Vampire: World of Blood-Chapter 101: Deeper Than One Self

Merciless and Anatasia began to stare at the Nyrtha look-alike, their gaze fixed on the imitation, which was hidden among the large majority of the servants present at the time.

"So that person is the one limiting your interference ha?"

Merciless inquired as he began to close his eyes; given his abstract condition, his mind was analogous to water running through hoses known as aether lines, each with an endpoint. In this weird place where it consisted, the network was so complicated that it could not be described or imagined.

But nevertheless, Merciless could still use his mind eye, and even here he felt like he could use them as such all his focus went unto that one Nyrtha imposter hiding among the bunch.

And what Merciless saw could only be called an alien or a monster, for she did not look human at all, to even call her such would be a mockery to the word, yet some features were awfully humanoid.

The instant he lay eyes on her, he felt his thoughts sink into an abyss. Madness approached him from all angles—physically, spiritually, mentally, and conceptually. It didn’t matter; simply seeing her true form for what it was, drove him insane.

Or it should have, but for some inexplicable reason, he wasn’t impacted by seeing her true form what it truly is. The explanation was simple, however, Merciless himself, was vividly unaware of it, but there was a reason why corruption was so desirable to the Andramelech Family, as well as the Loviatar and Solomon clans.

And why they coveted so much.

Well, it isn’t that; it’s just unusual, and it has nothing to do with any type of fictitious situation, such as a chosen one. No, it was considerably simpler than that; by default, only spawns should be able to wield corruption because corruption stems from them originally, but there was one exception to this mystery as to why some people are born with it from birth.

And any alchemist or current scientist who has a relationship with the spawn race would understand why.

The answer was simple: spawns are a race of higher-dimensional creatures with unlimited potential by default. However, they are also a race capable of breeding with every species in existence, similar to the Jahad but more limited, and although others can breed on a conceptual level, lineage variables would need to contribute to such an outcome before even considering it as a possibility.

For instance, individuals of the third line can mate with any biological life form but cannot reproduce with a mind, spirit, or conceptual entity because they are just biological. While someone from the 7th lineage, which regulates cosmic notions of creation, can mate with biological and conceptual creatures due to lineage and physiology as a biological lifeform.

But there was a simple reason why both Merciless and Lucy had some kind of corruption within them. For Merciless, the corruption was so pervasive that even his soul appeared tainted.

The truth of the matter, of course, lay buried deep within Mercy’s ancestral tree: one of his ancestors had procreated with one of these entities, resulting in the reason why he as a human was born with corruption.

The number of generations after that union was unknown, but the blood had diluted over time to the point that every one after that possessed certain spawn qualities that had once originated from the spawn itself.

Common qualities can awaken something known as a "natural gift," though it is more commonly referred to in the spawn race as a "Birthright." Unlike the true authority wielded by higher entities from which these sub-species of humans or any other race originally hailed, these "natural gifts" are significantly inferior. For a subspecies of human and spawn hybrids, this birthright represents a diluted form of power, akin to a spawnling’s lesser authority.

However, the context of awakening such a power in one’s lifetime is extraordinarily rare, even more so than when Mercy is as Merciless, because Mercy before Merciless was not a normal human to begin with, as such Merciless was variant upon his ascension to a vampire.

These qualities only awaken in approximately 7% of the current Homo-Niggurath species—the scientific designation for Merciless’s kind within the House of Ghal. This rarity makes the emergence of such traits a significant event, hinting at the latent potential buried deep within their eldritch lineage.

As of present, if the Hellmorian population were separated from the current extant Homo-Niggurath, the ratio would be 99-1, as just 1% of the Hellmora population is categorized as Homo-Niggurath.

To put it in context, the emergence of one is even rarer than that of superhumans, and if one were to become a superhuman. The awakening of such a being would be akin to the birth of a cataclysm.

The combined potential of spawn and superhuman would result in an entity with abilities that transcend normality from the very beginning. This would create an anomalous existence, not through artificial means, but by nature itself, making them a natural fault in creation and balance as a whole.

Merciless could, as a result, feel higher-dimensional information to some extent; but, after becoming a vampire and acquiring his anomalous vitalist ichor, the strength of his lost heritage which was lowered to a pitiful 1% as each generation passes, and his bloodline thins.

Suddenly began to change, as 1%...

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Suddenly, his dormant spawn lineage surged from 1% to 3%, sparking a minor yet profound evolution that transformed his entire physique. These alterations were subtle, and not immediately visible, but his perception of reality shifted dramatically.

The woman before him remained unchanged in form, yet the madness she induced intensified, or that should have been the case.

