84 Bringing a monster to life

"So you helped her escape huh?" I said aloud once I finished 'seeing' his recent memories, not really expecting an answer from the unconscious magus who laid on the floor. "You really went and consciously decided to try to make my entire trip a waste of time..."

Standing up, I sighed and looked at Artoria.

"The girl went south, so let's find her before she disappears." I said as we began walking, however we were interrupted by a mob of confused and angry people.

"What the hell do you think you are doing!" screamed a man holding a torch and a spear as he looked at the bodies around us.

Before we could answer however, a silver-coloured hand emerged from his chest, breaking his ribs and causing blood to flow out of his body. The man coughed blood and stared down as he noticed he was about to die.

"Well, that's no way to speak to the young master." said Giorno, removing his hand form the body of the man while walking in our direction.

The mob of angry people were clearly scared at the sight of someone dying right between them, with no one able to stop it.

"Did you finish?" I asked Giorno as he stood beside us.

"Yes." he replied, calmly cleaning the blood on his hand with a handkerchief. "Everything is set."

"Good..." I muttered, bringing my hands together and clapping.

The mob around us began coughing, falling to their knees while choking, desperately trying to breath as their bodies slowly melted.

The only people unaffected by this were Giorno, Artoria, the old woman and Bersac, who were right next to me. Everyone else had their souls materialise and merge with their bodies as their corpses began to flow into a single spot in the centre of the transmutation circle Giorno set up.

After a few seconds of screaming and begging from the families around us, everything quietened down and a single red stone remained in the floor.

"Bring the stone, Giorno." I asked my butler before staring at the other two people who were waiting to receive their punishment.

Bersac was still unconscious, however the old woman watched everything happen and simply remained silent, staring at me as if I was the devil or something.

Ignoring her, I focused on Artoria.

"My dear, the girl ran south with her mother." I said, caressing her cheek. "Go and find their trail with Giorno, and I will be there in a moment."

Artoria nodded with a smile and left with Giorno as soon as he gave me the stone.

Now alone with the two idiots who thought it would be a good idea to not show respect to their betters, a smile began forming on my face.

"You know... I am quite close to figuring out a cool ability." I said while getting closer to the older woman. "You wouldn't mind helping me in my experiments would you?"

The woman's eyes widened for a moment as clarity began coming back to her mind. Her instincts flared up as she realised what was about to happen.

"G-Get a-away from m-me you m-monster!" she said while trying to stand up, however my foot on her face was enough to keep her in her place.

"Now you are just being rude." I said with a sad smile, shaking my head in disappointment. "But I am extremely generous, merciful, and bored, so how about we play a game?"

The old woman couldn't reply, mainly because her face was pressed against the floor with my foot on top of it, so I took the decision for her.

"Well, you will play, so let me explain you the game."

Taking my foot off her head, I crouched down and pulled her by the hair, staring at her with a smile.

"You will have to run away." I said in a happy tone. "If you succeed in running away, then you win."

Releasing her, I stood up and went in Bersac's direction, ignoring her clear confusion and fear.

Once I arrived next to Bersac, I stared back at her and frowned.

"You know, this process will take like a minute at most, which means you will only be getting a minute of head-start." I said, annoyed that she clearly was ignoring the game. "If you stay there like that, you will lose."

The woman, who had a frightened expression, stood up and left without saying anything, which in turn made me shake my head.

"Not even a thank you huh?" I muttered while crouching down in front of Bersac and playing with the philosopher's stone on my hand. "People now a days have no sense of gratitude whatsoever."

Pressing my hand against Bersac's chest, I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, feeling every part of his soul.

Right now I was about to use something which I have been developing for a few years, inspired by a certain homunculi from FMAB.

I wasn't reborn with knowledge on this ability, so honestly it is quite the step to develop it entirely on my own, truly an achievement if I must say so.

"A philosopher's stone is a high-energy substance that includes the souls of many people, so when it is placed in a human body, it is met with rejection and it tries to take control of the body..." I explained, though I was simply talking to myself. "But for this ability to work, I need someone to hold the countless souls together, someone with a will strong enough to reign the rest in. If only I knew how to create an ouroboros tattoo to control the minds of homunculi... sigh, whatever."

Pushing the philosopher's stone into his body, I re-shaped his disrupted magic circuits and focused the countless souls inside the stone to move freely within his own soul.

"Try not to die..." I muttered with a smile, hoping that his will was strong enough to push him through the pain of having his body literally ripped apart by the countless souls inside him, all while trying to maintain his sanity despite the screams of the agonising souls.

As soon as I changed him, the magus began screaming, blooding pouring out of his ears, nose and eyes while he clenched his chest in pain.

"Come on..." I muttered while standing up and taking a step back. "I went through the trouble of reshaping your soul for this, so the least you could do is be a good experimental subject and succeed..."

As he continued screaming, Bersac's body began to change. Countless faces appeared on his skin, as if there were bodies inside of his own trying to get out.

"Come on..." I said, encouraging him with a small smile as I noticed things were going well. "I finally corrected my theoretical mistakes and gave you a proper body, one that wasn't an empty homunculi but instead one with a consciousness before the procedure, so you should work fine now..."

The screams slowly turned into animalistic roars as his shape continued to change, his size growing and two new arms appearing on his body.

His skin began changing colour, gaining a green shade that looked rather disgusting while scales appeared on his back, which began growing in size.

"Yes..." I said under my teeth as he began looking like the homunculi I remembered. "I was right, a strong will is needed in order to keep all the souls together, if the will is too weak then the souls will kill each other for control of the body, but if the will isn't strong enough too take absolute control nor weak enough to die, then it will just turn 'him' into an insane monster, only capable of maintaining its shape and following its instincts..."

A tail grew at the end of his spine while a new pair of arms appeared, turning him into a true abomination.

Faces and parts of bodies grew at the sides of his body, which now resembled a messed up cross between a lizard and a dog or something like that.

All in all, he looked absolutely disgusting, a creature that came out of a nightmare... which was awesome! It looked like an eldritch abomination, though with no tentacles.

A huge smile formed on my face as the monster roared loudly.

"Great!" I screamed happily. "Now go, Envy! Go and devour that lowly bitch that annoyed me before! Go and hunt!"