Within the next hour, Blaze stripped naked and made himself comfortable on the operating table.
But not for him. He was a zombie, so what was there to shy away from?
Marrow was there, but she was more concerned about his safety than anything else. As for Voss and Alaric, they still didn’t think it was a good idea.
"Son, listen to me, please—"
"Master, please reconsider the move. It’s one thing to feed the cordyceps, but to let it inside is suicidal. We can’t guarantee we’ll be able to stop it once it starts."
Blaze replied, pointing at his head.
There’s a nucleus there. I’ll be safe as long as it’s intact. Marrow will take care of that. The two of you will look after the rest of my body. Understood?
With that, Blaze popped his claws and made several cuts all over his body. Rotten blood drizzled out of it, awakening the fungus. He lay back on the table, allowing the cordyceps to take hold of him.
The reaction was instantaneous. More aggressive than the zombies before. In the blink of an eye, their filaments shot into his skin.
At first, nothing happened, but then Blaze felt a familiar heat spread through his veins. The feeling was the same as he felt from the Headless’s venom.
But Blaze wasn’t worried. With Marrow there, no permanent damage would come to him.
He could feel something being drained from his body.
Blaze didn’t know. But whatever it was, it was a strange feeling for a zombie to go through.
Minutes passed, and nothing seemed to happen. The spread was controlled without any intervention. It was almost as if the cordyceps didn’t want to eat Blaze anymore.
In the next second, strange mushroomy outgrowths shot out of Blaze’s limbs. Voss and Alaric had seen the scene countless times before.
The cordyceps were attacking Blaze’s nervous system to take control. The outgrowths were proof of that.
None of the zombies they had experimented with had made it past this stage. They prayed Blaze wouldn’t become one of them.
"It’s feeding faster than I thought it would," Voss said, picking up a scalpel. "Sever the points before it invades further—"
"No, you will observe the fungus, nothing more."
The humans looked up and saw Marrow leaning over Blaze. She had pressed her hands to his skull as black wisps invaded his mind. Her ability was healing Blaze and killing any cordycep cells that dared to invade Blaze’s mind.
Meanwhile, the warm filling had spread from Blaze’s hand to his chest now. The fungus spread everywhere, but something strange happened then.
Blaze’s throat swelled. The outgrowths burst out of it. Voss and Alaric peeked inside through the opening, and their eyes widened.
"It’s feasting on something and... dying?" Voss commented.
Alaric didn’t understand it either and looked at Marrow. Noticing his gaze, she shook her head, saying it wasn’t her doing.
Something else inside Blaze’s body was killing the fungus. It was something that only he had, as no other zombie corpse had killed the cordycep before.
All three of them exclaimed together.
Without any delay, Alaric slashed all the contact points between Blaze and the fungus. The cordycep that remained inside Blaze’s body was killed by the necroseed over time.
The wounds and cuts all over Blaze’s body began sealing themselves, thanks to his regeneration.
However, the throat remained as it was.
The cordyceps was dead, but something was changing within it. Marrow tried extending her wisps, hoping to get rid of them.
Voss was the first to react. He used the scalpel to make another incision at the base of Blaze’s neck. Rotten blood oozed out, but it was darker than usual, almost like tar left to solidify.
Not to mention the sulfur-like smell. The stench was too much and almost made the humans puke within their masks.
"Give me the clamps," Alaric said, pointing at the pair of clamps.
"Are you—?" Voss asked, but was interrupted.
"Don’t waste time, hand it over!"
The plan was simple. Alaric would rip the fungus out with his hands if it wouldn’t die willingly.
Despite wanting to rip them out, he stopped when he noticed something move inside. The filaments of the cordyceps were vibrating and moving around.
"What is it?" Voss asked, peeking inside. "My God... is it?"
The filaments of the cordyceps were wrapped around something thick and fleshy. It was like an organ they had never seen before, in any human, undead, or mutant.
It was much more like a gland secreting juices, much like a human’s salivary gland. The only difference was that the necroseed was located in Blaze’s throat, and not his mouth.
As for the fungus, something strange was going on with it. It was dead, but acted as if it were alive.
The necroseed was reanimating the fungus!
The cordycep had integrated with the necroseed, establishing a symbiotic relationship instead of taking over Blaze’s body.
It seemed the cordyceps and Necroseed couldn’t establish dominance over each other and ended up in a stalemate.
The fungus evolved into an undead variant through their association. As for the necroseed... it was difficult to know what the necroseed got in return, if anything.
The experiment was a bigger success than they could’ve thought. They just wanted the cordycep to locate the necroseed. Instead, they went a step ahead, creating a zombie variant of the fungus.
"G-Get me a scalpel and a jar," Voss asked Alaric, his hands shaking. "We have to be careful with it until further tests."
Alaric nodded and left for a minute. He understood the risks associated with handling a new strain of fungus. One wrong move and it would be their last day on earth.
The two worked in unison, cutting and storing the undead fungus bit by bit.
As they did, Blaze regained his consciousness. None of them had realized that Blaze had passed out during the operation.
However, the next second he leaned over the table and began hitting his chest as if something was stuck there.
Before anyone could move to help him, Blaze coughed up a sticky mass of fungus covered in his rotten blood.
Voss quickly stored it upon realizing it was the remaining part that was stuck in Blaze’s throat.
Everyone froze upon hearing a hoarse voice. Even Blaze was stunned.