Blood Awakening: The Strongest Hybrid and His Vampire Bride-Chapter 359: The Twisted and Abominable Automaton’s
"…Please don't leave us again."
Her voice was soft. Shy.
The false Kumiko stepped into the light of the plaza, robe flowing gently with no wind to move it. She looked perfect — golden eyes downcast, fingers delicately curled, the faintest blush on her cheeks. Her steps were silent as she approached him, and her smile… warm.
Too warm.
Nikolai didn't answer her.
He took a step past the chair and circled the platform, approaching the gathered crowd instead.
The dolls watched him.
None reacted. None flinched.
He stopped in front of one that resembled Selene — same face, same posture, same polished restraint in her expression. She gave a small nod as he met her eyes.
"Lord Nikolai," she said gently.
He stared.
Her silver hair shimmered under the false sun, but lacked the weight, the slight curl at the ends she hated. Her eyes were the right shape… but not the right pressure. Selene's gaze could make men stop breathing — even when she wasn't trying. This one didn't even graze his spine.
'Her blonde hair is one of the things I love about Selene the most...'
He moved on.
The Risa doll twitched her ears and grinned. "You're late," she teased, voice lilting.
But her tail didn't move.
Risa's tail never stopped, and she had two physical tails, and two ethereal tails that only he could see when not using them... one green one, ghostly, like a shadow and two fluffy raven-furred ones.
The Nikita figure leaned against a false column, arms crossed with that same cocky slouch — but no hunger. No glint of challenge. Just posture. A sketch of her confidence, not the real thing.
He paused last at the one closest to Lunaria — white hair, soft eyes, hands clasped like she was trying not to breathe too loud.
She didn't smile.
She just looked at him like she was broken.
Like she wanted to be forgiven.
His fingers flexed.
And finally, he turned.
The Kumiko figure stood waiting at the edge of the dais, her gaze upturned, eyes soft.
"I made you tea," the doll with pale gold hair and dull eyes said. "Would you like to sit with me?"
Nikolai stared at her.
Then took a step forward.
He reached out — not to hold her hand, but to brush his thumb along the curve of her jaw, as he had done to the real Kumiko countless times before. This one leaned into it.
She didn't blink.
She didn't shiver.
Kumiko always shivered.
Nikolai lowered his hand. Took a breath. Spoke flatly.
"…You're all wrong."
The illusion didn't falter.
None of them did.
"Then show me what you really are."
He raised his hand.
His blood pumped, surging faster as it mixed vermilion essence, fusing with celestial aura to form the black, deathly obsidian tide. It flared up his arm in a jagged, pulsing spiral — smoke-black and cracked with red veins of violent energy.
And without hesitation—
He slammed his claw into the ground.
The platform exploded.
The marble shattered under the force, and the floor cracked in a perfect line through the throne and the platform. The city rippled. The air pulsed.
Then, the dolls screamed.
Not in pain.
In code.
Their mouths opened too wide, unhinging at the sides like fabric tearing at the seam. Their faces split, folding inward. Their bodies distorted—legs twitching, arms doubling in length, hair shrivelling into wire as their skin peeled back to reveal the metal and flesh underneath.
They lunged.
But Nikolai was already moving.
He met them with a snarl and a flash of claws, carving through the first wave with clean strikes. They didn't bleed — they spilt fluid, clear and sizzling, like acid soaked in perfume.
The air lost its light.
The perfect sun flickered, then blinked out.
The city collapsed inward like glass warping in fire.
And in the centre of the chaos, Nikolai stood breathing heavily, one knee on the ground, as ash and wires rained down around him.
The false heaven was gone.
And the tower had shown its truth.
The false sky collapsed in silence.
No crash. No scream.
Just the quiet folding of the city into itself, like paper burned at the edges. The marble streets cracked and peeled away. The lilac trees twisted into black roots that pulled back into the earth. The hollow sun blinked once, then vanished.
Rather, it resembled an old fairytale book burning.
Nikolai rose slowly, the black mist still coiling off his arms like smoke from hot metal.
His breathing was steady.
But the ground beneath him was no longer.
What had been a polished plaza was now a devastated field, wide, uneven, with jagged stone protrusions rising like the ribs of a buried titan. The light came from above, but there was no sun, just a grey sky that felt too close. Heavy. Pressing down.
