Born in Blood



Rin did her best to comfort the horrified Nessa, but it was a bit difficult without having a voice. 

The result was an awkward pat on the back that didn't do much to quell the noble's trembling and erratic breathing. 

Nord didn't want anything to do with that, but he couldn't help but feel pity looking at their dead crewmember. He simply shook his head in the end. 

Liam, on the other hand, was still fixated on Vxich's body. He saw what happened to Gerald, then scowled. 

…But what's done is done. 

He couldn't bring back the dead, and he didn't try. 

All he could do was make sure the same didn't happen to him, like it did to Eve and countless others. He didn't know how the Royals would react to that, but he knew for a fact it wasn't his fault he died. 

'This mission got a whole lot more complicated.'

He'd pay his respects in a moment, but first, he had to do something.

Crouching, Liam carefully lined up his shortsword against the Blooder's left breast and began to cut precise lines to extract his Nexus. 

He inspected it briefly. 

Unlike a Rank 2 Nexus, it was smaller in size, but much more vibrant in shade. Fleshy, hair-like tendrils connected to it, and it looked way more valuable than its predecessor.

'Staying here for a few days won't hurt. I'll need to start experimenting on these hearts. There isn't any interaction between domain rulers around these borders, and they're far away anyway.'

Besides, there was also the 'treasure room' Liam needed to thoroughly loot. 

Niveh had mentioned that her Blood Arts, and everyone else's, rested with the Blooder. It was just in case she or anyone else died and needed a replacement. 

Blood Arts were similar to techniques in a sense. They weren't specific to any particular element, but had simple restrictions in order to function. They would grow stronger when the Nexus advances.

"Are you done with his body?" Niveh asked with a weirded out look on her face. Liam responded with the shake of his head. "Can I get a bite of him? His life force is going to be wasted soon." 

"No. I need it."

Storing the Rank 3 Nexus in his ring along with Vxich's body, Liam made his way towards Gerald's body, uncaring of Niveh's grumbles and curses.

The boy had been impaled through the eye, leaving a see-through hole that displayed jotting shards of skull and brain matter. 

There was no emotion in Liam's eye. 

His interactions with the boy had been brief, and Liam had seen enough bodies for a lifetime. 

What was one more?

"He deserves a burial. At least he died instantly and didn't suffer. We'll spend a few weeks here to lick our wounds and prepare for the Citadel."

Nessa slowly creaked her neck towards Liam, staring at him with a churning anger in her cloudy blue eyes.

"He just died! One of your own people, and you don't bat an eyelid? Are… are you even human?" 

Liam looked at her coldly, his eye peering into her soul.

"No."

///

A short moment later, Liam, helped by Rin and Nord, dug out a small hole in the ground to bury Gerald in. It was a waste of time, Liam thought, but he didn't want to make the rift between their group grow any bigger.

Before lowering him down, Liam made sure to take the space-ring off his person.

At the same time, Liam gave Jack a call and gave him an update on their situation. 

The sailor sounded shocked and bitter, but the choice to continue the mission was still on the table. As long as they weren't found out and taken captive.

"We'll continue and map out the Citadel. That should mark the end of the mission. Gerald dying cut the approximation short."

Jack was a bit stunned at Liam's casual and matter-of-factly tone, but didn't have anything more to add.

With that done, Niveh led Liam up the spire, while the rest began with their specializations.

Liam and Niveh made sure to move in cautiously so as not to trigger any traps. 

Some spaces were dark chambers that didn't have any purpose (besides maybe torture), and they didn't find anything remarkable until reaching the 'Throne Room'.

There, a small chest made from bloodwood sat on the furthest side of the room, and Liam approached it cautiously. It didn't have any keyhole or normal mechanism to unlock, but a small hollow compartment studded the top.

His eye hadn't spotted any traps or formations surrounding it, and he made his way safely towards it. 

Attempting to open it, Liam found it unbudging. 

"How does this thing work?" Liam asked Niveh with furrowed brows.

The vampire girl shrugged, sitting on Vxich's throne and pretending she was a queen.

Liam tinkered around with the chest for a full minute, his eyes fixed to the hollow compartment.

Eventually, he took out the Blooder's Nexus and let some of its blood fill the vacancy.

CLICK!

With a slight smile, Liam slowly opened the chest. 

Inside, there were black pieces of coarse parchment paper, on its surface laid deep crimson lettering, written in the vampiric language. There were roughly eleven parchments, with one of them looking significantly more complicated compared to the rest.

Liam beamed. 

He could vaguely see the meanings!

They were beyond complicated and challenging to understand. Not to mention, Liam didn't even know how vampires could administer meanings into their Arts – they weren't similar to a human's, but more or less had the same effect.

At the very least, the writings were more or less identifiable. 

There were letters that didn't even look like they meant anything, but looked integral to the Art as a whole. That wasn't a strange occurrence. 

Liam's linguistics teacher often told him the languages that they learned were incomplete and missed various aspects. Most of the foreign races were out of touch with humanity, but the few remnants of their languages remained behind.

All in all, it was still an amazing find. If Liam could understand even a little bit of the meanings and piece together the words he didn't know, his inscriptions would be infinitely better than before.

Also, although he wasn't nearly experienced with his Blood Weaving, he could vastly improve his method as a whole if he perfected his understanding of the vampiric language.