My Living Shadow System Devours To Make Me Stronger

Chapter 944: Chapter 945: Virgin Birth

It was a parasite, as far as Seras could remember. It acted like a human baby in its mother’s womb. However, when it finished growing, it would burst out through the stomach after forcing its victim to experience the full trials of pregnancy.

The monster that emerged would gain the combat powers of its victim, and the Blood Mary would continue hunting down more men to expand its swarm.

That was part of the reason it was called a Blood Mary.

It only planted the parasite in men.

Time was of the essence for the unfortunate knight now in its grip.

Damon had seen and heard many appalling things in his lifetime, but this… this had to be high on the list of horrors.

“What do you mean he’s pregnant? He’s a man…” His voice sounded stiff and slow, like the words were struggling to leave his throat.

Seras didn’t move an inch from where she stood. She merely placed a hand on her sword’s hilt, thumb pressing lightly against the guard.

“He’s been infected with the Blood Mary seed. Its power is called the virgin birth. It plants its seed on you without any form of… you know.”

She didn’t say the last part. She didn’t need to.

Damon exhaled sharply.

“I think that was the most relieving thing I’ve heard all day,” he muttered.

Imagine if it wasn’t a virgin birth.

For a brief, terrible second he pictured a man pinned beneath a monster and getting—

“Oh goddess.”

His scalp tingled. He had just set sail on the seas for the first time in his life and he was already being traumatized.

“I thought the mother of stillbirths was bad enough. It seems some sick god’s imagination is being played out here. Who the hell even comes up with these things?”

He dragged a hand down his face.

Whoever it was needed serious help.

He wondered briefly if gods had a mental health quartermaster.

“Ho… how long does he have?” Damon asked, forcing himself to look at the trembling knight again.

Lana chimed in from the side, brushing through some books with hurried fingers.

“A pregnancy takes nine months for most races, so I imagine he has somewhere between nine hours to nine days. It depends on how well the parasite is growing.”

The sailors stared at the infected man with horrified expressions. The knight leaned forward suddenly and vomited onto the already blood soaked floor.

Damon pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Can we cut it out of him?”

Renata shook her head slowly.

“We could if we had a healer on the level of Evangeline or Sylvia. Evangeline would be better since she can destroy it with purification. Our expedition force healers are mostly combat healers who specialize in demon activity and battlefield wounds.”

Seras nodded.

“If we provoke it, he’ll just die of a stomach implosion.”

Damon’s expression darkened further. His gaze drifted toward the dark water beyond the hull as if the sea itself were listening.

“What if we kill the Blood Mary?”

Seras touched her temple with a tired expression.

“Assuming we can find the Blood Mary. Since we can’t find her, that option isn’t good enough.”

Lana bit her lip, then turned to the captain.

“This ship has cloaking runes and warding runes.”

The captain nodded slowly.

“Yes. The best rune experts had them carved. It’s a marvel of the empire’s technology.”

Seras’ eyes sharpened.

“Then how did it get on the ship if it has warding runes?”

The captain paused.

His eyes widened.

That’s right.

How did none of them think of that?

Was it the effect of the pheromones from the Blood Mary clouding their judgment?

“How did it get on board without raising alarms?” the captain muttered. “The runes should have automatically stopped it.”

Seras glanced at the first mate of the ship.

“Activate the runes now. Better safe than sorry.”

The first mate scrambled to comply, barking orders. Sailors rushed to the rune pillars embedded along the deck, hands pressing against carved sigils.

Damon still didn’t feel safe.

He stepped back, then vanished in a blur, appearing at the top of the mast in a single motion. Wind lashed against him as he looked down over the entire vessel.

The ship did have concealing runes.

Reasonably speaking, the runes should have helped them avoid being seen by monsters in the sea.

But they were not foolproof.

They reduced the chances of being spotted.

They did not erase them.

A faint shimmer began to rise around the ship as the warding runes activated fully, forming a translucent barrier that hummed faintly in the night air.

Damon jumped down from the mast, landing beside Seras with a heavy thud that rattled the boards.

