Chapter 15: The Blood, The Fragment, and The Silent Scream
[Day 14: The Great Storm]
The rain didn't stop.
For twenty-four hours, the sky over the Silent Death Forest had been vomiting water. It hammered against the cedar roof of Kael's house like a thousand angry fists.
Thrummm. Thrummm.
Inside, however, it was warm. The stone fireplace was roaring, casting dancing orange shadows on the fresh wooden walls. The air smelled of burning pine and wet earth.
Kael sat in the center of the room, surrounded by curly wood shavings.
"Finally," Kael groaned, stretching his back until it popped. "Done."
In front of him stood his masterpiece: The Bed Frame.
It wasn't just a frame. It was a work of art. Made of deep red Ironwood, joined with the complex mortise-and-tenon joints he had practiced all week. It looked sturdy enough to support a giant. He had even carved simple geometric patterns into the headboard—spirals that looked like vines.
"Noir," Kael kicked the panther gently. "What do you think? Queen Size. Fits two humans or one very large cat."
Noir, who was currently acting as a rug near the fire, opened one eye. He looked at the bed. He sniffed it. Then he went back to sleep.
"Tough crowd," Kael muttered.
He looked closely at the headboard. There was a tiny rough spot on the top corner where the wood grain was sticking up.
"That's going to annoy me," Kael sighed. "I need to smooth that out."
He reached into his pocket. He was looking for his sandpaper, but his fingers brushed against something cold and sharp.
The Kiridashi.
He had shoved the razor-sharp marking knife into his pocket yesterday, right next to the mysterious Black Stone he found underground.
"Gotcha," Kael pulled the knife out.
But he was tired. His hands were clumsy from hours of hammering and chiseling. As he pulled the tool out, the blade caught on the fabric of his pocket. It twisted.
Slice.
It was a clean cut, right across his index finger. Deep.
"Fuck!" Kael hissed, dropping the knife. "Shit, that stings."
Blood welled up instantly, dark and red.
He instinctively reached into his pocket to grab a cloth or something to stop the bleeding. But his bloody hand didn't find a cloth.
It found the Black Stone.
Kael pulled his hand out. The stone was sitting in his palm, slick with his fresh, bright red blood.
"Great," Kael sarcasmed, grimacing at the pain. "Now I'm bleeding on my loot."
He went to wipe the stone off on his pants.
But the blood didn't wipe off.
Slurp.
The stone drank it.
Kael froze. "What the..."
The blood vanished into the smooth black surface like water into a dry sponge. The stone, which had been cold and dead for weeks, suddenly pulsed.
Thump.
It sounded like a heartbeat. A deep, heavy bass note that Kael felt in his teeth.
Noir shot up. The panther's fur stood straight up. He backed away, growling at Kael's hand. Even Tess, the giant spider, scurried up the wall and hid in the rafters, shaking.
"System?" Kael whispered, his heart racing. "Analysis?"
[Ancient Bloodline (High Human) Detected.]
[The Object is waking up.]
"Waking up?" Kael stared at the rock. It was starting to glow—not bright light, but a deep, violet darkness that seemed to eat the light from the fire.
"Put it down," his brain screamed.
But he couldn't. It was stuck to his hand. It felt like it was glued there.
"It wants more," Kael realized. He could feel a hunger coming from the stone. A bottomless, starving void.
"Okay," Kael gritted his teeth. "You want energy? You want to wake up? Fine."
He remembered the logic from all the anime he used to watch. If blood isn't enough, add Mana.
"Let's see what you really are."
Kael closed his eyes. He triggered his internal energy. He grabbed the Mana in his core—all 145 points of it—and shoved it into the stone.
WHOOM.
The reaction was instant.
Gravity in the room increased tenfold.
CRACK!
The floorboards beneath Kael splintered. Noir was slammed belly-first onto the ground, unable to move. The fire in the chimney was instantly snuffed out, sucked into the stone.
The shadows in the room detached themselves from the walls. They swirled around Kael like a tornado of black ink.
"Aaaaaagh!" Kael screamed. It felt like his arm was being torn off. The stone wasn't just taking Mana; it was taking everything.
[Warning: Mana Depleted.]
[Warning: Life Force being converted.]
The stone began to liquefy. It turned into a thick, black sludge that crawled up his fingers, wrapping around his wrist like a living bracelet. It burned like acid.
"Stop!" Kael yelled. "System! Stop it!"
His vision was going black.
[Process Complete.]
[Fusion Rate: 100%.]
[World Core Fragment: Integrated.]
A beam of pure, silent black energy shot straight up from Kael's body.
It punched through his new roof, vaporizing the cedar shingles instantly. It shot through the storm clouds, parting the rain.
It didn't make a sound. There was no explosion. No fire.
But the air itself screamed.
A shockwave of Ancient Essence—pure, raw power from the beginning of time—rippled out from the cabin.
It passed through the trees. It passed through the mountains. It rolled over the oceans.
It was invisible to normal people. But to those who knew... to the true monsters of this world... it was a deafening roar.
Kael fell forward. His face hit the wooden floor.
The last thing he saw before the darkness took him was a notification floating in the air.
[System Update: Initiating...]
Then, silence.
The rain continued to fall into the hole in the roof, washing over Kael's unconscious body, while the shockwave traveled outward, waking up things that should have stayed asleep.
-_-_-_--_-_