NOVEL WEB Extra Scene XII
Around the same time, that Philip was meeting Misaki, Milith was in the lab she had guided Elly to make. The lab wasn’t very big, just large enough to contain half a dozen, Enhanced maturation pods, a genetic resequencer, and a few other devices invaluable for genetic research or in this case creating a lifeform to suit her purposes. Sitting at a table covered with notes, she crossed out another name she had written down. The name was skinwalker, she had been considering it as an infiltrator, but the skinwalkers weren’t designed to be infiltrators in the first place.
They were designed to be a predator, and maintain the balance of the ecosystem of a world called Grevali. The planet was an experiment on artificial cultures, involving a race with enhanced reproductive abilities, to keep them from growing out of control however a predator was needed and the skinwalkers were the result. Skinwalkers are an entirely female race, they have insectoid eyes, and a strong pair of mandible on the face, their general shape is humanoid if you ignore the six legs, and they have some mammalian traits, including mammaries and live birth. Skinwalkers have limited shapeshifting abilities and can shape themselves to fit the skin of other races after they steal it of course. Milith had ultimately decided against creating a skinwalker because they just creep her out. Then she looked at the next name on the list, it was very simple and not very assuming, The Swarm.
The Swarm was the result of an experiment, on enhancing an insect's natural telepathy, along with a few other traits. The result was a hive-minded race of insects, that was incredibly intelligent and grew smarter as their numbers increased. They were also gifted with enhanced fertility, increased lifespan, stronger organs, and exoskeleton. The queens also had enhanced size and could grow to about a meter in length. The queens were also given a limited ability to gene mod their own eggs, to produce specialized variants. They could even incorporate the DNA of another creature into their own to create an infiltrator. To aid in obtaining that DNA, the queen’s had limited shapeshifting skills.
Mentally the swarm viewed any being that lacked the mental development to speak telepathically inferior. They also have a tendency to use their mental powers to enslave, “lesser races” as they call them, and make them serve as menial labor and livestock all in one not that they eat their slaves. The race was created from, a hive-minded race of insects that were parasitic in nature, as a result, the swarm are also parasites, that filter the blood of another for nutrients. Not unlike the mosquito, in fact, they fly up to a victim, bite them, and draw blood. But that is where the similarity ends, unlike a mosquito, they stay attached long enough to filter the blood for what they need and then put back what they don’t. Given their abilities they can keep their victims immobilized for several hours while they feed. The average member of the swarm, can grow to be thirty centimeters long, has a pair of semi-transparent wings. Their exoskeleton is made of sturdy lightweight material and layered in articulated plates, each member has a tail ending in a stinger, which they use to deliver a paralytic venom.
Their eyes are modified with enhanced compound retinas, allowing them to see things most races can’t. Their mouth is highly flexible and contains several, fangs for piercing skin, a venom sack behind the mouth injects a venom, that contains a potent venom designed to ensure blood flow and maintain the victim's paralysis. The braincase is larger and more developed than most insects of their size and contains unusually dense neural tissue. Near the base of the tail, they had several pores which they used to emit their pheromones. The base stock used them to communicate, but the swarm use them to attract prey, and keep it docile long enough to dominate their minds, or paralyze them.
As she was considering the Swarm, she noted that they were very versatile, and her mother used them quite frequently for a wide variety of tasks, one of the greatest advantages of the swarm was that it was easy to control. Smiling, Milith extracted a drop of her blood and went to one of the machines to get to work. First, she extracted the necessary insect genes from her blood and discarded the rest. Then she added the necessary traits and suppressed unwanted insect elements. The reason she was using her own blood as the base stock, was because as a genetic shapeshifter, it included the DNA codes of every lifeform that she, her parents, and grandparents had encountered and learned the DNA of. This naturally included the Swarm, so it was merely a matter of only extracting the wanted Swarm DNA, and stimulating it to grow.
It took her less than an hour with her knowledge of genetic engineering, to extract the DNA from her blood, and then she stimulated the cells to grow and placed them in a maturation chamber. As she finished she heard Elly walk into the room, so she turned to say hello.
