(Chapter 7) The Blood Mist

I……I was in a dream

Everything was a blur, I couldn’t focus on anything and I felt like something else was commanding me.

I saw myself do many things, I was……fighting.

Fighting endlessly.

So much time had passed and every moment of it was spent either walking forward through the haze or fighting monsters.

I defeated all sorts of enemies, smart ones, strong ones, fast ones…….

They seemed to fear me but I couldn’t understand why.

After beating them…I don’t remember what I did everything seemed to get even hazier then…….. But I remember feeling very hungry……..

This dream was so disorienting, sometimes I would go to sleep and wake up while fighting another monster…..

Was this me? Who….Who was fighting?

I don’t think it was me fighting…….ah……..I am too tired to think………..going to sleep again…..

Then………..more time passed … I had spent so much time in this dream……….

Ah……..another monster…….this monster is very strange though. It looks so familiar. Why does it look familiar?

It was some sort of………shadow?

The way it moved………I had seen it before but I just couldn’t……….I couldn’t remember….

It was attacking in such an odd way…….. It looked like a child but fought like an animal………

This fighting style……..I feel like I’ve seen it before…….

Oh…..I was losing…………I hate losing……..

I really hate losing. I hate losing more than anything else…… why was I losing? I had always won before…..

Sometimes I would get injured but I would never feel like I would lose……..but now I was losing….

Ah…….It got my leg……………it doesn’t hurt though……why doesn’t it hurt?

I’ll probably lose now…….I won’t be able to move around fast after that……….

Hm. I am not going to lose though, just you watch stupid shadow……… you’ve made me….

Mad……

I started feeling hungry……..ah I remember…………..when I start feeling hungry I feel even more tired…….

I want to go to sleep now……..so tired………and so hungry ……..even more than ever before….

Oh. I killed the shadow some…………somehow

Wait……………what’s this……………that shadow…………a person came out of it………..

I feel like I know this person…………..ah but I am so tired…………Who is he……..?

I think his name was………….I can’t remember………what was his name?

What was it...Oh………was it………….Muzumi?

Muzumi...Who….who’s that?

WAIT

I was awake now. I don’t feel tired anymore…

I remember. I remember. I remember!

I AM MUZUMI

THAT’S ME

It looked just like me but it seemed like an animal? Why was it attacking so recklessly?

Was…….I was also attacking like that….what poor martial technique.

I suddenly started feeling disturbed…

WHATS GOING ON? WHERE AM I? IAM MUZUMI THE THIRD PRINCE OF THE DEVIL.

The haze...…..the haze was clearing and then I saw…..

I was on a plateau there were mists all around me. The dream had cleared.

“Wha…..What?”

Suddenly pain shot through my leg and I noticed that there was blood pouring out of it…

The sudden shock of feeling something for the first time in so long…….Immediately I blacked out

- A few hours later-

“Ugh”

I just woke up….but my head hurts really bad… there’s also this strange Mist around me.

It looked like a mist of blood, and it was hovering right outside my body like some sort of aura…

AHHHH my head, why does my head hurt so much!

EAT

Who…. Who said that? My head was hurting even more now.

EAT

“STOP I…. IAM DONE EATING SO JUST………..JUST STOP………please…..stop”

Slowly the Blood Mist around my body cleared….

“What… what is going on?”

I started scanning the area around me and tried to remember where I was. Right, let’s see I remember I was in the Heavens Dungeon…

I remember I fought that witch and then……then I was so hungry…

As soon as I started thinking of my hunger from back then the Blood Mist started leaking out of my body. In panic I immediately stopped thinking about it and focused all my attention on my physical state instead.

The Blood Mist cleared again as I observed my body.

I was unbelievable thin, my arms and legs were bony and there were many scars on my body. Interestingly though the wound that I had suffered yesterday on my leg had disappeared and in its place was a scar.

I got up onto my feet and began testing my body….It felt so familiar yet odd.

I sighed and then sat down with crossed legs and closed my eyes. I needed to meditate.

I used my spiritual energy to start taking account of all the changes in my body.

After some light inspection I was shocked at what I had discovered.

There was some sort of strange magic on the inside of my skin all around my body, if I probed the magic I would start to feel the desire to eat again. Even though currently I wasn’t all that hungry it seemed as if this strange magic could actually cause me emotions.

Also, my mana pool had increased by an enormous amount!

I tried to recall what had happened in the dream, I was beginning to understand what had happened. Somehow from my mental trauma and starvation, my desire to eat had created an odd type of law magic.

I remember from my old man’s teachings that Death magic had been created long ago by a mortal man.

The mortal man had felt some sort of great loss, and in his grief he tried to defy the world and resurrect his loved one by willing her back into existence. Some sort of accident had occurred from his unstable mana and in the end he had gained the ability to manipulate soul energy.

My mana pool probably increased from the use of magic constantly, I was probably sub-consciously using body strengthening magic the entire time, and from the speed and strength of all those battles I think it’s safe to say that I am right.

Who was fighting all those guardians though? Perhaps it was me…..but that voice that I heard……..

Oh! I remember hearing legends of martial artists becoming half beasts by being immersing themselves within their instincts.

Perhaps I just fell prey to my instincts and somehow I became feral? Or maybe it has something do to with this strange magic……….

