Chapter 48: Reforms

Ash, Saria, and Muelsyse walked towards Kirsten's office while he was hauling a cocoon of steel beams.

"Quit squirming worm." Ash glared at Parvis, but the old man kept on trying to make things harder for him so he created some table salt.

"If you love to wriggle around that much, I'll gladly help you to do so." Ash put some salt on his eyes and he started to thrash around more violently. Except he couldn't really do much with his metal bindings.

"Did you really have to put salt on his eyes?" Muelsyse raised a brow. "One word, Ifrit." He snorted and Muelsyse nodded and she didn't try to say more.

"Why would Kirsten approve of this? We need to get to the bottom of it all." Saria frowned and thought her friend had gotten that low

"Let's just go to her and check if she has anything to do with this. Though I highly doubt that, Kirsten isn't interested in this kind of research at all." Ash sighed and they entered control's office.

"My? What can I do for you everyone?" Kirsten smiled as she saw Ash with Muelsyse and Saria. Thinking that they're hanging out.

"Kirsten, we have a problem. This guy has been doing human experimentation... And you approved of it." Saria slammed the file on her table and she glared at the Perro.

Kirsten was confused, she then looked at the file and the name project Diabolic didn't ring any bells.

"I was right, she approved of it without looking at it." Ash rubbed his temples and the other two sighed. Though Saria was of course not happy with Kirsten's apathy of Rhine labs.

"I thought you've been starting to change for the better Kirsten. But what the hell is this!? You approved of human experimentation? Is this how low you've fallen?" Saria cracked the table in half with her fist and Kirsten changed her expression.

"What's the matter with it Saria? You stopped it, that's good enough." Kirsten looked at her with an apathetic expression and Saria was outraged.

"This isn't looking good, Saria's gonna blow her top." Mumu whispered to Ash and he just watched them go at it.

"Then what about Rhine labs! We built this place from the ground up. And it's being rotted to the core with trash like Parvis! Do you have no care for what we built?" Saria activated her arts and the surface of her arms turned white.

"Saria, you already know it's a means to an end. Rhine labs are our achievement. But it's just that, something that is here to help us pursue our dreams." Kirsten activated the defense systems in her office.

She is a smart woman, Kirsten already thought that both of them would come to blows. She also helped Saria with the calculations of her calcification arts. So the room was fitted with reinforced glass that had arts units in it to nullify her arts.

The vouivre started punching the wall right in front of her between them and her fists began to bleed.

"Saria! You need to stop! You're hurting yourself! Ash, help her, they're gonna kill each other!" Mumu shouted in worry and Ash made her stay back so he could observe what would happen next.

"An innocent girl almost died today because of you! Yet you say you don't care!?" Saria punched the wall with righteous fury.

"You already know it's a mistake Saria, Ash knows as much. You let your emotions control you. Give up, or you'll shatter your knuckles." Kirsten sighed.

Stopping for a moment, Saria remembered her childhood. She was just but a child, walking up to her father in order to ask him to fix her toy car.

"Daddy, Toby and his friends bully me. They tossed my car on the ground and now it's broken." Little Saria sniffled.

"How many times have I told you!? Crying solves nothing! If they bully you, fight back! If your car's broken, fix it yourself. Crying won't solve anything!" Her father shouted at her and she bit her lip.

"Emotions... They might be illogical Kirsten. And I have considered venting meaningless for a time. But I can feel it! This anger, people cannot live like puppets and go on with pure logic!" Saria continued bashing on the reinforced wall and it shattered.

Kirsten was surprised and she felt an air current on her face as Saria's bloodied fist almost hit her face.

"Now, now, how about I house Saria in Paradiso first before you two hurt each other further?" Ash walked up to them.

Kirsten has never seen Saria that upset before, with that much emotion. She was shocked at her friend.

Saria snorted and just walked away, she might not have said it. But she wouldn't return to Rhine labs until Kirsten changed her ways and apologized to Ifrit for all the pain and suffering she experienced in Rhine labs.

"I won't forgive you until Ifrit does Kirsten." Saria glared at her and stomped away.

"Hah, Kirsten. You were both right really. It isn't really much of your fault. You were distracted and had no idea what you approved." Ash sighed and Kirsten looked up at him with surprise, happy that he was agreeing with her.

