"Yes…" The System reacted with Siderius' mind. He didn't need to say it to start the mutation. But he did it as a ceremony. His low, hoarse voice emitted in the small hideout.
A gray bracer emerged from under the skin of Siderius' left wrist. It was the wristwatch from before, now it had a completely new appearance after the integration.
It was now an arm guard that was intricately crafted to fit around Siderius' wrist. Its surface was smooth and gray, like a delicate piece of armor.
The steel bracer lit up in complex patterns. An Alchemy Seal appeared in Siderius's left palm. It floated slightly above his skin.
Siderius dropped the two bloody eyeballs onto the Seal. Instantly, the bracer bit into his veins. He could feel a dense liquid crawling inside him and slowly filling up the veins of his left hand.
The bright yellow Alchemy Seal changed its color. It suddenly had an opaque purple shade. Mercury was slowly leaking out from the pores of Siderius' left palm.
The mercury elevated from his skin, going through the purple Seal and then reached the bloody pair of eyeballs. It moved like it was conscious and alive.
The mercury swallowed the eyeballs.
The liquid metal went through every crevice of the eyes, learning its very being and properties. Then, it fused with the pair of eyes.
Every single tissue, every blood vein, and every cell was merged together with the mercury.
In Alchemy, Sulfur was the avatar of the soul, power, and combustibility.
Salt was the representative of the body, stability, and crystallization.
Mercury did not belong to either side or anything in between, instead it acted as a symbol of transformation. It was the fluidity and flexibility of all things.
It was the spirit.
And with spirit, you can mend, bend, and fuse anything together. Including another part that did not belong to you.
Witch Hunter lived on this principle. They made use of the transformative ability of the spirit to become the 'perfect' being.
The living mercury crystallized into two solid spheres. They hovered slightly inside the Alchemy Seal.
[Strix Ocula is ready]
Strix for owl.
Ocula is short for Oculus Extima, the organ of eyes.
Siderius lifted his left arm slowly. The surface of the spheres moved gently. It almost seemed like there were tiny ocean waves on it.
His right arm was still holding the obsidian knife. With two precise cuts, Siderius cut open his two eyeballs. Blood gushed out from his eye socket and flooded his face.
The pain was unimaginable.
The eyeball holds the densest layer of nerve fibers in the human body. Or more precisely, the cornea.
This makes even a tiny strand of hair feel like a sharp needle in your eye. One could only imagine how excruciating it would be to cut your own eyes.
But Siderius stayed calm. He controlled his breathing, preventing the body from going into shock.
And then he shoved the spheres into his eye sockets.
The spheres shot out of the Seal like it was alive. They climbed into the slits that Siderius had opened. The pain was even more overwhelming. Itching, burning, scorching, it felt like dipping your eyes into acid.
But Siderius did not falter. He didn't even flinch. Only his body reacted instinctively. The hair on his body stood up due to the stimulation. The follicles produced sweat intensely, trying to cool off the heat.
Siderius had gone through uncountable mutations. This was nothing but a scratch to him.
[GRAFTING IN PROCESS…]
[MUTATION IS COMPLETE]
[HUNTER HAS EVOLVED]
[HUNTER HAS ACHIEVED A NEW RANK: OCULUS EXTIMA I]
Siderius let out a long breath. His eyes cried mercury tears, replacing the blood from before. This was not his doing but a reaction purely made by the body integrating the mutation.
All mutations need time to settle.
He wiped his face with his left hand. All the residual mercury got absorbed back into his pores. They climbed via his blood veins and returned to the system.
The grafting procedure was a success, but it was not completed. The newly mutated organs needed time to fully merge with his body. In time, it would become a part of him.
And in time, not only would he receive the power of the eyes but also the essence of the owl.
[S.Y.S.T.E.M.]
[USER: Siderius Satterblade]
[ ATTRIBUTES ]
|Strength: 3|
|Agility: 4|
|Perception: 2|
|Stamina: 5|
|Endurance: 6|
[WITCH HUNTER RANK: OCULUS EXTIMA I]
[ALCHEMIST RANK: UNRANK]
[MERCURY EXTRACT: 53/100]
[PSYCHOSIS LEVEL: 73/100]
Flashes of images jumped into his mind. A gnarly hunger took hold of Siderius. Suddenly rodents felt so delicious. He wanted to catch a rat and swallow it whole.
Side effects of Witch Hunter mutation. You are what you graft. The organs of the grafted animal organs would affect the witch hunter's mind.
But gradually, this manic would be conquered by him too.
Siderius snapped those animalistic thoughts out of his head and opened his eyes. The wound was gone and there only laid a perfect pair of black eyes. All the white parts surrounding the eyeballs were gone.
He was no longer seeing the world through the eyes of a human but the eyes of a nocturnal bird of prey.
The world lost its color. Now it consisted of black, white, and grey. A perfect pair of night vision goggles.
However, these new eyes did not fix the problem of the original body. The far objects were blurred, creating a mix of black and white. The nameless boy was shortsighted, so this weakness carried over even after the mutation.
This was reflected in the System examination of the boy via attributes. His
Siderius stood up and stretched. Whatever weaknesses this body had, he would fix it. He would make this boy become the most perfect being in this world. A killing machine of witches.
The operation was a success. This body had officially become a witch hunter.
The only thing left was to meet Lyara in the woods.
In her room, Lyara danced around in front of the mirror, trying on different outfits for the night. Some were modest and graceful. Some were revealing and provoking, leaving nothing to the imagination.
She had been playing the role of the innocent girl for so long now. All she wore were those modest dresses. But tonight, she needed something more. Something that made the slave boy beg for it, only to be taken away in his most euphoric moment.
She chose a pink dress, the color of the glades. Its fabric was smooth to the touch, and it floated in the air like a cloud. It was also provocative with its desperately short skirt, torturing the observer to want more.
"Huh? Where is Fluffy? He should be reporting back to me already.
Oh well, he's probably gone out to catch some mice."
Lyara didn't worry something had happened to her owl. Everyone in this area knew it belonged to her. No one dared to touch it. She was also convinced that Siderius bought her act wholeheartedly, so there was nothing to worry about.
She prepared everything carefully and then hopped her way to the edge of Rottin Wood.
There, she would seduce her first target. There, she would break his heart to achieve her goal. There, she would finally become a High Lady, the apex predator of this world.
She didn't care one tiny bit about the nameless boy. She only cared about herself and her power.
Lyara had more in common with Siderius than she knew. He, too, only cared about himself.
And that night, only one of them would ascend to higher ground.
The naive, unawakened witch versus the old soul of a Master Witch Hunter. Things would play out very differently from what she'd imagined.