I entered my soul sea to take a better look at the descriptions.
It had been a while since I was last here.
The endless ocean of blood and moonlight looked almost the same calm, cold, and quietly alive.
Well, except for the new lights orbiting the blood-red moon that hung above the black waters. Tiny runes pulsed around it like satellites, flickering in rhythm with my heartbeat. Each light represented a memory an echo of power waiting to be drawn.
I reached for one. The moment my fingers brushed its surface, a ripple spread through the sea.
Runes flared.
[Mantle of the Underworld]
Rank: Ascended
Tier: 1
An ascended armor.
Let's fucking go.
The tier didn't matter as much as the rank and a memory two whole ranks above my level was insane. I grinned despite myself and read on.
Memory Description:
"Vowing to never look upon the Goddess of the Black Skies again, the prideful demon retreated into the darkness beneath an unassailable mountain chain. He wasn't the first to lead his army against the gods. However, he was the first to shed their blood, as well as learn the secrets of his own."
"Wait—what? Storm god? Demons?" I muttered. "What the hell does that even mean?"
I sighed, shaking my head. "No use worrying over a memory's description."
Next came the enchantment.
Please be something good.
[Prince of the Underworld]
This armor grows stronger according to the amount of opponents its wielder defeats.
[1 / 1000]
I blinked. "A thousand?"
That was… ridiculous. But also incredibly valuable. A growing memory one that would evolve with me.
"Guess you're my main armor from now on," I said, smirking.
I left my soul sea and opened my eyes.
The world returned in a rush of cold air and wet stone just in time to find a blood beast pinning me down.
Not my favorite dog, though.
No, this one was new and grotesque.
A massive, scaled lizard with crimson veins pulsing beneath translucent skin. Its jaws dripped black ichor that hissed when it hit the ground.
My instincts flared and so did my memories of the last six months in the dark city.
Three blood beasts I'd fought so far. Each one different. Each one hell.
I'd learned the best way to kill them: plant your blood inside, then detonate from within.
Simple in theory. Terrifying in practice.
Judging from the 3 soul cores floating inside its chest, this one was an awakened demon.
"Fantastic," I muttered through gritted teeth.
I punched it off me ribs cracking under the impact and shouted,
"Beast, take a leg!"
My echo roared in response.
A blur of fur and teeth crashed into the monster's flank, tearing through one of its legs. Blood splashed like a broken dam but instead of weakening, the creature shuddered… and its wound liquefied, reshaping itself.
It was regenerating forging a new limb from its own blood.
"Of course you can do that," I hissed, dragging blood from the ground to form a scythe.
The weapon solidified in my hand, crimson veins pulsing along the blade. I swung, one-handed the motion clumsy but desperate. The blade carved halfway through the lizard's neck, showering us in gore but failing to decapitate.
The beast screamed a wet, animalistic sound that echoed off the dead stone around us.
If only I had both arms.
Wait.
That thing made a new limb using blood.
Why couldn't I?
I'd rebuilt organs before a heart, lungs, veins back when I was half-dead.
An arm shouldn't be impossible. Not with my aspect and attribute.
[Internal Logic]
"Complete control over the blood that runs in your veins."
I focused. The scythe in my hand melted into liquid, coiling around my shoulder.
I shaped it muscle first, then bone, then skin guided by every scrap of anatomy knowledge I still remembered from my human life.
It hurt.
God, it hurt but the pain was proof it was working.
A crude, blood-red arm took shape. Veins of living scarlet pulsed beneath its surface, twitching like strings being pulled by a puppeteer.
It was unstable, ugly but it obeyed.
Because it was mine.
I clenched my new fist and swung it straight into the lizard's jaw, sending it stumbling back with a gurgling hiss.
"Not bad," I muttered.
Then I grabbed my blood spear with both hands.
It solidified instantly the first time in months I felt the proper weight of a two-handed weapon.
I thrust.
The spear tip pierced the monster's skull, sinking deep with a sound like cracking ice.
Then, through the connection of my blood, I turned the spearhead back into a liquid and expanded it inside its brain.
A heartbeat later
BOOM.
The lizard exploded into a red mist, chunks of flesh splattering across the ruins.
Beast lunged forward, devouring what was left before the blood could even cool.
[You have slain an Awakened Monster: Blood Beast]
[Your echo delves deeper into Wrath]
[Blood Beasts destroyed: 4 / 20]
"Nice," I whispered, wiping blood from my face.
But I barely paid attention to the system messages. My focus was on the arm on how it moved, how it pulsed, how it felt alive.
Crude or not, it was mine.
And it worked.
I flexed it one last time and smiled faintly.
"Guess I'm not done evolving yet."
I looked toward the distant, shattered spires of the city — faint lights flickering in the abyssal dark.
It had been too long since I'd last seen Sei.
Too long since I'd felt anything close to human contact.
"Time to pay an old friend a visit," I muttered.
Beast growled softly at my side, and together we vanished into the shadows of the city once more.