4 Ravages of Time
『Chronicles of the Blood Tower』
-Several years later-
A young man was standing across the red plains of the desert wasteland.
If one looked at him from the time he first arrived to now, they wouldn't be able to even recognize him. The pale, rosy complexion of his soft skin was nowhere to be seen. He had jagged scars across his battle-toned body that was tanned to the color of a sugar cookie. His hair surprisingly didn't change at all except for the fact it became greasy like oil, and had a tinge of red from all the blood that had been soaked in it. He had a wild look to his youthful appearance but, if you looked deep into his eyes there was a sense of emptiness.
Rasmus wiped the sweat away from his bangs after removing the dragon rib he sharpened as a spear away from the troll's body that he had just killed. Several changes had happened since the day he first discovered the blood core and it's uses.
He had traveled and eventually hunted to grow this power he had obtained, while searching for anything resembling Earth in some way. He was only successful in the former, in which his blood core radiated energy and murderous aura throughout his entire body. He had slain and devoured several kinds of creatures across the planet he was on, and every time he thought he had seen them all… Seemingly, some creature he had never seen before would pop out.
When thinking about his previous life on Earth, he became frustrated. He had remembered the things important to him like his family before things changed, or the stories his Mother would tell him before bedtime when he was young.
But, he had no concept of time in this Hell. The 5 suns would stay up everyday for 24 hours a day and there was no night time. He wasn't even sure if this planet was round because it didn't seem like it orbited any kind of star or planet.
Alas, it had been Ninety-five thousand years and he didn't know that it had even been that long. He had pretty much lost all memories pertaining to his first 16 years of life on Earth. But, still spoke to himself to ease the loneliness he felt and to at least try and not forget his own language.
"Well, trolls sure are one annoying ass catch! Snot that flies everywhere and regenerative abilities even better than a Hydra!.... Phewwww"
He let out a sigh. The 2 things that changed the most in all this time were his blood core and his combat abilities. He had zero sense of combat upon arriving here, but upon gaining an opportunity to survive through the blood core on his first day here, he did his best every day to make it alive to the next. Naturally his body would have grown as well, through this process and his muscles as well as skin changed on a cellular level due to the constant fighting for his life.
A lot of things changed but his age seemingly did not. It was a weird thing that he kept his youthful 16 year-old look despite being stuck here for so long. He developed theories that time didn't flow here or was distorted, but he found no information.
As for the blood core, there were almost too many changes. One was that the color changed into a brighter red scarlet and enveloped the original pitch black color it had once had. Everytime he hunted and ate monsters, he would gain some of their physical abilities that would stack on top of each other the more blood he consumed from their corpses.
He was initially shocked but, if you were to tell him back then that he would eventually be able to shatter a Hydra's bones with a single punch, Rasmus would have called you a straight-up retard.
He learned he had to adapt to his ever changing abilities with the blood core because it would devour some of their innate abilities as well. Like the reason he was hunting the troll just now.
As he scooped out some of the flesh of the troll, trying his best not to pick a smelly piece he was inwardly trembling with excitement. He had guessed that there might be some kind of troll on this planet if pretty much any kind of creature here would be something found in an intergalactic zoo if there had been one.
Munch Munch…
His Blood core sheened a brilliant scarlet hue and the bulging bright red veins that surrounded it pulsated in pleasure.
As he moved his legs out from underneath him, he positioned himself to sit, as he continued to chew on the troll's meat. Rasmus had a lot of time to explore his capabilities with the blood core, as he called it, and knew intuitively he still had much to learn about it.
As for the energy that was circulated from it, he called it Blood aura. He had experimented with the Blood Aura and made his own techniques to benefit his own survival by tampering with the uses of it.
Rasmus laid down to rest once he finished eating and turned his body to face the sky.
