Beyond the Bloodline-Chapter 140: A Gift of ‘Life’

However, upon seeing his parents’ corpses; upon seeing the people who had maltreated him as a child, a new desire was born in Henrik’s heart.

Sure, he could never catch up to their golden child Dornik, but at least, he wanted to do something better than them.

This new desire was the desire to at least live longer than them, so the day he surpassed the years they had lived, he could come back to their graves and mock them.

That the child they had neglected and called talentless, had lived longer than they did.

Henrik was filled with the desire to do at least one thing better than his parents.

And so began his persistent desire for ’Life’.

Dornik who had seen his last family member in such a horrible state wanted to help him, and Henrik, fully embracing this new desire within his heart, did not refuse his brother’s help.

With Dornik’s power and influence, it was a walk in the park to prepare various resources, enhancers, and boosters to help his brother reach Legendary status.

Upon achieving the Legendary Realm and gaining more lifespan, Henrik fervently chased after Sovereignty like a madman.

It eluded him for thousands of years, but he did not give up, eventually reaching that realm and gaining an even longer lifespan.

He regained confidence in himself, believing that even if he was talentless, he could still reach Transcendence if given enough time.

Unfortunately, Transcendence remained a fleeting dream.

No matter what he did, regardless of the booster drug or artifact he used, Henrik was never able to become a Transcendent.

The final barrier of proving one’s qualification to surpass mortality became an insurmountable wall for him.

Even still, he did not give up on his desire to attain more lifespan.

It was then that the Dragons attacked Zotov, and Henrik took up arms alongside Dornik to protect the planet.

But Lady Luck seemed to detest Henrik as in his first battle, he encountered a Dragon General of Ikerths.

He was soundly defeated by the Peak Transcendent Avatar and was given two choices.

Surrender or Death.

Death?

The thought of choosing such did not even cross his mind for a nanosecond.

He hadn’t yet gloated over his parents’ graves that he had surpassed the time they had lived, how could he die?

What was the point of dying and losing the chance to fulfil his desire?

As such, he gleefully surrendered if it meant he could keep on living, much to the shock of all who witnessed the battle.

They were shocked that the planet’s Strongest Sovereign whom they had all looked up to had surrendered without a second thought.

Seeing their reaction, Henrik only snorted in disdain.

They had expected him to die with honour, but what use was honour if you were dead?

Besides, joining with the dragons came with benefits. Benefits to his goal.

Henrik had spent thousands of years mastering many crafts in hopes of proving his qualifications to surpass mortality, and he had ended up becoming a Warrior who impressed the Dragon General he fought.

That was why the option of ’Surrender’ even existed in the first place.

He was valuable Sovereign combat power for the Dragons, and due to his value, he was able to negotiate a few benefits for himself.

First and foremost, was a means to increase his lifespan even more. He did not care for surpassing Sovereignty anymore; he just wanted more life.

This wish of his was granted by Ikerth.

The Dragon was a Race King who had an Authority in the universal law of life, so it wasn’t too hard to tack on a few more years to a mortal’s lifespan.

Henrik was satisfied, but he soon discovered that there was a limit to what Ikerth could add to his lifespan.

It wasn’t going to be enough to reach his goal.

As such, he had started considering other alternatives. One of which was to become a Draconic Human.

As part-dragon, he would have an increased lifespan, enough for him to fulfil his desire.

However, he never had the chance to make this proposition to Tasir as Jamie and Miranda descended into Zotov and began wreaking havoc on the Dragon Army.

Now, Jamie had come straight to his doorstep, defeated him and was about to put an end to his dream.

As if to make the situation worse, his younger brother had shown up as well.

All Henrik could do, was laugh.

"Hahahahahaha!!!!"

He did not care if they looked at him like a madman, he was going to die either way.

What use would their opinions of him be if he was dead?

After being told about Henrik’s story by Miranda, Jamie had to admit that he was impressed. He wondered exactly how Miranda knew this, but she revealed she had encountered the man when she first arrived on Zotov and he was the one she had shown her around the planet first.

She came to know his story after an incident where she ended up reading through his memories to find out something.

"I have to admit, I am impressed with you boy."

Jamie voiced out his thoughts, ignoring the confused expressions that appeared on the faces of the others present.

He crouched down and tapped Henrik’s chest, stopping his bleeding before speaking.

"Humans are a race with an inherently short lifespan. Not the shortest out there, but still on the bottom end of things.

Short-lived species seem to see their lifespans as a constraint, but I believe that’s where their beauty lies.

The number of things they can accomplish within that short span of time they exist—that’s where their true value lies."

Miranda narrowed her eyes when she heard Jamie speak, completely doubtful of the authenticity of his words.

Jamie was born a werewolf, and even though they did not inherently possess an Eternal lifespan, they had longevity.

Even a werewolf who did not achieve the master realm could live for 500 years without issue. And this lifespan only increased exponentially with their increasing existence realms.

As such, from the very beginning, Jamie could not comprehend how Short-lived species felt.

Even more so when he became a Hybrid who had an infinite lifespan.

Heck, his status board even had an infinity symbol where his Health stat was.

Jamie created a blade of spatial power on his finger, slashing his own hand and letting his blood drip down onto Henrik’s body.

"Since you desire life so much, then I shall offer you the gift of life.

So much life, you would have it in abundance.

But..."

Jamie looked right into Henrik’s eyes as he continued.

"The choice...is yours."

"..."

Henrik’s eyes widened when he saw Jamie’s actions. He felt like he heard Dornik and the others saying something but his brain had zoned out all the unnecessary details.

He knew what Jamie and Miranda were.

As such, he understood what taking Jamie’s blood would turn him into.

’A Vampire...most definitely.’

Vampires had weaknesses, one of them being the light that came with solar radiation.

Most times, the strength of the person being turned affected the breed of vampire they became, and he feared that his completely ordinary attributes would make him a completely ordinary vampire.

The kind who would instantly combust under the light of the sun and burn to ashes.

"You don’t want it? And here I was kind enough to off-"

"?! I WANT IT!!"

Henrik cut Jamie off mid-sentence, shooting with so much intensity one wouldn’t believe he was a half-dead man.

Jamie just chuckled lightly and let his blood drip into Henrik’s mouth. A few drops and he stopped restricting his regeneration, allowing the wound to close up in half a nanosecond.

Immediately, Henrik’s transformation began.

With each beat of his weakening heart, his veins pulsated with magic power. His skin paled and his eyes turned a vibrant crimson.

His severed arm twitched and writhed, drawn back to his body by an unseen force. With each passing moment, his wounds knitted themselves together, flesh weaving seamlessly back into place.

Fangs extended from his gums as his body convulsed with the agony of the transformation.

Despite the harsh glare of the sunlight, his body remained unscathed, not spontaneously combusting like a low-rank vampire would.

This was only natural, as he was being transformed by none other than THE Perfect Hybrid. There was no way he would turn into a mere low-rank vampire.

In fact, he had skipped a lot of the ranks and directly become a Noble Vampire.