Chapter 14: Blood Worshipers Part 2
Damon leaped from his high window with explosive grace, a fierce glimmer of anger illuminating his features like crimson flames in the pre-dawn darkness.
His descent was uncanny. His body cut through the air without sound or resistance, robes trailing behind him like shadows given life.
He landed silently on the ground below, the impact absorbed completely by his divine control, not even a single pebble disturbed beneath his feet.
Without pause, he moved, evading every guard in sight with effortless precision, a blur of black and crimson that ghosted through the vast expanse of the Void Territory in mere moments.
The wind itself seemed to part for him, trees leaning away as though fearing his touch.
"That palpable sense of dread they exude," he mused silently, movements growing more intense with each stride, muscles coiling like divine springs. "It's not just any enemy. It's intertwined with a familiar, unsettling energy."
Initially, he could only perceive the presence of his adversaries, distant blips of malice on the edge of his divine web.
But as he approached the outer fields of Raksha, the air thickened dramatically with the unmistakable tension of an impending conflict, an engagement not merely of foes, but laced with a familiar and deeply unsettling aura that made his blood sing with rage.
"Void Slime!" Damon bellowed suddenly, voice shattering the silence like heavenly thunder, face contorted with wicked, unrestrained fury. "You insufferable fool!"
Frustration surged within him like molten iron.
He understood a crucial truth about the void slime family in this world.
They possessed a myriad of talents: regeneration that defied death, mimicry that fooled even gods, adaptation that turned weakness into strength, boundless potential. Yet their docile, gentle nature rendered them mere shadows of what they could become, passive vessels rather than conquerors.
"In my previous world," he muttered to himself, voice low and dangerous as he accelerated,
"the great slimes of Daveron were feared across continents. They devoured armies whole, mimicked any living being that crossed their path, and reshaped reality with their essence. Most dangerous of all was their ability to evolve through devouring, each time they consumed, they became stronger, more perfect, more divine."
"This brought me to a realization," he continued, eyes narrowing as Raksha's great forest loomed ahead, "the void slimes in this world have the same skills... but their nature is utterly different. Docile. Passive. Weak."
With renewed, blazing determination, he arrived at the edge of the great forest of Raksha. Trees ancient and twisted, their bark scarred by centuries of battle, air thick with the scent of blood and primal fear.
The creatures within writhed with an intensity that bespoke their fury, striving desperately to maintain distance from the approaching figure whose presence alone made their instincts scream for retreat.
Their anguished cries reverberated through the heavens, each one a testament to their unique abilities and terror.
Some unleashed arcs of lightning that cracked the sky, illuminating the forest in blinding white. Others twirled in mesmerizing dances, their forms engulfed in vibrant flames that scorched earth and air alike. Still others melded seamlessly with the shadows, becoming one with the darkness that surrounded them, yet even in concealment, they trembled.
"Do not test my patience further!" Damon roared, his killing aura unfurling like a dark cloud that swallowed light, pressing down on the forest with suffocating weight. "I dare you to come closer!"
Without hesitation, he launched himself into the depths of the forest, armed only with his bare fists, a testament to his deep, unshakeable pride and absolute confidence in his own power.
"Pillar of Control!"
He invoked the technique with calm authority.
His arms transformed instantly, skin darkening to jet black, veins pulsing with demonic energy as they elongated into the limbs of an ancient demon, claws sharp enough to rend reality itself.
Almost instantaneously, a thunder python of Rank 3 materialized before him, massive coils crackling with captured lightning, mouth agape in a roar of primal fury, poised to devour.
With a deft, almost casual motion, Damon gripped the edges of the creature's gaping maw.
He pulled gently, yet with overwhelming force.
The python's head tore free in a clean sever.
There was no splatter of blood, no flesh falling to the ground; the creature simply withered, its body dissolving into swirling motes of divine essence that flowed into Damon, augmenting his fearsome visage in the eyes of every observing demon beast.
"Lv3 Absorption!"
"Foolish creatures," Damon remarked with a manic smile that stretched wider than any human mouth should, moving with a speed that bordered on the unnatural.
They sensed the faint absorption of life emanating from him, the predator instinct every human dreams of awakening but few ever truly claim.
His arms pulsed with vibrant, stolen energy, lightning coiling around his black claws like living serpents.
"I should now exhibit the properties of a thunder python," he mused, limbs crackling with electric fury.
"Hahaha!"
With a flourish of his hand, he unleashed a surge of stolen lightning, electrifying everything within a hundred-meter radius in a blinding storm of white-hot power.
Many of the Rank 4 creatures fled in blind terror, crashing through undergrowth.
Those in Rank 3 and below fell lifeless to the ground, bodies dissolving into dust and essence that flowed toward him.
"Incorporating the lightning attribute with my Pillar of Control is extraordinary," he thought with satisfaction, activating the agility of a Rank 2 albain rooster, one of the creatures killed in the onslaught.
His body became lighter, faster, movements blurring as he darted through the forest like a living storm.
Author's Note: Damon's ability to absorb does not enhance his divine nature; rather, it resembles a skill that allows him to acquire and wield the powers of others, temporary, borrowed strength that fuels his dominance without altering his core path of Temples and Divinity.
