4.15: Everybody Loves Allie

“So, Kyra… how we gonna do this?”

The tall redhead thumbed her lip several times opening her menu and swiping her hand. A message popped up on my screen, and I quickly opened it. As I began to read it, Kyra told me what I was looking at.

“That’s a list of possible experiments that we can run with your blood. You’ll note that the majority of those processes are with heavy emphasis on Alchemy. While my own Alchemy skills are still top tier, my lack of specialization in it meant I had to either take extra unnecessary steps to achieve the same results, or find someone who actually specialized in Alchemy. Fortunately during the tournament we had one such player that we recruited specifically for her talents with it. She is extremely knowledgeable when it comes to pretty much everything to do with Alchemy, but she’s also a bit… hmm… how do I phrase this?”

She pursed her lips as she thought for a moment before gently shrugging her shoulders.

“You know what? I’ll just introduce you to her so you can see for yourself.”

The tall craftswoman turned back slightly and looked over at a fairly petite Demonspawn girl whose features were mostly obscured by a thick heavy coat. She wore a pair of thick glasses that made her already large eyes even more noticeable, and other than the occasional glance around at the other people, she mostly kept her eyes down, staring at her own feet.

“Angie! Come over here, I want to introduce you to our clan leader.”

Upon hearing her name, the girl let out an adorable squeak and blushed profusely at the sudden attention. As she thought about exactly what Kyra had just said, her face took on an adorable red hue as she slowly started walking towards us. She shuffled forward until she was standing next to Kyra, her eyes still completely focused on her own feet. She mumbled something unintelligible before Kyra turned towards and spoke in a calm, reassuring tone that I hadn’t heard from her before.

“It’s OK, Angie I promise, Allie is super nice. She only pretends to be the big, bad overlord… but in reality, she’s really a big softie.”

My demonic instincts flared up softly at the insinuation of me being anything less than the perfect demon, but I pushed those thoughts aside and begrudgingly accepted that she was correct. After quickly realizing the type of person Angie seemed to be and the best way to interact with her, I shifted to my far less threatening human form. My senses instantly dulled and I felt a sudden tremendous pressure from all the powerful beings around me. Additionally, I felt my demonic instincts that were a constant presence now recede until I just felt like… myself. I closed the distance between Angie and me, and stopped just within arms reach. I calmly reached my hand forward so that it was in her field of vision, and opened it in an invitation for her to take it.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Angie. I’m really happy to have someone fully specialized in Alchemy in my clan! Kyra has told me some of the basics when it comes to utility of it, but having someone completely focused on it will give our clan a huge edge. Can you tell me a bit about your specialization and why you chose it?”

The girl’s large brown eyes slowly dragged upwards until she was almost looking me in the eye. Her face was still fighting back a flush and I could see the nervousness written all over her features, but as she fully processed my words, I saw a spark of excitement run through her.

“I...I…I ummm… I picked it cause its b-b-b-beautiful... Alchemy is literally taking parts of different things and making brand new th-th-things with all the different pieces It’s not as imprecise as enchanting or smithing, you get exactly what you put into it... maybe not in a way you were expecting but there isn’t usually as much randomness that you get with some of the others schools of magic and crafting, not that there’s anything wrong with those exactly, its just that Alchemy uses exact measurements to get exacting results, its math at its base, and math is beautiful, efficient even, but even more than that it allows you to make something completely new out of something else, it allows you to take something lesser and make it more, if… that makes sense, but also Alchemy is exciting, because when you’re doing something like making a dagger, you generally know what to expect, like… the steps are almost always going to be the same, but with Alchemy, when you experiment with different ingredients you never really know for sure what you’re going to get, while you may have some idea, and it isn’t hard to make an educated guess as to what will happen, but its truly something new and exciting every time. Like with your blood! I’ve used blood as a catalyst before, and the results are often pretty similar across the board, like, blood combined with different ingredients used as medicinal herbs typically results in some sort of health potion, but the Corruption thing you have going with your blood makes for a huge unknown that is super exciting, I’m not sure exactly what’s going to happen... I have some theories but I’m… not… s-s-s-sure…”

Angie’s voice trailed off as she realized that she had been rambling at full speed with my hand still extended in front of her and her face immediately went full scarlet and she made a motion to hide in the deep folds of her heavy coat. I stepped forward and placed my hand on her shoulder, squeezing it gently and dropping my face so that I was able to look into her eyes.

