The desert sun bled out slowly behind the jagged dunes, casting the world in a fierce twilight of molten gold, fiery orange, and deep bruised crimson. Shadows grew long and sinister, reaching like grasping fingers across the cracked earth. The air cooled just enough to carry a whisper the faint rustle of sand shifting, the distant howl of wind threading through broken stone like a lost hymn.
Before Erevan and Kael stretched the remnants of a once-great city: Ashveil.
The ruins were ancient bones, half-buried in time pillars leaning like drunks, their carvings smoothed by wind and centuries. Crumbled archways yawned like toothless mouths, and shattered towers cast jagged silhouettes against the darkening sky.
Erevan stared in silence.
This was not a place meant for the living.
"It's like something clawed its way out of history…"he murmured, his voice barely audible above the breeze.
Kael stopped beside him, arms crossed, his eyes hard. "Ashveil doesn't forget. Whatever came here, whatever died here… it's still watching."
[System Alert: Blood Crown Artifact Detected.]
[Optional Quest: Investigate the Whispering Ruin | Risk: Extreme | Reward: Unknown.]
A hollow feeling formed in Erevan's chest. Not fear something worse.
Familiarity.
He didn't know how, but this place… it echoed. Like a memory he shouldn't have.
They stepped into the ruins.
Every footstep echoed too loud. The wind shifted again, now tinged with the copper tang of blood and something older burnt magic, buried deep.
Ashveil wasn't dead.
It was waiting.
He looked at Kael, voice quiet but steady.
"I have to tell you something… I'm not from here. Not really."
Kael blinked, surprise flashing in his sharp eyes. "What do you mean, not from here?"
Erevan's fingers clenched, the weight of his past life pressing down.
"I died once. In a world far away. Then… I woke up here. Reborn. Different. With this power." To use blood i think its tie to this rpg thing im seeing and hearing"It's like I was given a second chance. But this place it's cruel, and it doesn't care about second chances."
Kael studied him for a long moment, the silence thick.
"Reincarnated… like the legends say some souls get cursed or blessed. So what, you carry the blood of two worlds?"
Erevan gave a slow, bitter smile.
"Maybe. I don't know why I'm here, or what my purpose is. But I know one thing this life is harder. This world doesn't forgive the weak."
Kael nodded grimly.
"Then you'd better learn fast. No room for lost souls in Ashveil."
Erevan met his gaze, resolve hardening.
"I won't just survive. I'll rise. Even if it means dragging the past with me."
Kael's smirk returned, darker now.
"Good. Because here, power is the only truth. And you're already ahead of most starting with a past that no one else has."
Then proceed into the eerie chill and wraith attack.
A cracked stone mural caught Erevan's eye. He paused, brushing sand from its surface. The image was barely intact: a throne of bone, seven figures kneeling, and above them, a burning crown that dripped crimson.
His breath hitched.
"Kael…" he said, voice tight. "What is this?"
Kael's gaze lingered on the mural for a moment. "Before the Sundering, Ashveil was the seat of one of the Monarchs. The Blood King, they called him. He ruled with fear… and power few dared speak of."
Erevan's hand drifted to his chest, where the Codex's mark still pulsed faintly beneath his skin.
"Blood Crown…"
As they moved deeper, the air grew colder.
Not the chill of night but something wrong.
A pressure. A presence. Like the world itself was holding its breath.
A sudden gust howled through a shattered dome, and with it came a whisper.
Not language. Not thought.
Feeling.
Grief. Rage. Hunger.
Kael froze. His blade slid free with a whisper. "Draw your weapon. Now."
A flicker in the shadows.
Then movement swift and silent as a nightmare.
Figures emerged, rising from the cracks in the stone like smoke given shape. Warriors draped in translucent armor, their faces hidden behind shattered helms. Their eyes glowed with cold, unearthly light blue like moonlit frost.
[Bloodsense Activated: Multiple Lifeforms Detected Status: Undead.]
Erevan's mouth went dry. "Are they… ghosts?"
Kael answered without looking away. "Wraiths. Guardians. Bound by oath or curse sometimes both. They won't stop."
The wraiths raised spectral weapons jagged spears, curved swords, rusted axes still dripping with phantom blood.
And then they charged.
Steel rang against ghostlight.
Erevan barely dodged the first swing, stumbling backward, his feet slipping in the sand and broken stone.
"I don't belong here," he thought, panic rising. "I'm not ready for this."
But something deep inside pushed back a defiant flame.
[New Skill Unlocked: Crimson Edict Level 2 Temporary Paralysis Effect Added.]
"Then make yourself ready."
He thrust out his hand, and blood-red energy exploded from his palm, rippling through the air. Three wraiths froze mid-lunge, their forms twitching, trapped in a haze of crimson light.
Kael surged forward like a storm, cutting down two with a graceful spin of his blade, ectoplasmic ash trailing behind him.
A third spirit lunged at Erevan faster than he could react.
Its cold blade grazed his ribs. Pain bloomed, searing through his body like fire and ice.
[System Warning: Blood Essence Critically Low — 15% Remaining.]
He staggered.
But didn't fall.
[Veinbind Activated.]
Chains of crimson burst from his veins, wrapping around the wraith captain's limbs. It screeched, spectral form twisting, flickering with fury.
Erevan drew his dagger and plunged it into the creature's chest.
A flash of red light erupted, and the ghost shattered like glass beneath a hammer.
Silence followed.
Only the crackling of broken energy lingered in the air.
Erevan collapsed to one knee, panting, vision swaying.
Sweat mixed with blood on his skin, his fingers trembling from exertion and adrenaline.
[XP Gained: +250]
[Level Up: Level 4]
[Stat Points Earned: 3 | Skill Points Earned: 1]
[Blood Essence Restored to 40%]
Kael stood over him, face unreadable, then extended a hand.
Erevan took it.
"That," Kael said, voice low but firm, "was a trial. And you survived it."
Erevan swallowed hard, his throat raw. "Barely."
Kael smirked. "That's still surviving."
The last light of dusk melted into the cold hush of night.
Ashveil stood silent once more.
Near the center of the ruin, something glinted beneath a blanket of sand. Erevan knelt, brushing it away slowly.
A flat stone, etched with runes that pulsed softly. In the center: a stylized crown wreathed in thorns the Blood Crown sigil.
He touched it.
[New Ability Unlocked: Bloodbrand Mark a target to weaken and track.]
A wave of certainty passed through him. Not peace but clarity.
This wasn't a dream. Not anymore.
He rose slowly, watching the stars gather overhead like cold witnesses.
"This world wants to kill me," he said quietly. "But I'm not dying here."
Kael nodded, the firelight dancing across his scarred face. "Then learn fast. Because this was just one ruin. There are worse places. Deadlier things. And darker truths."
Erevan stared out into the sand-strewn distance.
The Blood Crown Codex hummed in his chest waiting.
And for the first time, he wasn't afraid of it.
"I'm not just surviving anymore," he whispered. "I'm becoming."