The northern battlefield trembled beneath the weight of war.
Crimson light flashed across the plains as Fallen soldiers pressed against the human defensive lines. Blood-forged blades struck reinforced shields, while the distant roars of surviving creatures echoed from the ridges beyond the fighting.
Vireth Kael'tharyn stood upon a low rise overlooking the conflict.
His blood-forged longsword rested at his side, and Sanguine Thorn hovered near his shoulder, its narrow crimson blade turning slowly in the air.
"Push through their eastern formation," he ordered. "The humans are running out of time. Break their lines before they complete the conversion."
A Fallen officer bowed.
"Yes, Blood Ascendant."
The officer hurried away.
Vireth turned his attention toward the distant mountains.
The humans had proven more troublesome than expected. Their military continued advancing despite mounting casualties, and reports indicated that the remaining qualifying creatures were being eliminated faster than his forces could secure them.
He had no intention of allowing Whitefall to complete.
A sudden movement disturbed the darkness behind him.
Shadows gathered between two shattered stones, twisting inward until a figure emerged from their depths.
Vireth turned.
For a moment, he simply stared.
Then his lips curved into a smile.
"Well, well."
David Wyn stood several meters away.
His uniform was torn almost beyond recognition. Blood covered his arms, his chest, and both legs. The wound through his shoulder remained open, and the injury in his thigh had soaked his boot dark red.
His Claw Gauntlets were extended.
Fresh blood dripped from their metal tips.
Vireth looked him over with undisguised amusement.
"David Wyn."
He glanced toward the southern plains.
"How disappointing. I left four perfectly capable soldiers behind to finish you, and apparently they couldn't manage even that."
David said nothing.
Vireth examined the blood covering his gauntlets.
"Although, judging by your appearance, you've been rather busy since we last met."
The Blood Ascendant took a leisurely step forward.
"Look at you. Barely able to stand, yet you've dragged yourself all the way here."
David's breathing was heavy.
His injured leg trembled beneath him, but his eyes remained fixed on Vireth.
"Tell me, boy."
Vireth tilted his head.
"Did the girl survive?"
David's fingers tightened inside his gauntlets.
Vireth watched the movement.
A knowing smile spread across his face.
"Ah."
He gave a small, disappointed sigh.
"So she didn't."
David's jaw clenched.
"Such a shame. She seemed rather determined to reach you."
Vireth glanced toward the distant fighting.
"And now here you are, abandoning whatever remains of your little squad to chase after me."
He turned back to David.
"Did she call your name before she died?"
David took a step forward.
Vireth's smile widened.
"Perhaps she was still waiting for you to save her."
"Shut up."
The words came quietly.
Vireth raised an eyebrow.
"What was that?"
David lifted his head.
"I'm going to kill you."
For a moment, Vireth stared at him.
Then he laughed.
"You?"
He gestured toward David's ruined uniform.
"You couldn't protect one girl standing a few steps away from you. What makes you believe you can kill me?"
David moved.
His injured leg struck the ground, and his Claw Gauntlets flashed toward Vireth's throat.
The Blood Ascendant barely brought his longsword up in time.
Metal struck metal.
Vireth's smile vanished.
David twisted beneath the blade and slashed upward with his other gauntlet.
Four claws tore across Vireth's cheek.
Blood splashed onto the grass.
Vireth staggered backward.
He touched his face.
When he lowered his hand, his fingers were red.
For several seconds, he stared at the blood.
Then he looked at David.
"You..."
David attacked again.
***
Vireth raised his longsword.
David struck from the left, forcing the Blood Ascendant to turn his blade outward. Before Vireth could recover, David drove his other gauntlet toward his ribs.
Vireth twisted.
The claws ripped through his uniform and opened a shallow wound across his side.
He stepped backward.
David followed.
His attacks came without pause.
A slash toward the neck.
A thrust toward the chest.
Another strike aimed at Vireth's sword arm.
Vireth parried the first two, but the third tore across his forearm.
Blood ran down his wrist.
"Enough!"
Sanguine Thorn shot forward.