“Angie, I’m so excited to have you in my clan! I can see you are exactly the type of person we need. I absolutely love your enthusiasm and passion about Alchemy. And you have no reason to be embarrassed; I can still name all 150 original Pokemon off the top of my head, and I stopped playing that years ago. Being enthusiastic about things we thoroughly enjoy is one of the best things about it. Especially when we get the chance to share that enthusiasm with someone else.”

Angie stared down at me, the blush on her face remaining but her gaze unwavering. I could see the faintest smile creep across her lips, and she gave me the subtlest nod of her head before taking a deep breath.

“It’s… n-n-n-n-nice to m-m-m-meet you, Allexus.”

I gave her a sincere warm smile and squeezed her shoulder again gently.

“Call me Allie, Angie. K? I feel like we’re gonna be awesome friends.”

Instead of replying, I watched the poor girl’s face go from slightly rosy and pink to full deep burning crimson all the way to her hairline. Despite her faintly trembling in my grasp, I was still able to see the broad grin that she was doing her best to hide. I smiled up at her warming before stepping back and turning so I was also facing Kyra. I looked from her back to Angie and then back up to the crafter, and gave her a nod of approval. Deciding it was time to get back on track, I lifted my arm palm up, and pointed to it with a clawed finger.

“So… how we gonna do this?”

The two crafter’s stared at my arm in silence for a moment before Kyra turned to face the smaller girl. Angie’s eyes were locked onto my arm and her lips were moving like she was speaking, but even with my incredibly enhanced hearing I wasn’t able to hear any words. After a moment she realized that Kyra and I were both staring at her, and her entire face somehow went even more crimson. She began stammering as she searched through the various pockets in her enormous green coat until she finally managed to pull out what looked like an ornate book of some kind. She opened it up and pulled out something that looked like a cross between a ball-point pen and a quill, and began to scribble hasty notes in the book as she drew closer to me.

“I… um…. I think that the b-b-b-best way to d-d-do this would be t-to extract a large quan-quantity of blood so we have a large supply and I’m assuming you have some sort of health regeneration, I ask because when I watched some of your fights in the past it seemed like you use both some sort of natural regeneration and a healing spell, those would work to keep your own blood supply from depleting as I extracted enough to be assured we have a sufficient quantity for testing, and I know Kyra mentioned wanting to also run some tests that weren’t alchemy related and I know that those two over there were here to assist with enchanting magic so it might be good to get even more than what I had originally planning that is… as long as you are OK with that, Allexus. Errrr ummmm… Allie.”

I couldn’t help but grin at the adorable girl’s enthusiastic rambling and the look of intense focus on her face that seemed so at odds with her shy, stuttering demeanor. Talking about Alchemy really seemed to bring her out of her shell, and I couldn’t stop myself from seeing her as really fucking cute when she got so worked up about something as simple as extracting blood.

Jeez… here I was just admonishing myself for my shameless flirting with Bri, Abby, and Cassie, and now I’m already onto my next “conquest.” At this rate the entire castle is gonna end up in my freaking harem.

I pulled my thoughts out of my head as Kyra and Angie began to set up a strange device that looked like some sort of pump. I realized it was likely what they were going to use to extract my blood, and this was confirmed when I saw a wicked looking needle attached to some heavy, rubbery tubing. The needle itself looked to be almost 3 inches long, and the bore looked menacing and very thick. I had to resist pulling away as the pair of them began to get everything ready to began the extraction process. After I shifted back to my demon form and let my emotions and senses return to normal, Kyra tied a thick stretchy band around my bicep and had me squeeze my fist closed a few times to get the veins to be far more pronounced. She accepted a vial of strangely colored liquid from Angie and pulled the tiny cork off the top, before letting a small amount drizzle on the crook of my arm. It felt strangely warm and tingly as it began to soak into my skin quickly, and every where the liquid touched rapidly began to feel more and more numb. Angie lined up the massive needle with the largest bulging vein, and with practiced precision she pushed it in. Where I had expected to feel pain, I simply felt a strong, slightly unpleasant pressure.

