40 Chapter 40: Adaptive Mutation

Even as I lay helplessly in the sea of blood and body parts, I could feel the biological transformations that rippled ruthlessly through my body.

No…what remained of my body.

All the while, I could see the blue screen at the corner of my cracked lenses changing and updating itself, the words disappearing and being replaced by new text.

Name: Tanaka Tomoyuki

Species: Undead

Job/Rank: Gravekeeper/Vampire

I was no longer a lich lord. I was now a vampire, apparently. I had no idea how that mutation was supposed to help me in this situation, but that was the hand I had been dealt with. I closed my eyes and endured the changes, wondering what would follow next. What advantages would a vampire have over a lich lord this close to death?

All that happened was that I turned into a bloody bloodsucker, right?

Bloodsucker…wait…

I blinked, trying to clear my head of the enfolding darkness. I was a vampire. I lived off sucking blood from others. And right now I was drowning in a sea of blood that had rained down after Asakura Akane had sliced the poor royal guard into pieces.

I opened my mouth and licked the blood, trying desperately to drink it. I didn't care how pathetic I looked, or how unsightly I was. All that remained in my head was the single-minded determination to live, to survive despite the odds.

"What are you doing?"

Asakura sounded disgusted when she caught sight of me lapping up the blood desperately. She snorted and shook her head, then raised her hand to conjure a new batch of wind blades. Sneering in revulsion, she prepared to finish me off.

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"Even to the very end, you remain a creepy, hopeless, pathetic loser who can't be saved. Die."

She swung her hand down and launched the wind blades.

At that moment, the sea of blood rose and formed a wall. The wind blades sent the rippling pool of blood churning, but they diffused before they could ever reach me. At the same time, the blood was all flowing toward me, either into my mouth or through my stumps. My limbs were rapidly reforming, first becoming red, almost fluid stumps that grew and took vague shapes of arms and legs. My body too looked like some grotesque, red-filled puppet.

"You…what the hell are you?!"

Stunned, Asakura backed away, unable to believe what she was seeing. Her eyes wide with fear, she prepared a new spell, but this time she chose to burn and evaporate the blood with fire. Dozens of fireballs floated overhead, getting ready to launch themselves at me. I watched them even as the last vestiges of my wounds disappeared, my body reforming and reconstituting itself as it adapted to the new mutations.

Fire. One of the weaknesses of vampires, huh?

"DIE!"

Asakura screamed as she launched the flaming projectiles at me. Brimming with mana, after sucking so much blood from so many slain soldiers, I raised a hand and conjured a solid Dark Barrier, which dissipated each and every attack.

"?!"

Asakura reeled back when she saw that her ferocious bombardment failed to penetrate my sturdy defense, which was so easily broken by her wind blades earlier. Gritting her teeth, she switched to wind blades this time, but they harmlessly broke against my shimmering Dark Barrier. No matter how many times she conjured them, the result was the same.

"W…what the hell are you?!"

"Hmm?" I stared at her before dismissing the Dark Barrier and taking a step forward. She flinched. "I thought you were the one calling me pathetic weakling loser."

"You are a pathetic loser who's weak!" she shouted before she disappeared into invisibility. A few wind blades sliced at me from nowhere, but I knocked them away with my staff almost casually. Even before glancing in the direction where the wind blades came from, I already knew she was no longer there.

This…

My senses were sharper. I felt stronger…faster…more robust. It wasn't just because I was brimming with the mana I had drank from all the blood that flowed into me. I felt incredible power churning through me.

Vampire, huh…

So this was the result of Adaptive Mutation. It felt too much of a deus ex machina or plot armor for me, you know, the constant bullshit power-up just before my death, but I didn't care. If it helped me take revenge on my murderous former classmates, then I would accept whatever unholy deus ex machina or bullshit plot armor the gods threw at me.

Raising my staff, I easily knocked away another barrage of wind blades, my reflexes and speed heightened to a terrifying degree after my transformation. Having reverted to her old tactic of hiding behind her invisibility and striking from afar, unseen, Asakura was no longer using flashy, bright attacks such as her fire spells.

It was useless.

I could "see" her. Not with actual light or sight, but more akin to sniffing her out. My vampire senses were tingling as I smelled her blood in the air. I could almost taste her blood, my jaw salivating at the mere thought. The perspiration layering her skin…the adrenaline rushing through her system from fear and anger…and the overpowering flow of blood surging through her veins…I could sense every drop of it.

Kicking off the ground, I lunged forward and grabbed hold of her.

"!?"

Held firmly in my grasp, Asakura kicked and struggled, only to find out that she was unable to escape. Her invisibility cloak shattered, leaving her visible once more, and she shrieked, tears running down her face.

"You…you…!"

She choked, almost unable to spit her curses. Balling her fists, she bathed me in flames, but I quickly let her go and kicked her before she could unleash her spell. The flames surged forward and incinerated the air in front of her, but completely missed me as she fell back, her fingers flailing frantically. I ducked under the thunderous cloud of fire and then launched a Doombolt at her, which she repelled with a hastily conjured wind barrier.