David twisted away from the rapier's point.
The blade sliced across his upper arm.
He ignored it.
His gauntlet struck Vireth's chest, tearing through the dark fabric and leaving four bloody lines across his skin.
Vireth retreated another step.
Then another.
The Fallen soldiers nearby began to notice.
"Blood Ascendant?"
One soldier stopped fighting long enough to stare.
A wounded human cadet was forcing their commander backward.
Vireth's expression hardened.
He swung his longsword in a wide arc.
David ducked beneath it and drove forward.
His shoulder struck Vireth's chest.
The impact forced the Blood Ascendant back against a broken stone formation.
David raised both gauntlets.
Vireth caught his wrists.
For a moment, they struggled against each other.
David's wounded leg shook beneath him.
Vireth smiled through bloodstained teeth.
"You think this makes us equals?"
David pushed harder.
The tips of his claws moved closer to Vireth's throat.
Vireth's eyes narrowed.
Crimson energy surged around his arms.
He threw David backward.
David struck the ground and rolled across the grass.
Before he had stopped moving, Sanguine Thorn descended toward his chest.
David twisted.
The rapier buried itself in the ground beside him.
He caught the blade's narrow guard with his gauntlet and shoved it aside, scrambling to his feet.
Vireth stepped forward.
"You're beginning to irritate me."
David charged.
Vireth met him with a downward strike.
David slipped past the longsword, accepting a cut across his ribs to get close enough to attack.
His claws ripped across Vireth's sword arm.
The Blood Ascendant hissed.
David struck again.
Vireth blocked with his forearm, then drove his knee into David's stomach.
David doubled over.
Vireth brought his longsword down.
David caught the blade between the reinforced claws of his gauntlet.
The impact forced him to one knee.
Pain exploded through his wounded leg.
Vireth leaned over him.
"Stay down!"
David drove his other gauntlet into Vireth's thigh.
The Blood Ascendant roared.
He stumbled backward, tearing himself free of the claws.
David forced himself upright.
Blood streamed down his leg.
His breathing had become harsh and uneven.
But he advanced again.
Vireth stared at him.
The amusement had completely disappeared from his face.
"You miserable little animal."
Crimson mist began gathering around his feet.
"Very well."
He raised his blood-forged longsword.
"If you insist on dying, I'll stop being gentle."
***
The blood covering the ground began to move.
Thin crimson streams slid through the grass, gathering beneath David's feet.
Vireth lifted his hand.
"Crimson Dominion."
The first spear erupted from the earth.
David twisted aside.
The second came from behind him.
Its point drove into his side.
His body jerked.
A sharp cry escaped his throat.
Vireth smiled.
"There."
David grabbed the spear with his gauntlet.
He pulled himself forward, forcing the blood-forged point back through the wound.
Vireth's smile faded.
"What?"
David tore himself free.
Blood spilled down his side.
He stumbled forward.
Then he charged.
Another spear rose from the ground.
It pierced the flesh of his thigh.
David's leg buckled.
He caught himself with one hand, pulled against the spear, and forced himself upright.
The crimson shaft tore through the wound as he moved past it.
Vireth stared.
David kept coming.
A third spear struck his shoulder.
He twisted violently, breaking free before it could hold him in place.
His claws flashed.
Vireth brought his longsword up.
The impact drove him backward.
David struck again.
And again.
Each movement cost him more blood.
Each step sent pain through his damaged leg.
But he continued attacking.
Vireth parried a strike aimed at his neck.
David immediately slashed toward his stomach.
The claws opened another wound.
Vireth snarled.
"Why won't you stay down?"
David drove forward.
Vireth dissolved into crimson mist.
His body scattered across the battlefield, leaving David's claws cutting through empty air.
David stumbled.
For a moment, he stood motionless.
The mist moved around him.
Then it gathered behind his left shoulder.
Vireth emerged with his longsword already raised.
David turned.
His gauntlet swept across Vireth's shoulder.
The claws tore through flesh before the Blood Ascendant had fully reformed.
"ARGH!"
Vireth staggered sideways.
His sword struck the ground.
