Crimson Core

It was a rule that after the midyear assessment, students were allowed to go home. It was like a holiday; as they went home, their results were sent to their parents or sponsors.

In the green rank one chamber of the skylark house, two male students, around the ages of twenty to twenty-three, were seated on their respective beds. They said nothing but stared at each other.

Although they said nothing to each other, the message was clear... They were dead.

The reason they were dead was not because they had messed up on the mid-yearly assessment... That would have been preferable.

But they had lost the only thing that could help them rise in ranks and give their small clan the ability to see the light... Kai Ashtaroth.

The males in the room were Adrian and Damien Nyx. They were freaking terrified to go home, One: They had lost the clan’s heirloom, and two: Their father will hand their buttocks over to them because they knew nothing of the person they were sent to investigate.

Heck, they hadn’t seen Kai for three days... Surely he wasn’t hiding. They had waited for him for days and he hadn’t shown up to school, and they were sure he wasn’t dead... At least that’s what the board said.

Darcy, on the other hand, still waited for him for three days. She was worried. Presently, Samantha and Darcy were in a conversation about Kai and what they would do next.

“Sister… I would go and search for him,” Samantha said. She appeared to have grown during this past period; she simply seemed more mature.

“Where do you intend to do that, You know you can’t go to the land.” Darcy reminded.

“Sister, you know where he lives, right?”

“I think it is somewhere in the western continent. He lives with a Lord.” The words that came out of Darcy’s mouth were like music to Samantha’s ears.

“Sister… I am strong now; I can go find him!” Samantha was elated.

“I think I would go with you.” These were Darcy’s final days in the central academy. When she left the gates of the land, she seized to be a student; she was free.

Not entirely; she still had to get married to Lester. That was more reason she wanted to go find Kai. At least she wanted him, even if he didn’t want her.

After a few days of long persuasion, Martha agreed to let Darcy and Samantha go look for Kai... Alone.

They didn’t want it to seem as though they were invading Blue Dragon City. Lord Marshall’s city. The Purple Fang faction was simply a powerhouse; very few factions could make it think twice about it’s actions.

The Purple Fang faction had a very powerful patron, the patriarch of the Firefield House. Noble Zachary. It was being controlled by Martha on the outside, but it was noble Zachary who called all the shots.

For the next few days after Chelsea died, Kai was still not woken from his coma.

“Acho…!”

Kai sneezed violently. His eyes opened slowly as the Sunlight from the window pierced through his eyelids, causing his pupils to contract. It took him some time to understand what was going on. Kai walked out of his room to check on Chelsea. To be sure, he wasn’t dreaming.

“You— he woke up!!”

Kai looked towards the direction of the words that entered his ears; he saw a maid running in the opposite direction. She looked familiar.

‘Melinda!’

She seemed to not have aged at all since that night... It had already been a year. Her body was still appealing to the eyes... At least that is what he saw through the outline of her clothes.

The temptation was great but the matter at hand was greater. Kai steeled his resolve and walked into Chelsea’s chamber.

Looking over Chelsea... Or what he remembered was Chelsea; he felt sad, depressed and determined to bring her back. He hadn’t even told her that he loved her yet… Fuck!

The black scale that covered Chelsea made her look like a sculpture. Kai could only have faith that she wasn’t decaying inside the dragon-scale coffin.

Kai felt someone behind him, it was a man, a tall man, he was at the peak of the Nobel rank.

“You are truly awake; it has been so long.” Lord Marshall said from behind him.

“You have grown stronger.” That was the only thing Kai could say. At this point, nothing gave Kai joy any more.

He had become twisted and broken and everything bad. The only thing holding Kai from total soul corruption was Chelsea. He didn’t think that Chelsea had that much effect on him but now he was... Broken.

“Prepare; let’s go to the central continent. I will take Sullivan’s life.” Kai had lost his human side. The images of Chelsea’s dead body in his arms. The way she kept getting colder by the minute, he had healed her, but she wasn’t resurrected.

The sense of loss washed over him as he watched Chelsea’s scale-covered body. Kai walked back to the room he woke up in. He sat on the bed and looked at the wall; he seemed at a loss; his gaze was beginning to harden.

