Chapter 640 - An ancient Legacy (Patreon)

Blue was the first one to start talking. She explained everything about her legacy, with the exception of where she got it. Sammy was the one who told her to avoid mentioning that since it could cause problems with the timeline, "In the end, my legacy is not just about the storm or about clouds. It's about clouds that can transform into storms. I only realized that recently and I still have to figure out what that actually means."

Hera glanced at Blue with a worried expression. She never mentioned anything like that to her, which might mean that the idea wasn't something she came up with alone, but she got help from the curse instead.

"I see. I don't suppose you would be able to pull the water from the ground, would you?" Multrak asked.

"I don't think so. Maybe if there is a storm going on, but even then, it's a stretch," Blue replied.

"That's okay. One way or another, this will already be a great help," Multrak smiled and turned to Hera, "And yours?"

While Blue was talking, Hera kept thinking about the information she wanted to share. More importantly, she was thinking about the pieces of information she would have to change or that she wanted to keep a secret from the people in this village. Even if they were friendly so far, they still were here to figure out the origins of the curse, and showing her hand right away might not be the best idea. Before speaking, she sent a message to Nimbus and Lurize, 'Let's not talk out loud while we are here. I'll say that the two of you are less intelligent than you actually are.'

The two titled blades were also following her, and they were acting as bodyguards the entire time, only trying to look intimidating and not interacting with anyone else.

'I understand,' Nimbus agreed without moving.

'That might be a good idea. They might talk too much around us if they think we are nothing but mindless summons,' Lurize said with a proud voice. Not expecting Hera to think about something like this so quickly. Usually, she was the first one to be too trusting.

"My legacy is about weapons. I can absorb a blade or a sword to my legacy and then use mana to call them out as constructs. When I do that, the blades can move and act independently. Fight independently and even keep their skills. I can also use spells through those weapons even if I'm not touching them directly. But they can't get too far away from me. I also have a special kind of summon," Hera gestured to Nimbus and Lurize, "It takes a bit more effort to make them, but they all started as weapons. I managed to grow those two to be my bodyguards. They are great about following orders, and I can tell them a few things they can keep doing even after sending them away and calling them back. Unfortunately, I won't be able to add the new weapon to my legacy so soon since there is a cooldown on that particular skill. So it will take some time before I can add a new member to my legacy. Not to mention that they get stronger the longer they stay with me, so I don't know if I should swap one of them right now."

The rest of the party just listened to Hera speak, and they didn't make any remarks as she started to say some things that went against what they knew about her legacy. Shane, in particular, seemed to understand the Empress' objective and also reinforced her decision of not mentioning anything about her own legacy, especially since it would be the easiest one to hide. Most of what she could do could also be created with spells, but the effort and amount of mana those spells would take would be astronomical in comparison with what her legacy allowed.

"I see. And there is a limit of … Blades, was it? That you can have active at the same time?" Multrak asked.

"I can have five plus those two," Hera gestured to Nimbus and Lurize. She wasn't going to say that Armory and Scythe were part of the court, that way, no one would know that she has eyes behind her head, "And I can have all of them out at the same time," She wanted to say that she couldn't keep them for long or that there were some restrictions to that ability, but considering that she just spent a few hours without her cord out practically without stopping she decided against it. If she said something. It might make the elder suspicious.

Multrak nodded, "Very well. I don't think you will make or break our plan, but having more numbers is never a bad thing. Who knows. Maybe you and your floating weapons will be enough to kill the Night River before it tries to escape. Now,  I think it's my turn to tell you about my legacy. Also, I'll tell you a little bit about myself and why I am here. Then you can decide if you truly believe you should have the same sentence as I."

The old beastman gestured to the side, and Grilat took a small cup from the shelf and a gourd. He poured a brown liquid and passed the cup to Multrak.

"Thank you. It's not easy talking about the past, and this helps," Multrak chuckled, "All of this happened, I want to say, more than 70 years ago. At the time, I was working in the city as a hunter. Someone who would come to the jungle to search for food for powerful and dangerous monsters and then go back. It was a family trade. My father taught me, and his father taught him, and so on, for generations. Eventually, my little brother joined me. Just like everybody else in our family, we were hunters, and one day, we were searching for a flying monster. A creature that, according to the reports, was killing the cattle and even endangering some of the people who lived on the farms. We spent a few weeks tracking the beast and eventually reached the northern mountains. There we had our first encounter with the monster, a giant bat, and the creature fleed."

