Chapter 4: 4. Dragonification

Zeff could surmise based on what Aida had said before what 'Splicing to 5%' might mean. She had mentioned that the human body could not handle a complete DNA overhaul in a short time. So the system would only change his DNA only very slighlty at first and make greater changes as time went on, or so he assumed.

But what had Aida meant by 'Ancient Dragon DNA'?

Before he could ask he was interrupted by the violent shaking of the platform under his feet and a sound like the world breaking in two.

Above his head the stars, nebulae, galaxies, all of it was coming undone, breaking down and unraveling right before his eyes. One moment, a star would explode into ether. The next, a galaxy would disappear leaving nothing but sparks behind. It was as if the horrible noise that was now filling the subspace was even to much for these magnificent celestial bodies.

Then, amid the commotion, Aida's avatar shot up into the subspace where it exploded into vibrant lights, shooting out pillars of energy in every direction that were so dazzling that Zeff had to shield his eyes. Through the brilliant gleam of the explosion he could just make out the holographic timer…

And it was still counting down! 41… 40… 39…

What if the counter ran out before the whole Dragon-DNA-Splicing-Healing nonsense was complete? Would he still die?

Zeff might have been more troubled by these thoughts if he had been able to hear them in the first place. But the raucous that his collapsing subspace was making was far too loud to hear anything, even his own mind.

Louder still, even over the rumblings and shakings and boomings of the collapsing subspace, came Aida's voice yet again.

>> Initializing dragonization leveraging the 'First Steps' Protocol, AX1

>> Temporarily increasing time dilation from 100:1 to 100000:1

At that, two things happened simultaneously.

First, the timer, which had just hit 37 seconds, flickered and glitched for a brief moment and then read 10 hours 16 minutes and 40 seconds, and counting.

Secondly, just above the timer, another readout had appeared. A progress bar that read, 'Percent Complete: 0%'.

*Zhirr-Psh* whirred the progress bar as the reading changed from 0% to 1%.

Two seconds ago Zeff had been perfectly fine, albeit a bit scared. But now, without even the slightest warning, he all of a sudden felt a pain like nothing he had ever experienced in his life. It felt like someone had made a mixture of sulfur, salt and lemon juice, heated it to 300°C and injected the concoction directly into his veins.

"AHHHGH!" Roared Zeff as he fell to the floor with violent spasms, the subspace shaking the more violent by the sheer power of his cry. "Aida! Make it stop!"

>> Speech functionality: Limited.

"Aida! Please!"

>> Speech functionality: Limited.

Zeff could only despair and give himself over to the excruciating pain.

He cried. He cursed. He slammed his head against the ground again and again and yet again. He did just about everything he could to alleviate the pain short of throwing himself off of the platform into the abyss. But nothing worked.

Perhaps it was because this was only a subspace, not an actual physical reality. 'All of this is only happening in my mind.' He might have thought… If not for the pain. The reflective platform kept afloat by nothing more than the power of his imagination, the veiny jet-black pillars jutting up from it, the stars and star clusters above his head, even his very form were all merely a product of his mind. No more real than a dream. But the pain he was experiencing right now? Now, that was real.

How many agonizing minutes had passed since the pain had first seized hold of him, he couldn't say. In fact, he was afraid to even look. But he chanced a glance at the countdown, nevertheless.

The moment he did, however, he wished that he hadn't. The countdown read a soul-crushing 9 hours, 2 minutes and 18 seconds… Only just over an hour had passed. A measly hour! His heart suddenly did a flying drop kick against his rib cage as he saw that the Percent complete was merely 8%!

"ARRGHHH!" Roared Zeff in both pain and rage. How much more of this could he endure?

*****

Zeff breathed a sigh of relief sitting down, hugging his bent knees.

Much to his delight, around the fourth hour the pain had begun to greatly subside and by the seventh he was almost completely without pain. Almost. But the pain was mostly manageable now.

He was in the 8th hour now with a little more than an hour left on the clock and the Percent Complete had just hit 90%.

Zeff took a moment to take in the unbelievable sight before him.

His subspace had almost completely collapsed. The myriad of stars and gaseous celestial bodies had, over the course of hours, completely dissipated leaving nothing around him but white. Endless white sky, like an inverse night. The floating platform was still there, though, fully intact.

There was something really calming about the whole scene.

