Harsh Reality

In a certain separate dimension booming with the crackling sounds of thunder, trees and rivers of all sorts made of complete lightning could be seen as they encapsulated the whole dimension. Even the strange creatures were made of only lightning as the pranced around releasing fiersome auras

It was truly a frightening sight, any mortal or breaking tier being who stepped into this place would see their bodies shattered, their minds broken and their souls sent into oblivion with no chance of reincarnation.

But in this seemingly dangerous place, two people could be seen relaxing leisurely, the man with silver hair and crimson eyes, his body pulsing with terrifying vigor and vitality, his gaze deeper than the ocean but his smile warmer than the sun

The second person was a beautiful woman with black hair and brown eyes, her energy though not as terrifying as the man's but one could feel the sheer strength just from the energy she was releasing, nevertheless it was all overshadowed by her wide smile as her head rested peacefully on the shoulder of the man

Staring at the distance, seemingly admiring the environment, the man spoke with his deep and clear voice "The wovec meeting is close, little Cain requested to be sent but even before he did, the royal family put his name in the list of rank one representatives"

With a sigh the woman replied, her head still on his shoulder "honestly, I wish he wouldn't go but I guess since little Cain himself requested to go, then we have no choice in the matter"

Noticing her slight worry, he turned his head and looked at the woman "I agree with you, but that boy is always too serious, he doesn't even mingle much with the family, I can't even remember the last time we had a father and son time"

They both paused and then let out light chuckles before the woman teased

"He's always too serious, either training or engaging in those little experiments of his, if he keeps going on like this he won't find a good woman"

He let out a dry laugh, he was truly worried about Cain, he loved him so much that sometimes he would delay his own training just to peek at his boy, the woman was even worse, she would always take a peep at Cain from time to time, her room was filled with pictures of her dear son as she would kiss it almost everyday.

When Cain met them and requested to be allowed in the restricted area of the library, they could have naturally agreed immediately but they kept on delaying because they wanted him to keep coming so they could see his face. It was simply a case of extreme doting, he was their last born and their first son, so naturally they were overprotective of him.

Sighing, the man spoke with a hint of pride "well, I do feel he is quite shy, I know he loves the family even though his expression is always the same. I mean, he did try to protect you when he was a baby after all"

The woman agreed, she definitely knew her son best, she was the one who gave birth to him and she knows that although Cain didn't smile much, he still loved the family but she wished he would communicate more with the family

They continued speaking, mostly about Cain and their love life before the man's expression turned a little serious with creased brows

"Sabina's element baptism is also very close, we should probably be there for her, even though we can't do anything to alleviate her pain, we can at least be there as pillars of support"

Raising her head a little, she stared at the man as her beautiful face displayed an expression of longing "our babies are growing too fast, now even our dear Sabina is ready for her element baptism"

She paused before speaking again "..dear, I'm worried"

He knew why she was worried, honestly he thought being a parent wasn't easy, he knew he might not bear to watch her baptism but he had to be there for his precious daughter, if not he, who else.

He then replied,stroking the woman's smooth hair gently "don't worry love, she's a determined and tough woman, most of all, she's an Ashel...she will do just fine, we just have to be there for her as her family"

The woman could only agree, she only hoped that her children would always be there for each other, she felt uneasy, her instincts had been sending danger signals to her so she hasn't been comfortable lately, even all the more reason she longed for more closeness with her son.

"We must make preparations, something doesn't feel right. I've been sensing danger for the past few years now"

Nodding his head softly, the man also agreed "you're right, I sense the same thing, I don't know if it's aimed at the family or the empire but we must make sure that we are adequately prepared"

They stayed like that for some time before the man slowly stood up and flexed his muscles, immediately the dimension shook, the sounds of the thunder increased as they began to strike his body, the weird creatures didn't dare come close, the woman just sat there and watched, still with a worried face

"I'm still at the early stage of the eight rank, definitely not comparable to the other well established old monsters but..."

Turning his head and looking at the woman, he stretched hand and from nowhere a crystal appeared in his palm, the energy it was releasing was so dense and powerful that it threatened to destroy his palm. When the woman saw this, she gasped as shock and surprise appeared on her face

Not waiting for her to speak he continued "...you need to get stronger fast, time waits for no one"

***

Meanwhile Cain was in an underground basement located just beneath his room, filled with the scent of chemicals and rust, nevertheless it was clean. Looking around one could see cages with people of all ages locked inside, some with deadpan gazes, others with tear filled faces.

He was oblivious to the conversation of his parents and even if he knew, he wouldn't care, he only saw this family as nothing more than his farm, waiting for his fruits to ripe. Family, love, emotions, he had felt all that and where did that get him, he only had one thing in his mind, and that was strength and since he could get stronger through his family, there were nothing more than tools.

A pregnant woman with a weary expression, almost to the point of break down was in a cage holding a little girl of about seven years old whose eyes were red, filled with tears as snots were released from her nose

The reasons for her tears were simple, they were a family of four, happy and content, their life although not extravagant was sustainable, her father was a fruit seller which was the main source of income, her big sister was a singer but she also wanted to go to the big city and be a mage to also provide protection and money for her family to ease their father's burden. Her mother was a tailor, but when she got pregnant her father insisted she abstain from it for a while.