Yet a sense of dissatisfaction gnawed at him like hunger in the pit of his stomach.
He felt the overwhelming strength of those confronting the Void Slime, beings of ridiculous power, their auras radiating from the distance like distant suns.
A smile crept across his face, slow, dangerous, and utterly mad.
"It appears the time has come for me, Damon, to reveal my hand."
Mythic creatures of the Raksha forest observed from the top of a distant cliff, not in horror, but with a wary, instinctual desire to distance themselves from the oppressive energy radiating from the being seven hundred kilometers away.
As if awakened from deep slumber, a colossal creature opened its ancient eyes, gazing thoughtfully at the moon, its expression imbued with the wisdom of eons.
"Aponkiliki," it uttered in a low, rumbling voice that shook the earth.
Several others nodded in solemn agreement, scratching the ground in a show of solidarity, claws carving deep furrows into stone.
Damon ventured deeper into the forest, noting the sudden scarcity of demon beasts, yet paid it little mind.
He had already absorbed the life forces of five different species, each one strengthening his borrowed arsenal.
He leaped onto a towering tree just as a wave of weakness washed over him, he raised his head to the sky.
The heavens had turned a deep, ominous crimson.
Rivers of blood cascaded beneath him, flooding the forest floor in impossible volume.
"I can sense the presence of a god," he murmured in astonishment, voice low with dangerous excitement. "Things just keep getting worse."
With renewed, blazing determination, he quickened his pace, channeling the agility of a Vulcan ape and the swiftness of the albain rooster, deftly maneuvering through the trees, gliding effortlessly when necessary, body a streak of black and crimson cutting through the darkness.
The slime hung mid-air, Raphael's blood blade mere inches from decapitating its head, eyes filled with fear that contradicted its perpetual smile.
A ritualistic sensation emanated from those crimson blades, dark, hungry, divine in their own twisted way, while his enemy's eyes shone with pure, fanatical joy.
Alucard's eyes flashed with rage as he stared Raphael down. "Raphael, the Reaper," he said, voice low and dangerous, blade poised to offer the slime boy as a sacrifice to their God, the Blood God "it is time" Alucard spread his hand to the sky.
Like a blade cutting through silk, Raphael's technique activated. His sword moved swiftly, decapitating the slime's head in a clean arc. "Sacrificial lamb," he intoned, the blade continuing its arc, shredding the slime boy into chunks of meat and pinkish-red essence.
"Ahhhhh, ahhhh, Mad One, please help me!" The slime's decapitated head spoke its first words, blood spilling from its eyes like tears. "I offer the essence of my soul!"
"Shut the hell up!" Raphael raged, shredding the head almost immediately.
As the slime died to the ritual, there was a sudden silence. Then a scream erupted from Alucard's mouth.
The river swirled violently as he struggled to breath. Soon the rivers of blood rose in crazed turbulence, immediately devouring Alucard whole.
He did not struggle.
Instead, the blood river pulsed with life.
Raphael danced upon the skies, arms spread wide. "Arise, Blood God! Come forth to this world. I beg of you!" He rejoiced as the whole blood river was devoured like a whirlpool. In a matter of seconds, the river was gone, residues of blood slowly absorbed into Alucard's flesh.
Raphael quickly descended in a bow of reverence, Zao following suit.
The land pulsed with every breath Alucard took as he lay there. The air became very heavy, gravity seeming to pull him upward as he rose from the ground. His hair now fully red, eyes gold, and a blood-like crown upon his head, making Alucard have the appearance of a handsome fiend god.
"Ahhh, which of my children rejuvenated me?" the Blood God spoke, turning to Raphael and Zao. "This child's talent is manageable," he looked upon Raphael and Zao.
"Venerable God, it is me who answered your bidding," Raphael declared, voice trembling with ecstasy. "I am your loyal child who has followed your way in deep bloodshed, one of the children of the Dandelion."
The Blood God held his chin in surprise. "Ahh, I never knew I would meet a descendant of Dandelion," he smiled, cutting his palm and offering it to Raphael to drink.
Without hesitation, Raphael grabbed onto the Blood God's hand, drinking deeply. "Ha, this one is a fiend," the Blood God said, pushing Raphael's head back, revealing Raphael's face filled with ecstasy as a sigil formed at the middle of his head.
Almost immediately, Raphael grabbed his stomach.
"Ehhh," he churned as soon he felt waves of pain. He let out a gut-wrenching scream. His body soon showed sparks of flames. His eyes widened as he stared at the Blood God smiling.
"You want power so much. Grab it the way your ancestor Dandelion did."
Immediately he was engulfed in flames.
Zao shivered by the corner, making the Blood God laugh. "Old pup, come here," he smiled. But Zao didn't stop shaking, yet his body moved against his will.
"I can sense you are from the house of Herlis, the werewolf bloodline," the Blood God said, smiling wider.
"Why the hell is his lineage still alive!" he spoke, placing his hand on Zao's head, draining him of his lifeforce until he was withered bones.
Without mercy, he had claimed one of his own's life, like one who had never breathed fresh air.