Bab 61: 60: Star Child: Dunes of Tolapo XXI
"Can you control the rest of the sonic vipers?" Astrid asked looking down at me.
[Can you?] I asked then froze as I realized that I wasn't just thinking the words in the faint hope that Bone-lasher would pick them up. My mind was connected to the ascended and Bone-lasher now.
[Weak…heal.] The ascended viper's words slithered into my mind. They were faint and barely audible.
[Rest then…I'll try and heal you.] I responded then looked up at Astrid.
"No. The ascended is weak and heavily injured." I replied. Astrid sighed loudly then motioned for me to climb up to her.
"That spell only last a hour. You've only been out of it for a few moments but I'd rather be away from here before they get up." Astrid said.
"Good point…" I said. I started channeling volt mana into my legs and ran at the nearest wall and jumped at it and kicked off it, landing onto the cliff beside Astrid….and slipped on a rock and landed flat on my face.
Astrid snickered and looked away, covering her face. I groaned and rolled onto my back and rubbed my nose. I shot Astrid a glare as I sat up and looked up at the hole in the ceiling. Light was still streaming down from the open skies above. I stood up and rushed over to Astrid and scooped her up into my arms with a few objections.
"What are you doing?!" Astrid screamed.
"Hold on a second!" I yelled then took a running jump at the wall. Still channeling volt mana I jumped then kicked off the far wall and soared into the opposing wall and continued to jump from wall to wall raising until we reached the hole at the top of the cavern. With all the strength I had I jumped clear through the hole and landed on the jagged edge. Finding my footing I took a few steps and set down a very angry Astrid. She growled and punched my shoulder.
"If you ever grab me like that again I will eviscerated you!" She snapped.
"Like you said you'd beat me in a duel." I said dryly then shook my arm. Astrid glared at me.
"Yearwood and Irons are saints for having to deal with you." Astrid muttered. I ignored her and looked around. We were out in the middle of Sahara desert, somewhere, the violent desert sun beating down on us. I had absolutely no idea where in the desert we were but it would be safer than being in the cavern when those sonic vipers woke up.
"We'll need to find somewhere to rest until nightfall." I said.
"What about the Dakarai?" Astrid asked.
"I'm sure he'll be fine." I said dismissively and started toward a pair of large borders off in the distance.
"Yeah, he can always head back to Tarrika's house and get help from his daughter." Astrid said. I stopped misstep, my eyes widening in panic I spun on my heel and turned to Astrid.
"Shit! Raziri is in on it all!" I yelled. Astrid flinched then glared at me.
"What do you mean she's in on it?!" Astrid yelled. I ran my hands through my hair and looked back down at the hole.
"Raziri, she's helped her father create the ascended with some weird ritual. She's been abusing the ascended for years along with Tarrika. I saw it all through the evo's memories." I said. Astrid looked confused as she rubbed her head.
"Wait, created the ascended with a ritual? Gods…do you know how amazing that is?!" Astrid exclaimed. I shook my head while I contemplated jumping back into the hole to try and warn Dakarai.
"The ritual requires splicer sacrifices in order to work." I said.
"My gods…" Astrid breathed. I sighed and shook my head.
"We need to get back to the village and warn Auntie Luna and the other elders about Tarrika and Raziri." I said turning to Astrid.
"We can't return till nightfall." Astrid said. I shielded my eyes and looked up at sun's position above us.
"It'll be nightfall in a few hours…we can't go back the way we came and honestly this would probably be faster than us fumbling around in the caves hoping to find a exit." I said.
"Fine. Those two boulders look like shade over there." Astrid said pointing to the boulders I saw in the distance earlier. I nodded and contemplated having Bone-lasher come out and carry us but quickly dismissed the thought. Liger sharks weren't made to deal with temperatures this high for anything other than short periods. He'd overheat in no time carrying Astrid and I.
We started off toward shade through the desert. It only took us a half an hour to reach our destination. The boulders were a lot more massive up close than they looked in the distance. There was also a small little stream spilling out from the rocks In the shade the temperature wasn't that much different but it was noticeable. The sun was already starting to set as I leaned kneeled down and drank quickly.
[You okay in there?] I asked The ascended and Bone-lasher.
[Tired….] The ascended replied.
[Napping…] Bone-lasher replied.
I stood back up and wiped my mouth with the back of my hand and moved out of the way so Astrid could drink then found a place to sit.
"Get me when it's nightfall. I'm going to try something." I said to Astrid before I closed my eyes.
I focused on my star crystal specifically focusing on the ascended's space inside and channeled mana into it. Everything faded away and suddenly I was in a dark cave similar to the one we'd just escaped. It was back to it's regular size and eyeing me with suspicion.
'You might have agreed to my deal but that doesn't mean you trust me, huh…' I thought as I walked around the length of its body and cataloged all the injuries I saw. The deep gouges and puncture wounds all over its body looked painful however they paled in comparison to the wound on its head.
A few of my attacks must have hit him in the face cause it's right eye was missing entirely and the scales around it were seared away to revel part of its skull.
[I'm sorry about all that. You were attacking people I cared about. I needed to defend them.] I apologized. The ascended eyed me and coiled tighter.
[It all hurtssssss!] The ascended hissed.
[I know. I don't know if I can but I want to try and heal you.] I replied and cautiously walked up the ascended. It flinched as I reached a hand out and touched it's snout.
Information suddenly flooded my mind and it took me several moments to decipher it all. It was the ascended sonic vipers genetic code. I immediately started recording it in lysdale script and quickly found that there were large gaps in parts of the code. Looking closer I realized that the code wasn't missing but so degraded that it could no longer be used.
