It required for Lith to anticipate the life force’s flow, so he could place the energy on its tracks and connect the threads a second earlier they collided. There was no space for mistakes, each procedure could only be a success or a failure.
So far, he had failed a lot. The hole in Kalla’s abdomen was the size of a human head, while her paw had enough life force to fill a space ten times as big. Yet it was already almost depleted.
To use what little energy was left, Lith used Invigoration before every attempt to fix the flow. It increased his odds of success at the expense of his endurance. With each use of Invigoration, the smaller was the effect and the higher the burden on Lith’s body.
Each burst allowed him to use his full focus as he had just woken up from a good night sleep, and to deplete his mana without worries. Soon, he started bleeding from his nose, then from the ears and lastly from his eyes.
The Body Sculpting surgery lasted a little less than five minutes. The final result was a crude patchwork filling the hole, while Kalla’s paw was pretty much crippled. As for Lith, he collapsed onto the ground with the same grace of a rock.
The hit was strong enough to worsen his condition. The bleeding continued, forming a small pool of blood beneath his face.
“I wonder what he did to me.” Kalla pondered. She was feeling better by the second, but it didn’t mean much. It was just that anything was better than her previous near death experience.
Her abdomen felt like someone was stirring her bowels with a rusty razor while her left paw remained limp, no matter how much she attempted to move it. It was paralyzed, yet searing pain radiated from it.
“Pain, my old friend. You are the only true constant of life.” She sighed. “I will not miss you once I ascend to the status of true undead. You are as clingy as annoying…”
“Mom!” Nok cut her monologue short.
“There’s no time for your monologues, Nyka has lost it.”
“Damned isolation! It seems I can’t keep my mouth shut.” Kalla said while turning around.
Nyka was on all four, near Lith’s head, licking from the pool of blood. After the first taste, she shivered in pleasure and the feeding frenzy overwhelmed her. She had never tasted anything so delicious.
All the food she had previously eaten seemed to be rotten trash compared to that nectar. She drank the blood emitting slurping sounds, yet careful to not miss even a single drop.
“Nyka, stop immediately!” Kalla ordered while trying to get near her daughter. Her left paw refused to move, so she could only drag it on the floor while moving forward.
Nyka had already drained the pool, so she took Lith’s head on her lap, caressing his jugular like they were long lost lovers. Her body had partially recovered from its starvation. The skin was no more flaccid, the wrinkles had disappeared.
Her full lips were of a deep red color, but it lasted only for a second before the blood covering them was drained and they returned to be milky white. A vampire had several ways of absorbing nourishment.
One was with darkness magic, but it was as tasty as airplane food so it was kept either as a last resort or as a combat option. Another was through the skin. Some of them bathed in blood, gaining from it strength and the same relaxation coming from a full day of SPA.
One of the two most favored methods was drinking it because it gave them pleasure.
“I just want some more.” Nyka replied turning her fingers into claws and pricking on Lith’s neck with them. Her eyes were now full black, the sign that her mind was overpowered by her hunger.
“Sorry, sis!” Nok charged at her like ram, yet Nyka swat him away like he was a fly, sending the Byk crashing against the south wall. Nok was just a magical beast, his strength and weight were meaningless in front of a higher undead.
‘Dammit!’ Kalla thought. ‘My body still feels like a ragdoll filled with rusty nails. If I feed her or use magic, I could undo whatever Lith has done and kill us both. I must find a way to protect Lith and Nok. Neither of them can survive being fed upon.’
Kalla racked her brain in search of a solution while Nyka hissed in frustration. Lith’s skin was not only sturdier than leather, but it also healed so fast that a single droplet of blood had yet to be spilled.
The vampire’s patience had run out. Her mouth got close to the main artery, meeting a fierce resistance. A stone fist struck her in the jaw with the strength of a wild ox.
“Hands off the merchandise, sister!” Solus warned her. She was now in her glove form, holding the Gatekeeper sword against Nyka’s heart. Both were floating in mid air thanks to spirit magic.
“Make one move and I’ll kill you.” She was using air magic to speak, just like the magical beasts did.
Between the hit and the enchanted metal pressing against her skin, Nyka came to her senses. The killing intent Solus radiated had triggered her survival instinct, allowing her to snap out of her feeding frenzy.
Nyka raised her hands in submission, but Solus kept pushing her away with the blade until Nyka’s back was against the wall at a safe distance from Lith.
“I’m really sorry.” The vampire sounded sincere, yet Solus kept infusing the Gatekeeper with magic, ready to pulverize the enemy.
“It’s just that I’m so hungry and that blood was… spectacular.”
“She never fed upon an Awakened before.” Kalla explained. “To a vampire, the more powerful a being is, the tastier is their blood. Please, ring fairy, spare my daughter. This is all my fault.”
“I don’t give a damn about why she did it.” Solus’s voice held no kindness, only rage. “Until Lith wakes up, I’m not going to take any chance.”
Solus had yet to finish the phrase that she was forced to reconsider her options. A low rumbling was spreading through the ground while the amount of mana in the room was skyrocketing.
Both Solus and Kalla were surprised. They had seen the phenomenon happen multiple times, but only for magical beasts. Lith’s body was emitting a silver light, which became a small pillar piercing toward the sky.
“This is so wrong!” Solus darted back on Lith’s hand, checking his body with Invigoration. The impurities in his body had reached once again his mana core, triggering the refinement process.
“This didn’t happen to Tista, only when a magical beast turned into an Evolved Monster.”
“I don’t know who this Tista is, but if their core was below the cyan level then it’s normal. Reaching the blue core is a major event.” Kalla explained. “It marks the moment when a common magical beast can become the first member of a new species.
“Yet you are also right, this is wrong. Usually, only magical beasts and plants receive Mogar’s help. The other races are not attuned with the world energy, which makes their Awakened undergo terrible suffering.
“It’s because unlike us, their bodies are incapable of evolving. What really worries me, though, is that I have never seen a silver light. This doesn’t make any sense.”
In all the evolutions Solus and Kalla had witnessed, the light had always been of a golden color.
