BLOOD MUTANT SYSTEM.-Chapter 437: CH: THE ONLY OPTION

Fight, or Return to Earth?

The choice was theirs.

Jim and Anya were now faced with a decision—one that they would have happily made at the start of the war.

Stay and fight a war they were in no way connected to as hideous, blood-lusted freaks of nature... or return to Earth and continue living out the rest of their days without any assurance that the Granians wouldn’t return?

The obvious decision was to stay and fight, but they didn’t want to follow through with it.

Why?

’Because it means we’ll have to kill Ace,’ Anya thought. Unlike Jim, she had a much closer attachment to the Blood Mutant.

She didn’t just see him as the atrocious Blood Prince responsible for turning them. No, she saw him as the young teenager who visited her most often in the school nurse’s office, bruised and battered, his frail body covered in wounds.

She saw him as the orange, curly-haired boy with breathing problems, a magnet for trouble, and one of the most unfortunate kids she had ever come across. To some extent, Anya had started seeing Ace as a little brother... one who always got hurt.

For that reason, the woman couldn’t bring herself to the thought of having to kill Ace, let alone consider doing it.

If becoming a Blood Mutant again meant killing him in the future, then that was a future she wanted no part of.

But again...

’Maybe we can try and undo the brainwashing he...’

Sensing Anya’s mental distress, Eve placed a hand on her shoulder and looked at her with an understanding gaze.

She reassured her gently, saying, "The thought of having to kill one of your own kind is troubling, I understand. But you have to realize the threat we’re dealing with here. Your friend has a dark and twisted energy brewing within him."

She paused.

"Even though we’re hundreds of thousands of miles away, we felt its strong presence emanating from the two of you. His power is something that cannot be ignored or left to go unchecked."

"And it’ll only continue to grow against our favor," Eden added. "Your friend’s potential for growth is next to limitless. The same goes for me, Eve, and the two of you, if you ever decide to become Blood Mutants again."

He continued, his voice growing more intense.

"Our strength never stops growing, as long as we never stop killing. That’s what makes us formidable foes...and the same logic applies to your ’friend’.

"If we don’t kill him the moment we’re presented with the opportunity to do so," Eden said firmly, "he’ll finish us all and secure victory for the Granians. And only God knows what will happen next after the Granians win the war. This is our only option—the only one that produces favorable results for the Ethisians, all of Akrina, and even humanity."

"Then count me in."

Jim stepped forward, a stern confidence burning in his eyes. Without a second thought, he accepted the new conditions laid before him—though not without his own motives.

"I’ll join the fight," he said. "No matter what it takes. I’ll do it for the Ethisians, Akrina, and Earth. That’s the right thing to do after all, right?"

’Cringe.’

"And what about you, woman?" High Ruler Enor asked, hoping Anya would respond the same way Jim had. Having four Blood Mutants fighting alongside them would work greatly in their favor and further tilt the scales of the ongoing war. "Will you fight, or shall we send you back to your home planet?"

"Keep in mind," Eden added, "it’ll take you six years to get back to Earth. Their space-travel technology may be advanced, but the distance between here and Earth is far too great to be crossed quickly."

After giving it further thought and weighing the pros and cons, Anya finally reached a decision.

She would fight, but her goal wasn’t to kill Ace. It was to undo all the brainwashing the Granians did.

She couldn’t bear the thought of killing someone she cared for.

"I’ll fight," she said, bringing visible relief to Enor and the Ethisians beside him. "But this is to save Ace and his sister and stop the Granians from trying to get to Earth again.

"You don’t have to worry about that, Human," Enor reassured her, a ghastly grin spreading across his scaly face. "We’re going to wipe the Granian race from all of Akrina."

*****************

[Later That Day]

Eden, Eve, Jim, and Anya remained in the wilderness while the Ethisians returned to the Palace.

Now that the humans were alone, it was time for the two stronger Blood Mutants to turn the reverted humans back into Blood Mutants. This time, however, the process would be done properly, the real way Blood Mutants were meant to be created.

"As Eden and I removed the Blood Gene from both of you," Eve began, "we sensed something else in Jim’s DNA. Something humans never had before. Care to explain?"

"Oh, you must be talking about the serums," Jim said. "When the Granians attacked Earth, genetic-altering serums were distributed worldwide. Men and women within specific age and physical categories received serums based on their blood groups."

"They were meant to help us fight back," he continued, "but the Granians left before we could use them. That’s what you sensed."

"What do they do?" Eden asked, intrigued.

Instead of answering directly, Jim decided to demonstrate.

"As I said, serums were assigned by blood group. I’m A+, which grants the Elemental Serum. It allows the user to generate and manipulate elements...like this."

Wiggling his fingers, Jim produced tiny sparks of electricity that danced across his skin before releasing a loud, blinding bolt of lightning into the air.

Eden and Eve gasped.

Seeing a human generate lightning from thin air was nothing short of astounding.

"This is incredible," Eden marvelled as Jim grinned cockily. "I never thought humans could perfect the serums to this extent."

"Perfect them?" Anya asked. "You knew about their existence?"

"We don’t just know about them," Eve confessed.

"We pioneered their creation."