Bloody Odyssey

Chapter 81 81: Engineered Immortality

Dax rose to his feet.

The motion was unhurried, deliberate—a man rising not to command attention, but because standing had simply become the natural next step. His gaze settled on the Sixth Elder, who had not yet returned to his seat.

"It is true," Dax said evenly. "I have no feats in this clan. No name in the outside world."

He paused. Let the words settle.

"But that does not make me unreliable."

The Sixth Elder's brow furrowed. Before he could speak, Dax raised his hand.

Behind him, the air shimmered.

A gate tore open—not violently, but with the quiet precision of a scalpel parting flesh. Beyond it, a space that should not exist. Gleaming surfaces. Curved ceilings. Lights that burned without flame. His lab. His kingdom. His proof.

One by one, they emerged.

Ten figures. Tall with deep Green skin. Their bodies moved with a fluidity that belonged to nothing born of nature. Muscles coiled beneath skin that shimmered faintly—something other woven into their very flesh. Their eyes were serpentine and cold.

The elders froze.

The Fifth Elder's cup slipped from his fingers, shattering against the stone. The Third Elder's hand went to the blade he did not carry. Even the First Elder—Theo, leaned forward, his sightless eyes somehow fixed on the creatures before him.

Behind the goblins, a figure stood.

01. His face was unreadable, his posture perfect. He looked at the elders unafraid and his ready.

Dax's voice cut through the silence.

"Imperfection is everything . There is no shame in it."

He walked toward the goblins, his steps slow, his hands open.

"What is wrong is the lack of acceptance. That alone hinders the chance of growth."

He raised his hand toward 01.

The Ninth Elder moved.

She came from the side—fast, silent, a blur of white robes and killing intent. Her hammer was massive, forged from a strange metal, its head carved with runes that screamed as they cut through the air. A Rank 8th strike. Enough to shatter walls and buildings.

01 moved.

Udon his martial arts: Dankaku.

The goblin martial art unfolded through him like water finding its path. His body twisted—impossibly, perfectly—his feet tracing at weird angles. His hand found the hilt of his Poison edge. Silver and dripping with a poison aura.

Clash!

The sound was not like metal hitting against metal. It was more like thunder. The Ninth Elder's hammer flew from her grip, spinning end over end before embedding itself in a white lion's chest. Stone exploded. Dust rose.

And the Ninth Elder herself—a Rank eight battle mage, a veteran of a battle was sent flying across the courtyard.

She landed hard. Rolled then came up on one knee, her breathing ragged, her eyes wide.

01 landed perfectly on his feet. His blade did not waver. His expression did not change.

The silence that followed was absolute.

The Fifth Elder found his voice first. It was barely a whisper.

"I can't believe it… even if it just happened." He turned to the Fourth Elder, whose scarred face had finally broken its neutrality. "Not even a Rank Seven ogre could overpower that… that short monster."

The Fifth Elder said nothing. His eyes remained fixed on the goblin.

---

Dax did not bat an eye.

"As I was saying." He continued walking, stepping past 01, past the goblins, as if nothing had happened. "These were once the lowest of the low. Alone, they are the bottom of the food chain."

He stopped before the formation, turning to face the elders.

"But something surprised me about them. Their unity. Their understanding of themselves in battle." A pause. "So I thought to myself—what would happen if I tweaked their genetic code to the limit?"

He gestured to the goblins.

"This was the outcome."

The words hung in the air. Unreal, Supernatural and Impossible.

And yet the proof stood before them, breathing.

The Eighth Elder spoke.

He was old—perhaps sixty, his face lined with years and something heavier. Before him on the table rested two short daggers, the only one having a weapon before him in the meeting. He had not touched them once.

Those creatures are definitely goblins.

His was certain.

"Uncle." He called out unapologetically.

All eyes turned to the far end of the crescent. The man who had been silent since the meeting began rose to his feet.

"Before you continue…" He swallowed. " I am the 8th Sai godfall many call me Midnight Whisper and a past assassin." He introduced his name and his title in other to show his worth.

He bowed. Deep. Unhesitating.

"I wish to announce my alliance with you."

Murmurs rippled through the elders. Sai straightened, but his voice did not waver.

"The others are blind. But I see it." A self-deprecating smile touched his lips. "I am weak. In fact, I am the weakest here. But I know when to attach myself to something greater."

He met Dax's eyes.

