CHAPTER 29: RED SMOKE

The metallic sound of the last spear falling outside the arena echoed through the coliseum. Kyrian was breathing calmly even after defeating, alone, forty-nine opponents. He would be the only one from his arena.

For him, there was no difficulty, his strength, speed, technique, and fighting experience were superior. And with his eyes, there was no point where they could attack him without him noticing.

But during the fight, Kyrian was not relaxed. In fact, his brow was slowly furrowing. Something was completely wrong and out of place.

While the crowd screamed for the ’brat,’ his instincts, with his vision sharper than anyone else’s, noticed what was happening around him.

When he had already defeated half of his opponents, he noticed two young men approaching his arena after leaving theirs without even fighting, even though they could have easily won.

The two, who were at the first level of martial artist, were walking toward his arena as if they were waiting for something.

’Why are they here?’ Kyrian thought, but as he looked more carefully at them, he realized.

’Huh, they want to act against me?’

He felt that the two wanted to jump in now to kill him, but they seemed to be waiting for something. Before doing anything, Kyrian looked again at the stands. That was what bothered him the most.

The people were not the same as before. The audience closest to the arena, in the lower stands, had completely changed.

Different clothes, cold gazes. They looked directly at the tournament participants instead of where Kyrian and the others thought would be targeted.

Kyrian saw that the three from the royal order were close to those suspicious ones he had spotted when he arrived at the coliseum. Close enough to protect the princess and prince if something happened. At that moment, there were more and more suspicious people around, but the entrance guards seemed to have discovered nothing, which was truly strange.

The guards close to the nobles and the royal family were fully prepared, following the mission Harken had given them. It was certain something would happen at the tournament, and from the information they had, the targets were supposed to be the royal family.

But no. Most were looking, in fact, directly at him and the participants. It was at the moment his final fight ended that something happened.

A roar split the air.

’BOOOOOM!’

Coming from the direction of the royal castle, a terrifying sound echoed. At the same time, a dense red smoke began to rise and stain the skies in an instant.

Everyone in the capital heard and looked without understanding.

The sound frightened everyone, the crowd screamed, causing small chaos in the stands.

Kyrian, who was at the center of his arena, narrowed his eyes. He was seeing something no one else could see.

His eyes fixed on the smoke that had just appeared without any warning.

’That!?’

In fact, in the middle of the smoke, new particles appeared. No, they were not like the common particles he absorbed every day.

They were closer to the blue crystals he found in the barrier. A new type, a new substance his eyes had found.

He had no time to think properly, for at that moment the two martial artists below his arena suddenly charged at him in perfect sync.

Two spears came down, one directly at his forehead while the other aimed at the lower part of his body.

Kyrian did not retreat. He moved like the wind, dodged to the side, and jumped. His spear slid in his hand naturally. A single horizontal slash.

The first had his chest pierced. The second barely understood what had happened before feeling the shaft of the spear crush his trachea.

Both fell to the ground, dead in less than three heartbeats.

But it had only just begun.

The smoke was a signal. The stands trembled. At that instant, from all directions, hundreds of people leapt into the arena. Swords, spears, and daggers were raised.

The assassins disguised as civilians acted instantly. And then chaos began.

Screams of pain, blood gushing, youths falling one after another, a massacre was suddenly underway.

In the stands above all, the three members of the Royal Order were positioned near the princess and the prince. Their expressions changed immediately.

They didn’t understand what it meant. The smoke and then the attack. But they had no time to think, because at that moment...

Several of the guards positioned near the royal family suddenly attacked their companions. Five of them drew their spears toward the princess and the prince.

Many soldiers fell, while others were gravely injured, blood staining the ground. The woman of the Royal Order acted immediately, being the closest, she ran with all her strength, stepping in front of the princess.

A glacial gleam in her eyes as her spear effortlessly decapitated the traitorous guards.

The other two members also did not hesitate any longer, killing all the guards nearby who seemed, in fact, to be buying time for something.

The suspects Kyrian had spotted earlier had already disappeared into the crowd in the arena.

In moments, the ground near the royal family was completely covered in blood and corpses.

They then looked at the coliseum. At the entrances where the citizens came and went, guards, instead of letting citizens leave, were killing anyone who approached.

"What the hell is happening? Aren’t they Harken’s guards?!?"

The eldest of the Order present asked and then looked at his two companions.

"You stay with the princess and the prince. I will deal with the guards at the entrances. And you go down to the arena. Help Kyrian eliminate these lunatics."

"Understood!"

With a final word, the three split up. One of them leapt straight into the arena, slaughtering the invaders while protecting whoever he could and searching for Kyrian.

