"Come! Show me what gives you the confidence to contend with the Sea God!"
With a heroic shout, Ria galvanized her aura. The slumbering Sea God bloodline in her body began to boil, coming to the forefront.
In that instant, her appearance went through a massive shift. Aquamarine reptilian scales covered her body, her eyes turned into hollow sockets filled with blue flames, her hair lengthened and seemed to gain sentience, and finally, her mouth turned into a maw of jagged teeth.
The Godbeast Ancestor of the Oga Clan was of a species called Charybdis. The original Charybdis was a gargantuan creature even more terrifying than the Fifth Primal Sovereign, and after her bloodline merged with the Sea God's to create the Oga Clan, the bloodline's monstrosity only grew.
Unfortunately, the Sea God bloodline that the current Sea God Clans carried was heavily diluted. The Sea God and his wives were existences from millions of years ago, after all.
Therefore, unfortunately, Ria's bloodline wasn't anywhere near the original Charybdis in power. It was the same reason she didn't have a beast form of her own, at best having a partial transformation similar to Damien's.
Still, this didn't mean her bloodline wasn't powerful. The second its immense aura blanketed the surroundings, the Oga Clan elders watching the battle were forced to their knees in submission. Zara felt the bloodline's coercive force wrap around her body, arrogantly trying to force her to do the same.
But instead of gritting her teeth and enduring, she scoffed. It wasn't intentional at all, but rather an instinctual reaction.
She didn't even control it.
Nor did she have to rouse her bloodline to counter.
The mystery of Zara's bloodline began at birth. In truth, she never had something like a parent.
There were other wolves Zara grew up with before being chased by the First Dungeon's 40th-floor Boss Wyvern, but none of these were her kin. They merely included her due to their shared species.
Zara, however, never felt a connection to these wolves. She knew from the start just how different she was. After all, her intelligence started developing far earlier than most beasts.
In essence, Zara always felt a sense of loneliness deep within her. The source of this loneliness was none other than her bloodline, the unique part of her being that separated her from all others.
The only one she'd ever felt a true bloodline connection with was Alea.
Through her years of traveling with Damien, she'd been to multiple worlds, multiple realms, fantastical environments with new species she'd never seen before, but never once did these provide any clues about her bloodline.
Alea was the first hint, and the second was the Death Seed.
Through these, she could only confirm that she had some sort of connection with the Nox.
But…did that really explain her bloodline in any way?
As said bloodline voluntarily boiled inside her body, she found herself wondering again: just what was she?
The stronger she got, the closer she got to the answer. For now, though…
Zara's mysterious bloodline flared in response to Ria's challenge, as if insulted by the fact that a mere diluted Sea God bloodline dared even think to compete.
Her beast form became more pronounced, not only growing to its full size of several hundred kilometers, but also becoming more powerful with each passing second.
Woong! Woong! Woong!
A strange sound followed the waves of power fluctuation leaking from her body. Her bloodline aura spread and engulfed Ria's, dying the world black.
This blackness didn't cease. It expanded to cover thousands of kilometers both in distance and height. And as it did, the aura it gave off caused several manifested phenomena.
Death, destruction, blood, violence, brutality, these concepts were only some encapsulated by her aura. Scenes of brutal slaughter, of universal destruction, of unthinkable torture, spread and infected the minds of those trapped in the blackness, submerging them in an inescapable illusion.
"Khh!" Ria let out a strained breath and bit her tongue until it bled, doing her best to keep consciousness.
Her body shivered in fear. Her Sea God bloodline…desperately tried to retreat into her body to escape Zara's bloodline aura.
'What…is…this?!' She panicked inwardly. Never in her life did she expect to encounter a bloodline more powerful than hers, let alone one that trumped her to this extent.
"AHHHHHH!" A piercing shriek came from far away. The Great Elder, among the crowd of Oga Clan Elders, fell to her knees clutching her head.
"STOP! STOP! MAKE IT STOP! AHHHHHH!"
Her soul-rending cries cut through the blackness, inadvertently helping the others regain some sanity. Unfortunately, reality was even more terrifying than those illusions.
The smell of death lingered around them. It felt like perverted hands were crawling up their bodies, grabbing them by the throats and ordering them to submit.
The elders shook, unable to bear the disgusting feeling. The Great Elder was even worse. She was foaming from the mouth, blood leaking from her every orifice.
Only Ria could withstand the bloodline's pressure, albeit barely. Her knees were bent as if begging her to let them touch the ground. Still, she refused to submit.
She glared up into Zara's massive eyes with an unyielding gaze even as her bloodline abandoned her.
She accepted it. She couldn't beat Zara. Even if she used her bloodline earlier, if Zara just used her own, she'd have lost in an instant.
But just because she couldn't win didn't mean she would lose. At the very least, she'd resist until the bitter end.
Zara herself didn't notice the commotion she caused at all. In her mind, a fierce battle was taking place.
She fought against a shadowy being without form, a manifestation of her bloodline. She fought so she could control her body.
There was a reason Zara didn't touch her bloodline often. Whenever it came into effect, she maintained the risk of losing her ego to it, becoming an insatiable slaughter machine.
If Zara lost this fight, there was no hope left for her.
Nonetheless, this fight was one she'd fought endlessly during her time with Tang Lingzi. Controlling her bloodline was half the training she did, and by far the most grueling.
"Not yet! I won't fall to you!" She roared in defiance. Her eyes shone with brilliant golden light, creating a thick mental barrier around her body.
"Jejejeje! Child, why fight? Become one with me, and you will obtain the power to rule the world. Tell me, didn't you want to stand by that little boyfriend of yours?"
Zara gritted her teeth in anger. "You deceptive bitch! What's the point in having power if I have to give up my soul in exchange?! I want to stand by Damien as myself, not the lunatic you turn me into!"
Her mental barrier strengthened to its maximum. The golden light around her spread through the surroundings, cleansing the bloodline's darkness.
"Jejejeje, then it is not time yet. Do not worry, child, for we shall become one in time. When that moment arrives, we will see whether or not you still reject us."
The being's voice faded. The shadows in Zara's spiritual world faded. Now alone, she took many deep breaths to readjust her mental state.
She didn't like the way that being spoke. Even ignoring the strangeness of the fact that it could speak at all, its tone seemed to suggest that Zara would eventually submit to it regardless of the circumstances.
As her consciousness returned to the material world, she made a silent vow to herself; a vow she'd made dozens of times in the past.
'The day my bloodline succeeds in enveloping me…will be the day I die.'