“The runes seem to be alright.”

His gaze focused on the shimmering barrier covering the ship.

“That should stop anything from getting in. We already checked. There’s nothing else on the ship, so we should be safer.”

Safer.

Not safe.

He turned to the infected man, who was now sitting upright against the wall, squeezing his nose as if he didn’t like the smell around him. Sweat poured down his face. His hands trembled against his stomach.

“We’ll keep you under observation for now.”

The man forced himself to salute.

“Yes… sir…”

But Damon could see the bleak expression on his face.

And beneath the man’s palm, just for a second, something shifted under the skin of his abdomen.

**************

A few hours passed, and the man who had been sprayed and infected by the Blood Mary was acting normally.

Or as normal as a pregnant woman would.

He refused to eat anything that wasn’t bitter. The ship’s supply of limes and lemons was redirected entirely to him. It was one of the things needed to prevent scurvy, but they had enough for now, so it didn’t matter.

He sat hunched on a crate near the infirmary corner they had arranged for him, chewing through slices of lemon with a vacant expression, juice running down his chin. Every so often he would clutch his stomach and breathe slowly through his nose.

Damon watched him for a while.

His shadow perception spread across all corners of the ship, slipping into cracks between planks, curling around the mast, brushing past crew and companions alike as they moved around going about their activities.

They couldn’t all just stay huddled together.

The ship had to be navigated.

They had to avoid the giant bones in the sea, the jagged remains of ancient creatures that jutted from the water like spears. One wrong turn and they could fall into treacherous waters, get lost, or drift off course entirely.

And just like that, the sun set.

Light bled away, giving way to night.

When night fell, Damon went into high alert.

Most monsters were nocturnal and preferred to hunt at night.

The Blood Mary was no different.

Seras took command without hesitation. She placed the patrol and night watch groups into units, ensuring each team had at least three women to protect the men.

Though they weren’t enough women to cover everyone comfortably.

The night was quiet, save for the occasional flicker of the barrier in the dark. It was translucent, barely visible unless it shimmered under strain, though Damon could still see it clearly.

He stood on the deck beside the captain.

The old man’s weathered hands gripped the wheel as he steered steadily, eyes forward, jaw tight.

Above them, someone stood in the mast’s crow’s nest on lookout.

Patrols moved in steady rotations across the deck.

It was almost morning.

No attack.

Damon let out a long sigh of relief, shoulders lowering slightly.

’Thank goodness. Whatever it is is gone.’

The thought had barely settled when he felt it.

A wave of strange energy rolled across the deck.

It hit him like a silent shockwave.

His shadow perception was banished instantly, cut off as though severed by an unseen blade.

Damon’s eyes snapped wide.

He reacted immediately.

Just as he was about to take a step and teleport below deck, something exploded out of the water.

Right before his eyes, it ignored the active barrier completely and landed on the deck with a wet, heavy crash.

The barrier did not flare.

It did not resist.

The creature opened and began spraying thick, viscous blood onto the unsuspecting patrol before they could even react.

The blood came in a violent arc.

It splashed across the men’s faces and torsos.

They screamed.

With a slick splash, the creature dropped back into the black waters.

Gone.

Damon teleported instantly to the edge of the ship, boots skidding slightly as he stopped himself from falling overboard. He stared into the dark water below, eyes narrowing.

Nothing.

Just endless black.

He bit his lip and risked sending his shadow perception into the dark waters.

All he sensed were countless bones of ancient entities resting on the ocean floor. Massive ribs, skulls larger than houses, each carrying a faint aura that refused to fade even in death.

No living presence.

No movement.

Dammit.

Damon gritted his teeth.

“Damn it,” he repeated, fists clenching at his sides.

He turned around.

The patrol group was on their knees, covered in blood.

Oddly enough, the women in the group were untouched.

Not a single drop had landed on them.

The men were drenched.

Damon moved his hand to his nose, instinctively trying to shield himself from the pheromones thickening the air.

It would hardly help.

The metallic scent clung to everything.