"Simic Death Harvest"

"Simic Death Harvest"

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr. 

With the help of the masters device it was much easier to locate this particular Shard of Alara. When the great unification began as some of his colleagues have called it , one could easily deduce that not all of the particular splinters of the plane would be included , there would be areas where mana was bereft and there would be pockets where rich mana deposits lay in wait for harvesting.

He called this area Grixis 2.3.8 , a splinter of that particular shard that has drifted away beyond the reach of the main Plane. He had scanned that there were only a few minor creatures on it and none of those demonic monsters that were rampaging on the unified plane.He smiled at the thought. His plans would go unimpeded and he Volar Zan would be the first Simic Biomancer who would go down in history as a benefactor of the planes. 

Volar Zan had altered himself over the years and instead of claws he had developed several tentacles with appendages. He would not need the help of anyone but the master. He opened a black metallic case  , waved an amulet that was held firmly by one of his appendages.The amulet glowed , green and blue mana had seeped out and he had channeled the Blue mana that it produces to the contents of the case. He kept the green mana as an orb that followed him. At first there was no sound but then 4 cubes activated by the blue mana began to fold out of itself , appendages and a torso coming out of the central mass. This continued until 4 metallic replicas of Volar Zan stood facing each other. He hated other people to do his job for him and he could not rely on other people to be discreet about his projects and other dealings. So he prefered these similacrums over any other beings. He rather liked his own company. He needed these other to guard him as he did his great experiment.Without a word the 4 scattered into pre patterened areas , a well spaced box that would hold Volar Zan in the middle.

Volar smiled in the slimey way that Simic Biomancers did.He was busily assembling his Extraction device.Connecting the various tubes and parts of the machines as he walked. He knew that the Primespeaker would not approve of any of this yet he believed that this was the next evolutionary step for the simic. The vast knowledge that the Master would be able to give would give him the key to ever greater scientific breakthroughs but first he had to do this.He had stopped at a blood red pond , its banks crusted with black ash , in the middle was a small desolate island that had a blue tinged to it.After placing his assembled device , he turned to the green mana orb that had followed him and channeled it to the Extractor machine. 

There was a low hum and a sudden flash of green light that flashed once into the pond.The water rippled and began to pulsate violently and the unmistakable stench of death permeated the air. Volar inhaled deep and laughed so hard.He knew that his experiment was working. Death was the mark. Dead fish and other microbes floated to the unmoving liquid surface. All around him Orbs of Mana lifted from the now dead ground.Black. Red. Blue. Mana of the old Grixis shard was now coalescing into orbs and following the Green Mana of the Extractor Device. The master will be pleased with the results.He would be sure to get the approval to make this Extractor once he had presented his results. 

Volar smiled despite himself.In the distance his 4 other copies looked at him and mirrored the same smile.