Chương 78: 73. Inhuman

I awoke on the hardwood floor of the attic. I could feel the rough texture of the boards pressed against my cheek. My nose was filled with the smell of dust and wood. Waking up was already a success in my book. I then immediately braced myself for a sensation of getting pulled into the Abyss. No eldritch entity could stay in real space for too long, as they were hated and rejected by the very rules of the world. But nothing like that came.

There was no otherworldly pull, no pressure, no distant call from beyond the veil. I relaxed slightly. The worst-case scenario thankfully didn't happen. Now to examine myself. I focused on the sensations coming from my body. It was a mixture of dull ache and stiffness, like I had a good workout yesterday and was sore all over today. That, and an odd feeling I could not explain.

It wasn't the most pleasant wake-up I had ever experienced, but I'll take it over the haunting music of the pipers and the sight of an abyssal god. I blinked my eyes. Two of them, which was another good sign. Next, I rolled onto my back and raised my head to look at my body. Two hands, two legs, none of them any strange color or looking like tentacles. No additional openings like mouths or eyes, either. I slowly patted myself. The overall impression was fine, but as I moved my limbs, I could also feel discomfort.

The way my body reacted seemed strange in a way that was hard to grasp. I dragged my hands over my face. Two eyes, a mouth, a nose, and two ears. It all felt fine, but the instinctual sensation of wrongness flared up the moment I focused on my head. Something had changed, and this time it was more evident. I moved my mouth slightly and felt a sense of unease, as well as unusual movements underneath my skin, and a bit of pressure around the jaw, realizing that what I felt were new muscles moving beneath the skin.

I needed a mirror and quickly. Thankfully, there was one in the attic among the clutter. I stripped to my underwear and pulled a white sheet cover from the mirror. All I had to do was take a step forward, but in that moment I hesitated. What if it was an illusion, something I told myself to reconcile with the horror that my body had turned into? What if I saw a mass of tentacles and eyes crawl in front of the reflective surface? How strange, worry without fear.

It was a hollow sensation that arose inside me just as quickly as it died. A rational warning from my mind. I acknowledged it and stepped in front of the mirror. My body was human, which was a relief. But there were also differences. The shape was recognizable, but upon closer inspection, I could see some changes. A few muscles that shouldn't be in that position. Others that were in the right place but were anchored too far back by the tendons. The joints were another issue.

I had much more mobility than I should have. I felt that when I was patting myself down, the way my body was constructed had changed. This was most pronounced in my spine. I rotated my torso almost 180 degrees without moving my legs even slightly. No tension accompanied the movement. My spine was far more flexible than it should have been. A professional gymnast couldn't even compare to me. The same went for other joints. I could perform a variety of unusual movements without experiencing any pain.

After stretching and flexing to check if there were any changes I had missed, I proceeded with the inspection. After that came the time for the face. This was where I felt the weirdest. I looked closer at my features, first the overall contour. It seemed fine. So what was that sensation? It came from the lower part of my head. I closed my eyes and tried flexing the new muscles around the jaw. I then sucked in a sharp breath through my teeth. Something moved inside my mouth, something that shouldn't be there.

I started to open my lips, but then stopped as I noticed another strange thing. My canines were longer and sharper, both the lower and the upper, making me look a bit like a wild beast. I put a finger in my mouth and stretched my cheek to the side to see the rest of the teeth. There were more of them. I counted nine teeth on both the left and right sides of the upper and lower jaws. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. I opened and closed my mouth.

Thankfully, whatever the point of the mutation was, it seemed to be by design, as my jaw worked fine, the new teeth fitting well against each other. I then looked deeper into my open mouth. But nothing seemed out of the ordinary aside from the teeth. Yet I was sure that I felt something move inside. Upon closer inspection, my jaw muscles appeared unusual, with numerous small additions scattered throughout. I tried flexing the muscles once again. And I froze. I saw the movement, though just barely.

