Chapter 5: Blood God
As the clash raged on with Dax watching from the shadows, a ripple of crimson light tore through the fabric of reality as if slashed open by an invisible claw. From the bleeding wound stepped a tall figure composed entirely of blood—a humanoid fountain whose presence was so crushing that it bent the very light around him.
Vabon froze mid-motion. Sweat poured down his face in rivers, soaking his collar. His breath hitched violently in his throat, and his knees buckled beneath him as if his bones had turned to water. In that instant, he forgot the battle completely, utterly ignoring Kakarai.
This must be the Blood God… My body surrenders to his shadow. The jolt in the mark on my soul says it all.
"M-my god!"
Without hesitation, Vabon threw himself face-first into the dirt, pounding his forehead against the blood-soaked earth again and again—frantic, reverent, and reduced to begging.
"Praise the Blood God!" His voice cracked as he poured everything he had into making his words sound like a worthy prayer. Across the clearing, Kakarai shivered, undeniably frozen in place. His eyes coiled with terror, and for once, not a single maddened syllable escaped his split lips; beneath that pressure, he had no choice but to be sane.
Yet the Blood God's gaze was fixed elsewhere—locked onto a figure hidden in the shadows. Vabon raised his face toward the image of his god, following those piercing red eyes as they cut straight through the darkness.
Vabon shivered as a white-haired young man stepped calmly out of the gloom. Why… why does he look as though he can stare right at the divine? Still, knowing his god stood before him, Vabon's lingering fear of Dax slowly began to subside.
The deity turned his attention back to Vabon, taking a single step forward as his towering mass of blood condensed into a seven-foot humanoid frame.
"Good child." The entity looked down at Vabon, who couldn't move a muscle beneath the crushing weight of a god standing beside him.
A demonic smile split across the blood-soaked face of the Blood God as he pointed downward. From his dripping fingertip fell a crimson seed covered in wicked thorns.
"Raise your head."
Vabon obeyed, his neck straining upward. The seed descended gently, almost tenderly, onto the crown of his head. In that moment, Vabon felt he could die without regret simply for having heard the voice of his lord.
The seed sank into his depths. Skin parted without resistance, and bone yielded like soft clay as it burrowed deep, vanishing straight into his brain.
"Be baptized in death."
At the end of the Blood God's words, agony erupted. A searing, white-hot torment exploded inside Vabon's chest, as though his heart had been set ablaze from within. His eyes flew wide in horror.
"..."
Staring up at his lord and savoring his presence, Vabon forced the words out: "I am happy." Yet his declaration didn't match the blood streaming from his eyes or the wails tearing from his throat.
The Blood God only smiled wider.
Hovering briefly in the air, Vabon convulsed violently. The flesh on his face and body sloughed off in thick, wet slabs, revealing raw, bloodied muscle beneath while his hair burned away on the wind.
"I accept this gift, my lord!" he screamed one final time.
The earth recoiled beneath his landing, the impact trembling through the forest like a distant earthquake. He dropped to his knees, his voice suddenly cold and ceremonial. "Honor to the Valiant Father of Blood."
"Solos…"
Vabon's trembling arms stretched wide, palms open to the sky. Acceptance settled over him like a peaceful funeral shroud. A faint, broken smile touched his flayed face. In the brief heartbeat that his consciousness remained, he felt everything—every brush of the wind piercing his exposed pores like millions of needles.
"To die serving my lord… I am blessed."
"And why?" Dax said calmly from the edge of the clearing, his voice cutting through the reverence like a scalpel. "You are happy to die for that? Hahaha, very humble of you."
The deity paused for a heartbeat, his red eyes shifting back toward Dax.
Dax continued, a small, unsettling smile playing at the corners of his mouth. Is this some sort of alien species native to this world? It carries the same air as those cataclysmic entities that wander the emptiness of space. "What are you, to make this man give up his life with such ease?"
A flicker of confusion crossed the god's ancient features—quick and unguarded—before the cold mask slammed back into place.
"Bring me those eyes, Solos." Instead of answering Dax, the Blood God pointed a blood-dripping finger directly at him.