"But you need to have some tact, if other people. Especially your friend, which is definitely not the case now. Are angry, you should at least look at it from their point of view. If somebody burned your books by accident and they said it like how you did, how would you feel?" He sighed.

Kirsten's face soured and she never felt rage like that. He then flicked her forehead. "There, now you know. And oh, I'll be taking this little turd. I was financing Ifrit's medical treatments to see if there are more benefits to the chimera treatment. But he not only experimented on my charge, he also misappropriated the treatment." Ash dragged him by his horns.

"Kirsten... Honestly, what the hell were you doing? You're lucky that guy didn't want to shut down Rhine labs, he has enough clout and money to do so." Mumu finally understood what he was all about and sighed at their chairman's recklessness.

Kirsten paled and she understood what she was trying to say. "That was... Dangerous, to say the least." And she would be at the thick of it due to respondeat superior. Not to mention the files that have her approval.

__

Ash put the caprinae in a special prison inside of his lab. It was nigh indestructible and there was no way to open it but to change the structure of the walls.

He sighed at the sight of Saria who was staring at Ifrit with guilt and remorse.

"Don't worry, it isn't your fault Saria. Ifrit would've died in that hole you found her in if you didn't save her." He patted her on the shoulder and Saria sighed.

"I know... But, part of me just keeps on saying that she won't get experimented on like that if I didn't bring her here. I checked the recordings Ash, she was screaming in pain." Saria frowned heavily.

"She would understand that it wasn't your fault. Hell, this is as much as my fault as is yours if that was the case." He shrugged.

Saria didn't speak and she just squeezed Ifrit's small hand. Thankfully, the girl was free of burns due to an innate immunity to her flames. Coming from the genes of a Diablo Sarkaz that was implanted to her.

"Ugh, I'll be a good girl. I promised Saria. I promised! Ahhhh!" Ifrit screamed and she sat up, drenched in sweat from her nightmare.

"Squirt, calm down. Nobody's gonna hurt you anymore." Ash put a hand on her head and rushed her body with endorphins.

"Saria... Ash... Uwahhhh!" Ifrit cried and hugged them both. "There, there Ifrit... It's okay." Saria couldn't help but cradle her softly, unlike her bastard of a father.

"Yeah, it's fine squirt. You're alright, nobody's gonna give you treatments anymore." Ash's eyes squinted when he said that and hoped that's the end to it.

'Fuck, I just jinxed myself right? Murphy will come to bite me in the ass for this. Stupid bastard.' Ash cursed and they continued to console Ifrit.

"Here squirt, have one of these. You need it." Ash gave her some candy and Ifrit popped it into her mouth while wiping her eyes.

"I couldn't stand it Saria, I failed the treatments." Ifrit looked at her sadly and Saria shook her head.

"No, it isn't supposed to hurt that much Ifrit. Someone tried to sabotage you." Saria gave an explanation rated for kids and Ifrit looked up at them with hopeful eyes.

"Really? It wasn't supposed to be like that? Then why did Silence told me to en, end..." She tried remembering it. "Endure? We'll be having a talk with Silence." Ash gripped the side rails of her bed a little too tightly, the two hearing it crumple in his hand.

"Saria, take care of the squirt. I'll be having a conversation with Silence." Ash stood up and he went to the place where Saria put her in.

She was in a transparent cell with another Liberi sporting silver hair. Though she was dozing off.

"Ahem, mind explaining yourself?" Ash was still suspicious of Silence. But he had a hunch that the old coot got into her head. She's a young and budding scientists. There's only two types among them.

Either they are confident, the cowboys. Or they're reserved and don't have self esteem, the doormats.

"Ash! You gotta believe me, I didn't do anything to purposefully harm Ifrit, I thought it was the treatment." Silence pleaded with desperation and he sighed.

He didn't notice any lies and he opened up the cell. "Come, explain more. And who's your little friend over there?" He raised a brow at the still sleeping woman.

"Ahh, this is Joyce. Joyce Moore, she's one of the most excellent scientists here in Rhine labs. But she has a problem due to a past experiment." Silence hauled Joyce and Ash helped her out.

They arrived at a private area where noone else was there and he tapped his finger on the table. "So? Go on, I'm listening."

