Born in Blood

Chapter 386 Control Room

After killing the first Zenith, Liam followed after the other.

These two were patrolling the outside of the colony.

By extension, they were the weakest compared to all the others.

'I have to watch out for Merisa, whoever that is.'

'The two Zeniths were afraid of whoever that was,' Liam thought.

He continued for an hour straight, keeping away from sight and avoiding the areas with the highest population of civilians.

Eventually, he caught up to the other woman.

Sighing repeatedly, she had a downtrodden look in her blind eyes.

With her head lowered, she obviously didn't expect a battle of any kind.

'This'll be easier, then.'

Liam entered the Sea of Darkness and unsheathed his Black Blade.

Then, brown Corruption flared from his fingers and slowly spread across its edge.

Corruption couldn't actually leave Liam's fingers.

However, he could force it to stretch and extend.

As long as Liam maintained contact between the Corruption and whatever he was enveloping, it wouldn't break off.

'Doing this makes me use more if it, though.'

And there was a limit on how much Corruption Liam had, anyway.

Slowly, the woman was approaching.

A moment prior, Liam swam into a fang building closest to the road.

She rounded the corner.

Now!

Time slowed.

Liam pointed his finger at her neck as soon as she passed by.

At the same time, Liam was using Hone on a condensed chunk of mental energy, creating a precise slash invisible to the human eye.

On his finger, blood condensed to a marble-sized droplet, which then exploded forward at incredible speed, paired with the Honed slash.

It was a Sanguine String, except much more powerful.

The Imperialist didn't expect either.

BOOM!

Her neck folded as the Sanguine String rammed through it with incredible force.

It wasn't enough to kill her.

She was alive.

But the Honed slash found its way through her brain.

On the outside, there was no visible wound.

Not a droplet of blood.

But within, a small patch of her sea of consciousness had been sliced off.

...But she was still alive!

With quick thinking, the Imperialist used an ethereal Abomination to substitute for her sliced off barrier.

It acted like a bandage for her mind.

Liam cursed.

Instantly, her spider lurched towards the wall where the attack came from, the scythe-like fangs attempting to scissor it in half.

BANG!

The wall was clipped, sending chunks of obsidian flying everywhere.

Liam was yanked out of the shadows due to the sudden attack.

The Imperialist was out of commission, probably repairing her mental sphere as much as she could.

The spider was the only obstacle between the two of them, but it looked strong, looking at Liam with its hundred, shadowy irises stored between its legs.

It was stronger than the previous spider Liam fought.

But if the Zenith managed to get back into the fight, it'd get a whole lot harder to win.

'It dies, now.'

Thus, with a low growl, Liam charged in with all four blades, blurring into a streak intent on carving through the Abomination.

But the hundred eyes weren't for show.

Despite using all the speed in his body, the spider perfectly tracked Liam's movements like he was going in slow motion.

Liam couldn't even use his King's Eye to connect with it, since he'd just be bombarded with different perspectives.

Liam swung with all four blades to slice off a leg.

He missed.

The spider dodged.

In one fluid motion, the spider's scythe-fangs converged on Liam's waist.

CLING!

Liam used his Dusk Blades to hold the scythes off, but two fangs emerged from its chin, swiping upward through the cloak and digging into Liam's back.

Liam activated Obsidian Skin.

The fangs pierced right through, injecting a viscous yellow liquid into his back, liquefying his muscles.

Pain shot through him.

Pissed off, Liam jammed his Black Blade and Breaker into the tarantula's face, then spread the blades outward, sending flesh and grime in all directions.

Next, with the fangs still lodged into his back, Liam vaulted over the giant spider and found the Imperialist, sprawled over the ground and clutching her neck.

It seemed like she couldn't scream.

Having one's sea of consciousness cut out was much, much more painful than one can imagine.

It made even thinking feel like death.

Spotting Liam, she weakly raised her hand to command an Abomination to attack him.

A second later, her hand was gone.

Severed.

She wanted to scream.

Liam sent her a glare.

She still wanted to scream, but had no energy to.

Liam's face was hard.

Hard and annoyed and severely pissed off.

"Where's Merisa?" Liam asked with dead eyes.

Silence.

Liam used Piercing Blade to poke into the sliced off patch of mental sphere.

The Imperialist grimaced in pain.

But she still couldn't scream.

"One more time. Merisa. Where?"

The Imperialist winced with pain.

She just wanted relief.

She couldn't even use the Self Implosion Abomination to sacrifice herself and attempt to kill Liam.

Thus, she pointed towards a specific building past a cluster of fangs and teeth-like structures.

Now that Liam took a closer look at it, there weren't any civilians surrounding it.

Liam nodded at her.

He swiped the odachi across her neck, then proceeded to wipe out all traces of his stay.

After killing five more Zeniths and interrogating them, Liam decided that it was enough.

'If I kill any more, they might get suspicious of the silence.'

'There's only three Zeniths remaining.'

'I haven't seen them switch up their posts, but they use vultures Abominations to contact one another.'

'They don't use Jades, apparently.'

Liam glanced at Merisa's building.

Through his methods of 'interrogation', Liam found out Merisa was in control of the colony.

And whatever Abomination was lurking beneath the ground.

This made her dangerous.

At the same time, he also found out there was a 'lock down' method for the toxic dome barrier.

It wouldn't inform anyone outside of the colony, nor was it a rare occurrence.

Most of the time, it was due to a strong Abomination somehow piercing through the barrier.

If that was the case…

Liam could make sure no one escaped, and he could make all the noise he wanted.

As long as he got to that so-called 'control room' and activated the mechanism.

Thus, Liam forced himself to rest for a few hours, before making a beeline towards the building.