Adrean alucard's Arc

Chapter 4 of 28

The castle kept Adrean safe, but safe was not strong. He walked its bone halls for three days and watched his system stay frozen at Level 2. No prey lived inside these walls. The three masters fed on jars of stored blood and never hunted. Adrean flexed his hand and felt how weak he still was. Umbra could pin him with a shadow. Crimson could break his arm with two fingers. He would never earn their respect or the throne this way. He needed kills, and there were none. Salvo found him staring at a locked iron door. The necromancer's skull charm swung at his throat. Dead things stirred wherever he walked. "You want to grow," Salvo said. It was not a question. "But you cannot kill here, and you cannot leave. The god waits outside for men like you." "Then what do I do?" Adrean asked. Salvo touched the iron door. It opened onto nothing. Beyond it hung a stone platform in an endless void, ringed with glowing panels and cold blue light. "There is one who trains those of our blood. He asks a price. Most refuse to pay it." Adrean stepped onto the floating platform. The door sealed behind him. Cold pressed on all sides. Then a figure rose from the dark center of the ring, small in body but heavy in presence. Blood streaked his white face like cracks in a mask. His red eyes burned. Salvo had told the truth. This was Megalom the abyssal, god of blood and the deep. "Another stray from the old seat," Megalom said. His voice shook the platform. "You want power without the hunt. That is not how blood works." "My system needs kills," Adrean said. "There are none in the castle." Megalom's mouth twisted. "Then bleed for it instead. My training will hurt more than dying. I will break you until your blood learns to fight without prey. Most beg to stop. If you stop, you leave weaker than you came." Adrean thought of the three masters and their easy strength. He thought of the throne. "Do it." Megalom struck him across the platform. Adrean's ribs cracked on the glowing stone. Pain tore through him, deeper than any wound. But something new opened behind his eyes. His system flashed, not with a kill count, but with a raw stat climbing on its own. STRENGTH rising. His blood answered the beating. He forced himself up. Megalom hit him again, and again, and each blow fed the number higher. Adrean bled and rose and bled. Hours passed, or days. When Megalom finally stopped, Adrean stood on shaking legs, stronger than he had entered. "You did not beg," Megalom said. "Come back tomorrow. You are mine now." Adrean limped through the iron door. He had found a path to grow without the god's eye. But he had traded three masters for a crueler one, and Megalom held his blood now.