David followed, driving his other gauntlet toward his throat.
Vireth barely avoided the strike.
Four bloody lines appeared across his neck.
He retreated.
David advanced.
Vireth dissolved into mist again.
This time he reappeared several meters away.
He stared at the blood running down his shoulder.
His expression twisted with fury.
A Level 10 human had wounded him.
Not once.
Not twice.
Repeatedly.
And the human was still coming.
David staggered across the grass.
His claws hung at his sides.
His breathing sounded wet and strained.
Vireth watched him approach.
"You should already be dead."
David raised his head.
His eyes were fixed on the Blood Ascendant.
"Then kill me."
Vireth's face darkened.
"Gladly."
***
Sanguine Thorn flashed toward David.
He ducked.
The rapier sliced through his hair and curved around for another attack.
David raised his gauntlet.
Metal rang as the blade struck his claws.
Vireth charged behind it.
His longsword swept toward David's ribs.
David twisted, but his injured leg failed to carry him far enough.
The blade cut across his side.
He stumbled backward.
Vireth followed with another strike.
David blocked.
The impact drove him down onto one knee.
Blood splashed beneath him.
Vireth raised his sword again.
David lunged forward instead.
His claws struck Vireth's chest.
The Blood Ascendant staggered.
David tried to follow with another attack.
His vision blurred.
For an instant, Vireth's figure doubled before him.
David blinked.
The battlefield tilted.
He missed.
Vireth struck him across the face with the hilt of his sword.
David fell sideways.
He caught himself against the ground.
His arms trembled.
I AM:
"David. You must retreat."
David pushed himself upright.
Vireth approached.
I AM:
"You cannot survive this battle."
David raised his gauntlets.
Vireth swung.
David blocked the strike, but the force drove him backward.
His injured leg dragged through the grass.
I AM:
"Your body is failing."
David lunged.
Vireth stepped aside and struck him across the back.
David stumbled forward.
He turned and slashed.
His claws passed inches from Vireth's face.
I AM:
"Stop before it is too late."
David ignored the warning.
He could barely hear the battle around him anymore.
The distant shouts of soldiers had become muffled.
The flashes of crimson light seemed strangely far away.
All he could see was Vireth.
The man who had driven a blade through Nyra's chest.
The man who had watched him struggle to reach her.
The man who had laughed.
David attacked again.
Vireth caught his gauntlet with his longsword.
Their weapons locked.
David pushed forward.
His injured shoulder shook violently.
Vireth stared into his face.
"Look at you."
David tried to force the blade aside.
"You're dying on your feet."
David snarled and drove his other gauntlet toward Vireth's throat.
The Blood Ascendant caught his wrist.
For a moment, David struggled.
Then his strength faltered.
Vireth shoved him away.
David stumbled backward.
His leg gave out.
He fell to one knee.
The battlefield darkened around the edges of his vision.
He blinked rapidly.
Tried to stand.
His body refused.
Vireth approached slowly.
"Finally."
David planted his gauntlet against the ground.
He forced himself upright.
His breathing came in broken gasps.
Vireth stopped.
Even now, the human was trying to fight.
David staggered forward.
His claws rose.
Vireth caught him by the throat.
***
David's feet left the ground.
Vireth lifted him with one hand, his fingers tightening around the cadet's neck.
David grabbed at his wrist.
His gauntlets scraped against the Blood Ascendant's armor.
But his arms no longer had the strength to strike.
Vireth held him suspended above the grass.
"Look at me."
David struggled for breath.
Vireth tightened his grip.
"Look at what you've done."
He gestured with his longsword toward the wounds covering his body.
"You've cut me. You've spilled my blood. You've humiliated me before my soldiers."
David's vision flickered.
Vireth leaned closer.
"And for what?"
His voice lowered.
"The girl is still dead."
David's fingers tightened around Vireth's wrist.
"Nothing you do will change that."
David tried to raise his gauntlet.
His arm trembled and fell.
Vireth smiled.
"There it is."
He studied David's face.
"That helpless look. I remember it."
David's breathing became weaker.
