Chapter 13
Location: Outer Ring of Bloodshade ForestStatus: Code Crimson — All Students EvacuatedCommand: "Deploy Diamond-Rank Seekers. Contain the Beast."Time Left: Unknown
The forest was dead silent.
Sinjai Academy had acted swiftly the moment Varnyx breached the outer zone. All students, even the elite of Class 5, were evacuated via wind glyph gates. Combat drones were deployed for support, but none returned signal.
The only reason Aeren was still here—
Was because no one knew he was missing.
And now, he stood alone, face-to-face with the most wanted monster of the Bloodshade Forest.
THOOOMMM!!
Varnyx leapt.
The world cracked beneath its weight. Trees exploded. Ground shattered.
Aeren raised his arms instinctively.
He wasn't fighting.
He was… remembering.
[FLASHBACK: The Forgotten Age of Seekers]
Darkness surrounded his vision.
Then—fire.
A battlefield, ancient and torn. Skies painted red. Mountains in ruins.And in the center—a warrior, cloaked in gold and obsidian flame, wielding a twin-bladed spear that pierced even the sky.
"Is that… me?" Aeren whispered.
"No.""That is the First."
A voice echoed through his mind.
"The Seeker who tamed the stars.""Your ancestor.""Your blood.""The origin of the Faceless Mark."
Aeren watched as the warrior fought not monsters—but gods. Shadows that blotted out the heavens.
With each strike, symbols glowed on his body — the same one on Aeren's chest.
"When the world was devoured by night," the voice continued,"He stood alone… and became the fire."
"But the cost… was everything."
The warrior was betrayed. Bound. Erased from history.His bloodline buried under false names.
Until now.
[PRESENT – Bloodshade Forest]
Aeren gasped, collapsing to one knee.
Varnyx stood before him, confused. It could sense the change — power, yes — but older than anything it had felt before.
"You… you carry his curse," Varnyx snarled.
The red mark on Aeren's chest burned brighter, expanding into small glyphs along his arms.
His eyes flashed — this time not white, but deep gold.
The sky above twisted.
Clouds swirled into a spiral.
And then — Aeren stood.
"I don't know who I really am…""But I remember enough."
"And I won't fall here."
He raised his hand. The wind followed.
His fingers clenched into a strange sigil — one not taught in any academy, not recorded in any scroll.
Pulse Initiation: Forgotten Flame – Form Alpha.
A whip of light exploded from his palm.
The air behind him shimmered with the faint ghost of the First Seeker, mirroring his stance.
Varnyx roared and surged forward—
But Aeren moved faster.
With a speed unthinkable for someone with no rank, he vanished for a second — and reappeared directly in front of Varnyx's eye.
SLAAAASHHH!!
A spiral glyph burned into Varnyx's armored hide — its first real wound in over 40 years.
The monster screamed.
And fell back.
Far away, watching from a surveillance orb, one of the Diamond-ranked Seeker instructors clenched his fist.
"Who the hell is that boy?"
Another replied, "Run his academy ID."
Silence.
"His name is… Aeren… Class 1. Wood-rank."
They all turned slowly.
The instructor in the center leaned forward, eyes narrow.
"Get me the World Council."
"That boy isn't supposed to exist."
🩸 End of Chapter 13