“When a Tempered Five client comes to me seeking an Atelier Item I bring them to this very place. You are the first to see my Workshop with your own eyes. I anticipated that you wouldn’t need an Artificing Goggle.”

The bloody dome dispersed into a red mist at the snap of Enoch’s fingers.

“Then, I ask them a question. Just one. What does blood mean to you?”

Kissaria once asked Frost a similar question. Why do birds fly? The question held no intrinsic value regarding the creation of her Atelier Item. But she felt that it was worth ruminating on an answer just in case.

Blood is a lifeforce. But that’s the obvious answer. In my opinion, blood is more of a medium rather than an essence of life. I might be thinking way beyond the scope of the question, but I’m defaulting back to my clinical knowledge.

She didn’t see blood as the proof of sin like the ancient Arbiter, nor did she believe that all living things carried the same type of blood. Blood did not carry truths either. Animals such as starfish relied on water rather than blood. Plants used an analogous system to transport nutrients in place of blood.

To her, blood was as simple as:

“A ferrying medium. Blood is all that it is. Nothing flows without blood. Nothing receives, and nothing is expelled.”

She interpreted the meaning of blood in a literal sense, rather than a philosophical one. It relied solely on proven logic rather than believing in the delusion of others. Of course, Blood Purity did exist, but it did not change what blood fundamentally was.

Enoch was dumbfounded by the answer. Her visible confusion held a tinge of reverence. As strange as Frost’s answer was to her, the face she then made was the kind that said: “As expected of you.”

“I commonly get lifeforce, the panacea of the living, the essence of life, the truth of existence, and life as we know it. Ahh. How grandeur~ But can you blame them? It’s a truth in their own right.”

Her eyes carried a glint of scarlet light again as her irises flowed. She then slit her palms open by merely clapping once. Enoch smeared her hands against the floor, creating a series of circles nestled within an overarching circle. What she created was a magical circle.

“But magic works on how we tie it back to the laws that govern reality. If a fodder at the bottom of the food chain believes that blood is life, then they must have the willpower and the ability to interpret life in its utter entirety. Simple enough~”

The head of a serpent emerged from the magical circle. It was made entirely out of congealed blood. A pair of eyeless sockets stared back at Frost as it lowered its head, closely mimicking the movements of Enoch’s right hand.

“Peasants will scream: ‘It’s a monster!’. Vampires will revere: ‘A blood-borne summon!’. But Honored Ones will know that this is as simple as shaping the blood to one’s whims. It may appear that way to whomever. But it is entirely different to the caster who is but merely puppeting blood.”

Interpretation was key. But why did Enoch explain this? Blood manipulation was surely nothing like magic, right? Frost was about to ask, but she figured Enoch would elaborate.

And she was correct.

“For comparison, what do you see when you think of a fireball? A beginner will believe it is an explosion. Skeptics will call it a force of nature. But an expert will tell you it is a process. Corruption changes this. Expectations can become a reality.”

She paused, showing a bleeding palm to emphasize that her blood manipulation did not manifest from thin air.

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“The difference between magic and an Art is that magic relies on mana and comprehension. Chants and magical circles are the standard method to create something from nothing. Arts on the other hand, require a different medium, technique, and control.”

Furthermore, there was a large difference between creating an Art and using an Art. Creating one was in line with using magic, whereas using an Art was far more straightforward. Plus, Arts can be taught and passed down.

To summarize – magic relied on using power beyond the scope of the body, whereas Arts relied on the body’s abilities as a foundation.

This was why Martial Arts existed. These Arts enhanced the body using magic and relied on combat techniques to gain an advantage. In a way, Arts can also be considered a non-magician’s way of chanting magic.

Either way, Enoch’s tutorial gave her a glimpse of the world she could never experience as a Blessed. She couldn’t create magic of her own, but through Arts, she could at least create blood-related magic.

“I was surprised that you called blood a medium. Blood is a weakness to me. A chink in the armor that I can rupture at the snap of a finger. But your foundation goes further beneath mine. What you have is a fundamental understanding of blood…”

She trailed off.

“Aaaaah~ I. Expected. Nothing. Less. Shall we begin?”

“Please.” Frost nodded.

“Excellent!” Enoch clapped. “First thing’s first is basic blood manipulation. You understand what blood is. The trick now is to use it to control your blood. If blood is a medium, then what does it ferry?”

Her last question was not rhetorical. Frost only thought of what it literally carried. Oxygen, nutrients, diseases… they were things that did not help her with the manipulation of her blood.

She stood in a shallow puddle of her blood. Hours later, it became a pond.

No amount of focus or sheer will had caused her blood to move. It coagulated at her fingertips at best. Her only notable achievement was hardening the blood that was already inside of her blood vessels which acted as a second skeleton.

“Does internal blood hardening count?”

“It does. But I find it strange that you can harden your blood internally than externally. It’s harder to control blood internally. Do you remember the circumstances that led to creating it?”

Frost remembered it like yesterday.

“I was on the verge of death. I could no longer walk. But I was determined to stand.”

Memories of her fight with Iscario kindled an ember of wrath beneath her heart. Suddenly, the pool of blood beneath her began to shimmer. The hotter the embers burned, the more her blood trembled.

“I never should have allowed him to escape. If I hadn’t been stabbed by that Lance…”

Then, red rods erupted from the pool.

“… then I would have killed him!”

They stabbed the air and stood over three meters tall. Multiple rods pierced cleanly through Frost. She did not notice it until seconds later, shocked to find that her blood had reacted to her memories.

< You are mistaken. It reacted to your emotions >

< Enoch cannot see it. But I can. Wrath. Those rods are born from your wrath >

< Or more specifically, your blood has become a vessel for your wrath >

Sanguine Genesis Resonance

< Wrath – First State >

Enoch was shocked once again.

Emotions were an impediment to blood manipulation. The more Enoch cut off her emotions, the stronger her control over her blood was. Emotions were supposed to destabilize blood, but for Frost, it had caused it to act.

“I’m second guessing if I can even teach you~ Ahaha. Surprise after surprise. Forgive me for saying this but – it feels like it makes sense. You’re far more emotionally driven than us. The Beholders have forgotten what it’s like to feel. And I have lost that capacity. But I can help you in that regard.”

How was Enoch supposed to help her if she was emotionally repressed?

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“We have over two centuries of Attribute data from the Corrupted. I know what emotions are attached to these Attributes. We can translate them to their corresponding Affinities. Part of controlling blood is understanding what shape your blood will take. Emotions muddy it. Those spines are precisely created, but they lack order. For example, what shape does wrath take? What does it do? How does it work?”

Enoch shifted her focus to Frost’s emotions. She had also realized that Frost’s blood served as a carrier of her emotions. Therefore, it needed to be understood beyond just being tempered to them.

The woman took a step into Frost’s bloody domain as she pulled back her sleeves and undid her tie.

“Now, let us start from the beginning.”