Slowly, bracing for what I might see, I lifted my tongue. And there it was. Another tongue underneath my original one. I inhaled sharply at the sight and felt that there was another opening to my throat as well, as I could feel some air rushing under my original appendage. I closed my mouth and looked back in the mirror.

"What is going o–" I tried to speak, but immediately felt the issue. The muscles didn't work like they used to. They were attached differently to make room for the new tongue and the tissue to control it. This would take some getting used to. I groaned on the inside. For now, I left it alone. I would worry about this part later. Now I wanted to examine the rest of myself. I looked closer at my nose. No changes. My ears. Seemed normal. I then looked into my eyes. And I saw another abnormality.

The first thing I noticed was the color change. From the previous blue, a purplish tint was now mixed in, with a minor addition of red on the outer side of the iris. Another thing I could feel were new muscles around the eye socket. But most of all, there were lines in my irises. They looked like small jagged lines going from the outer ring of my iris into the middle, where they met. It was as if my eye was put together from pieces of broken glass.

Like a circular stained-glass window with hairline fractures starting from the middle. I tried to get a feel for the new muscles until I finally felt something flex behind the eye. It took me a few tries, but I finally got it. As I flexed the new tissue, the pieces that made up my iris started to float apart, revealing another iris underneath. My vision changed. The world lost its colors as it became gray. I immediately noticed that the shadows in the attic disappeared. It was basic night vision.

After curiously looking around the attic, I brought my gaze back to the mirror and immediately noticed that the second iris underneath was constructed the same way, looking as if it were constructed from broken glass. I tried looking for another muscle that controlled this one, but to no avail. I broke eye contact with my reflection, letting go and allowing my iris to snap back into place as my vision returned to normal. I took a second to check my feelings.

I should be weirded out, maybe panicking, but most of those were sensations foreign to me, so I was left with a general sense of wrongness. Other than that, the rest was simple reasoning. The changes were beneficial. Therefore, the verdict was that everything was fine. A thing to celebrate. But in all that confusion and change, there was one thing that bothered me. What the fuck was I? Two tongues, strange multi-layered eyes, weird humanoid body. Nothing came to mind. Another issue was what brought the change.

A bloodline awakens in the presence of mana, but no mana stirred to bring this change. It was the eldritch energy inside me that did that. An eldritch bloodline was an obvious conclusion, but there was a problem with that theory. Eldritch bloodlines weren't a thing. Eldritch and physical didn't mix well, if at all. It shouldn't be possible for such a union. Not fully functional, capable of reproduction, at least. Any change to the physical body brought by the Abyss should be random, fucked up mutations.

Now, on second thought, the multiple irises were on point considering the Void had a strange thing for eyes. But mine were fully functional, clearly made by design. Another issue was that if I were partially an eldritch entity, then I would be slowly pushed out of real space. But I didn't feel any push. And that was still assuming a union between an eldritch entity and a human could be produced in the first place.

I quickly went over all the abyssal beings or their offspring I was aware of, but nothing came to mind. All I could remember were abominations twisted into strange shapes by the abyssal magic, creatures that seemed to mock the established order. I still looked human as far as I could see.

"Interes–" I murmured to myself. Or tried to, as I accidentally flexed my second tongue, pushing my original one forward, and ended up biting it with my new sharp tooth.

"Fuhuck." I said awkwardly. This was going to be annoying for quite some time. I sighed, this time making sure I didn't bite my tongue in the process, and went for the seal scroll. I approached the vein with it and let a drop of blood fall onto the back of the scroll. As I did that, I immediately noticed that my blood now had a purple tint to it that wasn't present before. I stopped paying attention as the letters on the page started to vibrate and move.

Like ants hurrying to their places, the ink finally settled where it was supposed to be. I studied it closely. The jumps in attributes were larger than I thought they would be, alongside basic darkvision and accelerated healing being recognized as new skills. All attributes looked better, much better. But it was not all good news. I grimaced as I stared at the new source of my worry. Faith: 1.