Humans are funny creatures. Such fragile, unfocused things whose only saving grace perhaps is the fact that they breed like the proverbial rabbits. They are born, they die, with so little time in between the two that it can make a body wonder why they even bother.
Humans...are such tainted creatures.
They are nothing like us, or rather, the select number of us. We who are pure, who come from a pure source. Yes, there are many who are grouped together with us and they are pure in a sense, purer by far than humans and the like, but they are not as pure.
Humans strive to become like us.
No you say?
Look at the evidence. We shall take this man as an example. Here he is in his hidden dark room, away from other of his pathetic kind. We won't go into the reasons for that now. Look at what he is doing.
You don't understand?
It's quite obvious. You see, he's sewing that young human female, a child they would say, back together. He killed her and is trying to revive her as soon as he's finished making sure the kidneys and spleen are back in their respective places.
You are quite dense aren't you. He's seeking immortality that's why he's doing it. How else can you test for that unless you kill them and succeed in reviving them? Oh, he's trying some of the older methods, an old school of thought that if the right something was added, any dead person can be brought back to life.
Do you see?
I supposed you don't. Well, then, let me be clear for once. He is like us in his single-minded obsession, he seeks to be untouched by time, outside of time as we are, he thinks nothing of using the weaker specimens of his race to strengthen his own position. Surely you understand now.
Naturally, he can't even begin to approach us. He is far too tainted. No, humans in truth can only reach a level of pureness such as ourselves once, or sometimes twice in their lives. Can you guess when?
Death? Well, actually, that was the 'sometimes' I was speaking of before. There is something in that, but not always. After all, that involves the loss of the self. No, I was speaking of almost the same thing.
Birth.
Raw, untouched, completely whole.
For about a few seconds before the realization that you have a body kicks in and it's simply downhill from there. The pure sense of self is clouded under silly, shortsighted thought. It's that unclouded sense of self that probably struggles underneath to achieve a state of purity again.
Be patient now. You don't want to make me angry do you?
Good.
That's why they are always summoning local spirits and lower mazoku and such to move their golems and such. Clones and such are always that much weaker because they lack that tiny pure essence that cannot be truly caught through any physical means. Someone did manage to capture a part of that essence in some artifact or what not some time ago but from whom else do you think he learned the secret?
Something strange about this human?
Or something familiar?
So you sense it at last. Yes, there should be something very familiar about him, or rather his power. Remember your lackey what was his name, Gurotlym? Whatever. This human contracted Gurotlym and merged with it in order to increase his magical power. How else did you think he was capable of doing the spells we've seen?
As disgusting as it sounds, it's been done before, the fusing.
Well, that might have been the reason I brought you here.
Oops, wait a minute. You aren't thinking of stepping in to kill this human now are you? Actually, you would.
Not so hasty now. I have an idea of how to go about this.
....
.....
......
...k...
.....i...
..l.......
l..........
...ki..ll...
......kill...
..........kill!
...discomfort...
"Yare yare. Such a mess." I step around the remains of what was once a man, you could still tell from the skeletal structure that was now quite visible in the torn remains of the exploded torso. The head was somewhere around here, oh yes, in the corner over there. "But I suppose subtlety is beyond you at this point isn't it?"
Two expressionless red eyes look at me. The child simply sits there, if it even realizes it is sitting, covered in the blood from the dead human. In one hand writhes darkness untouched by the red stains of passage.
"Are births always this messy I wonder? Hmmm, unresponsive it seems. Perhaps this experiment was a failure then? Do you recognize me?"
There is a struggle, some twinges from the astral side. Hmmm, perhaps the mind had been destroyed in the process. Well, the original one at any rate. There was nothing saying a new self hadn't been created.
"From the very beginning is it? Even better. A true return to purity," I smile to myself, leaning over to tear off a relatively clean piece of cloth from the dead man's clothes. With it, I begin to wipe away the blood from the child. I hadn't noticed before that this human's hair resembled that of my chosen form. "Well, well. A new father tending his first 'child'."
The child blinks, the first response yet. Her lips tremble as if the new mind is trying to work the unfamiliar muscles.
"Every child needs a name. I won't give you your original name, it's hardly suitable for a female human at any rate. So how about...Yllia? Pure again, a rebirth, a new start, it means all those things. Now then, Yllia, shall we go? I want to see what you're capable of."
Afterword
"Wonderful. That many consecutive shifts using that Void spell and you still don't feel tired?"
Shake of the head.
The child is still silent except for when it comes to the use of spells and even then she speaks barely in a hint of a whisper. If one didn't know better, one might think she wasn't even using spells.
She's calling me.
"Now, you be a good child and study your books. I'll expect to see a new trick when I come back."
She won't follow. Was it a fault to be too obedient? Or is that, like perhaps the apparently muteness, another side effect of her 'birth'?
"Greater Beast-sama."
"Having fun with your pet?"
Of course she would know.
"An interesting experiment. Dynast has been experimenting with using humans fused with intelligent lesser Mazoku for cannon fodder. If your pet can exceed their capabilities, we may have a more powerful weapon to use."
She didn't sound displeased about the loss of a mid-level Mazoku. It had been entirely of my own initiative to force him into the human shell. Ah, the betrayal had been delicious and the look on that human's face when his 'creation' opened its eyes and then killed him. A baptism of sorts no?
"So I hope, master. She is young yet, younger than when Dynast-sama creates his. I shall present her to you when she is ready."
"Very well, Xelloss. That is all."