Silence.
Stillness.
Then pain.
Kael's back arched violently as his lungs seized, filling with ice-cold water. But he didn't drown.
He couldn't.
His body should've stopped. His heart should've failed.
Instead, it beat once. Loud enough to echo in his skull. Then again. Faster. Stronger.
A pulse rippled outward from his chest, sending tremors into the pond. The black water shimmered like glass, and then... it rose small droplets floating upward around him, weightless, as if gravity no longer applied.
Kael screamed underwater, but it came out as a roar.
His veins lit red.
Not with blood.
With power.
---
A voice echoed through the stillness.
/> "Progenitor recognized... initializing inheritance protocol."
Kael's mind split.
He saw flashes. Visions.
> A battlefield soaked in divine flame.
A towering angel screaming as a boy with blood-red eyes ripped off its wing.
A horned demon kneeling before that same boy, whispering, "You were born to rule."
A stone tablet shattering beneath a pond just like this one.
A voice saying: "Seal it. No one must awaken again."
---
Kael rose slowly from the pond.
He was no longer cold.
He no longer needed to breathe.
The forest was silent around him birds gone, air heavy, even the wind frozen.
Dripping wet, he dragged himself toward the spot where his satchel had been days ago. Somehow, impossibly, it was there again. Intact. Untouched.
Inside it, his book Memoirs of a Forgotten Blade pulsed faintly.
Confused, Kael opened it.
His bleeding hand brushed against the page.
The ink shimmered. Then glowed red.
And then the book writhed, absorbing his blood like hungry roots. The pages flipped on their own, faster and faster, until they blackened, turned blank--
and text began carving itself across them.
---
> [Bloodbound Artifact Detected]
Name: Kael Varain
Race: ??? [Progenitor Line - Classification Pending]
Status: Soulbound
Initializing Progenitor Awakening Sequence...
▸ Basic Instincts Unlocked
▸ Blood Memory: Fragment 001 Recovered
▸ Mutation Imminent
"You have entered the path of the Cursed Throne. Survive, or be devoured by your own blood."
---
The words burned into his mind.
He dropped the book, heart pounding but the book floated midair, hovering before him.
Then it flipped again this time to a single page. A map.
It showed the forest. Marked with a red pulsating dot where he stood.
North of him: a black sigil drawn over a mountain.
South: a forgotten ruin marked with vampire script he couldn't read but instinctively understood.
It meant "Feeding Ground."
And Kael was starving.
---
But before he could move, he heard it.
Footsteps.
Dren.
The hawk-nosed leader stepped from the trees, eyes wide as he spotted Kael. His bow was drawn. His body trembling.
"You... you should be dead."
Kael turned slowly.
He didn't speak.
Dren stared at him, frozen. "We left you. We buried your bag. That place was cursed."
Kael stepped forward.
The book hovered beside him, glowing faintly.
Dren fired.
The arrow flew fast, straight, true.
Kael moved.
Too fast.
He caught the arrow midair.
Dren's mouth fell open.
Kael didn't know what to say.
He didn't need to say anything.
His eyes were glowing now.
Red.
---
> [Blood Instinct: Predator's Reflex Activated]
▸ Adrenal Threshold Surpassed
▸ Enhanced Reflex +200%
▸ Threat Analysis: Minimal
---
Dren turned to run.
Kael was already behind him.
He didn't remember leaping.
He didn't remember biting.
Only the warmth of blood. The sound of a scream. The overwhelming rush as something ancient within him stirred awake.
---
When it was done, Dren's body lay broken.
Kael wiped his mouth.
Then looked at his hands.
They were still his. But beneath his skin, something monstrous now lived.
And it was hungry.
---
End of Volume 1: The Cursed Awakening
---
/> Lore Fragment – "Echoes of Forbidden Blood," Lost Scripture, Page 1
"It begins not with death... but with the refusal of it. When blood is mixed with memory, and memory with curse, the one who awakens shall inherit more than power. He shall inherit history and all the enemies that come with it."