Chapter 458: Staying Alive

After Eric joined the fight against the king, Thalion was on the move, always keeping an eye on the surroundings and the objective.

He needed to be—no, he

would

be—the one with the most leaderboard points when it ended.

There were a few trial takers who tried to go for him from time to time, but Thalion ran while hiding behind other fighters. This tactic worked very well, and those who chased him head over heels often became targets themselves very quickly.

As the big fight with the king carried on, Thalion began to understand more and more about the ritual.

The throne had to be the center—and likely also the key to activating the Scarlet Continuum.

The next thing he found out was that he could only see the spider because of his blood sense. Otherwise, it would be completely obscured, which might be the reason none of the other fighters had a clue what was hanging up there.

Thalion played with the thought of firing a Blood Thorn at the spider, but in the end, he decided against it.

It was clear that the spider and the king were connected somehow, which would also explain why the king seemed to have eyes everywhere. Without that advantage, things might get difficult for him.

The chaos in the chamber was truly mesmerizing.

Everyone was fighting everyone, despite a few who were going for the king with some kind of unspoken non-aggression pact.

For Thalion to risk his life like that between enemies sounded like a stupid idea and wasn’t something he would ever do.

To escape from a certain fire elf, Thalion had to use his bloodline skill once already—which wasn’t a big deal, since he wasn’t injured. By downing a mana potion, he ensured his mana would recover in short order.

This was such a terrifying place to be for an F grade.

A single skill was enough to kill him.

It turned out that the safest position was close to the elves—but as far away from Kaelir as possible.

The elves all wanted him alive, which was why they didn’t use their strongest attacks. Thalion was just an F grade after all, who kept his aura hidden.

In the heat of the battle, no one noticed that the chamber was growing hotter and hotter—and it wasn’t because of fire skills or the lack of windows.

No.

It was his curse spreading in the blood below.

With the sheer amount of blood, even his curse took time to infect it all.

Thalion watched as the Second Daughter was killed by the spider and then the king teleported onto the throne.

For Thalion, this was a nightmare.

The king was already injured—and if someone managed to kill him after the ritual, they would surpass Thalion in points.

After the king was dead, they would definitely go for Thalion, who had no chance of getting away.

After seeing what the Chosen could do when pushed, he didn’t have high hopes.

Maybe he could confuse them with his bloodline skill or hide behind the elves—but those weren’t strategies he looked forward to.

Seeing the king being punched off the throne before he could activate the ritual made Thalion’s heart jump.

He moved closer to the throne, and when most were focused on the king, he used almost all of his mana to teleport onto the throne with his bloodline skill.

No one had said he couldn’t activate the ritual.

And it was clear that only the one on the throne would benefit from whatever was about to happen.

This was also a way to ensure that the trial would end faster than expected—because even though the king was injured and being used like a ragdoll by the orc, he was still far from done.

And the faster the trial ended, the better.

The king had killed so many of his people—it would be a shame if all that blood was wasted.

When the rune began to glow again after Thalion spoke the phrase, he immediately plunged his hand down onto it. All eyes had been on the king and the quick activation didn't give them a chance to smack him of the throne like the king before.

“After this, you better never complain about not getting enough blood,” Thalion said to the Sanguis Impera before touching the rune.

Touching the rune felt like holding his hand in a power outlet.

His whole body convulsed as unimaginable amounts of power entered him—but this was only the beginning.

Pressure descended, strong enough to bring everyone to their knees, as all the runes in the chamber lit up with power.

Thalion could feel how the ocean of blood below the chamber began to churn and rise upward in small rivers, becoming more and more condensed as they ascended.

When the first rivers erupted from the rifts, they were no thicker than a leg as they moved toward Thalion.

But the rivers weren’t the only thing that happened.

This was only a small portion of the blood beneath him.

The rest was used to empower the runes further and further, and Thalion had to watch helplessly as lines of power crept up toward the throne and connected with it.

The moment that happened, the power spiked exponentially.

Thalion was forced to sit down by the sheer pressure.

Note for future me, if I survive: Don’t activate a sacrificial ritual that was made for someone a hundred levels above you.

The power didn’t stop at the throne but entered Thalion.

By now, Thalion had his fair share of experience with body tempering. When it came to blood, he had empowered it and sorted out impurities. That had already given him quite the power-up.

The form of body tempering he now encountered was far more effective—and far more painful.

Thalion’s skin split open from the sheer power being pumped into his body, and the only reason he didn’t explode was because the Sanguis Impera was devouring the bloody rivers.

From that point on, Thalion had no idea what was happening and just hoped that the power of the outsider, together with his natural healing, would be enough to repair most of the damage so he didn’t die on the spot.

When he thought this torment would never end, he heard a voice in his head.

“

Need Seeds

.”

At first, Thalion had no idea what the Sanguis Impera wanted from him—until it clicked.

Throughout the stages, he had picked up two pretty powerful seeds.

And right now, with how many leaderboard points he had, they weren’t necessary to stay in first place.

Also, in the current situation, he simply trusted the Sanguis Impera.

That he didn’t need to move to take them out of his spatial ring came in very handy.

Multiple vines erupted from his body, reaching for the two seeds before him.

The moment the Sanguis Impera began consuming them as well, it felt like not only was power being forced into his body from the outside—but from beneath his heart a sun was awakening.

Great. An evolution right now… I wonder if I’ll wake up again…

Thalion thought while fully focusing on not blacking out from the pain.

