Chapter 26
Yes!
Elijah selected Yes. More out of curiosity than anything. He didn’t know what a Familiar was, but there was something about the idea that tugged at his very soul.
As soon as he accepted the prompt, the coin started to float again, up and out of his grasp. The teen’s Stamina, Mana, and remaining Health were sucked out in streams of green, blue, and red trailing mist, respectively.
The tide continued until only one point in each stat remained, leaving Elijah beyond exhausted, with an earth-shattering migraine, and on the edge of death. He swayed on his feet but continued to stand and watch the token as it began to glow a bright white.
The sky was covered by roiling black clouds that shook the world with their ominous rumbling. Even if he wanted to, which he did not, the sixteen-year-old would not be able to look away. Seven spikes of multicoloured lightning struck the coin from the seven cardinal directions.
The white-hot coin shattered, sending out a shockwave of glowing energy that turned the grass to cinders and scorched the earth beneath but didn’t so much as ruffle a hair on the young man’s head as it passed over him harmlessly.
Elijah wasn’t phased by the sudden explosion, partially because he was nearly completely out of it, what with his current condition, but mostly because he knew instinctively this was how it should go. His eyes never left the spot where the coin had been.
Sure enough, a couple of moments later, the energy that had just violently dispersed recollected in that area. It created a swirling oval of white mist that grew faster and faster, causing the wind all around to whip into a frenzy.
The teen tried to see exactly what was happening by activating Mana Manipulation, just for a moment. The intense mix of manas of incalculable types, acting in innumerable ways, blinded the young man, and he was forced to squeeze his eyes tight as he shut off the Skill.
When his vision eventually returned, the white mist was replaced by a hole in reality that seemed to lead to somewhere dark. Dead trees covered in ravens that cawed out the cry of the beyond filled the view.
Perched proudly atop the largest tree, directly in line with the rip in space, was the greatest raven Elijah had ever seen. Its feathers were a silky black, its beak vicious but delicate, and its size dwarfed the other birds perched on the lower branches.
Elijah and the creature locked eyes and both knew they belonged to one another. The raven took flight, sending its lesser kin into squawked scatterings. The teen felt it as a part of himself he never knew he had and drew nearer.
Soon, they would be as one, never to be separated again. Elijah couldn’t wait. He bubbled with excitement and nervousness at the prospect. It was on his first date all over again but with a far greater prize waiting for him.
Each flap of its wings spoke of the part of his life that he had missed, and with each inch it drew nearer, his soul became closer to being whole. In just a few moments, he would be the man he was always meant to be.
The raven was halfway to the portal when a spot of black turned into a cloud of swallowing red as dark as blood, right behind the majestic creature.
Elijah tried to call out, to warn his other half, but he found himself unable to speak. Memories of a life not his own scoured his mind with hot flashes.
He was a carpenter, a butcher, a baker, a candlestick maker, a hunter, a miller, a peasant, and a king. He had lived for countless lifetimes, but it was never enough. There was always more life to live, more life to give, and more blood to drink.
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Elijah shook his head maniacally, trying to dispel whatever had come over him. This wasn’t him; this was the immortal!
He had thought that simply ignoring the monster would be enough to deal with it, but now he saw firsthand what that approach had wrought.
The memories ceased reluctantly, but the red mass didn’t stop. It morphed into a giant clawed hand that snatched up his Familiar with definite finality.
Elijah could feel it as his soul was torn apart, shredded, then crushed by that nebulous, bloody power. A part of him died and was subsumed by the swirling blood.
When the teen saw the raven rise from the ground, correct its broken wing, and take flight once more, there was a moment when his hopes soared, but they came crashing down only seconds later.
The raven that flew through the portal was not the one that he had locked eyes with only moments ago. Its eyes were not the homogeneous black of a corvid but were instead entirely blood-red. There were cracks on the still-moving but broken corpse that glowed with crimson ominense.
The teen couldn’t help the devastated gape of his mouth as the body of the creature that was once a part of him landed beside the boy and turned its evil gaze upon him.
As he watched in slack-mouthed horror, the being that had killed his Familiar slithered out of its host, revealing its true form, a squelch of writhing blood.
Then, it took on a different form, that of a human, but only in shape. The thing still remained nothing more than rippling sentient crimson fluid.
It took Elijah far longer than it should have to realise that it was imitating him. Since coming here, his body had changed, and he didn’t immediately recognise his silhouette.
The two, the teen and his blood clone, stood there for a moment in silence. One shocked and the other… curious? It was impossible to determine the emotions of something so inhumanely inhuman.
It was in that moment of quietude that a furious wind stoked the fires of anger into a raging inferno. With tears in his eyes and fury in his heart, Elijah lashed out, intent on avenging his bird-self.
His fist struck the first thing he truly felt was a monster. He wanted violence; he wanted this thing to splatter the scorched earth; he needed it to die.
What he wanted didn’t matter. What he needed didn’t matter. The mass of blood latched onto his arm, completely unbothered by his strike, a strike stronger than anyone on Earth would have been capable of. It began seeping into his skin.
Elijah screamed in horror and outrage as he was swallowed up by the red tide; his frantic attacks did nothing to stop the blood from passing straight through his skin.
In seconds it was gone, and he had no way left to fight. He could feel it, pumping through his veins, out of reach… unless.
Elijah used what little Mana he had recovered since the beginning of the summoning to try and cast the spell that ruptured all his blood vessels in the winter world; he would not be controlled by this thing!
He didn’t have enough of his blue bar to use it on all his body at once, so he instead aimed just for his brain. He would sooner die of an aneurysm than give in to such a vile thing.
He pushed at the mana in his blood, used it to break open a number of capillaries inside his skull, and fought through the searing headache with pyrrhic glee.
He felt it as the tiny veins and arteries were sealed over by the monster swimming inside him. Despite his efforts, his Health actually began to rise slowly.
“No!!” Elijah shouted in desperation.
The light that had been streaming out from the portal suddenly cut off as the opening winked shut. There was a moment of stillness before darkness claimed the young man; a darkness from which he knew he would never wake.
C?o?n?g?r?a?t?u?l?a?t?i?o?n?s?!?
You have bounded with y???o???u???r??? Familiar!
+10 Vitality
+5 Strength
You have gained the Trait: Bloody Regeneration
You have gained the Skill: Blood Manipulation
Blood Regeneration: A
Your own blood heals you; you gain +10 Health per second. The blood of others can also be used for a burst of healing.
Blood Manipulation: B
This Skill allows you to manipulate blood using your own Mana. With this Skill, the process becomes a part of you, and you no longer have to think to use basic blood magics.
