Demiurge/Reader Ch.10
chapter 10
Experiment 3069
Race: Human/Female
Height: 5 feet, 2 inches
Weight: Approximately 115 pounds
Hair color: Blonde
Eye Color: Blue
Conditions and Ailments: On Initial Examination, Multiple Broken Bones, Extensive Bruising, Possible Brain Damage Due To Head Trauma
Status: Critical
Entry 1:
_Queen of this universe, do not believe
Those rigid threats of death; ye shall not die:
How should ye? by the fruit? it gives you life
To knowledge. By the Threat'ner? look on me,
Me who have touched and tasted, yet both live,
And life more perfect have attained than Fate
Meant me, by vent'ring higher than my lot.
Shall that be shut to man, which to the beast
Is open? or will God incense his ire
For such a petty trespass, and not praise
Rather your dauntless virtue, whom the pain
Of death denounced, whatever thing death be..._
An urgent knock at my chamber door disengaged me from the pages of Paradise Lost.
'Odd.' I drew a brow- I was not expecting anyone.
'And just when things were getting interesting.' Satan's argument returned to his original speech, convincing his angels to rebel - Eve was rightfully a goddess, and she should not have to submit to God simply based on his arbitrary commandment. This argument seemed like it would be unappealing to the relatively ignorant, unambitious Eve, but when combined with the earlier flattery, it won her over.
Another knock, more urgent this time. A late night visit from Lord Ainz, perhaps?
'Chapter ten.' I noted to myself, so as not to lose my place. With an exasperated sigh, I abandoned my book and rose from my throne of ivory to answer the door.
The signature redolence of button polish and petrichor seeping through the crack at the bottom told me it was none other than Sebas. This was most unusual, for if the Butler were to ever contact me, he did so via {Message} instead, so I could not even begin to imagine why he would set foot on the Seventh Floor without notifying me first.
One could say we were not on the friendliest of terms.
But most disturbing of all, his scent was laced with something foreign. Something human, with vaguely familiar undertones, and it was sweeter than Tuare...
Lo and behold, I opened the door to find the Butler standing with his posture ramrod straight as always, even with the crumpled form of a young mortal woman cradled in his arms.
I bit back a scoff of disgust and was prepared to verbally eviscerate the Butler for being so foolish as to bring yet another human into Nazarick's walls- Lord Ainz will be furious. After the last fiasco it created, I could not help but to once again question his loyalty- much less sanity.
I glared down at her; while her features were swollen and bruised to the point of being nearly unrecognizable, her scent was familiar, and it was the only thing that convinced me not to simply slam the door in the Butler's face.
'I know that scent...' Like a bolt of lightning illuminating an ominous sky, the memory slotted into place. 'Impossible!'
It was her.
Against astronomical odds, Sebas had somehow located and rescued my Creator's Pet.
My rage turned to ash in my mouth, rendering me speechless; It had been a little over a year, so I did not believe she was still in our realm. In fact, I was under the impression that my Lord had taken her with him.
Why in all Nine Hells was she still here?
I glanced to the Butler's face- his stone facade was ever unbreakable, but I did not miss the furrow of concern puckering his brow, betraying his emotions. Stormy blue eyes regarded her from above a prominent nose, and his well-silvered beard and mustache framed lips which were pressed into a grim line. My jaw clenched and my hackles flared as he held her to him, as though he recognized her to be something precious.
'Mine.' It drove a hot spike of possession through my chest.
Did he know of her significance?
"Where did you find her?" I gleaned for information. But with the fetid stench of over a dozen human males all over her, it was far from difficult to guess.
He returned my glare before replying, "The brothel."
The brothel, of all the unsavory places. Others had touched her, _defiled_her, my Lord's property, and caustic rage roiled through my veins.
"I had returned there to-"
"Why you were there does not concern me. What concerns me is what you are doing here." I hissed and cinched my grip on the door handle. "Do you truly believe Lord Ainz will allow her to stay? That he would grant you or another human the same benevolence twice?"
He could not know what I know. Appearances must be upheld if she were to be returned into proper hands.
My hands.
Of course, seeing as to how Lord Ulbert only ever brought her to the Burning Temple through a portal, chances that I was still the only one who knew she was his plaything were in my favor... and I intended for it to stay that way. All that was once my Creator's had been bequeathed to my brother and I.
She shall be no exception.
"Demiurge," The Butler spoke, low and firm but my sharp hearing caught the barely-detectable inflection of despondence in his voice.
Her breathing was terribly shallow, and I could hear her heart rate dropping, growing thready. If I did not intervene, she would not last the next few hours.
