Uva scoured its memories over and over again to make sure it wasn't hiding any ugly surprises. So far, she said nothing. That was a good sign. But a Psychomancer's paranoia was not so easily stated.
But perhaps her hunger would be, as would her incredulity, when Shiv proved them wrong about this dish. And he would prove them all wrong.
"So," Ikki said, "how long is this going to take?"
"Patience," Shiv said, holding up a hand.
His eyes were narrowed, his Biomancy focused, but he didn't do anything with it. For once, Shiv did something very unlike himself—well, unlike himself in combat, anyway. He reached into the meat, but instead of ripping or twisting or using his Woundeaters to transfer wounds, he simply studied the tentacle. The Court Leviathan wasn't nearly as durable as the Jealousy; it was comparatively rather fragile. That meant he had to judge the heat of the water and be mindful of how roughly he prepared.
Also, severed from the rest of the body, the tentacle did not retain any regenerative properties.
Between the Court Leviathan and its severed tentacle, Shiv gleaned a few differences. First, there was obviously no brain governing the tentacle anymore. Secondly, a surging wave of bioelectricity would pulse through the Court Leviathan, signaling different aspects of its flesh and blood to respond in specific ways. That facilitated rapid regeneration. He left several more wounds on the Court Leviathan, but its regeneration response was too fast for him to keep up with. He would need to use his Chronomancy to get a proper, in-depth look. Despite this, he still gained a bit of insight into the functional process of regeneration.
Practical Metabiology 36 > 37
It didn't seem like the Court Leviathan was forcing its cells to rapidly multiply. Instead, it was signaling different things deeper within its body using bioelectricity. It was like its blood was communicating with itself on a higher level somehow, and the rest of the body knew exactly how to react in accordance to the signals. Also astonishing to Shiv was how cancer-free it remained when it healed this way. It was faster, cleaner, and less complicated than any feats of biological regeneration he experienced before.
The Jealousy just constantly regrew parts of itself. It healed much slower than this thing too. You’re going to show me how to grow back my arms and legs without using a Woundeater, Courtney. But first, I gotta show some people what I can make with your meat.
Shiv turned his attention to cooking. The water was boiling hot, steam rose into the air, and slowly the limb began to cook. But Shiv used his Biomancy to peel slight openings into the tentacle. He needed to let the heat seep through, and to do that, he had to tear it apart and start moving the flesh around. The main reason why he wanted to make this as a broth and a soup was because some nutrition could be distilled in the water, and people needed liquid right now as much as they needed food.
Shiv considered adding some Mendules, but frowned as he regarded the temperature. He felt at the tentacle in the cauldron and then mushrooms in his cloak. Yeah, they would probably dissolve into nothing almost immediately.
He made the “mixing ingredients too early” mistake more than a few times. It was a bad habit that took a while to break under Georges’s supervision. Different levels of temperature would affect different ingredients, and different substances had different levels of readiness and whatnot.
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Shiv needed to do this perfectly, and so he examined the state of the tentacle in exquisite detail—used his Biomancy to compare its integrity and condition to his other ingredients. It was the centerpiece, after all. The thing that would hopefully offer some healing effects for the people in the gate. The first part was making sure the meat was thoroughly cooked. It could survive a long time. That was when he would add the additional tasting ingredients and let them soak for a while.
Now, what truly came aglow was the tentacle, but the glow was not universal across the length of the limb; rather, it was concentrated at the parts that weren't so cooked yet. This, again, was why it was beneficial to have Biomancy. Shiv continued twisting the flesh around, turning the meat over around itself. What was inside went to the outside, allowing the already cooked bits to simmer for a moment while the relatively raw sections were properly heated.
"Why are you doing that?" Ikki asked with a frown.
The Weaveress Biomancer answered for Shiv. "He's making sure every part is evenly cooked." The Weaveress regarded Shiv for a moment. "Do you often use Biomancy to aid your cooking?"
"All the time," Shiv replied. "In fact, I don't think I could cook this well if I didn't have good Biomancy. It tells me how well done something is. How much more heat it needs, if it's burnt or not. More importantly, it lets me feel the entire structure. Especially necessary with stuff like this to make sure this thing doesn’t have any unexpected cancers or other strange surprises.”
“Cancers?” Adam muttered with a deep frown. His arms were folded. “There were cancers in the tentacle?”
"Not a single one," Shiv replied. “Which is actually stranger because things that heal fast should develop cancers pretty quickly. Damn vampires made something pretty stable. If you ignore all the plagues and viruses sleeping inside its blood.”
The Gate Lord looked like he wanted to leave immediately.
"Just trust me, okay?" Shiv said. "I am the chef. With enough heat, I think I can cook the viruses and other stuff too.” And true to his word, he saw the sicknesses and diseases ingrained in the tentacle glitter with a faint white. It wasn’t as bright as the rest of the meat, but it was there. He just needed to follow his instincts and see it prepared.
"You can say that as many times as you want, but—"
"I am the chef," Shiv interrupted. "Trust the chef. Trust me.”
The Gate Lord gave Uva a defeated look, but she just offered an uneasy shrug. Her incredulity had faded. Now her attention was mostly focused on Angelo, who was still inside the Court Leviathan, and the massive beast itself. In the corner of Shiv's eye, he saw a thoughtful expression come over her. She was considering things about the Court Leviathan, opportunities, perhaps. He was considering many opportunities as well. They might not be thinking about the same things, though.
