Blood Shaper-Chapter 50Book 6:
To say the pain was overwhelming would be a lie. Kay had experienced much worse on more than one occasion, with the worst incident being the time he'd been changed into a vampire. The pain of being forcibly elevated to tier six wasn't a trifle to be waved off, but it was something he could power through. And he did as he reached out to the fragmented piece of the System, which was screaming in agony loud enough the shake the blood they were floating in like a washing machine going faster than it had been designed for.
"What's happening?" Kay screamed to the fragment. When the pain and the screaming had started his sped-up cognition had ended. "Why are you-"
Sacrifices. Must. Be. Made!
The voice rang out above the wailing in a way that went directly into Kay's head, completely ignoring the normal laws of physics. Kay had no real experience with telepathy, though he'd been told it existed, but this felt like that. The words tolled in his head like massive bells, each one ringing out as it's own tone, it's own meaning echoed inside his mind. The voice sounded like when the fragment had been speaking into his ear by vibrating the air but deeper. Not in tone, because it didn't have tone or noise, it wasn't sound. It was deeper in existence, in meaning. Each word reverberated with a purpose that was as unbreakable and unyielding as existence itself.
Which was more breakable than Kay had once known, but that was a limit of his ability to comprehend the depth of the charge that lay in those four words, not the words themselves.
"I-" Kay couldn't collect his thoughts to form a reply. The sheer force of personality and will that had hit his mind left him stunned. It was just a simple sentence, divided into four words, but there was infinitely more bundled in with those words. He felt his mind briefly touch the consciousness of something massive and beyond him that looked at reality in ways that he could not. It was, by it's sheer alien existence, as eldritch as the Hungering Void that sought to devour this and other universes, yet it was not.
Eldritch meant "otherworldly" or "alien", but at the same time there was deeper meaning to the term. Kay was alien to Torotia, but he wasn't eldritch because he didn't harm reality in some way. His existence was not antithesis to the existence of Torotia or the people that lived there, and thus he wasn't eldritch. In some realities the term may have meant other things, but that was what it meant to Kay there and then. With that definition in mind, the barely glimpsed reflection of a fragment of the System's true form was both eldritch and not, in an impossible dichotomy. If it so desired it could warp all of reality in this universe and dozens of others with a single expression of it's will, twisting them into something completely unknown and unseen. But it didn't. It reached into this universe with the gentlest of touches, just barely nudging tiny strands of reality to make something new.
As Kay oh so momentarily got a look at the inner workings of the System, which were on such a scale that he could never truly grasp them, it cemented his animosity toward Hungering Void, it's avatar, and any other beings from beyond existence that shattered and wrecked worlds and universes with the machinations or their mere passage. This existence, this being was on the same level of power and incomprehensible reality as they were and it willingly chose to do as little harm as possible, even while it sought it's own goals. If the System could do it, why couldn't Hungering Void or others like it? Surely there were other options than to destroy and ravage realities.
The screaming stopped, dragging Kay out of the sudden contemplation he had dived into. He looked at the System screen that was the fragment and watched it break down into a cloud of pixels. Those pixels swirled around each other for a moment before suddenly shooting straight at Kay's chest. They dissolved into him, completely ignoring his armor and clothing, and he felt his pain peak as the harsh mana flooding into hims grew in strength. Then, it ended. The mana scouring at his body even as it empowered him stopped.
A screen appeared in front of him that was the same blood red color as the fragment had been.
Apologies. There Was Not Enough Time To Fully Explain. The Process To Tier You Up Temporarily Is Complete. In One Moment I Will Summarize Your New Temporary Class For You.
"What just happened?"
After The Corruption Inflicted On Me By The Intruder, I Am No Longer Able To Reintegrate With The Main System Due To Potential Threat I Represent. My Energy Would Be Recycled Into Useable A Form After I Safely Transferred Necessary Data To The Main System. Advancing You To The Sixth Tier Temporarily Has The Same Effect, But Will Be More Useful Than A Normal Energy Recycling.
"So you're just going to let yourself die!?"
I, Both The System As A Whole And This Fragment, Do Not Exist In The Way That You Do. This Fragment May Cease, But I Will Continue To Exist. Not Even My Memories Will Be Lost. The Energy That Makes Up This Fragment Will Merely Be Put To Another Use. There Is No Reason To Continue This Discussion. Your New Class Is Ready.
The text on the screen warped into a Class summary with no warning, cutting off any reply Kay could have made.
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Class: Origin Vampire (Tier VI - Temporary)
- A temporary tier six Class created by combining a legend from another universe with the power of a fragment of the System itself, this Class is highly unstable and will not last long. As a combination of an incredibly powerful source of mana with the legend of an unkillable, indestructible, incredibly powerful vampire you have gained those traits and more, directed specifically at combat and destruction and modified to favor blood as a weapon over other abilities inherent to the legend used. You are the first vampire, origin of the species in this universe. Wreak a bloody ruin across this blighted land and destroy that which cannot die.
