251 242: A Plague of Phantoms XXVI

"A…a…a…a…!" Damon muttered as he gazed at the evo laying in the freshly emptied tank.

"A nine tailed Kitsune…in all black…?" Astrid gasped. She stood beside Damon, her mouth hanging open as she looked at the evo. I made a ticking sound with my tongue while I shook my finger at the two of them.

"Tsk, tsk, its not a Kistune but a shaped version of one. I'm calling it the cursed-tailed fox. It's combination of Grey fox, Maned wolf and antelope and nine tails are its base numbers of tails." I said with a smirk. Damon looked back at me, his eyes beaming with happiness.

"That's mine? You made that one for me?" Damon asked. I folded my arms and nodded.

"Yeah, the terms of our agreement was you get a shaped version of a kitsune and a loaner evo and act as a beta tester for it." I confirmed. Damon smiled like a little kid and rushed over to the tank.

The cursed-tailed fox looked like a regular fox save for the two antlers that poked out of their forehead. Those antlers as well as the tips of each of its nine tails were made of a mana crystal-like substance. It's body was covered in a pitch black fur that hung on its body because of the gestation fluid and would have made it look like a drowned rat were it not for its eyes. They were a deep blood red with gold flecks inside the pupil, they looked exceptionally sharp and betrayed the intelligence of the evo.

The cursed-tailed fox narrowed it's eye's at Damon as he approached, the tip of its first nine tails glowed as did its antlers. Damon suddenly walked straight into something. He groaned and covered his face as he stumbled back a few feet. The glow on the cursed-tailed fox tail and antlers faded.

"OW!" He groaned as he rubbed his nose. "What the heck?"

"What happened Damon?" Astrid asked, looking confused. Damon frowned and looked back at Astrid and me.

"I felt like I walked into a wall!" Damon replied.

"Probably because you did." I said then walked over to the cursed-tailed fox.

It's tail and antlers glowed again and I walked straight into a invisible wall. However instead of bouncing back like Damon did, I pressed my hand against the wall then turned to look at Damon and Astrid.

"It's each of those crystals on its tails is actually part of a mana crystal, so each one has its own individual mana attribute associated with it. That one must be solid or harden attribute." I explained.

"Wait so it has nine different attributes it can use?" Damon asked.

"Ten actually…well probably. The crystals on it's tails are only fragments of the whole. So the main fragment inside its body probably counts for one." I said then looked back to the cursed-tailed fox. "I would suggest not using any attributes that could harm me or it might not end well for ypu."

I pointed to the support beams above where Jiggles and Normal were positioned above, blood axes at the ready to attack should the need arise. The cursed-tailed fox looked up and saw them then looked back at me and spoke.

"So you are the one I heard about. My creator. The Star Shaper." The cursed-tailed fox said. It's voice soft but confident. I frowned at that statement.

"Heard…heard from who…and how?" I asked. The cursed-tailed fox cocked his head as if trying to think of how to answer the question or to gauge whether I was asking seriously.

"By your prophet…the prophet of Sho'lajah. I heard his voice in my head whenever his master…the one he called Master Sin came around." The cursed-tailed fox said.

"The what?!" Astrid, Damon, and I exclaimed in unison.

"The prophet of Sho'lajah…" The cursed-tailed fox repeated. I frowned as it suddenly clicked who the evo was talking about.

"Voodoo." I said plainly.

After the incident with the Djinn Signifier Sin decided the best punishment for him was to leave him alone with a couple of my evos. The evos in question were Bone-lasher, Alpa'nagia, Empress, and Jiggles. They refused to tell me what they did but afterwards Voodoo had a total change in demeanor and personality at least around me. It started calling me Lord Sho'lajah, though I wasn't sure how it found out that the company's name was actually mine.

"Why do you have a prophet?!" Astrid turned to me and snapped.

"Because shaped evos are dramatic and one of the evos I created a while ago might be under the impression that I am a God of magic and that my evos are demi-gods chosen by me to be my apostles." I said looking the other way.

"IT WHAT?!" Astrid exclaimed. Damon sighed and shook his head.

"That actually makes sense." He said calmly. Astrid jerked her head to look at her classmate with a exasperated expression.

"How the hell does that make sense?!" She snapped. Damon sighed and pointed to me.

"I mean just look at what he can do, create custom spells from nothing, breakdown and absorb spells effortlessly, overpower evos with barely any effort, not to mention how powerful his personal evos are. To splicers with little to no talent he sounds like a literal God of magic…hell all that sounds like something a God of magic would be able to do to me and the DeCharles family is renowed for powerful splicers…" Damon rationalized. Astrid opened her mouth probably to try and dispute what he said but paused and frowned.

"You're right…that was rational and sound thinking." Astrid said then narrowed her eyes at him in suspicion. "Who are you?"

"Very funny." Damon said with a roll of his eyes. "I get that I'm not the most…disciplined splicer in Lady Baset's class but I still made it in. You can at least pretend to not be completely surprised when I make a intelligent statement."

"Well if you acted intelligent more often Damon then u probably wouldn't be so surprised." Astrid said then pointed to the cursed-tailed fox. "Now are you going to claim that evo or what?"

Damon turned and looked to the evo and question. It's antlers and tail were still glowing which meant that it was still channeling mana and had that wall blocking anyone from getting to it.

