Ascension Of The Blood Supreme

Before everyone could ask what he meant, blobs of blood appeared and molded into crimson wings on his back. Aiden flapped his crimson wings, flew through the window, and bolted off.

Everyone stared at Desmonda.

Aiden had whispered something to her before he left, so she knew what he was up to. However, his whisper was extremely faint; even with their improved hearing as warriors, they could not figure out what he had said to her.

"What?" She stared at everyone.

"What is he up to?" Seraphina asked, voicing what everyone was thinking of asking her.

She chuckled slyly.

"You guys will find out soon."

Everyone sighed. What the hell was that crazy dude up to this time?

****

Currently, Aiden was flying across the eastern district of Derulo City. This was where the Creed Estate was.

Aiden paused mid-flight. He looked below; skyscrapers and villas stretched across the place.

It was morning and the weather was cold. He had left the city around this time last year. It made sense that it was currently winter when he returned.

Aiden’s crimson eyes narrowed.

His vision spread across the eastern district. Also, his sense of smell and hearing spread across the eastern district too.

This was where the Vermin Guild, the conglomerates, and the other guilds that wanted him dead and had hired assassins to hunt him down in the past were. Aiden simply wanted to finish what they started, and most importantly, he wanted blood essence.

Aiden heard literally every conversation happening in every nook and cranny of the eastern district—even the unpleasant ones in bedrooms. Aiden also smelled all sorts of smells: pleasant aromas of meals, and the odor from people, among others.

Aiden had enough. He tuned out his sense of smell and his sense of hearing, so that only his enhanced vision was scanning the eastern district.

Eventually, his gaze peered through the district and landed on the Vermin Guild. A meeting was happening in a room.

Aiden nodded, flapped his wings, and bolted toward that direction.

*****

Vermin Guild.

In a conference room, another meeting was happening. The high-ranking executives of the guild were all tired. Most importantly, they were scared shitless.

Ever since the video about Aiden Vhorn destroying a whole crime-infested city with one slash came out, the Vermin Guild had realized they had made the worst mistake of their lives. They should have never targeted Aiden Vhorn. They should have followed in the footsteps of the few industries in the city who backed off from targeting Aiden Vhorn when he rejected their offers; those industries didn’t have to worry about being targeted by him.

In just a year, Aiden Vhorn had become more powerful than everyone in the room. They were all legendary rank 2 warriors, but there was no doubt about it that Aiden Vhorn could kill all of them. They were able to come to this conclusion because of what they had seen him do in the video: he had used only a single slash to destroy four legendary rank 2 warriors—alongside innumerable rank 2 warriors, coupled with several thousands of rank 1 warriors—in Burning Sands City.

The incident had been named by citizens of the empire as the Massacre of Burning Sands. Just the thought of Aiden Vhorn was sending chills crawling up the spines of the members of the Vermin Guild.

They were not the only ones; all the other guilds and conglomerates that had offended Aiden Vhorn were having meetings with their high-ranking executives. They were trying to come up with solutions to their predicament. Should they flee the city? Lose their business deals? Shut down their businesses? They had tried; their lives were more important to them.

But they came to a terrifying realization. Throughout the week, crimson blades had followed them from afar wherever they went. But the crimson blades never attacked them. They realized Aiden Vhorn was sending them a message through this: I know where you are. And I can kill you at any time. Feel free to leave the city if you dare.

For a week, none of them could sleep or even go about their activities normally. The crimson blades never left them alone. When they went to their houses, the blades floated above their roofs. When they lay on their beds with their wives, the crimson blades constantly reminded them that they could die at any time. When they went to their conglomerates, the blades followed them there.

Some of them almost lost their minds. So, everyone of them came to the only conclusion they could all come to—one that the current meeting of the Vermin Guild had also led to.

"We need to apologize to Mr. Vhorn," Vermin sighed.

He had to swallow his pride and come to terms with the fact that he had bitten more than he could chew and offended the wrong person. Aiden Vhorn had manipulated, outsmarted, and played him from the beginning.

Even when he sent assassins after him 11 months ago and thought Aiden Vhorn was cooped up on campus, he later found out it was unnatural that the guy never left campus. He concluded that Aiden Vhorn had used some impossible way to leave the city. This drove him nuts. No matter how much he investigated, he could not find out anything about where Aiden Vhorn had gone. It was as if someone was preventing him from finding out.

Then it clicked: Pamela Ashira. She had interfered in his investigations.

Vermin was petrified. He could only hope that wherever Aiden Vhorn had gone to, he would die there. Because based on the potential of the bastard, if he managed to stay alive, he would become too powerful to deal with. Vermin’s hopes were shattered and his fears were confirmed when he saw the video of the Burning Sands Massacre incident.

Soon, he found out that Aiden Vhorn was in the eastern district. He thought that maybe Aiden Vhorn had found him and the other powers unworthy to kill. At first he was relieved, but then he started getting notices from the other industries: a crimson blade was following them. He checked; one was following him too.

Then it hit him: Aiden Vhorn won’t spare them. Now, his survival instincts had kicked in.

"Yeah. If we can even give our guild to him, we should."

"Indeed. Our lives are always important. We can always rebuild in the future!"

"Sigh. I knew offending that guy was bad news! But you all were too greedy and impulsive. Now, see where this has landed us?"

"What did you just say? Weren’t you in on it?"

Conversations, blame games, and insults rung through the place. Spittle flew all over. They were all afraid and didn’t want to die.

"Everyone, let’s calm down," Vermin motioned with his hand up. "The other industry leaders have agreed to also hand over their industries and guilds to Aiden Vhorn as compensation. We should do the same. Hopefully, he will spare us."

Everyone nodded as murmurs of agreement spread through the place.

Suddenly, someone barged into Vermin’s office.

"Sir... he’s here..."

"Who?" Vermin said.

"The... Crimson Reaper..." the subordinate replied.

Vermin and the high-ranking members almost fainted from fear.

"I will go out and meet him," Vermin said.

"I don’t think that’s possible, sir," the subordinate said. "Reports are all over the local news handles that everyone related to every member, high-ranking executive, and founder of every industry that targeted him in the past in the city have been found dead; it is all over the news." The subordinate dropped the bomb.

Everyone was so scared that some people pissed on themselves. Others laughed hysterically in denial.

"Aiden Vhorn is someone who is cold, rational, and clinically ruthless. He does not want to leave any seeds of revenge behind in the future. This is why he killed anyone connected to us, and everyone connected to anyone belonging to our guild and the other industries. It seems he’s going to kill us all..." Vermin said.