Magic Overlord: The Last Arcane Sorcerer

Bloodline Awakening

Aethan gasped, staring at his hands in horror, unwilling to believe what had just unfolded before his eyes.

Never in his 15 years of life had he ever heard of something like this, regardless of the countless stories his mother had told him.

He looked over his bed, craning his neck, straining his weak muscles and reddening his pale, white skin to see the dried husk—in a black gown and white apron—that was once a living being.

Aethan fell back on his bed, his breath hitching as he came to terms with a hard fact.

"I… I..killed her," he forced out the words, seemingly trying to calm his raging heart by saying it out loud.

He gulped audibly, barely stopping himself from passing out or emptying the contents of his stomach.

"What even happened?" Aethan asked, his pupils constricting, and his eyes widening to their limits.

Suddenly his eyes glazed over, the look of horror on Gisha's face—before she was drained of all her blood—replaying in his mind over and over again.

Aethan lay there in disbelief, but a sudden feeling overwhelmed him a second later, and his eyes focused, staring out of his room at the red moon in the sky.

A subtle red light layered over his cloudy, grey eyes, and his body twitched, a pink glow emanating from his skin before dying down.

Aethan's face seemed to become healthier right then, and his muscles became stronger, firmer and more durable.

He had never felt this euphoric sensation before. He had laid on that bed since he began to form thoughts of his own, and he only had a chance to be outside of the manor when his elder siblings were home.

One of his brothers, Merek, who was a Knight serving the Order of the Black Lance, was fond of him, always taking care of him when he had the chance.

His other siblings were caring and kind too, but Merek took the caring to another level.

Aethan snapped back to reality after deviating from his original thoughts. He remembered how Gisha had tried to kill him, and he calmed visibly. He had only defended himself after all.

Speaking of defence, why could he move all of a sudden?

"Hmm." Aethan waved his arm slowly.

He understood that something had triggered within his body, and he drained Gisha of all her blood, killing her. He didn't know or understand the Human anatomy properly, but if he had drained her blood… where had it all gone?

It couldn't possibly have been sucked into his body, right? If so, why was he still the same size?

Aethan's eyes widened.

He could move, and if all the blood had seemingly been absorbed by him, did it mean that it hadn't just been taken into his body, but the nutrient and vitality within the blood had?

Aethan was smart enough to deduce this much—at least he thought so, since an average person wouldn't deduce that so easily—and taking one more look at the dead body only affirmed his thoughts.

Thanks to his mother, Martha, he knew so much, but due to his crippled body, he knew so little at the same time.

He wanted to explore the world, but his body didn't let him. Knowing that there was a way to negate that weakness though, he was filled with hope and excitement.

But first, he had to explain to his parents why and how Gisha was dead.

Luckily, he didn't need to, because in the next minute of silence, his father suddenly burst through the door, his War Hammer tightly held in his large hands as his eyes darted across the room.

His gaze settled on Aethan a second later, and he charged towards him, his wife in tow.

Aethan's brows wrinkled in confusion, but he remained quiet, watching as his father stood beside his bed protectively, staring down at Gisha's husk while his mother caressed him lovingly.

"Are you okay?" Martha asked, rubbing Aethan's head and staring into his cloudy eyes.

Aethan nodded his head, whispering the word, Yes, with a small smile.

Martha smiled, then paused.

Aethan's smile widened as he raised a hand up, waving it slowly.

His mother's eyes widened, while his father's eyes narrowed.

Martha raised an arm and hesitantly held Aethan's moving arm, her eyes still widened and her mouth agape.

She looked towards her husband, Darion, and a smile cracked her shocked visage.

Darion took a step closer to the duo… then smiled too.

"I knew you were special," Darion said, his large hands wrapping around his wife and son.

Martha couldn't decipher the hidden meaning behind Darion's words, so she just hugged him back, enjoying the warmth he radiated.

Aethan closed his eyes, feeling safe in the embrace of his parents.

After a few minutes of cuddling, they separated, and Darion scanned Aethan's body again, taking in the look of his now healthier-looking skin.

Aethan's skin was originally pale, sickly and white, but it seemed to have gained a healthy pink tinge to it. His hair was lacking melanin, leading to it being stark white. But for some reason, it didn't change after the absorption of Gisha's blood… or vitality.

His frail body lacked any muscles—especially his lower body—due to the fact that he had never walked before, or even taken a single step.

He was pushed outside on a wheelchair of sorts whenever he wanted a change of scenery. Still, his weak physique didn't let him explore past fifty meters of their Manor, so he was stuck with the same scenes for more than a decade.

"I knew this was going to happen all along," Darion exclaimed again, his eyes twinkling like a little child seeing a new toy.

Martha and Aethan furrowed their brows, still not letting go of each other.

They could ignore Darion's first words as him speaking to himself, but this was even more confusing.

"You knew what?" Martha finally asked after seeing Darion's gaze almost bore a hole through Aethan.

"Darion?... Darion?!!" Martha hollered, snapping her husband out of his daze.

"Yes, yes… What's the matter?" Darion asked nonchalantly, a smile still plastered on his face.

"What did you say you knew, and why is Aethan special?" She threw the two questions in succession.

Darion's smile widened as he said:

"Well… my father's, father's, father's, fa…"

"Get to the point!" Martha yelled, stopping Darion from telling them a long story.

Darion frowned a little, feeling a little offended by his wife's tone. However, the glee bubbling within him evaporated any negative feelings he was having.

"Aethan has awakened the ancestral Bloodline of the Narok family," Darion said, his voice dripping with pride.

"And what is this bloodline?"

Darion paused, his grin widening some more. Then, he said:

"Blood Essence Extraction."