Chapter 495: Glitch Pupation - A new Blood Devour
Everything began to disappear in Kai's surroundings. Like smoke.
First, the white screen puffed away, then the chair behind him. There was nothing else remained after those things. Yet, the walls followed the screen and chair as if they were just another thing in this place.
Along with the walls went Kai's clothes. Now he hovered midair, eyes popping out as if he had seen the shadow of an Old One. Shock beyond comprehension.
Around him, in four directions, now stood white walls. These walls, though, differed from the disappeared ones. The walls that had smoked out gave the place a hall-like appearance.
The new ones were more like a room.
The White Room.
The walls contracted, the roof fell, and the floor upped.
Kai's feet kissed the cold floor, his breath quickening. Questions. Ceaseless bouts of questions assaulted his mind. Alas! He didn't get the chance to ask them out.
In this white room with no doors, two laser-like beams materialized.
One was deep red, not unlike blood, but more dreadful and devious. The other was pale blue, like a colored mist, and more streamlined than its counterpart.
It didn't end here, though. It was like the beams knew… they knew that only two of them would never be enough to complete the task they were going to attempt.
The two beams were followed by four, then six…
100…
1000…
10000…
1 million…
2 million…
And they kept going, like some aimless idiot wandering the streets of the city in a drunken stupor.
Kai looked right, then left, and then up and down. The beams flashed in his surroundings, never touching him. It was as though they were watching him, observing him, remembering him.
And just when the silence zips of the beams were becoming overwhelming, they converged.
"AHHHHH!" Kai had known pain, even the most unbearable kind.
This was something else.
His chest burst open, thousands upon thousands of black tendrils flailing about in defiance. The beams ignored them. They hacked at them, burned them, and remodeled them.
"Stop it!" Kai shouted, not knowing what was happening. "No! Aaaahhh!"
His screams threatened to shatter the white walls. Kai's nail dug into his face and he pulled at his skin, tearing off large chunks of flesh. A few of the red and blue beams diverged and fell on the bloodied face and healed it.
The maddened Blood Demon squirmed on the floor like a fish out of water. Screams. Hisses. Curses.
Soundless laugh.
Silence.
Kai stood back up, the black tendrils still flailing about relentlessly. The abnormal and dreadful pain was still there, coursing through his body like blood.
But something had indeed changed. Or, forgotten.
Two crystals bobbed up and down in Kai's hazel pupils, acting in tandem with his mastery of facelessness to forget about the pain itself.
Kai cracked his neck and observed the remodeling, acutely aware of the pain, and yet not feeling it.
He missed his Calm, Kai felt. Not for long, he hoped.
[
You have grown, Kai Stormborn.
]
Kai's head snapped up. The notification was right in front of him, in his eyes. Not colored like dull gray as always, but red.
Chaos, Kai named it. This has never happened before. "Where's Order?"
[
Wherever I am.
]
Kai frowned. Now what? What was this, anyway? Some idle chat to pass the time? "What do you want?"
The beams had almost calmed the thing inside his chest down. Now the tentacles weren't twisting in resistance, as much as squirming in curiosity.
Whatever it was, Kai concluded, it knew something good was happening to it.
[
This question again? You don't remember, do you?
]
Kai's frown deepened. He had just buried his pain. And now he was feeling another sense of mysterious doom approaching him. "I don't know what you are talking about, Chaos."
A silence followed Kai's remark.
The beams had begun "slowing" down; if that was the right term for it. Kai could feel his chest getting hot and hot, the pain shooting right through the roof. Or it must have shot through the roof, Kai guessed, for he certainly had forgotten its existence. Just like…
No! No. No. No!
[
Oh, so you do remember something. We have gone through it two times already, Kai. Why do you keep making yourself forget about it?
]
NO!
The pain! Yes! The pain!
The crystals in Kai's eyes vanished. And something returned, something more than pain, like a dark avalanche.
[
You cannot run away from it. Not forever.
]
A darkness fell over Kai's consciousness under the wrath of the unbearable pain. No. No. He didn't see the notification.
Yes. He didn't.
*
*
When Kai came about, he could feel himself lying on the floor.
A groan escaped his throat as he twisted, turning over his back. Slowly, barely, he parted the eyelids.
White.
Not white of the White Room. But still more white than any white Kai had ever seen. He craned his neck and looked behind his head. The white screen had returned. Then he pressed his chin down and looked ahead. The chair had returned, too.
Kai pushed himself up, clenching his jaw. Only then did he notice his clothes had returned as well.
Kai shot up while standing up, midway. A rush of blood made his head spin, his heart pounding in excitement.
The Glitch!
A smile bloomed on his lips.
"Blood Devour."
[[
Glitch: Blood Devour
Transformed Specifications:
1. Glitch Blood Devour has two parts: Permanent Slots and Temporary Slots
2. There are 3 Permanent Slots and 4 Temporary Slots
3. You can devour a beast's Blood Essence upon contact, and store it in any of the slots
4. You can store a Blood Essence in Permanent Slots only once in a Main Mission. It means once the Glitch is activated, and if you choose to either store a Blood Essence in an empty Permanent Slot or overwrite an existing Permanent Blood Essence, then you can not tamper with them within a mission
5. You can store two Blood Essences in each of the 4 Temporary Slots within a mission, i.e. once a Blood Essence is stored in a Temporary Slot, you can discard it, and store another in its place
6. A Devoured Blood Essence gives Ability/Abilities only if stored in a Permanent Slot
7. A Devoured Blood Essence gives only Skills tied to it (depending on the beast's strength) when stored in a Temporary Slot
8. At any point during a mission's time duration, you can transfer a Blood Essence from Temporary Slot to the Permanent Slot, overwriting any existing Permanent Blood Essence, or storing it in an empty Permanent Slot.
9. You can do this transfer only once during a mission, without activating Glitch. However, it will count as equivalent to activating Glitch to store a Blood Essence in Permanent Slots
10. Such a transferred Blood Essence will automatically add the Ability/Abilities attached to it to your Stats, if any
11. Based on these points, you can either activate your Glitch 8 times in a mission (-in case you choose to transfer a Blood Essence from Temporary to Permanent-) or 9 times in a mission
Retained Specifications:
1. You can activate only one Beast Blood Essence's Skill at a time, for 30 seconds with a cooldown of 5 minutes
2. Imitate Natural Abilities (-Only in Permanent Slots, if any-) and Skills (-both Permanent and Temporary Slots-) of Devoured Beasts, with constraints and requirements
3. Skills acquired through Glitch can't be upgraded using Mission Credits
Discarded Specification:
1. Regenerate HP based on the size of the devoured beast. If HP is full, give a temporary boost in Strength, Agility, and Stamina
Tabulation of Current Slots -
Permanent Slots:
1. Koffing (magical beast)
2. Dementor (magical beast)
3. Golduck (magical beast)
Temporary Slots:
1. Empty (0/2)
2. Empty (0/2)
3. Empty (0/2)
4. Empty (0/2)
]
Kai sat down on the chair and looked up toward the roof, a single tear tracing a wet path down his cheek.
Power. If there were words that could describe it, then this was it.
It was worth it, wasn't it? Kai smiled, almost laughing. This transformation was indeed worth dying for. "Send me away," he said, cherishing this feeling. This storming, matchless joy.
A blue flash covered him, like a thin veil.
Kai almost felt reluctant to go back. For once, he just wanted to sit in one place and revel in this feeling.
The smile just never disappeared from his face.
It was just…
It was just…
Why was he feeling as if he had forgotten something?
****************
AN: Break Tomorrow.
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