SILENT VEINS: THE BLOODBORN ASCENSION

Chapter 9: Baptism of Fire

The portal spat them out onto a rooftop.

The sensory assault was immediate. Overwhelming.

Screams. Hundreds of them, layered over each other like a symphony of terror. Explosions. Deep, concussive booms that Kaelen felt in his chest. The wet, tearing sounds of Hollow Beings feeding. And underneath it all, a low frequency hum that made his teeth ache and his blood vibrate in his veins.

The northern district was burning.

Not metaphorically. Like Literally on fire. Entire blocks consumed by flames that burned in wrong colors. Green fire that spread like liquid. Purple flames that floated upward like inverted rain. Black fire that absorbed light instead of creating it. And between the fires, moving through the smoke like sharks through murky water, were the Hollows.

So. Many. Hollows.

Not just the humanoid ones from the university. These were evolved. Some were massive. Fifteen feet tall. Bodies made of what looked like twisted concrete and rebar, as if buildings themselves became monsters. Others were small and fast. Child-sized things that skittered on too many legs, leaving trails of gray corruption wherever they touched.

And some were just wrong. Shapes that hurt to look at. Geometries that shouldn't exist in three-dimensional space.

The smell hit him next.

Burnt flesh. Ozone. Something sweet and rotten, like fruit left to decay in summer heat.

Kaelen gagged, covering his nose.

"Jesus Christ." Joren's whisper held no bravado now. Just horror.

Shen's eyes glowed faintly as he scanned the area. Seeing things Kaelen couldn't.

"The corruption has spread to three major Ley Veins in this district. They are spawning Hollows faster than they can be killed. The Council's forces have established a defensive perimeter. There."

He pointed to a section of the district where Kaelen could see flashes of colored light. Fire. Lightning. Ice. All the elements of cultivation warfare. A line of silver-armored Enforcers holding a barricade made of hardened earth. Behind which civilians huddled.

"And the Ashen Hand?"

"There." Shen pointed in the opposite direction. Deeper into the chaos. "They are evacuating civilians the Council abandoned. Suicide missions, essentially. Noble. Stupid. Both."

"That's where Lira is." Kaelen's voice was flat. Not a question.

"Most likely. If she still lives."

Kaelen's blood went cold.

If she still lives.

He'd been assuming Lira was fine. That she was too skilled, too strong to fall. But he watched her get hit by a Hollow at the university. He saw her bleed. She wasn't invincible.

None of them were.

~~~

They didn't have time to plan.

An Hollow emerged from a ventilation shaft on the rooftop. One of the skittering, child-sized ones. Moving with insect-like speed. Its face was a blank mask of gray flesh with a mouth that opened vertically instead of horizontally. Revealing rows of needle teeth.

It shrieked. A sound like feedback through a microphone.

And launched itself at Joren.

Joren's training kicked in. He sidestepped. Faster than he should be able to. The Mortal Foundation technique enhancing his reflexes. He punched with his mercury-gloved hand.

The impact created a shockwave of blue light.

The Hollow flew backward, crashing into an air conditioning unit hard enough to dent the metal.

But it didn't die. It scuttled upright. And now Kaelen could see the dent in its body healing. Gray flesh flowing like putty to fill the damage.

"They regenerate." Shen's warning came too late. "You must destroy the core. A crystallized point of corruption inside each one. Or..."

Kaelen was already moving.

He bit his palm. The motion instinctive now. Barely hurt anymore. His blood responded eagerly. Hungrily. It formed into the blade he practiced for hours. But this time it was easier. Faster. The mercury bracer on his arm glowed. He felt it stabilizing the technique, reducing the drain on his energy.

He closed the distance in three steps.

Drove the blood-blade through the Hollow's center mass.

The effect was immediate. Visceral. The Hollow didn't just die. It dissolved. Its gray flesh turning to ash that blew away in the hot wind. Where Kaelen's blade pierced it, black veins spread outward like cracks in glass. Consuming the creature from the inside out.

And Kaelen felt it.

The Hollow's energy flowing into him through the blade, through his blood. Cold and wrong and powerful. His wounds healed. His exhaustion lessened. The black veins on his arms glowed brighter.

He was getting stronger by killing them.

~~~

They descended from the rooftop using an emergency fire escape. Metal stairs that groaned ominously under their weight. Rusted and weakened by the corruption in the air.

The street level was worse than the view from above.