"It's the same expression you wore when my blade went through her."
Something moved in David's eyes.
Vireth saw it.
He smiled wider.
"Did she cry for you?"
David suddenly jerked forward.
Before Vireth could react, David sank his teeth into the hand gripping his throat.
"AAAAARGH!"
Vireth roared.
His fingers opened.
David fell.
He struck the ground hard, rolling onto his wounded shoulder.
Pain tore through him.
Vireth stared at his bleeding hand.
Teeth marks had broken the skin.
For several seconds, he appeared unable to comprehend what had happened.
Then his face twisted.
"You FILTHY LITTLE BEAST!"
David tried to crawl away.
His arms barely supported him.
Vireth raised his hand.
Sanguine Thorn lifted from the ground.
The crimson rapier turned in the air.
David looked up.
The blade shot toward him.
He tried to move.
Too late.
Sanguine Thorn pierced his other shoulder and drove deep into the ground beneath him.
"AAAAAAHHHH!"
David's back arched.
His gauntlets scraped against the grass.
The rapier held him pinned.
He tried to pull himself free.
Pain exploded through his chest.
His strength vanished.
Vireth approached.
"Stay there."
David's breathing came in short, broken gasps.
His vision darkened.
He could see Vireth's boots moving closer.
He tried to lift his arm.
It fell back against the ground.
The Blood Ascendant stopped beside him.
"Now."
Vireth looked down at the wounded cadet.
"Let's see what makes you so special."
David's eyes slowly closed.
The battlefield disappeared.
***
Vireth stood over the unconscious human.
His breathing was heavy.
Blood ran down his cheek, his sword arm, his chest, and his shoulder.
The wounds were not enough to threaten his life, but their existence enraged him.
He looked at David's motionless body.
"Level Ten."
He spoke the words with disgust.
"A miserable Level Ten human."
Vireth flexed his injured hand.
The bite marks throbbed.
He stared at them.
Then he kicked David in the side.
The cadet didn't respond.
Vireth drew back his foot for another strike.
He stopped.
His eyes narrowed.
He looked at the blood covering David's uniform.
An anomaly.
A human capable of cutting through space.
A cadet who had survived wounds that should have left him helpless.
A Level 10 fighter who had forced a Level 45 Blood Ascendant to defend himself.
Vireth's anger slowly gave way to curiosity.
"Perhaps..."
He crouched beside David.
"Perhaps there is something extraordinary about you after all."
He studied the blood seeping from the wound around Sanguine Thorn.
For the Fallen, human blood was more than nourishment.
It was power.
Experience.
A means of strengthening themselves beyond their natural limits.
The stronger the human, the greater the value of the blood.
But this human was different.
Vireth had seen David cut through space itself.
He had watched him fight through injuries that should have broken his will.
And even after losing nearly everything, the boy had continued attacking.
Vireth reached beneath his cloak.
He withdrew a small crystal flask.
Its transparent sides caught the crimson light drifting across the battlefield.
He removed the stopper.
Then he positioned the flask beneath the fresh blood flowing from David's wounded shoulder.
Dark red drops struck the bottom.
Vireth watched carefully.
The blood collected slowly, filling the lower portion of the flask.
He adjusted its position to catch more.
When he was satisfied, he replaced the stopper and lifted it toward the light.
The blood appeared ordinary.
Deep red.
Warm.
Human.
Vireth turned the flask between his fingers.
"All that power..."
He glanced down at David.
"Hidden inside a body too weak to contain it."
A smile returned to his face.
"Let's see what happens when someone worthy possesses it."
He removed the stopper.
Raised the flask.
And drank.
***
At first, nothing happened.
Vireth swallowed the blood and lowered the flask.
He waited.
A faint warmth spread through his chest.
He smiled.
"Interesting..."
Then the warmth changed.
Something cold moved beneath his ribs.
Vireth frowned.
He looked down at the flask.
"What...?"
The sensation spread.
It moved through his chest, down his arms, and into his legs.
His fingers tightened around the crystal.
He took a step backward.
Then a voice spoke.
