Chapter 101: They Were Trying to Extract Bloodlines from Living People

When the first guard took two steps, Burst Step put Raven behind the second.

Stonehide.

Strike to the neck.

Elbow to the jaw.

Kinetic Acceleration through the pommel of his knife.

Impact against the temple.

The man dropped.

The second guard turned.

Raven was already inside his reach.

The fight lasted six seconds.

Enough.

He opened the door at the end of the corridor and understood why the building had so much security.

It wasn’t a warehouse.

It was a laboratory.

There were three tables. Not exactly surgical tables. Too many runes. Too many restraints. Too many drainage channels.

A woman lay on the first.

Dead.

She looked human until Raven noticed the small patches of scales around her ribs.

Beastkin hybrid.

Her chest had been opened, but none of the normal organs were missing.

Something else was.

Predation reacted.

[Hereditary Biological Structure Detected.]

[Residual Trait Architecture Identified.]

[Extraction Damage: SEVERE.]

[Bloodline Extraction Integrity: 3.8%]

[Result: NONVIABLE.]

Raven went still.

Three point eight percent.

They weren’t harvesting tissue at random.

They were trying to extract hereditary structures.

He moved to the second table.

A man.

Human.

Younger.

Still alive.

Barely.

Needles ran from his spine into a cluster of dark crystals.

Predation analyzed him.

[Human.]

[Level: 12.]

[Hereditary Skill Detected.]

[Skill Structure Undergoing Forced Separation.]

[Procedure Status: FAILURE.]

[Neurological Damage: CRITICAL.]

Raven looked at the crystals.

Threads of light moved inside them.

Not raw mana.

Something organized.

A pattern.

They were trying to remove the Skill from his body.

Not copy it.

Extract it.

The third table held no patient.

Only organs, blood, labeled tissue samples, and a container holding something Predation took longer than usual to identify.

[Bloodline Fragment Detected.]

[Source: Bloodborn.]

[Extraction Integrity: 5.1%]

[Trait Architecture: COLLAPSING.]

[Artificial Transfer Viability: NEGLIGIBLE.]

Raven stared at the container.

Primitive.

Cruel.

Inefficient.

But conceptually...

Too close.

FORGE appeared.

[Observed Artificial Hereditary Extraction Methodology.]

[Compatibility with Current FORGE Authority:]

[PARTIAL CONCEPTUAL OVERLAP DETECTED.]

[Warning:]

[Current Understanding Insufficient.]

[No Viable Project Generated.]

Raven stopped breathing for a moment.

That mattered.

Not because he could do it now.

He couldn’t.

FORGE wasn’t offering him a machine capable of transferring Bloodlines.

It was only recognizing that the principle overlapped with his Authority.

Biological material.

Hereditary structures.

Extraction.

Transfer.

Artificial conversion.

Other people had spent years—perhaps decades—trying to crudely reproduce something FORGE might eventually turn into functioning technology.

Raven looked at the dead woman, then at the man who was still barely alive.

He didn’t experience a sudden moral crisis. He had seen worse on Earth. Military laboratories. Prisoners reduced to data. Operations where one useful result had justified far too many bodies.

Something else bothered him more.

This proved his path wasn’t unique.

Only more advanced.

And if other people could eventually reach a functional version by spending enough bodies...

Sooner or later, someone would understand what Raven was.

The door opened behind him.

Raven turned with his knife ready.

Valeria entered.

There was blood on one hand.

Not hers.

"You took longer than expected."

"I found the basement."

Then she saw the tables.

Her expression changed.

No dramatics.

It simply became colder.

"Ah."

Raven pointed toward the container.

"They’re trying to extract Bloodlines."

Valeria approached slowly. "That shouldn’t be possible."

"It isn’t. Yet."

She looked at the man connected to the crystals.

"Is he alive?"

"Barely."

Valeria examined the runes. "We can’t disconnect him without knowing what they’re doing."

"I know."

Raven looked at the interface again.

[Bloodline Extraction Integrity: 3.8%]

[Result: NONVIABLE.]

"They’re doing it wrong."

Valeria turned toward him.

"That’s what bothered you."

Raven looked back at her. "Several things can bother me simultaneously."

"Raven."

"What?"

"You walked into a room with people cut open on tables, and your first conclusion was that the technique is inefficient."

"The technique is inefficient."

Valeria held his gaze for several seconds before exhaling.

"Sometimes I forget that you came from a world without mana and still somehow ended up like this."

"My world found other ways to be creative."

Valeria looked back at the tables.

"Did FORGE react?"

Raven didn’t answer immediately.

That was enough.

"Raven."

"It recognized conceptual overlap."

Valeria stopped looking at the bodies.

Now she was looking at him.

"Could you do this?"

"No."

"Someday?"

Raven studied the Bloodborn fragment.

"Probably something better."

Silence.

Valeria didn’t look frightened.

That surprised him.

She looked concerned.

"Then don’t let anyone discover that part."

"Difficult when I’ve already told plenty of people about my ability, and I don’t particularly care if they come after me afterward."

"I’m not joking."

"Neither am I."

Before she could say anything else, a bell rang upstairs.

Once.

Twice.

Three times.

Alarm.

Raven looked toward the ceiling.

"That wasn’t your distraction."

"No."

Shouts.

Running footsteps.

Then a dark explosion shook the building.

Dust fell from the ceiling.

Raven closed his eyes for a moment.

"Six minutes."

Valeria understood immediately.

"Nyxara?"

Another explosion.

Closer.

"Six minutes," Raven repeated.

Valeria smiled despite everything.

"She lasted longer than I expected."

The laboratory door burst open.

Two guards entered.

One managed to see Raven.

He didn’t manage to shout.

Valeria moved two fingers.

Blood tore free from an old wound on the man’s arm, hardened around his throat, and slammed him against the doorframe.

The second guard raised a crossbow.

Raven threw his knife.

Kinetic Acceleration.

The pommel struck his forehead.

Not the blade.

The guard collapsed unconscious.

Raven recovered the weapon.

"We need the records."

Valeria pointed toward a side door. "I found the main office upstairs, but they started evacuating documents before I could get inside."

"Nyxara should be preventing that now."

"Nyxara is probably going through walls."

Another explosion shook the building.

Raven corrected himself.

"Nyxara is definitely going through walls."

They ran.

The courtyard was chaos.

Not because Nyxara was struggling.

Exactly the opposite.

A section of the palisade no longer existed. Darkness spread outward from the center of the compound in irregular lines, and three guards were pinned against a wall by their own shadows.

Nyxara walked toward the administrative building.

One man hurled a spear of light at her.

She knocked it aside with one hand.

"I told you to wait for the signal!" Raven shouted.

Nyxara looked toward him.

"There was an explosion."

Raven pointed at the destroyed wall.

"You caused it."

"The condition never specified who had to cause the explosion."

Valeria laughed.

"That is technically true."

Raven looked at her.

"Don’t help her."

Nyxara pointed toward the administrative building.

"They were burning documents."

That changed everything.

"How many?"

"Three men. One is still inside."

Raven ran.

He didn’t need to ask for cover.