《The Blood Emperor [Dropped]》
Announcement!
So...
I was really thinking of abandoning this story, since I got to mich work on my hands that I can''t even use the laptop on weekends for anything other than reasearch, or that may just be an excuse since I''m a big and lazy sack of potatoes...If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.
But, it seems like I can''t stop thinking about cntinuing this story, so I decided to continue on with it...
The thing is I wan''t to redo all the current chapters from the ground up since I spotted a lot of things I could do better, but I''ll try to stick with the original story I had planned... Peace...
Prologue
It was a field of death, mountains of corpses were stacked once after another all over the horribly deformed and barren landscape which was now nothing more than an endless sea of blood stretching farther than the eye could see. The sky started to darken, black clouds appeared and soon covered the two massive moons from view as the rain started to pour quickly turning from a light drizzle to a raging storm.
The winds roared and the rain poured from the night sky in every direction without any signs of stopping. Lightning started to shoot down from the sky and a defeaning roar could be heard as thunder soon followed the flashes of light.
Over at the distance near a pile of corpses much bigger than the others, where the land was deformed beyond recognition due to a great battle, laid the gigantic skeleton of one of the most prideful and fearsome beast ever known to exist, the skeleton of a giant dragon was inside of a massive crater admist the deformed land and the piles of dead, on it''s back was the remains of a great fortress which was now only a little bit more than unrecognizable ruins.
A man came up from the ruined fortress, a man clad in black full plate armor adorned with intricate designs which were crimson in color that matched the man''s blood crimson eyes, his hair was black with red streaks and reached up to his shoulders, on his back glowed three pairs of crimson wings, on his hands was the body of a lifeless woman, her face was pale in color and the broken armor she wore was covered in her own fresh blood, her navy blue hair was tainted by blood just like the white angelic wings that sprouted from her back, slowly losing their white glow as the wings slowly withered like a dying tree.This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.
The man carried the woman''s body up the fortress which was now only a shadow of it''s former glory. Soon the man reached the highest point and gently laid the woman down before ascending up towards the eye of the raging storm.
The man stops high up in the air, his face covered soaked from the rain as he looks at the scene of carnage around him, tears of blood ran down his face as countless memories of pain, betrayal and loss flooded his mind.
Hundreds of magic circles simultaneously appeared in the sky and from inside of them burst out crimson chains that were covered in pitch black flames that seemed to swallow light itself. The chains entangled the man rendering any type of movement useless as the blakck flames started to swallow the man as he screamed in anguish.
It didn''t take long before the man was completely engulfed by the black flames that did not even leave a speck of dust as it seemed to eat away at the man''s very existence, a sudden flash of blood red light appeared in the sky and disappeared together with the man.
Forever removing him from the world without a trace.
Chapter 1: The Crimson Sphere
It was a quiet winter night. The sky was cloudless, the countless stars and the two bright moons illuminated the entire forest. The winter breeze chilled the temperature in the surroundings, making the air feel as cold as ice. Snowflakes fell from the sky nonstop turning the forest into a pure white.
The ground suddenly shook and the air became hard to breathe. In the sky glowed an expanding red sphere. The sphere started to grow bigger in size at an alarming rate and simultaneously the tremors got stronger, as a result the earth started to split and break apart, while some of the trees got forcefully uprooted from the ground.
Crimson magic circles encompassed the sky, red chains emerged from inside and started to coil around the sphere, trying to prevent whatever the sphere would do.
A burst of blinding light discharged from the sphere, covered the entire forest in a light as red as blood. The sphere continued to expand and the chains shook as it tried to hold the sphere in place.
The chains creaked as deep cracks started to appear on it''s surface as it continued to futilely tried stopping the sphere''s expansion.
There was a defeaning sound of something snapping and the chains that tried hindering the sphere''s growth shattered into tiny peices. As the chains gave in, the magic circles followed and broke like shattered glass.
Without anything hindering it, the crimson sphere grew much faster. After reaching the width of three pine trees in length the sphere stopped expanding. Magic circles formed under it all the way towards the deformed land.