Silence explained how Parvis convinced her that the chimera treatment was the only way that Ifrit could survive.

And after the first few rounds of treatment, she was starting to get healthier. Which is true, but Silence and Joyce did not know that the goal of the treatment is something sinister.

As the dosage of the serums increased, Ifrit's implanted Diablo originium organ continued to consolidate and go out of control. Until she did, just like earlier.

It causes her immense pain and distress as well as uncontrolled originium arts going wild every treatment. With more and more originium powering up the transplant.

"So, how about this friend of yours? She just following your orders and being your assistant?" He looked at Joyce.

"Yes, honestly. Joyce should actually be my superior. She's been here longer and can be a director of one of the departments. She just has a problem." Silence looked at Joyce with a pitiful expression.

"What happened then?" He was curious and Joyce suddenly opened her eyes like she was some kind of robot that booted up. (pic)

"Allow me to do so, deactivate power saving mode... I met Dr. Silence here in structural. I provided big data analysis and risk evaluation for her on a secret project." Joyce said in a monotone voice.

"It's not really a secret now, no." Ash sighed and he nodded to let her continue.

"Due to the findings of one of our colleagues who had an untimely end. I enacted her project onto myself. The theory is that originium can be turned into an organic computer." Ash winced at that.

That was basically trying to kill yourself unless you have god-like originium adaptability like Ceobe and the twins. Or simply invulnerable to it like the Feranmuts.

"An originium based direct neural interface was implanted into the subject's brain. Colleague Dellareed surmised that originium can store data from the past. She wanted to unearth Terra's history. It was both successful and a failure." Joyce ended her explanation.

"She has oripathy now. Thankfully, her brain damage didn't really cause that many problems. But Joyce is now like an AI and she suffers from narcolepsy." Silence elaborated and Ash thought of an application for that.

"Subject Joyce has to. Or Joyce's brain will overheat and be subject to catastrophic hardwire defects." Ash then pieced it.

"So it uses your brain as a conduit for the other hardware for a supercomputer? Fuck, that's insane. If that can be implemented safely. Then everyone can have personal data banks at the speed of thought." Ash was shocked.

That was like having google in your mind. It was insane, even he can't store that much information and reliably call upon it.

He then had an idea. His more advanced powers needed extreme calculations of the phenomena around him. That little chip would definitely help him. And who is more qualified to test it than a Feranmut who's immune to originium.

Ash licked his lips. "Okay, you're forgiven Silence. Go to Ifrit at my lab and apologize to Saria and the squirt. They'd understand, but you still let yourself get fooled by that old coot. Joyce, you'll help me with something later. Go follow Silence or whatever." Ash let them go and Olivia bowed to him deeply for saving Ifrit.

"Heh, it seems that I've gained something quite interesting here." He was really pleased with what Joyce told him. He can use it to its maximum potential without the drawbacks.

Originium arts haven't been in his itinerary for a long time due to how busy he is. And now, he's going to have a CPU that will overclock his brain to its maximum potential.

And he doesn't need to worry about brain damage, with his regeneration. It will be an upgrade without problems.

"Kukuku, what a joyous occasion." He chuckled to himself like a villain and his ringtone sounded.

"Ash, we found a connection with Rhine labs and Maylander. And she found us too, says that she's interested in you." Margaret reported and he sighed.

"Tell them to come here then." He needed to calm things down at Rhine labs first.

"We don't know where she is. Just that she's a female based on her letter. It stated there for you to come to Maylander and everything else will be covered by her." Margaret held back a snarl.

She was hoping that no more troubles will come. And she raised a flag fantastically. With an added bonus that the culprit's a woman.

"Ugh, fine. I'll be there tomorrow, I just need to fix things here on my end alright? Take care you three, Liz is fine over here." He ended the call and rubbed his temples.

"Murphy's going to do something, I can feel it in my dense and metallic bones." Ash sighed. Cursing himself for raising a flag earlier.

He went to Kirsten's office after drawing up a proposal.

"Kirsten, you need to approve of this. After you read it carefully." He emphasized his sentence and Kirsten gave a wry smile.

"An internal council for ethics?" Kirsten understood it, but why send projects that has clinical trials for humans to Paradiso first.

