Crimson Core

A few days ago at the Marshall Manor...

In the garden, the question that Lord Marshall had asked Chelsea kept her silent. Chelsea thought and thought, at the moment she was in deep thought. It took some time to think before Chelsea could come up with a satisfactory answer. “Father actually…” Chelsea paused to get her thoughts in the right place. “I am not sure.”

Truthfully, she wasn’t sure what she felt for Kai. But this was not an answer Lord Marshall was looking for. "Alright, my dear, I did ask my question clearly, Ahem.” Lord Marshall cleared his throat before continuing.

The words that came out of the mouth of Lord Marshall were slow and straight to the point: “My daughter, when you are with Kai, tell me how do you feel?”

The question Lord Marshall asked Chelsea triggered the memory of the day Kai kissed her. Her cheeks turned bright red, and she blushed hard.

Finally, she summoned all the courage within her petite body of a 19-year-old and cleared all the butterflies in her stomach before she spoke. Her voice was clear, but it was drifting. She sounded lost as she spoke, “Father... I feel happy when I am with him. I have these feelings in my stomach when he looks into my eyes. Father I have broken your laws... We… No…Kai kissed me, I was scared to tell you.” The last few words were said in a shaky tone, afraid of what her father would do to her.

Lord Marshall smiled. ‘He loves her as well. Excellent!’

"Chelsea, you are telling me that you and Kai have exchanged body fluids?” Lord Marshall had no expression on his face, what so ever.

But Chelsea could not see the expression on Lord Marshall’s face, thinking he was angry with her. “Ye— Yes Father, we kissed... Am so sorry for not telling you, Father.”

Lord Marshall was silent, Chelsea was about to bring in the big guns. She puckered her lips, widened her eyes and called on the waterworks. Her tears were about to start flowing when she heard her father’s voice and felt his hand on her chin.

“My dear daughter you have made your old man proud,”

‘Did I hear you well?’ Chelsea was confused at her father’s reaction.daughter,

“…Now I don’t have to worry about Denzel any more.. Hahaha.”

“What do you mean father?” Chelsea asked.

“Soon you would understand.”

It had been a few days since they had that conversation. Now Chelsea was lying on her bed thinking about what happened. “Ugh… I still don’t get it.” Chelsea replayed the conversation in her mind. “I wonder what Kai is doing right now?”

Chelsea was worried about him. She was scared. He looked to be the Casanova type, especially with the way he had acted with her. ‘He hasn’t called or sent a message since he left…. Hmph…. He must be having fun with another woman.’

After all, Chelsea was a woman, she had feelings and female instincts, In a way she was not wrong.

“Acho…” Kai sneezed his way awake. “…what’s wrong with me, sniff… Sniff.” It was still late at night, so Kai still had to sleep.

After a few moments, Kai was already in dreamland. Surprisingly, Kai has a silent night after all the incidents that happened that day.

Little did Kai know that the blue speck of light was doing something to his body. In simpler terms, it was merging with Kai.

In much more complex terms; the blue light was forcefully bombarding Kai with knowledge, opening his meridians to let the blood magic flow, improving his physique. Turning him into the perfect bloodthirsty beast.

The speck of blue light was the deity, spirit companion of Syther the God of death. The process took all night but the blue speck of light still hadn’t fussed completely with Kai, but it had put him in a state of hibernation until it finished.

The next morning Darcy came to push Kai out of his chamber to class as she had done the day before.

—Knock. Knock—

Darcy rapped at the door and got no response, she rapped again and the response was still not forthcoming. She became worried that Kai was in trouble or worse that he had been killed even before they started their adventure.

She used all the strength in her body to break into the room. With all the speed her body could give her, she rushed into the room to see that Kai was still lying on his bed as though it were still midnight.

Darcy checked him and Kai was still breathing, but his skin was becoming deathly pale, making him look like a snow demon with his white hair.

Darcy proceeded to wake him up, she shocked him violently, as violently as her respect for him would allow her. “Kai wake up… Kai…Kai!”

Darcy called out trying to wake him up but Kai was still unresponsive. His body was still warm at least that was a kind of assurance that he was okay.

But her female instincts could not let her leave him there. Darcy called some lower-class students to come to help her carry Kai out of bed to the school’s healer.

Seven hours later Kai woke up to find himself in a white room with a pounding headache.

The blue light, Cipher had finished fission, and Kai was now the perfect being under the heavens. A being only below the Gods themselves.

“Oi… Awake, are we? Well, well, my lad, let me tell ye—ye’re a rare case indeed.” The female voice of the school healer was heard.

Kai turned his head to find where the voice was coming from, only to see a woman, with red hair, dressed in white walking towards him.

“You are a rare case, you are aware?” The nurse placed her hand on Kai’s head.

“Ah, sure and begorrah! Ye seem fine, but not entirely. The veil flutters, revealing glimpses of the unseen. Seek within, unravel threads. What eludes ye?”