In an instant all the energy that was stored in the sphere shot down to the ground with a loud explosion. The ground trembled at the power of the blast as it decimated everything, leaving complete annihilation in it''s wake.
It only lasted a few second before the bright crimson pillar dissipated into nothingness. The dust settled revealing a gigantic crater in the ground covered in strange glowing red runes.
In the middle of the crater was an unconcious naked boy. He had long black hair and a well built physique, he also looked to be around 15 to 16 years of age but a bit taller than some boys at that age. On the boy''s right arm were strange black symbols which looked like they were etched onto his arm.
After a few more moments the runes on the ground disappear in a similar way the pillar of light did, leaving only the unconscious boy in the middle of the destroyed forest.
Emir is a travelling alchemist who was looking for some rare herbs in the Evermoon Forest, it was said that in this forest during winter rare herbs were abundant. Being the alchemy fanatic that he was, he was unable to resist the chance to get rare herbs despite the possible lurking dangers.
He came from the nearest village from the forest, yet even though it was the nearest village it was still atleast 50 miles away from Evermoon Forest since there have been many reports of monsters coming from the forest that is why the no village was built near the forest.
Emir walked towards the forest early in the morning without anyone accompanying him and with only a map which was roughly made to guide him towards his destination.
It was already evening when he reached the forest and it was even more dangerous now, yet without any regard towards his own safety he quickly went in the forest without a second thought when he arrived.
While searching for some Soul Grass, a rare herb which had strong healing properties, he heard a low growl from the bushes behind him.
Without any combat experience whatsoever he was helpless if he was attacked by a monster now. He turns around and sees a pair of glowing eyes staring at him.
Cautiously he reaches for his pouch and pulls out a vial with a violet solution inside. Before he could chuck the vial at the creature within the bushes it was scared away by something else and ran away as fast as it could.
Now even more nerveous than before to what had scared the beast away Emir looks around at his surroundings while trying not to attract attention from anything dangerous.
Suddenly, a powerful gust of air struck his body lifting him off the ground and the force was enough to send him flying a few meters away.The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
He landed on his back after getting blown a good distance away from where he original position. He tries to stand up but the ground starts shaking violently causing cracks to appear on the surface. He struggled to stay up as he continued to wobble while the tremors got worse.
In front of him was a scene which looked liked the beginning of armageddon, pine trees were getting uprooted as the land itself started to split and break. Up in the sky was a red sphere entangled by countless red chains.
He held on to the tree nearest to him for dear life and when he thoight he was about to die the tremors stopped and a blinding light covered everything followed by the defeaning sound of a loud snap.
That was when the real terror started. A giant pillar of light struck the ground, decimating everything it touched, the destruction was incomprehensible, it felt as if the world was about to end. After the longest 20 seconds Emor has ever felt in his life the pillar of light disappeared and it was quiet once again.
His was relieved when it finally stopped and just dropped to the icy ground while panting heavily while grasping his chest. He was almost sure it was the end of the world at that time, well he was just happy it wasn''t.
After a few moments he regained his composure and stood up from the ground and steeled himself as he headed to the direction of where the pillar of light struck the ground.
He walked through dozens of fallen trees and the unbelievably deformed land, he even found some monster corpses that were crushed by the fallen trees or some who were just not strong enough to endure the shockwave of the blast because they were too near.
He cautiously proceeded, looking out for any dangers that may be lurking in the shadows. Soon he reached his destination, he was at the edge of a massive crater that was covered in red runes he has never seen before and in the middle was something he could not make out.
He tried to lean in to get a better look but the rock under his feet crumbled and he fell inside the crater. He rolled down the steep rock uncontrollably, he lost momentum after rolling to the flat portion of the crater which was quite deep into the ground.
Emir stood up while removing the dust from his clothes with his hands. He looked at the fogure in the middle of the crater and saw a humanoid figure sprawled on the ground. He proceeded with extreme caution, after a while the red runes disappeared without a trace from the crater like the beam of light.
