22 Metamorphosis
Andrew kept sinking into the pool, he estimated that he already went 10 meters deep and there were no signs of slowing down. He held his breath as did his best to swim out of the bloody pool, but it was for naught.
15 meters in, he couldn't see anything due to the sheer density of this blood. He still hasn't given up his desperate attempt to swim out of this predicament.
20 meters in, he lost his vision. Due to the powerful currents of the bloody lake, he was tossed around, thus failed to determine the exact direction to the surface.
30 meters in, he lost his hearing and taste. Before, he could hear the pressure of fast currents of the bloody pool yet now there was complete silence. He could feel the bitter and toxic taste of demonic blood, yet he can't taste anything now.
40 meters in, he lost his sense of touch and smell. Now, he had no way to know whether he was moving his limbs or not, physically crippling him. The nasty stench of blood that Andrew was quite used to in his previous life, yet it was demonic that had an equally unbearable stench as demonic miasma is now gone...
He lost all of his senses. He felt as if he was in the void. Pointlessly existing, without the ability to do anything...
He kept sinking...
___
Noah and Lariel stood at the gateway. They observed the humongous pool of blood that extended as far as eye could see.
"Lariel, how long does it take for them to become demons?" Noah asked as he dipped his hands into the pool of blood once in a while.
"It varies and depends on the individual, Young Master Noah. The purity and strength of the bloodline the living beings possess before undergoing the blood cleansing" Lariel responded.
"What if the existing bloodline is stronger than the one which is trying to invade the body?" Noah asked.
"If the bloodline is dormant, the new bloodline will be assimilated into the body until the original bloodline awakens, there are two ways that the original bloodline takes after awakening: merge with the new bloodline or completely wipe it out. In case the original bloodline is awake from the beginning of the blood cleansing, if it's stronger than invading bloodline it will completely expel it, if it's weaker it will be erased instead" Lariel explained.
Noah thought for a while until he uttered "Fascinating!".
"Indeed, it is truly fascinating what paths evolution can take" Lariel commented with a smile.
___
At the bottom of the bloody pool, Andrew lay lifelessly. His breathing ceased, his heart stopped beating as there were no signs of life present on his body anymore.
The bottom of the bloody lake was littered with corpses and skeletons. 119 cadets lifelessly lay among them.
Some cadets were already undergoing blood cleansing as their bodies frantically twitched.
There were cadets that wildly thrashed around their limbs, but they weren't the ones that were doing it. It was just a side effect of resisting the transformation.
If they had stronger original bloodlines, maybe it would have turned effective, but unfortunately for them, they didn't possess anything notable.
Suddenly, one particular kid started to undergo a transformation!
His limbs bent in weird ways as his head spun around 360 degrees. If he still was a human, he would be deader than dead.
His eyes opened and closed with extreme speed, his tongue slithered in the air as if searching for something. His ears became sharper, his blonde hair became darker. His teeth became sharper as the 2 teeth at the bottom and the top of his mouth turned into deadly fangs. He grew considerably taller, his nails became long and sharp.
His body underwent a total metamorphosis!
It took him 2 entire hours to change his species! This was absolutely mind blowing and inconceivable! If not for the existence of magic, this concept could be never realized! Changing species and stepping up on the evolutionary scale.
The boy opened his eyes as his eyelids finally stopped quivering. He looked around and discovered a shocking thing...
He could see in the dark!
He could breathe underwater!
He had a sonar! A freaking sonar! A mere mortal that was originally a human!
He truly switched teams...
___
Andrew lay at the bottom of the bloody pool without showing any signs of life or whatsoever. At this point, his entire body became as thin as a toothpick, his skin cracked as if he was on the death bed due to old age, yet he still exuded vibrant vitality.
His bones started to crack, his organs ruptured, his body could be considered a corpse at this point.
But deep within him...
A completely different process went off...
In his heart, the source of the bloodline, shone a dim white light, it had its own dangerous vibe around it as it crazily circulated Andrew'd blood. His heart had already ruptured in countless spots, yet the white light kept it in pieces.
His entire body was being kept together by this dim light which originated from the depth of his heart. His heart crazily beat as the blood pressure reached well over 500, this was absolutely freaking crazy...
Just at 300, he would be deader than dead, yet his heart was still pumping blood, not showing any signs of stopping.
The white light became brighter and brighter with each lap that blood ran through Andrew's body's circulatory system.
The blood pressure was 550 now.
The sheer absurdness was baffling, why is he not dead yet, one would ask if they ever come to know of such madness.
Andrew's outward complexion became worse with each second, but the white light became brighter instead. It's as if his heart is trying to siphon the life out of Andrew.
Eventually, Andrew's blood rate stopped rocketing at 700.
The blood around his bonny corpse started to ripple. It started as an insignificant disturbance until a powerful sucking force started to emanate from his body.
His body started to absorb blood! Gallons of Lesser Demons' blood were being crazily absorbed into Andrew's body.
His complexion gradually improved as he absorbed tens of litters of blood until it escalated into hundreds!
He slowly started to regain his muscle mass as more blood kept pumping in.
The suction force was so strong that the bloody lake started to visibly decrease in contents.
Finally, metamorphosis began!
Andrew's already dark hair became pitch black, he grew taller as his teeth transformed into fangs. His nails grew longer as they entirely turned black. His pupils became vertical. His tanned skin became sickly white, exuding air of death.
His body trembled intensely as he opened his mouth full of sharp fangs as the suction force doubled.
His eyes shot wide open as a unique aura permeated around him.
He could easily see his surrounding as he spotted multiple corpses of the kids that didn't manage to successfully transform.
Andrew didn't try to subconsciously resist the transformation as he understood the implication behind Noah's words.
He decided to swim out of this mess.
The moment he came out on the surface, he saw nothing but a crimson scenery painted everywhere.
He couldn't see anything in this room before due to the darkness, but now everything was clear as water.
The walls were blood red as they had weird texts and pictures on them. Due to his extensive knowledge, Andrew made some theories.
'A tribute to those who sacrificed themselves for the future generation' this seemed the most plausible reason behind those drawings and symbols.
Those walls looked like memorials inscribed with the names of many demons.
Andrew didn't bother to ponder about it much as he looked around and found the double doors with his night vision.
The doors were 5 meters above the bloody pool. Andrew wondered what might have been the reason for this since he remembered that the double doors were just a dozen centimeters above the pool.
Andrew sank his black pointy nails into the walls as he climbed up. The double doors were open, so he passed without a problem.
As he passed the giant doors he was once again in the spacious cave, he couldn't spot anybody as it seemed like Noah and Lariel simply went away and left them here.
Andrew didn't know how much time has passed, but he suspected it to be quite long since he literally changed his species.
Andrew walked towards the tunnel that the group came from as his blood-drenched clothes made sloppy sounds.
"Oh? There is already one out?" a surprised voice resounded as if not expecting anyone to come out anytime soon.
A figure appeared in front of Andrew out of thin air.
It was a short old man who had a horn protruding from the side of his head. His eyes were entirely black.
He stared at Andrew with curiosity as he extended his hand and lightly touched his shoulder.
Andrew became stiff, unsure of what to do.
'"No abnormalities, mediocre and standard" the old man uttered with a disappointed tone.
His curiosity was instantly replaced with coldness as he said "Wait here, the responsible person for your batch will come soon".
Then, the old man disappeared...
