"Is that all?" the head warden inquired.
"Yes," Valentine nodded. Having finished narrated her encounter with Ezra.
Though suspecting, the head warden didn't press on.
Regardless, they'd been able to get the needed blood sample-it was a satisfactory outcome.
That said…
"You will not be going back into that cell any time soon"
"What?"
"Meeting him as an Expert is far too risky. You'll have to ascend to master rank"
"We had a deal!"
"Yes, we did. That's why I'm not chasing you away right now. But, while you stay here, you will do as you're told"
"And do what? Become a master? You say that as if it's easy"
"It's neither impossible. You'll be paired with the two female squad leaders around. They'll be your teachers" he stared at her. "If you can't ascend master rank with their help, you'll never be able to achieve it otherwise"
While reluctant, she nodded stiffly.
The head warden walked away. "I'll notify your teachers. Training begins tomorrow"
With Valentine's exit, Ezra gripped his head in complete dismay while stripping off the restricting braces.
'If Ziltris was given primal blood, that'll explain things…I'm in trouble'
A headache was coming on.
Ezra cancelled his plans to keep treading the path alone and wrote to Fredrick immediately.
An hour later…
'This is a disaster'
A calamity had struck.
Rather, Ezra only realized it was a calamity.
The transformation of a master to Grandmaster brought many perks, but the biggest difference was the forming of a core.
A mana core.
Previous ranks had the user drawing mana into the body, culminating it to a certain level before directing them through set paths of the body.
Reaching Grandmaster rank, an orb formed at the center of the chest, dubbed a mana core by the Oranian ancestors.
This core, known to come in a variety of colours, would then automate the process of mana absorbing, taking mana from the atmosphere to condense and then refine the mana, purifying it to match that of a mana stone.
Only, a thousand points of atmospheric mana equated 0.01 of mana stone quality-a dastardly conversion rate.
'My mana core-he destroyed it!'
Only then did Ezra realize why he'd felt such excruciating pain when the Emperor's attack permeated his body.
His newly formed mana core was broken, then his meridians were shattered.
Inquiring if mana cores could be remade, Fredrick was unsure, but Ezra didn't think it impossible.
In fact, thinking deep, he had a solution on ground.
'The demon blood within me, if I use that, I could probably fix it'
The blood of demons had extreme healing powers, coating the blood on the broken core would reform it, returning it to a state even better than normal.
Alas, the blood of demons had a corrosiveness equal to, or even surpassing its insane healing ability.
Healing it with demon blood meant his mana core would be tainted with demon energy.
In turn, all the processed mana would be tainted with demon energy, increasing the rate of demonization.
The corrosiveness of a demon's blood wasn't referring to toxicity. It was referring to personality corruption.
And it was already happening to Ezra.
'All that talk about pride…this is bad'
As he inferred from Ziltris, the man was the King of pride's emissary and someone whose demonization rate was hundred.
That led to his prideful gait and manner of speaking. Also, he wouldn't have been able to transform otherwise.
It was also why he referred to humans as 'them', at a hundred percent of demonization, one was no more human, but a demon taking human form.
'And I drank his blood?! Dammit!'
The entire situation had just messed up.
His plans had completely flipped.
Eating the heart of a normal demon wouldn't have influenced him much, and the rate of demonization would be far smaller.
'I also wouldn't have advanced to Grandmaster rank'
The first problem.
With his blood affinity, Ezra quickly dredged Ziltris' blood apart from his own.
A painful process to say the least.
The blood was too potent to just let flow, else the rate of demonization would continue to increase.
It's been almost two months since he killed Ziltris, that time was enough to begin influencing his character.
Leaving it unchecked any longer would have him reaching hundred percent demonization by the end of the year.
'But..' confusion set in. 'What do I do now?'
The plan was to quietly recover strength.
With this development, he now had to actively stop himself from recovering, else he would truly become a demon.
Ezra held his head in dismay. 'What is this?'
Things were getting even more out of hand.
Completely dredging the blood of its demonic attribute was impossible at this point.
But he succeeded in partially dredging it.
'Even if I do this, what then?'
Once the blood was dredged, would he continuously remove the demonic attributes?