He closed in on the humanoid figure in the center of the crater and was shocked to see an unconscious young man. The boy had jet black hair reaching his shoulders, a body which looked like it belonged to a warrior who trained everyday yet not made up of overly huge muscles. The face of the boy could be considered a handsome one with facial features that looked so sharp it was as if it was carved by a dwarf who has mastered carving. What piqued Emir''s interest the most was the black markings on the boy''s right arm it was nothing he had seen before, it looked like some kind of humongous black beast it would seem, he checked the boy''s pulse and realized that he was very much alive and was only exhausted.
Emir looked at the unconscious boy and immediately took off his coat and put it over the boy after thinking about helping the mysterious young man or not. He decided to help the boy since it would just be heartless to leave the poor boy alone in the freezing forest even if he didn''t have anything to do with the boy.
He took out the folded tent behind his back and started to set it up. After he fixed the tent he took out vial in his bag containing a white solution and sprinkled it over the camp.
The potion was supposedly able to hide the prescence of whatever drank it or had physical contact with the white solution, it was quite a rare potion but Emir was not gonna trade his life for a concealing potion.
Emir took out some rations in his bag and ate, he then quenched his dry throat with the water inside his waterskin. He looked once more at the unconsciou boy inside the bedroll beside hin to see any signs of discomfort or waking up, but alas there was nothing.
He then lied down using his bag as a makeshift pillow to support his head, trying to calm himself of the unbelievable things that he had experienced this day.
It was morning, the sun''s rays peekd through the thin walls of the tent and was hitting Emir''s face. Slowly opening his eyes while covering his face from the rays of the sun he sat up. Remembering the boy from last night he immediately looked beside him only to see nobody there.
Panic struck his heart when he realized the boy was nowhere to be seen. He immediately took a vial with a violet solution and slowly headed outside the tent.
His eyes widened after seeing the boy a good five meters away from the tent wearing nothing but the coat he put over the boy last night, he didn''t even seem to care about the freezing temperatures outside which could easily kill you if you were unprepared. The boy simply had his palm raise towards the gleaming sun while he bathed in it''s warmth.
The next moment the boy removed the only cloth that was covering his body which was the coat, showing his well built body and in an instant he was enveloped in black mist that came up from the ground. The black mistquickly disappeared and revealed the boy which was now wearing a black coat over a simple white shirt, on his lower half was black pants and boots while both his hands were covered by crimson gloves.
Emir''s jaw hung open, never in his life has he seen something like that! He was sure it was magic but he has never heard of magic that was activated without chants and was able to make material objects appear from nothing.
The boy''s emerald colored eyes looked straight at Emir, sensing his presence as he looked behind him. Emir gulped and prepared for the worse as he saw the boy slowly approaching him.
Chapter 2: Bandit Massacre
''Shit! What have I got myself into?! Just who in the world is this boy?!''
Emir Was holding his ground even though all his instincts were telling him to run away as fast as he could away from the boy.
His whole body trembled and cold sweat formed of his brow as he gripped the bottle with a violet concoction in his right hand tighter as the boy got closer.
The boy was now face to face with Emir. The boy had an expressionless face as he stared at Emir, while Emir felt like he was about to faint.
To Emir''s surprise the boy suddenly bowed in front of him.
"Thank you for helping me."
It was five simple words the came put from the boy''s mouth, as he spoke with a gentle tone which was full of gratitude.
Emir was dumbfounded, there was so much confusion right now that he might just pass out from straining his brain.
"U-uh, o-of course! No need for thanks, it just happened that this old man was looking for herbs in the forest."
Emir nervously replied, he wasn''t really sure what to say at first, but in the end chose to accept the boy''s gratitude.
"May I ask what your name may be?"
Emir asked, still feeling tense about the situation.
The boy looked up and stared at the sky, he looked like he was thinking of something important, he then looked at Emir and answered.
"My name is Zen."
"And your last name?"
Emir asked as he raised his left eyebrow eagerly waiting to hear for the boy''s last name. ''Surely it must be at least the last name of a famous noble family if not it would be possible that he would be from some royal family, but wait why would they leave the boy out here alone in this forest? Could he be lost? Were they attacked by bandits or monsters? Only commoners do not have last names after all, a person''s last name could also mirror their importance in society and their power, and this boy was able to use chantless magic I haven''t even heard of before.'' Emir quietly thought to himself, all the mysteries around the boy made him want to know the answer even more.