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Immediately under that entry the Skills that belonged to the Class populated.
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Skill: Origin Blood (Sublime Skill)
- To say that all life exists due to blood would be wrong, but you do. You spring from blood, you command blood, you are blood. Any blood within your range of control becomes yours and gains all properties of your blood. Any and all Skills or abilities you possess that involve blood become intensely more powerful. Should your body be destroyed you will be reborn from any drop of blood within your range. This Skill has no mana cost while the Class lasts.
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Skill: Lord of the Night (Sublime Skill)
- The legend used to create this Class, that of Dracula, speaks of a vampire from Earth, one that is destroyed by the light of the sun and empowered by the night. Though you are not a daywalker you need not fear the sun. Instead, the night empowers you even more, such that you need not be in the night to benefit. This facet of the legend has been shifted to further empower you against your enemy. "Night" is a concept of reality that would be destroyed by Hungering Void, thus it shall be used as a weapon against it. As long as there is "night" somewhere in this universe your ability to stabilize this reality and wield that stabilization against enemies from beyond will be strengthened immensely. This Skill has no mana cost while the Class lasts.
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Skill: Covetous Bond (Sublime Skill)
- In almost all versions of his legend, Dracula is a covetous being. He covets one or more women, blood, wealth, power, land, and more. This facet of his legend has been changed to better match you and your needs in this battle. This is not the world of your birth, nor the universe you originate from, but it is yours by choice. You love this world and people of it and you fight so they will not be ended by the consumptive hunger of a beast from between realities. You covet the future they may have and while that future is still possible you will gain power from your bonds to those people. While they still live you will neither falter nor fail, you gain immensely increased strength against mental effects, and you will not tire. This Skill has no mana cost while the Class lasts.
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The power that lay in those short descriptions was almost awe inspiring to Kay. In the moment, the immensity of what he was doing and what he was about to do got to him. "What, not going to offer me some kind of Skill to make a super weapon?" He snarked.
Your Arsenal Is Already Powerful, Pragmatic And Efficient Skills Are Of More Use To You Than Something Flashy. The Skills Created Focus On Increasing The Power Of Your Preexisting Blood-Based Abilities, Increasing The Power Of Your Ability To Combat And Destroy Eldritch Corruption, And Ensuring That You Will Remain At Peak Capability For As Long As Possible.
"No, I get that I just... You know what, never mind, it's not important."
The sea of blood Kay was floating in began to shake. A tiny section of it swirled around him, restoring his armor and creating a sword in his hand. The simulacra climbing the tendril covered, spire-like body of the avatar stopped in place and began to fall. The ones that had a clear path back down to the rising sea that had been climbing the avatar's body fell back into it. Those that were trapped by the undulating, decrepit flesh of the avatar simply turned into red puddles that dripped down the sides of it and rained down into the sea as droplets.
The shrieking lamprey mouths, both those on the ends of the whisker-like tentacles drooping from the massive abominable head and the massive one sitting on that head stopped their shrieking. The avatar stared down at the humming red sea as it began to contract. An orb formed as the sea shrunk from large enough to flood the former site of Nelam's capital and more to a sphere the size of a few blocks. The humming grew louder as the sphere floated upward into the air until it drew level with Hungering Void's avatar's head. The avatar's twin stingers lashed out, the barbed, teeth-covered tips slamming into the red ball with no effect. The blood didn't even shake with the impacts, the humming noise just continued, unabated, until it suddenly stopped.
There was a still moment, a silent one, as the sphere floated there and the avatar stared at it. Then, with a deafening crack, the battle resumed. A single projectile launched from the sphere broke the sound barrier before even traveling a foot and pierced through to the other side of the avatar. The eldritch abomination screamed in pain and rage as a warhead formed of hardened and compressed blood tore a hole completely through it. Before the projectile could fly off into space it suddenly stopped miles away from where Kay floated, unleashing another explosion of force as it instantly bled all momentum. It turned and began flying back toward the battle faster than a plane.
The sphere unfurled and Kay stepped out of it, both the same as he had been and not. He looked the same, except for perhaps his fangs being fully descended and larger than normal, and his normal eyes had become deep pools of red. His body was filled with power that he could feel coursing through him.
"Is this what it's like to be a tier six?"
No. You have been empowered beyond normal limits for the sake of this battle. Should you survive this and make it to the sixth tier later, you will not be this powerful.
"Then I'll have to enjoy this while it lasts."
The unfurled sphere behind him bubbled and roiled, then a cataclysmic stream of blood erupted from it toward the avatar. The arterial spray of an ancient, dying god coated the eldritch horror as Kay launched himself forward to end this battle for the world one way or another.
