– Blood (15 units)
Corven wiped his mouth, grimacing as he spat a thin stream of tainted blood onto the mossy ground.
"The flavor… it absolutely reeks," he muttered, voice cold and dry, his lips curling in disgust.
A metallic rot lingered on his tongue—like rusted iron soaked in swamp water. Not just unpleasant. Foul. Sickening.
He glanced around, his crimson eyes narrowing.
"I wonder where these things are coming from…"
Moving quickly now, he stalked the shadows like a wraith, retracing the paths of the corpses he'd felled earlier. His feet glided over the damp forest floor with practiced grace, ears twitching at even the subtlest changes in the air.
Then—another disturbance.
A sharp shift in pressure.
More sounds.
More corpses, dragging their ruined bodies through the trees.
He moved again, fluid as a shadow slipping between tree trunks. This new group—two again—emerged just behind the route taken by the previous batch.
"It looks like they're heading in one direction…" he murmured, eyes scanning their staggering steps.
"And coming from one as well."
He pulled his bow free in a single smooth motion. Two quick shots echoed softly, like whispers of death.
Arrows flew.
Both targets dropped, lifeless before they even hit the ground.
Corven dropped down with silent grace, landing between their twitching bodies. He sank his fangs in without hesitation—despite the bile rising in his throat.
The taste was worse this time. Almost putrid.
Still, he drank. He had to.
– Blood (19 units)
"I'm gonna end up vomiting at this rate…" he muttered, wiping his mouth with the back of his gloved hand, stomach beginning to churn from the putrid blood he'd been consuming.
Then he paused, eyes drifting toward the direction all these spawns had been coming from… and the one they seemed to be heading toward.
"The graveyard… to the town?" he deduced aloud, the puzzle pieces slowly clicking into place.
"Guess I'll investigate."
Without wasting another second, he took off.
He weaved through trees, ducking beneath low-hanging branches and leaping over twisted roots. More vampire spawns stumbled across his path—drawn like moths to something unknown.
He ignored them.
There was a greater threat brewing, and he had to find it.
He reached it.
The graveyard.
The same graveyard where he had first awoken into this strange new world, cursed and reborn.
Vaulting over the rusted black iron fence, he landed amidst the tombstones and sinking soil.
"What the…" he whispered.
The ground moved.
Corpses—one after another—clawed their way out from the earth. Their skin pallid. Ripped. Marred by vicious bite marks.
His bite marks.
Each body wore his fangs' signature.
Each one… connected to him.
Then suddenly—
A presence.
Different.
Cold. Ancient. Amused.
"That's odd… a fledgling vampire?" a voice spoke with mocking curiosity.
Corven turned toward the source.
A figure leaned casually against the iron fence, his smile lazy, eyes glowing faintly with malicious delight.
He wore a simple coat that draped over his entire body, leaving only his pointed ears and dark hair visible.
"I thought I made sure only to make basic spawns," the man said, voice silken and cruel.
"I never planned to have kin." He laughed softly, a sound that crawled beneath Corven's skin.
Corven stared at the man.
A vampire.
A true one.
Far beyond Corven's cursed half-state.
"What are you planning?" Corven demanded, forcing the question through clenched teeth.
The vampire straightened, brushing dust off his long coat as he stepped forward.
"Me?" he echoed, his grin widening. "I just want to have some fun. Like… overrunning the nearby village with a small army of corpses."
Corven's limbs stiffened.
His body wouldn't move.
As if shackled by invisible chains.
This was his master.
The one whose blood made his.
The one who held sway over his cursed soul.
"Well… this is a blessing in disguise for me," the vampire said with a dark chuckle. He strolled closer, each footstep strangely quiet on the graveyard soil.
"Now then…"
He bared his fangs.
"Shall I finish what I accidentally started?" he mused, voice low and teasing. "Or would you rather stay as my broken toy?"
[Blood Codex Interference]
[Codex Override Triggered: Kin-Bond Severance Initiated]
Suddenly—
Corven's blood surged.
It wasn't pain, not exactly.
More like heat. Pressure. A violent reshaping beneath the surface of his skin.
His veins glowed faintly, dark red pulsing like molten iron coursing through them. The essence of his body twisted—DNA splitting and mutating in real time. Like some unseen hand was rewriting the code of his very existence.
'What…?'
The thought barely formed before everything inside him began to shift.
Muscles tightened. Instinct sharpened.
And with it—control returned.
His limbs, frozen just moments before, now trembled with raw energy. He could move again.
Across from him, the true vampire's expression changed.
A raised brow.
Eyes narrowing slightly.
He was witnessing something he hadn't planned for—something he didn't understand.
The air thickened with tension.
Corven could smell it. Taste it.
His blood was different now.
Still vampiric… but altered.
Stranger. Wilder. Untethered.
The true vampire took a step forward, brows furrowing in morbid fascination.
"What in the world… are you?" he asked, his voice a low growl, laced with curiosity and unease.
But it was too late.
Corven vanished in a puff of black smoke—reappearing meters away, backpedaling through the shadows like a phantom retreating from death's grasp. The mist curled around his form like a cloak as he skidded to a halt on the damp graveyard soil.
His bow was already drawn.
Arrow nocked. Tension humming in the string.
"That plan…" he said, voice colder than moonlight, "is gonna come to an abrupt stop."
The vampire stared, then threw back his head and laughed.
A rich, echoing sound—one filled with thrill, madness, and excitement.
His fangs flashed beneath the pale light.
Crimson eyes glowing with an unnatural gleam, burning like coals.
"How interesting," he snarled, his grin widening with devilish anticipation.