Ancient.
Calm.
Watching.
I AM:
"You have consumed the essence of the anointed."
Vireth froze.
He looked sharply to his left.
"Who said that?"
The Fallen soldiers nearby continued fighting.
None turned toward him.
Vireth looked to his right.
"Show yourself!"
No one answered.
He tightened his grip on the flask.
"Who dares address me?"
I AM:
"You have taken the blood of countless lives."
Vireth's expression hardened.
The voice seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere.
Yet he could feel it speaking directly to him.
I AM:
"Their suffering has not been forgotten."
Vireth bared his teeth.
"Human lives?"
He laughed angrily.
"Is that what this is about?"
He raised his blood-forged longsword.
"I am Vireth Kael'tharyn! Blood Ascendant of the Fallen!"
His voice thundered across the ridge.
"No one stands in judgment over me!"
The ancient presence remained unmoved.
I AM:
"Judgment has been rendered."
Vireth opened his mouth to respond.
But the battlefield vanished.
***
He stood in a small human village.
Warm sunlight fell across narrow streets.
Children ran between the houses.
A woman stood outside a doorway, calling for her son.
Vireth looked around.
"What is this?"
The scene shifted.
The village burned.
Fallen soldiers marched through the streets.
He recognized their armor.
His soldiers.
He remembered this place.
A human settlement taken during an early campaign.
The woman who had stood outside the doorway was now kneeling in the street.
She held a child against her chest.
Vireth watched one of his soldiers approach.
The woman begged for mercy.
He remembered ordering the village cleared.
He remembered drinking from the prisoners afterward.
But now something was different.
He was no longer standing above the woman.
He was kneeling where she had knelt.
He felt the child trembling in his arms.
He heard the approaching footsteps.
Fear seized his chest.
Real fear.
The kind he had never allowed himself to experience.
"No..."
The soldier raised his weapon.
Vireth screamed.
The scene shattered.
He stood inside another home.
A young man was hiding beneath a table.
Outside, Fallen soldiers were searching the building.
Vireth felt the man's heart pounding.
He felt his desperate hope that they would pass him by.
Then the door opened.
The table was overturned.
A blade flashed.
Pain tore through Vireth's body.
He screamed again.
The world changed.
A battlefield.
A human soldier lay wounded beneath a broken shield.
Vireth recognized him.
He had personally ordered the man's execution.
Now he felt the soldier's pain.
The desperate struggle to breathe.
The fear of never seeing his family again.
The helplessness of watching an enemy approach.
"No!"
Another life.
Another death.
Another.
Faces appeared around him.
Men.
Women.
Soldiers.
Civilians.
People whose names he had never bothered to learn.
People whose blood he had consumed and forgotten.
Now he remembered every one.
He felt their fear.
Their grief.
Their final moments.
Their desperate wishes to live.
"STOP!"
His voice echoed through the visions.
"STOP THIS!"
But the lives continued.
Hundreds.
Thousands.
Every life he had taken returned to him.
And with each one came the suffering he had inflicted.
***
On the battlefield, Vireth staggered.
His soldiers turned toward him.
"Blood Ascendant?"
The crystal flask slipped from his fingers.
It struck the ground and shattered.
Vireth grabbed his chest.
"AAAAAAHHHH!"
His scream rose above the fighting.
Several Fallen soldiers rushed toward him.
"Blood Ascendant! What's wrong?"
Vireth stumbled backward.
He could no longer see them.
His mind remained trapped inside the endless procession of human lives.
He experienced another death.
Then another.
His knees struck the ground.
"MAKE IT STOP!"
A Fallen officer knelt beside him.
"Blood Ascendant!"
The officer reached for his shoulder.
Vireth jerked away.
"GET AWAY FROM ME!"
The officer recoiled.
Then he noticed something strange.
The veins along Vireth's arms were changing.
They had begun to sink beneath his skin.
The flesh surrounding them tightened.
His hands trembled.
"What...?"
Vireth stared at his fingers.
His skin was pulling inward.
The powerful muscles in his forearms began shrinking.