"I do not have one."
The boy immediately answered with no trace of lying could be seen from him.
Emir was utterly shocked, but he treid to keep himself from making any rude facial expressions from Zion.
''Wait what?! This young man does not have a last name?! Even I have a last name!''
"Then may I ask of my benefactor''s name?"
The boy asked Emir who had seemed to be inside a world of his own.
Emir coughed snapping back into reality and immediately replied "Oh yes of course! I am Emir Desmondus, and Iam a travelling alchemist."
With closer inspection, Emir looks more like a travelling merchant rather than an alchemist, he has short brown hair that had some grey streaks which was an effect of old age, his eyes were brown like hos haor while his body was a bit thin, he was obviously no fighter, and his skin was a bit wrinkled thanks to aging, overall Emir looked like someone around his late forties.
Dan was the leader of a small group of bandits that were travelling near the Evermoon Forest. There were only 9 people in his gang of thieves including himself, 7 were males while 2 were females. Their group of bandits were responsible for many heinous acts such as stealing and murdering.
They were travelling the roads just beside the Evermoon Forest to get to the Hamon Empire much faster compared to travelling on the safe main road that would take at least four days before reaching the Empire if one travelled barefoot. Four days was just far too much time for Dan, who decided to take the route near Evermoon even though it had the risk of getting attacked by some monsters.
While travelling they noticed the deformed terrain which had cracks all over the uneven surface, there were even some fallen trees that could be seen. Whatever happened in the forest made Dan wonder so he sent two bandits to scout the inside of the forest.
"Leader! The inside of the forest has been totally destroyed!"
Shouted one of the bandits who came running out from inside of the forest.
"What did you see?"
Asked Dan as he got off his horse to meet the scout.
Dan is a tall man around his late thirties, he had a muscular body which was full of scars from the battles he had gone through. He had long bronze colored hair tied into a ponytail and sharp dagger-like eyes. He was clad in full plate iron armor unlike the other bandits in the group which had lighter vests made out of leather, while on his waist was a sheathed iron sword and a dagger.Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.
"It was complete annihilation! Beast corpses were crushed by the fallen trees and the ground was deformed, it was full of deep cracks! And the most shocking thing was the gigantic crater! It was as if armageddon had struck the forest!"
Replied the scout, shock could clearly be seen on his facial expression and from his tone.
"What there anything in the crater?"
Asked Dan who had his curiosity at it''s peak.
"We saw something which looked like two humanoid figures but we are not completely sure of what they were."
Dan smirked at the scout''s words as he gripped his sword''s hilt.
"Prepare! We shall head to the crater!"
Dan declared as he pulled out his sword from it''s sheath and pointed it at the sky. The other bandits immediately prepared them selves after and soon after all of them were ready the scout led the way to the crater.
Emir was quite worried, the light show last night would surely attract the attention of others, especially the mages. Even though those born without any talent in magic could not feel mana, even he had felt the terrifying mana last night, he almost even peed himself.Soon people will come investigate and that was what worried Emir. He was just about to suggest leaving the place to the boy but Zen had spoken first.
"The people who were watching us before have come back with ill intent and larger numbers, there are nine of them heading right here."
Zen muttered while looking at the direction the presence was comingfrom.
"What?!"
Voiced Emir, his shocked expression gave it all away.
Soon nine peopled could be seen on the crater''s edge, they all wore matching leather vests except for one who was instead clad in iron armor.
''I was not expecting anyone to come this fast! How did the boy even know that someone was mear?! And aren''t those bandits?!''
Confusion struck Emir''s mind as beads of cold sweat formed on his forehead, he looked at the edge of the crater and saw nine humanoid figure, one of them suddenly leaped down from the edge and landed on the ground.
Dan jumped down from the edge of the crater to get a closer look at the two who were down below. The drop was a bit deep but he lands on his feet without sustaining any injuries.
He takes a few steps forward to take a better look and sees two people.