The healer’s hands glowed a green light for some time before dimming out.

Kai was not by any chance understanding what was going on. ‘I was in my room, right? How did I get here?’ Kai had a confused expression written all over his face. Topped off with his groggy expression, he looked like a meme.

The healer seemed to get a whiff of Kai’s unease. “Oi… Boy I don’t bite…” The healer had a sensual grin on her face. “…not everywhere. Ye must be ponderin’ how ye found yerself in this spot, eh?”

Kai subconsciously nodded his head to answer the healer’s question. The healer had a smile on her lips, it was not as sensual as the first, but it was warm.

“Yer colleen, she led ye to this very spot. And what did she say, ye ask? Well, she whispered, I know not what’s afoot with ye, but here we stand, caught in the dance of fate”

Kai didn’t catch any other word from the healer. “my colleen?”

The nurse seemed to understand that Kai didn’t understand what she was saying. “Yer girlfriend!” She corrected herself.

The first thought that came to mind was that Chelsea came to see him but his hopes were dashed against the wall with the next answer.

“Aye, Lady Dorchaidehe herself led ye to this very place, and it’s no secret that the two of ye are entwined in the dance of courtship…” The nurse sounded as though Kai was ignorant of a widely known fact.

“Ahh!… What is this pain in my chest for?” Chelsea was walking down the stairs, about to go out, when she felt a pain in her chest, it was there for a millisecond before disappearing as though it had never happened.

Earlier today, when Kai did not come to class, the Nyx brothers were a bit anxious.

To be clear, Damien was the anxious one, and Adrian had always been carefree. This morning Adrian told Damien about his conversation with their father. Damien, being the perfect child always wanting to please his parents, wanted to go and find Kai at that moment.

Adrian had forced him to come to class. “Surely, he would not miss combat training today.” Adrian told Damien as he dragged him to the classroom.

After a few moments, their teacher, Lester, trudged into the room. He looked around to catch a glimpse of Kai, who was nowhere to be found in the classroom.

“Someone tell me where that boy, Kai, was it? Who knows where he is?” Lester asked.

“…”

“…”

The entire class was silent, nobody knew the answer to Lester’s question.

“Nobody knows his whereabouts... Sigh, we would have to continue this class without him then.” Lester was a good teacher, he loved his class dearly, the red-rank 2. They could not compete with the purple ranks, which were the best of the best, but they were at the top of their game.

“Today we are going to have combat lessons, I would not be teaching you, Lord Banter will.” Lester announced to his class before continuing. “You would be shared in groups of two; pick your partner.”

In accordance to the unwritten rule, the twins in the class chose each other as partners. When they were done choosing partners, they headed towards the training grounds to meet with Lord Banter.

Throughout the training session, the Nyx brothers had one thing on their minds. ‘Where the fuck is Kai?’

Kai was in the healer’s office and noticed that something was wrong with him, fatally wrong with him. He felt weaker, not like a level or two weaker, he felt weak, as weak as he was growing up.

Cipher had sucked up almost all the blood essence in Kai during the fission process. Originally Kai had a 78 per cent pure blood essence coursing through his meridians. Presently all he had left was a puny 4 per cent purity of blood essence within his meridians, this could merely keep him alive. He wasn’t even a first-layer commoner mage.

Nonetheless, there was an upside to this loss. Previously, Kai had brute strength and no control, no knowledge, no finesse. But the fission of Cipher and Kai granted him a new beginning, a flashy one at that.

Presently Kai had vast knowledge imbibed into his very soul, knowledge only a being high above mortals could ever live long enough to acquire. Kai was no longer just a mage, he was something more. Although his brilliance has not come to full bloom because of the fission, all good things take time.

Kai looked around the room, it looked as if everything he looked at he could see every piece of information about it. Its origin, its age, the material it was made of. The fission of Cipher had given him godlike abilities.

The healer walked in front of Kai to check him, Kai looked at her and he saw her basic information.

May Fisher

Rank: not visible.

Loyalty: zero

Kai understood what he was seeing. Surprisingly, because of the fission with Cipher, he had unlocked a passive skill: God’s eye.

With this skill, he, Kai, could see all he needed to know about the person in front of him. Everything looked new to him; he seemed to have gained profound enlightenment.

“I see nothin’ amiss with ye, me friend. Ye’re free to be on yer way.” Kai’s train of thought came to a halt with the words that came out of the healer’s mouth.

His legs were still wobbly as a result of sapped strength, but he managed to walk out of the room and towards his dorm. Before he could reach the Mountain Tiger house, he heard a high-pitched voice he wasn’t familiar with but knew who it belonged to. "Kai, you are well!”

Before Kai could turn around to see where the voice came from, the owner of the voice pounced on him from behind. Expecting that Kai was still the same Kai she knew, she expected him to be able to hold her weight.

Kai’s wobbly legs, which could hardly hold Kai’s weight, were subjected to even more load. Not being able to bear the load, Kai’s leg gave up.

