Chapter 97: "The Affinity to Nothing?!" - The Hollow Abyss.

Chapter 97: Chapter 97: "The Affinity to Nothing?!" - The Hollow Abyss.

After talking a bit with Carmilla and telling her the name he’d chosen for the second bloodline, he mentally clicked on the Hollow Abyss bloodline’s system interface.

[Hollow Abyss Bloodline (Mythical)]

[Origin: Abnormal residual bloodline formation that was left behind during the evolution of the Crimson Sovereign Bloodline. Created by Lucien Dracul Aethernis.]

He remembered what Carmilla had told him about this one, it was hollowed out, its useful parts already consumed by the Crimson Sovereign, and that it likely worse than most lower ranked bloodlines by any normal measure.

"..Well, let’s see how bad it is," he said, though he was already more than satisfied with the Crimson Sovereign, so as long as this was useful, he would be happy.

’Huh, this is unexpected.’ He said grinning at what he saw.

’What is it?’ Carmilla voice sounded in his head, catching the shift in his thoughts.

He didn’t answer immediately and carried on going through its abilities.

[Hollow Physique]

[Description: Physique of the Hollow Abyss.Turns the user’s body into an unbreakable container capable of holding chaotic and overwhelming amounts of mana and energy.]

[• Hollow Body: Toughens and improves the user’s bones, muscles, skin, and internal organs, granting incredible physical strength and massive resistance to both physical and magical attacks. Turns the body into a vessel capable of withstanding and holding enormous amounts of energy.

• Void Touched: Grants an innate SSS-Rank affinity to interact with Void, Nothingness, and Space.

• Spatial Sight: Refines the user’s eyes to see through the literal fabric of space. Grows with the user’s strength and mastery of space.

• Void Armor: Because the Physique is tied to the concept of nothingness, it gains a natural resistance against effects that try to erase, suppress, consune or steal the user’s own energy, scaling dynamically based on his strength relative to the attacker. ]

"This is good, more than good actually. " He said reading it.

Then he reached the affinities, and stopped completely.

’Touched by Void, I’ve got more affinities now, Void, Nothingness and Space and all of them at SSS Rank.’ He thought happily.

’Though what the hell is nothingness affinity, the affinity to nothing?’ He joked mentally.

’But seriously, these should be quite rare right, in webnovels they were OP protagonist level stuff, right?’ He thought remembering all those novels he consumed, pulling late nighters just to finish because of how addicting it was to see them get more OP than needed.

"...Carmilla."

’Yes, my sugar disciple?’

"Can you tell me about these affinities?" He asked wincing at the term and then told her the details of the Physique he got from this bloodline.

’You are really lucky,’ She said laughing.

’Those are extremely rare affinities to have, even I haven’t seen many with Void or nothingness, and let’s say that’s something.’

"How rare are we talking?"

"Rare enough that most mortals will live and die without seeing even one, and I’m talking about about mortals of any rank whether F or SSS."

She explained the distinctions of each a bit, Space governing distance and structure, Void the absence between things, Nothingness the more destructive and energy nullifying end of the spectrum related, but not the same thing wearing different names.

"But SSS affinity doesn’t mean control," she added. "You have the potential, not the mastery, so you need to get some techniques or skills to practise."

’I’ll see what I can get for you as your lovely sugar master, though it might take some time for the void ones as nobody shares such rare techniques or skills for free unless it’s a scam.’

’As for Nothingness, you would have a better chance at making a technique, than finding one for it.’

’Space is less of an issue, although still rare it’s quite easier to get with how much it’s used.’ She mentally told him.

He nodded and decided to check the rest of the abilities first.

[Hollow Core]

[A secondary core that can devour and store energy.

• Energy Storage: Sucks in mana, elemental magic, and energy. It can hold up to twice the mana core’s capacity. It does nothing against physical or soul attacks.

• Hollow Burst (Active): Compress large volumes of mana or devoured energy into a hyper dense pinpoint, and fired out a a devastating explosive burst.]

"Two times?" he said explaining it to her, his eyebrows climbing.

"This is useful, you might be able to use it for absorbing energy based attacks too." Carmilla agreed.

He imagined a fireball blasting towards him, and him simply eating it.

"I am liking this bloodline the more I see."

"It’s better than I expected it to be, that’s for sure." Carmilla said as he went on to the next bloodline ability.

[Sevenfold Eclipse]

[• Hollow Vault: A small core is formed in the user’s heart, capable of housing up to seven different bloodlines, all stored bloodlines are inaccessible for use.

• Sevenfold Devourer: Once the vault is completely filled (7/7 bloodlines), user can trigger a total collapse. The core breaks down, analyzes, and entirely consumes all seven stored bloodlines, evolving based on what it devoured.]

"It can evolve?"

