Chapter 83: Indifference
Fast Forward a little bit to the day of the large battle…
\ 1st Person - Elizabeth Jr. Bloodleaf /
Mother above it is hot!
Although I certainly didn’t mean to create such a devastating ability I certainly wasn’t about to complain about it either. Truthfully I just wanted to try to discover more about those demonic purple flames yet this certainly wasn’t it. It was more akin to… It was like… I wasn’t quite sure but it reminded me of those flaming tar pits where fire was involved yet it was higher in earth attribute than fire.
The correct term is probably a chemical fire yet I wasn’t quite sure if that was actually the case since I didn’t exactly know what it was - either way it certainly wasn’t purple! Whatever it was it did result in a ton of black smoke since I couldn’t even see in front of myself though I still didn’t feel uncomfortable. Even as the black smoke singed my skin while unendingly pressuring me with its constant weight it felt strangely comfortable.
I took my time, while ignoring the screams of my tortured enemies, to take in a deep breath of the ashen air. Freely letting it singe my windpipe before settling down to burn my trachea with a type of vicious nature that would no doubt kill most beasts. It was usual for me to feel such things yet it was clear to me the reasons for my attachment to this bizarre setting; instinct.
“Hm~ it would seem my ancestors were from volcanic biomes~? Either way that doesn't matter since I have more important things to worry about *yawn*…”
Closing my eyes I took steady breaths yet this time it wasn’t simply burning ash I took in but instead a rush of Xp from all the monsters who were dying. Honestly I didn’t expect things to go so fast so I had to focus or else this would simply be putting more Xp into my levels which wasn’t what I wanted to do. If what Alexis sensei told me is correct instead of letting the system ‘grab’ the ‘Xp’ and instead infuse it into my body.
Of course what I had to focus on most was pushing it into my blood vessels where it would soak into my marrow and act as a ‘catalyst’ in awakening my bloodlines. While doing that I’ll also need to apparently ‘expand’ my body so it can sustain a core which sounds easy and with my control should be - the pain is another matter. According to common sense, having one's body reconstructed would be a hellish experience that usually one doesn’t need to worry about since they would be automatically unconscious whether due to passing out or having the system do it for you. I didn’t have that same luxury since I had to do everything manually but it shouldn’t be that bad afterall right?
Either way I had to begin moving the surplus of energy through my energy so the logical place to start should be my heart right? Then again [Demon Horns] were meant to be very good conductors of magic and luckily I had a set of horns which were connected very intimately with blood so it only made sense to suck up some Xp. My head was already tilted back so with a thought I began to suck up that ethereal mass of energy gained from death and destruction of my enemies.
… Maybe I need to rethink the hero thing?
Nah~!
Still there was a lot of energy and the amount was only increasing as time went on yet I had no qualms about this. If I wasted a chance like this who knew when it would come so I sucked it up and let the energy pass through my pointiest fangs. It felt a bit icky having something other than blood essence being sucked through them yet I was impressed with how well they were able to handle the sheer amount of energy passing through them.
What came next was pain as I followed the veins down my neck towards my heart which made them visibly bulge as energy flowed through them. Some improvements could be seen in my body yet the real exciting stuff would require the arteries so the energy continued to flow while not really being that painful. It certainly was more energy than one was supposed to have in their veins yet the buffs combined with my natural sturdiness made it easy enough to handle.
With this I decided to also stretch out my hands in an open manner as my nails soon grew into crimson claws which I flowed energy into. Although not as efficient as my vampiric fangs it still allowed me to force the energy into my body before guiding it to my veins. After it was in my veins it was just a matter of letting nature take its course.
This easiness changed when it arrived in my heart.
Taking the energy flowing in through the veins I infused it into the blood stored within the chambers of my heart. With the subsequent beating of my heart that energy pulsed throughout my arteries where it was allowed to flow through my muscles, tendons and most importantly my bone marrow. It took little time for me to feel a throbbing that shortly afterwards turned into my flesh boiling under my skin quite visible.
If I had to say anything about the pain I would say it was absolutely terrible… Yet I had already been zapped by indigo lightening so it felt kind of lame in comparison. That being the case I wasn’t actually having too many problems - I even had time to begin matching my absorbing energy with the pumping of my heart beat to reduce the amount of waste as well as strain on me.
After a while of burning through my bones while the rest of me bubbled as it dissipated only to form again. Though I was being constantly tortured by pain it honestly wasn’t the worst pain I’ve ever felt by far thus I could handle it fine. This could be said to be an advantage as well as curse of my corrupted ‘blessing’ which meant I would never permanently ‘forget’ anything and this allowed me to vividly remember pain at practically random intervals. Something about ‘association making background memories resurface’ with Ali & the others worried I go ‘insane’ or something from such a skill?
Obviously someone as resilient as me wouldn’t suffer like that!
While thinking that I looked around in this void space while feeling everything was actually going very well yet it was then I saw a strange silhouette simply rise up from the floor.
They felt very familiar while being five foot just like someone else I remembered quite clearly - down to every inch I could tell she was the same even with my hazy vision. A smile grew on my face as every inch of that body actually was just as I remembered - except for her hair. The hair in front of me could only be complimented on its volume as it fell to her ankles while likely having more surface area than the girl herself.
Looking at this figure I felt something was a little ‘off’ and it was at that moment the figure's mouth parted to reveal white fangs which came down in a frown. Something about that frown just seemed unnatural yet I couldn’t quite put my finger on it yet the horror of the situation didn’t completely settle in until the figure's eyes seemingly ‘rolled’ into place to reveal two eyes filled with the night sky itself.
Those beautiful eyes quickly deformed into something terrifying as the stars floating in those tiny eyes flattened out into lines before those lines ‘opened’. The same act of the eyes ‘rolling’ happened hundreds upon thousands of times to reveal more of those eyes. Then the stars in those eyes did the very same over and over and over and over and over.
I’ve been a hunter all my life; I’ve even managed to blend in with stupid humans with all their rules and regulations that make little sense to me. I’ve come face to face with Jeeves while I had the opportunity to see visions from {The Dragon-Slaying Blade}. I even got to sniff Photon…
Yet it’s only now I realise how foolish I was to think I had truly seen the peak of this world.
It allowed me to realise just how much they’ve been playing with me - to them it was likely as if they were just training someone's child. Perhaps Sohn-Tochter truly didn’t have any killing intent while Jeeves merely intended to scout me out. The child in front of me seemed completely different as they didn’t care about me…
Only the cold indifference of the universe was left.
And in me all that was left was fear.
“You are boring…”
The voice was the most beautiful bell-like voice I’d ever heard… Yet it seemed wrong. Like how you look at a piece of art and you can tell it should be beautiful, however something hidden within just makes it look terrifying. Akin to an unnaturalness that couldn’t be described only ‘felt’ yet it was only now this entire figure gave me that feeling.
I didn’t know how…
I didn’t know why…
I simply knew they were…
Wrong.
“So let’s make this more fun.”
Then the visions started and for the first time in my life I realised why remembering everything was truly a curse…