Chapter 197: Predation Asked If a Saint Was Edible

Elise’s blood had cost an absurd amount of money.

Not because Raven had bought blood.

Because he had used a Black Mithril round to obtain it.

That was worse.

Roland stared at the small metal fragment on the table. A dried red streak ran along one edge.

"I just want to make sure I understand."

Raven didn’t look up.

"Go ahead."

"You spent one of the most expensive rounds you’ve ever made, fired it at a Champion, broke part of her barrier, and now the thing you care about most is the blood stuck to the metal."

"It isn’t the most important thing."

Roland looked over the table.

Three tools.

Ammunition fragments.

Several pages of notes.

And one small piece of metal stained with blood.

"It looks fairly important."

Valeria sat near the window.

"Leave him alone. He’s been staring at it since we got here."

Raven raised his head.

"I’ve been working for twenty minutes."

"You spent seventeen of those minutes looking at the blood."

"I was waiting for a reaction."

"That does not improve my argument."

Raven looked back at the fragment.

Predation had reacted immediately after the confrontation.

But not with a Trait offer.

Not yet.

Only interest.

That was different.

Before reaching Level 4, the system probably would have recognized human blood and little more.

Now—

[Foreign Biological Sample Detected.]

[Human Origin Confirmed.]

[Sacred Structural Markers Present.]

Raven went still.

Valeria noticed.

"Now it did something."

"Yes."

Roland moved closer.

"Good or bad?"

"I don’t know yet."

"With your system, that sentence usually ends badly for someone."

Raven ignored him.

Predation continued.

[Sample Integrity: LOW.]

[Biological Information Sufficient for Partial Analysis.]

[Cross-Referencing Sacred Structures...]

[...]

[Analysis Expanding.]

Raven studied the dried blood.

The amount was minimal.

He didn’t need to consume it.

He wasn’t trying to obtain anything.

Predation was doing exactly what it had done with monsters before.

Reading.

Classifying.

Comparing.

Except this time, the target was a person.

And not just any person.

Elise Veyra.

White Saint.

Champion.

Human.

Sacred.

The analysis finished.

[Species: HUMAN.]

[Sacred Vessel Detected.]

[Estimated Level: 60 — CHAMPION.]

[Divine Affinity: EXTREME.]

[Hereditary-Sacred Integration: EXCEPTIONAL.]

[Multiple High-Value Biological Structures Detected.]

Raven stopped breathing for a second.

Valeria narrowed her eyes.

"What did you see?"

"Wait."

Predation wasn’t finished.

[Potential Assimilation Pathways Detected.]

[Current Host Assimilation Survival Estimate: 1.4%.]

[Recommendation: DO NOT ATTEMPT.]

Silence.

Raven stared at the number.

One point four percent.

Not zero.

That was the important part.

Valeria stood.

"No."

Raven looked at her.

"I didn’t say anything."

"I know you."

"You’re starting to say that too often."

"Because it keeps being necessary."

She approached the table.

"Do not eat the Saint."

Roland went still.

Then he looked at Raven.

"Was that a possibility?"

"No."

Valeria pointed at the fragment.

"His system just turned her into one."

Roland took half a step back.

"That was not what I wanted to hear."

Raven looked at the window again.

[Current Host Assimilation Survival Estimate: 1.4%.]

"One point four percent," he said.

Valeria folded her arms.

"That is still far too high for me to like the expression on your face."

"Even I don’t consider that a good investment."

Roland raised one hand.

"I’d like to point out that ’even I’ does not reassure me."

Raven didn’t answer.

He wasn’t thinking about eating Elise.

That would be absurd.

Even if he could kill her, which was already a very large question, Predation calculated almost a ninety-nine percent chance that attempting to assimilate her would end badly.

Very badly.

But the number wasn’t zero.

That changed something.

Raven picked up a pair of tweezers and shifted the fragment.

Predation displayed additional information.

[Sample Contains Limited Sacred Bloodline Markers.]

[Full Structural Mapping Unavailable.]

[Direct Analysis of Living Subject Recommended.]

Raven frowned.

Valeria caught the expression.

"What does it say now?"

"The sample is insufficient."

"Excellent."

"For a complete analysis."

"Still excellent."

Roland placed both hands on the table.

"I’m going to ask a question I’ll probably regret."

