It was the next day, we were still camped, I knew where we were going next, another one of my clones found an Alacryan force underground, around the same size as well. It was early in the morning, a lot of the soldiers were still sleeping, I was the only one who fought, but we travelled a decent amount yesterday.
I stepped out of my tent and made my way to the one next to me. "Lance Virion." The guard in front bowed as I got closer to him. I don't know his name, but he was the person in charge of guarding the Alacryan.
"You can take a break; I want to speak with him alone." I told the soldier, and he nodded, and left. I could sense that Melody and Callias were in their tents. Yesterday, I didn't really get to talk to the soldier, he was passed out when he got here.
I stepped into the room, the soldier had cuffs on his wrist and ankles, his wounds were healed, thanks to me, and he was laying on a bed, awake, staring at me in horror. "Don't kill me." He immediately said.
His brown hair was soaked in sweat, it was short, he was skinny, not too muscular, and he had a birth mark on his cheek. I could also tell he wasn't that strong, I didn't know his powers, but I think a non mage could defeat him.
"I won't." I replied. "But I have some questions, and I don't need you to answer them, but it would be appreciated if you did." If he didn't, I would just torture him, which I know that means I lied.
"Oh, okay." He sat up, and I conjured an ice chair across from him, making him flinch slightly.
"I'm sorry, I killed all your people, but I was only doing what I had to." I told him first, then went on. "What's your name?" I asked, wondering who this man was, I tilted my head at him.
"M-my name is Leon." He answered, a cool name for a soldier.
"Leon, are you from a named blood house?"
"No, my family isn't named." He replied, so he didn't belong to any household, that's probably why he was so weak.
"What are you? A Striker, Shield?" I was just trying to be nice, make slight conversation with him.
"I-I am a Striker." Really? He's a Striker.
"What's your ability? Do you have a rune? Crest?" I leaned back, staring at the man.
"I have two runes." He answered, and I waved my hand for him to continue. "One that allows me to surround my spear with wind, and the other allows me to leap higher than normal people." That makes sense, that's why he seemed so weak to me, he was.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot to introduce myself, I am ---" He cut me off before I could finish.
"You are the Devil of Dicathen, you have to be, a child that can control blood, we were warned to stay away from you, we didn't even see you coming." He admitted to me. "You are feared by all Alacryan soldiers."
"Well, my name is Virion, I rather you call me that." I sent him a smile. "What are you supposed to do if you see me? I know you said run away, but there has to be more." I conjured an ice dagger in my hand, and Leon just stared at it.
"We report it, and we are told to track you if we can in secret." Leon continued to stare at the dagger as he spoke. "We were told that someone who could handle you would show up and take care of things."
"And who would that be?"
"A Retainer or Scythe." I twirled the dagger. "You are the strongest person in Dicathen, the biggest threat."
"Second biggest threat." I shrugged, the asuras were the first. "Leon, what should we do with you? I mean, if I would tell my higher ups, that you were here, they would have me bring you to the Floating Castle, and they probably would torture you for information, so, what should I do with you?"
He needed a second to think about what I had just said. "I rather not be tortured." He responded, and I just looked at him. "I won't betray my continent though." I nodded; he didn't answer the question.
"What should I do then? Kill you?" I gestured toward the dagger. "I can't let you go, so what should I do?" I really had no idea; he probably was going to be sent to the Castle though.
He didn't answer, his eyes were fixed on the dagger, and I threw it past his head, not hitting him, but scaring him. "I can be a prisoner here; I'll do whatever is needed." I shook my head, why would we want that. "What? There has to be something I can do to stay here."
"There really isn't." I replied. "We will get back to that question, let me ask you something else." I paused, and then went on. "If I told you that your gods lied to you, what would you think?"
"I wouldn't believe." He responded quickly, he is a man of faith, how cute. "The High Sovereign's word is final, no matter what you say, I'll never believe you." I nodded, I respected that, I wouldn't ruin a man's faith, even if it's towards a god who is mentally insane. Can I call someone mentally insane, if I am?
Wait, oh shit, if Sylvie and I do get together, which is most likely going to happen, Agrona would be my father in law if I got married to her. "Fuck." I said out loud, causing Leon to look at me funny, I shook the thought away. "I respect that, I do, so I won't say anything about your gods." I nodded my head, and then went on. "Where are you from?"
"Vechor."
"You must be a disappointment." I said seriously. "A mage from Vechor that is weak, I thought that Dominion was where strong people came from." I didn't really know; it was just an assumption from what I know. "Anyways, Leon, I like you, I do, you piqued my interest." A weak soldier from Vechor, haha.
"T-thanks?" He stuttered.
I stood up, destroying the ice chair I was sitting on. "Time to think, time to think." I paced in front of him as he stared at me. "I could do that." I had an idea, it could end poorly for this man though, but it might be worth it.
