Chapter 104: A BIG SACRIFICE
One thousand seven hundred sixty three.
It was the number of people, who had died during the attempt to gain beauty blood. The only success case was the attempt that the first lycan did. Therefore, this kind of power became a myth.
The scriptures only recorded the last twenty eight people that died during the attempt. They called these people as 'shell' and the attempt started when they were little, around eight to ten years old.
Some of them died during the first year, some lived for five years, but the last one managed to reach twenty one years old, yet after that there was no more record about it.
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"What happened with the last shell?" Khaos finally lifted his head to ask Rhett, by this time, Caiden had fallen asleep. The gamma was bored to death. He hugged himself and snored softly.
"The war." Rhett stood up. He looked a little bit better now. "It was not written in the scriptures, but there are other notes about what happened. It said that the last shell should be a succeed if only the massacre didn't happen, since she last for so long."
Twenty one years old.
"Zuri is a shell."
That was not a question, but a statement and Rhett admitted that. "Everything will be completed in a year from now."
"How many curses you have put on her?" Khaos concealed his emotions so well when everything did make sense now.
"Seventy seven. It left her with twenty three more to complete the beauty blood."
Even though the name was pretty, but there was nothing beautiful about it. It was brutal to say the least. That was why there were so many people died during the process.
Beauty blood should be nurtured because the shell had to endure a hundred variation of curses. They didn't give the shell a hundred curses at once, obviously, but they would give them every once or twice a month in order to practice their tolerance against the curse.
Sometime, they would put two curses at the same time when they thought the shell was strong enough to handle it.
And once the shell completed a hundred curses, it was the time, you could harvest the beauty blood, their blood, to open the lycan legacy and obtain the greatest power of the lycan.
In Zuri's case, she still needed twenty three more curses to go before it was completed.
"The notes about the last shell are a breakthrough for this attempt and now the beauty blood is almost ready. If only Zuri can endure a curse every two weeks, you can harvest the beauty blood within a year."
The medicine that Zuri had been consuming all this time was a medicine to 'tame' the curses within her so she wouldn't have a backlash from all the curses. It was necessary to keep her alive, since you wouldn't get the beauty blood if the shell died.
All the trips that Zuri had with Rhett, all of their sneaked out from the pack, it was for him to put the curses on her every month, but ever since she was away to be mated with alpha Xaden, everything had to be halted.
However, it worked in Rhett's favor because during that time, they needed to look for the lycan, especially after the rumor that emerged two years ago. They believed there was a lycan, who managed to survive the massacre and live among them with hidden identity, waiting for the right moment to exact their revenge.
Rhett told Khaos everything.
"Actually, it's good to halt the process, since we still have to find the last lycan," he said solemnly and then stood up. He approached Khaos and then knelt down in front of him. "I am sure you are the last lycan, there is no doubt."
All of Rhett's doubt disappeared the moment he saw Khaos read the scriptures with no problem and Caiden didn't find the whole thing weird, obviously he knew about it too.
On the other hand, Khaos could sense his suspicion on him about the lycan, but he didn't have time to act as if he didn't know how to read the scriptures, because why would he want to see the scriptures and knew about its existence when he couldn't read them.
Apparently, there was this tacit understanding between them about this situation.
"I pledge my loyalty to you, the crown prince of the lycan dynasty. The last lycan in this realm," Rhett said solemnly, almost like he prayed. "We have been waiting for your return."
"We?" The word didn't go unnoticed by Khaos. He knew there must be someone else behind Rhett. But, how many of them? And what their motivation to do this?
Nurturing beauty blood took years of commitment and for them to actually try to do it without knowing whether there was a lycan, who still survived was a very farfetched faith they had.
Rhett lifted his head and looked at Khaos, there was adoration in his eyes, as if he was a devotee, who met with his deity.
"There are a lot of us, throughout the continent. We can support you to claim your birthright."
Khaos's eyes darkened. The way Rhett said it, it sounded promising, the kind of support that
he would need in the long run.
However...
Khaos was not stupid enough to trust this man the second he declared his loyalty. "What happened when you harvested the beauty blood?"
"Do you mean what happened to the shell?" Rhett stood up slowly. He glanced at Caiden, who was still sleeping. "If Zuri is strong enough, she will survive, but if she is not..."
She will die.
That was the sentence that was left unsaid, but both of them knew it.
"She looks up to you and you used her without holding back."
Rhett was silent for a while. "She will always be my baby sister, but big change needs a big
sacrifice too. it's worth it. She will understand."