Chapter 39 - 37: The Trial of Blood
The heavy crimson doors slammed shut with a deafening, thunderous boom that vibrated through the stone soles of Kael’s boots.
Instantly, the ambient light of the dungeon vanished. Kael stood alone in a vast, desolate expanse of cracked, obsidian floor, surrounded by an endless, swirling sea of blood-red fog. The air in the chamber smelled overwhelmingly of iron, wet copper, and fresh carnage.
A low, mechanical rumble reverberated through the spatial realm, followed by an ancient, disembodied voice that resonated directly inside his head:
"Bloodline recognized... Killing Trait detected... Three trials will determine whether the bearer commands the blood... or becomes its servant."
Kael took a deep, steadying breath. Three trials... This isn’t just a test of raw strength. It’s testing whether I can stay me while using this power.
Stage One - The Hunt
The ancient voice echoed again:
"First Stage: The Hunt. Survive the Crimson Vanguard."
Before the sound died away, the red fog twenty paces ahead condensed rapidly, solidifying into the terrifying shape of a colossal quadruped beast. Standing over ten feet tall, its body was forged entirely from hardened, calcified bone plate and pulsating, liquid blood. Its four eyes burned like molten gold, and its broad jaw opened to reveal rows of razor-sharp bone fangs.
ROAR!
The creature unleashed a sound wave so violent that the obsidian ground cracked beneath Kael’s feet, throwing him back three steps.
Instinctively, Kael’s hands reached toward his waist, searching for the leather pouch where he kept his suppressive drug petals the bitter, expensive herbs he relied on every day to choke back the volatile itch in his core.
His hand met empty air. He had left them with Elena outside.
"No drugs down here, kid," Kael muttered to himself, his voice shaking slightly as he dropped into a low, defensive stance. "Just you and the curse."
The Bloodbound Beast lunged in a terrifying blur, its bone-plated claw tearing through the air. Kael ducked violently to the left, but the wind from the strike grazed his cheek, drawing a thin line of blood. The moment his blood touched the crimson fog, the mist reacted violently, surging into Kael’s skin and plunging straight into his mana channels.
AGH!
Kael collapsed to one knee, clutching his head as a violent, blinding fever exploded behind his eyes.
The Killing Trait awoke.
His physical strength skyrocketed as his core overheated, but his mind began to rapidly deteriorate. The familiar madness surged into his brain a dark, screaming voice demanding that he abandon thought and slaughter everything in sight.
The Beast swung its massive tail, striking Kael square in the ribs with sickening force and blasting him fifty feet across the arena. Kael slammed onto his back, coughing up a mouthful of blood.
The more blood I lose... the stronger the trait becomes, Kael realized through the red haze, his fingers digging into the stone floor. It’s a trap. If I give in to the surge, I’ll gain massive power, but I’ll lose myself entirely.
The Beast paced toward him, ready for the kill.
In the heat of the madness, Kael remembered Elena. Not just her crying he remembered why she spent her life buying those illegal suppressive petals. She wasn’t trying to weaken him out of hatred for his power. She was terrified of losing her brother.
I’ve spent my entire life trying to destroy this part of myself, Kael realized, a sudden clarity piercing the red fog. Maybe I was never supposed to destroy it. I don’t need to choke this power out... I need to accept it without surrendering to it.
Instead of desperately suppressing the rage, Kael opened his core and welcomed the violent heat, shaping it with his will.
BOOM!
A localized shockwave of pure crimson mana erupted from his body. The chaotic aura coalesced into a smooth, dense layer of blood-red armor wrapped tightly around his arms, chest, and shoulders. He felt the first layer of restraint over his chaotic blood unlock, turning raw frenzy into usable strength.
Kael stepped forward, his eyes clear despite the red flame around his body. With a single, devastating fire-and-blood infused strike, he slammed his fist through the Bloodbound Beast’s chest, shattering its core into a shower of light.
The monster dissolved, but Kael remained standing, breathing heavily. He hadn’t completely mastered the trait yet, but he had learned its first fundamental truth: I can allow the power to exist without letting it control me.
Stage Two - The Blood
The arena melted away. The Beast vanished, and the entire obsidian floor was replaced by a shallow, mirror-like layer of crimson liquid.