Multrak took a big sip and stared at his cup for a moment before continuing, "We tried tracking the monster down again, but we're unable to do so. Then my brother and I found a place to camp and rested for the night. Or at least, that was the plan. In the dead of night, when clouds were covering the sky, and we couldn't see anything, the bat returned. He attacked the camp while I was sleeping and snatched my brother. I woke up, of course. But by the time I was holding a weapon, the creature was already flying with the unconscious body of my brother in its claws. I used everything I had at my disposal to track that creature and eventually found its nest on the mountainside. It had been just a few hours since the beast took my brother, and I was hoping he was still alive. I fought with the monster, and after a very difficult fight, I managed to kill it by biting his neck and ripping it out. That wasn't the best way to do something like that, but it was the only way I could do it at the moment."

The old man stopped again, almost as if he was struggling to remember the rest of the story. Shane eventually got curious and asked, "And was that when you got the legacy?"

"Correct. The bat had a legacy. A legacy that allows you to gain power from blood. Not in the blood magic kind of way but in a way that if you consume the blood of anything, you can get more powerful. The problem was that the bat had just devoured my brother, and my brother's blood was fresh in the bat's body. That made me realize the first thing about the legacy. The increase in power could be permanent. But I didn't know the actual conditions for it. I had to figure things out on my own."

"You didn't have a Herald?" Hera asked.

"At the time, no. I have one today, and the explanation is that since the bat was the original creator of the legacy, it had no speech. How it received information from the Herald was much different than how I could receive it. So it took a while for them to adjust and be able to talk to me," Multrak took another big sip and asked for a refill before continuing.

"That's when the problem started. When I killed the bat, its blood flooded in my mouth, and at the same time that I got the legacy, I felt a rush, a feeling that I had never felt before. It made me feel powerful, invincible, and I couldn't think about anything else. Actually, no, I could. I could think about whatever I wanted, but I only wanted to think about that feeling. You see, my brother was the last family I had, and without him, I felt lost, abandoned. Anyway, I started to study the legacy. Drinking blood from monsters in the jungle and other creatures, but they never gave me the same feeling. It was good and still is, but it wasn't the rush I felt with the bat. I thought I would never feel that again until I tasted the blood of another beastman or beastwoman, in this case. She was my partner at the time, and we were getting a bit frisky. We ended up slipping, and she bit her lip while we were kissing. When I tasted her blood, I felt the same rush I felt when I killed the bat. And I couldn't stop myself. On that day, I killed her by drinking all of her blood. That's when I learned a bit more about the legacy. First, if I drink the blood of any creature, I will get a temporary increase in my abilities. It will be a significant increase, and the strength of the creature will affect the increase. Second, If I drink the blood of someone like me, someone of my own kind, I would receive either one extra attribute point or a skill. In all honesty, the first time that happened, I knew that all I needed was a drop of blood to get that benefit, but this rush that came with drinking blood was so good that I couldn't stop. During the one month it took for the city guard to catch me, I drained 100 bodies. I would lure them with my abilities, saying that I could share my power, which is true, but then I would attack before anything else."

"That is… a lot," Helena said after letting that sink in.

"I know, but that is why I have a lifetime sentence here. And you don't have to worry. I acquired a skill that was absorbed by the legacy, which removes the rush that I felt when I drank blood. I gained that skill by starving for a while and resisting the urge to have a meal. Today I can never get that feeling again, even if I try to. But I still can share a bit of my power, and if I drink a drop of blood from people that I have yet to drink blood from, I can grow a bit stronger, which in turn would make the power that I share stronger," Multrak paused, giving them a bit more time to digest that information, "That's why I'm here. I'm a cannibal."

"Are you, though?" Blue said.

"What?" Multrak tilted his head.

" I mean, a cannibal is someone who eats another person. You were drinking them, not eating. Is that still considered a cannibal, or is there another name for that?" Blue continued.

"Are you really getting hung up on the semantics of the thing? Now?" Bonnie gasped.

"Maybe a vampire," Mylo added.

"Maybe, but that's more about being cursed and having to drink blood," Blue turned to Multrak, "You don't have to drink blood to survive, do you? How about walking in the sun? Can you do that?"

"Yes, I don't need to drink blood. This is just for my legacy. I can't spend the rest of my life without drinking a drop of blood, but I would miss a rare steak. I'm not going to lie. And yes, I quite enjoy basking in the sun," Multrak replied, a bit confused.

"See, not a vampire," Blue turned to Mylo.

"What is a vampire?" Grliat asked.

As they continued to talk seemingly without prejudice about the crimes that Multrak committed, the elder couldn't help but smile at the situation. Even in his 70-plus years of living in the Vanguard, he could count on one hand the number of times when people didn't judge him for his crimes. Yet, now, he would have to use another hand to count that high.