This is a serial, first part HERE
Chapter 59: That which Devours, that which is devoured
It’s a common way of analysis, though not that many can do it. Destroy with as many different methods and reform after each one. Not a bad way to understand the nature of something. The more ways that you can destroy a thing and the longer you can renew it without deviation, the better your information will be. Naturally such a method is basically brute force analysis, and as with the majority of dimensional doctor techniques one that can be used for ends other than healing.
As for the Healer’s Wheel of Trials, Logriva, it is quite a popular construct among magical doctors, though many lack the ability to bring out the full potential of the spell. Indeed in the many dimensions that exist there are a multitude of variants, offshoots and stunted descendants of the spell.
As soon as the restoration of the severed maw was beginning to result in distortions Doctor Bones had Logriva annihilate the sample. As the magical construct faded away he stared at the brambleroot frozen in time on the Record.
-Separation will fail. Reversal is the only path left. Wither the brambles, bloom the Record-
Doctor Bones stroked the Record gently, some ancient Law passing from his fingertips.
-Stir the essence of hunger, the base of survival is good material, remember, the most common among beings for survival is to consume others-
The patient’s record shuddered and then it split open like a flower, but the petals of this wrapped around the rambleroots, and a most disconcerting sound of eating began. Doctor Bones nodded along with the crunching and wet slobbering, never once stopping his manipulation of the Record.
Yet… the rate of consumption slowed, and Doctor Bones pulled back, stopping what he was doing, the Record continued for a time before returning to normal.
-Too weak to eat fast enough to outpace the brambles, and I can hardly keep injecting time poison into the bramble-
After all, if he over dosed it, the corpseflower would die, and with it, the patient.
-Could it be strengthened?-
Doctor Bones shook his head.
-Your strong will has kept you alive, but with how much of your will is inside the corpseflower, keeping it from blooming, you’ve little left for yourself.-
He sat down, knuckles against skull as he considered the options left for treatment. There was a click of bone as he snapped his fingers mere moments later.
-Not enough strength to devour, so instead of the brambles, force the blooming, and have the Record steal the fruits of the corpseflower’s labours, to renew itself even as it dies.-
He looked on with doubt at the brambleroot and the Record.
-I’ll force it to bloom here. That’ll weaken its advance, and hopefully give my patient enough time…-
Tapping the root, he considered how best to force a blooming within the clinic. After some consideration, he pulled out a blue crystal fork with two needle-like prongs.
An instrumental. An artefact to supplant the intentions of any being. Though technically it did nothing to the mind. Instead it would dominate the flesh, physical or spiritual, of the patient. Doctor Bones did not however instantly jab the instrumental in. Instead he touched the Record once more, trying to communicate his plan to the owner of the Record.
After all, without the patient drawing back their indomitable will, the corpseflower wasn’t going to bloom any time soon.
Doubt, yet resigned acquiescence. Those were the feelings Doctor Bones received.
He was feeling much of those himself.
Still, he had gotten agreement. All that was left was to gamble on the edge of life and death, to try and grasp life from the jaws of death.
Calming himself, Doctor Bones jabbed the instrumental into the corpseflower as the effects of the time poison were beginning to fade.
It shrieked, at first in pain, then in joy.
So long restricted from blooming, what had stood in its way no longer was there. The plant didn’t even notice that the bud that it was excitedly forming was on its very root! Far outside the undead that had been feeding on the vigorous life of the brambles cried out in dismay as the plant began to wither from the outside in.
Before the bud began to bloom, Doctor Bones grabbed the Record and thrust it at the bud.
-Now, fight once more for survival!-
Unfurling into a flower-maw the Record savaged the new bud! Yet even as it did so the bud grew and began to bloom. The brambleroot twitched as it drew more and more life and will from the brambles and forced it into the bud. It even more savagely resumed eating the core itself! Yet just as it was replenishing its bud with life and will, the core was being restored by that same life and will.
Doctor Bones was not idle, as he delayed the bramble root with the instrumental and even dosed the corpseflower with more time poison, reaching the limits of what was safe.
The instrumental cracked and broke, the vigour of the corpseflower overwhelming it.
Yet, though medicines were out of the question, Doctor Bones had one method left to assist the patient. He jammed his hands right between the root and the Record. He couldn’t of course pull the corpseflower off, but it was enough to pull back on the thing.
It wasn’t much, but it was enough and soon instead of a root extending into the abyss of the Neverwilt the ends of the corpseflower could be seen, but still the corpseflower urged all into the production of the bud which was being devoured by the Record.
Finally with one last bite, the Record had eaten the ends of brambleroot, meeting itself.
The Record of survival shone in the air valiantly.
-Success?-
Doctor Bones had an uneasy feeling. He moved up closer to do a full checkup on the Record, as he did so…
It trembled.
The clinic trembled.
It cracked.
The Record cracked.
Bursting forth from these cracks were thorned brambles, like many serpents hatching from a single edge. The Record faded, vanished, and all that remained…
Before Doctor Bones could do anything else, his vision was filled the brambles of the corpseflower born anew.
All he could hear was the medical space shattering.