133 Python Chimeras

Espers lined up in front of Ed, waiting their turns for the chimera transformation. Tai chose to wait to the side, hoping for a stronger python mutant to be captured.

Oh, right." Ed slapped his forehead before starting. "Tai, what percentage of mutant flesh do you want me to give them?"

"Percentage?" Tai questioned.

"Right." He nodded. "The higher the percent, the greater the abilities. But the trade-off is the effect on your emotional state. From my experience with the crocodile chimeras, 50 percent will typically leave a chimera with a nice balance where they can utilize scales with emotions heightened to a manageable degree. 80 percent results in additional changes, such as claws, tails, and strong healing abilities, but it also causes issues for holding onto your sanity. 90 percent is even more extreme and allows the body to bulk up, grow fangs, and experience extreme levels of rage."

"That..." Tai hesitated, unsure of which level to select. "What do you suggest?" He asked.

"Well, cultivating the Mortal Dragon Technique seemed to help me control my emotions better, allowing me a higher level of control. Purple mana actually allowed me to fully control the transformations while removing all side effects. So, if it's an esper with no cultivation, then 50 percent is the ideal maximum. The rest is pretty much your own judgement call."

"Alright." Tai nodded while eyeing his espers. He pointed several Asians out of the group. "These are the only ones that have cultivated before, so give them 80 percent. The rest shall get 50 percent, and I'll naturally do 90 percent."

"Sure you can handle it?" Ed grinned.

"Of course!" Tai confidently pounded his fist against his chest. "Just wait and see!"

"Alright." He chuckled. He lifted his fingers up to his mouth and whistled.

Hearing the whistle, Tao scurried out from somewhere nearby. He was in his shrunken form, and he hurriedly climbed up Ed's body to rest on his shoulder.

"Tao, prepare to control the ones that go berserk." He ordered.

Tao nodded, seeming to eagerly await his chance to show off in front of the espers.

Ed set to work, melting the blue python flesh and fusing it into the first esper's body, replacing the human flesh a little bit at a time. 'Good, it's much easier than in the past.' He smiled. Not only did he save time by not needing to do mana infusions on espers like he did with ordinary humans, he also met no resistance as the esper naturally retracted his own mana during the process.

Several minutes passed, and the esper's eyes began turning vertical. Soon, blue scales covered his entire body.

Ed stopped and examined the man, satisfied with his work.

"ROARRR!!!" The man lost control of himself as he swiped towards Ed. Right at that moment, Tao glared at him and released a threatening growl. The man stopped mid-swing, and his eyes returned to normal.

"Good job, Tao." Ed reached up and rubbed Tao's head. 'Good to know that Tao's ability works on non-crocodile chimeras as well.'

The esper stared as his hands as he repeatedly closed and opened them. Then he began retracting the scales before releasing them again. "Amazing." He sighed in awe at his newfound strength.

"Yes, yes. I know I am." Ed waved his hand dismissively. "You're holding up the line. Shoo."

The man didn't argue as he left the line, and so the chimera transformations continued.

Weeks passed, and each day Ed spent time removing mana from Camazotz while also creating new chimeras. Soon, he finished both tasks. Almost every esper had been made into a chimera, including Tai. The only difference was that Tai had been unsatisfied with the ordinary pythons and had chosen to go hunting himself. As a result, he managed to hunt a strong red python that was only a few meters long. This made Tai the odd one in the bunch, as he was the only one with red scales compared to his crew's blue scales. Other than Tai, Rubi and her sister had both refused the transformations, though Ed still hadn't met the mysterious sister wherever she was on board the ship.

With the ordinary chimeras finished, it was time to use Camazotz's body. Tai and Ed were in a private room. Rubi stood guard just outside as an extra precaution.

"I'll be going first then." Ed decided.

"Fine." Tai nodded. "But don't forget to take a look at Haru and Hina after. I've been having an esper keep them healthy all this time, but Rubi is losing her patience."

