Her imagination ran wild.
'Once we are strong, we will leave this place. We will go find a beautiful land just for us. Lord Zero will be the King, and I will be his Queen.'
She looked at Miko playing in the distance, then back at Lysander's broad chest.
'Miko needs siblings,' Elara thought, a goofy, dreamy smile spreading across her face. 'If I have a strong bloodline, our children will be demigods. A little boy with my ears and Lord Zero's red eyes... what should I name him? Leo? Zenith? Or maybe...'
She was completely lost, practically drooling over her fantasy of a domestic life with ten children running around a castle.
"OI!"
Lysander's sharp voice snapped like a whip, shattering their silence.
"Are you two listening to me, or are you daydreaming?"
"Huh?!"
"Kya?!"
Both girls jumped, startled out of their thoughts. Seraphina blinked rapidly, trying to look intellectual. Elara wiped the drool from her mouth and stood at attention, her tail bristling.
"W-We are listening, Lord Zero!" Seraphina stammered.
"Yes! Listening!" Elara nodded furiously, hiding her blushing face.
Lysander sighed, shaking his head. He held out two bottles—one for each of them.
"Listen carefully. This isn't sweet juice"
His red eyes narrowed behind the mask.
"To gain power, you have to pay a price. This Elixir will tear apart your old DNA and build a new one. It is going to hurt"
He stepped closer, his voice dropping to a serious growl.
"It will feel like your bones are melting and your blood is boiling. You will want to scream. You might even want to die"
He shoved the bottles into their hands.
"Are you ready?" Lysander asked, the red vials glowing ominously in his hands.
Elara stepped forward first. Her gaze drifted past Lysander to where little Miko was playing in the dirt. Her eyes softened with a deep, melancholy love.
"Lord Zero," Elara said, her voice steady. "I have already felt the worst pain in the world. It wasn't a sword or a wound"
She clenched her fists, remembering the rainy night her best friend—Miko's real mother—had died in her arms, coughing up black blood.
"When the sickness took my best friend... when Miko was left all alone in this cruel world... I promised her," Elara's voice trembled with emotion. "I promised I would love her daughter as my own. I promised I would be the shield her mother couldn't be."
She snatched the bottle from Lysander's hand, her golden eyes burning with determination.
"If breaking my bones means I can keep that promise... then break them. I am ready"
Seraphina looked at the vial in her own hand.
The red liquid swirled, reminding her of the wine her step-mother used to drink while ignoring her.
Flashbacks assaulted her mind. She saw the sneering faces of her step-siblings, who were all B-Rank prodigies while she was stuck at F-Rank. She remembered her father's cold indifference. She remembered the bullies at the Academy pushing her into the mud, laughing at the "disgrace of the Valerius family"
'Pain?' Seraphina thought bitterly. 'You think physical pain scares me?'
"I have lived in pain my whole life," Seraphina whispered, looking up at Lysander. "My family threw me away like garbage. My own blood treated me like a stranger. The world told me I was worthless every single day"
She uncorked the bottle, her violet eyes hardening into diamonds.
"A little physical pain is nothing compared to the pain of being weak. I will drink it"
Lysander nodded, respecting their resolve.
"Good. Then drink"
There was no countdown. There was no hesitation.
Elara and Seraphina raised the crystal vials to their lips. They threw their heads back and downed the thick, metallic-tasting crimson liquid in a single gulp.
Gulp. Gulp.
They dropped the empty bottles on the grass.
For three seconds, nothing happened. The wind blew through the clearing. Miko laughed in the distance.
Then, the Elixir hit their cores.
"URGH!"
Elara was the first to fall. She collapsed to her knees, clutching her chest. Her skin began to flush a violent, burning red.
"It burns!" Elara gasped, her claws digging into the dirt. "It feels like... fire inside my veins!"
CRACK.
A sickening sound echoed from her body. Her bones were breaking and knitting themselves back together, reshaping her skeletal structure to handle a higher tier of power. Golden mana began to leak from her eyes and mouth, wrapping around her like a cocoon.
"AHHH!"
Seraphina fell backward, arching her back as a scream tore from her throat.
Unlike Elara's fiery transformation, Seraphina turned deathly pale. Her veins turned a glowing, neon violet, visible through her skin.
"My blood..." Seraphina choked out, tears streaming down her face as she seized on the ground. "It's boiling... Zero... help..."
