EmEs_etherious
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Chapter 142- Guilt
🕑 Added 2024-03-05 23:59:00 +0000 UTCThe fight had been going so well. Arthur had deployed his skills and began the process of steadily whittling down Henderson, the man with the greatest potential as a blood beast. Had he been given his full twenty seconds of predicted time to work with, he was certain he could have killed the monster before it became a threat. Unfortunately for him, things rarely went according to plan and as he was blasted through a second wall, Arthur began to wonder where things had gone so wrong today.
Crashing down into the middle of a road, Arthur skittered along another dozen metres before his body finally came to a stop. He didn’t want to open his eyes. If he did, he’d be forced to see the crater that had once been his home as well as the smouldering remains of the rest of the street. Whilst he had been strong enough to survive Henderson’s detonation, that wasn’t the case for his neighbours who’d been caught in the blast. Mr Jefferson, the old lady with too many cats, little Taya, who he’d seen grow from a baby to a bratty five-year-old… all dead.
Ayesha didn’t warn me about anything like this. I was supposed to accidentally kill one or two of them, not… this. He couldn’t bring himself to think of all the devastation that had just happened. Maybe if he hadn’t attacked so viciously, the monster wouldn’t have exploded. He could have just gone with them and dealt with things when there weren't so many people around. He’d been stubborn, drunk on his new power and he just had to, stop it. Spiralling like this, especially right now, was exactly what Ayesha had feared. Perhaps he could have done things differently and so many people wouldn’t have had to die, but he wasn’t responsible for all their death and destruction. Nor was it the fault of those six soldiers who had come knocking on his door.
The blame lay solely at the feet of the vampires who had sent them.
Arthur sat up from where he was lying down and looked behind him. It was almost nostalgic when he saw an Arthur-shaped dent in the truck that had stopped him. This time the vehicle was worse for wear, completely trashed despite the ether enhancements he could see its owner had lavishly spent on it. The man in question stared in his direction, a look of horror on his face, blood dripping from a gash on his eyebrow.
He was dead.
The poor guy's chest was completely crushed, a gaping hole on the right of his torso where his rib cage had splintered outwards. Arthur turned away quickly, feeling nauseous. He’d seen a fair share of grotesque wounds in his time as a healer, but it hit differently when the injury was caused by him. He hadn’t intended it, but he’d become the proverbial noose that had snuffed out the man's life. With no excuse to delay anymore, Arthur turned around to face the devastation that had begun at his house. The first thing he noticed was how quiet it was. There was no screaming, no cries for help. No one called out for a loved one and no one swore at the loss of their property. Everyone who had been caught in the blast, one that had been significantly larger than he'd initially thought-spanning almost the entirety of his kilometre-large aura- had died in an instant.
How many is that? 1000? 2000 people just gone. Just like that. Once again, he could feel the guilt crashing down on him, but this time it wasn’t so easy to throw off. With a sinking feeling in his gut, Arthur asked the question he’d been instinctively avoiding until now. The Bloodbeasts had been undergoing a controlled soul explosion, or at least the mechanisms were so similar Arthur wasn’t yet proficient enough to tell the difference. The key word here was controlled. By attacking the delicate transforming soul directly with his armaments, he’d broken the equilibrium that allowed such an unstable change to take place.
Maybe the vampires hadn’t intended to create an actual soul explosion. After all, it served little purpose beyond wanton destruction and loss of life. Whilst he wouldn’t put that past them, it didn’t align with the movements they made so far. The only reason why Henderson had gone supernova, the only reason why so many had died without Ayesha’s seer warning about it, was because he’d spontaneously decided to try and end a fight before it had started.
If he’d had any food in his stomach, he would’ve lost it right then. Raising a hand to his face, it came back wet. As much as he was trying to hold himself together right now, Arthur’s eyes were a little damp. He wasn’t made of stone. Looking down at his hands, he saw that there wasn’t even a hint of red on them.
So many dead, buildings that had stood for decades turned to rubble, a soul's explosion- albeit a severely weakened one- that he’d taken point blank and it didn’t even amount to a single drop of blood. At any other time, Arthur might have felt excited at how durable his body had become, but right now he just felt dirty. So many had died and he, the target of the attack had gotten away scratch-free. It also put into perspective how important skills were and how powerful a concept was. Issania had cut his skin with every attack she’d landed with her spear.
Fuck this shit, Arthur cursed, slapping himself in the cheeks. I’ll have time to grieve later and figure things out. Maybe I’m not even responsible for all this and I’m just jumping to conclusions. Compartmentalising all his frustration and guilt, Arthur shoved it into a box and left it for future him to deal with. His domain was still deployed and with it, he could clearly sense that five of the six men targeted by Homunculi's draining still existed. Arthur was honestly happy the monsters had survived the explosion. It presented an immediate threat he was forced to deal with, a perfect distraction.
Perception was his second lowest stat after charisma, and he struggled to see through the thick cloud of dust blocking his vision. As if responding to his annoyance, the air within his domain rapidly concentrated the ambient molecules of H20 present, creating a thick smog of water vapour that rapidly settled the dust and cleared the air. Surprisingly enough, the deft use of magic had cost him no ether or health to fuel, nor was it mentioned as a function of the skill's use.