She herself was just a small kid, always loved to play with her friends and nag her parents for sweets, although she was seven she was smart and knew that her parents loved her dearly but all that changed just the day before, their lives turned upside down when a woman dragged them into a floating ride which her mother identified as a mageride and brought them here

Still, her innocent mind had not been exposed to the harsh reality of false mortals, she still felt it was some game or prank her parents were playing, however all that changed when they reached this place, for the first time in her short life she felt hatred, fear, anxiety, sorrow. She felt like she had been living a dream all along and that this was the true nature of the world

She watched as her big sister was killed, her body exploding as her flesh and bits stained every corner of the room, she watched her father in pain, his screams still echoing in her head before he himself exploded and turned to nothing more than pieces of flesh and blood. The reason for all this was the boy she was looking at, she was certain that he wasn't human, she wondered why someone could be so evil but most of all she felt absolute fear

Cain however was in a bad mood, he couldn't care less of the thoughts of a false mortal, he considered their fragile and worthless lives no better than grass, but still, grass had its uses, they were good ingredients or food for herbivores just like how they served a purpose in his experiments but so far it all amounted to failures.

When he read the book on bloodlines, he had a very bold idea which was to see if his own blood could produce bloodline carriers, after all his blood content was a full 100%, still it all ended in failures as all the subjects screamed in pain before exploding into pieces of flesh and blood

There was another way which was through sex but he didn't even want to go there, he didn't want a child unless it could benefit him which was certainly not possible, he didn't see how a child could benefit him in any way, in fact he hated children. He considered their so called innocence as an eyesore, completely weak and helpless creatures.

His gaze then met the pregnant woman as her whole body stiffened, he wanted to try something different. Walking towards the cage, he opened the door, his gaze never leaving the woman, or better still, her bulging tummy, the little girl looked at him in fear as her cries intensified

"Please..*sniff* ...leave mama ...*sniff*... alone"

Cain looked on with irritation at the noisy brat, he wanted to kill her but composed himself, he still needed the little girl but her incessant wailings were grating to his ears, in annoyance he took out a knife, forcefully grabbing the girl by the neck, the mother's pleas fell on deaf ears as she could only watch her young daughter's tongue sliced off and her voice box crushed.

Blood splattered everywhere as the little girl twitched uncontrollably, but she couldn't make a sound, the blood loss wasn't life threatening as Cain had used his perfect strength control and precision which could leave surgeons in awe to deliver the punishment

The woman's tears fell continuously as she watched her little girl in immense pain but she suddenly felt a hair pull as she was dragged away from her poor child before being placed on a long rectangular table as her limbs were shackled

Cain looked at the woman's tummy while thinking 'is the problem due to their body not being strong enough...'

He shook his head and dispelled that thought 'if that was the case then babies wouldn't be able to hold the blood of actual gods, so here comes the problem, if babies can, why can't young adults contain it?...must I be a god to achieve this?...or does it definitely have to be through copulation?

Dispelling that thought again he continued 'No, my bloodline content is high, I have a guess why it is so but instinctively I feel like my blood can produce bloodline carriers, I'm definitely missing a very important detail here, well I can only give this a shot'

Wasting no more time, he took out a sharp knife and carved the woman's tummy slowly open, her piercing screams echoing in the cage, the people in the cage closed their eyes, some tried blocking their ears as well but it didn't seem to work

Cain couldn't be bothered with her screams as he kept on cutting, almost seeming like he was performing a c-section, he finally found the baby, carefully he picked up a syringe containing his blood as he inserted it into the baby, at first nothing happened but then he felt something, the baby's energy began increasing slowly but the most important thing was, it was stable

Looking at this, he was excited and immediately brought out a healing potion and fed it to the woman, not long after all her injuries were healed as her tummy closed, the injuries disappearing like they were never there.

He looked at the woman and nodded his head, she was about eight months pregnant, he just needed to wait and see if his theory could work, if it did he would immediately kill both the baby and the woman before beginning phase two testing. The woman however was weak, her mind had taken too much pain and she didn't even have the strength to scream or speak anymore.

Releasing her shackles, he carefully guided the woman back to the cage where her daughter who had already passed out was before speaking in a commanding tone

"Cyrus!"

The door to the cave opened as a young looking boy of about seventeen with black hair entered and bowed politely

"Yes master"

"Bring in the others"

Cyrus nodded and stepped out of the room, not long after he came in with ten teenagers, all emitting a rank one aura. Cain looked at them and smiled, they were all Ashel members, they were his family but he cared not. Still, it wasn't time to kill and absorb them yet. He brought out several test tubes filled with his blood and handed it to them

"You all know what you need to do, increase your numbers"

They all listened and nodded before speaking in unison "Yes master"

One by one they left, leaving only Cain and Cyrus in the room, he had been secretly putting these nano-parasites in the drinks of these family loving fools, the parasite only needed to be consumed so he could put it in their drinks or food, that was easy, spiking drinks wasn't hard for him, the chef was already under his control since he was just a rank one mortal, everything was going according to his plan

'Sabina should be starting her element baptism soon, I need to observe the whole process, it will be of help to me. The wovec meeting is close but there's still time to prepare a few things for everything to be in place considering the gamble I'm taking'

He looked at Cyrus as he instructed "Inform Valery and the others through our channels that integration can begin"

Cyrus nodded politely before stepping out of the room leaving only Cain and his lab rats

"I guess even a weak person like me can dare to do something like this"

He chuckled to himself "Is this greed? well, if one does not take manageable risks, how can they reap benefits...I can only move forward when benefits are involved but I must be careful not to shoot myself in the foot, greed is good...too much of it, not so much"