Crimson Core

Through the knowledge that was forced into his head, Kai came to analyze the lives of great mages in history; they all had something in common. They became strong because of something they loved, something they lost, or something they never had but always dreamed of.

“What is it that I love?” Kai asked himself out loud, in an attempt to gain answers faster.

Kai looked through his life and found out that he had not found anything worthwhile; nothing had caught his fancy, Because he lacked some things while growing up didn’t mean he would not get it eventually. That was not enough reason for him to want to grow strong.

He had never been attached to anybody, not the old woman, his granny that took care of him, or her husband. Not to talk of his parents; who were they? He had lost them when he was still a baby, and he had no memories of them. He never knew them; why would he want to take revenge for him?

Kai was still thinking; he didn’t like to fight, nor did he want the riches of this world. Some time later, Kai had gotten to a wall—an insurmountable wall, a wall of decision.

And the decision: ‘What is it that I love?... Or would hate to lose?’

The last question Kai asked himself seemed to help him find a defect in the wall, a defect deep enough to break the wall. “What is it that I would hate to lose?”.

Kai was silent for some time before it hit him. What he loved had always been at the back of his mind, right in front of him. It can’t be something; it was someone.

“Sneeze!”

Chelsea had just sneezed during dinner, and her father looked at her with a worried gaze. “Are you alright? Tomorrow, I will send for your uncle, Dr. Willard, to come check you up,” Lord Marshall said.

Subtly embarrassed, Chelsea managed to whisper to herself. “It’s not that necessary.”

Lord Marshall leaned in. “I didn’t get that; what did you say?”

Shocked, Chelsea responded as fast as she could, "No, it’s nothing; I will meet Uncle Willard tomorrow.”

‘I wonder who is talking about me; could it be Kai? I wonder what he is talking about concerning me.’

Nobody knows why Chelsea was blushing at the dinner table; simple words could not describe what her mind had conceived.

“That’s good, now eat up, should they bring more?”. Lord Marshall had been overly pampering Chelsea since that day.

Earlier that day...

Samantha was just closing off from work. Today she closed early because she had an appointment with Kai, the person to bring her hope... To give her what she wanted: A family.

She closed early but it was not yet time for her to see him; it was still early, and she had to prepare. She was getting her gift today.

Presently it was getting close to the time she was to meet with him, so she had to prepare well.

The Night brothers had not found Kai for the whole day... They had failed in their first mission: Get close to him.

But they heard rumors that Kai was in the healer’s office, and that’s where they were. They were in front of the door to the healer’s office to check on Kai.

—Knock. Knock—

“Come in, me darlin’, and let the hearth warm yer bones.” A feminine voice sounded from the other side of the door. “…Ah, sure and begorrah! What brings ye young lads to me? Missin’ yer dear ol’ mum, are ye? Well then, come closer, and I’ll be yer mummy for a spell.”

‘Brr,’ The two brothers shuddered within themselves at the same time. “Actually, we came to find someone.” Damien spoke up first.

Kai felt the light of enlightenment fall on him; he knew what he wanted to grow strong for, to protect. It was Chelsea; he made a promise to her to one day help her travel the world and not have a worry in the world.

Since he didn’t really have a reason to live, why doesn’t he live for someone else? Chelsea had made a lasting impression on him, such that it would be hard to replace.

‘I would get stronger for Chelsea’s sake.’ Kai had resolved within himself to get stronger for Chelsea and pamper her.

—Ding—

The moment Kai made that resolve, he heard a sound within himself. After the sound had died off, Kai was confused at what just happened. Before Kai could wrap his head around the fact that he just heard a sound in his head, the image of the deity popped up in front of him.

{Hello, Kai, I know you have a lot of questions... They would get answers in due time. Let me give you the answer to two of your questions. My name is Syther, the god of death, and yes, I am no longer with you; this new power you have is my parting gift to you. Since you are receiving this message, it means that you have found a reason strong enough. It also means that you are ready to become the DEATH ADVOCATE; your journey to become a blood mage begins now. Don’t disappoint me.}

The image of the deity— no, Syther disappeared into thin air. Kai was silent. He knew what to do; he knew but was still confused.

“She left?” Kai really did not know what to feel; he had gotten fond of the deity, Syther. She was part of him. Literary.

He was at a loss; he felt really bad within himself. He had lost someone important to him; at least she said goodbye and even left a gift.

Kai was about to keep dwelling in the sense of loss when he heard a knock on his door.

—Knock, knock—

Kai was whisked out of his train of thought due to the rapping at the door. ‘I swear, if this is not important, I would drink every last drop of blood of whoever is at the door.’ Kai was angry. Although he knew that fighting now was impossible, he still swore. He was at a level now that even a noble’s child could kick his arse.

After a few moments, he gave in. “Come in,”

The door opened and a head popped in. “Uh mm… Did I come at a bad time?”