In a dark alley, somewhere familiar, two familiar mages, considerably men, judging by the gruff voice and their build.

The dark alley was familiar because this was where the two figures had met some months ago. It was their rendezvous point.

But this time one of the two men was pissed off. “What do you mean you couldn’t find him!?!?!”

Lester was furious at this moment. He was totally pissed off; the murderous intent oozing out of his body made the other person almost gasp for air.

“You said that it won’t be much of a deal, right? How is he not dead now? You don’t even know his whereabouts. You are useless to me.”

It wasn’t clear whether it was the fear he had for Lester or it was the murderous intent emitting out of Lester’s body that made him fall to his knees.

“I apologize, my liege; I will find him and bring his head to you! Please give me one more chance.”

The huge man kowtowed and begged for his life; if his subordinates saw him, who knows what they would say.

“I am sorry. You have used up your chances.”

—Slit—

The huge man saw his life flash before his eyes; he could not even beg for his life as blood gushed out of his throat that had been sliced open.

Lester had killed the man; he did it with a sword formed out of water. Lester was a proficient mage; he could use water as an extra limb. He could make it sharp and hard or soft and slippery... to fit the situation.

The huge man he had killed fell backwards, and his cloak moved to expose his face; he was the one that had threatened Kai some months ago.

It turns out that Lester had implored the use of the silver wing faction as a mercenary group to kill Kai in the land but they didn’t succeed.

“Sigh… I have to find another commander. Sigh.” Lester seemed troubled as he dragged the huge man away with a contraption made of water. His sigh wasn’t because he killed someone but because he would have to find a new replacement. Sigh.

Meanwhile, after days of travelling by carriage, Darcy and Samantha had entered the Western continent... Which was like a third-world country to them in the central continent.

They didn’t know how to get there, by the way; they had never thought that one day they would travel to the Western continent. It never crossed their mind to learn the topography of the western continent or to pay attention when it was taught, as in the case of Lady Dorchaidehe.

Although the western continent was large and had land and a lot of strong mages still, they were where they were in terms of prowess and other criteria that made a land great or prosperous.

They had just made it to the boundary of the western continent. On the other hand, Damien and Adrian had just gotten home.

“My sons!! Whom have made me proud!”

The father of the twins, patriarch Lemuel ran up to his two sons. He had an expression of joy etched on his face, which he hardly ever showed since he became patriarch.

Patriarch Lemuel could not understand why his sons had a sad expression. They were meant to be happy; they had fulfilled the wish of their dying ancestor.

Patriarch Lemuel pushed the thought of them failing out of his mind. The thought of them failing was something that... Let’s just stop there…

Soon it was night. The two brothers were called into their father’s inner chamber. The moment they stepped inside, it seemed to them that the temperature of the room had fallen by a million degrees.

"Come, my sons.”

Patriarch Lemuel’s voice called out to them, Damien and Adrian. Cold sweat ran down their spine as they walked towards their father.

“Father, you sent for us?”

Damien was the first to speak up; he was the eloquent brother. Meanwhile, Adrian just stood there in silence, dreading the thrashing they were to receive from their father as punishment.

“Yes, I did. Now tell me about the boy you met... Tell me everything.” The anticipation was evident in Patriarch Lemuel’s voice; he seemed really anxious to know about Kai. To be clear, everyone in the room was anxious, but for different reasons.

Adrian was anxious because he knew for sure that he was going to get thrashed this evening. Damien, on the other hand, was anxious for the fact that his parents would see him as irresponsible, and they would no longer treat him the way they did.

Damien opened his mouth, and it didn’t take long for Patriarch Lemuel to understand what was going on.

Damien was truly proficient in the use of words. He made it sound as though they didn’t lose Kai and that everything was going according to plan.

“So when will I get to see this, Kai?”

—Gulp—

The question made the two brothers swallow hard saliva. But as such, Damien was the one to save the day.

After some time of explaining everything to Patriarch Lemuel... Well, not everything; they walked out of the room.

“Phew…”

Finally, Adrian could breathe the air of relief. His sigh did carry a lot of emotions. “How did you pull that off?”

Adrian asked as the two brothers walked towards their shared chamber.

