Born in Blood



Liam opened the door to the empty bathroom and slowly shut it. Inscriptions on the wall were designed to block any mental waves or sounds, entering or leaving the space.

Liam's eye turned dark, his expression hidden by a veil of shadow.

First, he stripped the man bare.

Then, tensing his hand… Liam reached into the worker's left eye socket and yanked out his eyeball!

The worker jolted awake to a gut wrenching pain, but an iron-tight grip over his mouth denied his desperate screams to be voiced.

A moment later, he was knocked unconscious again.

Liam took out a spare revitalization pill and forced it down the worker's throat, slowly healing the wounds around his eye socket.

In a similar fashion, Liam forced the worker to swallow his imitation pill.

Disturbingly, the short man's face started to emit steam and curl, his vibrating body sounding cracking noises all throughout.

Eventually, the worker no longer resembled himself, but a tired and broken 'Liam'.

A second later, Liam straightened his palm, black nails growing inches longer.

Without hesitation, he shot his hand inside the worker's abdomen!

Liam's nails and strengthened palms sliced through the man's flesh like a hot knife through butter – his black nails drew out the gushing blood and swallowed it, entering Liam's veins as nourishment.

Meanwhile, the servant would've screamed if he had any energy left in his body – instead, he let out a lifeless moan of unimaginable pain.

He could only watch with a darkening consciousness as Liam drained him of nearly half the blood in his body, before yanking out his core.

With that, the man took in one last raspy breath before dying.

Liam watched with a cold, distant eye, feeling no guilt or remorse.

He simply didn't have any to spare.

'You were simply in my path. If I'm worried about crushing the ants below me, I won't be able to walk.'

Shifting his gaze to the core, Liam inspected the organ briefly.

Unlike a magical beast's core, it was much smaller. Its surface was completely smooth, which – under severe strain or overwork – would go soft.

Inside it, a faint azure gas was floating freely about.

Liam instantly stored the core in his ring.

He took off his victor's robe and clothed 'Liam' with it, switching with the fully white worker's attire. 

The white garment had loose sleeves and came with an abby cap that hid his hair.

Overall, it had an insignificant presence.

Within the pants pocket was a small keycard, which was used to lock the hallway bathrooms and storage rooms.

'All that's left are two more bodies, and a ruckus loud enough for me to escape. Though, I need to make sure one body is from Ucladd and another is from Erivol.'

Liam stored the worker's corpse within his ring, then exited the bathroom and pressed the keycard against the door handle.

The door clinked shut.

Liam pulled the cap lower to hide his face as he began traversing through the corridors, carefully avoiding the workers.

Abruptly, Liam's senses picked up on something.

A small monkey was silently stealing food from below the kitchen counters, stuffing entire dishes in its mouth and shoving the rest in his pockets.

It had golden fur, and snickered mischievously as it ate the nobles' food.

Liam almost grinned.

A moment later, the Light Monkey swung out of the cooking station and galloped down the opposite hallway.

Liam followed closely behind, tracing the monkey with his senses while hiding his own presence.

Some guards passed by him now and again, but Liam lowered his head as they walked by.

Eventually, the monkey stopped in front of a certain door, jumping on the door handle to creak it open.

Strangely, there were no guards around.

When the door opened momentarily, Liam could sense two people in that room – Ian and Elsa. 

The latter laid on a bed with the same traumatized expression, drool dripping down her chin.

Ian looked grief-stricken and pained sitting beside his sister, holding her limp, unresponsive hand in his own.

Seeing the monkey, Ian's gloomy eyes got a tiny bit better, but it couldn't mask his wry face.

"Why do you always leave the door open, dummy?" he said, before getting up from his seat and attempting to close the door. 

A worker's boot plugged the door from closing.

Ian's solemn emotion was instantly replaced by unfiltered anger.

His mouth opened as he yanked the door open, but a fist smashed against his neck, hurling him backwards as he clutched his throat.

Liam felt Ian's windpipe break on his knuckles – he instantly entered the room and shut the door behind him.

Ian made disturbing choking noises as he lay on the ground, his face pained as he desperately attempted to breathe.

The Light Monkey cried out angrily when it saw what Liam did, lunging at him with its shining fangs and claws bared.

A Rank 1 magical beast was nothing in Liam's eye – he stretched his hand forward and grabbed the monkey's skull like a ball.

"Go ahead, piss on me if you can," Liam growled, tightening his grip that pressed through the monkey's fur, ignoring the claws that barely scratched his skin.

A moment later, he clenched.

Pieces of skull paired with brain tissue and blood exploded across the room.

Liam threw the monkey's limp body to the side. That felt beyond satisfying, but he couldn't revel in it for too long.

He shot a glance towards Elsa.

The girl looked the same as before, braindead, perhaps.

Liam shifted his attention to Ian, who lay choking on the ground, tears swelling in his eyes as he was denied the air he desperately wanted.

"You feel it, right?" Liam asked with stone cold eyes, walking over to the noble. "That instinct for survival?"

A second later, Liam shattered Ian's kneecaps with a stomp.

A loud grunt of pain combined with the choking, creating a cacophony of morbid sounds that could make any veteran shudder.

Liam didn't flinch. 

It was music to his ears. 

Ian coughed repeatedly – tears streaming down his face – unable to answer. 

Liam grinned widely.

"I promised to kill you two in the most painful way possible," Liam said icily. "But I don't have time."

Liam took out Revel's odachi, which made Ian lose control of his bowels.

"What's with you two? You just keep soiling yourselves."