BLOOD MUTANT SYSTEM.-Chapter 442: CH: ULTIMATUM

’...we won’t ever have to worry about losing you two to the Granians.’

Those words the Granian Lord had spoken echoed in Ace’s mind repeatedly, like a broken record player replaying the same note over and over again.

As he followed Gravax mindlessly, Ace struggled to understand what the Granian Lord had meant. It didn’t help that instead of answering his question directly, Gravax had deflected and dismissed it.

’What happened to Jim and Anya?’ he wondered as Gravax led them outside the warehouses.

Other Granians passed by them constantly, receiving instructions, requesting feedback, or carrying out various tasks.

None of it registered with the Blood Prince.

He was lost in his own thoughts. The disappearance of his two human allies gnawed at him more and more until eventually...

"Gravax,"

Ace’s voice rang out loudly, stopping the Granian Lord in his tracks. But Gravax didn’t turn around.

"What happened to Jim and Anya?" Ace continued. "How did the Ethisians capture them?"

For several seconds, Gravax remained silent. Then he turned his head slightly, glancing back at Ace.

Their eyes met and the glare between them was sharp and hostile.

"You have Grim to blame for that." Gravax replied coldly. "Now, no more questions will be answered, understood?"

That command—those final words—pushed Ace past his limit.

"No more questions?" the Blood Prince repeated.

Angered by Gravax’s dismissiveness, Ace raised his hand and lifted Gravax’s body off the ground.

By manipulating the blood within the Granian Lord’s body, the Blood Prince hoisted him into the air and began crushing him from the inside.

Gravax’s blood pressure skyrocketed. His heart pounded violently in his chest as the blood in his veins surged uncontrollably.

Pain spread through his body as his veins bulged and swelled. If it continued any longer, his body would eventually rapture from the inside.

"What do you mean, no more questions?" Ace demanded angrily, "Jim and Anya have been abducted. The only two people—aside from my sister and friend—who were taken from Earth alongside me without their consent, and you don’t show a single shred of empathy for them? Is there even a plan for any of you to retrieve them?"

The moment the Blood Prince lifted Gravax into the air, nearby Granian soldiers reacted instantly. Hundreds of them raised their weapons and prepared to fire.

Even though Gravax and Lord Grania stressed Ace’s importance to the war, they weren’t going to standby and watch their own species die at the hands of another, especially not when they had the power to stop it.

Or so they believed.

"HUMAN," one shouted while advancing.

"PUT LORD GRAVAX DOWN, NOW! WE WILL NOT HESITATE TO SHOOT YOU DOWN!"

Ace, already engaged with Gravax, barely acknowledged the soldiers. So instead of dealing with Gravax and them, he summoned his three Blood Commanders, the strongest Blood Warriors of his Scarlet Army.

"Blood Essence: Manifest."

[Enoris the Seigeborn Commander has been summoned]

[Ely the Fluxborn Commander has been summoned]

[Exon the Hemosteel Dreasmarshal has been summoned]

From the crimson mark on Ace’s wrist, three towering figures emerged.

Enoris—once a High Grade elite Ethisian soldier—now stood as Ace’s first Blood Commander and strongest Blood Warrior.

Elyssara–the very Ethisian who had once stripped Ace of his Blood Mutant abilities, hovered nearby.

And Exon, a massive armored warrior, materialized beside them.

Enoris, being the biggest and most intimidating of the three commanders, tapped her great sword on her shield three times, signaling the other two to advance.

Exon, clad in the heaviest armor among them, drew a crimson staff from his chest which twisted and reshaped itself into a massive war hammer.

Ely floated above them all. She wore no armor and carried no weapon. Instead, a scarlet cloak of living blood flowed endlessly from her hood down to her feet. She embodies dark magic itself—being the master of the Scarlet Army’s dark arts and all.

"Answer me, Gravax," Ace demanded once again as his commanders waited to strike, "is there a plan for us to retrieve Jim and Anya? Or do I have to do it myself?"

"PUT HIM DOWN, NOW!!!"

Having refused to comply with their commands, the soldiers opened fire on Ace immediately with the intention of killing him. They no longer cared about his status or importance.

Their only priority was saving the second highest ranking Granian alive by all means necessary. Unfortunately...

"FIRE!!!"

Triggers were pulled. Energy blasts erupted from the barrels of their weapons, streaking toward Ace in blinding flashes.

But none of them struck him.

The moment the first trigger was pulled, Ely unleashed her power.

A thick cloud of dark crimson energy poured from her body and crept toward the soldiers like living smoke.

The moment it touched them, their minds shattered. Their cognitive functions collapsed instantly and they became empty shells, mindless husks under Ely’s control.

"Kill them all!!!" She commanded calmly. Immediately, the controlled soldiers turned their weapons on their own comrades.

Without hesitation, Ely’s husks shot and killed their comrades in cold blood.

What was most frightening was how they were next to indestructible.

Energy blasts that struck the husks did nothing. Instead, they were absorbed and then redirected back as lethal blood projectiles. Soldiers fell one after another.

Ace spoke again, his voice colder than before.

"More or your soldiers are going to die if you don’t decide and give me an answer now, Gravax."

Ace spoke but then, a new idea struck him. Instead of waiting for Gravax and Grania comply, he was going to take them along with him whether they wanted to or not.

"You and Grania are coming with me to retrieve Jim and Anya," he declared. "We have come too far together to abandon them and let the Ethisians have their way with them. They have done too much for you and your people to be forgotten like this."

Ace declared but Gravax had no intention of complying. With the little control he still had over his body, the Granian Lord twitched his fingers...

And summoned his own "commanders".

*CLANG*