Chapter 34 - Blood Demon
His wife and child were in a bottle.
His wife’s name was Cathy.
The child’s name was unknown.
The fetus was not named.
It had a nickname, but not a name.
Whenever he tried to name it, Cathy would vehemently stop him.
She said the child was often sick and wouldn’t live long.
She told him not to get too attached.
In the spring, many families buried their children, so it was quite common not to name a newborn baby.
However, the reason the child had to be buried was the Plague Demon.
It was definitely not because of the child’s mother.
Oh, Cathy. My beloved wife.
One day, she took the child to the Physicians' Council as usual, but for some reason, she didn't return even as night fell.
It was strange, and he was about to go look for her, but those who were not part of the Physicians' Council could not go to the headquarters.
But as if there was no need for that.
The physicians of the council came directly to his house.
Holding out a small bottle with a mixture of silver and green slime.
.
.
.
He heard the full story from the physicians.
Cathy had put the child in a cauldron, and when the experiment failed, she threw herself in as well.
He couldn't believe it.
It felt like these physicians, the world, were trying to deceive him.
He was about to grab an axe, but before that, the Physicians' Council handed him a book along with the bottle.
It was his wife’s research journal.
His wife’s handwriting. His wife’s way of speaking. A book containing his wife’s deeds.
Now, he had no choice but to believe.
A rage towards his beloved, too strong to bear, washed over him.
Cathy was saying it in her journal.
She had consistently used the child’s blood in her experiments.
The reason was that the power of the Elixir to return to the primordial state came from the child, the primordial form of a human.
If the experiment succeeded, the child’s blood would be replaced by the Elixir, becoming an ageless, immortal body.
It was purely his wife’s theory, an unverified one.
The child was used for that verification.
And since not just any child could enjoy such a privilege, did she use our child first?
A hollow laugh escaped him.
A sense of betrayal towards his wife flooded him like a deluge, but Cathy had been sincere.
She did her best for both the child and the family.
Why would such a person put an innocent child into an experiment?
He wanted to understand.
If he could understand even a little, it felt like this anger would subside, even if by a speck of dust.
He read the research journal twice, three times, until it was about to tear.
Naturally, reading was not enough.
─Meryl. You are hereby formally appointed as a member of the Physicians' Council.
He received a raven mask and became a researcher, a physician, and a fanatic who dreamed of the Elixir, just like her.
From that day on, he lived immersed in potions.
Just as her silver hair had, his hair turned green.
Along with that, he fulfilled Cathy's wishes, written like hopes in her research journal, one by one.
Co-opting a successful councilor.
Starting with that, establishing Physicians' Council branches in the city and selling out every spring.
Even the incredibly famous great merchant had to take a step back and hesitate.
And yet. Even after coming this far.
He felt not a shred of attraction to potions.
The Elixir, said to make even the dead open their eyes.
The path to that legend lies in a potion made from dead people?
And everyone in this building believes that nonsensical premise?
Here, where most had lost someone to disease, the Elixir was holy blood.
To insult it or to denigrate the greed to obtain a single drop of it was absolutely forbidden.
Were they crazy, or was he?
If neither, was it crazy to maintain one's sanity in a crazy group?
Unless they caught a pure-blooded Wisdom, there was no answer on this path.
The research he was doing now was nothing more than a pointless act of slightly extending a dream that would one day end.
But when even that act was about to be trampled by an overwhelming external force.
He opened the lid of the bottle he had only gazed at for a long time.
‘Cathy. I still don’t understand. If we meet in hell, then sit me down and talk my ear off all night.’
His vision went dark.
***
[Activating Unique Skill 「Demonization」.]
Thump, thump, thump, thump─!
My heart beat fiercely.
The heart, which felt like it had doubled in size, circulated blood as fast and strong as its size.
The blood vessels grew hot, and the heart held the heat.
The fire enveloped my soul.
It transformed what I originally had into something entirely different.
My mind gradually faded away in the process of changing its very essence.
But the blood kinsman held onto his consciousness somehow, keeping even the heated blood under his feet.
Chiiiiik─
My skin turned red like a hot iron plate.
The demon’s power, pulsating from within my body.
It burst out, seeking freedom at all costs.
Kureurrrrrrrrr─
A haze that made the space seem to shimmer.
Anything that could catch fire burst into flames like logs in a fireplace.
The blood flowing in my body sped up even more, as if being chased.
With my blood pressure rising to unknown heights.
Drip.
My eyes, blazing like fire, shed tears of blood.
My dark purple hair was reborn as blackish-red, and sharp horns grew on top.
Red blood vessels sprouted from my heart and stretched to my neck.
My skin, which had been repeatedly drying out, became hard and thick, like armor.
Demonization was a skill that changed the species itself.
But the Vampire Queen’s blood was no less thick than a demon’s.
[Skill 「Demonization」 clashes with the vampire pureblood’s blood.]
[Proceeding with fusion.]
The uniqueness of Demonization.
The uniqueness of the blood noble.
The two characteristics, realizing they could not kill each other, harmonized and eventually merged.
[Skill 「Blood Demonization」 is born.]
[The above skill is determined to be the player’s unique skill and is bound to the heart.]
[Unique Skill slot has increased.]
Along with the string of messages.
The Blood Demon let out a hot breath.
The heat mixed in its breath was red as blood.
The Blood Demon commanded.
[I will not let you leave this place.]
The heat, responding to its will, enveloped the two monsters.
