Chapter 265: Chapter 265: Ocean of Blood [12]
Chapter 265 – Ocean of Blood [12]
Kaden straightened his back and looked calmly at Brain and all the tubes surrounding him. He noticed that some of these tubes held perfect replicas of Brain himself, but also replicas of the other Six Lobes of Power... even the one he had killed with his own hands — The Executioner.
Only Vaela was missing.
Looking at all this, Kaden barely needed a presentation show to form an idea of what it all meant. Still, to be certain, he needed confirmation.
He looked straight at Brain. The man was staring back at him, his eyes twinkling in an eerie, unnatural way. Kaden had the strange impression that Brain wasn’t looking at him as a human being, but rather as something to be studied...his gaze shining like that of a fisherman discovering a new kind of creature in the sea.
"That’s simply perfect," Brain said, his voice losing its usual emotionless tone, replaced by a false warmth. "I’ve been wondering where I could get myself the corpse of a Warborn, but who would have thought that one would come to me willingly?"
He chuckled. "The gods truly favor humans, not chimpanzees."
"I guess you must be the chimpanzee then," Kaden cut in, suddenly calmer now that he knew this man wanted to kill him. "Kind of harsh to say that to yourself."
Brain’s smile didn’t falter. "You must think yourself funny."
"I’m not. But you definitely are funny. Maybe ridiculous, even." Kaden chuckled.
"If you’re unaware of what’s happening outside, then let me paint you a picture." Kaden took a daring step forward, his back perfectly straight. "Don’t ask me how I know it — I wouldn’t have the answer — but my mother slaughtered all the members of your House. And also, don’t be surprised, but my sister and I butchered the Steelbeasts like the mindless creatures they were."
He smiled faintly.
"And do I need to add my father? He killed Goremaw without much struggle. It looked almost like a game to him."
Kaden walked until he stood before one of the tubes. Inside was a human eyeball, or so he assumed from its appearance. The color was striking — a deep swirl of blue and violet. When he stared at it, the eyeball shifted, vibrated, and stared back at him.
Kaden almost leapt back in surprise, but his body didn’t move. He merely gave the eyeball a penetrating glance, pushing his perception to its limit to understand more about this place.
But he didn’t quite need to.
"I know they are all dead," Brain said. He turned toward the tubes where Ziriel, Neron, Calix, and Lucan were suspended. Their bodies floated in a pale blue liquid, eyes closed, but Kaden saw them twitch from time to time and their chests rising and falling faintly.
He frowned.
A bad feeling, one he didn’t want to entertain, surged inside his heart like a restless sea.
Brain noticed his look and smiled. "You seem to understand now." His tone was pleased as he walked around the strange room, observing each tube with a care and love befitting a father admiring his children. He passed by Kaden without the slightest concern.
Kaden didn’t move as the sterile, clinical scent clinging to Brain brushed past his nose and lingered there.
War was raging above. People were dying. Oceans of blood were forming and flowing everywhere and he looked as though none of it was his fault.
Kaden’s eyes grew colder and colder.
"What do you think about us, little Warborn?" Brain suddenly asked, stopping in front of the tube that contained a skinless beast. It looked vaguely like a chimpanzee.
He stared at the beast with soft contempt.
"A mix of hypocritical, arrogant bastards who thought themselves gods among mortals," Kaden answered.
"Not entirely false," Brain replied, his fingers gliding gently over the smooth surface of the tube. "We are blessed with intelligence. We are blessed with the ability to see the future, to control emotions, to bend the minds of others, and so much more. But still, we are lacking in some way."
He turned, his blue eyes locking intently onto Kaden’s red ones.
"We do not have the physical strength and battle acuity of the Warborns. We do not have the blessings of mana and elements like the Elamin. We do not have the instinct or the adaptability of the beasts."
"And do you know how agonizing it was for us, who are supposed to be the pinnacle of humanity, to possess such flaws?" He shook his head slowly.
"Intelligence without the strength to act upon it, or to protect it, is useless."
