Everyone Else Has a System

"Blood Assimilation Magic."

While I did learn Blood Assimilation\'s initial stages from Alaric, I modified it according to my own needs. The original Blood Assimilation could control the blood flow of a person at the same time also maintaining the structural and functional capabilities of that blood… it just wasn\'t for me.

Alaric had his own system helping him out, doing more than half of the work without him needing to do anything at all, while I needed to do everything manually. Though… Now that I think about it, the fact I could control all the functions and structures properly was really something else…

What I modified was I let my mana flow into the blood, along with the recipient\'s, to see his or her blood flow. I could forcefully make changes in the blood flow but it would naturally result in a painful death of the person, so I generally prefer to keep it mana oriented only, that too at a low intensity just enough to know the way the blood functions in an organism, monsters and races alike.

It kind of helped me understand their basic physiology and how they use mana, which in turn helped me find their weak/strong points which, sometimes, they themselves did not know about.

I added one more function to it, and that was to change the constituent of the bloods ever so slightly… mostly because it would help me set a charm magic deep within the very blood system of the person with whom I am dealing with.

Looking at Flare, who was just timidly standing there, I proceeded to touch her shoulder, which I pricked slightly to let enough blood flow. I then, using shadow magic, pricked my own finger to physically connect some amount of my blood with hers.

Closing my eyes, I traced the mana flow into her body and see if her blood is still flowing like a human or has it changed its direction to that similar to a minotaur.

For the next 15 minutes… I kept observing and analysing it from all the angles and after I was done observing and analysing, I sighed a little.

\'Her blood flow is a complete mess… it is neither properly a human\'s nor it belongs to a minotaur\'s… it feels like the whole body was separated and then combined with another body forcefully creating something else entirely…\' I thought with a really complex face as I looked at it.

No amount of healing can settle this… what this needs is a miracle…

I… felt odd again. I really thought I could save her to be honest… if it was just a simple case of attachment of a Minatour\'s head with a human\'s body with a little bit of mess around the neck, I would have probably been able to set it apart and change her face using one thing or another. At worst, I could have carved her face with an artefact or something, resulting in her living a life close to that of a human, but now… what should I even do…

\'Do… I have no option but to kill her?\' I thought as I separated my finger from her shoulders. I looked at her and wondered if I could do anything… anything at all… but no matter what I thought, I.. couldn\'t come up with a solution.

\'Even if I create a charm circle on her face, making her seem like a human to anyone who sees her… anyone above S level could easily see through the magic… and that doesn\'t change her ways of living and other stuff too… \' I kept thinking of ways but still it wasn\'t really something I could think of…

\'Should I just kill her… or take my time to create a charm magic that would allow her to live among humans without any problems…\' I thought and thought…. And in the end… I decided that…

\'It will be better to kill her,\' I finally decided after looking at it from every possible angle…

I then looked at her Minatour face, which was curiously looking at me. She wasn\'t doing anything but standing there watching me and I sighed before proceeding to take out my scythe… however.. before I could do so…

The scene changed suddenly… everything turned white and then… everything turned black as I lost consciousness…

….

"Do you think he is dead?" I heard a slightly confused yet unamused voice. It sounded familiar… Where have I heard that voice again?

"If he was dead, he wouldn\'t have been brought here but outside," a child-like voice answered the question of the first voice and once again I felt like I had heard this voice too… somewhere?

"Oh! Looks like he is waking up," the childish voice spoke and I slowly opened up my eyes, only to find a white floor and white majestic pillars all around me. There were two figures in front of me. One was a white-haired white-winged guy, who was looking at me with a slightly amused face as he spoke,"You are alive! Wow!"

The child… who was as white as possible, looked at me with a relaxed expression as he spoke,"do I take it as you finished the job and acquired the Space Fragment?"

Lucifer, the white-winged handsome guy and Amon, the white child… too bright!

For the next few moments, I focused on recollecting my thoughts as I looked at them while also recalling the past one month and whatever happened… hmmm… I guess I understand what just happened… probably…

"No, I didn\'t even get to see the fragment," I answered Amon, whose expression turned a bit unsatisfied with my answer, but still he asked again,"can you explain what happened?"

"Many things… let\'s just say that there is a time limit inside that gate… exactly 1 month, to be precise. I was there for one month and as soon as the time limit was over, I was pushed out… though I didn\'t know about it beforehand," I spoke up my mind clearly because time was one of the factors I was meticulously calculating inside that Gate of Avalon.

"Hmmm… so did you find anything at all?" Amon asked again, a bit worried, and I nodded at him as I spoke,"two leads… I think one of them will surely lead me to Space fragment. I was about to reach that lead when the time was up."

Amon kept gazing at me for the next few moments, before he sighed and spoke,"all right… that is better than you dying, at least."

\'Trust me a little, you prick,\' I thought with a smile on my face and he glared at me a little before sighing again.

"I guess, I just have to enter that place again," I said as I tried to see the entrance of the temple… but it wasn\'t there?! Huh?

"True that… but you need to find another Gate of Avalon for that… Do you know of any other gate?" Lucifer chimed in as he observed me and I kind of looked at him blankly for a second as he asked,"you don\'t know?"

"I do but…" I stopped midway as I thought,\'I do, but I didn\'t know that you can enter one gate only once… how much time does that give me? 3 months? That too if I got the chance to enter all the three gates, which I know of…\'

Lucifer looked at me and asked again,"but?"

"It\'s nothing. I know of another couple of gates so that should give me 2 more months… hmmm… I guess I will keep the time in mind next time," I spoke, and he narrowed his eyes at me again.

"What?" I asked, a bit confused this time and he spoke,"no.. It\'s just that… you know a bit too much… Just what kind of life did you live?"

"I would rather not say anything," I spoke before looking at Amon, who was silently watching our interaction and then speaking,"what happened to Dolos and Janus?"

"Janus is keeping hold of Dolos using his magic. Of course, we helped him to make that magic more secure. Enough to last for eternity unless someone equally strong as us comes to break it," Amon answered with a smile and then spoke,

"I guess you should be going back now. Is there anything else you would like to know?"

I was irked by his sudden polite nature but still I spoke,"a few things… but probably later… Ah! Can you do something about the people outside? It would be a pain to explain all the things I did, so that would be a great help."

Amon looked at me for a few moments before pondering and then looking at Lucifer as he spoke,"is it okay if we do that?"

Lucifer kind of got irritated at that before speaking,"if I wasn\'t really involved in this mess so deep, I would have directly rejected it but… well, I guess I can do it for once. How much do you want to do?"

"Leave that to me," Amon spoke with a bright smile before he touched my right shoulder and Lucifer too moved and touched my left shoulder, then they both began chanting something. I wanted to ask what the f*ck were they both doing… but for some reason, they were so deeply engrossed that I decided it would be better not to disturb them.

After a few moments, Amon simply spoke,"you are smart enough to understand what is going on, so I won\'t explain. Let\'s meet later, okay?"

Lucifer simply spoke,"don\'t forget your promise, human."

And before I knew it, the scene changed yet again as I found myself standing in front of another familiar person, in an oddly familiar place as that person, Bernette Leeway, spoke with a serious expression,

"Would you like to come with me somewhere?"

[Volume 2: The War of Avalon(Prologue) Ends here]