One of them was a boy around 15 he did not have a weapon and had little clothing despite the cold climate. The only thing that bothered Dan aboutthe boy was how he looked at him with an expressionless face. The other person was a man around his fourties, like the boy he was unarmed but was properly clothed for the winter, though unlike the boy you could easily tell by a glance that the man was nervous.
Seemingly betrayed by his expections, Dan could not find anything that interested him and ordered the bandits that had bows to shoot at the two people.
Emir spots arrows in the sky heading at their position, he was panicking ''What should I do?!'' He asked himself in his mind over and over as he tried to find a solution.
The arrows were getting very close but before they could reach their targets they were snatched out of the sky.
''Huh?''
Emir looked at Zen and saw four arrows in his hand.
''When did he?''
Emir looked at the boy with a dumbfounded expression as Zen crushed the arrows in his hand and they snapped without any resistance whatsoever.
Four other men came sliding down from the edge of the crater and charged at him and Zen with their weapons in hand.
Zen looked at the four charging men and walked towards them. One of the men swings his one-handed iron axe at Zen with the intention of killing the boy. Zen doesn''t dodge and instead initiates his own attack by punching the man right in his solar plexus before the bandit''s attack could even reach.
Zen''s punch tore the big man''s defense like paper, the force of the attack made the man''s stomach cave in as he flew back a few meters while vomiting large amounts of blood. The bandit landed on the ground a few meters away with his body in a wierd position and his eye whites showing as he panted heavily, trying to take in air. The man''s body twitched and convulsed for a while before suddenly stopping. Dead, one of the bandits instantly died from a single strike from Zen.
Zen looked at the man clad in iron armor and saw him grinning at what happened as if elated that his comrade had died.
The other three who were charging looked behind and saw their dead comrade but still continued with their original goal and charged at the boy who had easily killed their comrade in a single punch.
One man wielding a two-handed iron sword tried to do an overhead swing that was aimed at the boy but was struck by something with incomprehensible force in the face before he could, the force from the attack was overwhelming his eyes were about to pop-out from it''s sockets.
Zen had kicked the second attacker in the face with his left foot. The man dropped the sword as his head twisted with reaching his back because ofthe sheer force of the attack, soon a snapping soud could be heard as the man''s neck broke. Like the last one the man died in one strike.
The third one knew that it was too late to run and just swing his one-handed sword at the boy hoping that it would connect but like the others he was sent flying by an uppercut exactly at the chin, the result was instant death like the other two.
The fourth one made an effort to run away and dropped his weapon, Zen dashes towards the man his feet leaves a deep mark on the ground as he was propelled forward at a tremendous speed. Without even knowing what had hit him the bandit died after receiving a punch at the back of his head from Zen. His face was buried deep inside the ground by the attack, and it''s force broke his entire skull, turning it into tiny fragments.
The man at the back had his previous grin wiped off his face after witnessing the death pf four of the bandits and ordered the other four remaining at the edge of the crater to jump down and attack.
The four bandits didn''t really like the idea but in the end jumped down and charged futilely at Zen.
Soon... one, two, three and four...
All four of the bandits lay dead in the ground, the man who was originally grinning a moment ago was now covered in cold sweat as Zen slowly walked towards him. The man charged as he drew his blade, he attacks with all his might aiming the slash at the boy''s face.
The man was dumbfounded as he saw the boy holding the blade of his sword using two fingers. The boy applied force and the sword''s blade instantly shattered as if made from glass.
Zen spoke as he easily lifted the man off the ground, his hand clutching the man''s neck.
"I can see your soul, the sins you have done are countless, you have killed and stolen from the innocent, for that I sentence youto death."
The man felt a powerful killing intent targeting him from the boy as he spoke to him with a cold tone, he had never felt such fear and despair before in his life that he had wet himself and trembled uncontrollably, as if a death god appeared in front of him, for an instant he saw the boy''s cold emerald-like eyes turn into a crimson red and after that his vision went dark.
Zen had cleanly decapitated the man by separating the head from the body using his other hand which he used to cut the man''s head off with a single strike. The man''s dead boy had fallen to the ground as he let his grip on the neck go, blood spurted out the neck stump like a fountain creating a pool of blood on the ground.