Born in Blood

Chapter 390 Bloodbath

As the three Imperialists watched incredulously, the arc of void spread out in a thin but wide arc.

WHOOM!

It was Honed, splitting apart air, reality, and three Zeniths in one stroke, and disappearing just as fast.

It was done.

They were too dumbstruck to know what was happening before their eyes.

Granted, they began flying once they realized the sheer danger that radiated from the purple mass.

But it was too late.

Their lower halves decided to part ways with the upper, slowly separating with a wet squelch.

A moment later, the cut the Void had made needed to be restored.

SSHHHHHHH!

All three of them were smashed together briefly as the?deleted matter reformed.

They fell down like little birds shot down from the sky, each one smashing into the ground, barely alive.

Liam landed above the sandworm's corpse, greedily gasping for air with his head to the sky, teeth broken, chipped and stained with several shades of blood.

Boiling hot steam puffed out with each long breath, pumped through a set of burning lungs.

His cloak was fully white, with the hood covering the top of his head.

The Zeniths lay at his feet.

Brutalized and broken, limbs crushed and bodies dismembered.

He stood above their bodies, dreadfully terrifying in his own right.

Horrified, wide-eyed spectators were watching with jaws swung wide open.

The battle wasn't gentle or quiet at all.

They were civilians and cultivators, watching their leaders and protective forces get beaten down by a four-armed animal.

It was obvious this was an Abomination.

The worst kind.

Slowly, Liam's breathing steadied.

His gaze was still aimed at the sky.

Laughter.

Liam threw his head back and laughed.

Three Zeniths!

He'd killed three Zeniths by himself!

Who could boast of such an achievement?

Not many.

Maybe none at all.

Sure, he'd sacrificed an arm, most of his teeth, some bones, eight fingers and more than 75% of his blood.

...So?

He'd get it all back!

For now, he reveled in this moment.

This was a milestone in his journey, one he wouldn't forget.

A long silence.

Slowly, his breathing returned to a calm rhythm.

Enough reveling.

Liam slowly lowered his gaze, noticing the thousands of horrified civilians still looking at him like some sort of escaped lion from a zoo.

The cultivators among them didn't look confident in the least.

Their strongest died.

What hope did they have?

Still, that didn't mean they'd accept getting killed without a fight.

But their legs trembled and their confidence was nonexistent.

Not to mention, with each minute that passed, Liam's terrible wounds slowly closed up and healed!

But even in this horribly weakened state, they didn't attack.

'Still more to kill,' Liam thought, spitting out a few loose teeth. 'I'm a mess.'

Then, he quickly grabbed the upper half of Erika's body, clutching her head above his mouth.

KRSH!

Gulp. Gulp. Gulp.

A long stream of blood poured straight through Liam's throat, invigorating him from within.

Liam let out a satisfied sigh.

'That's better.'

'I'll have to interrogate Merisa, though. She's still alive.'

Liam glanced back at the gawking crowd.

"You can start running now," Liam said to them, heaving another sigh as he took slow steps towards them. "It ends the same, though."

Silence.

As the odachi hissed through the air, screams rang out.

It was a bloodbath.

***

Once, the toxic dome acted as a shield from the outside, protecting the colony from cruel and powerful Abominations.

Now, it was a cage to stop anything from escaping.

Anything.

And soon enough, everything within the dome had been exterminated. No survivors whatsoever.

Liam made a passable effort at cleaning the place up.

By now, he devoured most of the bodies in four or five bites, stuffing them down his stomach to regain his strength.

Quite honestly, Liam had never pictured himself as a monster.

But seeing a three-armed creature seizing an old woman and shoving her into his mouth was… sort of terrifying.

At the end of the massacre, he went back to Merisa.

She was laying with her back to a fang building, her eyes drooping with exhaustion, her body limp.

Liam used Transfiguration on Merisa's body to stop her from passing out from blood loss.

The lower half of her body was a crude stump, a padding of skin and flesh to stop her entrails from pouring out.

Since Liam's blood had arrived at the upper-tier, his Transfiguration had gotten much better at transforming things other than himself.

Not enough to cause significant or rapid amounts of damage.

Plus, it wasn't good for battle.

But for healing wounds and keeping people alive, it was a decent addition to have.

When using Transfiguration on other people, Liam called it 'Disfiguration'.

Merisa looked up at Liam with a weak gaze, who stared at her as though she was a bug.

Quite frankly, Liam didn't know if she would give him anything.

Probably wouldn't.

But it didn't matter!

Liam had the King's Eye, after all.

Depending on his answer, her mental waves will falter and move.

Once, reading a Zenith's thoughts was extremely difficult.

But now, thanks to how far he'd come with the Psionic Rune, and how weakened Merisa was, her mind was much easier to snoop into.

"Tell me about the closest, weakest colony from here," Liam said, careful not to ask too many questions back to back.

That would change topics too fast, and her mind would become a mishmash of different thoughts.

As soon as Liam asked that, a thought appeared in Merisa's mental sphere.

Liam hid a smile from his face. 'Further south. The Flea Demon colony.'

In reality, her mouth moved to voice a vicious curse at him.

"Who's your superior?" Liam asked.

Silence.

A name appeared in Merisa's thoughts.

'Nooran. Dangerous, from what she thinks about her,' Liam thought pensively. 'Best avoid her for now.'

Once more, Merisa cursed at him.

"Know anything about the war?" Liam asked one last time. "Why it's happening?"

Silence.

Liam's eyes narrowed.

Merisa didn't know much.

Nothing too detailed.

The war was happening at the 'Line', where the Empires' lands met.

But this battle wasn't over an argument.

It was over?something