I turned my masked face toward Lara. She was collapsed against the stone base of a torch sconce, her fingers clawing desperately at her own throat. The solidified blood plug I had forced into her respiratory tract was still holding, preventing any oxygen from entering her lungs. Her high-tier Divine Regeneration was violently misfiring… her cells were constantly trying to repair the lack of air by forcing her throat muscles to contract, which only packed the hardened blood mass tighter into her airways.
"Mmmph... ghhh..." she gasped, her eyes completely bloodshot as she glared at me with pure, unadulterated hatred.
I knew standard methods wouldn't work on her. If I took her head off like I did with Cameron, her high-tier vitality would simply sprout a new nervous system before the body could expire. If I chopped off her limbs, they would instantly knit back into place. To completely neutralize a high-tier immortal, you don't inflict mortal trauma; you create a permanent, inescapable physical contradiction.
I stepped forward, towering over her as my crimson trench coat brushed against the blood-slicked stone. I reached down and violently grabbed both of her wrists, pinning her hands flat against the thick volcanic stone wall behind her.
Activating my fully replenished mana core, I focused my Blood Manipulation on the thick pools of vanguard fluid coating the floor. The crimson liquid rushed upward, swirling into two dense, hyper-compressed spikes. With a sharp flick of my wrist, I materialized two massive, jagged Blood Nails, each one thicker than a railroad spike, and drove them forcefully right through the palms of her hands, embedding them deep into the reinforced stone wall.
Lara winced, her body tensing, but her passive regeneration reacted instantly. The emerald light flared around her hands, trying to close the entry wounds. But because the solid blood nails were still physically occupying the space inside her palms, her flesh regenerated around the foreign objects. Her skin, muscles, and tendons tightly knitted directly over the jagged contours of the spikes, permanently fusing her hands to the wall. The harder her body tried to heal, the more securely she became clasped to the stone.
She was completely stuck… a living, breathing, immortal ornament pinned to the architecture of her own burning fortress.
"You are practically immortal, Lara, an execution here is a waste of my ammunition. The Bureau's deep-subterranean research labs in Town Tata have been looking for an infinite biological testing subject for years. You will enjoy your lifelong torture." I whispered, my voice echoing coldly through the bone-plated Leech's Hollow Mask.
I reached up and violently yanked the hardened blood plug out of her throat, allowing her lungs to instantly expand. She let out a desperate, ragged gasp of fresh air, her chest heaving violently as her senses returned. Before she could scream for the remaining castle guard, I gripped her heavy leather collar, shattered the stone anchors holding the nails with a swift kinetic kick, and began dragging her pinned, bound form across the floorboards like a piece of discarded luggage.
Leaving a long, smudged trail of crimson behind us, I dragged Lara through the ruined, corpse-lined halls of Rebelbub Castle, heading straight toward the massive front gates. The dull, heavy thuds of localized artillery and the flashing lights of magical explosions outside signaled that Chief Roman's Luminous Knights were heavily engaged with the outer wall defenses.
With Cameron's head safely locked in my 5.0 kg inventory slot, his sister-in-law secured as a living prisoner, and my mana reserves completely full, I prepared to exit the fortress structure. It was time to join the vanguard on the surface and systematically clean up the remaining resistance.
And seeing the blood I consumed, I decided to check my blood curse using inspect.
[413L/450L= evolution for Phase 7]
Phase 6
[413L/ 255L=+1000 mana(completed)]
[413L/ 267L=+50 strength(completed)]
[413L/ 291L=+50 defense(completed)]
[413L/ 299L=+100 agility(completed)]
[413L/ 304L= +50 strength(completed)]
[413L/ 315L= +100 defense(completed)]
[413L/ 329L= +1000 vitality(completed)]
[413L/ 341L= +500 mana(completed)]
[413L/ 358L= +50 agility(completed)]
[413L/ 369L=+1000 mana(completed)]
[413L/ 375L=+100 agility(completed)]
[413L / 379L =+1500 vitality(completed)]
[413L / 384L =+100 defense(completed)]
[413L / 395L =+100 strength(completed)]
[413L / 410L =+50 agility(completed)]
[413L / 425L =+150 defense]
[413L / 437L =+1000 mana]
[413L / 448L =+100 strength]
Attributes: +150 agility, +100 strength, +100 defense, +1500 vitality.
Because of my newly acquired attributes, I decided to check my current stats using inspect
Vanessa Katt (Eirene Rynd Shapeshift)
Skill: Inspect, Blood Curse, Blood Sword, Defense Reduction, Blood Bow, Pain Manipulation, Shapeshift, Illusion of Cariñosa
Vitality: 8200
Strength: 7900
Defense: 5800
Agility: 5050
Mana: 20500 (+8000 mana pool ring)
And yet, I became stronger, because of the mana pool ring, my mana is reached 20500.
The heavy iron-reinforced gates of Rebelbub Castle loomed just ahead, but as the muffled thunder of magical artillery rattled the stone walls, my analytical mind processed a critical tactical error. Walking onto an active battlefield wearing Vanessa Katt's skin was a death sentence. To the Luminous Knights of the Bureau, I would look like a high-ranking captain of the enemy vanguard; to the remaining Immoral Knights, I would look like a traitor dragging their commander's wife. I would be targeted by both sides simultaneously.
I needed my raw, monstrous power back. I needed my true form to survive the incoming crossfire.
I stopped in the middle of the dark entry hall, letting go of Lara's collar for a brief moment as she slumped against the floorboards, still groaning from the blood nails embedded in her palms. I took a deep breath and consciously cut the mana flow sustaining my high-tier shapeshifting trait.
The illusion shattered instantly.
The pristine, pale skin and the C-cup curves of Vanessa Katt melted away like wax over a fire. The sudden biological reversion hit my nervous system with a jarring, familiar wave of phantom pain. The pristine left arm that Lara's divine magic had so beautifully regenerated withered and dissolved, leaving a mangled, empty sleeve. The vocal cords inside my throat contracted, my tongue reverting back to a jagged, ruined stump that left me entirely mute once again. My right eye went completely dark, the vision snapping shut as the socket reverted to a scarred, sightless hollow.
My true, battle-scarred baseline form emerged from the ashes of the disguise. My skin darkened into its natural, sun-tanned hue, heavily crossed with the jagged white scars of my past torture in the flaying cellars of Town Tata. Then, with a violent, wet tear, the fabric of my crimson trench coat parted at the shoulder blades as my massive, translucent Blood Wings snapped outward, buzzing with a faint, ominous hum.
[DNA trace depleted. Shapeshift deactivated.]
I was no longer the puppet wife. I was Eirene Rynd. The Crimson Phantom.
The biological reality of my pregnancy remained locked inside my true marrow, a heavy secret resting in my abdomen, but my focus was entirely back on the mission. I reached down with my remaining right hand, gripping Lara's collar with the terrifying, unnatural strength of my true entity, and dragged her body out through the shattered main threshold.
The freezing mountain air hit my face as I stepped out onto the massive, high-altitude stone bridge spanning the volcanic gorge. Below, the mountain pass was a chaotic sea of flashing orange fireballs and blinding silver shields as the Bureau's Luminous Knights clashed violently with the fortress's outer guard. Holding my captive tight, my single eye scanning the perimeter through the slits of my bone mask, I began my slow, intimidating march across the bridge, ready to descend upon the battlefield like a harbinger of death.