My Blood Legacy: Bloodlines

Victor did not have time to ask anything else. Ghideon noticed the brief hesitation caused by Rowena’s warning and used it as an opening, compressing all the remaining shadow into the right side of his body before striking it against the floor. The platform deformed beneath his hand, but the destruction did not spread in an ordinary wave. Dozens of black spikes emerged at different points, following the blood scattered across the chamber and attacking each vampire from a separate angle.

Natasha opened her fingers.

Almost invisible threads escaped from her nails and attached themselves to the columns, the debris, and the spikes themselves while they were still growing. A short movement of her wrist changed the direction of the first one, diverting it from Mirella’s neck. The second was pulled into the third, breaking both on impact. The others continued advancing, but Natasha moved her hands like a puppeteer and forced Ghideon’s attacks to collide with one another before they reached the group.

Victor watched the threads with real attention for the first time. They were not formed only from blood. Each line possessed an almost transparent outer layer, thin enough to pass through cracks, seize energy, and alter the course of techniques that were still incomplete. Natasha did not need to directly overpower an attack. She found the point where it was still being constructed and pulled it in the wrong direction.

"I can mark the solid parts," Natasha said as three threads wrapped around Ghideon’s human arm. "But I cannot hold him alone. The more strength he puts into his body, the faster he tears through my lines."

Victor adjusted Lilith in both hands. The White Fire diminished around the blade while Black Ice accumulated near the guard and Black Lightning traveled along the edge in short pulses.

"Then do not hold him."

Natasha gave him a quick look.

"Explain."

"Pull."

Victor advanced before she could ask where.

Ghideon tried to transform his chest into shadow, but Natasha did not tighten the threads to prevent the change. Instead, she pulled his left shoulder backward and his right hip forward, twisting his posture at the exact instant Victor entered his range. The change was small, but enough to expose the side of his torso that remained solid.

Lilith entered below the ribs.

Victor did not try to deepen the cut. He allowed the blade to lose consistency while it was inside the body and made the blood forming the weapon spread between the muscles. Ghideon felt the invasion and tried to expel it with shadow, but Black Ice grew inside Lilith’s structure and created dozens of small anchors between flesh, bone, and energy channels.

Victor pulled the sword free.

The anchors came with it.

An entire section of Ghideon’s side was torn away, scattering muscle and blood across the platform. Natasha moved two fingers, and her threads captured every fragment before the scars could reclaim them. She pulled everything away, keeping the material suspended above the salt water invading the chamber.

Ghideon roared and struck Victor with his elbow. The movement should have hit his temple, but Mirella appeared between them and received the attack on her forearm. The impact opened a crack in the ground beneath her feet, tore the sleeve of her uniform, and pushed her body back several centimeters.

Even so, she did not move from the spot.

The blood in Mirella’s veins became visible.

Red lines appeared beneath the skin of her neck, crossed her shoulders, and descended through her arms in increasingly rapid pulses. Her heart beat once with enough force to be heard by everyone in the chamber.

Then it beat again.

Her circulation accelerated so violently that steam began escaping from her pores, but not a single vessel ruptured.

"Blood Body," Mirella said as she closed her hand.

The muscles in her arm contracted.

She struck Ghideon in the abdomen.

The punch did not produce an explosion of energy, a colored wave, or any external manifestation. It was only physical force concentrated into a point that was far too small. Her fist passed through the shadow layer before it stabilized, ruptured reinforced muscles, and opened a hole the size of a human head in the center of his abdomen.

Ghideon was launched backward.

Mirella disappeared before he fell.

She appeared beside his trajectory, turned her hips, and struck his ribs with a second punch. The right side of his chest collapsed inward. Bones emerged through his back, and the lupine structure protecting his spine broke in three different places. Ghideon changed direction in the air and passed through a column, but Mirella reached him again among the debris.

The third strike hit his face.

The lupine jaw was torn away.

Ghideon spun several times before striking the floor. Mirella landed near him, breathing in a controlled manner while the blood continued racing beneath her skin. Her arms appeared denser, and every muscular contraction caused small red drops to escape through her pores.

Nera stared at her from a distance.

"You had that from the beginning?"

Mirella avoided a chain of shadow and broke it with a punch.

"I was conserving energy."

Nera pointed toward Ghideon, who was beginning to rise despite missing half his face.

"He is using a giant corpse, clones, werewolves, and an entire laboratory as fuel!"

"That is why I stopped conserving it."

Victor advanced from the opposite side. Lilith changed shape while he ran, shortening the blade and lengthening the handle until it became a heavy spear. Black Ice covered the tip in spiraling layers, White Fire remained compressed inside it, and Black Lightning accumulated near the base.

