Lackey's Seducing Survival Odyssey

Chapter 971 971: Do you still like this... f###ed-up woman~? Hehe~?

Aether blankly stared at the long, wide transparent tube. Inside the shimmering liquid... a boy with blackish-blue hair, appearing to be around 15 years old, floated lifelessly within the glass chamber, his arms slightly parted, his head tilted downward, as if asleep—or dead.

”Kai?” Aether whispered, his voice trembling, his face contorted in utter disbelief. His eyes widened as if trying to confirm what they were seeing. The shock plastered across his face was unmistakable.

He stepped forward in a daze, unable to tear his gaze away, and slowly reached out, fingers barely inches from the cold surface of the glass.

”Donʼt,” Xara muttered sharply, her tone calm but firm, snapping Aether out of his trance-like state.

Startled, he turned towards her, his voice still shaky as he pointed to the boy inside the tube again. ”Kai...? Is that... really him?”

Xara nodded with a twisted grin forming on her lips. ”Kai... yes, and no. Itʼs him... but not exactly.” Her tone was playful, almost amused, like a puppeteer showing off her favourite marionette. She glanced back at the boy with a look of strange affection. ”Heʼs something more... something Iʼve carefully crafted.”

Aetherʼs brow furrowed in confusion and dread. ”What the hell are you talking about?” he asked, struggling to keep his voice steady. ”Why is he in there? What did you do to him?”

Xara tilted her head slightly, her grin widening as her eyes gleamed with mischief. ”Tell me, Aether... do you know the real reason why I married Velc?”

Aether hesitated, then nodded cautiously. ”You mentioned something about a deal... something important you wanted from him.”

”Indeed,” she said softly, her voice taking on a sultry, dangerous tone. She turned to him slowly, every word curling off her tongue like smoke. ”You see... for years, I searched endlessly. I hunted for the blood... for the truth... I chased after answers that always slipped through my fingers. No matter how many samples I took, no matter how many creatures I dissected, how many bloodlines I tracked... I couldnʼt find it. I was always missing something crucial.”

Her eyes shimmered with frustration as she paused, then continued, her tone rising, almost desperate. ”I was so close... yet so far. I tried everything. Every method. Every ritual. But the result was always the same—empty. Incomplete. Useless!”

She suddenly moved toward Aether, her face appearing inches from his like a ghostly wraith. ”And then... I met Velc. Completely by accident,” she added with a bitter laugh, backing away and twirling dramatically. ”I saw him, and I knew immediately... his blood wasnʼt like the others”

She walked toward the tube again, her fingers lightly brushing the glass as she spoke, her tone reverent. ”Unlike any creature Iʼve seen in all the Empire, Velcʼs blood was... unique. Not just rare. One of a kind... And I had to have it.”

Aether stared at her in horrified fascination, ”So you married him... just to get his blood?”

Xara turned back to him, her smile never fading. ”Of course. But it wasnʼt that simple. That bastard—Velcʼs father—was always guarding him. Always interfering. That old man... he wasnʼt easy to fool. I couldnʼt just kill Velc and take what I needed, no... the old bastard was insanely protective. You have no idea.” Her smile twisted into a snarl. ”He pretends to be noble, honourable... but I saw through it. Heʼs a manipulative, two-faced snake.”

She laughed softly, then shrugged. ”So I offered him a deal. I promised to take care of Velc. I swore I would watch over the territory, manage the affairs, and protect his legacy. I played the role of a loving, dutiful wife...”

She paused again, her expression darkening. ”To be honest, I expected him to refuse. I mean, what kind of father would allow his son to be turned into an experiment?

What kind of father would knowingly sacrifice his child?” She grinned wickedly.

Aetherʼs stomach twisted.

”But he accepted.” Her voice dropped, almost a whisper. ”As if... he had foreseen it all. Back then, I didnʼt understand. But recently... I learned... Velcʼs mother... was a Prophetess. A real one... And suddenly, everything made sense.”

She laughed again, a short, sharp bark of disbelief. ”That old man knew. He knew this would happen. He let it happen. And I... I thought I was in control, that I was the one pulling the strings. But now... I wonder if I was just another pawn in his game. Can you believe that? Me, Xara—being played!”

She clenched her fists, but her lips curled into a wicked grin. ”That old man... heʼs even more wicked than I am, isnʼt he?”

ʼWhat the fuck... is going on here?ʼ Aetherʼs thoughts spun in every direction. His mind felt like it was splitting open, struggling to process the madness unravelling before him. The more she spoke, the more his sanity trembled.

”... I still donʼt understand...” he said quietly, trying to hold on to something real. ”What are you really trying to do? What do you mean Velc was different?”

Xara smiled coyly, like a teacher humouring a very slow student. ”Oh, Aether... itʼs not Velc who was different. It was his blood. His very essence was unlike the rest of us.” She moved toward a large blackboard behind the tube, covered in strange markings, notes, and diagrams.

She brushed the dust off it with her sleeve and grabbed a piece of white chalk. With a quick motion, she scribbled something down, then turned to him with gleaming eyes. ”Let me simplify this for you. You see... every being in this world has X-type and Y-type blood. The X is universal—itʼs found in Elves, Dragons, Vampires, Humans... everyone. Regardless of race or gender, X is common.”

She tapped the board with the chalk for emphasis, her grin stretching. ”But the Y... thatʼs the game changer. Y is what determines who we are. What race we belong to. Itʼs the variable that separates species”

She looked over her shoulder at him, eyes wild with excitement. ”Do you understand now? Do you see what this means?”

Aether slowly nodded, a quiet gasp escaping his lips as the puzzle started to take shape in his mind.

”Good...” Xara smiled, almost childishly pleased, before continuing, her tone slipping into that obsessive calm that made Aetherʼs skin crawl. ”Iʼve been researching the ʼXʼ part. The universal one. Because I wanted to know why it even exists among all of us. It doesnʼt seem to serve a specific purpose, nor does it exist in any significant quantity... Only about 10% of our blood contains the X-type... while the remaining 90% is made up of Y.”

She paused, her gaze growing distant, her voice taking on a strangely poetic rhythm. ”Yet the ʼXʼ is always there... stubbornly, constantly... without causing any changes... without fading... as if itʼs waiting for something. That tiny 10%—Iʼve been chasing it for decades. Why is it there? Why did the Gods put it in us? What was their reason? What was the design behind it?”

She clenched her fists, muttering to herself with an edge of desperation, ”Iʼve thought about it endlessly... over and over again... and honestly, it nearly drove me insane. I tried everything—rituals, alchemy, sacrifices. I tried to recreate more of that 10% X-type... to amplify it. But all of it was in vain... all of it!” Her voice cracked with frustration. ”No matter what I did, I couldnʼt replicate it naturally! I could artificially construct a mimic... but never the real thing.”

Aether hummed softly in response, his gaze locked onto her eyes, and what he saw wasnʼt just madness—it was fascination, obsession... passion.

She wasnʼt just a scientist; she was possessed by her pursuit. He swallowed as he asked cautiously, ”What about... Velc, then? Where does he fit into all of this?”

Xara suddenly smirked, eyes twinkling with the gleam of someone about to unveil a grand secret. ”Velc... oh, my precious blood bank.” She laughed softly, ”His blood... is something beyond unique.”

As she spoke, she scribbled more symbols and diagrams onto the blackboard. ”You see, he doesnʼt just have X and Y...”

She turned to face Aether with wild eyes. ”He has X, Y... and Z.”

Aetherʼs eyebrows rose in disbelief.

Xaraʼs smile curled, more wicked than ever. ”Yes. Just like you, I was shocked too when I first discovered it. Another element... an unknown one... hidden deep within his veins. Itʼs never been recorded. Never even hinted at in any historical text or sacred scripture.”

She tapped the chalk against the board again, pointing to her rough calculations. ”And do you know whatʼs even more fascinating than its mere existence?”

She stepped closer, her voice dropping into an excited whisper. ”His blood composition isnʼt just rare—itʼs rearranged. He only has 1% of X-type. Forty percent is Y-type... and the remaining fifty-nine percent?” Her grin widened. ”Thatʼs all Z.”

Aetherʼs brows furrowed deeply.

”The composition is completely fucked up,” Xara said in a tone that sounded more impressed than horrified. ”Itʼs unlike anything else Iʼve seen. Unbalanced. Alien. And yet... Velc lived like a normal boy. No physical abnormalities. No visible signs. Nothing to indicate his inner makeup was so vastly different from ours.”

She stared off into the distance, her voice soft and filled with awe. ”He looked normal... but his blood held a completely different structure. Isnʼt that... extraordinary?”

Aether stood frozen, mind racing to comprehend what she had just revealed. He finally felt like he was catching up to her madness.

[Really? 😑]

Aetherʼs lips twitched at his Logʼs snarky response. ʼCome on, not now... I seriously need to focus on this,ʼ he internally snapped, trying to push away the distraction. Taking in a shaky breath, he opened his mouth and asked, ”So... you—”

Before he could finish, Xara tilted her head with a bloody smile stretching across her face, her entire body still stained with crimson. She stepped closer, her voice dripping with twisted satisfaction.

”Yes... Due to his composition, I was able to create a new one,” she said, as if reading his mind. ”In order to understand more... to discover whatʼs happening inside that mutated blood... and as part of my deal with the Frostblade family—to provide them with an heir—I made history.

For the first time in these worlds... or rather, since the Ancient Times...” her eyes gleamed with pride, ”I achieved artificial insemination without the need for sexual procreation. A magnificent, groundbreaking miracle.. Something only gods could do!”

She spread her arms like a prophetess declaring a revelation. ”I created life. Two beings—crafted not by love, but by pure design.

I brought them into this world... Kai and Selene”

Aether gulped hard, his throat suddenly dry as sand. There was a flicker of real fear in his eyes now, something primal and cold.

Xara saw it. And she loved it.

She leaned even closer, her breath dancing across his face, her voice purring in delight, ”So now tell me, Aether...”

She grinned wider, licking a smear of blood off the edge of her lip, [Imgincmt]

”Do you still like this... fucked-up woman~? Hehe~?”