775 Give a hand

He grabs Quelaag before teleporting to the Igni Place of Power and sitting cross-legged on the small island amidst the lava pond, gesturing for Quelaag to take a seat next to him on the ground.

Quelaag "Erm, why are we here?" she asks, trying to hide her nervous twitches.

Reima gives her a weird look, "Didn't we just talk about it?" he questions.

...

Quelaag "You're doing it now?"

Reima nods, retrieving the Transposing Kiln and Morwenna's soul. "Best to see if Vampire's souls can be made into anything useful..." he says, channelling souls into the Kiln to get it started.

Quelaag "Anything I can do to help?"

Reima "No, not really... Just make sure nothing bothers me while I'm doing this." he says, leaning over the Kiln that currently has a mini-tornado of energy swirling within it.

The black soul of Morwenna rests on his palm as he continues preparing the Kiln, all the while wondering what might be created from it... Once ready he gently drops the soul into the eye of the mini-tornado, watching it get sucked into the Kiln as the energy slowly begins turning black.

Quelaag watches as the black energy slowly comes to a halt, settling into a puddle of what looks like ordinary oil... Reima's face is still locked in a look of concentration, meaning that the process hadn't finished or failed...

Suddenly, something erupts from the Kiln, a staff? It's about 6ft and is completely black... Reima comes to and stands up to examine the staff, and upon closer inspection, he grimaces... The staff is made from numerous interlocking pitch-black hands that make up the entirety of it.

Reima "The fuck is this creepy ass thing..." he mutters, gingerly holding it.

Quelaag "Does it do anything?" she asks from the side, having not noticed the hands yet.

Reima looks it up and down but doesn't discover any way to activate an ability, deciding to do a few Kata's with it to see it's strength and durability... After slamming it as hard as possible into a Titanite slab, he determines that it isn't any weaker than a weapon made from it.

Aside from that, it seems that it's just a regular Bo staff... Even if its aesthetic is slightly unnerving... After finishing the Kata's he spins it over his head and slams the butt of it onto the floor.

*CHINK!*

Suddenly the staff Reima's wielding separates into its base components... 30 hands start flying around him, though, none seem to be doing anything...

Quelaag tumbles backwards from where she was sitting as the hands start orbiting Reima. "W-what is that!" she exclaims.

...

Quelaag "M-maybe you can make them do things?" she questions.

Reima slowly nods before pointing at the Titanite slab he'd been using for testing earlier. Not a word needed to be spoken as the hands immediately swarm at the slab, once they reach it they start punching and pummeling it without mercy...

They both watch on in morbid fascination as the hands continue assaulting the slab, not letting up until Reima finally speaks, "Er... Bring it to me." he states, the hands reacting to his voice and grabbing the slab before carrying it over to him.

Quelaag "It seems useful..." she mutters, thinking up a variety of things it could be used for.

Reima nods, "The hands are almost unbreakable and would be a huge distraction to anyone you are fighting. But..."

Quelaag "Do you have anymore Vampire souls?"

Reima nods, "Yeah... Let's use them aswell, see if we can get anything that isn't... This." he says shoving the Staff of Morwenna into his Folded Space.

Again, Reima sits down in-front of the Kiln, dropping a single Higher Vampire soul into it with the hope of finding something useful against Vampires.

The energy settles and he reaches his hand in, retrieving a pointy wooden stick... A white stake to exact... It has strange intricate runes of an unknown origin carved along it, and it gives off a faint unattributed magical energy passively...

Reima eyes it, "Hmm, well... It's a stake, so it must be useful against Vampires... Right?"

Quelaag shrugs, "It's unfortunate there isn't any Vampires around to test it on."

Reima "It's fine... I'll get a chance to test it pretty soon if all goes well." he says, storing it in his Folded Space and continuing the same process with the around 10 other Higher Vampire souls he has in his possession...

[Eleven White Stakes Acquired!]

...

Quelaag "Maybe this is what regular Higher Vampire souls always turn into?" she questions.

Reima shakes his head, "All souls are unique... There must be a reason as to why they all ended up the same..."

Quelaag "Well then, if it isn't the soul's, wouldn't it be your fault?"

...

Reima sighs, "Yeah, probably... Let's just hope that these stakes can be used for something, if not I might just have Regis eat all the Vampires we come across to be efficient." he thinks aloud, though whether Regis would agree to such a thing would be another matter entirely.

Quelaag "If you need someone capable of permanently killing Higher Vampires, why don't you retrieve your rabbit?"

Reima shakes his head, "Rissa? I was thinking about it earlier, but unless we really need her, I don't want to interrupt her education... With Alucard gone, she should be enjoying a relatively peaceful school life with her friends." he says, standing and presenting a hand to Quelaag. "It's late, you should get some sleep. I'll take you to your room."

Quelaag shakes her head, "I'll go sleep in the Chaos Temple, I haven't spoken to Lana in a while..."

Reima nods and blinks away, leaving Quelaag still standing in the middle of the lava pond.

Quelaag "Hmm... He could have at least taken me to the other side, the maid outfit will burn..."