"Second Stage: The Blood. Your strength is born from suffering. How much suffering can you endure before you desire the power more than you desire yourself?"
The liquid floor rippled. From the crimson pool, illusions forged from Kael’s memories began to rise. First, a squad of Tier 4 warriors he had struggled against in the past. Then, a massive, imposing phantom of Garrick.
The Garrick copy lunged, not at Kael, but toward a newly formed illusion at the edge of the arena a terrified, helpless phantom of Elena.
"Elena!" Kael roared.
His rage exploded instantly. The crimson aura surrounding his body went berserk, flaring to three times its normal size. In an instant, Kael charged forward, obliterating the Tier 4 phantom warriors with brutal, wild strikes before slamming his fist through the Garrick copy’s head, instantly turning it back into liquid blood.
As the blood spilled over Kael’s boots, a sudden, intoxicating surge of power flooded his body.
Every time he killed, the trial fed him blood. The more enemies he slaughtered, the stronger he became. And the stronger he became... the harder it felt to stop the violent momentum in his chest.
A whisper echoed through the spatial realm, insidious and sweet:
Kill them... You can become stronger... No one will ever hurt her again...
Kael’s vision began to darken with absolute bloodlust. He turned, searching for more targets to crush, craving the surge of vitality.
Suddenly, the illusion of Elena stepped into his path.
She wasn’t looking at Garrick. She was trembling, staring at Kael with pure, unadulterated terror in her eyes.
"Kael..." she whimpered, backing away from him. "You’re scaring me."
Kael froze in his tracks. The words struck him harder than any physical blow from Garrick or the Beast.
That look... Kael’s heart shattered. That’s the look I’ve been afraid of seeing on her face my entire life.
The temptation of absolute power wavered. Kael slowly lowered his blood-coated hands. He looked at the illusion of his sister, taking a deep, shuddering breath as his roaring aura settled into a quiet ember.
"You’re not Elena," Kael said softly.
The illusion stared at him, a subtle smile touching her pale lips. "How do you know?"
"Because my sister would never ask me to become a monster for her," Kael answered, his voice firm and unwavering.
The illusion of Elena smiled gently before shattering into a thousand drops of clear water, dissolving into the red pool beneath his feet.
Standing alone in the silent arena, Kael understood the second lesson: Rage isn’t control. Choosing what to do with that rage is true control.
Stage Three -The Beast
The shallow blood pool sank into the cracks of the stone floor. The entire crimson arena fell into absolute silence.
Slowly, the crimson fog gathered in the center of the hall, rising into a towering, humanoid shape. Standing twelve feet tall, the figure was clad in massive, spiked crimson armor. Its eyes burned with pure, unbridled malice, its mouth leaked liquid blood, and its aura radiated a suffocating, violent weight that made Kael’s knees buckle.
It was a nightmare version of Kael himself.
"Third Stage: The Beast. Face the future that awaits the bearer who abandons restraint."
The monster looked down at Kael, its voice a deep, distorted echo of Kael’s own voice: "You want strength."
Kael clenched his fists, standing tall. "Yes."
"You want to protect Elena."
"Yes."
"Then stop pretending you’re different from me," the Beast roared, its massive blood-armored fist sweeping down like a falling meteor!
BOOM!
The final battle began with overwhelming violence. Kael was completely outmatched in pure output. The Beast was faster, stronger, and hit with devastating precision. Every time Kael activated his blood aura to boost his physical stats, the Beast seemed to grow proportionally stronger, effortlessly countering Kael’s attacks.
I’m fighting my own instincts, Kael realized as he was repeatedly thrown across the obsidian floor. Every move I make... it already knows, because it is my raw, uninhibited violent impulse.
Within minutes, Kael was on the ground, bleeding from dozens of wounds, his left shoulder dislocated and his ribs shattered.
The twelve-foot Beast stood over him, raising its massive, spike-covered heel to crush his chest into pulp.
"Give in," the Beast growled softly. "Surrender your mind, and I will give you the power to tear down mountains."
On the verge of losing consciousness, Victor’s cold, unyielding voice echoed in Kael’s mind: ’Make sure the next time that trait awakens, you still know who you are.’
Then came Elena’s tearful face at the threshold: ’You promised me you’d come back.’
Kael opened his eyes. Slowly, agonizingly, he pushed himself off the floor, standing on two feet before the towering manifestation of his curse.
