Breathing was hard, the hot air was burning his lungs and the pain was unbearable, all he could think about was the sweet release of death yet it still refused to come.
Mommy, he heard the voice of the girl he was trying to protect as she ran towards her mother, he knew the girl, she was a sweet little thing and her mother had helped him on the past. I'm glad, I'm glad you're safe, he whispered to the air.
He tried to move but his broken bones refused, the ash floating about made the blisters on his skin even worse. Even though he was in pain and most likely going to die he was happy.
He, a bloodless mortal boy had killed a beast, it might've been the lowest ranked beast but it power was still far beyond that of mortal humans yet a 17 year old boy had killed it.
He started laughing, his voice was hoarse, the hot ash of the snake had burnt even his vocal cords. He coughed multiple times as he lay there on his back.
He could feel the strength leaving his body, his eyes became heavy. He looked at the three distant moons in the sky, two of them shattered and their pieces floating above the world.
I wonder how the world was before, he said as he raised his hand as if to touch the sky, my mother said there were no monsters and only one moon, I wonder if that true, a world without monsters? Sounds good, too good to be true.
His voice became lower and his arm fell as if somebody had cut the strings of a puppet. Just as his eyes were closing,a voice echoed in his head.
Suitable host detected, initiating INFINITE BLOODLINE SYSTEM. System initiated.
Host name: Ashborn
Rank: 0(mortal)
Bloodlines: none
Blood points: 0
Bloodline detected, does host wish to absorb bloodline?
Huh? Is this a dream? Is this what death feels like? Are you God? Answer, vital signs critical but host is determined to still be alive, I'm the infinite bloodline system. Repeat, bloodline detected, does host wish to absorb bloodline?
He was confused by the voice in his head but he did not have the energy to care, sure, he answered, he was dead anyways so he figured he might as well amuse the voice In his head.
Noted, absorbing bloodline, bloodline absorbed, initiating intergration, WARNING process is determined to be extremely painful, host is advised to take necessary measures.
What? Then the pain came, it was so intense it cleared his mind. He opened his eyes in a jolt and tried to scream but no voice came out.
He grew up in one of the worst human settlements in this God forsaken world, having to compete with grown ups for food since the tender age 10, he was no stranger to pain.
He had been beaten multiple times a day for a long time, he was even stabbed quite a few times but none of those things compared to this.
He felt like every single bone in his body was being shattered to pieces and molten metal was flowing through his veins. However he did notice that his skin was healing.
The blisters caused by the hot ash of the serpent were disappearing slowly, even his cracked lips was becoming glossier. Black smell sludge was removed from his body.
The process lasted for quite a while and then it was over. The pain disappeared instantly like it was never even there, his broken body had healed, infact he felt a bit stronger than before.
Breathing heavily, he removed the giant snake head on top of him. It...was not a dream? System, he said outloud. Bloodline system activated
Host name: Ashborn
Rank: 1(bloodline intergration stage)
Bloodlines: Ash serpent bloodline( earth grade)
Blood points: 0
Shit, it real, I have a bloodline now. Ashborn wanted to jump and scream but that would be foolish. So you're called an Ash serpent? Fitting bloodline for Ashborn don't you think?You might've almost killed me but thank you for foolishly coming here.
He said as he looked at the 10 metres long black snake with ash between it obsidian scales. This thing was strong, it was purely out of luck and adrenaline that he was able to kill it.
It had killed 6 people with guns before getting to him, well to be exact it was not coming for him but for the little girl, he just jumped infront of her without a second thought.
Now that he thinks about it he wasn't thinking straight back then, his body just moved on it own. The snake had spits a flood of ash at him.
He ran right through the burning hot ash and stabbed it in the eye, the only place not covered by it bulletproof scales. That is how he ended up here.
He pulled the metal pipe from it eye and now realised it was hollow and golden blood was dripping from the other end, essence blood, I thought it would be red like the rest of the blood, guess I was wrong.
He who grew up eating rats if he was even lucky to catch one and it was not stolen from him by the larger and more numerous groups of people now had a 10 metres long and a metre thick snake infront of him.
There was no way he was going to let it go to waste, his stomach grumbled just as he thought about eating the snake. He was hungry, extremely so, it seems the process took too much energy from him.
He looked around to see if nobody was looking at him, there was nobody around, they all ran when the snake showed up and visibility was low due the cloud of ash that still lingered in the air, so it was unlikely they would see him anyways.
In this place, food was scarce, people would kill each other for the intestines of a rat, he could not imagine what they would do for something this big and had so much energy.
It was a well known fact that beasts had much more energy than animals, a single bite of their meat could fill the stomach of a grown man.