He stared blankly at the suns in the sky as he had never understood where he was nor found any intelligent lifeforms that didn't want to kill him. It was kill or be killed here. Alas, he felt incredibly sad for some reason. He was depressed for a very long time not having a soul to talk to. He had contemplated and even attempted suicide a couple of times over the years, but the blood core would vibrate and protect himself with a layer of aura naturally even if was against his will to stop himself from harming his body.
As he was slowly drifting to sleep, his eyes shutting and opening slowly he heard something incredibly unusual and disturbing.
Gungggggg… Gunggggg… Gunggggg….
He had heard many different cries of beasts before but he had never heard this sound before. He felt like he had recognized the sound from his lost memories over the years but couldn't put a name to the picture.
It was the sound of a deep resounding bell.
He shot up quickly and started to circulate the Blood Aura. He also subconsciously started to manipulate the core and the veins attached to it, to hide deeply within his skin as if there was nothing there on his chest. It was a technique to seal it's existence from other creatures that could detect the Blood Aura and it's core.
Gungggggg…Gungggggg…Gungggggg…
He looked around his surroundings but did not see anything as he scanned vehemently and circulated the aura to concentrate in his eyes to expand his vision. Then, he saw it.
As he looked at the building several kilometers away, His Blood Aura seemed to convulse madly and started to lose control. He was nervous and his fingers were trembling holding the dragon bone spear in his calloused hands. He stopped circulating the rampant Blood Aura to calm it down and it obediently wnt back into the core and stayed dormant.
Gungggggg…Gungggggg…Gungggggg…
The ominous sounding of a bell kept ringing this time a bit louder than before and he put two and two together and decided to head towards the building.
He lowered his body downwards and flexed his calve muscles like he was loading a spring. Then he shot forward with an explosive movement to start rapidly covering the distance between them.
As he got closer and closer he was able to make out the sight he saw when using the Blood Aura.
GUNGGGGGG…GUNGGGGGG…GUNGGGGGG…
The bell sounds started to get louder and louder as the blood aura that was lying dormant in the core started to vehemently crash around in the core.
What was lying ahead was a black, cylinder-like building which the top of it could not be seen. There were deep blue and purplish clouds covering the sky which Rasmus had never seen before in all his time on this planet.
As he slowed down his pace to a stop, he was only a few meters away from two gigantic doors.
GUNGGGGGG…GUNGGGGGG…GUNGGGGGG…
The ringing was getting so loud he dropped his spear and slammed his palms to his ears trying to block out the sound. But, the sound seemed to penetrate through his eardrums and rattle his brain.
Rasmus fell to his knees screaming.
"AGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!"
His blood aura eventually exploded out from his blood core and covered his body rampant as ever in the shape of a blood-scarlet flame with black embers.
Rasmus' aura protected him and he started to gasp for breath inhaling deeply.
"Huuu...huuuu…"
He then stood up unsteadily, almost falling back down but gripped his spear and used it like a cane.
Then he slowly made his way closer to the structure and put his hand slightly on the door without applying any pressure. Then suddenly, it became completely silent. He couldn't even hear the wind blowing or the rumbling of the clouds above the structure.
He took his hand off, and his aura flamed up again to protect him from the loud noises he heard moments earlier. So, he quickly put his hand back on the door without applying pressure once more.
"What the hell…."
Rasmus muttered to himself.
It was the first time, his blood aura and core had ever been outside his control and had shown a response to something besides a creature trying to kill him.
He was lost in his thoughts and then subtly pressed against the door with a bit of strength.
The doors slowly creaked open. He heard the sounds of gears or machines slowly churning and clicking behind the doors.
He peeked inside the opening and couldn't see anything besides pitch black. Not even a floor or speck of light could be seen inside.
He stuck his hand out hesitantly to feel around the space and it passed through the darkness and felt as if it was a murky substance. Then suddenly hands covered in dark grime and sticky substance latched onto his arm and pulled him into the darkness all in a matter of seconds.
He had entered the Tower.