Bodies. Not many, but enough. Civilians who didn't make it to the evacuation points. Their flesh turned gray and brittle. As if all the moisture was sucked out of them. Some of the bodies were moving. Not alive, but not quite dead either. Early-stage Hollows, in the process of transformation.

Shen put them down with precise strikes. His movements surgical. No wasted motion. Each strike hit a specific point on their bodies. They crumbled to dust without the violent dissolution of Kaelen's technique.

"Meridian points." Shen's explanation came as they moved. "Even Hollows retain echoes of human biology. If you cannot reach the core, severing their meridians will paralyze them."

They navigated by following the sounds of battle. Staying to alleys and side streets. Twice they encountered small groups of Hollows and dispatched them. Kaelen and Joren fighting in unison. Joren creating openings with his enhanced strength. Kaelen finishing with blood-blade strikes.

They were developing a rhythm. Almost a dance.

Until they rounded a corner and found the Ashen Hand.

It was a school. Or what used to be one.

A two-story building with a playground, now converted into a makeshift fortress. The Ashen Hand had barricaded the entrances with overturned vehicles and walls of ice created by water-vein cultivators. Inside, through the windows, Kaelen could see civilians. Maybe two hundred of them. Pressed together in classrooms.

And surrounding the school, like a tide of corruption, were Hollows.

Hundreds of them.

They clawed at the barricades. Threw themselves against the ice walls. Slowly, inexorably, they were breaking through.

On the school's roof, Kaelen saw the defenders. Maybe thirty Ashen Hand members. Fighting with everything they had. He recognized the tactical gear, the silver-hand emblem.

And there, directing the defense with water blades in both hands, was Lira.

She was magnificent.

Even from a distance. Even covered in blood and ash. She moved like a dancer. Her water blades sliced through Hollows with precision. Each strike hitting cores and dropping enemies.

But for every one she killed, three more replaced it.

They were being overwhelmed.

"We need to get to them." Kaelen's voice was firm.

"We will not make it through that many Hollows." Shen's reply was practical. "Not alive. We should retreat. Regroup with the Council forces..."

"The Council abandoned these people!" Kaelen's voice sharpened. "You said it yourself. They're only protecting their own."

"Yes. Because protecting their own is a strategy that keeps them alive. Throwing yourself into a suicide mission is not heroic, Kaelen. It is stupid."

Kaelen thought of the university. Of people dying while he ran. Of Lira risking everything for strangers. Of his mother, who died trying to expose the Council's corruption.

He thought of what kind of person he wanted to be.

"Then I'm stupid." 

He ran.

Not toward the school. Toward the densest concentration of Hollows.

Shen shouted something behind him. He didn't stop.

"Fuck!" Joren cursed and followed. Cause that's what Joren always do

Kaelen bit both palms this time.

Blood exploded from his hands. Not blades. Waves. His blood extended outward in a fifteen-foot arc. Crimson tendrils that lashed out at every Hollow within reach.

It wasn't controlled. It wasn't precise. It was raw power. Fueled by desperation and anger and the burning need to do something.

Everywhere his blood touched, Hollows dissolved. Cores shattered. Gray flesh turned to ash. And the energy flowed back into Kaelen. Wave after wave. Filling him up until he felt like he was going to burst.

The black veins spread up his neck. Across his jaw. Reaching toward his face.

~~~

On the school roof, Lira stopped mid-strike.

Staring at the figure in the street below. Wreathed in crimson light. Killing Hollows by the dozen. Her amber eyes went wide with recognition.

And horror.

"Kaelen?" The whisper barely left her lips.

Then she saw his face. Saw the black veins spreading. Saw his eyes starting to dim. The light of humanity fading as Hollow Sickness took hold.

"NO!"

She leaped from the roof. Falling three stories. Landing in a crouch that shattered the pavement beneath her feet. She ran toward him, screaming his name.

But there were too many Hollows between them.

Kaelen didn't hear her. He was lost in the sensation of power. In the cold euphoria of the kill. His blood-tendrils kept extending, kept killing. And the black veins kept spreading.

He was winning the battle.

He was losing himself.

~~~

Deep beneath the city, in the corrupted Vein Nexus, something ancient and terrible felt the Voidborn's power awakening.

It smiled with a mouth made of shadow and bone.

"Come to me, little Voidborn." The Hollow King's whisper carried across the veins. His voice riding on corruption itself. "Let me show you what you will become.”