Madness inflicted by a spawn naturally stems from their corruption, stemming from perceiving forbidden knowledge, as the highest known corruption originates from the Nuclear Mist outside the entirety of creation, and all spawns are intricately tied to this corruption by default of being products of nuclear chaos as a whole.

Such knowledge was inherently linked to her existence and was almost incomprehensible to those not at the zenith of her plane or realm. Given the potency of a spawn natural corruption, is relative to the peak level of perception of the plain they inhabit even needed to comprehend them to begin with.

As a result, someone from the fourth dimension could easily perceive her because she exists in the third dimension, but if she stepped into the fourth dimension, similar to the third, it would take the peak perception ability of that plane to discern her existence, or something from a higher plane, such as the fifth or sixth dimension.

However, if she exceeds Realm 1 and enters Realm 2, nothing in Realm 1 will or could even begin to imagine or understand her for who or what she is.

However, that no longer applied to Merciless; the lineage was undeniably small. Given the lineage’s low blood potency, his corruption should not have been this great, yet it was more than that of most lesser spawns.

To scale that, 1 represents spawnlings, and 10 is the outer spawn natural corruption output. Merciless, despite this, would be in the range of 4, indicating a lesser spawn reaching higher levels of 0-1.

Albeit, as strong as his corruption is, his body did not possess the capability to project the corruption outward to all states of being. If he had this capability, it would allow him to return to his true form if he were a full spawn.

Holding back corruption simplifies their true self for lower beings, which is why spawns have human forms or as they call it mortal forms. However, as they evolve, maintaining a human form becomes increasingly difficult and incomprehensible.

Therefore, training the potency of their releases is necessary if a spawn wishes to interact with lower beings, as this process brings their information down to a level that those of lower planes can imagine and perceive.

Aside from being able to grasp this woman, one big shift began to occur within Merciless when the potency increased from 1% to 3%; he was far, far from it, yet this proximity closed a gap for but a moment, to a certain extent within himself and it, whatever this thing was, he felt a connection, albeit it was weak, very, very weak.

So much so that he struggled to draw any strength from his new yet strange source. He could feel his corruption becoming stronger, but even that, and what it actually was, remained a mystery to him.

Overall, his depravity and potency were the only things he was continually getting from this mysterious energy. And still, curiosity got the best of him, and he touched the link; there was no way to express how he touched this indefinable connection, but he just did, and that was it. That was when he saw, met, and realized how insignificant he was.

’What the heck is this, wait... Ana, are you there, no... agh, my head hurts, what the hell did eternal evolution do this time?’

Merciless questioned himself: he had no body, no mouth, no awareness of any physical attribute; what he was at this particular instant was consciousness.... no, no!!! It wasn’t that either, Yeah! He could feel it; this form, this condition of being was deeper than that.

Yes, it was as if he was the source of himself, or, more specifically, this was notion, essence, and genesis in its purest form, this was him, who he was, the very idea of self, that was the state he was in at this moment.

And so there was no way to move; all around him was darkness, or better yet, he heard dripping water, almost as if he was in a cave, but it was too dark to see anything in detail; however, as he looked around, he noticed he was still traveling, his will and being connected deeper to this source, more than anything else he is currently connected to.

Deeper than his love for Carmilla

Deeper than his bond with Substance, Ana, and Hector.

And deeper than Michelle, which was the second strongest link he could feel. However, the connection was like a flashing starlight in the immensity of space. He could feel it and see it, but from where he was, that link was nothing more than a star so far away that even if it took all of humanity’s current combined lifespan to reach it, they wouldn’t even cross a fifth of 1% of the distance.

Or that is how he interpreted it.

But as he descended farther into the eternally spread tunnel, he felt and saw it. All about him was an intense sense of familiarity that he didn’t and couldn’t grasp, yet the sheer notion of his presence shouted loudly and clearly. He remembered this spot, but how and why he did not know.

As he looked about, he soon realized it was packed with alien-like dark blue crystals that stretched as far as the eye could see, and an unsettling and threatening presence filled the space around him.

But then that’s when he heard something walk behind him, and the voice of a woman began to speak, although it sounded like she had a momentary confusion in her voice.

"Swa, þu hæfst æt nie cumen to me, Siegfried... Hæfst þu ænige andgiet hú lange ic hæbbe biden? Ac bid, næ... þæt frumstól is his, ac hwi... eart þu...

At that moment, Merciless shifted to the being, and that’s when he finally got a good look at the origin of the source.

In the dim, eerie glow of an otherworldly blue light, she emerges—a vision both captivating and terrifying. This eldritch woman, an amalgamation of beauty and monstrosity, commands attention with her awe-inspiring presence. Her body, sculpted to an almost unreal perfection, boasts curves that defy the natural order. Her ample L-cup breasts, full and imposing, are framed by a sinuous, muscular form.