I went back to work and finished writing out the rest of the script in my head then took a step back and reviewed it. The degrading was similar to what you would find in the code of a creature that was decaying. The degrading wasn't natural but then again neither was the sonic viper. It had been brought back to life twice using a ritual.
[It all hurts…has it always hurt like this?] I asked The ascended. He continued to eye me with a suspicious eye but nodded.
[Sssssince I wassss revived the firssssst time I have hurt. It hassss grown worsssse ssssince the ssssssecond.] The ascended said.
[You're slowly dying…] I said solemnly.
[I am already dead....]
The ascended sonic vipers eye looked calm, it had already long since accepted that fact. Though it's true and final death wouldn't be painless or quick. Slowly having every one of its vital organs shut down and it's scales slowly decay, rotting from the inside out. I shook my head and reexamined the script, taking special notice of how the code was degrading and smiled vividly.
It wasn't natural decay, it was because of the spell. The degrading was happening along certain protein enzymes that have naturally longer half lives than the surrounding enzymes. The spells were flawed somehow and now was causing a feedback that was targeting those enzymes.
[I can heal you! Fully! It'll be like before you died!] I exclaimed. The ascended looked at me with panicked eyes.
[I've heard thossssse wordsssss before…] He said cautiously.
[I know. But what I'm going to do is not going to cost any lives. Please…trust me…] I said then holding out my hand. The ascended eyed my hand then looked at me, clearly conflicted. After a moment it's eye showed conviction then it touched it's snout to my hand.
A wave of mana washed over him as I started channeling flesh mana. I made sure the ascended sonic vipers body was totally enveloped by my man before I started to work. This was leagues ahead of anything that I had attempted before but the basic principles of techno-splicing and body modification that I attempted on myself still applied.
First I took care of the damages the ascended too thanks to my spell a few days ago. Flesh and scales grew back in the places that had been gouged, I watched as muscle fibers and sinew started to regrow over the vipers skull. The eye was the last thing to regrow, the black orb blinked several times as it was secured in its socket.
Now that his body was healed it was time to repair its genes, this was where I was taking a leap of faith. I couldn't just patch in the repairs for the decaying genes I had to change all of its genes that controls the creation of the protein enzyme that was being degraded. For this I needed the DNA profile of another creature to compare and change the proteins and the only profile I knew off-hand was my own.
Mentally pulling up my profile and overlaying it with my own I directed the channeled flesh mana to target the protein enzymes. This took every ounce of my concentration as and was painfully slow work. It felt like Weems and months went by before I finally finished swapping all the enzymes. I let out a ragged sigh as I stepped back and looked up at the ascended.
It blinked at me several times then uncoiled and rose to full height. I could feel astonishment and disbelief radiating off him in waves.
[Pain is issssssss gone!] The ascended howled triumphantly. I smiled broadly and crossed my arms proudly.
[Told you!] I replied cockily however that cockiness disappeared when I saw the ascended's upper body start to bulge and swell. [Hey!]
[Feel ssssssstrange….]
Mana started to collect in the affected parts of the ascended sonic vipers body without my command. It's upper body started to stretch and broaden into a humanoid looking chest and abdomen. Two arms erupted from its side and two more larger ones popped out just below those. The ascended's head changed slightly, became less serpent-like, the bat-like wings disappeared from its head and its fangs elongated beyond it's thin lips. Two massive wings sprouted from around the ascended's waist and two more popped out from the ascended's back between it's top two shoulder blades. The wings snapped open then closed, draping around the ascended's shoulders and waist like a cape.
My mouth dropped as I looked up at the evo. It could no longer be called a sonic viper. It now had a human torso and arms, thankfully it didn't grow legs. I don't think I could have handled that at the moment.
It's transformation complete the ascended now stood at ten feet tall. It looked down at its new form and feelings of confusion and surprise came through to me loud and clear.
[What…happened?] The ascended asked.
[I used some of my DNA to repair the damage…that must have mutated you with more human like features.] I replied. Of course I had no idea and was pulling that explanation out of my ass.
[Masssster….] The reverence in the ascended's voice made me a little uncomfortable.
[Don't call me master, you can call me anything other than that.] I said.
[Sssssstar Ssssssshaper.]
[I'll take it.] I said.
I suddenly felt like I was being pulled out of the ascended's space as everything went black. I felt like I was being shaked and snapped my eyes open to see Astrid kneeled in front of me and shaking me like I was a rag doll.
"Can I help you!" I snapped as I shrugged her hands off. She looked at me incredulously.
"Yeah you can finally wake up! You've been out for almost five hours." Astrid snapped back. She stood to her full height and crossed her arms.
I blinked and looked around. Night had fallen and the air had chilled significantly. Now that I was no longer inside the ascsnded's space I realized I was kinda cold.
"Did whatever you were trying work or were you just napping?" Astrid asked. I stood up and brushed the sand off my pants then gave her a sheepish look.
"Don't over react…."
PERTIMBANGAN PENCIPTA 
Hutexa_The_Djinn
Hutexa_The_Djinn Splicer Fact: VERY little is known about Star Farm crystals and their capabilities since the vast majority of the world goes centuries before another one is known there is little chance to study them. Of all the topics that are studied about Star farm crystals theory effects on evos is the least studied subject.
[HUTEXA_THE_DJINN here! With over 20 chapters sunk into Dunes of Tolapo sub-saga we're nearing the home stretch on Chase's Tolapo adventure. You know what to do!]
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone