Blood Awakening: The Strongest Hybrid and His Vampire Bride

Nikolai’s hand touched the weathered and rotting door. The black goo felt warm and sticky, yet it didn’t hurt or burn like he expected. He gripped the nob and planned to turn it around, but all his senses warned of danger.

Click!

’Am I making a mistake?’

The black liquid bubbled and became red almost instantly, like blood dripping down the top.

The stench of sour decay filled his nostrils.

Nikolai pushed open the door and saw only blackness, yet he knew it led to the source.

However, a voice called from behind him.

”Nikolai!”

Leona’s voice of concern echoed through the cavern as she stood in her dirty maid outfit, eyes wide as he looked back at her.

He wanted to respond, but dozens of black, shadow arms burst from the darkness and wrapped around him, covering his face, mouth, eyes and gripped his arms and legs. He struggled to break free silently while being pulled into the darkness.

She pulled out a blade in a split second and charged toward the door, but it slammed shut and pulled Nikolai inside.

Leona tried to pull open the nob as it grew red hot, melting into liquid metal before her eyes as the whole door burned to ash and only a cold stone wall remained in its place.

”Nikolai...?” She called out, not noticing that the black rotting corruption faded rapidly when the door vanished.

***

The darkness pulled Nikolai deeper inside, crushing his body with the dozen arms that bound him. His muffled voice cried out for help, unable to move as the shadows pulled away.

In the centre of the pitch-black room lay another door... and a small box... where all the arms came from.

The chest was locked, and these arms sprouted from the small keyhole.

’Damn it... why, doesn’t this stuff feel strange?’

Despite struggling, Nikolai didn’t feel fear. Instead, he was at ease, filled with warmth and comfort. These arms felt soft and silky against his skin. The darkness surrounding him did not scare him as he floated through the void.

For a moment, he relaxed, letting the arms carry him, yet as they let go, Nikolai looked below to see what awaited him. That’s when it dropped him on the ground, and the black arms retracted into the chest.

”What the hell...”

All the voices and other distractions vanished, and this wasn’t the tower, like Nikolai expected.

’This place is much darker...’

He knew he wasn’t dead or at least hoped not, but he didn’t know what happened to him exactly.

The door floated in the middle of nothing, but it didn’t look as rotten as before, just pitch black, and it didn’t have a keyhole or any issues.

The chest caught Nikolai’s attention.

The darkness and scent reminded him of one thing.

’Why does it remind me of the evil god?’

Nikolai stepped closer and reached out his hand. Touching the lid, it felt warm, yet again it didn’t burn like he expected, so he opened it. Instantly, the lid snapped open with a bright white light flashing.

”Woah!?”

He found nothing interesting in the box; there was no monster or arms, but a small vial of black fluid.

”Huh?”

The vial looked elegant with silver engravings around it.

’What is this thing?’

Nikolai was surprised because the vial didn’t contain black goo.

However, he picked it up carefully, and it didn’t feel strange. He uncorked the bottle and brought it to his nose.

’It smells like nothing.’

He knew this was a terrible idea, drinking a random potion in the middle of some unknown place, yet the voice in the back of his mind told him it was okay.

Even his instincts remained quiet; usually when he tried to do something stupid they would go crazy, making his hairs stick up, a slight tingle down his neck, but this time he felt nothing.

”Well, I might as well...”

Nikolai drank the vial.

The tasteless and odourless liquid fell down his throat, and in that instant, it disappeared, leaving only an empty vial that turned to ash, crumbling into a pile within seconds.

A warmth flowed from his throat, down to his stomach, as Nikolai’s vision turned fuzzy. His body became hot like he was on fire. Falling on his knees, he felt something was wrong. His chest hurt as if someone punched the air out of his lungs, and he coughed up blood.

The blood was red... and blue... these were the bloodlines of his mother and father.

”Ngh... what... what is this?” Nikolai groaned as he collapsed, falling on all fours.

His eyes grew bloodshot, unable to move as the pain overwhelmed his mind, yet something spread throughout his body, like an invisible hand that crawled inside and crept around searching for something.

’Did I fuck up?’

He thought he might have screwed up this time as the pain worsened, yet it vanished the moment it came close to his three hearts, the black sphere that connected his werewolf and vampire hearts as the warmth turned cold.

’Is it over?’

With relief, he felt something else spread through him.

Power... a sense of comfort and warmth as a tingling sensation filled his body.

’What is this?’

The warm happiness almost made Nikolai cry as if he had come home. Tears dripped down his cheeks, and he didn’t understand where they came from or why. When the host’s tears touched the ground, they popped and spread black tendrils that vanished after a few seconds.

”What?”

The prickling pain crawled along his spine, as if knitting something into his flesh. It was uncomfortable and felt strange as it reached his brain.

Then the pain disappeared in an instant.

Nikolai’s vision returned to normal, and warmth flowed throughout his body.

Cough!

He coughed several times and realised that something inside him had changed... the awkward feeling when he tried to fuse his two bloodlines to enter his evil god form vanished. Nikolai could feel it. He shifted between each state like he was flicking a switch.

However, the primary or dominant form, which used to be his Volkov bloodline... had changed.

”Do I have a camera... some way of seeing myself?”

Nikolai stumbled forward.

The pitch-black floor rippled like liquid beneath his bare feet; without sound or wind, he lingered in the surreal, silent world.

Still panting, he scanned the dark. A tall shard of obsidian jutted from the void a few steps ahead, smooth and glossy like black glass. Nikolai staggered over and looked down.

His breath stopped for a moment, looking at his reflection.

The face staring back was his.

Jet-black hair fell down the sides of his jaw in damp strands, swept back slightly from the sweat on his brow. His skin was paler than he remembered—pale like moonlight—but didn’t look sickly. If anything, it was clean, polished, almost inhumanly flawless.

Then he saw his eyes.

No longer red like a vampire, but... like his father.

Silver.

Not grey. Not white. Silver, like polished blades, with faint golden rings circling the edges of his irises like halos. The glow wasn’t harsh, but faintly divine and shimmered as he blinked.

His jaw became sharper, and his cheekbones more defined.

Even his neck became thicker, the cords of muscle across his frame and shoulders flexed with each breath. Not overly bulky, but dense and refined. His body looked different, as if sculpted to fight, dominate and conquer.

”This... this is my default form?”

He lifted his hand slowly, staring at the change, a size larger and veins beneath his pale skin. They pulsed softly with a cold, dark power. The same pressure he felt when transforming became calm and settled, like normal.

The resistance and clash of his bloodlines faded along with the weight on his spine that had lingered for the past year.

Everything was fused.

His werewolf and vampire bloodlines no longer wrestling for dominance, as the black sphere now larger quietly rotated as if content.

”This is what the vial did?”

Nikolai couldn’t help but want to avoid the truth... that the evil god and the evil god’s blood inside him could be linked to the tower’s and world’s corruption.

Nikolai’s voice was deeper.

Still his, but lower and smoother, like warm metal striking oil.

He took a step back from the mirror. His reflection stayed still for a few seconds before copying his actions on a delay.

The moment chilled him.

”...Right. This place is still weird.”

He glanced away, meeting his silver eyes one last time before turning. The door waited in the middle of the void, silent and ominous. Its surface rippled like liquid obsidian.

”What are you?”

Of course, there was no answer, but the door clicked... and squeaked as it opened.

Nikolai stared at it with his eyebrows furrowed in surprise. It swung outward, away from him, revealing a small patch of darkness that shifted and swam like smoke inside.

However, a familiar voice was calling out to him, desperate and lovely.

”Master... Nikolai! Where are you?!”

Leona’s voice came from the doorway, and somehow he realised this was the path home, which made him more curious.

What exactly was this place?

Why did the chest open so easily?

What was the black stuff inside the potion that completely stabilised his existence?