Her skin was gorgeous ashen gray, as a shade of ethereal blue, shimmering with an unearthly brightness, due to the crystal lights, covering her from all sides. Shadows swirl over her torso, emphasizing the clean planes and precise lines of her shape, while her extended and beautiful limbs move with disturbing fluidity.

Her face, partially covered by the darkness, exposes a chillingly gorgeous smile studded with rows of razor-sharp teeth that shine menacingly.

Her eyes, concealed in the darkness, are the center of her dreadful attraction. Her hair, was a waterfall of ebony, flowing like a river of shadows, blending into the surrounding vacuum.

The background, cloaked in gloomy darkness, well just the darkness that spreads out from her being, appears to pulsate with alien energy. Wisps of misty tendrils curl and twist about her as if the very fabric of reality were bent to accommodate her presence.

The faint silhouettes of hideous shapes and twisted forms lurk in the background, and the atmosphere is dense with unnameable dread, a palpable feeling of gloom that could send shivers down your spine if you were before her presence.

She wore nothing at all; to be very honest, she was fully nude. A better way to describe her was envisioning her as a monstrous, humanoid beast, wild and free, and extremely dangerous, yet flowering with intellect and knowledge much above his own.

Her head tilted as if thinking about something, and she spoke in a language he had never heard before.

"Nā!! Nā!! Ne þencan wē be þǣm... Ic nāt hwæt þū eart, ac ic nāt þæt þū eart hine, ac nā þone hine þe ic nāt, nāt þēah, þæt is sē ān weg ic mæg understandan þīn wunung."

Merciless wanted to say something, but he couldn’t since he didn’t have a corporeal body to call his own; in this condition, he was nothing more than a concept or an origin.

’Honestly, who are you, no better yet where the hell am I?’

Merciless asked himself more than the monstrous beauty before him, and surprisingly the woman answered.

’Ic bidde þé, þæt micel noma is Æthelthryth, Wæpnedraca Beornung, Modor þæra Ealdan, and þes stow is an hlysnung on ðæm Swartan wudu, seó is án þæra mæst deaðlicra heofonlicra gesetnyssa on ðæm Miclan Stitch.’

Yet again, the language was difficult to comprehend, leaving Merciless with little information. It wasn’t until the beauty appeared to understand or better grasp the idea of his displeasure, that she now spoke the same language as Merciless, albeit with an evident accent.

"Thy name is Æthelthryth."

However, just as things were finally getting somewhere, Merciless felt the disconnect, becoming farther detached from whatever he had just accomplished. As time passed, Æthelthryth’s distance from him grew, and her final words were as follows.

"Hmm, ic āh nāne andgietan; þīn ætēowung is his, swā micle ic eom ācenned, ac hwy smēað þū swā swā ān of mīnra cynn, ic ne andgiete hit... swēg, hit līð þæt þū hæfst rūn ūt tīma; wel, þǣr is ān weg tō findan ūt hwy eall þēos is bēonende. Þū þearft tō etan māre āsprincas of þǣm forman līnum tō styrcean þīn blōd þæt wē magon gewyrcan ān rihtweorðan gelimp, swā of riht nū hit is swā wāc ūser ætēowung nis ālīnende rihtlice."

Æthelthryth couldn’t retain English for long due to poor habits, so she nonchalantly returned to her regular style of speaking, allowing Merciless to be left in even more puzzle and wonder as to what the fuck she said. However, he was certain that anything she said was extremely significant. Unfortunately, he was unable to communicate in her language. As such he left here with more questions than answers.

And with that, Merciless vision returned to normal, his eyes or his conscious mind recognizing the monstrous woman disguised as one of the Nyrtha clones. From there he immediately began questioning Ana, as he stated.

"Hey space girl, how long have I been out of it."

Ana instantly looked at him and said.

"What do you mean, you look perfectly fine to me."

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Merciless realizes at that point that it may have been 30-40 seconds or a minute for him, yet nothing appears to have changed in terms of time, not even in the tiniest instant.

As such he said to Ana.

"Ahh, never mind, however, I now know what I am dealing with, return me back, I think I have a way to deal with Zakcry, there is something new I want to try out."

Ana already sensed something sus going on, because of their connection, but didn’t question it, and did as she was told.

"Very well master."

Merciless, on the other hand, started picturing the beauty one final time in his mind, unsure of who or what she was.

’Æthelthryth ha?... Maybe I should ask Silk about her.’

Those were the last words he said to himself before Ana guided his conscious mind out of the Aether lines and back into his physical body.