Chapter 106

this is a fictional story by realTensai

“Drink my blood,” Hibea said, no traces of jester in her voice.

“What?” Alvis couldn’t quite catch on, yet Hibea didn’t repeat herself, making Alvis realize she wasn’t joking.

“Hibea, stop this nonsense,” Nero said, her eyebrows furred. “Our job is to bring him to safety.”

“It’s his own will. All I do is allow him to do what he wants to do.”

“I said cut the nonsense! Alvis has fought enough, we can’t—”

“Hibea is right, Nero. It’s my decision,” Alvis said, his voice steady as he made up his mind. “I will do whatever it takes to protect the people I care for.”

Upon hearing his answer, Hibea’s insane smile flashed up even more. She let go of Alvis, almost making him fall if Nero hadn’t caught him at the last second. Hibea opened her palm and used the nails of her other hand to cut open a stream of blood, not even wincing as blood dripped down her hand.

“Drink this.”

Alvis’ eyes couldn’t leave the potential source of power, its flow whispering to him like a devil. Still, the last sense of rationality left in his mind urged him to ask one question.

“What will happen to me if I do?”

Hibea didn’t answer. However, after a few seconds, a low chuckle escaped her mouth. With every second it grew louder, more sinister, until it was a horrific laughter. Her lips curled up even more, and she spread her arms in a theatrical madness, her eyes eerily similar to that of a certain insane priest.

“You will become my puppet. I will give you my strength and lead you to your goals.”

“Your puppet?”

“Alvis, don’t even consider it! Blood magic and puppet master magic always have severe side effects and are frowned upon even on the Demon Continent.”

“Hibea, if I drink your blood, will I be able to fight even with my injuries and my empty mana core?”

“Yes, I will kindle your mana with my blood, and you won’t feel anything once you are under my control.”

This was all Alvis needed to know.

He took her hand, thus accepting her offer.

Alvis drank her blood.

As soon as her blood entered his body, he felt as if a foreign power invaded him trying to take over. His body battled, his cells fought, yet they couldn’t stop this power. The power spread throughout his entire body, reaching every nerve of his, and also his mana core. It entered it and set it ablaze. His mana raged, fusing with the foreign power, slowly but surely becoming one. And as this happened, his consciousness faded away, and he became a spectator in his own body.

“Good, you can rest now.”

CHAO’S POV

“Earth Wall,” I shouted, yet the second it erupted, it broke down again as a wind slash obliterated it.

My poorly built earth wall couldn’t even stop the attack and before I knew it, I was hit once again.

“Ah-ha..ha,” I tried my best to breathe, but every inhale burned and every exhale felt as if I was giving away my last strength.

Blood soaked my body, even the Ashen Cloak not able to keep up with all the injuries. It couldn’t have been more than two minutes since the fight had started, yet it felt as if I had been in a torture chamber for at least a month.

A dwarf never fights a battle he can’t win.

My father’s voice echoed in my head, urging me to run away, to get myself to safety. If I died now, all the effort, all the work, and money they put into my education would be for naught. Someone as weak as me shouldn’t even enter a fight to begin with. What if they hit my head, causing ever-lasting brain damage? I wouldn’t be able to perform at the highest level anymore and my grades would suffer. What if I endure injuries even the best healers couldn’t heal? I would be a cripple for the rest of my life, damaging my family’s legacy. What if… What if…. What if…

Alvis kept fighting while carrying an even bigger burden.

Chao’s legs trembled, blood spilling out its cuts, as the weight they had to carry increased with him standing up again. The voices in his head begged him to flee, yet he rejected every single one of them.

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I will do what I want to do with no one pushing their agendas on me!

His mana was low, Diane and Xing could barely stand, but their enemy was still full of life.

Think, Chao, Think! What can someone like me, a weak coward, do in this situation? Think!

“I’m sick of dealing with you,” William said, his signature smile fading away. He raised both his arms, manifesting an avalanche of wind arrows next to him, only waiting for his command. “Die.”

“Earth Wall!” I shouted, forcing out the last bits of mana stored in my mana core.

Several earth walls erupted, yet I placed them all right in front of William, trapping him in a circle of walls.

This is my last gamble.

The walls crumbled within seconds, but I already started sprinting towards my enemy. With the walls now vanished, his vision returned, yet the second he thought he saw me I threw my Ashen Cloak at him, disturbing his vision if even for only one more second. My body rebelled and my mana core screamed, still I gritted my teeth and forced mana into my legs. It felt as if a giant had pushed me from behind as my newly gained speed brought me right into William’s blind spot.

He couldn’t react as my sudden speed caught him off guard. And I used this chance. With the very last crumbs of mana in my core, I created an earth knife and aimed straight for his heart.

Please!

However, my knife never reached him. A blast of wind hurled me away, making me crash into the ground several meters away from him.

