Born in Blood



Night fell.

A cold wind brushed against Liam's face as he traversed the forest.

Liam felt a little bad for leaving Revel the last person to tick off the list, but that was understandable.

Arriving at the mountain slope, he entered through the same top-right corner – coating himself in concealing mental energy.

Revel sat on a desk lit by a flickering candle, a quill in his hand as he jotted down on a book. His aura through Liam's eye looked feeble, receding and fragile.

Suddenly, the man coughed loudly, causing blood to splat against the page he was writing on.

"You aren't writing your will, are you?"

Liam called out from above, causing Revel to jolt around and unsheath his bent odachi.

Realizing it was Liam, his face turned softer, but that action still caused him to wince in pain and cough violently.

"My bad," Liam said wryly, dropping from the entrance and approaching.

Revel looked agitated, a frown creasing his ghost-like face.

"Brat! You were alive after all." he coughed blood into his stained sleeve, laying his sword to his side and slumping in his seat with a wheeze.

Liam looked at his inscription teacher with a pitiful gaze.

Revel looked much frailer, his cheekbones poking out, dark circles under his eyes.

Liam spent the next thirty minutes explaining where he'd been, what he'd done.

By the end of it, the inscription master looked at Liam's eye with awe… and greed.

But he shook his head to calm those feelings down. 

"What can you see differently about inscriptions?" he asked.

Liam hadn't thought about it.

He took out his spells, laid them out, and started inspecting them.

To his surprise, he could see different energies with each spell – more minor differences, less major.

He could vaguely assess the circuits, the links, and the ink, too. There was also a strange kind of mental energy – presumably the 'meanings', but those were too complex for him to understand.

Liam relayed his thoughts to Revel, which caused the man to grow pensive.

"Try inspecting my blood."

Revel cut open his arm and caused the clot of blood to float above his palm.

Liam used his zooming in ability into the mass of contaminated blood. He could see how the mass of green and black continued to grow, manifesting like cancer…

Eyes widening in shock, Liam realized it was through 'Ora' that those infections grew – judging by the patterns of world essence he saw within the coagulation.

"I think I know why your blood is plagued," Liam voiced, causing Revel to lean in with a focused scowl. "It's 'Ora'. It's causing the opposite effect to your blood."

Blood Weaving used 'Ora' to refine blood – conjoining the world essence and nourishing liquid together.

Then, the user would absorb that into his mental sphere, where they would apply the meanings intended for the spell or technique.

Revel frowned, coughing between sentences.

"No! It… it can't be. I've read every book and article pertaining to 'Ora's negative effect on the body. None mentioned blood, only absorbing denser world essence when you can't handle it and vice versa."

Liam shrugged, pensive. "That's not what I can see. Have you ever tried to refine and imbue your blood with meanings without using 'Ora'?"

Revel grimaced and after a short pause, shook his head. "I haven't, but I'm not sure what the results could be."

"So it's not impossible?" Liam questioned, and Revel nodded.

Liam nodded to himself. "That's what I'll do then. I haven't really had time to hit the books since I was underground, but let me read through them and I'll—"

Revel raised a hand, stopping him.

"I don't have much time left," Revel wheezed, regret filling his deep set eyes. "I wanted to teach you everything I knew about inscriptions and Blood Weaving… but it seems like fate won't let me."

Liam raised his brows. He could see parts of Revel's aura starting to slowly recede… not returning back.

"At the very least, I can guide you through your first refinement process," he shot a knowing look to Liam, and the latter responded with a reluctant nod.

Truthfully, Liam didn't want to rush into doing something that could negatively affect his blood or mental sphere… but circumstances called otherwise.

Revel coughed, blood leaking through the palm of his hand – his aura growing dimmer.

'Damn it!'

Liam instantly sat cross-legged, forming a deep cut on his thigh with Revel's blood-red odachi.

Using his 'Ora' manipulation – bolstered with his new organ – he made the drop float in front of him, but without imbuing it with any world essence.

The methods of refining blood were endless, but the most natural of them were using basic mental energy.

What Revel had been using before had been a mix of both 'Ora' and mental energy, but the former wasn't beneficial.

Liam's mental waves encompassed the small drop of blood, then began to pressure it.

Beads of warm sweat poured over Liam's clothes, his brows frowned in focus.

That process felt like pushing a needle through a metal wall, looking for a weak point to pierce through – straining his mind and body simultaneously.

Luckily, Liam's sea of consciousness was much stronger than the average Rank 1 Magus.

Revel himself suppressed his coughs in order not to disturb his student's focus, calmly instructing Liam on what to do while his eyes grew dimmer.

Half an hour later, the drop of sweat looked the same, except it slightly glowed brighter.

"Quick, insert it into your mental sphere!"

Liam did exactly that, pulling the droplet of blood into his forehead, then forcing it towards his golden mental sphere walls.

Within Liam's sea of consciousness, the drop of liquid looked much larger as it attempted to push through the shimmering translucent barrier.

Frowning, Liam's ethereal figure grimaced. An agonizing migraine ensued, but he bit his tongue and focused.

The droplet stained the walls crimson as it passed through, causing a mountainous pressure to envelop the inside of his mind.

Liam covered the droplet of refined blood with more mental energy, enough that the pressure it emanated was no longer threatening.

Still, veins bulged in Liam's neck as he did his best not to pass out.

Looking at his disciple's gradually calming but unstable state, Revel sighed solemnly.

"As your inscription master, I have to give you a nickname per the tradition of cultivators," Revel voiced with the last of his strength.

Oxygen started to leave his body, throwing him limp on the floor with his weakening eyes fixed to the ceiling, but aimed for the sky.

"Become my legacy, Blood Demon."