“Hmm, what do I call it? It was made from my desire to devour…..Oh that sounds good, how about Devouring magic.”

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I didn’t have any insights into devouring magic right now but it seemed to have countless mysteries hidden within.

Until I gained a soul and absorbed it I wouldn’t be able to inspect my soul and try to have a closer look at what was going on.

Right. I still can’t use Death magic but my battle prowess has increased by so much, even though I look frail I feel very sturdy, and my mana pool is so large…

It’s still not comparable to when I was in hell, back then I had a mana pool of a Death magic practitioner who had cultivated spiritual energy for 13 years but….. I am far stronger than when I was 7 years old in my other life.

In spiritual energy alone I probably compare to when I was 9 or 10, it seems like continuous battles are good for cultivation.

Well, I can’t really say anything about that being true or not though. My understanding of what happened to my body is just speculation.

Am I seven? I am not sure, I am again just guessing based on my height. Since my body is the same as it was in hell, at this height I should be seven now….Ugh, I wish I could remember what had happened better.

I remember some of the battles but everything else was a blur.

Which Guardian did I just defeat? There were so many, I think I should be close to finishing this Heavens Dungeon by now but I am not sure.

Hmm, well no use thinking about useless things, I should find out eventually. All I can do now is get used to my body and the improvements to my mana. With a little practice I think the fire and ice magic I can use now will be very potent and useful against these guardians.

I started training to understand my body better and sure enough, there were some massive improvements compared to two years ago.

Although I was bony, the skin of my entire body had hardened form the harsh weather and constant battles and abuse. My defense was very high for my age.

Additionally I could use body strengthening magic extremely well. I had already far surpassed the level of this magic compared to when I was in hell. I could use body strengthening like breathing, it was so natural to me.

The efficiency of mana used was also very good, I wouldn’t strain my mana in the slightest unless I tried to increase my strength by a lot.

In a Neutral state I was as strong as two adult men.

From straining my mana I was about as strong as four adult men.

From there I could gain bursts of strength even surpassing that, but the drain on my mana would be very great.

As for other magic, I was able to use elementary level hell-fire now. Hellfire was a type of fire magic which contained chaotic elements inside it, it spread more quickly and grew faster.

Additionally, now I could conjure elementary level Death-frost. Death-frost was ice magic that contained chaotic elements and was colder and tended to form into sharp needles and edges.

I could also use an extremely inefficient method of food conjuring, I was able to make small black pellets that contained some energy and I would at least be able to live off of them. It was a waste compared to Death Arts 3, Soul sustain, but I guess it was better than going hungry again.

Food was loosely linked to spiritual energy, but not completely so. If you ate food you wouldn’t really replenish much spiritual energy. Spiritual energy was best restored from the passage of time or meditation.

It took me a while to make the black pellets. I had no knowledge into food conjuring so the toll on my mana was very great as I was just trying to will the food into existence. Not knowing magical formations or having instructions on food conjuring made it very draining.

But at least some of my fears went away… I didn’t want to fall prey to my instincts again…

After a few days of training I began feeling a lot more fluid with my body. The martial arts techniques I could now use were very advanced. In this aspect, although I could not compare to the power I had commanded before I had at least kept my understandings from my training in hell.

I was extremely strong for my age.

The Blood Mist’s presence was still within the layers of my skin though. After some careful consideration I chose to risk it and experiment with this Blood Mist.

I began associating hunger with the blood mist and after a few minutes of thinking I managed to achieve the results I wanted.

“Blood Mist”

Simply from saying those words, the blood mist formed all around me and hugged my skin tightly like an aura.

I still felt in control so I started observing the effects of the blood mist.

Some very interesting things were noticed, as I cut myself I felt my suspicions were indeed correct. Slowly the cut began to heal due to the embrace of the blood mist.The mist  contained a regenerative effect.

Most surprisingly though, I felt my spiritual energy slowly recover, it was almost like….the Blood Mist was devouring the mana in the air around me, refining it, and making it my own.

The mana that filled me was different than normal mana too, I felt stronger and wilder as the foreign spiritual energy mixed with my own.

Actually, rather than feeling wilder it was more like I felt…..Bloodthirsty.

The Blood Mist made me feel emotion, good to know

I would get more easily agitated under its effects and the need to fight and kill would also start to grow inside me.

Controlling this Blood Mist would be difficult as completely surrendering to my desire to devour would be dangerous but… I believe it would be usable in battle if I kept my killing intent in check and didn’t go overboard.

“What an odd sort of law magic…..What other mysterious will I discover in this Devouring magic?”

I walked towards the rope bridge in the distance and felt an odd feeling of nostalgia fill me. I was again challenging this dungeon.

I had awoken from my dream

“Blood Mist” I whispered, and again I took a step forward onto a rope bridge shrouded by the never-ending haze and howling winds.

-Yuzu here, Thank you for reading. I would like to talk about a few things that have been on my mind lately. Looking back at my prologue i realized that my english and writing style were both very bad (was i drunk when i wrote it...? Lol). I would like to apologize for it and I've been doing my very best in increasing my standards since then. Thank you for sticking with me on my journey to becoming a better writer and have fun creating this story.

P.S. I've gone back and edited alot of the mistakes in my prologues, its kinda readable now at-least.. again....sorry