“So what are you doing with this strange stuff anyway?” asked Elly the young kobold looking around in confusion, she had made the stuff according to Milith’s instructions, but she had no idea what any of it was much less what it did.
“Genetic engineering, I’m done building my template, so now we just wait,” said Milith.
“What is genetic engineering?” asked Elly.
“A form of science, for creating life or altering life to suit your purposes. My people have used it for millennia, since before the founding of the empire in fact. We use magic to accelerate the process. It is very useful for things like creating workers, weapons, and spies. I’m recreating an older creation, that is quite versatile,” replied Milith.
“Wait you mean this is used to create new monsters? Can I try it, I hope it isn’t as expensive as the system makes modifying my creations. Did you know that simply enhancing a kobolds strength costs over 2000 mana?” said Elly excitedly as she latched onto the possibilities, of what Milith had just said, not even registering the brief mention of an empire.
“Yes, but there's a lot to learn, my mom taught me, but it took me over a century to reach my level of mastery, and I’m still an amatuer by the standards of my race. Recreating already created races or gifting a race with minor enhancements is the limit of my skill, but the true masters, can program a race to have a particular disposition, or give them abilities they never had to begin with,” said Milith.
“So you can’t teach me?” asked Elly a disappointed look on her face, her ears drooping.
“I can teach you the basics, but you will have to learn the rest on your own,” replied Milith, to Elly’s excitement.
Elsewhere at the headquarters of the Church of Light, several older men were gathered around a conference table, there was only one empty seat. However, its occupant wasn’t coming to fill it, being dead kind of made attending difficult after all. The men were now discussing yesterday’s incident.
“Are you certain our guest was a dragon?” asked the greasy man at the head of the table.
“I interrogated the priests and acolytes who escaped it myself. They were all adamant that our guest was a dragon. However, I’m not as certain that was the case, I have been studying the images from the observation crystals in the hall. She has draconic characteristics and is certainly related to dragons, but I’m not quite sure what she is,” said a man in black robes.
“If she isn’t a dragon, then what is she?” asked another man in white robes sitting across from the man in black robes.
“I have no idea. I am pretty sure however, that the form she showed us is her true form. The problem I have is I can’t find any race that matches her description,” said the man in black robes.
“So we have no idea, what she is?” asked the greasy man.
“That’s because you aren’t looking back far enough,” said a voice from out of nowhere. The group turned and saw a man wreathed in light. He had a muscular, well-built body with golden hair. They all recognized him as the God of Light, Head of the Pantheon of Light, Aurous. They all bowed to him instantly.
“Rise, I’m not here just for you to grovel at my feet,” said Aurous.
“To what do we owe the honor of your visit?” asked the man at the head of the table.
“Your guest is a member of a very old race from the primordial era. This one came through the world gate, I reset the thing ages ago to ensure anyone who came through would end up here. Fortunately, this one is a youngling, but even their young are powerful. I want you to find this girl and bring her to me,” said Aurous.
“It will be done, but how are we to subdue her?” asked the Head Priest.
“I have brought a few divine artifacts, designed to subdue her. Her kind are highly dependent on magic, this one,” said Aurous holding up a ring,” has a spell to temporarily suppress her magic, and dampen her abilities. While this one will permanently suppress her magic, lock her into a human form, and bind her abilities,” said Aurous while placing a collar on the table, with a strange symbol on the clasp, and crystals embedded in the metal. Then he continued, “ just be careful of her talons, her kind aren’t as physically strong as dragons, but those talons are still very deadly. Oh, yes about that dungeon you have been planning to bind, I want it blessed and devoted to me. With both the girl and the dungeon, we will be able to put the other lesser pantheons and their races where they belong. Got it?”
“Yes, sir I will have my best men find her and I will accelerate the plans for the dungeon, anything else I can do for you?” asked the Head Priest. Aurous said that would be all and then returned to the divine realm. The Priests then went about completing Aurous’ tasks.