Sorry for the slow updates. I ended up breaking three of my fingers and can barely type right now.
On top of that, the medical bills have been pretty overwhelming. If you're able to support me, I'd really appreciate it. My Patreon is $10/month, and you'll get access to 20 chapters ahead.
https://www.patreon.com/cw/Thanarit
My name is Axel Crane.
No. Bone Saw now.
I have seen things in the past month that exceed the capacity of normal human comprehension. I have had my skeleton removed and replaced piece by piece. I watched Father pull his own skull apart in three sections and regenerate it in under a minute. I have stood in the grafting circle and received a branding on my forehead and come back from a void where an ancient mass murderer grilled a human head on a sword and offered me a bite.
I thought I had adjusted.
I had not adjusted.
The first incident that made this clear to me was the girl named Irene.
Father brought her to the clinic with two of his apparent friends, a blond man named Henry and an older man everyone called Old Han. Based on what I observed, Irene had not come voluntarily. She had been carried.
I was in the grafting room at the time. In consideration of my current appearance, which is a full black skull with red light in the eye sockets, I judged that walking into the reception area to introduce myself might produce complications. So I stayed in the closet. The grafting room closet. I left the door slightly open so I could observe.
Father and his friends brought Irene into the grafting room and placed her in the grafting circle. Father administered the Awakened Anesthesia. Father then began the grafting procedure, and the ceiling mirror showed Irene everything that was happening in real time, and Irene had considerable feelings about this.
Beside the grafting circle, Henry leaned against the wall with his arms crossed.
"It's your turn now, Irene," he said. "How do you feel? You laughed at my PTSD for six months. Six months of me waking up in cold sweat and you asking if I was scared of the dark. How's the table? How's the mirror?"
"Comfortable?" Old Han offered.
"The scenery is nice I hear," Henry agreed.
"I WILL KILL YOU." Irene could not move from the anesthesia but her voice carried every intention of the statement. "BOTH OF YOU. I WILL BEAT YOU TO DEATH. YOU SAID YOU WERE MY FRIENDS. YOU SAID YOU WOULD PROTECT ME."
"We are protecting you," Henry said. "We're protecting you from the mana deficiency you've been ignoring for eight months. This is friendship. This is what it looks like."
"FRIENDSHIP? FRIENDSHIP IS WATCHING SOMEONE GET THEIR STOMACH OPENED?"
"You laughed at a video of me getting my elbow grafted," Henry said, with the air of a man presenting a document in court. "You sent it to the guild group chat. You added a caption."
"That was DIFFERENT."
"The caption said, and I am quoting, 'he looks like a big baby.' I have receipts."
"MOTHERFUCKER—"
Old Han shook his head slowly. "Irene. Your language."
"HAN I SWEAR TO EVERY GOD THAT EXISTS IF YOU LECTURE ME ABOUT MY LANGUAGE RIGHT NOW—"
"I'm just saying. There are standards."
"THE DOCTOR HAS MY INTESTINES OUT AND YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT STANDARDS—"
"He had my whole arm done," Henry said conversationally to Old Han. "She sent me seventeen messages during recovery asking if my arm was taking a nap."
"I remember," Old Han said. "You showed me. Seventeen messages."
"Seventeen."
"STOP COUNTING THEM."
"There was also the time," Henry continued, "she told the entire guild I cried during the procedure. In the group chat. With a crying emoji."
"You DID cry!"
"I was in significant physical distress."
"YOU MADE A NOISE LIKE A KICKED PUPPY."
"And now here we are," Henry said, spreading his hands generously at the ceiling mirror and the grafting circle and the general situation. "Full circle."
"THIS IS NOT FULL CIRCLE THIS IS REVENGE."
"Those are the same thing," Old Han said pleasantly.
"THEY ARE NOT THE SAME THING."
"Philosophically speaking," Old Han continued, "there's an argument that all justice is a form of symmetry. You upset the balance. The universe corrected it. Through us. We're just the medium."
Irene stared at the ceiling mirror for a moment.
"Old Han," she said, flat now, the screaming used up, "I am going to find your house."
"I live in the guild residential wing. Room 412."
"I'M GOING TO FIND YOUR HOUSE AND I'M GOING TO—"
"The door has a very nice welcome mat," Old Han said. "My daughter sent it."
Father's shoulders were moving again.
Who splits their friend in half and laughs about it.
Who are these people.
I am scared. I thought Father's other patients would be different from me. Serious. Considered. People who had approached this process with appropriate gravity.
I hid in the closet and watched Henry send what appeared to be a live update to the guild group chat and Old Han nod along with each of Irene's complaints as though agreeing with them while doing absolutely nothing about the situation.
I thought: Father, what have you built here.
. . .
The second incident was worse.
A guild executive arrived at the clinic with Vice Guildmaster Chu Xinghe. His name was Jiang Chen. He was, by available information, an S-rank hunter with a flood dragon transformation ability. He entered the reception area and Vice Guildmaster Chu Xinghe greeted Father with a slight bow and the courtesy of a man who understood the clinic well.
Jiang Chen said hello and then said that he could not bow to someone weaker than himself because his Dao heart would shatter.
He stood in the reception area of the Clinic of the Ruin Gospel and said this out loud.
I was in the closet already. Being bony and that.
