Fragile Wings (Chephros)

[Aiyon]

(Continued from Push and Pull...)

"Ok, here we are." Tas tells her passenger, sounding a little releived. She'd just had to carry the gravely wounded demon, Cephros, all the way back from the plains in the training grounds to the door of the hospital wing. And it had been far from a laugh a minute.
The actual lifting had been no problem, floating at an angle in her armoured form had kept him on her back the whole way in, though she'd had to tilt a few times to keep him up there. He kept slipping ... probably on his own blood, that now covered her back. They'd made good time over the plains but at the acadamey her progress had slowed considerably, she was too big to easily use the corridors and the many onlookers was also not nice. The attention had made her nervous, resulting in a few cracked walls, suits of armour, and other bits and pieces she failed to notice. And she couldn't see above the horizontal because of the tilt either.

Even so, her current obstacle was one she couldn't fail to notice; the closed doors of the hospital wing. Tas had no hands, Cephros was out of it and she wasn't going to go human just yet. But she wasn't going to take out the whole door just yet. "Hello, can someone get this thing open please?" she calls through the door, hoping that someone on the other side would notice. It was nowhere near her loudest voice but it should be enough, so she waits patiently floating in the corridor, glaring frostily at any students that tried to hand around at a distance. After a few minutes she drifts forward slightly, deciding to break something. But the handle turns instead.
"Is everything ok?" a concerned voice asks as the opening widens. "The door was open you... oh my lord!" The orderly looks in shock at the lump of metal and its gruesome payload, then at blood dripping onto the floor.
"Yeah, i know." grumbles Tas as she nudges forward through the doors, forcing them fully open and the orderly to back off. It's a tight fit getting through the door, the tip of her cannon scraping against the floor as she does, then her glowing eye fixes on the orderly. "Where should he be?"
"Oh oh... uh... just along here..." the poor woman stammers and turns on her heels, hurrying to show the way. Tas follows more circumspectly, wary of hitting anything, until an empty bed is pointed out to her. "I'll go get someone... ok? Be right back..." and with that the orderly hurrys off to get some assistance. Tas indulges in an irritated growl to herself and floats next to the bed, as close to the floor as she can. Hopefully she'd get a little help soon.

[Chephros]

Chephros got a rather slapdash team for his care right here. It wasn't exactly easy to treat him either. With lines up and down his body marking Alastor's Fury, his veins, while low on blood to the extreme now, were pumping what was left furiously through in almost a race around his body and back to his heart. His breathing was no where near caught up though and so his unconscious even breathing wasn't helping. He really didn't need to be knocked out, as he already was, and he really didn't need any anesthetics, as he couldn't feel the pain anyway.

First order of business for these medics was replacing his blood. Not exactly easy as, while demons did take on human blood types, they took the blood of that which they killed first. In his case, A- blood. Not exactly the rarest type, but still quite uncommon. It took them a while to gather some, but the medics eventually did. Getting it in his veins wasn't a problem, but patching up his wounds was. They couldn't use normal healing magic, it would actually hurt him. It was almost like the undead problem, but in his case it was just how it broke down the cells instead of causing them to heal. It wasn't a rejection of the evil of the necromancy.

His wings were also a problem. Stuck together as they were, washing the blood off was a bit harder to do, and the medics eventually resorted to getting cloths and buckets, and creating a shield bowl around the place so the water would collected underneath them. Considering blood was viscous, it had collected, dried, and stuck the wings in place. Compacting with chaos was a natural thing so while the wings looked small from how they were, they extended seven feet in both directions from his back. Wasn't that just wonderful when they had gashes spread out along them and were bleeding oh so nicely.

The medics finally moved him out of the room and into a more...open one. Here they slowly got his wings open while removing the stiff and still flowing blood. They patched up his gashes and seemingly had to change those every few minutes as they wouldn't stop bleeding. Eventually one of the medics literally said 'fuck it' and cauterized the wounds. It worked and the wounds sealed shut. Being a demon, the fire wouldn't hurt as much as it would a normal human, and so he didn't regain consciousness yet. With his wings now clean and....semi healed, they figured to finish him in the room they were in. The rest of his cuts were sealed with fire, and his body was cleaned of the blood. Now they continued pumping new crimson into his veins to keep him alive. It wasn't actually as hard as they expected, but the wings had presented a problem.

The healing bit would also be fun as all hell.

Now, when they got him back to the regular ward, they simply put him in his little bed, and left him alone. As long as he didn't do much, he would be fine. However, when they heard a crash, the medics returned. Apparently, physical wounds weren't everything. In his....half sleep, Chephros was both recovering from severe exhaustion and having dreams. Now, for him, he was used to nightmares. They were actually mental fun for him at night. However, recently his mind had stopped providing them and instead focused on that girl from the town he had made his first hunt in. It caused him to have mixed feelings about the whole thing, and rather screwed with his mind. Thus the reason he had been avoiding sleeping and instead found ways to keep himself awake. he had tried this human thing called coffee and soda, but neither really appealed to him.

