Blood Nemesis

By eight o'clock in the evening, the city lights shone in full brilliance as the sun disappeared. The shadowy cloud of blood beetles that loomed over the city momentarily disappeared from those who viewed it from the ground.

However, even then, they could see the golden light flying through the sky and the screeching wails of the blood beetles. Though beetles have disappeared from their vision, they have not gone anywhere.

Even now, Oliver was trying to kill the swarm clouding around him.

Bathed in the dark red blood of the beetles, he brandished his golden tentacles without rest. It crushed and devoured the beetles flying towards him nonstop.

The pitch black of night couldn't stop him, nor could the bone-eroding pain coming off his worn off limbs as he flung his body left and right through the dense cloud of beetles.

"Again…Again…Again…" It was the only thought going through his mind.

As the superhumans who came to help him returned to rest, he continued the onslaught with nothing but pure willpower.

'Again…more mana.' He screamed in his mind.

Each kill replenished his blood sac, thus the mana he could wield. As time passed, the mana and armour were making his body go through some kind of change.

Oliver could feel it.

Deep down, something in the deepest part of his body was changing.

The change was positive. Oliver could feel his control over the golden mana increase throughout the entire ordeal.

This rejuvenated his weary mind, making him kill the beetles even more and consume their blood.

This was a god given opportunity to level up his mana control or possibly turn his body into something that can generate and store mana like normal superhumans.

'I need to do this.'

In the beginning, Oliver didn't expect such a change to happen this fast. After all, he was tortured for a decade with healing solution and unhealable injuries before his cells adapted to mana.

But now, with the golden armour and mana, this process seemed to have quickened by a thousand times.

Oliver had a feeling that if he continued like this for a few more hours, he would certainly awaken the ability to use mana freely.

This fact excited him.

With his usual madness combined with the excitement, he was enjoying the feeling of slaughtering the beetles. He looked like someone who had forgotten what fatigue is.

'Let's try something different.' Oliver silently said.

Then he turned to look inside his blood sac. It was once again full.

'Testing control over mana.'

He chanted in his mind and fed everything to the golden coin, leaving only a few thousand litres to revive and heal if needed.

Immediately, mana surged through his body.

The golden armour covering him shone brighter.

This time, he hadn't used all the mana from the previous cycle. Thus, the total mana in his body momentarily increased to 100,000 units, the minimum required to be an A-ranker.

The consciousness within the armour was taken aback. It attempted to rein in the rapid increase in mana. But it was still too much for it.

Oliver noticed golden illusory armour turning opaque. The transparent parts of it were disappearing. The scaly outer layer was hardening into a metallic and lustrous substance.

"He he he…" Oliver let out an evil laugh.

His voice was cold and detached.

"Are you finally evolving, bastard?"

Oliver had an inkling that the golden armour had more to it than what he knew. He was therefore not surprised by the change.

First time, the armour appeared when Oliver passed the threshold of 10,000 units of mana. The more mana he had, the stronger the armour got.

Thus, he had made a rough estimation that something would certainly change once he went beyond 100,000 units. And…from the looks of it, he was correct.

"Change, grow."

Oliver smirked as he inctivitely used the mana tentacles to swat away the beetles flying towards him.

As the armour changed, even the tentacles were becoming something akin to metal, almost gold-like.

The hardness and durability increased beyond what could be described.

*Swish*

He swung the golden gentacle at the blood beetles. It passed through the hard body as if he were hitting nothing.

Usually, some kind of feedback would be received, even if it was meagre, Oliver's body would jerk a little in return.

But now, he could feel nothing.

Oliver was amazed.

As he stood stupefied by the absurd quality of the tentacle, the armour covering his entire body became opaque. The scaly texture covering him hardened into dragon skin armour.

Even the helmet-like protrusions around his head hardened and became opaque, suddenly blinding him for a second.

"AH!"

Oliver, who was flying up through the sky, momentarily lost his bearings. The bright light around him disappeared.

From a golden beacon of light, he became a golden chunk of metal, plummeting to the ground.

Without his vision, he struggled to balance his body through the storm of blood beetles.

"Not thrilled to fall to death…"

It was the last few words he said before his consciousness disappeared.

—

Somewhere far away, in Solara, the capital of Sol Empire, a group of luminaries rushed to their Chruch. All of them were glowing with a pale, golden hue as they walked quickly into the church.

"What is happening?" The guards, wearing shiny armour with white and golden stripes, asked another one next to him.

"Something big…"

The other guard was significantly older than the one who had initially spoken. He knew the movements of the Luminaries were out of the ordinary.

"The last time something similar happened was when the Prima Luminary gave her last prophecy." He added shortly after.

"UH!" The younger guard widened his eyes.

The helmet visor was lifted so the older guard could see his shocked expression.

"Seriously?" He asked, his voice becoming a little louder.

Quickly, realising his mistakes after noticing the Luminaries passing by eyeing him, the guard silently looked down and stepped closer to the older guard and asked,

"...seriously!"

His voice was barely audible, and yet, the other guard nodded and answered,

"Yes."

"But…It has been years since she passed away."

Prima Luminary was the first oracle of the Sol Empire and the one known to be closest to the god. She passed away years ago, shortly after her last prophecy.

So, it certainly must not be her, causing the other Luminaries to rush into the church.

"Shhh…Don't talk nonsense and just stand there. It is not your place to ask questions."

The older guard immediately stopped the younger one from asking any more questions. Disrespecting the Prima Luminary could result in their death. It was best not to talk about it.

After all, she was someone who was revered, like a member of the royal family.

As they were talking, the Luminaries and the priest rushed into the huge church, carved out of pure marble and decorated with golden engravings and runes.

If you look closely, you could see the church itself shining dimly. Because it was daytime, no one had yet noticed it.

—

At the same time, somewhere, hidden underground, a young woman fell to the floor. The cell keeping her in stopped her from leaving, though bone-eroding pain was gnawing into her.

Seeing her condition, another person walked in with a whip.

"Stop acting…It won't work again."

The man who came was lanky, wearing thin, pale blue clothes that nurses and hospital staff wear.

However, from just a glance, you know that this person was not a hospital staff member. His eyes obviously contained disgust as he looked at the human woman squirming inside the cell.

"This time it's real." The young woman with dishevelled hair lifted her head and said, staring right into the eyes of the man.

"Ha ha ha…" Ignoring the pain, she laughed.

"And you are fucked, monster." She added, with a laugh.

Like the luminaries, she seemed to have seen or sensed something. And it seemed to have improved her mood.