CHAPTER 31: BLOOD EYES

Kyrian’s blood trembled.

The instant those crystallized drops were sucked into his pupils, something coursed through his entire body. It wasn’t just pain.

It was as if every fluid in his veins had turned into lava for an instant, bubbling until it calmed down shortly after.

And then a pressure pierced through his skull. His brain seemed as if it wanted to split into pieces. Veins bulged in his neck, his eyes rolled back, and he completely fainted.

Then came silence.

In the darkness, it was cold, a small ice crystal was the only source of light in that place. But suddenly, something new began to emerge.

An echo, like drops falling on an invisible surface. Each drop vibrating in the environment, vibrating directly into his consciousness.

And then a new understanding struck him.

In the darkness, filled only by the icy crystal, a living red drop emerged.

Just like in the ice barrier, when he absorbed the blue crystals and understood how ice and snow functioned. Now, something different appeared.

It wasn’t frozen silence. It was a pulse, a flow running through a thread of life.

His body trembled even while unconscious. The white snowflake marking the center of his pupils shone intensely, only to merge at the center into a single point. Then it dissolved into fine particles that sank somewhere unknown.

The blue, once clear as the sky, darkened like the night. A new pupil emerged, spinning like a living circle, until the pupil ignited in crimson red. As if it burned from within. And again, there was no iris in his eyes, only pure red.

"Kyrian!"

"..."

"Kyrian!"

Suddenly, a voice arose. Kyrian, who was awakening, followed the voice.

He took a deep breath, the air flooding back into his lungs. His body was heavy, but it obeyed. His eyelids slowly opened.

Elyria’s face was close. The other warriors of the Order are behind her. All were looking at him with slight tension.

Kyrian blinked rapidly. The pain still throbbed a little in the back of his head but soon disappeared completely. His vision was now clear again. Too clear.

"Are you alright?" Elyria asked.

"...yes, I’m fine." He replied, his voice a little hoarse.

But his gaze wavered slightly. Not from pain or discomfort. But rather, from what he now saw. Elyria in front of him was not the same. None of them were.

Their veins were exposed before his vision. Like pulsing red lines. Blood ran through her body like a river, firm and steady.

In the others behind her, the flow was weaker. Breaking at certain points.

One of them, the oldest of the Order, carried evident flaws in many veins. They were clogged by dark, dead blood, unmoving, without essence.

Kyrian immediately understood that man would not live much longer.

His chest rose and fell slowly. He felt his own heart beating calmer than ever, yet at the same time, his blood was being pumped so smoothly he felt a constant relief.

Kyrian looked at his own hands, clenching his fists. The blood inside him moved faster, stronger, as he thought.

’It’s the same as before... with the ice crystals.’

Again, he had absorbed something strange and unknown to him. And again, he understood a new strength, a new ability, and a new comprehension of the world.

But, just like before, he felt that if he wanted to use it well, he needed those scarce particles he always absorbed.

’Tsk. I really need more of those particles. I need a place where their concentration is higher. And I urgently need a way to absorb them faster.’

’If that happens, my strength will grow exponentially. I can’t even imagine how much.’

He frowned, lost in thought in front of everyone.

All those before him, as well as the princess and prince, felt their discomfort grow. They looked directly into those new eyes.

And they felt it was like staring at that strange smoke. As if something wanted to leave their bodies when they did so. It was a little suffocating.

Elyria didn’t hesitate and felt nothing regarding Kyrian’s new eyes. For her, what mattered was that he was fine. If Kyrian wanted to speak about it, so be it, but if not, it wasn’t her place to ask. She would leave that to Rurik.

She extended her hand and pulled him up.

"Can you stand?"

"Yes. I’m fine."

He took a deep breath.

"So, what’s happening?" Kyrian asked with a cold voice while looking at the sky. Now there were three points of smoke that were slowly connecting.

Another had appeared while he was undergoing the transformation.

Elyria then explained. She spoke about the traitors, the massacre in the castle, and the coliseum. The chaos in the city and the three smokes that had appeared. One in the castle, one there, and the other in the east.

While she explained, Kyrian listened in silence, absorbing the information.

Until, while looking at her, he noticed something that no one but him could see.

From all of them, a minimal amount of blood was escaping their bodies through their pores.

Threads so thin they would be completely invisible to anyone, but not to him. To him, those lines were visible. All flowed to a single place. Upwards, toward the smoke.

A chill ran through Kyrian.

’Tsk. This is not good at all. I’ve never felt such a bad premonition...’ Kyrian said in his mind.

The group then decided to leave the coliseum. A girl from the Order was assigned to take the prince and princess back to the castle.

When they left the coliseum, they saw chaos overtaking the city. Doors broken, blood on the sidewalks, which was already slowly disappearing.

People pushing each other toward the four city exits, shoving in desperation.

The city guards, who should have been helping to protect, were absent, dead, or had been enemies from the start.

The traitors mercilessly attacked the civilians who got in their way.

Kyrian, on the way, noticed it even more. In fact, from absolutely everyone, even the guards who had betrayed the country, a line of blood constantly flowed out of them.

The essence of everyone was being drained, slowly, like an invisible hand sucking the vitality of the entire capital.

Elyria and the others kept their faces stern. Killing those who obstructed their way and protecting the innocents they could. But not straying from their path.

"The guards are not at their posts. Most are traitors. The gates are closed by guards and invaders from other countries. The capital is completely locked without us realizing it." The fat man of the Royal Order suddenly said, he had just caught up with them.

Elyria had given him the mission to investigate. She had also sent another subordinate to try to understand what was happening. The people they tortured in the end hadn’t said anything useful.

They, too, didn’t know what was happening, they had only followed the orders of a woman.

Kyrian clenched his fists, a discomfort took hold of him. It was the first time he didn’t know exactly what was happening and what level of danger they were in.

When they were near the lake, the air exploded again.

’BOOOOOOM!’

A fourth smoke rose toward the skies from the last direction. Now, at four points of the city.

From the four main directions, columns of smoke, of crimson mist, rose into the skies. Rising, converging, until they met above them.

The sky slowly darkened. Tinted red. The smoke united, forming a living dome that was slowly closing around the entire city.

And then an even greater weight fell upon all.