BLOOD MUTANT SYSTEM.-Chapter 444: CH: SPIT IN THE FACE

*SPLAT*

The moment Ace saw the opportunity, he destroyed the sibling clones by expanding the blood inside their bodies until they burst apart into piles of skin, bone, and flesh.

Their splattered remains landed to Gravax’s left and right, their blood spilling all over the red-scaled Granian.

Unfazed and unimpressed by Ace’s violent display of wrongly directed aggression, the Granian frowned as he used his long tail to wipe the spilled blood off his face, keeping his hands calmly behind his back.

"I liked you better when you were unconscious, Ace," he sneered with a sigh. "Don’t you think I already knew about Jim and Anya’s abduction? Don’t you think all of Planet Grania knows?

"The Granian responsible for loosing them is paying dearly for his impudence, and here you are throwing tantrums like a child.

"Instead of allowing me to show you what we’ve been doing since you lost consciousness, you attack and send your blood puppets to kill my soldiers—the very soldiers who are on your side."

Frustrated, Gravax cursed Ace inwardly. Once he regained his composure, he looked at the Blood Prince again and slowly grinned.

Why?

"What’s the matter, Ace?"

Gravax grin widened when he noticed the mortified expression on the Blood Prince’s face.

"Did you think I would not account for this?"

The splattered guts, bones, skin, and flesh began to move.

They reattached and regenerated.

Within seconds, the Granian sibling clones stood whole again.

Their regenerative abilities were unlike anything Ace had ever seen, especially for beings who were not Blood Mutants like himself.

’They transformed...used blood abilities...and they look like us. What the hell are these things exactly?’

"Put him down."

Acting instantly on Gravax’s command, Granian Ace appeared beside the real Ace and delivered a powerful kick to his head. Using the momentum of the strike, Granian Ace forced Ace to the ground and pinned him there.

Ace could have easily escaped from beneath Granian Ace’s foot. But he hesitated. He still knew nothing about his counterpart’s strengths or weaknesses—and making the wrong move could end badly.

"What do we have here?"

The loud, proud, and all-too-familiar voice Ace grew accustomed to made him sigh.

The Granian ruler, Lord Grania, pranced to the scene with the same pompous, arrogance he carried with him everywhere he went.

"You finally woke up from slumber," Grania greeted while helping Ace to his feet. "This red-scaled brainiac of a Granian found a way to amaze you, didn’t he? I see you’ve already met yourself if you were Granian! Hahahaha!!!"

He forcefully patted Ace on the back with a loud, obnoxious laugh.

Ace didn’t know how to process any of it.

The creation of the clones.

The loss of Jim and Anya, and now the creation of the Human X Granian X Blood Mutant hybrids that looked disturbingly like him and his sister churned a storm of emotions within him.

It led him to ask himself one question.

’How long was I out for?’

’You’re asking the wrong question.’ 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

The same voice that commanded Ace to kill and consume the blood of the maidens in the castle spoke to him again.

Its tone was condescending, but its words pointed toward something Ace had been stubbornly ignoring.

’Have you asked yourself why they were so quick to create cloned versions of you and your sister? Does it not bother you how easily they replaced Jim and Anya?

’Those two imitations bested and defeated your commanders and, if they were left to do as they wished, they would have injured you horribly. Does it not concern you that you dismembered them and they regenerated immediately?

’Does it not bother you that they possess Blood Mutant abilities, Granian combat techniques, and your appearance? Nothing about this doesn’t make you question anything?’

As the voice forced this realization upon him, Ace began to think more deeply.

He stayed silent, observing how even Lord Grania treated the clones—with a strange level of respect, almost like equals. Perhaps even superiors.

These were replacements. His and Cherry’s replacements.

A way for the Granians to indirectly tell the Blood Mutants that they were no longer one hundred percent reliant on them nor were they afraid of loosing them. This was them telling Ace that he and Cherry were no longer as crucial to the war as they once were.

And what do people do to people, things, or tools they have no use for anymore?

’Accept it, Ace,’ the voice spoke calmly, its cold tone emphasizing the truth ’you are just a tool. To them, you’re another one of their pawns to victory. And once they achieve said victory....’

Deep down, Ace had always known. He knew he and the others were taken from Earth to fight a war they had nothing to do with. He knew their future after the war was uncertain.

But he didn’t expect the Granians to be so blatant about it.

Making a cloned version of him with the physiques of a Granian was a mockery, an insult, a direct challenge, a middle finger to his face. And giving that imitation Blood Mutant abilities made it even worse.

’There is one thing that mockery of an imitation doesn’t have that you do.’ the voice said.

’What’s that?’

’My power.’

[Ding]

[End Goal Quest]

[Eradicate the Granian Ace]

[The system has given you an End Goal Quest]

[Once you complete the End Goal Quest, you will progress onto the next stage]

[WARNING!!!]

[Your End Goal Quest cannot be completed until you complete your Main Quest]

[Main Quest]

[Become a Blood God]

There was only one problem.

Despite his instincts urging him to kill the Granians. Despite the system tempting him with rewards. Despite the Blood God himself forming a pact with him, Ace couldn’t do it.

Not yet. Why?

Brainwashing.

He, Cherry, and Skyler didn’t know it yet but the cylindrical containers were more than incubation chambers. They were a covert way the Granians kept the humans under control. And Ace had spent more time inside them than any other human.

It was the reason he couldn’t lay a finger on any Granian even if he tried. Not that he didn’t want to, he just couldn’t do it...yet.