Ghideon reconstructed his jaw with shadow and raised both arms.

Victor threw Lilith.

Natasha attached four threads to the handle before the weapon completely left his hand. The spear crossed the chamber in a straight line, but Ghideon shifted his chest aside and prepared to let it pass. Natasha pulled the first thread. Lilith changed direction in midair, curving several centimeters to follow the movement.

Ghideon transformed the targeted area into shadow.

Natasha pulled the second thread.

The spear descended.

He shifted his hips.

The third thread contracted and raised the tip.

Ghideon tried to retreat, but Mirella had already appeared behind him. A punch struck his spine and pushed his body directly into Lilith’s corrected trajectory.

The spear entered through his chest.

The spiraling Black Ice rotated as it passed through, widening the wound. When the tip emerged from his back, Victor closed his hand from a distance and released the White Fire compressed inside the weapon. The flames exploded only within Ghideon’s body, filling the shadow channels and burning the scars from the inside.

The Specialist opened his mouth.

No sound came out.

Black Lightning traveled through Lilith immediately afterward, using the weapon’s blood as a conductor. The discharge crossed his muscles, found the lupine parts, and forced incompatible energies to react at the same time. The human side contracted. The animal side tried to transform. The shadows attempted to dissolve both.

Ghideon’s body began tearing itself apart.

Natasha crossed her arms, and her threads tightened around his limbs. She did not try to prevent the rupture. She pulled each part in a different direction, increasing the disorder and preventing the structures from reconnecting.

"Now he is trapped," she said, although blood was already running from her fingers. "Not for long."

Mirella moved in again.

The Blood Body accelerated.

Her heart beat so quickly that the individual sounds merged into a continuous vibration. The skin of her arms became red, and her veins resembled incandescent metal wires beneath the surface. She approached Ghideon without her sword, lowered her body, and began striking him.

The first punch opened another hole in his abdomen.

The second destroyed his human shoulder.

The third crushed the lupine knee and drove the bone through the skin.

Mirella was not attacking randomly. Every strike hit an area marked by Natasha’s threads or damaged by Victor’s energies. Whenever Ghideon tried to transform a part of himself into shadow, Natasha pulled his body to alter his balance. Victor froze the adjacent area and forced the transformation to occupy a smaller space. Mirella then struck the exact point where flesh, energy, and shadow were still trying to reorganize.

Ghideon tried to retaliate with his remaining claw.

Mirella slipped inside the strike, placed her left hand against his elbow, and delivered a short punch into the armpit. The entire arm was torn from the joint. Before it could fall, Natasha attached threads to the severed limb and threw it toward Victor.

He understood immediately.

White Fire covered the arm in midair.

Victor did not merely burn it. He compressed the flames around the limb and used Black Ice to form an outer shell. The temperature difference made the stolen flesh contract and expand at the same time, destroying the lunar channels before Ghideon could call them back.

The shell exploded.

Burned fragments were thrown into the Specialist himself.

Some entered the open wounds, and Victor sent Black Lightning through them. Every piece became a discharge point inside Ghideon’s body, striking different regions and preventing him from concentrating enough energy to reconstruct the arm.

Rowena watched everything in silence, identifying the changes in scent.

"He is moving something into his chest," she warned. "It is not shadow. It is denser."

Victor saw the scars converging toward the center of the torso. Something was hidden behind them, protected by flesh, lupine bone, and several layers of energy. Ghideon had realized he could not defeat that combination while keeping his body distributed.

He was gathering everything into a single core.

"Natasha, the chest."

She redirected every thread at once.

The lines holding his legs, arms, and neck were released. Ghideon almost fell forward from the sudden freedom, but dozens of new threads entered through the open wounds and attached directly to the edges of the scars. Natasha spread her arms and pulled.

Ghideon’s chest began to open.

He screamed and concentrated shadow around the torso, trying to cut the threads, but Victor created a row of Black Ice plates between each line. The ice served as both guide and protection, preventing the shadows from reaching the threads without first passing through the frozen layers.

Ghideon struck the ground with both feet.

Black pressure exploded around his body. Natasha was dragged forward, but she did not release the threads. Victor drove Lilith into the floor and created a chain of Black Ice between the handle and her waist. Mirella placed one hand against her back and used the Blood Body to keep her in place.

All three were pushed backward.

The stone beneath their feet disintegrated.

Salt water rose around their ankles.

Even so, Ghideon’s chest continued opening.

He abandoned defense and launched all the shadow toward Mirella. Dozens of spears formed around her at a distance too short to evade. Mirella released Natasha, crossed her arms before her face, and concentrated the blood into her skin.

The spears struck.

Some penetrated a few centimeters.

Others broke.

Mirella advanced through them.

