Martin and Lifara stood looking at the twitching muscle. Martin gulped. He did not want his body locking up on him, and he knew too well that such things were possible in this world.
"Do you think there is a problem?" Martin asked.
The instant he heard himself, he felt foolish. Lifara only shook his head and looked at him in a way that made the answer plain enough.
Of course, there was a problem. The flesh was still twitching.
Lifara reached out through their system and called for Fay. There was no Flesh Titan nearby at the moment, so she came to him soon enough.
"Big sister, would you mind purging any soul left in this?" Lifara asked, pointing to the scraps of flesh and bone.
Fay looked at the meat and bones first. Then at Lifara. Then at Martin.
"Are you planning to use this on him?" she asked. "Wouldn't we be hearing an earful if something went wrong?"
Martin heard that and quickly pulled out a Life Bane Contract of his own.
"Fellow Daoist Fay, I am willing to stake my safety on this to have it transplanted into me. I feel like it will help me later. It may only be a hunch, but I'll do it."
Martin spoke with blind confidence, though he knew there were risks.
Still, the other cultists had spoken too highly of those muscles for him to dismiss them now. And if he did turn into a Flesh Titan, then what of it?
He would only be ugly. He could live with ugly. Being weak troubled him far more. Merchants sold flesh suits openly enough, and those were not even rare. The thought only hardened his resolve.
Fay held out her palm. Martin, moving on instinct and not sense, lowered his remaining left hand and slapped it against hers in a clumsy high five.
Fay's cordial smile vanished at once.
"Ah. Pay. Right. How much?" Martin asked.
"Ten high-grade spirit stones," Fay said.
Martin winced. Even so, something in his gut kept telling him that he would regret it for the rest of his life if he let this flesh and bone pass him by.
He pulled the spirit stones from his belt and counted what he had.
"I only have five here. Can I pay with something else?" Martin asked.
"No," Fay said, firm and unmoving.
Martin hurried back to the wall where most of the cultists had gathered. He went from one to another asking for high-grade spirit stones, then returned with six in hand and slipped one back into his belt before he reached Fay. Just in case.
Fay gave a small nod. The bones that had lain quiet since her arrival were suddenly bathed in underworld fire.
The flesh writhed at once, twisting and jerking like worms cast onto salt.
The bones reacted too, springing in short, almost comical arcs as if they wanted no part of the teal flames licking at them.
Martin's face soured at the sight. If he had let that thing be grafted into him while a soul still clung to it, then he truly would have played himself for a fool.
The sting of parting with high-grade spirit stones felt like a lie now. In that moment, he understood something plain and hard. Miserliness toward one's own body was only another road to ruin. He carved that lesson deep into his heart.
For three full minutes, the flesh and bones soaked in the underworld flame.
When the fire finally died down, they looked almost unchanged.
Martin started to reach for them, but Lifara caught him first with a lash of vines and dragged him back.
At the same instant, Fay snapped her whip. The wolf head at its tip opened its jaws and spat out a broad oval of fire that engulfed the blood and flesh whole.
A shriek burst from it, then faded into nothing.
Martin watched his face go pale.
"Worth it," he murmured. "Truly worth every spirit stone."
Fay followed with Inquisitor's Flame Probe, one of the invasive methods Radeon had taught her. Five straight waves of fire passed through the remains in clean lines, drawing out a map of the soul and exposing any lingering identity hidden in body, blood, or bone.
Only when she was satisfied did she turn and clap Martin hard on the shoulder.
"Lie down here and strip," Lifara said, spreading a sheet of white fabric over the bare cobbled ground.
Martin was still a young man. For all his injuries, his face turned red at once. His eyes drifted on instinct to the places where scrying eyes might be hidden.
Jekyll's words about millions watching had not left him, and the thought made him burn with shame. Who would not feel the same?
Still, he gritted his teeth and began to lower his robes.
Lifara rolled her eyes at the boy before her. Then a sly, mischievous thought flashed through her mind.
She seized Martin's black robe and yanked it down hard, baring his upper body in one swift pull. Martin let out a shriek so loud it turned heads at once.
Cultivators did not have the mercy of dull ears, and more than a few people looked over.
"Why would you do that, Daoist Lifara?" Martin yelled, his lone eye red with outrage.
Lifara remembered asking Master Radeon how to make mischief without having to answer for it later. To her great delight, the man had truly taught her.
"What?" Lifara said, her voice dropping low, as if her temper were about to flare. "Do you think I have time to stare at you? Do I not have other work to do?"
Martin shrank at once. Fear replaced indignation so quickly it was almost pitiable. Clearly, she was in the middle of something important, and he had only made himself a nuisance.
"I... I'm sorry," Martin said, lowering his voice at once. "Just please be gentler next time, alright?"
