Pain.
Not the sharp, instantaneous kind that accompanied the blade when he fell on it.
No, this pain was dull… persistent… as if the world itself refused to let him go.
Cain opened his eyes—and saw nothing. Only black. But not the comforting black of sleep. This was empty. Void.
Then the voice came.
"Initializing… Sovereign Genebreak Interface – Version 0.01… unstable build detected…"
> His fingers twitched. Something was crawling beneath his skin—like molten thread pulling itself through his veins.
"Warning: No genetic matrix detected. Accessing archived core… reconstructing user genome… error… error…"
> "I'm… not dead?" Cain whispered, voice brittle.
The void cracked. Light bled through. But it wasn't sunlight—it was red. Blood red. Symbols and veins of color began spiraling around him, forming a lattice, like a cocoon.
"Bloodline Absence Confirmed. Host Compatibility: [Overwritten]."
"Initiating Prototype Cloneblood Symbiosis…"
> His heart thundered. His back arched. The pain multiplied a hundredfold.
Images, sounds, memories that weren't his, came crashing in like a flood.
A boy summoning fire from his blood. A girl turning to mist. A noble screaming as his blood turned to gold.
Dozens… hundreds… of bloodlines passing through his mind in fractal detail—then fracturing, breaking, and reforming into something else entirely.
> And through it all, the voice kept whispering.
"Sovereign Directive Uploaded. Evolution Unchained."
"Host capacity: 0.07%. Stability: Non-viable. Upgrades required."
> Cain gasped as his vision cleared. He wasn't in the alley. He was somewhere… beneath the academy?
A stone room. Arcane conduits flickering. Blood—a lot of it—pooled beneath him. His own?
"What… happened… to me?" he muttered, trembling while clutching his hair through his fingers.
On the stone beside him, someone had scrawled with blood. His own hand had written it, he realized with dawning horror.
"Kill the script."
---
🧬 System Message (Raw Build – Glitching Style):
> "'Sovereign Genebreak Interface – v0.01'
Classification: [Unranked Prototype]
Core Trait: Cloneblood Synthesis (Locked)
Status: Incomplete / Reactive State
Warning: Host is unstable. Further bloodline absorption may result in identity fracture.
Sync Required: [Unknown Bloodline Detected]
Adaptive Capacity: 0.07%
Alert : You should not exist."
---
> Cain rose, blood staining his fingers, the flickering red glyphs behind his eyes whispering a future he didn't ask for. He remembered dying. He remembered why he died.
And now, he remembered what came next.
> "If I was born bloodless… then I'll take bloodlines from those who laughed at me."
Without him knowing his face formed a maniac grin.
Cain stumbled forward.
The glyph beneath him pulsed again—a deep red spiral that looked alive. It wasn't a typical magic circle. It was broken. Fragmented. And yet… functional.
Just like him.
> "What even is this place…?"
Above, the ceiling was carved in ancient runes older than the Kingdom's founding. Below, the floor bore claw marks—no, not claws. Human fingernails. Dozens. Scraped in desperation. Panic rose, but Cain crushed it.
His chest ached. Not from pain—from memory.
> The faces of the instructors laughing when his name hit the bottom of the Rankings.
The enchanted lunch trays that phased through his hands because he had no bloodline signature.
The healing spells that refused to activate on him.
The blind eye the faculty turned when he was used as bait during the Arcane Beasts class.
> "Null-Class."
"Bloodless worm."
"Try not to die, freak."
He had died. And now…
He wasn't sure what he was anymore.
---
🧬 [System Update – Fragmented Message]
> 'Genebreak Interface – v0.01 [Active]'
Mutation Node: Unstable
Core Link: Shattered
Cloneblood Trait: Locked Pending Resonance Anchor
Current Directive: [Absorb Compatible Bloodline Sample]
Status: Rebooting...
"Caution: Host psyche fragility = 87%"
"Echo Seed dormant. Awaiting catalyst."
---
> "Resonance anchor? Catalyst? What does any of this even mean?" Cain asked the air, to no one. The system didn't answer. Or maybe it couldn't.
His hands trembled. The blood on his fingers had dried, cracking as he clenched his fist. He had nothing. No food. No weapons. Not even a pulse that magic would recognize. And yet…
> He felt different.
> Like his blood was watching. Listening.
Like it wanted something.
He crawled toward a corner where light leaked in—barely more than moon-glow, but it felt like salvation. A fractured grate? Yes. It connected to the old aqueducts.
If he could squeeze through—
> CRACK.
Stone shifted behind him.
Cain turned, heart pounding.
A shimmer flickered at the edge of the chamber. A warden construct. Seven feet of obsidian armor etched with golden inscriptions. An academy sentinel.
It looked right through him.
> "Subject Cain Everheart. Deceased. Death verified. No retrieval required."
It turned to leave.
Cain blinked. Deceased? It couldn't see him?
> The system's doing…?
> "Warning: Cloneblood signature unregistered. Host classified: Null."
"Stealth status: Passive Anomaly. Temporary."
"Host must anchor a bloodline within 72 hours… or risk systemic breakdown."
"Initiate Bloodtrace Protocol – Target: Nearest Combat-Class cadet."
> I need… a bloodline..... sample?
The thought hit him like ice. He wasn't resurrected. He was rebooted. Rebuilt into a frame that couldn't even survive on its own. The system needed fuel.
Bloodline fuel.
> And there was only one place overflowing with it.
> Aetherhold Academy, I'm coming.