Her life was entirely in my hands.
Sebas simultaneously came to the same grim conclusion. "...I ask that you save her."
I sneered, flashing my fangs in a sour grimace, accompanied by a resentful thrash of my tail, slicing through the buttery thick tension that hung heavily in the air. How I wanted to bask in the Butler's tightly wound desperation, to make him plead as I feigned hesitation.
But there was too little time to waste on indulging myself in sadistic satisfaction.
"Bring her to my examination room." I huffed, and strode past Sebas down the dimly lit corridor, and he followed closely in tow. "Shadow Demon, fetch Solution." I ordered, and the entity peeled off from the cobblestone ground behind me and slithered away to do my bidding.
With a wave of my hand, the candelabras of the room flared to life with a small puff of flame, casting a wavering jaundice glow and birthing a host of shadows. I swept a container of sterilizing agent off of the shelf and dabbed some onto a rag before using it to burnish my surgical tools. The scent of antiseptic flushed my senses with an alcoholic sting; it was harsh to my highly sensitive nose, but it also made my heart race with the exhilaration that I have come to associate with examining the insides of a living creature; watching the heart pump blood through a map of arteries, the inflation of pink lungs through the parietal peritoneum's translucent membrane, and being able to feel the spark of animation, of_life_ pulsing beneath my hands- and knowing how easily I can ensure its preservation or snuff it out- is a thrill like no other.
Here, in this room, I am no less than a God.
"I will take it from here," I addressed the Butler as he deposited her limp form upon the table with utmost care. "Please allow us room to work. She requires immediate examination and likely emergency surgery if she is to survive."
Sebas' eyes gleamed like gunmetal, and he leveled me with a look that implied he did not to trust me to treat her to the best of my ability. Though I cannot say that his suspicion is misplaced, given my history of employing mankind as my experimental subjects, tools and toys.
But I would not allow this particular human to die. In light of Ulbert's absence, she was now my property.
My Pet.
Solution arrived as promptly as I had hoped.
"Thank you, Shadow Demon. Solution, I require assistance- draw up a sedative. Valerian root extract- 10 mgs, and chase it with 5 mgs of morphine." I prompted Solution to prepare the subject for surgery. While she was currently unconscious due to shock, I could not risk her coming to while under the knife.
The battle maid shot me a puzzled look as she approached, making it crystal clear that she was not keen on repairing yet another human for the sake of Sebas' bleeding heart. But an impatient wave of my tail alluded that I had no time to explain.
"Only 5 ccs?" Solution then questioned the meager dose of painkiller I suggested, but she is still learning the ins and outs of the human body. A heteromorph would require three times that amount for any relief.
"If any more is given, she could suffer respiratory suppression and stop breathing. We do not know the extent of internal injury at this point." I explained while sliding my jacket off. "If we determine that there is no damage to the lungs, we can administer more once she is stabilized. Also keep in mind humans do not possess a resistance to poisons as we do. They can easily overdose on opioids."
"Yes, Lord Demiurge." Solution smoothly slipped the needle into the human's arm and with a steady push of the plunger, emptied the sedative concoction into her vein. Under my training, her method of injection had drastically improved. Before observing my experiments and surgical procedures, Solution could not find and pierce a vein to save her life.
I removed my rubber apron from the rack and hooked the collar around my neck before tying the waist strap in place, then tugged off my leather gloves to trade them with my elbow-length surgical ones.
"I will inform you when she is in recovery." I promised the Butler.
"I appreciate you doing all that you can. Please heal her to the best of your ability, and repair her memory. I do not doubt that she has suffered severe head trauma." The Butler then favored me with a bow of gratitude.
"I shall." I assured him with a curt nod.
With little other choice, Sebas begrudgingly took me at my word and showed himself out, but only after hearing that drugs for her comfort were being carefully administered.
Medical Analysis: Subject's wounds are numerous- Massive head trauma, likely internal bleeding and/or punctured organs, at least 3 to 5 broken ribs, a broken nose and dislocated jaw, a shattered ocular orbit, several chipped teeth, extensive bruising of the face, neck, arms, legs, shoulders and rear, vaginal tearing and an anal fissure. Multiple injection sites over the cubital median veins of both arms indicate the subject is often sedated or drugged.
Her injuries mirrored Tuare's when she first arrived.
"Her wounds are severe, the potions only do so much." Solution remarked after the first two vials were administered.
This was true. The vials supplied for my experiments held within the Tomb were not mending her broken bones and only healed superficial wounds- bruises, scrapes, cuts, etc. The potions with the power to heal more significant damage were rightfully reserved for Nazarick's own denizens, though a few were stored at my ranch where I performed more... unorthodox genetic experiments.