"I am not ashamed to say it."

Dax stared at him for a long moment. Then his lips curved.

"Ohh."

The sound was soft. Almost amused.

---

Hmm.

The Seventh Elder kept his thoughts to himself. His serpentine eyes moved from the goblins to 01 to Dax, cataloguing, calculating.

He thinks he's a god. From just regular feats a grandmaster alchemist could perform.

He settled back into his chair observing like he had a flicker of control.

---

Sly fox.

He turned to the Eighth Elder, who had not looked away from the goblins once.

"Eighth Elder. I see you do not view my words as prideful. Or overly confident."

The old man's lips twitched.

"It is not that I understand your words." His fingers brushed the hilt of one dagger.

Why did I? He asked himself staying quiet for a while.

It's my senses.

That biting feeling, it has kept me alive this long.

"It's my mind." He placed a finger on the side of his head.

Dax nodded slowly that alone explained a lot, this world was a sponge for power.

"Very good."

From his sleeve, he produced an orb. Small. Perfect. It rolled from his palm onto the table with the precision of a master craftsman, settling at the very center.

The elders leaned forward.

The First Elder—Theo—did more than lean. His sightless eyes seemed to pierce the orb, his fingers twitching as if longing to touch it.

"Such craft," he breathed. "What exactly is this thing?"

He closed his eyes.

"I and my sister will support you."

His hand found the Second Elder's—the woman beside him, her hair white with age, her face still bearing the ghost of a long-ago beauty. She nodded once.

"What my brother says is true." Her voice was aged but calm. "Although he is as blind as a rock… he has good eyes."

Theo laughed. It was a warm sound, entirely out of place in the tension of the courtyard.

"But Dax." He coughed. "What is this strange thing?"

Dax smiled.

"Oh. A researcher like me."

He touched the orb.

It burst open—not violently, but in a cascade of light that unfolded like a flower opening to the sun. A diagram bloomed in the air before them. A human figure. But not quite human.

Twelve limbs. Six arms. Six legs. Spread apart in precise, discrete labeling. Every muscle, every bone, every channel of energy mapped with a clarity that made the elders' best anatomical texts look like children's sketches.

"Cousin." Dax's voice was soft. "You have an eye for this. I can see it."

Theo leaned closer, his sightless face turned toward the light.

"I am a master magic technician. I am responsible for the cannons above the gate." Pride colored his voice. "I am also a grandmaster runesmith. Almost every rune in this compound was drawn by me."

He gestured vaguely toward the courtyard around them.

"With the exception of this place. Which was done by Grandfather."

Dax's eyes widened.

It was subtle—a dilation of the pupils, and quickening of breath. But the elders who were watching saw madness. The hunger for knowledge that had built laboratories and bred monsters and reached across the void to touch things that should not exist.

Greed, they thought.

Danger, they thought.

Dax smiled.

"First Elder."

The old man waved a dismissive hand.

"No, cousin." His smile was genuine. "Call me Theo."

The other elders stirred. The name carried weight. Theo the Blind Mechanic. Known across the land of Bertha. A reputation that stretched beyond borders, beyond kingdoms, beyond the petty politics of clans and cults.

Dax inclined his head.

"Why don't we create time and discuss later?" His voice was light. Casual. "Over tea."

Theo's smile widened.

"I would like that."

---

Dax turned back to the diagram.

"This diagram here shows the human structure."

He raised his hand.

"Inerous. Zoom to a microscopic level. Show us the cell structure and activity in its brain."

The image shifted dividing and descending past skin, bone and organ, past the boundaries of what mortal eyes were meant to see.

The elders leaned forward as the image resolved—cells, beautiful and complex, pulsing with the quiet fire of life.

And on those cells, tiny things. Latched. Working.

"These tiny creatures are nanobots," Dax said. "Responsible for improving cell activity. By latching onto your cells, they improve and repair cell structure drastically."

He let the words settle.

"While I was isolated by the clan, I thought of a way for us to be better we have the talent but the body withers." A pause. "Finally, I had a breakthrough."

He looked at the elders. At Theo, whose sightless eyes were fixed on the diagram like he could see. At the Sixth Elder, who had asked for proof. At Sai, who had declared his alliance without shame.

His voice was quiet but certain. A door closing on the world as it was and opening on what it would become.

"Engineered immortality."

The words fell into the silence like stones into still water.