"Lame…?"
"Yeah," I said, looking down at the cleaver. "It's just a cleaver. Pretty lame. I thought I was going to get something way cooler."
Bloody stared at me, eyes wide with disbelief.
"Did you… just call my magic lame?"
I raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah. A cleaver wasn't exactly what I was expecting. I thought I'd get some cool blood powers like you have, or something like that heart that keeps beating."
I pointed at the floating heart in his chest.
"You should definitely get that checked, by the way. Is it even healthy for your heart to be exposed to the elements like this? Seems pretty irresponsible to—"
Before I could finish grilling Bloody for his unwise biological decisions, he heaved and screamed right in my face.
"How dare you, maggot?! You dare insult my magic as if you have any idea what it's capable of?! Do you even know the carnage I reaped in my life?! I was the Blood Storm! Only tier-eight mages and above could stop me in combat!"
He was now clawing at my face.
Did he remember that he couldn't touch me?
Also, his spit was getting all over me.
Which, by the way, also could not touch me.
Before I could point that out, Sleazy and Knight restrained him, each grabbing one of his shoulders.
Even then, Bloody kept yelling.
"You maggot! Yes, maggot! How dare your unworthy hands touch the blade of Rend! Do you even know what that weapon is capable of?! I swear when I get the chance, I'll sink my teeth into your fleshy mortal heart! You insignificant piece of filth—!"
"Woah, chill out, blood dude!" Sleazy said. "Seer was just messing with you!"
"Stand down, blood fiend!" Knight barked. "I'll break one of your arms if you don't calm yourself!"
As Knight and Sleazy struggled to hold Bloody back, I turned and looked at the blood-red cleaver in my hand.
Rend, huh?
"Don't turn away from m—!"
I tuned out the nonsense behind me and heard Lazy speak in awe.
"I can't believe it. Someone able to use two origin spells… I didn't think that was feasible."
I nodded.
"I had the thought because of the mana tethers, but it was still only a hypothesis considering that, well…"
"We are all the same person, even if we belong to different timelines," Lazy finished.
He put a hand on his chin.
"Still, I have to wonder if you can use multiple origin spells at the same time. To think that even after dying, I would still witness magical breakthroughs. Marvelous."
"Well, I still think it's possible," I said. "But first I have to figure out what Bloodrend actually does."
By then, the commotion behind me had finally ended.
When I turned around, Bloody was muttering grumpily to himself.
What a weirdo.
Can you believe these guys are all me?
Preposterous.
Once Bloody finished grumbling, he finally looked at me again, a slight twitch in his right eye.
He grunted.
"Ahem. Despite your… unpleasant remarks about my origin spell, you are not entirely wrong."
My eyes widened.
I was just joking.
After seeing what Bloody could do with his magic in his memories, I knew the ability wasn't useless. If anything, I had thought he was playing a joke on me.
"Yes, I see that look," Bloody said. "No, this ability is not useless. And yes, you can do all the glorious things I did in my life."
I sighed in relief.
"The only problem is that Bloodrend is an ability that needs to be ramped up before it works."
"Can you explain the specifics, Uncle Bloody?" I pleaded.
A vein popped out on his pale face.
His teeth ground together.
I grinned.
Then he smirked.
My smile faltered.
"Yes," he said. "I could explain it."
His smirk widened.
"But it would be best if you simply tested it yourself."
"Alright," I said slowly. "How do I test it?"
His smirk grew even wider as he pointed toward my arm.
"Cut yourself."
"Huh…?"
The confusion on the other ghosts' faces mirrored my own.
What did he mean, cut yourself?
Was this guy crazy?
Sleazy spoke first.
"What do you mean, blood man? Why does he have to cut himself? That's a little extreme, even for me."
Bloody rolled his eyes.
"I'm not telling him to carve himself open. Just a little scratch with Rend on the arm, and it will make sense."
He glared at me.
"Now hurry up. My patience is already worn thin from your unsightly remarks."
Before Bloody could burst another blood vessel, I placed the red cleaver against the tip of my pointer finger.
"Young man…"
I could feel Knight's concern.
I rolled my eyes.
"Relax. It's just a little cut. How bad could it be?"
With that, I cut lightly into my finger.
Not enough to seriously injure myself.
Just enough to bleed.
That was a bad decision.
The moment my blood touched the dark metal of Rend, I felt it being absorbed.
No.
Sucked in.
Like the blade was drinking.
My knees weakened, and I dropped to one of them.
Bloody's rushed voice came from behind me.
"You idiot! Pull the blade away from your wound or you'll die!"
I did as he said and moved Rend away from the cut.
The draining sensation vanished, but I still felt lightheaded.
My hand trembled around the hilt.
For a second, the cleaver didn't feel lame anymore.
It felt hungry.
I got back to my feet and looked down at the blade.
It was slick with blood, glowing deep crimson.
Knight aimed his sword at Bloody.
"You damn blood fiend. You nearly killed this young man. I knew I should have slaughtered you when I had the chance."
Bloody growled low in his throat, and bloody spikes emerged from his exposed arms.
"You want to go, old man? I'll rip off that annoying beard along with your damn face!"
Before they could get into a fight that may or may not kill me, I shouted.
"Hey! Both of you need to chill out! I'm fine. Just a little lightheaded from my blood being drained."
