House of Blood

The Glacial Crevasse felt like riding into the open throat of a frozen beast.

Walls of translucent blue ice rose hundreds of feet on either side, cutting off the pale sunlight and trapping us in a dim, twilight shadow.

The temperature dropped sharply, turning every breath we took into thick clouds of white mist.

Kaelen led from the middle mount, pointing out treacherous snow-covered rifts and ice bridges that would have shattered under the weight of a standard warhorse.

”Ahead,” Kaelen called out over the howling wind, her teeth chattering slightly despite Rook’s warm wool cloak wrapped around her. ”The path narrows into the sunken amphitheater. Beyond that lies the base of the Frost-Grave Rift.”

’Valerian,’ Wren’s voice snapped inside my head, sharp and alert.

’We’ve got company. Three hundred yards ahead, buried beneath the snowdrifts on both ledges.’

”Halt,” I said quietly.

Vespera and Caelum reined in their shadow-steeds instantly.

”What is it, Valerian?” Vespera asked, her hand drifting toward her scythe hilt.

”An ambush,” I replied, my eyes behind the obsidian-silk blindfold narrowing as my crimson perception lit up the ice walls above us.

”Six Sec branch enforcers on the high ledges. And four... non-human signatures buried in the snow directly ahead.”

” ENEMY DETECTION ”

6x Sec Branch Enforcers (Stage 2 Blood Artists)

4x Abyssal Scavengers (Low-Tier Abyssal Beasts)

” TACTICAL ANALYSIS: NARROW BOTTLENECK AMBUSH ”

”Hah! The duds have good ears,” a harsh, raspy voice echoed from the icy ledge above us.

A figure in a blood-red bone mask stepped out onto a shelf of ice thirty feet up, flanked by five hooded archers holding drawn heavy crossbows.

The tips of their bolts flickered with dark, sickly purple light—Star-Rot Poison.

”Elder Garren knew you’d follow,” the lead enforcer sneered down at us. ”He left us to ensure the core line trash dies in this ditch!”

Before the enforcer could finish his sentence, Caelum exploded from his saddle.

BOOM!

The ice beneath his shadow-steed cracked as Caelum launched himself thirty feet into the air like a catapult projectile, his fists already coated in spiked, crimson blood-armor—Sanguis Art: Iron-Hide Overlord.

”You talk too much!” Caelum roared, his massive fist smashing directly into the lead enforcer’s chest before the man could even raise a barrier.

The impact sounded like a thunderclap.

The enforcer was slammed into the solid ice wall, exploding into a shower of shattered armor and crimson mist.

”Kill them!” the remaining archers panicked, firing their poison bolts down toward us.

Vespera didn’t even draw her weapon.

She simply raised a pale hand, unleashing a sweeping wave of dark death-aura—Sanguis Art: Shadow-Blade Curtain.

The poison bolts dissolved into black ash mid-air before slicing three of the archers on the ledge cleanly in half.

’Show-offs,’ Wren muttered.

’Must be nice having a stage-four core.’

’Watch out!’ I warned internally.

The snowbank directly in front of Rook’s mount exploded.

Four skinless, quadrupedal beasts lunged out from the powder.

They looked like skinless, hairless wolves with elongated, needle-like fangs and eyes that burned with chaotic, void-black fire—Abyssal Scavengers.

One beast leaped straight for Kaelen, its jaw unhinging to bite off her head.

Kaelen gasped, raising her broken bone spear on instinct, but her injured shoulder buckled under her own weight.

”Rook, watch the left!” I shouted.

Rook’s body blurred into a shadow, stepping off his steed to intercept two of the beasts with his bare, aura-coated hands, driving them into the icy ground.

That left the beast lunging at Kaelen.

I didn’t have time to pull out a weapon, nor could I use high-tier dragon arts without blowing my physical limits.

I dropped from the steed, shifting my weight into a low stance, and ignited a microscopic droplet of dragon blood into my right heel—Stage 1: Dragon-Vein Ignition.

BOOM!

The ice beneath my boot detonated.

I vaulted past Kaelen, thrusting my open palm directly under the beast’s lunging chin.

Blood Art: Internal Blast.

A small, superheated burst of blood-mana erupted from my palm, blasting directly through the beast’s jaw and into its brain cavity.

The abyssal hound shuddered violently in mid-air, its black eyes bursting into red embers before collapsing lifeless onto the snow at Kaelen’s feet.

” ENEMY ELIMINATED: ABYSSAL SCAVENGER ”

” VESSEL STRESS: 12% (STABLE) ”

I landed lightly on the snow, my knees giving a slight, painful twinge from my cracked ribs, but I kept my posture firm.

Silence returned to the crevasse.

Caelum dropped back down from the upper ledge, wiping black blood from his spiked gauntlets, while Vespera lowered her hand, her expression unreadable as she looked down at the dead beast I had just slain.

Kaelen sat frozen on the back of the shadow-steed, staring wide-eyed at the dead monster, then at my small, blindfolded form standing in the snow.

”You...” Kaelen breathed, her voice filled with newfound shock.

”You killed an abyssal hound with a single palm strike... without a weapon?”

”I got lucky,” I said softly, smoothing down my dark cloak and climbing back onto the steed behind Rook.

’Lucky, my tail,’ Wren cackled inside my head.

’You burned its brain with compressed dragon heat! That barbarian girl thinks you’re a god now.’

Vespera walked over to the dead scavenger, nudging its skinless corpse with the toe of her boot.

Her eyes narrowed tightly as she noticed the dark, pulsating rune etched directly into the beast’s neck.

”This beast wasn’t wild,” Vespera said, her voice dripping with ice.

”Garren is using Medeis soul-carving techniques combined with abyssal blood to control them.”

”Lyra,” I murmured under my breath.

Garren wasn’t just using treasonous funds—he was actively bastardizing the Medeis family’s core soul-carving arts to raise a demon army.

If Lyra saw this, she would want Garren’s head as badly as we did.

”We move,” Vespera ordered, mounting her steed.

”The noise from this clash will alert their main force. We have less than an hour before they reach the primary seal.”

Kaelen looked down at me, her golden eyes burning with fierce respect as she adjusted her posture.

”The crevasse ends just past this ridge, Sanguis.”

”Hold on tight... we’re entering the Frost-Grave Rift.”