For Ethan, the first taste of real power felt like electric currents flooding through his veins. His first step as a Blood Sovereign had been taken, and the world seemed to shudder in response, as if acknowledging a dangerous threat which had just been born. Blood within him did not feel like a mere liquid anymore—it was power, and, with it, he felt the rhythm of life as well.
He sensed every heartbeat, every drop of blood coursing through the bodies present near him, and every drop spilled from his enemies. For with power came ruin—hunger. A thing gnawing inside him, gnawing away at the mind, gasping for release.
He looked around the ruined classroom where the last skirmish had been fought. Even now, the echoes of desperate screams, cracking of bones, and howls from the glory-seeking fools who dared to oppose him were clear in his mind- the crimson-painted walls, the bloody floor which glistened with the blood of the vanquished.
But now, nothing more remained but deathly stillness.
{System Alert: First Kill Registered.}
Ethan's heart skipped a beat. First kill. Seemed trivial, insignificant. Yet the heaviness of that moment crushed him. The system voice coldly reminded him of the reality he now lived in: there was no turning back from that day onward. The person he had once been was gone forever.
He had crossed a threshold beyond which there was no return.
He flexed his fingers, and blood on the floor stirred at his command, twitching and rippling as if alive. His blood, his power, had begun raging. He felt it forming inside him, twisting and shifting, defying every law of nature in doing so. It was changing, just like him.
{New Skill: Blood Grasp Unlocked.}
That word sent thrills through him. Blood Grasp. One moment's concentration, and the floor's blood surged skyward, wrapping around his fingers like tendrils of flesh. An extension of himself, an obedient weapon at the flick of his command. Power itself could have been said to reside within the Blood Sovereign, but the gist asked to extend beyond flesh. He could manipulate, control, destroy—the blood of all beings- the lifeblood of the world around him.
The corpses nearby called for him. The living had left; their screams midst were now buried in the sands of time. The others merely lay inanimate, their existence fading in meaning. But Ethan focused on one, in particular—a boy, perhaps the same age as Ethan himself had been prior to his awakening. The kid lay faceup in stillness, blood pooling around him, but something glimmered in his eyes, some brief flicker of life, some embed of hope.
Ethan knelt beside him, eyes fixed into the vigour of almost blood-relieving terror gripping the widely open eyes of the boy. The boy's lips began to tremble, a scarcely audible, desperate attempt to speak. Nothing came forth.
"Please… spare me…" those words finally fell off the boy's lips while half the humanity lingered on it.
The hunger within Ethan stirred, awakened by the taste of power—a greedy beast now set free. He had a choice to make: the boy's remaining hope could live through today, back to his life; or Ethan could rip it from him, consuming what he needed, wiping any weakness from the face of the Earth.
Ethan made up his mind.
{Blood Grasp—Enhanced: Direct Control.}
With this thought, Ethan pulled at the boy's blood, violently extricating it from his veins. The boy gasped in pain as he fought instinctively against blood loss. Ethan felt his blood falter in its escape, each drop strengthening his own magnitude with strength.
The blood and life of the boy could not withstand him; his eyes widened, mouth opened in an unvoiced scream.
In that moment, Ethan found himself reflected in the boy's eyes; the fear, the sheer helplessness reflected back. He had once stood in their shoes—had been so weak, so helpless. And who in their right mind has life and death in their hands?
Now, the hold that tightened on the boy grew savage. The boy's body spasmed violently, fighting futilely against its fate. Blood rushed so easily, and Ethan felt his own power swell and hunger surge until all that was left was a dry shell.
The boy's last breath left with a huge push.
With Ethan's gaze fixated on the boy's corpse, he stood cold and serene; the rhythmic rise and set of his chest betrayed neither guilt nor remorse. He was almost emotionless. The boy's death had been quick, nearly serene, but it left behind a residue that hung in the atmosphere.
Ethan could not define that feeling. But he never really needed to.
{System Update: First Bloodbound Kill Achieved.}
The notification was barely meaningful anymore. The boy was the first victim; surely not the last.
And thus, Ethan Blackwood stood in the ruins of a world that had consumed him, a youth reborn through blood and power. He had tasted kingship; he had tasted monstrosity. There would be no turning back. The world will shake with fear for him, and in the end, it will bow down to worship him.
Eyes glistening cold, ethereal flames gathering ruthless might, he cast a hard look to the horizon-the world was his to change, shaped by whatever or whomever stood in his way.
{Next Path: Blood Sovereign's Dominion Awaits.}