"Well you should know that shaped evos are not like spliced ones. They are intelligent and many have more mana than the average splicer. You can't just overpower them with mana and force them to comply like you can with regular evos, they have their own mana and can resist if they desire." I warned Damon. He nodded and folded his arms.

"I pretty much figured that. And I can tell at a glance that…umm…cursed-tailed fox has more mana than I do. I figured the only way I was going to get any evo you made mine was for them to agree…" Damon said as he stepped towards the cursed-tailed fox. He stopped when he walked face first into the barrier again then took a step back and sat down on the floor. "…So I'm going to sit here and talk with you. I want you to choose me as your master."

I was impressed by the gesture and it seems I wasn't the only one. Astrid gasped as she saw Damon sit down on the floor and the cursed-tailed fox cocked his head to the side in a curious manner.

"Talk? About what?" The cursed-tailed fox asked. Damon shrugged and crossed his arms.

"Don't know, didn't think that far. Whatever you want to is fine I guess. It's not like I have to be anywhere." Damon replied. The cursed-tailed fox cocked his head to the other side and thought for a moment.

"The moon…I want to know what you think of the moon." The cursed-tailed fox said. Damon scratched his chin for a moment before answering.

"Well obvious the moon is very important. Mankind has used the moon since ancient times to help find their way at night. There are even some magic rituals that can only be performed during certain stages of the moon…" Damon started. Astrid and I watched as Damon and the cursed-tailed fox went into a full blown discussion about the moon and its various stages.

"By Frigg's sacred branch…he's serious…" Astrid gasped. I nodded with a slight smile.

"I see…well good for him. He's learning." I said then turned and patted Astrid on the back and motioned for her to follow me. "Let's go and get your evo. I already have a evo that is similar to the one that requested."

"Wait we're just going to leave him here?" Astrid asked.

"He's fine. As long as he doesn't do anything stupid he shouldn't get hurt." I said then glanced up at the ceiling. Jiggles started following me while Normal was staying where he was and watching Damon and the cursed-tailed fox. Astrid looked back at Damon for a moment, he was now totally engrossed in his conversations with the cursed-tailed fox that he'd forgotten about us, she sighed and turned back around to follow me.

I lead Astrid through the Moldworks warehouse to the holding cages outside the main building. We had to go out the west side of the warehouse through a emergency exit door. When we started getting everything ready to go into full production for Evo-cution we had to move all the holding cages to the auxiliary building across the courtyard.

Louie and Haws have taken to calling the auxiliary building the Moldworks ranch since it's where we've started housing all the evos we'd made to this point. Which number more than one hundred and twenty at this point. Turns out that I had underestimated the gestation period of several of the evo types that we were making and what I thought would take four days to gestate to maturity only took two at the most.

"Wait what did you mean that you had a evo that was similar to the one that I had requested. Why didn't you just make one like I asked?" Astrid griped.

"Because it was easier and honestly I think you'll like this one better." I said honestly.

"So you're just taking the easy way out and sticking me with some half-assed, poorly constructed evo!" Astrid snapped. I stopped in the middle of the courtyard and turned to look at her. I leveled her with fierce glare, she stopped in her tracks and took a step back out of reflex.

"The one thing I never will do is half-ass or poorly construct any evo here. Yes, this is easier than constructing the evo you want exactly how you want but I am not giving you a weaker evo by any means." I said sternly.

"Then why?" Astrid asked, admittedly soundly a little more humble.

"Because we are going to be setting off to Evo-cution in five days and You, Damon and Alberto already agreed to come along with everyone to Evo-cution to act as security. Obviously Sho'lajah Artifact Company security should have a evo created by the company, that the company plans to sell." I said. Astrid's eyes widened as realization hit.

"You want to use me to sell more of your evos." Astrid said. I nodded and looked up at the sky, it was night time and the first night of a new moon so the only light was coming from the lamps scattered around the courtyard.

"Yeah it's lazy and kind of shitty but I promise you'll like this evo better than the one you requested." I said as I looked back down at her. Astrid sighed and shook her head.

"Fine…but if I don't then I want the evo I requested as well as two enchanted items." She said confidently.

"Fine. But you're going to like the evo." I said confidently then turned and continued on to the ranch building.

When we reached the building I could already hear the sounds of the machinery inside at work. I opened the door and let Astrid walk in first. The inside of the ranch was nothing like most people would expect for a building that housed more than a hundred evos. The building itself was only about half the size of Moldwork's main warehouse.

Moldworks ranch was split into eight different sections. One for each evo that we made to sell at Evo-cution. The evos were all housed in modified holding cages that acted as gateways to the actually space they were being held. The cages of course were enchanted items. Once we realized that we had more evos than cages to hold them I took a couple of empty cages and experimented on creating one that could house multiple evos inside a closed pocket dimension. I succeeded after only five tries.

The eight cage gateways were arranged in a semi-circle with the opening facing the main doors. Above the opening to each gateway sat a mana crystal with the type name of the evo housed within written on a wooden sign.

"So which one is my evo in?" Astrid asked, looking at each of the gateways. I walked over to the one at the center of the semi-circle and pointed to the sign above, turning to look at her.

"This one, Astral series, version two: Solaris Wolfen."