Chương 6: Shard

"Did it work!" Mike jumped up from the stool and loomed over the shard. No one except the owner of the shard could read the record, yet in Mike's eyes its presence itself was a great feat.

"It did, I've gained a new ability," Kayzen spoke while staring at his skin. He didn't see anything with his eyes, yet he felt as if tiny currents of Ether were flowing throughout his body. Before the descent of akashic records, the warlocks would need to research and explore to figure out their ability. Now, Kayzen could just read the shard to get a general idea. Rank: Low Pain resistance: Suppresses pain receptors throughout the body by channelling Ether. Minor increase in tenacity and natural recovery.

Mike stored the remaining carcass into the disposable bags while Kayzen talked about the new shard. It turned out that Mike had an ability where he could use alchemy and give special abilities to armaments.

"Let's grab some breakfast before we start working on the fiend?" Kayzen's question earned a heavy nod from Mike. The latter was starving after all the strenuous work he had done since early morning. BAAAANG"Damn, Ruzgar's knocking on your window," Mike kicked away the fallen window frame and moved towards the balcony, but a hand on his shoulder stopped him.

"I'm afraid it's—" Kayzen didn't get the chance to finish his sentence. Beetles, Birds, Butterflies… those who used to make mornings beautiful had now become harbingers of death. The screams of fleeing people and hisses of monsters broke the momentary calm.

"I'll go help with the siege weapons."

"Be careful," Kayzen waved Mike off and once again turned on the totem-like object. The ward was up. He knew his strengths and weaknesses; both of the shards he had were auxiliary in nature. Pain resistance might seem useless at a glance, but that was what Kayzen needed the most at the moment. In order to survive in the apocalyptic era he would need to push his mind and body to their limits.

'There's no way I can extract the records from the dead fiend, not with my current records and knowledge on hex.' Tusks, Brain matter, oesophagus, wings, stomach, and most importantly, the fiend core. These were all the parts he had collected from the corpse. The rest was blood and chunks of flesh collected in three large tubs.

'Observe, Analyze, Improvise. Everything could be a weapon….' Under the pressure of survival, what he had learned at the academy integrated with the knowledge he had gained about the Shaper of Hex. Suddenly, his eyes lit up as he noticed a box of glass ampoules on the shelf. They were thumb sized containers used to store reactive chemicals, a perfect fit for what he had in mind.

He picked up the box and turned on the burner, shoving the intact organs to the side and placing the three beakers of blood and flesh near the counter. If this was him before getting the pain resistance then he would have been out of breath, but not now. With Ether blocking his pain receptors and increasing his tenacity, he was on the same level of those like Mike. At least when it came to endurance. Kayzen stretched his fingers and activated the shard for record extraction.

At this moment, he didn't care what was happening outside his lab. The scent of fire and screams of monsters didn't faze him whatsoever. He dipped his hand into the beaker and tapped into the flow of Ether. The blood of the fiend was thick red and filled with vitality, which made the process a bit easier.

'The requirement of source is complete. Now, the medium.' This was the part that separated hex and curses. A warlock who focused on curse could just use their ability by targeting an area of a lifeform.

'I cannot do that.' The requirements for using a hex were strict. The source and a medium were absolute minimum requirement. The source was the blood of the fiend class, or to be specific, its ability to suck blood. Kayzen was unable to get that ability since his records were lower than the monster. If he attempted to create a shard with that then it would be his records that would be assimilated instead. And if he couldn't assimilate with them, then neither could the bugs and other animals.

When the records of the fiend class were inserted into those rampaging outside, wouldn't they turn into puddles of blood? Kayzen wasn't sure of the outcome, but at the very least there was something he could do. If nothing else worked then just the hemotoxins present in the blood would be a good weapon. He waved his hands in precise motion and engraved the ampoules with a pentagonal mark. After half an hour he had a hundred containers of his hex. What about the medium?

This was where his knowledge in genetics came into play. He didn't have to visit every monster and get their blood, hair, skin, etc. to use a hex. That would be too impractical.

'Just getting the genome of one of their kind would suffice.' Regardless of which race, they all shared a common genetic sequence with others of their species. Even after their mutation that principle shouldn't change. What Kayzen wanted to do was isolate and use that common DNA as the medium. As for what would happen next, he would just have to figure that out. Kayzen wrapped the box with cloth and grabbed a bottle of water as well as some dried jerky and glucose.

This time he didn't deactivate the ward since he didn't want his lab to be ravaged by the flying creatures. Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. As soon as he exited the tower, a thick scent of fire burned his nose. The iron drains which should be filtering dry leaves were now dripping with blood. Kayzen hardened his resolve and made a run for the area where plumes of smoke were rising up. Fire meant resistance.

What other weapon did mortals have to fight against the monsters? His feet felt heavy even though he had gained pain resistance. The weight of death wasn't something Ether could suppress.

'Better focus on what I can do…' A torn limb on the stony path caught his eye. Judging from the shape it should've belonged to a house cockroach. Kayzen took a small sample of its gooey blood and moved on to the next street. So far he hadn't seen any living beings in the area. Judging from the crossbow bolts stuck on the cockroach's leg, it looked like the town guards had swept through this section. It made sense. Since the Eikon herself was here it was safer to group around her first and then rescue the others.

Greenford couldn't afford losing any more manpower. Street after street passed by as Kayzen reached the familiar northern district. The frequency of human blood and monster corpses kept increasing as he arrived at less than hundred feet away from the closest smoke pillar. Here, the street was filled with an iridescent powder that was glittering under the three suns. It would've been a pleasant sight if not for the air that smelled like burnt copper. Almost reflexively, Kayzen put on the plague mask he had bought.