Then of course, fighting helped, but not many students fought at night. Right now he had sleep, and as such his mind was tormented. Both with the lack of it, and then the sudden rush of it. The dreams never helped either. This was why he was bound with metal chains to the bed, and they actually ended up bolting his to the floor. They would then remember to put him there in the future, just in case this happened again. They didn't want more things breaking.

[Aiyon]

This sudden bustle of activity Tas allowed herself to relax a little, holding herself level until they finally levered him off her back before righting herself again. Impassively she watched as the demon was checked and his treatment started, then as some people go off to look for blood she feels a tap on the base of her shoulder. Tas turns politely to face the attendant who'd got her attention, nearly accidentally clipping him with the edge of a shoulderplate as she does. The man backs up, a little more wary of her size now and gestures for her to follow a little way from the action. She complies, wondering what he was after.
"Uhm... you're not just a, uh, summon of his, are you?" he asks. "You'd have faded by now, so, uh... do you need anything? Like, well, that blood cleaning off... a visit to, hmm... the workshop? Some welders maybe?" He trails off awkwardly under her unwavering gaze until finally she chuckles, making him blink in suprise.
"No, no welders thanks." she replies calmly. "Though i could use a check myself, he cut me up a bit i think..."
"But you're a golem of some sort, right?" he interrupts, then hesitates when Tas sighs.
"Nope. Give me a few moments." she replies, the ring of her Shift spell appearing around her and getting him to back off a little more. A few seconds later she is back in human form, giving him a small smile. Thanks to carrying chephros she has a lot of bloodstains on her clothes now, and the free flow of blood down from the scalpwound had resumed (it hadn't clotted as she was in her other form). "See what i mean?" she mutters, starting to shrug... and then she staggers as she gets a fresh wave of pain from her back. "Ouch. My... back hurts." she grunts before collapsing into the arms of the man, half consious.
What she hadn't realised was, while Cephros' last strike had only been glancing it had scored deeply into the plating on her back. In human form, this meant a long gash in her skin, in some places actually creating wholes through it.

In the end there is a bit of a flurry around her as well as this injury is checked out and patched up, some magic being cast to speed up the healing of it so that stitching wasn't required. She'd passed out sometime during this as it had been rather painful when her skin started pulling itself apart, and with a little encouragement she stayed under. Once the demon had been placed it was decided to put her in a bed nearby, since she'd helped him get here, and that's where she stayed, only stirring briefly when the demon decided to start breaking things but not enough to be fully concious. She wouldn't remember that brief return of awareness the next time she awoke.

[The Designer]

"Well, well, well.... If it isn't Chephros" A sultry voice called in the hallway.

Walking from the hallway, Millarca sauntered over to the chained demon. She wore very, very, very minimal clothing today, like all other days. From a certain perspective, she looked like a hooker, but a pretty damn hot one though. She had one a black top that could very well second as a bra and a skirt so short one wouldn't need to talk it off to make love to her. Anyways, walking in she hovered over Chephros, who was at the moment still... Leaning in, she looked over the demon as though she was about to kiss him. However, she stopped an inch away from the face, merely looking at him with her undead eyes.

"No love tonight baby" She began, caressing his chest. "You're too injured to make it any.... fun... on my part. I like my men strong and healthy, cause I don't like to sleep at night.."

A cough suddenly appeared behind Millarca, as a hooded figure walked in. He wore his hood up, covering most, if not all, of his face. His entire body was hidden beneath black robes, and the only thing that really appeared was this red glow that came from his eyes....

"Ma'am" He began, walking over to the young Demon. "I believe it is time that I begin the second stage of his Bone Armory. He already has his fore-arms modified.... Now it is time to fully bring out his demonic vintage, don't you think?"

"Indeed, begin Osteomancer"

Slowly, the mage placed his hands on top of Chephros' head, chanting in a ancient tongue. Chephros' transformation would begin now... and all there was on Millarca's face was a huge, long grin.

[Chephros]

The chains really did help here. His wings were draped on the floor nearby, him laying on his back after all, and the Bone mage, as that's what Osteomancers were, was careful not to step on the things. After all, that would have been stupid granted what he was doing. Anyone paying attention would likely have seen his wings....well, change pretty much. So would his tail, as would part of his shoulders and his head. Demons were often noted to have horns, and having none, there was that lacking portion. His wings were also very weak, bleeding like all hell when cut with a thrown steak knife. His tail was rather fleshy and weak, and the spines coming up weren't great weapons yet. The soul crystal was, but that was harder to use than you might think. It was also changing.

