The hideout Duran led Kael to was nothing more than a sunken chamber beneath the ruins—part of an old blood-train station long since buried by collapse and time. The walls still hummed faintly with residual power, pulsing like a forgotten heartbeat.
Kael sat on a cracked platform, shirtless, sweat beading on his skin. His fingers trembled, and his chest burned as if something inside was pushing outward, begging to be unleashed.
"It started after the fight," Kael said, voice rough. "Ever since I touched that Reaper's blood… I can feel something moving in me. Not just energy. It's like I'm merging with something."
Duran crouched beside him, pulling on thick gloves and activating a worn scanner made of brass and obsidian glass. The machine hummed. Crimson light swept over Kael's body, focusing on his chest.
The moment it reached the seal over Kael's heart, the scanner stuttered and died.
Duran swore under his breath. "It's already begun."
"What has?" Kael asked, leaning forward.
Duran hesitated. "The Blood Core."
Kael blinked. "What's a Blood Core?"
"The source of every true bloodline," Duran said. "Most people inherit their blood traits in fragments—diluted abilities, weakened through generations. But your kind, the Vyr… they didn't inherit. They became. The first Vyr created their Blood Cores through force of will, by binding their identity to blood itself. Once formed, the Core grows inside you—feeds on your essence, strengthens your body, your senses, your mind."
Kael swallowed. "So that's what I'm feeling?"
"No. What you're feeling is worse." Duran stood and began pacing. "Your Blood Core isn't just forming. It's synchronizing. It means you didn't just awaken your power—you've inherited a true Vyr legacy. And that legacy is alive."
Kael leaned back, breath catching. "Alive?"
"That seal on your chest? It's a fragment of an ancient Core—one that should have been destroyed when the Vyr fell. It remembers what it once was. It's trying to reclaim that power through you."
Kael's hand drifted to the glowing mark over his heart. It pulsed once beneath his palm—slow, strong, steady.
Thump.
Then again.
Thump.
And then, inside his head—clearer than any whisper before—a voice spoke.
"Consume."
Kael stiffened.
Duran saw the change immediately. "What did it say?"
Kael's lips moved slowly. "It said… 'Consume.'"
He clutched his head as a burning sensation ripped through him—images flooding his mind.
Blood splashing across stone. Men screaming. A warrior in silver-black armor tearing through soldiers with hands that glowed like dying stars. The same pulse. The same whisper.
"Consume. Evolve."
Kael's heart beat louder. The pulse wasn't just in his chest now—it echoed in his bones, in his veins.
"Make it stop," Kael hissed, falling to his knees. "I can't shut it out!"
Duran grabbed his shoulders, forcing him to look up. "Listen to me. This Core is not just power—it's memory. Identity. If you let it dominate you, you become the legacy, not yourself. The Vyr were erased for a reason. You have to resist."
But Kael was already slipping—eyes glowing faintly, breath uneven, fingers digging into the floor. The world seemed to distort. He could feel Duran's blood pumping, hear the shift of rats in the walls, sense the iron in every drop of rusted water.
"Ascend."
The third word hit like lightning. Kael arched back, light pouring from his chest as the seal fully activated for the first time.
The Blood Core roared awake.
Symbols danced across his skin in a language he couldn't read—markings of the old Vyr tongue. Energy spiraled around him. The stone beneath cracked. Dust lifted. The air became sharp, like it was slicing itself.
Then—just as fast—it stopped.
The light vanished. The seal dulled.
Kael collapsed forward, panting.
Silence.
"…Did it work?" he gasped.
Duran stared at him, pale. "You survived your first Core pulse. That alone proves the seal chose you."
Kael wiped blood from his nose. "I felt like I was becoming something else."
"You were. And next time, you might not come back so easily."
Kael looked up, the final word echoing again in his head:
"Ascend."
There was a hunger in that voice—not for food, not for power—but for transcendence.
Kael sat in silence, fists clenched.
He didn't want to be just another weapon in a blood war. He didn't ask for this. But now… something had awakened.
Something ancient. Something alive.
And it wanted him to rise.