Inside the same room, Priscilla had cast her nameless spell; Dane, or Blue, as they refer to him, was sleeping peacefully.
However, he was soon knocked out of his slumber when he heard the system calling out to him in a panicky voice.
『Host, hurry, get up now... or it's game over』
The system shouted in his mind, her voice literally screaming at him.
But it was already too late.
"Wha...
Dane said to himself as his eyes fluttered open, adjusting to the dim light filtering through the room. The world sharpened into a split of different energies as he began to see the flow of Astrum and Miasma as a result of his eyes.
But soon he saw something horrific.
"Is that... a black hole?"
Baby sounds came out of his mouth at his attempt to speak, but as soon as his vision cleared up, that was when the world became clear to him.
And saw who it was before that was looming over his crib; her intense glare sent shivers down his spine.
As the face could not be missed.
"Rakasha!!...
Dane said as he looked at the dark skin's draconic beauty; however, what he saw scared him to no end.
Inside this woman's body, or rather at the epicenter of her being, that was near her stomach to chest area, there was a chaotic and spiraling swirl, or rather spiraling void.
So dark it was like a black hole was literally attached to a person, and like a black hole, those star-like particles that he saw the first time he awakened his eyes—the same thing he suspected to be Astrum was flowing into that epicenter as if water droplets were pooling together to create a sea inside her being.
The Astrum was thick, dense, and insanely vast; to the point of calling it infinite would not be an exaggeration if the likes of a normal means of perspective were being used to measure the shared immensity of its totality; however, the correct term here was indefinite; she just had so much Astrum, save up to the point that her Astrum sea became so vast in both quantity and quality that it was like a pitch-dark black hole... or rather the deepest depth of the ocean.
However, despite this...
There was something far worse before Dane's eyes.
And that was Rakasha herself.
However, something was wrong with her. Not just in the way she presented herself, but physically too.
"White hair... why is her hair white... and weren't her eyes orange... why are they ruby red?"
But what truly made Dane realize that this was not Rakasha was what this lookalike said next.
"Ahhh, so you are the creature that idiot dragged home."
Said the Rakasha looked alike while looking at Dane with a cold and assuming attitude.
It was clear to Dane at this moment that this woman was not the same Rakasha; she was completely different from the one who lovingly bounced him on her knee, singing off-key lullabies. This version wore a pristine white dress, her claws longer, sharper, and glinting like scalpels.
But her initial appearance aside, it was her behavior that put Dane in great danger at this very moment.
As she said, while looking at him.
"Well, at least this creature looks tasty; it's been a week since I last ate anything."
'Creature... Tasty... Oi oi oi... what fuck is this?!'
Dane panicked, fear taking over the moment he heard White Rakasha speak.
From there, Rakasha extends her hand towards a helpless Dane.
"Don't worry, creature, I will free you from the pain of life soon enough."
She murmured, her voice a soft, almost absent sound as she tilted her head. Then, with an eerie slowness, her jaw began to part, not in the way a human should, but in something far more unnatural.
A sickening crack echoed through the air as bones split, joints popping out of place. Cartilage stretched past its limits, the skin around her mouth straining before giving way, revealing a grotesque and monstrous-looking mouth that gaped wider than any mortal mouth should.
Rows of serrated fangs glistened before Dane's very eyes, each tooth jagged and irregular, like shards of broken glass designed to tear and shred.
'Oh, OH GOD... AM I GOING TO DIE HERE ALREADY?!'
"Time to eat."
Rakasha said, grabbing Dane by the ankle, her arms extending in a very long and slender fashion. As she lifted Dane up in the sky, black tentacles at this moment were coming out of that monstrous pit of teeth she called a mouth.
Of course, Dane was screaming for his life, panic, and fear filling his being.
"LET ME GOOO!!"
"SOME HELP ME THIS CRAZY BITCH IS GOING TO EAT ME."
"I DON'T WANT TO BE VORED."