"And was that why all of them are here?" Kaden cut in, pointing at the tubes where the Cerveau floated within the viscous liquid, his tone empty of emotion. "Was that the reason you started this war?"
Brain smirked and continued his monologue without acknowledging the interruption. "I, as Patriarch, was in agony. It pained me to see us forced to play political games against a bunch of chimpanzees like you, all because you knew how to swing a sword harder."
His voice dropped lower, until it became almost a whisper.
"But one day, in Fokay, I found something. An interesting legacy." He paused for a second. "The legacy of a being who gave birth to the greatest monster ever unleashed upon Fokay."
"It was a man who controlled the biology of humans, beasts, and every known race across both worlds. A man who could shatter himself into countless pieces and rebuild anew using the parts of other races...perfectly."
"Do you know who I’m talking about, little Warborn?"
Kaden didn’t respond, but Brain hadn’t expected him to.
"He was known as The Forbidden Alchemist," Brain finally said, finishing his monologue and fixing his cold, calculating eyes on Kaden. The previous smile and false warmth in his tone vanished completely.
He began walking toward Kaden with slow, deliberate steps. Each one made no sound as the flayed skins scattered across the ground muffling them completely.
Kaden didn’t move. He simply watched Brain approach, his mind utterly calm. He had already connected most of the dots about this place, but he needed more confirmation. His eyes drifted around the strange laboratory one last time as Brain stopped just an inch away from him.
Kaden smiled faintly, his tone confident, almost amused.
"So... you used that legacy to create copies of your dead family members? For remembrance, maybe? How pitiful."
His words struck a direct nerve. Brain’s face contorted into a deep scowl as he looked at Kaden with visible disdain.
"Copy?" he hissed. "You must be a fool. All of them possess half of their consciousness and half of their souls within these vessels."
He stepped closer, far too close for Kaden’s liking, and leaned forward until their faces nearly touched. His voice was cold, sharp, and biting like a blizzard.
"All I need to do is harvest the countless dead above us, gather their scattered souls and their lingering consciousness, and I can revive all of them perfectly, with the new, enhanced bodies I’ve created for them."
Kaden wanted to smile, but he restrained himself. Criticize the life’s work of a devoted scientist, and he will destroy you just to prove how wrong you are.
Brain was the perfect embodiment of that truth.
"But now," Brain said, his voice void of any warmth, "I’ve changed my mind. I already possess the bloodline of the Elamin, though it was far from pure. But now... I have the purest bloodline of the Warborn standing right before me."
He smiled. A warm smile, but it was completely fake. And instinctively, without any reason, Kaden immediately thought of that hypocrite bastard...The Soulless.
His eyes widened as understanding began to dawn upon him, about why he felt that familiar and sickening sensation when Brain smiled.
It was because this man smiled the same way The Soulless smiled. A smile pure hypocrisy. A false smile.
’The Soulless? Devourer of Souls? Forbidden Alchemist?’ Kaden’s thoughts raced at high speed. He felt he was a hair’s breadth from piercing the mystery, but his train of thought was brutally interrupted by the sensation of Brain’s hands on each side of his head.
Stiffly, he slowly raised his blood-red eyes and saw the cold murderous gaze beneath the smiling bastard, feeling his brain about to be obliterated.
"Your brain is useless to me. I will—!"
"Devourer of Souls," Kaden interrupted briskly. He wanted to be sure of his guess. And indeed...
Brain stopped in his tracks and looked at him, one eyebrow arched, his fake smile widening. "How do you know The Soulless’s epithet?"
Kaden grinned. "How else? I devoured that bastard. And you will be next."
Immediately his hand snapped like a whip toward Brain’s neck, but before it even touched him...
SPLASH—!
Kaden’s brain exploded in a spray of matter and liquid, splattering the nearby tubes and the ground.
[You are dead.]
Thud.
—End of Chapter 265—
A/N:
Still far away from the goal. Still far away from the ranking. Don’t swallow the GT...
And thank you all for supporting!
And, of bloody course, for reading!