Raven waited.

"What does Sacred Vessel mean?"

Valeria answered first.

"A person whose body can sustain a much deeper integration of sacred power than an ordinary priest."

Raven looked at her.

"Hereditary?"

"It can be."

"Predation says Elise’s is exceptional."

Valeria went quiet.

That interested her.

"Then it isn’t only training."

"No."

"That would make sense."

Roland looked between them.

"For what?"

Valeria leaned against the table.

"Saints don’t appear simply because someone learns enough prayers."

Raven waited.

She continued.

"Some people have a much stronger affinity for sacred mana. Some families have produced powerful priests for generations. And certain bloodlines develop characteristics the Church considers blessings."

"Biological integration."

Valeria looked at him.

"You always manage to make everything sound clinical."

"Because to Predation, it is."

That was precisely the problem.

To the Church, Elise was a Saint.

To Predation:

Human.

Sacred Vessel.

Multiple High-Value Biological Structures.

There was no category marked untouchable.

No prohibition.

Only difficulty.

Compatibility.

Survival probability.

Raven looked again at the 1.4%.

Valeria followed his gaze.

"You’re thinking too much."

"Yes."

"About what?"

"The Hound was a beast."

"That tends to happen with dogs."

Raven ignored her.

"Sacred Beast."

Valeria stopped joking.

"And Elise is human."

"Sacred Vessel."

Roland slowly understood.

"But Predation puts both inside the same system."

"Not exactly the same."

"But both count."

Raven nodded.

"Yes."

That was what mattered.

Sacred Structures had not unlocked a single species.

It had unlocked an entirely new dimension of analysis.

Sacredness could exist across different forms of biology.

Beast.

Human.

Probably others.

And Predation could read all of them if it learned enough.

Valeria picked up the fragment with the tweezers.

"What else can it detect?"

Raven checked.

"It can’t identify the structures yet."

"Nothing?"

"Only ’multiple high-value biological structures.’"

"That sounds ominous."

"It’s vague."

"It still sounds ominous."

Roland glanced toward the door.

"If Elise knew we were having this conversation..."

Valeria smiled.

"She’d probably try to purify him again."

Raven shook his head.

"First she’d explain why this is a terrible idea."

"And when that failed..."

"Then she’d try to purify me."

Roland sighed.

"I’m glad we know the procedure now."

Valeria returned the fragment.

"Can you identify what structures she has?"

"Not from this."

"Do you need more blood?"

"Probably."

"Do not turn that into an objective."

Raven looked at her.

"I wasn’t planning to."

"You say that as though you didn’t deliberately shoot her in the shoulder yesterday."

"That had another purpose."

"I know."

Valeria paused.

"I’m establishing boundaries."

Raven looked back at the system.

"I don’t need another sample right now."

"Good."

"The current analysis already answered the important question."

Valeria’s expression tightened.

"What question?"

Raven stared at the classification.

"There’s no conceptual barrier."

"Explain."

"Before the Hound, Predation couldn’t properly interpret sacred biology."

"Now it can."

"Yes. But that could have been limited to consecrated beasts."

Raven indicated the information.

"It isn’t."

Roland understood.

"The system can do the same thing with sacred humans."

"Analyze them, yes."

"And eat them?"

Valeria looked at Roland.

He raised both hands.

"I’m just translating."

Raven answered.

"In theory."

Valeria closed her eyes.

"Of course."

"That doesn’t mean I can do it safely."

"One point four percent."

"Exactly."

Roland looked at Raven.

"What happens if you try something with odds like that?"

"I don’t know."

"You die?"

"Probably."

"Something explodes?"

"Possibly."

"Predation tries rebuilding you with Saint parts?"

Raven considered it.

"I have no data."

Roland stepped back.

"I regret asking."

Raven carefully cleaned the fragment.

He had no intention of wasting the Black Mithril.

The blood had already provided enough information.

Valeria watched him put the metal away.

"You’re not preserving the sample?"

"There isn’t enough left to justify it."

"That was unexpectedly reasonable."

"I’m not obsessed with her blood."

"I never said obsessed."

"You were thinking it."

"Now I am."

Roland sat near the doorway.

"So what did we learn besides the fact that Raven could technically try to eat the White Saint and almost certainly die?"

"We are not summarizing it like that," Valeria said.

