The devil was caught off guard. Having hung out in the city for the past six months and experiencing so many things, he definitely knew about the magic wand. But a gut feeling told him that when Adam asked questions like this, it was usually a sign that something tricky was about to happen. Trying to play it cool, the devil pretended not to know.
"Um, what now?"
Adam, looking like he was brushing away invisible dirt from his hands, stepped out from the cloning lab. He looked straight at the devil, his voice serious, "Have you heard about a magic wand?"
"Well, I..."
But before the devil could finish, Adam jumped in. "Listen, a magic wand is like a helper for mages when they want to do their magic stuff. Today, most mages make their wands using some really cool alchemical tricks. These wands usually have special magical patterns carved onto them. These patterns can do awesome things like making your mental power even stronger, boosting your magic skills, connecting with that mysterious ether thing, and gathering elemental stuff."
With every word Adam said, the devil's head sank lower and lower, realizing where this conversation was heading. Finally, it sighed, "Alright, Master. Just spill it. What do you need from me?"
Adam leaned back casually, and as if by magic, a chair appeared under him from the ground. He looked at the devil, a teasing smile on his face, and said, "After you leveled up, you got this cool ability because of some virus cell changes, right? That lets you change into all kinds of things?"
The devil just looked at the ground, not saying a word.
Adam continued, "So, technically, you could turn into anything -- like animals, birds, even stuff that's not alive, right?"
Still, the devil stayed silent.
"So, I'm guessing you could become... say, a magic wand?"
Hearing Adam's confident voice, the devil groaned, "Master, even if I could morph into a wand, there's a problem. My body isn't like those wands, I can't have magical patterns carved onto me." Adam shook his head slowly, a look of determination in his eyes. "That's where you're wrong. I've figured something out. I've been working on changing elements in cells and some new uses of this thing called Elemental Trueself. Trust me, getting those magic patterns inside you? It's doable."
Deep down, the devil knew that when Adam set his mind on something, he usually got it done. If he was talking to him about this now, it meant he was pretty confident in what he was planning. The devil realized that arguing now would be pointless. He had just one option: to go along with whatever Adam wanted, hoping things would turn out okay.
"Master, this isn't gonna... you know, end me, is it?"
...
Life for the devil felt like a never-ending nightmare, making him wonder if non-existence might be a kinder fate.
The devil had a special mutant virus inside it, which was totally under its control. In simple words, it could change and shape this virus any way it wanted, even to look like runes. The catch was, while these virus-made runes looked the part, they didn't really have any magical power. So, if Adam wanted to turn the devil into a magical wand, he needed to give this virus some serious magical energy.
Of course, Adam couldn't just test things out on the devil straight away. Instead, he had to take tiny bits of the devil's body to try his experiments on. But here's the gross part: these bits would die super fast once taken out. So, the devil had to endure this painful procedure again and again, every single day.
Adam seemed to have an endless supply of ether crystals, which he used non-stop during this two-month-long ordeal. The high-energy environment was perfect for the devil's viral cells, making them grow fast. This gave Adam all the samples he needed for his day-to-day tests.
Basically, Adam was trying to create a new and improved version of the virus. The trick was making sure that once the virus had magic inside it, it remained stable and could make more of itself.
Adam hit a roadblock at first, but then he had a lightbulb moment from looking at magical creatures in the mage world. These creatures, especially the super strong ones, had cells that naturally held magic. So, without needing to get too technical, Adam just let the devil's virus eat lots of these creatures. This way, the virus would naturally pick up all the magical bits it needed.
For Adam, it was like a fun and expensive science project.
For the devil, not so much.
Back when the devil was inside Garfield, it had changed once, and that was a wild experience. But now, it felt like it was being torn apart and put back together over and over again, every day. It was lucky that Adam had turned off its ability to feel pain, or it might have tried to end its own misery.
Still, for the devil, the experience was awful. It felt like its body was being filled with junk every single day.
But at least they were now on the right track. They just had to be patient.
Changing a normal creature's genes was a piece of cake. But for a creature with magical abilities, like the devil, it was a big deal and took a lot of time. Adam was sure the devil wouldn't try to play any tricks, but changing its magical genes was still a slow process.
So, Adam turned up the magic juice, pumping in more ether, not caring about how much he was using, all to speed up the change in the devil's virus.
...
A month went by, and with all the extra magic from the ether crystals and parts of magical beasts used up, the devil finished its big viral makeover.
Adam took him out of his container. The devil was super weak and flopped on the ground like jelly. Even though he was now way more powerful, he didn't feel like showing off.
"Master, are we done yet?"
The devil's voice was barely a whisper, and little magical sparks fizzed around it. It didn't seem to want to control these mini fireworks.
After thinking for a bit, Adam tossed the devil back into its container. Even though its virus now had magical energy, it was all over the place. Adam decided to simplify things by focusing on just one kind of element.
This tidy-up job took about a week. Now, the devil was like a magical creature made of electricity. Its body was full of electric vibes, and every little move it made looked like a mini thunderstorm.
"Now, I just have to organize the virus in a certain magical pattern and tell it exactly how to shape-shift."
Adam looked pretty pleased with himself. He floated the devil in the air using a magnetic force. Then, he opened it up with an electric knife and, like the most skilled artist, carefully arranged the virus bits into special shapes called runes.
Apart from the usual magical patterns, Adam added a few more nifty tricks that made the magic wand super-efficient, especially for big spells that usually took ages to set up.
The next day, Adam let the devil go. With just a thought, he made the devil change its shape until it turned into a cool-looking staff. This staff was half as tall as Adam, about as thick as his arm, and had blue electric sparks dancing all over it.
When Adam held it, the staff seemed to sync up perfectly with his magic outfit and his own energy. He felt an instant boost. Without even trying it out, he was sure that with this magic wand, his magic skills would jump to a whole new level.
"So, how's it going in there?" Adam asked, clearly happy with his work.
Even though the devil had turned into this staff, he was still kind of 'alive' inside. He was like the 'soul' of the wand, making him even more powerful.
"Master, if you're happy, I'm happy," the wand answered back."