I watched Father's expression through the slightly open door. The mask was still. The voice when he responded was warm and said he liked the spirit. I watched Father's hands, which were at his sides.
His right hand had formed into a fist.
Father hates being called weak. I know this in my bones, literally, because my bones are his bones, and the knowledge of him that came through the grafting included the understanding that being called weak is the thing that reaches him past the usual defenses.
I prayed, silently, for Jiang Chen.
Then I moved to the grafting room closet. Same closet. I had identified it as the optimal observation position.
The operation began.
"AGHHHHHH. SHIT. NO. YOU CAN'T DO THIS, DOCTOR."
The ceiling mirror was doing what the ceiling mirror does. Jiang Chen was in the grafting circle unable to move, looking at himself in the mirror above, and his feelings about this were substantial.
Beside the table, Chu Xinghe had produced a fan from somewhere and was holding it in front of his mouth. His eyes above the fan had a quality I can only describe as festive.
"Hahahahaha. Jiang Chen you have this day too. You have finally arrived at this day."
"XINGHE I WILL SLASH YOU OPEN AND FEED YOU TO THE DOGS."
"Oh the dogs, is it. Not the cats. Interesting choice."
"SHUT YOUR MOUTH."
"I'm going to tell everyone about this. I'm going to describe it in detail at the next executive dinner."
"YOU WOULD NOT DARE."
"I absolutely would. I have been waiting for an opportunity for three years."
"THREE YEARS? WHAT HAVE I DONE TO YOU FOR THREE YEARS?"
"You called my sword collection a hobby," Chu Xinghe said. "At the spring banquet. In front of the Guildmaster."
"IT IS A HOBBY."
"It is a discipline," Chu Xinghe said, with great dignity, behind his fan. "There is a difference."
Father produced a dragon monster core from the materials Chu Xinghe had brought. He set it on the tray. Then he looked at Jiang Chen, and looked at the tray, and set the core aside.
He then reached toward Jiang Chen's waist.
"WHY ARE YOU REMOVING MY PANTS."
"The grafting site," Father said pleasantly.
"THE GRAFTING SITE IS MY ABDOMEN. YOU OPENED MY ABDOMEN."
"The core will be placed in your dantian," Father said. "The most direct route to the dantian from the exterior is through the rectum."
Silence.
"What," Jiang Chen said.
"I'll need to insert it rectally to reach the dantian. Standard procedure."
"THAT IS NOT STANDARD PROCEDURE. NOTHING ABOUT THAT IS STANDARD."
Chu Xinghe had lowered the fan and was looking at the ceiling, privately delighted.
"You know," he said, "they say a flood dragon's power is rooted in the lower body. The core seated low gives better energy circulation. It all makes anatomical sense when you think about it."
"XINGHE."
"I'm just agreeing with the Doctor."
"DO NOT AGREE WITH THE DOCTOR."
"He's a medical professional."
"HE IS REMOVING MY PANTS."
"He's a medical professional removing your pants," Chu Xinghe said. "There's a distinction."
"I WILL END YOU."
Chu Xinghe closed his fan with a small click. "Also I heard that the process of full dragon core integration is significantly smoother when approached from below. Something about the energy pathway alignment with the lower dantian's intake direction."
"I DON'T CARE ABOUT THE INTAKE DIRECTION."
"Your dragon form might."
"SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP—"
"Well," Father said, "if you prefer, I can explain to people that we inserted it through your rectum. Or I can make a grafting scar on your abdomen and tell people it went in through the standard route. Your choice."
"YOU ALREADY MADE THE INCISION."
"That was for other reasons."
"WHAT OTHER REASONS."
"Aesthetic symmetry," Father said. "Don't worry about it."
"WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU."
Chu Xinghe had both hands over his face and was making sounds that were not quite words.
"Also," Chu Xinghe managed, "I heard that a flood dragon's true power is unlocked when the core is seated correctly in the lower dantian. Something about the energy pathway running through the—"
"XINGHE DO NOT FINISH THAT SENTENCE."
"I'm just saying. Anatomically speaking."
"I WILL DESTROY YOUR ENTIRE FAMILY TREE."
"My family tree is very proud of me," Chu Xinghe said, having recovered approximately forty percent of his composure. "I am the Vice Guildmaster."
"NOW LAY DOWN," Father said, and kicked Jiang Chen flat onto the floor with efficient force.
The procedure continued. I stayed in the closet. I did not move for a considerable amount of time.
When it was over, Chu Xinghe clapped Jiang Chen on the shoulder, which made Jiang Chen scream again, and said: "Now you're one of us. An eldritch grafting survivor. Welcome to the club."
"I am going to kill all of you," Jiang Chen said, lying on the floor.
"That's the spirit," Chu Xinghe said. "That's the attitude that got you here."
I stood in the closet in the dark after everyone had left and thought about what I had seen.
Father's patients are all maniacs. Every single one. They bring their friends. They laugh. They threaten murder from positions of complete physical incapacity and then apparently recover and go about their lives and come back to the clinic.
What is Father building here.
I am very scared.
Current known abomination
No.1 Needle Wei Liang
No.2 Retractor Monk Eon
No.3 Bone Saw Axel Krane
No.4 Suture Saintess
and Yes Viktor Qin is not include he is too weak so Ren decide not worth it.