"I see, that you don't see the point on why we should examine it first? Because the directors of Rhine labs can just be the ones to vote? Simple, bias and politics." He sighed.

Ash explained that they are an outside party and do not give a shit on what they research about really. Everything Rhine labs can do, they can do better after all. They just don't have much employees at the moment.

"Politics like this will prevent useful projects from being realized due to greed and your shitty directors arguing. So we accept or decline it based on an ethical board from our side." Ash elaborated.

Not that there are any psychiatrist or people qualified to be ethical board members. But who gave a shit.

"I see... Will Saria be happy with this?" Kirsten knew it would be a big change for Rhine labs. Especially with Paradiso having control on the clinical trials they might try.

"Honestly, yes. A lot of people who aren't crazy will. A lot of scientists get forced to do experiments that are not in line with their moral compass. And members of Paradiso will be watching the clinical trials." Ash thought it's time to send a squad of ghosts to Columbia.

There were too many shady shit happening at the country. He trusted Shining with information gathering. But there is only so much one person can do.

"I approve, this will be a gift for Saria... Hah, I wish we didn't have that altercation earlier." Kirsten sighed.

"That's your fault missy. I'm just doing this so it won't happen again." He teased her and she pouted.

"Fine, it was my fault alright? I'll apologize to them. Where are they?" Kirsten huffed and he redirected her to his lab. He then gave her a copy of the proposal with her sign of approval.

"Show this to Saria, she'll definitely appreciate it." Ash gave her a bone and Kirsten nodded.

He then prepared himself to go to Maylander.

__

"Kukuku, he's late. But it's fine~ Special people are always late." A woman with ash gray hair chuckled. Looking at an encased scroll so old that it would turn into dust when exposed to room air.

There, drawings of a large person the size of a full grown Wendigo with crooked horns fighting gigantic dragons on their lonesome were depicted.

"Ahhhh, interesting... Very interesting indeed, who are you? Asmodeus, are you related to this lost piece of history? Come, come quickly! I want to know!" She licked her lips with her long forked tongue.

"Ma'am, he's here. Should we lead him to you?" A subordinate of hers appeared and she slammed her long tail onto a table.

"Idiot! Or courssse! My orders were to bring him here instantly." She glared at him and the man quickly ran away.

After a few more moments, Ash arrived. He was alone as he refused to have the others come. An interesting individual called for him. So having them there as a deterrent would be detrimental for their talks.

"Hmm? So you're the one who invited me here?" Ash laid eyes on the tall woman who's sitting while looking at a piece of parchment with clear insanity.

"Why yesss~ Asmodeus, correct? Nice to meet you, I am Ho'olheyak kukuku." She stood up and shook his hand. (pic)

He was already used to the crazy types, being a researcher and all where oddballs gather. So he just sat down and would judge her by her own merits or demerits.

"So? What's with all the hush hush?" He looked around the room and it was filled with all kinds of tomes, books, and papers that looked quite old.

"Ahhh, how rude of me. You see, I'm not supposed to attract attention. And you, are quite a magnet for it." Ho'olheyak chuckled and he shrugged.

"I guess, then let's get to the point shall we? What's your offer? Let's hear it, I won't even think of it if it's not interesting." Ash crossed his legs and was ready to negotiate.

The woman was obviously not normal. She's most likely very smart and quite used to getting her way. It's her aura, she's like a snake.

"Indeed, very good. Cutting to the chase, you see. I am the last of my species, an elder. Severely limited too. It's my goal to find the true history of Terra and unlock the potential of my race." She explained like she was telling a story.

"Why should I care?" Ash raised a brow and Ho'olheyak didn't falter. "Kukuku, that's because. I will offer you the secrets of yours." She showed him the parchment she was checking out earlier.

Ash squinted his eyes and observed it carefully. 'That's not a fake, it's really thousands of years old. And that person in the painting looks just like me...' He got insanely curious.

He knew he was a Feranmut, but not like the others. He doesn't have true form, he just changes with no clear criteria as to how.

His personality is being affected by it too. He was more prone to losing his temper, his desire to conquer is getting stronger, and something definitely new is his love of women.

