Chapter 18: Blood Soaked

Chapter 18. Blood Soaked

I turned toward the mansion.

Took one step.

Then stopped.

My eyes drifted back toward the behemoth corpse.

...

Right.

That.

I almost walked away from a small fortune.

In this era, monster corpses were absurdly useful.

Meat.

Medicine.

Alchemy.

Armor.

Weapon materials.

Decorations for nobles who had too much money and not enough personality.

Even organs could be refined into potions or used as catalysts depending on the species.

And something like an A-rank Ironback Behemoth?

Expensive. Very expensive.

The armor plates alone could be sold to blacksmiths.

The horns had earth-mana conductivity.

The blood could be processed.

The bones were useful for reinforcement powder.

The claws made excellent crafting materials.

Rey usually left the messy work to servants.

Understandable.

That was what servants were for.

They butchered the monster, sorted the useful parts, sold most of it, and stored whatever Rey personally needed.

Normally I would have done the same.

Except...

My eyes narrowed.

There was one thing inside that corpse I wanted personally.

Something connected to one of my unfinished projects.

The thought alone made something warm and dangerous curl inside my chest.

My unfinished projects.

God.

I still mourned them.

Years of notes.

Matrices.

Prototype calculations.

Mana pathway simulations.

Three separate research papers that had been sitting at eighty-something percent completion when I tragically lost my final battle against a wet floor.

What a humiliating death.

But perhaps...

Perhaps they weren’t actually dead.

I looked at my hands.

This body had mana.

A ridiculous amount compared to what I’d possessed in my previous life.

Every major experiment had required preparations, external mana batteries, arrays, enchanted tools, storage crystals, and enough safety measures to make the laboratory look like it was preparing for an invasion.

Now?

I was standing inside Rey Valen’s body.

Even reduced from SSS to S, his mana capacity was monstrous compared to mine.

And I had Forbidden Energy on top of it.

My lips slowly curved upward. "Well..."

Maybe death hadn’t destroyed my research.

Maybe it had simply relocated the laboratory.

I turned back toward the corpse. "Let’s see."

I lifted my right hand.

[Eclipse Light Manipulation.]

White-black light gathered around me.

Not one ring this time.

Dozens.

Thin blades of radiance materialized in the air.

One.

Five.

Ten.

Twenty.

More.

They hovered around my body in perfect silence.

White edges gleamed.

Black centers pulsed faintly.

For a moment, they looked less like spells and more like an army of executioner’s blades waiting for their command.

I rolled my wrist.

They moved.

Every blade shifted at once.

Perfect formation.

Perfect spacing.

Like flying soldiers acknowledging their master.

My smile sharpened.

The first blade descended.

It cut through the behemoth’s shoulder.

Cleanly.

Another crossed the torso.

A third sliced between two armor plates.

Then another.

And another.

I didn’t hack randomly.

That would have been barbaric.

I knew anatomy.

Monster anatomy had been part of several research fields in my era.

Core placement.

Mana circulation.

Organ structure.

Elemental adaptation.

Bone density.

Regenerative tissue.

And Ironback Behemoths were not exactly obscure.

I knew where the liver sat.

Where the mana channels connected.

Where the core chamber was protected.

Which muscles could be removed without damaging valuable organs.

Which bones were worth keeping intact.

So I carved it like a surgeon.

A deeply enthusiastic surgeon with twenty floating blades.

My fingers shifted.

Three rings turned together.

The monster’s flank opened.

A thick slab of armored hide separated from muscle underneath.

Another sweep.

Both horns came free.

Another.

The remaining limbs divided at the joints.

Another.

The chest opened.

That one was... Messy.

Blood surged outward.

Not the dramatic arterial spray from before.

This was heavier.

Thicker.

A warm wave of dark crimson poured across the stones and splashed over my boots.

Then my legs.

Then my clothes.

I stepped closer.

Bad decision.

A second cut opened something deeper.

Blood and warm viscera spilled outward.

Directly onto me.

I blinked.

My shirt was now drenched.

My sleeves were red.

Something questionable slid off my shoulder and hit the ground with a wet slap.

...

I stared at it.

Then at the corpse.

Then sighed.

"Research is glamorous."

Why would anything involving field anatomy ever remain clean?

The blades continued working.

Sections of flesh separated cleanly.

Armor plates stacked themselves beside the body.

Bones remained mostly intact.

Organs I didn’t need rolled aside in one truly horrible pile that would probably traumatize at least one newly hired servant.

Then I saw it.

A faint glow.

Deep inside the chest cavity.

My eyes sharpened.

I flicked one finger.

An Eclipse blade rotated.

It slipped through the exposed ribs.

Once.

Twice.

A delicate cut around the protective tissue.

No damage to the object inside.

Then the tip of the blade nudged something free.

A small orb rose from the ruined chest.

It floated through the air toward me.

I raised one hand.

Caught it.

It was warm, dense, and beautiful.

About the size of a large plum.

Dark amber with veins of deep brown-gold light running through its center.

I stared at it. Then smiled. "Nice."

The Ironback Behemoth’s core.

Every magical creature had some equivalent.

Humans.

Elves.

Beasts.

Monsters.

Different biology.

Same fundamental principle.

A structure capable of storing, cycling, and refining mana.

Monster cores were particularly interesting because they developed according to instinct and environment rather than formal spell training.

Which meant their structures often contained natural mana solutions that researchers spent decades trying to recreate artificially.

And this...

I turned the core between my fingers.

This was exactly what I needed.

A sound came from the corridor.

Footsteps.

Many.

Armor.

Servants.

Then...

"Rey!"

Ariel.

I looked up.

She entered the ruined courtyard first with several guards behind her.

Then stopped.

Everyone stopped.

Nobody said anything.

The courtyard looked like an execution ground.

The behemoth had been sliced into neatly separated sections.

Blood covered half the stones.

Organs lay in organized piles.

Armor plates had been stacked beside the wall.

And me?

I was standing in the middle of it.

Drenched.

Blood soaked my shirt.

My hands were red.

My jaw was stained.

A streak ran across my throat.

One floating Eclipse blade still hovered beside my shoulder like it was waiting for permission to cut something else apart.

Ariel stared.

The guards stared.

The servants stared.

I looked at them. My lips curled into a slow, twisted smirk.

One guard visibly swallowed.

I began walking toward them.

Blood squelched faintly beneath my boots.

Nobody moved.

Ariel finally seemed to recover.

"Rey, what—"

I stopped in front of her and raised my hand.

My very bloody hand.

Her eyes dropped toward it.

Then back to mine.

Slowly.

I touched her cheek with the back of my knuckles.

Ariel’s breath caught.

Warm blood streaked across her pale skin.

The contrast was almost obscene.

Blue hair.

Soft face.

Bright eyes.

And my blood-covered hand against her cheek.

My gaze dropped to her mouth.

Her lips parted slightly.

I dragged my thumb across them.

Slowly.

Leaving a faint red line over the lower lip.

Her eyes widened.

Her breathing changed.

Just a little.

The courtyard around us had gone completely silent.

Several servants were doing heroic work pretending they couldn’t see anything.

I leaned closer.

Not enough to kiss her.

Enough that she could feel my breath.

"I’ll be waiting for you in my chamber."

I smiled. Then removed my hand.

The blood remained on her cheek.

Across her lip.

Pretty.

Dangerously pretty.

But she said nothing.

I turned away before my thoughts became less academic. "Bring the parts I usually keep to inventory and sell the rest."

The guards straightened immediately. "Y-Yes, my lord."

I walked toward the mansion.