Deus Necros

"That would have been a problem yesterday." Clementine tapped one finger against the mirror. "Yesterday, you were Hoyo Drak. Today, you are the Hero."

Hoyo’s expression remained unchanged, but Clementine saw that he had secured his attention.

"The Hero is not a title the Church awards to whichever warrior looks sufficiently impressive," Clementine continued. "The appointment is recognized by the divine order. Hiro is dead, his Heroic Core belongs to you, and the gods have accepted the transfer."

"What’s that supposed to mean?" Hoyo asked.

Clementine glanced toward the corpse. "Relics inside the Sacrosanctum will already be dark. Contracts tied to the previous bearer have broken, and divine ledgers will have changed. The Holy Order either knows Hiro is dead or will discover it within hours. When they search for his successor, they will find you."

"That solves the problem of my face. It does nothing about yours." Hoyo said as he pointed at the wrinkled face of Clementine.

"Correct," Clementine said with enough satisfaction to make Hoyo suspicious.

"You already have a solution." Hoyo squinted his eyes.

"The Council received a useful piece of information this morning. A priest assigned to a small village east of here recently died of disease. He possessed legitimate Holy Order credentials and enough consecration to pass routine inspection, but he was unimportant enough that perhaps twenty people in the entire institution could recognize him on sight."

Clementine’s smile widened as Hoyo’s gaze drifted toward the surgical instruments. "He has no influential family, political allies, or superior likely to investigate his absence personally. More importantly, the Council preserved his body."

"You want more than his face." Hoyo asked.

"Of course. Skin alone will not change my mana signature, but his consecrated flesh carries an ecclesiastical imprint. The Council possesses methods capable of obscuring what remains. If you graft enough of him onto me, superficial examinations will find a priest who belongs exactly where he claims to belong."

Hoyo considered the procedure. Replacing enough external tissue to reproduce the man’s appearance would be difficult. Preserving the spiritual and consecrated qualities attached to that flesh made it substantially worse.

It remained possible.

"Grafting isn’t a simple process, it’s really painful. Can you handle it?"

"I handled far worse than physical pain to get where I was, trust me, I can manage."

"What happens when someone who knew him sees you?" Hoyo asked.

"I avoid the few people capable of recognizing him until I learn enough to survive the encounter. If avoidance fails, I improvise."

"And when the Holy Order asks where their newly appointed Hero came from?"

Clementine gestured toward Hoyo’s reflection. "A wandering young man awakened to the Heroic Mandate after the former bearer died. A humble village priest discovered him, received divine confirmation, and brought him to the Holy Order so he could fulfill his sacred obligation."

Hoyo studied him for several seconds. "That is insultingly simple. They will investigate both of us, compare records, and probably use truth magic."

"Then we ensure that the important parts are true." Clementine stepped beside the mirror and adjusted it so Hoyo could see himself clearly. "Hiro is dead. You have become the Hero. A consecrated priest will bring you to the Holy Order. You genuinely possess a divine obligation to slay the Demon King, the gods genuinely recognize you, and the Church genuinely needs you. Their truth magic can confirm every part of that."

Hoyo slowly smiled as he understood the shape of the lie. "We would only need to hide who we were before the story began."

"Precisely. A false life becomes much easier to defend when its most important events actually happened."

"And our names?"

"Names are the easiest things in the world to replace. I already have mine, from the priest. The Council can provide yours before we leave. Especially after that whole village turned to dust. It’s easy enough to find an identity with little attachment to it."

Hoyo looked toward Hiro’s corpse. For years, he had watched the man waste an impossible gift. Hiro believed being chosen made him important and treated power as something the gods would continue providing as long as he followed enough glowing instructions.

Hoyo understood power differently. It belonged to whoever could seize it, examine it, preserve it, and use it before someone stronger decided to take it away.

The Heroic Heart beat steadily inside his reconstructed chest. One thousand and forty-six Attribute Points remained after his experiments, along with abilities he had barely begun to understand. An entire progression system had accepted him without objecting to the manner in which its previous bearer died.

The Eternal Quest now pointed him toward the Demon King, while the institution that had once tortured him until its priests considered his body clean was preparing to welcome him as a chosen savior.

Hoyo returned his attention to Clementine. "I will need the priest’s corpse intact. If the skin has begun separating or disease has damaged the deeper tissue, the procedure becomes far less reliable."

"The body was preserved immediately after death."

"I want the eyes, tongue, portions of the throat, fingerprints, teeth, and enough flesh surrounding every Holy marking to preserve its imprint. If you intend to become this man, bringing me his face will not be enough."

"I expected as much. The Council can deliver the entire body."

"I also need every record they can obtain. Handwriting samples, habits, known associates, assignments, spell preferences, food, injuries, and any personal correspondence that survived. A perfect face is useless if the first familiar question exposes you."

Clementine laughed, and this time the sound carried genuine approval. "There you are. That is the man the Council wanted."

Hoyo ignored the compliment and reopened his status. He had no intention of distributing the remaining points that night. Too many variables remained unexplored, including the relationship between attributes and grafts, the scaling of Heroic Reinforcement, and whether Perfect Graft Integration could improve future procedures.

Hiro would have spent every point already.

That thought alone justified waiting.

Hoyo dismissed the system and pulled a sheet over the dead Hero. "Thank you, Hiro."

Clementine raised an eyebrow at the unexpected gratitude.

Hoyo covered the corpse’s face and allowed himself a small smile. "For once, you were useful."