Ash was sure that he doesn't normally reciprocate advances of women. Or try and seduce one, that was out of character for him that thinks they're troublesome creatures.

"I see, then what do you want for that information?" He would need to see what she desires first.

"I want you to support me, I am trying to unearth history. It isn't really cheap nor easy." Ho'olheyak smiled and her fangs appeared.

Her slitted eyes met his and she was quite happy that her gambit worked.

"Is that so? Then contact me through this number. Tell me everything you need. Though I'd expect you to uphold your end of the bargain?" He raised a brow.

"Yesss~ Of course. I will never try to dupe the emperor." She told a half truth and her vitals weren't erratic. Ash didn't trust her, so he took some paper from the side.

"I'll write a contract then, may our cooperation be successful." Ash squinted his eyes and quickly made a contract that has a certain loophole in it.

Clause 13: Both parties agree to help each other, failure to do so will result in contract termination and said help given to be repaid triple the amount.

Ho'olheyak, in her glee inside of her mind, so no problem with it.

"It'sss a pleasure to meet you Asmodeussss~" Ho'olheyak shaked his hand and her long tail slowly wrapped around his torso.

He then raised a brow. "What are you doing?" The woman chuckled and just smiled with her fangs showing. "Just a little incentive~ Bring this with you, there's a translation pasted on to it." Ho'olheyak gave the cased parchment to him.

Ash pried her off of him and he pulled her on to himself. He's the one who does the teasing.

He quickly located her nerve bundles and injected his energy into them. Ash also flooded her brain with hormones.

She shivered deliciously and Ash licked her neck. "Hmmm, then I should give back the favor?" He bit her softly and she groaned.

"Thanks for this, just ask for what you need." He grinned and left her place without looking back.

"Kgh, he's definitely not normal... What was that? Ha! Anyways, you can try to outsmart me with your contract. But nobody understands that language except me." She chuckled.

He gave her a defective copy of the translation of course. In how much she researched about history. She was confident that she is the only one who understands it.

Ash went back to Rhine labs and was having a meeting with his team.

"So? What happened in your little excursion? You fucked her brains out? I smell some, bird? And snakes on you that has a scent of old books." Degenbrecher sniffed him after hugging him.

"Not really, she tried to seduce me a bit. I got some information about my mysterious race." Ash showed them the parchment and they read the translation.

It says there that his race were considered barbarians that fought tooth and nail against deities.

They had extremely short tempers and had a birth rate even lower than the gods. But their numbers were compensated by overwhelming strength as they aged.

Ash thought that was true, but something was fishy about it. And he can't confirm if the text on the parchment is translated correctly.

"Hmmm, I don't trust this one bit. Do you guys know who can translate this for me?" He asked them and they also thought of someone, but nothing came to mind.

He then called Kjera to see if she knew of his subrace. "Kjera, I found a relic of my kind." He explained their description and sent a picture to her.

But both Nian and Kjera did not understand it. "So it might be older than even Nian..." He frowned.

"Who is a knowledgeable person that I can try to ask about this?" He furrowed his brows. He might suddenly lose control of himself one day. And that's a problem.

"Why not send it to Kal'tsit? That cat woman is really smart right? And Rhodes island has been unearthed as a relic. That's what Sonus said to us as her son explained to us a summary of Rhodes island." Margaret brainstormed and that was the answer she gave.

"I see, you're right Margaret. Kal'tsit might be able to give us some insight about this. If Rhodes island really is a relic. It might have some kind of texts or something for this language." Ash sent a picture to Kal'tsit, requesting for some help about it.

"Hmm? What is this?" Kal'tsit received a message from one of her emergency contacts and she saw that it was from Ash.

"Where in the world did he find this?" She almost choked due to the implications of it. Starting to hyperventilate.

"No, no. He's asking for help in translating it... Should I?" She was deliberating and she found a P.S.

"It would help me with controlling my troublesome traits, so thanks in advance if you know what am I." Kal'tsit read it again and again.

"Hah. It's inevitable that he would learn of this anyways. He's a researcher and Nian is with him. He'll be asking questions soon." Kal'tsit started translating it and unconsciously incriminated Ho'olheyak.

And speaking of the devil, she was going fufufu while asking for tons of money and manpower.

__

Thanks for reading everyone, ciao.