Crimson Core

After the deity had finished explaining everything to Kai. They walked towards a bright portal of light, he had to close his eyes.

The next time his eyes opened he was in that same underground room. Kai looked around to see that the book was no longer there but a huge wooden coffin.

“Open it.” he heard in his head.

Kai walked towards the coffin, obeying the deity’s command and opened it.

“Phew! That was heavy.”

—Du—

The coffin door fell on the ground and raised a large amount of dust, “The man in there is the right-hand man of your father, Baron Mason. Take the amulet.”

The amulet was made of a glass-like black material. It had this cold and gloomy aura around it, and it had strange engravings as though it was half of something.

Kai extended his hand to take the amulet that The corpse held close to his chest. He was a strong man even in death, his grip was something else.

—Crack—

HIS HANDS BROKE!!

If Lord Marshall saw this he would not forgive Kai even into the next life. He had to be quick and leave that place.

Kai hid the amulet inside his inner clothing and closed the coffin. He was almost out of the huge room, that now looked like a king’s tomb. Then this thought entered his mind.

‘I came here with someone— Chelsea! Where is she?’

Kai looked around and found Chelsea in one corner of the room. When he got to her he discovered she was not moving.

“Is she dead?” As Kai said those words he felt this pain as though he had lost something precious. Looking at Chelsea not moving made him enter a deep turmoil. His heart was almost falling out of his chest. ‘What is this that I feel?’

“She is not dead, the shock wave had knocked her unconscious. She is still useful to me, take her upstairs.”

Kai walked forward and picked Chelsea up and left the tomb. The flight of stairs was still as long as before, but it was harder now, Kai couldn’t even explain how he carried Chelsea and also a flame torch.

After what seemed like two hours, he could now see the light escaping from Chelsea’s chamber. As they both came out from the hole in Chelsea’s chamber Kai was shocked to see that it was still nighttime. It was just a bit closer to midnight, and the manor’s light were still on.

Kai placed Chelsea on her bed. His face was so close to hers. He seemed under a spell— Chelsea’s spell. Her breathing was stable, whereas his breathing was getting hard, she looked so beautiful, her features looked sculped by the Gods. He could not resist….almost.

Kai caught a grip on himself before things got out of hand. He walked out of Chelsea’s bedroom. As soon as he got to Chelsea’s chamber door, he heard the sound of people walking on the hardwood floor.

—Bad-um, Bad-um—

If he got caught here, this would lead to a lot of problems that he wasn’t ready for. Kai’s mind was a mess, thinking of what he had to do, and where he could hide. He backed away from the door.

Fortunately, Chelsea’s chamber had many rooms. So he hid behind the door that led into Chelsea’s study which was closest to the door out of Chelsea’s chamber.

—Knock, knock—

“Lady Chelsea, it’s time for your massage?” One of the maids at the door spoke.

Meanwhile, Kai was where he was trying to keep his heart from exploding. Some time had passed and they was still no response from the unconscious Chelsea. The maids decided to turn away.

“Lady Chelsea, we will come again tomorrow morning.”

“It seems Lady Chelsea is asleep, let’s go.” The second maid said and the sound of fading footsteps was heard.

He had to wait for it to be safe. As soon Kai had ascertained that it was safe, he walked towards the door and opened it as slow as humanly possible.

—Creak—

Kai peeped through the small opening and saw that the hallway was clear. He bolted out of the door, into the hallway, up to his room and fell on his bed.

“Phew…”

Two female servants were walking together, “I wonder why young sir was running, Was something chasing him?”

“I can’t say… Something was off about him.”

The next morning, before the sun had risen…

‘HEY…. WAKE UP!’ Kai heard a scream in his head. ‘It’s time for your test.’

“What test?” Kai asked, all groggy and tired from last night.

“You will get it soon, Now get up and walk to the training ground behind the mansion.”

Kai yawned, “Haw…I Am still tired I just woke up.”

“That’s not what I asked. Looks like I have to take another approach to this.” Kai didn’t understand what the deity meant until he felt something, an unexplainable pain.

It was excruciating, worse than the pain caused by the green specks of light during the test. Kai felt the pain he had never felt before, this was a whole new level of it, as though his skin was turning inside out.

Worst of all, he could not scream out. His throat was numb, and his mouth opened but no sound came out, and he could not express the pain he was going through.

“Please… Please… No more.” Surprisingly, Kai could talk but not scream as he begged for the deity’s mercy.

“I will stop but you have to go to the training ground behind the mansion.”

Kai struggled, but had to respond, “You…ngh…win.”

“Alright.” As soon as the words of the deity entered his head, the pain stopped. It felt as if he was never in pain to begin with.

“Stand up, let’s go have your first training session.” Kai got up from his bed and walked downstairs into the mansion courtyard under the deity’s persuasion.

Kai walked towards the training yard, but he noticed something; There was this lingering feeling of superiority within him. It was as though everybody inferior. He didn’t feel this way the night before.

Kai entered the training yard. It was a large expanse of green land. It had equipment for training different aspects of the body, archery, sword-practice-training equipment, strength honing, it was so fascinating.

“Enough of being fascinated. Time to sweat!” The deity urged him, “Walk towards the boulders. Start with light ones, and keep going till you reach your limit.”

Kai obliged. He walked towards the boulders and started lifting them. 20kg….40kg….80kg….160kg. It was becoming tough, but he knew this was not his limit. When he lifted the boulder weighing 200 kilograms he knew he could not go any further.

“Now…”

Kai had steeled his mind to receive whatever it was the deity wanted him to do as training, but what he heard was not what he would have expected even in his wildest dreams.

“….This is what I want you to do, lift the boulder onto your shoulder and run around this field ten times.”

“Hmm?!” Kai raised a single eyes brow comically.

