Born in Blood-Chapter 583: Death

Liam had an idea.

He put a hand on the Ashura’s chest.

Ravaak had a confused expression on his face.

"Stopping heart again?"

Liam shook his head. "No. Reducing your size. Prepare for pain."

Ravaak frowned slightly.

Liam began the Transfiguration process, sensing the Ashura’s internal anatomy—each muscle striation and tendon, each bone and ligament, each organ and vein.

He began with reshaping it in his own image—combining certain muscle groups with others to strengthen and weaken them.

It took two weeks for the ’project’ to get over with.

By the end of it, Ravaak’s external features—his armor and intimidating aura—seemed miniature.

But looks can be deceiving.

Internally, Ravaak was brimming with power. The veins in his body were responsible for not only transporting his milky white blood, but also his chaos. Liam had rewired them to allow for quicker and more efficient chaos/blood flow.

Ravaak, however, seemed conflicted.

Throughout the process, Ravaak and Liam continued improving their communication. By now, Ravaak was practically fluent.

"I’m smaller," Ravaak said gruffly. With improved communication, Liam seemed to gauge the type of creature the Ashura was. "Can you fix this when we leave this place?"

"You’re stronger. Isn’t that what you want?" Liam asked with a slight frown. He’d worked so hard on it. Some ungrateful brat this Ashura was.

"Not like this," the Ashura said with a look of sadness. "I used to be the biggest Ashura among my people... and now..."

"And now you’re the strongest."

"No... Raast was the strongest. And now you are."

"Okay big guy," Liam said, glancing around the room and spotting the treasure chest he’d savored, and the three murals depicting the continuation of the Naxathra’s previous story. "Enough talk."

Liam squinted and looked at the three new murals.

They were of Naxathra... and Alucard.

The first one depicted Alucard and Naxathra as student and master. Alucard was noticeably young, yet his eyes held a shrewd, cold quality to them.

The second mural depicted a very pleased Naxathra finding a circular, wheel-like object with unique stones studding each individual connective piece.

Alucard, standing behind Naxathra, was not so pleased. His eyes were covetous and visibly greedy.

The third mural depicted Alucard with his bloody hand through Naxathra’s chest, while the Dreaded prepared to fight back.

The mural ended there.

Liam frowned, his suspicions about the vampire king proven true. If he could betray his mentor, he could definitely betray a disposable asset like Liam.

That being said, the circular wheel intrigued Liam thoroughly. How valuable could it really be?

It must be here, Liam thought.

Liam walked over and threw the chest lid open.

Inside was a cracked black mask, not the wheel he was expecting. He felt a twinge of disappointment.

It seemed like a theater mask—plain, lacking any particular features and only covering the top half of the face above the nose-ridge. 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

A cracked line ran across the right eye towards the cheek. The material was stone imbued with strands of black magic threaded in between.

Liam raised it up. He sensed no danger, but felt an allure whispering him to put it on. Obviously, he didn’t, but he also didn’t feel any danger.

Ravaak looked like he wanted to ask a question. Liam waved a hand and the Ashura spoke.

"What is that?"

"A reward for beating you." Well. More like a reward for cutting the right spider-string.

Ravaak seemed visibly angry, being reduced as a mere obstacle on a challenger’s path.

"What does it do?" Ravaak asked.

"Still working on figuring that out," Liam said, inspecting the mask from a different angle. Using it was risky... but his curiosity and willing to experiment with alien elements had overcame his rationale.

"I’m putting it on," Liam said to Ravaak with a serious tone. "If I’m close to dying, take it off."

Ravaak furrowed his metal-like brows. Close to dying. That was a good measure of safety. Nevertheless, he nodded seriously.

Slowly and carefully, Liam connected the Black Mask to his face... and his vision swirled to a fragmented, ethereal dream.

Liam fell on the ground, clutching his head as he felt everything and nothing at the same time. His skin crawled. He felt like the universe was screaming at him. Or rather, weeping. He couldn’t tell which it was.

Liam... felt fear.

For the very first time in a very, very long time...

Liam felt fear.

He saw things in quick flashes. Vague, dreamy things that shifted and transformed the longer he attempted on grasping their contents.

He saw a naked figure with little to no features, amidst an empty black void that seemed endless and terrifying.

Then, the figure slowly started leaking with blood extremely fast, dripping into an empty pool beneath their feet.

The pool swirled and gurgled.

The figure’s facial features, already hazy, seemed to twist in what seemed like pain and agony.

The figure fell, dead.

The pool of blood arose, transforming, taking shape in the background.

The fragmented dream state flashed again, and the pool of blood had disappeared from the void.

Instead, the view creeped closer to the dead figure.

The facial features weren’t hazy, now.

No... they were horribly clear.

The figure was none other than Liam Royce himself.

Liam had just witnessed his own death.

***

Ravaak had yanked the mask off of Liam’s face and hurled it at the wall. Before it even hit the wall, it spread like ashes in the wind on its own, proving to be a single-use item.

Liam had fallen unconscious, and when he woke up, Ravaak was staring at him with widened, concerned eyes.

Liam raised a hand and stood on his own. His mind went inward and the only thing he could think about was death.

Thoughts spiraled from there. Paranoia and unceasing worry that Liam had long forgotten. And he hadn’t forgotten about how humiliating it was to feel fear.

But in the first place, everything seemed distant and dreamy in that ethereal world. Whos to say it was believable at all? The details seemed different each time Liam remembered them, and it felt like the memories were starting to fade on their own.

Liam grimaced, then put the thoughts in the backseat for now. He’d interpret them on his own time.

There were more pressing matters at hand.