NOVEL NEXT Chapter 79 - Physique
Abisai's words registered, but in that moment, I didn't care what they meant. I didn't care what a Physique was. I didn't care that this strange, faceless voice was asking me to endure, as if I'd had a choice in the matter.
And even though I cared about none of it, the truth of the matter was, I did have a choice. I could just as easily have turned off my healing, but deep down, I knew, this process would only be beneficial. Because my gift would always---always---rebuild me stronger.
And I wanted whatever it was would result from this war raging on inside me.
Each heartbeat was a quake.
Each breath, a tremor.
Every change and recursion brought with it a slightly better balance, slightly more strength, slightly more adaptation.
Until, somewhere within that infinite recursion, the equilibrium my gift had sought all this while began to form.
Bit, by painful bit, the layers tore less.
The tissue rejected less.
And less.
And even lesser.
In place of war, there was now negotiation.
It was at this short-lived moment of calm, that the next System Prompt came in.
[Implantation Phase Two: Organs and Circulatory Physiology]
My organs twisted, folding upon themselves as new structures tried to form.
A secondary heart pulsed briefly in my abdomen before collapsing into nothing.
My lungs filled with coarse, dry heat, as if the air itself had turned to dust.
My veins bulged and retracted.
Capillaries rerouted.
Something pushed underneath my spine, a tail that never fully formed, then behind the spine, a giant, tubular heart, like the Main Mind had seen whilst it possessed the Scorpion.
But the gift dissolved all. Deleted. Re-written back to their original shapes.
The dreaded cycles returned.
Change. Revert. Change. Revert.
Endless.
The pain had no edge anymore. It was a field---omnidirectional, absolute. There was nothing else.
My cheek pressed against the black sand.
My eyes rolled back, but the Gift refused unconsciousness.
Every second, more of the scorpion's physiology tried to assert dominance. Fangs. Venom Glands. Venom sacs. More tails. More eyes. More arms. More legs. Claws. Feelers.
Everything and anything one might have derived from a Scorpion, was implemented into my own body, only to be torn apart, my gift only taking the most minute of details to include in its own image of perfection.
But I felt it now. That perfection was close. The negotiations for my organs and internals had finally begun, whilst the negotiations for my muscular and skeletal structure...were coming to a close.
The final form was a fine-tuned version of what my gift had been trying to create all this while.
Imagine the the leg of an ant. The segments of them. Black exoskeleton, covering profound musculature, creating immense density in every one of those segments. That contained density was what allowed Ants strength that belied their size.
And my Gift, had taken that concept, and applied it to everything. It wasn't applied to limbs. Not to muscles. But to the singular strands, each and every muscle fiber was covered in that Exoskeleton. And the fibers themselves? Denser. Thicker. Ballooned, then forced to fit into the enclosure of exoskeleton. The first time my gift had attempted it, the issue had been rigidity. Friction. But now, the toughness had been retained, whilst keeping peak flexibility. And the blood that bathed everything, was the lubricant.
But such profound tensile strength couldn't even be held by a normal human skeleton, much less wielded. And so every bone had been strengthened from the inside out. The chitin of carapace was carved into every bone. A lattice of strength within every structure, a mesh spun within the very structure of bone. It was the truest form of integration.
Bit, by bit, those coated cords of muscle tightened, pulled into place as the fibers locked into groups to re-create every muscle, that then attached to the newly strengthened bones.
Without the layer of skin that covered everything, my form was now reminiscent of my old one. Like a being of metal, muscles crafted by cords of metal rather than flesh, except rather than metal, it was the pitch-black chitin of a Blacksand Scorpion.
My body convulsed again. Again. And then one, more time.
Something inside clicked.
My chest seized. My lungs stopped moving. My heart—
—split.
I felt it rupture cleanly down the middle, each half pulsing out a storm of pressure that rippled through my chest cavity like a detonation. The next heartbeat didn't come from my sternum.
I understood before I even felt it.
The negotiations for my organs were finally done, and my heart was being...relocated.
Revised.
I could hear the process—veins bursting, arteries knitting anew, new tunnels forming and connecting.
My ribs folded outward to make room for it.
Then came the rhythm, not from my chest...but just as I'd suspected...it came...from my spine.
One beat.
Two.
Three.
Each vertebra answered in turn.
Twelve pulses in sequence.
Then together.
The dorsal heart stabilized—twelve chambers, each linked, each acting as a miniature engine driving the next. The flow of blood no longer spiraled around the lungs and heart but traveled straight along my spine, moving faster than I could blink.