"Fuck!"

Asakura crashed onto the ground, sprawling over the dirt. Cursing and swearing, she rose to her feet and railed at me.

"How did you see me!? HOW?!"

I didn't reply. There was no need to, and I wasn't going to give her any advantage. Knowledge was power, and I wasn't going to carelessly hand over such power to my opponent just for the stupid satisfaction of gloating.

Instead, I jumped to her position and swung my staff down to pulverize her. Screaming, Asakura flung out a hand and immolated me with fire. I barely reacted in time with a hastily made Dark Barrier that stopped her flames cold.

"Tch!"

Clicking my tongue in annoyance, I landed on the ground a few meters short of my target. It didn't seem that I could kill her with physical attacks or ranged magic spells. So I casted the one spell I was best at.

Summoning.

All around me, ghouls rose from the little remnants of blood, forcibly given life by my unholy magic. Formed out of blood, their red exteriors hardened and solidified into vaguely human shapes, and they lurched toward Asakura.

"…!"

With very little time to react, Asakura defended herself with the much faster but less powerful wind blades. Despite not possessing as much firepower as her fire spells, Asakura's wind blades were still devastating, able to slice up an entire army of flesh-and-blood soldiers within seconds.

However, her wind blades had no effect on the red, ghoulish warriors who were lunging at her in massive numbers.

Clang!

"!!!"

Asakura's jaw dropped as she watched her wind blades bounced off their red exterior with little effect. At most, they chipped off several rust-colored crystals, but other than that, her wind spells hardly put a dent.

"No way…how?!"

Was she expecting me to explain to her how the surface of my blood ghouls had hardened to adopt the texture of iron? Blood – or hemoglobin, in particular, was constituted out of iron. All I needed to do was bring out that element and use it as armor for my blood thralls, making them no less durable than the most heavily armored knights.

"No! No! Get away!"

Asakura screamed as she was mobbed by the red ghouls, who tore at her with their iron-tipped claws. Blood spurted into the air as Asakura thrashed about, but she finally managed to conjure a massive fire spell after enduring the excruciating agony of being slowly ripped apart. An enormous conflagration blossomed to life, washing over the horde of red ghouls and incinerating them. The rest instinctively fell back.

"Huff…huff…"

Bleeding, Asakura stepped back and then faded away into invisibility. At the same time, the blood she spilled reared up from the ground to form new hordes of ghouls, brought to life by my necromancy. Fortunately, Asakura was wise enough to avoid engaging them in combat.

"Monster," she snarled as she tried to slip away. But once again, I could pinpoint her location by sensing the sweet warmth of her blood. And linked to me telepathically, my blood ghouls followed my mental instructions and went after her.

"Gr…!"

"!"

Asakura tried to burn away another horde of blood ghouls, but they managed to scatter and avoid the devastating blast. While she was forced to pause and take a breather before launching another powerful attack, my blood ghouls seized the opportunity to pounce on her again. She screamed as she was knocked over, her invisibility spell breaking.

"No! This isn't possible! It isn't!"

Screaming, Asakura tried to blast them away with a wind spell, but her wind blades proved ineffective against their iron hides. She tried to incinerate them with fire spells next, but for every ghoul she burned, three more red ones took its place. She kicked and screamed, but they were all over her, incapacitating her.

"No way! I can't lose! There's no way I can lose! Not to a pathetic loser weakling like Tanaka! You must have cheated somehow! You cheater! How dare you cheat! There's no way you can win against me! There's no way you can win against anyone!"

I ignored her as I stepped up to her position. Asakura was shrieking now, having gone delirious from the pain as the blood ghouls bit her and tore huge chunks of flesh from her limbs and body. She tried to cast magic spells, but they disrupted her by pinning down her mutilated hands and mercilessly ripping into her body.

She glared up at me defiantly, but her rage was mixed with fear and despair. As pain overwhelmed her, she began imploring me.

"Please…I'm sorry! I'll do anything! Please let me go!"

"You seem to enjoy cutting off my arms and legs earlier," I remarked as I stared down at her. "Perhaps I should disarm you as well."

Her eyes widened. "No, wait…wait!"

I didn't wait. At my mental command, my blood ghouls tore her arms and legs off, throwing up four gigantic fountains of blood. Asakura screamed, almost blacking out, but somehow she managed to retain her consciousness.

As expected of a hero…or Evelyn's Chosen. She was really tenacious.

"You guys can feed on those," I told my blood ghouls, who happily separated before me to snack on the limbs they had just torn off Asakura. I then knelt beside Asakura, who was now going into shock and staring up into the sky with glassy eyes.

"…"

"I always wondered how the blood of a hero would taste."

In the past, I had been occupied with eating the flesh of my enemies that I didn't really savor their blood. I didn't even think about enjoying their blood alongside their meat. It just never occurred to me even when I was indulging in cannibalistic practices.

Well, I had the chance to do so now.

