Born in Blood

Chapter 509  Hive

Right now, Liam was testing the limits of White Matter.

After all, it was a brand new ability, and its power rivaled even Chaos and Corruption. But… wasn't his Shadow Clone and Blood Bonds similar to it?

They were… but the differences between them were vast.

Quite frankly, Blood Bonds were quite redundant as of now. Unless Liam managed to subjugate a magical beast greater than him, there was no need for it. It was high maintenance, and required too much ichor. Not to mention, Liam could just become the magical beast itself! And not just that, he could transform his anatomy through Transfiguration. On the other hand, his Shadow Clones were no longer the same. Liam's core contained Rank 4 darkness.

And his Shadow Clone consisted of just that alone. Liam's Shadow Clone now had the strength of a Zenith, and could fight against one without dying too fast. 'Yeah… Blood Bonds need an update,' Liam thought. 'But Valerie can help with that. I can't sweat over the smaller stuff anymore.'

Liam had a Path to begin. Standing opposite to Blight, Liam wondered what kind of Abomination darkness and Void could produce.

If there was any time for them to appear, it would have been during the Defense Tribulation. But Liam saw no such thing. He didn't know exactly why. Was it because he dispelled it before it could reach that stage?

A stroke of luck allowed Liam to live despite drowning and being submerged within water. And while the Chaos Abomination's suicide explosion gravely injured him, it also dispelled some of the Tribulation swarm for him. Either way, it wasn't really important. Liam raised a hand and conjured his darkness. Glowing black flames cast a sinister glimmer over his dark eyes. Liam had just a small amount of White Matter remaining. Perhaps enough to make a dog-sized Abomination.

"Screw it," Liam said. "Let's see if it works."

Liam mixed White Matter and darkness together. Sort of like a scientist that smashed two new elements together and anticipated the result.

He was somewhat of a scientist himself.

As soon as the darkness made contact with the White Matter, it immediately colored it pitch-black.

Liam's eyes widened.

It was happening!

Nine seconds passed as the two forces combined.

Then, instead of splitting into one, dog-sized Abomination… it split into seven tiny ones! It was as though increasing it in size wasn't allowed. Then, they finished forming. What Liam saw was… strange, but weirdly fitting.

The Abominations that formed resembled several things at once. They had the stinger of a scorpion, the jaws of a spider, the four wings of a dragonfly, and the limbs of a centipede!

Black scales covered them from top to bottom, but their stinger was exceptionally sharp.

They had sleek, narrow bodies and spider-like eyes. Except… all seven of them were palm-sized!

So tiny!

All seven of them combined could probably equate to a large dog, which was the size that Liam wanted. "Hmm… so that's what it is," Liam uttered under his breath, coming to a realization. "Since my core has such a vast reserve of darkness, it only makes sense for the White Matter not to blow it out of proportion." n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

"Otherwise, I could have just one massive mountain of… whatever this thing is, and keep adding to it whenever my White Matter regenerated."

Liam sighed. "The Law of Balance strikes again."

Liam felt like a video game character that kept getting nerfed, and he was starting to get pissed off.

A moment later, he commanded the swarm of creatures to attack him.

BZBZBZBZBZB! As one collective, they flapped their wings, causing a droning, static buzz to spread through the air. A moment later, all of them shot at Liam and stung him with their stingers.

KSH! PSH! SH! KSH!

Wherever they stung, a corrosive wave of darkness would spread across the wound and penetrate deeper!

It was as if Liam's darkness had found a way to concentrate and utilize itself to a much finer degree.

Then, with his bare hands, Liam crushed them one by one like fruity grapes, leaving just one alive. As he thought… they weren't strong physically. Though many in number, and lethally dangerous, their defenses were practically non-existent. Still, Liam couldn't be mad. This was still an amazing thing. With the reserves of White Matter that Liam had, he could conjure at least 30 of… whatever this thing was!

Liam cursed. He hated naming things, but with the arsenal in his body alone, he had to classify them.

"Let's see," Liam said with a sigh. "Death Wasp? Murder Flies? No… too cheesy…"

Liam paused, looking at the remaining Abomination with a heavy gaze.

"Stingers?" He nodded to himself.

"Yeah… let's go with that. And since you come in swarm-sizes, your sub-name could be the Hive."

The Stinger chirped. Sort of like the clicking noise some spider-type magical beasts made.

Then, Liam crushed it underneath his foot.

After all this… just one thing remained.

Void.

This was the peak of it all.

Liam waited for his White Matter to regenerate.

He killed the remaining Blight as well, just to have it all prepared and ready.

White Matter replenished quite slowly. For it to go back to 100%, nearly 6 hours had passed.

But Liam's mind kept fading in and out. Most of his thoughts were on the future, not on the present. 'Would I need to make adjustments to my darkness?' Liam wondered. Liam had made the ratio for Void when his darkness was still in the third Rank. Now, Void was bound to be stronger!

But did that mean that Liam had to readjust the ratio?

Liam began it anyway. Chaos shrieked in one hand and darkness in the other, forming a nice, round Black Hole. Since Liam hadn't made the spell itself stronger, the Black Hole didn't increase in power drastically, other than its base properties.

A moment later, Liam slowly merged the two together. WRSHHHHhhhhhh…

Bright purple light reflected in Liam's eyes. As it turned out, Liam didn't need to make any new adjustments, since the spell was still the same. However, that also meant that the Void wasn't weaker or stronger. It was the same.

Then, Liam took out his White Matter.

Then… he combined them together.