'If I do that I might never recover'
His chances of recovering were already slim and his body was very unstable.
He'd only been able to exert power beyond that of masters because the demon blood was constantly healing him. So, when he removed it, what would happen?
There was no guarantee that he'd be able to fix his meridians with mana stones.
If things weren't wrong, he could regress to early master rank.
Worse, his shattered meridians were unfit for cultivation, he could be unable to advance ever again.
Thinking of potential disasters threatened to freeze his mind.
'Calm down, calm down, calm down, calm down'
Ezra forced himself to calm down, slapping himself to regain rationality.
With his strength, the slap was nothing ordinary, but it got the job done.
He began reviewing the situation from the beginning.
'A broken mana core means my passage to Grandmaster rank is locked. I can't advance otherwise'
'Demon blood would solve this problem but then I'd become a full-fledged demon. That's never happening'
Becoming a half demon happened against his will, but he'd never trade his humanity away willingly.
He looked around the cell. 'I'm here because my blood is useful to them. my demonic blood. Even if I got rid of most of the demonic blood, would they let me go?'
'No, rather, I'll be in a far more vulnerable position' he nodded. 'With my cover blown as well, there's no way they'd let me leave'
The power of his elemental attacks would decrease, drastically lowering his battle strength considering his broken meridians.
He shook his head. 'So, what do I do?'
For one he couldn't leave himself vulnerable for the enemy to pick apart.
After all, the preferential treatment they gave him was in regards to strength.
Regressing in strength would lose his value as a specimen and that could see him dissected.
'I can't become a demon, and I must not lose my strength'
He chuckled, 'Is this what they call 'stuck between a rock and a hard place?' How unpleasant'
He huffed. 'Let's test a few things'
Ezra cheeks inflated, and then…
*Blergh*
Demonic blood was purged from his system.
'Now let's see-
A wave of weakness hit him. As if a bucket load of fatigue was dropped on his muscles, his movements slowed to a slug's walk.
He grew dizzy immediately, his vision blurred and a headache hit him like a thunderstorm.
'Oh man! It hurts!'
He gripped his head, twisting and turning on the cold floor.
After a good minute of that, he sat straight with a pale face, holding his sore throat.
'As expected, demonic blood is the core reason I can utilize such power despite my shattered meridians'
He heaved, 'It's also the reason why my meridians were shattered in the first place'
If he wasn't a demon, the Emperor wouldn't have crippled him.
'If Ziltris hadn't appeared, I wouldn't be in mess. Sending a grandmaster to kill a kid. Tch!'
He grinded his teeth just thinking about it, forgetting that the 'Grandmaster' had lost.
'How did he even know about me?' he suddenly wondered. 'Even mother didn't know, or it is something else'
Ziltris' persistence on killing him or turning him to a demon was beyond something garnered from a regular feud.
'Did he discover the link between me and Black Jaws?'
That could be it, but Ezra thought differently.
'Even if so, he'd be better off targeting Fredrick-why me?'
Honestly, if not for the supernatural feeling of danger guiding him, he would've surely been killed.
'That too, what was it?'
The feeling faded on point with Ziltris' death or was it the Life Ark's appearance?
This was why he wasn't alerted to the incoming Grandmaster until it was too late.
'I remember…inheriting Ziltris' memories?'
He scratched his head. He could remember getting glimpses of Ziltris' life, but at the time he swept it aside because of the Life Ark's appearance.
He'd heard of such in his past life, but he couldn't confirm it.
Now, he seemed to have forgotten the contents.
'What was that about that again?'
Scratching his hair to come up with nothing, Ezra threw the topic to the back of his mind
So many questions, so little answers.
Ezra sighed. 'I hope the others are faring better than I am'
The situation was upsetting, frustrating and depressing, but Ezra's been through worse.
That didn't make it any less bad, but he was able to cope better than most would.
Another heavy slap landed on his face by himself.
'I can't start bothering with what's happened-it's happened' he reminded himself. 'Now…what's the next move?'
His estimations for the apocalypse' arrival are too vague, so the more prepared he was, the better.
'Wait' he paused. Going back to the original question that led him down his thoughts hole.
Now sure that the demonic blood was essential to maintain strength, he had checked out a few other things.
A month passes.
