I felt my rage build once more. I can overcome death, but if it eats Bob, then he is gone. My first friend since I got here will be taken from me.
I closed my eyes and used the calming effect. I need to act quickly and calmly. I couldn't move, so what could I do?
Wait, I think Mors said it was an unbound undead.
I opened my eyes once again just as the creature was about to bite Bob's head off.
I activated soul steal.
Green flames burst from my eyes. The creature stopped mid chew and seemed to suddenly have an 'oh shit' expression on it's face. It dropped Bob, and started to turn away. Too late you bastard! It had a tremendous soul flame. As it's soul flew inside me the Windigo's body fell lifelessly to the ground.
It's so damn cold here. I hoped the fog would dissipate now that the source of it was gone.
I lay there remaining still for a moment, in case there were any more surprises coming. I could barely move. I crawled my way over to the parts pile and began eating. No matter how rotten I needed to increase my body heat. I feasted on the minuscule amount of flesh that was there.
I looked around, Lina was still frozen to my chest. her soul flowed into me first. I looked over to Bob's small remains and his soul floated over to me. Then I looked at Leera, It had even tried to take her from me. I felt the rage building inside me once more, but I suppressed it. Her soul flew over to me and entered my core.
I closed my eyes while feast passively raised my body temperature.
I talked to Bob's soul.
A green spectral Bob formed before me.
He looked around as if confused. "Boss? What the hell happened?"
I told Bob about what had happened with the windigo, and of his current physical state.
Bob put his hand to his chin. "Damn Boss! That's one messed up way to go."
I informed him that I may not be able to remake him exactly as before but Bob suddenly seemed excited.
"So this thing was actually able to kill everyone, including you, without any of us noticing?" He sounded somehow impressed by the windigo.
"Yeah, my best guess is that it flooded our cave with it's fog, then proceeded to come inside for a snack. I however can be undead as long as it doesn't pierce my core, so I was able to steal it's soul." I gave him my best theory as to how I survived.
Bob seemed to contemplate things for moment before speaking. "Boss, I want you to make a new body for me out of the windigo. I want to be able to kill more than just vermin."
I thought about what Bob was saying. "But what about Lina? Would you abandon her?"
Bob had a sad smile. "I'm sorry Boss, but Lina and I aren't going to work out like that. She's basically my little sis."
Now that I think about it I guess they were made out of the same parts, from the same goblins. I hadn't investigated the windigo corpse yet, so I didn't know what options I had available either.
"Okay Bob, I will see what I can do. You just sit tight here, and I'll make you something awesome."
I closed the soul window. I was glad that Bob survived mostly intact.
I opened my eyes and canceled soul steal.
Most of the fog had started to clear and I was able to move a little better. I crawled over to the windigo corpse.
I thought back on the paradise falcon's body. I was able to guess correctly that it's heart was it's source, but this thing is a lot more complicated.
"Mors, is there any way I can analyze a body to see what parts could grant abilities?"
Mors appeared and seemed to think for a moment.
"There just might be a way master. Try fusing yourself with a part of it, if you do, then I may be able to treat it as if it were your own body create a readout for you."
I moved my finger to the side of the creature's leg. Using my fingernail I cut into it, then fused it to my finger.
"Here is your readout Master."
Notable Parts:
Eyes of the windigo: The eyes of the windigo can sense the life-force of anything they can see enabling the windigo to find the freshest meat.
Abilities Granted:
Life sense: You can see the living or the recently deceased even through thin obstacles.
Coerce Lesser Lifeform: The eyes may be used to passively effect the will of lesser life forms to do your bidding.
Nose of the windigo: The nose has a profound sense of smell. It is extra sensitive to the smell of death.
Abilities Granted:
Profound sense of smell: Passive
You will be able to smell death for miles away if the wind is in your favor.
Lungs of the windigo: The lungs of the windigo actually work in tandem drawing in and exhaling air at the same time. They are not used to breath. They are used to infuse mana into the air.
Abilities Granted:
Mana infusion: By drawing air into your lungs you may infuse it with effects.
Fog generation: By exhaling you can generate a thick fog that carries any infused effects to potential victims.
Heart of the windigo: The windigo's heart is a hard structure and was not be used to circulate blood. It was used instead for mana regeneration and soul storage.
Abilities Granted:
Moderate Mana Regeneration: You will now regenerate mana at a rate of 5 mana per hour.
Natural Soul Storage: This heart is a naturally occurring soul prison, it may house multiple souls. Naturally occurring soul prisons are considered rare and valuable to necromancers.
Stomach of the windigo: The stomach of the windigo can convert what it eats into mana. It also passively absorbs soul fragments, automatically converting them into mana.
Body of the windigo: Windigos are powerful beings. Their strength and resilience is considered to be among the higher ranks of the undead. Their tough emaciated flesh is hard to cut or pierce by normal means. They are known to be one of the most terrifying beings to encounter, though very few live to share what they have seen.
I separated my finger from the windigo.
This is pretty amazing. I'm sorry Bob, but I'm taking a lot of this stuff for myself. I flexed my hand and sat up. It was still daytime outside. Though the cave's floor still felt cold to the touch, things were starting to warm up. I was able to move again.