"What…are…you…planning…to…do…?"

Her eyes rolling in their sockets, Asakura glanced up at me and stammered. I replied with a smile, and then forcibly lifted her head up while brushing her longish hair away to reveal her neck. Then I bit down and sucked her blood.

It didn't take a minute before I drained her veins of every drop of her blood.

*

"Impressive!"

I blinked and glanced up, only to catch sight of Regis Gremory strolling into the courtyard alongside a bunch of nobles and even more demonic soldiers, who were armed to the teeth and more heavily armored than the previous batch who were slaughtered by Asakura.

"As expected of the one who earned the title Hero Slayer!"

Regis was clapping his hands. At his example, many of the other nobles followed his lead and began applauding as well.

I rose to my feet, dropping Asakura's lifeless body onto the ground. Without giving her one last glance, I destroyed her corpse with a Corrupting Darkness spell.

Regis Gremory looked at her disintegrating body in dismay before glaring at me. "Why did you do that? You didn't have to destroy her body."

"She's a hero," I replied bluntly as I stomped my foot on Asakura's remains, which scattered into the winds as ashes. "I'm not going to take risks with her. For all we know, one of Evelyn's Chosen might have the ability to resurrect a corpse and bring her back from the dead. I'm going to make sure that such resurrections are impossible by destroying every trace of their bodies."

Regis Gremory laughed at that. "Ah…taking every precaution, huh? I like that. Yes, I definitely see the wisdom in that. You amaze me, Hero Slayer. I am ashamed to admit that I had never considered such a possibility."

"…"

I watched him as I pushed my glasses up my nose. The lenses were still cracked, but I should be able to get them fixed later. For now, I would put up with it. Instead, I checked on my status to see if I had devoured any new abilities.

Name: Tanaka Tomoyuki

Species: Undead

Job/Rank: Gravekeeper/Vampire Lord

Title: Hero Slayer

Special Abilities: Adamantium Will, Regeneration, Lord of Darkness, Absolute Appraisal, Summon, Sword Saint, Adaptive Mutation, Blood Thralls, Blood Magic, Enhanced Attributes, Nightmarish Hypnosis

"!"

Even though I was promoted from mere Vampire to Vampire Lord, I had lost my Devour ability. Perhaps I had reached the limits of plundering my victims' special abilities – it would be too overpowered if I continued to accumulate an endless number of special abilities, after all. Still, the loss stung a bit. I would like to have kept it for a bit further.

I didn't even gain Invincible Invisibility. That would have been a great addition to my abilities, but it seemed that I wasn't meant to have it. Well, no matter. I would deal with the hand I was dealt with. Plus it seemed I had gained a bunch of new abilities in return.

Blood Thralls – that must be what allowed me to summon the blood ghouls. With the battle done, they had all reverted back to pools of blood and flowed back to me to boost my power. The Enhanced Attributes must be my increased strength, speed and sharpened senses.

I need to find out what Blood magic or Nightmarish Hypnosis can do.

I couldn't wait to find that out. Not only had I mutated into a vampire, it seemed I had retained my necromancy abilities such as summoning zombies and Thousand Astral Graves. Even though my blood ghouls were already powerful, I wondered what sort of monstrosities they would transform into when boosted by my Thousand Astral Graves.

Oh, this was going to be so fun…

Before that, however…

I glared at Regis Gremory.

"I noticed that you were watching the battle the whole time, holding your troops back even when I was being cut apart by that bitch."

Regis Gremory smiled in a placating manner. "Come on, Tanaka-dono. I had every faith in your ability to defeat the Evelyn's Chosen. Even when you seemed to be down, I suspected that it was part of your grand plan to have your opponent lower her guard so that you can close in and finish the battle in one blow. And I was right!"

"…"

I stared at him, but I didn't argue. If Regis Gremory thought I couldn't kill Asakura and wrote me off, he would have ordered his troops to attack her while she was busily cutting me into pieces. At that time, Asakura was so focused on tearing me apart that her guard was totally down. Having witnessed Regis's abilities, I had no doubt he could have seized that chance to launch an attack and deal a fatal blow to her at that time.

Yet, he didn't. So either he was telling the truth about having faith in me, or he possessed some sinister agenda that I couldn't quite put my finger on.

"Well, let's not stand on ceremony, everyone." Regis Gremory raised his hands and gestured for everyone to follow him back to the throne room. "Today is a great day! A day to celebrate! Not only is it my son's wedding, we have all been able to witness the demise of one of those hateful Evelyn's Chosen! Each of these events on their own is enough cause for celebration and a toast! And to have them occur on the same day…my friends, please!"

"…"

I still couldn't trust Regis Gremory, but I knew that I needed allies. Even after defeating Asakura, there was still Sakaguchi Seiji and his Paladin abilities to worry about, and then Kobayashi Kenji and the rest of the class. Even I couldn't stand up against such numbers. There were still 24 former classmates left on my revenge list.

And I had to kill every single one of them…or at least the ones who still possessed the intention to murder me, anyway.