He read it once more just to make sure of what he saw.

’Once all seven slots filled, the Hollow Abyss could consume them all at once, analyzing and breaking down their combined characteristics, evolving according to whatever those seven bloodlines had been.’ Lucien thought and told Carmilla.

Carmilla went quiet hearing what he said.

"That’s..." she started.

"Interesting?" he finished.

"No, its broken, literally, but for you figuratively,"

"Anyone else would almost have no way of evolving it." She said.

"We’ll, besides those extremely rich, but even then to get the best possible bloodlines to feed it would be a struggle even for some Gods."

"So what do you think actually happened?" he asked.

"I don’t know," Carmilla admitted, which surprised him more than any confident theory would have. "Maybe the remnants recognized they were about to be erased and instinctively rebuilt around what they had left."

"Or?"

"Or your Crimson Sovereign deliberately left it behind, on purpose."

"You think it did this intentionally?"

"I said perhaps."

He sat with that a moment, pieces sliding together in his mind.

’The Crimson Sovereign extracts bloodlines. Hollow Abyss stores seven. Hollow Abyss devours those seven to evolve, and maybe you can somehow use it to elevate Crimson Sovereign further, that’s why it left it.’

His eyes widened hearing her.

"What if I somehow fuse the evolved Hollow Abyss back into the Crimson Sovereign afterward?"

Carmilla went silent again, longer this time.

"...Lucien."

"Yeah?"

"That might be exactly why it survived at all."

Now she sounded genuinely fascinated, not performatively curious. "Some instinct in your Crimson Sovereign bloodline recognized the potential and let this thing live instead of erasing it."

"So you’re saying?"

"I’m saying I don’t know. And that’s exactly why I want to see what happens."

"So what kind of bloodlines are you planning to feed it?" she asked.

He thought about it seriously, resisting the urge to say the strongest seven I can find.

"Depends on what I want it to become."

"Good answer," she said, sounding pleased. "Most mortals would just grab whatever’s strongest and hope for the best, which would be quite dumb."

"I need to actually understand affinities and bloodlines properly first," he admitted. "Before I start feeding it random ingredients."

"My sugar disciple is quite smart it seems." she said smiling.

"So is there a way to check what affinity someone has?" he asked her.

"Several in fact, Affinity Crystals test one or a few specific affinities and are used mostly for basic affinities, Affinity Orbs check broader elements and then Affinity Pillars do large scale testing with academies and royal houses using those the most as they can check most affinities." She said.

"Though, a high grade Appraisal skill is sometimes better, but even that depends on your rank, your knowledge, the target’s concealment, their soul strength, and how well you actually understand the thing you’re examining."

"So my Rare Appraisal isn’t going to cut it forever."

"Eventually, no."

"Can’t you just give me one?"

"Of course I can."

"Then?"

"No."

"Why?"

"Because if I hand you every answer, you never actually learn anything."

"I am, technically, your teacher you know."

"I preferred sugar mommy."

"I can be both." She said seriously before she couldn’t hold it in and burst out laughing.

"Haha, just joking, sugar mommy will get one for you." She said laughing.

"Can’t you be serious master." He said emphasizing the master part.

She laughed, and he let the conversation settle, satisfied enough with the plan forming in his head for the future.

Then Carmilla suddenly froze mid-laugh.

"What happened?" Lucien asked immediately.

She turned toward the hallway. "She’s changing."

"Seraphina?" He asked and was already moving towards her room.

She lay exactly where they’d left her, but soft pinkish silver light now pulsed off her skin in slow waves, gathering, thickening and curling around her body until it formed something close to a cocoon.

Aurelia and Evelisse arrived seconds behind him.

"What happened?!" Evelisse demanded.

"Don’t panic," Carmilla said calmly, already examining the light closely as she floated next to her. "Her soul restoration is nearing completion."

The light kept building as Seraphina’s aura shifted subtly beneath it.

Carmilla’s eyes narrowed. "...Interesting."

"What?" Lucien asked.

"The elixir’s finishing its work on her soul." A pause. "But something else is happening alongside it."

Aurelia’s expression sharpened instantly. "Her bloodline?"

"Yes, possibly changing to fit her."

The cocoon pulsed as a wave of energy rippled through the room with Seraphina’s figure, faintly visible through the light cocoon.

And around her, a faint image was forming crimson threaded through gold, delicate, unfinished, still assembling itself.

"...What is that," he murmured.

Carmilla floated closer, expression openly curious now. "That looks interesting."

The cocoon pulsed again, brighter this time.

"Is she going to be okay?" Evelisse asked worried.

Aurelia’s fists clenched at her sides in worry.

Carmilla watched the light a moment longer, then smiled faintly.

"I believe," she said excited, as another pulse rolled through the room, "we’re about to find out."