Mordred observed her for a long time. This woman was more dangerous than he had initially thought. Not through weakness or naivety, but through that ruthless lucidity that almost matched his own. She had identified her own motivations with surgical precision and fully embraced them.
Suddenly, she lunged forward.
The movement was so swift, so unexpected, that even Mordred was surprised. In a fraction of a second, Livia crossed the space between them and pressed herself against his chest, her arms wrapping around his neck with striking feline agility.
- "Me, Mordred!" she cried out, her voice vibrating with almost feverish excitement. "I want to be the first to receive your blood! Make me what you are! Give me that power!"
This time, the impulse was pure, primitive, devoid of all the philosophical reflection of the previous moment. But even in this explosion of raw emotion, Mordred could see intelligence gleaming in her eyes. She hadn’t gone mad; she had simply given free rein to her deepest desires after rationalizing them.
He placed his hands gently but firmly on her shoulders, pushing her back slightly to clear his personal space while plunging his gaze into hers.
- "Very well, Livia," he said calmly, his deep voice resonating through the room. "Since you insist with such... conviction, you shall be the first to receive this transformation."
He turned to the others, his expression becoming grave again.
- "Those who refuse can die now. I will not hold you back. The outside world will show you no mercy, and the dragons, like humans, will hunt you down. You who are the refuse of France, without the necessary power to resist them, you will be nothing but prey."
To his surprise, none moved. Livia’s demonstration, far from frightening them, seemed to have awakened something in them. Marcus spat again, but this time as a sign of determination.
- "We’ve all survived the hell of this prison," he growled. "We can survive this too. And if we die, at least it’ll be while trying to become strong enough to make them pay."
Elena nodded, her fingers mechanically caressing the scar that crossed her left cheek.
- "Those bastards took twenty years of my life from me. If I can get back even a fraction of freedom, it’s worth all the risks."
One by one, the others expressed their agreement. Gareth merely gave an approving grunt, Vera raised her fist in defiance, and even the youngest of the group, those who still had traces of terror in their eyes, nodded with determination.
- "Very well," said Mordred. "Form a circle. In the center."
They obeyed immediately, Livia naturally taking her place facing him while the others arranged themselves around them. Mordred found himself at the center of this human circle, surrounded by tense but determined faces.
He slowly raised his right hand, and with surgical precision born from mastering his new abilities, created a thin cut at the tip of his index finger. The blood that flowed from it did not fall - it floated, held in suspension by his magical will, forming a perfect sphere that pulsed with a hypnotic orange glow.
- "My blood is different from yours," he explained while manipulating the liquid sphere, making it dance in the air like a miniature star. "It carries within it the very essence of draconicity. Each drop contains enough magic to radically transform a human organism. Or to destroy it completely."
He slowly levitated this first sphere toward Livia, who watched it with almost hypnotic fascination. Her green eyes reflected the orange glow of the magical blood, giving her an almost supernatural appearance.
At the same time, he continued to draw his blood, creating other perfect spheres that he directed toward each of the hunters. The process was more exhausting than he had anticipated - even with his regenerative abilities, creating so many doses of concentrated draconic blood represented considerable effort.
- "When you absorb this blood," he continued, his voice becoming deeper, "the transformation will be immediate. Your very DNA will be rewritten. Your cells will die and be reborn. Your bones will strengthen, your muscles will restructure, your nervous system will be reorganized to support draconic magic."
He paused, his gaze sweeping across each face.
- "The pain will be... indescribable. You will feel as if your body is tearing apart from the inside. Some of you will probably lose consciousness. Others might... not recover."
Before Livia, the sphere of blood now floated at the level of her lips. She opened her mouth, panting with anticipation, her eyes fixed on Mordred with burning intensity.
- "I’m ready," she whispered.
- "Then let us begin," said Mordred.
With a gesture of his hand, he directed the first sphere toward Livia’s lips. The draconic blood entered her mouth like a liquid comet, and the effect was immediate.
Livia staggered, her eyes widening from the shock. For a moment, she remained standing, trembling, then her legs gave way beneath her.
The circle of hunters brutally transformed into a nightmarish scene of tortured bodies, piercing screams, uncontrollable contortions. Their skin reddened, burned, covered with strange marks, their veins standing out like incandescent threads as their bodies desperately tried to absorb the overly intense draconic power.
Mordred observed the scene with almost clinical coldness, understanding perfectly what they felt having undergone this same brutal transformation himself. Yet his face remained impassive. He knew that many of them would probably die, destroyed by this unbearable magic, but those who survived would be his true warriors, half-dragons worthy of fighting at his side.
The screams became more intense, almost unbearable, filling the room with terrifying pain. Mordred slowly raised his eyes to the thick ceiling of the underground room, allowing himself an ironic, almost cruel smile.
- "Fortunately, it’s soundproof..." he murmured with dark humor, his eyes gleaming with savage intensity.
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here are two little bonus Chapters, to catch up from last time, for my delay in releasing the five Chapters!
Have a nice day and happy reading