Born in Blood

When Liam woke up, panic crawled through his skin and paranoia corrupted his thoughts.

He was no longer in the inheritance.

Currently, Liam was floating amidst a vast expanse of frigid nothingness. A black void. Like the firmament of space. 

There was no sun here, but his form was clearly visible.

'Am I dreaming?' Liam thought, his wary gaze wandering around the black emptiness.

Ominous silence. 

There was nothing to see.

Nothing.

Nothing at a—

WHOOM!

An eye slowly opened in the massive expanse. 

Otherworldly.

There were no words to describe it. 

It was visceral, with dirty, dark shades of brown, black and red. 

The iris was not a normal pupil. 

It was swirly like a hypnotic whirlpool of filthy colors.

There were no eyelids. 

It just opened through the void.

Just an eye.

And it was gargantuan. 

Three times the size of a tall mountain.

Liam's heart leapt at his throat. 

It was like peering down a dark well for several seconds, just to realize something was looking at you all along.

His eyes were stuck to the hypnotizing pupil of the giant eye.

It was not just one eye.

All around the void, small and big irises started to split open and focus on him.

Dozens turned to hundreds.

Thousands.

Hundreds of thousands.

Millions!

Liam's heart thundered in his ears.

Terrifying eyes surrounded him from all sides. 

There was a deafening silence.

Other than the sound of blood rushing through Liam's veins and heart drumming like an engine. 

"What do you want?!" 

Liam screamed at the eyes, unable to hide his panic.

They didn't respond.

They just stared at him.

He felt so small.

So weak.

Naked. 

Insignificant.

Like dust settled at the bottom of an abyssal ocean.

Seconds stretched to hours.

WHOOM!

A fracture of blinding light suddenly ruptured within the void, causing all the eyes present to snap their attention to it. 

As the light encompassed Liam's vision, his consciousness felt yanked back to his body.

***

Screaming, Liam woke up.

His body was covered with layers of sweat, while his breathing was uneven and ragged. 

For several minutes, he struggled for air, trying to piece together what just happened to him. 

As his thoughts slowly came to a calm, he steadied his breathing and took deep inhales.

A nightmare.

This was what Liam wanted to say he just experienced. 

…But he knew it wasn't that simple.

'This was no dream,' Liam thought with a slight frown.

'It definitely wasn't a dream,' he repeated.

'It was too real.'

Liam's eyes went a little distant as he recalled the millions of eyes. 

The void. The rupture of light. The silence. The coldness. 

Liam shook his head, then creaked his neck below to gaze at his solar plexus, running his fingers across it.

'Was it this?' Liam thought with a scowl.

The Chaos Pearl advanced.

Was that why he experienced that… vision?

'What was that, even?' Liam thought, muttering curses under his breath.

There was a long, contemplative silence that followed.

'Too many questions,' Liam eventually thought, throwing the event at the back of his mind. 

What was the point of mulling over something he had no clue about? 

This was way over his pay grade.

'I don't like riddles. Whatever this is, it can wait.'

Still, Liam's mind always drifted back to the eyes.

The terrifying, dreadful eyes.

Nevertheless, Liam's attention fell on his Chaos Pearl again, upon which he noticed the stark differences that it now had.

The brass alloy that the Chaos Pearl's walls consisted of now shone with a slight metal glow, which was dulled through Liam's chest.

It was the same size.

But strangely, the 'Ora' that flowed through Liam's body completely negated around his Chaos Pearl.

World essence completely avoided the organ, creating a dead zone perimeter of 2 inches around it.

Liam raised his brows in confusion. 

Meanwhile, the contents inside the pearl surprised Liam.

Instead of increasing in volume, it decreased!

At the peak of a Rank 2 Chaos Pearl, Liam could churn out 25 large spheres of chaos.

Now? 

He could do only 10.

But as it lessened in volume, it increased in something else.

Sheer power.

It wanted to explode in Liam's chest. 

The potential energy inside Liam's chaos had become so densely packed, that it wanted to explode within itself!

Liam cursed loudly.

The only reason Liam was able to control his chaos was because of his mental energy.

Obviously, his Ashura body provided support for the chaos. 

But it was more like the vessel or medium for his chaos to flow through.

Even for his darkness, Liam used a mixture of his core and mental energy to manipulate it. 

But the Chaos Pearl was much more arduous and difficult to control.

…But what if Liam's Chaos Pearl was stronger than his mental waves?

'Maybe this is why Ashuras always raged. Their Chaos Pearls probably forced them to relieve themselves by releasing it through their bodies.' 

'They didn't have mental energy to control their chaos like I do.'

Liam heaved a long sigh. 

There was no need to scare himself right now.

A moment later, chaos left his core and formed on his hand.

SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

It was so damn loud!

And so bright!

It cast an intense crimson hue over Liam's arms and face, reflecting in his multi-colored eyes.

It also crackled with little sparks running across its surface.

But Liam also realized something else.

Where the chaos touched, the 'Ora' around him scurried away.

'What… is this?'

It was like 'Ora' was afraid of Chaos. 

Like it was warm air against cold.

Liam furrowed his brows in confusion.

With his remaining hand, Liam attempted to release some of his darkness.

He felt darkness 'Ora' flowing through his core and shooting towards his hand.

But as it tried to discharge and emerged from Liam's skin, it sputtered…

…but all that came out were some distorted wisps of black smoke. 

Nothing else.

Silence.

Liam's eyes widened as much as they possibly could.

Abruptly, he started laughing like a madman. 

'So it's found a way to repulse 'Ora', too?'

Not to mention, his own?