However, at that moment only the crying sound of a distressed newborn baby could be heard.
No one heard him, and no one was coming; that was Dane's inner thoughts. At this very crazy moment, given that death was before him, even the system thought all hope was lost. In the next instance, Rakasha dropped Dane, and he began to plummet towards her mouth as Rakasha began to prepare to swallow and eat him whole like a snake.
"NOOOO!!..
...
...
...
...
...
『Game Ov...
...
...
...
...
"Ha?!"
"Im alive?!...
Dane said, looking around in horror, his body trembling as he was still shaken up by the sudden and weird ordeals he woke up in; however, his thoughts were soon taken off when he heard a voice and realized his position as he switched from falling into a pit of teeth to looking done at a wooden floor.
However, his eyes caught the sound of sizzling blood dropping to the ground, scorching the floor, and evaporating the moment it touched air.
And a familiar voice rang out.
"How bothersome... I completely forgot today was Monday. But of course, out of all of Rakasha's personalities to crawl out this week, it just had to be you. Talk about rotten luck... Ahhh, and I was having such a lovely dream, too."
"Truly, I don't know what's worse, the sound of a distressed human newborn screeching like a damn banshee or the sight of a deranged man-eating Mimic about at this ungodly hour. Explain yourself, White... I am in no mood to chit-chat, not when I am in a bland state... So tell me... I really want to know. What in the bloody hell are you doing, HAA WHITE? Are you stupid? You nearly ate a baby for crying out loud!"
"If I had woken up just a microsecond later, things could have gone real dark."
The woman's voice said, calling out to the partially transformed Rakasha, whatever draconic features she had were gone.
But instead, they were replaced by different monster parts.
And White, at this moment, her cold and sick glare went back at the sight before her.
"Priscilla saving a human child... now that is something I would never imagine... I thought you hated humans."
White said, looking at a naked Priscilla. Her petite body was laid bare for all to see; her hair, however, was out, and instead of her confident giant twin drills, they were in their groggy state, slightly curling and covering her private areas, given Priscilla's hairstyle changes depending on her emotions.
But apart from that, boiling blood was leaking out of her nose and eyes, and she was still trembling. Meanwhile, she was holding Dane by the diaper, causing his butt to be exposed. He was being held like a grocery bag, but that aside, he was still alive. However, when Dane looked up, he was surprised to see Priscilla's current state.
"Her Astrum sea... it's... empty... no, not just that... in the game, her blood only overheats like this when she uses her own blood as a sacrifice, to convert blood into mana if she doesn't have enough mana to spare when casting a very powerful spell that would go beyond just merely draining her... I guess she ended up like this because of me."
Dane said to himself, as the Eye's of the World was showing him the truth of her current state. However, the eyes in and of themselves were not what made Dane worried for Priscilla; it was his knowledge about her character.
Technically, this fanfic world had introduced plenty of changes, but the underlying logic should still be intact in some form. No matter how much the details shifted, the core mechanics of the universe had to follow some kind of order. But more than that, just knowing how these kinds of stories played out gave him something close to near-omniscience when it came to understanding this world, fanfic or not.
That was exactly why Priscilla's current state deeply unsettled him. Her body was overheating, her blood practically boiling inside her veins, and he knew exactly what that meant. She was using her own blood like an overclocked engine, pushing herself beyond safe limits for extra power. And that was incredibly dangerous, not just because it put strain on her body but because of what her blood actually was.
Priscilla wasn't just any vampire. As a Shinso, the purest of her kind, her blood wasn't just a source of life; it was the core of her immortality. She could regenerate from nearly any wound, even regrow entire organs, but blood was different.
Blood took far longer to replenish than flesh or bone, and the reason was simple: she could come back from a single intact blood cell if it was the last remaining cell. But if that cell was damaged, or worse, if she burned away too much of her own blood, she was essentially throwing away her immortality in exchange for raw power.