"Sure." He agreed. He had just been too busy over the past month to bother getting to it as of yet. Reaching towards Camazotz's body, he began melting the fangs, as well as various pieces of flesh it connected to. As far as he knew, the various nerves and tissues he took were responsible for the manufacture of the liquid the fangs produced. If he was wrong, then he would have truly lost out on the trade. Condensing the fangs and flesh down to an incredibly small size, he began fusing it into his own teeth and surrounding flesh. The process was much slower than the other chimera operations he had done, and it took him nearly two hours to finish. "How is it?" He questioned Tai.

"You look exactly the same." Tai frowned. "Try transforming?"

"Alright." Ed nodded as scales covered his body. His canine grew sharper and longer as he did so, jutting out past his mouth like vampire fangs. "How is it?" His voice awkwardly asked, sounding muffled due to the unfamiliar fangs.

"Pfft!" Tai hurriedly covered his mouth to stifle his laughter. His trembling hand gave a thumbs up as his voice sounded unusually high-pitched. "You look great, man! Every girl's dream!"

"Oh, shut up." He frowned as he undid the transformation. Next, he started work on one of the wings, transforming it into a smaller set of wings. This took him even longer, the process lasting several hours. Fortunately, the wings were large enough that he had plenty of material to work with. When he was done and activated his chimera form, two dark purple wings appeared from his back. They traveled the entire length of his body from his feet to his head. They were also large enough to easily enclose most of his body defensively. As he tried flapping them, strong gusts of wind shot into Tai's face. "Not bad." He smiled while staring mockingly as Tai.

"Alright, you've had your fun." Tai snorted. "My turn. Same as last time with the red python. Don't even think of trying anything funny with my body!"

"Relax, I'm not interested in dudes." Ed joked. It seemed he was starting to pick up bits and pieces of Dupe's humor due to his extended absence. Repeating the process he had just done, he gave Tai an identical pair of wings. The tail followed next, and similar to the fangs, he had to extract a series of flesh that was related to it, and it was even more complicated in comparison. By the time he finished, most of Camazotz's body had been used up.

Tai activated his chimera form, red scales covering his body. A demonic whip-like tail waved behind him, as did two dark purple bat wings. He examined his body carefully.

"Feel like a dragon yet?" Ed asked.

"More like a demon if anything." Tai sighed while shaking his head. "Why'd you end up using so much of the bat?"

"No choice." He replied. "Camazotz absorbed powers and stored them in his body. I don't know exactly how it worked, but that tail was connected to just about every organ and muscle in his body. It was a freaken nightmare recreating the work in your body."

"I see." He nodded while test shooting his tail out in different directions. "I'll have to give it a try when I get the chance."

"Alright." Ed yawned. "I'll go look at the brats now. They're in the ward, right?"

"Mm." Tai nodded absentmindedly as he continued testing his new abilities.

Ed left the room, not wishing to bother him any further.

"Finally ready?!" Rubi questioned excitedly as she saw Ed exit the room.

"Mm." He nodded. "But don't get your hopes up. More likely than not, I can't save them."

"I know, I know. Hurry up." She urged as she walked ahead of him.

'Rubi really acts differently than I first expected.' He sighed to himself as he followed. He had expected her to be a crude barbarian, and in some ways, he was completely right. But at the same time, she was extremely caring and emotional. Frankly, she was the type of woman he disliked most. Strong and emotional, a winning combo for frequent violence.

Entering a wooden room with many white beds, there were only two patients inside. Haru and Hina were about as different as possible. One was a rich government official's granddaughter and looked rather ordinary. The other was a newly awakened esper with odd eye and hair color, and his fate had been stolen from him. But now, they were both unconscious victims of the larger powers that be, and it seemed their hope for survival was grim.

"Let's see..." Ed lazily took a look, not particularly caring whether he could save them or not. They weren't people he knew, and he didn't want to waste much time on them. "Oh?" His eyes widened in surprise, a spark of interest appearing within them. 'Interesting. How the hell are they even still alive? Is it due to Camazotz's weird powers?'

