Deus Necros

[Heroic Growth] interested him even more.

The ability awarded experience for defeating threats, completing deeds recognized by the Heroic Mandate, fulfilling quests, and overcoming meaningful challenges. Rewards varied according to target strength, personal contribution, circumstances, and several variables the system refused to explain.

Hoyo read the description three times.

He finally understood why Hiro had been killing prisoners beneath the Sacrosanctum. High-level captives provided experience, and confinement made them convenient targets.

The method worked. It was also wasteful.

Prisoners powerful enough to provide meaningful advancement were finite, politically expensive, and difficult to replace without drawing attention. Hoyo already knew dozens of creatures whose organs he wanted. Their deaths could now advance his Class while their bodies advanced his grafting.

One corpse could provide two forms of growth: experience through its defeat and biological improvement through harvesting. If the Heroic System issued a quest involving the same target, a third reward might follow.

Hoyo’s eyes sharpened. That was an efficient use of death.

[Demonbane] increased his effectiveness against demonic creatures and anything formally recognized as serving the Demon King.

[Heroic Reinforcement] allowed him to strengthen his body with mana and Heroic Authority, pushing its physical capability beyond ordinary limits.

[Divine Recovery] accelerated healing and could purge poison, curses, corruption, and several other foreign influences according to their severity.

Divine Recovery held implications far beyond combat. Grafting had always been limited by rejection. Even compatible organs required preparation, suppressants, and careful integration before the body stopped trying to destroy them.

An ability capable of purging harmful foreign influences might reduce that risk. Depending upon how the Heroic System distinguished a graft from an injury, it could also destroy everything Hoyo had placed inside himself.

He needed controlled tests before using it.

Then he opened the trait listed beside Composite Physiology.

[Perfect Graft Integration]

The Heroic Vessel refuses permanent physiological degradation caused by foreign biological integration.

Successfully assimilated grafts shall be harmonized with the bearer’s primary form while retaining compatible functions, traits, and acquired abilities.

Foreign appearance is unnecessary once assimilation is complete.

Hoyo stopped moving.

He read the description again before raising his left hand. The limb had not been entirely human for years. Its bones came from one creature, several tendons belonged to another, and part of the musculature had once allowed a beast to crush plate armor between its fingers.

The arm looked human.

His sleeve had hidden most of it during the procedure, and the system notifications had prevented him from noticing sooner.

Hoyo pulled the fabric back and examined smooth human skin. The scaled patches, mismatched pigmentation, and visible seams had disappeared. His fingers were proportional, and his nails looked ordinary.

When he tightened his fist and called upon the graft, all the stolen strength remained.

Hoyo tested his altered eyes next. Draconic sight answered immediately, bringing heat signatures into view and sharpening the mana currents drifting through the room. Darkness retreated from the far corners as his vision adjusted.

He caught his reflection in the polished surface of a surgical instrument. Both eyes looked human. The reptilian slit that had occupied one of them for years had disappeared without taking its function.

Hoyo rose from the table. A proper mirror stood against the far wall, but the laboratory door opened before he reached it.

Clementine entered without knocking. He had changed considerably since abandoning the Sacrosanctum. His immaculate papal vestments were gone, replaced by dark, practical clothing that made him look less like the spiritual leader of an empire and more like the conspirator he had apparently always been.

His gaze moved first to Hiro’s opened corpse and then toward Hoyo. Clementine stopped inside the doorway and stared long enough for Hoyo to become irritated.

”What?”

A smile slowly formed on Clementine’s face. ”So it worked.”

”The heart is stable and the Heroic System recognized me as Hiro’s successor. The result is better than I expected.”

”I was not referring to the heart.”

Hoyo narrowed his eyes as Clementine crossed the room. The former Pope lifted the standing mirror, turned it around, and angled the glass toward him.

”Look at yourself.”

Hoyo obeyed and needed several seconds to recognize the man in the reflection.

The face was his, or at least a corrected version of it. Years of grafting had left his features subtly uneven, but that asymmetry had vanished. The reinforced section of jawbone he had implanted after losing part of his face now matched the rest of his skull. Both eyes appeared human, sharp, and pale, with no visible indication that one had once belonged to something decidedly inhuman.

Discoloration had disappeared from his neck. The altered flesh around his temples had smoothed, and every visible graft had been harmonized into a single human form.

His hair had changed most dramatically. It had turned completely white and now framed a face younger than the one Hoyo remembered. The jaw and cheekbones had sharpened, while the grotesque irregularities that once made people instinctively uncomfortable had disappeared.

Hoyo raised a hand and touched his cheek. The reflection followed with unfamiliar precision.

”Interesting.”

Clementine laughed quietly. ”You have inherited a divine mandate, regained a human face, and apparently become far younger. I expected a little more surprise.”

”I am surprised. I simply see no benefit in performing it for you.”

”That is closer to the person I remember.”

Hoyo continued studying the reflection. The Heroic Heart had not restored his original appearance. It had reconstructed him around whatever the system considered his primary form, retaining enough of the old Hoyo Drak to remain recognizable while correcting everything the grafts had distorted.

Someone who had known him as a student will need great effort to even notice the resemblance. Few would connect this face to the biological horror who had worked beside Hiro.

Clementine rested one hip against the operating table. ”The Council’s offer still stands. They want us inside the Holy Order, and this makes your return considerably easier.”

”Joining the Council was never the difficult part. Making ourselves useful without being recognized is the problem.”

Hoyo turned away from the mirror. ”You were Pope Clementine. I was publicly associated with Hiro before disappearing alongside people accused of treachery. The Holy Order knows our faces, our mana signatures, and our affiliations. Walking through the Sacrosanctum doors should end with half the Cardinals trying to kill us.”

”That would have been a problem yesterday.” Clementine tapped one finger against the mirror. ”Yesterday, you were Hoyo Drak. Today, you are the Hero.”