“Don’t tell me you really thought this would work?”

I couldn’t even respond, as all the pain signals tormented my brain. The passive healing abilities of my Ashen Cloak were the only thing that kept me moving, but now without it, my fate was sealed.

I will die.

William approached me with slow steps, like an executioner who was about to behead his victim. My father’s voice kept shouting at me, cursing me for my incompetence, cursing me for my defiance, cursing me for my decision. Yet somehow his words didn’t hurt.

At last, I did what I wanted to do.

I closed my eyes, waiting for my sure death, but a loud boom made me open my eyes again. William, who had been only a few meters away from me, crashed into a building as someone had attacked him.

But who?

“So you finally grew the balls to face me?” William shouted, a weird grin on his face.

My eyes followed his and arrived at the person I fought so hard to protect.

“Alvis?”

Lonesome he stood there, his white hair making it impossible to confuse him. Ragged in worse injuries than mine and with one of his arms missing, it should be impossible for him to even move, so how did he get here?

However, as I stared into his eyes, an icy shiver ran down my spine.

His trademark greyish eyes were always filled with deep purpose, as if he saw something no one else saw. But even when he smiled, there were traces of sorrow confined in these eyes one couldn’t ignore. If one didn’t know him, he seemed unreachable, his eyes never truly in the presence. Yet, if one knew him, he was even more unreachable, as no one truly knew what was hidden behind those eyes.

Yet, as I gazed upon his eyes now, I saw nothing. Every sign of life had abandoned his eyes.

“Huh?” William said, his smile, all his excitement slowly fading away.

He flicked his wrist and three wind arrows attacked Alvis, but all he did was create an earth wall I could only dream of creating stopping William’s attack. Yet his expression, his eyes, didn’t change. As William saw this, he just clicked his tongue.

“I get it now. You’re just a puppet. How pathetic. You sold yourself for power and the one leading you is no other than this girl.”

His eyes wandered to the one standing behind Alvis.

Hibea.

Alvis became a puppet?

I couldn’t understand. I didn’t know what was going on. Still, Hibea’s smile was hard to miss.

“Bingo,” she said, confirming William’s theory.

“I knew something was wrong with you. Since I arrived here, you were the one I was most wary of. But this was only because you reminded me of Jasmine. You too are half human, half demon, aren’t you?”

“That’s right.”

However, upon hearing her answer, William just started laughing.

“Still, you aren’t like Jasmine. You’re just a failed product. You weren’t born with a human brain. That’s why you have to rely on others using your puppet master magic.”

Hibea’s smile never wavered. If anything, it grew wider. Something about William’s disgust delighted her.

“Do you think I’ll deny that?” she asked, her voice laced with amusement. “I am a failure.”

She spread her arms, almost in a mockery of William’s scorn, as if welcoming the insult.

“My human father bought a demon slave, bred children with her, and expected to create a prodigy. A half-human, half-demon with a human brain, the best of both worlds. He thought he could manufacture the strongest mage in existence.”

She giggled, a high, breathy sound, the laughter of someone who had long since stopped caring about sanity.

“But humans don’t always get what they want,” she continued. “My siblings? They were just experiments. Some of them lived, most of them didn’t. And me? I was born broken.“

She tapped her temple, her two different colored eyes shimmering with something unreadable.

“I was supposed to have a human’s intelligence and a demon’s magic. But I was born with a demon brain instead.”

Her voice dipped into a mock whisper.

“And do you know what that means, William?”

William’s lips curled, but he didn’t speak.

Hibea took a slow step forward, her eyes locked onto his, the predator closing in.

“It means I’m a failure, hahaha. My father deemed me useless because I couldn’t be molded into what he wanted. But he was wrong. Because I found something far better than what he hoped for.”

She gestured toward Alvis, still standing motionless like a puppet on invisible strings.

“I created my own power. My eyes can see ambient mana, its flow, its weaknesses. That’s how my mother’s demon tribe used to heal people. But I don’t waste it on healing.”

Her grin split wider, eyes flashing.

“I use it to control.“

She let the word hang in the air, the weight of it pressing down on all who listened.

“My blood is like a parasite. Once it enters your system, you’re mine. I don’t just take control—I take over completely. I can shift your mana, rewire your body, and make you stronger than you ever were. That’s what I’ve done to Alvis. He’s a better version of himself now. More obedient. More efficient. No useless emotions to slow him down.“

Her voice lowered to a whisper, filled with childlike wonder.

“Ahh~, I’ve never controlled someone with a human brain before. So this is how it would feel like if I wasn’t a failure,” she said, everything about her screaming that she was a psychopath. “What a shame. He doesn’t even know what he is capable of. He doesn’t use his human brain to the fullest extent and limits himself because he doesn’t even know what he can do. But don’t worry Alvis, I will show you. I will show you your true potential.”