Strings Of Domination

The voice of Miles immidieatly attracted Nash's and Amy's gaze and the two quickly raised their heads toward the top of the mountainside.

The wall which covered the small pond from almost all sides was not that tall or small, about fifty to seventy meters in height thus Nash was able to see the top from below without much problem.

Therefore, without anything to obstruct his vision, Nash had a perfectly clear sight of how huge amounts of deep crimson-colored liquid arose from the small fissures of the mountainside and began to fall rapidly toward the crystal clear pond below!

As Nash watched this scenery with awe as it was not an everyday sight to see blood appearing out of seemingly nowhere, suddenly Amy on his side tugged him and said, "Hey, we came here to collect the blood and not to sightsee! If we miss this chance we have to wait a whole day!"

Amy's words were like an alarm during a silent night which made Nash snap out of his daze and quickly pull out a small glass bottle from his pouch. This was an ordinary bottle with nothing special trait or characteristic which he bought for a single Space Jade Crystal back in City Neo before they left.

Once the bottle was in his hold, Nash jumped into the pond and with the water reaching all the way to his chest he walked to the wall's edge where blood was already ready to fall into the pond and with a careful move collected the blood into the bottle.

"Done." Nash raised the now full bottle of blood in his hand before his face and looked at it.

'I wonder if I take a sip from this my Bloodline Imitation would work or not.' Nash pondered but as he didn't know if the blood was toxic or not he just shook his head and walked out of the pond.

Maybe he will try to make others drink the blood in the future and if it shows it was consumable he will collect some here, but for the time being, he will just put the matter aside.

It was not worth the risk.

"And now where?" Nash asked Amy once he was out of the water, using his Small Spark of Ash to make his robe and body dry quicker.

Amy glanced around and didn't reply instantly. She looked toward the sky and their surroundings for several minutes before she pointed toward the north, which was also the direction where the mountain's peak was, and said, "Several texts I have read implied there was a valley at the center of the mountain, but except for being quite deep there was nothing special about it. Maybe we should try our luck there."

Nash's eyes lit up as he immediately understood what Amy wished to say and without saying anything began to walk toward the north.

The three this time didn't run as they didn't have to reach their destination until a specific point in time, thus Amy was able to relax while Miles was happy he could finally proceed on reading his book.

Walking through crimson trees and red boulders of different sizes and shapes, Nash, Amy, and Miles ascended the mountain while talking and even before they could have noticed it, three whole hours have flown away in a blink before another two passed by.

"This must be it, right?" Nash asked Amy as he stood at the very edge of a steep cliff, gazing down straight down into the black hole in front of him.

"This is a valley? More like a bottomless pit!" Miles said with a slightly shaky voice as he unconsciously took several steps back. It seemed he didn't really like heights that much.

"Should I just... Pour this down?" Nash asked as he took out the bottle and continuously looked back and forth between that and the seemingly bottomless 'valley'.

"I... Guess?" Amy said and shrugged, "If we follow what the text said, you should."

Nash thought for a while before he nodded gently and opened the lid on the bottle. Once the lid was taken off, he tilted the bottle and poured the blood out, and watched how the crimson blood plummeted into the darkness, quickly vanishing from their sight.

In a matter of a second or two, Nash poured half of the context of the bottle down the valley, but even after that nothing happened.

"Maybe we should wait?" Amy asked with doubt, but once even after five minutes nothing happened she touched her chin and mumbled, "Maybe the amount was small?"

Even Miles who usually didn't care about anything if it was not a must, looked down into the darkness with a frown, pondering what the solution could be.

And soon enough, his eyes lit up, and asked, "Brother Nash, do you think you can... channel some of your essences into the... blood?"

Nash glanced at Miles with a frown when he heard the question and remained silent. Of course, he frowned not because Miles called him on his real name as he knew there was no one around thus it was not a problem, but because he didn't know if it was possible for him to do what he was asked just now.

"To channel some of my essences into the blood? Is that possible?"

Although he knew he could use his essence in many ways, including to control it into any parts of his body which enhanced his strength by several folds, he never tried to channel his essence into objects before.

Even when he used his Soul Breaker he was not pouring his essence into the sword but instead the sword was the one that sucked the essence out of his body just like the rest of his Ancient Treasures.

Therefore, it was completely unknown to him if he was able to channel his essence into other weapons than his Ancient Treasures much less into blood!

"I will give it a try." Nash nodded after thinking for a brief moment, and placing both hands on the bottle he closed his eyes and began to seep his mind into his body.

Naturally, he was able to act this freely and without any fear of getting stabbed in the back because he trusted his friends and knew there was no threat around them. Furthermore, even if those two on his side decided to push him down for no apparent reason or attack him, he had several ways to save himself and take his revenge.

After calming his mind and heart down, Nash moved his consciousness in his body and controlled the essence in his Ancient Veins toward his fingertips, attempting to see if he can do what Miles just said.

Quickly, the essence in his body flowed rapidly and reached the tips of his fingers in seemingly no time at all, though, that was all he could do. No matter how far or how strong he pushed the essence in his Ancient Veins they failed to break out and flow out.

"It is not working?" Miles frowned when he saw how Nash struggled and even failed, and began to ponder. Though, in contrast to the first time where his idea came to his mind almost instantaneously, this time he failed to think about anything else.

Even Amy seemed to be thinking, but no matter what idea came up to her mind neither of them seemed to be the one they were looking for.

Meanwhile, Nash still continued to push his essence through his body and into the bottle, but even after 15 minutes of struggle, he has gotten nowhere.

'Is there really no way I can do it?' if at first Nash just wished to see if Miles idea was working or not, this time he wished to accomplish it as for some strange reason he felt it was a concept he could achieve despite falling numerous times and seemingly having no other end except failure.

'Maybe my Level or Rank is still not high enough?' Nash wondered as he was ready to halt his attempts for the time being when suddenly a sharp but not too painful sensation pierced his mind, forcing him to grimace slightly.

'Concentrate on your Ancient Veins. Think about them like muscles and relax them.'

'This voice...' hearing the voice he was extremely familiar with, Nash widened his eyes before his face became nonchalant again and nodded.

Taking a deep breath to calm himself down, he concentrated on his Ancient Veins and tried to relax them just like the voice said.

At first, nothing happened, but after close to ten minutes of trying, suddenly the ends of his Ancient Veins moved and formed a small gap from where his essence began to leak in small amounts! And because his essence was connected with his consciousness, Nash was able to freely control it, making it flow into the blood in the bottle!

"It worked!" Nash snapped his eyes open as he shouted up with joy and excitement, watching how the blood in his hand began to glow up with gentle golden color.

"How did you do it?" Miles and Amy asked with both awe and curiosity, but Nash simply ignored their question and without hesitation poured the remaining blood into the valley.

And in the very instant the last drop flowed out from the bottle and vanished in the darkness below...

TREMBLE!!!!!