“Even I don’t know.”

And honestly, Damien really didn’t know; it seemed too easy, and his father seemed to accept his words as the truth.

Patriarch Lemuel knew that his sons had lost Kai. If they hadn't, they would have told him Kai’s exact location... But they told him he went home without telling him exactly where Kai was.

“Let me trust them.”

A week or two ago...

King Sullivan was in deep thought, he had lost track of Lord Marshall, the relic wasn’t working any more, it all felt unreal to Sullivan.

But King Sullivan was dragged out of his train if thought with a disturbance in the space around his domain... The imperial palace

A crashing sound was heard in the imperial palace; it was as though the whole palace shook as a result of the crashing object.

The cloud of dust this time was even higher and had more density than the one that occurred in Blue Dragon City.

Vilholin truly knew how to make an entrance. Luckily for King Sullivan, Vilholin landed in his personal garden. A garden that that time was all the rage for nobility.

“What’s happening?!?”

One of the many soldiers in the palace said out loud. Most of his voice was drowned in the rumbling and ruckus of Vilholin’s arrival.

“it is an earthquake!” The other soldier shouted back.

“We haven’t had an earthquake in years!”

And such was the conversation that occupied most, if not all, the soldiers and personnel in the imperial palace.

‘it’s him…’

Of course, King Sullivan would know from a mile away if his space had been breached. But this time didn’t know who it was until it landed in his backyard.

Most people in the imperial palace didn’t know who Vilholin was, except for the close members of the king’s court. Not even Prince Wilson knew about him.

It didn’t take a lot of time for the cloud of dust and debris to settle down. Vilholin walked out of the cloud, holding Gilbert by the collar like a dog—no, something worse than a dog—towards a kneeling King Sullivan.

If his subordinates saw him now... they would never be able to unsee it. The strong and domineering king Sullivan was kneeling to a young man who just demolished his garden instead of being angry with him.

“My Lord, this is a pleasant visit.” King Sullivan even shocked himself with the polite tone in which he spoke to Vilholin.

“Take your son.”

Vilholin tossed Gilbert towards his father.

King Sullivan caught the unconscious prince Denzel, who had his mask already peeling off. This mask hadn’t left Denzel’s face; it could not even be detected by a king-level mage. But now it was peeling off.

“T—thank you, my Lord... Would you care to grace my home with your presence for a few days?” King Sullivan was unbelievably humble.

“No.”

That was all Vilholin said as he turned around and was about to leave but he turned around before he left. He had a sinister smile on his face as he said these words. “Oh, and be careful.”

—BOOM—

Before Sullivan could say something or attempt to stop Vilholin, he was already bathed in dust and debris. “What… Did you mean?”

Sullivan was disappointed that he didn’t get to know what Vilholin meant.

In the evening of the next day...

Denzel woke up from his coma; Prince Wilson was what he saw first. He had been sitting beside Denzel since he came back.

“Brother! You are awake. Let me call Father.” Wilson rushed out of the room a few moments later. Prince Wilson and King Sullivan walked into the room. King Sullivan’s eyes lit up when he saw that Denzel had woken up and was gaining colour.

“Wilson…”

“Yes, father.”

The look in Sullivan’s eyes gave no room for argument as he said these words. “Leave us; I have something important to talk about with your brother.”

“Yes father.”

Although Wilson was totally against what his father wanted from him, he had to concede and walk out of the room. He had seen that expression before, and it didn’t turn out well. Even though he said he had forgiven the person, that’s how Lester ended up as he is, almost losing his royal status.

To cut the conversation short, Denzel relayed everything that had happened in his nineteen years of living with Lord Marshall; he explained everything... Even the unexpected arrival of Kai.

Naturally, King Sullivan knew of the young man who had the blood element. He had even assigned Lester with the task of killing him. You know to make him proud; at least that’s what he thought.

Now hearing that this young man could still be alive kind of haunted him. Karma.

“Rest, you have done a lot.” King Sullivan assured Denzel with those words and left the room.

King Sullivan had to explain to everyone what the turbulence that occurred yesterday was. He told them that it was the arrival of Prince Denzel that he finally came back from his twenty-year-long royal training.