I guess parts of my pseudo-domain must have carried over. Arthur cracked a smile at that. Looked like his training with Alyssia at least meant something. Three seconds later, Arthur had a perfect line of sight to where his house had once stood. Instead of a massive crater as he’d expected, the earth around the epicentre of the explosion had transformed into some sort of crystal-like substance. Arthur had heard of a similar phenomenon occurring when meteorites struck the planet but this had a distinct magical feel to it. And that explosion didn’t feel strong enough to be compared to a meteorite. No way would I have been okay otherwise.
Arthur's thoughts trailed to a stop when he finally got a look at the blood beasts. They looked nothing like he’d expected, at least all of them besides one. Gone were the pulsating masses of rotting flesh. In their place stood four humanoid creatures covered in crimson plates of crystal reminiscent of a mediaeval knight's armour. An unbiased person would probably say they looked beautiful in their own alien way. They practically oozed violence. A shimmering haze of red distorted the air around them and dissolved the little bits of rubble still around them.
The fifth blood beast looked more in line with what he’d expected. It was the only one that had any familiar features, though it looked like someone had blended Ashley up and then stitched her back together whilst blindfolded. Her arms were misshapen lumps of flesh and her legs were of differing lengths. Where the other blood beasts stood confidently over seven feet tall she barely touched the threshold for five.
The worst part about her though, was the extra head she had on her stomach, one that looked like it had literally burst out of her belly and was hanging on by an elongated bony neck.
And the fact that it had the distinct features of a human baby and was wailing like one.
It looked horrifying, grotesque on so many different levels and Arthur could taste bile in the back of his throat. Please tell me this isn’t what I think it is. Arthur used Homunculis' Eye to identify the monsters. Ashley’s description hit him like a punch to the gut.
Ashley Rhye, The failed Bloodbeast level 163- A human woman infused with the blood essence of an adult vampire, her transformation into a blood beast failed due to the existence of a pseudo soul within her womb. With insufficient energy to transform both souls via ‘blood awakening’ she is a failed product, neither human nor blood beast. A tortured existence that seeks the mercy of the final sleep.
Highest stat: constitution
Weakness: Her mind is broken, suspended between human and monster nature
Time till death: 11 minutes
Even as he watched, he saw the single human eye on her face while up with tears. The movement of her lips showed she was trying to say something but the swollen tumours growing out of her mouth prevented him from reading them.
Those vampires are going to die, Arthur promised himself with greater conviction than he had anything else in his life.
Identifying the rest of the bloodbeasts didn’t give him much information to work with, their levels ranging from 210 at the lowest to 238 at the highest. But an apocalypse beast, these creatures had the greatest potential out of every foe he’d fought. It came at a price though, their lives were on a five-minute timer. They wouldn’t be idle during that time though and Arthur knew he’d struggle against their onslaught. Ashley was a non-issue with how her body was fighting itself so that just left him facing four enemies, each of whom was stronger than any individual foe he’d faced.
Arthur was surprised to see his soul spear at his feet. He was certain he’d dropped it the moment the blast had hit but it had somehow ended up with him, completely unharmed. Did that mean the weapon would always return to him when it was summoned? The skill didn’t mention anything of the sort, but then again, his domain hadn’t said anything about instinctive water manipulation either. With 300 seconds on the clock, the monsters wouldn’t waste any time trying to take him down and neither would he. If the vampires could create blood beasts like this, it stood to reason that they were significantly more powerful. Maybe he was overestimating them but he wanted to leave nothing to chance when he went to kill them. I need that first consolidation. His class was all about creating the perfect life form, bringing the best out of all the monstrous traits he’d absorbed and whilst the base skills the class provided were powerful, it didn't quite live up to the description he read when he’d selected it. His class was incomplete. It was time to change that. If killing these four didn’t get him to level 101 and unlock his first consolidation, he didn’t think he’d be seeing the first class upgrade in the next decade.
Arthur made his preparations, casting Reflective shield and Cloaked Darkness, the defensive spell in its shell form. With the 25% reduction in cost for his skills, it took 9000 health, a not insignificant amount that left him feeling a little more fragile. Whilst using his health pool to fuel his skills didn’t seem to visibly damage him, it caused a constant ache that suffused his entire body. These skill descriptions really are shit, Arthur mused. Despite having no practice since his last usage of the skills, they deployed eighty percent faster under the influence of his domain, almost as if the skill matrixes were rushing to complete themselves.
Eighteen seconds later, Arthur was ready for the fight and it looked like the bloodbeasts were starting to make their moves too. Hefting his soul's spear, Arthur grimaced at how unevenly the weight was distributed across the haft. Even if the weapon returned to him, there was no way he’d be able to hit the monsters from here if he threw his weapon, a skill he’d briefly touched upon under Issania’s tutelage. I guess I just have to make sure I can’t miss.
Using the smallest amount of ether necessary, Arthur generated four water bullets around the weapon shaft. Hopefully, this'll work. It did! Arthur watched in excitement as the spear floated in the air before him, held aloft by four water bullets. He could feel the energy he’d used to summon them rapidly draining but this was amazing. It opened the door to a completely new fighting style. The molecular water shots were individually weak, but these were by far the fastest attack he could make, comparable to the speed of a modern firearm.
Now, if I can use it as a medium to deliver my soul armament, that changes everything. Add on a cloaked blade, and this method of attack just became broken. It was a shame that it cost so much. Now the moment of truth.
Arthur shot his spell.
