Scarlet

I wake up with a gasp, shooting straight forwards and sending the blanket that was on me flying off and crashing into the wall, actually leaving a dent in the wall despite it being a blanket. Then I immediately look around, finding myself to be in an unknown location. But after sensing and hearing Amelia’s voice nearby, I relax again and instead look down at myself with a frown.

What… is this feeling?

I raise my arm, finding myself to be wearing a normal T-shirt and shorts. But what catches my eye isn’t my clothes. It’s the glowing red veins that occasionally appear and disappear across my arm.

Even that doesn’t catch my attention as much as the strange shifting sensation across my body. Like something is moving inside of me.

As if on instinct, I raise my hand, palm up, and let some sort of glowing red blood leak from the pores in my hand and begin floating in a ball above it, writhing back and forth without me even directing it to. And after just a few seconds the orb of strange blood attempts to stretch outwards, away from the orb.

Is it… fighting my own control?

Amelia immediately appears just seconds after I summon forth the strange red blood, her eyes wide in a mixture of wariness and happiness at the sight of me. Then she says, “Please put away the Red Plague for now.”

I frown at that but comply anyways, sending what I now realize is the Red Plague back into my body. Albeit with a struggle.

First time I’ve ever had a skill fight against my own control…

“It’s because your Title-Bearing skill is a unique mutation one,” Tar says while appearing in the air, filled with tension. “And according to my father, it’s calling the rest of the Red Plague in the universe to you.”

I blink in surprise at that before my frown grows.

Tar glances at Amelia, who frowns for a moment in return only to leave the room anyways.

Wait, did he just kick out the White Knight of Humanity?

“There… are some things that I’ll need to fill you in on,” Tar says, sounding like he’s not going to enjoy this.

Oh.

Tar doesn’t end up taking very long to explain the whole ‘Red Plague planet coming to devour our own planet after waking up early due to my presence’ thing. But I still find the thing… a little ridiculous considering how we’re already dealing with one universe ending calamity.

I lie back down on the bed, feeling exhausted for some reason.

“Mutation passive skills are different from normal skills in various different ways, most of which are unique to the skill in question,” Tar explains while floating down to sit next to me on the bed. “They directly alter your body instead of just giving you the ability and knowledge to do something. And while we aren’t safely able to analyze your body anymore thanks to the Red Plague in it, father believes that all of the blood in your body is filled to the brim with the Red Plague. So much so that your body practically runs on the stuff now.”

I stare blankly at the tanuki floating above me.

Let me get this straight. My body lives on the most dangerous corruption in the universe?

Tar nods his head at that.

Wow.

I quickly open my status to pull up the description of the skill again, only to realize something about my status in the process.

Huh. My species changed from Human/Blood Lycan Hybrid to Human/Blood Lycan Warden.

Putting that aside, I open the description as I was going to do.

{Warden of the Red Plague - This skill directly alters the user’s body, turning them into both prison and warden for the most powerful blood plague in existence. The Red Plague. Any being who touches the user and is designated a target by the user either subconsciously or consciously will be infected with the Red Plague. The user may also release the Red Plague within their body to the surroundings through any means, whether through blood, the air, physical contact, or any other possible method. The user may recall the red Plague back into their body whenever they so desire. The user’s body becomes permanently immune to all types of corruption due to the overwhelming strength of the Red Plague devouring all other types of corruption.}

Guess the immunity to all types of corruption makes perfect sense now, considering that the Red Plague is apparently all devouring… and the ‘infecting anything I touch and designate a target’ part of it is actually rather neat. As long as I don’t somehow accidentally mark someone as a target when I don’t mean for them to be.

Because it would be awkward if I accidentally killed someone simply by touching them.

“That shouldn’t be possible,” Tar says, making me sigh in relief. “Unless the Red Plague decides it wants to fight against you when you touch someone, that is.”

I try half-heartedly to swat the tanuki, only for him to dodge me.

Say that first next time!

Guess that means I won’t be touching anyone. And right when I was starting to become fine with physical contact.

“Well, it’s highly unlikely that the Red Plague would be able to break out of you unless you have too much of it in your body,” Tar explains while lying his head down on the bed. “And the only way for you to take in more Red Plague than you would naturally have is to find the Red Plague in the universe, or let it replicate outside of your body.”

Oh. Right. It’s self-replicating.

How fast does it replicate anyways?

“See for yourself,” Tar says while motioning his paw towards my hand.

I frown before sitting up and raising my hand, pushing some of the Red Plague out of it. Then I just sit here and watch the orb of writhing and glowing crimson liquid.

Time passes and after a couple seconds, I notice the orb of writhing blood slowly beginning to expand.

At least it doesn’t seem to self-replicate very quickly. Although it does appear to be replicating faster the more there is.

I blink as I remember something that happened when I was getting the skill. So I reabsorb the Red Plague and immediately summon my armor.

Only to find glowing red cracks all over it.

Well, fuck.