The Glorious Evolution

A Few Hours Later...

Far away, inside a secluded cave on Cruor, Idriss sat immersed in a pool of blood, unaware of the storm brewing around him.

Thin streams rose around his shoulders and gathered between his hands. He slowly brought them together, following the changes through his spiritual perception... then stopped applying pressure.

The blood scattered into droplets and fell back into the pool.

’Again... I’m just forcing it.’

He could fuse blood with enough power to melt his own organs... yet, whenever he tried to understand the process beyond what his abilities allowed him to do, he found himself repeating the same familiar techniques.

The Blood Arts Academy had helped him recognize that problem.

Back home, few people could offer him meaningful guidance on his evolutionary path. Here, he attended lessons, studied other applications of Blood Arts, and practiced under instructors who could point out mistakes he never noticed himself.

It was a humbling experience... but Idriss hadn’t crossed worlds to hear someone praise him.

He came to become stronger.

In exchange for instruction, facilities, and access to resources, he joined the academy’s expeditions and helped defend Cruor against Nightcrawler invasions. The arrangement demanded time away from his research, but he gained enough from each return to consider it worthwhile.

Certainly more worthwhile than gambling everything in another Nocturnal Game.

His single Baron-ranked game nearly cost him his life... escaping with his body and Aspects intact was enough to make him reconsider that approach.

He needed to return stronger, not leave his wife with another funeral to arrange... thankfully, the game earned him a share of the live stream’s revenue. Even if it wasn’t a lot, it was something to put toward the never-ending research into his evolutionary formula.

Materials, failed experiments, another adjustment, another funding request... almost his entire fortune went into finding a concoction that could finally push him beyond Solarbound.

Naturally, he was going through this much trouble just for a Remarkable Formula... he didn’t even dare to dream of a Perfect one.

While he waited for a miracle to emerge in this department, he refused to waste his time by ignoring other evolutionary options.

He knew that once a Shadowlife Seed reached the Mature Tree stage, three methods could take it through its next evolution.

An evolutionary formula was the most straightforward... provided someone could find the right combination and afford its materials.

Devouring another Solarbound’s Seed offered a second path... however, it required him to survive its spiritual trial, claim its growth and evolutionary knowledge, and use them to advance.

The Hound proved exactly how effective that method could be.

The thought disturbed Idriss’s control, causing the next stream to strike his wrist before falling into the pool.

’Focus...’

There was still the third path... Natural Comprehension.

By understanding his evolutionary path deeply enough, he could awaken an Aspect naturally and achieve the insight his Mature Tree needed to evolve.

This method of evolution was available only to those with Mature Trees and higher... that’s why Levi had gotten only the Melody Aspect through natural comprehension.

As for Jasmine’s evolutionary path that accepted nothing but Natural Comprehension? It was a condition of her Origin Seed.

Unfortunately for Idriss, this was the method most people gave up on.

An instructor could explain a principle, demonstrate it, and correct every mistake in its application... none of that guaranteed the student would truly comprehend it.

Idriss could follow a technique perfectly and still fail to explain why it worked.

His Blood Fusion Aspect already gave him the power to merge blood... but what governed that fusion? Why did certain changes strengthen it, while others caused it to collapse?

Comprehension meant reaching those answers himself, then recognizing what else the same principles made possible... including applications no instructor taught him.

That understanding needed to run deep enough to awaken a new Aspect along his evolutionary path, without an innate ability unlocking it for him first.

Some spent decades or even centuries trying... and still, nothing.

During Idriss’ latest expedition, he discovered this natural blood cave and marked its location.

Once the assignment ended, he returned to train in seclusion.

Here, he could examine blood beyond his own, test what the academy taught him, and attempt to deepen his understanding by observing how blood behaved without anyone’s interference.

Even if success felt like a fantasy... he refused to give up.

Especially after Naima told him what had happened back home.

The attacks, the destroyed settlement, the people who died while he studied on another planet... Idriss wanted to abandon his training and return the moment he heard her account.

What was the point of becoming stronger if he returned to find nothing left to protect?

But Naima stopped him and told him that Levi had secured nearly a million credits’ worth of protection, hiring powerful mercenaries to reinforce Heliodor.

Their arrival forced the enemy to withdraw, giving the region time to recover... and giving Idriss time to finish what he came here to do.

Returning with the same strength wouldn’t repay that effort.

Soon, his thoughts returned to the first time he met Levi in Tamara Settlement.

Arthur struggled to lift Idriss’s greatsword, while Shia tried to keep her little recruitment scheme from falling apart... and beside them stood a blind boy who greeted him with a respectful bow.

Idriss remembered praising his spiritual vision and asking whether he intended to join the Assembly, telling him that he expected a bright future for him.

But less than a year later... that same boy was paying to protect their home while Idriss struggled to take one more step along his evolutionary path.

’You certainly didn’t waste any time...’

He felt proud of him, but the thought left him uncomfortable too.

Just like the High Chancellor and the governors, he wanted Levi to spend those credits on his own growth.

Protecting an entire region should never have fallen on his shoulders this early.

Idriss guided the blood together again.

If the formula succeeded first, he would use it. Until then, he would pursue this supposedly unattainable comprehension with everything he had... someone would have to drag him out of this cave before he willingly wasted the chance Levi bought him.

He owed Seraphis his revenge.

He owed his family a safe home.

And he owed Levi the chance to rest without wondering whether their region would survive without his help.

’He has his team to lead... I have a home to protect.’

The thought had barely formed before Idriss snapped his eyes open.

A warning struck his consciousness.

Before entering seclusion, he had placed high-grade detection totems around the cave, forming a circle that reached five kilometres in every direction... anything at Solarbound rank or above that crossed its boundary would alert him.

Three presences crossed it... each from a different direction.

The totems sent more than their positions... traces of the captured spiritual auras flowed into his mind, forming three figures.

The first gathered into a towering werewolf, its blood-red aura churning around its broad frame.

Behind it hung a crimson moon, half-hidden by dark clouds... its faint glow passed through the swirling blood, revealing the chains hanging from the creature’s wrists.

From another direction, a white-haired man’s outline blurred within a haze of spiritual energy.

His Hexgaze Lurker crouched in the background, its chameleon body half-hidden in the mist... Fear and Illusion mingled around the two, yet the man remained utterly lazy and relaxed.

Idriss’s attention barely paused on either.

The third and most powerful aura approached from behind the cave, flooding his perception with savage bloodlust... yet golden light burned within it, refusing to disappear into the crimson.

Slaughter... and Pride.

The two powers formed a familiar figure... massive, veined legs supported a narrow torso, while a red restraint vest strapped its arms tightly against its chest.

Tangled dark red hair hung around the thick black muzzle clamped over its lower face.

The Hound!

Idriss’s heart began pounding.

Even without that face, he would have recognized the Pride mixed into its aura... the strength that once belonged to Seraphis.

His attention returned to their positions.

All three were approaching the cave... and whichever direction he chose to flee, one could intercept him while the others closed in.

He reached for his Greatsword... Fin’Sho.

He had spent every day in this cave trying to become strong enough to hunt his best friend’s killer...

And now, that monster had come hunting for him!

Before Idriss could rise from the natural blood pond, Fang’s wolfish howl tore through the silence outside.

Its echoes filled the cave as their spiritual auras disappeared from his mind; the totems served their purpose, leaving him with nothing but the omnious howls...

Awoooooooo!