Scarlet

I close my eyes and focus my senses all around the entire world itself. On every last singular droplet of blood. And I immediately feel a little overwhelmed by the vast amount of information I can get from it all.

It feels bizarre. Like I know everything about every bit of blood in the world.

Like I can control it all at will.

Although it’d be dangerous for anything I control over this large an area since all I know is the individual droplets of blood. If I tried controlling them, I’d probably end up ripping the blood out of the bodies of everyone on Earth by sheer accident.

Which would be bad. Accidentally killing everyone on the planet.

Even if I might be able to put them back together with some time.

Probably.

Anyways, I quickly single out the… strange… bits of blood. The blood that is most certainly not normal. Not human. And not even of this universe.

The void creatures don’t particularly have ‘blood’, per se, but they have something similar to it. And it apparently counts enough that I can control it still.

It just feels very different and uncomfortable to me.

Kind of like something alien that shouldn’t exist.

It’s just weird.

My brows furrow slightly as I try to keep all of the strange, alien bits of blood under control. Only for me to raise a brow after noticing something even stranger.

One specific gathering of that blood seems to be mixed in with regular human blood in an odd way. A rather unhealthy way at that. And it looks like it’s fighting with the human blood.

It kind of reminds me how I used to be way back when my human and blood lycan blood would fight before I contracted into the System.

Not very hard to figure out who this blood belongs to.

My brows furrow a little bit more before I shrug to myself and quickly order the void creature blood in his body to stop fighting with the human blood. Then I take my focus off of Anthony, refocusing on every single void creature on the planet aside from him.

Alright. Now to get down to business.

A faint smirk stretches across my face.

Somewhere on Earth in the CapitalLove this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!A few moments ago

Anthony grits his teeth as he uses the void energy in his body to devour the attacks from the void creature’s he’s fighting. Completely ignoring the searing pain that is running rampant across his body, as he always does.

Over the years, he’s gotten used to the pain of his own blood fighting against itself. The result of the experiment he underwent long ago.

He heard that Scarlet had undergone a relatively similar state for a brief period of time before she contracted, but from what the word is on the internet, the System stopped her blood from fighting with itself. Something that isn’t possible for him due to his blood being from the void. A place outside of their own universe and therefore alien to the System, unlike the blood of demons.

Also unlike demon blood, void creature blood isn’t as powerful. So it won’t kill him.

Void creature blood is on par with human blood. Which makes it so that a constant war is always fighting within his body with no victor in sight.

A war that grows more painful with every ascension he clears.

If only I had that pain nullification skill Scarlet is so fond of…

He shakes his head at the thought before using the accumulated energy from the void creatures’ own attacks to strike back, sending a bold of black energy that annihilates them in seconds. And just like always, the sight of him using void magic sends shivers down the spines of any of the civilians nearby. Despite the fact that Anthony is currently fighting to protect them.

But he’s grown used to that as well.

So he continues fighting inside of the mall, ignoring whatever Scarlet is doing that made the sky go red not too long ago. Something he saw through the mall’s windowed ceiling.

He fights, and fights, and fights some more. Because the only way he can get the haters off his back is to contribute. It’s the only way for him to survive anymore.

But as he’s fighting, a strange sensation comes over him, making him stop. And he’s not the only one who stops fighting. Everyone within the entire mall stops moving and begins to look around. As if everyone, Anthony included, feels someone’s sole attention on them.

Then an even stranger sensation comes over him. Like someone is gripping his blood itself and locking it in place. Something he guesses everyone else is experiencing as well when he sees everyone, whether human, void creature, demon, or contractor, freezing stiff.

Just as quickly as they froze, though, everyone staggers as if let off of a string that was holding them like a puppet.

Everyone but the void creatures and Anthony.

Anthony can’t even grit his teeth as he’s stuck frozen in place, feeling the usual pain from his blood. But after several seconds, that pain slowly begins to fade away.

He blinks in surprise, only to feel further surprised by the fact that he can move again.

What’s… happening?

Anthony looks around before focusing on his hands, turning them back and forth. But no matter how much he moves, no pain comes to him.

The pain he’s grown used to over the years is gone.

Then his attention is stolen away by the void creatures, who all seem to be convulsing in place.

Anthony frowns and tilts his head slightly, only for all of the void creatures to pop like bubbles, sending their blood splattering around the mall. Every last void creature inside of it, not even leaving a single one behind.

He quickly jerks his head upwards to stare at the sky, where he knows Scarlet must still be. Meanwhile all of the blood belonging to the void creatures begins to rise into the air before shooting out through any gaps to head towards the sky.

But while everyone else is in awe of what is happening, Anthony just feels relief as he smiles up in the direction the blood is heading. As he revels in the lack of pain. In the peace he’s found out of nowhere.

Thank you… so much…

Tears begin to flow from his eyes while he watches a large wave of glowing red blood swallow up all of the black blood that had floated up into the sky from all across the world. Only for it to all vanish again in moments, heading back to its source.

Thank you… Scarlet.