Therefore, exploratory surgery would be necessary to locate any internal bleeding or punctured organs so repairs could be made manually.
In close proximity to the lower humerus was a massive bruise which drew my gaze. It was dark olive at the margins, a gruesome shade of purple in the inner layers, and black at the center. A closer examination showed the surrounding tissues were tight and swollen.
"Suspected break of the lower humerus." I noted aloud, but that wasn't my main concern. I raked my eyes over the trunk of her badly damaged form.
She was terribly frail and thin- borderline emaciated; she appeared to have been given only slightly more nutrition than what was needed to prevent organ failure.This was typical for brothels- keep the girls hungry and addicted to a drug, and they would be less likely to attempt escape or fight the clients out of favor of food and a fix.
My gloved fingers came to rest low on the subject's abdomen, just above the navel, where there was a slight, barely-detectable swell. I pressed gently; it was soft, with little to no resistance. The flesh sprung back in place, remaining distended, which told me she was thankfully not pregnant, but bleeding internally.
"Scalpel." I called for, and Solution passed me the tool.
With steady, clinical hands, I made an incision just below the sternum and drew my blade downwards with calculated pressure, and watched the instrument part the skin of her abdomen as easily as a hot knife slicing through butter. The dark blood bloomed outward like an ink blot spreading across peachy parchment.
It made my mouth water- that bittersweet aroma with metallic notes that richly ring over the tongue, like the darkest of chocolate- Hades, it was just as delectable as I remembered.
How I wanted to sink my fangs into the delicate curve of her neck and sample the blood that my Lord had once so lavishly feasted upon.
'Patience...' I chided myself and swallowed thickly around the lump of bloodlust in my throat. Now that she was mine, I had all the time in the world to taste every inch of her at my leisure. I grasp the chains of my self-restraint with a white-knuckle grip- beneath the wretched stench of human male, I could still smell faint traces my Lord- an intoxicating aroma of scorched earth, cloves, cedar and leather. I wanted to brush all over her and soak it in.
It would be excruciating to hold myself back, once she was on her feet- but I would worm my way in, and smoothly, silently slip under her defenses like water. She wouldn't even know how far in over her head she was until it was too late.
Ah, but I was getting ahead of myself. For now, my newly acquired plaything needed stitches before she was good as new.
"Retractor, please."
Solution carefully hooked it into place. The tool spread the subject's flesh wide, holding her open so that I may fully examine the extent of damage.
It was immediately apparent that she was bleeding internally, due to a nick of the right inferior phrenic artery.
I called for a pair of forceps. Solution handed them to me and watched with rapt fascination as I reached in and followed the leaking artery with my fingers to pinch down where she was bleeding out from and clamped it. A pass of a length of surgical tape around the vessel stopped the blood from spritzing from the rupture. I clipped the torn area and then used acute precision to micro-stitch it with pale surgical thread. When I'd worked the last length of suture nylon in, I removed the clamp.
Even in the gauzy light, I could make out the pearly whiteness of her rib cage and veins of hairline cracks and the breaks within the bone.
Next, I carefully picked out shards of broken ribs and dropped them into the steel tray. It was easy to determine which piece was responsible for severing her artery, as it was all sharp edges, like a knife.
"Her heart rate?" I inquired, and Solution presses two digits to the subject's neck.
"A bit low and thready, but not too alarming considering her condition."
"Excellent. We're almost finished." I concluded. "She'll live. I've made sure of it."
Once her bleeding was under control, I drew out the blood which had pooled in excess just behind her lungs with a pipette and stitched her back up. Solution then mended the seams with low-tier healing magic to prevent scarring.
"Instrument count?"
"Twelve- they're all here." Said Solution after tapping her finger over each.
By the time I had rinsed my tools and stripped off my apron, only the shadows of her worst bruises lingered.
The subject would need at least three to four weeks of recovery time, but I intended to speed things up a bit by obtaining a stronger potion from my brother to mend her broken arm and ribs, as well as the worst of her brain damage.
However, her prognosis was promising. I was fully confident she would survive.
But as for her memory...
"Splint her arm and keep her under for the time being, and I'll fetch a stronger potion from Malphas. But do not repair her memory. Do what you must with the rest of her brain damage, but I expect a blank slate."
Solution affixed me with a stare of disbelief.
"But... Sebas said to-" She began.
"I do not care what Sebas said to do." I cast an icy glare her way, daring her to challenge my override of Sebas' authority. " You will do as I say. Do I make myself clear?"
She wisely declined any argument.
"Yes, Lord Demiurge."