In her heart, Lifara offered Master Radeon two vigorous thumbs up. Ever since she had started spending time around the Tiyanak, she had discovered a troublesome little prankster in herself.
Still, when it came to her work, she was meticulous. She moved quickly, measuring Martin's frame with a length of string while a brush traced markings over the titan bone fragments.
After that, she pressed sesame seeds into the bones and let their roots creep through the microscopic pores.
While they worked inward, she took up a scalpel and began examining the flesh, measuring each strip of muscle with careful attention.
Once she was done, she waited.
A few minutes later, the bones began to crack and shift. Bit by bit, they took on the shape Lifara believed Martin's own bones ought to have.
Martin stared at the remaining bones with naked want in his eye. Lifara noticed at once.
"What are you looking at?" she asked. "Do you want the rest of that inside your body too?"
Martin nodded without hesitation. Clearly, that was exactly what he wanted.
Radeon had taught Lifara one rule she took seriously. Never operate on an unwilling subject.
But he had also taught her another.
If the subject was willing, one should not be so foolish as to waste a chance to learn. She gave a small cough and forced down the anticipation rising in her chest, hiding it beneath a sour look.
"Are you trying to take advantage of me?" Lifara asked. "What can you pay?"
"I... I don't have anything left," Martin admitted, and the words plainly stung him.
Lifara's fang showed for the briefest instant, though poor Martin, hare that he was, never noticed.
"Then how about this," she said. "Since I am already operating on these muscles for you, sign a contract that allows me to add more things to your body in the future. You may refuse any attachment you do not like. I will only create new organs or upgrades that would benefit you. How does that sound?"
Her face stayed cold. Her eyes stayed colder still. Yet beneath her scalp, excitement already prickled like static.
Martin thought it sounded good. More than good. Suspicion tugged at him all the same. In this world, anything that seemed too generous usually came shackled to a hidden price.
"What do you get from it?" he asked.
"Your pain tolerance is high, so you do not thrash about too much," Lifara said. "I gain knowledge. I learn how to improve organs and other body parts, and later I can apply that knowledge to myself."
That, at least, was honest.
Martin felt oddly enlightened after hearing her out and took the contract from Lifara's hand.
At first glance, it was just as she had said. The terms were clean. Nothing in it seemed unfair. Yet when his eyes fell on the black Life Bane border, suspicion stirred.
"Why use such an expensive contract?" Martin asked, pointing at the dark edging.
"I just thought you might become rather strong one day," Lifara said. "What if you grow into some mortal god and I do not? Where would I go crying if God Eldric is not around? Besides, I am her favorite. These things are basically handed to me in bags."
That last part was a lie. Radeon had only given her one. Still, Martin did not know that.
His pride swelled at the thought. Mortal Apotheosis. That was not small praise. Better still, the contract's wording truly did protect Lifara against him.
No kidnapping. No harm. No coercion through others. No tricks through artifacts or outside means. He also had to be told the price beforehand and agree to pay it.
It was fair and thorough in a way that made him think she had seen real promise in him.
Once the contract was sealed, Lifara began at once.
Lifara opened Martin up. To anyone untrained in a physician's work, the operation looked less like healing and more like making sashimi out of a man.
The watching cultivators turned their faces away. Plainly, the sight was not for the faint of heart.
Lifara laid Martin's original bones bare and carefully drew out the marrow. Then she packed the titan bones with Martin's own marrow, making the foreign frame answer to his body as though it had always belonged there.
"I am not confident with the spine, so I will not touch that. And I should tell you now, the damaged meridians will not regenerate. They will only heal and close enough to recover their proper function," Lifara said.
"That's fine. Please proceed," Martin replied.
With that settled, Lifara returned the bones to his body and reshaped the malformed sockets left by the earlier acidic splash with a craftsman's care.
Then she stitched muscle back to muscle and coaxed the veins to regenerate. With precise control, she calmed the nerves and used Martin's qi to trick the immune system just enough to keep it from rejecting what she had put inside him.
As she worked, she fed him his own blood pills one after another, pressing them into his mouth so his body would have enough strength to rebuild.
Martin could feel the nerves returning, could feel them growing, and it hurt like hell.
The pain was so sharp and deep that he had to focus on one thing and one thing only, keeping his eyes from watering like a child's.
He endured it in silence, jaw tight, breath shaking through his teeth.
At last, it was done. He was whole again.
Lifara, by then, looked spent. Sleep took her almost the instant she finished. In her place, a tree began to grow, bark curling up around her body until she was sealed within the trunk itself, hidden away in living wood.
Martin stared a moment, then drew in a breath and threw a punch.
The strength in it was immediate. New. Solid. A wide grin spread across his face.
"If this was the cost," Martin said, still grinning, "then send me the bill every time."
