Dimitri was a picky eater. He never liked to eat meat. The simple thought of eating something that ate something himself found disgusted—disgusted him enough to avoid it.
Most of his food was specially made synthetic pastes and dew water. In his wildest dreams, he never expected himself to devour blood like this.
That too, of a Mirage.
And he didn't feel a single ounce of disgust. Rather he was excited.
The ruin walls started to crack, debris falling as the battle continued. The amount of blood spilled across the ground now almost covered the entire hall, the number of maws nearly matching the number of vines.
Still, no matter what, new vines replaced their fallen members, banging into the cage for it to break. Eris gritted her teeth, a crimson card flickering in her palm before disappearing.
Bang.
The iron cage she had summoned groaned under the pressure of the attack. Cracks spiderwebbed across its surface. It survived until now only because the pressure from the vines had been reduced.
That too, because of a single person.
Dimitri moved through the vines, devouring them in his path. He only used 'Sanguine Liquefaction' and 'Vicious Maw' and the power of two legendary cards was visible in the aftermath of his battle.
His fighting wasn't as noisy as Lux's or as controlling as Eris's—but more eerie than they ever could be. Perhaps even the countless Throne Vines were no match for his creepiness.
"Thirty seconds left!" Eris shouted. The cage was on the verge of collapse—if that happened, it would be disastrous for the group.
Darvin grunted, slashing wildly with his bone dagger. The edge dulled from repeated contact. Vines wrapped around his arm, tugging hard. He bit down a scream.
Lux was no better. His face was drenched in sweat, sharp metals floating erratically around him like orbiting blades. He directed them with wild precision, severing vine after vine. But they were infinite.
And endless.
Inside the chaos, Dimitri moved like a phantom.
His blood—too much to be natural—flooded continuously through the floor. It clung to the vines, crawling like living ink. With a whisper, he activated Blood Arc, sending jagged crimson blades through the ground, severing the closest threats.
Then came Vicious Maw.
Dozens of gaping mouths formed from the blood, each screaming silently as they latched onto the invading vines. They crunched and tore, devouring wooden limbs with a hunger that even made Eris shudder.
The tide stalled.
But not for long.
BOOM
One massive vine surged from beneath the ground, snapping the metal cage in half like dry twigs. A shriek echoed—high-pitched and filled with fury.
SHREEEK
"It's Parasitic Throne…" Eris's voice lost all calm. A monster that could rival an entire army of Seekers—maybe even threaten beginning-stage Adepts—was now in their sights.
No..they were in its sight.
She had no idea if it had come in its true form, she hoped not. If it had, not only this ruin, but the entire Westward Ruins were at risk. Her breath hitched in her throat as she pulled her two brothers and backed away.
"We're out of time!" Eris screamed, summoning another card. A ripple of silver energy expanded outward, forcing the smaller vines back for a brief instant.
Darvin was panting, one arm completely bent at an unnatural angle.
Lux collapsed to one knee, eyes barely open.
And Dimitri—
Every stream of blood on the ground rushed to one point. From there, he emerged. His body almost overflowed with energy, Eris was sure this power wasn't something a rookie Seeker with a single red ring could have.
Unknown to her, Dimitri had only one ring, and it was red. His gaze locked onto the massive vine, cold and steady as it coiled across the ground. Then it's slight pulled and almost half the entire floor caved in.
BOOM
Dimitri clenched his fists. His senses almost bugged out from the intensity of the danger, every messages his brain registering was to run. Whatever was coming from there wasn't something he could face directly.
And that made him angry. He hated the feeling of powerlessness. He hated how a little puny creature like this dared to stand before him, lest against him.
And that anger burned with such intensity, his blood began to boil. It started to evaporate, filling his entire body with vast amounts of essence. He felt a tug from his heart, the nodes he had collected slowly turning into energy as they filled his deck.
His aura began to materialise. A red ring made of mist started forming around him. With each passing second, the mist thickened until it turned dark red.
He had a feeling—if he pushed the essence into the ring, he could upgrade it. But his subconscious resisted. So he let the essence condense further. The ring began to liquify, then solidify.
His fingers brushed the ring, his mind sharpening with each moment. Everything changed the moment the ring turned completely dark, devoid of even a hint of red.
That's when he noticed another transparent ring forming just below the first. The essence flowed into it, repeating the process from before.
Eris and her brothers were stupefied as they watched two rings appear around Dimitri, then instantly darken before turning light orange.
"Did he just upgrade his ring?"
"Just?" Darvin slapped Lux's head. "Not only did he upgrade, he formed another ring. How?!"
Their brother Chen had taken three years to form his second ring. This boy did it in seconds. Not only that, he had advanced from red to orange. That too in a single day.
What kind of monstrous talent was this? No…what kind of monster was this?
They didn't know that Dimitri's ability to upgrade and form rings so quickly came from the passive powers of his cards. 'Vicious Maw' allowed him to devour the blood of the creatures he killed. 'Sanguine Liquefaction' let him store that blood as his own.
His anger had made him subconsciously burn the stored blood into essence and that essence was what made this transformation possible.
It wasn't without cost, though. Dimitri quickly realised the blood he could control had decreased significantly, preventing him from burning more.
He looked down at his hands. They were pale and cold. Visible cracks stretched there like veins.
And then, a piercing scream echoed through the ruins as roots exploded upward. A monstrous limb, a vine thicker than a tree trunk, rose from the ground.
Followed by a monstrous face, with rows of teeth and vines coiling like hands and legs.
"WHO DARES TO DRINK MY BLOOD?!"
And it screamed.
"IT'S YOU....!"