Chapter 113: Blood Bug (4) [Bonus]
There were still eggs in the cracks.
Most were dead. Their shells had already turned pale and dry. A few still carried a weak life, but that life was twisted and broken. They were malformed things that had no proper mother call, no stable blood pattern, and no real chance to become useful. If they hatched, they would only crawl into the first living creature they found and create more useless sickness.
Lucard did not want them spreading.
He raised his hand, and a small bloodfire flame appeared above his palm. It was not large. It did not need to be. The red-black fire moved like liquid over his fingers, then stretched into several thin lines. Under his control, the bloodfire slipped into the cracks of the stone floor and burned the dead egg shells one by one.
The cave filled with a bitter smell.
It smelled like rotten blood, burned insects, and old dust.
The tiny mother bug inside his heart trembled when the eggs burned.
Lucard felt its fear through the small blood chamber he had made for it. The little creature did not understand everything, but it understood loss. Those eggs had been failures, but they had still come from it. Its weak mind shook inside his heart like a child hiding from thunder.
Lucard spoke to it through blood sense.
"They are not your children. They are your mistakes. You will make better ones later."
The tiny mother bug still trembled.
Lucard sent one small drop of his own blood into the chamber around it. He did not let the bug drink it fully. He only let the scent and warmth cover it. His blood was too strong for the bug in its current state. If it swallowed too much, it would die from the pressure. So he used blood control to thin the drop, spreading it around the bug like warm mist.
The little creature slowly calmed.
It curled inside the small blood chamber near his heart and stopped shaking.
Lucard continued burning the cracks.
He did not move quickly. He checked each hole, each red stain, and each old shell with care. A mother blood bug’s egg could be smaller than dust when it was young. It could hide inside dry blood or stick to stone like powder. If one living egg remained, it might not trouble him now, but it could trouble someone else later. Lucard did not like leaving behind problems that gave him no benefit.
His bloodfire moved over the walls.
The flame slid into tiny holes, burned old webs, and broke the weak life inside the remaining eggs. A few of them popped softly under the heat. A few released thin red smoke that tried to move toward his mouth and nose. Lucard stopped the smoke with a blood shield before it reached him, then crushed it into the fire.
The mother bug inside his heart gave a faint pulse.
It seemed to understand that those weak eggs had to disappear.
"Good," Lucard said softly. "Learn this first. A bad nest is worse than no nest."
The bug answered with another weak pulse.
It was not words.
But it was agreement.
After that, Lucard searched the cave for several hours.
He checked the deepest walls, the old marks, the broken bones, the dried blood patterns, and the narrow holes between the stones. There were no gods inside. No active formation remained. No fresh footprints existed besides Brant’s group. Only broken old marks, dead egg nests, ruined corpses, and a few pieces of rusted equipment remained.
The god who had created this place had either taken the real treasure long ago or died elsewhere. The mutated bug was the only living value left.
That was enough.
Before leaving, Lucard burned the deepest egg chamber with bloodfire. He did not destroy everything. He left the corpses and old bones because disturbing them would take too much time and gain too little. But he burned every egg trace he could find. If another fool came here later, the cave would still be dangerous because of bad air and old death, but it would not create another blood bug nest easily.
When Lucard stepped out of the cave, the sky was still dark.
He did not return to the city immediately.
The mutated mother bug was starving. It had survived by eating dead eggs and weak blood traces, but that was not real food. If he carried it back without feeding it properly, it would either fall into deep sleep or try to produce another wrong egg from hunger. Both were useless.
So Lucard went hunting.
The hills around the cave were quiet, but not empty. Small beasts moved under the rocks. Night birds watched from twisted trees. Farther below the ridge, a narrow stream passed through the forest. Animals would come there before dawn.
Lucard walked toward the stream.
He did not hurry. His body had become stronger after reaching the Second Blood Circle, but he had used bloodfire and blood control many times tonight. He needed stable blood, not only killing. The mother bug also needed proper feeding, not dirty blood from old corpses.
Near the stream, he found the first beast.
It was a gray horned deer with thick legs and small black eyes. It was not a monster, but it was stronger than a normal deer. Two short horns curved forward from its head, and there was a weak earth mana inside its blood. It lowered its head to drink from the stream, unaware that death had already entered the clearing.
Lucard stood behind a tree and raised one hand.
A blood thread moved from a small cut on his fingertip. It did not fly straight. It slid through the grass like a red snake. The deer’s ear twitched once, but by then the blood thread had reached its back leg.
Lucard pulled.
The thread cut through the tendon.
The deer cried out and tried to run, but its leg failed. It fell near the stream and kicked wildly. Lucard stepped out from the trees and placed his palm against its neck.
"Quiet."
Blood Absorption activated.