Chapter 249: Regaining The Bloodline

After talking to each other for a while, Raiden finally decided that this guy in front of him was truly the ancestor of Aria and Theodore. So naturally, he called her back to inherit what was hers.

At Raiden’s call, both siblings walked near them from afar, feeling extremely curious about what these two had talked about. But neither Raiden nor Valcoric were in any mood to tell them about it. Unconsciously, they both agreed that these two people were way too weak to participate in Raiden’s matters, and some truths were simply too heavy for shoulders that had not yet learned how to carry them.

"All right, child, I am going to start now. I’ll transfer your bloodline back to you, and along with it, all the knowledge I have of using our bloodline. Basically, I will be passing on my legacy to you. Are you ready for it?" Valcoric spoke in an extremely gentle tone, unlike how he had spoken with Raiden.

Hearing this question, Aria hesitated for a second before a strong look of determination closed her eyes, and she nodded her head heavily.

"Yes, I am ready for it. Thank you for everything, Ancestor, I..."

"Oh, shush now. It’s my duty to look after you. You are one of mine, after all. Now get ready. This may hurt a little bit. All you need to do is touch the jar, and I’ll take care of the rest." Aria felt a warm, soothing sensation on top of her head as Valcoric patted her, causing her to relax a little.

Under the encouraging gaze of Raiden and her brother Theodore, she reached out and touched the floating jar.

The next second, the glow on the golden jar became even more blinding, covering the entire field, making everybody else go blind.

Raiden, under the protection of Rose, was able to keep his eyes open and saw that the jar practically started bouncing with excitement, like a child that has finally found his mother.

In the next second, it burst apart, and extremely thick, wet blood started floating in the air before it all rushed towards Aria at once.

The moment the blood touched her skin, Aria’s entire body seized up.

It felt like someone had poured molten lead directly into her veins. Every nerve in her body screamed in protest as the bloodline forced its way into her body. Her vision went white, then black, then white again, and she could hear her own heartbeat pounding so loudly in her ears that it drowned out everything else.

For a brief, terrifying moment, she wanted to pull away.

She wanted to let go. She wanted to run back to the safety of being weak, of being protected, of being the helpless little girl who could rely on others to fight her battles.

But then she thought of Theodore. Of the way he had stood in front of her against Darius’s army, even though he knew he would die.

She thought of Raiden, who had fought her entire family without asking for anything in return. Of Woolie, who had gone into a coma due to something being wrong with him because she had been too weak to protect herself. Of Rose and Neva, who had bled and burned and broken themselves to get her here.

Finally, she thought of her grandfather, who had weathered all the storms and pressure against the whole behemoth family alone just to keep her safe from her own parent.

She had spent her entire life being carried by others; it was time she learned how to stand on her own.

"No..." Aria’s voice was barely a whisper, but it was firm. "I won’t run anymore."

She clenched her fists and stopped fighting the pain, and she let the bloodline in.

The reaction was instantaneous.

A pillar of golden-white light erupted from her body, shooting straight into the sky with enough force to scatter the clouds above them. The ground beneath her feet cracked and split as the energy radiating from her body became so dense that the air itself started to shimmer and distort.

Theodore had to shield his eyes while Raiden took an involuntary step back.

Even Valcoric’s expression changed, his ancient eyes widening with something that looked like awe.

"This girl..." he muttered in awe. "She is actually doing it. She is evolving the bloodline to be even purer than before."

Inside the light, Aria could feel something changing.

Her body felt heavier, yet lighter at the same time. Her senses expanded outward, allowing her to feel the wind moving through the trees, the heartbeat of the lizard lying unconscious in the crater, the faint tremor in the ground as Rose shifted her massive coils.

And she could feel power. A power that was hers. She could feel the wind around her cheering and roaring in delight, as if they were celebrating her arrival. It felt like an extension of her body, and she could control it however she wanted to.

It surged through her veins like liquid fire, filling the hollow places that had been left empty when her bloodline was taken. It made her feel whole again for the first time in years.

But it also came with limits.

She could feel the boundary pressing against her, a hard ceiling that she could not break through no matter how much power she absorbed. She was strong now, stronger than she had ever been, but she was still stuck at the edge of Bronze Tier. To go further, she would need something else.

A bond. A bond with a Terra Beast.

The realisation came to her naturally, as if the knowledge had always been there, waiting for her to remember it.

The light faded slowly.

When it was gone completely, Aria was still standing in the same spot, but she looked different. Her posture was straighter, her eyes sharper, and the golden-white energy swirling faintly around her body was unmistakably the Stormwind bloodline.

Theodore was the first to move.

"Big sister...?" His voice was filled with wonder. "You did it."

Aria looked down at her hands filled with power, then at her brother, then finally at Raiden.

A huge, genuine smile broke out on her face as she spoke.

"You’re right, I did it. I actually did it!!"