Chapter 246: 237: A Plague of Phantoms XXI
"He was…he was….my older brother…" Alberto said softly.
It took a few moments for my mind to comprehend what Alberto had said and a few moments more to actually believe it. My body moved before I was even aware of it. My hand wrapping around Alberto's throat and yanking him around to slam into the gestation tank behind me. I popped my claws and pressed them against Alberto's throat.
"YOUR OWN BROTHER!" I bellowed, my rage finally catching up with my actions.
The realization burned me to the core as the memory of Grimm-Guard's splicing flashed before my eyes. The excruciating pain he felt as his body was poorly stitched together using magic. I couldn't begin to imagine how having your body ripped apart cell by cell while you were still alive would feel like.
"You and your father sacrificed your brother to make that…that…monster!" I barked. Tears formed in Alberto's eyes in the face of my rage.
"I..I didn't know!" He cried out then started hitting his head again. "I didn't know! I wouldn't have done it if I knew! He…he…he…! I FUCKED UP! I FUCKED UP!"
I let go of Alberto and he slid to the ground. He continued to hit himself and bang his head against the tank until he actually started to bleed. In that moment all the range I felt fizzled into nothing as I saw the anguish in his eyes.
'He didn't know...?' I thought then shook my head and grabbed Alberto by the jaws and lifted him to his feet.
"STOP!" I ordered as I sheathed my claws. Alberto stopped hitting himself but continued to sob. I grabbed his shoulders and shook him. While a part of me wanted to be compassionate another part of me wanted to know what the fuck was going on and that part won out. "What did you mean you didn't know? How the hell could you not know you were using your brother as a splicing medium?"
"Father…he…placed a blanket over Ramone's body and told me I would be using a human corpse to help strengthen the Lowell Titan as I spliced it…it wasn't…it wasn't…" Alberto stuttered.
"…it wasn't a corpse…" I finished for him. Alberto nodded and wiped the tears from his eyes.
"He drugged Ramone so he was unconscious…I didn't question it. Splicing with human corpses is legal in Spain. So I…I…It's not my…no. No it is my fault. I knew something was wrong but chose to just do what my father said…I didn't want to disappoint him again." Alberto said. His eyes widened and he covered them with his hands. "I should have stopped when I heard the screams…it was too late but I should have…I should have…"
"It's not your fault." I said in a soft voice. Alberto looked at me, his eyes widened with disbelief. "It's natural for a child to believe that their parents would act in their best interest. They they'd never do anything to harm them, it's the first form of trust that we learn in this world. Your father took that trust and abused it. For both you and Ramone. I know you probably were just following orders because you feel pressure to live up to your father's legacy as a Paragon so it might have made you overlook some things but…nobody would suspect their parent of that…"
"I…I…" Alberto started only for his words to get choked up. He looked away from me and ran his hands down his face. I sighed and ran my hands through my hair.
"Wait…won't people notice your brother missing? I mean he's the son of your country's first Paragon. He has to be pretty important like you, right?" I asked. Alberto shook his head.
"Nobody knows that he exists." Alberto said softly. I frowned at him and folded my arms.
"How?" I asked. Alberto threw his head back to look up at the ceiling then leaned against the gestation tank.
"My father became Paragon Loki at a really young age for a splicer…twenty-seven. Because he was so young the government pressured him to have children. Our mother was a woman who came from a family renowned for having large mana pools. With her and my father it was expected that any children they had would have large mana pools as well…things don't always turn out how they expect…" Alberto said.
"Your brother had a low mana pool, I'm guessing?" I asked. Alberto nodded and clenched his fists.
"His mana pool was nearly non-existent. He couldn't cast the simplest of spells or make the weakest of evos. To my father…no…to the splicing community as a whole…he was useless and defective. My father and mother hid the fact my mother was pregnant from the world and killed the doctor that delivered him. They hid him away on my father's estate away from anyone who could find out who he was." Alberto explained and looked down from the ceiling and looked at me. "My parents had me a couple of years later and my mother died during child birth…while I don't have a mana pool as large as my mother or father it's respectable for a splicer. So naturally I was declared his firstborn son."
"What the fuck…?" I muttered with a shake of my head. "…so he was forced to live inside the estate all his life? Was he allowed to leave?"
"No…from the day he was born to the day he died, he never left…." Alberto muttered. He glanced off into the distance and smirked. "…I tried to sneak him off the estate a few times when we were younger. We always got caught and Ramone would always cover for me, saying it was his idea…I regret not telling the truth now. He was one of the strongest people I knew. If it wasn't for him I wouldn't have survived to today."
"Why?" I asked. Alberto chuckled and shook his head, the pain I heard in that laugh felt all too familiar.
"My father is our country's first Paragon. He did not tolerate failure or incompetence. I was punished for the slightest failure, the smallest imperfection. I had to be the best, the strongest, the most knowledgeable, anything less was a disgrace to Spain and worse a disgrace to him." Alberto sucked in a breath and covered his mouth as he choked back tears, nearly screaming the next words. "Ramon was the only one in the world who actually cared about me…he asked about my day…took care of me when I was sick…even snuck me treats to cheer me up whenever father beat me for messing up! AND I PAY HIM BACK BY KILLING HIM!"
I expected him to break down and start crying again but instead he shook his head, clenched his fists and looked at me with a determined look in his eyes.
"I want to ask you a favor…it's why I wanted to talk to you. I know after how I treated you since the beginning of the year the last thing you'd want to do is grant a favor…but…" Alberto looked like he was about to lose his nerve but then his eyes burned with a flash of courage. "…please! TEACH ME HOW TO SHAPE!"
