The Drogen's Law

Dragon Heart System (Edwin)

The next day, Edwin, Jimmy, and Chris mounted the horse, staring at the vast ocean of mist that expanded to the horizon. As the name suggested, a thick veil of mist shrouded the Misty Hills. The three of them nodded to each other and urged their horse forward.

As soon as they entered, the mist disappeared. One second it was there, the next it was gone. Edwin halted his horse and looked in front of him. A vast expanse of barren rolling hills greeted them.

Edwin dismounted his horse and moved backwards. His other two companions followed him. As soon as he was outside the awe-inspiring zone of Misty Hills, the veil of mist reappeared and when they entered the Veil, it disappeared. All three of them exclaimed in amazement. Edwin had heard of this, but witnessing it yourself and hearing about it in a story were two completely different things. It was both awe-inspiring and somewhat scary.

After gawking at everything until they were satisfied, they marched toward the krozon tribe. Following the safest route on the map. It would now take them about a month to reach there. Chris was adamant about telling them her plan only if they reached the tribe and not before. Yes, she said ‘If’ not ‘when’—which only made him more cautious about the gravity of their situation.

As they marched, to Edwin’s horror, Jimmy urged his horse into a gallop. Jimmy’s horse galloped faster and faster. ‘Has he gone mad?’ Edwin wanted to grab his brother and shake him. Jimmy had been acting strange the past week. Well, stranger than usual.

Edwin and Chris exchanged glances and followed Jimmy. “Jimmy, stop. There could be monsters. You could die. Don’t run blindly. Jimmy.” His words fell on deaf ears. Jimmy did not even look back and continued cantering down the hill.

Edwin followed, desperately trying not to lose sight of Jimmy. Jimmy stopped abruptly in front of a massive outcropping that was perfectly round and had a metallic sheen to it. Jimmy dismounted. His body glowed with Crimson light, like blood.

Jimmy grabbed his head and tossed them about wildly. Edwin had heard no one make a sound like that. A soul-wrenching scream. Jimmy dropped.

Edwin had only one thing on his mind as he dismounted and ran toward his brother. He had to reach Jimmy and somehow protect his brother. The stone formation exploded, sending shards of broken stone everywhere, halting Edwin in his tracks. Edwin crouched down and hid his head behind his arms.

The pain Edwin expected did not come. When he looked around, he saw that none of the shards had come even close to Jimmy and him. Jimmy was unconscious, but there was no sign of wounds in his body and his chest heaved up and down, to Edwin’s relief.

Edwin looked behind him, afraid of what he might see—then let out a breath he had been holding. Chris was on all fours, trembling slightly. Chris looked up at Edwin and her eyes went wide. They looked ready to pop out of their sockets.

Chris pointed her finger at something. “B-behind you.”

Edwin spun, unseating the sword that was strapped to his hips. What he saw wasn’t a monster. It was a small blue orb dangling in the air, glowing slightly with an ethereal blue light.

The Orb descended on Edwin and latched itself between his ribs. Edwin hastily grabbed the thing and removed it. At least he tried to. It did not budge. A strange, monotonous voice came from the blue orb.

[Command Authorized.]

[Initiating the DHS protocol.]

Thousands of blue strings erupted from the orb and pierced Edwin’s skin. Edwin screamed. He felt like thousands of hot needles were plunged into his skin. Even as he felt the intensity of the hot pain, he found himself drowning. The water, or whatever he was drowning in, was blueish and was crushing him from all sides.

Edwin knew he had to reach the surface if he wanted to live. He flailed around, not knowing which direction to swim. He could not tell up from down. ‘This is madness. How did I even get here?’ Unable to hold it anymore, he breathed in—or rather choked on the liquid that was drowning him. Gargling.

The strangest thing was, even though he was choking, Edwin did not feel like he was dying. On the contrary, he felt rejuvenated and empowered. He wanted more of the power that was filling him to the depths of his being. Edwin gulped down more and more of the liquid that made him want to dance in joy and shiver in fear.

[The host is advised to stop Dwelling to prevent further damage to their soul.]

Edwin looked around wildly for the source of the voice that did not seem to have an accent. ‘Stop what?’ Edwin thought. He did not even know where he was and what he was doing.

“Yeah, I don’t know what you are talking about. Who are you?” Edwin said. Surprisingly, his voice came out even inside this empowering liquid.

[The host did not heed the system’s advice. Forcefully stopping the host from Dwelling to prevent further damage to the soul.]

The liquid Edwin was drowning in vanished. He found himself in a vast whiteness. Everywhere around him was white emptiness. Where was he? He knew he should be frightened, he should be in a panic—but he was not. He was like the leaf in the wind, waiting to see where the wind would take him. Edwin sat down, waiting, waiting. Hours passed, perhaps days.

In the white emptiness, something blue flickered. Edwin heard a voice in his mind.

[Soul and system core fusion successful.]

[Host’s soul was damaged by 78% during the fusion process. Initiating the soul mending process.]

Edwin understood what was happening. Something known as System Core had fused with him and damaged his soul. Edwin nodded, which surprised him. ‘Why is my response about all this so bland? And why am I accepting everything so easily?’

[System is currently suppressing all your emotions.]

“Oh!” A question popped into Edwin’s mind and he asked it. “Were you the one responsible for those strange deaths with people’s blood turning blue?”

[Yes.]

“Why?” Edwin did not even know why that specific question had popped into his mind.

The flickering blue light in front of Edwin became more tangible. It morphed into a small spherical gemstone.

[I do not know how the dragon heart system core ended up here. I can only surmise that it was stolen, which activated its protection protocol. The system core attacked all the people who were or could become a Dweller. Those who came close to its vicinity without the access key.]

“And I have the access key?”

[You could say that. But I don’t know what the access key is and how you have it.]

“How can you not know? Aren’t you the system?”

[No, I’m an AI that exists within the system core and even I do not have full access to the system’s Database.]

Edwin did not know the words AI and database. But he understood the gist of it. He was not an idiot.

“What do you want?”

[Your soul was damaged beyond what it could heal with only this reserve of energy. The amount of energy required to heal the soul increases exponentially with the damage. The system core is using its own energy source to heal your soul, so most of its features will go offline. Including me. I am here to warn you and your brother of the dangers of becoming a host to the system core.]

“What does any of this have to do with my brother?”

[Everything. He is the host for the blood Gore system.]

“Is it because of the system core that my brother is a vampire?”

Edwin knew his emotions were being suppressed, but he could still feel the anger rising within him.

[No, it’s because he is a vampire that he can become a host for the Blood Heart System. We do not have time for this. Remember this, Edwin. There are people out there who are actively hunting for the system core. You must be careful. Do not tell anyone about the system. Warn your brother as well. Someday you will have to fight them, but this is not the time—you aren’t strong enough. They have armies, and you must build your own. I will not advise you not to trust anyone. But be very careful about who you trust. And one more thing, your brother has a body of a human, but a soul of a vampire. I do not know how that happened. However, the human body will reject the vampire's soul eventually. Collect as much blood core as you can, and the blood core system will do the rest.]

There was a brilliant flash of blue and then darkness.