Meanwhile, Kyrian remained firm. His face was still turned to the sky. That red energy intrigued him more than the completely random thing happening around him.

But he could not just leave and see what it was now, he had to do something first.

"Damn."

His voice came out cold. He spun his spear in an arc and charged against the enemies. Every step he took, a body fell. His weapon whistled as it cut through the air.

Throats were slit, spines crushed, and bodies pierced. The ground was painted red.

But his brow furrowed even more as he realized he recognized some faces of those intruders he was killing.

’Guards? That one was from the Tower of Stones city... what the hell is happening?’

Kyrian could not understand.

Suddenly, someone came near his back.

"Kyrian, let’s kill them all first, then regroup, don’t let any escape. I’ll capture one of them to know what’s happening," a fellow Order member told him before acting again.

The carnage dragged on for long minutes. In the stands, screams of horror mixed with bones breaking in the arena.

Of the five hundred participants, more than half were dead in fifteen minutes.

And then silence.

Only a hundred young participants remained. The bodies on the ground reached seven hundred, lifeless corpses scattered, their blood completely soaking the ground.

Kyrian leaned his spear on the ground. His chest rose and fell calmly. His cold eyes stared at the field of death.

In the stands, few people remained, the guards who had locked the exits were dead, but not before killing hundreds of citizens who tried to leave.

Kyrian and the others could not understand what exactly this was.

When they were about to regroup... something changed.

The blood soaking the entire coliseum began to move. As if it were alive. Streams slid across the ground, converging at the center of the arena.

"What the hell?" one of the Order men murmured, horrified.

The red liquid gathered into a grotesque pool. Then, with a deafening roar, it exploded upward.

’BOOOOOOOM!!’

The explosion made everyone cover their ears instinctively. It was so loud the sound hurt like blades piercing into the brain.

Suddenly, a new smoke rose, even thicker than before. Rising to the sky like a red beacon.

Kyrian, still with his head aching, stared fixedly.

His body moved on its own toward the smoke. Running to the center of the arena. When the smoke spread, he stretched out his hand and pulled.

In his hands, there was something like crystallized drops of blood, they were tiny, even smaller than the ice crystals in the barrier. But he felt it. They were definitely different from the common particles.

He analyzed them carefully, but with utmost interest.

’They are like the ice crystals... but the concentration is extremely low compared to the barrier.’

"Kyrian, what happened? Be careful, step away, we don’t know what this smoke might do. It’s some kind of sorcery," one of the Order men shouted, panting, holding his blood-covered spear. But in an instant, it became clean, the blood flowing directly to the smoke.

Kyrian heard, but did not reply. He only brought the tiny drops of blood that only he could see toward his eyes.

At the instant the red light reflected in his blue pupils, the blood in his body trembled. And then, the drops were instantly absorbed.

An unbearable pain began again, Kyrian fell to his knees. His eyes rolled back, and he fainted immediately.

***************************************

While the coliseum drowned in chaos, which soon spread to the south of the city, in a dark cave below the capital, bones covered the ground.

Skulls, ribs whether of animals or humans, and blood decorated the walls, while a putrid smell permeated the entire place.

A hunched silhouette trembled slightly, leaning on a worn staff with a glowing red stone at its center.

The wrinkled face almost fell apart, his eyes glowed with a sickly red.

He laughed.

"Finally... after fifty years of preparation. It’s beginning to form, the vitality of the young truly is something."

Footsteps echoed in the cave.

A female silhouette appeared. Her cloak hid most of her body. But her face was completely exposed.

Beautiful and cold, with lips painted scarlet. But below her eyes, there were many wrinkles. Which contrasted with the rest of her youthful appearance.

She bowed to the hunched old man.

"The mission of assassinating the youths on their way to the capital and from the other cities was a success. The ritual is ready."

"The blood was spilled in the castle and the coliseum. At the other two points it won’t take long either. The rest of the infiltrated martial artists from both alliances are already heading to the lake because of their greed for the moonflowers."

"They were willing to cooperate due to the small chance of living a few more years. Little do they know they will no longer leave here alive."

"At this point, the flowers have already been collected from the center of the lake. Then we can begin."

The old man took a deep breath.

"Excellent. Excellent. Counting on you in these fifty years was worth it. You did an excellent job. Royal Counselor."

The woman only raised her chin, emotionless.

"Just fulfill your promise, sir. And I will be satisfied."

The old man smiled, showing his rotten teeth.

"Don’t worry. Soon, the entire capital will be bathed in blood. And then... with the moonflowers transformed into blood-flowers, I will finally be reborn. And I will take you away from these mortal lands."