It was Samantha, the lovely dark-skinned girl who was shy; she looked cute when shy. Kai could not stay angry with Samantha; she looked so cute that she could be eaten.

Kai smiled at her; it was as though it wasn’t him who had just frowned so deeply. “No, no, you came at the right time; I was wondering if you would not make it tonight.” Kai said with the warmest smile he could muster.

Samantha in turn grinned, from ear to ear, as she half-walked and half-skipped into Kai’s chamber. “Close the door.”

Samantha had forgotten to close the door. She rushed to close it. “Have a seat, Samantha; tell me about your day; how was it?”

Samantha Heath

Element: space and time.

Rank: Nobel. First-layer commoner mage

Loyalty: 29%

Samantha sat down and tried her best to comport herself. She was calm before she started, “Well...”

Samantha told Kai about her day, about the third year that bullied her and all whatnot. Kai waited until she was done before speaking.

“Why don’t you want to get revenge?” Kai asked. He knew he had no power to help her now, but he still had Darcy; she could make their life hell if he wanted her to.

“No, no, no, not yet.” Samantha refused almost immediately.

“Hahaha, if you insist...” Kai laughed it off.

Samantha knew that if she agreed to Kai getting revenge for her, the names of those two would also be added to the list of headless bodies.

Kai continued. “I have a gift for you.” Kai put his hand again in his shadow and retrieved a spell book, the Dao of time and space.

Samantha did not have the same bewildered expression as Darcy. She knew that Kai was powerful. What she didn’t know was how powerful he was, so she just took everything with a look of awe.

She had never seen anyone do that before, but she had not seen much to begin with.

Kai stretched his hand out to Samantha. “This is a spell book for your element, learn it all and train well in them, it even has the potential to give you Noble rank spells if you study it diligently.” Kai spoke indifferently.

Samantha froze in place the moment she heard the words Noble Rank. She was illiterate but even children had been imbibed with the knowledge of the Ranks from a young age. She was expecting... She did not even know what to expect, but this was simply too much for her.

Seeing her hesitate, Kai decided to use another means to make her accept the manual. “If you don’t take it, you are no longer allowed into my family. Its clear that you see me as an outsider.” Kai said with his hands still outstretched.

Samantha could not risk losing what she had just gained. “In that case, I would be greedy.” She readily accepted the manual.

“Hahaha, as expected of someone from the Ashtaroth family. Be good and study it well,” Kai said with a warm smile.

“Thank you.” Tears of gratitude welled up in Samantha’s eyes. ‘What’s wrong with me?’

Samantha didn’t know what was wrong with her; she was just getting emotional. So unlike her.

“If you encounter any difficulties come to me and I will clear them for you... Now off you go.” Kai shouted her away.

Samantha skipped out of the room after giving Kai a deep bow of gratitude.

Kai was simply happy to see Samantha happy; he didn’t know why but it felt good. “Now to work on myself”.

Kai lay on his bed, looking up at the ceiling…

Darcy had just gotten to her chamber; she took off her excess clothing and sat down in her training room.

Darcy had her training room for herself, installed in her chamber partly because of her father’s influence as the kingdom’s Fire Noble.

Her chamber was already the best in all the houses, well furnished and everything. Even her training room, known popularly as the fire chamber, was huge.

Her essence chamber was fit only for fire attribute mages; it was overlain with a special mined mineral, the blacksmith’s stone. It had a special texture and color that was almost comparable with the crimson stones used as currency. The difference between both was that the crimson stone was cold, while the blacksmith’s stone was always hot, no matter the weather.

The walls and floor of Darcy’s fire essence chamber were lined with this blacksmith’s stone, and that is the highest quality.

The surprising thing was that inside the room, the fire essence emitted by the blacksmith’s stone made it incomparably hot. A normal human would be turned to ashes within seconds of stepping foot into Darcy’s essence chamber. The blacksmith’s stone was useless to other mages, and in large quantities, it could be harmful.

Darcy sat on the floor bare, bringing out the scroll Kai had given her. “Here goes nothing.” Darcy said to herself as she opened the scroll.

—SWOOSH—

The powerful aura from in the scroll blew Darcy’s hair back. It came at her like a mighty wind. She had never seen such before. Spell books or scrolls were graded the same way mages were. The higher the grade of a spell, the more powerful the aura it emitted when opened.

The Phoenix Spirit bomb

These words were written boldly on the top of the scroll, Darcy looked at the book with a trace of disbelief in her expression. “How could he gift this spell to me?”

Darcy was in shock, not because of the power of the spell... She had overcome that shock already. What shocked her was the fact that Kai just handed the scroll to her as though it were nothing.

The single spell she held in her hands had the value of a large family’s heirloom. Even her family had only about four Baron-level spells.

“If he can entrust this to me, I can only use it to make myself stronger.” Darcy had been living in the shadow of her brothers for so long that it was time for her to make a name for herself.

Darcy steeled her determination, clenched her fist and then began her fission with the spell.