Every step drove more points into her body, but the concentrated blood hardened her muscles, reinforced her bones, and closed the perforations before they reached vital organs. When she entered range, she lowered her shoulder and struck Ghideon in the center of his already opened chest.

The impact threw blood and shadow in every direction.

The core became visible.

It was not an ordinary vampiric heart. Two pulsating masses were joined together by dark threads. One was small, black, and covered by Ghideon’s scars. The other was much larger, with thick fibers, lunar channels, and a deep red coloration.

The second heart belonged to the body preserved inside the tank.

Rowena recognized it immediately.

"He grafted the werewolf’s heart into his own body."

Victor tightened his grip on Lilith.

"So that is what keeps the parts connected."

Ghideon realized the core had been exposed and completely lost his mind. Every shadow in the chamber rose, abandoning the walls, debris, and corpses. The remaining light disappeared. A black mass began rotating around him, cutting threads, breaking ice, and forcing Mirella to retreat.

Natasha lost several lines, but kept two attached to the edges of his chest. Victor turned Lilith, transforming the spear back into a sword, and released Black Lightning through the floor. The electricity spread across the salt water covering the platform.

Everyone felt it.

Mirella jumped an instant before contact.

Natasha lifted her own body by pulling on threads attached to the ceiling.

Ghideon could not escape.

Black Ice closed around his feet and trapped him inside the electrified water. Black Lightning climbed through his legs, crossed the spine, and struck both hearts at the same time. Their pulses lost rhythm. One heart tried to beat like a vampire. The other responded to lunar channels.

Victor alternated the discharge.

One short pulse for the first.

Another, longer one for the second.

The beats began colliding.

Ghideon arched his back, unable to coordinate his own body. Mirella landed in front of him and concentrated the entire Blood Body into her right arm. Her circulation partially abandoned her legs, abdomen, and even her left arm to feed a single strike. The limb increased in density, the veins turned black beneath the skin, and her fist trembled with the accumulated pressure.

She struck.

The punch entered Ghideon’s chest and passed through the space between the two hearts.

The force opened a complete hole through his torso.

Natasha pulled the threads attached to the scars, separating the masses before they could reconnect. Victor advanced with Lilith, but did not strike the hearts directly. He passed the blade between them and formed a thin wall of Black Ice, isolating the two sources of energy.

White Fire covered the vampiric side.

Black Lightning remained concentrated on the lupine heart.

Ghideon lost control of his legs.

His body fell to its knees.

Victor kept the sword in place and looked toward Natasha.

"How long?"

"Five seconds before my fingers open."

"We need three."

Mirella breathed with difficulty. The arm used for the last punch was covered in muscular ruptures, and the Blood Body was beginning to demand more than her organism could sustain. Even so, she positioned herself behind Ghideon and seized both shoulders with her hands.

Victor increased the White Fire.

The vampiric heart began to burn.

Ghideon screamed and tried to move his consciousness into the lupine heart, exactly as Rowena had predicted. His scent changed position inside his own body.

"Now," she warned.

Victor extinguished the Black Lightning for a fraction of a second.

Ghideon used the opening and moved everything into the second heart.

That was the mistake.

Since the beginning of the combined attack, Nera had disappeared from everyone’s perception.

She was not among the debris, on the columns, or near the entrances. She had used the shadow created by Ghideon himself, reduced her breathing, and crawled beneath the broken platform while the others kept all attention on the frontal battle.

When the lupine heart received the full consciousness, Nera emerged behind him.

Her smile appeared first.

The scythe came afterward.

She did not attack the neck, the spine, or the exposed heart. The blade passed through the shadow beneath his body, crossed the Black Ice wall created by Victor, and struck the exact threads connecting the lupine heart to the vampiric scars.

The cut was clean.

Every connection broke at the same time.

Ghideon widened his eyes.

Nera pulled the scythe upward, tearing the entire lupine heart through the hole opened by Mirella. The mass was still beating on the blade while black threads tried to reach back toward the body.

Victor turned Lilith.

White Fire crossed the space between them and burned every connection before it could reform.

Nera landed on the other side of the platform, resting the scythe over her shoulder while the enormous heart remained caught in the curve of the blade.

"Got it."

Ghideon’s body fell forward.

But it did not collapse.

A black hand emerged from the remaining vampiric heart and seized Lilith by the blade. Then another hand appeared, followed by a smaller, deformed face completely covered in the scars that had previously occupied the Specialist’s chest.

Victor realized that the vampire before them had never been merely a man using other bodies.

Something was living inside him.

The creature raised its eyes toward Victor as it began crawling out of Ghideon’s destroyed torso.

Rowena spoke inside his mind, and this time there was genuine concern in her voice.

"That is the scent that should be dead."