My eyebrows shot up in surprise. I wasn't expecting him to ask that at all. While yes technically he was supposed to learn shaping from me thanks to the stipulations of our duel. I wasn't planning to force him to learn, in actuality I was planning to just pretend to teach him and then declare him unfit to learn after Evo-cution. The fact he wanted to learn surprised me.
"You want to learn shaping? Why?" I asked.
"Since my brother's death I've felt like my heart is being ripped out of my chest and set on fire. The only time I could think I felt something remotely like this it was in Tolapo village when the whole village saw the worst day of your life….when your grandma died…" Alberto said and then placed his hand on his chest over his heart. "…Ramone was to me what your Grandma was to you and I want to see everything my father cares about burn for what he did! HIS NAME! HIS REPUTATION! EVEN HIS LEGACY! I WANT TO TAKE EVERYTHING FROM HIM! AND I WANT TO DO IT WITH THE TECHNIQUES OF THE PERSON HE HATES THE MOST! I'LL SCRUB THE FLOORS, LICK YOUR BOOTS, CRAWL ON ALL FOURS AND BARK LIKE A DOG! ANYTHING! I'LL DO ANYTHING!"
Alberto panted heavily as he finished his rant. I took a step back and scratched my chin as I processed everything that I had just heard. I didn't doubt the sincerity in his voice, there was pain, anger, and remorse woven so tightly in his words. While I could actually teach him shaping like I was with Bo, there was a problem. Shaping was possible to me thanks to my very unique form of body modification magic. I had no way to replicate that mechanic for someone who didn't have the Mana-nana manipulation tattoo spell. At the same time I couldn't just not help him. Alberto was just like me, yeah our circumstances were different but in the whole of it all we both have lost the one person that made our crappy lives easier.
"I'll teach you shaping…" I said. heading that Alberto beamed but I quickly held up a finger to let him know I wasn't done speaking. "…however at the moment the only way to shape is with my body modification magic and you need to have the Mana-nana manipulation tattoo spell to do that. I can teach you all the technical stuff and prep work that goes into it but until I figure that all you'll be able to do is make lysdale scripts for evos."
"I figured as much…I'm willing to wait…however long it takes." Alberto said.
"Then I guess you are officially one of my shaping students and an employee of Sho'lajah Artifact Company."
***
"…So in order to learn shaping first you have to understand lysdale script and be able to memorize an entire lysdale script while you shape to create and mana crystal core…I said as I stacked a book onto of the pile that Alberto was carrying.
The two of us were inside my office at Moldworks now, with Louie and Madilyn who were using it temporarily to count up some figures for expenses to feed and house evos as well as order more materials to create gestation fluid. Alberto was currently carrying a stack of seven books in his hands as I pulled them off one by one from my shelf in the back of the room and handed them to him.
The books were all on techno-splicing and the basic principles on lysdale scripts and basic construction of a genetic structure. They were all books that Louie ordered to decorate my office since he thought the owner of a factory with techno-splicing equipment should have books on techno-splicing. Luckily he did or else I would have to go find Bo and ask for the books he borrowed from me back, as be should be ready for the next level.
"Are all these books really necessary?" Alberto groaned as he arms and legs trembled under the weight of the books.
"Essential!" I exclaimed then walked over to my desk; of which Madilyn was sitting behind; and leaned against the edge. "Shaping is the combination of splicing and techno-splicing. Using techno-splicing's prep work and precision with splicing's raw power and connection to magic. You understand splicing so now you need to learn the basics of techno-splicing."
"You should probably know that it takes a normal person years in college to understand all the information in those books…unless you're a freaky information sponge like certain splicers with Star shaped crystals." Louie said giving me the evil eye.
"Oh brother…" I said with a roll of my eyes.
"It didn't take me years in college…" Madilyn said as she handed Louie a sheet of paper with some figures on it. "…I'd learned all of Samson's and Lysdale's texts by the time I finished elementary school and could recite Protchrts theory of a intergenerational conveyance by Seventh grade."
"I'm surrounded by freaks…" Louie sighed and as he took the sheet from Madilyn.
"Or you're just a underachiever." Madilyn said and then looked to Alberto. "Don't let him get to you about how hard learning all that will be or how freakish Chase and I are for learning it quickly. The difference between us and him is we had to learn it to survive, to prove we were useful so we weren't disposed of. Anyone can learn quickly with the right motivation…based off of what you hinted at earlier when we spoke our motivations are the same."
"Yes…they are." Alberto said, gripping the books at the bottom of the pile until his knuckles turned white.
"You don't need to learn everything quickly Alberto. Patience and preparation are the two most important aspects of Techno-splicing and Shaping. Rush or become too eager to learn too much and you'll make mistakes. Mistakes that could be deadly!" I said sternly.
"I understand…" Alberto said reluctantly. I shook my head at that response as did Madilyn and Louie.
"No you don't." The three of us said in unison.
"But you will." I added and then pointed to a book at the bottom of the stack. "Start with Samson Alderson's Lysdale script Review and then work your way through the complete works of Grey Soniza. Once you're done with those let me know and I'll quiz you."
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Hutexa_The_Djinn
Hutexa_The_Djinn World Fact: The art of using human corpses for splicing is called many things all over the world. Reverent Assimilation is the name in universal standard. This practice is legal because for people with little to no talent, using a human corpse us the fastest and easiest way to create strong evos.
Countries that allow this practice very heavily regulated it to prevent graverobbing or outright murder for corpses. In most countries you need a special license in order to receive corpses. However there are many relgions that also see this practice as a holy rite, some experienced splicers in their old age will agree to allow younger members of their family to use their bodies to splice a evo once they die and that this will help tjem ascend to glory in the eyes of their gods. Followers of the Aztecan religion and followers of God's of death typically hold these beliefs.
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