Shockingly, both Hina and Haru only had half a mana-core each. Each half was made of a mix of white, yellow, and blue, indicating the light, earth, and water elements.

"They really should be dead already..." Ed muttered under his breath unconsciously.

"What?!" Rubi replied in shock.

"Ah." Ed shook himself from his thoughts, remembering Rubi was still there. "I've experimented on mana-cores a lot in the past. I'm probably one of the most experienced espers in that field in the entire world thanks to OP Baldy's support at the time. Mana-cores are extremely fragile things. A slight modification will easily shatter them, as will improper artificial growth or even a small crack. Amazingly, both of these kids only have half a mana-core."

"Can you save them?" Rubi bit her lip in nervousness while rubbing her long spiky red hair.

"I doubt it." Ed sighed while shaking his head. "There is a very slight chance, but the odds are slim. Also, whichever one I operate on first is significantly more likely to die. Choose one."

"What?" She replied in confusion.

"Choose." He repeated while pointing at them. "Haru or Hina. Which one is first and therefore, more likely to die?"

Rubi's body trembled as she nervously glanced back-and-forth between the two. Gritting her teeth, she mumbled. "Hina first."

"Hina?" He nodded. "Funny, I figured you'd choose her 2nd since you have a little sister."

"Haru is the bigger victim in this." She sighed while shaking her head. "After all, Hina's part of the family that caused this." She left the room, unwilling to watch what was about to happen.

Now alone, Ed grinned. "You hear that, Hina? She chose you first simply because of your birth. All of this despite you both being victims of the Prime Minister's trickery." He sighed while shaking his head. "Well, I'll try my best to save you, but we'll just have to see how things go." He glanced at Haru. "I wonder how the Haru feels about all this? Is he happy to know you might sacrifice yourself for him? Does he resent and blame you for his current situation? Or does he wish to be the hero and go first, but can't speak the works to let me know?"

Unbeknownst to Rubi, Ed had made a surprising discovery during his probes. Both Hina and Haru were actually conscious and could hear everything happening around them. Other than a healing esper, only Rubi had regularly visited this room during the past month, and who knows what she had said during that time. Though Ed had agreed to the deal to attempt healing them, he was still peeved over the initial attempt at force she had used. And so, this was his passive aggressive revenge. How great would it be if the children resented the woman that did everything she could to save them? How great would it be if he, the man that didn't even care about saving them was instead viewed as the good guy. Much like when he put on the mask of Forge, he reveled in this type of deceit. Granted, he had changed in recent times. He now truly valued Harmony and treated them well. Perhaps, deep down, he also wanted to help the kids, but there was just no ridding himself of his rotten personality entirely.

Getting to work, Ed pulled out a series of flasks containing various mana-powders he had collected from the pythons and other mutants the espers had killed over the last month. He easily turned off Hina's pain receptors and melted a hole in her head, exposing her half-formed mana-core to the world. It was even more unusual considering it looked like a mana-core that had been cut directly down the middle, as opposed to a mana-core that was simply too small.

'How am I even supposed to fix this?' He frowned as he examined the mana-core in more detail. It probably needs to match the original exactly, but I don't have access to the original...' He turned to look at Haru. 'Ah, that will work I suppose.' He pushed Haru's bed close to Hina's. Then he turned off Haru's pain receptors and melted a hole in his head as well.

'Yup.' Ed nodded to himself. Haru's half of the mana-core looked like the matching puzzle piece to Hina's half. He carefully loaded mana-powder into a needle-like syringe. Then he began injecting the powder onto Hina's mana-core, carefully matching the half that Haru had. Slowly, the mana-core grew larger and rounder. It was as if he was sculpting backwards, adding bits and pieces back into a perfect sphere as opposed to taking parts out. Or perhaps it was more similar to building a sand castle that quickly grew solid. Sweat covered his forehead as he continued, but his hands held steady.

After several hours, he sighed in relief as he finished the final step. But right at that moment, a strong blast of mana shot out from Hina's body.