PATH OF THE STAR HUNTER

It must be said that Elaisa could hardly believe her own eyes when she obtained the vial of blood for Desmond. After all, bloodlines were rare and hard to come by, though not nearly as much as a beast soul. Elaisa found it hard to accept that someone would be willing to give a bloodline as a reward for a quest, even more so as an advance payment.

Desmond came to Elaisa to explain his previous failure and request a new mission. What puzzled Elaisa was that Desmond came with the mission registration code without knowing anything about it. According to Desmond, he got the quest from someone else, which was weird enough on its own.

Unfortunately, no matter how much Elaisa tried to ask on the subject, Desmond did not reveal the source of the information. Elaisa would have respected Desmond’s privacy if it were anything else. Still, it wasn’t that simple if someone could have given him the registration code for a quest, as that would only be known by association officials or whoever issued the quest.

To Elaisa’s surprise, she still came up empty after reviewing the records in the hunter’s book. Well, not precisely empty-handed, she discovered that someone had used an interference field to sabotage the hunter’s book and disable its functions for a set period of time. She also discovered that an external force field blocked the book’s recording and analysis functions hours later.

Elaisa almost had a heart attack; she knew of similar cases where arcane interruption fields messed with the functions of the hunter’s book. In all those cases, she found the owners of such books dead. Rumor had it that some arcane tech expert designed devices to interfere with the hunter’s book and then sold them to all sorts of shady organizations, but nothing had been confirmed.

When Elaisa questioned, all she got was a look from Desmond, one filled with suspicion and scrutiny. The same thing happened when she asked about the interference field blocking the book’s scan. To tell the truth, that meeting between Desmond and Elaisa was quite tense, leaving the latter bewildered and helpless.

In the end, all Elaisa could do was agree to Desmond’s request, find the requested quest, and accept it. Elaisa still tried to do her job, reading the information about the mission and discussing other matters with Desmond. Still, the latter was short with her before leaving.

“Did I do something wrong?” Elaisa murmured as she watched Desmond leave.

.....

Desmond left the place and returned home with complex emotions. Desmond hadn’t wanted to be cruel or indifferent to Elaisa since he liked her. Still, everything about the association had him too paranoid. That was especially the case after learning that the hunter’s book had been hacked without his knowledge.

Only a fool or someone blindly devoted would believe a story like the one told by Elaisa. It would be ridiculous if the association knew about the sabotage but never made efforts to improve the book or warn its hunters. The whole thing was fishy as hell.

However, Desmond stopped thinking about all that. With everything that had happened, Desmond now only had space in his mind for two things: getting stronger and his family. Well, three things; the last one was to pay Myrilla for his help.

That was where the quest Desmond requested came in, as it was provided by Myrilla. For some strange reason, the angel of love was interested in seeing that mission completed even though she wasn’t the one who issued it. In Myrilla’s words: “I just can’t stand that place devoid of love.”

Desmond had no idea what she was referring to, as she refused to give any further information. Claiming that Desmond would have to find out everything on his own so that he could make his own decisions and make the right choice when the moment came.

Giving Desmond the mission registration code, Myrilla left, leaving one last sentence behind. “Tell me, Desmond, do you value your humanity?” Without waiting for an answer, she disappeared.

Back in the present, with everyone in the room looking at the vial of blood, Desmond understood Myrilla’s question. Do you value your humanity? To tell the truth, Desmond had an answer in his heart ever since the angel of love asked. “I despised my humanity.” That was Desmond’s response.

Desmond had his own reasons for having such an answer, but they could all be summed up in one sentence: The human race was too weak. Desmond did not despise his humanity for moral or ideological reasons. He despised humanity’s almost non-existent innate talent and power.

Idealizing the concept of humanity aside, the human race was decent at best, with hardly any potential. Sure, there were exceptional talents like Desmond or Claire, but therein lay the problem, they were exceptions to the rule. Ultimately, humanity was inferior to many other races and bloodlines in the multiverse.

From what Desmond knew, the human race existed in many worlds and places around the multiverse, making up a decent percentage of the population, something like 5% or something.

But, the human race was only in the middle of the food chain. Whether it was the human race’s potential, talent, or innate abilities, they only amounted to that barely above average. To make matters worse, that position was gained because the human race had something that many didn’t, which was high compatibility to adapt to foreign bloodlines.

For the main talent of your race to be having good compatibility to give it up race to become stronger, it was not strange that Desmond despised humanity. When all was said and done, giving up his humanity was still something Desmond would not do lightly.

Once Desmond took a bloodline that made him something more than human, he couldn’t do the same again. In other words, Desmond’s innate potential, talent, and abilities would be forever bound to his new bloodline.

Due to the rarity and difficulty of obtaining a bloodline, Desmond had dropped the subject. But Desmond would still covet a bloodline. The only problem he now faced was that he knew nothing about the bloodline inside the vial.

<Primordial blood. Race unknown, traced to a mutant variation of the crimson moon lineage.

Characteristics: Superior regeneration, innate strength, and speed, innate battle instincts, superior resistance, vampirism, innate charm.>

The description that accompanied the vial was so vague that he might as well say: you will become very strong and may have to drink blood. Aside from how similar that sounded to becoming a vampire, the problem was how non-specific it was.

Truth be told, all of the features listed were things Desmond wanted, as they were precisely what he needed to stop being so weak compared to Aura users. Although Desmond knew how absurd it was to reach his weaknesses with the strengths of others, he still didn’t want to be a wimp in hand-to-hand combat, something that had bothered him for a long time.

Whatever the case, the blood in the vial could solve all of his problems. Still, it could also be an invisible shackle that Desmond would be putting on his potential. As with everything, there were risks and benefits, making the decision difficult.

Despite everything, Desmond had made up his mind. Since possessing this bloodline was a prerequisite for his mission, Desmond would use it. Both in order to repay the angel of love for her kindness and to gain the power he was seeking, Desmond acquires the bloodline.

Also, Desmond had a strange feeling when he looked at the vial of blood; he felt like something was calling him. It could be his instincts telling him how good that lineage would be for him or something else. Regardless, Desmond had a feeling that what was in that jar would forever change his destiny.

For a moment, Desmond felt the mist that covered his always uncertain future clear; the word fate made him think of someone, Katya, the archangel of balance.

Katya sent the angel of love to Veritas G-153 under the pretext of doing her a favor. Although Katya’s instructions were vague, these still led the angel of love to help Desmond and save his life.

Myrilla, the angel of love, saved Desmond’s life. Yet, she also led Desmond on a strange mission that had been in the association’s records for centuries. A quest that had never been taken, one with a rather unique prerequisite and reward: an unidentified bloodline.

When so many coincidences were put in one place, they were no longer coincidences. Desmond also remembered that Katya seemed to know Titania, who his killer had asked about. Although this detail seemed minor, it still added to the things that linked Katya to all of this.

“But why not come tell me in person?” Desmond couldn’t help but wonder to himself. With their relationship and his previous interactions with Katya, Desmond would have agreed to take the mission and the bloodline if she had asked.

Desmond could only guess that Katya’s goal included more than just that. Perhaps part of the process, something that had happened along the way to this point in time, something in there that was Katya’s goal. The problem was that it was only possible to discern the archangel’s intentions if she declared them herself.

With the ability to see the future or destiny, Katya could be aiming for anything. The target could be anything: the bloodline, the mission, Desmond meeting Aisha, Myrilla, or his killer.

“Or it could be all of the above.” Desmond commented before shaking his head and stopping thinking about it. Since it was impossible to figure out what the archangel was planning, Desmond would give up trying.