I decided to get to work.
I activated fleshcrafting.
First I took out it's left eye, then my own. I compared them, It's eye still had a feint glow. I placed the eye into my socket. and activated life sense. I looked around, It was basically like infrared except everything was a shade of yellow. I looked at the rodent carcasses that were spread out around me. The fresher ones had some red on them. I looked at my hand. It was a darker shade of red. With my other eye I could see the yellow glow on my hand. I deactivated life sense, and the glow faded.
I closed my right eye. You never really realize just how dark it is in here without night sight. If daylight wasn't coming from the entrance, then I probably couldn't even see my hand in front of my face. No wonder it seemed to be walking slowly. I closed my eyes and thought about modifying the eye to add night sight. I opened my eyes. Ah that's better. Hmm, wait a minute. An idea struck me. I closed my eyes again and thought about modifying my right eye to add life sense. I blinked my eyes alternating left and right. Yep, I had life sense in both.
I think I was starting to understand how fleshcrafting worked. Anything that was a part of me I immediately had an understanding of. I added coercion to my right eye. Pity I didn't have anything to use it on. I modified what used to be my left eye to have all three abilities and placed it back into the windigo. My eyes were now both glowing. I deactivated life sense and the glow stopped.
I looked at the eye I had placed in the windigo, it was now a deep amber color instead of a sickly yellow.
I looked at the windigo's nose. It was like the nose of an animal in shape but it's skin was pale muddled flesh color. I separated it from the windigo and blended it with my own making it a more pleasant
human shape. I finally had a full nose, and not the nub I had been calling one. I inhaled. Yeah this place definitely smelled like death. Luckily for me my ghoul stomach found that smell to be delicious. I converted the surrounding tissue on the windigo's face to form another nose with all the capabilities similar in shape to mine. I looked for a second. No, this won't do. That perfect human nose on this emaciated half dog and or deer face just doesn't seem right. I sculpted the face inward condensing bone and lengthening teeth. I made the nose a bit more animalistic, this time adding that darker color you might expect to see here.
This thing still looked absolutely horrifying but also a little more natural now.
I needed to streamline this process. Rather than exchanging everything as I had been doing it might be quicker to modify what I already had.
I plunged my spike into the windigo's torso and inserted my entire hand I fused my hand with it's organs and nerves. A thick viscous black substance oozed out. I'm guessing that this is what the windigo used as blood.
I modified my parts to be similar to the windigo's. I changed my stomach to have the windigo's capability to convert what I ate into mana. I still retained my feast ability. The lungs weren't to hard, however I did still want to breath as rotting didn't appeal to me. I wanted the mana generation from the heart but I detested soul prisons. I had no intentions of binding anything. I copied the mana regeneration and converted the windigo's heart to a soft functioning one so it would no longer be a soul prison. I used blend on the windigo's skin to give it an even skin color.
Well, Bob won't like this. It doesn't seem to have any reproductive organs. Hell, I should put him in here like this just to see his reaction. But after laughing to myself for a while I decided that wouldn't be right.
I actually didn't have any flesh to spare to create him anything else however. I also didn't like the bony look of the windigo. I needed to go hunting to get Bob some more parts before I transferred him into this thing. I wanted him to be beefy, or at least to get him some more fat and skin. Most of the windigo's strength came from the fact that it was undead. When I brought it to life it would lose that toughness. Like the difference between steak and beef jerky. I absolutely refused to turn Bob into an undead, as that would bind his will. He would only be a puppet then.
It's time for some upgrades.
I picked Lina up and fused my finger to her abdomen. I gave her the eyes with all capabilities but I made them a bright green color. Her heart was too small to get good mana regeneration but I'm guessing this will give her about half a point per hour. That just wasn't enough for much of anything.
I needed to make her bigger. I guess the easiest thing to use would be Bob's remains. I was letting him have the windigo anyway after I was finished modifying it. I really needed someone to help me with hunting, and Lina was our expert.
I removed my finger from Lina and grabbed Bob's remains. I examined them, he was little more than a head and part of a torso. I felt a sense of loss when I looked at them. This body was something I had made for him. It was how I viewed him in my mind. I had spent time crafting this body, and in an instant my work was destroyed, and my friend was almost taken from me.
I had a relitively disgusting idea. I knew the windigo converted things it ate into mana, but maybe it didn't quite digest all of Bob.
I thrust my spike into the windigo's stomach, and inserted my hand once more. This was becoming a gross habit of mine. I was able to pull out a leg and a bit of wing. The windigo's digestion didn't waste time.
I now had maybe 50% of Bob's body in scattered parts.
I tried combining it together with Lina's body, in the same way that I combined the goblin bodies to make Leera.
Lina was now about eight inches tall. I checked the heart again. It was still not even 1 mana per hour.
I looked around the room. There were several rodent corpses and peices. I gathered those up and placed them into a pile. The parts pile was now more of a bone pile after I made Leera.