Then the deity faded as though he had never been there at all, slipping out of reality like smoke—though not before casting one final, lingering gaze upon Dax.
"This world…" Dax whispered to himself, his lips curling slowly until laughter threatened to spill out. Madness danced bright and sharp in his gaze as he savored the taste of the moment.
"Dax… how could you ever see this world as a curse?" he asked his predecessor, a low chuckle rumbling in his chest as his smile widened with delight.
Across the clearing, the entity now inhabiting Vabon's flesh—Solos—moved with ritualistic precision.
He extended one blood-drenched hand over the pools of crimson spilled across the earth. The blood responded instantly—lifting, defying gravity, and flowing backward in impossible streams. It poured into the open wounds of the vessel, into his mouth and eyes, reknitting and reshaping the ruined frame.
Thud.
A single, monstrous heartbeat thundered through the entire forest. The aura that erupted from the body shook the trees to their roots, making them shed their leaves like green snow. It was a silent nightmare, beautiful in its horror.
Then pale flame ignited across the exposed form, licking hungrily at muscle and bone. When the fire died, pristine white robes cloaked him—spotless and veiled, hiding the monstrosity beneath.
Solos clutched his chest, his back arching in sharp agony. With a sickening, wet tear, two massive wings burst from his spine—bloody, feathered, and forged entirely from coagulated blood. His presence rose like a tide, sweeping across the Plains of Vabos until the sky itself seemed stained red.
"Blood World," Solos whispered, his voice laced with satisfaction.
"Spatial fluctuations?…" Dax noticed the shift in reality instantly. His brows narrowed as he focused his newly awakened sight, trying to pierce through the expanding crimson bubble—only for his vision to strike an invisible wall.
A troublesome foe.
His gaze shifted toward the mad priest, Kakarai, and clarity snapped back instantly. He saw everything within the man: the corrupted blood currents, the twisted mana, and the strange flame burning inside the madman's chest.
Yet even stranger…
Kakarai hadn't fled. He stood motionless, staring directly at Dax with wide-eyed reverence. A moment later, the priest dropped to his knees.
"Oh?" Dax's brows lifted in genuine surprise.
In a flash, Solos appeared directly behind the kneeling priest, a long blade of condensed blood forming in his grip and humming with malice.
"Condemned thing," the blood-angel hissed. "Die for me."
The blade plunged downward—but struck only empty air, detonating against the soil and blasting open a fifty-meter crater blooming with blood where Kakarai had knelt a fraction of a second before.
"I can't let you kill this man," Dax said evenly, standing twenty paces away while holding Kakarai effortlessly by the collar of his torn robes. "I want to take a peek inside his mind first."
Solos turned slowly. Looking at the effortless speed and ruthless precision with which Dax had plucked the priest from under his blade, the angel's gaze held no dismissal—only cold, calculating wariness.
Before Solos could respond, Dax glanced down at the priest in his grip.
"Madman," Dax said softly, his voice almost gentle. "Your insanity intrigues me… but it is not enough yet."
He pointed south, toward the distant horizon.
"I advise you to survive and head toward the House of Fall. You will see me there."
With a casual twist of telekinetic power, Dax hurled Kakarai skyward, launching him like a living projectile far beyond the perimeter of the battle.
"Voooos!" Kakarai's joyful scream echoed across the sky as he vanished into the distance.
Dax's smile deepened, dark and knowing. "Oh, the gift I have prepared for you…"
He exhaled, slow and deliberate, straightening his posture as his stance shifted. The air grew crushing and heavy. Murderous intent rolled off him in visible waves as crimson mist coiled from his skin, chilling the blood-warmed ground beneath his boots.
"Come to me, Cil."
From the ripples of nothingness, a crimson katana that seemed to draw breath tore through a rupture in space, humming with bloodlust and forcing the sky itself to acknowledge its arrival. Alive and eager, she landed lovingly in Dax's waiting palm, her edge singing with delight.
"You are as beautiful as ever. I've missed you," Dax whispered, his fingers tracing her sharp surface with reverent affection before he leveled the point of the blade toward the blood-winged angel, his eyes gleaming with predatory joy. "Let's go, partner."