Blood no longer tasted fresh in Ethan's mouth; it tasted old and stale as he stood above those bodies that had clung to life at one point. The power that surged up within himself-the power that had been unleashed when he first tasted the first drop of blood-was unlike anything he had ever felt till now.
Pure, relentless, and nothing remained of its wake except destruction. Those who survived now became a pallid reflection of what happened to their shattered corpses.
{System Notification: New Skill Acquired. "Blood Awakening" Active. Empowerment From Slaughter Achieved.}
Ethan's eyes flared as the system's voice echoed in his mind. Its chilling words were a distant memory of the power he now wielded. "Blood Awakening...", he did a slight mutter under his breath. He could feel the import of the words, yet knew them not. It was somewhere deep inside him and showed him the door for something larger.
He could feel changes inside his body-those above physical changes. His veins slowly pulsed rhythmically with the drumming of power. His senses sharpened; now he could see every movement around him as well as hear the thumping of each heartbeat among the living. As if the world unfolded in front of him-a web-like structure of life and death held in one thread.
{System Alert: Blood Grasp Skill Advanced. Sub-skill: Blood Chains. Blood Mastery: Initial Stage Achieved.}
A dark smile curled on Ethan's lips. His control over blood was intoxicating, the essence of life-now his to manipulate. With a thought, he could tear flesh, shred bone, or bind with a mere touch the will of another. He grew stronger with each kill, each drop of spilled blood.
Yet just as he gazed thoughtfully into carnage, something did gnaw at the back of his mind. He had at one time been a victim of an all-mighty nameless faceless in the world, crushed under a foot. Now he was the one in control, but something ugly still gnawed at him: what would he do with this power?
His mindset shifted from the violent and gruesome satisfaction of his killing to the bigger picture. It was a chaos world outside.
The system awakened in him; the blood parasite sunk its roots, and now he stood as more than human. Or was that all there was to that? Was he just a far-too-human, monster child from ashes destined for destruction the way he had found them?
{Host's Purpose: Blood Must Flow.} The parasite within him seemed to stir in response to his thoughts.
{System Notification: New Objective: Devour and Conquer. Create a Blood Legacy.}
"Devour and conquer..." Ethan whispered to himself. The words burned in his mind, a dark prophecy that seemed to be etched into the very core of his existence. It was no longer enough to merely survive. No, he was now fated to build an empire, where power flowed like the blood pulsing through his veins.
It also came into a view of the horizon, that-though faint and fragile-lingering signs of life still fell. It came with the pulse of remainder humanity, pockets scattered throughout the survivors, each holding onto existence. They were all just waiting to be devoured by the tide of blood that he would inevitably bring with him.
{System Alert: Blood Domain Activation Available.}
Ethan's eyes narrowed. The idea of blood domain-seemed to promise an area within which his control over the crimson essence would extend beyond his physical form. He could dominate, rule over entire territories and create a base from which he could further shape his empire.
His hand moved instinctively, his fingers splayed out as he tapped into the power that the parasite had granted him. An extremity of radiating energy exploded from his body, flowed into the soil, as if the earth below him retreated in heavy tremors. It was enough: crude as it was, it would leave an indelible mark on the world about it.
{System Update: Blood Domain Established. Radius: 50 meters. Local inhabitants marked for Blood Control.}
He could feel it-his domain expanding, stretching outward, touching everything within its range-among which were included the survivors, the beasts, the land itself. All of this has fallen under his command. Short his power just started to show its real magnitude.
The fear of the living, the panic and desperation that colored their every thought, never more convincingly thrust at him. They were already beginning to feel a very low-visibility power smothering them deeper. Their hope would falter, and in their weakness, he would rise.
{System Notification: New Title Earned: Blood Sovereign.}
Architecturally larger than this, the words echoed in his mind-to make him feel the weighty implications, Blood Sovereign. A name that speaks of rulership, supremacy, and the inevitable bloodshed that would accompany it.
In Ethan's chest, his heart pounded, and for a second, whether he was human at all now seemed to lose significance. He had indeed evolved into something more, something beyond all the pale limitations of humanity.
Thus transformation was complete. Not a victim anymore. Not weak anymore. Predator and hunter: the one to rule bloody relics of a fallen world.
Ethan now reflected on what would be his next move in the approaching darkness of the clearest sunset sky. There would be no mercy. No hesitation. The world was his to conquer-and every step forward from now on would take him deeper into the heart of darkness. There was blood, power, and with it the shaping of this broken world into one that would bow beneath him.
The first fallen had been too small an appetizer. The real feast is yet to come.