The efficiency had multiplied...manyfold. I couldn't run the numbers, because I couldn't even judge for myself just how much faster the flow of blood had become.
The Pressure in my Circulatory System normalized instantly, my heart settled, my muscles thrummed, bones hummed, and then my gift stitched everything right back up---one. final. time.
[Bloodline Integration Status: Failed.]
[Re-Integration Attempts: 9999999999999999999...]
[Conclusion: Host's Gift is incompatible with the implanted Bloodline. All remnants have been purged.]
[Conducting Analysis of changes induced by the Host's gift...]
My breathing returned as though nothing had happened. Everything felt different. Clearer. Sharper.
The air shifted, and I smelled it.
Not just the dust or sand, but the mineral note of the ground, the metallic residue on my palms, even the faint trace of ozone behind me, where the light had scorched the ground near the obelisk.
Each of inhalation brought with it data, layered and sorted with precision I didn't know was possible. It was overwhelming, then breathtaking, then, as my mind adjusted, it began to feel normal. Almost...lived in.
It almost felt more accurate than sound, now. Perhaps even more than my sight.
My sight...
My eyes finally opened. The world was...wider? Just a little though. My eyesight itself was much the same as far as I could tell.
I looked down at my hands, half-expecting some odd, alien-like appearance.
But I looked exactly the same. Tan skin. Lightly muscled hands, no different---on the outside---to what they had been before. I was Human, as far as an external observer was concerned.
But I knew.
Beneath this normal looking human skin, was a chitinous frame unlike anything I'd ever imagined possessing...or becoming.
[Analysis Complete]
[Host's continued Adaptive Regeneration has resulted in the creation of a Unique Epic+ Grade Physique, the [Subdermal Hyper-Scorpathic Frame].]
[View Details? (Yes/No)]
I swallowed hard, still laying on the sand, now looking up at the exposed Cavern ceiling. The now tube-chain of hearts along my spine pumped just a little faster, expectant.
But Intisak's voice rolled in before I could answer.
"By the Sands...is that you, boy?"
My head swiveled atop the sand as my eyes met his.
The man's silver hair and black cloak trailed behind him as he approached me with caution.
I smiled wryly, "It would appear so."
"What in the world did the Trial reward you with? Your heart...is unlike anything I've ever heard..."
His eyes widened in slight realization, "...In a Human."
My grin widened, as I chuckled, "Well, the Words say I'm human."
"Boy, if you need the Words to tell you you're human...then you probably don't even believe that yourself."
It was true. The words insisted I was still human, the only difference being my Attributes and the new addition to the first section called "Physique."
But, as much as I would've liked a deep-dive into my improved Status, there were other things that required my attention.
"...The truth is, Intisak...I'm not so sure myself."
Intisak's brows furrowed. "What did the Trial give you?"
"An Epic Grade Bloodline..."
His eyes widened.
"...of the Blacksand Scorpion."
They widened further. Then he swallowed.
I continued..."Is...that not normal? What was I supposed to get?"
His eyes focused on mine. "Every challenger before you...was granted what we call a 'Beast Aspect'. It allows us to manifest the traits of a beast who's Will we subjugate. The greater the Resonance, the stronger the traits we manifest..."
Abisai's voice drifted in once more, "Indeed. Intisak, for instance, carries de Aspect of a Blacksand Chiropteran---a bat-type beast. It allows him exceptional hearing, and the ability to manifest wings."
My brows raised at Intisak, "Wings?"
He nodded, solemn, clearly unwilling to say much else about the matter.
Is that how he managed to get clear of the Lake of Hindrance? It wouldn't have made sense for him to reach the shore in such a short time through conventional means...strange that he refuses to show them though...perhaps he's a bit shy? Are they ugly?
Abisai's thundering laughter echoed through the dunes.
"An amusing thought, child! But, 'tis not the case. Trait manifestation consumes much Mana. It would be a waste to use so much of it just to show ya his wings."
I realized my thoughts couldn't be hidden from Abisai until the Mindscape was complete.
Intisak stared at me deadpan.
My hands raised in light apology, then plopped back down onto the sand.
"So?" asked Intisak, "what does it do? This bloodline?"
I stared at the man for a long moment, then cleared my throat. "It would have allowed me to change forms between beast and human, perhaps even some odd hybrid of the two."
But Intisak caught my carefully picked wording.
"Would have?"
His eyes narrowed.
I cleared my throat again, unsure how best to explain. I decided there was no best way to explain. Just that I now I had to explain everything I'd just gone through.
"Well, my Gift might have...rejected it."