Chapter 746 — Dragon and Dragon
Blade of Dawn · Page 2 of 4
She too had once installed a magnificent dome here, covered in full-relief carvings, and used palace-style arches and colonnades; she too had once heaped this place with gold and jewels (though to make up the bulk, some of it was glass and imitation polymer), sleeping atop an enormous treasure chest; she had even filled it with bookshelves that rose to the very dome, crammed with model books scavenged from secondhand markets...
And now, she had redecorated the place in the "classical workshop" style that had been fashionable in Thalondor some ten thousand years ago.
She was a dragon who loved change and was devoted to a style all her own.
Meheng came to the center of the circular hall and spread her arms; at once a brilliant halo of magic enveloped her. Within that radiance her body swiftly grew larger, transforming toward her dragon form, while the three softly glowing ornate pillars at the hall's edge glided silently to her side, their alloy shells slowly opening with a hiss of vented pressure.
Within them were colossal tubular crystal vessels filled with a pale, thin fluid. Two of the vessels held enormous hearts—each assembled from biological tissue, bionic skin, polymer tubing, and intricately structured mechanical pumps—while in the third vessel drifted quietly a length of spine glittering with metallic sheen, its connecting ends fitted with masses of cable ports and flickering runes.
A string of bubbles gurgled up through the vessel, and the metal spine turned half about, revealing two lines of sharply stamped letters on its back plate:
"THE SOUL WITHIN THE MACHINE REMAINS FREE"
"GOMODO IMPLANT CORPORATION DESIGN PATENT—INFRINGEMENT STRICTLY PROSECUTED"
The magical radiance gradually dispersed, and Meheng opened her eyes amid the fading light. She had become a dragon.
Gazing at those two enormous hearts soaking in their vessels, the great blue dragon rolled her neck and let out a rumbling sound: "I hear Barkbato Corporation has brought out a new auxiliary heart. Beautiful and handsome..."
"Pursuing such things to excess will do nothing to improve your financial situation," Omega's voice rang through the entire hall. "Moreover, there is no essential difference in performance between the new and old auxiliary hearts, and a handsome bionic skin serves no purpose whatsoever on an internal implant. Unless... you intend to replace the scales near your chest with transparent polymer?"
"Never mind, I'm broke," Meheng sighed. "Begin the implantation procedure—cheer me up..."
At once the mechanical devices standing ready throughout the hall started into motion, and a host of manipulators came to the blue dragon Meheng's side in seamless coordination, beginning to detach the scales and inner protective layers that belonged to her mechanical structure. Her chest cavity was opened, revealing the hollow within, filled with temporary buffer fluid; her back was opened, revealing the temporary neural connectors and the body-fluid circulation pump inside...
The hearts were returned to their places, the spine repaired as good as new, and the booster prepared in advance was injected into the circulation pump, setting these organ-components—roused from dormancy—merrily running within mere moments.
The booster began to take effect upon her nervous system, and Meheng felt her thoughts slowly diffuse and spread; thoughts beyond her control began to surface, and her great eyes stared into midair, where it seemed a phantom of Omega's interface coalesced at the focus of her gaze.
But she knew this was only an illusion produced by her own nervous system—there was no visual medium of Omega here. What she saw was in fact a phantom conjured when the resonance core within her skull stimulated her nerves.