NOVEL NEXT Chapter 418: Bloodline Purification in progress
Damon exchanged a few words with the merpeople and the rest of the group, giving them simple instructions before excusing himself. With the treasures secured and the tide of celebrations still swelling behind him, he needed solitude, somewhere no one would disturb him.
He walked along the shoreline and found what he was looking for in no time, a jagged cave mouth hidden by kelp. He shoved the kelp aside and stepped in. He dropped to the stone floor, cross-legged, and pulled a Bloodcoral out.
His blood immediately surged. It slammed through his body like a tidal wave, violent and hungry. Heat exploded under his skin. His veins bulged black across his arms, throbbing as if they would burst.
"Fine," Damon growled. "Then take it!"
Without hesitation, he started chewing down the bloodcoral and consuming the thing in its entirety. He would have absorbed some sort of essence if he could detect any, but he had no idea what else to do with the thing. Eating it seemed to be as good a guess as any.
[Ding! Bloodline Purification Initiated]
With a smile, Damon closed his eyes and focused as he ate the whole thing. The coral's texture was jagged, brittle at first, then fleshy. However, the moment he swallowed, the real storm began, and his face changed.
His blood roared like a raging ocean. A crimson tide erupted from his pores, wrapping his body in writhing chains and whips that lashed at the cave walls, carving scars into the stone. Cracks spiderwebbed across the ceiling, stone shards breaking loose.
The entire cave was about to be destroyed, and everything was going to collapse right on top of Damon. However, Erin, who had already walked over and stood guard at the entrance of the cave, made sure that not a single stone dropped on Damon or even disturbed him.
With a flick of her finger, she dissolved the debris into harmless dust, her eyes never leaving Damon's silhouette.
Inside, Damon was a complete mess. The Bloodcoral had become fire in his veins, a living parasite clawing at every inch of his being.
Chains of blood writhed around him like serpents, biting into his flesh, tearing open wounds that healed just as quickly. He was bleeding buckets, but all of the blood essence was absorbed right back into the body.
Damon threw his head back and roared. The sound wasn't human. It was the guttural bellow of something far older, something primal clawing its way to the surface.
His eyes burned with twin infernos, crimson light flooding the cavern. Then the crimson blaze in Damon's eyes was swallowed by a void-like black, and from within that abyss flared irises of molten gold.
Damon roared even louder. The pain was unbearable. Outside, Erin clenched her fists in excitement until her knuckles turned white. She could feel the power emanating from him. She couldn't help but prostrate herself in front of the cave and bow her head in worship.
The chains of blood that writhed around him didn't just lash anymore. They formed sigils in the air, burning crimson runes that spiraled tighter and tighter, branding themselves into his very flesh.
His veins split open, but instead of blood spilling freely, golden light gushed from them, mixing with the crimson in a grotesque yet magnificent fusion. The Bloodcoral wasn't just purifying his bloodline. It was tearing down walls that had caged it.
Inside his chest, something cracked. A shackle, an invisible, ancient restraint, snapped like brittle glass. Damon gasped, his back arching as the chains that once bound him now dissolved into streams of molten gold, threading through his body and reforging him from the inside out.
All the blood coral he had piled up in front of him was sucked dry in the process. A black colored putrid liquid started leaking out of his pores.
At first, only a little, but soon the black sludge oozed out of his pores in rivulets, hissing wherever it touched the ground, corroding the stone until smoke rose in greasy coils. Damon snarled, gripping the rock beneath him so hard his claws sank deep, cracks spider-webbing outward from his fists.
The molten gold veins across his skin pulsed brighter, forcing more of the filth out. Each breath he took was ragged, but every exhale carried a blast of raw power that made the cavern tremble.
Damon twitched and writhed in pain and agony. Eventually, the pained roars turned into a laugh, savage and exultant. His flesh split open along his chest, a river of black ichor flooding out before sealing in an instant, leaving smooth, new skin beneath. The chains of blood circling him solidified into gleaming golden-crimson script, orbiting his body like the laws of a higher order.
After what felt like an eternity, the pain finally stopped, and his transformation reached a crescendo. His aura snapped outward in a tidal wave of crimson and gold, sending an enormous shockwave outward.
His body collapsed forward, steaming, but his eyes opened, twin suns of molten gold burning inside an abyss of endless black.
[Ding! Bloodline Purification Incomplete]
[Ding! Bloodline Purification Progress 1%]
Damon froze. His molten-gold eyes flickered, a bitter laugh scraping out of his throat. "One percent?" His voice was ragged. He clenched his fists, the ground beneath him fracturing into jagged cracks. After all that pain… it was just 1%?
The thought should have crushed him. Instead, his grin widened. He closed his eyes, letting exhaustion drag him down, and collapsed against the stone. "Fine. Even if it's only one percent… it's a start. I'll take a hundred more just like this and somehow get there."
At the cave's mouth, Erin shivered, bowing her head lower. Only 1% of her Lord's power was released?
Her worship deepened into reverence edged with fear. This wasn't a man clawing toward power anymore. This was a monster being reborn, and the world wouldn't be able to contain him.
The air still trembled with his lingering power, crimson-gold light flickering faintly like embers refusing to die. One percent was already enough to make the world quake. What would he become when he reached a hundred?