The field was HUGE it was almost as large as a village, Running around it once with this boulder was already impossible, and running with it three times was death.

“It seems I wasn’t clear enough, I. SAID. RUN. ROUND. THIS. FIELD. WITH. THIS. STONE. TEN. TIMES.” Kai was already feeling a trace of the pain he felt earlier that morning, and it was increasing.

“—Wait…! I will do it.” It was tough but Kai had to lift the stone place it on his back, tie it in place and start running. He had never felt this heavy in his life.

By the time he was done with the first lap, Kai was already sinking into the ground.

Before the second lap was done his footwear was already worn out, he had torn his shirt so that he would not drown in his sweat because the deity would not let him take the stone off and remove his shirt. His hair was shriveled, he breathing was already haggard.

As at the time he was about to finish the sixth lap. He was no longer running or walking, he was crawling to the finish line. His nails were broken, His back was full of blisters and blood flowed from his back; it was simply a gory scene.

Kai was a wreck, but all this pain did not compare to the pain he felt from the deity. “Good…good, now for your next exercise.”

Kai could not even retort. He was experiencing pain all over his body. It was clear that this deity-woman wanted to kill him.

“How could I forget… Heal.” The injuries on Kai’s skin closed up and healed.

Not only that but he felt no pain not even the least fatigue, it was as if it wasn’t him who had just done this exercise.

“It seems the sun is about to rise. We will have to end this session here. We would wake up earlier tomorrow, alright?”

Kai didn’t respond. Instead, he untied the boulder from his body and walked towards the mansion. At this time the servants were already awake and working when he walked into the mansion.

Walking into the mansion, all the maids in the household looked at him with traces of shock, desire, awe… Or so it seemed.

Kai entered his room and fell on his bed. He was wondering why he didn’t feel the pains of the training session. To soothe his worries, a voice, a very familiar voice was heard.

“You did not expect that it would be this easy? Now did you?”

It didn’t take long. After the deity spoke through Kai, he felt the pain from the training before.

Kai’s lungs felt like collapsing, his joints were on fire. His head was spinning, and just laying down on the bed was torture. Kai lay on his bed writhing in pain and anguish as the deity had removed her magic from his body.

Kai on his part had totally forgotten that he could heal himself. Actually, even if he wanted to he didn’t know how. His thinking process was muddled by the pain

“Mm hmm….you are killing me….” Kai said as he felt pain in all the wrong places.

“You know…. If had let you feel the pain you would not be able to come up here, I mean to your room.” The deity said matter-of-factly.

“You…ngh…could have…ngh…just let…me…ngh…off without…the pain.” Kai struggled to talk.

“What’s the fun in that? Tell me?” The Deity asked, in a smug tone.

“You….are….sadistic….you….know….that?”

‘Get your rest, you will need it,’ the deity spoke in his mind this time.

Suddenly Kai’s eyes became so heavy that he felt drowsy and dizzy all the same as soon as the deity spoke those words in his head.

“Srnnk…Phew…Srnnk…”

Within a short time, Kai was already fast asleep.

A devilish and sinister aura spread out of Kai, increasing as he slept, and it didn’t seem to be stopping. ‘The corruption is affecting him; this is too much for his body to bear, and this might be bad for him… Oh what do I care? If he dies I’ll just have to find another human to bond with.’

Chelsea had just woken up from her sleep. “Yawn… Why do I feel so tired?” She seemed to recollect herself after those words escaped her mouth.

“What am I doing in my room? I thought I was underground with Kai, and there was a book, and… What happened to him?”

Thinking that Kai was still underground, or maybe he got hurt in some way. ‘I have to go and see him.’ Chelsea already stood up wanting to go down the secret pathway.

—Knock, knock—

“Who is it?”

“Good morning, Lady Chelsea, it’s Victoria. Lord Marshall sends for you, he is in the garden.” This was a bad change of plans for Chelsea.

“Come in.”

Victoria, Chelsea’s maid entered the room, and bowed. “Good morning milady, I assume you rested in the arms of Morpheus?”

“Yes, you can put it that way,” Chelsea said. ‘…Or you could say I got hit in the back of the head.’

Chelsea stood up and left the room with Victoria.

“Umm miss Chelsea…” Victoria said as they went out the room.

“Yes Victoria, what is it?” Chelsea said as she slowed down.

“It is about, your guest, Kai….” At this point, Chelsea stopped and turned around. Victoria was taken aback by Chelsea’s sudden weird behavior.

“What about him?” Chelsea inquired. ‘Could it be that father caught him?’ She was internally panicking.

“It’s nothing serious lady Chelsea, he did some training today.”

“Oh? What’s wrong with him training?” Chelsea asked with furrowed brows.

“Well, nothing Lady Chelsea, it is just that, he trained as if there was a war coming.” Victoria said nonchalantly, as it was a known fact.

“Is that so? Tell me more.” Chelsea became sincerely curious.

“He ran round the training field three times…” Victoria started only to pause to give the desired effect on the listener; she had been honing her gossiping skills for a long time.

“What?!!” Chelsea’s eyes almost pooped out of its sockets as a result of the shock.

“Yes, milady and that is not all, he was carrying a big boulder on his back, it was purely inhuman.”

Chelsea had to retain her shock. “It is purely inhuman, but see if he would do it tomorrow as well.”

“Yes milady.”

“You can go attend to your duties,” Chelsea dismissed Victoria; she had a lot to think about now.

“Yes, milady.” Victoria took a turn and walked into another branch of the hallway.

‘Kai is not human? Did I just bring in a monster into my home?’ Chelsea did her best to prevent herself from going to Kai’s room. The urge to see what he was up to now and ask him what was happening to him was huge.

After some time of walking Chelsea got to where her father; Lord Marshall was waiting for her.