It drew a circle, creating a massive wall of bloodflame.
An arena one could only exit by dying was completed.
The Chairman of the Physicians' Council, whose entire body had turned into a sticky slime, adapted himself within that domain.
Red spread from his heart throughout his tri-colored body.
His body, changed as if ink was dropped into a glass of water, no longer flinched at the fire.
He had transformed his body with a potion that granted excellent resistance to heat.
The monster did not stop there.
Chwaaaaaak─
Stretching out both arms, he grabbed the surrounding debris and swallowed it all into his body.
It was an act of collecting fuel and ingredients.
Fuel to move and enlarge his body.
Ingredients to create potions within his body.
Before that power, everything in the world was a material.
A man who drowned in a cauldron, who threw himself into a cauldron, who became a cauldron himself out of longing for those two people.
The monster, created from a mixture of desire, anger, and regret, would swallow everything in sight.
It must never be let outside.
It had to be defeated now, at its weakest.
Chwaaaaak─
I spread my huge membranous wings.
***
The Gatekeeper.
He sat in a formal posture in front of the Physicians' Council main building, his eyes closed.
He sat still, not lifting a finger, but.
The events unfolding inside the main building were as clear as if they were happening before his eyes.
Yet, despite this, the Gatekeeper’s eyebrows couldn’t stay still for a moment and kept twitching.
He couldn’t believe it, even though he could see everything without concealment.
“…Is it really the Fifth Son inside?”
After the Youngest Son volunteered to retrieve the ledger and jumped in.
He had quietly followed, since he was nominally on guard duty.
And not long after, a monster of unusual yin energy was born inside.
But that was only the beginning.
Because there was a heat there that would make such a monster look like a newborn baby.
“This magical power is definitely the Fifth Son’s. But the sensation that follows is the power of the Balum family….”
The Demonization, the secret art of the Balum family he had once witnessed.
The violent killing intent and heat spewed by a demon that had appeared in the human world was in there.
“…This doesn’t make sense. The Fifth Son made Demonization his own power…?”
This was a completely different matter from individual ability or potential.
“How can another person take a skill passed down through a bloodline….”
His words trailed off.
An intense intuition, as if he had spoken the answer while speaking, flowed down his spine.
His closed eyes flashed open with realization.
Yes. Bloodline.
A family’s secret art passed down through a bloodline is passed from blood to blood.
But what if the Fifth Son, a noble of blood, had cleverly inserted himself in between?
“…It’s not entirely impossible. No, there is no other way to explain the situation.”
It was truly an astonishing power.
To use the opponent’s blood to steal a skill that only the opponent could enjoy.
Vicious, yet creative.
If the spellcasters of Wisdom had seen this, they would not have been able to sleep.
The Gatekeeper chuckled to himself.
“It’s a magnificent view I would love to see if I could.”
It would be a scene too precious to see alone.
But to make it so that all people could see it, the person who could paint that scene had to stand at the very top.
In other words, he had to become the Family Head.
“…….”
The Gatekeeper thought that far and closed his mouth.
Then he shook his head.
“…A mere ten-year-old brat. He can be broken at any time.”
Whether mentally. Whether by meeting a wall in his progress. Whether by external forces, or by his own will.
The Youngest Son was still soaring without knowing how high the sky was, but it was also true that the place he had been breathing in was very low.
He knew the speed of his ascent was absurd.
But the child born to mark the end of the new generation had spent 10 years uselessly.
That meant his innate nature was weak, even if he had changed now.
Such a person could not become the Family Head of Millesdusk.
‘Unless he swapped his soul with someone else.’
Kwaaaaaaaang─!!
As he was speaking, an explosion occurred in the building.
All the glass windows of the building shattered, and the blast reached all the way here.
His skin tingled.
He thought he had become insensitive to pain.
His scar-covered body felt pain for the first time in a long time.
Thud─ Thud─
A man emerged from the main gate, just as he had entered, having burned the building black.
It was the Fifth Son of Millesdusk.
“What brings you out here to greet me?”
“It seems you have finished your business well.”
In his hand was a thick, flat book.
Just a glance revealed dozens of curses intertwined within it.
It was undoubtedly Hinek’s ledger, containing things that should not be seen.
And in his other hand was a heart with a strange shape.
Its appearance, as if made from hardened slime, made it clear who its owner had been.
“Is that the Chairman of the Physicians' Council’s?”
“It’s mine now.”
“Do you use that to take the bloodline skills possessed by others?”
“Ask the Head Maid. It’s a waste of time to explain everything here.”
The Youngest Son’s body had not yet cooled down, but he was preparing for the next battle.
The Fourth Son was quietly looking down at his younger brother from the floating castle over there.
He had barely pulled his neck out of the tiger’s jaws, but that didn’t mean the tiger had left.
There were many mountains to cross.
To do that, he would need a companion.
“Gatekeeper.”
“Yes.”
“One day, I will possess you as well.”
“…….”
An inappropriate thing to say while holding a heart.
“Before your 10 years of confinement are over. Your boring life as a gatekeeper will end first.”
An inappropriate thing to say while holding a heart. The second time.
“Until then, just wait quietly by my side.”
Decorating it splendidly with a final third statement.
Fwoooosh─
The griffin carrying the Youngest Son soared towards the floating castle, scattering red feathers.
Watching his back with silence, a single fact suddenly dawned on him.
“…Young Son! Wait a moment…!”
He couldn’t fly.