บท 41: An Emotion Long Forgotten
Cain's plan was straightforward, he was going to drink blood. It wasn't anything over the top but he didn't know what changes would occur if this worked, which was why he waited till now. Away from the prying eyes of his family and people in general.
Documents or books pertaining to the blood elementals were practically unavailable. Although there were mentions of them in some texts, it was only basic information; everything else about them or other elementals were extremely vague.
Looking at the four corpses in front of him, he didn't rush to consume them. He wasn't so stupid to undergo a modification in the open if his theory worked. He first decided to store the corpses and look for a secluded area to test his theory.
After running for some minutes, he found a large cave which was hidden behind numerous trees. However, it was the lair of a late stage scorpion beast. He fought the beast and killed it and then dragged its carcass along the floor into the cave.
Once he kept it in there, he got out of the cave as he unleashed his peak stage aura and surveyed the surroundings carefully. Assured that there were no threats around, he lifted a massive stone and placed it just in front of the cave. He entered and then rolled the stone to block the entrance and sat down.
The floor and walls were cold and had a rough feel to it; bones were littered about and the air within the cave carried with it the scent of dried, rotten corpses. Cain didn't mind the smell as he brought out the items in his spatial ring. His gaze was drawn to the massive corpse of the owlbear, luckily the cave was big enough to contain it.
His expression became serious as he stared at it, he really didn't know what would happen once he began. But, he could only proceed. Besides he wasn't sure if this would work, however deep down he had a feeling that he was on the right path.
Looking at the limb from which bluish blood began to pour out, Cain cleared his thoughts and inched closer; he placed his mouth on the injury and sucked in a stream of blood. If he could comment about the taste, it was in the region of metallic and sour with a sweet aftertaste.
Once the blood went down his throat and into his body, he felt nothing at first, just the sweetness parading his tongue. Still, before he could think further, his body shook slightly; followed by an intense hunger. Like a feral beast, he began to devour the blood from the limb furiously.
[Body Modification In Progress…]
The prompt sounded but Cain was too immersed in his feeding to care about it. As he kept drinking, his connection to blood itself became deeper. The colour of his eyes turned a dark and menacing red and the blood within him wriggled in excitement.
After draining the blood from the limb, he went straight towards the body as he began feeding on its blood. Unbeknownst to him, his body had already begun going through some slight changes. His physique was becoming slimmer and his teeth were gradually turning serrated.
The tip of his ear became a little pointed and some parts of his hair had a reddish tint to it. Within his body, his heart gradually began to turn purple. It also became extremely tough and a little bigger. At one point the heart stopped beating, but then resumed not long after and began beating exceedingly fast.
The blood being pumped from his new heart became more potent and viscous. The acidity spiked, the temperature became irregular; constantly switching between two extremes of cold and hot. The density of the blood also increased and became much heavier, however that didn't hinder its free flow.
Apart from his jaw, his bone structure didn't change much but its hardness and weight increased. His jaw bone became sturdy and almost had a metallic shine to it as it extended to his teeth.
He drank, and drank, and drank. Taking in mouthfuls upon mouthfuls, unaware of his surroundings and the changes to his body.
The blood was quickly directed to his new heart as it refined it and pumped out huge quantities of blood to every part of his body. As the blood reached his muscles, they kept on compressing, becoming more compact and stronger.
After a few minutes, he was done with the feeding and closed his eyes; he tilted his head back and exhaled refreshingly. The lower part of his face was stained with various colours of blood overlapping each other.
He stuck his tongue out and licked his lips in satisfaction, smacking them in delight as he revelled in the sensation he was experiencing. He felt the pure power coursing through him but he didn't move from his spot and just remained that way.
Right now, he finally had access to the blood element. His understanding of blood kept on increasing so he just sat there and meditated. His body continued to change slowly till it came to a stop however he didn't open his eyes. Seconds turned to minutes, minutes turned to hours but Cain just sat there in the cave and was completely engrossed in his meditation.
After some hours, he eventually opened his eyes, a look of understanding reflected beneath his gaze, which became a deeper shade of crimson with a purplish tinge.
"So this is the power of blood, a rather simple yet profound element," he commented. "I've truly underestimated its potential."
He sunk his head down to look at his body, finally taking note of the changes that transpired. His muscles reduced but packed more power in them. His nails were dark with sharp, pointed tips. He couldn't see his teeth but he ran his tongue through them and felt their sharpness, they were all serrated with the canines a little longer than the rest.
"This change is not totally unexpected, although it's still a bit surprising. But...the biggest gain should be my understanding of bloodlines." Once he mentioned this, his face became serious as he pinched the bridge of his nose. "There is a massive drawback after all."
He always had his suspicions about how bloodmages had such overwhelming advantages. From experience he knew that nothing 'free' was ever truly 'free' on the surface. There was always a catch.
"I see, now I understand why bloodmages suppress those without bloodlines. Perhaps, only the revered Immortals are aware of this drawback. Well, I guess that's to be expected."
Now that he understood blood, everything was becoming clear to him. He could now truly understand the schemes and also the plight of these Bloodmages.
But, he himself was in a terribly grave situation, "This throws a wrench into most of my plans. In fact, this erases practically all of them. A solution to this will have to take priority from now on."
He concentrated on his Ashel bloodline and his frown deepened even further, his expression turning into one of disgust.
"As expected, I'm not exempt from this."
He also inspected his original bloodline out of curiosity but he was met with a deathly surprise. He discovered something that was hidden deeply from him. Noticing this, anger began to bubble within him to the point he clenched his left fist so hard that his palm bled.
This was an emotion he hadn't felt in a long while but right now he couldn't prevent it. His goal was the top, a being above all, an apex and he cared not for anything; but seeing something which threatened to obstruct him from reaching his goal, he couldn't help but feel that emotion called anger.
"People truly do die for lack of knowledge. It seems that I'm still the same pathetic man I was. I haven't changed at all." His anger was slowly rising. He remembered what he said to Celestine years back and mocked himself. "We were both naive it seems. And I dared lecture a kid on naivety?"
The last word was drawn out, his voice became louder and guttural. The anger within him already reached its tipping point.
"Preposterous!" he bellowed and smashed his left fist on the floor of the cave, leaving a deep hole and numerous cracks on the surface. "Even here I'm still shackled?"
The more he thought of his current predicament, his rage intensified.
"Am I such a clown who only offers entertainment? A mindless puppet whose sole existence is to be led by strings?" he shouted again, his voice becoming deeper and colder. "Is this my fate? Do I only amount to such?"
"CAIN!" he shouted, addressing himself in third person. His cold and menacing voice booming in the cave. "Have you not suffered enough? Will you remain like this forever? Are you willing to accept such an outcome? Will this make you fall into despair and hopelessness?"
He knew the answer to his question, and it was a thundering no.
He smashed a part of the wall in the cave with the side of his fist, "If this is my fate and destiny —" he growled as his expression turned sinister and his eyes narrowed to slits " — then I will violently hack it to pieces."
After a while of venting, he calmed himself down; taking a long, deep breath and exhaling. His apathetic expression slowly marred his face once more.
"What a hypocrite I've been," he scoffed.
He looked around the cave, all the corpses were shrivelled and extremely pale, "I couldn't even control myself."
The intense feeding earlier extended to the other corpses without his knowledge, leaving him defenseless. Nevertheless, he was quite lucky that no magical beast or another mage saw him in such a state.
The most important thing right now however, was a solution to his huge problem; which hung around his neck like a noose, waiting to end his life.
He rubbed his forehead and closed his eyes, "From where do I even begin?"
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