Lysander stood over them, his arms crossed. He didn't help. He couldn't.
"Endure it!" Lysander commanded, his voice booming. "Don't pass out! Let the mana rewrite you!"
The village watched in terror as the two women writhed on the ground, surrounded by a storm of Golden and Violet energy. The evolution had begun.
The screams cut through the village, terrifying the birds into flight.
Lysander stood like a statue, watching closely. The Origin Bloodline Elixir wasn't just a drink; it was a biological weapon designed to kill the weak parts of a person and resurrect the strong parts.
The System panel flashed red in Lysander's vision.
[CRITICAL ALERT]
[SUBJECTS UNDERGOING TOTAL RECONSTRUCTION]
"It seems I underestimated the reward,"
Lysander muttered, shielding his eyes from the blinding light. "This isn't just evolution. This is Ascendance"
Seraphina floated off the ground, suspended in a sphere of violent Violet Mana.
Inside the sphere, her body was being destroyed and rebuilt at the cellular level.
Black, tar-like sludge began to ooze out of her pores. This was the "impurity" that had blocked her mana channels for years—the reason she was F-Rank. The Elixir dissolved the blockages instantly. The sludge evaporated into mist, leaving her skin glowing with a pristine, porcelain radiance.
Zzzzt!
Her veins bulged, glowing bright purple. Her heart beat so loud it sounded like a war drum. The Elixir forced her narrow, human mana channels to widen, tearing them open and reinforcing them with divine energy. She was no longer a cup holding water; she was becoming an ocean.
Her silver hair grew longer, turning from a dull grey to a shimmering, moonlight silver that defied gravity. Her facial features sharpened, becoming breathtakingly beautiful, almost elven in their perfection. Her body, already soft and curvy, was refined—her waist slimmed down while her hips and chest remained full, creating the perfect hourglass figure of a fertility goddess.
[Name: Seraphina Valerius]
[Old Potential: Rank F]
[New Potential: Rank S](Legend)
[Bloodline Awakened:High-Human Void Empress]
CRACK. SNAP.
Elara's spine lengthened, adding inches to her height. Her leg bones grew denser, snapping and resetting to support immense speed and power. Her nails didn't just grow; they fell off, replaced by retractable, black-diamond claws that could slice through tank armor.
The fire died down, revealing a silhouette that was no longer just a village hunter—it was a beast of war.
Elara stood up, towering over her previous height. Her body had undergone a radical change. She was shredded. Her midriff, exposed by her torn leather armor, revealed a rock-hard, deeply chiseled six-pack that looked like it was carved from bronze. Every muscle in her arms and thighs was defined and pulsating with power.
Her curves had amplified to match her new strength. Her chest had swelled significantly, her breasts becoming full, heavy, and imposing, pressing tight against the stretched fabric of her top. She possessed the overwhelming, voluptuous figure of a true Queen—a perfect, dangerous blend of terrifying muscle and aggressive femininity.
A phantom image of a massive Golden Lioness appeared over her body, roaring at the sky. The Elixir had found the 1% trace of the Ancient Sun-Beast in her DNA and amplified it a thousand times.
[Name: Elara]
[Old Potential: Rank F]
[New Potential: Rank S] (Legend)
[Bloodline Awakened: Mythical Beast Golden Huntress]
Elara flexed her new body, feeling the raw power in her abs and the weight of her new form. She let out a breath, and it came out as a low, terrifying growl that made the ground vibrate
The dust settled.
Lysander looked at the two women standing before him. They were no longer the "useless noble" and the "Outcast village girl."
They radiated power.
Seraphina looked at her hands. Sparks of violet mana danced between her fingers without her even trying.
"I feel..." Seraphina whispered, her voice echoing with a strange harmonic resonance.
"I feel... infinite."
Elara flexed her claws, the sound of the air being sliced audible. She looked at Lysander, her golden eyes glowing with a predatory intensity.
"Lord Zero," Elara purred, her voice deeper, smoother, and infinitely more dangerous. "I feel like I could hunt a Dragon for you"
Lysander crossed his arms, the red eyes of his mask gleaming with satisfaction.
"Rank S Potential," Lysander noted, checking their new stats. "You have both surpassed humanity"
He turned around, his cape flowing in the wind.
"Now that you have the bodies of gods... let's see if you have the will to use them.