Chapter 85: Midnight Metamorphosis
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Auri stood by the wall, calm and sharp. Her wings were folded neatly. Her posture was perfect. She looked like she belonged in a royal guard line rather than a merchant’s bedroom. Her gaze never left Sekhmet. She did not blink often.
The six rare bats remained still, their eyes dim like coals, their bodies ready but restrained. They were blood-born creatures. They could sit quietly for hours as long as the master’s will held them.
The system remained silent after its last notification, as if it too decided this hour belonged to absorption, not conversation.
Sekhmet closed his eyes fully.
He followed the flow of blood in his body.
Not the physical pumping alone, but the sensation underneath it — something finer, something that felt like threads of warm light weaving through his veins. The divine drop he had tasted was already dissolving. It was spreading through him, touching his chaos energy, touching his chaos body, touching his blood awakening.
He could feel resistance too.
Not pain.
Resistance like the body saying: this is too much, this is too strange, this is not normal fuel.
He exhaled slowly and guided the resistance into acceptance.
He did what his father taught him about chaos energy when he was younger. When his father would sit him down after a training day and say: do not force it. Chaos is not a horse. It is a river. You do not whip a river. You learn its direction and you build your bridge.
Sekhmet built the bridge.
He let the divine blood move through him without fighting it.
He breathed.
He sank deeper.
Time passed.
At first he could still hear the Dawn House creaking. A distant servant’s footsteps. The faint whisper of cloth moving in a hallway. The far-away sound of a night guard’s patrol outside.
Then even those sounds faded.
His mind slipped into a quiet place.
A place beyond hunger.
Beyond anger.
Beyond the underground.
A place that felt almost like the Null itself — endless, deep, patient.
Bat Bat’s breathing slowed too.
The tiny creature, for once, did not complain. It did not ask for snacks. It did not demand attention. It did not try to sit on Auri’s head and declare itself commander of the room.
Bat Bat absorbed.
The divine drop inside Bat Bat was smaller, but Bat Bat’s body was smaller too. That meant the effect was not gentle.
Bat Bat’s aura flickered faintly red.
Not the wild blood god takeover kind of glow, but a steady pulse, like a lantern breathing.
Sekhmet did not open his eyes, but he felt it. The system had bonded Bat Bat strongly. Their connection was not a soul link like some beasts used, but it was still intimate — Bat Bat’s growth affected his situation, and his state affected Bat Bat’s stability.
The hour stretched.
One minute became ten.
Ten became forty.
The night deepened.
Outside, somewhere in the city, distant laughter echoed briefly, then disappeared. Somewhere a drunk argued, then shut up. Somewhere a beast howled once, far from the walls.
Inside the room, only breath remained.
Huuuu... Haaaa...
Huuuu... Haaaa...
And the steady heartbeat.
Ba - dum... Ba - dum...
When the absorption reached its peak, Sekhmet felt it like a wave cresting inside him. His blood awakening tugged. His chaos energy stirred. His chaos body tightened as if it was trying to remake itself into a stronger shape.
He held.
He guided the chaos energy.
He absorbed the blue into his body.
Then, slowly, the wave settled.
The ocean became quiet again.
Sekhmet’s eyes opened.
The lantern was lower now. Midnight had passed. The flame was still alive, but smaller, like it too had been meditating.
Bat Bat’s eyes opened a second later.
Bat Bat blinked.
Then Bat Bat made a sound of satisfaction that was far too loud for someone who had just spent an hour pretending to be wise.
"Mmm," Bat Bat murmured happily.
Sekhmet’s lips twitched faintly.
He could feel it.
He was stronger.
Not a little.
A lot.
His blood felt thicker, more responsive. His chaos energy felt fuller, denser. His chaos body felt like steel that had been heated and hammered into a better shape.
Inside his mind, the system chimed.
Ding!
It was crisp, calm, like a clerk stamping a document.
[Ding! Divine Blood Absorption Complete.
Chaos Energy Purity: +1%
Chaos Energy Purity: 12%
Blood Proficiency: +70%
Blood Proficiency: 70.6%
Overall Battle Power: +4500
Overall Battle Power: 16,000
Chaos Energy: updated
Chaos Body: updated]
Sekhmet’s breath caught slightly.
He had gained so much in a single day that it felt like cheating. It felt like the Null itself had blinked and tossed him forward on the path.
He could not stop the smile that appeared briefly on his face. Not arrogance.
Relief.
"I’m not weak," he thought. "Not anymore."
He pulled up his status window, his mind focusing.
The system obeyed. A clean panel appeared inside his thoughts, crisp and cold.
[Status Window-
Host: Sekhmet Dawn
Race: Human
Location: Slik City (Lower Domain, Null)
Overall Battle Power: 16,000
Chaos Energy: 8,000
Chaos Body: 8,000
Chaos Energy Purity: 12%
Blood Awakening: 3%
Blood Proficiency: 70.6/100
Skills
Blood Control Lv2
Blood Sword Lv1 (Can transform blood into a sword for now)
Blood Eye Lv1 (Appraise items and beings)
Blood Summon Lv2 (Summon blood minions using blood. Stronger blood = stronger summon. Minimum summon battle power: 1,000. Rare summons can evolve into Harpies.)
Blood Puppet Lv1 (Slots 0/1) Cannot betray master. Forced conversion if target battle power is not more than 2x host. Stronger targets require willing acceptance.)]
Sekhmet stared at the numbers.
Eight thousand chaos energy.
Eight thousand on chaos body.
Twelve percent chaos energy purity.
Overall Sixteen thousand battle power.
He had been a chained prisoner three months ago, listening to water drip and cursing ugly green orcs until his throat went dry. He had been a starving survivor not long before that, biting a werewolf’s neck just to stay alive.