In theory, she just needed to rest to allow her blood to cool and recover. But the more she pushed herself by staying awake, the worse it became. If she kept going like this, she wasn't just putting herself in danger; she was actively killing herself.
"This isn't good; in a state like this, fighting should not even be an option for you at all; you need to sleep like now, or you are going to die."
Dane shouted out; however, only baby sounds escaped his mouth.
On the other hand, Priscilla began to speak.
"White, speak while I'm still in a good mood… or would you rather I toss you back to the southern edge of the Monster Realm and leave you there until it's Rakasha's turn to take over that body again? Do you really want to waste an entire week of your precious freedom stuck in that godforsaken hellhole?"
Priscilla ordered, her gaze as cold as White's glare, and despite being in a weakened state, her aura was still as menacing as Dane remembered it to be.
On the other hand, White placed two of her hands up and said.
"Fine, I give, I give… I know better than to piss you off. You're not the second strongest in the Shinso family for nothing, after all."
White said calmly as she continued.
"And to answer your question, I'm just doing that pitiful lower creature a favor. Like putting down a horse when its leg is broken out of an act of mercy. As you should already know, humans can't survive in the Monster Realm without consequence... I am pretty sure becoming a Hollow...well, the transformation process, that is, from what I have seen is extremely painful... do you really want to torment that small creature with such a fate?"
White asked, as she was doing what she honestly thought was for the better.
Of course, she continued, going even deeper into her reasoning.
"And besides, both me and you know that Rakasha can't keep feeding that lower creature dragon milk forever you know this right? We are not, and can never be true dragons, and our milk is like a drug, after so many uses, it will become useless eventually, as only true dragon can grant true immunity. As a Shinso Mimic, we can take the form of any creature or object in existence, but we cannot replicate the perfected version of great and powerful objects or the bloodline of a true Shinso being."
Said White as she explain herself.
And then continued by then saying.
"That is what being a Shinso Mimic entails for us...perfection in imperfection. We can be the ultimate, but never the supreme...
"And besides."
White paused, her blood-red eyes narrowing with a faint, almost bored smirk.
"I'm hungry... And didn't you say to clean up after our mess? I'm just doing my part, cleaning up Rakasha's little mistake and putting that poor creature out of its misery. Really, Priscilla, you should be thanking me."
At these words, Priscilla gave White a killer glare but calmed her nerves down as she said.
"Under normal circumstances, I'd have agreed with you, White."
Priscilla said, her tone was serious, more so than usual, her usual tsundere self seem to have fade for a moment, as she looked at White's comments while lifting Dane towards her direction.
"But this… creature… is no longer just a human. He has become something far more than a mere human, a Shinso Human... go a head laugh, I know how it sounds, given it has never been heard of before, but I feel like fate has brought yet another Shinso into our family."
"Heheh.. but you know the irony of this kind of situation is almost poetic, it's really baffling if you think about it. You said this creature dying would be you granting it mercy, but the thing is, this child is more human than any human in our world could ever hope to be, yet to those things you dub as lesser creatures, he might as well be a monster to them... Purity, it seems, is a double-edged sword when it comes to the context of humanity, a race too philosophical for their own good. Too much of it, and you become an outcast. Too little, and you're nothing even human."
Priscilla walked up to White, Dane in her hands, still being held like a bag, but as Priscilla walked closer to White she said.
"Don't get involved in things that I have invested my time in White... I don't like you... not one bit... but like this so-called creature... I have no choice but to guide a creature like you down the path that benefits the family...
This was Priscilla's warning, she did not shout, she did not attack, nor did she punish White, rather, she spoke, and White listened but she did not respond to Priscilla.
However as Priscilla walked towards the door, with Dane in hands, she stopped, as she looked westwards, so too did White as she only realized a second later, as she said.
"The miasma in the environment... it has been completely erased. Ah... so that superior entity has finally returned. And while I am awake, no less. What an unfortunate turn of events."
White said, on the other hand, Priscilla's head was twitching, till she said annoyed.
"It would seem that Minerva is home."