'It's poisonous.' One part of him was glad to find something he could weaponize. Another part became even more anxious since the monsters, likely butterflies, possessed means of a large-scale attack. It didn't bode well for the town. Now it became all the more apparent why the fires were still going on.

"Bwaaaaa…Mom! Wake upppp!" Kayzen gripped his fists until blood started dripping down his wrists. He knew people were dying. There was nothing he could do about it. And yet, he couldn't remain unfazed upon looking at the little girl who was clinging to her mother's corpse.

"Here, drink some."

"M-Mommy…"

"There there, she has gone to meet the seven. You wouldn't want to make her sad, right?" Kayzen patted the girl's back and let her drink some dextrose solution. His chest clamped even more as he recognized the freckled kid. She lived two streets away from him and often played around Mrs. Anna's shop.

"Will she come back?"

"Yes, when you grow up. Now, follow me, alright?" Kayzen nudged the girl forward and walked towards an intact house. He didn't know much about coaxing a child, but fortunately, the girl was young enough to believe his words.

"Stay here, alright? Don't make any noise. Wait until other uncles come to take you home."

"B-but our home is gone… uwaaaa… a-a butterfly crushed it," the girl who had barely calmed down started sobbing once again. Kayzen had to spend the next few minutes calming her down before she hid away behind a daub wall. He collected the dust, a curtain-like wing that was on another street, and went back to the tower. All along the way he didn't take a second look at the surroundings. He didn't dare to. The only thoughts left in his mind were how to kill as many airborne monsters as possible.

The Eikon of Nir wasn't well suited to target flying creatures. The trebuchets were unsuitable as well. As for the regular arrows, how could they match evolved monsters? The raging flames were the only thing that was keeping the flying bugs away from the residential areas. The biggest threat right now were the butterflies who could attack from afar with their poisonous dust. The first thing Kayzen did upon reaching the lab was a repeat of yesterday's process.

He separated samples from the butterfly and proceeded to extract their DNA. While the process was underway, he drank the leftover dextrose solution and gathered what he needed for the next part. The jerky he had bought from the expedition group, wood ash, a can of water, sugar, and a flask of ammonia. These were what he would need to lure the butterflies here.

'Judging from the dust, they are likely to be males.' Kayzen began crushing the jerky under mortar and pestle. People often assumed butterflies lived on flower nectar, but that wasn't exactly true. Nectar which only provided sugar wasn't enough for them, especially for the males who released pheromones to attract their mate. They needed salt, nitrogen, and other building blocks to release their 'dust'. This led to their scavenging behaviour where they hovered around dead and decaying matter.

'Good thing I took some ash from the alchemy tower.' The jerky was meant to be stored for a long time, yet now he wanted it to rot within half an hour. He poured sugary water in the cauldron and threw the minced jerky inside. While the cauldron was heating up by the flames, the gel was done separating the DNA fragments. Kayzen moved from one table to another and handled both tasks. With prior experiments a reference he easily isolated the fuzzy DNA from the butterfly. Now was the most crucial part.

Both source and medium were there. Theoretically, this was all he needed to use hex on every butterfly on Greenford or even beyond. The problem was Ether. Even if he made the hex, he needed to make contact with the target via Ether. This was the whole reason he was preparing the lure. He didn't even think of the delusional idea of throwing ampoules at the butterfly. That would be both inefficient and suicidal. One after another the glass ampoules were sealed under the burner's flames.

Kayzen's hands glowing with crimson aura acted as a bridge that connected the blood of both species. By the time he was done with all hundred samples, the lab had become full of a sticky, foul smell.

'All done.' Kayzen closed his eyes and recalled what he had seen so far. The broken streets, the bloody drains, and the braided girl who might be crying even now.

'I'm going to kill them. All of them.' He wrapped his hands with a clean cloth and put on the rubber gloves. There was an alternative, but nothing seemed more satisfying than crushing the monsters with his own hands. The protective halo faded away as Kayzen deactivated the ward. He placed the cauldron near the window and poured the liquid ammonia into the tar-like substance. Immediately, a blast of rotten air hit him right in the face. Even with the mask on the stench was too much to bear.

Yet it was this that drew in the butterflies from all over the Greenford. One after another the images of cart sized monsters were reflected in Kayzen's red eyes. He held the ampoules with his gloved hand and reached out with the other. As evident by the name, a Shaper had the ability to shape a certain element. He tapped into the ever-flowing Ether and changed its nature to accommodate and spread his Hex. 100 meters… 50 meters… 20 meters…

As soon as the first butterfly arrived within 10 meters of the window, Kayzen felt his Hex connect with the target. The ampoule in his hand seemed to throb like a beating heart as an intangible string of Ether connected the source, medium, and target. This was the first time he was using his class in the truest sense.

"Skreeeeeee" The butterfly let out an ear piercing shriek as soon as Kayzen crushed one ampoule. Its eyes burst apart, and so did every blood vessel in its overgrown body.

'What I'm holding are a hundred lives.' Kayzen flicked his hand and watched the butterflies fall one after another. With every snap of his finger it seemed as if blood was escaping from their bodies. It didn't matter whether they came alone or in groups of five or ten. Not a single one managed to get within ten feet of the tower. Those who were hiding in their homes looked at the tower swarmed by the butterflies. In the eyes of commoners the five towers were as high as the heavens.

And at this moment, the heavens were showing their wrath.