His veins flattened as though something invisible were drawing the blood out of them.
He clawed at his chest.
"WHAT IS HAPPENING TO ME?!"
His voice cracked.
The Fallen soldiers stared in horror.
Vireth's cheeks began to hollow.
The skin around his eyes tightened.
His lips shrank against his teeth.
His neck grew thinner.
"Blood Ascendant!"
One soldier reached for him.
Vireth grabbed the man's arm.
"HELP ME!"
His grip was already weakening.
The soldier stared at the hand clutching him.
The fingers were becoming thin and skeletal.
Vireth's armor began hanging loosely around his shoulders.
His chest visibly contracted beneath the breastplate.
It looked as though an unseen force had reached inside his body and begun sucking every drop of blood from his veins.
The muscles that had once carried his immense strength wasted away.
His arms became narrow.
His legs trembled beneath him.
"DO SOMETHING!"
The officer looked desperately toward the others.
"Get a medic!"
A soldier hurried away.
Another tried to support Vireth beneath his arm.
But the Blood Ascendant continued shrinking inside his armor.
His skin stretched tighter against his bones.
His face became gaunt.
His eyes sank into deep hollows.
Vireth tried to stand.
His legs collapsed.
He fell onto his hands.
A weak, broken scream escaped him.
Inside his mind, the judgment continued.
Another human life.
Another final breath.
Another family destroyed.
He could no longer distinguish one death from the next.
There was only suffering.
Endless suffering.
He tried to beg.
But even his voice was failing.
"Please..."
His fingers scraped weakly against the ground.
"Make... it..."
The words dissolved into a rasp.
His armor shifted as his shoulders narrowed.
His arms had become little more than bones beneath tightly stretched skin.
The Fallen soldiers backed away.
None of them understood what they were witnessing.
One whispered, "His blood..."
Another shook his head.
"Where is it going?"
There was no answer.
Vireth collapsed onto his side.
His legs curled weakly beneath him.
The once-powerful Blood Ascendant had withered to little more than a skeleton wrapped in pale, tightened skin.
His armor lay loosely around him.
His mouth opened.
For a moment, his sunken eyes stared toward the darkened sky.
Then his body gave one final shudder.
And became still.
***
Silence spread across the small section of battlefield.
The Fallen soldiers stared at the body lying before them.
No one moved.
No one spoke.
The officer who had tried to help Vireth slowly knelt beside him.
"Blood Ascendant?"
He reached toward the withered figure.
There was no response.
He checked for a pulse.
Waited.
Then checked again.
His face changed.
He looked up at the soldiers surrounding him.
"He's dead."
One Fallen took an unsteady step backward.
"That's impossible."
Another stared at the shriveled body.
"He was Level Forty-Five."
The officer said nothing.
He looked toward the shattered crystal flask.
Dark red blood stained the grass around its broken pieces.
A soldier followed his gaze.
"The human..."
The officer turned.
Several meters away, David Wyn lay unconscious on the ground.
Sanguine Thorn remained embedded through his shoulder, pinning him to the earth.
His chest rose and fell faintly.
The soldier stared at him.
"It started after the Blood Ascendant drank his blood."
Another Fallen stepped closer.
"You're saying the human did this?"
"I don't know what he did."
The soldier looked back at Vireth's withered remains.
"But it happened because of him."
The officer slowly stood.
His expression hardened.
"Then the anomaly is responsible."
He drew his blood-forged sword.
The other soldiers looked toward David.
The wounded cadet remained motionless.
He had no idea what had happened.
No idea that Vireth was dead.
No idea that the Fallen were approaching him.
One soldier stepped over the shattered flask.
"Whatever he is, he killed our Blood Ascendant."
Another raised his blade.
"Then he dies here."
The officer moved toward David.
His boots pressed into the bloodstained grass.
He stopped beside the unconscious cadet and looked down at him.
David's Claw Gauntlets lay motionless at his sides.
His face was pale from blood loss.
The officer tightened his grip around his sword.
"For the Blood Ascendant."
He raised the blade above David's chest.
Then brought it down.