The Crimson courtyard stood silent at dawn.
Rows of statues. Training fields that echoed with steel. Dozens of knights in formation—drilling, shouting, sparring.But Lucien walked past them unnoticed.Unbothered.
He had become an expert at moving in silence. Not because he was hiding—
but because no one cared enough to look. He was the tenth son of the Demi-Dragon, born without a flicker of mana.To them, he was a ghost. A mistake. A shadow that should have never been cast. But none of them knew that his shadow had begun to move.
> [System Alert: Authority Slot Unlocked]
[You have awakened a hidden Authority: Fear of Chaos]
[Passive Effect: Manifestation of Death Pressure]
A New Weight
Lucien sat alone in the outer courtyard, beneath the old ash tree where the discarded weapons were dumped.He wasn't meditating.He wasn't reading.He was simply existing.But even existing… now felt different.He could feel it in his skin—A pressure, low and crawling—like a pulse buried beneath his breath..Like the echo of death in an empty cathedral. " Hey, You!!"A voice called out from the path behind him.Lucien didn't turn. "Tch. Still ignoring people? You think you're noble just because you're a Crimson?" The boy said arrogantly.
It was one of his older cousins—Ridan, a 2-Star swordsman from the outer bloodline. Arrogant. Petty. Always eager to assert his place above Lucien. "You're not even worth your name. I heard even your father doesn't—"Lucien exhaled.And something in the air broke.
> [Authority Activated: Fear of Chaos]
The air became thick, bloodied the sky became red in his view. Ridan staggered mid-sentence.His mouth hung open, but no sound came.His eyes dilated. His heart pounded like a war drum. His legs buckled.
Lucien hadn't moved. But the space around him felt like the world itself had stopped breathing. Like the sky had forgotten to exist. Like death had just glanced in Ridan's direction. Ridan dropped to his knees. "Why… can't I breathe…?"He didn't understand. He couldn't.It wasn't mana.It wasn't sword aura.It was something else.
What he felt was godlike.Lucien stood and turned toward him, his voice flat:
"Try speaking to me like that again."
He didn't shout.He didn't raise a finger.
But Ridan turned and ran, vomiting in the grass, unable to stop shaking. The System Whispers
> [Authority Level: 1]
[Effect Radius: 2 meters]
>[New Passive: Killzone Gaze]
— Weak-minded targets may enter psychological death-state.
Lucien blinked.A faint smile tugged at the corner of his lips. It was satisfaction .He didn't need to draw a blade.He didn't need to show his mana. He was becoming something they could never define. Something else entirely.A god made of nothing