"That was so delicious..."
Aric licked the edges of his lips, disregarding his weakened body which was trembling from expanding too much energy.
But he was already used to that by now, given how he would always strain his body to the limit, so this was not something that he found unbearable.
"...Has blood always been this delicious?"
He muttered under his breath which carried the thick iron scent of the Basilisk's blood.
Grumble~
His stomach cried of hunger, and Aric couldn't help but go in for another scoop of blood.
"Gulp! "
He drank it enthusiastically, anticipating that sweet, out of this world taste that —
[!!]
"Blegh!!! "
He suddenly hunched over and barfed his guts out, the murky blood now tasted extremely horrid, just as one would expect.
"Urgh!! What's happening?!"
"Cough! Spit! Spit! "
"Why does it suddenly taste so horrible?! Blegh!! "
It was as though he'd imagined the entire ordeal and he felt like scraping his tongue with barbed wire.
"Sigh... Was I so hungry that I imagined the taste?"
He wiped his lips and glanced around, thoughts about what he would do next and where he would go, began seeping into his mind.
[I wonder, would you accept me now that I have Mana, Dad?]
"..."
[Will you proudly proclaim that you carried me in your womb now? You bitch of a mother?]
"Tch... At least that old man doesn't pretend to like me, that witch is worse than him."
Aric furrowed his brows deeply as he thought of his mother.
"I can't possibly go back there now... Or else I might kill them all."
"..."
"... Or should I?"
He considered it for a brief moment, but decided not to.
Well, for now at least...
"Haa..."
[I'll make the most of my life from now on.]
[With that said...]
He glanced around, searching for a few things in particular.
[Mana crystals... I'm sure these will fetch a fair price.]
He smirked at the thought of coin and all the things he would buy with it.
As someone who'd spent years living as less than a Human, he had a long list of things he wanted to do and try.
He then began picking them up one by one and stuffing as many of them as he could into his bumbag.
Crack! Crack!
"... Eh?"
He heard a strange sound coming from underneath the Basilisk's carcass.
"Don't tell me..."
He cautiously stepped closer and grunted as he pushed the heavy carcass away to investigate.
Woe and behold, his suspicions were correct, the Basilisk's egg was hatching underneath the great serpent's carcass.
"So in the last moment..."
"... You sacrificed yourself to save the egg?"
The revelation chewed at his spine and he clenched a fist, not because he felt empathy for the Basilisk.
But because a mere beast was a much more doting p —
Crack!
The head of a young serpent pierced through the eggshell, drenched in an amniotic fluids that glittered under the sunlight.
"Sigh... I'll send you to your parent."
He said with a stern expression and collected his sword from the ground to slay the young Basilisk.
The young serpent drew its first breath, its light yellow reptilian eyes reflecting Aric's frame as he loomed over it.
"Tweet! Tweet! "
It cried out.
"What? Tweet? That doesn't sound right."
He halted for a brief moment, as that was not a sound he expected to hear from a serpent.
"Shouldn't you be hissing?"
He couldn't help but utter those words at the serpent oddly chirping at him like a newborn chick begging its mother to regurgitate food.
[It looks a bit adorable...]
He smiled, the longer he looked at it, the more his heart was filled with warmth.
[...]
But then he glanced at its parent's carcass and recalled what it would soon grow up to be.
"Have I lost my mind?"
"Tweet! Tweet! Tweeet~ "
The newborn Basilisk continued wriggling out of its shell as it sang a sweet melody, oblivious of its impending doom.
"Sorry... Your cuteness won't work anymore, it's better this way."
He lifted up his sword and swung it down violently!
Fwosh!
But then!
Uwong!
Clank!
"Argh!!"
Just when his blade was a centimeter away from the snake's neck, he felt his hand burn up in a searing pain, as though he'd dipped it into a pool of magma.
Sizzle!
He was effectively disarmed and his skin sizzled like a thinly sliced piece of meat on a hot pan.
"W-what the heck is this?!"
He saw something on his right palm, a shape that was glowing in a golden radiance.
"A magic circle?!"
He wondered, he'd often seen sketches in books about various magic circles but even they paled in comparison to what his eyes currently beheld.
It was so much more complex, its every engraving deliberate and intricate, to an almost impossible degree, even on a microscopic level.
And for some reason...
"I know what this is — No, rather... I know how to use it. But why?"
He pondered and turned to the newborn Basilisk that was strangely still as though awaiting something.
Step... Step...
"..."
He stretched out his hand naturally and the young serpent bowed its head and extended its underdeveloped cranium.
Uwong!!
A similar, golden engraving appeared atop the serpent's skull.
Pat.
Aric connected the two circles together and he paused briefly, preparing his lips to cast a spell:
■■■ Feralis Concordia! ■■■
UWOOOOONG!!!
"Urgh..."
He winced as he felt a large chunk of his energy gush out from his Mana Veins, and a bright golden light that rivaled that of the sun erupted.
"This is so strange..."
Aric patted the serpent happily chirping under his palm, its length almost equivalent to his height.
"I know what you're feeling, it's almost like you're a part of me now."
"You want to eat?"
"Tweeet ~ "
As though it too understood his words, the newborn serpent wrapped itself around him, begging him to allow it to eat the nearby carcass.
"Eating your mom is a bit..."
[...Or was that your dad?]
He wondered.
The truth was, Basilisk's are beasts that are capable of reproducing asexually, therefore they have no gender.
"Meh... Whatever."
Aric shrugged and allowed it to injest the carcass whilst he sat down and gathered his thoughts.