Time passed. The meat heated and hissed with the temperature. Its texture went from a rough, raw-red to an even mold of glistening, bright tissue. It would be soft enough for even a Pathless to bite into now. And just then, the Chef Unwavering did something Shiv had never seen it do before. Motes of light rose from it, motes that passed from it into his cloak. It highlighted a specific ingredient. Shiv blinked. There was a connection there, a connection he was instinctively feeling, and the skill was expressing it, commanding him to apply the weeds he found at the bottom of the river first, before anything else.
He didn't chuck it in immediately, however. He learned that lesson earlier. Instead, he dipped a piece of weed into the cauldron and used his Biomancy to see how it reacted to the heat.
As part of the river weed absolutely disintegrated into little more than blackened particulates, Shiv shook his head."We're starting a second pot," he declared. "We'll add it to the main cauldron when the temperatures equalize. Can Hu! I need more metal! Small pot. Second grill. And a third and fourth. Third for Mendules and other shrooms. A fourth just in case.”
"You will have it, Pathbearer." And immediately, the Penitent started molding nearby clumps of metal. They came together, fluid at first, but slowly they twisted into shape. A smaller cauldron formed and was planted in the ground beside Shiv. The Hydromancers filled with water, and the Pyro channeled a small gush of heat to bring the water to a slow simmer. She didn’t unleash a dense beam of fire like she was doing with the tentacle cauldron. Instead, with a simple wave of her finger, it started boiling immediately. Shiv could feel her Pyromancy, feel the potency and her control. And through his focus, he felt a surge of excitement.
Magic was wonderful. More than destruction, magic gave you options in creation.
He applied the river weeds, and slowly the water took on that glowing, pristine, bioluminescent quality. And Shiv realized the minerals that refreshed him in the river came from these weeds. The same benefits infused this water as well, and that brought a smile to his face.
"System’s being a sneaky shit again," Shiv muttered to himself. Things had a tendency to come back together in his life. Things experienced, and things recreated. He asked Can Hu to mold him a ladle, and the Penitent did. Shiv took a scoop of his newly brewing mixture, and as he swallowed it, a rush of refreshed energy filled him. His body felt lighter, ecstatic, and electric with motion.
"Yeah, this is gonna go well," he said under his breath as he started chuckling. He didn't know why The Chef Unwavering wanted him to connect this with the tentacle specifically, but he looked forward to finding out.
The cooking continued. Shiv had two more cauldrons ready. The third one was filled with Mendules and some other shrooms. A few of the shrooms did not glitter, and Shiv decided to examine them using his Biomancy to see why. The answer came when he found strange, parasitic growths trapped inside their mycelia. He wasn't exactly sure what the growths were, but he suspected they might cause more mass casualties than mass-satisfied stomachs if applied to the overall dish.
The Mendules were, as usual, relaxing for the mind and focused one's thoughts. But a few of the other mushrooms provided a rich, earthy aroma that was bitter and then fresh thereafter.
Soon, the flavors mingled in the air, and Ikki breathed in deeply. “Smells great.”
Adam, meanwhile, was trying to hide how much he was sniffling. The Gate Lord’s senses were the sharpest here, but he still eyed the tentacle with a special look of suspicion.
Finally, the tentacle itself approached the point of being well done. Every part of the meat sang with a sizzling, clattering noise that pleased Shiv's ears. And now, even Adam was leaning in, slowly drifting forward as his vector wings glowed bright. Overhead, however, the mana core pulsed once, then radiated twice. A notification appeared in everyone's eyes.
Mana Decay Concluded
Significant history loss accrued.
Gate [Name Pending]
Category 2
Skills
The Dawn Unites 1 (Unique)
Biomes
[Undetermined]
Districts
Surface Way
Gateways
Vulketh: [Under Lockdown due to Mana Insufficiency]
Earth (Abyss): [Under Lockdown due to Mana Insufficiency]
Earth (Surface): Under Lockdown
Suddenly, the horizon began closing in. Things more than five kilometers away from the gate center dissolved into smears of mana, and then nothing at all. In an instant, what used to be Gate Theborn shrank on itself. Entire sections of the gate faded into thin air, and the temperature began to grow increasingly cold.
More than that, the distances between the Surface Gateway and the Abyss Gateway tightened dramatically as the two blurred closer together. It made it easier to get around, but also it only left approximately nine kilometers of distance between the surface district and Courtney, the currently non-infectious Court Leviathan. The Vulketh Gateway, meanwhile, became a perfect midpoint in between. The wondrous change was so normal and subtle that Shiv did a double-take—and then cursed as he began rapidly churning the tentacle flesh in on itself again, making sure the heat settled to its very bone.
"Well, this is a wonderful time for the decay to conclude," Adam muttered to himself. His surprised expression turned to a glare as he regarded the single skill the mana core had left. “The Dawn Unites?” He stared at the core, and it glowed in the same hues as the faint blue sun hovering just over his head. Slowly, it began to pulse. Thin sheets of solar-bright resonance twisted around the mana core, and Adam took a step back. “Uh, Valor. The core seems to be doing something…”