Now Thorne asked Soren his voice now more monotone, ''Decide. Will you die here or will you accept my essence''
Soren fell into deep thought before answering, ''You said you wanted revenge and that you would come back. It sounds like you are using me for something. I'm not stupid! Tell me what you want!''
Thorne was silent for a moment, the crimson light flickering faintly in the darkness of the cave
Then he sighed
''Revenge...'' he said quietly. ''Yes, I wanted revenge. I wanted to kill all of them who betrayed me and those who celebrated and mocked me in death''
''As much as I wanted revenge all I ever wanted was to help people. If my blood magic disappears with me, then everything I learned... everything I suffered... will vanish as well''
Then he spoke again, quieter
''All I ask is that you carry it forward. I will give you hope and allow you to escape from here. Use my magic however you wish. For violence. For peace. It is yours now''
''That is if you choose to accept it that is. You wouldn't want your friend's death over there to go to waste would you? You would rather rot in here letting him die in vain than escape from this place and give meaning to his murder''
Soren's head snapped toward the red light
''Shut up,'' he muttered harshly
For a moment the cave fell silent again, the faint glow of crimson reflecting across the stone floor and the dark stains that covered it
His eyes drifted back toward Adrian
His chest tightened
The memory of what had just happened was still fresh. Too fresh. Every time he closed his eyes he could feel Adrian struggling beneath him again, hear the desperate gasps for air, see the fear in his face
His stomach twisted
'I killed him'
The thought pressed down on him like a weight he couldn't escape
Soren clenched his fists, his nails digging into his palms
''Don't talk like you understand anything,'' he said quietly, his voice unsteady now. ''You think I wanted this?''
No answer came from the light
Soren let out a shaky breath, running a hand through his blood-stained hair
He looked around the cave again
The narrow walls. The dried blood on the stone. Adrian's body lying only a few steps away
There was nothing here
No food. Barely any water. No way out
Just death slowly waiting for him
Soren laughed weakly under his breath
''Meaning...'' he muttered bitterly. ''You're saying if I die here then what I did was pointless''
The words tasted foul in his mouth
His gaze fell back onto Adrian one last time
''You idiot,'' he whispered under his breath, though it wasn't clear who he was talking to anymore
His shoulders slowly slumped and for a long time he said nothing. Then finally he spoke again, his voice quieter now
''If I accept this-''
Soren swallowed
''I live''
The red light flickered slightly. Soren closed his eyes. For a brief moment Adrian's face flashed through his mind again. Then he exhaled slowly
''Fine,'' he said hoarsely
''Give it to me''
As soon as those words left his mouth the ball of light flew into his chest almost fusing with his body. Soren's back arched violently as if something inside his chest had exploded. A burning heat tore through his ribs, spreading outward through his veins like molten metal forced into his bloodstream. He gasped, but the air never reached his lungs. It felt as if something had gripped his heart and squeezed
He collapsed forward onto his hands, his fingers scraping against the rough stone floor as a strangled cry forced its way out of his throat. It was not just pain. It felt wrong. Like something foreign was forcing its way through every part of him
The red glow from before began to bleed through his skin. Faint cracks of crimson light pulsed beneath his chest, spreading outward like veins of fire crawling under the surface. His heartbeat slammed violently against his ribs, faster and faster, until each pulse sent another wave of agony through his body
Soren clawed at his chest instinctively
"Ghh-what… what are you doing-"
His voice broke apart into a hoarse gasp as the light burrowed deeper. The sensation felt like countless needles digging through his veins, forcing something new through pathways that had never existed before. Images and fragments of knowledge slammed into his mind in chaotic bursts. Strange diagrams of the human body appeared before his eyes, not drawn with ink but with flowing streams of crimson light. Lines of energy traced through veins and arteries, branching through the body like an intricate map
Mana pathways
Blood as a conduit
He saw how power could be drawn from the body itself, how life essence could be guided, condensed, forced through those pathways with terrifying precision. The fragments came too quickly for him to fully grasp them, but the instinct behind them burned itself into his mind
Soren slammed his fist against the ground, his entire body trembling violently as the red light surged again, flooding through his veins
'Agrh my head'
The light had fully started to sink into Soren's chest now and with that Soren's screams started to intensify, until they came to a stop. He had been rendered unconscious
Thorne's voice sounded throughout the cave now more upbeat, ''Good, I have finally found a successor. I'll send him out of here and now I just have to wait''
''The seed has been planted. Soon the time will come''
Soren's body lay motionless on the cold stone floor of the cave, his chest rising only faintly with each shallow breath. The crimson glow that had once filled the chamber had completely vanished, leaving behind nothing but darkness, dried blood, and the silent remains of what had transpired there.
For a long while, nothing moved. Then the air shifted. A faint ripple spread across the cave, almost like the surface of still water being disturbed. The space around Soren's unconscious body warped slightly, the darkness bending inward toward him. For a brief moment a dull red light flickered beneath his skin again, pulsing once in time with his heartbeat
The cave swallowed him. In the next instant, the stone floor beneath him vanished
Cold grass brushed against Soren's face. His body lay sprawled at the edge of the forest, half-hidden beneath the thick shadows of the towering trees. The night air carried the scent of damp earth and moss, a stark contrast to the suffocating iron stench of the cave he had been in moments before. The forest around him remained silent, save for the distant rustling of leaves and the faint sound of armoured footsteps approaching along a worn path nearby. A small patrol moved through the outskirts of the forest, their armour dull in the fading light of the evening. Rael's soldiers had been searching the surrounding region for days now, ordered to investigate the whereabouts of Soren and his classmates
One of the soldiers suddenly raised a hand
"Hold"
The others stopped immediately
"There's someone ahead"
The group approached cautiously, hands resting on the hilts of their weapons as they stepped closer. When they pushed through the last cluster of brush, the figure on the ground finally came into view
A young man
His clothes were torn and soaked with dried blood, his body thin and pale from exhaustion. Dark stains covered his hands and arms, and his breathing was shallow enough that for a moment it almost seemed as though he were already dead
One of the soldiers knelt beside him, carefully checking his pulse
''He's alive"
Another soldier leaned forward, studying Soren's face more closely before his eyes widened slightly
"Wait… isn't this one of Lyra's students?"
The others exchanged uneasy glances
They had been searching for the group that had disappeared into the forest weeks ago, but by now most had assumed the worst. Yet here one of them was. Alive
The captain looked down at Soren, "Take him back," he ordered. "We have found one of the missing people, he might know where the rest are''
Two soldiers carefully lifted Soren's unconscious body from the ground. He offered no resistance, his head hanging limply as they carried him toward the road leading back to the capital
The forest behind them slowly faded into silence once more, it's horrors now vanishing into thin air as if it never existed in the first place