Ascension Protocol

Blood in the Shadows

Chapter 17 — Blood in the Shadows

The atmosphere in Zenith Academy had shifted.

After Samuel publicly declared the formation of his own faction "The Unseen Oath" the academy responded not with admiration, but with silence. A heavy, watchful silence. It hung in the halls, clung to the walls, and followed him like a shadow that refused to vanish.

At first, it seemed like no one would dare oppose him openly. His display of strength in the unregistered trial had spread like wildfire through whisper networks and hidden forums. A few daring students even approached him quietly, always alone asking to join his cause. These were the bold ones, the desperate ones, and sometimes, the disillusioned.

But none of them lasted.

The first to fall was a second year student named Jin Fael, a speed-type manipulator who had shown loyalty by distributing encrypted recruitment scrolls for Samuel in the lower dormitories. Three days later, his dorm room was found empty. Not abandoned empty. No trace of belongings, aura residue, or even DNA signatures. As if he’d never existed.

Then came Maren, a quiet support type healer who had signed her name on Samuel’s faction list. She was discovered in the infirmary wing, eyes glazed over and mouth sewn shut with mana threads. She couldn’t speak anymore, only tremble in fear whenever Samuel’s name was mentioned.

One by one, students vanished or were punished in ways that made the message clear: joining Samuel was a death sentence.

Aralyn noticed too.

From her usual vantage atop the west tower, she watched the academy’s patterns like clockwork. Students moved differently now. Patrols were tighter, class rotations more frequent, and strange instructors she’d never seen before had begun appearing in casual robes, hiding too much power behind kind smiles.

She narrowed her eyes.

Samuel Grey was still attending classes. Still silent, still alone. He didn’t speak unless spoken to. He never asked for help. Yet despite the looming threats, he hadn’t given up on his faction.

That intrigued her more than she expected.

Meanwhile, Samuel sat within a shadowed training chamber beneath the east arena, one of the few abandoned zones untouched by active surveillance. Dim crystal lights hummed above him. His body was bloodied, his right fist torn open, and sweat ran in rivulets down his back. A training dummy made of enchanted stone lay shattered in front of him.

The system interface flickered.

> [Trial Progress: Faction Founding - Phase 2]

Progress: 2/10 members officially pledged.

Status: DANGER — Opposing factions detected intercepting recruits.

Optional Quest Triggered: Eliminate the Source (???)

Reward: Authority Upgrade, Shadow Sigil (Unseen)

Samuel’s eyes narrowed. The system didn’t lie. The danger wasn’t random it was engineered. A systematic effort to destabilize his emergence.

“Cowards hiding behind threats,” he muttered. “If they fear what I might become, they should be terrified of what I already am.”

But fear wasn’t enough. Fear didn’t recruit loyal allies. It didn’t build empires.

He needed something more. Something unshakable.

The next day, word spread that a duel had been issued an open challenge in the Blood Circuit, the academy’s underground battleground for resolving factional disputes outside the administration’s interference. It was illegal. Dangerous. And yet, still deeply respected.

The challenger? Samuel Grey.

The target? The Veiled Circle a minor but ruthless faction that had ties to several disappearances.

When Samuel entered the arena, his cloak billowed with energy. His aura was muted, wrapped in suppression sigils, yet it radiated like a sleeping beast waiting to awaken. The crowd leaned forward. Even Aralyn, hidden among the upper gallery shadows, watched silently.

The Veiled Circle responded mockingly. They sent one of their higher-ranking duelists—a gravity manipulator named Vask, known for collapsing his opponents from within their own bodies.

“Do you really think founding a faction is about strength?” Vask sneered as they faced off. “It’s about control. Loyalty bought through fear. You don’t inspire that, Grey. You’re alone.”

Samuel didn’t respond.

The fight lasted less than a minute.

A flicker of motion. A storm of light. Then Vask collapsed, limbs twisted into unnatural angles, his aura crushed from the inside out by a force no one could trace. The silence that followed was louder than the roar that eventually erupted.

In the shadows, Aralyn felt her pulse quicken.

“What.. did I just see?” she whispered.

Later that night, while the academy buzzed with confusion, the underground moved.

In a secret meeting room cloaked in obsidian spell-thread, a hooded figure kneeled before a holographic projection of a serpentine masked individual the same one who had once warned students about Samuel’s rise.

“He has eliminated the Veiled Circle’s envoy. Publicly. He dares.”

The masked entity nodded slowly, tapping its fingers against a crystalline data shard.

“The Unseen Oath is no longer a whisper. It’s becoming a storm,” the voice rasped. “Send agents. Suppress it quietly. If he survives... we initiate Phase Zero.”

Samuel sat in his dorm, his wounds healing as the system flooded him with regeneration energy.

He read the latest quest update.

> [Unseen Faction Progress Updated]

Members: 3/10

Fear Resistance: 10%

System Verdict: Progress Acceptable

Hidden Trait Unlocked: Charisma of the Forgotten King

Samuel closed the interface. A slow smile crept onto his face.

“They can try to silence me,” he whispered. “But I’m not here to follow their rules. I’m here to rewrite them.”

Outside, the wind howled, and the academy held its breath for the storm had only just begun.