Chapter 35

Heroic Bloodshed 4

-:-

1 week later

Afternoon

Nichola’s Room

HAA Clock Tower

Theo has once again made a breakthrough beyond what he thought was possible with his abilties.

He has accidentally achieved a similar feat in the past with his invention of the Omnigel, the science version knock off of the god-like Elixir.

But the very idea that he has succeeded this time around via his own experimentation and not because of some random unforeseen variable was a huge boost to his morale.

What was his ‘oh so amazing’ breakthrough?

He was able to sort-of figure out how the Incubi race seduces women and was able to make a knock off version of it.

He initially thought that the Incubi used a magical pheromones or something.

Technically he was right however it was much more than that.

Every bit of liquid in an Incubus’ body had some sort of properties that were similar to both a truth serum and an aphrodisiac.

Apparently, it had an effect similar to the suspension bridge effect based on the occult books Nichola had on the subject matter.

Theo’s Incubus potion knock off had similar effects to a lesser degree.

Or at least that’s what Juno felt when Theo used it on her.

He secretly used on Dorothy and Phoebe a couple of days ago, but he couldn’t tell if it had any effect.

At the very least, he could tell that their body temperature went up a bit and their heart rate increased.

Thank you terminator eye.

Unfortunately, he was unsure what they actually thought of him.

Quite simply, there was really no sure fire way to measure if his serum worked similar to that of the Incubi’s.

As such, he went for the next logical step which was to force his body’s fluids to function similarly to that of an Incubus.

This was where he hit a snag.

With his prior experience with the omnigel and his decent understanding of the Incubi’s capabilities, it was relatively easy to make the serum.

But that’s where things became complicated.

The comics have misled the general populace with the idea that a simple catalyst (bite from radioactive insect or superhuman serum) was enough to give anyone superpowers.

That’s not how it works.

The metagene dictates how much change a person can endure and how much power can be obtained.

The metagene level was set the moment you were born and there’s no way to change it.

This meant that forcing a change beyond your metagene level WILL harm your body in some way.

To put it in perspective, the Incubus Serum was a rank C catalyst while Theo had rank E metagene level.

Quite simply, there was 100% chance that something will go horribly wrong.

He tried to reduce the serum’s effectivity by tweaking it in a microscopic level with his nanomachines, but it still wont go down beyond rank C.

He injecting a small dose into some of his own blood samples, and the result was that his blood became poisonous.

If he was stupid enough to inject it into himself, the best case scenario was becoming a vegetable.

The worst case was instant death.

Hence his predicament.

He stared at the serum in his hand as he weighed his odds.

“The emo look doesn’t look good on you. Stop it.” Said Nichola as she walked towards him.

“I was born with this face. Deal with it.” Jokingly replied Theo.

“Well, it’s disgusting”

“Said the one who looked like beef jerky.”

Theo quickly blocked a weak punch from Nichola.

“So? What’s wrong now?” asked Nichola as she sat beside Theo.

“Well you see…”

Theo explained his predicament with his Incubus Serum.

“Ah… that one. There’s no way you’ll get out in one piece of you stab yourself with that.” Said Nichola. “I could help you, but it comes with a price of course”

“Give me my Incubus eye and then we’ll talk”

Nichola gently pushed an old flip phone on the desk.

Theo took it and opened it.

On the screen was what you’d expect if you use the camera app.

Nothing special there.

However, when Theo made the attempt to point the phone at Nichola, she quickly grabbed it and slammed it into the table.

How suspicious.

“Are you sure that thing wont break?” asked Theo as he eyed Nichola with suspicion.

“I made the damn thing. Not even a grenade can scratch it. Anyway, you got your stupid phone. Let’s talk about helping me so I can help you.” Said Nichola in a forceful manner.

“Sure. Why not.” said the amused Theo.

“Wipe that smug smile off your face before I rip it out”

“Okay okay. Let’s get down to business shall we? What do you want me to get for you?” asked Theo while trying hard not to grin at Nichola.

“Tch. If I only didn’t need you….” Grumbled Nichola. “I’m about to do something called a ‘Khlysti Gospel’. I need you to get some ‘materials’ for it to be successful.”

“Oh? So you’re finally sick of that disgusting appearance of yours. About time.” Said Juno who suddenly barged into the room.

“*sigh*… and here I thought me and Theo could have a business transaction” replied Nichola.

“Don’t worry. Whatever the job is, I’ll be helping Theo out.”

Juno approached Theo and hugged him from behind.

At this point in time, Theo has pretty much surrendered and let Juno do as she pleased with her flirting.

Constantly brushing her off was too tiresome.

“Let’s get back to business. Is Juno right? Is this ritual going fix your appearance?” asked Theo.

“Sort off. My appearance is a result of a curse that my idiot ancestor accidentally casted on his bloodline… stupid horny bastard” said Nichola.

“Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin, I assume?” asked Theo

“Yeah. That asshole. Thanks to him, all of his descendants with any ability for magic are cursed with this shit.”

“And will doing this Khlysti Gospel will cure you?”

“No. The curse is irreversible. The Khlysti Gospel will return me to my not-beef-jerky form, but I have to do it on a regular basis for the rest of my life if I want to maintain my form” said Nichola with a sigh.

“And you want Theo to ‘help’ you…. Fufufufu. I approve.” said Juno in a teasing manner.

“SHUT UP YOU SUCCUBUS!!”

“HAHAHAHA! That’s a praise not an insult!”

“Okay okay. Let’s focus people.” Said Theo. “What do you need to get this done?”

It took Nichola a couple of seconds before her fuming rage subsided.

It was quite scary sight given the horrifying skin condition Nichola had.

All the while, Juno was lightly chuckling as she hugged Theo.

Given the context clues, Theo had a rough guess as to what this Khlysti Gospel.

However, he decided to keep his theories to himself just in case he was wrong.

After calming down, Nichola took a book from one of the shelves and showed Theo an image of a fancy silver cat-o-nine-tails.

“This is a Khlyst. It is sort off a religious item back in the hay day of the Tzaria Empire’s occult craze. I want you to ‘secure’ this for me along with a plant called the Purple White Ginseng.”

“Oh boy… Purple White Ginseng huh? Something with a stupid name can only mean one thing… it’s from the Jade Empire right?” said Theo

“Yeah. Pretty much. There are tons of Taoist cultivator monasteries in Vermilion City. Finding one of those ginseng shouldn’t be too hard. The problem is in the Khlyst. I know there are some Khlysts Cults in the city, but I don’t know where to find them”

“I see. Don’t worry about the hunt. I can manage. However, let’s talk about what you can do for me?”

Nichola silently looked at Theo for a couple of seconds. It was as if she was trying to say something but decided against it.

With a deep breath, she steeled her will.

“I’ll work on your Incubus Serum. By the time you’re finished with the scavenger hunt and after performing the ritual, you’ll get the serum and all of the data I have on it.” Said Nichola

“Ho. Generous, aren’t we?” replied Theo

“This is the first time I’ve ever found someone trustworthy enough to perform my very first Khlysti Gospel. Naturally, I’m going to over compensate you just to be sure. So? Do we have a deal?” asked Nichola as she reached out her hand.

“We have a deal.” Said Theo as he shook her hand.