He saw how more vines gathered around him, holding him upright, and he also noticed golden spots forming along them.

At first, he thought it was just the pressure distorting his vision—but no.

It was the Sanguis Impera.

The power of the ritual was still surging, and the pressure didn’t lessen in the slightest.

The trial takers before him tried to stand up or attack Thalion with skills—but the suppression outside the throne must have been even stronger, judging by how they were glued to the ground.

It wasn’t only that they were pinned down—their blood was slowly leaving their bodies.

Thalion doubted it would be enough to kill them—but it would definitely weaken them big time.

Maybe I will make it out alive after all…

“

Divine Evolution Achieved. Let’s Feed

.”

The message from the Sanguis Impera was filled with so much determination and desire that Thalion needed a moment to process what it meant.

Also—what was with the voice?

It sounded somewhat female—but more alien than anything he had ever heard before.

Then again, he had never talked to plants before.

All previous messages had been so faint that he hadn’t noticed such details.

The power inside him—and the ritual energy—kept rising and rising until it reached a crescendo.

Thalion was very glad he wasn’t losing consciousness, even though, in hindsight, that would have been the far more pleasant option.

Primordial Bloodseed (Divine)

Through countless trials, the Sanguis Impera has been shaped into something truly miraculous. It is the first of its kind, and with that comes extreme power. The Primordial Bloodseed has shed anything that connected it to its ancestor. This is a new race walking a path of extreme power and nothing shall stand in its way.

First of all, Thalion could really get used to seeing that big, fat

Divine

next to a description.

That it was so short also meant this was the real deal.

And

Primordial

had to mean something big.

Maybe before this, no sprout of the blood plant Tenebrice had ever managed to reach Divine rarity in E grade?

Thalion was happy for the now Primordial Bloodseed.

That it had reached Divine rarity was almost too good to be true.

There was just one problem.

A good amount of the ritual’s energy was still running through his body, continuing to make him feel like a bomb.

Only now did Thalion notice that his mouth had been open in a silent scream—while blood ran from his mouth and eyes.

Moving was still impossible, but with the ritual finished, the pressure on the others was slowly subsiding.

The orc was already on them, though he was still vibrating from the intense pressure that had been on him.

That wouldn’t hold for long.

“Can you do something about them? Because it looks like I’m out,” Thalion sent to the Primordial Bloodseed a bit helplessly.

He had done what he could in this trial—and now his body was wrecked.

“

Yes. They shall be consumed. You better get that divine evolution too, because this feels so strong

,” the Primordial Bloodseed replied.

“Eh… I don’t know if consuming more blood is a good idea,” Thalion tried to protest—but he was distracted by the system notification.

The Scarlet Continuum has been activated

00:00:60

The clock was ticking, which normally would be a good thing.

But now the runes stopped glowing, allowing everyone to move freely—and right now, everyone had one target.

Good thing the newly evolved blood plant still had a lot of leftover power from the ritual, which had to be spent if they didn’t want to blow Thalion up.

All the trial takers were exhausted, drenched in their own blood that had been violently torn out through their skin.

Thalion experienced this fight as a passive observer, as his whole body was engulfed in leaves that reminded him of a lotus—only these were a mixture of dark red and golden color.

He was probably lifted high off the ground as a jungle of dark red and gold erupted from the throne.

The only thing Thalion could observe was through his blood vision—and what he immediately noticed was that multitasking didn’t seem to be a problem for his buddy anymore.

Over twenty vines erupted from the center, going for the closest trial takers, no matter if they were in front of or behind Thalion.

It also used the lingering ritual power, which resulted in the vines brimming with energy.

Thalion noticed that the vines weren't wriggling over the floor like snakes, but instead they were actually floating half a meter above it as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

Without the insane amount of power still lingering in his body, such rapid growth while defending against all the Chosen would have been impossible.

That so much energy was now leaving his body was also good for Thalion, and he could finally relax a bit and think.

That was when he noticed a certain king still lying on the ground in the back.

“I know you’re busy, but could you get this one?” Thalion sent to the Primordial Bloodseed, along with an image of the king.

That the king still had quite potent blood in his veins acted as additional motivation.

That this thing still wanted more blood wasn’t understandable for Thalion.

The Primordial Bloodseed formed a very thin—but therefore much faster—vine.

The king, who was still sitting on the ground in shock over what had happened to his grand ascension, didn’t even have the chance to dodge before his head was pierced.

Thalion couldn’t believe it—but the stupid king really gave five hundred million points.

Now he just had to make it out alive.

Which wasn’t easy, as the Chosen slowly began to gather their thoughts.

Yet the Primordial Bloodseed was a lot more optimistic than Thalion.

It grew more and more vines while also releasing pollen from small flowers.

Additionally, it pressed against the blood of everyone who came close, making it almost impossible for the fighters to get nearer or dodge the vines reaching for them.

The most important part was that they hesitated—which bought them valuable seconds.

Against the archers, the Primordial Bloodseed could do very little besides sacrificing vines to block the attack.

The ritual’s lingering power drained quickly until it was even Thalion’s own mana that had to be used for empowerment.

The Chosen became more aggressive by the second, which even led to a few injuries on the lotus Thalion was currently lying inside—but thankfully, the leaves proved resistant while the chosen were still badly weakened and far from their normal power.

Then the clock hit zero—

And the horror show ended for Thalion.