But now that his brain was a bit clearer, a thought suddenly occurred to him that made him mad all over again. Why the heck was it even necessary to increase the time dilation?! What was the point? All this was in his head, wasn't it? So what was there to gain by increasing his time here when the processes that were happening to him right now no doubt took place in a set span of time. Likely a few seconds. Why not just get it over with in an instant?!

"Aida, you good-for-nothing AI!", he began with a huff. "Why the heck have you gone and forced me to sit in here for hours?!"

He was mostly venting and hadn't expected a response. So when Aida's voice suddenly echoed through the dying subspace, he couldn't help but jump in fright.

>> Speech functionality: Limited.

>> Forgive.

>> Pain of dragonification process exceeds human mind's pain tolerance.

>> Pain must be stretched out. Otherwise. Subject-04 = overwhelmed = expired.

Zeff grimaced. So, his puny human brain couldn't handle it all at once in realtime, so Aida had to give it to him little by little. He felt like he was back in college getting tutoring for Calculus all over again… But it made sense.

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"So, I must be in the clear, then?"

>> Speech functionality: Limited.

>> Unknown.

>> Subject-00, Subject-01, Subject-02, and Subject-03 never exceeded 49%.

"W-What…?"

>> Speech functionality—

"Yes! I know! Limited! Could you please stop saying that and explain?"

>> …

>> Spee—

"Don't you dare say it!"

>> …

>> Dracophage. Largely untested.

>> All subjects but one encountered catastrophic error before 35%.

"What other kind of error is there?!" asked Zeff, annoyed. But truth be told Zeff was a little more hopeful at hearing that. Everyone else hadn't even made it half way, but he had made it past 90%! Maybe, just maybe, he would make it out of this alive. Just as long as he didn't encounter any errors, that is. And what came next…? Well, he would cross that bridge when he got there.

Aida went on.

>> dRas. Capable of handling most errors… In theory…

"What do you mean 'In theory'?!" Zeff exclaimed. Mockingly, he turned to talk to an imaginary person standing next to him and bellowed, "Oh, hey Aida! Thanks for the invite to go sky diving! This plane sure is high up! Oh, put on that parachute? What's that? It only works IN THEORY!!?? Oh, sure. I'd be delighted… TO DIE!" He threw up his hands in anger, "You can't be seriously telling me this now!"

>> … Subject believes he is currently engaged in skydiving…

>> … Possible Error Detected…

"That was sarcasm, Aida!"

*Siren-Siren-Siren*

>> Anomaly Detected! Anomaly Detected!

>> Danger!

"Cut it out Aida… That's not funny…"

Suddenly the whole of the subspace began to shake violently once more and the all white sky shifted at once to an ominous scarlet red. The obsidian pillars that protruded from the platform began to pulsate with a disgusting vermilion green light.

>> Error number: 035, Detected. Error number: 035, Detected.

"Oh no…" lamented Zeff as he jumped to his feet. It would appear his luck was about to run out. "Aida! What's going on?! Do something!"

Much to Zeff's surprise, It was not Aida's voice that responded, but instead the deep and smooth voice of a young man.

>> (dRas) Contemplating possible resolutions for Error 035.

>> (dRas) Reboot: Impossible >> Restart: Impractical >> Resetting Spliced DNA to last healthy state: Probable result - Permanent catatonia >> Resetting Spliced DNA to first healthy state: Probable result - Severe brain and muscle damage >> Induce release of Serotonin: Ineffective >> Induce release of Oxytocin: Ineffective >> Destroy damaged or compromised DNA: Counter-productive…

>> ...

>> (dRas) Isolate Error 035 as 'Passive': Certain result: minimal compromise of dRas - Optimal solution: found…

"What does that mean? Is everything okay?"

>> dRas has found an acceptable solution.

>> Completing remaining Splice in Hibernation Mode.

"Hey!" Exclaimed Zeff. "What is going on?! Am I gonna die or n—" All of a sudden Zeff felt a wave of fatigue flood over him. He had never felt so tired in his whole life. His tongue was like clay in his mouth and his eyelids were like lead. His body, as if possessed, suddenly went limp and he fell to the floor in a heap.

The last thing he heard was:

>> (dRas) Hibernation Mode: Activated.

>> (dRas) Temporarily relinquishing Subject-04 to new/'Passive-035: Dragon Oversoul'/

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