Xibalba

[Aiden]

Serana

The rat's beady eyes did not avert from the sight of Joseph's grotesque examinations. Instead a sibilant hiss escaped from its mouth, and took shape within his mind in the form of a feminine voice.

'To check in on my investment.'

It slithered into Joseph's ears like a charnel wind passing through a canyon, carrying the whistling stench of a mass grave.

'I see you have been busy.'

[Umbra of Chaos]

Joseph

"Oh, just a little of this and that. All very useful depending on what you want out of them." His hands moved back and forth, surgical incisions followed by an occasional wave and stab to accentuate his words. "It was all worth it, I think. No one can trace my way back here easily, and there were some interesting materials. There was this man with a curious energy, I'm cloning him from scraps in the vats, and I'm wondering exactly how it works."

[Aiden]

Serana

'And what do you hope to achieve by this?'

The rodent was slowly disintegrating, a mere shell of meat and gristle that fell - drip, drop - into pieces with every blink of the eye. Despite this it seemed entirely unhindered by the lack of necessary components as it switched shoulders.

'What instrument do you craft for me to play?'

[Umbra of Chaos]

Joseph

"Well..." He paused for a bit. This wasn't for dramatic effect, and his eyes grew cloudy with forgetfulness for a moment. Then a manic gleam shown in them. "Well, living beings are limited creatures. They can only do so much, especially alone, and their construction is usually sloppy. People aren't perfect. But things can be perfect. A blade will always cut if you hone it, a shield will always block if it's maintained. So you can make a soldier that isn't a person but can keep changing without you having to constantly touch it up. Just ask for the tune and I'll give you something."

[Aiden]

Serana

'How does extinction sound?'

The rat turned at last from Joseph's work to instead focus on Joseph himself. Its eyes spoke of the monstrous will that he had offered his services to, but had not yet seen in person. If 'in person' truly meant anything to such a creature.

'For you see, I wish for one very simple thing - a world where only those I deem worthy may live, free of my will forever in their rotting minds.'

[Kotomine_Rin]

Around 2:05 AM

Nexus Time

EARLIER IN XILBABA

Cold. Inexplicably, incomprehensively, the outer gates of the district turned chilling to the touch. It was no mere trick of the weather, but some sort of sorcery. A cold, unfeeling, ravenous magecraft that filled the halls but went no further. But every simulacrum, down to the smallest imitation, suddenly stopped moving. For just that moment, there was a glitch.

It's as if the walls themselves quaked in fury. Or perhaps... excitement?

And then everything went back to normal. Just another day in the capital of the dead.

[Umbra of Chaos]

Joseph

"Well... that isn't hard. A few rats nearly managed to do the deed once, and they wouldn't have left anything behind. As long as there are bodies for me to take samples from it doesn't really matter how they get there. Maybe some sort of parasitic microorganism?" The alchemist took the whole request in stride. His demeanor hadn't even changed in the slightest; in fact, he seemed even more relaxed than before! Perhaps he was simply at home with such monstrousness.

[Aiden]

Serana

The crumbling rat corpse placed a paw against Joseph's face, as if to pat his cheek.

'Plagues are well within my wheelhouse. What other wicked weapons do we now wield?'

[Umbra of Chaos]

Joseph

He stroked his cheek with a bloodstained hand, a thoughtful look crossing his features. "Well, a plague is easy to notice without a proper vector. If you cast it on something small and living, then distributed it amongst a populace, we could start an epidemic before anyone realizes there's a problem. I would need to make something pretty innocuous..."

[Aiden]

Serana

'I can provide the illness in question myself. However, if you can create a means for it to spread with little evidence of its origin our work would become quite simple indeed.'

The rat proceeded to drop from his shoulder, motionless. Joseph felt eyes on his back and the oh so gentle tap of heels against the floor behind him.

For standing there was his benefactor, at last in the flesh. A smile was upon her beautiful yet pale face.

[Umbra of Chaos]

Joseph

Perfect timing too! Joseph gave the twitching body on his slab a good shove, letting it slide into the cultivation pit with a small splash. Then he slipped off his bloodstained gloves and dumped them into a bin. There was still a good bit of red smeared on his chin from when he rubbed it earlier, but that was hardly a problem.

"We can probably work with food. That'd probably be the best bet. Give it a slow time for full activation and then suddenly there's an epidemic. I think I did that once..." He turned around to face the lich, although the look on his face was more befuddled and confused than respectful as he pondered his own memories.

[Aiden]

Serana

The elven corpse sauntered her way in and began to circle tightly around the petite, patchwork person to whom she'd given patronage. She seemed keen to examine him from every angle, and her cold fingers hovered oh so closely over his head and shoulders as she passed. "Such a wonderful idea you have. But such a terrible fate you seem to labor under!"

She sounded so concerned at this, and her face was full of compassion. "You crumble from within, struggling to retain yourself. But here you are still, doing such wonderful things."

Serana's other hand motioned to the pit he had just made use of.

[Umbra of Chaos]

Joseph

His smile, which could remain in place even after someone had blasted a hole through his head, vanished. "Yes... it is unfair."

The words came slowly to him now, as if he had to think over each one carefully before voicing it. But very quickly he seemed to regain his cheer, even as his concentration lapsed. Like rotting sludge, his right eye dripped out from its socket and all but popped on hitting the ground. But in between blinks a new one had already replaced it. "That's what all this is for after all! I don't want to spend the rest of eternity suffering like this, not knowing when Judgement will come. I want to live without pain."

[Aiden]

Serana

"Have you tried dying? I can correct that easily enough." But then she sighed, and shook her head while one of her hands came to rest atop Joseph's chest from behind. "No, I suppose that would be a far too obvious and simple solution. Such a conundrum..."

Her skin seemed to radiate a necrotic power that promised the cessation of sensation - forever. It was almost narcotic.

[Umbra of Chaos]

Joseph

"I can't." He voiced that with the simplicity of a normal human talking about how they couldn't fly. "To live forever and eternally degrade until the time of Judgement. Besides, I don't want to die. Or be reanimated either."

The alchemist pouted. "I want to live. I want happiness for all the time I've spent like this."