NOVEL NEXT Chapter 74: Merging With The Nano-Cells!
Draziel's voice dropped to barely a whisper.
"Blood Asura!"
"Boom!"
The transformation was immediate and terrifying. The thin veil of blood that had surrounded him during Blood Ashes suddenly became a torrent, as though every blood vessel in his body had ruptured simultaneously. But this was no injury. The blood flowed outward in impossible quantities, far more than any human body should contain, and it did not fall to the ground but instead began to coalesce and solidify around his form like living armor.
Draziel's body expanded rapidly, his height increasing from just over six feet to nearly three meters tall. His musculature swelled to grotesque proportions, each muscle group clearly defined and pulsing with barely contained power. The blood-formed armor that encased him was not smooth but jagged and angular, with sharp protrusions emerging from his shoulders, elbows, and knees that looked like weapons in their own right. Most disturbing were the changes to his face, which became obscured by a mask of crystallized blood that bore two glowing blue eyes and a mouth twisted into a permanent, savage grin.
The system notification appeared, but Draziel barely needed to read it. He could feel the power coursing through every cell of his being: Blood Asura Activated. Physique Enhancement: Times Three. Strength Enhancement: Times Three. Duration: Five Minutes. Warning: Severe Exhaustion Will Follow Deactivation.
John heard the transformation occurring behind him and spun around, his hand still on the Nano-Cell container. His eyes widened in genuine shock as he saw what Draziel had become. "What the hell are you?" he demanded, bringing his machete up defensively as flames erupted across his entire body in response to the threat.
"I'm human!" Draziel replied with anger.
He took a single step forward, and the concrete beneath his foot shattered.
John's face changed slightly and without hesitation, made the first move.
He launched himself forward with a soldier's instinct, his flames reaching their maximum intensity as he channeled everything into a single devastating strike. "Inferno Slash Maximum!"
he machete came down in an overhead strike that left a streak of white fire in its wake, the heat so intense that the metal support beams around them began to soften and warp.
Draziel raised his left arm to block, and where the superheated blade should have carved through flesh and bone, it instead met the blood-crystallized armor with a sound like a hammer striking an anvil. Sparks flew from the impact point, and to John's horror, his blade—which could cut through reinforced steel—barely scratched the surface of Draziel's armor.
"My turn," Draziel said softly.
What followed was not so much a battle as it was an execution conducted with surgical precision. Draziel's enhanced speed made him nearly impossible to track even for John's heightened perception. He closed the distance between them faster than the mercenary captain could retreat, his blood-armored fist driving into John's midsection with enough force to lift the larger man off his feet. The reinforced plating of John's tactical vest crumpled like paper, and several ribs shattered audibly from the impact.
John tried to counter with his flames, grabbing onto Draziel's arm and channeling two thousand degrees of heat directly into the point of contact. The blood armor hissed and steamed, and for a moment it seemed like the tactic might work. But Draziel simply looked down at the hand gripping his arm and then back up at John's desperate face.
"Fire cannot kill what is already dead," Draziel said cryptically, and then his free hand shot forward, fingers rigid, driving into John's shoulder hard enough to punch completely through it. Blood poured from the wound, steaming as it contacted John's still-active flames, creating a grotesque fog around them both.
John screamed but retained enough presence of mind to drive his knee up into Draziel's chin with all the force his Level Three enhancement could muster. It was a blow that should have snapped a normal person's neck, and it did succeed in forcing Draziel's head back. But when those glowing blue eyes returned to meet John's gaze, the mercenary captain saw his death reflected in them.
Draziel's hand withdrew from John's shoulder and grabbed him by the throat instead, lifting the larger man off the ground with one arm despite John's still-burning flames trying desperately to ward him off. "You were right about one thing," Draziel said, his voice carrying no emotion whatsoever despite the violence of his actions. "This new world belongs to those with talent and power. You just had the misfortune of meeting someone with more of both."
The mercenary captain clawed at Draziel's hand, his flames reaching their absolute peak in a final desperate surge of survival instinct. The temperature around them became so intense that nearby computer terminals began to melt, their plastic casings dripping onto the floor. But it was not enough. It had never been enough.
Draziel's grip tightened, and there was a sickening crunch as John's reinforced tactical mask cracked and then collapsed inward. The flames that had surrounded the mercenary captain guttered and died like candles being snuffed out, and his body went limp. Draziel held him there for a moment longer, making absolutely certain of the kill, before dropping the corpse to the ground without ceremony.
The Blood Asura form began to recede almost immediately, the blood armor flowing back into Draziel's body as his height decreased back to normal proportions. He staggered slightly, feeling the promised exhaustion already beginning to set in. His breathing was labored, and his muscles trembled from the exertion despite his victory. But there was no time for rest. The prize that had cost so many lives waited just beyond the vault door.
Draziel forced his exhausted body to move, each step requiring conscious effort as he entered the underground laboratory. The Nano-Cell container still pulsed with that eerie life-like quality, and now that he was closer, Draziel could see that the liquid metal substance inside was definitely moving with purpose, pressing against the containment field as though eager to escape.
His hand reached out, trembling slightly from fatigue, and touched the container's surface. The moment his skin made contact, the containment field collapsed. The Nano-Cell orb erupted outward, but rather than dispersing into the air, it surged directly toward Draziel with what could only be described as hunger. The liquid metal wrapped around his hand, his arm, and then in a rush that took less than a heartbeat, it flowed into his body through every pore, every orifice, integrating itself directly with his cellular structure.
The pain was immediate and absolute. Draziel's back arched involuntarily as every nerve in his body screamed in protest. It felt as though his very cells were being torn apart and reassembled at the molecular level, which was not far from the truth. The Nano-Cells were replacing his organic cells one by one, maintaining all the original functions while exponentially improving their efficiency and durability. His vision went white, then black, then cycled through a spectrum of colors his eyes had never been designed to perceive.
He collapsed to his knees, unable even to scream as his throat seized from the intensity of the transformation. Blood vessels became visible beneath his skin, glowing with a faint silver light as the Nano-Cells coursed through them. His bones ached as they were reinforced from within, his muscles burned as they were rewoven into something stronger, and his organs felt as though they were being squeezed by invisible hands as they too underwent the metamorphosis.
And then, as suddenly as it had begun, the pain stopped. Draziel gasped for air, his lungs expanding further than they ever had before, taking in more oxygen with each breath. His vision cleared, sharper than it had ever been, able to see individual dust motes floating in the air with perfect clarity. He could hear his own heartbeat, strong and steady despite the ordeal, and beneath that, the subtle hum of the Nano-Cells working in concert with his remaining organic systems.
The system notification that appeared was different from any he had seen before, rendered in silver text rather than the usual blue: Nano-Cell Integration Complete. Physique Attribute Limit Increased: Twenty-Five. Warning: User's Other Attribute Limits Remain Unchanged. Recommend Immediate Evolution to Balance Physical Capabilities.
Draziel pulled up his full status screen, his eyes widening at what he saw. His current Physique was still at ten points, but the option to increase it now went all the way to twenty-five. More importantly, he had accumulated enough evolution points from the mercenary kills to boost all three of his attributes significantly. Without hesitation, he began allocating points, feeling his body respond with each increase.
Strength rose from ten to twenty, and he felt his muscles coil with newfound power that did not require Blood Asura to access. Agility climbed from twelve to twenty, and suddenly his perception of time seemed to slow slightly, his reaction speed improving to match his enhanced physique. Finally, Physique itself jumped to twenty-five, and the Nano-Cells sang through his body in response, optimizing every system to support his new capabilities.