"Do what?" Leon asked me, and I pulled out a tube of blood, it was Erie's. "Is that a tube of blood?"
I stopped moving and smiled at the soldier. "You don't want to be tortured, then let me experiment on you, I won't hurt you as long as you do it willingly, and don't try to run away."
"E-e-experiment?" He said questioningly, and I activated "Blood Oath" and had a little amount of the blood in the tube come out, and float in the air before us. "W-what are you going to do with that?"
"Relax." I conjured an ice dagger and threw it near his hand. "I need you to cut a small wound on your hand." His eyes were wide in horror at the thought. "Unless you want time to think about my offer, I won't force you into this, I am a man of my word." I was starting to get jittery from the thought of doing this, why haven't I tried this yet.
"P-please give me time to think about it." He replied, and I nodded, allowing him to do that. "Thanks."
"Alright, you had time, what's the decision?" I sent him a smile. "You are a prisoner; you are lucky I am giving you the choice." I think I was being reasonable to some degree; I could feel the Serpent slithering in my core, it wanted me to kill this man, I wanted to, but I was controlling it.
"Fine!" He exclaimed, took the dagger, and slit a small mark on his hand. "You'll allow me to stay here without being tortured?"
"You have my word." I nodded, moving the blood in the air towards his hand. "I have no clue what the hell is going to happen, this may be torture, but it may not be." His eyes widened as I pushed the Vritra blood from Erie into his wound, and then started to concentrate on it, binding that blood to his blood, making it one on a molecular level.
He closed his eyes, like he was in pain, but I kept on going, not caring. I stopped when I thought it was good enough, and then he spoke. "Are you done?" He opened his eyes, staring at me.
"Yes." I replied. "I thank you for your cooperation."
"Ahh." He made a noise, and blood started to come out of his eyes, like tears. "What? It burns, it burns!" I just watched and felt as his blood came out of his pores, his eyes, his ears, I think I just killed him. "What is going on?!"
The tent flap opened, and Callias came in. "Veer?" He said questioningly looking at the soldier and me. "Stop, what are you doing?" Callias gripped my shoulder, but I shrugged it off.
"I'm not doing anything anymore." I told him. "Damn, I was hoping for something a little more entertaining, like horns growing from his head, but not this." The soldier fell over, gasped once, and then fell to the ground motionless, dead.
"Veer?!" Callias said again, and I put the tube of Erie's blood away. "What did you do?"
"It wasn't like he knew anything we needed to know, so stop questioning me." I told Callias with a straight face. "All I did was put a Retainer's blood into his body to try to create a Vritra blooded human."
"You tried to combine two different sets of blood?" He asked, and I nodded. "Veer, there are different types of blood." I just stared at him in confusion. "I-I don't even want to explain it to you, but don't try this again ever, that man just died a very painful death because of you."
I shrugged at him. "So what? He wasn't from Dicathen, I am just as sad as he is, I'm just not dead." I wanted that to work, I could become an asura, but what a shame. "What do you mean different blood though?"
"I know you don't feel remorse, but what you just did was awful." I waved my arms in the air, showing that I didn't care. "You placed a different person's blood in someone, you can't do that, it's that simple."
"Oh, my bad." I said. "Someone should have told me." Callias just stared, and then I went on. "Have someone clean this up, and we don't speak about it to anyone, is that understood?" I know Callias and I were friends, but I had to be a little rude.
He stared, then spoke up. "I will." He paused, turned to the body. "But Veer, please, next time, if you want to do something like this, let me know, or someone, this isn't right, I know you are struggling mentally, so I understand, and I won't report it to Commander Virion."
"Thanks, Callias." I said nicely, changing the tension to one a little lighter. "I am sorry, I really didn't want that to happen, I thought, if anything, nothing would happen, not that he would die."
"I know." Callias nodded. "Go, I'll take care of this." I gave one last look towards Leon, he was nice, and then I left the tent.
I scratched my head as I made my way back to my tent, I don't feel bad that I killed him, knowing he was from Alacrya, I just thought something more interesting would happen, not that what I just witness wasn't interesting, because it was.
I entered my tent and sat down on my bed, there has to be a way to make myself an asura, there just has to be. I couldn't have Sylvie sacrifice her life, I care about her too much, and that couldn't be the only way.
I can literally control blood, why can't I combine two types of blood? Maybe it has to be my blood, I mean, I am a Blood Deviant, so my blood is special, but after seeing that man's blood come out of his eyes and ears, I don't think I should try it on myself.
It could also be that I couldn't just combine blood so simply, I don't know how else I would do it, but there's no point in thinking about it anymore for now. I have to focus on what is ahead, somewhere in Dicathen there is a large force hidden, and I intend to find it.
I just don't know what I'll do when we do find it.