Adam put the heavy silver badge into his pocket. He looked at Inquisitor Kross with cold, dead glass eyes. "A prince," Adam said flatly. The words held no fear. To Adam’s hollow mind, a prince was just another mathematical problem to solve. "If he is the King's son, he is protected by Royal Guards. We cannot just walk up to him and kill him."Inquisitor Kross nodded slowly. "Exactly. Elias, Prince Aurelius, is surrounded by elite bodyguards who do not know he is corrupted. If we attack him directly, his guards will kill us. We need to isolate him. We need to make him weak before the festival on Sunday."Adam understood perfectly. "We cut off his arms and legs first," Adam said. "We destroy his supply lines. We take away his strongest fighters.""Can you find them?" Kross asked, his gray eyes searching Adam’s blank face. "Yes," Adam answered quietly. "I will be your eyes. I will find the hidden bases. You will be the hammer. You will smash them."Kross smiled a dangerous, wolf-like s

Emily stood in the bright courtyard, pointing her finger at Adam. Over a hundred corrupted students stood behind her. They raised their sharp weapons. Their yellow eyes glowed with sick, crazy excitement. "First, you have to bow to the Queen," Emily laughed. Adam stood perfectly still. His dark, dead eyes looked at Emily’s jagged, dark-purple scar. He looked at the angry mob. Before the "Grave of Kings," Adam would have summoned his black diamond dagger. He would have fought them to protect his pride. He would have tried to talk to Emily and save her soul. But Adam’s hollow mind did not care about pride. He felt no anger. He only cared about efficiency. Fighting a hundred students would waste too much time. He needed to reach Prince Aurelius. He needed to save Kael. Adam did not summon his magic. He reached into his pocket. He pulled out the heavy, shiny silver badge of the Royal Inquisition. He held it high in the air for everyone to see. At the edge of the courtyard, ten Silv

The blinding white and pitch-black light poured out of the cracks in Adam’s skin. He was on his knees in the Royal Box. The pressure inside his hollow soul was too much. The empty cup was overflowing. He was going to explode and kill everyone. "What are you doing?!" Inquisitor Kross yelled. The wolf-like man stepped backward. He raised his silver sword, terrified of the terrible light coming from the boy. Adam screamed. The pain was worse than breaking a bone. It felt like his mind was being ripped into pieces. But deep inside the cold, silent cathedral of his soul, a tiny spark of human willpower fought back. Adam remembered the drop of blood on Kael’s neck. He remembered the blind boy’s terrified face. “I am not a bomb,” Adam thought fiercely. “I am Adam Cook.” Adam slammed both of his pale fists into the wooden floor. He gritted his teeth. He did not let the magic explode outward. Instead, he forced the violent energy inward. He pushed all the overflowing magic directly into h

The massive, beating blood cocoon pulsed with sick, yellow light. It blocked the giant bone machine where Catherine was trapped. The cavern shook as the terrible shadow inside the cocoon grew larger. Adam stood perfectly still on the bloody stone floor. His dark, dead eyes watched the cocoon. CRACK. A massive tear opened in the side of the blood cocoon. Boiling red liquid spilled onto the floor, melting the stone. Emily stepped out. But she was not the same. She did not look like a Queen in a black dress anymore. The dark magic had mutated her. Her body was covered in jagged, sharp crystals of solid red blood. Her fingers had grown into long, terrible red claws. Her face was pale and covered in dark purple veins, leading back to the glowing void-scar on her arm. Her eyes were completely black, with tiny, burning yellow pupils. Elias had turned her into a living, breathing weapon. She was a puppet of raw destruction. Emily opened her mouth. She did not speak. She let out a deafe

[3 seconds.] The blinding white and pitch-black light tore through Adam’s skin. The heat was unbearable. The world was melting around him. "Make your choice, Adam!" Valerius laughed using Kael’s voice. "Explode and kill everyone, or jump into the portal and save them!"[2 seconds.]Adam looked at his best friend. He looked at Catherine trapped in the machine. He looked at the catatonic Emily on the floor. Adam did not want to die. But he could not let his friends burn. His hollow mind calculated an impossible, desperate trick. He was a vessel. A vessel could explode, but a vessel could also pour out its contents. "Open it!" Adam roared. [1 second.]Kael’s hand shot forward. A swirling, dark red portal opened in the air. It led directly into the empty, endless dimension of the Blood Rift. Adam did not jump inside. Instead, he planted his heavy boots into the melting stone floor. He leaned back and thrust his pale hands forward. He opened his mouth and let out a massive, human scr