Chapter 210: Chapter 210

Chapter 239: Gifting "Death"

Both the doctor and Veronica looked at Aiden simultaneously, their eyes filled with astonishment. Such a visible healing speed, even for a physically robust pure-blood werewolf, was barely achievable only during a full moon. As for blood-kin, it was only possible after ingesting a sufficient amount of human blood.

But at this moment, Aiden himself hadn't quite processed it either. This couldn't be the effect of the "Return" utterance; he had experimented long ago. His current power could affect objects, dispel black magic effects, and expel foreign bodies invading the body, but it wasn't yet sufficient to revert a living organism's damaged state. Healing wounds was impossible.

Furthermore, his blood had actually caused some harm to Ophelia.

He only knew of advanced black magic involving life alchemy capable of healing wounds this way, but he wasn't a witch and naturally hadn't learned such spells...

The thought struck Aiden, and he suddenly understood. This might be the effect of Abigail's finger. Life-based black magic could modify a creature's body and also heal external injuries to some extent. He had personally seen Abigail twist off her own finger, only for it to grow back on the spot. Having accepted a part of Abigail's body, perhaps his own body had been influenced to some degree.

This could also explain Ophelia's reaction after drinking his blood. Life magic inherently harmed the undead, and Abigail's "Life" authority should have a similar effect. In other words, this was likely a side effect of the "Rebirth" gifted by Abigail.

He should confirm this with Abigail when he had the chance...

"Simple healing magic," Aiden lied expressionlessly. Everyone in the prison knew he was qualified to use black magic. Anyway, apart from some veteran riot squad members, most others knew little about black magic, so he could make up whatever lore he pleased.

But the doctor still stared wide-eyed. "Are you kidding? I had no idea you could do something so amazing... If you occasionally popped into the infirmary, how many beds would we save?"

"This spell only works on myself. Speaking of which, if this infirmary were under my management, would your salary also go to me in the future?" Aiden glanced at the doctor.

"Please don't..." The doctor quickly waved her hands dismissively.

"Bastard! So it was you using magic to mess with me!" Ophelia overheard the conversation and immediately started cursing. "You went back on your word! Despicable! Shameless!"

"Isn't this your fault for biting so hard? Just drinking blood is fine, but that bite felt like my hand was about to fall off," Aiden quickly found an excuse, flexing his wrist. "Want another go? Though I can't guarantee it won't be the same as last time."

Ophelia glared at him, grinding her teeth.

"No more? Then I'll temporarily restore your privilege level. We need to focus on important matters now. I'll tell you later what trouble Kyle has gotten into," Aiden said, shifting his gaze to the blood-kin Countess lying on the bed.

The Countess looked nervous. She didn't know what strange spell the person before her had used to keep her alive, but she knew very well he wasn't someone she could afford to provoke. Official source is NoveIꜰire.net

"Before I hand you over to the Inquisition, answer a few questions. First, your name," Aiden stared at the Countess and began.

"Martha Kayton..." the Countess answered honestly.

"Are you on any wanted lists? Have you drunk human blood?" Aiden continued.

"No... I haven't," the Countess averted her gaze.

"Who are you kidding? When I first saw you, you reeked of someone who just drank human blood," Ophelia coldly exposed her lie.

Aiden glanced at Ophelia. Regarding drinking human blood, Ophelia was basically in withdrawal in prison; the last time she'd tasted it was before Melusine planned riot. It seemed that after just a month or two of abstinence, blood-kin could identify recent feeders among their kind by scent.

"I know you were ordered to hunt ordinary humans. Don't let me catch you trying to deceive me again," Aiden warned the Countess.

The Countess swallowed hard and nodded stiffly. "Understood."

"So you're a member of the Blood Moon Cult?"

"Why did you try to break someone out of prison?"

"I was... ordered! Someone forced me to do it!" Martha immediately started trying to explain herself upon hearing the question.

"Who forced you? Be specific," Aiden pressed.

"It was... a high-ranking member of the cult. He told us to call him 'Agent'. Every time he appeared before us, he'd partially dematerialize his body to hide himself, so none of us know what he looks like. He ordered me and three other members here, saying it was the 'God of Death's will'. But after arriving, he just had us hunt human blood periodically in different districts," the Countess answered fearfully. "I didn't want to, but I had no choice..."

"If you really didn't want to, couldn't you have just run away?" Aiden sneered.

"We couldn't defy him. That person... he's the agent of the 'God of Death'! If we disobeyed him, we'd be executed!" The Countess hugged herself, clearly terrified by the memory. "We saw him execute other blood-kin with our own eyes! Just by touching someone, he could burn them alive!"

"Touching them?" Aiden immediately latched onto the key information.

"This time too, he made me... forced me to drink a drop of his blood, compelling me to do this... He said if I didn't do it properly, he'd make me experience the most painful way to die."

Making someone drink a drop of his blood allowed him to kill them from a certain distance... This method was very similar to how Abigail gifted "Resurrection," except this "Agent" gifted death.

Although he hadn't gleaned any specific physical characteristics about the "Agent" from the Countess, Aiden had learned one rather useful piece of information: when this agent of the "God of Death" used the "Reaping" power granted by his master, it seemed to require physical contact.

Aiden proceeded to ask the Countess more questions about the Blood Moon Cult, but didn't obtain any particularly useful intelligence—like Nosferatu, whom Kyle had captured earlier, she was another disposable pawn recently recruited into the cult.

"Hey, are you done interrogating her?" Ophelia, who had been waiting impatiently with her arms crossed, finally couldn't hold back any longer. "Can you tell me now? What kind of trouble did that idiot get himself into? Don't tell me he got mixed up with the Blood Moon Cult?"