They came crashing down with Kai underneath. “Oh!” The person on top was confused as to what had just happened.

“Uh. Darcy, can you get off of me, I am about to die of suffocation.” Kai struggled to speak under Darcy.

“Hmph…. That’s what you say after making me worried... Huh?” Darcy sounded pissed off as she puckered her lips, feigning dissatisfaction.

Struggling to talk, “All alright... Get off me and I will make it up to you.” Kai said.

“Hmmph…” Darcy was inwardly happy that Kai was safe and healthy enough to walk to his chamber. “I would remember your words,” Darcy said, hesitantly before standing up.

Darcy normally would be scared of Kai, but only when she saw Kai was serious. Their relationship was complicated. To remove the awkwardness between them, Kai was free with her, prompting Darcy to be unrestrained and express herself freely as though they were siblings or something like that.

After Darcy stood up, Kai still lay on the floor in a very pitiful position. “help me up, you little girl.”

“Who are you calling a little girl?” Darcy pouted her lips even more. She looked so cute trying to be stubborn, but none the less, Darcy still helped Kai up.

Dorchaidehe Firefield.

Element: fire

Rank: Noble (38%), peak layer warrior mage

Loyalty: 52 %

‘She is loyal to me this much?’ Kai asked himself, thinking that the number was too small.

Recently, Darcy had been giving Kai a lot of thinking time, nobody knows what she thought about, but her loyalty towards Kai had increased without any effort from him.

Darcy helped Kai to his chamber and helped him sit down. The reason why these passive skills were granted to him was still a mystery to Kai. What had happened to him last night? He lost all his powers, and became a shell of his former self.

The stuff that made him powerful had been stripped off of him.

Darcy brought a chair and sat in front of Kai. Her expression was grave, her voice solemn. “Tell me what happened to you?”

Kai knew he had to be honest with her, telling her lies would not help his goal. Now that he thought about it, Kai asked himself. ‘What really is my goal?’

Kai was in a dilemma, he once had power, great power, now he had vastly acknowledged everything in the world of magic and more god-like abilities, even more than he knew he could do; but all for what?

Was it to take back the kingdom? His mind has never gone there, was it to take revenge for his father? He didn’t give a flying fuck about the man that made his mother pregnant with him.

This was on Kai’s mind as he retold what happened to him to Darcy. The words coming out of Kai’s mouth made Darcy think she was dreaming. How he lost his powers, how he gained vast knowledge it all seemed like a child’s brainchild.

A little more and Darcy’s jaw would have become one with the floor of Kai’s chamber. Darcy’s thinking was going sideways, she had already become his subordinate, and she could not desert him at this point. She made up her mind to stick with him. ‘He can still get stronger; I believe in him.’

Against all odds, Darcy made a bold resolve to stick by Kai’s side, she had already passed her bottleneck because of his blood, but surely she would not lose by following him.

Kai kept talking but still kept his eyes on Darcy, her loyalty status was swaying, sometimes her loyalty was somewhere around 50%, some other times her loyalty fell to an all-time low of 30% but never zero.

After some time, Darcy’s loyalty to him stabilized at 57%; it had increased once again. It was time for Darcy to go. They had talked for a few hours, so it was late. Darcy stood up to take her to leave. “Please take care, and try to stabilize yourself.” Darcy bowed her head and turned to leave.

Kai looked at her leave, but he felt he could make her stronger. “Wait!”

Darcy was shocked at his actions, she stopped abruptly and turned slowly towards Kai. Seemingly out of instinct, Kai put his hand into his shadow and his hand disappeared into it, A scroll came out with his hand as he pulled it out of his shadow.

He had unconsciously activated devil’s Space. “This is for you, it’s a spell, it’s compatible with you,” Kai said with an expressionless face, although he was even more bewildered than even Darcy, who looked gobsmacked.

“Wh- where did it come from?” Darcy could not contain her shock at what just happened. She knew of spatial rings but she had never heard of someone pulling something out of thin air.

With his hand still outstretched, Kai said to Darcy. “I promised to make you stronger, did I not? Take it; it’s a Baron-level spell; try to master it, it will help your growth... If you don’t want it, I can keep it.” Kai was about to put the still back in his shadow.

But the hunger for power was something she Darcy simply couldn’t let go, especially baron level spell. Even her family had only two and they were usurped by her elder brothers. “Wait…! I will take it.” Darcy took the scroll from Kai and walked out of the room.

Kai had a smile on his face as he watched Darcy walk out through the door. He laid back on the bed. With his face towards the ceiling, before long he was lost in thoughts. ‘What is my purpose of wanting to become stronger?’ Kai asked himself as his eyes were fixed on the ceiling of his bedroom.

Kai was in that position, for some time, thinking and asking himself what was the reason he was about to embark on this journey. After some time of thinking, Kai seemed to gain understanding and enlightenment of some sort.