[Blood Core Level 0: Incomplete]
[Sovereign Potential Detected: 2%]
Kairo blinked.
The world returned in a haze of red. His back was pressed against cold stone, breath shallow, chest heaving like a furnace trying to restart. The cavernous temple was still—eerily so—but the silence was no longer empty.
It throbbed with presence.
Lines of red light pulsed across the walls like veins, converging on the stone altar where he'd last stood. He touched his chest. His skin burned with heat, and beneath it… something new. Something alive.
The interface hovered before him in a crimson glow, suspended in the air.
[Sovereign System: Awakening Sequence Complete]
[Subject: Kairo Elian]
[Blood Core Level 0: Incomplete]
[Sovereign Potential Detected: 2%]
[Warning: Latent Instability Detected]
"What… is this?" Kairo whispered.
A voice answered—not from the altar, not from the walls, but within him.
"Sovereign Reign protocol initialized. Welcome, Bloodless One."
His hands shook. "Who are you?"
"You are chosen by the Reign. You bear the Ashmark of the First. You are no longer bound to the rules of caste or clan."
The voice was deep, ancient, echoing across dimensions. Not angry. Not kind. Indifferent.
"You will rise by blood. Or you will die forgotten. Evolution demands sacrifice."
Kairo stared as more text appeared:
[Sovereign Rule 1: To evolve, you must bleed.]
[Sovereign Rule 2: Power cannot be inherited—only taken.]
[Sovereign Rule 3: Dominion is destiny.]
He gritted his teeth. "I don't understand."
"You will. When you spill your first worthy blood."
The interface shimmered, and a vision overtook him again.
He saw Sovereigns—not just kings, not human. Armored in blood-forged metal, standing atop broken worlds. One raised a hand and a thousand spears of crimson light shot through the heavens. Another shattered a moon with a scream. One walked through a field of corpses as galaxies burned in the sky above.
And at the center of them all stood a figure cloaked in shadow, with the same crimson ring glowing across his chest.
The First.
Kairo fell to his knees, gasping.
The images faded. The voice remained.
"Your enemies will call you a heretic. A monster. A Sovereign."
He stumbled to his feet, still trembling. "Why me?"
No answer. Only a single prompt left floating:
[Do You Accept the Reign?]
[Y/N]
His heart pounded. The rational answer was no. No sane person accepted the Reign of Blood. No one volunteered for madness.
But Kairo had no family. No status. No future. All he'd known was filth, fear, and the sting of fists from higher-born sons.
They called him bloodless.
If this Reign could change that—if it could give him power—then maybe…
Maybe he could take back what they stole.
He raised a trembling finger.
[Y]
The altar exploded in red lightning.
Agony lanced through him as tendrils of crimson light burst from the altar and pierced his limbs, his chest, his eyes. He screamed, collapsing to the floor, writhing as blood turned to fire in his veins.
He didn't die.
He changed.
When Kairo opened his eyes, the world was quieter. Sharper. Every surface of the temple seemed more vivid. The air tasted metallic. He could hear something humming in his chest—like a second heartbeat.
His arms no longer ached.
He looked down.
The birthmark—his Ashmark—no longer looked like skin. It glowed faintly, pulsing in time with his breath. His hands no longer felt weak. They felt… ready.
The interface returned.
[Sovereign Core Initialized.]
[Current Level: 0.1 — Dormant Embers]
[You are now eligible to claim blood.]
[Mission: First Claim]
Eliminate a blooded foe. Absorb essence. Expand Core.
Kairo swallowed hard.
"Claim blood," he echoed.
The Sovereign System pulsed.
"Bleed to evolve. Kill to reign. Rule to live."
He exited the temple with cautious steps, squinting as the ruins greeted him with open, cracked silence. The clouds above the slums were still gray. The world hadn't changed.
But he had.
Kairo walked back toward the outskirts of Ironshade's slum district, heart pounding. The wind carried dust and smoke, but it no longer smelled like rot to him—it smelled like weakness.
He didn't understand what was happening to him fully. But he could feel it inside, coiled and waiting. Hunger.
•
"The Slum Reaper"
The slums of Ironshade didn't notice when Kairo came back.
No one ever did.
Smoke curled from blackened chimneys. Market stalls creaked. Rats scurried between mud-brick alleys. The same stink of sweat, mold, and despair soaked the air. But Kairo didn't smell it anymore.