I looked down at the cleaver in my hand.
It still glowed a deep red, as if satisfied.
Then I gave Bloody a stern look.
"What does this thing even do?"
He stared at me, then sighed.
"Alright. I was just messing with you for your earlier remarks, but I forgot how fragile you are."
My eye twitched.
What a jerk.
Bloody looked at Rend, then with a swish, summoned his own.
Then he cut himself.
My eyes widened.
Not out of concern for him.
He was a tier-seven mage, after all.
No, what shocked me was the display itself.
The blood leaking from his wound was absorbed into Rend.
But compared to mine, his blade shone with dark delight.
The blood did not stop flowing.
It kept pouring into the weapon, leaving a harrowing sight.
If Bloody were real and not some ghostly construct, the entire pond a few meters away would have been filled and dyed red.
Then the blood stopped.
The wound closed.
In its place, intricate, wavy tattoos made of blood spread across his bare chest.
"Bloodrend is an ability that allows you to do a myriad of different things," Bloody explained. "But to access those abilities, you must first absorb blood."
"Blood?" I asked.
"Yes. More specifically, the mana resting inside blood."
He continued.
"Blood is absorbed through the medium of Rend, then converted into stored energy. The tattoos you see on my skin are the mana Rend absorbed from my blood."
Lazy's eyes narrowed.
"So it's not simply blood manipulation," he muttered. "It's conversion and storage…"
His voice turned quiet.
"That is far worse."
Bloody's grin widened.
"Exactly."
He touched the bloody markings on his chest.
"The other half of this ability is that once you have stored energy, you can—"
"Release it," I interrupted.
Bloody nodded, a toothy smile spreading across his face.
"The applications differ from what you might think. There are several functions, but the two main ones are simple."
He raised one finger.
"First. Buffing."
My eyes shone.
A self-buffing origin spell?
That sounded incredible.
From what I remembered, origin spells that buffed oneself or others were extremely rare.
The same went for healing.
Most people gifted with those kinds of abilities were transferred straight to the Support Department.
"What's the second application?"
Bloody stared at me.
Then his mouth split into a feral grin.
And then he cut his arm off.
The severed arm fell through the air before dissolving into particles.
Dark blood leaked from the stump.
Then it began to take shape.
A new arm rose from the wound, deep red at first, before skin slowly grew over it like grass creeping across soil.
The shocked stares behind me matched my own expression.
I was stupefied.
Bloody looked down at his newly formed arm and addressed me.
"The second main application is pure regeneration. With enough blood, you can heal from any wound."
His grin widened.
"And I mean any wound."
"Burning. Crushing. Being eaten. As long as you absorb enough blood, you will not die."
He threw his hands into the air.
"Is it not marvelous?! With enough blood, you continue to grow stronger, faster, and harder to kill. Eventually, you become immortal!"
His eyes burned with madness and ecstasy.
"This is why they called me the Crimson Menace. Only an attack that completely eviscerated me could have ended my life!"
His dark red eyes bored into me.
I shivered.
What an amazing origin spell.
With something like this, I could save the world.
I could even challenge the Corruption God.
What a find.
A strange warmth pulsed in my palm.
For a moment, the thought felt less like mine and more like something agreeing with me.
Before I could grovel at Bloody's feet and beg him to train me, he spoke again.
"Of course, there are limitations."
I froze.
"The most important one is this: you cannot use your own blood unless absolutely necessary."
Before I could ask why, he continued.
"Using your own blood recklessly will only kill you. This magic is about stacking wounds onto your enemy, stealing their blood, and by extension, their mana."
Knight's expression darkened.
"A brutal spell."
Bloody grinned.
"An honest one."
He held up his arm.
"Second. At your current level, you cannot heal major wounds. Not until you reach tier seven like me, or until you have an absurd amount of stored blood to use as fuel."
"At most, right now, you'll be able to heal scratches. With a few months of practice, maybe deeper wounds."
I looked up at him, dejected.
"So what you're saying is that I have to wound an enemy before I can use this ability properly, because using my own blood is way too dangerous?"
He nodded.
"Exactly. Of course, with time, training, better mana manipulation, and a higher tier, you'll find ways to bypass those limitations."
He pointed toward the floating heart in his chest.
"This organ is a spell that allows me to convert mana into blood, granting me near-infinite reserves. But it is far beyond you. I had to reach tier six just to use it properly."
I stared at his heart in awe.
So that thing wasn't just some unpleasant cosmetic.
It was terrifyingly useful.
I looked up at Bloody with new respect.
Maybe he wasn't just a hedonistic, prideful asshole.
"Wow," I said. "I can't believe you had such an overpowered ability. I remember seeing you raze battlefields in your memories, but now I understand how you did it."
I pumped my fists.
"I'm ready, Uncle Bloody. No—Master Bloody! Teach me how to use magic!"
He looked delighted.
The happiest I had ever seen him.
"Relax," Bloody said. "There is one more thing I must tell you regarding this magic. It is nothing much, really."
"What is it?" I asked, excited.
He grinned.
Then he looked down at Rend.
For the first time, his grin looked less amused and more cautious.
"It's nothing much."
He tapped the blade.
"Only that this mana…"
His grin widened again.
"…is sentient."
"What?!"
All four of us shouted.