Oh god, it was planning to eat Leera! I felt ashamed. I had just mated with her and she had already died in my arms. I hadn't even been here for a full week yet, and I was already failing the woman I loved. Everyone needed to get stronger, especially me.
I felt my hatred creeping back up again. The elder god had responded to my feelings once more. It seemed to say if you've seen enough of this world let's just consume it all. I had to remind myself she was still alive inside me. I would fix her as well, but first I needed to think about how to improve her survivability. Of all of us she was still the most at risk. She was highly visible and her only combat attributes were quickness, agility and minor self healing. This might work if she knew some kind of martial art but I myself didn't even really know how to fight.
I walked over to the parts pile. I saw Etreona's corpse. Bob had eaten most of it from the head to the breast. It was a good thing that Leera had been too busy with me to notice it earlier. That may have been traumatic for her to say the least.
I grabbed the paradise falcon's body and added it to the rodent pile.
I remembered that Mors had informed me that the feathers were sought after. Maybe there was more to these feathers than just the bright colors.
I joined my finger to the bird carcass.
Ah, so that's why. The feathers can gather mana from the air around them passively. With just one paradise falcon's feathers you could practically double your mana regen.
But I couldn't just give the wings to Lina. The wings where quite vibrant. They spanned from a light teal to an eye catching orange. I didn't want her to be a target for hunters while she flew. Nor did I want her to alert any potential prey. I would need to change the colors later.
I also wanted to impart this gift to Leera as it was something she would already be accustomed to.
I pulled out a few red and white feathers to set aside for Leera. I thought it was important that she had parts from her original body instead of replicas.
I used soul steal on the rodent pile. I got another five rodent souls.
I began the slow process of blending everything together. Lina was now at around sixteen inches, thanks mainly to the paradise falcon. She had a wingspan of around three and a half feet.
No, I could do better. I grabbed some additional bone from the parts pile and moved over to the windigo. It just didn't seem right to have to look up to Bob anyway. I would borrow some sections of the windigo. Lina needed to be bigger because we wouldn't be hunting vermin this time.
I got to work fleshcrafting.
Now Lina was around two feet tall. Her wing span was around five feet. Her wings where a combination of bat and bird, but she was missing several feathers. I changed the overall wing color to a midnight black similar to a ravens. I added a few more layers of the mana gathering feathers. Her heart was now larger than the paradise falcon's heart was. It was able to get two mana per hour. She could now potentially cast a few spells a day, with the heart alone. She had a massive mana gathering potential now though with her wings.
I opened the windigo's soul, and clicked on magic.
Curse of sleep: When used the target will feel an almost unfightable drowsiness that will compel them to sleep.
Curse of paralysis: When used, the target will be unable to move for a time.
Cold infusion: An primal form of cold magic that does not rely on water. This is mainly observed in powerful forms of the undead such as the Lich. It is often used as a method to prevent decay. In ice golems it prevents melting. In traditional magic, this would be used in conjunction with water magic to create Ice constructs for offensive purposes.
Looking at the windigo's magic made a shiver run down my spine. I remembered that morning fog and how everyone got tired. It basically put everyone to sleep, paralyzed them, then let the cold kill us all. No wonder so few see the windigo and live. It must seem like they were spirited away.
Even I could have died. If I hadn't been sleeping with Leera and Lina at the back of
the cave I would have been frozen solid and unable to do anything. I can't be paralyzed in undead form, but I have a weakness to cold since I have to consciously raise my body temperature in that mode. Leera and Lina's body heat and my distance was the only reason I was able to move at all.
I dragged Curse of paralysis onto Lina's soul.
I modified her new bone spikes to have mana infusion in the acid injectors. So now she could add effects when she stabbed something.
I blended her skin to remove all the blotches from where I had to improvise here and there. I smoothed out her muscle and pulled more from the windigo to bulk up her legs a bit. She now had Talons, thanks to the paradise falcon, instead of claws.
I hadn't spent enough time on her before and now that I knew more of her personality I could do more for her.
I changed her hair color to light grey, I lengthened it once more to her shoulders though kept it shorter in the back. I darkened her skin a bit, now making it more of a slate color. I wanted to make her face more girly, but I wished to keep her sharp features.
"Mors, a little help here. Use what I know about amazons to make her face as striking and attractive as you can."
"Yes master, just a moment."
Mors took control of me and moved at inhuman speeds. pulling tiny pieces of muscle and skin from the windigo, and using what she could from the rodents.
I regained control of myself.
"Thank you Mors."
Sometimes Mors seems too quiet.
Lina now had low perfectly squared hairline. Her eyebrows were bushy and short, but well shaped. Her eyes were perfectly proportioned for her face. Her cheeks and nose where kept sharp, yet womanly. Her lips had been darkened and smoothed and her chin ended in a soft point.
She now had the sort of face that could be described as cool when in a neutral expression, sexy if she looked you in the eyes and terrifying if she was angry.
As a sort of mean joke I decided that since she had a habit of blushing and not expressing herself much, I would add more capillaries, and thicken them. Now her blushing would be on a whole new level. Yep, I won't be telling her about this addition.
Deathcreator Book One: A Flesh Golem's Ascension Page 10