From his wings the flesh would seem to fold inward, and then come back out. The blue and red that were barely hints in the wings drained out anyway and the wings became pure black, like the pure and unending void. The front and back was also covered with a thick, strong carapace which would stop regular bullets and many weapons would glance off them unless significant pressure was applied. Almost like dragon scales really. However, they were slightly magic resistant, but the magic itself would still have an effect. Holy would likely be even more effective against him now, but that wasn't too much of a concern...right?

His flesh above the collarbone seemed to bump up, then two spikes pierced up, through them. The flesh didn't break like it should have, but instead simply pierced and retreated, but not without it's own loss of blood. The medics would be hating this about now, and Chephros' own innate magic, Alastor's Fury, would come into play again. The lines would once again cover his arms, legs, and torso this time, in what looked like random runes, but was just a random pattern of his subconscious. On his head a small horn of it's own came up, not near the size of the first two, but still a spike that could be used. From behind his head came two....interesting things. Curved horns that would come out and point towards the front of his forehead. More blood, this time covering his hair.

His tail would also....seem to shed. The flesh itself though would literally melt away, revealing pure bone. The sections would condense without making the tail and shorter, and thus there would be more links along it. The thing now looked like a section of a spine almost, with many many pieces through it. Each one was like a square with lines that curved inward, and the edges were sharpened. On the three sides that were up from the ground, there were spines that went out four inches and curled forward like hooks. At the end, like always, was the black fog which surrounded the precious soul crystal. Fragile, but incredibly powerful. Overall, he had just gotten resistant wings, a more powerful tail, and five spikes, two from in between his neck and shoulders, and three on his head.

((Yay for reference pictures))

[Aiyon]

Tas stirred slightly as the visitors arrived, but did not actually wake. That came after the chanting began, loud compared to the silence that had been there before it. Her mind swims back to semi-wakefullness and her first vision is of a wall, since she was lying on her side with her back to everyone else. She rolls over restlessly, only to be confronted with a scene that brings her to full wakefullness.

The guy in the other bed, her opponent, had visitors... a decidedly under-dressed woman who her gaze only briefly lingers on and, much more concerning to her, a robed figure that chanted in some language or other. She briefly considers making a commotion, but something stops her. Something about this struck her as right as well as wrong, but exactly what she didn't know. Mutely she watches the changes in the demon, not entirely sure what to make of it as he evidently becomes stronger. The thought hits her that this must be demonic magic of some kind, and with that in mind she reflects that maybe she shouldn't have stayed in the hospital wing. Her injuries from the fight weren't that bad... right?

[Chephros]

The Osteomancer wasn't done though. With giving the wings a carapace, he made that portion of the body heal and become more easily defended, however now the rest of the body was a problem. While the armored clothes dealt with some of the attacks thrown at him, it was more for the up close attackers who would try using their hands or other weapons. Proof being this fight, he was torn up using magic. The shells also hurt, but that wouldn't be as much of a problem. For now, what he needed was an external form of protection against anything and everything that could come at him.

In short, scales.

Midnight black, half centimeter in size each, covering his entire outer body, face, hands, feet, torso, midsection, EVERYTHING. That however wasn't the end of it. The scales would continually condense by the outer portions creating waves that looked like they folded inward, creating layers of bone that would turn to scale very quickly. Almost like the technique used to fold Samurai swords, except instead of just folding it, it was actually adding more without changing the size. Problem was, to get the initial bone component without having any on hand meant taking it from the body, and doing that meant letting out blood and shocking nerves. More pain was exactly what he needed.

As the scales continued, the Osteomancer moved on. There wasn't much else but what was done was a natural enhancement he had received part of already. The claws on his hands and feet. Now, normally claws were bones that grew out of the original limb for animals. Demons had adaptive ones that over time had become what animals had. However, that meant that to get them, time was needed. This demon didn't really have the time, so it was advanced for him. The bone was altered to spread from halfway up the final joints to be actual claws. The same was done for his feet. Bone mass was slightly denser in these areas as to prevent breaks, and thus he was relatively complete. This left him in a state of semi-shock from pain, additional blood loss due to things coming from seemingly no where, and nerves being moved out of the way, or removed in the case of his claws. Not exactly pleasant, but he was all the better for it.

The last change was probably the most painful. His legs cracked and shifted from the normal straight ones of humans to the curved ones of hunters. Think of a raptor, dinosaur not bird, and how their legs curve back down below allowing them to stand on the pad's of their feet. This gives them the ability to balance more easily while running. His legs turned into a copy of that, allowing him to run with his arms forward, blades or claws ready. It would also help him run and fly. The pain however was excruciating as it changed blood paths, nerve routes, the bone structure itself, and everything else.

And with that he passed out. Again.