The Beast grinned mockingly. "You’re afraid of me."
Kael looked up into the burning red eyes of the monster. "No," he said, his voice dropping into a steady, absolute calm. "I’m finally not."
Instead of flaring his aura into wild, explosive flames, Kael did the opposite. He drew every drop of lingering crimson mana back into his body. The violent aura vanished from his skin, compressing directly into his core until it became incredibly dense, quiet, and refined.
His eyes remained clear, sapphire blue. His breathing became perfectly rhythmized. His blood no longer felt like a violent inferno trying to tear out of his veins it was completely, utterly obedient.
The Beast roared in frustration, lunging forward with a colossal, earth-shattering punch.
Kael met it head-on.
He didn’t try to overpower the monster with wild rage. He used everything he had learned in the trial: drawing in the ambient blood energy of the realm to rapidly repair his physical frame—knitting his broken ribs and popping his shoulder back into place—wrapping his fists in a razor-thin layer of ultra-compressed crimson armor, and moving with absolute, calm precision.
Kael ducked beneath the Beast’s massive swing, stepping smoothly into its guard.
With his blue eyes locked onto the glowing core resting behind the monster’s chest armor, Kael delivered a single, perfectly controlled, devastating straight punch.
There was no gigantic explosion. No massive beam of light. Just a dense, sharp shockwave of compressed crimson kinetic force driving directly into the Beast’s heart.
CRACK!
Spiderweb fractures spread across the monster’s heavy crimson armor.
BOOM!
The twelve-foot Beast shattered into millions of sparkling, blood-red embers, dissolving completely into the empty void.
Return & Impending Threat
The dark sky of the spatial realm cleared, bathed in a calm, golden light, as the ancient voice gave its final declaration:
"Third Restraint achieved. Trial of Blood completed. The Berserker Trait has accepted its bearer."
With the trial cleared, Kael gained full conscious control over the first restraint of his trait, along with the ability to reconstitute his wounds using ambient blood and mana though he knew severe injuries would exhaust massive amounts of energy to repair.
Outside the trial chamber, Elena stood wringing her hands, her eyes swollen from quiet weeping. Beside her, Lyra leaned against a stone pillar, while Victor stood in the center of the cavern, staring at the sealed crimson doors with impassive, black eyes.
THUD.
The massive stone doors creaked open, heavy dust billowing out into the corridor.
A solitary figure walked out slowly through the mist.
Elena gasped, clutching her chest. Kael walked steadily toward them. His clothes were torn and stained, but his physical injuries were entirely healed. More importantly, the chaotic, wild heat that had always radiated from his body was gone. His crimson aura was quiet, humming obediently beneath his skin like a sleeping blade.
Elena stepped forward hesitantly, her voice trembling. "Kael...?"
Kael looked at her, offering a warm, genuine smile. "I’m still me, Elena."
Elena let out a ragged sob, throwing her arms around his neck. Kael wrapped his arms around her tightly, holding her close.
Standing nearby, Victor observed Kael with his Fate-Shattering Perception. Through the stone and flesh, Victor could see a dense, perfectly structured crimson seal sitting comfortably over Kael’s core.
He didn’t just suppress the Killing Trait, Victor evaluated, a cold, satisfied smirk appearing on his face. He made it submit.
BOOM!
Suddenly, a massive, violent vibration shook the entire dungeon level, sending showers of dust and loose rock cascading from the ceiling.
Victor’s pitch-black eyes narrowed instantly as his Fate-Shattering Perception flared to life, piercing through the upper layers of stone. His vision mapped out a cluster of fast-moving, heavy mana signatures barreling down the main descent.
Seven hostiles, Victor calculated, his voice dropping into a razor-sharp command. All heavily armored... and at least three of them possess Tier 5 cores.
"Everyone. Get ready," Victor commanded, stepping forward as dark, corrupted mana wrapped around his gloved palms.
Lyra drew her rapier with a metallic hiss, dark ice blooming across the blade. Elena raised her focus staff, wiping her tears away.
Kael stepped smoothly beside Victor. With a simple, quiet flex of his fingers, a dense layer of controlled, blood-red armor wrapped around his fists. For the first time in his life, there was no madness in his eyes only total, absolute control.