Chapter 153: Chapter 151: Coup D’état (1)
The boy struggled, reaching out to the other body.
However, Blaze flung him away. The boy’s frail body soared through the air before hitting a stone column. Blaze heard his bones crack from the impact. The boy’s head had split open, blood gushing out of it.
Instead of finishing the boy off, Blaze turned to the zombie’s corpse. The corpse had a familiar feeling to it.
I haven’t seen this guy before, so why does he feel familiar? Wait... that puppeteer.
Blaze’s thought went to the monstrous creature he had fought before meeting Voss. Back then, it felt like someone was controlling the zombie. He had a hunch that the one controlling the zombie back then was the same child.
"Looks like my theory was correct," Blaze smirked. "This kid had tried to kill me before."
"Ah..."
The boy groaned, trying to get up, but failed. He wasn’t used to being in his weak body. Just one swing had pushed him to death’s doorstep. Soon, he’ll be through that door.
"H...How are you... alive?" the boy asked, focusing his blurry eyes on Blaze. "The... seer—"
"He was correct," Blaze replied. "I am dead in all senses of the word."
"Bull...shit... even zombies... have status... screens."
Blaze tilted his head, wondering if he should kill the boy first. But then, decided to show him the status window he was desperate to see. As a gesture of goodwill, of course.
"See? It says deceased."
The boy didn’t want to believe it. Every undead the boy had possessed to date had the same status. They were all considered deceased; that’s why he could control them. Blaze was no different, yet he was standing before him.
The seer didn’t betray him. All of them had been fooled by Blaze.
That realization brought more questions with it.
How long had Blaze planned all this? Was he aware of the seer’s ability to reveal others’ status windows?
But most of all, how did he know the boy would have to return to his actual body before he could take over Blaze’s?
It was something only the prophets knew. Did that mean the prophets were the ones to betray him?
"Yeah, you can try answering all those yourself," Blaze scoffed, flexing Necrophage. "Thanks to that table of yours, I can use it again. Only until I get the antidote, but that’s more than enough."
"This... I’ll... be back... I can’t die... here."
"Sure you can, kiddo."
"No... I can’t..."
The boy, even in his weak state, tried crawling away. Perhaps he thought Blaze wouldn’t kill children.
He could have converted the boy like he did with Voss and his father, but then again, the boy’s abilities were strange. Blaze didn’t think it was worth taking the risk.
He leaned in, stomping on the boy’s leg, shattering his knee. The boy threw his head back, a scream about to escape his lips, but Blaze crushed his jaw, forcing the broken teeth down the boy’s throat.
"You want to touch the beautiful angel, right?" Blaze snarled, forcing the boy to look into his eyes. "I don’t take kindly to others thinking about taking what’s mine, let alone touching it."
Before the boy could even whimper at his words, Blaze bit into the child’s neck. His razor-sharp teeth ate the boy alive.
[Hunger triggered.]
[Evolution rate increased to 1.2%]
[Greed triggered.]
[Please select one of the following abilities/traits/mutations from the target:]
[1.] Dominion
[2.] Transcendent
[3.] Bloodthirst
So it works now?
Blaze couldn’t even remember how many humans, mutants, and undead he had consumed. In all of that time, it was the first time that [Memory Echo]’s Greed sub-effect was triggered.
Blaze remembered seeing the first two traits before.
Dominion allowed the blightlord to control the zombies of any blight zone it set foot into as long as they were of a lower grade.
Similarly, Transcendent allowed the boy to shift his consciousness to any zombie under his control. Essentially, he would be immortal, capable of living through any zombie that he controlled.
"Such traits were wasted on this fool," Blaze said, wiping the blood off his mouth.
He knew he was going to pick [Transcendent] as it was the most useful trait. But he didn’t want to ignore the last trait.
"Bloodthirst, what is it?"
[Bloodthirst: Allows the subject to recover health worth 90% of damage dealt to other creatures.]
The trait was also useful... but not to him. Blaze already had hyper-regeneration. He could grow entire missing organs within seconds. Hence, there was no need to select it.
[Confirm selection <Trait: Transcendent>?]
"Yes."
[Trait activated.]
As soon as he read those words, Blaze wanted to try it. But before he could do that, his vision turned blurry.
A second later, he found himself watching the world through the former blightlord’s eyes. However, what he saw was unlike anything Blaze expected.
The boy was talking to the system, but unlike how Blaze or others did it, the boy’s system was a strange figure. It was more like a holographic call.
From the figure, the person didn’t appear to be human. Blaze tried to focus on the holograph, but the more he tried, the messier his vision got. Perhaps it was done intentionally.
"So, if I kill this one guy, you’ll give me everything I want?" the boy asked, munching on a pack of chips.
[Yes.]
"Sweet! There are no limits to the promise, though, right? I don’t want to go through all the trouble and kill this... Blaze guy, only for you to say you can’t give me an alien girlfriend."
[Focus on your work. I will fulfill your wishes when the time comes.]
This kid puts gooners to shame. An alien girlfriend? What the heck is wrong with children nowadays? But who is that guy, and why does he want to kill me?
Before Blaze could try again to see the figure, the scene shifted. The boy was back in the same room, discussing the plans to kill Blaze.
The prophets had insisted on waiting another week before attacking him, but the boy was too excited. The plan they came up with was made in haste and hence was full of cracks.
Even so, they had some ’reassurances’ in place to ensure nothing went wrong. In the event that things went south, they had contingencies to kill Blaze.
Unfortunately, Blaze now knew all about it.