After touching an unlit rune on the side of the device, I felt a sort of suction as the machine began extracting my blood. My MP immediately started to tick down as my [Corrupted Regeneration] kicked in, and after a moment, my health started going down the smallest amount before the regeneration brought it back up to full again and again. Angie pressed another rune on the side of the device, and the suction increased dramatically. I let out a groan as I felt a sharp stinging sensation, and I watched as both my HP and MP began to drain at a faster rate. Finally the pain got so bad that I had to use a healing spell to soothe the discomfort.

“Almost done, Allie. Angie’s invention really works wonders for this. When it comes to her craft, she makes me look like a novice in many ways. Are you able to take just a little more? We’ve already managed to extract nearly 9 liters. If we can hit 10 that should give us enough to run all the various tests.”

I gave Kyra a nod and did my best to ignore the pain and discomfort. Had I been human or still in my human form, this process would have left me completely drained twice over, and then some. Video game logic and healing magic still amazes me at times. After everything had finished, I used another healing spell as Angie pulled the large needle out of my vein. The magic closed the wound immediately, and that along with my own natural regeneration quickly brought me back up to full health. I looked at the large container holding my blood and my eyes went wide. Inside the glass contraption my blood seemed to swirl and glow with a dark shadowy energy.

“Is that magical effect part of the device? Or… is that my corruption magic at work?”

Kyra and Angie looked to where I was looking and then back up to me. Angie opened the large glass cylinder and the iron-rich thick cloying scent of blood filled my nose. Even while inside the container, I could still see a black almost ink like substance mixing and flowing with the deep crimson liquid. I let out a low whistle and looked up at Angie, who was doing her best not to stare at me.

“That’s the first time I’ve really seen my corruption magic in its purest form. Like… I’ve seen what it does to people, and I’ve sort of visualized it when I corrupted an essence shard, but nothing like this.”

“It’s very beautiful. Dark and dangerous, but also mysterious and fascinating... Kinda like you, I guess.”

I cocked an eyebrow at Angie’s words, and as she looked up into my eyes, her brain seemed to register what she had actually said. I didn’t think it was possible, but the poor girl managed to blush even harder as she did her best to hide in her thick coat. I let out a low chuckle and stepped away from the adorably embarrassed girl.

“Well, I’m excited to see what the two of you come up with. I have other things I need to take care of, but let me know the moment you have any more details. Send either me or Bri a message and we’ll get back to you as soon as I get a spare moment. Getting this figured out is a top priority. Especially if it leads to an easier way for me to convert people into full demons.”

Angie continued to hide her face in her hands and the folds of her coat, while Kyra simply smiled and nodded. Before I made my way out to Bri, I opted to take a moment and speak to Scythe and Areandra.

“Hey guys! I just finished giving a shit-ton of blood to our crafters. I’m excited to see what kind of experiments you all can come up with. Uh… before that though… Scythe, do you think I might have a moment alone with Areandra?”

Scythe’s handsome features twisted into a bright smile and he squeezed my shoulder before walking over to where Kyra and Angie had begun to separate my blood into small vials. Areandra gave me a look of confusion before I stepped right next to her, close enough for her to feel my breath on her cheek. I whispered as softly as I was able, so that even those with enhanced hearing wouldn’t be able to listen in.

“I think you and I need to have a talk. I do want you to help the others figure out the stuff with my blood, but before you do that, do you think I could borrow you for a few moments?”

The beautiful fallen angel blushed almost immediately, but didn’t pull away. A shy smile swept across her face and I could hear her heart beat speed up slightly. My proximity to her and the husky tone of my voice probably gave her a pretty good idea what the topic of our conversation would be, but just to make absolutely sure she knew what she was getting into, I closed the tiny distance between us and playfully nipped at her earlobe. I focused my thoughts on her and what I had felt coming from her earlier, and her entire body seemed to let out a slow trembling shiver. When her body stiffened up and she started to pull away slightly I feared I had crossed a line, but when she moved her own lips next to my ear, she spoke in a breathy, almost needy tone.

“I’d um… I’d like that. Do uh… do you wanna go to my room?”