His senses buzzed—hyperaware, twitching at every sound.
He walked with his hood up, head down, past the butcher's shack and the abandoned smithy, toward the alley where he and Ena used to share scraps behind the bakery.
She wasn't there.
Gone.
Taken.
His fists clenched at his sides. Beneath his skin, the Sovereign Core pulsed like a second heart.
[Blood Core: 0.1 – Dormant Embers]
[Mission: First Claim — Status: Incomplete]
Every time he blinked, the text shimmered red. And in his head, the words echoed:
"Bleed to evolve. Kill to reign."
He hated it. And yet… part of him felt the hunger sharpening.
He turned down a back-alley path, intending to check a shelter where Ena once hid when the city guards patrolled.
He didn't get far.
"Kairo," someone sneered behind him.
He froze.
Three figures stepped out of the shadows—filthy boys with sharper teeth than their knives. Local trash. Not blooded. Not noble. Just mean.
The leader—Nix, a rat-faced teen who'd once broken Kairo's nose over a crust of bread—grinned.
"Well, look who survived the Trials. Thought you'd be curled up crying like a kicked mutt."
Kairo said nothing. He was already weighing distances. Heart rate. Exit points.
The second thug, taller and slower, circled behind. "What's in the bag, huh? You steal something from the Academy?"
"No," Kairo replied, flatly.
"Then hand it over," Nix said, drawing a rusted blade.
Old fear wanted to rise in Kairo's throat. The fear that had lived there his whole life. Fear of being beaten, of being nothing.
But another voice, deeper, colder, rose instead.
"Bleed to evolve."
Kairo's left hand twitched.
The third boy lunged for him.
Everything moved too fast.
Kairo twisted, dodged—felt something surge beneath his skin—and suddenly, his blood moved.
It spiked from his palm.
A crimson blade erupted from his hand like liquid steel, jagged, pulsing. Before he realized what was happening, it had already driven itself into the attacker's chest.
The boy collapsed. Choking. Bleeding.
Dead.
Time stopped.
[+1 Blood Core Progression. Blood Absorbed.]
[Essence Transferred. Core: 0.2 – Flickering Ember.]
The body thudded to the dirt.
The other two boys screamed.
Kairo stared at his hand. The blood blade hissed, then retracted, dripping into his skin like it had never existed.
He fell back, gasping. Horror. Disbelief.
He had killed someone.
He had…
No. He had survived.
His whole life, he had been prey. Beaten by highbloods, spit on by slum gangs. Called bloodless.
Now?
They ran from him.
Nix fled into the alley, screaming for help. The taller boy stumbled after him, slipping on mud.
And Kairo—
Kairo was shaking.
Not from fear.
From adrenaline.
His chest heaved. The Sovereign Core pulsed brighter.
[New Trait Unlocked: Blood Armament – Tier I]
Manifest your blood as a weapon. Efficiency increases with each kill.
He stumbled to the wall, leaned against it, and vomited.
His hands were stained. The blood was real. The corpse lay in the dirt behind him.
He slid to the ground.
And laughed.
Not because it was funny.
Because he could feel it—the change. The system wanted this. It fed off it. Every pulse of his Core was louder. Hotter. Hungrier.
He had done the unthinkable.
And a small, terrible part of him didn't regret it.
Minutes passed. Maybe hours.
Kairo sat in the filth, staring at his hands.
When the system's voice returned, it was calm. Cold. Like metal.
"One step taken. A thousand to go."
He wiped his hands on his shirt and stood.
Still shaking.
Still horrified.
But more than anything—awake.
The slums no longer seemed bigger than him. The shadows no longer threatened. Because now… he was one of them.
Maybe worse.
As he left the alley, his interface blinked again.
[First Kill Registered: System Stable]
[Bloodline Activation: 3%]
[Blood Core: 0.2 – Flickering Ember]
[Next Threshold: 1.0 – Embers Ignite]
Requirement: Claim Blood from a Blooded Opponent.
He swallowed.
A blooded opponent?
Someone awakened. Elemental. Gifted. Dangerous.
This first kill had been instinct. The next would be war.
The system didn't care how he felt. It only craved blood.
But now, Kairo knew what he had to do.
He had to find Ena. Protect her. And maybe—just maybe—uncover the truth of what was done to him.
Because he was no longer bloodless.
And if the Sovereign System wanted war…
Then war it would get.