CHAPTER 70: BREAKER

"We’ve come this far," Damian said. "Might as well see it through."

The others agreed as well. Since they already started committing, they should just see it through.

The process involved a ritual circle to be drawn by Ravenna with Marcus’s enchantments that will stimulate dormant genetic markers. You sat in the circle, channeled specific mana patterns, and waited to see what happened.

Seraphina went first.

The circle glowed immediately, flashing with light and her body convulsed as light poured from her eyes, her mouth, her very skin.

And for a terrible moment, I thought she was dying.

Then the light stabilized, warping around her and formed into wings of pure holy light, manifested as physical wings on her back.

"Angelic bloodline," Ravenna breathed. "Seraphina, you’re descended from celestial warriors. That’s... that’s incredibly rare."

Seraphina stood, testing the wings. They flapped, actually lifting her off the ground for a while. "I can fly." She said in amazement.

"You can do more than that. Your holy magic just tripled in power." Ravenna checked her instruments. "The awakening pushed you over a threshold. The only thing left now is to start training in it and start doing things that would further enhance the bloodline. You must refine it."

My eyes glittered.

One success, eighteen to go.

Lucille awakened a shadow serpent bloodline that enhanced her assassination techniques and gave her venom abilities.

Ravenna’s bloodline was void-touched, as expected. It stabilized her forbidden magic, making it safer to use.

Marcus got a runesmith bloodline, his enchantments would be stronger, more efficient.

"Finally," he muttered. "Maybe now my designs will stop barely working."

Damian awakened something called "loyal guardian" its a defensive bloodline that enhanced his protective abilities.

My turn came on the evening of day four.

I sat in the circle and channeled the mana pattern. And waited, I was nervous and conflicted. After all, I’m only an A ranked and even less special among some of the monsters in my faction. Also, it’s been a far while since any of my family awakened any.

But....

...the awakening hit like lightning.

Pain, it flashed through my body and locked my limbs, everywhere blurred instantly. My bloodline wasn’t gentle, it tore through my body forcing changes that made me see flashes of memories that weren’t....

Me?

The vision cleared and the pain subsided.

I stood on shaking legs.

"Hadeon?" Ravenna’s voice was strange. "Your eyes..."

Someone passed me a mirror and I looked.

My eyes had changed. The gray now had silver threads running through them. And when I channeled mana, they glowed.

"Breaker bloodline," a voice said.

Victoria stood at the edge of the training ground. When had she arrived?

"If you want to know the history of the Bloodline and how it came to be then you must talk of eras past, unfortunately, the powers that be have nearly erased everything. Only some survives. The Breakers....they were beings of those eras.

"Congratulations. You just inherited the genetic memory of how to fight fate itself."

I eyed her and my suspicious grow. She definitely knew more than she was letting on. And our meeting is far from coincidence. Even her giving me those crystals. She wanted something...but what? "What does that mean?"

"It means your resistance to control just increased by an order of magnitude. It means you can sense when someone’s trying to manipulate probability. It means you’re now genuinely dangerous to the Council." She paused. "It also means they’ll try even harder to kill you."

"Great."

"Look at it this way: You wanted power. You got it." Victoria gestured to the training ground. "How many made it through?"

"Seventeen. Two dropped out. One couldn’t handle the bloodline awakening."

"Better than expected. Most groups lose half." She pulled out another crystal. "This is the next phase. Combat application. You’ve built the foundation. Now you learn to use it under pressure."

"When do we start?"

"Tomorrow. Tonight, rest. You’ve earned it." She turned to leave, then paused. "Oh, and Hadeon? The Baron’s been asking questions. About where you and your faction have been. He knows you’re training. He just doesn’t know what for. Watch your back."

And just like she appeared, she vanished.

☆☆▪︎☆☆

That night, I couldn’t sleep.

My body ached from the training. My mana channels throbbed from forced expansion. The bloodline awakening had left me feeling fundamentally different, as there are things in the world that is resisting me.

I stood on the balcony, looking at the academy under moonlight.

Somewhere out there, the Baron was planning his next move. The League was watching, waiting. The Council was preparing its response to my continued existence.

And in weeks, the Inter-Academy Tournament... everywhere I look is something that’s waiting to happen. What a shit show.

A knock at my door. Damian entered, face grim.

"Young Master, Felix Goldleaf is here, he says it’s urgent."

I frowned. "Felix?"

Felix. The alchemist is one of our early recruits, talented with potions, hadn’t participated in the combat training because he was support staff.

"Send him in."

Felix stumbled through the door with his face pale, clothes disheveled, clutching a leather satchel to his chest like a lifeline. "Hadeon thank the gods. I need help. Someone’s following me."

I sat up, my body going still. "Following you? Who?"

"I don’t know. But I’ve seen them three times today. Different people each time, but they move the same way. Watch the same way. Professional."

My blood chilled. "Where did you see them?"

"Library. Alchemy lab. Market district." He set the satchel on the table with shaking hands. "I’ve been researching something. About the poison used in your attempted assassination. Trying to find the source, and I think I found something."

"What?"

He pulled out a notebook, pages covered in cramped handwriting and chemical formulas. "The poison was custom-made. Only three alchemists on the continent can brew Shadowbane toxin like that one. One’s dead and the other’s in prison. The third..." He swallowed. "The third works exclusively for a very specific clientele. People who can pay enormous sums for guaranteed kills."

"Who’s the clientele?"

"That’s what I don’t know yet. But I found records of purchases. Five separate acquisitions over the past three years."

I studied the list. The dates were damning. Three months before my poisoning: A Duke from the Eastern Kingdoms dead from "natural causes." Six months before that. A hero candidate from died in a "training accident."

"Felix, this is....."