"It’s the most memorable summary."

Raven ignored both of them.

There was something else.

Predation Lv.4 hadn’t merely recognized the blood.

It was comparing Elise to the Sacred Structures it already understood.

The Hound.

Radiant Metabolism.

Penance Sanctuary.

And yet Elise appeared as something different.

Far more complex.

Hereditary-Sacred Integration: EXCEPTIONAL.

That suggested her body didn’t merely tolerate sacred mana.

It had developed around it.

Perhaps from birth.

Maybe even before.

Raven remembered her Halo, the speed with which it redistributed mana, her barriers, Halt, and the way her presence seemed to fill the space around her even when she wasn’t trying to intimidate anyone.

Those probably weren’t isolated pieces.

Elise was likely an integrated system.

Like the Penance Hound.

Only vastly more sophisticated.

And Predation knew it.

"There’s something else," Raven said.

Valeria stopped smiling.

"What?"

"Elise doesn’t simply have high sacred affinity."

"We knew that."

"Not like this."

Raven indicated the system window.

"Predation calls it exceptional hereditary integration."

Valeria thought about that.

"Then part of what she does may have been built into her body from birth."

"That’s what I think."

Roland looked toward Raven.

"Does that make her more dangerous?"

"Probably."

Valeria corrected him.

"We don’t need ’probably.’ Yes."

Raven nodded.

"It also means I can’t assume her techniques work like those of ordinary priests."

"You discovered that when she nearly paralyzed you."

"Now I have a reason."

Valeria watched him for several seconds.

"You’re happy."

Raven looked at her.

"No."

"Yes."

"I found useful information."

"Exactly."

Roland started laughing.

"For him, that counts as happiness."

Raven decided not to answer.

Later, when Roland went outside to check the horses, Valeria remained.

Raven organized his notes from the confrontation while she sat across from him.

Too quietly.

"What?"

"Nothing."

Raven continued writing.

Three seconds.

Five.

"Valeria."

"I’m just thinking."

"That usually produces questions."

She smiled.

"Would eating a sacred person bother you?"

Raven put down the pen.

"Morally?"

"Yes."

Raven thought about it.

It wasn’t a simple question.

He had eaten human flesh before.

He hadn’t liked it.

That didn’t mean sacredness was the problem.

"Eating a person would bother me."

Valeria studied him.

"But not because they’re sacred."

"No."

"Interesting."

"Why?"

"For a lot of people, that would make it worse."

Raven returned his attention to the page.

"Not to Predation."

"I didn’t ask about Predation."

That made him stop.

Valeria rested her cheek against one hand.

"I asked about you."

Raven looked at the now-clean fragment.

"I don’t know what makes someone sacred."

"The Church would give you a very long answer."

"I didn’t ask the Church."

She smiled.

Raven continued.

"If Elise is still a person, then eating her would mean eating a person. Sacred mana doesn’t change that part."

Valeria went quiet.

"That was surprisingly normal."

"Thank you."

"That wasn’t an insult."

"I didn’t take it as one."

"You’re improving."

Raven went back to writing.

Valeria stood.

Before leaving, she stopped.

"Raven."

"Yes?"

"One point four is still too high."

"I know."

"Just checking."

"I’m not going to eat Elise."

"Good."

Valeria opened the door.

Raven added, "The percentage is too low."

She stopped.

Slowly turned around.

Raven kept his expression neutral.

Valeria pointed at him.

"That."

"What?"

"That is exactly why I have to keep checking."

She left.

Raven waited until the door closed before looking back at his notes.

He wasn’t going to eat Elise.

The idea was absurd.

Dangerous.

Unnecessary.

And probably fatal.

But the discovery remained.

The world had monsters, humans, Bloodborn, mutated creatures, consecrated beasts, and Saints.

People drew boundaries between those things.

Natural.

Profane.

Sacred.

Divine.

Predation didn’t seem interested in any of them.

It asked different questions.

Was it alive?

Did it possess a function?

Could that function be understood?

Could it be assimilated?

In Elise’s case, the answer to the final question hadn’t been no.

It had been:

1.4%.

Raven closed the window.

That wasn’t an opportunity.

Not yet.

It was a warning about what Predation might eventually consider possible.

And perhaps about what Raven himself might become if he kept feeding it.