Chapter 141: Experiments

Chapter 141: Experiments

I kept an eye on the Ariel girl as she headed to the land of the vampires. My fliers were tailing her and I was tracking her through my intelligence network. I already had extensive intelligence on the troop movements of the vampires and they were most definitely going for the Zarimans. They even had a diversionary strike prepared for the elves to lower the Zariman’s guard. This would work quite well to my advantage as with one of their armies stacked against the elves I could wipe out a small piece for free.

I already had four hives in the region so I could strike at anytime. But a direct strike into their terrain would be dangerous since the land there was tainted. All that cursed ether would slow down and reduce the effectiveness of my troops. So I wanted to lure them into the golden sands of Zarima where I would have the advantage. But the chance to wipe out the small army that was attacking the elves was still too good to pass up.

So the plan was that I would hit the two armies simultaneously, then I would launch a blitzkrieg counter attack into the vampire lands. If I can maintain the momentum I should be able to end the war rather quickly.

As for Ariel, she set out right after our little agreement. The terms were ironed out and the specifics were quite equitable for all parties involved. This treaty was extremely transactional based on self interest, in other words it was the kind I liked the most. For there was nothing more honest than self interest.

The angels will leave me and Cecilia alone and we would be allowed to develop our rather substantial part of the world in whatever way we desire. Of course within certain limitations.

The limitations of course were just nothing that hampered the interests of the Seraphim. I could kill the Ostayans, slaughter the Vampires, finish off the Orcs. I could plunge an entire species into the jaws of extinction but I was not allowed to attack Divonia. I was not allowed to take explicit actions against the other worshippers of the Seraphim. Unless of course I could make a convincing argument as to why that would be beneficial for both parties.

Say for example if Divonia has actually fallen to the demons it would be perfectly ok if I launched a campaign against them. After I consult with the angels of course. Currently the situation was basically the Averlonian Empire and Heaven were in a rather tense alliance. Kind of like two people sitting at a table enjoying a dinner while pointing guns at each other under the table.

In retrospect the Seraphim really were full of shit as far as their persona as benevolent rulers were concerned. They were actually ok with us just swiping the entirety of Zarima if we also made sure that the Vampires would never threaten the world again.

On one hand it was a highly rational decision, in their minds the vampires were an extremely powerful foe. In all fairness they were very powerful, they would probably be the most powerful force I have ever faced up until this point. All the human nations thus far were closer to toy soldiers rather than an actual army. They have grown too soft under the protection of the Seraphim. The real foes I would have to face in this world were those that never enjoyed the protection of the Seraphim.

So if I were to fight such a powerful foe, I would simultaneously bleed myself and wipe out the vampires. The course of the war would also damage Zarima to the point the land would be rather useless. Thus in the Seraphim’s mind they were giving me effectively nothing to remove the Vampires. However, this plan would only work if defeating the Vampires was actually difficult for me.

Honestly, I feel it wouldn’t be that hard. Thanks to the stuff I got in the vaults and with Malegaros now in my employ my hive’s power has roughly tripled. The part of Hivebrood Prime that everyone was aware of now constituted only about a third of the Brood’s true power. I now had some of the horrors of the Old World at my disposal.

On the flip side if I show my true power it would tip off the Seraphim to what I can do. So the best course of action would be to straddle the line. Make it just easy enough that it would seem like a mildly challenging fight, while at the same time making it seem like I was hiding something. Well I was hiding a lot of things...

“My king, are you available for a consultation?” I heard the rough voice of Malegaros say to my right. I looked up to see his pale white body crawling ominously on the ceiling. His long centipede like body was arrayed on the fleshy ceiling while two of his tentacles held a human body in one and an orb in the other.

“Is it about the Gene Seed?” I asked and he nodded in response.

“Very well let me see it.” I said as I moved away and picked up the new toy I was making. I had some interesting ideas for improving myself. In fact I took a leaf out of the humans book. I couldn’t transform myself easily since I had to put on a front for the angels. But I could make weapons to offset that problem. So this toy in my hand was simply a custom gun I made using my flesh crafting and artificer skills. Afterall no one expects something like me to pull a gun on them. Usually this would be a crappy solution to my combat problems but given the circumstances the sheer shock factor could give me an advantage.

“Any success?” I asked as we headed for the experimentation room.

“A serviceable specimen is available, but further improvements are required. The human template lacks power but its flexibility allows for easy experimentation.” Malegaros replied as he continued to scuttle along the ceiling.

“Have you tried Draveberone? The one found in Lizardkin males.” I mused and I saw Malegaros paused as if thinking.

“Yes, then I can work. Lizardkin do not have a different hormone as compared to the Draconians, they just have less of it.” Malegaros said with a nod.

“Also this might help.” I said as I reached into my pocket dimension and pulled out a small vial filled with a clear liquid.

“You might have to analyze this.” I said as I floated the vial over to Malegaros.

“What is this?” Malegaros asked as he grasped the vial and gazed at the clear liquid.

“I have isolated Factor H.” I said and I saw Malegaros turn to look at me in shock.

The humanoid family of creatures were united by a specific line of code in their essence. It was named Factor H by the Eternal Mother. It was an extremely unstable line of code since it changes constantly. From my memories every Firstborn knew it but I never got the actual code since none of the Firstborn viewed it as particularly important. Due to them downplaying the significance it never got transferred. Afterall I only get the memories that the target views as significant.

It wasn’t that hard to crack this problem, at least for me. I could tell this was beyond the likes of Malegaros but it was child's play for me. This line code is bound by a type of frequency that could be used if you had the “key”.

An extremely over simplified example would be that if the key was +1+2+3+1 then if applied to the base code of 0000 it would result in 1231, while a base code of 1562 would result in 2793. Thus with the key I could reverse engineer the essence by finding the base code. This key kept the humanoids just close enough in terms of traits thanks to this common key but yet allowed flexibility in traits. So the key made it so that no matter how much the line of code changes it will still keep an underlying commonality to it. It was an interesting system since it disallowed certain base codes that acted as restrictions. So for example if the key had a +9 on one digit then the base code must always be 0.

However the sheer complexity of the codes and the key made it so that only a Firstborn or a creature specifically designed for this function can handle it. Attempting to create a humanoid. or alter a humanoid genome from scratch without the ability or key would cause catastrophic errors. Such as the mess in front of me...

I asked Malegaros to do this, so that we could gain more insight into the human template but I knew it would only be complete with this Factor H. However, I felt the testosterone hormone was inferior so I was hoping to find an alternative. Testosterone had a tendency to cause an uncontrollable rage when put in large enough quantities. So an alternative was needed, I zeroed in on the Draconian hormone that allowed for a far cooler form of rage. One that was more controllable.

“Thank you my king, I should make great progress with this. I assume you will continue the female variant of the Gene Seed personally?” Malegaros asked.

“Of course, I cannot trust Project Queen to anybody by myself.” I said as I turned away from Malegaros.

“Keep me updated, there is no rush, we have months to perfect it. As far as we are concerned that is all the time in the world.” I said as I headed out of the room but paused at the door.

“Do not disappoint me, you have proved useful in repeating what you already know. This will be your true challenge. Let’s see if you can tame the legacy of the Watchers.” I said and I sensed the fire of ambition burning in Malegaros’s mind.

“I will do more than tame it, my king...” Malegaros said with a bow.

I will usurp it...