The Arena was carved into black stone, circular and vast, just like the gaping mouth of some ancient beast. A hundred students lined the upper balconies, their bloodline crests glinting in the firelight - serpents, suns, storm-wolves, fangs, and flames.
Kairo stood alone in the sand.
Below, in the Predation Pit, he felt the weight of their eyes. They weren't just watching - they were waiting for him to fail.
"Next trial," a cold voice echoed from the speakers, "Kael Drosin of House Veyr… versus Vorn Aelric of House Windfang."
A ripple went through the crowd. Vorn stepped down from his platform, his cloak billowing like storm clouds behind him. He was tall, broad-shouldered, with pale blue hair that crackled with static as he moved.
Kairo's fists clenched. Every step Vorn took carried arrogance, the kind of superiority that only the highborn bathed in from birth.
"Never heard of a Drosin," Vorn sneered as he entered the pit. "You're a footnote. I'll write your name in the sand… with your blood."
Kairo said nothing.
He didn't need to. The Sovereign System was already pulsing.
[Blood Core: Level 1]
[Sovereign Progress: 3%]
[Ability Active: Blood Piercer – Ready])
A bell rang.
Vorn moved like a blur.
Wind erupted around him as his hands became claws, slicing through the air. His bloodline was fast - Windfang, a rare hybrid of speed and cutting-force.
Kairo ducked low. Wind slashed above his head, and he felt the sting as the pressure peeled skin from his cheek.
He rolled to the side, boots digging into sand. Another strike came - this time from behind. Kairo barely twisted in time, taking the hit across his shoulder. Pain lanced down his arm.
The crowd roared with delight.
"Just end it, Vorn!"
"Slit the impostor!"
Kairo's vision blurred.
Not from the pain.
From the heat building in his chest.
That old, familiar warmth - the fire that wasn't fire. The blood that wasn't just blood.
"Activate," he whispered.
[Blood Piercer: Initiated]
His heartbeat slowed.
Time snapped.
In that moment, the air around him warped red - and his right hand ignited with liquid crimson. His blood, sharpened into a thin needle of death, extended from his palm like a spear.
Vorn lunged again.
Kairo didn't dodge.
He stepped forward.
The crowd gasped.
Vorn's eyes widened as Kairo's hand slammed into his chest - piercing through skin, muscle, and bone. The Blood Piercer shot straight through his heart and out his back like a crimson blade.
Silence.
Then, a gasp— -then screams.
Vorn stumbled, blood pouring from his mouth. "You… you're not…"
Kairo twisted the blade of blood once more.
"You shouldn't have underestimated the slums," he said coldly.
Vorn collapsed.
A bell rang again - this time final.
[Kill Confirmed: Vorn Aelric]
[Blood Absorbed: Windfang Tier-2]
[Sovereign Core Progression: 3% → 7%]
[Ability Efficiency Increased]
The red light faded. The blood retreated into his palm, leaving only a faint crimson mark.
The crowd erupted in chaos.
"Did you see that?"
"He killed him with his own blood—!"
"That wasn't normal! That wasn't sanctioned power!"
Kairo turned toward the academy officials. They were whispering, furrowing brows, scribbling notes. One cloaked figure stood at the edge of the arena, unmoving.
Claine Morvan sat high in the observation box. He leaned forward, hands steepled, watching Kael Drosin——Kairo—with narrowed eyes.
"Interesting," Claine murmured.
Down below, Kairo stood alone in the pit, panting. His shoulder ached. His blood still simmered.
But the crowd no longer looked at him as prey.
They looked at him like something else.
Something dangerous.
——-
Those Who Watch
The Academy's halls had always felt cold, but tonight, they felt like a tomb.
Kairo walked with quiet steps through the marble corridors of House Veyr, shadows curling behind him. The whispers had begun after the Blood Trial - his name spoken with a mixture of awe and suspicion.
He should have been resting. Healing. But something had changed after that kill.
Something had awakened.
His senses were sharper. His heartbeat slower. Every torch on the walls flickered in rhythm with the pulse of his blood.
And somewhere, behind the walls - he could feel eyes.
Not ordinary gazes. Not students. Something older. Hungrier.
He turned the corner to his assigned chamber and paused.
Someone was already there.
A girl stood in the hallway, dressed in a maid's uniform. Her hair was short now, her eyes tired, her voice nearly a whisper.
"Ena."
She turned, flinching slightly at his voice - but then smiled, weary and faint.
"I found you."
Kairo stepped forward. "How? Why are you—?"
"I clean the west wing now," she said, glancing around. "It's… what I had to do. To survive."
She looked thinner than before. Her hands were red and calloused. But she still looked at him with the same unwavering resolve..
"You shouldn't be here," he said.
"I had to be," Ena replied. She leaned closer. "I heard something. About you."
His blood ran cold.
"They're calling you the Slum Reaper. That boy you killed? He wasn't just a student. His family… has ties. Old ties."
Kairo's jaw tensed.
"They're scared of you, Kairo. But some of them… aren't. Some of them are interested."
He looked around. No one in sight. Yet that feeling lingered— those eyes.
"You've heard of them, haven't you?" she asked. "The ones who walk in red. The ones who never take off their masks."
Kairo's voice was low. "The Red Veil."
Ena nodded once. "A secret order. Cult, some say. Hidden inside the Academy for centuries. They gather students with… unique blood. Forbidden types. Unnatural powers. You killed like one of them."
He wanted to deny it.
But how could he?
Blood that cut through bone like air. A system whispering in his veins. Murals of ancient gods with his mark on their chests.
"What do they want?" he asked.
"They don't chase power," Ena said. "They chase awakening. They believe in Sovereign blood—real Sovereign blood. They say it was purged from the world… and now it's returning."
Her voice dropped further.
"They think you might be it."
The walls creaked. A draft slithered through the corridor.
Kairo's thoughts spiraled.
The Red Veil… Sovereign blood… Ena finding him now - it was all happening too fast. And yet, he'd felt this since the moment he touched the stone altar.
He wasn't just being hunted.
He was being recruited.
"They'll approach you," Ena warned. "Maybe not tonight. Maybe not for days. But when they do… don't trust them. Not even for a second."
He stared at her. "Then why warn me?"
She hesitated.
"Because you're still Kairo to me. Even if you're becoming something else."
She turned quickly and walked down the hall before he could speak.
He was left alone —again.
But not in silence.
[Sovereign Core: Alert]
[New Presence Detected: Passive Observation]
[Threat Analysis: Unknown – Initiating Veil Countermeasures]
Kairo's eyes widened as a faint red shimmer flickered across the stone wall to his right.. A sigil, hidden in the cracks, burned for half a second then vanished.
Someone had been watching.
Had been listening.
He clenched his fists. Blood warmed beneath his skin.
[You are not alone in this Academy, Sovereign Candidate.]
[You are being weighed. Judged. Watched.)
He walked into his chamber, shut the door, and sat on the stone bed. For a moment, all he could hear was the beating of his own heart.
And the whisper that followed.
"We see you."
*
*
*
Author's Note:
Things are heating up now - literally. Kairo is no longer a nameless slumrat. He's got blood in his veins that shouldn't exist, and now The Red Veil wants him. Friend or foe? Cult or salvation?
Next chapter: "Ability: Crimson Grasp"
If you're enjoying this dark climb to power, drop a Power Stone to help this story rise in the ranks! It means the world and keeps the Sovereign Blood flowing. 🩸
— Yours in blood and shadow,
— Author Favour