Born in Blood



Liam exited his Inner World with the Black Hole in his hand.

To be fair, he hadn't expected this whole thing to work so fast.

He thought it might take at least another three to four months.

'Do I just absorb it and hope it changes my entire Shadow? That sounds too dumb to work…'

Then again, most things that were common sense sounded dumb in actuality. 

Liam sighed.

Then, he manipulated his Shadow to coil up his leg, slither towards his chest, run across his palm, and envelop the Black Hole entirely.

The Black Hole vacuumed in Liam's Shadow and merged with it as it shot towards the ground on its own. 

Liam's eyes narrowed.

There was silence for a while…

Nothing happened.

Liam cursed himself for letting months of hard work go to waste.

But then… 

Something happened.

A small patch of Liam's Shadow had taken on a red hue, swirling on the ground like oil and water.

They were together, but they didn't mix.

Liam was amazed.

It worked?

It actually worked?

…It worked!

Liam really needed to act dumb sometimes. 

It definitely produced results.

The Black Hole was actually a Rank 1 spell.

It had zero destructive or defensive capabilities. 

However, it was just a foundation of sorts.

Liam could definitely add more upon it.

That said, he didn't actually know what the patch of bloody shadow could even do.

Liam made it swirl and wrap around his hand.

…

Nothing really happened.

Besides his physical strength rising a bit higher than normal, there wasn't a major difference.

Liam pursed his lips and furrowed his brows.

'Am I doing something wrong?'

Liam performed a few tests afterwards. 

There still wasn't anything of note. 

The bloody shadow worked the same as any other, but Liam instinctively knew there was something to it.

After all, he had combined two very different properties.

A Shadow was mercurial and mendable in nature, and Liam's Blood was a speciality of its own. 

'Wait… maybe…'

A moment later, Liam took out the core of a Rank 3 Black Panther and crushed it in his hand, absorbing its Will.

Before, Liam would feel a pang of pain shooting through his mind whenever he did that.

Now, there was nothing.

Liam quickly tamed the Beast Will in half an hour, before pulling it out and imbuing it to the bloody shadow.

The bloody shadow started to transform and take on a three dimensional shape.

It wriggled and squirmed violently, as though it wanted to escape. 

It continued to morph… until vaguely resembling a miniature, disfigured, gnarly version of the Black Panther!

Even a shrill but suppressed shrieking noise resounded from it.

…Then it started to melt and revert to its original state, its disturbing screams fading into silence.

Liam's eyes widened.

A massive, massive success.

Practicing with the Black Hole wasn't the only thing Liam had done during the past months. 

On the side, he had also tinkered with the Ravenous Leash Arts, but it wasn't going very well.

A very important component was missing, which the whole Art depended on. 

The material itself.

Now, Liam's Shadow and Blood had merged together, turning into something capable of imitating live creatures.

In truth, however, it wasn't alive.

It was simply the properties of his Blood and Shadow combining, forming an imitation of the real thing.

It was just a Beast Will that gained a semi-physical form. 

A shell formed by Shadow and Blood.

'Now… all that's left is figuring out how to work the Ravenous Leash Arts!'

Liam had found the necessary material for his ridiculous plans.

Both for the enhanced Ravenous Leash Arts and the Shifter body.

All he needed to do now was find a way to make the procedures work.

As if that was any easier…

'What should I call it though?'

The new material was something… well, new. It was a profound innovation.

If Liam had to guess, no one else in the world had done what he did today.

…Probably.

Liam shrugged.

Names weren't really his strong suit.

"Blood Shadow is good enough."

Nevertheless, Liam put his head into his work once again.

Three more months passed.

Liam had devoured more of Wild Fang's corpse.

Two arms and a foot, to be precise.

Eating the foot like some sort of vicious zombie didn't look pleasant at all. 

…But Liam's Blood had arrived at the upper-tier of Rank 2!

There weren't any major changes – besides the incredible regeneration speed and purity – but Liam could tell his Blood was taking its first few steps towards some sort of transformation.

What kind of transformation that was, Liam had no clue.

Liam's understanding of what vampires did when they advanced wasn't much, but even with that, he couldn't apply it to a human's physical deposition.

In the first place, all Liam did was awaken Blood Manipulation abilities by purifying a vampire's blood and consuming more than a dozen Nexus'.

All of Liam's centers of power were steadily growing as well.

More importantly, Liam's body finally entered the middle-tier of Rank 4.

It took more than a year and a half that he spent in that substage.

But considering the fact that he didn't have a body-tempering method, that was actually extraordinary.

Most of it was due to eating Wild Fang's corpse, but it was also due to his rapidly progressing Blood.

With the substage advancement, Liam's Ashura Form had gotten stronger. 

Enough to make it slightly easier to dig into a Rank 5's flesh.

Liam's Shadows were naturally being darkened and largened at the same time.

In fact, his Inner World was connected with the largening quality.

So long as Liam enlarged his Shadows, the space inside the Inner World would expand as well, albeit at a snail's pace.

At the same time, Liam continued to expand his Blood Shadows, repeating the Black Hole procedure over and over.

Day by day, the prospect of having to venture into the Main Lands was coming nearer.

At the same time, bits and pieces of various news from around the world entered Liam's ears.

A few familiar names were gaining traction within Echoria.

Mainly, Nord the Giant's Heir, Rin the Dragon's Flame, and Nessa the Death Flower.