The temperature dropped.
Beneath his bare feet, the floor thrummed with something deeper than sound.
Like a heartbeat.
No, not a heartbeat.
A summons.
Ahead, the land sloped downward into a crater. At the bottom stood a massive gate — not golden or adorned, but forged from slabs of dark iron, bound in bands of bone. Massive runes pulsed faint red along its seams, barely visible, like veins beneath thick skin.
And it was opening.
Slowly.
Nikolai didn't move at first.
He watched as the metal shifted, grinding apart on ancient hinges, revealing a tunnel behind it shrouded in rising mist and flickering shadows.
From within came the scent of earth, blood, and something older — like wet fur and shattered stone.
It hit him in the chest.
Not a threat.
Not fear.
But a summons.
A call.
The kind only a predator could feel.
He stepped forward, the stone cracking under his heel.
Every nerve in his body buzzed.
The Obsidian Tide churned at the base of his spine, begging to be unleashed. It wasn't a whisper anymore. It was a pressure in his bones, his jaw, his back — as though his body had grown too small to hold what lived inside it.
He reached the mouth of the tunnel and stopped.
Then exhaled slowly.
"…So this is it."
His eyes narrowed, glowing red in the dark. He hadn't transformed yet, but he felt it in his skin. The monster was close.
The tunnel narrowed the deeper he went.
At first, the walls were shaped from stone — ancient and volcanic, sweat-slick with heat. But as Nikolai moved forward, the walls changed. The texture grew uneven. Not carved, but grown. Like bone. Like the inside of something alive.
His steps echoed once.
Then not at all.
The further he walked, the quieter everything became. Like the tunnel was swallowing the sound whole.
Then he heard it.
A breath.
Not his.
It came from deeper ahead — soft, rhythmic, slow. Like something asleep. Or pretending to be.
Nikolai's claw twitched. His pulse didn't change.
He turned the last bend.
And saw it.
The chamber opened up in a wide cathedral of black — a hollowed dome of twisted roots and spires, lit by veins of molten crimson running along the floor. At the centre stood a doll.
But it wasn't like the ones before.
This one bled.
Its body was a towering amalgam — stitched from familiar shapes, twisted into a feminine form with too many arms, too many hips, too many faces. One arm ended in claws like Kumiko's shadows. Another held a twisted staff made of pink coral and razor teeth — Amphitrite. One leg bore the silvery fur and digitigrade bend of a Fenrir. Another shimmered like scaled glass, echoing Lunaria's hybrid form.
Its skin was pale and flawless in places. In others, burnt. Bruised. Open.
From its crown sprouted six heads — elegant, still, and vaguely familiar.
Not exact.
But close.
Too close.
Each one turned to look at him as the doll lifted its head.
They all spoke.
Together.
"Why didn't you come sooner, Nikolai?"
He didn't answer.
"We missed you."
"We waited."
"You're ours."
His claws tightened.
The one that looked like Selene tilted its head.
"Do you love us?"
The one who looked like Kumiko giggled, but it was wrong. Off-beat.
"Prove it."
The weapons rose.
Six hands lifted — each holding something shaped like a blade. A crescent staff. A whip of glass. A hammer made of sculpted bone.
The thing bled from its joints as it moved.
Blood.
Their blood.
Nikolai's heart hammered once.
Then again.
Then the rage hit.
Not the kind that boiled.
The kind that exploded.
His spine arched. His eyes flared.
He let go.
"How dare you..." A low breath, maybe a growl...
Nikolai's body trembled, his veins bulged to the surface, and his pupils dilated.
"How. Dare. You. Blaspheme their forms!"
The Obsidian Tide surged through his body like black lightning ripping through skin and soul. His bones stretched, cracked, and realigned. His back split with pressure as the black fur burst through muscle, rippling with raw power. His shoulders widened. His neck thickened. Claws curved out like spears from his fingers.
And when the howl came, it wasn't just sound.
It was fury.
A command.
A rejection of this insult.
A beast, nearly eight feet tall, of pure muscle and power, now stood where the man had been.
Eyes glowing red through the dark.
Fangs bared.
Claws twitching.
Not because he wanted to fight.
Because he was going to kill.
