The Rise of the Winter Wolf - Book 2 - Chapter 31 - The Change (Patreon)

Executive Stream
Twelve hours After the Battle

A tense atmosphere fills Diane’s room within the Executive Stream as she stares at Wolf’s livestream while occasionally turning to Ludric’s with a cold gleam in her eyes.

The two Moderators sitting on the opposite side of the room stay silent as they send worried glances towards their Empress.

The silence within the room is only broken several minutes later as a bright flash of red light shines from near the entrance before Leo appears from it and immediately turns to look at Wolf’s livestream. The livestream itself shows Wolf lying still on a bed as a blackish blue color very slowly creeps across his skin, currently covering a little over half of his body.

Another groan of pain suddenly comes from the screen before Leo turns to look at Diane and asks, “What are you planning?”

Diane sends him a brief glance before turning to look at Ludric’s screen as he burns down another ent with his one remaining arm.

She then speaks without any hesitation, and with a cold tone of voice that sends shivers down the spines of the two listening Moderators, “The Ruler of the Abyss is planning on sponsoring Vulcan in the hopes that he kills my pup, so I am going to sponsor a few other Competitors to kill Vulcan.”

Leo doesn’t bat an eye at her declaration as he asks, “And what are you planning to do now that he was changed by someone else? Some of your Empire’s elders won’t take kindly to you making someone who wasn’t born to you or turned by you your heir.”

Diane turns to him again with an eyebrow raised as she bluntly states, “I don’t give a rat’s ass about those old bastards. If they don’t like my decision, then I will just rip their heads off and find new elders to replace them.”

The two elder Moderators within the room shiver at her statement while sharing a glance.

Leo meets her eyes without breaking contact for several seconds before he chuckles and says, “You never were one to get overly complicated when it comes to your politics.”

‘Besides, when you’re thousands of levels above your own advisors, you don’t exactly have to listen to what they say,’ Leo thinks as he turns his attention back to Wolf’s screen and asks, “How long do you think it will take for the virus to reach his heart and brain?”

Diane turns her attention to Wolf’s screen as her face softens and says, “The normal infection would take about eight to ten more hours on average to finish mutating his blood, but with his mutation, I’m not entirely sure. It could extend for a longer period of time, or finish mutating it a faster pace.”

“That said,” she adds as she squints her eyes to focus on the blackish blue coloring, “based off of how much it has spread so far, I would say that it should take about ten to twelve more hours to finish mutating his blood.”

“Hmm,” Leo rubs his chin as he looks at the blackish blue coloring of Wolf’s skin before he asks, “I might be wrong about this, but wasn’t the coloring for the virus spreading supposed to be purely black? Like it is with most infectious viruses in the System?”

Diane shakes her head and says, “No, you’re not wrong. The blue coloring to the infection is likely because of his mutation messing with it somehow.”

“Which means that he likely won’t become a normal werewolf,” Leo says, reaching his own conclusion.

“Yes,” Diane says with a conflicted look on her face, “if I were to guess, then I would say that he will become a sort of werewolf harbinger, retaining his ability to use his variant ice.”

Leo glances at her and says, “And the balancing factors?”

She just shrugs as she says, “I have no idea what is going to happen in that area.”

“Hmm,” Leo turns back to look at the screen again as he mutters, “it would certainly be interesting to see a werewolf without the instinctual bloodlust, but I do wonder what nature will use as his new balancing factor in its place if that’s the case…”

Diane just nods in agreement as both of the Moderators look at each other in shock at the prospect.

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Arcadian Live
Nineteen hours after the Battle

“At this rate, it looks like Vulcan is going to slowly taper off as one of the top Competitors,” Mikaela says without hiding his feelings on the matter as he smiles from ear to ear.

The majority of the audience break out into cheers at this news as several dozen of Ludric’s remaining fans begin leaving the viewing room.

“It’s not very likely that he will be able to regenerate his arm while in the dungeon,” Niklai says with his arms crossed before adding, “not unless he can somehow find a Competitor that has a powerful healing ability.”

“A Tier 9 healing skill could do the trick as well,” Katherine adds from the side before muttering, “although that isn’t very likely to happen either.”

Both Niklai and Mikaela nod in agreement as they watch Ludric struggle against a dark sprite brute with a hand-axe in his right hand.

The main screen suddenly changes to show Wolf, still lying down on a bed in the store as Ariana sits on a nearby chair searching through her menus, and Sapphire curls up next to Wolf on the bed.

“It looks like the virus is almost done mutating all of his blood…” Mikaela mutters as the previously happy attitude within the stadium dies down in an instant and is replaced with a grim atmosphere.

“I hope he survives,” Katherine says as she watches the screen with a worried expression on her face.

“I think he will,” Niklai says before pointing at the screen, “look at the blue tint in the spreading infection. This time is different from the normal werewolf infection somehow.”

“He’s right,” Mikaela interjects, “but just how is it different, and what will happen to Wolf? That’s the pressing question of the moment.”

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Within the Expanded System Store on the Twenty-Second floor
Twenty-three hours after the Battle

“Why are you back?” Ariana asks as she stands in the doorway of the store with her arms crossed.

Sapphire makes a strange mixture of a hiss and a screech as if rushing Crystal to come inside before she can answer Ariana’s question.

“Well, it’s almost been a day since the battle, so I wanted to-” Crystal begins before getting interrupted as a loud scream echoes from the living area.

All three of the girls immediately sprint towards the living area before finding Wolf arching his back as a scream of pain comes out of him.

Sapphire lets out a sad screech as she tries to approach Wolf, only to get pulled back by Crystal who says, “It might not be safe to get close to him right now.”

Wolf continues screaming in pain with his eyes clenched shut as a strange mixture of blue and black light begins shining from behind his eyelids and under the armor on his chest.

“It’s reached his heart and brain now,” Ariana says with a grimace.

The black and blue light begins to shine even brighter as Wolf’s scream raises in pitch before it suddenly pauses and begins to dim a little bit as his screams lower back down to nothing.

A grim silence fills the room for several seconds before Crystal opens her mouth to speak.

Before she can even get a word out, a strange cracking sound begins sounding from Wolf’s body as all of the blackish blue coloring on his skin begins to fade back to his previous pale coloring, all while the muscles on his body seem to grow. At the same time, the cracking sound begins to converge to one area around his back as Wolf lies silent on the bed, unconscious as this happens.

Ariana and Crystal share a worried glance before turning back to Wolf as the cracking sound begins to quiet down from around his back before reappearing once again all over his body.

“What the hell is happening to him?” Crystal mutters in confusion.

Ariana shrugs and says, “I’m not sure, but this must have something to do with his harbinger mutation.”

They both watch him for several more seconds before Crystal mutters, “At least he doesn’t appear to be in any more pain.”